So You Start With Baby Steps
Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind for you is to learn how to walk on all fours. You begin to move one leg forward, only to end up falling flat on your new snout. A low growl of irritation leaves your lips as you look back to your traitorous hind legs, growling lowly.
Before you start losing your temper, you take a deep sigh. Then another. And another. In seconds, you find yourself panting contentedly, licking your nose and calming your racing heart. This brings with it a new complication, and you find yourself growing thirsty in moments.
It makes sense. You haven't had anything to drink since you started changing, and transformation is tiring business. You flick your ears left and right to try and search for a stream, and to your delight you hear the babbling of water just a little bit over the hill to your right.
You instinctively climb to all fours and take off towards the sound, tail wagging as you realize that this body isn't entirely useless. Your run comes to a stumbling halt as you realize you've just somehow learned to walk like an animal, and you feel a wellspring of gratitude towards your instincts.
Having just lived the example, you can now recreate it from memory, and you start to walk once more, this time focusing on your steps. It's sort of an odd gait, where you move your left foreleg, then your right hindleg, then your right foreleg, then your left hindleg. The process is oddly natural after a few paces, and you breathe a sigh of relief at the thought that you don't need to train your body how to act.
Unfortunately, you soon have another challenge in the form of the river you want to drink from. After a long stare down to it, you realize that you don't quite know how to drink from it. You imagine that it involves using your tongue in some way, but you can't quite get it to curl the way you want to spoon up the water.
With a canine whimper, you try and focus your mind on how you last were able to control your body. It comes to you in a flash: you were able to use your canine instincts somehow, possibly by just trying to act like what you've become?
You try wagging your tail and focusing on your thirst, and to your surprise it again comes naturally to you. You dip your head toward the water, curl your long tongue in a reverse scoop, and begin to slurp up the water eagerly.
This is perfect! You've figured out how to basically turn on tutorials for your new body, and you wag your tail as you drink your fill of the delicious stream. With that out of the way, you realize you might as well explore. But where to start?
There's a woodland past the stream; the plains behind you; even some mountains in the distance. You're not quite sure where to begin, so you trust your instincts and take a deep whiff of the air around yourself, searching for something your canine mind would appreciate.
You pick up a particular bouquet that leaves you panting happily, and you set out for...
Written by SketchySeraph on 20 April 2016
