A Fine Bird of Prey
Timer: 1m.0h.0d.0w.0y
Current Form: Anthro Red Tailed Hawk
Humanity: 47%
You pull the costume of a Red Tailed Hawk down from it's peg and look it over admiringly.
You run your fingers through the rust colored feathers, noticing how real they feel. The chest feathers, a soft cream color, are soft and light. You unzip the back, noticing, as you do, the large wings and long tail feathers.
As you slide the costume up over your legs, you feel goosebumps running up them. Shivering slightly, you pull the costume the rest of the way and zip it up. It breaths quite effectively and you feel like you could be comfortable in a warm climate.
You pick up the head, looking at the curved yellow and black beak and piercing yellow eyes. The crown of feathers are swept back as though they've been through a wind tunnel. You hesitate for a moment before letting the head fall over your own.
The head almost instantly seems to press slightly around your neck. For a split second, you choke from the pressure being placed upon your windpipe, but then the pressure alleviates and you reach up to rub your throat. You can feel your costumed hands running through the feathers that have become a part of your body. The feeling is comforting to say the least.
Next, the slight pressure is felt all across your torso, causing you to tense up for a minute. The pressure alleviates as feeling comes into your wings and tail feathers, which you flex experimentally. You run your hands through your new chest feathers, once again comforted by the feeling.
You clench your fingers as pressure runs down your arms. You're hands become a set of sharp talons as the pressure alleviates. However, it is only a few seconds of relief before the now familiar pressure runs down your legs, producing the same results as the hands.
As you are marveling at your plumage, you feel your face go temporarily numb. As feeling returns, you clack your new beak, feeling the vibrations of the sound reverberating throughout your skull. Your head tingles and the feeling of hair is replaced with the feeling of feathers. You find yourself temporarily blinded as the eyes of the costume press into your own. When your sight returns, it is more vivid and sharp, and you can focus them like the lens of a camera.
With the transformation complete, you begin to sense something, rather than feel it. Your mind feels as though it is being slightly reformed to a different thought process, with different emotions. You still retain all of your memories and a sense of who you are, but the way in which you analyze these thoughts and memories is different than it was before.
Your thoughts turn to flying: how to do it, how wonderful it feels, the rise and fall of the wind under your wings and through your feathers. Your mind remembers the feeling of being preened, although the source of it is unknown.
Your memories, while still very true, feel more like a dream as your mind becomes more accustomed to your new body. You can't quite recall what it felt like to have lips, or to not have wings. You have no idea what you would do without your feathers. You almost feel like you should just stay this way forever, but you have another life. One that you are not quite willing to abandon at such short notice.
Slowly, the room around you dissolves like mist in the dawning sun. It reveals an apple orchard dappled in the light of Autumn, red fruit hanging from the boughs of the many trees that surround you. A crisp breeze ruffles your feathers, flooding you with a sense of freedom and flight.
You're about to take off when you suddenly notice a basket of recently picked apples clutched within your talons. You can also hear the sound of someone chopping wood in the distance. Something in your mind tells you you should be working, but the pull of the sky is just so tempting.
Written by neonsilver on 29 October 2015
The end (for now)