Zoos that were mishandled were hard to shut down. It wasn't exactly easy to find a new home for the many animals that were in the zoo. Myu however, an equine anthro, took it upon herself to donate so much money to the zoo that she ended up taking part ownership of it as the other owners have mysteriously vanished. The story went that the previous owners would invite people to come see the zoo a few at a time, and then transform them into animals, and while it was true the animals had a glint of intelligence in their eyes, and there were reports of people mysteriously vanishing, the zoo could never be proven that it was the one responsible. It still did not have many visitors though, and not enough funds, until Myu took over. Myu walked along one of the many paths of the zoo, twirling a set of keys in her white hide equine hands. Much of the rest of her body was brown hide, though it was hidden behind a large khaki hat, and a khaki t-shirt and jeans, as if she were roleplaying an explorer type of sorts. It was a warm summer afternoon, and the zoo was now bustling with plenty of people, all viewing the many animals there. As Myu walked by many of the exhibits though, many of the animals that saw her were quick to back away in their exhibit. Myu made her way into her office inside a building that was positioned right in front of the zoo. A single desk fan stood on top of a pile of paperwork on the desk in the center of the office. There was a small laptop computer, currently turned off too. Myu barely had a second to sit down at her desk before a buzz came over her intercom. "Can't get one minute to myself here some days." Myu mumbled under her breath. She pressed a red button on the intercom. "What is it?" she said with a clearly annoyed tone. "Your two o' clock interview is here ma'am." A nasally woman's voice responded, though with a much more courteous tone. "Right, right..." Myu rubbed her temples with a sigh. "Send her in." her zoo was always hiring new people, although Myu hated the start of the interview process, she did have a tendency to make things more interesting. Myu didn't even closer her door before another woman entered. This woman had a black business suit on with high heels, and quite a bit of makeup. Her hair was straight behind her back, and she had B cups that were hidden very well to give her a very modest look. "Hello, your name is Myu?" the woman asked in a gentle tone. "I've heard quite a lot about this zoo." "Myu Dalimo." Myu replied with crossed arms. "Let me guess, you heard mostly bad things, right? We're the real life FNAF basically, except it isn't just kids that vanish, but also adults. You heard stuff like that?" Myu was tired of all of the people that treated the zoo as if it were a haunted house. It did bring in more income and tips, but at the same time, it brought in some of the most irritating people that wanted to explore every nook and cranny that there was to the zoo, even if that meant getting a job there. The woman looked down at her feet with a nervous kick. "I've heard a few things." She admitted. "But I'm not here for that." She looked back up at Myu. "I'm here for a job, and I'm going to put my best foot forward. I'm not here to look into these mysterious disappearances, that was many years ago." "You don't have to defend me over it." Myu rolled her eyes. "I give everyone a chance that wishes to apply here regardless." She slowly stood up, and took a deep breath. "Come, walk with me." She put her hands behind her back, right above her butt, and walked to the door. The woman hesitantly stood up, and walked behind Myu. She watched Myu's equine tail, before she looked at the back of Myu's head. "Where are we going, exactly?" "Around the zoo." Myu explained. She didn't even turn her head back to the woman. "What's your name?" "Grace." The woman replied. "It uhm...should have been in my interview papers." Fuck if I have the time to read paperwork. Myu thought to herself. "I didn't get around to reading it yet." She walked out a set of glass doors beyond the gift shop, and back outside. "What do you know about taking care of animals?" "I have two cats at home, and I know they can be a handful at times..." Grace blinked slowly. "But I know wild animals are nothing like house pets, you have to be super careful around them." Myu paused above one exhibit, and glanced down. It was a wild tiger exhibit, except the tiger wasn't anywhere in sight. There was a lone tail that poked out from a cave, but that was it. The interior of the cave was completely pitch black. "Normally, yes. You have to be very careful about the wildlife in the zoo. Many of them want to escape, but at the same time, many of these animals would die if they were not here." She turned, and started walking once more. "They are more intelligent than you realize, but they were raised in captivity. They don't know how to live out in the wild, but they yearn for freedom." She let out a small sigh. "Kind of like some humans. They want to get out of the hustle and bustle, but the moment they do, they realize how helpless they truly are." The woman raised a brow at Myu. "I um...you don't think that natural instincts would get them by in the wild?" "If you let dogs and cats out into the wilderness without humans, most of them are going to die. These animals?" Myu started to walk again, past another large cat exhibit where there were two lions. The lions were out in the open at first, but when they looked up from their enclosure to spot Myu, they rushed into hiding, as if they were afraid of the horse. "They are much of the same. They may be better equipped to handle the wild, but trust me, most of them couldn't take care of themselves if their lives dep- well, okay, their lives literally do depend on it." The woman watched the lions behave what was best described as normal at first, only to, upon seeing Myu, duck away as if an insect was fleeing from a shoe. "Alright, I'll do my best. No animal will escape under my watch." Although Grace spoke with a tone that was anything but confident, she wanted to impress this equine. The pay the zoo offered was just too good. "So you say." Myu walked along as the path curved downward. They approached another large feline exhibit, but unlike the first two, this exhibit was surrounded by strong glass with metal walls behind it. The exhibit was filled with rocky terrain, hints of grass, trees, fallen logs, and a small river. A nearby placard indicated it was home to a single jaguar. "We'll have to give you a test, just to make sure you're brave enough to handle animals." She turned to Grace with her arms behind her back. "How would you like to feed a jaguar?" "I don't, I don't," Grace suddenly hesitated. She had experience working with some animals before. She volunteered at a children's zoo and dealt with small animals, or baby animals. A full grown jaguar however, intimidated her. "I mean..." Myu smirked. "I'll guide you every step of the way, you'll be fine. Trust me when I say this jaguar will be more afraid of you, than you will be of him." Myu took Grace's hand, and led her around to the back of the exhibit. Grace wasn't sure what to say to Myu. She didn't even have the job yet, and Myu was taking her to an employee's only area already? "I mean, if you're sure I'll be safe." She replied with a hint of uncertainty. "Trust me, I've worked with animals for...well...a very long time." Myu chuckled. She led Grace to the metal door where the jaguar was, and then she offered Grace a large raw fish that measured a good three feet long, and she held it from the tail. "Just drop this in there, and maybe give the jaguar a good pet. She opened the door to the jaguar's exhibit with her free hand. Grace took the fish, and wrinkled her nose at the scent. It smelled exactly like the dead fish it was. She then walked into the exhibit with a deep breath through her mouth, so as not to take in the scent of the fish. The interior of the jaguar's exhibit reminded Grace of a rain forest, just a much smaller one with more constricting walls. She looked around up high briefly, and then to the left and right of her. For an exhibit that belonged to a wild animal, the exhibit was surprisingly calm. "Uh...what's his name by the way?" Grace turned back to the metal door. "Hm? He was here before I took over, and the paperwork was lost in a small fire, so I'm not entirely sure." Myu casually shrugged. "Anyways, I'm closing the door so he can't escape. I can still hear you perfectly fine if you need anything though." Myu then suddenly shut the metal door, and left Grace alone in the exhibit with the unseen jaguar. Grace audibly gulped as the door slammed behind her. "Alright, so no name, great. Uh..." Grace dangled the fish in front of her as she held it with three fingers. "Jaguar...hello?" There was a sudden rustling that came from behind a large tree. There was a bush near that tree that dropped a few leaves. Grace jumped when she heard the rustling. She turned to the direction of the rustling, only to find a bush that shook, and nothing else. She had a strong feeling something was hiding behind the tree, but she was hesitant to go back and check it out for herself. "Uh...hello...mister jaguar?" she paused. "Or...misses? Are you there? I've got a meal for you." Grace wasn't sure what it was, but something in her told her to turn around, and turn she did. She found a black jaguar just out in the open, much closer to her than she was comfortable with. While the jaguar wasn't right up on her, it was definitely less than twenty feet away. Grace stared wide-eyed at the animal in front of her. The jaguar was a little smaller than an average jaguar, but it was undeniably an animal. The creature was pitch black, with a black fluffy tail that looked more like it belonged on a snow leopard than it did a jaguar. The jaguar's eyes stared at Grace, unblinking. Its long fluffy tail hung low, as did its head. Grace didn't know that much about animals, but she knew a few things about predators and prey. She kept her eyes on the jaguar, but she blinked slowly towards it. Nervously, she held out the fish in front of her, putting it between her and the jaguar. Grace didn't utter a single word, and she kept her breathing hushed, although her heart pounded a mile a minute, and she felt the fight-or-flight response hit her body, she resisted the urge to give in to her instincts. The jaguar stared at Grace as he slowly approached her. His large paws stepped on the grassy terrain carefully until he was ten feet from her, then soon he was as close to her as a normal person would be to have a conversation with another. He was quiet, though his breathing was loud. Grace couldn't take it anymore. She closed her eyes, and looked away from the jaguar. Her lower lip quivered in fear as to what might happen between her and the large feline, though as she waited for her fate to be decided, after a good minute where nothing happened, she slowly opened one eye, and peeked to see the jaguar close to her, though with enough room to be outside her personal space. The jaguar tilted his head when he was close enough to her. The jaguar looked over to the closed door, and then back to her. He reached up with his mouth, and grabbed the fish out of her hands. The jaguar slowly stepped backwards while keeping himself faced towards Grace the entire time. Grace easily let go of the fish when the jaguar took it. With her one eye, she slowly opened it up, and watched the jaguar, notably his eyes. While the jaguar's eyes looked the same as any other animal's eyes, there was something about the jaguar that felt off to Grace, something she just couldn't pinpoint. The jaguar looked back at Grace. An onlooker might think the two were having a stare down, but the jaguar slowly blinked as he looked at grace. His paws held onto the fish, and his claws gently dug into it. Grace kept looking back at the jaguar. Something just told her she could trust this creature, but she wasn't sure what it was inside of her that said it. As she looked at the jaguar's eyes, she felt as if everything around them suddenly froze. She didn't realize it, but something inside of her screamed something at her, and she refused to believe it, but the longer she looked deep into the eyes of the feline, the more she believed the voice...and that voice told her to run. The silent stare was broken as Grace turned tail and ran off. She didn't know what hit her. It just felt as if she came to a realization, something she thought was nothing more than a lie, but her instincts told her otherwise. She ran to the door, and quickly opened it up before she slammed it shut behind her. She didn't even notice the jaguar ran in the opposite direction of her the moment Grace took off running. Just like that, Grace had left the exhibit, but now her heart pounded as she sweated heavily. She was still in disbelief over what thoughts had entered her mind, but it was hard to ignore. Something, deep down inside of her, told her that jaguar used to be human. Myu stood right outside the door the entire time. While there was no way to visibly see what was going on behind the metal door, Myu had a raised brow, and her back was up against the wall behind the door. "You're as pale as the ghost I'd swear you just saw." Grace took a moment to catch her breath. Her arms and legs were spread over the door. She wasn't even sure what she saw. It was just her own instincts that told her to do what they did. She looked from the closed door behind her over to the anthro equine. "I...she...he...it...something tells me that jaguar used to be human." Myu crossed her arms over her chest, and raised a brow. "Something? I'm not sure what you mean. Perhaps you should sit down for a bit." Grace looked at Myu with a grimace. Her eyes were dead serious as they laid upon the horse. "That animal must have been human, I don't know how, I don't know when, but something deep down tells me it wasn't a jaguar, at least...not completely." It would all make sense with people disappearing from the zoo, only to re-emerge as an animal, solely for the zoos entertainment. Myu rolled her eyes, and looked away from Grace. "You really are dead set sure on this. Listen, think through this logically, not spiritually. Just because something tells you it used to be human, does not mean it's true. Once you start believing stuff like that, you then start thinking ghosts and magic and all this other shit is real, when really there's no proof of it at all. Did it TELL you it used to be human?" "I...no..." Grace looked down to the floor. Spirituality and magic was never something she even thought of was real. At the same time, she often wished that at least some of it was. The jaguar made her question herself. The longer the two had looked at each other, the surer she was that the jaguar was far more than an ordinary animal, but she had no physical proof of it. "Is there any sign, or evidence that it used to be human? Human traits? Ripped clothing? Human teeth or skin anywhere on the jaguar, or in the exhibit?" Grace didn't recall anything like what Myu had said in the exhibit. She knew if she saw any sort of that stuff, especially human skin or teeth, she would have ran out there so fast that an Olympian would have had a hard time catching up to her. "No..." she replied, quietly. Myu put one hoof up on the wall behind her. "So, logically speaking, there's no actual proof it used to be human, is there?" Grace's heart slowly stopped pounding with adrenaline. Everything Myu had stated made sense, but she was still uncertain. Maybe picking up this job was a bad idea. She thought to herself. "No...I...guess there isn't." Not once when she responded did she look directly at Myu's emerald eyes with her own blue ones. "So calm down." Myu put her hooves onto the cobblestone path beneath them. "Just take a minute to breathe, then come with me. I'll take you to a spot where you can just relax until you feel better." Grace wondered if Myu was referring to an employee break room. Then again, she hadn't been to this zoo very much, so she had no idea what it had to offer in terms of relaxation. "Okay." her body gently quivered as she recovered from her adrenaline rush. "Lead the way." Myu led Grace down the cobblestone path past zoo guests to another area of the zoo entirely. She opened a set of glass doors to lead inside an area that suddenly became very humid and hot the moment Myu opened up the door. "This is the African exhibit. If you haven't been here, our guests traverse an upper path while looking down at animals in exhibits that were made to recreate Africa as best as possible considering our current location." There was another set of glass doors that led into the main chambers of where the exhibit was, but the first set of doors was more of a rest area of sorts, with benches and posters, as well as navigation guides and information on exhibits. There was also an elevator and a staircase that said 'EMPLOYEES ONLY' on both of them. "Let's head downstairs. It's more private there." By the time the two arrived in the new exhibit, Grace had slightly recovered from her incident. She was still in disbelief over what she thought, but at the same time, it was only her thoughts that made her so afraid. There was no physical evidence that the jaguar was once human. "Alright...it's...wait...aren't jaguars native to Africa? Why isn't that one here?" "It's still an exhibit that isn't finished." Myu led Grace down the white stairway. "A lot of what we have here are plants and herbivores. Besides that, I've been trying to redesign the zoo so animals are sorted by country rather than 'oh you go here for big cats' and crap like that." Myu waved a hand dismissively. "Get people educated about animals, you know? Not just what they look like, but where they live, and what other animals they can expect to see around that area too." The stairway turned 180 degrees to go directly under where the two were, and led to a small break room with vending machines, a television, bathrooms, as well as a hallway that went directly below the path the guests traversed on. There was a long table with multiple chairs arranged on the table, though the room wasn't decorated that much. "This is...a break room?" Grace asked. It was the only thing she could make out of what the room would be. "It looks like a really bizarre place to put it." "We had the extra room during the remodel and figured why the hell not. There are other break rooms, to the point where employees don't meet each other that often on breaks unless they plan for it, or they go to the cafe at the entrance." She chuckled. "But anyways, I wanted to show you an empty exhibit, and we have to pass through here to get to it." Grace felt better now than she did earlier, but the thought of that one jaguar bothered her deeply. She was hesitant to see any other animal, let alone another exhibit, but the thought of a job made her determined enough to keep going. "Alright, I guess..." Myu smiled faintly at Grace. Her white hide equine hand gently held onto Grace's human hand as she led her along the path. Glass walls lines up the hallway with glass doors. "These are heavily reinforced. You ever see the glass they use for underwater aquariums? Something like that." She paused at one exhibit that had 'Giraffe' in bold black words. "This is it." Grace stopped at the exhibit out of curiosity. She glanced into the exhibit and noticed the bottom looked like African plains with semi-tall trees. Had there been an animal in the exhibit, they would have been very easy to spot. "I don't see anything in there." She said with leering eyes. "It's to help you relax." Myu opened up the exhibit for her. "Most people don't even bother looking into the exhibit because the giraffe sticks out like a sore thumb in here, just get in on and take your time to calm down and think about other things." Grace turned her head to Myu with a confused look. "Couldn't I just use the break room we passed to get here? It's got everything a person needs to relax besides maybe soothing music." With a casual shrug, Myu gently grasped onto Grace's shoulder from behind. Then, with a surge of strength, she pushed her into the exhibit, and then closed the door from behind. "Yeah, but this is better for the zoo if you were in here." She then replied, casually. Grace was surprised at the shove, of course it threw her off balance and made her lurch forward, and while she managed to recover and not fall down, she found herself suddenly behind the glass door that Myu closed. Grace rushed to the door, yet she found no handle on the other side. "I-I don't need to rest in here, let me out!" Myu put her hands on her hips, and smiled at Grace. "The first phase is always panicking I swear. Look, you'll be fine, I make sure everyone is well taken care of here." Grace shivered as she felt a growing heat cover her body. It felt as if she were wearing winter gear all over her, and it made her hot and sweaty. "I don't...what are you doing?" Grace could tell the equine was up to something. Her feet felt numb, and her neck tingled. "Simple." The equine put her back against the glass wall behind her. "Our zoo is cruelty free to animals. We don't even transfer animals here, all of the animals I get are one hundred percent used-to-be human! Granted, that jaguar was here before I ever got here, so I'm not sure what his story is." Grace was an intelligent woman. She could easily put two and two together. She was in a giraffe exhibit, she was feeling uneasy, and a sense of vertigo slowly overtook her. She was a little shorter than Myu before, but now she had to look down a bit to meet her eyes. "I'm becoming a giraffe?" she looked up at the zoo-goers. "Help! Someone! Anyone, get me out of here!" She scratched at her clothing as it felt tremendously uncomfortable, but she dare not undress, especially in front of the one who captured her. "They see you as a giraffe now." Myu said quietly and calmly, yet loud enough for Grace to hear. "You should really take off those clothes though, it's probably the most painful part of the change anyone goes through is ripping out of their own clothing." Grace glared angrily at the horse. She felt her clothing constrict her form second by second, but she wasn't going to take them off. Despite how warm she felt, she noticed small white follicles shed from her skin. She brushed her left hand along her right arm. Her skin felt tougher, but also hairless, as if she had just came out of a salon. "What's happening...to me?" "Transformation varies depending on methods used. We here at the zoo use a cheaper method due to lack of funds. Do you know how much dead cells your body houses? We were able to keep most of the dead cells internally inside a person, able to be expelled by, well, waste, but external dead cells? Those don't get transformed, rather..." brown fur, almost like a Mohawk, grew from the back of Grace's head. "They just get discarded from the body." Myu finished, just as the hair on Grace's head, her human hair, began to shed rapidly. Grace felt the hair tickle her as it shed. Her heart pounded rapidly from adrenaline, and she looked at Myu in pure shock. She felt the new fur on her head, which was just slightly behind where her human hair should have been. She winced as she felt a small pinching sensation in her nails, and when she looked down at her hands, she noticed her hands took on a black color, while the nails pushed out from her fingers. She let out a scream, yet nobody paid her any attention. "Emotions have a tendency to speed up the transformation. Rage, fear, arousal..." Myu continued. "I do kind of wish you would calm down though, I want to enjoy watching every last detail of you transform." She chuckled. "Another reason why you should really lose the clothes." Grace wanted to do anything BUT lose her clothes at that point, but her clothes felt tighter and tighter on her as her body grew, though her breast wasn't growing that much, her torso, arms, and legs were. She could also feel something else growing faster than the rest of her body, the key sign of a giraffe, the one feature that stood out the most, their long necks. "I mean, it's your straining if you don't want to take off your top and bottom, but they're going to rip open, and you're not going to be able to do anything about that." Myu was still completely calm and collective about Grace changing right in front of her. The equine smiled at the transforming woman. "Do you need another giraffe to calm you down? I'm sure we could get a male to mate with you if you needed." Grace shook her head rapidly at that. She was filled with too much fear to even think about mating. She groaned as her clothing became so tight that her shirt and pants unbuttoned bit by bit until her breast fully revealed itself, although her tits were no longer underneath her bra, but rather they sank down her expanding torso. Grace winced and thrashed her head from side to side, multiple cracks could be heard from her spine as she did so. Both her neck was expanding, and the back of her spine was too as a tail grew just above her ass. "See what I mean? You were GOING to do it anyways." Myu smirked at Grace. "It's alright though, animals don't normally wear clothes." "F-fuck you!" Grace shouted frustratingly. Her mouth felt weird as she continued to grow and expand. She was able to see herself in the reflection of the glass, and she noticed while she was growing and changing into more of an animal, her skin had yet to change to the color of a giraffe. She groaned, and tried to cover her changing self, but she ended up falling forward as she did so. She caught herself on her blackening hands. Her shoes suddenly burst to reveal her feet were just as black, and her toenails pushed themselves out of the changing feet. "I mean, it could be arranged, but I'm not really into that." Myu looked away from Grace briefly, and then back at her. "You could probably use some help with your clothes though. I would really hate to lose a good pair of panties and a bra just because of some pride a giraffe wanted to keep." Grace's legs and arms quivered. She fell forward onto her elbows with a yelp. Her torso and neck were changing faster than her arms and legs were. She simply did not have the strength to hold herself up yet. Her panties had dragged down a bit, revealing her shifting anus and vagina, while her bra failed to hide anything at this point with how low her tits were going. In fact, her tits were shrinking down in size, but not completely vanishing. "Maybe I can give you a hand." Myu opened up the door with a soft smile, and walked into the exhibit. "After all, you're going to be pretty harmless until you get the strength to walk, and it's not like you're going to be able to bite me." Grace grimaced at Myu. Her growing neck, now a good foot longer, felt incredibly stiff, but that didn't stop her from trying to turn to Myu to attack. It was impossible for Grace to physically move her body anywhere, but she could bend her head towards Myu. Grace opened her mouth, as if to want to prove a point to bite Myu, but then something suddenly fell out of her mouth. She paused, and looked down to see what it was, and she saw a tooth. A human tooth, one in very good condition, fell right from Grace's maw. "Yeah, the teeth don't reshape either." Myu casually walked over to Grace's head, and picked up the tooth that fell out. "The human ones need to fall out to make way for the animal ones. Hey, you get a fresh start if you've never brushed your teeth." Grace watched as her teeth fell out from her mouth, one by one. Her fingernails and toenails were gone, pushed onto the ground as her hands and feet turned into giraffe hooves. She winced as her neck continued to stretch, and her torso was at least double the size it once was. A tear fell down her cheek, not from the pain, but from the shock of what was happening. "P-please turn me back!" "Are you familiar with the five stages of grief?" Myu walked behind Grace, and with a firm tug, Grace's panties ripped. It didn't hide her cunt or ass, both of which were becoming anatomically accurate for a giraffe and turned dark in color, though Myu had no interest in such things. She did stroke Grace's flank gently as she worked her way up front. "That's what you're going through right now. Not so much denial, but definitely anger and depression. Bargaining should occur pretty soon." Grace hated how she felt an idea of bargaining out of her situation to Myu, to find someone else to become a giraffe. She wasn't sure who she could tell her, but someone, anyone else, or maybe she could pay her instead. She didn't say it aloud though, as if to try to prove Myu wrong. Her newly grown tail shivered when she felt Myu's hands up against her rougher skin. It felt strangely good to have Myu touch her like that. She wasn't sure what to say now. She didn't want Myu to like this, but at the same time, she wanted her to stop. As the last of Grace's teeth fell out, new giraffe teeth slowly came into place, though her skull extended and stretched as they grew in, and her tongue blackened. "I can read thoughts too, among other things." Myu smiled at Grace. She stroked Grace's lengthening, enlarging head as it took on the shape of a giraffe. Two small stubs appeared above Grace's now mostly bald head. "You know these are called ossicones? They aren't even recognized as a real word because of how rare they are." She gave them a gentle touch. "Not quite as big on females, to my recollection." "I don't...naahheed a lesson on giraffes!" Grace spoke angrily and winced with minor neck pain. She straightened out her neck which now measured a good three feet in length. Her body was more than double its size, and what clothing she had seemed to be more like a tiny blanket as it ripped and tore from her. Her tits were gone from her chest, having migrated down to her crotch. "That's true. You ARE becoming one, after all." Myu chuckled up at Grace. "You'll know more about giraffes than just about anyone else, because you will be one. Maybe you can tell me about their stomachs then. Teach me all about what you're becoming!" As if on cue, it wasn't just Grace's exterior that was changing, but her insides. She could already feel bones crunching and muscles churning, but she didn't know much about the inside of a giraffe. Animal anatomy just wasn't her specialty, especially for such a strange creature. Her stomach rumbled and growled as she felt a strange splitting sensation. "M-more than one...stomach?" she replied with a groan. "Are you asking me, or are you telling me?" Myu raised a brow, and crossed her arms. "But you'd be right, more than one. I don't recall how many they have exactly. I want to say they have four, like a cow. Cows and giraffes also share another trait when it comes to digestive systems. Something that isn't talked about much when it comes to transforming people into anthro creatures, but feral ones...oh that's free game." Grace's mind felt strange. She was filled with rage, anger, confusion. It took her until just then to realize that Myu was possibly making fun of her. "E-enough with the school and chan...chan..." she felt a rumbling in part of her gut, one of her new stomachs. Suddenly, she felt something travel up her neck, and into her mouth. With a loud burp, she was suddenly chewing on something. Grace's eyes were as wide as they could have gotten. She wasn't sure if she should spit out what just got into her mouth, or swallow it back down. She hated to admit that chewing whatever it was helped put her at ease. It didn't taste bad, but it wasn't good either, it was flavorless, as if chewing gum that had long since lost its flavor. "It looks like you've discovered it." Myu stroked Grace's growing side with a smirk. "They chew cud. It's pretty amazing giraffes even HAVE cud with their super long necks." Myu's hand traced upwards to Grace's own neck. "Speaking of which, your neck is pretty huge. Must be growing as tall as you used to be as a human." Grace let out a groan. Myu's hands felt like a soft massage on her aching body. She spat out her cud, and saw that it looked like a combination of gum and paper, though colored brown. As calming as chewing cud made her feel, she had no desire to give in to becoming a real giraffe, but it was already hard to think about complex thoughts. Light brown splotches and white lines began to cover her body, and her ears lengthened. "You'll be finished with this transformation before you know it, and then the mental changes kick in." Myu kept stroking her side with a smile. "M-mental...b-but I...uhnnn..." Grace didn't want to look down at her body, but at the same time, her neck was so tall by now that she had a sense of vertigo. She could see the upper platform where zoo guests walked, and she noticed they were looking at her. She couldn't hear what they were saying beyond the glass, but none of them seemed the least bit concerned for her. "Of course, mental. What? You think we're going to let you keep all of your human self? The human brain can't handle such large amount of drastic change easily. You'll get phantom limbs, you won't be able to walk properly, you might get depression, or worse! No, this zoo houses happy, intelligent animals." Myu tore the rest of Grace's clothing off of her body. Grace physically looked very much like a giraffe, although the splotches of fur hadn't fully yet developed. Tears fell from Grace's eyes. She loathed the idea of losing herself, but she could already feel her intelligence, and her human life dwindle away. Early years of her life spent entirely in a zoo, and she knew that was wrong. Sure, the zoo was comforting, and there was always food and accessible water, but she used to be human. "I can't...give in..." she clenched her new teeth. She felt her tongue, fully black and that of a giraffe inside of her mouth. Her face had pushed out entirely into a giraffe's own, including her widened nostrils. "You see what I mean? Imagine if you didn't change mentally...actually, don't. Think of a simpler life." Myu stroked Grace's side, although Grace had grown so tall that it was hard to even reach above Grace's growing two pairs of legs. "Picture a life without worries, without a care in the world, a life without a job, just zookeeper friends, and some occasional people looking at you, maybe even making their day because you're their favorite animal, and in the future, breeding with other giraffes, to keep the population nice and high." The thought about doing nothing but eating, drinking, and mating, seemed to appeal to Grace. Not needing to worry about anything was something that was the envy of many humans. Grace was in debt, she needed a job to pay bills, but if she were an animal... "N-no." she spoke up, weakly. "I can't...I don't want it..." "You're lying to yourself and you know it." Myu stroked Grace's legs, the only thing she could really reach with Grace's new height. Grace's neck, and even her whole body, was as tall as an adult giraffe's. "Take a deep breath, and listen to the sound of nature." Grace didn't want to listen to Myu, though between the moments of silence the pair had, Grace's ears flickered as she heard birds, and light rain. She knew there was no rain outside, and they were actually inside, but she also recalled reading about how the zoo would sometimes put in white noises to soothe animals, and it soothed her. Her heart pounded heavily, harder than before with both its growing size, and how nervous Grace was, but the more she heard the quietness of the imitation forest she was in, the calmer she felt. "That's it." Myu placed her hand underneath Grace's torso. She could feel her heartbeat, as well as pick up the sound of muscles and organs churning and changing, fine tuning themselves, many of them growing to accommodate her new size. It would become easier and easier for Grace to maintain her stance. "Forget all of those human thoughts. You don't need to know math, science, or any of that bullshit. You don't need a job, a school, or anything for that matter. You'll be well taken care of here, and you'll be happier than your old human life." No worries...no bills to worry about, no social life to care for. Just eating, drinking, sleeping, and mating in the future... Grace thought to herself. Her mind felt hazy and slowed, but she found it hard to be worried about such things. "But...my...house..." Grace slowly replied. She had a home, a television, a bed, she even had a pet goldfish. It wasn't a very fancy home, but it was hers. "And...family..." Family wasn't a breaking point for Grace, but she knew that if someone was going to miss her, anyone in the world, it would have been at least some of her family members. "Yeah, family members are usually an issue." Myu stroked her chin. "Buuuuut that's why we invite the whole family over! You'd be surprised what a quick internet search can bring up about you and your relatives. You have a good, what is it now, six people related to you directly, and a few others indirectly. You know that transforming individuals is a pretty picky process. Not many people think about family members or loved ones that might get saddened over their loss, but not here!" "Y-you're inviting them here?" Grace wasn't sure what emotion she should even experience from hearing such news. She was joyful they would experience a stress free life like her, but she didn't think they all wanted to be changed into animals, she doubted ANY of them wanted that in fact. She was angry at Myu for not only learning so much about her, but doing all of this without her permission not just to Grace, but her extended family, and she was afraid with what else exactly Myu was capable of doing. Myu giggled up at Grace. Grace measured a good 15 feet tall by now, which was fairly average for a giraffe. The human that Grace once was, was long gone. In place of that human was a giraffe, complete with the fur, mane, ears snout, hooves, tail, every detail in place both outside, and inside. "I am capable more than you will ever realize..." Myu's fingertips became warm for a brief moment as a surge of what could only be described as magic rushed from her hand, to Grace's head. Grace's head, flooded with so many emotions that made her unsure how to react, was suddenly hit with a soothing relief, as if her emotions were sand, and a wave just came to wash that sand away. Her eyes darkened as her human mind vanished. Grace slowly forgot any memories of school, of other family, she just had thoughts of being a giraffe, and being raised in the zoo. Part of her tried to cling on to her human side, but it felt hopeless. With one more rush of magic, Grace felt the last bit of her humanity leave, and the giraffe in her finally take over. One month later... The equine anthro led a group of people along the upper paths of the African exhibit to see the feral giraffe. The giraffe looked towards the group with a glimmer of intelligence in her eye, but otherwise seemed indifferent towards them. She went about her business, eating, drinking, and she casually explored her fairly large exhibit. "We're hoping to get her a mate and start repopulating the world of giraffes." Myu said happily to the crowd of people. "Feel free to explore the rest of the exhibits to your hearts content, and don't forget the gift shop at the end!" As the crowd dispersed, one man stayed at the giraffe exhibit. The man was fairly average with short brown hair, a pink shirt, and cutoff jeans. He stared at the giraffe with wide eyes. Myu walked to the man with a smile on her face. "Is something wrong? You look like you've just seen a ghost, and it's nowhere close to October to start having our spooky zoo exhibits yet!" The man turned to Myu briefly, and then he looked back at the giraffe. "No, it's just...she looks familiar. She looks like my wife that went missing a month ago. Last I heard, she was going here to apply for a job, but she never came home." "Ah yes, that made a bit of news. They couldn't find a trace of her, and she certainly never got asked any interview questions by me." The horse casually shrugged her shoulders. "And that giraffe is nothing more than an animal. If you'd like however, I can bring you in to have a closer look at her. She's completely harmless, I assure you." The man grimaced slightly. "I don't know..." Before he could continue, Myu put her hand on his shoulder. "Come on, I'm sure you two will grow to be fast friends." Together, without a single additional word, Myu and the man left the crowd to go see the giraffe, and very likely, create a new addition to the zoo.