A Cow

You soon realize that the animal isn't quite as small as you'd thought. Rather, in your panic, you'd managed to miss the fact that it's just a bit far away from you. In fact, rather than being small, it's actually pretty big, but given that it's a cow that's something you might expect. Approaching it slowly and carefully, it lets out a calm moo and then turns to start chewing on a nearby bush, ignoring you completely. Apparently, it doesn't actually care about your presence, and rather than doing absolutely anything about your being here it just stands there absent-mindedly and acts like... well, like a cow. Not seeing even the slightest hint of hostility, you move in to get a closer look.

The animal is definitely made of latex as you'd thought, and as you, near it, you can see more clearly how shiny its skin is. Rather than a coat of thin hairs like a normal cow, the rubber skin of this bovine is patterned after a moo cow, a milky white with jet black splotches. Its ears, stretched out, twitch about gently, and its face looks wholly docile, the foliage it chews in its mouth mixing with saliva (or whatever the heck latex animals have in the place of saliva). Beneath it, you can see a small puddle of white that carries the same look as its skin, and looking above that puddle you spot the large pink udder swinging gently between its hind legs, the long teats dripping "milk" very slowly. The udder itself looks a bit oversized (maybe the thing hasn't been milked in a while), but the cow doesn't seem to mind. All this time, as you've gotten closer and closer still, it's just stood there and chewed on the nearby plantlife like you don't even exist.

Deciding that taking the risk is worth it to further sate your curiosity, you walk even closer to the cow, calmly resting a hand on its side and rubbing it gently, feeling the smooth skin that covers it, the sensation is almost like rubbing a more solidified pool toy. It raises its head for a moment to moo contentedly, then goes back to its meal. Still faced with nothing but friendly reactions from the animal, your fear soon fades away, and you start wondering how it got here and why it's so different from what you'd seen earlier. Maybe this cow was **** by aliens and had strange experiments? Or maybe it was coated with the latex-like that man from earlier? Remembering the man, you realize a third, far more horrible possibility: maybe this cow was a human being itself. Given what you've seen, it seems entirely possible, and soon you feel pity for the poor beast. If it was a person, it's clearly lost any semblance of its human consciousness, and now acts as little more than a simple beast. Even if there were anything left to restore it to, you wonder how much you could possibly bring back, or if there's anything left to bring back.

Your thoughts are interrupted by a quiet splash as your left foot steps in something. Looking down, you see that you've stepped in the puddle of "milk" beneath the cow. Taking note of the spreading pool of liquid, another thought strikes you: what if this cow was never anything else, to begin with? You back away for a second, your train of thought once again restoring part of that fear that had consumed you earlier. The thing is clearly producing a constant stream of some kind of liquid, and it does resemble some of the other things you've seen tonight, at least in that it's made of latex. What if it's the cause? What if everything started with this simple-looking animal, and with others underestimating it the way you do now? You back away further, waiting for it to attack you, to pounce, to confirm what you're starting to believe... but it never does. It just keeps standing there, chewing grass, and doing little else.

So, it's apparently not going to kill you, or eat you, or pounce on you and rend flesh from bone. Still, something about it makes you uneasy. Maybe it's just the way the cow looks - something about an otherwise normal, living creature made entirely out of rubber is just plain creepy, no matter how you look at it. It's hard to tell what it is about it that you don't like, but you just don't really think it's all that good of an idea to stand around. You turn to leave, but then hear a more tormented mooing come from the cow behind you. Looking at it, you see that its head is now extended ahead of it, and it looks extremely uncomfortable, looking around like it's starting to feel some pain. Looking down, you see why. The udder, which was already looking a bit big when you got here, is now extremely large, its teats reaching almost down to the ground. They've actually stopped so much as dripping, and apparently, the pressure is starting to hurt the big bovine, which is starting to make sounds that carry a clear tone of distress. You realize that this could easily be a trap, but at the same time, that could be a human you're looking at, one that badly needs your help. Whatever the case, you'll have to think fast - you don't think it can stand a whole lot more of this.