Modern Day

Mauricio tugged at the collar attached to his neck, making the brass cowbell draped across his chest to jangle lightly. He hated wearing it, and was even more embarrassed by how obvious his condition was despite the other features he’d gained in the last few weeks. The dark black spots along his back and face could at least be hidden, especially with his already naturally dark brown skin. The horns were small enough to be hidden under a hat, though they’d grown bigger along with the stretching of his ears into leathery flaps in the past week alone. He’d taken to wearing a large wide brim straw hat while out in public, thankful at least no one questioned his new fashion choices and just said it was a souvenir from his recent trip to visit his family in Durango Mexico. They were farmers that specialized in livestock, and was the sole reason behind his current predicament.

The culture shock along with the language barrier had made his visit a bit more troublesome, nodding his head mutely whenever his relatives spoke to him in spanish. He’d make it a point to get some language tapes or some bilingual software to learn it if he ever went back after this, growing up his whole life in the big city he could get by with just the basics. He could at least order his fast food with “No cebolla” and “Mas papas”.

His mom had warned him about getting a booster shot before heading down with his cousins, since she’d caught a mild case of Rocky Mountain Spotted fever from a tick when she was a young girl. She’d recovered, mostly. Though against her dark chocolate skin the shiny golden spots did look very cool, if you didn't mind the long fluffy black and brown coyote tail coming out the back of her tailor made pants.

The changes didn’t seem to affect her genetics, so he and his sister were born normal at least. He just knew his sister would have a field day when she saw him again, especially with the way he always made fun of or laughed at anyone that contracted a TF disease. His mom always chastised him for his rude and offensive behaviour, seeing as she was a victim herself.

He’d come to “The Barn” all by himself once..<i>His tail</i> grew in. He sat up straight, it’s sinewy length wrapped around his waist. Thankfully the chairs in the waiting room had enough room in the back to let any manner of appendage slip through and fit comfortably. He’d developed a fear of sitting back after many many painful reminders of his new tail, crushing it against a flat surface was almost as bad as twisting your ankle or bending your finger the wrong way. Having a sore tailbone was also just a miserable experience by itself, able to feel the pain traveling up his spine even.

The Barn was the nickname given to the advanced research and treatment center dedicated to a variety of TF diseases, named as such because it actually functioned as one for the most part. Located in a vast valley down in the foothills, it was a sprawling facility that stretched for more than a couple miles at least. At least that's what the brochure had touted, the map folded out many ways and looked like something you’d get at a theme park rather than a medical facility. Mauricio was already nervous about his condition, and going to a place called “The Barn” didn't help that anxiety any better.

He’d been sitting in the waiting room lobby for more than twenty minutes, and he’d only gotten more anxious. This place was pretty busy, he’d kept his head down for the most part so he wouldn't be tempted to stare or be stared at in turn. But he could hear things, the clopping of hooves, and other non-human sounds. There were some strange looking people in the chairs around him, at least stranger even when compared to him.

A woman a couple rows down had to use a small crutch to keep her head upright from the thick pale two foot long bulls horns protruding out the sides of her head, a strange contrast since she was a petite little thing that couldn’t be over five foot two inches.

A man sitting against the wall was completely covered in a thick layer of dark brown wool, it was hard to make out the face of the man, which had stretched forward into a small snout.

A pair of women nearly identical in every way from the pattern of the fur of the triangular cat ears on their heads, to the white tips at the ends of their tails wagged them in sync with one another. He’d heard one of them refer to the other as “Mom”, so it was even more jarring to notice for Mauricio.

The staff was just as weird as well, he’d seen doctors with tails and horns of all kinds. The receptionist had a large ivory spirling unicorn horn growing out of the middle of her forehead, and one of the nurses he saw had six arms and was wearing glasses on her eight eyes. He squirmed a bit in his seat, trying to make himself look inconspicuous. Failing to do so when it set the cow-bell across his neck jingling, his ear flapping instinctively in response. Thankfully no one had noticed or were too engrossed in their own matters to care.

“Mr Vargas? Mr. Vargas?” A slightly chubby nurse with a deep blue nurse uniform tightly fit on her frame called. Holding the bell to his chest to not cause a ruckus, he made his way across the waiting room. He noticed that the nurse’s outfit wasn't the only thing blue about her, everything from her skin, hair, eyes, tongue and hands were entirely a deep shade of dark blue. He couldn't help but stare, especially at the large bulges on her chest and quite pronounced backside barely contained in the confines of her clothing. She must have been used to the stares, or knew people would be curious. The only other thing that threw him off was the name tag that said “Robert”, was that a typo? Did they mean “Roberta”? She snapped her cobalt colored fingers in front of his face.

“Eyes up pal...you Vargas?” She asked, her accent seemed very east coast. Maybe New jersey?.

“Er, Yeah...that’s me” He said, rubbing the back of his head at having been caught staring. Checking something off on her clipboard, she motioned him through the door.

“Follow me, I’ll show you to the room where you’ll meet Dr. Moss” He followed behind her, trying to avert his gaze anywhere else but her jiggling blue behind. She must have been wearing perfume, something sweet and fruity. The hallways looked exactly like any other hospital had looked, with some exceptions. The floor was covered in hay, and saw dust in some areas. The ceilings were twice as tall, and the hallways twice as wide. He could hear constant footsteps along with clopping and...hissing? He picked up his pace, trying not to lag behind from his wandering eyes.

The nurse was tapping her foot impatiently as she motioned to a doorway, looking at her watch as it beeped.

“Get in, Dr. Moss will be in to see you” She said, her voice strained. Did her uniform look tighter? He could definitely see some buttons on her blouse shirt straining.

“I was wonder-” she had cut off Mauricio by slamming the door in his face, the only other sound was her frantic footsteps traipsing across the linoleum flooring. His question left hanging as his jaw from her rapid departure. Left by his lonesome, he sighed. Letting go of the cowbell and studying the room around him. Despite the appearance of the hallways, this room looked to be like nothing more than a typical claustrophobic examination room. Albeit with a few stray strands of hay strewn about the floor, and...splotches of blue ink trailing out the door?

Mauricio grew nervous, twiddling his thumbs anxiously. He always hated waiting rooms and doctors offices not because of news about his health, but because of all the idle time sitting around just waiting and being bored. His mom always joked he had some form of The Scatterbrains, which always irked him since it was sometimes a precursor to the Bimbo Flu. Bad enough he had horns and a tail, the last thing he needed was a pair of giant tits and ass.

There was a rack of magazines on the wall, oddly enough each magazine was carefully placed with an etched golden plaque above each one with some names on them. A Gardening Magazine with a smiling woman on the cover in a skimpy summer dress had the name GRETA LUPO engraved above it, next to that one was a computer science magazine with a young redheaded woman in faux trashy 90’s clothes showing off her outdated macintosh portable laptop with antenna sticking out of it. JACOB DELANCY was etched above it, the entire wall was filled with these magazines.

Curious and bored, Maurico picked up a magazine about Video Games oddly enough. Kind of a wierd find for a doctors office, but he didn’t mind. The guy on the cover had a sour expression, and it talked about “Cheat codes for all your favorite games!”

“What games even use cheat codes anymore?” Maurico laughed. Flipping open the magazine, only to discover that it was a bunch of pictures of the man on the cover playing various video games on old CRTs and talking about the latest PS1, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo releases. None of the articles really made much sense, seeming to follow the exploits of this “Chuck Hardy” person as he entered and won many fighting game tournaments in Super Street Fighter 2 and Virtua Fighter.

Mauricio flipped through more and more pages, every single one detailing the opinions of “Chuck Hardy” , every article was written by them, in depth reviews of Chrono Trigger, Resident Evil, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, Silent Hill and all the classics of that Era. Each one showed “Chuck Hardy” dressed to the nines in flashy neon colored nineties gamer gear, playing his favorite games.

“This is terrible...he gave Silent Hill and Resident Evil both four outta ten?” Mauricio chuckled, flipping more pages. However he stopped on one picture of “Chuck” playing Sonic 2, there was a sour look on his face and he was looking directly at the camera. A speech bubble in the image read “I don't like scary games, and the combat was clumsy, I don't see them getting sequels any time soon” Maruico blinked and turned his head, the cowbell dangling and making his ears twitch.

Slowly he flipped the page and was greeted by a closeup full page spread of Chuck asking questions directly to the camera. “Did they ever make a sequel to StarFox 64?” “When’s the next metal gear” “”Is the Sega Saturn still good?” “I bet Sega is making all the best consoles now” “Nintendo can't really keep up” “Why are you wearing a cowbell?”

Mauricio slammed the magazine shut and dropped it to the floor in shock.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t crease the pages of some of our terminal residents” A soft high pitched feminine voice spoke. Maurico turned around and...found nothing but empty air. The door hadn’t opened and there was no one around. Maurico felt anxious, his tail waving in agitation. “Down here” The voice interrupted. His ears twitching and locking in on the voice.

On the countertop between the sink and the cupboards of the doctors office was a small six inch tall figure dressed in a lab coat. There was a long brown sinuous tail curving up from underneath and behind, along with large oval mouse ears adorning it’s head. It was clearly feminine with the broad hips and generous curves despite her miniscule size.

“Yes, yes...I'm Dr. Moss. You can call me Frank. Not Frankie, not Francine, Not Franny...Moss, or Frank will be fine” She spoke, moving deftly over the cupboard surface. Only now noticing that there was a literal mousehole carved into the side of the wall.

Mauricio stood mouth agape, struggling to either run or sit down.