Horse Girl
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}} {{#if:| — see also [[:Category:{{{category}}}|other works by this author]]}}
She was entirely innocent of any crime - and was going about her business in an entirely unknowing way when, for no reason she could detect, her vision went blurry and she had to sit down. Feeling faint in the head was unusual but the feeling soon passed and she though nothing of it - only later did she realise that this moment was the start.
Many days passed and she continued to work, complete the chores and sleep soundly next to her loving husband. She was happy and enjoyed the life she had. One evening before bed she noticed that the skin on her hands felt strange, and she applied something which she thought would help, but by the next morning there was definitely something wrong from the wrists to the ends of her fingers and thumbs. She consulted a doctor who did not know what it was and prescribed some ointment.
As the days passed the skin continued to get more strange, and she began to wear gloves so that people would not notice. Over the days she realised that both her hands were growing a coarse stubble - backs and palms were sprouting coarse hair. Once it became established is began to grow far faster that hair on her head, and soon after she had hands which were all but invisible under the hair. She cut it, of course, shaved it and tried to hold back the growth, but it came in ever more length. Soon she gave up cutting it, and allowed the hair to grow. Her husband, supportive and concerned, was employing every available resource to help alleviate the condition and nothing seemed to be available. Soon the hair was neither coverable with gloves nor anything else, it reached to her knees when standing. If wearing a long sleeved garment the hair simply cascaded from the sleeves.
Shortly after that she found that both shoulder joints became stiff, and the movement of her upper arms began to become restricted when attempting to bring her elbows forward of her hips. She could still continue to complete chores, but her movement was limited and her shoulders stiff, and this continued for several days, every day she found that the movement of her elbows were becoming further restricted towards her spine, and her elbow movement was becoming more and more limited. She had to give up work, and shortly afterwards give up helping out around the house as well. Unable to help, and finding sitting on her arms very uncomfortable she took to either standing, or with help from her husband, lying on her front.
A message arrived for her and her husband, and it told them to visit a far off city, where there may be a cure. There was an address, but no money to make the very long journey a pleasent one. No attempt to contact the location worked, no information about the location was available from any source. There seemed to be no choice but to follow the instructions. The overland journey was going to take many days, and with little money left they undertook it, sleeping on public transport, eating in roadside food establishments; her husband now feeding her every mouthful of food and every gulp of drink. Her elbows now touched at her spine, her arms extended straight down, and it was clear that she now sported a tail, now down to her ankles where it seemed to stop growing further. One morning they realised that the skin was growing between her back and her arms, and over the next few days her arms were absorbed into her back. Her fingers fused into one hair covered stub, and she now looked like an armless girl with a tail, which could be swished vigorously back and forth - she could keep flies off her whole body with a swish of her tail. While being an interesting party-piece, she was terrified of falling - without arms to protect her in a fall she would seriously hurt herself. She took to wearing a long coat which buttoned at the front and extended to her ankles - in this way she would pass un-noticed in the street, or on the public transport.
They both arrived a the destination. The building was unmarked, no logo or sign to indicate the contents or purpose, and they knocked on the door.
The door buzzed and they pushed and entered the building. It was cold inside, and the walls were painted plainly, the space had only one other door. The door behind them closed. The one in front buzzed and they opened it, onto a courtyard in the middle of the building. A man was sitting on a chair, and stood up to greet them, shaking the hand of the man and grasping the shoulder of the woman warmly. They were invited to sit or stand, whichever was more comfortable. There was a chair and a stool - she took the stool and the husband the chair. The man expressed regret at what had happened to the girl, and took full responsibility. He explained that during research there was a containment failure on one of the experiments that his company was conducting, and a 'sprite' had escaped. He confirmed that the sprite could fly for many miles, carried on the winds, but would eventually find a host at random, enter that host would have caused a vision loss and faintness when it entered her, and also that it was responsible for her current condition. He also explained that it was possible to extract the sprite, so that it would cause no further changes - mental changes would be next. The husband and wife became extremely distressed with this news, and angry, there was shouting and the husband began to get voilent, but the man calmly caught and held his wrists as if he were a child, with the strength of ten men he held the man, and calmed him. In the face of such extreme physical strength there was nothing to be done, and the husband slumped back to his chair and wept for the loss of humanity suffered by his wife and his impotence to help.
The man listened to the wife telling him of the suffering she had undergone, the changes that had happened, the loss of ability and the terror she now felt from falling. She asked how she was to get the use of her arms back, and was horrified to find out that they were permanently lost. The changes were one way and final. She asked what could be done about her falling - that animals on two legs have very big feet and things which have no arms have four legs. She raged about how difficult it is to be a two legged creature without arms. The man calmed her, and invited her to take one step at a time - the first and most important step is to remove the sprite, and that would be done now if she was willing. She was, they went into a side room where there was a raised bed, she was helped onto it, and left in the room on her own. Just as the man walked out he unscrewed the lid on a jar which seemed to have a piece of offal in it. He left the jar on the floor under the table. The man and her husband went into the next room and waited - they discussed what was happening - the offal was bait - the sprite would notice it, and leave the current host. Five minutes later there was a cry of surprise and they entered to see the offal now surrounded with a light pink mist, and the girl still on the bed but very talkative. The man screwed the lid on and carried the jar to another room. She seemed lighter, more positive about the world, but still nervous about falling.
They took a warm drink together, and the man began to explain the choices - there were many and most were dismissed. One of the alternatives would have moved her legs to her shoulders, so that she had some kind of arm movement, with toes slightly longer to act like fingers - but that would have left her with no legs, and it would have resulted in her being more of a strange creature than she was now. Having suffered amputation once she was not ready to be unable to walk. One further alternative was to leave her just as she was, eventually she would learn to manipulate things with her feet as amputees learn to do. She was overwhelmingly sure of one thing - her goal was to become more surefooted. Since she could not grow her arms back - the sprite had taken that from her - she was now a two limbed creature for the rest of her life He had a way of making the best of her current condition - it did mean that she would host another sprite, but this time one which would only apply physical changes. Since she had no arms any more, she could maximise the strength and sureness of her legs and feet. And so it was that they both stayed in the building and over the next few days she was infected by a sprite which continued to change her from the waist down, but this time she knew what was happening, and with the correct nutrition the changes continued quickly and the sprite left her body of it's own free will.
The creature which emerged in her long coat several days later from the front of the unmarked building was still, from a casual viewers standpoint, a girl with no arms in a long coat, but look below the coat at her feet, now the huge hooves of a shire horse. Look at the way she walks, not in quite the same way as a human would walk, with the joints and muscles of the back legs of a shire horse. From below the waist she was now a powerful horse, with the human body merging with the horse body at the places where a swimsuit would fit - her genitals unchanged but all else about her legs those of a powerful horse, covered with a fine hair. She made a clopping sound on the concrete pavement, and they went by bus to a local blacksmith who seemed unsurprised to see her. He fitted her huge feet with metal shoes, the acrid smell of the hot shoe bedding into the foot stung her nose sharply, and he gave her some rubber boots to fit over the hooves for walking on concrete. She found the legs no inconvenience - the strength of her muscles easily making up for the weight of the huge hooves. For the rest of her life she would require feeding and cleaning, but she would remain surefooted no matter what the future held.
She was still not happy about what had happened, but had resolved to make the best of it, knowing that many people would pay to see her in this condition, and that her chances of falling over were very slim.