Anniversary Story 4 When is a Weremoose Not a Weremoose? Lance walked carefully through the dark forest. The crisp autumn leaves crunched under his four hooves as he searched for the pond. Being a weremoose had its advantages sometimes. The brisk walks in the woods looking for water plants always excited him. He would look forward to it all day. He didn't have to wait for a full moon to change. He just had to wait until nighttime, and then he would change into his moose form. Living in the south, there was no moose season, so he didn't have to worry too much about hunters. However, he never went out in deer season just to be safe. Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. Turning his ears and spinning his huge head around, he scanned the area. A strange noise crept through the air. It wasn't a hunter. It was a low hum. His heart pounded against his ribcage as his moose instincts began to take over. He needed to run. He needed to run now. He darted forward and froze. A bright light surrounded him from above. He could not move. He bellowed as the forest faded from existence and was replaced by four metal walls. The ceiling however was a clear night sky with the stars and a full moon shining brightly. The hum was louder. Whatever it was that he heard he was now closer to it. Could it be a trap that some poachers set up? Could it be a...? "Greetings, Earthling," a voice said from nowhere. ...UFO? He was beamed aboard a UFO? Lance bellowed. "Yes, you are aboard what you would call a UFO," the voice said. "We know you are not a normal moose. We know you are human during the day. That is why we picked you for our experiments." Lance bellowed again. "That's right. We are going to experiment on you." An evil laugh echoed in the empty room. A few other voices joined in. Lance bellowed. "Oh, stop bellowing! See what we can do?" The night sky above was suddenly replaced by a bright blue sky with the sun shining. Lance's moose form shrank and deformed until he was a human again. He instinctively covered himself out of modesty. "Why are you going to do this to me?" Lance asked. An impatient exhale could be heard. "I already told you that we are going to experiment on you because you are a weremoose. Moose intelligence must be low." "Hey! Don't insult me...." He finished with a bellow because the day sky was replaced by the night sky. "We like the moose bellowing better. Now on with the experiment." The walls began to glow an eerie green. The moose looked around nervously. Then he noticed that his moose features were fading again. But, this time instead of being replaced by human skin, his body was getting covered in short thicker fur. His hooves were flippers now and his back legs were merged "Ark!" Lance arked. He flopped around on the floor in a seal's body. A few cheers could be heard. "Congratulations, Mr. Seal. Your moose form has been erased and replaced with this one." "Ark!" "But, that's not what we wanted to test. We've done this type of thing plenty of times, but never on a human that could change shape to begin with." "Ark!" "Ok, the next step." The night sky was replaced with the day sky again. He felt his seal form growing as he became human again. "Interesting. A side effect we didn't plan on," the voice said. "What do you mean?" Lance asked, and then he noticed what the voice was talking about. The whiskers of a seal stuck out from his upper lip, and they flopped around as he spoke. Reaching a hand up to feel of them, he also noticed that his fingers were webbed. His feet were more than webbed. They were still flippers. Lance stared at his hands and feet waiting for the change to finish, but nothing happened. And then the ceiling turned dark again. His webbed hands became flippers again and he was back on the floor as a seal. "Ark!" The walls began to glow again. This time when they stopped, Lance was a polar bear. The smell of seal in the room made his stomach growl. The voices snickered. The day sky reappeared, and Lance was a human again. Or so he thought. He looked at himself. This time he was almost human except for the large claws on his hands and feet. His stomach looked bigger as well. "Will you make up your minds?" Lance growled as the night sky returned and forced him to all fours as a polar bear. "Eventually. We still have a few more to go," the voice said. The walls glowed again. Lance's massive polar bear form was now a small white rabbit. He hopped around and flicked his nose. A long "Awwwww. Isn't he cute?" filled the bare room. Lance twitched his ears. The day ceiling reappeared, and Lance grew to human height again. This time however, he was not human. "This is very interesting indeed," the voice said. Lance looked down and saw the body of a kangaroo. "Hmm... the scans say there's no human part in this one. That's odd. Ok. Let's continue." Lance hopped angrily. "Oh, don't worry. Didn't you need to have a kangaroo transformation in an anniversary story?" Lance reluctantly nodded in agreement. The night sky returned, and Lance was a rabbit again. Looking about, he saw the walls glow again. Pink feathers replaced his white fur as he became a flamingo. When he became the human version, he still had a beak and a tendency to stand on one leg. After flamingo, he became an iguana with a scaly human counterpart. The aliens had changed him several more times into normal animals and an odd form of human. The four-armed human version of him was one of the strange ones after having his moose form changed into a bee. "One more, and we will be done," the voice said. Lance nodded his head with large ears as the night sky changed him back into an elephant. The walls glowed again causing the elephant to shrink into a much smaller form. This time he was a meerkat. Standing on his hind legs on lookout duty, he scanned the room. Still there was nothing in it except himself, but his meerkat instincts needed to make sure for themselves. The day ceiling lit up the room, and Lance grew again changing back to his daytime form. He looked down at himself and still saw a meerkat's body. He was human sized, but he was a meerkat. His paws were more like hands, but he was definitely a meerkat. "What did you do to me?" Lance asked. Surprised that he could talk like this, he paused for a moment. "I'm still a meerkat!" "This is unexpected, but still interesting," the voice said. "Interesting?" Lance asked. "It appears we have finished with the experiment. We'll change your alternate form back into a moose and we'll let you go." "It's about ti...." Lance stopped as he couldn't speak anymore. The night sky changed him back into a full meerkat. "I wish they would stop cutting me off like that," he thought. The walls glowed again, and he quickly expanded in size. He stood on his four hooves glad that this ordeal is almost over. "Farewell, Moose. You have helped us tremendously with our experiment. A bright light filled the room, and the forest reappeared. Lance looked up in the sky and saw a streak of light fly off. Glancing around the forest, it looked like he was in the same spot as he was when the aliens beamed him up. Making sure he was still a moose, he ventured toward the pond again. Water plants were just what he needed after the ordeal he just went through. After eating his fill, he walked back to his house at the edge of the woods. The sun would be rising soon, and he needed to get out of the woods before he changed back into a human. Using the latch he rigged up as an easy way for his moose form to reenter the house, he opened the wide door with his teeth. Inside, he waited for his change. The first light of morning shined through the window, and he could feel the changes taking place. Hooves changed into hands. Antlers retracted into his skull. His stubby tail grew longer. That couldn't be right. He looked back and saw the meerkat tail he had earlier in the UFO. That wasn't the only part that was wrong. All of him was wrong. He was the human-sized meerkat again. "Just great!" he said pacing around the living room snarling at his fur-covered arms. "I spent all that money on that material for a meerkat costume for nothing!"