Board Game (pt1)

Snow danced past the window as four figures sat around a game board. The board had 60 tiles arranged in a spiral around the outside with five spinners in the center. The board was decorated with all sorts of animals and mythical creatures, including Chinese dragons and centaurs among other stranger creatures.

“Seriously Mike, it says right here that ‘Once the spinners have stopped spinning, the player whose turn it is will be transformed into the shape they spun.’ It also says ‘they will stay in this form until their next turn, when they will receive a new form.” Emely read off the card.
“I still don’t believe it, but on the off chance it’s true I won’t spin the ‘gender’ or ‘special’ spinners, just in case.” States Mike, the oldest of the four friends seated in Zoe’s living room.

“What are you afraid of? Just do it. We all know this game is fake,” Jim states, annoyed by Mike’s superstitious behavior.

“Fine,” Make says as he flicks each of the other spinners in turn, species, Type, Size. The arrows whirl around slowly coming to a stop on Fox (100%)(8), Tuar(10), Small(5).

“The moment of truth,” states Emely.

For half a second nothing happens, then Mike; “Oh man, my stomach feels weird.”

The others lean in to see short hairs beginning to sprout all over mike’s body. He swings a hand up and observes it with a panicked expression on his face. By now he’s grown a distinctly fox-like coat of fur all over his body. The next change are his ears, moving to the top of his head and growing pointed. His eyes darken and his face pushes out into a muzzle. Mike steps away from the board just in time for a pair of legs to sprout from his mid-section and land on the floor, his pants disappearing in a small flash. A bushy tail sprouts from his rear even as his legs are reshaping themselves for walking on all fours.

Jim has just enough time to say “Holy shit it’s real!” before Mike begins to shrink, his tuaric body condensing smaller and smaller. Finally the changes stop, leaving Mike as a three foot tall fox-tuar.

Mike’s peace lunches forwards advancing a whole 23 spaces, about a third of the way to the finish.

“He’s so cute!” Emely brakes the silence.

“No! You realize that that might happen to us?” Jim shouts in horror.

“Jim, clam down, remember once someone wins the game everyone returns to normal.” Zoe says.
“Then I’m going to leave while I still can!” Jim retorts.

“Jim! You can’t! Once the game pieces are down and the first person goes there’s no going back. You can’t quit.” Zoe replies calmly.

“A piece of cardboard can’t stop me from walking away.” Jim ends the conversation, standing up and walking into the kitchen.

“Fine, Just don’t blame me when something weird happens.” Zoe mutters under hear breath, “Emely, it’s your turn.”

Meanwhile Mike is preoccupied with stumbling around on his new four legs.

“Ok, I’m going to play it safe and only spin one of the spinners.” Emely reaches for the ‘species’ spinner giving it a flick.

“Tiger (25%)(2)” Emely reads off the spinner, “wonder what the percentages are for?”
“You’re about to find out.” Zoe responds, watching Emely intently.

It doesn’t take long for the changes to become apparent. Emely’s ears migrate to the top of her head, growing a coating of orange hair. She touches them with her hand, as if to make sure they are really there. Next a long tail bursts from her rear, black and orange striped just like a tiger’s. The new tail rapidly sways back and forth for a moment before Emely swings it around and grabs it with her hands. Her piece moves forward 2 tiles.

“What? I moved forward 23 tiles and Emely only moves two?” Mike interjects, apparently getting used to his new body.

“Perhaps we know what both of those numbers mean. The percentage is how much you become like that animal and the number is how far you move.” Zoe says thoughtfully.

“8 plus 10 plus 5 equals 23, yup I think I agree.” Mike states, “so spinning more spinners will get you to the end faster, but it will also more drastically alter your body.”

“Seems right, anyway, it’s jim’s turn so…” Zoe replies.

Emely gasps as all of the spinners begin swiveling wildly, flailing about their fastenings like they were trying to escape.

“This does not look good.” Mike states.

One by one the spinners stop their mad swiveling, landing on Snake (50%)(4), Humanoid (0), Tiny (10), Female (10). The ‘Special spinner takes a bit longer to stop and lands on  ‘lose a turn.’ The three hear a loud yelp form the kitchen, followed by a clatter that sounds like someone falling out of a chair.

Mike looks at Emma, Emma looks at Zoe, and Zoe looks at Mike. At once all of them get up and start walking to the kitchen, Mike stumbling on his tail. The trio find not Jim in the kitchen, but a five inch tall stone statue of a beautiful naga woman lying on her side. From her waist down she is all snake, but her top half it completely human.

“I take it that’s Jim?” Mike asks, unsure as to what to do.

“Probably, let’s take hi- err her? Back quickly. I don’t want to miss my turn.” Zoe ushers.
The others nod in agreement.

Soon all four players are back around the board, noticing Josh’s peace had moved forwards 24 spaces, just in front of Mike’s. They were ready for Zoe to take her first turn, but Zoe was hesitating.

“Go all in,” says Emely, “the sooner someone makes it to the end the better.”

“You don’t have to do that,” says Mike, “can take big changes so you guys don’t have to”

“I don’t know, I’ll just do species, type and throw in a spin on the special spinner, some of those look like fun.” Zoe flicks her three chosen spinners.

Chinese Dragon (100%)(4), Feral (10), choose another player to spin a spinner of your choice.

“Holy crap, I did not see that coming.” Mike says.

“You know what, I want you to spin the species spinner.”

With that statement the changes begun. Scales sprouted all over Zoe’s body as a massive tail grew from her rear. Her arms and legs shrank, her fingers grew talons. Her face pushed outwards, growing whiskers. She also grew in size, soon she was almost thirty feet long but barely two wide. Soon a massive dragon was swirling in the air in front of the other two, undulating in a hypnotic pattern. She took up a large portion of the space, leaving the other two players slightly afraid and cramped. The dragon opened its mouth and let out a sort of cat-like roar, then a bunch of quieter noises. Zoe’s piece moved forwards 14 spaces.

Mike began rolling around laughing. “Hah! She can’t speak!”

The dragon huffed indignantly then opened its maw so wide she could have eaten Emely, much less the much smaller Mike. This shut the little fox right up.

“Never mind. I want you to spin the gender spinner.” Zoe the dragon abruptly said. This surprised everyone, but Mike was by far the most surprised.

“No! that’s not fair!” But the spinner was already spinning.

Female (10)

“NOOOO!” Mike shouted as his chest ballooned out and his whole body slimed. He felt his genitals suck inwards, replaced with something he never thought he would have. Finally his eyes grew slightly larger and his hair extended from a short mop to a long flowing stream of blonde.

“Well it’s my turn next.” Mike pouted in a girlish voice, crossing his arms over his new chest.