A couple of rangers find out what happens when you mess with the wrong equipment.

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It’s a slow day at the ranger station, no calls, routine patrols turn up nothing, and no visitors. Paul and Tommy are both relaxing in the lobby when the doorbell rings. They both scramble to get up and get to the door, tripping over each other. Finally, they get to the door and see a package left outside. Odd, nobody ordered anything, and the morning briefing didn’t mention any packages expected today. They both stop and consider briefly that it could be a bomb or something similar and decide to play it safe and call for a team to investigate the package. A few hours later and the package has been cleared, so it’s brought in. Paul is the first to get to it and tears it open.

Inside he finds a black rugged case, and inside that he finds several ear tags, each with a number already printed on, and a device for attaching the tags to animals’ ears. “Strange, nobody said anything about getting this stuff, but it’s clearly for us.” Paul reads the letter that comes with the equipment, providing instructions for tagging certain animals around the park grounds for tracking and preservation purposes. “It’s addressed to Sergeant Hawkins, but he’s out dealing with some hiker who was complaining about a mess or something, so we got some time to check this stuff out!”

“You sure we should be messing with that stuff? I mean, there’s not many tags in there, and I don’t wanna get in trouble…”

“Oh, it’ll be fine! I mean, we can just take it off later, the tool here can take them off, too, right?” Paul grabs one of the ear tags and the tagging gun and approaches Tommy with them. “C’mere, this’ll look good on ya!”

“N-no, keep that thing away from me!”

“Alright, fine, I’ll put one on then, you wuss.” Paul holds the tag onto his ear and raises the tagging gun to it, then Tommy stops him.

“Okay, okay fine, if you’re gonna do it, at least let me do it for you so you don’t hurt yourself.” Paul chuckles as Tommy takes the tagging gun and holds it up to Paul’s ear while positioning the tag. He then pulls the trigger on it without so much as a warning and Paul screams at the top of his lungs, mostly from surprise.

“Damn, you coulda warned me!”

Tommy chuckles, “You had that coming anyways…well, I don’t see any bleeding so…I guess it’s okay…fuck it, go ahead and do me now.”

Paul smiles as he grabs the tagging gun and another tag and then tags Tommy with it, and Tommy in turn screams. “And that’s payback!” Paul chuckles, the numb feeling in his ear masking the feeling of both of his ears stretching and growing dusty brown fur. Tommy’s ears soon do the same which causes Paul to stop and freeze.

“What, I’m not bleeding, am I?”

“N-No…your-your ears! They’re…” Paul finds himself at a loss for words at what’s happening. Tommy reaches up and feels his lengthening ears, which are now covered in brown fur and have become triangles and moved to the top of his head. His hair has now shortened and fuzzed up, turning the same dusty brown color as on his ears. The fur is spreading around his head, soon covering his face.

“Wha-what the heck is going on here?” Tommy runs to the bathroom and checks himself out in a mirror. He cringes as he feels pressure in his jaw as it stretches forward and he nearly cuts his lengthening tongue on his teeth as they sharpen, with his canines becoming especially sharp and almost poking out of his lengthening muzzle. He reaches up with both hands and feels it, not believing what he’s seeing in the mirror while his nose flattens against the end of his muzzle and turns black and round.

He runs back out to the lobby, where Paul is curled up in a fetal position, crying over the situation. His changes seem to have progressed similarly to Paul’s with him having a full coyote head. The tears run down his matted fur, and he can’t even gather the composure to get to the phone to call someone. Tommy rushes to the phone and goes to pick up the receiver but finds it difficult to grip it as his fingers cramp and stiffen, becoming shorter and harder to grip things with.

The receiver gets knocked onto the floor and Tommy tries to pick it up, but his thumbs have become useless, shrinking away into dewclaws. His fingernails grow longer and darken, then sink back into his fingertips to form claws. Tommy holds both of his paws, staring at them in disbelief, now unsure of what to even do. He can’t use the phone, and he isn’t sure if he’d even be able to open the door, but even if he could, he couldn’t drive the cruiser to find Sergeant Hawkins. Tommy looks to Paul, who is sitting up against the wall, sniffling and staring at his paws. Paul then looks up to Tommy with pain and fear in his eyes.

“What the hell is happening to us? How are we gonna get help? What are we gonna do?”

“Just…calm down, please, I’m gonna keep trying the phone or the radio and see if I can figure out how to—ACK!” Paul and Tommy both shout simultaneously as they feel a sharp crack in their back, which forces them forwards. Tommy is already sitting so he just stumbles forwards and lands on his paws and knees, but Paul was standing so he falls forward, landing on his face. “Ugh…that hurt…” Paul tries to stand up but loses balance again and falls, this time landing on his paws as they plump on the bottom and paw pads grow in, finishing off the forepaws.

Their shoes feel tight as their feet plump up and grow, while their toenails sharpen and grow longer. They tear slightly, but then the pressure releases as their feet start to become smaller and rise out of their shoes. Their hips and shoulders feel like they’re being molded like clay as they shift around and flatten, their arms moving inward and thinning out to become forelegs. Their hips crunch as they form haunches and become digitigrade. Paul looks back over his body as they both begin to shrink out of their clothes, shirts and pants now hanging loose on their bodies.

“I…I think it’s nearly finished.” Paul finds himself able to think somewhat clearly now that most of the changes have finished, and they feel their tailbones extending. The growing fluffy tails simply push their pants aside, and then they slide off their hips and fall to the floor. Paul and Tommy’s tails start swishing subconsciously, communicating their stress. Finally, their eyes turn an amber yellow and they shrink a bit more. Paul pants a bit and looks to Tommy, who’s curled up tight on the floor, clearly scared. He tries to speak to tell Tommy that it’s over now and that they’re okay, but he finds he can only make a series of yips and barks.

Panic consumes the both of them, and they rush for the door, just as a patrol car pulls up outside. They’ve managed to get out of their clothes as Sergeant Hawkins and one of the researchers from Colorado State enter the ranger station.

“Look at the mess – damnit, I knew I shouldn’t have left those two alone when the tagging stuff came in. At least they got a couple of animals tagged already. Why they brought them inside though is beyond me.” Sergeant Hawkins looks at the two coyotes, who are looking back at him with fear and confusion.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure those tags were meant for these two, but…we needed a few coyotes anyways, so we just need to change around some notes. Not a huge deal.”

“Good, one less thing I have to worry about. Anyways, we should probably get these two outside, and we might as well start tagging the other animals.”

“Yes, let’s get going.” Sergeant Hawkins and the lead scientist lead the two coyotes outside. Tommy and Paul resist at first, but quickly give in as they realize that there’s no going back. After being released, Hawkins and the scientist take out the kit and start with tracking down a group of bighorn. They quickly tag a couple and start making notes. Their notetaking is interrupted by the tagged bighorn grunting and jumping around wildly. They look up and see the fur of the two bighorn they tagged is turning a light brown, and their horns are shrinking away.

“Are…you seeing this?”

“Yeah…what’s going on?” The horns have completely disappeared as the two bighorn rapidly begin to shrink, their bodies becoming much leaner. Their ears grow out and become more triangular in shape, then muzzles thin out. “These changes are so rapid, do you think something with the ear tags did this? It started happening right after that…” The bighorns’ tails grow longer and fluffier and soon where two bighorn stood now stand two very confused coyotes.

“They’re…coyotes now? What in the world…Dr. Wilkins, what do you make of this?”

“Well, it clearly appears that something caused the bighorn to transform into coyotes. Since the last thing that happened to them was the ear tags, I suspect the ear tags had something to do with it. With your permission, I’d like to test this theory. I’d like to tag another animal with the expectation that it will turn into a coyote, like the bighorns.”

“…Alright, we could use more coyotes anyways, I think.”

“Thank you.” Dr. Wilkins grabs the kit and tracks down a mule deer and tags it. Just like the bighorn, it quickly turns into a coyote. “Well, I think that proves the theory.”

“Yeah, I suppose it—wait a minute…I’ll be back.” Sergeant Hawkins runs for his cruiser and drives back to the ranger station and heads inside, and starts digging through the two ranger uniforms on the floor, and quickly finds that they belonged to Tommy and Paul. Given this, and that there were two tagged coyotes in the ranger station when they arrived, he quickly realized what happened. He ran back to his cruiser and gets Dr. Wilkins’ attention. “Tommy and Paul are coyotes! When we first got back to the station, there were two coyotes and a couple of ranger uniforms on the floor! These tags turn whatever’s tagged into a coyote right, I’m willing to bet those two were screwing around with the kit and tagged each other, then turned into coyotes!”

Dr. Wilkins thinks for a moment and her eyes go wide, then she starts rifling through her notes. “You’re right! We gotta find them….here, tags 1604 and 1605. Let me just…” She locates the two using the tag numbers. They haven’t strayed far from where they were released, and they’re still together. “Good, they’re still together, and they’re not far. Let’s go get them, we can’t just leave them here out in the wild, even if it is a national forest.”

“You’re right, let’s go!” And so, the two speed off in Hawkins’ cruiser, heading for Paul and Tommy’s location. Soon enough, they pull up right next to them and get out. “Paul! Tommy! Shit…” Paul and Tommy’s ears perk up, hearing their names and they turn around to see Sergeant Hawkins and Dr. Wilkins. The two coyotes run up to Hawkins and start yapping. “It’s okay, calm down, calm down. I know what happened…and it’s clear you’re still in there. We’re gonna take care of you, we’re not gonna leave you out here in the wilderness. We…can’t exactly home you as pets but we could put you in a zoo, would you like that? I think that’s the best we could do.”

Dr. Wilkins nods. Tommy and Paul look at each other, then both eagerly nod to Hawkins. “Alright, let’s get you packed and ready to go then.” Hawkins opens the back door to the cruiser, allowing Tommy and Paul to climb in. All four of them head back to the ranger station. Dr. Hawkins contacts a sanctuary in Keenesburg while Hawkins looks after Tommy and Paul, making sure they’re fed and have plenty of water, and just generally keeping them company. After a couple of days, a large van pulls up to the ranger station. The paperwork is taken care of, and Tommy and Paul are handed off to the sanctuary’s caretakers.

The van drives off and after a long drive, Tommy and Paul begin their new lives as coyotes at the Wild Animal Sanctuary, well taken care of and far from any dangers of the wild.