Commission for an anonymous commissioner
Two friends visit a safari in San Antonio and get a more immersive experience than they expected!

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“You like safaris?”

“Safaris?”

“Yeah! Look, there’s a safari over there! They even let you get out of your car!”

“Well, sure! Why not?”

Todd takes the next highway exit that leads to the safari, then drives down the long, winding road into the forested area near the highway. The forest soon thins out and gives way to a large clearing that has a fenced-in region that looks like it was taken straight from Africa. After getting their tickets, they’re directed down one of the side roads on the other side of the fence where the safari begins. Todd continues driving down the winding road, stopping every now and then to get pictures of the various animals that approach.

While they are stopped taking pictures, a cheetah suddenly runs towards their car and climbs on top of it, warping the windshield briefly as he climbs up. Todd and James duck in their car from both the noise and the large cat crawling around on their car. The big cat sits up on the roof proud as can be, as if he just conquered a mountain. Todd and James both look at each other, unsure of what to do, and then silently agree to run. Before long, they’re a good quarter mile away from the car and they realize that they are lost. Despite them not being far from their car, they look around and see only savannah. It seems to stretch for miles, too, despite the safari area not being that large.

“T-Todd…I think we may be lost…”

“Yeah…I can’t even see any landmarks!” They continue wandering around for hours, unable to find any signs of civilization. Todd then spots light reflecting off water in the distance. “Water! Over there!” They both run over as fast as they can, given how they just got done running a quarter mile or more isn’t very fast.

“Oh, thank god!” James exclaims as they approach the watering hole. They stop and kneel down by the watering hole and they both start drinking.

“Does this water taste funny to you?” Todd stops drinking and looks at James.

“No, it tastes fine!”

“Huh…guess it’s just me then…” He then resumes drinking. While they drink, they both feel a warm, tingling sensation throughout their bodies. Yellow hairs sprout on Todd’s arms and spread up and down. He doesn’t notice until his fingernails grow longer, and his thumbs start to shrink making it more difficult to scoop up the water. “Um…something’s wrong…”

Short, brown fur spreads along James’ arms and he similarly keeps drinking, ignoring Todd until his hands begin to stiffen and curl up, darkening into a hard material. It soon becomes impossible for James to collect any more water as his hands harden into cloven hooves. He looks down at them, surprised. “Y-yeah…maybe we’re just hallucinating!”

Todd feels the fur on his arms as rough, grippy black paw pads grow in on his palm and fingertips. His thumbs have all but disappeared now, leaving only dewclaws. “This feels really real though!” Yellow fur spreads up to his shoulders, becoming adorned with black spots. His shoulders melt and merge inward, making it harder to move his new forearms around much, and then his feet begin shifting within his shoes. Toenails sharpen into black claws; paw pads grow in, and his heels rise up out of his shoes. It becomes difficult to balance until the black-spotted fur reaches his lower back and he feels a pressure in his pants. It builds more and more until a black-tipped, spotted yellow tail bursts from his pants tearing them up. Todd falls to four legs, finding it impossible to stand up anymore.

“Todd! I-I’ll get help!” James shouts as he starts to run, though he doesn’t make it far as his feet start to cramp and stiffen. His shoes start feeling looser as his feet curl up and harden, then he falls forward mid-stride as his feet completely harden into hooves just like his hands. Light brown and white fur crawls up his arms and legs, melting the joints and moving them inward. Soon enough, James is on all fours just like Todd is, and he slowly crawls back to the watering hole to see that Todd is much further along on his transformation.

Todd has begun to shrink slightly, his shirt and what’s left of his pants hanging off his body. The fur now covers his torso, and his legs feel much more powerful than before. He starts to feel a rush of energy, like he could run much longer than he normally would be able to. All that’s not changed is his head, but that isn’t the case for long as yellow fur creeps up his neck quickly becoming covered with spots. Black lines come down from his eyes as his ears become smaller and rounded, sliding up to the top of his head. His jaw stretches forward into a short muzzle, followed by his nose turning dark and taking on a flat triangle shape. Finally, his teeth sharpen, and eyes turn amber, and he stares at the water shocked at what he sees in the reflection. “I’m…I’m…”

“A cheetah!” James looks down over his changing body as he feels a pressure in his tailbone as a thin, black tail takes shape behind him. White fur covers his belly, and it spreads up his neck as his body shrinks, becoming slightly smaller than Todd. His teeth flatten and face stretches forward to form a broad muzzle. His tongue grows longer and longer until it can lick the end of his longer muzzle, followed by his nose darkening and rounding out. “And I’m…a deer?” His question is answered when two nubs appear on his forehead and push their way out, growing longer and longer but not branching out. His ears grow longer and slide up to the top of his head but are not pushed aside like a deer’s would be.

“You’re a gazelle! The horns!”

James crosses his eyes and tries to look up, soon seeing the horns come into his vision as they finish growing long and a little wobbly looking. “Oh, you’re right!” He shakes out of his clothing as does Todd and they both stare at their reflections in the water. James’ head finishes covering itself with fur as he looks, then he looks to Todd. “So, what now? We’re just animals!”

“I don’t—” Before Todd can finish, his ears swivel around and he looks around to realize that there are now several other animals there, some of them predators and others prey. He still sees no signs of civilization and feels the heat of the sun bearing down on him. A realization hits him. “James…I don’t think we’re in San Antonio anymore…where the hell are we?”

“I…don’t know but this other cheetah is staring at me!” James looks back to a cheetah that is on the other side of the watering hole.

“Shit, I’ll deal with it.” Todd explains confidently as he starts making his way over to the other side. Soon, hissing and howling can be heard as the two cheetahs get into it. They start tumbling around, getting in and out of the water and James wonders if he should run or what. There’s no way that he can do anything like this. Though, he soon has to make a quick decision as he finds the other cheetah on top of Todd.

James breaks into a full sprint to the other side of the watering hole. The other cheetah is distracted by attempting to make a killing blow to Todd when suddenly he’s knocked aside and rolls around in the dirt for a while before coming to a rest. Todd gets up and looks at James, giving a weak smile. “I think he…” The other cheetah soon gets up and limps away. He seems to have one leg that’s broken as he’s just dragging it along. “Well, I guess he won’t be messing with us anymore!”

“Yeah, that was awesome! Thanks for coming in for me, I thought I was done there!”

“Of course! This whole thing has me worried though…we’re out in the wild now…and we’re going to have to fight. We’ll have to scavenge for food…this won’t be good.”

“Yeah, you’re right…I’m almost afraid to drink from that same watering hole again…what if it somehow changes us further…makes us, like, more feral?”

“Maybe we should avoid it for now, but, it’s the only one I can see for a while, I get the feeling that we may have to drink from it again eventually.”

“Let’s set out then, find another spot.”

“Good idea!” Todd and James both start walking away from the watering hole they just drank from and begin heading in a straight line in one direction, hoping to eventually find another source of water. However, after hours and hours of walking, they find nothing. Just more empty savannah, dotted with random animals and shrubs. There seems to be no signs of water anywhere apart from where they came from.

“I don’t think we’re going to find any other water.”

“Yeah, there’s nothing out—” Todd looks and sees a lion running towards them in the distance. His eyes go wide, and he hardly gets the word out, “RUN!”, before breaking into a full sprint. James follows close behind. To the unknowing outsider, it looks like a cheetah and lion competing for a meal. However, they both get worn out and slow to a walk, as does the lion. It’s pretty clear the lion is pretty tired, but he’s not giving up. Todd turns around approaches the lion and gets low and starts growling, hoping to scare off the lion. He then remembers a tip that he read somewhere about making himself look big and tries that. He stands up, trying to make himself look as tall as he can and growls and hisses again. This display seems to scare off the lion as he slowly walks away. “Phew, another close call!

“Yeah, let’s get back now!” A few more hours of walking and they’ve made it back to the watering hole, very tired and thirsty. There are few animals around given it’s late at night. James and Todd walk up to the watering hole and stare at it, then look at each other. “It’s a risk, but one we’ll have to take. There’s nowhere else around to get water!”

“Yeah…you first!”

“Why me?” James shouts back, both looking and feeling upset.

“Because, well, if anything happens…I don’t know…you know what let’s just drink it at the same time.”

“Fine with me. Ready?”

“Ready.”

Todd and James sit next to each other and start lapping away at the water, and then look at each other to see if anything happens. Feeling no different, they go back to lapping away at the water like madmen, as if they haven’t had anything to drink in days. Which wouldn’t be too inaccurate seeing as how it took nearly two days from the time the left the watering hole in the first place to get back. They stop after feeling satisfied but otherwise no different. However, upon looking around they see a fence in the distance, and it looks pretty close, too! They walk up to it and see cars driving past and even see the trees that they drove past to get here in the distance.

“Look, we’re back in San Antionio!” James exclaims and practically jumps with excitement.

“Yeah, we’re home! Well, sort of…at least we’re back in Texas! Only question now is how to get out of here!” After wandering around the safari, they run into an employee and approach them, making sure no guests are around to hear or see them.

“Excuse me, but…we sort of used that watering hole and now we’re…like this.”

The employee looks them over and smiles, “Well, I apologize but unfortunately there’s really no way to fix this. You’re pretty much stuck like this! Not to worry though, part of the magic of the watering hole more or less erased your human lives so you don’t have to worry about leaving anything behind!”

“But…what about my family? And friends?”

“They don’t even remember you exist anymore!” The employee responds a little too cheerfully.

“I…damn. Okay, well, I suppose that’s that then.”

James and Todd then spend the next few days getting acquainted with the safari and even learn to have fun messing with tourists. Given how they’re the only sapient ones around, they often spend time at the watering hole scaring away anyone that goes to drink from it, preventing anyone else from suffering the same fate.