Simian Serendipity, Part 2
Chapter One:
“There is no doubt that the future is bright,” Emma Frost said in clear and confident voice, as she gestured to the stock chart to her right. “The progress and evolution of this company is assured. We are making positive changes all the time, and they are affecting us in surprising and wondrous ways.”
She cast her eyes around the room. The board members all nodded in solemn agreement. It seemed so easy, but it felt so good to win them over.
As the board members looked intently at the latest disclosure forms, Emma cast her eyes to the glass wall behind them. The board room was at the top of the building, so the glass back wall had a majestic and unobstructed view of the city skyline. A few clouds were moving in from the horizon, but the sky was blue and clear for now.
Emma shifted her focus and stared intently at her reflection in the glass. She was just as she ought to be, tall, thin and beautiful. She was the living reflection and embodiment of her hard work and perfectionist attitude. Her tight fitting, white leather outfit clung to her lithe physique. Her flawless skin and piercing eyes were the finishing touch, like a garnish on a dessert at a gourmet restaurant. She was completely content with what she saw and who she was.
As the clouds moved in, the light in the room became fainter, and she could see the reflection with less and less clarity. As the image of herself faded in the glass, she noticed it begin to change.
Emma rushed to the window, determined to get a better angle and see her reflection again. When she did, she experienced confirmation: she was no longer herself.
With utter horror, she watched the changes make their way across her reflection, unable to do anything to stop them. Emma’s face changed shape, her cheeks swelling and inflating comically, as her brows became more prominent and jutted out. Her lips became thicker, with her entire mouth swelling into a pouting muzzle. Her nostrils became much more prominent and her forehead sloped back slightly.
Her arms grew more muscular and much longer, eventually growing so long that her knuckles drug on the floor. She could feel her toes become longer and her feet becoming much more massive, and they burst out and destroyed her white leather boots. Her back and shoulders broadened. First, they expanded beyond their feminine proportions and took on a more much masculine look. Then, they grew beyond that size, giving her a primal stature. As her bones painfully shifted and grew, she could hear the leather in her top creak as it stretched to nearly the breaking point. Her breasts, low larger, were painfully mashed against her chest by garments that had never been designed to hold something so big.
Most humiliatingly, her pride and joy, her completely flat stomach, ballooned up with utter abandon. It became pudgy, looking like a definite muffin top, before becoming much bigger, as though she just consumed a massive dinner. After that, it advanced to pregnancy-like proportions, jutting out of her clothes. It was now a massive, slightly sagging, full fledged gut.
Her skin sprouted little fine, light brown hairs, covering her natural complexion in a forest of soft fur. She couldn’t even breathe right anymore, her breath came out in loud, wet snorts and grunts.
The board members apparently did not notice this. They were still huddling over the documents and pointing at the graphs, but she knew that she could not turn away from the glass without them seeing the change in her. The reflection, which continued to stare back at her tauntingly, was both protecting her and destroying her. She couldn’t bear to look at it anymore, yet when she turned away, everyone else would be able to see her.
Only her long, flowing blonde hair and her piercing blue eyes remained the same. Everything else was partly or completely animalistic, and her clothes were tattered and in ruins.
Emma roared with fury, and smashed the window pain with her fist. A cold blast of wind immediately penetrated the room, causing the papers of the board members to fly everywhere. Commotion reigned for a few moments, and then they saw what Emma had done.
When they saw the gorilla-woman wearing the remains of Emma’s clothes, the board members screamed and fled the room. Emma whimpered, begging them to come back, trying to explain what had happened, even though she had no explanation to offer. She wanted to speak, but no words would come. She tried to control things with her mind alone, but she felt that her mental faculties were frayed and would not respond to her.
A cursory glance around the room revealed a breakfast basket, which contained fresh fruit and some scones that the board members had not eaten. Consumed with her basic instincts, Emma galloped towards it, practically drooling. She shoved the pasties down her gullet, as little crumbs fell and landed in her fur. She chomped into an orange, and juice ran down her furry cheeks. When she found a banana at the bottom of the basket, she practically hooted with joy, though she felt a deep sense of shame in how much she delighted in eating it.
When the last of the food was gone, Emma found herself alone in a room of broken glass and out of place papers flying about in the wind. It looked like a hurricane had hit, yet she knew the only force of nature to devastate the room had been her.
With frustration, she punched the stock graph, and it fell to the floor upside down. Viewed by that direction, the trend had reversed itself: it was now a steep, downward slope.
Chapter Two:
The room faded from light to dark, and Emma found herself in her bed, breathing hard. Another night, she thought, another nightmare. The same one every time.
She pulled herself out of bed and turned on a light. Sure enough, there was her ape-like body staring back at her in the mirror. That part wasn’t a dream, though not a day went without her wishing it had been.
Life had become increasingly difficult for Emma since the unexpected and unexplained transformation nearly a year ago. As she returned to her bed and tried to sleep, her mind played through all of her new challenges. Getting clothes that fit her non-human body was difficult, and they frequently tore. In addition, no matter how they were cut, they could not flatter her figure, or even conceal it. Her thin, feminine body was gone, and everyone could see her rippling arms, her impossibly broad back, and her huge gut. It stuck out of every clothing she owned, and if she walked on all fours with a very low posture, it even scraped against the ground just slightly.
Managing executives was getting more difficult, as nobody trusted her anymore. Not that she even trusted herself – getting her animal nature under control was a challenge as well. All of her base instincts, from eating to sex to going to the bathroom, had changed. She was no longer in complete control, and had to be very careful not to allow the ape within to take charge, or disaster could strike at any moment. Worse still, no matter how hard she tried, she never felt completely satisfied. No matter how much food she stuffed into her spherical tummy, she felt quite felt full. No matter how much she denied herself sex, she never stopped thinking about it. And no matter how much she tried otherwise, she couldn’t escape the fact that she felt more comfortable living in nature than living in the world of abrasive clothing and lines to enter the restroom.
Mikel, whom she had been dating for a few months, had warned her she was pushing herself too hard. “Take some time off,” he kept insisting. She couldn’t leave, though, for she had the unshakable suspicion that something terrible was about to happen to her company.
~
When Emma had arrived at work the next day, she sensed immediately that something was wrong. Other executives were refusing to meet her eye directly, and her mind could faintly detect that some kind of tragedy was unfolding. As she scanned the corridors of power for familiar faces, she noticed a disproportionate amount of absent faces.
For some reason, her mind kept returning to her dream. It was a common dream, but it didn’t usually make itself felt so prominently during the day. Suddenly, the significance hit her. Something terrible was going to happen in the boardroom.
Emma tried to walk with poise, and on two feet, to the executive elevator, but she found her swipe card did not activate it. She felt a surge of rage, knowing that someone was intentionally trying to keep her out of a meeting in her own company’s boardroom. She felt a strong temptation to smash the control panel and force the doors open, but resisted. Such as spectacle would not help her make a case to anyone.
Instead, Emma headed for the fire escape stairs, determined to get to the top floor without arousing suspicion. She galloped on all fours up twenty flights of stairs, all the while pondering what might be happening in the top room without her. A hostile takeover, no doubt. Emma owned 40% of the company personally, which meant if someone else could buy up 85% of the stock she didn’t own, they’d have a majority stake in the company, and thus control it completely. And have the power to get rid of her.
When news of her transformation had first made the rounds, it naturally caused the stock to tumble. And though she had been trying her best to rebuild her life, she had to admit that she hadn’t been quite as focused as she had been before all this had happened to her. She had so much on her plate now that she couldn’t think about business the way she used to.
Some of the stockholders had abandoned her the moment she had changed, demanding that she step down. Others had faded away slowly, deciding that she ought to go only after it became clear that there wasn’t going to be an easy fix to her solution. But she always thought that there was a solid chunk of die hard supporters. Certainly not less than 16% of them, which is what she needed to keep her company. But, she reminded herself, it wasn’t about keeping 16% of stakeholders on her side. It was about keeping 16% of outstanding stock shares on her side. Those opposing her might have bought up more shares, and with them, more influence.
When she reached the top of the stairs, Emma was frantically trying to count up how much cash she could leverage and combine with her liquid assets to buy more stock. She pushed the door to the board room open, and tried to walk in with as much poise and humanity as she could muster.
The room was just like it had been in her dream. The board members were intently studying reports, uneaten food sat in the middle of the table, and towards the front a large stock chart was being presented. Aside from the fact that she wasn’t speaking, the only difference between this and her dream that she could notice was that the stock chart showed the company’s decline, not its growth.
When at last the members noticed her, they looked at her in surprise and fear. Perhaps they worried she’d fly into a rage and tear them limb from limb. As the thought crossed her mind, it sounded very appealing. Emma tried her best to suppress it.
She did let out a fearsome roar, and the members turned white as a sheet. Resisting the urge to start fighting them, or to start tearing into the breakfast basket, she stood on two legs and tried her best to speak in a human voice.
“If you have lost faith, speak with me,” she said at last in a slow, halting voice. “Do not do things this way.”
When it became apparent that the speech was over, one of the men shouted “Alright then, let’s have a vote.” Murmurs of agreement came from all corners of the room.
“So be it,” Emma said at last. She nervously twiddled her massive thumbs and absentmindedly picked her ape-like nose with her pinky finger as calculators tallied the results of the each stakeholder’s vote. At last, one voice rang out.
“Eighty-two percent of our stake against Miss Frost, eighteen percent in favor,” he said at last. She had retained her control, but just barely.
“Thank you,” Emma replied. “I will take your concerns…under consideration,” she said finally.
~
When she arrived at home, she let Mikel know what had happened at the office. She also let him know that she had decided to take a voluntary leave of absence as CEO.
“That’s great,” Mikel said, as he patted her arm. “I’m so glad you decided some time off was good for you.”
“There’s more,” she said after a long hesitation, and pointed at a map of a private tropical island she owned.
“We’re going there? Sounds like fun! A tropical vacation!” Mikel said excitedly.
“No, not we. Me,” Emma said. Mikel’s face suddenly filled with sorrow.
“You’re breaking up with me?” he asked, his voice breaking. Their relationship hadn’t always been easy. Despite how much he card about her, it was always hard for Emma to allow herself to get close to him, especially physically. They slept in separate rooms, as Emma never wished to role over and crush him, and she was aware that her ape muzzle gave her a fiercely loud snore.
“No break up, but need time alone,” Emma said at last. Her speech was deteriorating, which was not unusual during emotional times for her.
“Well, do what you have to do,” Mikel said. “I understand your needs,” he added, a tear making its way down his cheek.
“Thank you,” she said, and as gently as she could, she stroked his cheek with her passive hand.
Chapter Three:
The island was tropical, isolated, and almost completely undeveloped. She had to take a plane to a nearby island, and then a boat to arrive here. Aside from the small house near the shore, it was nothing but a jungle. It was perfectly suited to her needs.
For the first several days, Emma lounged around the small home, occasionally taking walks on the beach during the sunset. When she was hungry, she’d find a coconut tree. It was particularly satisfying cracking a coconut against a large rock and then slurping down the coconut milk. A little always splashed down her mouth and got into her fur, but the ocean was only a few paces away.
In truth, Emma wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to go to the island. She had felt an overwhelming urge to go before she left, but didn’t know the reason. At first she assumed that it was just the change of pace and time to relax. The first day or two, this explanation sufficed, as she felt very relaxed and at peace in her seaside cottage.
There were no responsibilities on the island. Nobody regimented her day and nobody asked her for anything. But without regular human contact, maintaining the motivation to act human became increasingly more difficult.
As the days wore on, she began to feel more and more agitated when she returned to her house after sunset. The cottage, which at first had seemed cozy, now felt like a prison. The sterile walls felt confining, and the made for human furniture frequently broke when she tried to make use of it. Her bedroom seemed so artificial and small – how could she ever hope for a good sleep there?
During her third night, she awoke in a cold sweat, and knew she couldn’t sleep there anymore. Even though she was alone on in the house and on the island, she still felt sneaky somehow as she crept out of the cottage in the middle of the night. Thinking that she might not return for some time, she cast her gaze back just as she was about to leave, thinking about what supplies she might take. Nothing specific came to her mind. Everything she could think of that she would want all could be found or made in the untamed jungle.
For a brief moment, Emma wanted to stay in the cottage, or even to get on her boat, go to the next island over, and take her private jet back home. She didn’t want to simply become an animal in the wild. But she had already opened the door, and she could smell the night air, which tingled her nostrils with exciting possibilities. The noise was enticing as well, with the chirping of insects and the hooting of various creatures now sounding as soothing to her as music once did, back when she was still fully human. The canopy cover of the tall trees seemed as safe to her now as the four poster bed did when she was five years old. She looked into the jungle abyss, and she saw her true home waiting for her.
After several moments of hesitation, the siren song of the wild proved too much, and she slipped into the darkness. Emma didn’t even bother closing the door behind her.
~
When Emma awoke, she found she was lying on a make shift pile of leaves in the middle of the tropical forest. She absentmindedly scratched herself, trying to remember what had happened the previous night. Her memory, though, was quite hazy. All she seemed to know was that she was a gorilla and she was where she belonged, in the jungle. Here, there was nobody to judge her, nobody to scream in horror at her appearance. Nobody remembered who she used to be, or who she was still supposed to be on the inside. In this forest, Emma was no longer bound by the archaic rules of courtesy that tied humans to things like clothing and mealtime. She was simply another animal, and that seemed fitting.
Her analytic mind, which had to manage her company as well as her humanity, could finally take a rest. There was nothing to think about. Everything she needed to do, she could do on instinct alone.
Emma hated the idea of losing, and especially of losing a struggle.
“I’m not losing,” she thought to herself. “I’m voluntarily giving it up. I’m recognizing and making peace with the inventible,” she said, trying to rationalize her diminishing humanity.
Emma spent the rest of the morning roaming around the unexplored wilderness, pausing only when she saw something that enticed her to nibble on it. After a long time wandering, she spied a grove of wild bananas.
Wild bananas are distinctly different than the domesticated variety. The fruit is smaller, the peel is harder, and it is full of crunchy seeds. Both varieties, though, tasted great to Emma, though she tried to avoid them when she could. She had enough problems without allowing her already massive waistline to expand, so she tried to regiment her meals and count calories whenever she could.
Since transforming, she had a lot less willpower in terms of portion control. To combat that, she tried to only allow herself foods she disliked. If a food was too tasty, she’d eat too much of it, and add too many calories to her diet. Bananas were her favorite food, and thus, they were largely forbidden to her.
Now, though, she felt like letting caution go to the wind. There were a few vestiges of willpower left fighting, but as soon as a warm breeze blew the scent of the grove into her large, eager nostrils, she gave in. She peeled as many as she could find, and greedily stuffed them down her gullet. Her cheeks bulged with the wild fruit, and she chewed noisily. After a while, a pile of banana peels piled up behind her, and her gut was sticking out even farther than usual.
Emma thought about once it all digested, those calories would make their way around her body, especially if she made all this gorging into a regular habit. Her already puffy cheeks would get rounder and puffier. Her gut would hang lower and sway more as she walked. Her furry butt would get rounder and squishier, and her thick muscular arms and legs would get coated with a layer of blubber. Eventually, she’d become nothing more than a fat, furry blob of goo, snorting and grunting and stuffing her face. She shuddered at the thought, but loved the pleasing sensation of being full. Stretching out her stomach with as much tasty food as she wanted gave her a warm, happy glow, and she felt content to simply lay in the shade and relax, hands folded over her impossibly large belly. The skin under her fur felt taught, but her tummy itself was still soft and warm to the touch. She absentmindedly gave her fat a few healthy squeezes before she drifted off into a sated slumber.
After her leisurely nap was concluded, she rose and headed further into the jungle. Emma was glad when she reached a small lake deeper in the island, as it gave her an excuse to remove her clothes.
The first time she had changed, she had practically destroyed her garments, and it was heartbreaking to tear of the shreds that remained. Now, her clothes were tailor made to her new body and fit well enough, but she was itching to take them off. They reminded her of something that a part of her longed to forget.
She removed the large facsimile of her old uniform and merely tossed it on the ground. Without giving the clothes a second thought, she skillfully climbed the branches of a tall tree right on the edge of the lake. When she was as high as she could go, she launched herself into the air in a massive jump. She landed in the water with a large, cannon ball splash.
The warm water was refreshing, and in the weightlessness of the lake she could almost forget everything. She closed her eyes, and hoped she wouldn’t remember anything that would cause her pain later. The last traces of humanity seemed to be fading away in her mind, but she did nothing to stop it. Perhaps one day, she thought to herself, she would not only forget how to be human, but forget that she had ever been one.
Emma could feel something slithering around her ankle. She dismissed it as just a fish at first, but then she felt it moving up her leg in a coiling fashion. Still, she refused to let it bother her. It might be a snake, but this was just nature’s way of saying hello.
She closed her eyes, and as the warm, scaly snake continued to coil its way up, she had to admit that it felt somewhat pleasant. The warm, tight embrace of nature itself, giving her the kind of physical contact she had to deny herself for nearly a year. She grimly realized that this was the first real hug she had allowed herself in all that time. The snake, which was bigger than she had expected, was now squeezing against her big tummy and was starting to hug her large breasts.
The embrace of the creature subtly shifted from a tight embrace to a constricting grip. Emma knew that the snake was eager to crush the fight out of her, to swallow her whole and then consume her completely. As the felt the flick of the snake’s forked tongue on her areole, she quickly moved her massive hands to the snake’s neck and gripped tightly. With one swift motion, she jerked it back and snapped its neck.
Immediately, the iron clad grip loosened, and the snake started to float away from her. Even though she was aware that she had just saved her life, she felt a sense of shame over destroying a part of nature so casually. She was shaking by the same she pulled herself out of the water, party from the cold, and partly from the memory of what she had done.
She froze when she heard a rustling sound coming from the distance. Emma momentarily forgot that this was her own island, and wondered if poachers were after her. With only her hair to prove who she was, would they listen? Or would she be shot dead like the wild animal she was rapidly becoming? What an inglorious end to a woman who had so recently been a super hero and a chief executive officer, Emma thought to herself.
The shuffling grew louder, and she knew that whoever was hunting her was getting closer. She tensed up her muscles, the only way she knew how to protect herself anymore, and prepared to roar and fight whoever approached. If she did die, she wanted to die on her feet, ready to fight. She couldn’t bear the thought of dying like a coward, not when she had lived her life trying to be a hero.
Emma started to see her life flash before her eyes as fear pounded in her chest. Watching the part where she had become an ape was particularly painful, as were the instant replays of the nightmares in which she transformed over and over again. Seeing herself almost lose her company was painful, too, even though it had just happened. Finally, she arrived at this moment, and she saw someone start to emerge from the shrubs.
As the leaves parted and she bared her teeth, Emma saw not a hunter, but Mikel. For a moment, he was stunned by her fearsome pose and lack of clothing. She struggled to speak and reassure him that all was well.
“Mi..kel…” she said, with great difficulty. He had come all this way for her, even when she had advised against it. He had braved the wrath of a beast to save the woman he cared about – her. It was so touching that a tear started to make its way down her furry cheek.
Mikel stopped, and smiled weakly as she bounded towards him. She held him close in her large, furry arms, and after a long period of silence, whispered to him to take her home.
Epilogue:
Back in her mansion at home, Emma lay back in her hot tub, completely relaxed. Mikel was behind her, massaging her colossal shoulders and shampooing her fur. She closed her eyes with content, and allowed his skillful, loving fingers to dance across her large frame.
No words needed to be spoken. The mental connection, and the connection from the heart, trumped everything else.
Emma didn’t know what the future would or could hold, but at least she knew who she wanted in it.
“There is no doubt that the future is bright,” Emma Frost said in clear and confident voice, as she gestured to the stock chart to her right. “The progress and evolution of this company is assured. We are making positive changes all the time, and they are affecting us in surprising and wondrous ways.”
She cast her eyes around the room. The board members all nodded in solemn agreement. It seemed so easy, but it felt so good to win them over.
As the board members looked intently at the latest disclosure forms, Emma cast her eyes to the glass wall behind them. The board room was at the top of the building, so the glass back wall had a majestic and unobstructed view of the city skyline. A few clouds were moving in from the horizon, but the sky was blue and clear for now.
Emma shifted her focus and stared intently at her reflection in the glass. She was just as she ought to be, tall, thin and beautiful. She was the living reflection and embodiment of her hard work and perfectionist attitude. Her tight fitting, white leather outfit clung to her lithe physique. Her flawless skin and piercing eyes were the finishing touch, like a garnish on a dessert at a gourmet restaurant. She was completely content with what she saw and who she was.
As the clouds moved in, the light in the room became fainter, and she could see the reflection with less and less clarity. As the image of herself faded in the glass, she noticed it begin to change.
Emma rushed to the window, determined to get a better angle and see her reflection again. When she did, she experienced confirmation: she was no longer herself.
With utter horror, she watched the changes make their way across her reflection, unable to do anything to stop them. Emma’s face changed shape, her cheeks swelling and inflating comically, as her brows became more prominent and jutted out. Her lips became thicker, with her entire mouth swelling into a pouting muzzle. Her nostrils became much more prominent and her forehead sloped back slightly.
Her arms grew more muscular and much longer, eventually growing so long that her knuckles drug on the floor. She could feel her toes become longer and her feet becoming much more massive, and they burst out and destroyed her white leather boots. Her back and shoulders broadened. First, they expanded beyond their feminine proportions and took on a more much masculine look. Then, they grew beyond that size, giving her a primal stature. As her bones painfully shifted and grew, she could hear the leather in her top creak as it stretched to nearly the breaking point. Her breasts, low larger, were painfully mashed against her chest by garments that had never been designed to hold something so big.
Most humiliatingly, her pride and joy, her completely flat stomach, ballooned up with utter abandon. It became pudgy, looking like a definite muffin top, before becoming much bigger, as though she just consumed a massive dinner. After that, it advanced to pregnancy-like proportions, jutting out of her clothes. It was now a massive, slightly sagging, full fledged gut.
Her skin sprouted little fine, light brown hairs, covering her natural complexion in a forest of soft fur. She couldn’t even breathe right anymore, her breath came out in loud, wet snorts and grunts.
The board members apparently did not notice this. They were still huddling over the documents and pointing at the graphs, but she knew that she could not turn away from the glass without them seeing the change in her. The reflection, which continued to stare back at her tauntingly, was both protecting her and destroying her. She couldn’t bear to look at it anymore, yet when she turned away, everyone else would be able to see her.
Only her long, flowing blonde hair and her piercing blue eyes remained the same. Everything else was partly or completely animalistic, and her clothes were tattered and in ruins.
Emma roared with fury, and smashed the window pain with her fist. A cold blast of wind immediately penetrated the room, causing the papers of the board members to fly everywhere. Commotion reigned for a few moments, and then they saw what Emma had done.
When they saw the gorilla-woman wearing the remains of Emma’s clothes, the board members screamed and fled the room. Emma whimpered, begging them to come back, trying to explain what had happened, even though she had no explanation to offer. She wanted to speak, but no words would come. She tried to control things with her mind alone, but she felt that her mental faculties were frayed and would not respond to her.
A cursory glance around the room revealed a breakfast basket, which contained fresh fruit and some scones that the board members had not eaten. Consumed with her basic instincts, Emma galloped towards it, practically drooling. She shoved the pasties down her gullet, as little crumbs fell and landed in her fur. She chomped into an orange, and juice ran down her furry cheeks. When she found a banana at the bottom of the basket, she practically hooted with joy, though she felt a deep sense of shame in how much she delighted in eating it.
When the last of the food was gone, Emma found herself alone in a room of broken glass and out of place papers flying about in the wind. It looked like a hurricane had hit, yet she knew the only force of nature to devastate the room had been her.
With frustration, she punched the stock graph, and it fell to the floor upside down. Viewed by that direction, the trend had reversed itself: it was now a steep, downward slope.
Chapter Two:
The room faded from light to dark, and Emma found herself in her bed, breathing hard. Another night, she thought, another nightmare. The same one every time.
She pulled herself out of bed and turned on a light. Sure enough, there was her ape-like body staring back at her in the mirror. That part wasn’t a dream, though not a day went without her wishing it had been.
Life had become increasingly difficult for Emma since the unexpected and unexplained transformation nearly a year ago. As she returned to her bed and tried to sleep, her mind played through all of her new challenges. Getting clothes that fit her non-human body was difficult, and they frequently tore. In addition, no matter how they were cut, they could not flatter her figure, or even conceal it. Her thin, feminine body was gone, and everyone could see her rippling arms, her impossibly broad back, and her huge gut. It stuck out of every clothing she owned, and if she walked on all fours with a very low posture, it even scraped against the ground just slightly.
Managing executives was getting more difficult, as nobody trusted her anymore. Not that she even trusted herself – getting her animal nature under control was a challenge as well. All of her base instincts, from eating to sex to going to the bathroom, had changed. She was no longer in complete control, and had to be very careful not to allow the ape within to take charge, or disaster could strike at any moment. Worse still, no matter how hard she tried, she never felt completely satisfied. No matter how much food she stuffed into her spherical tummy, she felt quite felt full. No matter how much she denied herself sex, she never stopped thinking about it. And no matter how much she tried otherwise, she couldn’t escape the fact that she felt more comfortable living in nature than living in the world of abrasive clothing and lines to enter the restroom.
Mikel, whom she had been dating for a few months, had warned her she was pushing herself too hard. “Take some time off,” he kept insisting. She couldn’t leave, though, for she had the unshakable suspicion that something terrible was about to happen to her company.
~
When Emma had arrived at work the next day, she sensed immediately that something was wrong. Other executives were refusing to meet her eye directly, and her mind could faintly detect that some kind of tragedy was unfolding. As she scanned the corridors of power for familiar faces, she noticed a disproportionate amount of absent faces.
For some reason, her mind kept returning to her dream. It was a common dream, but it didn’t usually make itself felt so prominently during the day. Suddenly, the significance hit her. Something terrible was going to happen in the boardroom.
Emma tried to walk with poise, and on two feet, to the executive elevator, but she found her swipe card did not activate it. She felt a surge of rage, knowing that someone was intentionally trying to keep her out of a meeting in her own company’s boardroom. She felt a strong temptation to smash the control panel and force the doors open, but resisted. Such as spectacle would not help her make a case to anyone.
Instead, Emma headed for the fire escape stairs, determined to get to the top floor without arousing suspicion. She galloped on all fours up twenty flights of stairs, all the while pondering what might be happening in the top room without her. A hostile takeover, no doubt. Emma owned 40% of the company personally, which meant if someone else could buy up 85% of the stock she didn’t own, they’d have a majority stake in the company, and thus control it completely. And have the power to get rid of her.
When news of her transformation had first made the rounds, it naturally caused the stock to tumble. And though she had been trying her best to rebuild her life, she had to admit that she hadn’t been quite as focused as she had been before all this had happened to her. She had so much on her plate now that she couldn’t think about business the way she used to.
Some of the stockholders had abandoned her the moment she had changed, demanding that she step down. Others had faded away slowly, deciding that she ought to go only after it became clear that there wasn’t going to be an easy fix to her solution. But she always thought that there was a solid chunk of die hard supporters. Certainly not less than 16% of them, which is what she needed to keep her company. But, she reminded herself, it wasn’t about keeping 16% of stakeholders on her side. It was about keeping 16% of outstanding stock shares on her side. Those opposing her might have bought up more shares, and with them, more influence.
When she reached the top of the stairs, Emma was frantically trying to count up how much cash she could leverage and combine with her liquid assets to buy more stock. She pushed the door to the board room open, and tried to walk in with as much poise and humanity as she could muster.
The room was just like it had been in her dream. The board members were intently studying reports, uneaten food sat in the middle of the table, and towards the front a large stock chart was being presented. Aside from the fact that she wasn’t speaking, the only difference between this and her dream that she could notice was that the stock chart showed the company’s decline, not its growth.
When at last the members noticed her, they looked at her in surprise and fear. Perhaps they worried she’d fly into a rage and tear them limb from limb. As the thought crossed her mind, it sounded very appealing. Emma tried her best to suppress it.
She did let out a fearsome roar, and the members turned white as a sheet. Resisting the urge to start fighting them, or to start tearing into the breakfast basket, she stood on two legs and tried her best to speak in a human voice.
“If you have lost faith, speak with me,” she said at last in a slow, halting voice. “Do not do things this way.”
When it became apparent that the speech was over, one of the men shouted “Alright then, let’s have a vote.” Murmurs of agreement came from all corners of the room.
“So be it,” Emma said at last. She nervously twiddled her massive thumbs and absentmindedly picked her ape-like nose with her pinky finger as calculators tallied the results of the each stakeholder’s vote. At last, one voice rang out.
“Eighty-two percent of our stake against Miss Frost, eighteen percent in favor,” he said at last. She had retained her control, but just barely.
“Thank you,” Emma replied. “I will take your concerns…under consideration,” she said finally.
~
When she arrived at home, she let Mikel know what had happened at the office. She also let him know that she had decided to take a voluntary leave of absence as CEO.
“That’s great,” Mikel said, as he patted her arm. “I’m so glad you decided some time off was good for you.”
“There’s more,” she said after a long hesitation, and pointed at a map of a private tropical island she owned.
“We’re going there? Sounds like fun! A tropical vacation!” Mikel said excitedly.
“No, not we. Me,” Emma said. Mikel’s face suddenly filled with sorrow.
“You’re breaking up with me?” he asked, his voice breaking. Their relationship hadn’t always been easy. Despite how much he card about her, it was always hard for Emma to allow herself to get close to him, especially physically. They slept in separate rooms, as Emma never wished to role over and crush him, and she was aware that her ape muzzle gave her a fiercely loud snore.
“No break up, but need time alone,” Emma said at last. Her speech was deteriorating, which was not unusual during emotional times for her.
“Well, do what you have to do,” Mikel said. “I understand your needs,” he added, a tear making its way down his cheek.
“Thank you,” she said, and as gently as she could, she stroked his cheek with her passive hand.
Chapter Three:
The island was tropical, isolated, and almost completely undeveloped. She had to take a plane to a nearby island, and then a boat to arrive here. Aside from the small house near the shore, it was nothing but a jungle. It was perfectly suited to her needs.
For the first several days, Emma lounged around the small home, occasionally taking walks on the beach during the sunset. When she was hungry, she’d find a coconut tree. It was particularly satisfying cracking a coconut against a large rock and then slurping down the coconut milk. A little always splashed down her mouth and got into her fur, but the ocean was only a few paces away.
In truth, Emma wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to go to the island. She had felt an overwhelming urge to go before she left, but didn’t know the reason. At first she assumed that it was just the change of pace and time to relax. The first day or two, this explanation sufficed, as she felt very relaxed and at peace in her seaside cottage.
There were no responsibilities on the island. Nobody regimented her day and nobody asked her for anything. But without regular human contact, maintaining the motivation to act human became increasingly more difficult.
As the days wore on, she began to feel more and more agitated when she returned to her house after sunset. The cottage, which at first had seemed cozy, now felt like a prison. The sterile walls felt confining, and the made for human furniture frequently broke when she tried to make use of it. Her bedroom seemed so artificial and small – how could she ever hope for a good sleep there?
During her third night, she awoke in a cold sweat, and knew she couldn’t sleep there anymore. Even though she was alone on in the house and on the island, she still felt sneaky somehow as she crept out of the cottage in the middle of the night. Thinking that she might not return for some time, she cast her gaze back just as she was about to leave, thinking about what supplies she might take. Nothing specific came to her mind. Everything she could think of that she would want all could be found or made in the untamed jungle.
For a brief moment, Emma wanted to stay in the cottage, or even to get on her boat, go to the next island over, and take her private jet back home. She didn’t want to simply become an animal in the wild. But she had already opened the door, and she could smell the night air, which tingled her nostrils with exciting possibilities. The noise was enticing as well, with the chirping of insects and the hooting of various creatures now sounding as soothing to her as music once did, back when she was still fully human. The canopy cover of the tall trees seemed as safe to her now as the four poster bed did when she was five years old. She looked into the jungle abyss, and she saw her true home waiting for her.
After several moments of hesitation, the siren song of the wild proved too much, and she slipped into the darkness. Emma didn’t even bother closing the door behind her.
~
When Emma awoke, she found she was lying on a make shift pile of leaves in the middle of the tropical forest. She absentmindedly scratched herself, trying to remember what had happened the previous night. Her memory, though, was quite hazy. All she seemed to know was that she was a gorilla and she was where she belonged, in the jungle. Here, there was nobody to judge her, nobody to scream in horror at her appearance. Nobody remembered who she used to be, or who she was still supposed to be on the inside. In this forest, Emma was no longer bound by the archaic rules of courtesy that tied humans to things like clothing and mealtime. She was simply another animal, and that seemed fitting.
Her analytic mind, which had to manage her company as well as her humanity, could finally take a rest. There was nothing to think about. Everything she needed to do, she could do on instinct alone.
Emma hated the idea of losing, and especially of losing a struggle.
“I’m not losing,” she thought to herself. “I’m voluntarily giving it up. I’m recognizing and making peace with the inventible,” she said, trying to rationalize her diminishing humanity.
Emma spent the rest of the morning roaming around the unexplored wilderness, pausing only when she saw something that enticed her to nibble on it. After a long time wandering, she spied a grove of wild bananas.
Wild bananas are distinctly different than the domesticated variety. The fruit is smaller, the peel is harder, and it is full of crunchy seeds. Both varieties, though, tasted great to Emma, though she tried to avoid them when she could. She had enough problems without allowing her already massive waistline to expand, so she tried to regiment her meals and count calories whenever she could.
Since transforming, she had a lot less willpower in terms of portion control. To combat that, she tried to only allow herself foods she disliked. If a food was too tasty, she’d eat too much of it, and add too many calories to her diet. Bananas were her favorite food, and thus, they were largely forbidden to her.
Now, though, she felt like letting caution go to the wind. There were a few vestiges of willpower left fighting, but as soon as a warm breeze blew the scent of the grove into her large, eager nostrils, she gave in. She peeled as many as she could find, and greedily stuffed them down her gullet. Her cheeks bulged with the wild fruit, and she chewed noisily. After a while, a pile of banana peels piled up behind her, and her gut was sticking out even farther than usual.
Emma thought about once it all digested, those calories would make their way around her body, especially if she made all this gorging into a regular habit. Her already puffy cheeks would get rounder and puffier. Her gut would hang lower and sway more as she walked. Her furry butt would get rounder and squishier, and her thick muscular arms and legs would get coated with a layer of blubber. Eventually, she’d become nothing more than a fat, furry blob of goo, snorting and grunting and stuffing her face. She shuddered at the thought, but loved the pleasing sensation of being full. Stretching out her stomach with as much tasty food as she wanted gave her a warm, happy glow, and she felt content to simply lay in the shade and relax, hands folded over her impossibly large belly. The skin under her fur felt taught, but her tummy itself was still soft and warm to the touch. She absentmindedly gave her fat a few healthy squeezes before she drifted off into a sated slumber.
After her leisurely nap was concluded, she rose and headed further into the jungle. Emma was glad when she reached a small lake deeper in the island, as it gave her an excuse to remove her clothes.
The first time she had changed, she had practically destroyed her garments, and it was heartbreaking to tear of the shreds that remained. Now, her clothes were tailor made to her new body and fit well enough, but she was itching to take them off. They reminded her of something that a part of her longed to forget.
She removed the large facsimile of her old uniform and merely tossed it on the ground. Without giving the clothes a second thought, she skillfully climbed the branches of a tall tree right on the edge of the lake. When she was as high as she could go, she launched herself into the air in a massive jump. She landed in the water with a large, cannon ball splash.
The warm water was refreshing, and in the weightlessness of the lake she could almost forget everything. She closed her eyes, and hoped she wouldn’t remember anything that would cause her pain later. The last traces of humanity seemed to be fading away in her mind, but she did nothing to stop it. Perhaps one day, she thought to herself, she would not only forget how to be human, but forget that she had ever been one.
Emma could feel something slithering around her ankle. She dismissed it as just a fish at first, but then she felt it moving up her leg in a coiling fashion. Still, she refused to let it bother her. It might be a snake, but this was just nature’s way of saying hello.
She closed her eyes, and as the warm, scaly snake continued to coil its way up, she had to admit that it felt somewhat pleasant. The warm, tight embrace of nature itself, giving her the kind of physical contact she had to deny herself for nearly a year. She grimly realized that this was the first real hug she had allowed herself in all that time. The snake, which was bigger than she had expected, was now squeezing against her big tummy and was starting to hug her large breasts.
The embrace of the creature subtly shifted from a tight embrace to a constricting grip. Emma knew that the snake was eager to crush the fight out of her, to swallow her whole and then consume her completely. As the felt the flick of the snake’s forked tongue on her areole, she quickly moved her massive hands to the snake’s neck and gripped tightly. With one swift motion, she jerked it back and snapped its neck.
Immediately, the iron clad grip loosened, and the snake started to float away from her. Even though she was aware that she had just saved her life, she felt a sense of shame over destroying a part of nature so casually. She was shaking by the same she pulled herself out of the water, party from the cold, and partly from the memory of what she had done.
She froze when she heard a rustling sound coming from the distance. Emma momentarily forgot that this was her own island, and wondered if poachers were after her. With only her hair to prove who she was, would they listen? Or would she be shot dead like the wild animal she was rapidly becoming? What an inglorious end to a woman who had so recently been a super hero and a chief executive officer, Emma thought to herself.
The shuffling grew louder, and she knew that whoever was hunting her was getting closer. She tensed up her muscles, the only way she knew how to protect herself anymore, and prepared to roar and fight whoever approached. If she did die, she wanted to die on her feet, ready to fight. She couldn’t bear the thought of dying like a coward, not when she had lived her life trying to be a hero.
Emma started to see her life flash before her eyes as fear pounded in her chest. Watching the part where she had become an ape was particularly painful, as were the instant replays of the nightmares in which she transformed over and over again. Seeing herself almost lose her company was painful, too, even though it had just happened. Finally, she arrived at this moment, and she saw someone start to emerge from the shrubs.
As the leaves parted and she bared her teeth, Emma saw not a hunter, but Mikel. For a moment, he was stunned by her fearsome pose and lack of clothing. She struggled to speak and reassure him that all was well.
“Mi..kel…” she said, with great difficulty. He had come all this way for her, even when she had advised against it. He had braved the wrath of a beast to save the woman he cared about – her. It was so touching that a tear started to make its way down her furry cheek.
Mikel stopped, and smiled weakly as she bounded towards him. She held him close in her large, furry arms, and after a long period of silence, whispered to him to take her home.
Epilogue:
Back in her mansion at home, Emma lay back in her hot tub, completely relaxed. Mikel was behind her, massaging her colossal shoulders and shampooing her fur. She closed her eyes with content, and allowed his skillful, loving fingers to dance across her large frame.
No words needed to be spoken. The mental connection, and the connection from the heart, trumped everything else.
Emma didn’t know what the future would or could hold, but at least she knew who she wanted in it.
