Taking Life by the Horns (Ram TFTG)

Story by Gabriel Moon on SoFurry

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A woman in the midst of a global pandemic worries that she might be next to join in an animalistic life


Julie finally closed the curtain, having her fill with the horrors for one day. It was her only source of news these days, and part of her needed to see if she recognized anyone writhing or fucking on the streets. Gazing through their windows as they gazed back was the only way to know if anyone in her building was infected. She also tried to recognize faces in the pained expressions of warping flesh of the unfortunate souls in the throes of transformation.

This morning, she was greeted to the sight of a young woman, on all fours with a pack of dogs taking turns at her upturned vagina, while her face painfully stretched into a muzzle. It was too much for Julie to take. She wanted desperately to help but knew there was currently no going back once the infection had set in.

Would that be her out there someday? Julie had taken all the precautions. But even if she had been exposed over a month ago, there was still that chance that she might one day wake up to the telltale signs. Then, it would only be a matter of time before her humanity was robbed from her. All she could do was wait and see.

Besides, the chill wafting in from the poorly insulated windows was making it uncomfortable to stand there for too long. Julie shivered, unable to turn on the heat since the service was cut off last week, likely the result of further quarantine measures. So she resigned herself to using a blanket for warmth, spending most of her waking hours cuddled on the couch, trying her best not to go insane. Many integral services were taken away in the past few weeks. At least she still had power and water, but who knew how long those would last?

All of the TV channels were static now and had been for the past couple of days. Julie watched the occasional emergency broadcast signal, even though it repeated the same message. Stay in your homes, provisions would be provided for those in need, keep calm until a cure could be concocted. The usual bullshit.

The streets were bare, save for those succumbing to the sudden pandemic that had swept the globe. No one was certain how it had originated. Several terrorist groups were suspected for the creation of the artificial RNA virus, but none had come forward, likely the first victims of its dispersal. The first cases were reported in the US, but soon after the initial outbreak, cases were discovered worldwide, leaving over 7.6 billion people afraid for their lives and humanity.

The virus was rather insidious, spread from person to person via direct exposure, or from non-human vectors. It was estimated that the virus could survive on most surfaces for upwards of weeks! The virus was highly adaptive, easily able to disguise itself to fool a host's defenses. Once inside a host, the virus, via reverse transcription, worked its way into a healthy cell to incorporate its own genetic code. It continued to replicate inside the cell, all the while rearranging it into a different configuration, one still undetectable by the host's defenses. The virus would break out without killing the host cell, leaving an imprint that would eventually transform every infected cell once sufficient bodily functions had been altered.

Worst of all, the viral RNA strands dissolved upon extraction, making them impossible to detect via conventional testing. There were likely millions still infected that had yet to show symptoms and could activate the final stage at any time. Julie included.

Whatever the duration from initial exposure, the final results always took less than twelve hours to complete. The infection started to slowly convert the helpless host into a non-human species, becoming a completely feral animal in body and mind. There was no prelude to the transformation, no warning of its effects save the onset of changes.

The species that one became seemed to be determined randomly. For the most part, people were changed into domesticated species, horses, sheep, cattle, dogs, and pigs. Some turned into more mundane wild animals, such as foxes, deer, or rabbits. Generally nothing smaller than that. There were reports of people turning into more exotic things, such as a zookeeper becoming one of his former Bengal tiger charges. Still, the species was of little concern to most people. Within less than a day from the onset of symptoms, they would lose any trace of their humanity.

The last few weeks of American life had been hell, far removed from the worst terrors Julie could ever imagine occurring in modern society. Naturally, stores were sold out of essential goods, which now seemed to include pet food, litter, and farm supplies. Service after service went under for fear of coming in contact with the virus, either transmitting it unknowingly to others or succumbing to it themselves. Soon, even essential services had shut down, leaving people hiding in their homes for weeks in case they'd been infected, or worried that even a brief footprint in the world would curse them to eventually become mindless beasts.

Julie had been at home for two weeks straight now. She lived alone, and without the luxuries of social media or even cell phone service, she had never felt more isolated in her life. Julie had stocked up on as much as she could carry in the days before her self-imposed self-isolation, but her supplies would only last so long. She would eventually have to make her way into the world for necessities, but such a trip was a risky endeavor.

Many of the infected took to the streets after discovering their condition, despite the risk of infecting others. No one wanted to remain at home, only to die in their new trapped animal body. But that alone made venturing outside dangerous. Julie hated watching those writhing in the streets as the girl had this morning, sniffing at others of their species and partaking in bestial mating. The hormones of their new bodies always seemed to make them particularly randy, another frightening side effect of the virus.

Julie rose from her warm spot on the couch to make a meager meal with what little she still had. She would last maybe a couple of weeks on her current supplies. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of a fresh salad, but Julie knew that even if it was safe to venture out, the stores would unlikely be stocked with such luxuries due to failing supply lines. So she made do with what she had, heating a can of soup to help warm her up as well as fill her stomach.

Even though the scent of her meal seemed off-putting, Julie knew she needed to eat. Yet after a few spoonfuls, it felt as though she was about to vomit. It was a chunky soup, a mixture of meats and veggies in the broth that seemed repugnant to her stomach. She forced herself to swallow as much of it as she dared, but the act only caused her stomach to respond aggressively, despite her gnawing hunger. Reluctantly, she threw the soup into the garbage, unsure of what else to eat.

Julie searched frantically for something more palatable to satiate the gnawing hunger. Yet soon, she started feeling bloated, likely a result of the meal refusing to sit well. Embarrassed, she felt a painful build-up of gas and was thankful she was alone in the apartment to relieve it. But even with the necessary release, the swelling pain did not subside. She held her stomach for a few moments, the discomfort only growing worse. It was as though her insides were rearranging and forcing her belly to distend to make room.

With such intense stomach cramps, Julie was hardly aware of an insistent ache in her jaw until the swelling pain made her assume she had somehow burned her teeth or gums. But soon, the pain became excruciating, as through her teeth were being forced from their sockets. Trembling, she made her way to the bathroom sink to a sight that terrified her to the core. Her top incisors had begun to fall into the sink as she screamed. Her fingers examined the empty sockets in her gum line, yet there was no blood, no pain other than the one in her cheeks. Perhaps worse, her remaining teeth looked thicker, feeling slimy and alien to her tongue.

Trembling in disbelief, Julie gawked at her bizarre reflection in the mirror. Was she changing? She couldn't be, could she? She'd had no symptoms before now! But the continued ache in her protruding jaw was a telling sign. And the longer she stared the more...outlandish her face seemed. At first, she couldn't quite place what was off. Yet soon she screamed, the realization hitting her like a ton of bricks. It was her eyes! The pupils had darkened to a dirty brown while she'd been distracted by her altering facial structure. But more than that, the iris were square and had rotated 90 degrees! They looked like the eyes of an animal!

Julie sat on the couch, trying to come to terms with the reality literally staring her in the face. She was infected! She was changing, turning into some inhuman beast without any hope of redemption. It took her almost two hours to think of calling the emergency hotline to report her symptoms, to alert the authorities that she would soon be an animal.

Julie shuddered as they gave their best estimation, given her limited changes. The lack of front upper teeth was a characteristic generally associated with an ovine form. Julie was to spend the rest of her life as a sheep!

Minor changes had been coursing through her body, though she'd done her best to ignore them. The itching of skin and the dull throbbing in her face were most prevalent. Recently she'd felt an odd crackling her ears, though she'd been scared to look at them. Yet as soon as her thoughts focused on them, her ears TWITCHED, startling her to fall off the couch. Timidly, she reached up to touch them, soft hair greeting her fingers as they traced the entire surface of the elongated appendages. Was this what a sheep's ears felt like?

The reality of her situation sent tears running down her now-expansive cheeks. She would remain a stupid farm beast for the rest of her days unless a cure for the change was discovered, and the infection could be reversed. What did she even know about sheep, other than the common knowledge that they were smelly, dirty farm beasts sheared for wool? The thoughts of being an animal in both body and mind were so foreign she couldn't even visualize it! Yet there was no reprieve from that inevitable fate now that it had begun.

A rippling ache in her forehead drew her attention to her temples, and a seeking hand discovered a bizarre pair of sharp bumps. It was as though something was puncturing the skin, expanding underneath as it threatened to burst forth at any moment. Julie gasped in agony as the protrusions bloodlessly birthed themselves as though they belonged there. A protrusion of bone met her trembling fingers as it continued relentlessly tearing out of her skull as the minutes ticked past. It was happening so fast!

It took a few moments of playing over the growing appendages to realize that her tactile senses seemed to be diminishing. Julie grasped around her forehead frantically, but nothing seemed to alleviate the numbness that had gripped her digits. Was she losing her hands?

She tried twitching her thumbs, but the joints were largely absent, remnant what she'd heard amputees refer to as a phantom limb. It was still present on her hand, though slowly receding into her wrist. Her left hand seemed to be functional for now, but it too was starting to tingle as her right hand warped into the beginnings of an ovine hoof.

Julie turned her gaze to the door with a bit of trepidation. Should she go outside? The answer seemed obvious; she'd be trapped indoors and likely to die if she didn't, starving the culprit of her eventual demise. That did not seem a pleasant way to go. The images of all the changing people in the streets fucking themselves into beasts were deplorable, but what other choice did she have, given the alternatives?

Without further thought, she opened the door, running down the stairs in her pajamas and hoping to at least keep her thumbs long enough to open the outside door to freedom. Life, any life with even the slim chance to become human again was worth it.

Julie stepped out into the crisp air for the first time in what felt like a lifetime. It was pleasantly warm, not at all what she'd been expecting from her frigid apartment. Yet an insistent itching under her clothes brought her attention to the reason why. All over her body, under her breasts, groin, and stomach were curling thick patches of off-white fur, lengthening over skin that had turned black and rough like leather. Her entire form itched as the coarse fur bore from her skin, and rapidly covered here with sheep's wool.

It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable to be clad in any sort of outerwear, and Julie was once more drawn to the tingling in her hands as she continued to lose their articulation. She couldn't strip naked, could she? No matter what happened, Julie was still a human being and deserved that dignity! Yet as she watched, the nails around her hand grew pointed, and the digits themselves stretched with the growth of long bones inside. If she didn't remove any arrant human things now, then she might get them caught in her changed body and risk further injury.

Reluctantly she hooked her remaining fingers under her pants and pulled them down, shaking them off with her feet as she shucked off her underwear as well. Soon her nightshirt was gone, leaving a freezing, hairy, and naked Julie exposed to anyone who might be looking through their windows.

Yet she was not to remain nude as the thick white wool relentlessly crawled out of every pore, filling her chest and flanks so that she could not even see the skin. The only features that remained bare were her breasts and crotch, eliminating any semblance of modesty she might have had. She figured her breasts would eventually lower down her belly and fatten into an udder, but tried not to think about it too much for now.

Despite herself, Julie couldn't deny there was a part of her mind that welcomed the idea of being nude, free from the confines of human trappings. Those frolicking around in animalistic ignorance looked so peaceful once they'd stopped screaming and struggling. As embarrassing as it was, Julie felt a moistening in her sex that seemed to match her excitement. She blushed, trying to cover herself with what remained of her hands.

Something brushed her fingertips, making her squeal from the sudden pleasure that was such a stark contrast to the agony of change. She tried to pull her hand from the growth, but it only seemed to seek her out as it extended. The sensations were almost reminiscent of pleasuring her clit. Julie moaned, the slightest touch against its surface sending orgasmic ripples through her body and nearly making her topple over.

Was this what being a sheep felt like? Despite the humiliation of such a public act, Julie gingerly lifted her hands to properly view her mutating sex. Her vaginal opening seemed to be narrowing, while an unnatural lump of flesh forced itself outside. It formed an uncomfortable weight in her groin as it birthed into the frigid air, quickly coated with soft white hairs as two small orbs swelled inside.

Yet that was the least of her worries. Her clit had extended beyond her folds, tip growing flared as it started leaking a milky fluid. The flesh was turning red, darkening as it expanded to fill the hole which once nestled her vagina, while the swelling sack hung weighty underneath. The realization hit her like a ton of bricks. Not only was she to change species, she would not be a ewe but instead a ram! Was that even possible?

Julie moaned as her growing cock head flared out like a mushroom, fluid leaking from the newly formed urethral pore. The mottled flesh seemed to split from the head and peeled all the way down into the beginnings of an ovine sheath, making Julie tremble. The rising flesh stuck to her belly like a zipper as the entire surface itched with more of that irritating wool.

Yet the sensations of a developing ram's cock felt wonderful, sending shivers through her furry body the human woman had never known. If she was turning into an animal anyway...

Gingerly, her stiff fingers brushed against the cockhead, leaving Julie whimpering from the trembling surge of pleasure running all over her body. Her left hand was still able to reach down and grip the shaft, stiff as it was, though even the expanding bone of her middle finger did little to hinder her grasp. The flesh was warm, and the veins felt odd to the touch, throbbing as her new cock became engorged with blood. Her leaking cockhead provided ample precum to lube her ministrations. Soon, her hoof hands were running over its length, exploring every inch of the wonderful new flesh.

Lost in the sensations of masturbation, Julie was hardly shocked to see the flesh of her new nose in front of her face as flaring nostrils drank in the scents of the world in far greater detail. Yet of most attention were the ones wafting from her needy cock, which only served to spur on her arousal. The crack of her skull as it pressed forward, the thickening of her lower jaw as the muscle rippled underneath and her spreading gum line as her lower front teeth separated from the back ones were hardly noticed in her masturbatory frenzy.

Julie was getting so close now, the steady rhythm tensing her testicles and threatened to send her over the edge. Almost...but then nothing...Julie scrambled frantically, feeling her grip waning as her fingers snapped and reduced to stubs that no longer maintained the articulation she required. Her middle and index fingers were popping outward, but the thick nail at the end of each was insufficient for the task. Julie tried once more, frantically, but the gentle tapping of her forming nails did little to satiate the desires drifting up from her new penis. She was losing her hands!

"No NoTHAAAAAAAAAT!" Julie bleated, ashamed of the inhuman sound escaping her lips. She was bleating, like a fucking ram! She was turning into a male, with a needy cock at that, but was most upset that she could not finish pleasuring herself out in public.

Her hands, meanwhile, continued to mutate, the two remaining digits forming pointed hooves while her palms cracked and stretched, immovable now as she gawked at the new appendages. The two remaining fingers had softened, rotating back below her palm and forming soft pads, in effect vestigial. Her thumbs were even worse, crawling into her wrists with no visible trace as the short white furs and thick leathery flesh covered what remained of her human skin.

Julie had avoided researching the actual effects of the disease, not wanting to think of the consequences of undergoing a change herself. The specifics of the process were lost on her. But to her knowledge, the change occurred in spurts, and that she would surely be a ram by the end of the day if not sooner.

The possibility of a reverse in gender had been unknown to her, not discussed in the early days of news coverage. Was the virus mutating? Yet she knew there was no point reflecting upon what it meant for her own future or the future of humanity. She had none other than the inevitable fate of becoming a ram, likely for the rest of her days.

The sun was rising high in the sky, and Julie blushed though her blackening skin, realizing she had been outside in plain view of all her neighbors. All this time, they stared out the window to witness the infected act like beasts, as Julie had done just days before. Part of her knew she should remain near her home, in case a cure to return her to human form was found. But this location was too urban. A sheep wouldn't last here. She needed more open ranges to thrive in her new body. Save for those becoming raccoons or skunks, none of the changed animals stayed in this part of town anyway. She'd be just as safe near other transformed people, she figured. Unconsciously her ram cock throbbed at the thought of finding a small herd of untended ewes

Carefully, she made her way out of the urban sprawl, towards an expansive park that she assumed should house sufficient grass to meet her needs. Aside from a few odd tingles of pain that emanated from her bony horns, she did not change too much and was thankful.

Still, it was becoming troublesome to focus, her thoughts easily drifting. The striated muscles under her ears twitched at every errant noise, and her growing nostrils flared from every interesting scent that demanded an investigation. The animal was starting to well up in her psyche, and all Julie could do was keep her mind on the simple task of finding food to keep her moving to safety.

The scents of grass in the air assaulted her nose, sending a resonating ache through her jaw as it stretched forth at the notion of a meal. She could feel her neck thickening and wondered if her voice would soon be too warped to enunciate human words.

She stumbled into a vast grassy field and started to act as her ovine instincts seemed to dictate. She needed to feed, to find herds of her own kind, and graze in bestial stupidity. And there something else...an exotic need that made her cock unfurl from its sheath, still needy from the earlier promise of pleasure.

The moment she stepped barefoot on the grass, she was assaulted by accelerating changes. Julie grunted as her rib cage was forced outward, expanding her chest with an audible crack as it barreled. She winced from the ache in her spine as it extended to make room for extra sets of forming ribs. The throbbing in her backside intensified as her coccyx unfused into a stub of a tail that started to wag as the itching fur covering it. The shifts in bone pressed annoyingly against her skin, threatening to tear it in some places as the agony of change literally brought her to her knees.

Julie rested for a moment, allowing herself to get used to the new form she possessed. She wanted to stand, to try and retain a semblance of her humanity as long as she could. But what was the point? She would be on all fours before the day was out. And besides, the smell that had been on the fringes of her mind now grew in intensity. It was...food!

The rumbling in her stomach deepened, and before she could stop herself, her lips were tearing at blades of grass, chewing and devouring in big chucks. Her jaw continued to crack forward, her blackening nose merged with rubbery lips as she feasted without relent. Her premolars and molars had reshaped for a herbivorous diet, laying behind a bare gum line as additional teeth burst from near the back of her distanced jaw to aid in the grinding of food and to chew her cud. Yet she was hardly aware of the alien alterations, happy only they allowed a significant intake in ingestion.

The aches in her backside became more tolerable as her pelvis rotated forward, pulling up her hips as the flesh merged with her distended belly. Julie reflexively lowered her stance, the posture becoming more comfortable as her hips swelled and sent her forward-facing. Her jiggling belly stretched out, level with her chest as her former human breasts deflated into the flesh to fuel her new bulk. Her sternum too shifted forward, shoulders rotating downward and absorbing her upper arms into her barreled chest as well, solidifying her quadrupedal stance even as her calves and heels reduced in diameter.

Numbness in her feet caught her attention briefly as she stepped forward to further feed, but Julie was largely unaware of the changes at this juncture. As with her hands, two of her toes elongated to make up the length difference in her leg while her stretching heels did the rest. Slowly she was lifted on to her toes as their bones and joints lengthened, the pointed nails enough to hold her new weight. Her big toes shriveled to nothing while the two remaining toes puffed out into soft keratin and rotated before Julie was left with a perfect set of cloven hooves.

Yet the changes to her body were largely ignored in her feeding frenzy, and it was only until the rumblings in her stomach ceased that Julie was able to take stock of her new body. Why had she changed so much so fast?! Was it due to her uncontrolled animalistic actions?

As if to affirm her fears, a strong gurgling extending towards her bowels made her raise her tail reflexively, and she dropped a small load of sheep manure to fertilize the earth where she'd fed. She tried with every inch of her strength to hold off, but her body could no longer regulate its functions. Julie felt a deep pang of guilt to have fallen so low to be forced to relieve herself as an animal.

Suddenly she was aware of a potent odor in the air, one that sent another surge through her turgid cock and made her leak onto the grass. The fading human parts of her brain were more curious now, the scent rich and musky and sending shivers through her needy prick. What could be the source? Instinctively she knew, but deep down Julie wanted to believe that she still held a semblance of control over her form.

Upwind from her was a lone sheep, staring at her with those disgusting eyes as though with longing. At once, the pain from her skull intensified, and her bony growths grew heavy on her head as they began to curl in on themselves. It was as though the other sheep's presence was warping her facial features to make her more sexually appealing.

The sheep before her held no horns, and even without the scent in the wind, Julie knew it was a female, a ewe. Like so many of the other former humans, the virus sent her sex drive wild, and in the presence of a needy ewe, Julie could not help but feel her cock stiffen and pulse.

By this point, most of her body had conformed to ovine specifications, with only a few dimming facial features remaining to denote her former humanity. As she approached the ewe, her nose continued to shift forwards, taking some of her skull with it as her forehead diminished. She could feel her already ram-shaped eyes widening, her vision obscured by the growth of her face and their outward-facing orientation. She could see the entire field now, though was only focused on the ewe. Her already flicking ears grew floppy, their fuzzy surfaces twitching in response to the steady bleats of her would-be mate.

As she approached the ewe, it turned around and raised its tail, exposing a pulsating vulva, red and puffy from heat and lust. Julie felt she had to sniff it, and even when the ewe released a pungent stream of urine in front of her nose, Julie found it impossible to pull away. Her skull was cracking, the casing around her brain forcing it to contract, eliminating the parts of her mind unnecessary for life as a ram. Her nearly flattened, sloping skull was not equipped for human thoughts, and the growing needs in her body made it difficult to regret their departure.

It was getting impossible to think in human terms as the ewe's sex glistened and beckoned her forward. Julie knew she should resist, but her fading human intellect could not derive a reason why. If this was to be her fate now, why not enjoy it with the last of her human sensibilities? She was now a he, his penis at the ready for fucking.

He reared up on the female, hitting the mark after a few tries as the waves of ecstasy shook his furry body. The actual act took only moments, his pent up ram balls eager to blow their load. The human thoughts leaked out of his mind, simple bestial pleasure more potent than anything the human had to offer. His last recollections were of being at peace as the ram he had become exploded, virile jism shooting from his cock and impregnating the former human with new life.

The ram dismounted from his mate, cum dripping from his sheath as the final ripples of changes ran through his body. Yet aside from the slight irritations in his still-warping flesh, the new beast cared little. His human intellect was buried under a barrage of animal instinct and urges. The stronger ones still wafted from his used genitals, sated for the moment, but soon ready for mating once more to ensure his mate was fertilized.

He was aware of so much else in the world now that his new senses had awakened. There were many animals in their vicinity, many herbivorous beasts such as they, or predators far too small to take them on. Nothing that warranted any further attention, save the ones that bore a similarity to his own. The fields were lush with sweet grass, and the scents of others of their kind lingered nearby, all females in season from what the male could tell. He took off in that direction, his ewe in tow, eager to rut and breed and make those new females his herd!