Travis stood up slowly, tired and stiff from the last few hours hiding in his makeshift stand.  He was a professional wildlife photographer, currently on contract to take photos in a national park.  In the past few weeks, he’d captured the usual images of moose, deer, various species of birds, even some rather amusing angles of squirrels fighting over food caches and mates.  This week, however, he had come up dry.  It happened, after all, even to the most diligent of photographers.  He, however, had a reputation among local circles, and what he’d gotten this week wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy his pride.   

Travis loved the outdoors.  The wilderness held a deep calm within him that he’d been unable to find in other areas of his life.  But now, filthy and bruised, Travis wanted nothing more than a nice hot shower.  The seldomly warm water at the research station’s tiny shower would have to do, he supposed, as he was miles from the nearest hotel or resort.   

A strange series of noises startled him from his reverie.  It sounded reminiscent of chanting, distant though clearly audible being carried by the wind.  He hadn’t expected anyone else to be out this far late into the season.  It was entering mid-fall, long past the point where visitors and campers dotted the many public trails and campsites of the park.  Besides, he had set himself up far removed those usual hotspots regardless.  Most urgently to Travis, however, the noise would deter any potential animal visitors.  There was no way to get any shots of wildlife if that racket kept up! 

He figured he should just leave now, set himself and his equipment up elsewhere.  However, the ruckus was enormous and showed no signs of slowing down.  It was steadily becoming too late in the day to relocate anyway.  Dusk would have come and gone by the time he moved far enough away and resettled himself.  He sighed.  Yet another day wasted.  

He could at least seek out the source of the disturbance.  Give them a piece of his mind, as it were.  It wouldn’t do him any good.  They weren’t trespassing by rights, any more than he was.  His day was already wasted nonetheless.  But he’d had a shitty week.  It would at least make him feel better to tell off some assholes who didn’t know Travis had no authority to do so. 

He gathered his camera, tripod, bag, and other scattered gear, securing them in his car before hiking his way deeper in the woods.  The sun was still high in the sky, giving Travis sufficient light to follow the trail before him.  Soon, however, the well-worn path narrowed and he was beginning to wander into unfamiliar territory.  Yet, if other people were out this far, it couldn’t be too difficult for him to find his way back to his car, Travis reasoned.  He made mental notes of various landmarks as he had taught himself to do and carried on, becoming increasingly nervous the further he traveled from his car and the dusty highway trail.  

After a good 20 minutes or so, Travis came upon a clearing from where the ruckus had evidently originated.  He was not prepared for what he saw next.  About twenty or so men sat around in a wide circle, adorned with ceremonial garb and face paint, chanting in a language Travis was unfamiliar with.  He was well versed in the lore and language of local tribes from his years in the bush, frequently attending local gatherings and observing ancient songs and stories.  The identity of this particular group eluded him, however.    

A large wooden structure stood erect in the center of their circle, riddled with carvings and symbols that Travis could not decipher.  Had they built this structure out here themselves, far from prying eyes?  In the center of their circle hung a huge black bear, drained of life, dripping blood onto their carvings as though freshly slain.  The stench of rotting flesh hit him all at once, and he did his best to stifle a gag.  

The bear was not the only thing in the center.  A young man no more than 18, sat cross-legged almost underneath the massive beast, covered in drops of blood from the carcass above him.  He looked somewhat nervous but otherwise undeterred from the scene around him, as though it was something he was raised to be familiar with.  What the hell was wrong with these people? ! 

Travis felt the rage build up inside, threatening to explode at the scene before him.  How dare they do this in a national park!  There was no privilege, no permit that would allow taking the life of a bear and hanging it on display in such a manner.  It was absolutely revolting to think these people could so callously kill an animal for a silly rite of passage, tradition or not.  Travis could barely hold back his anger as all thoughts of his annoyance of their earlier disturbance were forgotten at the sight of this new atrocity.   

“Hey!  What the hell do you think you’re doing? ! ” Travis yelled, finally drawing the attention of all who were gathered.  They looked at each other, muttering in a language that Travis did not recognize.  It was clear from their demeanor they were annoyed by his presence, though they did not seem angry.  If anything, their facial expressions seemed to indicate more concern than rage at his presence.   

The young man in the center jumped up scared as Travis ran into the center of the crowd, determined to make his point known.  Travis was so blinded by fury, he did not notice that one man, who he had assumed to be an elder due to his much more elaborate robes, had not halted his strange chanting.  He continued in that unknown dialect, voice rising in a crescendo as it washed over Travis like a wave, who was suddenly memorized by the display.   

Instantly Travis felt a flow of energy overtake him, as though an electric current was hooked up to his body, shocking him through to his core.  He tried to jump back but could hardly move as the strange energy surrounded him, cascaded through him, filling him with fear.  It wasn’t painful; on the contrary, it felt GOOD.  Travis was embarrassed to feel a hint of arousal as his member tented within the confines of his briefs.  

The energy dissipated, and Travis looked around, embarrassed by the event.  The chief first regarded the younger man and then turned back to Travis with an expression of sorrow.  Still, it did not slow him from taking out a large hunting knife he’d held in a scabbard on his belt, still dripping with fresh blood.  Travis felt a wave of dread wash over him.  Did they intend to take his life as well over the disruption of their ritual?  Or was it simply a threat, telling him to leave now or else?  

Travis didn’t wait to find out.  He turned to run, terrified by the display of energy he had no explanation for and afraid for his life.  He raced blindly through the unfamiliar woods, hoping to make his way back to the road, to his car, that he might put this horrific experience behind him.  He was hardly of sound mind, but surely once he’d regained his wits, he’d be inclined to inform the local authorities of the poaching, among other heinous acts.  

As he ran, he hardly noticed the electric tingle continue through his body, as though the aftereffects of the ritual had not only remained but were somehow being amplified in the time he had set upon fleeing the site.  It overflowed throughout his body, making him feel lighter, more energetic.  He was able to run more easily through the slowly darkening woods, with little danger of tripping or injuring himself.   

His stomach suddenly started itching fiercely.  In his panic, Travis nearly paid it no mind, but soon the itching became too insistent for him to simply ignore.  He slowed his pace, scratching at his stomach even as he continued moving.  However, the brief reprieve was not nearly enough to sate the uncomfortableness swelling up from under his shirt.  He slowly stuck his hand underneath to touch the spot, assuming something to be caught under the thin fabric.  

What he felt filled him with a sensation of dread.  His fingers reported a hairy paunch of stomach, a stark contrast to the once hairless visage he’d sported just moments before.  He came to a full stop, pulling off his shirt to gaze at the strange occurrence that had begun to overtake his chest and stomach.  He couldn’t believe his eyes.  Spouting over his skin was a thin layer of black fur, centering in a treasure train down towards his crotch but rapidly spreading outwards, covering his entire abdomen in a thick itchy forest.  He rubbed himself all over but was unable to find relief as individual hairs continued poking up from his flesh, making his darkening skin barely visible under the thick mat of what could almost be called fur.   

His stomach gurgled as heated radiated from his touch and his body expanded, shifting before his very eyes.  It appeared as though blooming outwards, after eating a huge meal.  Yet soon it surpassed that, giving him a beer gut the likes of which would appear out of place on the largest overweight college freshmen.  Despite its rapidly growing size, however, it remained firm to the touch, as though thick muscle still remained under the expanding epidermis.  

A sudden sting of pain alerted Travis that his nails were far sharper than they had been.  With trepidation, Travis shifted his gaze towards his tingling digits.  The nails on each finger were thickening and darkening and expanding outwards before his eyes, looking every moment more like sharp animalistic claws.  Each finger seemed to be reducing inward his palm, shrinking while becoming girthy.  The tips of his fingers began to tingle as black, rough flesh bubbled up from underneath.  Turning them over, he could see the coarse skin forming not just at his fingertips but all across the surface of his palms.  His thumbs ached, and in shock, he watched them begin to slowly rotate up his thickening arms, giving his hands the appearance of pseudo-paws.  

What was going on?  The growing claws, spreading fur, and insistent itching brought to mind images from old werewolf films.  But that was impossible, wasn’t it?  People couldn’t become wolves, it made no sense!  And the fur seemed darker, blacker than what he’d expect from a wolf.  His form was all wrong.  He was too thick, too bulky.  The shade and texture almost reminded him of the deceased bear hanging above the makeshift campsite.  

How the hell was this happening?  Was he changing to become more like a bear?  Had that been the purpose of their ritual?  His mind raced with a million questions as the aches and pains continued to surge through his body.  A terrifying thought came to the forefront of his mind.  Had he taken on the fate of the young man in the center?  Why would any tribe turn one of their own into an animal, especially by taking the life of another?  

His mind flew to stories of shapeshifters in various tribal folklore.  Skinwalkers, he recalled.  Greatly feared by any who had heard the tales.  Perhaps with good reason, if what he’d witnessed was any indication.  Still, however, none of the stories he was familiar with involved another being turned into an animal against their will.  This had to be something else, something so secret it was known only by a few in the relevant circles, not meant for outsiders such as himself.   

A pain in his backside broke him from his reverie.  It was becoming increasingly hard for him to remain standing on two legs.  His spine began to audibly crack as though confirming his worst fears.  Travis moaned as he hunched over, his thickening hips merging with the fattening paunch of his stomach and making it more difficult to remain erect.  He was still stretching, still shifting, becoming more ursine with each passing moment.  

He had to keep moving.  Maybe getting as far away as possible from the campsite would reverse this, he reasoned.  It was as good a hope as any.  Travis stumbled forward, hardly able to move on unsteady legs as they ached and burned with change.  His feet suddenly felt unbearably tight in his hiking boots.  He tried to reach down to take them off but was restricted by his expanding paunch and a series of aches in his arms and shoulders.   

He continued to stagger ahead as the agony in his back became more insistent.  He was determined not to fall on all fours, lest he somehow succumbed more quickly to the beast he was becoming.  But the pain in his backside was too intense, and he was unable to move while maintaining his human posture.  Travis stopped, allowing himself to stoop over to better adapt to his ever-increasing girth. 

As he bent over, an unfamiliar pressure in the back of his pants made him moan.  In shock, he realized he could feel a hairy protrusion that had not been there before, sticking out directly from his spine.  With a small bit of effort, he could MOVE it as much as any of his limbs.  It felt strange and alien and yet was a natural extension of his new form.  He had a tail, an animal’s tail, another clear sign of his impending fall from humanity.   

Yet through all his mutations, a burning sensation welling up in his crotch captured his attention most.  Despite the horror of the changes he was being forced to go through, he suddenly felt himself becoming extremely horny.  What was wrong with this picture?  He tried to stave it off, but the need quickly became so insistent he could hardly resist the urge to claw off his pants with his growing nails.  

The sensations were intense, yet somehow different, foreign to his human psyche.  Was arousal as a bear really that far removed from its human counterpart?  In frustration, he steadily tore at his pants and underwear, no longer concerned with human notions of morality.  He could no longer deny the fact he was changing.  The human rags around his form were terribly constricting, and the need in his crotch was too great to ignore.   

What he saw filled him with dread.  Gone was the familiar view from his hardening shaft and balls.  In its place, he felt wet, moist, NEEDY.  His cock was tiny, shrinking into an ever-growing slit that had formed where his balls and sack used to reside.  His dick head was reduced inside folds of skin developing within the slit, smaller, yet just as sensitive as before.  

Just then, Travis was overcome with the sudden desire to be filled, to have his ever-widening crevice be penetrated.  He needed something rubbed against the sensitive bulb of flesh that was now nestled well inside his new folds.  He couldn’t fathom the intensity of conflict in his feelings.  To escape the forest to regain his humanity or to stay and give in to the temptation of his changing flesh.  He wanted so desperately to rub his paw down along the growing folds and feel a true glimmer of what it meant to be female for the first time.  Maybe find a nice male to breed him before he put on weight to prepare for winter and the birth of cubs…   

NO!  His mind yelled out, and he forced himself forward.  He paid no attention as his jeans were nearly torn off him even as he stumbled over the legs of his pants that hung around his thickening legs.  Like hell was he gonna let himself become an animal, a female at that, to be fucked and bred and raise cubs in the woods!  

He fell into a loping gait, thankful that at least he was finally able to move faster on all fours with all the new alterations to his form.  His shoes strained and popped as his new paws burst forth, socks clinging annoyingly between his shrinking toes as sharp black claws pierced the thin material.  He could feel the fragmented remains of his shoes falling off his much larger bear feet as his new paw pads provided adequate protection across the forest floor.   

By now, his shirt had ridden up his widening chest, tearing at the seams as his shoulders rotated forward, making his four-legged sprint much more natural.  In turn, his hips snapped forward, solidifying his quadrupedal stance, allowing him to run even faster.  The more he ran, however, the more it seemed his changes were accelerating.  He had been right; his ursine movements did seem to further advance the effects of the curse.  He could clearly see his muzzle in front of his face, though little else as his eyesight dimmed beyond even what he’d normally expect his human vision to detect in the fading evening light.  His ears sat comfortably on top of his head, curved and rounded.  His thinning human hair was nestled in between, giving way for the spreading black bear fur that slowly marched over his fading human body.   

His nose came alive with a million scents, his awareness of the world amplified in spades from what he’d known as a human.  He finally had to stop; the smells of the forest were too much for his still mostly human mind to process.  The strongest in his nostrils carried images of food, and he quickly located a rather large berry patch to his right.  He tried to resist, but a swelling instinct inside him forced him to investigate further.  His efforts to stop himself were futile; he immediately found his snout pressed into the bush, long tongue wrapping around branches, pulling savory berries into his waiting maw.   

He found himself gorging, losing tracking of time as he feasted on the delicious buffet before him.  His thoughts slowed, panic at his impending transformation forgotten as he filled his now much larger stomach.  He continued to feed single mindedly, as though nothing else in the world.  His stomach gurgled suddenly, and his tail raised to allow him to relieve himself almost without thought.  The smell did not deter him; the massive pile of his leavings behind him was like a calling card of his presence to the rest of the woods.  He would normally be repulsed by such an act, but his mind was too far gone, the sensations of feeding were far too good for him to be bothered by such trivial human notions of morality or decency.  

Another enticing scent entered his now much larger black nostrils, and he stopped feasting, raising himself up on hind legs to better locate the source of the smell.  It reawakened the fiery need in his crotch, which had rotated further back towards his stained anus, making him more easily accessible to a potential mate.  He roared with desire, signaling his need to mate, for a male to find him and quench the burning need in his loins.   

His ears detected an answering bellow coming from deeper in the woods.  Anything but that!  The fragmented remains of his human mind cried out.  Even those scattered thoughts were overtaken by the bear’s natural instincts to mate, to procreate.  

The larger male finally entered his field of vision, and Travis growled, startled by the sight and overcome by the heady scent.  The male roared in turn, raising itself on its hind legs as though in a challenge.  Travis suddenly felt submissive in the face of such a magnificent beast.  He turned around, raising his stubby tail in an invitation, the heavy scent of his bear cunt enticing the male’s erection.  The male lumbered forward, raising up again as Travis felt its weight settle on his heavy back before the insistent thrusting finally hit home, opening him fully.  

The act itself was relatively quick, but to Travis, lost in rapture, the euphoria lasted an eternity.  The warmth of the male inside him, reaching into his new depths filled him with such pleasure, far beyond anything he’d ever felt like a human male.  He felt whole, more complete than such an act had ever made him feel, as though his very being existed to be wrapped around this male’s firm member.  

A strange cascading pleasure welled over him as his first female orgasm took hold.  Lost in heavenly bliss, Travis felt himself floating away as his body was wracked with sensations.  After what seemed like hours, he came down from his blissful reverie, feeling the male’s pace quickening as it too prepared for orgasmic release.  The male bellowed, and Travis felt its member pulse and tremble deep inside as the bear shot its load, filling Travis’s womb with hot semen.   

The male dismounted, grunting as it went further away into the woods, likely ready to begin foraging, building fat reserves to survive the coming winter.  Now spent, it no longer cared about the female.  Sated, Travis moved off with the same goal at the forefront of his mind.  He could not stop himself as the bear he’d become began to eat, picking away at another patch of berries, savoring the sweet taste.  He silently screamed in horror at his fate but was soon quieted under the powerful instincts of the beast he was doomed to remain.    

*************************************************************************************************************

Winter would be arriving soon.  He’d been eating as much as possible, biological drives forcing him to feed, to prepare for months to come when food would be scarce.  He had already selected a suitable place in which to rest in the colder season.  He stayed nearby, straying only far enough from his new den to locate sufficient resources to meet his growing needs.   

A passing notion of his human mind reacted to the pregnancy with fear and revulsion, mourning his lost humanity and gender.  But such thoughts were quickly swept away by the overpowering female bear instincts.  They left him oddly satisfied, at peace with himself.  He was about to fulfill his ultimate biological purpose, after all, to give birth and raise the next generation of his species.  What greater sense of accomplishment could he possibly have?  The drive to prepare for winter was all-consuming, and those fleeting moments of human recollection came further and further apart as he settled into the lifestyle of a pregnant female bear.   

The young man observed the soon-to-be mother go about her business.  She would soon go into trouper and birth the life that he had recently deposited in her womb.  He had only remained a bear for a few nights, enough to mate with the female sufficient times to ensure conception.  It was his gift back to the woods, after all, to give new life and better understand his own place in the world. 

Never in the history of his tribe had an outsider trespassed upon a rite of ascension.  During a young man’s 18th year, he was expected to undergo a ritual to become closer to the natural world, to hunt a chosen animal, and wear its skin for several days.  Long enough to mate and ensure the birth of another of its kind.  A life for a life.  

He was certain that the man who had stumbled upon their camp would have turned back by now.  His tribe’s magic was not intended to be permanent.  Perhaps it was in some part due to his change in gender; traditionally, men who underwent the rite remained male.  He was not sure why the man was turned into a female bear.  Be it the ritual giving him a mate, or a hidden part of the man’s soul that craved to be female, the young man could not say.  

He had been following the bear for several weeks now, staying downwind and out of sight, lest he wake some maternal instinct and come under attack.  He wondered what remained of the human mind inside the massive beast, if she would remember who she had been.  It was too great a risk for him to take.  He would watch her den until spring, see the newly birthed cubs take their first steps into the world.  His children.  He would watch over them, protect them from attack from other males, ensure they survived to adulthood to raise cubs of their own.  Perhaps after returning life to the woods would the spirits return the former man to humanity.  He hoped, either way, that the new bear found happiness.