Posting this early as I shall be away for five days. I have some posts scheduled afterwards.

By FoxFaceStories

When an entire college literature class is transported to a fairy tale world while studying folklore, they soon find themselves living out actual famous fairy tales! But these various friends, groups, and even professors must now contend with the world starting to change them. After all, Puss in Boots wants a wife, the Big Bad Wolf is looking for a mate, and the Goldilocks bears have laid a transformative trap for the next unwelcome visitor to their home . . .

Prologue Here

Previous Part

Fable 4, Part 2: Make You Bray

For just a moment, both donkey people in the room managed to hold off against the magical binding now pushing them together. But it didn’t last long: Abigail had always enjoyed good sex, but she could go without when she needed to. Not now. And she could literally smell Maria’s pussy juices, practically taste them upon the air, and they were only getting stronger. The sight of the woman’s ripe breasts, her nipples almost exposed as she tugged her dress lower, was too much to resist.

“I’m really sorry about this, Maria. I didn’t mean to grab the drink and-”

“Will you just f-fuck me already? It’s been too long for a donkey freak gal, so get on over here and do whatever you want to me, big guy! I’ll fix it later, so long as you m-mount me like an animal, how’s that for a new deal, partner?”

“Deal accepted!” Abigail exclaimed, and then immediately clopped her hooves over to her ‘partner’ and put a double meaning to the word. She kissed her muzzle and squeezed her breasts and then helped remove her clothing, tearing it a little in places.

“Hey, watch it!”

“Sorry, but the magic - I need to use this stupid giant cock! Fuuuuck, I need to be in you. This is gonna be so freakin’ weird!”

“I’ll lead the way, then!” Maria declared, shoving Abigail back on the bed. The new anthro-donkey man grunted, his - for he was definitely a he now - tail falling over the side of the bed while his huge cock sat straight up. Maria wasted no time in climbing on top of him, readying herself for the cowgirl position.

The donkeygirl position, really.

“Oh God, it’s been too long!” Maria announced, even as she parted her legs so that she was astride Abigail.

The new anthro-donkey man was overwhelmed by it all. His cock - yes, his now -  strained, desperate to enter his apparent mate, the magic binding them ever more closely by the second. He gripped Maria’s lovely hips, then he raised his hands to help her pull off her dress and undershirt, exposing the rest of her body completely; Maria had already shimmied out of her underwear. The scent of sex and desire flooded into Abigail’s larger nostrils, and he couldn’t help but breathe it all in and smile. 

“Yessss,” he groaned, cupping the woman’s lovely breasts and squeezing them. “You smell so good. This is gonna be so strange but I need this!” He gripped his cock and manoeuvred the large fleshy pipe so that it was right at Maria’s entrance. The woman with the donkey head brayed in excitement, and then, after just a moment’s hesitation, Maria lowered herself at the same time that Abigail plunged his member into her pussy.

“Ohhhh!” the pair groaned, both braying with passion as Abigail parted Maria’s walls to the extreme.

“S-so big! B-biggest I’ve had! And - ughhh - the best by f-far! Keep pushing in, honey! You’re wide but I can - nnghh - take it! Ahhh!”

Suddenly, Abigail was all the way in, his penis having slid up into the deepest depths of Maria’s wet, tight passage. The new male could barely believe it; he’d had sex numerous times and almost always enjoyed it, but he’d never penetrated anyone. He didn’t have the equipment for it! At least, not before this moment. But now he could feel the power and domination in penetrating a partner, in thrusting deep into a woman and making her moan. He did so now, moving in time with Maria’s hips as she milked his huge donkey cock for all it was worth. The new anthro-donkey brayed with passion. He caressed those lovely breasts, and as if sensing Abigail’s needs, Maria then leaned forwards so that her ripe tits hung right in his vision, allowing him to use his elongated equine tongue to lap at her nipples, and his new muzzle to better reach them so he could suck on them directly.

“Mhmm! K-keep going! Ohhhhh, God! I never thought I’d g-get laid again, Abigail! I’m s-sorry this is happening to y-you, but I needed this sooooooo bleeding badly! Mhmm!”

“I - ahh - need it too!” Abigail groaned with his brassy voice. He pulled Maria into a passionate kiss, then continued to thrust up in time with Maria’s own movements. She bounced upon his lap, the pair working in perfect concert so that each time Abigail’s enormous cock nearly slipped out, only for her wet depths to engulf him completely again. Her vaginal muscles tensed, gripping his dick and milking it yet again.

“S-so this is h-how men feel!?” Abigail groaned before kissing Maria again. “Jesus Christ, I get why they’re all so damn s-sex obsessed now! This is s-something else! Ohhhh, Maria! You feel very tight! Ahhh, I’ve never b-been on this side of the sex equation! NNhh! I like it! YESSS!”

The moment arrived. He couldn’t hold off any longer. Even Maria’s bizarre donkey head was suddenly attractive to him, at least for now. His balls tensed inside their sheath, squeezing gently as they shot out their produce. Abby grunted, then roared and brayed with unbridled relief as his enormous dick shuddered within Maria’s vaginal passage.

“YESSSSS!!!” he brayed again, and then his dick fired like a cannon, shooting forth a massive spurt of semen that went on and on and freaking on. Abigail nearly fainted from the pleasure. She felt like a firehorse, shooting load after load of hot, white semen into her friend and now-lover, her entire body shuddering with ecstasy. It was positively delirious. 

“H-how do I h-have so much of this inside meeee!??’

“I don’t know, but d-don’t stop yet!” Maria groaned. “I’m m-making up for some damn lost t-time here and - nghhh! HAWW! HRUGHH!!”

The most magnificent thing happened, even as Maria finally exploded into orgasm as well. She raised her donkey head to the ceiling and brayed, making all kinds of animalistic noises, but even as she did, her head changed. Her muzzle pulled inwards, and her eyes lost their bestial look, no longer so doey. They turned a pale blue, just as Maria had said they’d once been, and her mane altered too, growing longer on top of her scalp so that it resembled a human woman’s hair. It even turned a lovely raven black, almost silky in appearance. 

Abigail couldn’t say a thing; he was panting as the last of what felt like gallons of cum finally shot from his massive dick up into Maria’s waiting womb. All the new anthro-donkey could do was look up in shock at his lover’s face as it became ever more human and expressive. And yet, at the same time, fur spread down Maria’s form, placing a coat of dark grey fur upon her shoulders.

“Ahhh,” the woman breathed, before collapsing forward on top of Abigail. “That was something else. Wait . . . I sound better. Do I sound more like an actual woman to you?”

Abigail nodded slowly, their faces almost touching. “Your m-muzzle. It’s smaller. And you look more human . . . but the fur has spread.”

Maria managed to lift herself up, her breasts jiggling about as she got off of Abigail’s member - it took quite a bit of effort and she had to raise herself up much higher than expected. When finally the dick plopped free, both partners gasped from the sensitivity, and what appeared like rivers of pearly seed ran down Maria’s legs.

“Good God!” the woman proclaimed. “You filled me up. Oh, goodness! That’s more than Tom Hithers when I was younger and still pretty, and he had balls the sizes of cabbages himself! I’ll - I’ll clean up but first I need to see this!”

She moved to a mirror in the corner of the room and brightened the lamp, and then gasped. Abigail, who was almost faint from the experience and still trying to come to terms with his new male equine nature, suddenly sat up upon hearing Maria’s sobbing. Despite her own concerns about her masculinised and equinised body, Abigail approached his friend.

“Maria? Are you okay?” he said, his voice far lower than it should have been.

“Am I okay? Am I okay!? What do you think!?” Maria exclaimed. “Look at me! I’m - I have my hair again! Abigail, I look more like a human again!”

“But your shoulders . . .”

Maria looked down a little and patted the fur on her shoulders. “A slight complication, but I won’t let it get me down! Look at me, Abigail! I know we still have to sort out your situation - and woo! What a situation that is! I’ve never had such a virile lover, let me tell you, not even when I was with Tom in the palace! You were truly something else, honey! But I’m getting off topic! Oh God, I have proper cheeks again! I can smile properly! My eyes are expressive! This is incredible!”

Abigail frowned. “That’s wonderful, Maria, but . . . I’ve got a penis. I’m covered in fur. I’ve got a tail! No offence, I consider you a friend, but I don’t want to switch places with you!”

Maria became more serious at this. She wiped away some of her tears of joy and took a deep breath. Abigail found it hard not to look at those large, lovely breasts of hers, or their perfect large pink nipples.

“You’re right. Sorry. This is just - it’s the most I’ve progressed! God, that extra magic I gave you . . . there’s really a whole bleeding magical link between us now, isn’t there?”

Abigail slowly nodded, not used to the way he now had a donkey muzzle that jutted out further from his face, though judging from the mirror, it still left his face rather humanoid and full of expression. He could feel that link, almost see it between them. Something about that link had changed Maria and turned her more human, or at least more humanoid.

“But - but I’ve turned into a freak now, too!” Abigail announced, gesturing to himself. “What do we do?”

It was the question of the hour, not least because the pair had just had some very unexpected sex. As if to emphasise that fact, Maria’s loins dripped more semen down her leg, and the woman made a rather sheepish expression, one she couldn’t have made before her more human-like change.

“I don’t know,” Maria said. “But I think we better figure out something fast, honey, because I am already feeling for a second round with that amazing donkey dick of yours . . . and I see that you are too.”

Abigail looked down, and saw that his massive member was starting to rise again. That connection to Maria was strengthening once more, pushing him to act on his arousal.

“Oh - oh shit! I, uh, better go take care of this!”

He ran out of the room, his penis flopping about. Moments later, he was braying and groaning as he ‘took care’ of the problem by sliding his hands up and down his girthy cock. It was a sensation unlike any he’d ever felt, and when he came again, it was with almost as much of a great ejaculation as the first time, which caused an embarrassing mess upon the floor and wall. He panted, yelling out in pleasure as his balls emptied a second time, but still that connection tugged at Abigail, demanding that his male donkey-body mate with Maria’s female form once more.

“Oh shit,” he said, still not used to his low voice, his hairy body, or his very male form. “You’re really in it now, Abby.”

***

The first step to figuring out what to do next was observation and recording, as Maria had put it so clearly. Just as the donkey-woman had once observed and recorded her mistress’s preferences in order to better serve her, so too had she learned that alchemy and magic could be governed by certain rules that could then govern your response. Abigail knew this too, though for the now, he was no longer Abigail thanks to his very male form. He had to go by Aaron, the name his parents would have called him had he been born a boy, and it seemed a strong name to suit his strong form.  

“Aaron, I like it!” Maria said, placing a hand on the new male’s arm as they worked together to research possibilities of further change and reversion. “It’s a good, strong name. Suits you, handsome! That’s just me teasing, by the way, but I can assure you, it’s not just the magical binding making me say these words.”

“N-no more flirting, please!” Aaron bellowed, looking down at Maria’s curvy body, especially her proud chest. “This body is . . . reactive.”

But the flirting couldn’t be avoided completely. Aaron had found Maria so full of life, so wonderfully charming and gregarious before, and now the woman was looking more expressive and less, well, like a bit of a mix-and-match freak. Thanks to the mixture he’d consumed, Aaron was constantly finding himself checking out Maria, observing her lovely breasts and wide hips and how the short woman had a wonderful rump just to complete her appearance. The pair tried to hold off their clearly amorous feelings for one another, but it was difficult to do so. Now, it was Maria who was the one more commonly resurfacing to do their shopping and grab what they needed, as well as to arrange with her contact in the castle for new reading materials. She was still a freak, but she delighted in being able to have a readable expression, and sometimes she even dragged Aaron with her.

“Won’t people view me as a complete freak now, too?” the new male exclaimed.

“Oh please, not at all! You’re just a proper donkey-person, just like there’s the Three Pigs and the Big Bad Wolf and the Puss in Boots and all that wonderfully bizarre lot! You’ll fit right in; people will just assume you’re a proper fable. Me? I was just some weird half-between, but even now they might hesitate! I can smile properly, for one! And wink! Just look!”

Aaron had to chuckle as the woman, who still looked very odd, delighted in her own range of expression. But she was quick to raise Aaron’s spirits as well, showing him to several stores where they could gather clothing and dress him up. Some citizens of Stralbruck were quite welcome, while others were more . . . hesitant.

“Go on, get him fitted!” one rather coarse old man grumbled as he looked the pair up and down. “Freaks finding love with other freaks! Your children will be monsters, but at least I can cover you up in something fashionable.”

“Hey! That’s not very kind!” Aaron interjected.

“Neither is your wife’s awful face, though at least it’s not as awful as before!”

“At least I’m not going to die of old age in a year or two,” Maria said, hands on her lovely hips. It was enough to make Aaron giggle, and the two were swiftly kicked out of the establishment. Still, Aaron was able to get fitted with clothing; male clothing. It was still peasant garb, but it had a nice blue colour and was comfortable upon his powerful frame. When walking back, still adjusting to his hooves, he noticed that a cart was stuck in the mud, and a number of men couldn’t pry it out. One of them was Johan the farmer, who had lost half his cart’s worth of cabbages.

“You thieves!” he said, pointing at them. “You did this, somehow!”

“Please, I don’t know who you’re talking about!” Maria boasted with a grin. “The woman you’re referring to has a full donkey head and no hair on her shoulders and neck. Besides, my friend here is new, and you might want to ask for his help.”

“He does?” Aaron said, confused.

“Go on, test your strength, handsome!” Maria said, braying a little with keenness. “Show these men what a real man’s strength is!”

Aaron had never done anything like this. He still hadn’t fully grappled with how tall and stocky his body was, or the rippling muscles that defined his form, not to mention the mule-like resistance and endurance he now possessed. He approached, and Johan grumbled but let the transformed former woman attempt to lift the cart. After a moment’s hesitation, Aaron lifted it . . . with just one hand. In fact, he lifted it with ease, getting it out of the muddy rut.

“Well, I’ll be,” Johan said. “I’m sorry. I thought you two were . . . my apologies to such wonderful fables!”

Aaron actually grinned at this, looking down at his arms and feeling his powerful biceps relaxing. As the pair walked away, he grinned.

“That didn’t feel half-bad!”

But for once, Maria didn’t say anything. She was biting her thick lip, her ears twitching. And that was when Aaron smelled it. That wonderful scent of a powerful arousal. The woman took a heavy breath and smiled sheepishly.

“S-sorry. It’s just . . . the magic binding would be enough already for me to want you, but that display of strength! I don’t think a date with Rosy Palms is going to help me right now, Aaron!”

It couldn’t be helped. The pair raced back to their little hideaway, practically ripped the clothing off of one another, and then gave in to the magical binding that had them so aroused and interested in one another. Maria brayed in ecstasy as Aaron thrust into her from behind, the latter mounting the former just like an animal. 

“Yesss! Hrughh! Don’t s-stop! This is incredible, Aaron! You’re incredible!”

“I - ahhh - never knew this could f-feel so good! HEE-HAWWW!”

It was wrong and he knew it, but God it was so right at the same time. The sensation of ploughing into Maria’s fertile field, of stretching the woman’s walls wide and making the pair of them positively delirious with ecstasy. His gripped Maria’s lovely buttocks, his hard-pointed fingers curled around her hips as he rammed his massive tube-like equine cock into her again and again. His tail swayed, its ropey end knocking over several books in the excitement, but he kept on going anyway, unable to resist the joy of it all.

“N-need more! MORE! I’VE NEVER FELT A NEED LIKE THIS!” he roared, thrusting ever deeper. Even as he did so, more fur spread down Maria’s back, and her arms started to have that same dark grey fur. Somehow, that only made Aaron all the more libidinous. He positively dominated the other woman, who was crying out and braying from the rough nature of their sex.

“Faster! Be as r-rough as you want! MHHMM!”

Aaron had never been in a position to act like that, but his resistance was only momentary. He thrust again, and it caused his swollen testicles to contract, squeezing tightly as they expelled their mighty produce. He brayed again as he ejaculated into Maria, and she howled in joy as well. The link binding them did not weaken, instead becoming stronger with this ecstatic union. It left the pair panting in the aftermath, but only after Aaron had expelled what felt like gallons of cum into Maria, leaving the pair to collapse forward onto the bed, holding one another.

Yet even as Aaron held his accidental lover, his member still buried inside her as they spooned, he felt her shudder and murmur and moan. Her fur was spreading again, and then the former maidservant gasped as her nipples swelled, and her breasts grew yet larger. Aaron had one of her hands in his, and it hardened at the tips of her digits. Something pushed out from above her buttocks and slid down against his pubic area, and Aaron immediately knew that it was the start of a tail.

“Maria-”

“I kn-know. Ohhhh . . . I was hoping to avoid this. But my face . . . it’s shorter. God, I feel more normal there! And it’s smaller, too! Proportional.”

She shifted, and the two gasped as his member slid out of her, but it allowed her to twist her body and face him. Sure enough, Aaron was shocked at how much more humanoid Maria now was. She was starting to look . . . beautiful. In an equine way, yes, but beautiful nonetheless.

“Maria . . .”

“Aaron . . .”

The two kissed. They snuggled. And they held one another for a long time. Something about that seemed just right, despite all the insanity.

And then, for no reason at all, and for perhaps all the reasons at the same time, the two burst into laughter; him brassy, her light and mischievous. They giggled and laughed and guffawed and brayed with joy.

Half an hour later, they made love again.

***

The pattern continued over the next week. The pair was magically bonded by the accident with the cabbage leaves and the cabbage-infused drink, but while a slight awkwardness still pervaded between the pair over how compelled they were to be with one another, increasingly both Aaron and Maria not only resigned themselves to their connection, but actively started to embrace it. With each act of sex, Aaron found himself more confident in his male body, and it didn’t hurt that he was so tall and strong either. The feeling of dominance and control during sex was wonderful, but as was the desire to protect Maria, and even help her achieve a better life, one the former maidservant desperately deserved. The fact that they were very sexually compatible didn’t hurt either. Maria came frequently, and almost always with multiple orgasms, whereas Aaron was adjusting to the foreign experience of having one singular, but enormous, rush of relief whenever he discharged his enormous flood of seed into her. They tried a variety of positions, but the best one, they found, was either Maria riding cowgirl (donkeygirl) on Aaron, or Aaron taking her from behind. 

Of course, with each sexual act, Maria’s body changed more and more. After just several days, the fur had spread all the way down her body, and her tail had sprung forth, ropey and swaying just like Aaron’s, and requiring quite a bit of resewing to adjust a hole in her dresses. Her hips spread, her body becoming a little more stocky, though she was already rather curvaceous with a lovely pear-shape to her body, so the change wasn’t too extreme. Indeed, Maria seemed encouraged by it, despite the spread of fur.

“This is marvellous! Are you seeing these hips, Aaron? Don’t lie, I see you noticing them! I think my tits have gotten bigger as well. Or is it just the fur? No, they’re definitely bigger. Tom always said I had quite the pair of cow’s milkers; I wonder what he’d say now!”

“Donkey milkers, I suppose!” Aaron chuckled as he held his lover from behind and dared to cup her heavy breasts and lift them, showing a great deal of furry cleavage above the neckline of her peasant’s dress. “Are you sure you’re okay with this, Maria? You’re not becoming any more human.”

“I know, I know!” Maria said, sighing a little. “I didn’t imagine my salvation would leave me quite so . . . hairy. Or with a tail. But by all the fables, it’s such an improvement!”

Aaron felt his heart flutter. He jokingly squeezed her breasts, an action he used to be annoyed by when guys did it to her, but now he truly understood the fun, and Maria didn’t seem to mind.

“You are very much a man, Aaron,” she said with a brayish chuckle. 

“I am not! Giant donkey dick notwithstanding, you saw how I used to be! I was a very, very popular girl in my home dimension.”

“Well, you’re a popular man now, at least with me. And while we still catch gazes out and about in town, have you noticed we’re not called freaks anymore? And I saw a few women even looking your way, Aaron.”

Aaron blushed, though it was impossible to see beneath his grey fur. He stroked the short light brown hair on top of his head. His hair dye was gone, his natural colour returned.

“I, er, don’t quite know how to take that. I mean, I told you about Joel becoming Bright Bear, and how he adjusted so well to becoming a woman. A bear-woman, no less! And I was astounded, but so happy for him. Her, sorry. Her. And now she’s pregnant with a fairy tale character’s cubs! I remember thinking I could never adjust to that.”

Maria turned and faced the anthro-donkey, running her grey hands down his chest.

“And now?”

“Now . . . I don’t know. I feel like such a man, and I . . . I really like spending time with you, Maria.”

The other woman grinned. “Oh, you can do better than that!” She grabbed Aaron’s hands and placed them around her own waist, so that the two were pressed together, her large furry breasts pressed up against Aaron’s chest, with only their clothing separating fur and flesh from fur and flesh. “Tell me why you like spending time with me. And why you like being a man with me, even if this magical bond was to slip away one morning and vanish over a rainbow!”

Aaron bit his lip and looked away. His ears twitched, his tail swaying a little in thought. “I like . . . how passionate you are. I love how much you love learning. I’ve always been the same. People overlooked me a lot because I was a hot blonde - and I liked being a hot blonde, even though I’m a natural brunette. But I’m also damn smart! I work hard! And I love fiction and physics and learning and trying new things-”

“I’ll say. That position last night . . .”

Aaron chuckled. “You know what I mean! I love that you have that passion too, Maria. I like seeing how brilliant you are with your research. You could have been stuck as a donkey-headed woman for life and given up, but you never did. I . . . I really admire that.”

“And you like the sex.”

“And I like the sex.”

The two laughed again. Aaron had been doing that a lot lately. Despite the fact that Maria was almost a full anthro-donkey woman like her, he found her utterly entrancing, perhaps because of it. Her hooves were starting to come in, and Aaron was looking forward to helping Maria adjust to them; he was now well-practised at walking in them, and the only sad part was that he had loved shoes as a woman, and now would need some kind of specialist cobbler. Or perhaps some fancy horseshoes?

“I like you a lot too,” Maria said. “Ah, hell, I really like you, Aaron. First of all, I go crazy over these pecs and those biceps. But you’re the first person to really get me, you know? I won’t lie, I was always a bit of a screwball. The only one I could be a maidservant to was a whacky witch, after all! Even she barely tolerated me. But you . . . you’re my golden goose.”

Aaron kissed her. It happened so easily, and thanks to their shortened muzzles, it was now a true kiss. They even nuzzled afterwards, and he felt that warmth bloom in his chest in a way he had never felt when it came to his past boyfriends, or even the singular girlfriend he’d once had, Helena. 

“So . . . this Joel/Bright Bear friend of yours,” Maria ventured. “Do you think you’d ever like to stick around like she has? You know, in Fableland? Here, in Stralbruck?”

Aaron paused. “I - I mean, she’s my best friend, and you and I are so close, but . . . I don’t know. This still isn’t my body, even if it has certain . . . benefits. But I don’t want to leave you. Maybe if we could both be human again. Fully human. I like girls too, you know, even as a woman.”

“I don’t,” Maria said bluntly. “Sorry, but them’s the breaks, honey. Shit.”

“Yeah.”

“But . . . is there even a way back? Our cabbage research has gone nowhere, and our magical knowledge is getting better, but I ain’t exactly a master wizard here! Not that I mind the fur - I mean, it comes with an even better figure and a relationship with a man I l - like! A man I like!”

Aaron paused. He was about to investigate what Maria had almost said, but suddenly something caught his attention from the stack of books that Maria had just received from the castle that morning.

“Maria . . . have you looked at those books lately?”

“No, not yet,” the anthro-donkey said. “I was going to, but then you ploughed my nethers and had me braying, you sweet thing!”

But Aaron didn’t chuckle, instead clopping his hooves on the ground as he advanced to the stack of books. He withdrew one from the middle, his tail swaying and long ears twitching atop his head. He held it up.

“Maria . . . this is the Hunstman’s Personal Diary.”

“WHAT!?”

“Look, it even listed the author as Hunstman Hans.”

“But - but he didn’t keep a diary when I knew him! After he failed to turn me back. Mind you, they tossed me out to fend for my own unlucky self not long after, those bastards and bitches.”

“But look, these are older entries. These are his writings from when he was venturing with the cloak and trying to regain it and the bird’s heart. Look, the final entries talk about them here!”

Maria grabbed the book so fast that Aaron actually snortled in an equine fashion from the sheer surprise of it. The thick and curvy donkey woman read one of the last entries.

“And so I had no need of the cloak anymore, for I had found what I wanted in my Sofia. The same was true of the bird’s heart; what desire for treasure did I have, when already I inherited such treasure in her witch mother’s castle and the town of Stralbruck, not to mention the true treasure of my heart with my new wife. I buried the cloak and heart at the crossroads beyond the Talgren Inn where the Three Pigs reside nearby. A simple wooden sign in the shape of a raven marks the burial point and - shit and much and all matter of privy contents! Aaron, you’ve done it!”

She literally jumped up into Aaron’s arms, and the masculinised anthro-donkey caught her with such ease that it made him once again appreciate his incredible strength. The woman peppered his face with kisses, then shifted so that she was in the most female pose possible: her legs slung over Aaron’s left arm, her hands around his neck as she continued kissing him.

“It’s the cloak!” she declared. “The cloak and the bird’s heart! They’re the key, and you’ve found it!”

“You got the books,” Aaron reminded her.

“And you realised their importance! What a perfect pair we make, partner! Quick, let’s pack and get ready! We’ve got a treasure to find!”

Aaron chuckled. “Sweetie, it’s dark out!”

“Oh, that’s right,” Maria said, her expression souring, but only for a moment. She perked up again as she hugged Aaron closer, pressing her heavy bosom against his figure. “Well, you might as well transform me a little further before we both change back, right?”

Aaron’s member rose, and he found himself more than willing to help Maria get her hooves on. They were going to do a lot of walking the next day, after all.

***

Aaron couldn’t stop observing Maria as they made their way past the Talgren Tavern towards the spot mentioned in Hunstman Hans’ diary. Even as the donkey woman muttered endlessly about her disappointment at not being able to get some comical revenge on Sofia and Hans - more of a fantasy than a real desire, Aaron sensed - she moved as if she was meant to be a curvy yet strong donkey woman all along. As if it was her destiny. Aaron couldn’t escape the thought, and it allowed him to appreciate the way her firm buttocks swayed with each step of a hoof, and how her tail shifted from side to side. Her thighs were thick, and it made Aaron disappointed that his mate’s dress skirt obscured them, but he could certainly appreciate her wide hips and thick waist, not to mention her proud bust when she turned back to see him.

“Are you even listening, Aaron?”

“Sorry, I was admiring the view.”

The woman’s nostrils widened as she gave an equine snort. “I’ll bet you were! You know, it’s the strangest thing, but after spending so long as a lady with an ugly donkey head, I’m finding I don’t . . . look, don’t think of me as some village moron here, but I don’t exactly mind being a donkey woman. You know, now that it’s all spread evenly and my face is a nice mix of human and donkey. I think I look damn good, you know?”

“You know that I think that,” Aaron said, taking her hand and walking alongside her. “You’re beautiful. So beautiful. It’s like when I looked at Joel and realised she was now Bright Bear, and God, she’s perfect. Like who she’s always meant to be. And I think that’s true of you as well.”

“Maybe it could be true of both of us,” Maria suggested. “I was a donkey lady for so long that it’s part of me now, but . . . I feel like in just a couple of months, you’ve become part of me too, partner. It’s not just the sex, either, or the magical bond we accidentally created.”

Aaron wasn’t sure how to respond, so he observed the horizon as he grappled with his own uncertainty. He knew exactly what Maria meant; he was indeed feeling more at ease with his body, and enjoying its strength. He wasn’t tired on this walk, nor sweating from the heat, and the sex . . . it was fantastic. He felt powerful and virile, even more than Maria, and her own equine transformation had made her much stronger than an ordinary human woman. 

“Aaron? Do you feel the same way? You’re holding out on me here, partner.”

But then Aaron saw it; the sign by a bush at the crossroads, one that looked like a crude raven in shape.

“There it is!” he announced.

“Good heaven! Quickly! Let’s put our donkey muscles to good use and earn our damn happy ending!”

She raced forward, pulling her shovel from the large bag Aaron had slung over his shoulder. Instantly, she started digging, and Aaron joined her with his own shovel not long after. His heart raced with excitement, but also more than a little trepidation. This was a land of fairytales, but would a cloak that granted wishes be a fantasy too far? And what of the bird’s heart that promised riches when swallowed? Was that even something he desired? No, but Maria could use it, certainly. She deserved everything.

He wanted to give this passionate, funny, and oddball beauty of a woman everything she deserved.

“I’m getting nervous!” Maria exclaimed as she dug. “I’ve never felt so close to victory, but I don’t even know what victory looks like now!”

“Maybe you’re just dumbstruck by the possibility of it!” Aaron replied, shoving another pile of dirt to one side as he dug deeper.

“Are you calling me a ‘bit of an ass’?” Maria said playfully, hauling up the earth. 

“Ha! I’ll say this, Maria, I’ve never met a gal like you!”

“It’s the ears, partner!” the anthro-donkey declared. “And the hips! I always did have nice hips.”

“No,” Aaron said, smiling. “It’s the passion. It’s the fact that you never give up. God, you’re incredible.”

“Of course I am!” the former maidservant declared. “And I’m as stubborn as a mule!”

“Oh God, the puns.”

“The puns come out when I’m keen! Don’t worry, sweetie, I like your ass too.”

Aaron was about to reply, but then his shovel suddenly went clunk, as if striking wood instead of earth or stone. The two of them paused; their equine strength had allowed them to dig a very impressive hole in a very short time. They weren’t even sweating, though Maria had hiked up her skirt which showed off her wonderfully athletic legs.

“Well, that sounded promising!” the woman declared. “Go on, be the man in the relationship! Show off those muscles.”

Aaron cleared the top to reveal a strong wooden chest. He was about to lift it up solo with ease, but then Maria grabbed it before he could.

“Hey! What happened to gentlemanly obligations?”

Maria hee-hawed with good humour. “What was it you taught me from your world; Sorry, not sorry! But I’ve hoped for this moment for years now!”

“Well, I can’t blame you. Are you going to open it? Oh, it’s locked.”

But then Maria did one of the sexiest things that Aaron had ever seen. She hiked her skirt further up, turned around and raised her tail, then kicked out like a powerful mule, striking the lock of the box with her hard hoof. The metal shattered, and Aaron realised he was holding his breath.

“Holy fuck, that was hot.”

“You got a kick out of it, eh?”

“And it’s not hot anymore.”

Maria jumped on the spot in eagerness, but then pulled back. “Can you open this with me? I’m getting nervous here.”

Aaron was happy to oblige, though his own heart was racing. He’d wanted this to take longer, so he could spend more time with Maria. As her mate. As her lover. As a man who . . . had deep feelings for her, in a way he never had for any past partner. Still, he opened it all the same. Sure enough, there were two items in the chest. One was a rather simple yet sturdy-looking red cloak, the kind of cloak for a traveller. The other was a glass jar, within which was a bird’s heart.

“Ew,” they both said at the same time, before sharing a grin. 

“This is it,” said Maria. “I can feel it in my tail! Which, by the way, I’m really starting to like.”

“I could get used to my tail, too,” Aaron admitted, perhaps because theirs were touching at that very moment.

“So . . . what do we do now?” Maria said.

Aaron looked at her with bewilderment. “What do you mean, what do we do? You’ve been wanting this magic for years now!”

“Well, I wanted the magic cabbage. This is just the backup plan, and one that worked out much better, I suppose!”

“Then use it, Maria! No one deserves it more than you. You have the power to change back. So change back! Make your wish!”

Maria picked up the coat and prepared to sling it around her shoulders. But then, to Aaron’s astonishment, she lowered it back into the box.

 “I think . . . I think I finally understand that bastard Hans,” she murmured, her tail swaying slowly, her dark hoof-hands fidgeting. “I might - I could - already have everything I want.” She raised her face to take in Aaron’s, and the man was awestruck in that moment by his mate’s expression. Maria, offbeat in her humour as she often was, was being totally sincere in this moment, her chest rising and falling in nervous breaths. “I have you, partner,” she said. “If you’ll have me.”

Aaron didn’t know what to say. “But Maria . . . I’m from another plane of existence! Another realm! I’m not even meant to be a man! I’m not meant to be a donkey-person, and neither are you!”

The woman snorted. “I didn’t want a donkey head, but this . . . well, I’ve been donkey-like for long enough that I like this. Hell, I love this body. And I know you do too.”

“Of course I do,” Aaron said. “And I love you - oh. Oh wow. I - I love you. Did I just say that?”

“You better have, because otherwise my donkey ears are failing me, and I think I’d burst into tears if it wasn’t true. You love me, don’t you?”

Aaron nodded. It was true. It wasn’t even a revelation. It had been hovering in his mind for weeks now, but now . . . the truth had come out, and now she could recognise it fully. He held his mate and pressed his furry forehead against hers.

“I love you,” he said.

“But you want to change back,” Maria said. “I understand. I do. I won’t stop you.”

“No,” Aaron replied, a new realisation hitting him. “I won’t turn back. If you’re staying like this, then so am I. If you live here, then so will I. And besides, I have to take care of Bright Bear.”

“Oh, so it’s just about her, is it?”

Aaron hee-hawed, then kissed his mate. “Well, there’s this very attractive, very funny, and endlessly stubborn and bull-headed - no, mule-headed woman I met that I’d rather like to build a life with.”

“Yes! YES! YESSS!”

Another leap from Maria, and Aaron was spinning his lover around, kissing her just as she kissed him. His heart leapt. No, it soared, and it was a long time before Maria’s hooves touched the earth again.

“I love you,” Maria said. “Even more than carrots and cabbages.”

“I love you too, partner. So . . . what do we do about the magic cloak and bird’s heart?”

Maria sighed. “We don’t need it. We have all we want. Let’s go and make our lives together.”

They walked hand in hand away, their happily ever after assured, the true magic being their love and-”

“Wait,” Maria said. “This is stupid.”

“Hmm?”

The donkey woman gestured back to the buried treasure. “That’s a magic wish granting cloak right there. And a heart that can grant wealth. I think it’s about time I got my just desserts, wouldn’t you say?”

Aaron slapped his forehead. “You’re right! What are we thinking?”

“Love has made us dumb!”

“It’s turned us into asses!”

“There’s the pun!” Maria declared, before racing back to the chest and throwing on the cloak. “Mind if I do the honours?”

“Only if you include me in the well-wishing!” Aaron declared, holding her from behind.

The woman took the heart from the jar, squeezed her eyes shut, and swallowed it. 

“Ew, that was gross. But if the fairy tale is right, we’ll be receiving coin every night!”

“And your wish?”

Maria turned and kissed her lover, pressing her chest up against him.

“I wish that we were royals of a new and joyous realm. And, I wish there was a royal wedding to come between us in just one week.”

Aaron beamed. He couldn’t imagine a better wish.

“And I wish that my attractive donkey hubbie can please me every night with that wonderful cock of his.”

Well, there was also that, Aaron considered.

The two embraced again, passionate and loving. The cloak flashed a blinding white light that enveloped everything around them.

Finally, their wishes were granted.

To Be Continued . . .