A bird chirping happily, was what he heard first after going through the portal. He noticed the pecking feeling similar to that when he hit his head many times in his lifetime, mostly against the jamb, hunting him right now. No doubt his head suffered from a weak headache because of impact, the bird's song seemed to be matched perfectly with the stabbing sensation that he felt. He felt weird, he felt very tired, as if he just woke up from sleep after a rough day spent in his study.

It was dark, very dark. No, it was complete darkness.
This made him tense up immediately after the sudden realization.

Although he saw multicolored stains one sees when he closes his eyes, similar to that of the soapy water that children use for their entertainment to create bubbles. He concluded that there was a sun in the direction he had his eyes facing.

His mind was working slow, even when he woke up, he immediately ran the potential scenarios that the world prepared for him to play his role in.

Was this some side effect? Impossible, the Dragon Queen assured them there won’t be any.

He moved his arms, he could feel them, they were "free" to put it lightly, meaning he didn’t feel heavy, he was quite mobile. He moved his head, now feeling something hard under his head, but that same time, he felt something light and soft brush against his neck, and shoulders and spine and so on further down as he went with his mind and his imagination as he moved slightly around.

He didn’t open his eyes, he brought his hands to cover them and the dark abyss became darker, his theory was proven right, there was the sun the way he faced. The light was falling almost straight at him, he deducted by the flaming warmth.

But this meant that he was on the ground…

His heartbeat increased, his blood rushed to his legs and brain, he quickly was regaining his proper consciousness. He folded one of his legs, and rose up heavily, ending up on his knees, now his back revealed to the sun, he immediately felt the sun warming him up, heat coming mostly from the left side.

He opened his eyes. His eyesight was out of focus, as if he looked through a dirty lense, after blinking too many times to call it healthy, his eyesight improved. First observation was the color green that dominated, then he saw the thin strays of grass, a tiny flower, blueish, somewhat on the edge of turning purple was beneath him. A forget-me-not.

It seemed like the ground was closer than usual, or perhaps his vision was slightly wider? His memories told him that when he was on his knees, with his hands in position as if he was about to perform a plank just like now, it was slightly more away from him than now. The possibility of a side effect occurring after going through the portal was more likely, he took for a given it's just a temporary feeling that will pass. He ignored it.

He stood up, his back was sore, but not much, it was bearable.

Coming back to reality, as he stood there alone, surrounded by nothing more than trees, he searched with his eyes for the portal, only to find nothing in the near area resembling the damn structure.

"Come to think of it, maybe druids were right that humanity had to reconnect with nature again? " Was his thought as he eyed the forest and its dark places corners.

Only now did he realize that he was completely alone, no one was there beside him. He looked around once more, only to once again see what he saw before, a beautiful meadow surrounded by dark and tall, old in that matter, trees.

He reached out, still feeling funky, with his palm open, ready for his spear-wand to come flying back. He waited, but nothing happened.

He looked in the direction he extended his hand, gazing at his bare arm, without his armor on, he blinked and brought it close, his eyes widened as he saw white patches on his arm.

" What is this? " He asked curiously, his voice hoarse as if he was a drunk from profession.

Answering his question, or more like giving him a hint what he should do, in response, the wind blew, making him feel cold, even when it seemed that the weather overall signed it was sunny. The forest trees brushed against one another, creating the sound of a hundred thousand branches and leaves rustling, a sound so iconic for every living being that with nothing on earth can it be mistaken for.

He felt the wind embrace all of him…A freezing feeling similar to that of the electric wave went up his body.

He quickly looked down at himself, his eyes gazing straight at his naked body. His...feet were replaced by hooves, although strange ones, as if belonging to a dear, but not quite at the same time. They were too thick, one toed, but the shape was similar to that of a deer's hooves.

And his legs? They were muscular as he remembered if not slightly more, but it may have been the fur. The fur in the color of his unique skin color, which was the most distinguishing him from other humans characteristic, with white patches over his body, making him look like a cow or dalmatian.

His legs looked like that of a horse or pony, still, he was shocked for what he saw, not entirely believing what he observed. He raised one of his legs and proceeded to stomp. Just like a horse would do. This has proven the reality of what was going on after he dropped his hoof.

There was a good side, as now his body was made for a digitigrade posture he got used to having before the transformation. He had experience in it thanks to his genetic defect that was worsened by the fact of his unusual height. Walking on toes wasn't pleasant, but now, he finally could feel lighter when walking.

He went over to his upper body, passing the crotch area.

His hands and arms, he carefully examined them, they seemed normal, apart from the fur. He touched it, to make sure it was real, it definitely was. He could only describe it as soft in touch, but when he brushed over the opposite direction the fur laid, it was hard and felt unpleasant. As he brushed along, as the fur laid, it was smooth and felt similar to velvet. He had a fatty natural oil on his normal hair, and it seemed that it applied to his fur too.

His nails were pointy and black, he could call them claws, but at the same time, they looked humanoid enough. Their pointy shape together with bigger thickness wasn't enough to call them claws.

He took a breath in, the fresh air made him relax, but his heart raced and he felt more and more pressure in his chest, his mind already rushing to the worst assumption.

His torso looked normal, which really helped him to get back his coolness, despite the horrific situation he has found himself in. The muscle layout looked normal too, he still had his good physique. Compared to a proper soldier he was decent, compared to someone from the city, he could be described as athletic.

What he noticed was that he had hair around the area of his neck. Thankfully, the fiery orange color was the same as his hair on his head, with some of his hair being way darker, some even almost black, which just added an extra charming touch to them. What he didn’t like was that the hair around the chest was curly, creating ringlets.

The hair seemed to make a full circle around, covering all of his upper front part of his chest, making its way down the middle of his sternum, not covering his nipples - which to his surprises were pink - or the middle and bottom part of his chest making it pretty much bare and covered with normal fur. It ended before his arms and neck started, going around and onto his back, probably ending on the third from top vertebrae starting from the end of his neck.

This mane that made him think of a lion's mane, wasn’t as full and thick like a lion's mane. It didn’t cover him entirely, only partially, as if his body was still developing since it looked like a young lion's mane from what he recalled. Which was impossible, because he was after puberty.

He inspected his hair on his head next, he ran his fingers through them, they seemed to be the same length as he liked them, longer than men usually chose to have in Ardania, but not reaching his shoulders, long enough to cover his ears. They were always messy and slicked back. There was a pinch of volume to how they were styled, making them look puffier than they actually were, all thanks to his own method of combing them.

What he found out next soothed his flurried emotional state he was in, as they didn’t feel like wool. For a normal human, it wouldn’t be much of a difference in this situation, for him, it was important.

As he suspected, his ears were longer as well, but he couldn't picture to what animal they belonged.

His hand stopped at something that was growing out his head, round and with a curve, his imagination telling him it looked like a rhino's horn as he further went up with his left hand, but it wasn't as thick and was more oval. He didn’t feel his hand, therefore it didn’t have nerve endings. In touch, at first, it felt as if it was a branch, no, more like a plank straight from the sawmill, because it was rough but the surface was even. The ending point on his head was tiny and razor-sharp. The horn was long, but how long he didn't know. What seemed weird, was that he didn't feel any discomfort in balance, as if it wasn't there in the first place.

He inspected his face at last, he didn’t think that it wouldn’t have changed as he brought his fingers up, but still it was a two in one experience. On one hand, he felt happy, because his previous theory he had, and of which he didn’t want to think of, was proven false and it made him joyful for a few seconds, until he didn’t recognize the shape of his face, or as should be said, his muzzle.

Starting from his eyes, going slowly further down, he could definitely say that his jaw was still symmetrical and was of the semi-square type just like before this. He had a long semi-squarish face, due to inheriting his father's looks and nose rather than just inheriting his mom's heart-shaped face, although her feminine features had some influence on him. Without a mirror, he can't know for sure.

Whatever the case, everything seemed to translate into his new body in some way.

On top, he felt hard bumps, as if bone was growing on the bridge of his nose, that yet it didn’t develop to the end, only small portions were protruding. By shape, it reminded him of scales that fish or dragons had. He immediately disliked this.

His nose presumably wasn’t round, his butt chin wasn't there anymore, which actually was good news for him, he hated it. The bad news was that the thesis that the world seeks balance was true and he received big nostrils, at least he suspected so.

He took a step backward, and jumped quickly in reaction to a bolt of pain hitting him, the part of his body from where it came brushed against the soft grass on which he stood, sending a tickling sensation, covered by the burning but a quick dying feeling of a sharp stab.

A tail, long, round, like that of a pitbull but thicker the closer to the body, only slightly, with bone similar to that which was on the bridge of his nose growing on its back, was the source of his pain.

" What the fuck?! " He exclaimed in surprise.

He grabbed his tail in his hand, and brought it to the front of himself. The end of his tail was like a hand fan made from hair, as hair same as those on his mane and hair on his head grew out on the end of it.

" This too? " He asked in disbelief, throwing it back in anger on the ground.

He tried to control it, looking behind he observed as his tail wiggled left and right. As he tensed his butt cheeks, the tail went up. Standing properly, with his chest full and his belly half-tucked, going into a straight stand, his tail formed a sinusoid and hovered above the ground. He remained in that position to avoid stepping on the tail.

The Young Great Mage suspected that in scale or not, his height was also transferred into his new body. He was much taller than the average male human. Humanity and Monsters suffered from a lack of enough food. They didn’t starve, but food was pricey and agriculture had its place first in the economy rather than craftsmanship or industry.

Hunted by the United One, mostly to sabotage the other Great Mage's, Humans in particular, lacked enough to fully satisfy themselves most of the time, but enough not to starve. This resulted in them becoming shorter with time.

Him coming from a noble family which served the United One and not having to face such problems always getting the right nutrients, and his family members being taller than already someone tall was, allowed him to develop as he should.

" Let me get this straight... " he said out loud, as this made him think better, grabbing his head, as he still felt the aftereffect on his mind after going through the portal.

A muzzle, definitely shaped like a horse’s, but it wasn’t round close to his skull only angular, if anything maybe like a wolfs, but then again his fur on his legs and arms and his whole body reminded him of a horse or other equine creature's coat.

His hooves weren’t exactly equine but were comparable, only equines had one toed hooves from what he knows, although he can be false on this. He wasn’t an expert on animals, but he was sure there was no creature in Ardania or the known world as a matter of fact, that had one toed tear-shaped, thick hooves.

He had a large curved horn, its texture was bizarre even for him. For instance, he had experience with unicorns, and they didn’t have such horns as his. Theirs were long and thin, not always straight, it happened they were curved, at times even wavy. His horn wasn’t bony, it felt like the surface of a regular plank straight from the sawmill, it was thick and long too. He suspected that it was around thirty-five centimeters long.

The Great Mage was sure that his human features were transformed into the closest and most akin equivalents. To metaphorize it more, translated like a message from one language to another.

If so, then...

(Warning, anatomy, although not to richly described.

No, this does not mean he has a small dick)

He looked down, this time examining his more private parts. He never felt weird about this, as he always found doctors who encouraged to do it. If a medical expert said so, there was nothing wrong with it, simple, of course, if someone was a pervert he or she might have done it more often. He didn't mean masturbation by any means of course.

His pubic hair moved down a bit and was not as bushy as he remembered but more straight and...If he had to be sincere about it, for some reason it reminded him of loincloth. His hair was curly at end, just as his natural hair. He had to admit that not shaving for a long time was a bad idea. He took the hair in one hand and so he revealed his genitals.

His testicles were bigger, and by that, he meant bigger. Rather than have one testicle, when taken into hand, covered a part of his palm, it now occupied his whole, but it fitted in his hand and wasn't that large for him to have trouble holding it.

He compared them by looking, and as he suspected, rather than having the right one larger than the left one, they seemed now equal in size, and the skin of his scrotum was not as wrinkled as before, but more stretched. At the same time, they seemed better secured and weren't so freely hanging. It had a polished look, rather strange, as it gave a weak shine in the sun.

His penis, it was sheathed away, his sheath seemed proportionate to his body, meaning he didn’t have to worry about anything in this regard.

(ok, this is the end)

The more he looked, the less comfortable he felt, as he still was a human, only now trapped in an anthropomorphic body of some equine-like breed he never saw. It still was an act of zoophilia.

He was done with looking at himself. It was quite reckless of him to just do it like that, someone might be watching him.

He had to find an answer to all of this, but first, he had to conjure some clothes...

Author's Note

A reminder to everyone who doesn't know the game; that it provided me with a skeleton, the resources to place everything else that will appear in this story.

Please have in mind that things in the official book written by John Helfers was read by me, I'll use it as a reference to many things. Green text means that the following part is true about Ardania and can be found in the book.

What you know about the main character, and the world he came from, for now may seem like not much, and it is supposed to be that way. I want to have something you guys will come back for. I plan on mostly making you use your brains.

Please also consider commenting, and point out the bad sides. Your criticism will make me only better. I made this story first and foremost to get better at the language.

Link to the source of the picture:
https://www.americansouthwest.net/california/sequoia/crescent-meadow_l.html