Perplexion of the Lady
My stab at fairytale lycanthropy. Let me know if you want me to write more!
It was not a baleful or maliciously deliberate change, but though it was neither painful or forced, the Lady found herself taken aback by her new form.
When at first she coordinated her body, it did not respond as it might have prior the transformation. Everything was too quick, too sudden to properly register--and the proportions of her body and its motions were all wrong--when she realized that her sleek new body no longer carried her clothing, that it slid down to her haunches...?
It was only when the new limb twitched from the Lady's rear, that she realized how starkly she had regressed. No longer a lovely woman, she had become a critter--nay, even a beast! For only an animal bore a tail such as the one she held and palmed in her tiny, clawed hands--stark white, with a black bob-tip.
When the realization finally dawned that she had become some manner of very large stoat, she palmed her freshly-whiskered face in shock, and then let out an inhuman cry--some manner of squeak or chirrup.
* * *
Life shortly after the change was awkward and at times the Lady did naught but sulk, curled in upon her own new form, trying to recall how this disaster had stricken her. Some manner of magic, surely, had come crashing upon her unready body, and reshaped her to its whims, but she could not recall the events just prior her shocking change. She knew she had been human, once; and a beautiful one to whom her suitors came and went--for she was neither satisfied with them, nor herself. Now she could only shelter in the beautiful skirt and blouse she had once worn for them, as her fur soiled those garments with an earthen musk that now remained a part of her as much as her own soul.
Standing upon two legs was awkward and at times strenuous, and she quickly fell to all fours as a beast to move, carrying her sinuously long body on her four stubby limbs with alarming alacrity. Soon it became second nature to move as this; yet she often stood contemplatively when she could, often spying her image on water, and wishing in vain to turn back.
Weeks and months passed, and the Lady was devoured by her animal nature, as it drew her to feed in turn on other beasts for nourishment. The first pangs of hunger that she violently resisted eroded with time, as she was drawn deeper into the mind of a meager stoat. Her first begrudging attempts at hunting became more and more like a game, as she lost herself to the behaviors of a predator; scenting her prey, stalking it, sneaking and pouncing--and at last, after a week of growing lean and desperate, she buried her newfound fangs into the head of a hare; taking its life in an instant, as is the technique with weasels. It wasn't even deliberate--almost a fever dream as she found herself making the motions almost intuitively, as if some ancient memory had resurfaced, that had been brought about in time of need.
Sating her stomach became a past-time, and the Lady dissolved into a new being--the Ermine. The Ermine held onto the knowledge that she had once been the Lady, but knew not whether it was possible to become the Lady again--for a new avenue had opened in her life; indeed, by force. While the change itself had been gentle and ephemeral, there was no apparent return to the time before--so of course, living with her changes became necessity. She began to admire and utilize her body's strengths, and not to fight them.