Keywords: Transformation, Magic Species: Lobster Birthday Wish By Wolphin I'm not sure who started it or when it started, it just seemed to appear one day. Someone mailed the list saying the next day was their birthday and what their birthday wish was. Naturally, it involved some form of change, I can't remember what sort exactly. Two days later, they sent an enthusiastic message telling everyone that their wish came true and they spent their birthday living out their particular change. This idea took off with the list, and soon everyone was sending messages detailing what they wished for then later, how it happened. For a while, everyone was posting, then they slowly faded away, but every now and then someone would post a message entitled "My Birthday Wish" which was almost always followed two days later by a detailed description. I was thinking about this as my birthday approached, thinking how great it would be to be able to do something like this. Anyway, the day before my birthday found me at the computer with a bit of spare time, so after a few minutes of thinking I crafted my wish. I didn't think anything would come of it, the next day just happened to be my birthday so I'd thought I'd follow the trend. This is where I seriously stuffed up. Most of the other people wanted the standard things, horses always seemed popular, as did felines and eternal youth. This was followed by the usual gaggle of assorted creatures - werewolves, dragons, minotaurs, racoons, birds, things like that. So what did I go for? Did I decide to play it safe and go for something which I ever wanted be, like a centaur, dragon or dolphin? No, I had to show off. I was actually quite proud of what I came up with. My wish was to be a lobster. Well, a lobster morph actually. I thought I'd be different. I hadn't seen anyone else do it before. I decided a quick tale about spending a day as a six foot lobster should get their attention. Like I said, I quickly typed out my wish, posted it out and logged off. Later that day, I went out for dinner with a bunch of friends to celebrate my birthday early. I didn't get home until after eleven. The next day was Saturday so I didn't need to go to work and I was looking forward to sleeping in. As I prepared for bed, I thought about what I'd write on the list about my experiences, trying to imagine exactly how a lobster would get around and what it would do. I noticed it was exactly midnight as I hoped into bed. Wishing myself a happy birthday I settled down for the night. A few minutes later, my right hand cramped painfully. I reached over and massaged it with my left, but the pain persisted. In fact, it got worse. Then my left hand began to cramp as well. Alarmed, I fumbled with the bedside light, eventually turning it on and the same time throwing back the sheets to have a close look at my hand. The sudden brightness caused me to squint, but I could easily see something was wrong. For one thing, they were red. Not pinkish, red. The other thing was my fingers had fused into a solid lump and both they, and my thumb, were growing. I stared in fascinated horror as my hands distorted and lengthened. Suddenly, I recognised my hands as growing into claws, large single claws, just like a crab... or a lobster. I instantly thought back to my wish. No, that was just something I typed in, it was only something to dream about. It didn't happen in real life, it COULDN'T happen in real life. I risked another glance at my hands. Any semblance to human hands had completely disappeared. At the end of my arms were two lobster claws. As I stared, the skin hardened into a thick shell. Then the change started up my arms. My arms stayed relatively normal. Well, except for the fact my skin solidified into a shell. It wasn't until the change reached my shoulders that the next major change began. I could feel my back reshaping and forming into a carapace. This extended down to make a tail, I watched it emerge behind my legs. Speaking about legs, I gained a couple, well a lot really. From up near where my stomach use to be, eight small appendages sprouted. Each one grew until it was about three foot long and tipped with its own small claw. The change then seemed to wrap around from behind me, hardening my new shell and making pleopods on the inside of my tail. (I confess, I did not know what these were at the time, but I have done some research into lobsters since. To the layman, these are the small feathery things on the underside of the tail). My human legs, except for growing an armour-like shell, remained remarkably intact. However, it was my upper torso and head which were most affected. From about my waist, up to about my neck a hard shell formed, leaving small gaps from which my new legs protruded. With some alarm, I found my head forced back as the change progressed. To be honest, it felt like I was slowly exploding, my mouth was pulled down. My nose, now pointing into the air, hardened into a beak-like point and my eyes were pulled out onto stalks. From where my nose use to be, two long feelers and four short ones sprung out into the air. I can't really describe what happened to my mouth. I felt bits grow, other bits shrink, I didn't know what was happening. Then my shell hardened over my ears and all was still. I waited a few more moments to see if anything else would happen, but it appeared to be complete. For about the next ten minutes I lay there, not moving, trying to determine if I was awake or asleep. If I was asleep, this was the most realistic dream I had ever had and if I was awake I was going insane. Eventually, I couldn't stand it any longer. I had to know for myself, I had to have a look in the mirror. Slowly and cautiously I started to get out of bed. Left me tell you, trying to get out of bed when you are a seven foot tall lobster, with a total of twelve legs or arms or whatever they are called, a tail and not being able to bend is very, very difficult. It took me four attempts and on the final attempt I knocked over the lamp. It hit the ground just as I made it to my feet. I felt the globe smash. I didn't hear it smash, I felt it, through my antenna. Somehow I knew that the glass had smashed. That was a bit of a shock. I stood there in the darkness for a while, feeling around me. There was a slight breeze flowing through my room. Somewhere in front of me was the door, don't ask me how I knew, I just did. Then, one of my longer feelers brushed my back. I knew it was my back. I was transfixed. Don't ask me how long I spent there, standing in the dark running my feelers all over my new body. I didn't need a mirror, I could tell from feel alone. With the tip of my shell, I stood about seven foot high, my main feelers were longer than that though, as they touched the ground behind me. When they weren't needed they folded neatly behind me. My arms had now become my dominant set on pincers, but my legs had stayed pretty much human, giving me better mobility I realised. I could individually control each of the smaller legs protruding from my chest - a very weird feeling. My tail was something else, It extended down my back, fanning out at the end, just like a normal lobster, but was slightly shorter than my legs meaning it didn't drag on the ground. My mouth was surrounded by small hairs, like combs, which could be used to direct food towards my mouth. It was about 3am by the time I stopped marvelling at myself. By that stage I had figured out how to walk around and keep my balance. I had also learnt my eyes had no eyelids, so I almost blinded myself when I finally managed to turn on a light. My eyesight was not that good anyway, I preferred to rely on my feelers. By this stage I had decided to get out and do something more interesting. Luckily, I only live a five minute walk from the beach. The only problem was there was an awful lot of open ground between me and the sea, I didn't want to know how other people would react when they saw me, but that was a risk I had to take. I wanted to go swimming! I kept to the shadows as I wandered down the road, wondering what the neighbours would say if they looked outside. I was almost there and was starting to relax when a police car came around the bend. I was silhouetted in the headlights against a white wall, there was no way they could of missed me. However, they just continued as if I wasn't there. At this, I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe it was something about the change which made me invisible or something. No one else on the mailing list had ever complained about being spotted or maybe my new shell came with 'Stealth Technology'. :-) After my close shave with the law, I hurried on to the beach. The sand felt wonderful beneath my feet, er claws, umm things. I quickly waded into the water. The water was almost dead calm and I automatically sunk down onto my other legs, using them to move me over the sea floor. With some surprise I noticed I was filtering the water through the combs by my mouth gaining both oxygen and small bits of food. My human legs were neatly folded out of the way, leaving my tail unencumbered. Using some unknown instinct, I snapped my tail and propelled myself backwards into the deeper water. I do not know how long I spent like that. I remember wandering around the sea floor scavenging. I don't think I ate anything particularly horrid, but if I did I don't want to know. I remember noticing the sea lighten as the day dawned and spending a long time sheltering under a large rocky ledge, waiting for it to get dark again. Eventually, the sun went down and I resumed my wanderings. Somehow I found myself in shallow water and knew it was time to return. I slowly emerged from the water, moving from eight legs onto two. I then started to walk home. Luckily, I didn't see another soul on the way there. Entering through the side door, I somehow knew it was all over. It was a shame really, being a lobster was a considerably different to what I thought it would be like. I couldn't wait to get on the list and tell everyone about it, but they probably wouldn't believe me, what I needed was some proof. Proof, of course! A photograph! I kept a camera on my desk. I reached out in the darkness and felt for it with a feeler. There it was! Deftly, I reached out with a claw and tried to grab it. Unfortunately, I still wasn't very good at gauging my own strength, I'm afraid to say the camera shattered, so the photos will have to wait. Just then, the reverse change started. I felt my tail, legs and feelers being sucked back inside my body (very weird) and my shell begin to soften and dissolve. Soon my claws had separated back into individual fingers. Inside, I could feel my skeleton reforming, suddenly I could bend and flex again, but my bones were still soft and I collapsed in a heap on the floor. My head slowly shrunk back to a rounded shape. My eyes were pulled in and over the top of my skull. The remains of the combs by my mouth were absorbed by my skin and teeth grew from my gums. Finally, my ears re-emerged from the side of my head and I could head again. For a moment, I lay in a heap on the floor, waiting to ensure everything was completely finished. Then I slowly got to my feet and looked around. The clock opposite flipped over to 12:00, marking the end of my birthday. I thought about the previous day. I had never had a birthday like it, but already I was planning what I'd wish for next year...