“The world that we live in didn’t come into being out of nothing,” Mrs. Hedwig said as she paced around the classroom, “It came about as the result of the decisions of a few people. It also came about as the result of the decisions of many people. And It also came about as the result of no decision.”

She was a porcupine woman, or a “Pinny” as the slang word for her kind was. She was a woman in her thirties, married, and was as prim and proper as a teacher could be.

Or at least Michael thought so.

“You think she has quills down there?” his friend Justine snickered at his side.

Being that Hedwig was barely five feet tall, Michael’s eyes had to travel far to sort of look at the place in question. And, honestly? Mrs. Hedwig’s crotch didn’t look any different than anyone else through her clothing.

“Maybe they are soft?” Michael wondered back as his mind filled with possibilities.

“If they are, I bet she stiffens them up, just because,” his friend replied.

“She’s not that bad,” Michael whispered back. In response, his friend made a disgusted face at him.

Porcupine people weren’t exactly the most popular of individuals, but the sheer amount of suppositions that other species had about them was just ludicrous.

“Don’t tell me you are sweet on her,” his friend whispered back and Michael had to sigh.

“Do I have to be?” he groused and the fact that the whole class went quiet immediately let him know that something was wrong.

“Mr. Yokebreaker, Mr. Fanning, care to tell the class what you are talking about?” Mrs. Hedwig tilted a carefully slicked and sharp eyebrow.

“Ah, no, no, we were just talking about what you were saying is all,” Justine was quick to reply.

“And what was I talking about?” Mrs. Hedwig asked.

“Something about…history?” Justine half stated half asked.

“...see me after class, Mr. Fanning,” the porcupine woman told him before turning to Michael, “What about you Mr. Yokebreaker?”

Michael cringed in his seat as he felt every single eye on him.

He hated this. He hated being the center of attention. He hated being the one to stand out!

Stupid Justine!

In the end, he had nothing to say.

So he said nothing.

“...see me after class as well Mr. Yokebreaker,” Mrs. Hedwig sighed before turning around.

“As I was saying,” she continued, “The Seven Piece Nation came about out of factors our ancestors both controlled and didn’t. Add interdimensional physics, or what people used to call ‘magic’, into the mix and it’s hard to distinguish the two..”

Michael grumbled as he slunk back into his seat.

He already knew this. He had read the whole textbook even before the first week of class was done.

He could have given an answer. He could have not…been the ignorable nothing he usually was. Why was he always like this?

Even Justine managed to say something!

“What a bitch, am I right?” his friend whispered to him when he thought that Mrs. Hedwig wasn’t looking.

“I suppose.” Michael allowed, if only because he was in no mood to fight. It was his fault anyway!

“And you still like her?” he asked again.

“I don’t,” Michael started to hiss out but stopped himself when he felt that his teacher was starting to perk up in his direction.

He allowed the moment to pass and, a few minutes later, he responded.

“Not her in particular,” Michael responded to his friend, “Just…I don’t mind Porcupine people.”

“But they have quills everywhere,” Justine answered back.

“Yeah, and you like to take mud baths,” Michael shot back.

“Hey, that’s for medical reasons,” his friend hissed back, pausing when he also felt their teacher sort of pay attention to them.

“...Besides,” he whispered after a while, “You obviously haven’t seen pig girls in mud. Yum.”

Michael’s friend Justine was, as it happened, a hog boy.

They were both eighteen years old and attending Mintcone High in Sundane. Fall was fast approaching and the stable biome that they lived in was not overly affected by interdimensional storms like in some places.

That meant that people didn’t have to regiment themselves as much, which allowed species to indulge in their natural past times.

Like mud bathing.

“I’ve seen them too,” Michael grumbled.

“...so?” Justine asked.

Michael always hated being the center of attention. He couldn’t help it; there was always a part of him that felt anxious when people looked up to him. Like his friend was doing right now.

The difference was that he knew he could live up to his friend’s expectations.

“They look good,” Michael ended up capitulating to his friend.

The shake of victory that Justine gave his hand, made them draw Mrs. Hedwig’s full attention again, and it was all they could do for the rest of the class to not be constantly put on the spot.

“But seriously,  I didn’t think you’d like porcupine girls,” Justine said after school. They hadn’t gotten detention this time, but Mrs. Hedwig had given them a stern talking-to.

“Why not?” Michael asked as he hefted his bag. And the truth was that while he didn’t see their teacher in any particular way, her face was slim, her eyes were large, and her quills were bright red. He couldn’t help it; In his mind she was attractive.

“Because you are human?” Justine said as if it were obvious.

And that was the other thing.

Michael’s species.

“I mean, I like pig girls too?” Michael defended himself. It was an irrational thing to do, given how unintentional such observations were, but he always had to keep himself from acting upon them.

“Well, yeah, but everyone should like pig girls,” Justine replied as if it were obvious. Completely ignoring Michael’s anxiousness.

And that right there was the reason that they were friends; Justine was completely impervious to Michael’s weirdness.

“I mean, it’s not like I have statistics or anything to back this up, right?” Justine continued as they walked, “But I would be willing to bet anything that the species who other races most shag up with is us pigs.”

“Huh-uh,” Michael said with disbelief.

“And, moreover,” he pushed on, “the race most humans willingly end up with!”

“I mean, wouldn’t you?” he ended with a knowing smirk.

“I suppose,” Michael noncommittally said. Honestly, he wouldn’t mind ending up with some nice chubby pig girl, “But…I think I could say that about all species.”

The look Justine gave him made him fidget uncomfortably.

“So, is that a human thing,” Justine began to ask, “Or-”

“It’s a “me” thing,” Michael harshly replied. And then, with a bit more doubt, “...I think.”

It’s not like he had given it any particular thought, but it was indeed the case that there wasn’t a single female from any species that didn’t do it for him in some way or form.

“Huh, well, it’s a good thing I suppose,” Justine shrugged, “I mean, coercion has been banned for a while, so more humans being willing to be with the greater races can only be a good thing.”

“Yeah thanks,” Michael rolled his eyes, “It’s good to know that I am being appreciated for what’s hanging between my legs.”

“I mean, I’ve seen what humans carry between their legs,” Justine snarked, “Honestly? Not impressed. But then not many can compete with the ‘Swirl’.”

“I’ve read that girls prefer girthy dicks rather than long swirly ones,” Michael shot back, the obscene topic making him faaar more at ease.

“Slander!” Justine said, “Slander and lies!”

“Oh?” Michael rose to the bait. Or, rather, he only hesitated for a second before raising to the bait.

Justine was his friend after all, right?

“Why don’t we ask your mom?” Michael said and, for a second, worried that he had made a crucial mistake.

“Ptffff, why don’t we ask yours,” The hog boy shot back, “I mean, you can’t tell me a big hunky cow like her hasn’t had a buffet of dicks all her life!”

“Your pig girls are the ones that have husbands on a contractual basis,” Michael pointed out, “Isn’t this the second year of your current stepfather?”

“Oh please,” Justine waved the issue off as if it didn't matter, “That contract ended last summer. Now she’s a pure virginal single mother again.”

“Well, my own hasn’t had anyone,” Michael said, smiling victoriously.

“What about before you got adopted?” Justine asked.

And just like that, Michael’s good mood evaporated.

“What?” Justine asked as Michael started walking away, “What’s going on?”

“Hey, what did I say!” Justine ran to Michael.

“Dude, did I go too far?” Justine asked Michael as he grabbed him by the shoulder.

And it was all Michael could do to not punch him in the eye.

But in the end, Justine was his friend.

“I…just don’t like talking about the life Mom had before,” Michael finally replied.

“Ah, really?” Justine tilted his head, “-But I could have sworn we talked about it before.”

“...maybe,” Michael allowed, “I don’t know, sometimes it’s not cool. Sometimes it really bugs me I guess.”

“Oh, sorry bud,” Justine replied.

And so they walked in silence for a while more.

“But I still think your mom is fuckable as fuck,” Justine said after a while.

Actually making Michael laugh.

“No, I am serious,” Justine went on, “Listen, she might not be a pig girl, but a cow like her? Oh wee, she is one mud bath away from me from proposing a husband contract to her!”

“Uh,” Michael considered that, “What would your mom say if I presented one to her?”

Justine raised a hand, a quip ready in his mouth before he paused.

And then closed his mouth.

And lowered his finger.

“Hmmm,” Justine actually thought about it, “The deviation index in my family is not that bad.”

“So you know what?” he smirked, “Ma doesn’t have to give you the time of day.”

Ah, the deviation index.

Michael was informed that most humans hated it and what role it made them have in society. The fact was that no species could infinitely breed within their own without at some point undergoing horrible transformations. No species, that is, except humans.

It was the one good thing about them, or so it was said.

They weren’t fast. They weren’t strong. They were hairless and not much smarter than everyone else. And so breeding fodder to keep every single other species of the Seven Piece Nation from devolving was all they were good for.

So when it came to humans, the question of whether they were found attractive didn’t even enter the picture. And the less said about whether humans found others attractive, the better.

Not that it mattered to Michael; He wasn’t raised with humans after all.

“So it’s that a yes?” Michael pushed.

“Oh fuck you,” Justine replied.

In the end, the conversation kept going until they each had to part for their homes.

“Mom?” Michael called out as he came inside his house. It was a three-story building that had been built for a large family of large people in mind. 

But so far as Michael could remember, it had only been him and his Ma.

And sometimes Aunt Laz. Or rather, a lot of times Aunt Laz. She made the place feel lively.

He passed through large portraits in the walls full of people he was never going to know and had taught himself to ignore. 

“Mom?” he called again, putting his bag in one of the sofas of the living room, and walking towards the kitchen. So far, nobody had answered, but that wasn’t really indicative of anything. 

Sometimes his mother was coming late for work.

“Honey?” his mother sleepily called out as her room from the second floor opened and she came out. And some other times were like this, with his mother taking a nap right after coming from work.

“Do you want me to cook, Mom?” Michael asked as he went directly to the fridge.

“Oh, thanks love,” his mother’s husky voice called out and Michael paused as just her voice made him tingle, “But I gotta be back at…what time is it?”

“Five after three?” The young human asked and he heard his mother shut her door.

One minute after, she was running down the stairs.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” she was grumbling as she was putting her work shirt on. She was juggling a briefcase with one free hand as she also simultaneously tried to smooth her skirt down.

She also inadvertently made her adopted son turn away from her.

At eight feet in height, Yasmine Yokebreaker was an impressive example of both a minotaur and a member of her gender. Of average height for a minotaur, she had long flowing hair that draped her horns and shoulders like a silky cascade of brown.

She had a brief beautiful snout that framed her deep blue eyes. She had a slender neck that widened into slender shoulders that somehow managed to hold on to two humongous mammaries the size of her own head. 

Her stomach was thin, but her hips and ass were humongous. At least enough to suffocate Michael if she ever sat on him. Her thighs were meaty, her feet had absolutely fabulous hooves, and the almost white-brown fur that went through most of her skin was smooth.

And in that moment of struggle, Michael managed to get peaks of it all.

“Oh Fuck,” she muttered again as she managed to push her shirt past her tits and managed to push her skirt down to her knees, “Oh shit, why didn’t the timer work?”

“You have to go back to work?” Michael frowned.

“I-yes, Momma has to go back to work love,” Yasmine huffed, calming down, “But don’t worry, this might be the last time I do so. I am so close to being done.”

“If you say so ma,” Michael replied as he opened the refrigerator to see what to make for himself.

“Oh, wait, where is the vial?” Yasmine gasped as she opened her briefcase and searched for it, “I can’t return to work without it!”

Peering at the refrigerator, Michael noticed that there was a small bottle that looked a lot like one of the unmarked fruit preservatives they had.

“You mean this one?” Michael brandished the one that he least recognized. And, since he was thinking about it, he also pulled out the jam; if he was going to be eating by himself he might as well make it easy.

“Yes, that!” Yasmine happily walked to her son.

“Oh you are life saver hon,” the Cow bent down to place a kiss on Michael’s brow.

“What was that doing in the fridge anyway?” Michael asked as he flushed.

“A colleague took a sample by accident,” Yasmine confessed, “And asked me to take it since I was going back to work.”

“Oh, is it dangerous?” Michael looked at the sample.

“No-yes-maybe?” Yasmine struggled to say, “It’s for aurochization, but this is just one of the formulas we are working on.”

“Wait, you are working on aurochization?” Michael asked and his mother immediately cringed as she realized what she had said.

“Never you mind that hon,” she replied as she put the vial down on the table and spread her hands, “Now come give me a hug.”

Putting the jam down, Michael did as his mother bid and hugged her neck tightly.

“Oh baby I love you,” Yasmine said as they both enjoyed each other’s comfort.

“I am eighteen, Mom,” Michael reminded her, but there was no heat behind it.

“You’ll always be a baby to me,” she replied and let him go.

“Now don’t stay up late, got it?” she told him as she picked up a vial and put it in her briefcase.

“Yeah, yeah,” Michael replied as he opened his jam and took crackers out.

Aurochization, huh? 

It was what had taken his mother’s family away. And what had given her to him.

When the deviation index of someone from the greater species got too high, they underwent an atavistic devolution that affected everyone in a different way. Some people started to suffer organ failure as their bodies changed into forms that it could no longer sustain. 

Some “merely” went insane.

There were many theories about why this was, but most of them had to do with the interdimensional physics of the world they lived in. Connected as it was to other times in space for brief stretches, it had gathered the best most valuable species able to survive it. It was they who had studied the storms that broke time and space, and who had painstakingly developed the biomes that even now were expanding under the strange rays and lights of a mind-breaking storm.

But in mastering the world, the great species had lost themselves.

Aurochs were the ancient form of monsters that the body of Minotaurs wanted to turn into when their deviation index was too high. And although every single species devolved into something else, the change in Minotaurs was so violent and sudden, that the name in reference to them stuck; Aurochization.

Thus far, the only way to keep it from affecting an individual was to start with their parents. Or more to the point, one of their ancestors. Fresh blood that did not suffer from this malady lowered the index, and it was enough that someone spread this genealogy every now and then to keep a community healthy.

It was why humans were valuable. It was perhaps the only thing that gave humans value.

They were not affected by it. Supposedly, because they were already as devolved as they were going to get. Or so the jokes went.

Simply breeding different species into the other had been tried in the past. And while that did lower the index somewhat, it also put a time bomb on the community that did it, as their deviation index became harder and harder to stabilize afterward.

And what came from different greater races combining their blood? Monsters.

Their bodies did not fail as they changed into different competing forms, and their minds slowly gave way to different instincts. These things, these creatures, were called Chimeras and they made each of the species develop a distaste for each other, if only for practical reasons.

Which put humanity in an awkward position, because they weren’t exempt from this distaste.

But all of that was irrelevant to Michael.

Because as human as he was, he was the son of the minotauress Yasmine Yokebreaker, senior researcher at the Sundane Institute.

At thirty-eight years old, she had worked there long enough to develop both social and political capital to make his situation…relatively comfortable.

But for some time now, Michael’s aim had not been to just be comfortable. To just be content.

Rather…he wanted his mother.

He was fine with marrying, being the concubine of, or studding for any one of the other species. He found just about everyone irresistible. Everyone except, ironically, other humans. 

But if he could, if it was his choice? He would pick his mom.

It was his quiet shame, the thing that he hid deep inside his heart. And it hurt because he loved her in so many other ways besides that. And yet he knew that he could never be with her.

Because that was not his purpose. 

He was there to make a good go of replacing the family his mother had lost to the whims of a high deviation index.

And he was supposed to be content with that.

Sighing, he spread his crackers out and opened his bottle of jam.

He wrinkled his nose at the somewhat off smell that it gave, so he scooped up a little bit of it and put it in his mouth.

…it was slightly citrusy, but it tasted like nothing.

“Oh geez, Mom,” Michael grumbled to himself, “Stop buying the diet jam.”

But all the same, he put some in one of his crackers as he thought about maybe just eating some cereal instead.

Decision made, he put the vial back in the refrigerator.

Not knowing that his mother had taken the wrong vial to work.

Michael did not sleep well that night.

He stirred and tumbled as he felt himself come down with a heavy fever. He felt hot and yet shivered as if he was going to freeze over.

His bones felt brittle as if they were going to crack, and his nose felt on fire, as if he were smelling everything for the first time.

He could taste the stale air of his closet from his bed. The light of the moon stabbed at his eyes from beneath closed eyelids.

The sound of the wind scraped at the skin inside his ears!

The world rumbled and turned all the way down to the core of this planet, and he could feel it.

His thoughts churned like sea foam, millions of things he had never considered coming to the fore, fancies that he had once had and forgotten being remembered with absolute clarity. Hungers, lusts, lamentations, anger, and hatreds were all being maximized to the point that he felt himself about to go insane!

And then it clicked.

Something inside of him clicked.

His blood stabilized itself, turning, binding, and leading the alchemical soup that had almost been his body into an orchestra of work. The things that could safely change, were changed. The things that could safely form were formed.

A mind fit for a body like this was tempered out of this insane fever dream.

And then, in the morning…Michael woke up.

“So what you are saying is that you might fuck a porcupine chick if she shaved,” Justine said as they walked.

Michael had woken up with something of a headache but it quickly went away as he got some coffee and breakfast.

But that did not mean that he was in any mood to joke just right then.

“I would do it even if she didn’t,” Michael grunted and his friend laughed, “What, you think I wouldn’t?”

Justine just laughed harder.

“I am just saying, if a porcupine chick shaved, would she be a porcupine at all?” Justine asked.

“If you knocked her up, would she push porcupine rugrats out?” Michael asked with some annoyance.

“I guess?” Justine with distaste.

“Then yes, she is still one,” Michael replied. Oh boy, he had done it; talking this much had made his headache return.

“Ok,” Justine nodded, “But what if-”

“Justine, bud?” Michale interrupted him, “Can you do me a favor and shut up?”

He bristled for the first time that he had seen him.

“Dude, the fuck?” Justine asked.

“Hey, hey,” Michael said, putting a finger in front of his face.

With the headache that he had, Michael didn’t notice when Justine’s eyes locked into the finger.

“I think I was sick last night,” he said moving his finger back and forth, Justine’s eyes following it, “And I would appreciate it if you didn’t make this morning worse.”

And then they continued walking, Justine staring at Michael in silence.

“Look, please just let me for right now,” Michael said, feeling a bit disturbed by it.

“Ok,” Justine nodded, his eyes losing a glaze Michael hadn’t realized they had, “I can do that.”

And then they got to school.

In blessed silence.

“So, anyway, bird chicks, right? Well, not their babies. I am not a sick fuck,” the hog boy continued to talk to Michael in Mrs. Hedwig’s class.

“Huh-uh,” Michael replied, unconvinced. He didn’t have every single class with his friend, so he had a few classes to recover from the night before. The more time passed, the better he felt. The better he felt, the more bullshit he could put up with.

Although it had to be said that his friend heaped a whole lot of it in.

“Yeah ok, well,” Justine continued on, “They don’t like to get their feathers “dirty” right?”

“I am aware,” Michael replied. He liked that about them.

“Imagine if they took a mud bath though,” he began and Michael couldn’t help it.

He groaned.

“Mr. Yokebreaker, Mr. Fanning?” Mrs. Hedwig hissed at them.

She wasn’t lecturing them this time, but she had told them to study in silence. People always whispered all the same, but he guessed he was a little bit too loud.

“Yeah, Mrs. Hedwig?” Justine asked, giving her his most winsome smile.

“Do I need to have another talk with you?” the porcupine lady sternly said.

“Um, well,” Justine seemed to be hard upon before nudging Michael, “Help me out, dude.”

Feeling annoyed at the attention he was receiving, Michael sighed.

But allowed a smile to slip into his face.

Mrs. Hedwig automatically fixated on it.

“We are just talking about class missus Hedwig,” Michael said, “Just ignore us this once.”

Mrs. Hedwig slowly shook her head before looking at him again, “Alright Mr. Yokebreaker, but just this once.”

And then she went back to her own work.

“...hey Michael,” Justine whispered after a while, “Nice going!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Michael replied as he buried his head into his arms.

Gosh, that headache was back.

“Hey ma,” Michael yelled as he dropped his bag by the door and stretched, “You taking a nap?”

A while later he heard a door open on the second floor.

“Well, I was,” Yasmine called out, “Have some consideration for your poor old mother, son.”

“Old my ass,” Michael said as he strutted into the kitchen, “You look better than most girls my age.”

“...did something good happen hon?” Yasmine called out as she started coming down, “You sound...happy, I guess?”

“Well, I had a headache all day,” Michael grumbled as he opened the fridge, “So I don’t see how?”

“Ah,” Yasmine said as she rounded into the kitchen, “You are being deliberately disrespectful then.”

Michael paused at that.

“Sorry?” he said as he realized how he was behaving.

“No, no,” the huge milf shook her head, “People warned me that this day would one day come. Your rebellious phase.”

“Umm,” Michael wasn’t sure where this was going.

“So I mentally prepared myself for this long ago,” the brown-furred cow said before reaching out with her hand and grabbing his head.

Just as she leaned down and pressed her own against it.

“Listen here kiddo,” Yasmine said as she stared at him in the eye, “I want you to not be bad. Can you do that for me?”

“Ummm,” Michael replied as he was close enough to kiss her.

“Great!” Yasmine said before letting him go.

“Glad that’s oOo-” she stuttered to a stop.

There was a glaze in her eyes.

“Mom?” Michael asked.

“-over, right.” Yasmine said, shaking her head, “Damn night work must be getting to me.”

“Yeeeah,” Michael breathed out. Well, that happened.

“Alright, so,” she said as she sat down, “What’s for lunch?”

“Well,” Michael considered the case, “The diet yam you bought went flat I think.”

“...how can yam go flat?” Yasmine frowned.

So Michael pulled the vial out and passed it on to her.

Yasmine opened took it and opened the lid as she carefully took a whiff.

And then her eyes went wide to the point that they almost popped off.

“Fuck, fuck, FUCK!” She desperately said as she scrambled to get her briefcase.

“Mom?” Michael asked as his minotauress mother went around collecting clothing articles that she had discarded earlier.

“Make dinner,” She told him, “I just need to get this back to the lab!”

“What?” Michael gasped. He ate that!

“Oh fuck, I hope they haven’t noticed yet,” Yasmine started to panic as she put her shoes on.

“MOM!” Michael yelled out, making her flinch.

“What?” Yasmine responded with some frustration before realizing that her son was in front of her.

And reaching out for her face.

“Mom, please,” Michael begged, cradling her face as their eyes locked, “Talk to me.”

For a brief moment, Yasmine was quiet.

For a brief moment, her eyes glazed over.

And then it was gone.

“Alright, sure,” she nodded.

“Really?” Michael asked in surprise.

“I really shouldn’t, but I’ll do it,” She responded, sounding monotonous, “The vial in question is the result of one of many formulas that use interdimensional physics to hopefully retard or stop high deviation index changes from taking place.”

“Really, how?” Michael asked.

“The hope is that by making people that already are changing change into something…stable that will at least be able to save their lives,” Yasmine frowned as she spoke, “Not quite a cure, but a stabilizing treatment.”

“I see, so it’s important…” Michael sighed, “Ok, just be careful.”

And then Yasmine smiled brilliantly, “I always am, baby.”

Leaving a kiss on his brow that made his skin tingle, Yasmine was done getting ready and exited their home.

Leaving Michael to frown at the place where she was.

…was he just seeing things? The glaze in the eye, the monotony of voice, was something going on with his mom? It was only later that he realized that the same things had happened to his friend and teacher.

But for now? The first inkling that he had of his changes was when he went to take a bath.

“W-what the fuck is THIS!” Michael gaped as he took his pants off.

Because, hanging from his legs? Was the biggest cock he had ever seen.

At his base, he had a huge canid knot. The cock actually ended halfway down, incomplete in what he realized with mounting horror was a medial ring.

If…if it was any indication, his dick would be as large as his forearm when fully erect!

And, oh boy, at the thought of being erect, his cock started to stir.

Showing him that it had one last surprise for him.

His glans, which had been a normal mushroom head before? Was the flat-headed flare of a horse’s cock.