A Walk in the Woods?

Pegasus TF.

"Let's get hunting!" said Randy, stepping out of the mud stained pickup truck, Stan following behind. Stan and his friends, Randy, Jason, Matt, and Stan's wife, Brenda, were all out on a hunting trip in their usual spot in Pegasus Forest, outside of Trenton. The name sounded a bit silly obviously but it had the title for a reason. Some folks say that there is an actual living Pegasus in the vast wooded area, peacefully living its life as a legend. However, the magnificent creature hasn't been officially spotted, yet. There have been numerous eye witnesses of the Pegasus but they always turn up to be nothing but a fake.

Brenda was heading to the back of the pickup to grab the rest of the gangs weapons, while the others stood around a mini grill on rough barrels, talking about what they expect to hunt down on this beautiful day. "Man I tell you what, that Pegasus is going to be on the back of the truck today yes sirie!"  Matt babbled, taking a big gulp out of a bottle of Heineken. "Damn Matt, you still believe in that Pegasus bull shit? It aint real for the last friggen time!" Jason announced, putting on his hunter cap. Stan sat up from the barrel to get a smoked sausage slice off the burning grill. "Come on fella's, who cares about that legend crap? Besides, I heard that there is a lot of deer around this part." Said Stan, chomping on a sausage. "Come on, gals, I got your guns here." Yelled out Brenda, carrying a large sack of weapons.

She thumped the sack down onto the dirt and opened up to reveal a disco of metal reflecting off of the guns. "Okay, I call the double barrel this time, since Randy can't be trusted with it anymore, dumbass." Said Brenda, beaming down at Randy. "I'm an idiot, what can I say?" exclaimed Randy, rubbing this cigar into the dirt and walking towards the weapons. Once Brenda took the shotgun, all the others scrabbled for the rest. Matt ended up with a simple sniper with a busted scope, Randy snatched the old fashioned carbine, covered in dust, Jason grabbed a small 9mm pistol with good grip, and Stan ended up with his old friend, his normal 12 gauge shotgun.

"Alright, make sure you got your vest on and your guns loaded up. I want to come home with something today." Stan said, rubbing off some smudges from this gun. "Stan, are we grouping today or we spreading out cause last time we grouped, Jason wacked me in the head with his gun from reacting to a running raccoon." Randy asked, staring at Jason. "Lets spread out this time, maybe once of us will run into the Pegasus!" Stan and the rest of the group laughed, except Matt, who put a frown on his face. "Alright, everyone meet us here at noon so we can grab some grub." Brenda called out, walking into the forest. "Well, here I go to get the Pegasus" Matt said, running off into another part of the woods. Randy didn't say anything; he simply slowly walked into the looming woods. Jason loaded his gun and ran off into the forest, leaving Stan alone. "I'm going to go in the back door." He said out loud.

Stan turned the opposite direction from where the others ran to, towards the back part of the woods. Stan never did see this part as often as the main area, for it is much smaller but yet treacherous. As a matter of fact, very few people have even been to the back part of the forest, leaving it an open ground for game. Stan began to walk towards the woods, putting his gun on fire mode. Out of the corner of his eye, Stan saw something flash in the woods, making slight crackling sounds as it ran. Stan instantly froze, attempting to see it again. Nothing happened for a couple of minutes, just the sound of birds cheerfully chirping in the nearby trees and the occasional bang of a gun from the other hunters.

Slowly, Stan continued to walk towards the woods, still confused on what he saw. When he entered the crude path, he noticed on the ground some animal tracks. Stan kneeled down to observe the animal tracks more closely. They looked like horse hooves to Stan, freshly made too. "What the hell?" Stan spoke out loud, inspecting the tracks. Stan stood back up on his feet and began to follow the direction of the animal track, determined to find out what it was he witnessed. As he was walking low to the ground and gun in hand, Stan began to feel a strange presence in his mind, as if there was something nearby to him. The more he followed the tracks, the stronger the presence got in his mind. It got to the point in time where the presence began to give Stan a small headache, not wanting to leave him alone. His thoughts were diverted, when he gazed up upon something he wasn't expecting to see drinking from a stream.

It was what all the legends described it to be, what all of the supposed nut heads were blabbing about, it was the Pegasus. Its angelic wings lit up the area around Stan, while its horn was looking sharper than ever. "Unbelievable." Stan whispered out loud. Just that single whisper however was enough to get the creatures attention. The Pegasus looked up from the reflecting waters of the stream, and beamed down Stan.

Its eyes seemed to sink into Stan's skin, coursing through his entire body. The Pegasus stomped both of its front hooves, as if it were about to attack. "Its like that huh? Die you son of a bitch!" Stan yelled, about to pull his trigger. A split second before he pulled down the cold iron trigger of the weapon, the Pegasus let out a cry and launched a small beam of light from its horn into Stan's chest, causing him to get knocked over and pulling the trigger on the gun. The slug in the shotgun bursted out of the barrel, and landing into the neck of the mighty Pegasus.

The creature wobbled around, stomping on the ground repeatedly, and fell face first into the stream, creating a splash of water. Stan got up on his knees, wondering what had just happened to him. The beam of light that entered his chest stung Stan, as he clenched it. It was as though someone threw a spear into his chest and the pain of it seeped through his body. Stan stood up on his feet and took another look at the Pegasus, the water around it now blood red. He pulled out his cell phone to take a quick picture of it to show the others what just happened.

As he was fiddling with his phone, Stan felt a slight itching feeling in both of his feet, as if something was biting him. He ignored it for now and took the picture, slightly blurred. Stan picked his gun off the ground, and began to run back down the path. While running, Stan felt like he was running faster than he ever did before, like he was in some sort of dream. The more Stan continued to run, the itchier his ankle and chin got. When he broke into the opening, Stan noticed that the others have already returned to the camp, chatting around and eating beef slices. "Hey, its Stan!" Randy called out, putting his fork on the stove top.

"Guys you won't believe what I just shot-" Stan never finished his sentence, before he felt the itchiness spring up his leg. "What's that Stan?" Jason shouted. Stan was confused now, trying to figure out what to say. "Umm, I'll be right back; I think I left some ammo back in the woods." Stan shouted running back into the path and out of sight from the others. Panting, Stan crouched onto the ground. He began to feel his foot crack and pop, as a huge pain exploded from it, echoing the woods nearby. Stan ripped off his pants and shoes to find short, white hair growing on his leg, going under his boxers. He noticed his foot wasn't even a foot anymore now, rather a full blown horse hoof, pure black. "What the." Stan said out loud, his voice fading away. Stan tried to stand up on his new feet, but found this to be very difficult, so he just went back into the previous position.

A sudden pain struck his legs, as they began to expand an atrocious amount, ripping his boxers right off of him. As his legs were expanding upwards, gaining layers of muscle and new bones and veins, Stan felt a tingle in his lower spine and saw a long, straight hair tail pop out of him, right above his pelvis. Stan screamed and fell onto his hands, his lower body entirely one of a horse, jutting upwards while the rest of his body was downwards. By now, his entire body was covered in the strange white fur, making him start to sweat. Stan looked under him (in the position he is in by now) and saw his belly beginning to grow, ripping his vest and under shirt off of him and completely reforming the position of all of his internal organs and lungs. As the belly grew, so did the spine, causing Stan to grow at least two feet. Strange essences and thoughts began to appear in Stan's mind, alien to him almost.

He tried to push them away but the more he did, the more they seemed normal to him. His thoughts were distracted, when he saw his arms began to grow as well, gaining height. White fur began to shoot out of his arm, crawling up to his now large torso. Stan's fingers began to fuse together in a rounded shape, creating another pair of hooves on his once arms now legs. Stan looked like a hybrid between a horse and a human, leaving the only the head still human, regarding that it is now totally covered in white fur. Stan tried to yell out, but all that came was a flapping of the lips. The pain in Stan's neck was too much for him, as he fell onto his side, unable to save his fall, as he landed with a mighty thump, as his neck started to grow up, completely rearranging everything in his body. His blood flow, organs, bones, and muscles seemed to scream out at Stan in a terrifying shriek.

A long mane bursted out of Stan's now very elongated neck, a dim shade of yellow. And at last, was the skull. Stan looked out in front of him as he began to observe and feel his jaw bone and nose seemingly being pulled out and stretched from his skull. The contents of his mouth rearranged to the new jaw, along with the rest of his skull. Stan felt that his ears began to crawl up the sides of his head, as the top part of the mane grew out. Once the ears have reached the top and the mane now fully grown, the large horn started to pierce through Stan's skin, causing a slight trickle of blood to run down his head and drip onto the ground. "Stan! You ok?" Stan suddenly heard the shout of what sounded like Matt, but the veins and bones cracking in his new body made it hard to differ. Stan tried to run away but combined with the pain surging through all of his limbs and the almost no experienced runner at all, Stan was stuck in place, unable to move at all. Although he couldn't see it, Stan certainly felt the pain of the horn perched between his eyes, further changing his skull.

"I think I heard something over this way." And at last, were the wings. It started slow, but managed to gain momentum, as the wings sprouted out of Stan's back, creating a small aurora of light to come out of it. It looked like something that came out of a fantasy book, the legend of the mighty Pegasus, living its life in a forest. "Over here!" As the angelic wings reached their peak, Stan found himself able to move again. Picking up his hoof, Stan found this movement extremely awkward to him. Every now and then, Stan would fumble while walking and fall over, but his new instincts kicked in and helped him out. "Guys look!" Stan froze in place and turned around to find his friend Matt, jaw opened and looking at him.

Stan knew he couldn't talk now but he could make jesters to communicate. Randy, Jason, and Brenda all ran up the path and stood beside Matt, now all of their jaws open. "Stan?" Brenda said, in utter shock. Stan moved his head up and down to say yes. "What happened to you?" Randy asked. Stan pulled his head back, saying follow me, as he started to gallop down the path at a tremendous speed. He didn't have to go far to find the carcass of the Pegasus, still lying in the water. Stan waited a moment for the others to catch up to him, panting and running out of breath. Stan didn't even have to do anything, for the rest of the guys have already looked at the carcass of the beast.