A ~1750 word long reality change story.
Second and probably last story for doggust this year.
This time gonna cool off and went with SFW. I really like this type of tf trigger. :3

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Today's weather was great for biking. Sun shining above, just a few scattered clouds to give momentary rest from sunlight and the mild wind carrying breeze from the sea, just a few minutes away from the path. Elias was at it for a 3rd hour now, going on roads most people avoided to get to the sea and just scraping around the edges of tourist hotspots. All he really wanted was to ride in peace and take in the sights of nature, not people and cars.

Eventually, Elias began looking for a good spot to get off his bike and let his body rest. A few minutes later, he found just the place. Between two trees, shielding from most of the sunlight, was a grassy spot to sit down and let the bike stand. The real selling point was the view, a huge field of grass, with sheep grazing around and the sea visible past the green. It was almost hard to believe it wasn't some sort of painting.

Elias moved the bike towards one of the trees and propped it against it, then he walked over to the fence and leaned on it. For a moment he closed his eyes and slowly breathed in, filling his lungs with cool air, smelling of salt, grass and sheep. At the same speed, he exhaled, releasing all the excessive heat from previous exercise. The slow inhales and exhales continued, intensifying the focus on the sounds of the wind and bleating sheep. With the body temperature lowered and heartbeat stabilised, Elias opened his eyes to look at the grassy field again.

He was about to turn away, but there was something about those sheep that made him look longer. They seemed too spread out and it was bugging him for some reason. The fence was sturdy enough for Elias to sit on top of it and keep looking at the woolly animals. With his legs rhythmically swinging in the air, he tried to understand the discomfort at the back of his head.

There was no answer he could think of however. No matter how much he tried, it didn't feel like something logical. He wanted to know though, making him get off the fence and onto the grassy field. Perhaps he could ask the owner of the sheep, after all, somebody handling them would know what's wrong. However there was no person around and the closest building was quite far away and the sheep were on the way there. Since he was already trespassing and it was just a tiny detour, Elias started slowly walking towards the scattered herd to inspect it up close.

Some of them looked up at him as the distance grew shorter, but then the went back to grazing. For some reason, their lack of survival instinct annoyed him, mixing with the previous feeling like paint. The unknown feeling seemed clearer now, but still too vague to decipher. At the very least, he knew moving closer was gonna give him an answer eventually.

Finally, he got close enough to touch one of them, if he tried. The closest sheep didn't seem to care and when it seemed to do, it just made a "baa" and started walking away from the rest. At that moment, something snapped in Elias.

"Hey! Get back here!" He shouted at the sheep, resulting in nothing. No reaction at all, like he didn't exist or was less important than the grass the sheep was eating. With shouting not working, Elias ran in front of the animal and looked it in the eyes, something he just knew to do automatically. Unfortunately it worked only for a few seconds, before he was ignored again and the sheep walked around him. This was no longer about understanding what he was feeling, but about getting the control and herding properly.

Elias tried running in front of the sheep and staring at it again, but this time, he let the automatic movements play out without any resistance. The running part went just as before, but before giving it a stare, Elias lowered himself onto his hands, forming a four limbed stance. The sheep stopped in its tracks and then… it did a 180 and walked back to the bulk of the flock. It actually worked and made Elias feel satisfaction like never before, distracting him from how he looked from the sidelines.

"That's right, get back in there!" Elias shouted at the sheep after he stood up back like a person. However, as if the sheep conspired against him, the flock began scattering more than they were before. Seeing this, Elias got to work immediately, picking a target and running in front of it to get on fours and stare it down. While it kept working and the sheep he targeted turned back, he simply wasn't fast enough to handle all of them. The herd was spreading further and further apart and to make things worse, the sheep he's already handled were rebelling again, the moment he wasn't looking.

Stubbornly, Elias kept standing up, running to the next woolly beast, getting low and turning it back, before repeating the process again. "Too slow…" he thought to himself. If it wasn't working, maybe he could speed up the process somehow. On one of the repeats, he skipped the getting up part and stayed low on all fours, like an animal. And surprisingly? It worked.

By the time he would have previously stood up, he was already on the way to the next sheep and when he would be lowering himself, the sheep was already on its way back. While it still wasn't enough to let him handle the entirety of the flock, it was an improvement and a guideline to get even better. All he needed was to simplify the process more.

The shoes were rubbing against his feet for a while now and he had to adjust them every few steps. This time, he skipped one adjustment and the shoes went flying behind him, together with the socks. Despite his feet now being bare, somehow they gripped the ground better than with the shoes, allowing for more reckless turns. He didn't need to know the claws and padding he was not sporting was the cause.

The next thing to go was the shorts that slipped off on their own and made Elias fall. He tumbled on the grass and it took a couple seconds to get out of a daze. Elias stood up and looked back at the drop spot, but the shorts were nowhere to be seen. It was strange, but there was no time to think, the sheep were scattering again. At least the discomfort at the base of the spine stopped and not having bottom wear seemed quite normal. So normal in fact, the underwear being gone, despite not falling off, didn't even register.

And so, he was herding the sheep for over ten minutes now. His legs turned to shorter dog legs, covered in patches of white and black fur, with more useful paws and a tail moving in the air to counter balance. Despite changing so far already, he was too eager to complete his new mission to notice it. Even when he caught a glimpse of pads and stubbier fingers on his hand, not only did it not alert him, it felt normal like something he's seen countless times.

Elias was eventually forced to sit, tucking his back legs under his hips and keeping his half-paws in front of him. The heat made his tongue fall out of his mouth and hang to the side as he took rapid breaths, watching the progress of his work slowly disappear. Even after all that effort, he wasn't quite good enough for the sheep to obey. Rather than give up, he quickly self reflected to find the causes, before the rest of the flock scattered.

It was too hot and the movement of his arms was restricted, so he tried removing the grass stained shirt. He was confused that he couldn't grab it at all, with his arms refusing to bend backwards. Since he was in a rush and the shirt was dirty from the grass anyway, he didn't think for long and rolled on the ground until it was gone. One problem solved.

Next was the issue of spatial awareness. Keeping track of so many sheep around him was hard to do with just his eyes, especially since his point of view lowered and colors became muted. He racked his brain as hard as he could and suddenly recollected the anecdote of removing one sense to strengthen the other. It was pretty ridiculous to close his eyes and expect something to change, but by dumb luck and his progressively more canine circumstances, it worked. He sniffed the air and the more he did, the more he knew. Each sheep had something distinct about it in its smell and the trail of scent showed the path towards it. With more focus his ears twitched, adding direction to each movement around him and detecting the worst offenders to flock integrity.

When the catalogue of smells and map in his mind was complete, Elias opened his eyes and began running. One by one, he stared down entire groups, making them turn back to a single spot. He was finally doing it right and felt in control over his woolly friends, so he could keep them safe. The happiness of doing a great job, made his throat rumble and eventually erupt into triumphant barks.

Just as he was finishing, he heard a whistle coming from the direction of the buildings. He somehow knew to direct all the sheep to the fence pen next to a barn. When the last sheep went past the gate, a man closed it and whistled again, before calling to Elias. "Rocky, come 'ere boy!" The voice and the name resonated with him. It made him happy and eager to approach the man, who now seemed more and more familiar to him.

"Good job buddy! You kept them all safe and sound while I was busy." The man lowered himself and scratched behind the collie's ears with both hands. "That's a dog boy. You must be hungry after a job well done." The man stopped the petting, stood up and turned towards the path to the house. "Let's go Rocky!"

Rocky ran after the man. There never was the bike, human clothes or Elias. Just Rocky, the border collie herding sheep everyday for years.