The Lesson

Standing before the edge of the pool, Alex was scared out of her mind. She had been reluctant to take swimming lessons, as she’d always been afraid of pools. Her parents insisted that the only way to beat the fear was to take the lessons so she could learn to swim and learn to enjoy pools. So there she was, standing in front of the pool, in her bathing suit. She had a really great instructor, who could tell how nervous she was and tried to comfort her. It helped a little but she still didn’t want to get into the water. Finally coming up with what she felt was a good solution, the instructor asked Alex to wait by the pool while she got something from her office.

Coming out of her office, the instructor was carrying a squirt bottle, like the ones people use for plants. On it’s side it had a picture of an otter.

“This will help you learn to swim and to like the water”. Skeptical, Alex asked her how it worked and she told her that she just had to spray some on her and in a few minutes she would feel at home in the water. At this point she was willing to try anything so she allowed her to spray her with it. The water felt very strange as it hits her skin, almost instantly she found herself feeling itchy.

“I feel itchy all over,” she said.

“That’s normal. Don’t worry in a few minutes it will be gone”, the instructor said. As she reached her hand up to scratch her arm she saw that her hand looked strange, it was now webbed and her nails seemed to growing longer.

“What’s going on?” she asked the instructor.

“That’s normal too, don’t worry you’ll be fine in a few minutes”. As the instuctor finished talking, dark brown fur began to grow on Alex's arms. The fur was long and soft. Alex watched the fur grow, fascinated by the site of it. She didn’t see that the same fur was growing on her legs as well.

The fur growth on her arms seemed to finish, her arms has covered themselves in a thick pelt of brown fur. She looked at her hands seeing that were now fully webbed and the fingers had changed as well. Both of her hands were covered in a light coating of brown fur. Looking down at her legs, she saw that they too were covered in brown fur except on her inner thighs, where it was beige. Her feet had also changed and were webbed just like her hands. Her toenails had each grown out into a small claw. Looking at her instructor she smiled and said,

“you’re doing great so far”. Her chest began to itch and she saw beige fur growing on it. The sight of fur growing on her chest fascinated her, and she stood there and watched it grow longer and longer, until her entire torso was fully covered in a thick pelt of fur that was beige on her chest, and was dark brown on her back.

Feeling a pulling sensation, she heard a ripping sound, and looked down to see a long fury tail ripping through her bathing suit. Her face started to feel strange, wanting to see what it was doing, she found a mirror and watched. Fur sprouted all over her face, her ears moved to the top of her head and became smaller and round. Her mouth and nose pushed out and became a muzzle, with whiskers growing out from it. The fur grew in as beige on the bottom of her face and on her cheeks and brown elsewhere. The changes stopped, and looking at herself in the mirror, she saw that she was now a young humanoid otter, and a very cute one at that.

She wasn’t sure what to make of this, she suddenly found herself feeling great and wanting to get into the water. The instructor walked up to her and gave her a huge hug, something that felt pretty incredible with all that fur she now had.

“See I told you everything would be okay. How do you feel?” she asked. Looking at her, she smiled and said

“I feel like swimming” Walking towards the pool, she jumped in. The water felt great, and with all that fur it felt very comfortable instead of cold. She found that she suddenly knew how to swim and felt at home in the water. She spent the next 4 hours just playing and swimming and enjoying the water.

The time came where it was time for her to get out of the water and to go home. As she got out, she walked over to the instructor and gave her a hug, thanking her. Walking home, the sun felt incredible on her fur, her new much stronger sense of smell made her feel much more

“there”. She wasn’t sure how her parents would react to an otter kid walking in the door, but one thing was for certain, now instead of dreading her next lesson, she looked forward to it.