Strutting
Life as a law student is a life with little free time and lots of time spent with your eyes inbooks and your neck hurting from the awkward angles it has to bend. As such whenever Noah
had a chance to get away from his books, he took it. Of course, when he finally had a Sunday
where he could take a break, it was raining.
Rather than spend another day inside, Noah had looked up what to do around Moorehead.
The movies all sucked, no concerts, the only thing that really stood out was the aviary outside ofCharlotte. Noah had no particular like or dislike of birds. Well, he’d eaten plenty of them, butthat was just life. Besides, it was go to the aviary or stay inside and read. Plust the aviary wascheap.
The aviary was a massive square stone and glass building, with a slightly smaller cage
inside that reminded Noah of a grain silo. The whole thing was humid as could be, despite thecool weather outside.
After paying to get in, Noah was met in the antechamber to the cage by a lady in shorts
and a black shirt. She held a tray of small plastic cups with some kind of green liquid. Noah
wrinkled his nose.
“It’s cups of nectar, to attract…the…birds?” The woman was caught off guard by Noah.
Noah was of average height with pale skin caused by never seeing the sun. His eyes wereblue, made bigger by his glasses (no prescription, warn to look smarter) and his hair was brown
and cut short.
What stood out though was his clothes. Noah was wearing a three piece suit, a cheap
imitation of more expensive ones he planned to wear every day. He wore two golden rings on hisleft hand and one massive gold one on the pinkie of his right. In addition he wore cufflinks withglass that were meant to look like diamonds.
“...Sir don’t you think you’ll be uncomfortable in that?” The lady asked, noting she could
see her reflection in his shoes.
“If you want to be a success, dress like it.” Noah said.
“Yes but it’s going to be“I paid to get in, I don’t need a lecture from you.” Noah said. “You need to give me mycup or get out of my way.” The woman smiled, while also biting down on her tongue hardenough to draw blood.
“You know, with everything that shiny, you won’t need it.” The woman said, moving outof the way. “Enjoy.” Noah shrugged and headed inside.
The humidity somehow got worse. Noah’s hair was pretty quickly pasted to his forehead.
His glasses were fogged up, causing him to stumble forward blindly. Not helping things was theconstant birds chirping. They were so loud that it was almost deafening.
While Noah stumbled around, trying to see, the birds all turned to the light reflecting offof him. Noah’s glasses and rings sparkled with every movement. A jackdaw chirped and leapt
onto Noah’s hand, trying to pull the ring free with its beak.

“Get off of me you future chicken dinner!” Noah snapped, smacking the jackdaw away.
Or at least trying to, the jackdaw easily fluttered away. A mynah quickly took its place, again
trying to get Noah’s ring. Noah again swung and made no contact.
By now many birds were watching, waiting to steal the shiny things. But not all. One birdon the ground now approached. Noah’s big swinging movements, shiny clothes and loud noises
had attracted a peahen. She watched him sway back and forth, giving a cry of joy.
“Damn birds, why won’t they leave me alone!?” Noah snapped. He turned his back to thepeahen. “Fuck off! All of you, fuck-” She ran in and pecked him in the butt. “YOW!”
Noah leapt almost a foot off the ground, grabbing his butt. His glasses fell off, only for afeathered fiend to swoop in and grab them. “Goddamn it, give me those back!” The bird was
already gone, along with the glasses.
“Damn it…” Noah turned to, see the peahen who had pecked him. She chirped andcocked her head. “Wow you are one ugly thing. What the hell are you?” The peahen chirped
again. She turned her head, looking for the mating display to begin.
Thankfully she wouldn’t have to wait long.
Noah’s heart began racing. His hands were shaking. Somehow Noah began sweating evenharder. The peahen chirped with enjoyment, this was a good start. Noah tried to speak, but histongue was bone dry. He swallowed.
“What-what-what did you do to me?” Noah asked. “Did you give me rabies? Can birds
do that?” The peahen chirped. Noah’s butt began to burn. He groaned. “Fuuuuck, what was inyour mouth? I’m going to need a tetanus shot!”Noah’s skin was bubbling just above his butt. Lumps began to appear, with Noah’s skin
being stretched like putty. Now the pants of an actual expensive suit would be able to contain thechanges Noah was undergoing.
But Noah didn’t have an expensive suit, he had a cheap knock off. And right away thethreads began to pop.
“What the hell?” Noah looked over his shoulder, to see the seat of his pants inflating.
Then he heard the fabric beginning to tear. And a bright green feather poked out from it.
If Noah could have screamed, he would have. The seat of his pants were inflating further
and further, with little green feathers peaking out. Now Noah could feel pain as well. Thefeathers were being folded over, clumping together and rubbing against his butt.
The peahen chirped and soon all of the birds were chirping with her. It sounded like they
were encouraging it. Noah tried to spit more profanity at them, but he couldn’t do it. All he could
do was push and let it out.
The back of Noah’s pants blew apart like an old tire. A mass of green, orange, blue andyellow feathers spread out. These were sized for a human, not a peacock, so they went well over
Noah’s head. The peahen watched this with an expression suggesting she was in love.
“What the fucking fuckity fuck!?” Noah screamed. He tried to turn around to get a betterview of the feathers, spinning in a circle as he did. The peahen watched and began to imagine theeggs they’d lay.

“Sir, please don’t scream.” The woman with the nectar now entered the cage, “You’ll
disturb the-oh wow.” Noah looked at her, eyes wide with confusion. “Okay you appear to havepeacock feathers.”“You think!?” Noah cried. His feet now began to heat up. Unlike his butt though, theywere shrinking. His toes were melting into each other, into the talons of a peacock. “Get me outof here! I don’t want to be a peacock!”
The woman was paralyzed with confusion. She tried to speak, but the moving feathers
kept distracting her. They were massive. Finally, she found her voice.
“What…what do you do?”“Excuse me?”“What do you do for a living?” The woman asked. Noah’s growing talons began to claw
at the cheap leather of his shoes.
“What do I do!? I’m in law school!” Noah cried. “I’m studying real estate law! You want
my birth date and social too you bitch?” He continued to hold his feathers out. The womangiggled.
“You know, you’re train rattling right? With your feathers?” She pointed. “It’s too attract
mates.” Noah gave her a withering look. “Sorry. So, are you going to help people save theirhouses?”“Save their houses?” Noah asked. “Lady, the real money is with the banks. Now get meout of here!” She tapped her chin.
“Nah. We need a new peacock and fewer lawyers tossing people out of home.” The
woman ran back to the cage door. Noah tried to follow but the giant tail feathers caused him totrip as he did. Not aiding things were the dark gray talons that ripped through his shoes. Three ofthem in the front, easily cutting through the cheap leather.
The peahen followed closely behind. Noah had landed on his face. She stood behind himand squawked as Noah pushed himself off. He growled with frustration and rubbed the top of hishead, it had begun to itch.
“You fucking bitch!” Noah grabbed the cage and shook it. “Let me out of here!” From thetop of Noah’s head, stiff spines had begun to push. At the tip of each spine, a little crest offeathers began to grow.
“Why would I do that?” The woman asked, just far enough away to not be touched.
“Your corona is just starting to grow in, what kind of bird keeper would I be if I didn’t let it comeout? Your mate would be most displeased.” Noah looked over his shoulder in confusion, at thepeahen who chirped again.
“Mate? What are you babbling about?” Noah asked. His corona finished growing out,
multiple feathers on top of his head forming a beautiful crest. The peahen watched it withapproval. The feathers were sapphire blue with a tinge of sea green.
Noah’s face now began to warm up. He tried to ignore it, instead focusing his anger on
the peahen. Despite himself, Noah was still showing off his tail feathers.

“It’s your fault!” Noah cried. Around his eyes, the skin prickled. A down of whitefeathers began to grow out. They glided along the bottom and top of his eyes, two lines that
didn’t touch. They instead grew towards his nose.
“I want you to stop this!” Noah said, trying to look intimidating to the peahen. “Stopchanging me and turn me back!” The peahen cocked her head and chirped. “I don’t want to give
you a full nest of eggs!” She chirped again. “I don’t care if you think my feathers look nice!”
Noah’s nose began to shrink, while the nostrils pulled into two vertical lines. All bone
and cartilage instead moved into Noah’s lips. They slowly changed from red to a pale gray. They
also began to grow.
“You’re going to change me back!” Noah yelled. “I demand it!” His upper lip dried out
first and his lower quickly followed suit. His upper lip became pointed and hooked slightly over
his lower lip. With every word, Noah’s lips clicked.
The peahen for her part just watched and enjoyed the show. Noah’s neck was also
growing along with his new beak. A peacock had a long neck, proportional to a human it had toget bigger.
Blue feathers grew along with the skin. Noah instinctively bent his neck into an S shape,barely registering the sapphire blue feathers that quickly coated it. He glared at the peahen whowas completely indifferent to this.
“I don’t want to give you chicks.” Noah said to the peahen. His legs were losing mass,
but they were unable to tear through the legs of his pants. Noah’s suit was beginning to become aproblem. Every growing feather made him feel more and more tangled in fabric.
Noah was about to yell again, when one of his teeth fell out. No blood came, just thetooth. Another fell out and then another. They landed in the dirt. Noah tried to hold them in placewith his fingers, but everyone he pushed in caused another to fall out.
Instead of gums, Noah was soon pressing against the hard surface of a beak. His upper lip
soon reached its full, light gray, size. It curved downward over his lower up. Noah tried to speak,
all that came out were bird noises.
The peahen now approached Noah. He tried to swat her way, but she easily dodged him.
The peahen bit onto one of the loose flaps of Noah’s cheap pants and began to tear. Noah hadbegun leaning forward as he stood there by instinct, this actually made tearing things easier.
Noah squawked, but it didn’t matter. The peahen was easily able to tear the fabric of hispants, revealing changing legs and tan feathers around his thighs. Jason’s knees were shifting,allowing him to sit down with his legs folded under him.
All of this should have distressed Noah, but he had a bigger distraction. Now hisfingernails were falling out. Three rings now fell and landed on the ground. The jackdaw fromearlier swooped down and grabbed one of them. Noah glared at, but the jackdaw just swoopedpast him. As they did, Noah’s fingers began to merge. The bones and skin both felt as if they
were melting.

Noah tried to stop it by putting his beak between two melting fingers, but all the others
were quickly folded into a single, solid wing. All the while the bones under Noah’s skin weresliding, grinding and shifting.
The bones of an arm and a wing are very different, unsurprisingly. As such, as Noah’sarms were becoming wings, his bones were shattering and reforming so fast that he could feel nopain. It was like a puzzle that could be put together multiple ways.
Noah was soon able to fold in his arms. The wings sticking out of his suit soon gained
green and blue feathers.
By now the most important changes had finished. What was left was a human sizedpeacock wearing the remains of a cheap suit. Noah chirped angrily at the peahen, who ignoredhim. She continued to peck at his suit, trying to rip it free. Noah tried pulling away, right as thefinal changes hit.
Noah’s sleeves began to hang low over his wings, very low. Then they hung over them.
Noah was shrinking. Rapidly he lost height, while his suit became a cage of fabric, He leapt to
two legs and tried to get himself free.
All this resulted in was a lot of wing flapping, tail shaking and more tangled fabric. Thepeahen waited until Noah calmed down, before resuming pulling off the fabric. Noah could do
nothing but wait, until he was finally free.
“Well well well, this I like to see.” Noah and the peahen turned, to see the nectar lady
entering the cage. She held up both hands and made sure to keep her distance from Noah. The
new peacock flared all of his feathers as best he could.
“Let’s be honest now, the world needs a new lawyer as much as it needs a new black
widow spider.” The woman said. “And you weren’t much to look at. You walked in here,
strutting like a peacock. I just made it official.”
Noah wanted to lunge at her. He wanted to peck at her until the remains were pecked into
the dirt. At the same time, Noah was dealing with a new instinct. He had a young, fertile female
beside him. She liked his feathers, didn’t she?
Something said yes, but Noah had to know. With one fluid motion, Noah stood andunfurled his full tail feathers. The peahen was suitably impressed.