"It's no use, I just don't have that creative spark." Leon half-sighed his words as closed the notebook he'd been sketching in, running a hand through his red hair as he started dragging himself away from his still unfinished project. He'd spent at least four hours trying to draw something that he didn't regret immediately afterwords. "I just wanted to make a hyena, is that too much to ask?" It was strange, he could draw ears just fine, same with paws, and he could do tails all day. But as soon as he tried to put them together, it turned out a mess.

He wandered off towards the small apartment's kitchen, having gone a bit longer than he should have without stopping to eat anything tonight. It was about then that he felt something strange, a sudden chill swept through his body, warmth growing at the base of his spine as he felt a growing pressure straining against the seat of his jeans, building and building until-

Rrrrip

The straining denim of his gave way with the triumphant sound of tearing fabric, revealing the source of the pressure. A brown, rope-like tail, ending in a brushy tuft of black fur was sticking through the artist's now torn pants and underwear. He stared in stunned silence at his new appendage, watching, and feeling, it swish from side to side. This was just a dream, right? But it couldn't be, he could actually feel the tail brushing against the legs of his now-ruined jeans.

"How is this happen-?" Before the artist could finish, he felt a wave of changes surging out from the base of his new tail, more tears forming in his pants to reveal the spotted fur that now coated his rump, and was rapidly spreading over his hips and thighs. A moment later, the changes slipped under his ankles. Leon stumbled, landing on his new tail with a sharp whine as his shoes started to swell, straining to contain his shifting feet.

With some difficulty, he made his way off of the carpet and over to the couch, taking a moment to move his tail out from under his rump as his shoelaces pulled themselves taut. Kicking his feet up on the armrest to get a better view of what was happening. The tennis shoes put a valiant effort, but he could already see, and feel, a set of growing claws making bumps in the front of each shoe. It was only a moment later that toes of his shoes burst open, leaving the tattered remains hanging around his ankles, shredded beyond salvation by his new paws, coated in short brown fur, and tipped with small claws that had already spelled the end of his footwear.

Giving his altered feet an experimental flex, he caught himself questioning whether it was normal that the joints of his outer toes came higher than the middle ones, before reminding himself that none of this was normal, and that this shouldn't even be possible. The artist decided to take advantage of the lull in his changes to take inventory of the situation, he'd developed a coat of fur from the waist down, none of pants were liable to fit like this, that had been his only pair of shoes, and his roommates were probably already on their way home.

He pulled his shirt off just in time to see the sandy fur that had slowly been covering his belly speed up, twisting around, he could get a partial glimpse of a spotted coat forming over his back as well. It wasn't long before the fur had reached up to his shoulders, flowing down his arms faster than it had climbed his torso on its was there. His hands developed leathery pads as they became more paw-like, thankfully topping short of becoming complete paws all the way like his feet had done. At least he'd have thumbs after whatever was making this happen was through with him.

He felt another wave of warmth stretching his neck out as the transformation moved into its last stages. His head leaning back, jaw forced open by a feeling similar to a yawn. His eyes slipped shut, only to open to a view of a short, brown-furred muzzle, rolling his tongue over his teeth to find that they now came to carnivorous points. His new ears drooped as he caught his reflection in the surface of the glass table, he had become a humanoid hyena creature. His eyes had kept their original green color, but that was the only similarity to his appearance earlier that day. His short red hair had become a wild brown mane that trailed down the back of his neck, his and his ears had moved up the sides of his head and taken the distinctive shape of a hyena's. But honestly, he didn't look half bad.

He waited in the couch for several minutes, then searched the entire apartment for anything that could explain what just happened or why, but it quickly became apparent that nothing turned up. Since he wasn't likely to figure out anytime soon, he only had one question left. "How am I going to explain this to my roommates when they get back?"