The old man in a beat up old robe reached over and picked up the phone just as it is started to ring. "Hello. Spells 'R' Us, may I help you?

"Yes, Charlie left with the shipment this morning. They should be there tomorrow.

"That's right. Everything you asked for: candy, stuffed animals, special prizes...

"No, I decided to let Charlie pick those up en route. Don't worry; I'm sure you'll be happy with the shipment. The items will fit in very nicely with your celebration.

"Well you have an interesting day also. I hope your celebration is a success." He smiled as he hung up the phone and walked out into his shop to greet the tall man wearing a trench coat about to enter the store.

"Ah, Mister Black. I've been waiting for you. Please come in," he smiled, gesturing toward the back of the store. "How did you know... ah, you must be my contact. They said you would be notified I was coming." The tall man followed the proprietor into the back of the store surreptitiously checking for anyone watching through the windows.

"Your contact, yes. I have the information you are looking for," the old fellow smiled and moved to the corner of the shop.

"Ok, where's the stuff?"

"Not here. It is on a truck that pulled out this afternoon. You should be able to catch up to it tonight. Here let me give you the details and where you can catch up with it."

The truck made its way through a sea of pines. The rhythmic thumping of the expansion joints, added to the hum of the wheels over the concrete, produced a hypnotic effect. Charlie looked at the clock. Almost midnight and the boss had said to find a place to park for the night and make the rest of the trip in the morning. If there was one thing Charlie was sure of, it was "always follow the boss' instructions for a shipment."

Charlie took the next exit and pulled off at a large truck stop. A quick flip of a switch and the satellite link confirmed the location and downtime. Within seconds Charlie had bags in hand and was headed into the restaurant for a shower and some chow. Charlie didn't see the dark gray van that pulled in behind the truck, failed to notice the four pairs of eyes watching as the door to the restaurant closed and Charlie disappeared inside.

A tall man in a trench coat climbed out of the van and opened the door away from the restaurant. Immediately three others piled out. The first was a huge man with a crew cut of bright red hair. Behind him came a ghostly apparition of a man with pale dead eyes followed by a small chubby man whose black jump suit only served to emphasize his obesity. The man in the trench coat turned toward them and began issuing orders.

"The duffel bag means a shower; so we should have at least a half hour to get the stuff and get out of here. Mr. Red, you will join Mr. White and myself inside to search for the explosives. Mr. Blue you stand watch for the driver or anyone else getting near. Now let's move."

The black clad minions moved quietly over to the back of the truck and popped the lock. Mr. Red jumped in first, raising the door as he climbed up. Flipping on a flashlight, he headed toward the front of the load. Mr. White jumped in next and started looking though the boxes near the middle of the trailer.

Mr. White looked over at the tall trench-coated man still standing next to the van. "You aren't having second thoughts are you Mr. Black?"

"No, I'm just thinking that this is too convenient. Knowing exactly where the truck would be and when it would be stopping; it just makes me wonder." The tall man shrugged off his concerns and climbed in as well.

"It looks like decorations for a party or something," Mr. Red observed as he pulled the tarp off of a stack of stuffed animals.

"Yeah, just look at all this junk. Tins of cookies, boxes of stuffed animals, party favors, hats. Did they give you a clue what kind of box it would be in?" Mr. White asked, pulling one of the boxes open.

"No, just that it is in this shipment. He said that the package was hidden somewhere inside the truck. You don't think they would make it easy to find, do you? Just keep digging." Mr. Black said as he pulled a strip of tape loose from a case labeled hats.

Mr. Blue climbed up onto the back of the truck to get a better vantage point. As he stood there, he grabbed one of the cookie tins that the others had pulled out of the boxes and sampled one of the shortbread confections. "These cookies are fantastic." He said spraying crumbs as he did so.

"Mr. Blue! You are supposed to be keeping an eye out for the driver, not sampling the baked goods. Now keep your attention outside," came the quick and sharp reply from Mr. Black.

Mr. Blue quickly stuffed more of the cookies into his mouth before turning around to keep watch. He thought about the payback he would get on all those jerks that had ignored him when he was growing up. A chorus of imagined screams passed through his mind. The idea of each of them laying there, begging for mercy made him grin.

As Mr. Blue shoved a few more of the cookies into his pockets, he caught his fingernail on the taught material of his jump suit and heard a soft ripping noise. He looked down at his leg and saw a small opening just below his pocket. Mr. Blue watched as smooth brown skin began to show through the slowly widening gap. He wondered why the skin looked so smooth and brown instead of its normal hairy white.

The tear continued to grow and now Mr. Blue was starting to feel strange sensations from his other leg. When he looked over to see what was causing the feeling, he saw a small hole opening up at about the same point it had on the first leg. Soon he could see smooth flesh shining through on that leg also.

The now panicked man turned and tried to say something to the others, but found that he couldn't utter a sound. He tried to move toward the others to get their attention, but his still changing legs wouldn't move. In desperation he reached down and grabbed the cookie tin he had been eating from and prepared to throw it at them.

The sight of his hand caused him to stop in mid throw. His gloves were gone and his short stubby fingers had become long, dark and thin. Each was tipped with a perfectly manicured nail. Mr. Blue stared in mute fascination as the silky brown skin of the fingers spread down across the back of his hand. His jump suit sleeves seemed to unravel, the threads forming neat little piles on the floor as the new skin moved quickly up his arms and onto his shoulders.

Looking down Mr. Blue could see that the legs of the jump suit had completely unraveled. There in the harsh light of the parking lot lampposts, he found himself gaping at a pair of very sexy brown legs. The problem was that they were attached to him.

New sensations swept over him as more of his jumpsuit began to fall to the floor. A sudden shifting, and pushing between his legs got his attention first. He could only watch in quiet horror as the disintegrating jumpsuit fell away to show a pair of lacy women's panties covering a distinctly feminine pair of hips. His heart skipped a beat as he realized what the smooth, small mound between his legs meant.

The jumpsuit stopped unraveling and began to rearrange itself over Mr. Blue's still shifting form. Part of the cloth changed to a bright green and reformed itself into a tight mini skirt. The remaining material spread across his chest forming a tube top that was just barely staying up. Then his chest began to swell. The top went from too loose, to strained and near breaking.

Mr. Blue stared down at what had to be the biggest set of knockers he had ever seen this close. He stood there staring at the two humongous growths even as dark black hair dropped down past his shoulders and spilled out onto them. He couldn't peel his eyes away from his chest as the bones of his face shifted and slid into a new configuration. Only when the physical changes had stopped could he move again.

The beautiful brown woman who had been Mr. Blue reached down to where the threads of the jumpsuit had fallen and picked up the chef's apron that now lay there. She pulled it over her head and strained to tie it behind her back, with her very ample breasts fighting against the restriction. Then she reached down and picked up the cookie tin, put the lid back on it and returned it to the box from which it had before sitting down on another box and sat staring out the door.

Mr. Blue liked the way this new body felt, the wonderful sensations that shot through it when it moved, the way it smelled and moved. He knew that this wasn't supposed to be his body, but with every passing moment it felt more natural. The simple thoughts that were forcing their way into his mind were so much less complicated than what he had dealt with before. Mr. Blue relaxed and let the new mind take over. He would be happy to just go along for the ride.

Mr. White reached deep into the box of hats and felt around for anything that didn't feel like a hat. He pictured in his mind the look of agony and fear on the faces of those bleeding heart pain in the asses who had ruined his life; the blood-sucking lawyers who turned a little office pleasure into some kind of holy crusade against him. He smiled as he imagined the image of the little bimbo who started the whole thing lying on the floor, her last breath slipping out of those luscious lips. He would have his revenge on the whole bunch as soon as they found the package.

Suddenly, a strange tingling moved through his hand. Mr. White yanked his hand back out of the box and was shocked to see that he was still holding a hat in his hand when he pulled it out. The green cone shaped hat seemed to be stuck there in his hand.

He willed his hand to release the hat, but couldn't seem to get his grip on the small brim to let go. Instead, his arm swung up and placed the hat on top of his head. He didn't want it too; it just seemed to move on its own. The strange little hat was far too small for him. Mr. White shook his head to knock it on the floor; instead it remained perched atop his skull without slipping at all.

Just as Mr. White was beginning to think he was back in control of his body, he found himself reaching back into the box with his other hand and pulling out an identical hat. Turning toward Mr. Black, who had his back to him, his arm gently reached up to put the new hat on his unsuspecting compatriot's head.

Mr. White tried to shout, "Watch out!" but couldn't get his vocal cords to utter a sound. The hat settled on Mr. Black's head and he didn't even appear to notice it as he continued digging through the boxes oblivious to what was happening around him.

As he pulled his hand back, Mr. White could see that it looked different. Even in the half-light coming through the back of the truck, he could tell the fingers were thinner and tipped with perfectly manicured nails. He quickly pulled the other hand up and saw that it had also changed. Mr. White tried to thrust his arm toward Mr. Black, to tap him on the shoulder, but couldn't get his arm to extend that far; his legs felt locked into place. Unable to move or speak he could only watch what was happening to him and hope that Mr. Black would turn around before it was too late.

The pale man stood watching as his sleeves disappeared. His scarred and weathered albino flesh was gradually replaced with smooth, lightly tanned skin. Silky white hair slid down over his face blocking his vision till he reached up and pulled it out of the way. He felt a tingling that started at his scalp and oozed its way down past his face and onto his neck. His thin beard disappeared and his lips became fuller and softer. Within seconds his face had been transformed into that of a beautiful, almost childish, version of it's original form. The pale dead eyes blurred as they darkened into sparkling blue pools that seemed to be twice the size they should.

Mr. White tried to balance himself, as the world seemed to shift around him, but looking around, he realized that the world hadn't changed; he was shrinking somehow. He watched in amazement as he went from almost eye-to-eye with Mr. Black to looking up at him from what felt like four feet tall.

Pants fell to the floor and faded into the shadows. The dim light was just enough to see that his legs were now covered with the same smooth, tanned flesh as his arms. Mr. White realized that other things had changed when he saw the silk panties stretched across his crotch and didn't see the bulge he was use to seeing.

The material of his shirt rearranged itself into a pair of loose fitting, bright green, bibbed overalls. He was glad that his new female parts were now covered, but wondered why the top of the overalls were so loose -- for about two seconds -- until his flat, hairless chest started expanding into breasts. Mr. White had been around enough to know breasts when he saw them and what the straps of his overalls were straining to keep in place were, without a doubt the nicest pair he had laid eyes on, even better than the little bimbo had carried under those tight blouses in his office.

There, in the muted light of the truck, the small pointy-eared woman who had been Mr. White turned toward the boxes he had been rifling through. She then started putting the hats, and other objects that had been scattered about, back where they belonged. After everything was back in its place she pulled up a box and sat down, watching Mr. Black. Her wide, innocent blue eyes hid the fiery battle going on inside as the former Mr. White fought to regain control of his body. He could see everything she saw, feel the cold air across her skin, and hear the few thoughts that passed through her mind. He fought against the growing feeling of complacency that he could sense building in the back of his mind.

Mr. Red tore through the nearly empty front end of the trailer very quickly. He had found a quite a few of the boxes had been filled with nothing more than straw, now scattered about the floor of the truck. Other than the boxes of straw, all he had found was a large stuffed reindeer under a tarp in one corner.

"Maybe they hid the package inside of the stuffed deer," Mr. Red thought to himself as he grabbed the stuffed animal by the foreleg and with a single pull separated the leg from its body. He quickly shoved his arm down inside the leg pulling out the stuffing to see if any thing might be hidden inside of it. When he had reduced the leg to nothing but a thin layer of cloth and stuffing on the straw hewn floor, he did the same to the other three legs. Soon the front of the truck was knee deep in stuffing as the shredded deer was torn into piles of snowy debris.

Standing there holding what was left of the head, Mr. Red scanned the wreckage for any sign of the package. The snowy filling and shredded cloth sparked a memory for him. Images of an "Op" he had pulled in Germany before going merc started to flash though his mind. He remembered his orders had been to off some colonel working for one of their black ops groups and anyone else as needed and he had decided to blow the whole house rather than risk breaking in. The front of the trailer now looked like the ground after the explosion, white -- scattered with the bits and pieces of a little girl's clothes.

A strange sensation snapped Mr. Red back to reality. Looking down at his hand, he could feel the muscles twitching like they were receiving an electric shock. His grip on the remnants of the stuffed animal head tightened to the point that he couldn't move any of his fingers. Then, to his surprise, his other hand reached over and grabbed the other side of the neck hole.

He fought it. He tried to force his arms down, to make his hands release their grip, but nothing worked. Slowly the empty stuffed animal head was raised to the top of his head and then pulled down over it.

Mr. Red panicked for a moment. He could barely breathe through the fabric over his mouth and he couldn't see at all. Burning sensations spread across his face and scalp; every place the material was touching felt like it was on fire. He couldn't get his mouth open to scream and now his legs felt like they were frozen in place.

Closing his eyes, Mr. Red tried to concentrate, to use the pain handling techniques he had been taught to regain some control over what was happening. He could feel the muscles and flesh of his face beginning to shift and move, but he told himself that it was impossible for that to happen -- that it was some side effect of the pain.

The pain stopped and Mr. Red opened his eyes. Everything looked strange for a moment. He could tell that the material was no longer over his head, but his view seemed to have changed somehow. There was something sticking out in front of his face and it wasn't his nose. At least that is what he thought until he reached up and felt the soft brown fur of his muzzle with his hand. He knew what it was as soon as he felt it. He could feel his hand as it moved along the side and touched the black mass of the nostrils at the end. Sliding his hand up the side of his face, he felt the soft pointed ears.

"I've got a deer's head?" he thought to himself as he continued the examination. Only his years of training kept him from panicking.

Suddenly it dawned on Mr. Red that he appeared to have regained control of his hands again and he reached down into the mass of stuffing on floor at his feet looking for something he could throw at the others to get their attention. His hand came up with a long strip of cloth. He reached back to throw it and lost control of the arm once more.

Mr. Red could see the material he had grabbed was the cloth remnants of one of the stuffed deer legs. His hand hung there in front him, frozen as the material began to crawl up his arm. The brown cloth had covered his arm up to the shoulder within seconds leaving a fake black hoof at the end where his fingers were. Then he felt excruciating pain as the bones and tissue rip and break as his arm rearranged itself till the fake deer leg looked like a real one.

Against his will, he found himself bending over and fishing around in the stuffing with his other hand. It stopped and came up with another empty leg covering and with a minute that arm had lost all of its human shape. Then his left foot moved around on its own for a few moments followed by the right for only slightly longer. Before he could even wonder what was that was about... he knew. He could see the brown cloth now spreading up his legs covering his clothes. Then came the pain of the tissues in the leg reforming to be a deer's leg instead of a human leg.

When the pain in his legs stopped, Mr. Red felt himself tip forward onto his new front hooves. He stretched his head around and could see the brown was now spreading across his hips and up from his shoulders to cover his chest. With his whole body covered Mr. Red braced himself for the pain that had accompanied the other changes -- and then the pain washed over him in waves as the chest expanded to hold larger lungs and the digestive organs changed to match his new body. He felt even more pain down between his legs as his reproductive organs moved and shifted, but the sensation got stranger when he felt the pain move inside and toward the back.

When pain subsided Mr. Red looked around again and watched in amazement as the boxes that had been holding straw changed into a simple stockade around him. All the white stuffing that had covered the floor seemed to disappear into the shadows while the straw that he had scattered was quickly gathered up into bales there in the stockade in front of him.

The reindeer that used to be Mr. Red reached down and started munching on the straw from the bales in front of it. In its eyes you could still see Mr. Red trying to fight for control, trying to resist the changes that were still slowly working their way trough his body and mind -- to no avail.

Mr. Black went though several boxes, but found nothing that could have been what they were looking for, and cursed under his breath for not finding out which box the package would be in from that old man. He remembered wanting to ask, but after the old fellow in the store had given him the information about where to catch up with the truck, it slipped his mind. Now they would have to go through every box on the truck.

He tore into a box of toys next. Mr. Black looked at the collection of dolls and action figures. He remembered the little girls he had lured over to his house with dolls just like those. As he remembered, he conjured up the brief pleasure they had each provided. He knew that when they had the stuff he would be able to force the damn parents to bring their lovely little daughters to him. They would bring them or else.

As he mused about the power he would gain, Mr. Black turned around to see if Mr. White was making any progress. What he saw left him dumbfounded for a few seconds. Where Mr. White should have been was a blond haired, blue eyed female elf. He shook his head, blinked and looked again, but she was still there. She giggled at him when she saw his reaction.

Mr. Black started to say something when he suddenly felt a strange sensation on top of his head. Reaching up, he found a small cone shaped hat and realized it must be similar to the one the giggling elf next to him was wearing. He tried to remove it, but it wouldn't budge, then his hands moved back down in front of him of their own volition. When they were back in sight he saw that they had changed -- becoming more slender and feminine. He watched as his jet black hair began to spill down past his face, his shoulders, and finally past his waist.

Mr. Black continued to stand immobile as he watched his trench coat fall to the floor and disappear into the darkness there. He watched his pants and shirt dissolve to reveal very feminine limbs underneath. Staring dumbstruck at the lacy undergarments now covering his undeniably female pelvis, he could only watch as what remained of his clothes reformed into a bright red pair of overalls. Then the world seemed to shoot up around him as his new body shrank down to a fraction of its former height.

The bib of the overalls hung loosely for a moment until a strange new weight began to form on his chest. Two large full breasts quickly filled the material till it looked like it would split from the strain. The black haired elf, who had only minutes before been Mr. Black, turned back to the mess he had made going through the boxes. She quickly set to work putting everything back where it belonged. When she had finished, she went over and sat down next to the little blond haired elf. The two elves giggled and whispered to each other as they sat braiding and unbraiding each other's long, silky hair.

Mr. Black was overwhelmed; he couldn't comprehend what was going on. His body was moving, thinking, and acting on its own. He had become a prisoner in his own body. He could still think for himself, but he could also hear the simple, almost child like thoughts of this new body as it giggled and chatted with this other elf. Trying to fight it, he tried to force his will to take control, but couldn't even make this new body stop the inane chattering.

The door to the trailer slid back down and the lock reappeared. The gray van that the four hijackers had come in faded into the darkness while nobody was looking at it.

Charlie came out of the restaurant several hours later and hit the road again. Having been down this road many times, Charlie knew there wasn't supposed to be an exit where the boss' instructions indicated, but also knew that if the boss said it would be there... you had better expect it.

Sure enough, an exit appeared out in the middle of nowhere. At the top of the ramp was a sign "Darkspire Park -- 10 miles" with an arrow pointing to the left. Shortly after leaving the highway the tops of a castle and a roller coaster could be seen above the wall of pines.

Darkspire Park — 10 mi

As the truck pulled into the still empty parking lot the morning sun illuminated a large banner hanging across the front entrance of the park. In large letters it said, "Holiday Celebration" with two smaller lines beneath that, "Join us as we celebrate Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and the festival of Mithra."

Following the signs Charlie pulled around to the shipping area and backed in to one of the empty loading docks. "Hey Charlie, how was the trip?" came the cheerful voice of the tow-haired woman standing on the dock with a clipboard.

"Fine, I didn't have any problems at all. Here's the manifest. The boss said you should check everything before we unload."

"Oh, I guess we better then," she said as Charlie unlocked the door and pushed it up. There sitting at back of the truck was a beautiful, well endowed brown skinned girl dressed in an apron who stood up and smiled at them as soon as she saw them. The girl with the clipboard smiled back and then casually started checking the load. "Lets see, five boxes of cookies, four boxes of hats, one pastry chef named Ginger, two boxes of teddy bears, two boxes of ornaments, two Christmas elves, eight boxes of lights, one doe, three bales of straw, and sixty feet of stockade fencing. Yes, it looks like it's all here."

She turned toward the warehouse and waved to several large men who immediately approached and started pulling the boxes out of the truck. "You three girls come over here," she shouted into the back of the truck.

The two elves and Ginger jiggled out of the truck and formed a line in front of the shipping clerk. She walked past each of them looking each directly in the eyes for several seconds. Then stepped out where she could see all three. "Ok, I will explain your contract to you. Listen up, because I will only go through this once. You will work here at the park full time for a minimum of one year. That time will be extended if you have not accepted your new bodies by that time. I don't think Ginger here will have any problems, but I have a feeling you two will be with us for quite a while." She said gesturing toward the pair of giggling elves. "Go straight through there and then take the first door on your left to pick up your uniforms and housing arrangements. Good luck and enjoy your new life here at Darkspire."

She turned back to Charlie and smiled. "You know Charlie, we could get you a job here if you like."

"Thanks for the offer, but I only have fifteen more loads for the boss to make up for my attempt to steal from him. He assured me that I could regain my male form... if I still want it... as long as I keep my nose clean 'till then."

"You don't sound like you so sure you want to be a man again?"

"Lets just say, being treated like a lady can grow on you." She smiled and winked at one of the burly guys unloading the truck, causing him to stumble and almost drop the box he was carrying. Charlie and the clerk both giggled as they watched him tripping his way into the warehouse.

As they led the doe out Charlie nudged the clerk. "What about the doe? What kind of contract does she get?"

"Oh, the animals become a permanent part of the park. Once they're bred the first time all remnants of their male personality is wiped out by the maternal instincts. That is why we put them in the breeding program immediately after they're delivered. Well, that looks like the last of it. I guess we'll catch you on your next load. Would you like to come in and grab some lunch?"

"Sure. Thanks for the quick turnaround," Charlie said as she climbed up into the cab of the truck.

The wizard opened his shop. Without stopping to close the door, he strode over and picked up the phone just as it started to ring. "Hello?

"Charlie?

"Everything was delivered? Good.

"No, I won't have another delivery for you 'til Friday.

"You have a good week too. Stay out of trouble." He hung up the phone and turned back to setting up the shop for the day. The men in the truck would now be bringing pleasure to others for the rest of their lives instead of the pain and destruction that they had planned. It was times like this that he really enjoyed this job.