Chapter 5: Beauty and the Beast

I sat back down, pulled my knees up to my chest with ease, and began to think. I was sure that my dream and my discovery of the cave had something to do with my transformation, but what did it all mean? Did the cult of the Aztec tribe still have an influence over visitors to their long drowned island? Was this the "gift" of their female sun god? While I would admit to having wondered what it would be like to be a woman from time to time, to be forcibly transformed into one for the rest of my life was not what I considered a "gift." I shook my head in confusion and frustration, and was suddenly conscious of the weight that still adorned my ears. I reached up through my mane of ebony hair and found that, yes, I was still wearing the earrings. They had not fallen off during my metamorphosis as I had expected! I ran my hands over the sensuous curves of my body one more time, said a little prayer to any god that was listening, and undid the clasps of the earrings. The effect was instantaneous! With far less intensity than before, I felt my body begin to rearrange itself again. All the sensations I had felt minutes before occurred again, but this time in reverse order. I watched as my beautiful breasts shrank, my big nipples fading back to their original color and size as my chest expanded and grew hair anew. Where nothing had been moments before, I felt my cock restoring itself, the testicles themselves finally emerging from somewhere within my body. In moments it was over. I reached up to my face with now familiar hands and found my normal rough skin and coarse beard. I immediately reached for my mirror for confirmation and was rewarded by the sight of the face that I had worn for 34 years of life. I cautiously inspected my body and found that everything had returned to normal. I clasped my hands in relief, raised my eyes skyward, and said, "Thank you!" to whoever was responsible for my restoration!

Now that I knew what had caused my transformation from a fairly strapping man to a heartstoppingly beautiful woman, I was faced with the decision of what to do with my new found knowledge. Would I try it again? I knew that I would... Already I was regretting my decision to stop the sexual exploration I had done while in my female body prematurely. Having experienced a very small section of the world in womanly form, I knew that I wanted more. How much more, I wasn't sure, but I figured that a little experimentation would take care of that. For some reason, I was aware that while I was a little shaken by my experience, the fear that I would have expected from trying it again was nowhere to be found. I was suddenly confident that the Indian woman who had appeared in my dream wanted me to have the earrings and use them any way I desired. I remembered that the captain had said that the tribe was dedicated to goodness and compassion as well as life's pleasures, and that they revered women as the embodiment of these virtues. Now, while I am no living saint, there are few people on this earth that would describe me as a bad person. Whether because of proper upbringing, or just a moral sense of right and wrong, I have always strived to be as good and compassionate a human being as possible. Though I am sure that I have had failures, I am equally sure that my successes far outweigh the deficiencies. Perhaps the ghosts of the lost Aztec tribe had been waiting for someone like me to bestow their gift on. I hoped I was correct in assuming that I had been chosen specifically for this gift, because I planned to use it... starting now!

I put my shorts back on and slipped the earrings and my flashlight into my pocket. I checked to see that Ron was still quietly snoring, and then, as silently as I could, I unzipped my tent and walked out into the still and warm night. Since I didn't want to use my light for fear of waking my camping buddy, I managed to find my way out of the campsite with only the illumination of the stars to show me the way. Once I was a couple of hundred yards away, I turned on my light and followed the path to the beach.

I walked down it a ways until I was sure that I was a safe distance away from Ron and possibly unexplainable confrontations. With adrenaline pumping through my body, I sat down on a driftwood log and buried the flashlight in the sand so that it shone its beam upward. I took the earrings carefully from my shorts pocket and put the left one on. Again, I felt the warm sensation that I had experienced before almost immediately. With my heart beating rapidly, and my fingers shaking, I clumsily attached the other one to my ear. In an instant, I began to change! With a cry, I felt my body jolted by the electricity of transformation. Though the spasms and jerks were much less than before, the feel of my body going through so many changes was more than enough to make me nearly pass out. In seconds, it was over and I lay on the sand gasping, once more a beautiful woman. I looked down to make sure that everything was as it had been before, and the sight of my perfect breasts gently moving up and down in rhythm with my breathing was all the confirmation I needed. Still prone in the sand, I reached my tiny hands to them and cupped them gently. The now familiar wave of womanly sexuality washed over me immediately. I felt myself smiling with happiness and said aloud, "This is fantastic!" marvelling at my dreamy soprano voice.