Corinne Centauress

By Therianthropologist Dave

Jane Baum looked over the edge of the sand dune bluff onto the quiet surf of Lake Michigan. She didn't see Corinne on the beach. Nervous, the woman adjusted her black halter top and rubbed her hands against her matching shorts.

It was a fine, hot, sunny day. The road was only two dozen yards away from the park fence. Jack was locking up the car — leaving the windows open a crack — "Or the inside will broil like an oven," as he so quaintly put it.

"You sure this is the place she said?" Jane asked as her boyfriend came up. "It's awfully isolated."

Jack clapped a straw hat on Jane's head and did the same to his own. A breeze wafted in from the lake, riffling the brims. The color of the hats matched Jack's khaki shorts. It certainly did not go with his loud, loose print shirt. But Jane consoled herself: at least the huge man was neat-looking — the tails of the shirt were inside his pants, not flapping loose in the light breeze.

"Corinne has always been a very private person." Jack said. Jane saw the man think awhile. "And Life's played a trick or two on her that would break a weaker soul."

Jane frowned at the man. He was leaning on the sign that had told them this tiny place above the lake was part of the County's public beach. "She sounded quite happy on the phone." Jane was nettled.

"Yes. But circumspect." Jack Massenhoven grumbled. "I sense that something hasn't gone right. It's been two years since we've seen her."

The tall slender woman arched a thin black eyebrow. "Not gone right? You don't think she's a classical centauress like she said she had become? Or maybe not gone as expected? Or maybe someone was expecting too much?" She turned to peer at the beach over the windrow fence. About a mile to the North the road came to an abrupt stop. It and a summer home that had once stood atop the bluff were now cracked into blocks of collapsed asphalt and split into shattered slats of wood. Down a new sandy gully. Victims of a December lake storm the year before.

"There she is. In the water. Near the end of that old wooden fishing pier." Jack pointed.

Jane looked down at what she first thought was a yellow-brown bloom of seaweed. Sure enough, the top of a head had popped up out of the water from amid an enormous spread of drowned blonde hair. Jane hadn't noticed the large white canvas bag on the deck of the pier. "Let's go down to the beach."

Jack took the old wood stairs and paused at the half-way landing for Jane. "You are worried about her, aren't you?"

"Worried. Yes." Jane said. She paused. "Sorry for Miss Meadowlark? I don't think so. Certainly not yet, anyway."

Jack looked at the head of the swimming Corinne. She faced away from shore, now with her head and the beginning of her shoulders out of the water. Just then a rogue wave splashed into her face. Corinne gave a laughing yelp as her head bobbed up beyond the wave. "She certainly sounds happy."

Jane knew Jack well enough to hear undertones of guilt in his voice. Jack was clinging to Corinne's mood as justification — for what? Both of them going away during the two years the young woman might have needed them most? Not even seeing her during that time?

Jane leaned her slender body against the railing. "She had guts taking that doctor up on his genetic engineering offer. That was a hell of a transformation the man gave her. And out of action nearly three years — the last two while we were off making a fortune while she was all but in a coma."

"Well, she didn't have good prospects with her condition and all —" Jack considered. "Socially isolated. Almost pinned down by those huge breasts of hers. Yes, she knew the dangers." Jack had to agree with Jane. "It was nothing trivial, like —"

Jane stared at Jack, half smiling. Jack had been consumed with enough remorse in the last six months to do something rather rash. Something that had made him rather awkward to manage in bed. She forbore to tease the man. "Oh, Jack, don't worry. You have always been fixated by her breasts — you've admitted it. Let's talk to her and see how she feels. We saw her as her waist was stretching. We haven't even seen a photograph of her after her transformation. And she's been done with it for almost six months."

"Six months of screwing up her courage, I suppose. She has an enormous intelligence and imagination. Poor Cee always drives herself nuts. I swear she runs through all the possible outcomes of a single social interaction."

"I'll bet she's magnificent!"

"Spoken like a true equestrienne," Jack grumbled. Then he smiled impishly. "You're on! Let's go. Beat you to the shoreline!"

Jack won the race.

"Corinne!" he shouted at the lake. "Corinne?"

Jane walked out on the pier, her sandals leaking the fine hot sand of the beach. It fell into the water through the slats of the wood.

Jack's call finally caught the attention of the woman in the water.

Corinne turned her head to one side. Jane paused — it was Corinne alright. That face with the strong features and high forehead. You'd expect her to be a lean, well-grown Dutch girl below that face. The thin was a good guess, but she was small. Years ago, the fact had surprised her when Jane had first met Corinne. When Cee had stood up from a chair, Jane turned out to be a full head taller. Jane had somehow expected it to have been the other way around. The woman had a very small torso, and was scarcely five feet tall.

Now Jane could see a bit of Cee's breasts. It didn't bother Jane — Corinne was swimming in the nude — as she'd often done — was it so many years ago, now? The tanned flesh bobbed under the water in front of Corinne's chest. The pressure of the fresh water compressed the lighter-than-water breasts into buoyant spheroids. Cee twisted her torso about to see who was calling her, and the breasts followed.

"They haven't got any smaller, have they?" she mumbled to herself. Jane had hoped that somehow they would have during Corinne's transformation. The girl had endured extreme virginal hypertrophy of the breasts from childhood. Sometimes the doctors called it macromastia, sometimes gigantomastia. The condition, in Cee's case was physically awkward to say the least.

Jane sat down next to the canvas bag on the dock. She took off her sandals and dangled her feet in the water.

Corinne had been waving back at Jack's voice. She'd heard Jane's comment and splashes and looked up at the woman. "No, not a bit smaller, Jane," she said matter-of-factly, and grabbed onto the woman's single thick black brunette braid.

Jane grabbed the long thing and tugged back. There was the effect that Cee's condition had on many men. Perhaps, Jane thought during the impromptu tug-of-war, I am a little envious of the woman attached to those breasts. But she'd also seen what a crimp they'd put in Cee's lifestyle. She splashed at Corinne's face, and the woman put up her arms to protect herself, yanking hard on Jane's queue.

"Don't fall in, Jane," Corinne teased, "It's over your head here."

"You're standing on the bottom —" Jane rescued her hair from Cee's slack hand. Corinne's shoulders seemed just a bit broader than she remembered — maybe.

"But I'm seven foot one now — not five." Jane heard the blonde woman breathe deeply. "All the difference is — down below. I suspect you'll want to see what's become of me, huh?"

"Well, yes. And Jack does. You did invite us both out here." Jane had a sudden trepidation — "Are you okay? I mean —"

"You mean, is it worse?" Corinne smiled. "Worse than you or I could have imagined?"

Slowly, ponderously, Cee turned herself about in the water. Jane noticed a bloom of white hair just under the surface. That manifestation gave Jane pause. That must mark her tail end, the woman noted. Eventually Corinne's front faced shore. Only her head and shoulders were completely out of the water.

Then Corinne looked back up at Jane, who had gotten to her feet. "Could you take my canvas bag back with you? We'll walk together in towards the beach, and then you can tell me what you think." Corinne Meadowlark took two strides towards Jack on the beach.

"Can I help you with your hair?" Jane had noticed that Cee's wet hair was heavy enough to threaten to break her neck.

"Yes, if you would. There are a number of blue ties in the bag. I've let it go — only edged it once. Five meters of this hair is heavy, Jane."

"Five meters?" Jane paused as she rummaged through the packed bag. "You must have a brace to hold that up —" She passed a tie down to Corinne.

"Nope, just a lot of back muscles," Corinne said as she held her arms up to deftly wrap the section of her hair about the top of her head. "The hair does counterbalance my breasts, Jane." She gave the older woman a coquettish half-smile.

Jane looked that at Cee's emerging back. Her shoulders might be a bit broader — or they might not be — it was hard to tell. Corinne's back had always been small, but it was now incredibly hard with muscles. The play of them! Jane marveled at the flexing bulges of the woman's trapezius muscles.

Just above her shoulder blades, along the Cee's spine, a streak of white hair began and thickened. Initially, it was buried in the deep crevice between her back muscles.

Corinne made another long stride forward, revealing more of her upright spine. More of the hair was exposed and it became luxuriant, overflowing the channel. A chill raked Jane's spine. It was the beginnings of a centauress' mane!

Corinne stared straight ahead as she held open a hand for another hair tie. Distracted, Jane fumbled in the jammed bag and pulled one out.

The centauress stepped toward shore again, and Jane stared at the woman's waist — or lack of waist. It was superbly muscled in the back.

"Eighteen inches around, Jane." Corinne had somehow divined the brunette woman's next question. She twisted her torso around to face the woman above her on the dock and smiled impishly.

What torque she must be exerting, Jane thought as she stared.

Cee's ponderous breasts obscured her entire front, down into the water. The woman looked sidelong towards the shore — numbly, Jane realized she was flirting with Jack as well!

Arms still gathering her hair over her head, Corinne clamped her jaw set, as if she were concentrating. Slowly her gigantic sagging breasts began to pull up. Their ends came out of the water. Jane was startled — it was so — surrealistic. Were they shrinking? No. They were being reshaped, into hemispheres, jutting out from Corinne's chest. No, not really hemispheres — more like three-quarter spheres, as the base of her breasts now jutted sideways out from her chest almost halfway to her back. Her two nipples, now finally visible to the public, pointed out to the horizon, forty-five degrees in each direction from her front. Numbly, Jane noted the faint fishnet pattern underneath the woman's skin. There was a crackle, the pattern mostly disappeared, and Corinne's grimace relaxed.

"What did you do???" Jane exclaimed. She was almost too dumfounded to notice the tiny waist of her friend had washboard abdominals and a lovely navel that was only slightly concave.

"Aw, he turned away!" Corinne shrugged, causing massive woggles in the front of her torso. "This is my genetically engineered built-in bra, Jane." Corinne aimed her front directly towards Jack, but the man was studiously avoiding her direction. Cee gave up. "It's a network of tendons underneath the skin of my breasts, with lots of small muscles attached. I can 'adjust' it according to the situation. As you have seen, adjusting takes some effort. Right now I just went from nearly as loose as I can make them to about my firmest — at least without making my boobs look totally unnatural." While she talked, Cee had finished putting up her wet but rapidly drying head hair. As silky as anything, it managed perfectly without even being combed. Now the tresses formed a mountain about as high as her hands could reach.

Jack had better not watch Corinne — or he'll hurt himself, Jane thought. But she said to Cee: "That's wild."

Corinne grinned at Jane's reaction. "C'mon, Jane, this is scarcely one tenth of me — you did want to see how the whole of the experiment turned out, didn't you?" She walked two paces further in, revealing that what seemed to be the start of her hips. They were extremely broad looking as they flared out from her tiny superstructure. But they were covered on their 'points' with blonde hair. Then she stopped.

"What's wrong?" Jane asked anxiously as she caught up with Corinne's torso.

"Can you get my T-shirt out of the bag? When the photographer from LIFE Magazine came out to do a spread on me, I got warned not to be seen without a top. Nude bathing is a definite no-no on this beach."

"Ah. Sure." Jane had seen cotton clothing somewhere in the bag before. It was buried under something made of Nylon. "No towel?" She looked in the bag to find the shirt.

"I'll dry fast enough in this sun."

Jane reached in and dug out the garment. Surreptitiously, she peeked at the tag. It was a 3XL men's T-shirt, modified with a binding strip down the back, evidently to permit her to put the thing on when her hair was not being cooperative. At least Corinne was wearing the same size shirt as she had before her transformation. She fingered soft felt cups in the chest area. They looked like they'd fit her own B-cup breasts. "What are these?"

"Oh, those? Those are protective cups for my nipples. Look at how my aureoles get puffy and my nipples stick out like thumbs when I'm as 'tight' as this. They get extremely sensitive." Corinne fingered the material. "So these go over the area of my nipples. They also help me adjust my shirt so my front is centered."

"I — see," Jane said. She stared at the nearer of Corinne's ogive-shaped breast-tips. They were, of course, perfectly shaped. And huge. Those tips were much larger and more elaborate than when she'd known Corinne years ago.

Cee opened the shirt at its back seam, put her arms through the sleeves, pushed the front of the shirt over her breasts (no small task), then arched her back until her breasts formed prodigious twin mountains. She pulled the shirt down to near the middle of her tiny belly and fastened the strip, sealing the modified T-shirt together. Then she wrapped and knotted the enormous amount of excess shirt-tail around the middle of her waist. She stretched backwards, a look of relaxed bliss on her face.

The sight was absolutely awesome. Jane knew that if Cee were a human woman she would have fallen back into the water.

"There!" Corinne said. She righted her torso, turned her head ponderously, winked at Jane, and marched toward shore. Cee advanced in front of Jane. Her lower body broached the water like a nuclear submarine surfacing. Jack's back was still turned towards the transformed woman. "You can turn around, Jack. I'm 'decent' —"

Jack did not turn around.

Yes, Jane thought. She's a centauress. An absolutely grand one. A palomino. The hair of her tail was white and now it flagged its muscular fleshy portion above the water. Then the withers, lower back and rump revealed themselves above the rippling water. These were blonde — the same color as Cee's head hair. A very broad rump. Deep. And equine shoulders that were also broad. Shoulders heavy with muscle. Hindquarters that had muscle on top of muscle on top of muscle. Corinne's legs began to splash and churn the water now, as the full barrel of her lower body emerged from the water. The equine chest was also deep and broad. From its looks Jane was sure that it had a heart that was huge enough to put Secretariat's legendary one to shame.

Once again, Corinne stopped her body from moving to shore. "Jane — could you help me with my tail?"

Jane held up with a start. "Sure. With your — the bottom of your — chest — still in the water — your tail — it looks like you're one of the characters in Fantasia. You know? The centaurette with the extra long tail that she carries like a train?"

"Why, yes — the one with flowers on it? — you saw that movie, too!" Corinne exclaimed, pivoting her human torso and looking back at Jane. She had a delighted look on her face. "That's just the look I've been aiming for, you know." Practically: "There's a nylon snood in the bag."

"So that's what this is?" Jane pulled the last item out of the bag and jumped into the water. It was chest high, which made gathering all of Corinne's tail hair something of a challenge.

"Now hold your tail still!" Jane exclaimed, as she was confronted by the flagging, wriggling tail. The fleshy, muscular part of Cee's tail was thick and extremely long — almost a meter long — compared to half that length on a normal horse. In a moment Corinne had calmed it down to a subdued twitch. One end of the tail garment looked something like a crupper band. Jane attached the that end of the snood to the base of Cee's tail.

"I'll try not to kick you, Janie!" Corinne put her hands on the muscles of her human pseudo-hips, which stretched desperately to flare into her broad powerful equine shoulders. Jane had patted Corinne's solid 'runner's butt' — her bifurcated rump was now absolutely huge from Jane's vantage point. Jane was sure she could deliver quite a wallop with any sort of kick.

"Sorry — I didn't know that would bother you." As Jane worked, she was beginning to think of Cee's lower body as a true horse. Well, it certainly looked like one. One of the smaller breeds, and with the moves of those beautifully sculpted equine legs — the fire — the closest breed that Jane could think of was — Arabian?

Corinne swiveled her ponderous head to eye Jane's furious work. "And why isn't Jack looking at me?" She pouted.

The pout was sincere. Ha! Corinne really had no clue about Jack! Jane was close enough to shore to hear Jack's panting. He wasn't looking at Cee because if he did …. Well, this operation with the tail was going easily at least.

"You're done now, Jane!" Cee's front end said abruptly. She turned her head back front, and started to march purposefully to the sandy beach.

Jane saw what she was going to do just as the centauress reached the shore line, the long tail snood dragging behind her. She was going to cross over and display herself in all her glory right in front of Jack.

Yes, Corinne was absolutely magnificent. She drew herself out of the water, revealing her large white hooves. Her legs flashed, and reminded Jane of chiseled stone. They were wet-smooth like one could see on a golden marble equestrian statue after a rain.

"Ohmygod," Jane gasped. Cee had swiveled herself flank to — she was about to cross Jack's bow up the beach, to force him to look at her.

It wasn't the stunning beauty innate to the centauress that shocked Jane into an expletive she rarely used. And it wasn't the force of the woman's four hooves that scattered dry sand into puffs. Nor the lean tucked shape of her muscled equine belly that somehow echoed Corinne Meadowlark's tiny human waist.

It was the udder. It was white, like the bound tail and the mane that cascaded down the far side of her body to her fetlocks. Jane thought it looked absolutly surrealistic. Below all of this muscular, rock hard, athletic body depended an enormous set of mammary glands that reached down to — past! — the centauress' hocks.

Jane didn't remember more than wading up to the shoreline as fast as she could to try to prevent the inevitable. She had an odd thought about how that huge set of milkers didn't seem to hamper Cee's movement in the least bit —

Jack had collapsed by the time Jane's feet reached dry land. Corinne stood, shocked, just in front of where the big man had passed out.

Later that sunny, breezy day a centauress and her rider cantered through the woods not two miles from the park where Jane first met Corinne Meadowlark in her new form.

The woman with the lines of a classical half-horse slowed to a suspended trot. Jane rode her sidesaddle — Cee's equine chest was too broad for her to sit astride. That is, unless Jane wanted to ride her like a jockey, with knees high. But that would require a saddle with stirrups, and Corinne had none.

Corinne was lathered in sweat. For a good reason — she had been showing off her body to Jane, and she'd just outrun a relay of thoroughbred stallions.

The two stopped at a wooden picnic table in a bower of trees. The polished table was dappled with the sunlight that filtered between the leaves. The long two-legged woman could feel her mount's ribcage heaving and panting from the past exertion.

Jane slid off Corinne's slick back. "You were teasing those boys!" Jane scolded the centauress as soon as she herself could gain breath.

"Couldn't help it," the centauress gasped. She had a strange faraway look in her eye. "I'm always horny, Jane. Both stallions and men turn me on. And I can't seem to keep from showing off in front of both. If I don't think about it, control it, I do behave in a rather horsy way — at least like a mare in heat. It gets really bad sometimes."

"Like with Jack, huh?" the tall slender woman said quietly as she retrieved the end of a hose wrapped over a faucet on a post. The spot here was not public and was definitely secluded. Jane sprayed water on Corinne's forequarters and flanks. "Thanks for hauling him off the beach — I'd never manage."

Corinne didn't respond with words. The Arabian-statured centauress twisted and curvetted. She obviously relished the contact of the cool water. The wet gloss — both of water and remaining sweat really showed off the muscles of Cee's body. Jane thought she could see the pattern of the woman's contracted bra muscles under the side of the T-shirt. Jane couldn't get over how those monumental breasts seemed to float weightless over her front.

"Jack's always been a real hunk." Corinne said in her slow soprano voice. She had a dreamy look on her face.

"Three hundred fifty pounds worth." Jane reflected at the impossibility of her doing anything with Jack's limp body. Corinne's arms were stronger than Jane had known. Scarcely an hour ago, she'd lowed down beside the prone man and had hauled him onto her equine back. Getting him up the steep stairs to the bluff with that burden was tricky for the centauress. But it wasn't for want of strength.

"You know he's been pumping iron ever since either of us first met him. He'll be alright, Cee. You just — overwhelmed him. Those smelling salts woke him up in a hurry. He just needs a bit of rest back at that mansion."

"It's just a house. Sorry no one else was around — they're off preparing for tonight's meeting." Corinne grabbed an enormous towel from the picnic table and jackknifed her body to rub down her quivering rump. The heavily braided tail was only slightly damp at its base. She lofted it high so that the top was above her head.

"Let me help you …. Corinne —" Jane tried not to giggle, "Corinne — you're winking."

A little nettled: "Yes. Yes. I know — can't help it. Told you I'm like a mare in heat much of the time. Fortunately the scent is either gone or subdued or I'd be in real trouble with the big boys."

Now Jane laughed. She spread out an enormous blanket on the perfect grass beside the table. "Like those stallions — if one tried to leap that fence —"

"Yes. He'd be dead. Waste of prime horseflesh, don't you think? Doctor Heilersma warned me about the possibilities. That I'd have this effect on male horses as well as male humans. Sometimes I'm not sure why I agreed to put myself in his hands. But it has turned out for the best. Was I that desperate three years ago, Jane?"

Jane tried to change the subject — "This is a beautiful place."

"The house and the grounds are owned by The Company. It is very comfortable here. Secluded and private — lovely in the winter with the snow piled high. I loved the winter walks here when I was just starting to pull myself together and learn how to work my body."

"You've made a fantastic job of that." Cee had trained her body beyond what any equestrienne could hope to accomplish. "You've got five gaits —"

Corinne smiled, showing her teeth. "Can't gallop more than a second or two — my udder hurts too much when I do. Even when it is braced fully up."

"Well, your canter can out-distance a relay of those thoroughbreds we passed by," Jane placated her friend. "And you've been practicing high school airs, too. Talk about passages, piaffes and caprioles!"

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself." Corinne actually blushed about that episode in the field. After leaving Jack resting in the house, they'd gone outside and braided up Cee's head hair and tail for traveling. Then the centauress had bolted. "It's like I've got to show off my body whenever someone is admiring me. And you were admiring me. Or at least my horse body."

"Heh. I know Lipizzans that behave that way. Do you —" Jane almost started her question with "Does this —" as she patted the fore-shoulder of the 850-pound horse-woman. "Do you breed with horses, then?"

"Oh no … not at all — at least the Doc says so." Cee lowered herself delicately onto the blanket, using Jane's slender hand as a guide. "My original ovaries are intact — well, actually they both split into two — inside I am still as human as you are — though my guts and everything else has been shoved all the way down back there — that's why my upper waist is so thin." She placed her hands around her tiny integument. "My original lungs are and heart are still in my human chest and work just fine. But no stomach, no intestines, nothing but spine, esophagus and the trachea to my lower lungs here."

And muscles to support her upright human torso. Especially all that head, hair — and those breasts. Jane wondered why, with all the extreme manipulation her body had undergone, that Corinne's breasts had stayed as huge as when she'd known her years ago.

"Doc says I'll have human babies — or more likely centaur babies — depending on whether my eggs got infected by the viral transformation vector — but only from a human male. Or no babies at all — I very well may be sterile, but I doubt it." Then Corinne must have picked up Jane's thoughts. "My breasts have stopped growing, at least, Jane. And no, I never thought of having them reduced — it's impossible now, anyway. What time do you have?"

Jane had been putting on her watch. She looked at its face. "Just three o'clock."

"I need to show you something." With one hand Corinne pulled two things out of her bag and placed them both on the top of her left breast. One was a box of Hershey's semisweet chocolate bars. She removed two of the gold-foiled bars from the box and replaced the box into the bag, leaving the bars on top of her breast. The second was a cellular telephone. She dialed a number.

"William here," came the answer.

"Please send the milk jugs out to the west picnic grounds? The usual number?"

"Certainly, Miss Meadowlark. Ah, Mr. Massenhoven is chafing here at the house and seems to be alright."

"I see — the worst that can happen to the poor man is that he faints dead away again when he sees me." Corinne made a light, fruity laugh. "Tell him I'll try not to be too brazen — and I do have smelling salts here."

"I'll send him out."

The centauress hung up, and smiled at Jane. Then she stuck out her tongue, curled it around one of the chocolate bars on the top of her left breast, sloughed off the wrapper and pulled it into her mouth.

"Corinne —" Jane muttered. "Corinne — that was — gross!"

"Hmm?" Corinne masticated the chocolate.

"That — that tongue?" Jane took a breath. "How long is it?"

"Mmmph." Corinne swallowed.

"Beats a foot-long ruler," the centauress enunciated. Her tongue looked normal-sized when she spoke. Cee looked at Jane and hastened to explain: "It retracts so I can talk without sounding like I've got a mouth full of cotton. Or sing so you can hear the words — not like Nirvana. Here —"

Jane took in a breath as Corinne stuck out her tongue, manipulated it into figure-eight, and then curled the tip around her right ear. After the demonstration, she repeated her manipulation of the second chocolate bar, and started eating that one, too.

Jane's stomach churned.

"Mmmm … two ounces of Theobromine … that ought to set my udders to lactating."

"Chocolate?"

"Yes. I have to be careful of what I eat. My stomach is still human — even though it is —" and Corinne reached back over her flank and patted her lean equine belly. "— here. So I do eat human foods, Janie. Just lots of it — and some foods — like chocolate — have really interesting effects on me. Like cueing lactation. It will take about ten or fifteen minutes to have an effect."

"Oh." Jane was a bit dazed at this revelation.

The palomino centauress gingerly stretched herself out on the huge blanket. Jane watched as she positioned her blocky equine chest upright. She extended her big left foreleg, its shoulder down. Cee doubled under her leg and hoof on the right side.

Corinne took Jane's hand. She firmly sat the woman down on her flank. Her hindquarters she placed on its side, exposing the white splash of her underbelly hair. The upper right hind-leg she extended backwards, the left hind-leg she pushed forward so that its hoof nearly touched the right foreleg's hoof. The cavern of her hindquarters was stuffed with her udder. Jane could see now that it had four teats exposed through the short white hair that surrounded it. Relieved of constraints, the organ, though bound together by ligaments, splayed out, with left and right mammary glands alternating in almost a single row. Cee's movement pushed the front part of the udder up against Jane's lower leg. It was warm — very warm — and firm.

"You know, Jack and I have bought a house on the Lake about 20 miles from here," Jane started her well-rehearsed speech. "You seem to be enjoying it here — but we know you won't be staying here forever —" Jane had very consciously said "won't" when she meant "can't." The couple had made their money on brokerage and investments in foreign ventures. Jack had bought the resort home — and their wealth allowed Jane to indulge in her passion for horses on a small farm nearby.

Corinne gave Jane an uncomprehending stare for a moment. Then she realized that this was an offer from old friends. She politely refused. "No, thank you, Jane. I'm set where I am."

Jane sighed. She felt she'd done the best she could. Jack would have to give her his gift this afternoon, and then they'd clear out.

"William and Jack will be here soon, I expect." Corinne closed her eyes. "I am sorry, Jane, I really should butt out of your life — as you did mine. It turned out it was the right thing for you to do — so don't fret or feel guilty. But Jack — Jack — he's obviously still pumping iron, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is."

"He's even more a hunk now than when I last remember him! I felt how hard his body was when I carried him up the stairs. I hope you forgive me — I just couldn't help copping a feel. Jack —" Corinne was asking a question now. "He's enhanced?"

Jane nodded.

"That explains why he passed out when he saw me, maybe. He still likes me —"

Jane could feel the muscles ripple in Corinne's lower body as her tail flagged out behind her, spraying the grass off the blanket with glossy white hair.

Corinne blushed. "I am so sorry, Jane. Part of my horsy psyche — I can't hide my emotions very well." Cee continued: "One of those fifteen-inch boys, huh?" She blurted on — "The Company's advertising about 'Hung Like a Horse' is puffery, you know. I certainly know a guy with that mod isn't."

You're jealous, Jane, the tall slender woman thought to herself. Jane finally found herself with a chance to tease the centauress. She could not forbear. "No — he's not one of those 'fifteen-inch boys' — he's a lot bigger than that."

That had the effect Jane desired. Cee looked shocked — she swiveled her upper torso almost in reverse to her prone lower body and faced Jane. Her right hand gripped the gold hair over the thick interstitial muscles of her lower ribcage.

"He's — he's a — runaway?"

Jane could almost read Cee's mind. They called genetic modifications that did not terminate when expected 'runaways'. The incidence was very rare, perhaps 1 in 100,000 genomorphs. Of course, the more complicated the morphs were, the more likely the event. If it had happened to Corinne, today she could have had 100 legs and been growing more — or more likely dead from the shock. So far there had been no legal liability established — the contract the customer had to sign specifically disclaimed liability for 'runaway' morphs. The UCC had verbiage that such disclaimers were not enforceable; but because morphs were 'genetic programs' the lawyers had argued that UCITA covered it. So, amazingly, no one had successfully sued — yet. But in her stock-brokerage work, Jane had checked up on H&M Enterprises — they had just had a very successful IPO yesterday — and knew the officers of the company were very concerned about it.

"No." Jane said. She saw Cee balling her fist and digging it into her equine back muscles. "A custom design. He decided to do it on his own. Macho or something. Having sex with him is very awkward, believe me. I can either be intimate with him or have sex with the end of his penis, not both at once. But that shouldn't bother you, right?" Then Jane realized the source of Corinne's concern. "You do have the hots for him, still, don't you?"

Jane heard the whine of an electric vehicle approaching from behind. The centauress was beginning to pant hugely under Jane's butt. Corinne looked pleadingly at Jane.

"I can only have successful sex with a male human. But he's got to be hung like a horse — not just something that stops at the knee, but more like a third leg. Is Jack that big?"

Jane nodded. She smiled at the centauress' physical reaction to that news. At least Cee looked like she was going to accept Jack's 'gift' readily — even eagerly. "Oh, we're still friends, Corinne?" Jane threw up her hands. "His penis is thinner than a horse, and tapered, or else I wouldn't be able to get any from him at all. He'd be too thick to even start in on me. Sure, you can try him — if he can screw up the courage to even touch you — but please don't wreck him. He's my boyfriend. Or, at least I think he is."

Jack was walking down the path from the electric van with a woman Jane did not recognize. She asked Corinne to identify her.

"Oh, that's Anna — Doc Heilersma's daughter —" Corinne said quietly. "She's probably just back from the prep meeting. She's made herself my groom in the last six months."

The young woman wore an Indian sari. It covered broad shoulders. Her hands and arms were completely covered by the folds of the garment. From the way Anna was walking, she seemed to be carrying great weight in those hands. The sari also ballooned out front with the outline of the rounds of enormous jutting breasts below them. Atop a thin round freckled face grew blazing red hair formed into a voluminous ponytail that streamed down behind to just above the ground.

Jack and Anna looked at each other and smiled as they walked side-by-side. Jane caught the reaction on Corinne's face. Was it jealousy? Well, Jane was jealous, too.

"Anna's a very good friend of mine, too, Janie," Cee said.

"Well," Jane temporized, "Jack does have a fixation with very very large breasts."

"Hehehe." Corinne made an almost horsy snort. "Anna's are morphs — she 'borrowed' some of my breast size DNA, you see. But then — ALL the breast morphs you see today are derived from my DNA. Just not a tenth of the repetitions I have. Anna maybe has half of mine."

"Really?" Jane said as naively as she could manage. She thought: So that's why the doctor wanted Corinne so badly as a subject. Besides hair growth, 'natural' breast enlargement was one of H&M's hottest selling products. To pardon the pun, that particular morph had become an enormous hit with every young woman looking to attract that certain kind of young man.

"Cee! I got milk to start your lactation demo." The woman — who was nearly as tall as Jack's six-foot eight inches — approached, holding out ten one gallon jugs from under the sari in as many hands.

Jane choked.

"Hmm? Oh, Anna. That's why she's so good as a groom. She's tetradecabrachiate — has 14 arms."

"All manipulated?"

"Of course," a contralto's voice replied. "Here's a gallon, Miss Meadowlark — drink up."

"Thank you, Anna. You haven't met Jane Baum. Jane is Jack's intended, you know." Corinne spoke pointedly. "If you want to get intimate with Jack, you'll have to ask her permission. I have just done so." The centauress doffed her hand aristocratically. "Do you mind massaging my cisterns while they expand? It is a comfort to me."

"Sure, Miss Meadowlark."

Corinne made to chug-a-lug the first gallon of milk. She emptied the first jug as Anna set the remainder on the ground near Cee's front.

"Glad to meet you, Jane," the girl said, extending three of her right hands while removing her sari. Two of the arms sprouted from her freckled torso from behind the first, and were longer. They also had seven-fingered hands and extra joints in the long thin fingers.

Jane took the hand of the more normal front arm.

Anna grasped Jane's wrist and fore-arm with the other two hands.

"Yes. They are morphed." Anna giggled at Jane's frank goggle-eyed look up at the tall girl. "I can handle about eight or ten of my arms and hands at once. Getting myself trained up to use even that many has been a real pain — and I still catch them and bump them into other people when I can't shift my attention to the right ones in time. I hope I eventually can get fully coordinated, like William."

Anna wore nothing underneath. She had both the blazing red hair and open green eyes. Obviously she wore the sari because of her extremely fair complexion. Absently she massaged the thumb-sized nipples of her breasts with two of her eight longer arms. These two breasts were not nearly so large as Corinne's, but the girl kept them high and extremely firm. She also had a 'morph' bra, and the networking was very obvious along the side and underneath the base of each mammary gland. She was a head taller and had the same body build as Jane. No wonder Jack was interested in her.

Jack just grinned at Jane. The man was keeping himself well out of the crossfire between the three women. Just as well, because Jane was getting furious.

"William is Anna's boyfriend," Corinne stated between milk jug swallows. She'd observed the tension. "How's he doing, Anna?"

"Oh, fine. He's busy getting the A-V equipment setup for the meeting." Anna took the hint, looked away from Jack, and knelt down before the base of Corinne's udder. She began to massage the four ends of the mammary glands. Each end responded by extruding a limp, bag-like structure which ended in a goat-like teat. She used her other six arms to mark the position of Corinne's hind legs and prop her complex upper torso in a more-or-less vertical position.

"Jane, you've always known that my body scavenges any fat it can find on my body and stores it in my breasts. That's why my face is bony-looking and I've always been skinny. If I ate too much — well, it didn't end up anywhere but here." Corinne crossed her left hand over her breasts and gently patted the side of her right breast. Ocean waves spread across the now perfect skin. "They've stopped growing now because my equine body — especially my new udder's mammary glands attached to it — compete for the extra food." She reached back and patted the solid upper part of the white-haired flesh under her hindquarters. "There's a tug-of-war between the two, and since my udders actually make milk very efficiently instead of just storing the fat, they haven't grown beyond what you see now."

Jane had been hypnotized by Cee's equine belly's growing 'pooch' as milk filled her stomach. She shook herself out of her daze. "But isn't this all very uncomfortable? Like the weight of these is greater than your breasts."

"Well, it wasn't my idea, Jane." Corinne had finished drinking her fifth jug of milk. "Doctor Heilersma thought that it would be a way for me to earn a living from my body, to be productive and not have to live on disability — or rely on the good nature of friends. My stomach digests cow's milk and other milk products very easily and quickly. My udders make milk just as fast. The milk from my udders is indistinguishable from any other human woman's milk. He reasoned that, since cow's milk is cheap, even at retail, and human milk is very expensive, that this was a possibility for me to make an independent living."

"You do sound a little irritated about this —"

"He put it in my genetic code without my consent. Yes, I still am nettled about it some, but we've settled the matter — and I've found the milking process is generally quite pleasant. After a full lactation the feeling of relaxation is wonderful, like I've just done an orgasm."

"Well, part of it is due to my skillful handling," Anna commented as she worked at relaxing and extending the four parts of Corinne's udders. These cisterns were already splayed out beyond Cee's hind pasterns. Jane noted that they were slowly, but noticeably filling.

The centauress finished the last of the Anna-fetched milk. Corinne called sweetly to the powerful man fidgeting nervously at the periphery of the three. "Jack — would you retrieve some more jugs of milk from the truck?"

"Ah, certainly." Jack hastened away.

"May I still try him?" Corinne said quietly.

"Heh, he's in a dither, isn't he?" Jane suddenly decided on a rash course. "Sure. But I'll need to help him with you. I suspect he won't unless I do. How much can you take?"

Anna jumped in. "Cee? She can crush a four-foot plastic dildo in nothing flat —"

"Anna!" Corinne reprimanded the girl. "Oh, thanks, Jack. Just keep them coming." Cee swiveled her torso so that her T-shirt covered right breast tip brushed against Jack's muscular arm.

Jack retreated. "Oh, sorry."

"That's alright. I sometimes forget how far out my breasts reach when I've got them hiked and tight. Just keep the milk coming, okay?" The centauress' eyes gleamed as she stared at Jack.

After Jack once again left earshot, Jane commented: "Don't push too hard with him. I'll try to help, but he's put you up on a pedestal, Cee. In his mind, men just don't screw with goddesses."

"Are you really going to help Miss Meadowlark seduce your boyfriend???" Anna gaped.

Jane sighed. "Yes. Jack was once her boyfriend, too, Anna. He likes a large breasted woman — that's why he was all but draped over you when he arrived here with you. Even though he may not have even noticed it. But you and Corinne look too much like mythological deities for him to be serious with."

Anna laughed, then grew serious. "You mean, Corinne and I —"

"Intimidate him? Yes. And he so much wants to be the perfect gentleman. It's almost funny."

"But look at those shoulders, the arms — that beautiful butt."

"Yes! He's built like a bull. If he'd let go, he'd be an incredible lover."

"You are having troubles with William, aren't you?" Corinne directed her comment to Anna.

Corinne was beginning to pant, so Jane got off the centauress' equine chest and stood up.

"Thank you Jane," the couchant woman gasped. "My metabolism skyrockets when I really get my udders lactating."

"Well, it was getting to be a little bit like riding a boat in choppy water." Jane paused, standing. It was quiet enough to hear the birds sing in the trees around them. "Here's Jack again."

"Thanks Jack. Just keep 'em coming." Cee accepted four more gallons of milk from the man's big hands. She started drinking one immediately. By the time she was done with it, Jack was out of earshot again.

"Anna — aren't you?" she said, picking up another gallon.

Jane busied herself retrieving the discarded empties and putting them into the thirty-gallon plastic trash bags that Anna had put on the picnic table.

"Yes." Anna mumbled. "Sorry, if I'm reacting badly. Jack is so — so flirtable! And William is taking me for granted again."

"William is a busy person sometimes — like you are. There's the big meeting with the new major stockholders and investment bankers to nominate the outside directors of H&M Enterprises — and I'm sure he wants everything to go right. You have been very helpful to your father, The Company, and to me, personally. Ah … that does feel good! Don't mope — just do your job and I'll see if I can't help you with William." Corinne started on another gallon of milk.

Jane sat down on a bench of the picnic table. She noted that Cee's posture made it so that — if she were human, she'd be sitting on a chair. It was very convenient to talk to the centauress. Corinne's front end was only a few feet away. "Keep your shirt on, Cee. Ask Anna to finish hauling the milk — I'm going to talk to Jack, okay?"

Corinne nodded, hopefully.

The sky was dark The moon was high

All alone Just her and I

As Jane walked toward Jack, Anna launched into an old silly ditty, one that obviously bothered Cee. "Stop that!" she said to the contralto singer.

Her hair so soft, Her eyes so blue

I knew just what She wanted to do.

Anna Heilersma giggled — she knew that Corinne was essentially helpless at the moment as the four filling, yet still flaccid cisterns were now lopping well beyond the length of her hooves.

Her skin so smooth, Her legs so fine

I ran my fingers down her spine.

I didn't know how, but I tried my best

To place my hand upon her breasts.

I remember my fear, my fast beating heart

But slowly she spread Her legs apart;

And when she did it I felt no shame

All at once the white stuff came.

At last it's finished, but now I just have to rest

From all the work of milking a centauress!

"Cut it out, Anna. You haven't even begun yet. Or go away and get some more milk — Jack is talking with Jane."

Wandering out of earshot from the two quarrelling women, Jane had an urgent conversation with Jack.

"You are going to go through with it, aren't you?"

"Well …"

"You'd better. She refused living with us again. My, that woman is proud — wanting to live on her own hook. So there's no time — you do right by her —"

"With Anna Heilersma there?"

"She's a grown girl. And I wouldn't be surprised if Anna was bi and size was her thing."

"That's what I'm afraid of. She's very attractive. But you are my girlfriend —"

"And," Jane continued with a little of a scold in her voice, "I'm going to have to live with that ridiculous appendage of yours for the rest of our lives, too. Making love with you on one twin bed and me on the other isn't particularly intimate, Jack. Take off your shirt — at least you can show off your muscles as well. I'm going to help you — since it's too long for your own arms to reach the end."

Jack looked like a cornered rodent. If Jane wasn't so mad, she'd have laughed at a 6'8" tall quivering mouse.

"Oh, come on!"

Jane nearly had to frog-march Jack back to where Corinne was sitting couchant. By this time Anna had returned with the last of the milk jugs. Corinne was pouring them down her throat.

"God, what a hunk!" Anna breathed. Neither of the two had noticed the loop of thick tubular flesh that wrapped around Jack's middle and up (or down) his pants on either side of his front.

The centauress took a long look at Jack's member as Jane unwrapped it from around his waist. Jack's partner gently dropped the end onto the ground in front of the standing man. It curled on the blanket next to Corinne's knee.

Cee's eyes bugged out. Her mouth opened and her tongue dropped out and wrapped around her upper left arm. "Gah!"

Jane saw Corinne shift her hindquarters — or try to. The move strained the connective tissue that attached the mammary glands to her lower belly. It was impossible for her to move more than a few inches without discomfort — so she was quite pinned down by the enormous extended udder, now rapidly filling with human-compatible milk.

Jane looked over her shoulder at the tableau. Corinne was panting, and Anna's eyes looked like they'd pop out of their sockets. Both were now frozen to the grass like animated statues.

Someone said "Oh."

"Are you alright, Jack?" Jane thought her boyfriend looked awful.

"I think I'm going to swear off fornication with centauresses." Jack was wearing an ice-cream suit. Jane thought he looked very handsome in the formal wear. He was forcing a smile. "It's — it's alright as long as I don't twist or touch myself in the wrong way."

The man frowned. "My groin is still sore — she made me climax at least four times — completely drained me."

"Okay." Jane Baum sighed. She looked at the engraved invitation. "The dinner and presentation are going to start in a few minutes. Let me adjust your tie. Can you sit down?"

"Yes, I think so, as long as I don't lean back. We really need to go to this thing you know." Jack looked at Jane. "That red evening gown looks really nice on you."

Which made her uncomfortable. The dress had been provided by H&M Enterprises. It fit her almost too well, as if — Well, if she'd her druthers, they'd have been gone from the estate hours ago.

"There's been a power-play for control of H&M Enterprises. Did you know that our little brokerage might be holding the controlling shares?" Jack asked this with a glint in his eyes.

"Ha! You're kidding. IPO's generally don't sell controlling interest … unless there was a mistake?"

Jack nodded. "There was. I hear that the accountant who blew it got fired three weeks ago, but it was too late — the prospectus had been approved and sales to the underwriters had already been made. The inside interests have a minority stake."

Jane gasped. Her mind jumped to a conclusion. "Did Corinne Meadowlark seduce you for a proxy!?!? For Doctor Heilersma??"

"Maybe. If so, she succeeded. More likely because H&M is giving us a deal," Jack grinned in such away that Jane wondered what he was up to. "So I signed them over for the partnership. You know, I'd have done it if she'd just asked."

"Ha! You would. It will probably cost us — I wonder how much of the value of the stock is based on controlling interest. Oh, take it easy — don't strain it, Jack. If it is any consolation, Cee was not feeling too well after she forgot to let down her udders while you were in her. Those things got as firm as four weather balloons tied together. It was a wonder they didn't burst under the pressure. That must have hurt!"

"Yes — but not for long — those udder tits of hers squirted milk for six feet once she let go. She was back to normal in less than an hour. And you saw her practice-serve tennis balls on the court over there." Jack pointed through the window. "She looked just fine to me!"

Jane sighed. "Yes, you are right. Rearing up like that — she's not feeling any pain now." Jane laughed, "But her service would kill anything that gets in its way. C'mon — the meeting is in the main hall."

The couple entered the "main hall." It was an immense two story ballroom decorated in rustic fashion, as was the rest of the estate. Jane had heard that this had once been the summer home of a Chicago merchant baron of a century earlier. The actual table settings for the meeting took up scarcely a third of the floor space. The remainder yawned empty behind the head table, podium and video projection screen.

Anna and William welcomed the two to the dinner party. Jane had not met William, but was not surprised that the boy had the same number of arms as his girlfriend. A dress shirt was not practicable with all those upper limbs — so he wore nothing under a short white-lined black cape. The white collar and black bow-tie made him look like a thin Chippendale dancer. Jane had to admit that when he moved his arms, the play of all those muscles in his upper chest was entrancing.

Jane looked over the layout. Six round tables were set. With six or seven people per table — that would be more than three dozen guests. A fair number for an organizing meeting. As the tables filled Jane overheard the names and business affiliations of the people arriving.

Individuals joined them at the table William had directed them to. A woman in her early thirties and two older men. They sat fidgeting for a while. Then while being served, a black-haired young man approached and said something into the ear of the younger of the two men. He glared at the message bearer, threw down his cloth napkin in disgust, signaled the woman to stay, and stomped out.

"What was that about?" Jane wondered aloud.

The black-dressed woman made a moue. "That's Reggie — my boss." She doffed her hand in dismissal. "Always overreaching. He tried to gain controlling interest in H&M — and didn't get it. Seems that the inside people found a few shares just in time. You wouldn't know who that might be? No?"

When Jane refused to answer, the woman caught herself.

"Oh, sorry about my manners. I am Chelsea Winston-Smith, of Titaness. We're an undergarment manufacturer — bras, corsets — the other 'unmentionables.' Reginald is our CEO and is unhappy because he thinks H&M might put us out of business. He tried so hard to get control and couldn't — so he got frustrated and stomped out. I have to stay because at least one directorship is due us. Not that I mind."

Jane nodded politely.

"She's beautiful, isn't she?" Ms. Winston-Smith continued. She was staring at the head-table — towards Corinne, who had just entered through a set of double doors at the far end of the room.

Jane's heart stopped. Flank-to, left foreleg and right hind leg cocked, Corinne looked dainty as a doe. And as startled as one shined by car headlights. She was dressed in blue with white accents. The blue matched the color of her eyes. And perhaps 'dressed' was an overstatement. Rather, her athletic horse-body wore a breast-plate and circingle. A same-colored crupper extended the hair of the tail away from Cee's butt — where it did promptly explode into a train straight out of Fantasia. How she'd managed to get all of that into the room, Jane had not seen. It certainly de-emphasized the centauress' heavy udder. But the blue ribbons nicely set off the white of that tail, and her mane — and did well with the gold of her pliant hair on body and head. Somehow, below the Madame Pompadour hairstyle that reached up and up, the headband and ribbons made her face softer, more vulnerable looking.

Corinne held her vast breasts high. They were decorated with a halter top — really a brassiere — of lace that showed as much of her smooth browned skin as hid it. Each cup of the azure item was open in front. Each exposed a large puffed-up aureole and nipple for all the world to see. Jane was startled. Cee had never dressed this way in public!

"It is a lovely, top, don't you think?" Ms. Winston-Smith burbled. "A custom-fitted version of our new 'Knossos' line. Everything except for the halter frame may be removed once the young lady has got her breasts' muscles so they are molded to the proper shape. Then she'll look like a Minoan Princess from Crete, indeed!"

"You mean —" Jane was trying to make sense of this conversation while still staring at Corinne. "Cee — Ms. Meadowlark is wearing a training bra???"

"Yes. I don't understand her unwillingness — such a beautiful body she has. But we prevailed. We did. 'Victoria's Secret' will copy us for a change!" The woman sighed contentedly.

"Excuse me," a large older man sitting at the table opposite Ms. Winston-Smith interrupted. He was once a red-head — but had now gone quite gray. "Do you realize the young lady there at the head table is the first true classical centaur I've seen? Absolutely perfect, I agree! Oh, I'm sorry! I'm A. M. Nevers, editor of The North American Therianthropic Journal. I'm sure you've heard of the magazine — "

Jane and Ms. W-S both nodded.

"We've been following the morphing revolution ever since it started. Elves, mermaids, nagas, silenids, satyrs, quite a number of them. But none with extra limbs — until tonight! I must say!"

Jane sighed. Yes, the man did certainly say. Fortunately, he got caught up in a lively conversation with Ms. Winston-Smith, very much to Jane's relief. She returned to her 'rubber chicken' dinner. It did taste a little odd, but she put that down to the trying day. She was also relieved when she noted that Corinne had seated herself at the table. Her friend had no dinner set before her — and considering her dress and the conformation of her breasts at the moment — well she wasn't really in a position to eat.

Now Anna took her seat next to Jack. Next to her sat a young man — hardly more than a boy. The resemblance between the two was striking.

"Jack, Jane, this is my younger brother, Arie."

"Hello," Jack said politely.

"Hi! Anna told me you were too big for Cee!"

"Hush, Arie!"

"Ah, um … yes."

"Did you know she's going to make me into a stallion centaur?"

Jane intervened. "Who? Corinne?"

"Well, only if I want to be." The boy glanced over to Jack, then seeing the warning stare from his older sister, clamped his mouth shut. His face turned burning red — all the way to the tip of his long pointed ears. "That's my little sister, Arisia, next to mom." He pointed to two females who had sat next to Corinne.

Jane hadn't noticed them enter. Mrs. Heilersma evidently was an older woman — in her mid forties. She was in a conservative gray dress, very much the dowdy matron. Except that she had a very excited twinkle in her eyes.

Arisia, who Jane guessed was aged about ten, was a bright creature. She wore a cover cape like her sister of nearly ten years seniority, and a Chicago Cubs baseball hat. The girl was full of smiles, sitting between her mother and Corinne.

"Mmmph." Mr. Nevers' mouth was full of noodles; but was staring at the girl.

Jane realized that the man was right to stare. From what Jane saw in the next few seconds she had to stare, too. The child's cap flipped off, revealing two pairs of flexible fleshy antenna sprouting from the front of the Arisia's head. One pair was straight and ropy, the other branched, like a moth's antenna. As the girl reached down to pick up the errant hat from the floor with three left hands, six enormous bat like wings flared briefly and closed from behind and below her torso.

This caused a momentary stir in the dinner party.

Inadvertently, a lion's right forepaw, and two horse's right hooves, reached over and rested on the table. Arisia's torso stayed down a few moments longer — evidently the hat had fallen under something — and three right ape arms, another lion's forepaw and a flipper came up to join the other limbs.

Jane could almost lip-read Arisia's mother's scolding as she slapped one of the child's forepaws: "Keep your forelimbs down off the table, child! You're in company!"

"Good lord," the editor gaped, "but was that child conceived at an orgy of mythological creatures???"

Arisia's head had popped up, gave a meaningful pout to her mother, and then looked straight ahead. Jane realized from the look on the girl's soft round face that she was struggling mightily to compose herself. Her ears twitched, the points arching over the child's black pony-tailed hair, behind the four little white goat-like horns. Eventually she got her dragon-like body and multiple hindquarters perpendicular to the table. There seemed to be one of those for each flavor of limb — ending with a big horse's butt. The tail was long and prehensile — with flippers and flukes extruding from it at intervals. Eventually she managed to coil it about her — eventually hiding the last of the brilliant black and blue zebra stripes that covered her nether majority.

Anna giggled. "I just wonder how she's going to handle the elk horns she'll grow when she reaches her thirteenth birthday." She caught Jane counting on her fingers. "Oh, Jane — let me help." Anna held out six of her hands. "Last time I counted 'Risia has thirty lower fore-limbs, including the wings." She added two more hands — ones with seven digits. "Add another fourteen arms, that's forty-four in front. Only ten in back. Don't worry — she loves it! Actually wants more, if she can figure out a different kind of forelimb."

Jane found herself speechless. Resolutely, she devoted her attention to the bland dessert.

Jack had managed to pull himself away from the distractions of the front table. He was looking at the place setting. Included in with the menu there were an agenda and the H&M IPO prospectus. He opened it and read.

Jane watched him almost drop his jaw on the table.

"Jane … look here —"

"Ladies and gentlemen, now that I see that you have finished your dinners, we will go on with the show. In case you don't already know, I am Doctor Jeffrey Heilersma. I will be the MC at this meeting — which I hope will be short."

"Shhh …"

"We've just had the proxies counted by our outside accounting firm, and the management team has received 51% of the voted proxies. I'll ask the individuals selected to the board to stand when their names are announced, then we'll go on with the presentation. Then we'll invite all of you into the garden for coffee and talk.

"The team has selected the board as follows: The five member board of directors will be myself, as chairman of the board. Mr. Stanley Weiss of New York, CEO of Achaean Safe Sex, will be an outside director."

A very conservative-looking middle-aged man arose.

"Ms. Chelsea Wilson-Smith of California, Head of Marketing and Director of Titaness Undergarments will also be an outside director."

The woman who had been bragging about her role in creating Corinne's rather provoking décolletage stood up.

"Ms. Jane Baum, Partner in Baum, Massenhoven and Associates, an investment and brokerage firm, will be our third outside director."

Jane, rather surprised — flashed a look at a smiling Jack. So this was the deal he'd worked out for the proxies? She stood and arched her eyebrow at Jack in a Spock-like way. Not a bad deal!

"And Ms. Corinne Meadowlark, President and head of our Research and Development division, will be a management director.

"Cee — head of R&D???" Jane gasped as she stood.

"That's what I tried to tell you, Jane — and Corinne has half of the founder's stock in H&M Enterprises!" Jack tried to yell while whispering. "The 'M' in 'H&M' stands for 'Meadowlark!' You calculate that stock out in current market value and she's a multibillionaire."

Jane Baum froze as she watched Corinne rise on her four hooves and stand. "No wonder the woman had declined our offer," she said to no one in particular.

"We will have our organizing meeting immediately after our corporate exposition. I will be nominated at that meeting as CEO. Ms. Meadowlark will be named Corporate President as well as retaining her current responsibilities. But I am sure, after Ms. Meadowlark finishes with her review that you'll agree that our future as a publicly held corporation is very very positive, and that the Company will be in good hands."

William ushered Jane to the head table, and Jane could do nothing other than sit down in the plush chair offered her.

"We will start with the following short video. It has been assembled especially for this, our organizing meeting, and will be distributed to the media afterwards. William?"

The firm that has become H&M Enterprises, Inc., was founded by Dr. Albert J. Heilersma nine years ago … began the voice-over.

It was the standard, smoothly produced bit of commercial fluff. The piece related on the success of the outfit's major morphing products. They started with long-hair growth. This was the first major triumph of H&M. How many women had the morph now? Millions? Tens of millions? Soon, hundreds of millions? Involuntarily, Jane touched the cowl of black hair over her head. Gathered in four places with red ties, it trailed down to the ground when she stood. Edged, full to the end, without any thinning. A morph that speeded hair growth by an order of magnitude — rates measured in fractions of centimeters, rather than fractions of millimeters, a day. Women had paid from $5,000 to $10,000 apiece at distributing salons to grow such luxuriant hair. Among the earliest, most devoted customers, there were cases of silky hair grown to twenty meters — or more! The mass of the hair was many times the weight of the rest of the person's body!

This segued into the next product, just on the market — the 'bio-bra.' It was initially intended for those women with unusually large or unmanageable breasts. If the truth be known, Corinne had been the first person Jane had seen with it. The video continued with a statement that, with the help of certain partners in the undergarment and cosmetics industry, the product had a bright future among all women to help them shape themselves into an ideal, fashionable form.

The voice became deep and serious now. The video showed images of horribly disfigured and dismembered people. And how H&M products and custom genetic analysis aided the maimed victims to regenerate their limbs, even eyes and other major body organs, to full function. Jane held her breath. She'd heard about this in the news — but the reality had never sunk in. How much was The Company's part? She couldn't really say, but somehow owning stock in this company made her feel good about herself.

Jane shook herself. Of course, that was what the video was supposed to do: to make the watcher want to own H&M stock!

The show ended with a recitative of the various patents won, bought and sold. The voice over referred delicately to the 'male products' in passing. ("Hah!" thought Jane.) And then repeated the 'bright future' of the multibillion dollar company, with a full product pipeline and now with enough capital to open its own distribution and retail channels.

The lights came up.

Dr. Heilersma stood at the podium again. He was introducing someone. "To tell us about our new products, and the Research and Development involved, is Ms. Corinne Meadowlark."

Corinne rose from behind the table. Jane saw that the centauress was still nervous. She fumbled in her pouch for something — a pair of glasses? Yes. They were thick, black and very unfashionable. It made a wild contrast to the woman's sexually disturbing costume. Approaching the lectern, Cee searched the room — found Jane's face and smiled. She then searched the room for the fancy teleprompter that William was operating with three of his hands.

Jane thought it odd that with all her bodily transformations, the brilliant woman was still near-sighted. And of course reading from a paper script in front of her would be impossible. Her egregious breasts still had to conform to that lacy top that emphasized her outrageous contours — or destroy it in front of everyone! No wonder Cee felt trapped!

"Ah — hmmm —" Corinne cleared her throat. She fingered the formal white choker neckband that echoed the bands about her slender human and horse waists. "Gentlemen and gentlewomen — "

Jane thought that was an odd start to a speech.

Then the woman's tentative soprano voice steadied. "Dr. Heilersma started what would become H&M Enterprises because of a tragedy in his family life some ten years ago. His youngest daughter, who you see here at the front table, was born without limbs. Albert was motivated in the strongest way to forward the development of limb regeneration and, later on, somatic morphing in general. It has been only in the last few years that the necessary breakthroughs have been accomplished.

"I count myself fortunate to have participated in the advancement of H&M Enterprises. The R&D area is only one of the areas where I have worked. You have all been asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and the statements and claims made here are all 'forward looking,' as they say in the prospectus. For you in the media, this information is for background purposes only. Now I want to show you some our research and a few of the somatic morphing products we have in development —"

The room darkened again, and William displayed the first image.

There were dozens of images. How patient DNA was processed, how viral vectors were introduced to the patient. Corinne explained the work on understanding 'runaway transformations' and how to suppress or stop them.

From what Jane could tell, Cee was looking at the pictures, and not at all at the prompter. She knows this stuff cold….

"Of interest here — we have licensed the rights to Hemoglobin-phi-23 from Bader and Company and are including them in all of the somatic morphs. Those who have followed the scientific literature understand the impact in bodily function. For those of you who have not, this feature gives our morphs an enormous increase in stamina, as 'phi-23 increases oxygen-uptake efficiency of the blood by nearly an order of magnitude."

Like Corinne herself, Jane thought. Jane heard someone at a far table gasp.

Corinne paused, then followed her explanation of processes by mentioning a list of transformations which were about to be put on the market for what she called 'premium customers' — those wealthy individuals who were willing to pay six or seven-digit fees for some rather radical transformations. She had William show short computer-generated video clips of mermaids, nagas, polybrachiates, polypods, and of course, centaurs like herself. Some were petite, even smaller than herself — some were huge massive fellows, weighing tons and standing a full fifteen feet high. Others were ten-foot tall rangy race-horse types.

Jane was troubled about these pictures of centaurs — but couldn't quite put her finger on the reason why.

Corinne continued smoothly. She showed various cosmetic modifications as well, changes in body shape or proportions. Tails. Antlers. Horns of all sorts. She talked about the extreme challenge of creating fully functional wings. That followed into the physiology of internal organs and their effect on appearance. Other than Cee's hypnotizing voice, it was so quiet that Jane swore she could hear a pin drop.

Jane was both breathless with the knowledge the centauress had displayed and thoroughly numb with information overload when the lights finally came up to stay.

The editor of the NATJ asked a question. "Some of these somatic transformations — such as wings — are known to be rather — fragile — "

Corinne interrupted, taking off her glasses. "The morphs embody full regenerative powers, Mr. Nevers. At worst a limb, such as a broken wing, can be completely removed and it will regrow within six months to a year, depending on nutrition and other care."

"Ah, are you working on all of these — products — now?"

"Yes. And the successful IPO we had yesterday certainly will help!"

There was general laughter at that answer.

Cee nodded her ponderous head in Arisia's direction at the table. The girl had a merry look on her face. She'd covered her mouth with quite a few hands.

"That's all I have to say tonight. Arisia Heilersma will lead you out into the terrace and gardens. I am sure she'll be happy to show herself off to you." Corinne added. "There is coffee and tea being served of course."

Jane heard a giggle from Arisia as the ten-year-old worked her way out from behind the table. Jane was startled at the flexibility and control the child had over the body with its improbable limb-count. At least when she concentrated! The girl paraded her length before the seated woman. The variegated lower forelimbs did indeed dominate the proportions of her body. And the zebra-striping made her hard to look at. Jane turned away, and found her self looking at Cee's broad equine breast, with its "Y" of cotton cloth tack stretched across it. Jane looked up through the narrow cleavage of the centauress' top.

Corinne's perfect hand placed her fingers on Jane's shoulder. "We're having a brief Board meeting now — organizational stuff." Cee was plainly worried. "I don't understand her at all; but 'Risia just loves the attention, so I'll let folks poke and prod her — rather than me!"

Jane stood. So, the after-dinner coffee outside the mansion was clearly designed to divert the rest of the attendees. Jack among them. He waved at her good-naturedly as he left.

Jane turned towards the centauress and looked up into her troubled face. "Don't worry, Cee — I'll fulfill Baum, Massenhoven and Associates' end of the bargain."

Corinne clattered her hooves on the stones of the garden path. Her hard-muscled body was outlined in shadows of black and white by the low full moon of summer. Jane, sleepy, saw her rear up that body of hers. Her tail twitched to balance herself. She walked on her hind-legs a few yards to a giant hollyhock bush. Delicately, she gazed at one of the topmost flowers. Pale in the moonlight, it was twelve feet above the ground.

Now caparisoned in a nightshirt top and sleeping snoods on both head and tail, Cee yawned, stretched, and then returned all four of her hooves to the ground. She continued up towards the bench that seated the couple.

"Oh, hello, Jane, Jack," the centauress said mildly. "I see you two managed to find a place away from Anna and William."

Jane remembered startling those two in the half-light on the other side of the formal garden. She'd wondered how Anna and William would ever get their twenty-eight arms separated from such an embrace of ardor on that other stone bench. They certainly couldn't in the brief time it took for Jane and her man to beat a hasty retreat!

"Corinne," Jack replied sleepily.

"We were just about to leave for home. It's been a very long day. Much longer than we expected." Jane felt just as tired as Jack seemed.

Corinne settled down, sitting couchant. She faced the two. She'd set her breasts to an intermediate position — not high, as it had been during the meetings; but not at all drooping. Placing her arms above her bosom, she let her breasts cradle them. Her symmetric face and shoulders regarded them calmly.

Jane tried to suppress a surge of jealousy and envy over the woman's beautiful body. If she was trying to seduce Jack again — she'd none of it now! She tried to hide her emotion with a compliment. "You looked ravishing tonight —"

"You think so?" Cee rolled her eyes. "I'm glad it's over. I was scared to death. You know how much I hate public venues. I'll never wear that top again," she grumbled. "I felt like a whore."

"You'll break Chelsea Winston-Smith's heart if you tell her that," Jack said, teasing the centaur woman. "If it is any consolation, you didn't show any nervousness after the beginning — and I don't think anyone noticed."

Corinne gathered herself. She was done with small-talk. "I want to tell you some things. First, we — I — thank you both so much for saving the day. It would have broken Dr. Heilersma's heart to have lost control of The Company. At least now — even if he could retire a billionaire tomorrow. Yes, I know he's crazy — the whole family is — but, then, so am I, I suppose." Cee grinned self-consciously. "Or a fool. Or maybe the Obi-Wan Kenobi character had it right — 'Who is the more foolish? The fool? Or the fool who follows him?'

"Second," Corinne sighed with her human lungs, "I thought you knew I have nearly a quarter share in H&M Enterprises. I should have realized that you didn't know that when you made that offer for me to live with you.

"Let me try to explain. Things didn't go as I expected. During the transformation. The 'extras' — like my super hair and tail — and the udder — " Cee sighed. "I got mad at Albert. Dr. H was very conciliatory — if I would help him he promised me a full stake in the new business."

"And you did and he did," Jane concluded.

Jack stirred. "My god, Cee, you're richer than King Croesus." He yawned. "So, the reason you were rather — circumspect — on the phone was because of the IPO and all the rest of this?"

"To a large extent, yes. That, and I wanted to give you gifts, because you both were so kind to me over the years. Do you understand how absolutely cruel so many people I have met have been?" Corinne was fighting back tears. "Because of my condition?"

Jack stirred uncomfortably. Jane knew that Cee's 'condition' had attracted the man like ants to a picnic.

"Jack, you've been always the gentleman, always considerate of other's feelings. Even when the ethics of the situation tore you apart. I didn't understand that, years ago, back on that day when I tried to seduce you and you refused. You thought you would be taking advantage of me. Perhaps you would have.

"Certainly you wouldn't have been true to Jane. But now I think I understand. I hope I didn't hurt you too much, Jack, whipping you around inside me like that."

"Er — not too much," Jack wriggled his body again. Jane saw that he was indeed still uncomfortable, if not in actual pain.

"I had to do it to get pregnant. I'm didymous — I've got two full reproductive tracts inside back here. But as Dr. Heilersma put it — with me it is 'double or nothing.' And I had to be absolutely sure. We don't know what my gestation period will be; but in a year or two I'm expecting two little centaur foals."

"My — my kids?" Jack stuttered.

"Yes. No one else, Jack, has been in me." Corinne smiled impishly. "You're the only human male who could be. Oh, and — see — " she was teasing the man, "— with my money, you don't even have worry about paternity suits or support!"

"And I know I am pregnant because my emotional structure has changed. Normally, tomorrow or the next day I'd be all mare — happens once a month. I black out and lose any human sensibilities. The folks here have to tie me up so I don't hurt myself. I could feel it coming yesterday and today …

"But now it is different — like all the — horniness — has just gone out of me. Completely. Just like that. Suddenly I feel like I'm all intellect, without a body. Or a Zen state? Maybe. At least now these —" Corinne rubbed the length of the outside of her breasts, and then she tweaked the nipples with fully outstretched arms, "my breasts — will have some purpose — besides to drive me and other people crazy. Everyone at the clinic is guessing, but I think my babies will challenge their milk-production to the limit."

Jane had just put two and two together. And she was peeved. She blurted. "And in a couple of years Jack is going to be able to gallop with his colt-sons or filly-daughters, is that it, Corinne?"

"You guessed?" Cee was dumbfounded. That gave Jane some satisfaction. The genius centauress hadn't anticipated this!

"Well — maybe it was the video you showed us at the meeting. That fifteen-foot tall monster of a stallion looked like Jack — and the racing centauress looked suspiciously like me — "

Corinne shrugged. "Yes, I couldn't help putting in those hints. And now you are feeling the initial effects of the inoculation — it was in your food, by the way. Anna was very careful about making sure you ate it. I did figure out that you wanted to be a centauress?" Cee looked very anxious. What she had engineered was an extremely bold — almost ruthless — move for her. Very different from the old Corinne that Jane had known before her transformation. The centauress' emotions and motives were transparent — Jane saw that Cee very much wanted to know if she'd got it right.

Jane sighed. The brilliant woman was right, of course. "Yes, you did. And Jack — well, my idiot boy here will do almost anything to keep me happy. Including turning into a stallion centaur. It will be more comfortable to carry that tool of his, I suppose."

"Sure. And frankly, I'm a little tired competing with those equine males you're always riding, Jane," Jack grinned, although he looked a little sheepish. "And we'll be able to make love a little bit more intimately, yes?" He hugged Jane — perhaps a little too hard.

"Ow! Cee, You'll want to 'borrow' Jack again, then, I suppose." Jane was too tired to be diplomatic.

"Only when you're pregnant yourself, and can't stand the sight of him," Cee giggled, trying to make light of the situation.

Jane molded her face into a deep frown. "Did Arie decide to go through with it?"

"Yes, he did. He'll make a very tall, skinny thoroughbred stallion — not exactly my type, but suitable." Corinne smiled wanly. "He is my 'backup' plan — Beatrice — Mrs. Heilersma — thinks that I should marry into their family. The boy is her candidate."

Jane yawned, and then tried to assume a serious business composure. "Tell you what. You can borrow Jack if I can borrow Arie. That's a deal?"

Corinne laughed. "Done! Now, let's get you and Jack into bed before you beautiful people go to sleep for a couple of years. We've got a bungalow in the clinic compound set up for you two. C'mon — I don't want to carry you both. Besides, I haven't had dinner — the triple cheese pizzas I ordered are getting cold — and I'm hungry as a horse!"