The grey dawn light didn’t wake me gently. It was a cold, creeping presence that found me already tense, already aware of the wrongness. I woke up first, the hard floorboards a brutal reminder of our poverty. But the first thing I felt wasn’t the chill. It was my own body.

I reached back, a habitual, fearful gesture. My hand met not torn cloth, but skin. Cool, smooth skin stretched over a shape that was not my own. My buttocks were gone. The curve had sharpened, the flesh had drawn tight, forming a hard, triangular protrusion. A chicken’s ass. The word formed in my mind, crude and final. I traced the rigid bones beneath the skin, the way it tapered to a point where my anus, now utterly exposed, sat like a dark, waiting eye. A shudder ran through me.

I pushed the thin blanket aside and sat up, my movements stiff. I looked down at myself. My dress was a rumpled heap. My changed vagina, that large vertical slit, was there, just as it had been. But now, in the weak light, I could see a crusted, white residue clinging to the edges of the sensitive flesh. I leaned closer and caught a whiff—a sharp, acrid smell of ammonia and bird. It was the smell of a chicken coop. My own body smelled like a farmyard.

Then I felt it. A deep, internal shift, a heavy, smooth object passing slowly through some new channel inside me. It didn’t hurt, but it was a profound, alien sensation, like a stone rolling through a silk tube. I pressed a hand to my lower belly, confused, but the feeling passed, leaving only a vague, full ache. I pushed the thought away. One horror at a time.

I stood, my legs unsteady, and pulled my dress on over my head. The fabric felt strange against my new, angular backside. Jane was still asleep in the narrow bed, her breathing deep. I went to her side and shook her shoulder. “Jane. Wake up.”

She stirred, mumbling, and gave a wide, human yawn. I turned away, heading for the pitcher of water and basin in the corner of the room. I needed to wash. I needed to scrub that smell away.

The cold water was a shock. I cupped it in my hands, splashing my face, then dampened a cloth to wipe between my legs. …