Novel in Progress: The Animals We Became

Inspired by Metamorphisis by Franz Kafka and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, I am currently writing a novel and will update chapter by chapter on a weekly basis.

Last updated on 18/01/2026

Pitch

In a world that doesn't make sense to Mina, can she figure it out?

Chapter 1: Something New

Everything changed overnight. More changes likely awaited in the days ahead.

Sunrise washed over every corner of the world, some regions earlier, some later, but regardless of when the sun rose, the transformation of what once were human beings could not be ignored.

Mina opened her eyes. She dreamt last night, and is reeling from the jovial mood. She stretched out her arms toward her phone, only to find hooves extended before her eyes. Mina chuckled, though it came out as a squeal, and thought to herself, "Well, this is a funny dream." She closed her eyes, attempting to go back to sleep. Mina’s skin itched in places she didn’t have names for. Her snout twitched involuntarily. The carpet smelled like feet, “Surely that smell is not me?” She had to stop breathing through her nose.

A few minutes passed. Mina opened her eyes again, unable to fall asleep, and felt herself starting to sweat from the summer heat. She stared at her hooves. She tried to stretch them the way fingers on a hand would spread, and saw them slightly splitting between the grooves. When she attempted to reach for her phone again, the motion unexpectedly rolled her onto her side. "God, I feel like a pig," Mina thought. "This dream is so realistic." She managed to slide her phone toward her face with her hooves. Fortunately it was within her short stubby arms’ reach, but when she got it close, Face ID declined. "Oh, it can’t be. Do I have a pig face too?" She tried Face ID again, but it declined and requested a password. Frustration built inside her. "Okay, this isn't fun anymore." Mina squeezed her eyes shut, and when she opened them again, nothing changed. Mina watched helplessly as her hooves typed multiple characters on the touchscreen, none of which is in her password. Frustration bordering on anger, Mina used all her muscles to roll onto all fours and was surprised by how natural it felt to stand this way. She jumped off the bed and started trotting around her room, which now seemed substantially smaller but taller than the day before. She could barely turn around as she made her way to the mirror in the corner. What stood before her was a recognisable animal: a pink, plump, and surprisingly fluffy pig. Mina stopped breathing for a second, and then screamed with all her might, watching the pig in the mirror producing shrieks and squeals she had never heard herself make before.

"Am I…What…This can’t be!" Mina kept up the panic until suddenly, she heard a loud squeak from outside her door. Mina looked towards the door, and back at the mirror, panicking at the thought of anyone seeing her like this.

"Hello?" Mina croaked quietly and edged towards the door.

"Mina? Mina! I turned into a pig! Open the door! I turned into a pig!" her sister Jessica croaked back.

"Jessica? Jessica!" Mina recognised Jessica’s voice, she looked up at the door and realised she wouldn’t be able to turn the door knob, “I can't open the door, I have hooves for hands!”

Jessica squealed outside in panic and began scratching at the door wherever she could reach. Her hooves scratched persistently at a crack on the door she hasn’t noticed until today. The crack widened until she created a hole through the door. From the other side of the door, Mina saw through the crack an equally pink and stout pig, working through the hole with manic emotions in its eyes that screamed the same panic she carried. Suddenly, Jessica noticed her staring and stopped scratching. They stared at each other, speechless. Silence ensued as the staring battle begins. Mina blinked first.

"What happened to us? How could this happen? Have we been drugged?" Jessica spoke first.

"I don't know. I just woke up. I have hooves for hands, I can’t even unlock my phone." Mina answered.

They both jumped when they heard a loud squeal coming from their mother's room.

“Is that…”

“Mum needs our help.” Jessica turned away from the door and trotted away. Mina enlarged the hole further by shoving her head through and biting through the wood, eventually pushing her whole body through taking the whole door down with her. She hurried to their mother’s door.

"Mum, are you okay?" Jessica croaked through the door.

"Jessica, is that you out there? Where's Mina?" her mum croaked back.

"I'm here! I have turned into a pig, Mum! We both turned into pigs!" Mina chimed in.

Mina eyed the handle and decided to jump for it. Though she couldn't reach it, her force was enough to break the door open. Inside, she saw a pink, slightly plumper pig lying helplessly on her back, four hooves flailing in the air. The pig was making grunting noises, as if it wanted to get up.

"Mum? Is that you? Do you need help getting on your feet?" Jessica pushed Mina aside and headed toward her mother. "Push me from the side, please. I want to stand up."

Jessica pushed against their mother’s side. Mina averted her eyes from the two rows of teats along the underside of her mother’s pig body and joined Jessica in her efforts, which gave enough force to the mother to push onto her hooves but off the bed. Mina scrambled hard to think of anything nearby that could cover all three of them up appropriately, but eventually came to the conclusion that nothing in their wardrobe was going to fit.

The mother pig scrambled to her hooves, all three pigs huddled together beside the bed, in a room which had barely fit the three of them as humans. They never normally gathered this way, but nothing was normal since discovering they were no longer in their human bodies.

Chapter 2 - A New World

A three way staring battle ensued.

“What do we do?” Mina cut through the silence.

“Let’s go outside and see what’s going on.” Her mother responded.

“Like this? We are pigs!” Jessica shrieked.

“And naked!” Mina added.

“What else can we do? We need help! Maybe someone can help.” Her mother’s attempt to calm Jessica succeeded, and they scurry towards the front door, eager to put this morning’s discoveries to bed. Mina tried to aim for the handle again, but the front door was much stronger and didn’t buckle. Jessica started scratching the door until the mother croaked, “Stop! You will destroy the door!”

“So? We will fix it once we’re back to humans! We need to go find help!” Mina shrieked.

“Stay still Mina.” Jessica jumps on Mina and twists the lock with her mouth, reaches the handle with her snout and manages to open the front door.

As the door creaks open, their faces were met with the sun. The sudden warmth felt serene on Mina’s newly gained fur, and as the three walk out of the front door, the mother reached the front lawn first and started to rub her whole body in the grass, gladly rolling around on her side and taking in the smell of dirt. Jessica followed suit, indulging in the smell of dirt as she rolled on the lawn. Mina stood still, watching them. She felt longing for her family’s display of freedom, but also disgust. The feeling at the thought of her human body rubbing in dirt, and remembering the hours she spent to clean her nails after gardening. Mina steps onto the grass, intending to walk past them, but it smelled so sweet. For one moment, she shared the urge to plop down on the patch of dirt, but she stopped herself, remembering this can’t be her, and this can’t be a reality for them.

“What are you guys doing? Get up!” Mina commands.

Jessica paused her rolling, “Oh come on, the smell of this grass is so good! Might as well enjoy a little before we turn back into humans.” Jessica croaks back.

“Are you forgetting you are not an actual pig? Even though this is not that unusual from your human form.” Mina joked, Jessica did a half smile to acknowledge her sister’s digs, “Ok come on let’s go! We need to go find someone to…to solve whatever this is!” Mina’s emotions suddenly heightened, hoping to create a sense of urgency. “Mum! Get up, you’ve got the most dirt on you! We can’t see other people like this!”

The mother pig doesn’t respond, and Mina trots over to nudge her mum on the side, and eventually got her mum to stand up.

“Ok fine, where do we go?” Her mum asks.

“I don’t know! Let’s walk down the street and see if we can find a neighbour.” Mina shrieks again.

They set off from their house to walk down the street, and moved surprisingly fast with 4 hooves on the floor, although their view is often obstructed by cars parked on the street. They walk past their fifth car before getting startled when a cat jumps out from under the car.

“Woah it’s a cat!” Jessica closest on the sidewalk to the car squeals.

The cat hissed, “No I…well yes, but I’m actually a human! Wait did you speak? Pigs can speak?”

“Human? Do you live in the area? We are the family from house 42! We woke up like this, like…pigs! We don’t know what’s going on!” Mother pig squealed.

Suddenly a pigeon lands on the pavement not too far from them, they all turn to look at the pigeon, expecting some kind of interaction, but the pigeon pecked at nothing on the floor.

“Are you a human…too?” Mina asked.

The pigeon continues to peck on the floor as everyone watched, until David lurches himself at the pigeon causing it to fly away.

“Sorry I don’t know what came over me, my body just reacted to the pigeon.”

"I think...I think you were acting on cat instincts! And earlier, we rolled in dirt because that's what pigs naturally do! The animal forms must be influencing our behavior!" Jessica exclaims.

"We need to find a solution before this becomes permanent! We can't stay like this!" Mina shrieked.

Mina thought to herself, especially not a pig, out of all the animals, she hated the fact she was transformed into a pig. Pigs that are used as insults to human character, pigs that are known for being lazy, dirty and everything she was so afraid of being labelled as a human. Mina reiterated again, silently to herself, that she is a human and there has to be a logical explanation for this, the transformation is just a temporary occurrence.

Mina shrugged and walked ahead of the group, shaking off any thoughts that this could be a permanent situation. Jessica joined her quickly, ahead of them they see a dog barking and chasing a horse down the street, which diverted their attention where they nearly missed a tiny turtle and a python making its way towards a shop at the end of the street. They walk towards the shop.

Through the shop window, Mina sees a few monkeys, a crane, and a family of otters with baskets filling them up, the items were diverse, but mainly canned foods, toilet paper, and she sees one of the smaller monkey starting to peel a banana.

“Well that’s typical of a monkey.” Mother pig chuckled, which sounded more like a snort.

“Let’s go in, these are definitely humans.” Mina determined.

They walked in and the animals paid no attention to them, continuing to ravage the aisles.

Mina squeaked, “Are you…humans?” No response.

David steps in and echoed the same question.

The bigger monkey looked at David and Mina, climbed over, and assessed the group. “We are, all of us here woke up like this, well, apparently everyone on Earth woke up as animals today, it’s on the news.”

“What happened?” Mina asks.

“God knows. Nobody knows what happened, why we are like this and how the animals were decided. We are stocking up in case of an alien invasion.”

Jessica grabbed a basket with her snout and carried it over to the first aisle she sees, which was the tuna aisle, she slowly walked along pushing the basket with her snout. Finally, she stops at just below where the few cans of sweetcorn are left.

“Jessica! That’s stealing!” Mina panicked.

“Take a look around Mina, do you see a cashier? And you heard what the monkey said.” Jessica looks around, the cans were all on the middle shelf, and Jessica can barely lift her head to see them. “Can somebody give me the sweetcorn? Please! I can’t reach!”

The crane in the opposite aisle looting all the sunflower seeds came over, and pushed a few sweetcorn cans into Jessica’s basket before grabbing one for himself.

“Thank you…crane? Is it?” Jessica asked.

“Yes, I think so.” the crane answered.

“Well that’s a lucky animal to be.” Mother pig chimed in.

“No, monkeys are the truly lucky ones.” the crane echos, and looks longingly at a nearby monkey shopping almost like how a short human would.

“At least you get to fly, I can barely lift my head.” Jessica says.

“Well, I haven’t flown that much yet, it’s a very scary experience, and I’m finding it hard to do anything without my limbs, but monkeys doesn’t have to adapt as much.” the crane looks back at the monkey climbing up and down the aisle before going back to his basket.

Mina silently watches the interaction with the crane, distracted, the baby monkey comes over to Mina, and offers a bite of the peeled banana.

“Oh, uh, thank you little monkey.” Mina squeaks.

“What will you do without arms and hands?” Baby monkey asks.

“Uh, it’s ok, this is temporary.” Mina stutters.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, I think the apocalypse has begun.” The cat hissed, turned and walked out of the shop.

Mina stepped around the shattered cereal box amidst the chaos and started walking down an aisle. Twenty-four hours ago, Mina was planning her first week of office outfits. She suddenly remembered her lack of clothing, quickly looked around, and realised none of the animals are wearing any clothes, her embarrassment quickly dissolved.

She sees the big monkey drinking a cup of coffee from the instant coffee machine, and started walking towards it, then abruptly stopped, because now she can’t even hold a coffee cup.