II
Asa Graybar kept his normal form on Jordan's Planet just long enough to learn the discomfort of double gravity. He was told he needed another physical examination and was taken right in to a doctor. His heart was pounding to keep his blood circulating on this massive world, but the doctor had apparently learned to make allowances.
"Swallow this," said the doctor after making a series of tests.
Asa swallowed the capsule. Two minutes later he felt himself beginning to lose consciousness.
"This is it!" he thought in panic.
He felt someone ease him back down onto a wheeled stretcher. Before consciousness faded completely he realized that no one got a chance to back out of becoming a changeling, that he was on his way to the conversion tank right now.
When he finally awoke he felt well rested and very comfortable. But for a long time he was afraid to open his eyes.
"Come on, Graybar," said a deep, booming voice. "Let's test our wings."
It was not Kershaw's voice, but it had to be Kershaw. Asa opened his eyes.
Everyone had seen pictures of muck men. It was different having one stand beside you. Kershaw looked much like an enormous frog except that his head was still mostly human. He was sitting on webbed feet, his lower legs bent double under huge thighs, and his trunk tilted forward so that his arms dangled to the ground. The arms were as thick around as an ordinary man's legs. The hands had become efficient scoops, with broad fingers webbed to the first joint and tipped with spade-like claws. The skin was still pinkish but had become scaly. Not a thread of hair showed anywhere on the body, not even on the head.