I checked into a hotel when I got too tired to drive. Everything seemed normal as I rode up to my room on the elevator, and I thought about how much of a coincidence it was for the Eagles' song, hotel california, to be playing in the cab just then. But that all changed when I reached my floor and saw a jungle, and what looked like a waterfall, instead of a hallway.

    I backed up against the opposite wall of the cab, both in awe and fear. Whether it was an illusion or not made no difference to me: this hotel was too strange for me to stay in! So I worked up my nerve to reach over and press the button for the ground level, and I breathed a sigh of relief as the cab began its decent.

    But my relief didn't last for long. Instead of the lobby that I had expected to see, I was met with yet another strange scene. This time there was a vast, rolling plain, and nearby there were a bunch of wild horses running away from a person running on all fours... They didn't seem quite like a normal person, but I couldn't tell from where I stood.

    With my attention focused on the horses, I was startled when something suddenly entered the cab. I plastered myself against the corner farthest from them and let out a yelp of surprise. What had come in, I began to realize, was a girl in a swimsuit. The odd part (or parts, as it were) about her was that she had the ears and tail of a cat, and wore gloves that matched those peculiarities. She seemed to find me amusing, if her expression was any indication to me.

    There was a moment of silence between us, where she seemed to allow me the time to study her, before she happily said, "Welcome to the hotel of transformation!"

    I just gawked at her in response, at first. I had to come up with a response, after all. It was a force of habit.

    "That's wasn't the name on the building..." I replied while thinking back on the foreign name that I had seen on the sign.

    "Sure it was." The cat-girl-thing began to reason with me. "The name means 'transformation' in its native tongue."

    "And what tongue would that be?" I found myself inquiring.

    She grinned and said, "A tongue that's out of this world."

    I sighed and slumped to the floor in response. It was a bit of a prone position but I figured that the strange girl wasn't dangerous. I even felt that she might be helpful, so I asked, "So... How do I leave?"

    "Well... You don't." She told me, with an expression to match her serious tone. "Well, technically you can, but it won't be your world that you'll leave to."

    Perplexed, and a bit anxious, I asked, "What do you mean...?"

    "What floor was your room on?" She suddenly asked.

    Caught off guard, I awkwardly told her, "It was six. But what about...?"

    She pressed the corresponding button as she cut me off, saying, "Listen: once you enter here, no matter where you came from, you can only leave by entering the worlds that accommodate the kind of transformations that this hotel provides."

    "Transformations?" I queried, my unease finding its way into my voice.

    "The name, remember?" She told me, shaking her head. "Anyway, imagine being a dragon where you come from. Would that work out?"

    "Probably not..." I conceded.

    "Now you see why you can't return." She told me. "The purpose of this hotel is to transform you, and once it does..."

    Something still didn't seem right to me, though. When it came to me, I said, "Wait a minute... Why the surprise, then? Why must I be forced?"

    She seemed to be amused by my question, as if I were a child, and it showed as much since her knowledge allowed her to enlighten me with her following words.

    "Just think about it for a moment." She said to me. "Whether or not the hotel advertised its services, or if they told you in person, would you believe them?"

    "Ah..." Was all that I could manage in reply. I probably wouldn't have believed them, or just thought them as odd or crazy.

    "As for why the hotel doesn't give demonstrations of what it's capable of..." She went on to say. "Imagine the public response when they discover what this hotel is capable of. It's in the hotel's best interest to avoid those who would want to control or destroy it."

    At that moment the electronic bell sounded, indicating that the sixth floor had been reached, and the doors slid open to reveal the jungle that I had seen before.

    "Don't worry." She said, trying to allay my fears by patting one of my shoulders. "This could be Heaven or this could be Hell. You're only a prisoner by your own device."

    I got to my feet and went to stand in the doorway of the cab. I considered her words as I took in the sight of the jungle.

    "I have to get transformed, huh?" I finally said.

    "Yup." She replied. "It'd defeat the purpose to remain or return to being yourself."

    So, with a sigh, I steeled myself and entered the jungle. Before the doors closed behind me, I heard the girl say, "I'll be waiting for you to get back, okay?"

    At least I had something to look forward to, I guess.

    And so I waited for the hotel's new tenant to return. I had a hunch that he'd find the springs that were nearby; there was always at least one source for transformations that was both quick and easy to reach.

    The elevator carried a few of the other tenants between floors while I waited. I took to squatting and placing my hands on the floor to take some of the load off of my toes, as sitting wasn't that safe for my tail.

    Soon enough I saw that I had returned to the sixth floor, and the door opened to allow a buxom young lady to enter. Seeing that she was drenched and uncomfortable, I was pretty sure as to who it was.

    "I'm glad to see that you found one of the better springs." I said with a smile.

    "If you consider being a girl 'better', I guess..." The new girl grumbled irritably.

    "Correction: if you consider being human better." I told her.

    I watched as her whole body appeared to pause, as she no doubt considered the meaning behind the word that I had emphasized. Then she looked down at a part of her body that was much more "emphasized" than it had been before, sighed, then conceded my point by saying, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

    I decided to tease her, by saying, "Hey, at least you came out so healthy."

    She became self-conscious in response, whereby she blushed and half-heartedly tried to cover up her new endowments.

    "C-come on..." She complained, a bit upset. "That's not funny."

    "But it can be." I told her, surprising her by my sudden change into an air of seriousness. "Remember what I said earlier."

    She looked away from me and stared down at her bosom again, her brow furrowed. I decided to leave her to her thoughts.