Travis was enjoying his vacation far out from his hometown and even country. He had traveled to a remote area,  and over there, various old ruins of old civilizations were scattered. They were quite a sight to see, something seemingly so grand before being reduced down to rubble. It was a very unique experience, and one that Travis appreciated that he was able to have. 


However, there was a strange warning that the locals had given Travis when he told them he was planning to visit the nearby ruins from his lodging. They were very explicit about never staying at the ruins past sundown. The reasoning was something that they all refused to tell him, which just added to the mystery of the ruins. 


It was a warning he decided to heed, and was constantly looking up at the sky to see where the sun was so he knew how much time he had left before he had to leave. He still wasn't sure what it could be, maybe some kind of group that would try to attack him under the cloak of darkness? Was it just hard to get back without light? There were many questions Travis had, and he wasn't keen on getting them answered through a firsthand experience. The way the locals talked, they were very serious, and it seemed like they genuinely had Travis' best interests in mind. 


Looking back up at the sky, Travis noticed that the sun was starting to get a bit uncomfortably low to the horizon. As such, it was time for him to make his leave and return home. However, one thing Travis didn't account for was how confusing the ruins actually were. He was lost! With not a lot of time to get out. Try and Travis might, he continuously failed to find where he came in, and where to actually leave. 


Travis found himself outside the interior of the ruins in some kind of courtyard, and saw the sun was setting. He wasn't able to leave the ruins before sundown. However, at first, nothing seemed to be happening. Was it all really just rumors? Were the locals just trying to worry him over nothing? At first, that's what it seemed like. However, he noticed that he wasn't able to actually move. Panic started to set in, looking down and seeing his body move on its own and starting to change underneath the shine of the setting sun.


Travis' posture went down to his hands and feet, where it would remain as his spine became straightened out and lost much of its flexibility, making it impossible for Travis to stand on two legs, the man's bipedal stance forced into a quadrupedal one. All the way, his shoes were vanishing off of his body, leaving his feet exposed. They wouldn't stay feet for long, with the digits of them merging together and hardening, not stopping until they became a set of hooves. The exact same changes would happen to his hands, leaving them identical to Travis' former feet. Travis' hind legs would shift to form a digitigrade posture, while his front arms-turned-legs would stay mostly straight. Once the legs were shifted to that of a horse's, Travis' skin began to harden, everything on the inside filling out and melting into nothing more than the heavy interior of the bronze that his legs had become, completely unmoving. 


Growing out from the tail end of Travis' body would be quite literally a tail. It was a long series of tufts of black hair, which reached halfway down his legs. It didn't stay as hair for long before it turned became bronze metal like his legs had. Similarly, the bronze spread all throughout the rest of Travis' torso. Travis' body itself became a decent bit larger, extra size forming onto him as his overall mass almost doubled to continue his push towards a more equestrian body. 


The length of Travis' neck increased, causing his head to become much more detached from the rest of his body. All the while, his hair shrank and combined to only exist at the center of his head. However, it did form down, going all the way down the back of his now much longer next to be converted into a metal mane. Travis' face stretched outward, becoming rather long as his nostrils flared out at the tip of it, losing the rest of his traditional nose. His ears became longer while going up to the top of his head, taking on a more triangular shape and leaving the former human as a horse. 


"I'm...I'm turning into a horse s-statue?" Travis began to panic, his eyes being one of the only things that hadn't been converted into bronze yet, his head rumbling slightly as he tried to move it to no avail. 


"H-help! I'm not a..." he trailed off, only muffled noises coming out from the statue's mouth, his thoughts starting to slow to a crawl. His pupils vanished into the bronze as he became completely unmoving at all. 


"H-help m-me...can't...move..." were the last thoughts to go through Travis' head before his ability to properly think was stripped away as he became fully inanimate, a human no more but a bronze horse statue. 


There were a few extras forming onto Travis' new form. Over his back, a golden saddle formed that looked not too unlike a regal rug, along with other gold emblems at the hip and base of his front legs. Lastly, around Travis' neck, a golden necklace wrapped around it, finishing off Travis' transformation officially. 


And with that, all that stood in the center of the courtyard was a bronze horse statue. It couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't even think anymore. Days turned to weeks and weeks into months with no changes. It would occasionally rain, causing a bit of wear and tear to form on the bronze statue with no one around to care for it. The bronze became more stained over time, though notably, the gold fabrics dropped on it remained in pristine condition. For a while, no one ever came across the transformed Travis, and no one had knew what happened to him. He had seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth, with no signs of him being anywhere, both at home and where he had taken his trip. 


Eventually, a local did actually visit the ruins - one of the ones that had warned Travis about the dangers of staying there after sundown. He walked around the bronze horse statue, examining it before standing face to face with it.


"We did warn you." the older man sighed, leaning on his cane. "These ruins are cursed, and dangerous to be past sundown. Unfortunately, the curse prevents us from talking about what it can do if you're caught here when the sun is leaving. These gold fabrics on your body signify you were victim to the curse, may have even passed a few others in your same shoes on the way here. You never know what it'll do, some people turn to statues, others into animals, some to the very pavement. It's quite a bizarre curse our town has." he gave a soft chuckle. 


"I don't know why I'm even talking to you, I know you can't answer me, and I'm not even sure if you can even hear me talk to you. Heaven knows how long you've actually been this way." he shook his head. "And if you can, the curse is very thorough, nothing anyone can do to reverse it. This is a very permanent transformation, it can't be undone, you're going to remain a bronze horse statue forever. At the very least, bronze is rather sturdy, you won't be breaking apart and joining the rubble anytime soon. If anything, people might keep you pristine! All things considered, you do make a very good statue. I can see someone getting enamored by you, hopefully not to the point of sticking around too long and ending up like you too. I suppose if they do, you'll have some company here and this little courtyard will have a bit more life to it. It always was the most boring part." he sighed.


"Well, I best be off, I'm in no position to be joining you here, and the sun is going to be setting soon. Us locals know better, shame this happens to our tourists, but we warn you for a reason. Enjoy statue life, horse." the man said before leaving Travis there.


And there was Travis remained for years. The bronze horse statue didn't move, didn't speak, didn't think. It stood there, victim to whatever the elements or whoever came through the ruins wanted to do with it. It was a very permanent position, the curse too strong to ever break Travis out of the bronze form, or even that of an equestrian. Now and forever, Travis would be a bronze horse statue in the ruins, one of the many victims of the curse that had its hold over the whole town.