It's pretty hard to describe how exactly morphing feels like. I mean, seriously, there aren't enough words to describe the whole thing from start to end. But one word that's surprisingly absent is - pain. I guess from watching a couple of TV shows and movies and reading a lot of shapeshifter fiction would be enough to convince anyone that changing your very shape, physically, would hurt. A lot.
Well, goes to show you again how much you can trust the media. As for me, I've been able to morph since I was 12. About the time when puberty was doing me a ton of favours. When a girl hits puberty, she's supposed to change physically. Yes? Yes. I took that changing bit way too far one night when a massive headache rocked my very being. Instead of screaming, I held it in like a big girl and decided to sleep it off.
Minutes later I was sweating and when the first phase of the change began, I screamed. You can imagine the look on my parents' and younger sister's faces when they came bursting through the door only to stumble upon a brown cat with my face on its head. Well, that's what my mum saw before she passed out, fortunately for her. My dad and sister weren't so lucky as they stood, frozen solid and jaws to the floor as they witness my face stretch into a cat's muzzle.
I should count myself lucky that they didn't think I was possessed by some demon and tried to kill me. The following few weeks were immensely confusing and downright awkward as my family tried to come to terms with one of their daughters being able to take animal shape. At first they considered sending me to the doctors but feared the media attention. It was then it was decided that no one apart from my family would know about this.
I guess you can say that over the next few years, they got used to living with a shapeshifter. The novelty does wear off after a year or two, anyway.
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In case you were getting confused about the 'pain' bit, let me explain it to you. If I shift into an unfamiliar form, especially for the first time, it'll hurt. However, let me get a fair bit of practice changing into said animal and the pain is reduced to the same feeling you get when you pull a stretch just a tiny bit too much.
Enjoyable at times, I would say. That feeling mixed in with the sensation of putting on a warm towel around you after a cold shower as the morph finishes.
Time it takes to change? Anywhere from 3 minutes for an unfamiliar shape to 45 seconds for something I'm comfortable with.