Careless Imagination

I know, I know..this is yet another one-off using some generated images. I swear I am working on the long-running stories too, and have a high percentage of some parts of them written, but nothing just feels quite entirely ready to me yet.

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Congratulations! You are this year's lucky winner!

A package arrived in the mail Monday: A cube-shaped cardboard box with dimensions each around 1 foot. Inside was a short slip of paper, along with the main item taking up all that space: A crystal ball, along with a little stand to help it sit on flat surfaces without rolling around. The inside of the ball seemed dark and misty, with a faintly-glowing substance slowly swirling around inside of it even when it sat perfectly still.

After a brief congratulations, the paper said: Please enjoy the Orb of Desire included in the package along with this message. It contains two (2) full charges to be used however you wish (but read the legal disclaimer on the back!). The Orb of Desire is extremely simple to use: Simply stare into it while imagining exactly the result you want, and (as long as it is within the Orb's capabilities) it will grant your desire. The Orb of Desire can grant many things; the biggest limitation will probably be your own imagination!

Kane spent some time reading the paper and examining the strange object, trying to decide what to do about this situation. After all, he hadn't entered any sort of contest of which he could be a lucky winner. He wondered whether he'd been sent the odd package by mistake, but the package was very clearly labeled with not only his address, but also his full, personal name. There was almost certainly no mistake. And—while the legal disclaimer on the back of the paper did make it pretty clear that someone wouldn't be at fault if he used the item incorrectly—he found it quite impossible to figure out exactly who that 'someone' even supposedly, legally was.

Eventually, Kane did what he usually did when he couldn't figure something out (which he would admit happened fairly often), and called his best friend, one of the smartest people he knew. Eli answered within a couple of rings. "Hey, Kane. What's up?"

"Yo. I got something super weird in the mail, and I can't figure it out. Or, like, what to do with it?" he said. "Maybe you've got some idea."
"Okaaay..what'd you get?" Eli asked.

After a few minutes' conversation explaining the item and giving the gist of the message, Eli sort of sighed into his phone. "Dude, it's probably some kind of scam. You should just throw it out."
"Whaaat? But it's like, a magic thing. I mean it totally looks magical!" he said. "You should see it, man."
"Well that's even worse! If it's magical, it might be like, a physical version of spyware or something. Picking up all the details about you, and your passwords and stuff, so someone can do a scam call. Maybe you should smash it with a hammer first, then throw it out."
"But it said it could grant wishes, though."
"Please, man, like that'd ever be true."

"What about the legal disclaimer?"
"You mean, the one that's too complicated for you to make any sense of? It's probably just literal nonsense, made to look reassuring."

"I dunnooo.."

Eli sighed again. "Look, Kane, you asked me what to do with it, and that's what I would do with it. Like, within ten seconds, if I was their so-called 'lucky winner'. But what you wanna do with it is totally up to you."

"I just think, I'd feel pretty dumb if it really could grant a wish or something, and I didn't even try it out. Like—it doesn't cost anything to try, right?"
"You can never tell with magic, man. Maybe using it sucks up your soul, or in exchange for that wish you owe some witch your firstborn son, or something."

"I can just..not have kids then? I mean, I haven't been on a date in years."
"That was an example," Eli said flatly.

"Okay, okay. I'll be careful, at least."
"I, really, don't know how you can 'be careful' with completely unknown magic stuff, but..good luck, I guess."

After the call, Kane just put the box away in a closet. He figured the orb couldn't spy on him very well from in there, after all, and he had some stuff to do. Besides, it was supposed to only have two uses! If he wanted to test it out with a wish, it had better be a good wish. He needed some time to figure out what he wanted.

It had some limitations, after all. It probably couldn't make him fabulously wealthy, or even summon up the latest game console. Ever since the whole 'unveiling' had happened, Kane had heard of loads of amazing things that magic could do, but they weren't that kind of thing. Well—for wealth, it probably could summon up some gold ingots or gemstones or something, but then he'd have a pretty hard time selling them off without his whole story for how he got them sounding stupidly fishy to the authorities. Ultimately, he went to bed that night still thinking about it.

Kane went to the gym early the next morning; Tuesdays and Thursdays were when he tried to exercise. 'Tried' was very much the operative word; no matter what he did, he seemed to get exhausted pretty quickly. The impressive gut he'd sported more or less since puberty refused to get much smaller. Honestly, when it came to having kids, he'd never even had a girlfriend. It might have been his personality to blame, but he was thought at least he'd have more shots to find someone compatible with him if he was at least sort of attractive. That, rather than any concern for his health, was why he was at the gym sweating and panting his face off in the first place.

And then he was sore all throughout work that day. It was a hectic day, and what part of his mind wasn't focused on his job was instead busy complaining about how sore and stiff he was from the morning workout. Maybe he just wasn't doing it right or something, but he'd followed the advice of dozens of online experts' videos! He'd even tried a protein shake one of them was sponsored by...and given away the rest of the box after his first sip. That stuff tasted awful!

He went home feeling exhausted, and just lay on his couch playing games until bedtime. It wasn't until he was lying in bed, half-asleep, ruminating on how much he hated his day after exercising and how very little it seemed to have been worth it, that those thoughts collided with a memory from the day before. And just like that, he realized—he knew—exactly what he wanted that supposedly-magical orb to do for him.

He woke up the next morning with the idea still in his head. If it really could grant this wish of his, then Thursday morning at the gym would be a very different experience. He just needed to get through the day's work before he'd have time to try it out. But with the thought of maybe, hopefully winding up with a perfect body by the time he went to bed that night in his head, the work day flew by, and he was back home and done with supper before he knew it.

Kane eagerly ran to the closet and sought out the box he'd buried inside, having a momentary panic that he'd imagined its very existence. However, it was waiting right where he'd left it, in a fairly obvious spot that his eyes simply hadn't looked toward at first, so he grabbed it and went to the living room, setting up the stand and the orb on it on the coffee table in front of the couch. Then he re-read the instructions, making sure he was clear on how the orb was meant to be used. Then, setting the paper down, he got ready to do it.

"Stare into it..." Kane muttered to himself, leaning forward. "...While imagining..."

He looked deep into the swirling, cloudy mass inside. Now that he was really staring hard, he felt almost like he was being pulled into it, like the dark clouds were coming out into the room around him, obscuring all sources of light except for the faint glow within the orb itself. He pictured what he wanted: A fit, strong, attractive body. Cute girls looking at him, paying attention to him, admiring his looks. Himself easily lifting weights, running, swimming, and the whole time never getting tired. He also imagined a curvy girl with a huge bust, smiling over at him...!

After he'd concentrated for a long moment, the clouds seemed to part and disappear; the orb he'd been staring into became crystal-clear all of a sudden, the faint glow inside of it suddenly brightening into a brilliant white light erupting out from its entire surface. That glow spread up and forward out of the ball then, rapidly approaching Kane and then blinding him; he felt a distinct heat across the front of his body right when that light seemed to make physical contact. And then, slowly, his vision came back to him, the lighting of the room returning back to normal. The orb, too, looked just as it had at first: A glass ball filled with dark, swirling clouds and a faint glow.

Kane hurriedly stood up and looked down at himself. "Did it work?! Am I...? Huh." He didn't look any different—nor feel any different. Except..that heat he'd felt when the light hit him still seemed to be there, not quite as sharp as it had been initially. It was a warmth that seemed to be spreading from the area of contact out across the rest of his body. "I guess...something's happening?" He stood up, looking around; nothing seemed any different yet.

The warmth soon gave way to a tingling sensation. "H-huh..whoa, that kinda tickles," he muttered, shuddering slightly. It was there only briefly on most of him, but seemed to linger longer all across his head, including his ears, and—a bit more strangely—down between his legs. "U-uhm..?" His first evidence that something was physically changing about his own body was the sight of his deep black hair falling out into view before his eyes, and the feeling of those increasingly long locks making their way down across his cheeks and the back of his neck. "My...hair? Wha—? Urk!"

Just then, Kane's body was caught in a brief spasm. He came out of it into an involuntary stretch, arching his back slightly while reaching his arms farther and farther up into the air. It was like he'd been coiled up and stiff, and was suddenly releasing all that tension at once. "Aah—w-whooaaaah...!" This stretching somehow had a physical effect, and he could actually see his perspective rising. He was growing actually taller! This wasn't exactly what he'd asked for either, but the orb was definitely doing something! Never mind that strange tingling between his legs continuing to grow stronger, nor the feeling of hair falling down onto his shoulders and upper back.

Kane came out of the stretch with a sharp breath, then let it out slowly. "Fffffhhh. Ooh man, that was...mmh..!" All of a sudden, he felt a slight...motion? From the thing between his legs. He realized suddenly that the tingling had been...stimulating it this whole time, and now he was starting to feel the heat of a blush across his cheeks from all of that. "I-I..wha~ah.?" His voice squeaked slightly during that confused cry. But then he felt something in his ears not unlike what his entire body had gone through just a moment earlier. "Agh..w-wha...?" They were...stretching out? Growing? "I-I..wha~ah..?" It felt...nice; the more they grew, the more of them there was to keep on tingling. Kane found himself letting out a strange noise next, a soft "Mrrr~rrr~rrrh...!" in a voice whose pitch audibly rose throughout the whole thing. Then a strangely soft, high, "Aah~!" came out as he felt another motion from down below...no, definitely a tug! Like it was being pulled inward..!

"Wha, wha~at's...w-with my voi~ice?" he asked, only to hear it crack and shift even more. It was starting to sound a lot less like any guy's voice at all. "I-I...aah~!" But he couldn't worry about that too much, as he was suddenly struck by a wave of involuntary tensing all across his body. "Aah, aa~aah..!" His muscles all began to burn, and he felt a strange sort of pressure hitting him all over. The combination of those two feelings had him bending forward, so his eyes caught sight of his belly rapidly shrinking away! "Aah—oo~ooh..!" He could also feel his frame collapsing steadily inward, his shoulders narrowing and his waist trimming itself slimmer. His arms and legs were slimming down too, but also getting stronger..! "Aah, mrr~rrfh..!" With that strange noise, he saw his belly push inward one final time, taking away the last bit of pudge and leaving it completely flat. And then..!

Just as the pressure and tensing eased off, leaving Kane's body slim and fit, he gasped. Another tug from down below...! And this one..just kept going! "W-wha~aah..I, I—mmfh..!" The thing that he was so familiar with down there, which had made him male for his whole life...it was slipping away! "Aa~aah...!" His voice sounded so high and cute...his hair had cascaded out more than halfway down his back by now. He was really...turning into a girl? "N-no, I...aa~aah..!" Why did it feel so nice!?

Before he knew it, Kane's manhood was melting away. He let out a soft, helpless "Mmm~nnnghh...!" as it vanished and was swiftly replaced with its opposite, then she pulled in a high gasp to let out a girly "Aa~aahnn...!" in response to a sudden burst of pleasant, fuzzy feelings from the brand new parts down there. "Mngh, mmfh..!" Her hips were pushing themselves out wider, her butt growing bigger and her thighs thicker...and just like her ears before, something was stretching its way rapidly out from her lower back. "AaAAAaah~...rrrfh!" It was covered in fluffy, soft hairs—fur—and had started wagging back and forth behind her nearly as soon as it had appeared. Those curves finished settling into place just as this new tail reached its full size and length, leaving her nearly completely changed...with only one thing unfinished. However, there was now an increasingly strong resurgence of that earlier tingling all across her still-flat chest.

"Mrrr~rrnh..wah, why'm I...g-girl...aaAA~AH!" Her confused question was interrupted by that tingling progressing into a forward push. Kane's nipples lifted up, growing themselves wider and taller as each one grew a small, sensitive bump up from underneath it. "Aah..o-oo~oh..!" The bumps swelled up and out, quickly growing out into a proper pair of breasts. "Aah..aa~AA~aah..!" Then they kept getting bigger and bigger, making her girly parts erupt in more fuzzy feelings, leaving the rest of her to just helplessly squirm in place as her bust kept on filling out. "Aa~ah...rrfh...mnn~nngh..!" Before she knew it, Kane was welcoming this change, and the feelings that came with it. After all—if she was going to be a girl, why not a curvy, gorgeous one? And why not enjoy it? Finally, there was one last push that must've given her an entire additional cup size at least, making her let out a high, girly "Aa~aaahhnnnNNNnnnhh...!" at one final, strong burst of those nice feelings down between her legs.

"H-ha~aah...ffh..." The new girl cried out softly, feeling satisfied and relieved all at the same time. She looked down at her new form to find her shorts and tank top holding tightly onto her curves—particularly her enormous new breasts, which seemed to be taking up so much of the top's material that it couldn't hide any of her slim belly, which was now covered in some solid abs."I-I...oooh wow. I-I'm super fit! And...a girl? F-fox girl?" she added quickly, curling the fluffy pitch-black tail up in front of her hips for a second to get a look. "I-I-I've gotta...get a good look at this!"

The new girl hurried to her bathroom to get a good look in the mirror, and found a positively gorgeous, tall, strong, curvy girl looking back. Still not entirely sure this was real, she gently lifted up her huge breasts in her hands. A blush and a bright grin spread across her face, and only now she noticed her teeth sporting some longer canines—fangs—and how the color of her eyes had changed from brown to bright red. "Heheee~eeh..!" She could...get used to this!

Dropping her hands again, the fox-girl tilted her head at the mirror. "But why though..? I thought I concentrated pretty hard on being a tall, strong guy. Wait.." It finally hit her: Other than how fit she was, and the furry ears and tail, this curvy, gorgeous body she had now was almost exactly the same as the girl he'd pictured smiling across at him while using the orb! And, just now, in the mirror, that girl had been there smiling over at her. The orb had...more or less tried its best to give her what she'd pictured!

"Oh, wooow...hahah...that's, my bad I guess. It did say to concentrate on exactly what I wanted. We~eell...at least this isn't so bad. I'm just as fit as I wanted to be, and taller too—and I'm super hot! Uhhm."

Kane slowly crossed her arms, frowning slightly and watching her ears droop a bit. "But I guueeess...this might be kinda awkward for tomorrow, though. My clothes won't really fit uh, this look, plus I'm missing something to help me carry these puppies around. Uhhmmm...what c'n I do about...hmm." She dropped her arms again, shrugged, and went back to the living room—to her phone in particular. Since this was an incredibly bizarre situation overall, and she wasn't sure what to do...Kane's first thought was to get some advice.

As things were now, though, just calling wouldn't work very well. Her voice was totally different from before! So...she brought the phone back to the bathroom to take some pictures first. Some proof would go a long way...so she hoped! Then she sent off some texts:

hey eli

remember th weird orb thign?

A moment later, after she'd walked back to the living room and sat down, there was a reply.

Yes, did you get rid of it?

nope

treid it out instead

and

At this point she sent some pictures.

it worked but i messed up my wish a little

soooo

A good minute and a half after she sent the texts, Eli responded not by texting back but by calling. Which was..pretty much what Kane had hoped for.

"Kane, are you seriously telling me that's you!?"

"Uhh, yep. I wanted to call you, but y'know, wasn't totally sure you'd believe me. My voice is totally different, too."
"I've uh..noticed. Just, what. Like, how did you 'mess up a wish' and wind up as a beastgirl?"

"I just wanted to be fit, is all! But, y'know, you're supposed to picture what you want, and I guess I pictured a cute girl a little too well."

"So, what, you want me to help you figure out how to fix this? Just wish yourself back, since that worked so well the first time!"
"No no—the thing is, I kinda like this? Girl part and all," Kane said. "It's just kindaaaa...awkward. For, like, going back to work tomorrow. And stuff."
Eli sighed over the phone again. "Then take a sick daaaay? Get an actual medical exam, because we seriously have no idea what that orb's magic even did? And get whatever you need for the new—like, you know. Stuff."
"You mean the boobs?"

"Yeah, that, and the rest of what comes with being a full-grown adult woman. I can not believe I have to explain this to you."

"I mean—you don't have to, but I do really appreciate it~!" she said. "I guess I'll go ahead and call off work, then. Citing uh...magic shenanigans?"
"You can also just, lie, you know."
"Yeah! Anyway, talk to you later~."

After the phone call, Kane looked over at the orb still sitting on the coffee table. "Hmmh." It was going to be a huge expense, not to mention a big hassle, to buy a bunch of new clothes—underwear and all—for herself, wasn't it? "Hmmmmmh." If the orb could transform a person's body, then...surely it could also change around a few measly clothes? After all, she was pretty sure her shorts and tank top had been a little bit bigger before she'd been transformed.

It was Friday afternoon when she next saw Eli in person again. This wasn't an unusual visit; they pretty much always got together at some point in the weekend to hang out, talk, and play games. The fox-girl eagerly ran off to the front door when one of her fuzzy ears picked up the sound of a car in the driveway, and she had a little bit of fun by making sure to open the door right at the exact moment when Eli's steps had stopped just in front of it so he could ring the doorbell. "Hi the~ere!" she said, enjoying the sight of him jumping slightly in surprise with his hand still half-raised toward the button.
"Uh—hi." Eli paused, looking her up and down for a second. She couldn't blame him, with how stacked she was, and honestly appreciated the attention! She was wearing slightly more than in those pictures she'd sent him: A long, loose t-shirt and some slightly less tight gym shorts that were more comfortable to move around the house in.

"Sooo..it really is you, huh," he concluded after a moment, but his face was slightly red.
"Yeah! Don't I look awesome!?"

"Sure I guess—but uh, I hope you can appreciate how weird it is for me, though."

"Mmh, I guess so. I got plenty of funny looks coming back to work today. But I love it!"

"Good for you, I guess..."

With that, they went inside, the fox-girl's huge fluffy tail wagging out behind her. She was a little disappointed that Eli managed to stay far enough behind that she couldn't 'accidentally' brush him with that tail's tip, but that only meant that he got a full view of her from behind. She turned around once they got to the living room. "I've got the snacks and stuff ready on the table," she said, pointing.
"Yeah, good. Um—wait, is that it?" he asked, gesturing toward the center of the table.
"Huh? Oh, right. Yeah, I, used up the second charge to fix my clothes and stuff," Kane said with a slight shrug. "So now it's just a clear glass ball. I figured it makes a good decoration for the table, riiight?"

"I, dunno about this...I mean, it's still an unknown magic item. Wait—if you didn't buy any clothes, did you even go to the doctor?"
"Yes I went to the doctor! I'm a hundred-percent-healthy, normal fox-girl. Uh, he said something about a kit suing a horse too, I think."
"A wh...he said what?" Eli said, his expression one of extreme confusion.

"He said a kit sued my horse," she repeated. "Or uhh, more like a horse sound. You know?"
"You mean 'neigh'." Eli looked like he was ready to pull his hair out. "You mean, that the doctor said, that you're a kitsune."

"Yeah, that was it!" she said, pointing at him. "He said he could sense it or something, 'cause he's a Neko."

"Kane, a kitsune is a magic fox person. Like, an immortal super trickster with magic powers?"
It was her turn to be confused; she headtilted a bit. "What, really?"

"The doctor. Your doctor. Did not explain this."

"Oh, I just said it was neat 'cause I didn't know what he meant, and I figured it was just some kinda medical term," she said, putting her hands out in a shrug. "Soooo, like, I guess he thought that meant I knew what he meant?"

"Well obviously, he did think you knew what he meant! Do you not comprehend how big of a deal that is?!"

"Not really? I mean...there's tons of magic people we didn't know about before, sooo, if I am one, so what?"
Eli sighed his biggest sigh yet. He took the two or three steps necessary to reach his hands up, put them directly onto Kane's shoulders, and look the fox-girl straight in the eyes. "It means you have literal superpowers. Or, at least, can have them."

Kane took a second or two to react to Eli's words, being somewhat distracted by kind of enjoying him holding onto and looking right at her like that. "Ooooh. Cool! But, like, I dunno how to use any of them, though?"
Eli let go of her so he could facepalm and sigh again. "Yeah, sure. That just means you might use them by accident at some point...but I guess we'll unpack this later. We're here to hang, right? Sooo, let's just do that."
"Okay, great! So—" she launched straight back into what she'd been ready to say before the whole orb-related interruption.

They did hang out after that, and it was about as fun as usual. Well, maybe a little more so; teasing Eli was its own little sort of game. He seemed a little less comfortable sitting close to Kane as a busty girl than he had when they were both guys, so she 'innocently' scooted closer when he wasn't paying attention and waited to see how long it'd take him to notice. Once or twice she reached for some food or drink at the same time as he did so their hands would make 'accidental' physical contact, which had him recoil with a slight, nervous blush and sometimes a muttered apology. Despite how smart he was, Eli never quite seemed to realize she was doing it on purpose.

It was a couple of hours of them playing together before Kane's mind really digested their conversation at the start of the evening. Eli had been exasperated by her lack of understanding that she was, in fact, a magic fox-person now. Even though she didn't have any powers that she actually knew about, she had to admit the possibility was pretty cool. Then again...why was he so upset that she hadn't understood how big of a deal it was? He usually seemed pretty cautious, if not paranoid, about magic stuff, and he could've just kept her in the dark...but instead he really wanted her to know about those supposed 'superpowers', which surely meant...something. Right?

Mulling it over a little more, she thought that perhaps it was because they were friends, and he trusted her with those powers. Even if she wasn't the brightest bulb, he knew she wouldn't use them to hurt him, unlike—say—a complete stranger giving away a mysterious magical orb as a prize. But was that all? After all, if he thought that a kitsune knowing she was magical and learning to use magic powers was a good thing, and he was really upset that she wasn't doing it...

Did that mean he was jealous? Well, no, jealousy didn't seem like the right word for it. They were having a good time together now, after all, and Kane at least knew that that was impossible with the kind of bad vibe that some serious jealousy on Eli's part would've produced. But rather: Did he wish, deep down, that it had been him who'd become a..what were the words he'd used? Right, it was: 'immortal super trickster with magic powers'? That sounded like a way of describing a kitsune that maybe someone who wished they could be one might use...didn't it?

From all of that, Kane finally thought: She didn't want to give up her new looks or anything, but it'd be nice to share the wealth a little bit. Since they were such good friends after all, she kind of wished that, if Eli wanted it, that he could get to be a kitsune too. She began to feel a bit of regret about recklessly using up the orb's second charge so soon when it could do something that was apparently so amazing; she would totally have been willing to use a wish to help Eli out with that. If he could be turned into a cute, busty fox-girl like she had, and thereby get the magical superpowers he wanted...she'd have wished for that, if only the orb still had that second charge. This line of thought distracted her enough to lose the next three rounds in a row against him.

"Man, are you even trying at this point?" He looked over at her.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. Iiiii, got distracted thinking about some stuff," she said.
"Really? What kind of stuff?"
"Uhm. You know, like, private stuff!" she insisted.
"Okaaay. I'll just assume you're coming to grips with how much being suddenly a girl is gonna complicate your life, then," he said.

"Huh? Oh, uh, sure. Something like that," Kane said with a grin and a small shrug. That was totally off base, but who was she to reject a perfectly good excuse? But now that she was looking over at him, she was really picturing how much happier he might be as a kitsune like her.

"That's not very convincing," Eli muttered under his breath—which of course she could hear—as he looked back toward the screen. "Uhh."

""Uhh' what?" she said, still looking at him. He looked around, then back at her again.
"Are you..doing that on purpose?"
"Doing...what?"
"Look around you, doofus!" he said with an emphatic wave. When she did, Kane finally noticed a cloud of black, wispy smoke-like stuff which seemed to have suddenly appeared around her, which was now in the process of surrounding the two of them. It was a rather familiar look, she thought, just like what she'd seen come out of the orb when making her wishes with it.

"Oh, wow. Uh—if I am doing that, I totally have no idea how."
"Great. I knew you should've gotten rid of that orb!" he said, gesturing to the orb (which wasn't really visible through the dark fog). "What even—aack!"

The latest noise came out of him when he looked her way again, and was joined by him putting his arm in the way of his eyes. It took Kane a second to realize that she was actually glowing, the same way that the orb had before doing its work. The first time, its light had gone into her (him at the time); the second time, it had scattered out from the orb, mostly toward her bedroom, to hit and change her clothes. But why was she glowing now? And even more strangely, why wasn't it blinding her?

"Can you not turn that off!?"
"I dunno how I turned it on!" she protested, deciding not to mention all of the similarities she'd noticed so far. They would both find out soon enough whether she was right, anyway. So she just waited a couple of seconds, and then felt...something. She exhaled hard, feeling all of a sudden like she'd put a bunch of effort into some particularly difficult physical task, and at the same time got to see the glow jump off of her body and over to Eli's, silhouetting his form briefly before disappearing altogether. After that, Kane was left huffing for air for a second or two, like she had after her workout Thursday afternoon, which had been significantly more intense than her previous form had been capable of.

"Okay, well, it's off now," Eli was saying, looking around the room. The smoke and the glowing were both gone, leaving things looking pretty much normal for the moment. "So you seriously have no idea what—is something wrong with you?" he interrupted himself, noticing her panting.
"Uh...hff...don't think so. Just feel like I exerted myself or something?" she said. "I'm already mostly over it, though."
"Exerted..then it was you, wasn't it? Using magic is supposed to be physically taxing," he said.

"I don't remember trying to do anything specific, though," she said. "Definitely nothing magical."

"Okay, great, so you did magic by total accident," he concluded. "And now..I feel..weird."

"Uh, like, weird how?" Kane asked. She had no idea how she could've recreated the effects of that orb, but all signs pointed to that having happened. And since the light had gone into Eli, that meant...

"M-my ears...ugh..." he shuddered slightly once, than again a little more violently. "T-tingling...AaaAAH...!" Before Kane's eyes, Eli's beard shortened and thinned, swiftly vanishing away; the hair visible on his upper arms did much the same thing. It took five to ten seconds for her friend to look impossibly clean-shaven. "R-rrgh..!" At the same time, she caught sight of his ears rapidly growing bigger and taller, easily poking their way out past his hair. They were covered in a sort of peach fuzz of bright blue hairs which was filling itself out just as swiftly as his beard was going through the opposite process.

"Aah, aagh...r-rruufffh..!" With his mouth open, she could see his canines growing longer and sharper. The ears rose up to a triangular shape as their fur (since that is what it was) filled the rest of the way out, followed by a swift growth of snowy white fuzz from his inner ears. "Wha~at..the..?!" His voice cracked slightly; the blue coloration of his ears' fur seemed to spread out to the hair they had just pushed through, and that shift spread out to the rest of his hair from there, rapidly recoloring it all to the very same shade of blue. "Aa~ah..r-rrfhh..!" Eli shivered slightly again; the color of his eyes brightened to a golden yellow while a tail pushed its way out from his lower back, curling aside when it hit the couch behind him. It started out as a thin line of blue fur (the same shade as his hair and ears) with some white at the tip, then swiftly puffed out into a big, fluffy pillow of fur. By the time this was done, his hair had grown out enough to frame his face, with the tips of some locks touching his shoulders.

"I-I...m~mmh...K-ka~ane..!" His voice was still cracking and squeaking, its tone shifting bit by bit with each utterance. At this point he was looking over at the fox-girl, and she got a full view of his smooth face with bright blue eyes framed by that soft blue hair, his cheeks starting to redden with a blush; her immediate thought about that sight was how cute it was. "Wha, whaa~aah...aah..!" He slowly pulled his arms around himself in a hug, shivering again, and then began to shrink.

"Aah...aa~aah...m-mrr~rrh..!" Before Kane's eyes, her friend became steadily shorter and slimmer. His shirt tented out around his shoulders as they narrowed down; his arms and legs lost what little muscle tone they had as they slimmed. His already-cute face became softer and rounder in shape, rendering him increasingly adorable—especially since that blush continued to brighten as he further changed. "Mnn~nNNngh...aah, aah, aAAA~AAaa~ah..!" His hair spilled out longer and longer as he became smaller, softer, and cuter all over, until those unkempt, sea-blue tresses started to pool on the couch around him, some making him flinch slightly when they landed on the new tail near its base. "O-oo~ooh..." At the same time as all of this, his voice had steadily lost its masculinity, now beginning to settle itself into a deep, mature, womanly tone—just as Kane noticed that her friend's adam's apple was vanishing away, too.

"Mmh...m-mrrffh...." As the shrinking slowed to a halt, Kane's eyes fluttered shut, his cheeks turning their brightest yet. All of a sudden, his shirt shrank to fit his small, slim form, while his pants made a sudden motion of shrinking, shortening, and softening until they had become a pair of tight blue gym shorts that hid almost none of his now smooth, slim legs. Furthermore, those shorts were fairly tight between his legs—enough for the fox-girl to catch sight of a surprisingly small bulge down there...which was even now, visibly, getting smaller still. "Mnnh...aa~aah..!" Eli gasped, then let out that air in a high-pitched, adorable "Aa~aa~AAAAAA~Aaaahh..!" Despite how deep Eli's voice had been coming out a moment ago, it had quite a range.
But anyway, that cry coincided with one last, visible shrinking of the bulge between Eli's legs, until the shorts could pull completely flat down there. "Aa~aah..!" Another high, cute cry came from her lips now, and Kane got to see the new girl's thighs pushing out thicker, her hips widening...she was starting to get curvy! "O-oh...o~ooh.." Her voice plumbed the depths of its new range again as she shivered, seemingly with delight, and a pair of small bumps pushed themselves out from her chest, lifting that part of her shirt a bit.

"Aah..m-mrr~rrrh..." Soft, low, vulpine churring rumbled through her throat as those bumps began to lift and swell themselves up steadily more...and more...! Kane eagerly wondered just how busty her friend was going to get! "O-oo~ooh...m-mnn~nnh...nn~nn~NNNN~NNNnhh..!" At any rate, the way Eli's ears went low, her tail excitedly whipping around, as she squirmed about in her seat, joined her helpless vocalizations as evidence of just how much she was enjoying the process. "A-ah...m-mrr~rrrh..." She had to be already at least a B cup, Kane thought, silently cheering the new girl's bust on. Then Eli gasped again, and let out a high, cute "AA~AAAAAAA~Aaaahh...!" as her breasts expanded out nearly as much as their entire growth up until that point! Finally she let out a soft, low "Mm~mmhh.." as they gently bounced out into place, completing her change into a short, curvy, adorable fox-girl.

"Aah...mmh.." Eli was still hugging herself tightly at first, and her arms slowly loosened their grip only as her bright yellow eyes gradually opened. "Whuh...wha...?

"WHAAAT!?"

"Uh, so...it looks like yooouuu..turned into a fox-girl?" Kane said slowly, watching Eli pat her upper legs, then her tail, then her breasts, then her face.

"I, noticed!!!" she said, turning to face her friend. Eli was now short enough that looking straight across that way gave her a direct view of only Kane's impressive rack; her face flushed red again as she tilted it upward to try to look her in the face. "Do you have any idea, maybe, why!?"

"Well, like, obviously a magic thing happened? It looked like you kinda enjoyed it, though."
"Th-that's...not! The point!" The smaller fox-girl, not seeming to think about what she was doing, suddenly pounced over Kane's way, her knees landing on the couch as she put her hands on the taller girl's shoulders again. "Did you do this?! On purpose!?"
"Uh—maybe, and no?" Having Eli's adorable face take up most of her view made it even more difficult than usual for Kane to think straight. "I mean like..obviously it came from me, but I definitely didn't mean to?"

"Do you have any idea what happened, or how to undo it!?"
"Weeelll uh.."
"Yes!? What?" Eli's huge, blue-furred ears were twitching distractingly up and down.

"It's just like, the uh..smoky stuff and the light, and the whoosh after that, was a lot like how the orb worked? But it like, came from me instead apparently? So, I guess I did the orb's thing somehow?"
"The orb. That is supposed to grant people's wishes? I didn't wish for this!" Eli said.

"Yoooouu...I guess you didn't. But like, you didn't wanna be a kitsune or anything at all?"

"A kit—maybe? I mean, I'm not gonna pretend it didn't cross my mind how nice it'd be to have magic powers and not have to worry about growing old, but what does that have to do with me turning into a girl!?"

Kane tilted her head. Eli must have read something from that expression that especially disturbed her; her ears drooped, she let go of the bigger girl's shoulders, and rocked backwards so that her butt and feet were both on the couch. "I kinda thought..that was part of the deal?" Kane said finally, which only seemed to confirm her friend's suspicions.

"You thought, that being a kitsune, requires a person to be female," she repeated, emphasizing her words in a way that suggested the thought to be unfathomably nonsensical.

"Well, yeah, that's like...how it worked for me? Like, I didn't even know what a kitsune is until you told me."

Eli exhaled a sort of half-sigh, pulling her arms around her knees to nearly complete a full fetal position. "That, is, true. But I wasn't...I mean I didn't...! Why would what you thought even..no, wait, it was you doing the magic, so...!"

Kane decided to come as clean as possible: "I uuhhh...did kinda catch myself semi-sort of-wishing thaaat, like, if it was what you wanted, that I could've used the orb to help you be a kitsune too?"

"And...you pictured 'kitsune' to mean specifically 'fox-girl'."

"Uh-huh," she nodded, deciding that the fact she was sensing no rage from Eli's general direction was a good sign. "As in like, a busty, cute girl like I am?"

"So..you accidentally, used your power, somehow imitating what the orb normally does, and that transformed me into...what you were picturing," the small fox-girl concluded.

"I guess so?"
"Which..probably means you have no idea how to undo it."
"Nnnope! But, like, if you are a kitsune now, shouldn't you be able to do that too?"
"Not with one tail!' Eli said. "Kitsune aren't just super-powerful at birth! They start out with basically almost nothing, and have to earn tails to get more powerful!"
"Okaaay...but like, I'm sure you could do that? Or we could uh..like, find someone who can transform people for a fee or something, I guess?"
"Y-yeah..." Eli let go of her knees, letting her legs stretch out a little bit—not quite enough for her feet to touch Kane. "I guess so. That's a...sensible solution.."

Now Eli looked slightly disappointed. Even more than any other time she'd seen her friend with an unhappy expression, Kane really wanted to fix that. What came to her as a solution was kind of sideways and strange, and probably really stupid, but she did it anyway. "Uh, you know, Eli...you totally didn't seem like you hated what it felt like, to like, turn into a girl? I mean—I know what that's like."
"W-well.." The smaller girl's face lit up with a blush again. "It wasn't...it certainly wasn't an, entirely unpleasant experience..."

"And I'd say you turned out amazing, you know? I mean, you're curvy and busty and super cute," Kane said, feeling a slight grin and the heat of a blush hitting her own face too.

"Y-yeah...I'm sure I'm at least conventionally attractive..." Eli looked down at her new appearance again for a moment.

Her head popped back up to face Kane again. "Wait—you've totally been flirting with me all night, haven't you?"
"Flirting?" Kane's face got a little bit hotter. "I mean, like, I dunno about that...I just thought it was kinda fun to tease you a little bit.."
"Teasing me, riiight. Like scooting right up close to me when I'm not looking," Eli said, turning herself to face forward on the couch before emphatically pulling partway to her feet to hop over next to Kane—close enough for their hips to nearly touch. "And making sure our hands touch sometimes. A-and messing with your hair and your boobs when you know I'm looking while pretending that you don't know. Hmph." She was making a serious effort—despite their close proximity—to look up past Kane's bust at her face, giving a clear view of some fully red cheeks. "Well—I can tease you, too!"

Eli pounced again, somehow managing to go from sitting next to Kane to sitting on her knees on the couch facing her, so that their faces were nearly right across from each other. "Really, Kane, if y-you like me that much, you should just say something! N-no need to beat around the bush, with how long we've been friends, right?" Her ears were going low (and so were Kane's); her tail had started wagging (and Kane could feel hers doing the same).
"I guess that's right? I mean, you're the smart one, sooo...like.." Kane grinned slightly again, greatly enjoying the adorable, false pout on the other fox-girl's face. "Do you like me? Huh?"
"I..y-yeah!" Eli pounced again, this time throwing her arms around Kane's body instead of just holding her shoulders. This naturally had the effect of squishing her soft, plush breasts right into Kane's even bigger, more solid pair, not to mention bringing their faces extremely close—with maybe an inch or two of room between their noses. "S-so there..!'

Kane's arms wrapped around the smaller girl automatically; her tail went from wagging to quickly curling itself forward in search of the base of Eli's tail. Her hands reached up to feel the soft, warm fur of the small fox-girl's huge blue ears, and she flinched slightly, letting out a soft, high "Yip!" at the sensation of some small, slim fingers brushing their way into her own ears.
"A-aa~ah...mmh..!" Eli jolted, then squirmed, at the feeling of a tail on her tail and then hands on her ears; she leaned forward, pressing her nose hard into the bigger girl's cheek, and Kane eagerly returned this gesture, the two of them beginning to nuzzle each other alongside the petting.

"Mmh...mrr~rrfh..!" Kane hadn't felt this fuzzy sensation in her new, girly parts much at all since the initial transformation; if anything, what she was feeling from Eli's sudden closeness, hugging, and petting was even stronger than that had been.
"O-o~ooh..." The short, curvy girl's voice going all deep and sexy made it even worse. Kane found herself falling back onto the couch until her head landed on the armrest, letting Eli spread herself out on top of her. "Mmh, mm~mmmnn~nnh...!"

"Rrrfh...h-heeehee...!" Kane could now use one hand to stroke the other girl from the top of her head down to her neck, and then all the way down her back, before the fingers finally reached the base of her tail.

"Aa-aah~!" Touching that again made Eli flinch, her voice coming out high and cute, then shiver with delight. Kane was squirming and shuddering just a little bit too, very much enjoying the sensations of a curvy girl's body on top of her own, and really getting into this whole mutual petting thing.

They must have stayed like that for at least half an hour. Well, Kane had no idea how long it was, and Eli probably didn't either, but it felt like a very long, wonderful time. And it was Eli who slowly, gently tamped things down; Kane was still too dazed from enjoyment to do much of anything besides softly churr or cry out and continue gently petting and stroking the other girl, up until finally realizing that Eli had stopped and was trying to pull her head just a little bit away.

"H-haa~aah...hffh..." She didn't mind this at all; it gave her a clear view of Eli's adorable face once again, this time lit with the brightest, reddest blush ever.
"Waah..w-wow...mmh...I-I may be forced t-to..r-rethink..wanting to be a guy again...hfffh.."

"Pffheeehee! Th-that's what you have to say? L-like, wow, I just got to have the best feelings I've had in my life with a gorgeous girl who's also my best friend, sooo like...! I'm pret-ty sure I'm gonna stay a girl too!" Kane said. "Thooo~oough...if you wouldn't mind swapping teams some time, I bet you'd be a cute fox-boy too. And kissing sounds fun.."
"Th-that's getting way ahead of..! I mean..it's silly to even assume we can find a way for me to do that.."
"I'm sure we can figure it out~," Kane said, moving her hand down from Eli's ear to gently stroke her cheek.

"Aah~..!" The response to this touch was about as breathy and high-pitched and cute as Kane could've hoped.

"We can get more tails or whatever later, riight?"

"I...hff...I guess...y-yeah...mrr~rrrh...fhh, for now..l-let's..m~mmh..." Eli's face sank back down onto the bigger girl's, nose-to-cheek again.

"Ooh..? You want more, after all that!?"
"Y-yes...hff...p-please...Kane...mmh..!"

"Pffheehee...! Well, like, you're lucky I do too! Plus I've never had this much stamina before...! C'mere, cutie~..!"
"Aa~aah...o-oo~ooh...c-cute...!"

"Cuu~ute!"

"Yh...you too...K-kane...mrr~rrrh.."

Suffice to say that they eventually wore themselves out, and awoke the next morning still lying on the couch like that. Her own name was the last actual word the big fox-girl remembered Eli saying that night, despite there being at least another full hour before the two of them dropped off.

Followed Me Home

Once every couple of weeks or so, Milo would spend his weekend walking the trails, hiking, and camping. It was a good way to get his exercise in, and he was lucky enough to live in a town right by some woods, in the middle of a beautifully picturesque mountainous region, so it'd be a shame not to take advantage. This particular weekend, however, he struck out on the same trail as the week before with a very specific goal in mind. He was—hopefully—going to save someone.

The week before, he'd had a very unusual encounter. While setting up camp for the evening, some food roasting over a campfire, he'd been approached by a large animal. Or at least so he thought, at first. The "animal" in question was actually a werewolf! He was covered in thick, dark blue fur, with beautiful bright blue eyes, and had approached cautiously, sniffing the air and sort of pointing his nose in the direction of the fire—or more accurately, the food cooking over it.

The last full moon had been a couple of weeks ago. For a werewolf to be acting this animalistic when the sun was still up (if setting) could only mean that he'd turned unexpectedly, and become feral as a result. Milo exercised a great deal of caution around him, of course; feral werewolves were as unpredictable and dangerous as any ordinary large, wild predator, if not even moreso. But the poor fellow was just desperate for something to eat, and he had some to spare, so he fed the big wolf. Then his visitor nuzzled his hand gratefully before backing away and fleeing off back into the woods.

So now, Milo was coming prepared. His town happened to have a local alchemist, and after a long conversation with her during which she reminded him several times not to get too close to a feral wolf, she'd come up with a potion that could serve as a solution for this situation. He brought along some other items to help with this endeavor as well, and set out on the same trail as the week before in hopes that it was in that werewolf's "territory". It was possible, of course, that he was wandering aimlessly, and wouldn't be anywhere near the area, but Milo would continue hiking around this area until he found him, or until he'd tried so long that it was clearly hopeless.

Aside from his preparations—both physical and mental—Milo behaved just like he would on any other trip. He made his way out to the campsite, got a tent and fire ready, exercised all the same safety measures as usual. When the sun was fairly close to setting, he set his food cooking over the fire, and kept a watch. Would that werewolf show up or not? The answer came almost surprisingly quickly.

The werewolf poked his head out from the woods, seemed to recognize Milo as the nice man who'd fed him a week earlier, and cautiously stepped out on all fours toward him, softly whining. "Hey, buddy," Milo said gently, gesturing for him to come closer. The werewolf came up, nuzzled the back of his hand, and then whined a little more, 'pointing' in the direction of the fire much like the week before. Letting the werewolf get so close to him—well within potential biting range—was a huge risk, but it was truly awful to see another person in such a mental state. He had to do this! "Hey, you hungry? I brought some stuff just for you," he said, going to the fire and getting some meat out, setting most it before the werewolf. The blue-furred creature went right to work on it. "That's it, go on and eat up," he said softly, getting himself behind the werewolf so he could dig some things out of his pack.

The piece he hadn't offered his 'new friend', he set next to the pack. Then he dug out a syringe full of the potion the alchemist had, in an uncharacteristic show of generosity, given him free of charge. She was "fairly sure" it would still work how it was supposed to if administered this way. So he injected the potion into the piece of meat, to around half of what was in the syringe. Then he got the next item out, draping it across the pack with one hand while holding the piece of meat in the other.

By now, the big blue werewolf was about finished scarfing up his first helping. He stood up and looked around briefly before turning entirely around to face Milo, still standing on all fours. "Hey buddy, you enjoy that?" he said softly. "I've got just a liiittle more for you," he added, holding the piece full of potion out toward the wolf. He softly whined, coming closer and looking like he was ready to take it out of Milo's hand. Rather than risk an accidental biting, he quickly dropped it onto the ground and took a slight step backwards. The wolf barked appreciatively, hurrying to pick that piece of meat up and nearly swallow it whole too.

Done eating, the wolf sat (the same way a dog normally sits) and looked up at Milo expectantly for a moment, his tail wagging. Now he didn't know whether or not the human had more surprise treats for him, and was waiting to find out, which worked to Milo's advantage. He could watch and see whether the potion was going to have any effect.

The werewolf whined softly after a moment. "I guess you must still be hungry, huh?" Milo said softly. Many feral werewolves seemed to start hunting for small animals—and sometimes larger ones like humans—pretty quickly, but perhaps whoever this had been before being bitten had been such a peaceful soul that even a wild wolfish side taking over wasn't enough for him to imagine actually hurting another creature himself. The wolf barked softly, then whined again, tilting his head—looking a little confused.

Where the werewolf was sitting was between Milo and the setting sun in the distance, so all the light from the celestial body made it hard to tell..but he thought he could see a faint silvery glow appearing around the wolf. That was probably a good sign—magic effects had a certain tendency to randomly glow in different colors, after all. "Rrfh..?" The werewolf then let out a confused bark, and something more tangible started to happen.

"Rrrr-rufh..!" His muzzle started shortening. And the fur across the rest of his face began to visibly thin, too. He reached a hand/forepaw up to lightly bat the front of his nose a couple of times, seemingly trying to make sense of whatever it was that felt like. Then he shuddered slightly. There was a shift in the color of the hair coming out of his scalp starting at its roots; it paled and brightened from deep navy to sky-blue, and this change rippled down through his head and neck quickly before starting to slowly make its way downward. The fur of his neck and upper chest began visibly thinning as soon as this shift in color hit it, and his facial fur started shortening a little faster after this.

"Aah..rrfh..!" The werewolf stood up on all fours, then, slowly, onto his hind legs, still mostly hunched over. He seemed absolutely huge like this, towering over Milo even without being fully upright. He shivered again as the shift in fur color, and accompanying fur loss, accelerated its way down his torso. Immediately after this, he began visibly shrinking, his height falling downward toward the man standing across from him. "Rr-fh...!" He barked softly, then whined, as his muzzle pulled all the way in, a human nose and mouth appearing there as the fur across his face vanished away, briefly taking on the look of a beard before disappearing entirely, leaving behind completely smooth, soft-looking skin. The only fur left up there was his ears, which had taken on the sky-blue color earlier, but even now remained fully those of a werewolf.
"Aa-aa~ah..w-wha..?" For the first time, the werewolf showed signs of having a human mind, half of a questioning word coming out of his mouth. He began to stand up straighter, which briefly seemed to counter his steady loss of height. The hair from his scalp had been unkempt before, no doubt growing untrimmed during his time as a feral wolf, so it already had messy bangs and fell halfway down his face on the sides; now, as the sky-blue shade took over his entire torso and the complete loss of fur spread down his neck, that hair fell out longer, cascading down the sides of his cheeks to his shoulders and gently falling across his upper back.

"Aah...rrfh..!" At the same time, his shrinking accelerated, and began to take on a new aspect. He stood up fully straight just in time for his eye level to sink down to right across from Milo, but now he was growing visibly slimmer, his frame collapsing inward in addition to downward. The loss of fur quickly made its way down past his chest, but seemed to stop at his forearms for now, and he shivered again, slowly pulling his arms close to hug himself. "Aah, aa~aah..."

Milo quickly turned and picked up the other item he'd prepared for this trip from the top of the pack. It had been obvious enough at their first meeting that the werewolf was completely without clothing, and now that he was losing the protection of his fur, he was no doubt feeling the cool mountain air much more keenly. So Milo stepped forward and carefully pulled the sweater he'd brought down over the werewolf's torso, making him jump in surprise, uncrossing his arms.

"Aah..?" His voice came out a little higher than before; the shift in fur color made its way down his hips to his legs, and quickly spread its way out along his tail, too.

"Quick, put that on," Milo said, hoping the werewolf was far enough along to understand him.
"A-aah.." He nodded quickly, pulling his arms into the sleeves. But he hadn't stopped shrinking yet; his eye level was down to maybe Milo's neck by now, and his shoulders narrowed enough for that sweater—which fit the human standing before him now—to simply slip halfway off of his right shoulder. Well, it was still better than nothing. Besides, he was probably starting to lose fur from below his belly by now, and the overlong sweater's lower hem falling past his hips to start covering his very upper legs would afford him a tiny bit of decency.

As the rapid shrinking began to slow down, the werewolf looked around, having probably recovered enough human faculties to process confusion. He put a still-fur-covered hand up in front of his face, staring into its paw pads for a moment. Then he convulsed slightly, dropping that arm again. "Rr~rrh..rrfh..!" His voice came out even higher than earlier, and audibly shifted higher still. With his arms dropped to his sides, the sleeves of the sweater now fell out past his hands, hiding them from view. "Aah—aa~aah..!" He squirmed in place briefly, seeming to suddenly sink another few inches downward. Milo observed that the new fur color had made its way all the way down to his feet, and in fact this height loss had resulted from their sudden shift from digitigrade to humanlike.

"Rrr~rrfh..!" However, this probably wasn't what the werewolf was presently reacting to. All of the shrinking had left his face small and round, his shoulders narrow, his limbs slender and his belly slim and flat. That face was now alight with a bright red blush, and as the fur thinned and vanished its way downward along his legs, he cried out: "A-aah...mm~mmnh..." The voice that came out didn't sound like a man at all anymore, instead being high and soft—cute and feminine.

Then: "W-wah!" The werewolf convulsed again, the blush on his face deepening. "O-oh...mrrrfh..!" Rather, her face, considering that the blush had grown twice as bright all at once, and now was when her hips began visibly widening, her thighs thickening. The last of the fur disappeared from her feet now, leaving her with just wolfish ears and a tail to mark her as a werewolf. "Aah, aa~aa~AA~Aaaah...!" Well, that and the fangs that displayed as her mouth opened up to softly cry out.

She hugged herself close once again, pulling the sleeves off of her hands just enough for Milo to see the last bits of fur disappearing from those extremeties as well. "O-ooh...mm~nnnhh..!" She squirmed her upper legs forward and back across each other, her eyes fluttereing shut, seemingly in responce to the steady growth of a pair of bumps from her chest. "Aaah...rr~rrfh..! Ruffh...y-yip!" They grew larger and larger, until they had fully developed into a sizable pair of breasts, completing the werewolf's change into a small, cute, fairly curvy young woman.

"Aaah...hfffh..." She slowly blinked her eyes open, loosening her arms' grip on herself to slowly drop them to her side. "Wah...whaa...whaaat..?"

"What..haah...happened..?" she said slowly, seeming to need some effort to sound out the words. At first this question was directed generally, but now she seemed to finally, properly notice a person standing in front of her—her eyes about at the level of his upper chest—and quickly tilted her head upward to actually look Milo in the face. "Whaaat!? Wh-where...? Who..?"
Not wanting to make her do that their entire conversation, Milo quickly knelt himself down to be roughly across from her. "Shh, it's all right. Take some deep breaths. You've been through something pretty awful, I'm sure."
"Uhhm..hffh..fffh..." She took his advice to heart, her new breasts going up and down as she took some deep breaths.
"Okay..a little better now? I'd like to answer all your questions I can, but some of it might be shocking to you," he said.
"M-mnh.." She nodded slowly.

"I don't know the circumstances, but it seems like some werewolf bit you and turned you into one yourself. Then you went completely feral—your 'wolf side' taking over entirely. I gave you something to help you change back to mostly-human for now, so you could properly think again," he said. "Follow me so far?"
"Aah...uuh...y-yes," she nodded slowly. "I rerr...remember some pain, I think. Waah...wasn't I, m-male before..?"

"Yes, you were," he nodded. "We can fix that later—I know a good alchemist. She's the one who came up with this solution. The potion used the energy the wolf needed to keep you mostly-animal, and forced your body to do something else with it. Err, specifically, making you a woman. It did more than that—to help you mentally, as I understand it—but I got a little lost in the technical details in that part of the explanation. The main thing is, you should no longer be at risk of going back to being feral again."
"Aah..o-okay..." she nodded slowly. "Ssso. Do you know...who I am..?"

"Err. I'm afraid not," Milo said. "I met you as an already-feral werewolf. As I understand it, temporary memory loss can result from being feral for a while. It usually comes back given some time."
"Ooh, kay. That's, better than nothing," she said. Her speech was starting to get a little less stilted already. Then she turned her head down to look at herself, and her blush came back almost as bad as it had been before. "Uhhm." She quickly tried to pull the side of the sweater that was hanging halfway down her right arm up, only for the other side to slip off.

"Sorry—I just brought a spare of mine. Didn't have any idea you'd wind up quite that small," Milo said. "I can get you a little better clothed once we're back in civilization."
"Rrh..right. Th-thanks," she said. Both of them heard her stomach growl then, and she put a hand to her belly. "H-hungry.."
"Yeah, even as a feral wolf you seemed like you were starving." Milo stood up straight again, starting to go around her toward the fire. "I brought some stuff to cook, trail mix, water. Let's get you fed to start out with, all right?"
"Okay..."

Milo had also brought along an extra sleeping bag and some blankets. The only real issue was that his tent wasn't really large enough for two people. But when he had the bags and blankets laid out, the werewolf girl seemed content enough to enter the sleeping bag, curl up, and immediately fall asleep—he didn't even get an opportunity to offer her the one inside the tent. It was supposed to be a rainless night, so he decided to leave it at that.

In the morning, he made some breakfast with what supplies were left, and once they had both eaten, he began packing everything up. "Err...any-thing, I can hhhelp out with?" she asked, standing in turning around in place to watch him work.

"No no—don't trouble yourself there. I'm very used to this," he said. "Camp out at least once a month, you know."
"Can I, uh, at least help carry something?"
"It all fits in this one pack," he said. "And you're still only wearing a sweater and jacket. The straps would chafe like crazy."
"Alright..." She looked disappointed, with her ears lowered a little. Milo's heart broke a little bit to see her adorable face wearing that expression, but it was for her own good. Whatever strength she'd had before becoming a werewolf, as well as what becoming a werewolf had gained her, the potion's transformation seemed to have largely drained away. Even with that aside, she might not be in the best of health right now—suffering from some level of malnutrition, no doubt. It would be hard enough for her just to make the walk back.

She proved to have more stamina than he'd thought, not seeming to need any breaks beyond the ones he'd have given himself anyway. That is—he had some concern she wouldn't want to ask, so he paid attention to her movements and breathing, but she never gave off any hint of tiredness. The second time he stopped for water, feeling somewhat out of breath, she still seemed hardly winded. "Uhm.." she said softly.
"Anything wrong?" Milo asked. Maybe she was just very good at hiding it.

"I think, I remember a name at least. Elliot."
"Ah." he nodded. "See, that's good, isn't it?"
"N-no last name, though..."
"Well, at least it's a start. Nice to meet you, Elliot," he said, offering her a hand to shake. "I'm Milo."
"Milo..." She nodded, staring at his hand for a moment before seeming to remember what that meant. After pulling the sleeve up with her other hand, she shook his. Her hand was small now, with slender, delicate fingers. "Nice to meet you, too."

A little while later, as the woods thinned out and some buildings began to come into view, Elliot said, "What'll I do? Once we...get to town?"
"I thought you could stay at my place for a little while. And, you know, convalesce," Milo said.
"I—but you've already done a lot for me. I'd hate to cost you even more," she said.
"Please, don't worry about it. My sense of hospitality won't let me throw someone helpless out on the street, especially if I'm the one who brought you along."
"But—"
"Ssh, no buts! If I didn't want to help you, we wouldn't be talking right now. At least, you wouldn't be able to," he said. "Consider accepting my further help to be an expression of gratitude for that."
"Oh..all right," she said, still sounding very uncertain.
"The moment you remember enough to have an idea of who to contact, you know, from before you got bit—we can call them," he said. "If someone you actually know is willing to take you in, then I won't have any problem with you going to them. In fact, I'll drive you myself."

"Okay..."

It was already near noon by the time they got back, so Milo fixed them both some lunch. Thankfully, his house had a guest bedroom, so they didn't have to have any awkward conversations about who'd be sleeping on the couch or anything like that. He simply lent her some of his clothes, provided her some fresh sheets to change out in place of the ones that had sat unused for several months now, and—after getting the wolf-girl's assurance that she knew how to make up a bed—left her alone for a little while. No doubt she had quite a bit to process.

A while later, Milo knocked on his guest's door. "Elliot, are you in there?"
"Uh, yes."
"Decent?"
"Erm..as much as I can be, I guess. You can come in."

Of course, even the smallest of Milo's clothes didn't really fit her at all. For the moment, she'd traded the sweater for a pair of boxers and a t-shirt that hung halfway off a shoulder and trailed to her upper thighs, but at least did a better job keeping itself above her chest. It also had the advantage of short sleeves that didn't constantly get in the way of her hands. She was sitting on the end of the bed with her legs crossed when he opened the door.

"How are you feeling?" he asked first, taking a small step inside the room.
"A little better, I think. I...even though I can't actually remember much, being—a girl still feels really strange. Especially how small I am now," she said. "But I can also sort of remember feeling sick with hunger, and...that's better now, at least."
"That's good. I, wanted to give you this," he said, producing an old tablet he'd just finished verifying was at least functional enough to access his wifi. "I don't want to presume what you do or don't remember, but..you know what this is? How to use it."
"Yeah, of course," she said, nodding. Her expression started out at slight annoyance that he'd think she couldn't, then shifted to slight confusion that something like this seemed so obvious.

"Great. I thought, this won't necessarily help you get any personal memories, but if there's any..general knowledge, or something like that, that you think you half-remember, you might be able to look some things up," he said, coming up and offering it to her.

"Thank you," she said, taking it and uncrossing her legs. She set it on her lap, leaning down to stare into it and poke around a little with her fingers for a moment.

"About the other thing," Milo continued once she'd started to look up again. "Like I said earlier, I do know an alchemist. I think she'd be able to make a potion to make you male again without too much trouble. I, won't know exactly how long that'll take until I call her on Monday—she complains sometimes about certain kinds of ingredients being hard to get."

"Okay..." Her ears folded down slightly during this second part of his explanation, which made him feel pretty guilty. "Um, I'd really appreciate that. It doesn't sound like it'll be cheap."
"I'll be fine. But in the meantime, I thought—maybe it'd be helpful to get you some clothes that fit, uh, how you look right now."

Elliot blushed slightly. "I..it's a little embarrassing, thinking of wearing women's clothing. But, it's only practical." She tugged up at the side of the shirt that was failing to cover her shoulder. "This just isn't comfortable...and I feel pretty awkward wearing your clothes in the first place."

"All right. Maybe we can do that tomorrow morning, after you've had a good night's sleep. I've got to go to work on weekdays, but for now—I guess you'll be okay here on your own?"
The wolf-girl nodded slowly. "I'm sure I'll be fine..."

Naturally, Elliot picked out some very tomboy-styled clothes, including insisting on a few t-shirts that were a size or two bigger than her own, so that not everything she'd be wearing would be tight. He couldn't really blame her. Also—not that Milo felt it appropriate to bring it up—even the loose-fitting tops looked good on her. She'd be pretty and cute in anything, he caught himself thinking at one point. One of the female store employees half-bullied, half-convinced Elliot to get fitted for a bra size too, and she picked several up in that size. Milo made a point not to mention them at all, even when the cashier was putting them in the bag with everything else.

They were back home in time for lunch, so Milo got something together and sat across from her in the kitchen. She stared down at the plate for a moment—which felt uncharacteristic after some fast, eager-if-not-greedy eating the day before and at breakfast. "Something wrong?" he asked.
"Um, n-no, it's just. I think I must've had some kind of job in finances. My brain keeps automatically estimating the price of all this stuff you're giving and doing for me..I couldn't stop looking at the price tags of the clothes, too."
"Seriously, don't worry about it. You must be able to tell since I own this house by myself—I get paid pretty well for my job," Milo said. "This is a drop in the bucket for me. But, hey, if once you get your memories back it turns out you're filthy rich or something, you can think about if you want to pay any of it back then."
"Uh, fair enough..." She'd looked up at his face for a moment—which at the time had been fixed to his most reassuring smile—and her cheeks had burst out in the red of a bright blush. With this quiet utterance, she went right to eating, trying to turn her face to one side. Milo couldn't help thinking how adorable that expression had been. And whenever they were facing each other, his gaze was still drawn to her brilliant blue eyes.

He shook his head slightly, starting in on his own plate of food. Elliot wanted to go back to being male, and no doubt more or less thought of herself as a man taking a temporarily female form—or something like that. It'd be inappropriate if not insulting to tell her anything like that. Not to mention obviously wrong to take advantage of her situation. He'd call the alchemist first thing tomorrow morning, and see if he could perhaps pay extra, help her rush the order on any hard-to-get ingredients.

At breakfast, he let her know the news. "So, I called that alchemist and made an order," he said. "She says it'll take around a week. Sorry—I know that long of a wait's bound to be pretty annoying."
"Um—it's fine. A-actually, I could hear the whole call," she admitted, gently poking her right ear with an index finger. "These things, can hear a lot. But somehow it's not hard to focus on what I actually want to hear and ignore the rest, most of the time."

"You'll be okay making your own lunch today, right?"
"Definitely," Elliot said, nodding. "I..haven't really remembered more than some bits and pieces of my life before..this happened, but it feels like basic, practical skills are still..all there. The only thing that'll make it weird is my tiny height, but, I'm sure I can get used to it. Uhm..." Her face lit up with just a hint of that adorable blush again.

"Something else on your mind?" he prompted her after a pause almost long enough to be awkward.

"I thought—actually—why don't I make us supper? I'm pretty sure I can handle it, and...um. I wanna say I owe you that much, buuut, I feel like I know how you'd respond to that."

"Sure, you don't owe me anything. But I'd appreciate it, if that's what you want to do," he said. After all, Elliot was in the aftershocks of some severe mental trauma, and missing most of her memories still, but she was still a physically capable person. It would only hurt her psychologically if he treated her like a complete invalid, not letting her do anything at all.

"O-okay," she said, nodding.

After work, Milo walked up to the front door, got out his keys, and then found the door opening before he could lift the keys to the lock. "Oh—hey there," he said to the wolf-girl just inside.

"I heard the car pull up, and..thought I'd save you some trouble," she said.

"Well, thanks," he said, smiling while resisting a slight urge to pat her head. Thankfully the wolf-girl was already quickly stepping out of his path by now. In larger towns, or anywhere near a city, he might have advised her to be very certain it was him before going to open the door, but their community was small enough not to have that sort of problem.

Elliot tilted her head up slightly, sniffing the air a bit, as he walked past her to put his things down. "Something wrong?"
"Um...you smell like..lots of animals?" she said.

"Oh, well, I am a vet," he said. "Sorry—did I not mention that before? We're always busy, since plenty of people keep pets. Plus there's some farms not too far from here, so I have to do 'house calls' every now and then."

"I see. Well uh..I have supper in the oven right now. It should be ready, um, soon...ish?"

"You didn't set a timer or anything?" Milo asked, his tone one of curiosity rather than accusation.
"I can usually tell it's done by if it smells and sounds right. Aaaand, if there's anything I can do better right now than I could before..."

"Makes sense," he said with a shrug. Now that he was far enough into the house to catch a whiff, he found the smell pretty appetizing himself.

Supper was pretty good after all. Milo could feel the wolf-girl's eyes on him when he took the first couple of bites, but when he kept eating without comment, she simply dug in herself, being apparently satisfied that he liked it. A bit later, he asked, "So, did you remember anything new today?"
"Some..conversations and things, I guess," Elliot said. "Most of it, I can't make any sense of without more context. I think...I'm pretty sure I lived alone, and that's why I knew how to cook. This was one of my easy go-tos, so I was pretty confident I could get it right."
"Makes sense," he said, nodding. "I know how to prep food for the wild and do simple stuff over a campfire to survive, but can't handle much more than basic recipes as far as home cooking. I'm sure you saw all the restaurant leftovers in the fridge at some point."
"Mmhmm." Her mouth was full.

"I guess you've been feeling okay physically?" he asked a little later. "Not sick to your stomach, not strangely weak or uncomforable? No pain anywhere?"
"Nope," she said. "I feel perfectly well...which even I know is super weird for running around eating gods-know-what as a wolf...thing."

"Maybe the potion helped? I have heard that werewolves tend to have unusually resilient physiology in the first place," he said, and then realized he was starting to use too much professional jargon. "Uh—sorry. That is, they can endure more than your average human."

"I guess that's one good thing about what's happened to me..."

The next morning, Milo made them both breakfast. "You know," he said sitting across from her, "you don't have to get up when I do. I get up pretty early for work and all.."
"I can hear you getting up. Besides, I don't wanna miss out on this," she said, gesturing to her plate with a slight smile.
"Heh, all right. As long as you're getting enough sleep."

"Mmh.

"I was able to remember some more of those conversations," she said a moment later. "I've got a clear picture of where—an office, I think. My office. Sitting behind the desk, talking about...uh. Personal finances? Costs, benefits, investments...stuff like that. I thought about it in the shower earlier, and I'm pretty sure I could recite the entire tax code for you right now."

"Uhh, I don't know if I have time for that today," Milo said, and she giggled slightly, recognizing the joke. "But—that definitely sounds like an accountant. Do you have any memory of a CPA exam?"

The wolf-girl folded her ears down slightly. "Erm...yes, actually, now that you mention it. Feels like a stressful memory."
"Well, that settles it. We've got an occupation! Now if we could just figure out where you did that job. Or, do you remember any specific names?"
"Mmmmnope," she said, shaking her head slightly.

"It's all right, I'm sure it'll come to you. Hey, how about we got out to dinner tonight?"

Elliot's face flushed slightly. "Uhm. S-sure. Any uh..any particular reason?"

"Honestly, I just want to," he said, shrugging. "I guess if you want an excuse...maybe being in a place with a lot more people will help you acclimate...or...something."

"Pfft."
"Who knows, maybe looking at the menu will remind you of a unique restaurant that's only in whatever town you're actually from," he pressed.
"That's a long shot."
"Yeah."

The next couple of days went much like the first. Elliot got up when he did, they would talk at breakfast, and she was waiting inside the door when he came home from work. He caught himself gazing into her gorgeous blue eyes more often than he could count, and she occasionally reacted to him saying something nice or offering to do something for or with her with a huge, bright blush.

He felt a little guilty about all of this: He was getting used to her being around, enjoying her presence. Her movements seemed graceful, her speech all the more charming as she steadily regained some skills, knowledge, and confidence. But he was able to enjoy Elliot's company only because of her terrible misfortune. Besides, it couldn't last; she had a home to get back to, after all.

Elliot slowly gained some memories of her time at school, or with her family. It was all little fragments, and the majority of it was her work life still, and—quite frustratingly—still none of it came with any names, nor phone numbeers, nor any other knowledge helpful for identifying where she'd previously lived.

Thursday evening, as they sat on the couch watching some show, Elliot dozed off, slowly leaning over until her head landed on his shoulder. Milo was surprised at first, only barely managing to keep himself from jumping. And then he was frozen in place, not wanting to move and wake her, yet resisting an urge to gently stroke her hair, or ears, or fluffy blue tail. He felt simultaneously proud of his restraint and profoundly disappointed when she woke up nearly an hour later, slowly blinking awake before pulling herself abruptly upright and scooting several inches away.

"Um—sorry! I must've been uh, m-m-more tired than I thought!" she said, blushing brilliantly.
"Err, it's fine," he said, feeling a little heat on his own cheeks.

"H-how long was I uh..asleep?"
"Like half an hour, I guess?" he deliberately underestimated. "It's fine, I wasn't planning on going anywhere anyway."
"Y-you seriously should've woken me up! Um, or, maybe not. I guess startling me might've been dangerous," she said a little more quietly, seemingly just thinking aloud.

"Either way, no harm done," he said gently. "If you need another nap, you could lean on the armrest over there?"
"Um..y-yeah," she said with a slight nod. He could feel a mixed emotion from her: She was relieved he hadn't suggested his shoulder, but also about equally disappointed. Honestly, so was he.

Around midmorning the next day, right when Milo was taking a brief break between patients, the alchemist called. She had the potion for Elliot ready—she could turn back into a man that very afternoon. The ingredients she needed had arrived a little sooner than expected, so she'd put a small rush on making it. That was great news—wasn't it? She noted a hint of disappointment from him which could be heard even over the phone.

But it was good news! Elliot wanted to go back to being male, and it was only right that she should. It probably would even help her recover her memories. And yet...

All at once, Milo got an idea. He asked the alchemist a question about the potion they'd used on Elliot in the first place. She seemed to immediately realize what he was thinking, and suggested a different product, which she just so happened to have in stock.

The front door opened just as he came up to it. "You're home a little late," Elliot said, her head tilted slightly.
"Yeah—I had to run an errand on the way," he said. "A rather important one, too!" He went past her to put his things down as usual, including a paper bag. "The potion I ordered for you was ready. Uh, you know, the one to—"
"Turn me back into a guy?" she said, hurrying over to him. "It's done already?"

"Yeah," he said, putting his hand in the bag to carefully retrieve a vial. "The ingredients she needed came in early, so she went ahead and made it." Then he offered it to the wolf-girl, who carefully took it into her hands, staring down briefly into the liquid.

Milo started, "Uh, obviously your clothes might not fit once that takes effect. So, you might want to go to your room for some privacy..." Then he trailed off, seeing her expression. "Something wrong?"
"Errrm. I, am, a little conflicted," she said.

"What about?"
"I-it's just..um. I do. Wanna, turn back into a guy. Being a girl still feels..weird to me, sometimes. It's even weird how much I've gotten used to, looking like this. A-and I think I might, somehow, remember things a little easier if I look and feel more like...myself. But I..um..."

She folded her ears down, looking up at him with the cutest blush Milo thought he would see in his entire life. "Th-the truth is..I think I like you? I've been...trying to think it's some kind of um, temporary infatuation just 'cause you helped me out, or if it's because you're the main person I've been around and I still don't have that many memories back with other people...b-but! The reasons I like you, I feel sure now they'd be true even if I remembered everything. You're..smart, and funny, and unbelievably kind! A-and so, uh...but it'd be weird if...um..."
"I..guess I can admit, I think I've come to like you a lot, too," Milo said quietly. "But—it wouldn't be right for me to take advantage of you, with the situation you're in. It really would be better for you to turn back into a man regardless."
"M-maybe...I-I mean, the other problem is...I'm, kinda scared," Elliot said. "If I—didn't take this, and acted on um..l-liking you. That I'd accidentally bite you, and..put you through something like what I've been through. That's..why I was so worried last night, too."

"I don't think you really need to worry about that," Milo said. "I mean—sure, you have an animal side. But I know my animals pretty well. A dog or wolf won't bite someone without a reason, right? I guess accidents do happen, though...

"I think, you should take it. Getting your memories back is the most important thing right now, and it'd be good for you to feel more comfortable, too. If, after that, you decide you want to be a girl for whatever reason, well, there's magic than can do that. Right?"

"R-right...I guess so." She still didn't look entirely certain.

"I did buy another potion, though," Milo said, "for me. I mean—I've been feeling almost as conflicted as you lately, I think."

The wolf-girl tilted her head adorably. "Um—what's it do?"

"Weeelll, if you'll go on and take yours first, then I can show you after that."
"Pfft. Always insisting I do what's 'good for me'. I guess vets are doctors after all, huh? Fine!" She pressed the vial back into Milo's hands. "I'll go change first. Don't drop it."

"It's not nearly as fragile as it looks, you know."
"Don't drop it!" she repeated on the way to her bedroom.

Elliot came back out to the living room wearing a borrowed pair of boxers and one of the oversized shirts she'd bought back at the store—holding the former up with a hand. "You...don't want to drink it in private?" Milo asked, and she shrugged.

"You already saw me turn into a girl—which is way more embarrasing, now that I think about it. So just let me have it."
"Okay."

The wolf-girl chugged the small vial in a matter of seconds, then set it down. "Is it..working?" she asked about fifteen seconds later.
"It should be, or I'm owed a refund," Milo said. "Oh—there you go. You're getting a little taller."
"I am? Oh!" Elliot looked around as her height slowly slid upward. "Aah...w-whoaa...aa~aah.." Her voice deepened slightly as her curves began to visibly shrink and flatten out; her face became just slightly more masculine-looking. "Aa~ah...o-oh, this is wee~eei~iirrd..!" It didn't take long for her bust to disappear entirely; her height settled down quite quickly as well, leaving her eye level still down around Milo's chin. "Aa...aah!" A soft, tenor tone came out as Elliot turned back into a boy, his face immediately lighting up with a bright red blush. "Mrrrfh! Mmh! Mmmhh..." His frame filled out a little bit broader, until he pretty much fit the shirt perfectly; its hem had been pulled up far enough to make the boxers visible, and they seemed to fit him properly now as well.

He gasped in a breath and let it out in a slow "Ffffhh." Elliot's hair was still just as long, and his face nearly just as cute as before—and devoid, still, of any sort of facial hair. "Uh..wow, this feels way better. Though, I'm pretty sure I was taller before," he added, looking up at Milo with a resurgence of the earlier blush. "Uhh..oh, this part's really weird. I still kinda...like you? Even though...I guess I don't feel attracted the way a girl would to a guy..?"

"Well, uh, I'm glad you feel better at least. So—the potion I got for me," Milo said, producing it from one of his pockets. "It's pretty simple—it'll take care of that worry about you biting me."

"Uhh...how?"

"Well, as far as I understand, it's a relatively new development. It's supposed to let a person 'safely' become a werewolf, with pretty much no risk of a painful first transformation. As long as you drink it before being bitten, or between being bitten and the next full moon, that is."
"I see...uh, wait wait! You—want to be a werewolf, though?"
"I dunno," Milo shrugged, "I can't say I ever thought about it before meeting you. But from what I can tell, there are some health benefits...but, most importantly, you wouldn't have to worry about biting me. After, uh, doing it just the once, that is."

"Oh. Are you..sure you're okay with doing that, for me? I mean—once I get my memories back all the way, I might leave. I might...find out I have a wife or something."
"I feel very confident that you'd have remembered that by now. Besides, if you need to go back to where you're from, I could always move. There's always a job for a veterinarian," Milo said. "Anyway, that kind of thing could be worked out later. I thought I'd focus on the immediate problems first."

"I guess..that makes sense," Elliot nodded. "Very..like you."

"Hahah."

"So...you don't mind helping the potion work, then?" he confirmed once more.
"I guess...not. If it's what you really want."
"I do." Milo reached his free hand over to just in front of Elliot's face. "If you..wouldn't mind?"
"Um...all right. It feels really weird to bite a person, especially you, but...mmf." He gently placed his mouth around Milo's ring finger, at first just lightly nipping it. He flinched slightly as the bite went a little deeper, and the wolf-boy quickly let go and took a small step back.
"Are you okay? I-I thought I tasted blood!"

"Yes, I'm all right," Milo said, raising his hand to look. "It's only effective if it draws blood, so—as long as you don't develop a taste for it, I think we'll be fine. Now, uh, bottoms up..." He carefully opened his vial and drank from it; it had a salty, savory sort of taste to it. There was a remarkably small volume for the strength of its purported effects, but he'd seen magic do plenty of incredible things—including in the past few minutes.

"So is it..working?" Elliot asked as Milo set the empty vial down.
"Let's see.." He raised his right hand to look at the bitten finger, and got a clear view of the wound closing impossibly, unnaturally quickly. "I'd say so. Werewolf bites are supposed to always heal unusually fast, but this is even quicker than that. Besides...ah.." He trailed off, having been about to bring up the faint tingling of his ears. However, that tingling had grown quite strong quite fast, and it had spread out across his scalp and then raced down his spine, presenting as a chill that made him briefly but violently shiver.

"Oof..d-definitely, working...!" The tingling of Milo's ears was quickly joined by a sudden sensation of them stretching out, pushing their way up through his hair in a way that made a collection of short, soft hairs now covering them brush across it. The ears proved surprisingly sensitive to this motion and touch, and they could also feel the additional motion of the locks they were pushing through rapidly becoming longer and more voluminous. "Aah, mmh..!" Milo felt the growing hair tickle his forehead and cheeks before some of it landed on his shoulders; at the same time, the tingling was flowing down from his scalp to his face and around from his back to the front of his torso.

"Mmh—mrrfh!" A low bark came from his throat as he felt his ears stretching out to their full size, and at the same time the push of a new appendage sprouting its way out from his lower back, around the base of his spine: A tail to match those ears. "Mr~rfh, aah, aa~aah..!" A second bark came out in a slightly higher pitch, and then he opened his mouth to cry out a little more in response to a gentle pressure building all across his body. The tail was rapidly growing longer, thicker, and fluffier, waving its way back and forth behind him excitedly; at the same time, he could feel his hair starting to cascade its way down his upper back as it kept growing longer.

"Aa~aarfhh...!" But that pressure was the most extreme of the sensations, as he perceived it gently caressing his cheeks, massaging his shoulders and waist and arms and legs. "Aah, aa~aah..!" Milo's voice audibly changed, its pitch rising, as he felt his face grow softer and rounder, his shoulders and frame narrow, and his whole body grow slimmer, all in response to the pressure. "Rr~rrufh..!" His tail eagerly pushed itself out to its full size now, followed immediately by a sharp tingling right down between his legs. This feeling made his heart race, his cheeks burn with a sudden blush. Here it came..!

"Aah, aa~aah...o-o~oooh...!" Milo welcomed the sensation of that tingling progressing into a tugging, then a slipping. "Y-yip!" He jumped slightly at something soft touching the quite-senstive base of his tail, then realized that his hair was still growing longer, and the tips of its locks now reached that far. "Aaa~aah...!" A soft, mid-alto tone rang out from his lips as he felt his manhood tugging itself smaller still...and then...! "M-mm~mMMMmmmhh..!" It melted away, shifting Milo completely from male to female. In a matter of just a second or two, she was hit with a deeply pleasant, fuzzy feeling down there, drawing a soft, low "Oo~ooh..." from her lips.

At once, the new girl's body began growing curves to fit its new sex. "M-mrrfh..! Aah~arrfh!" She was immediately aware of a sharp tingling across her chest, followed by the strong push of a pair of breasts beginning to fill themselves out; after that, she noticed her hips pressing themselves out wider, her thighs growing thicker; all the while, her tail wagged eagerly behind her as she imagined just what Elliot's expression and reaction would be in response to all of this!

"O~ooh...mmfh.." Milo's breasts gave one last push, stretching the material of a suddenly-tight top, and then she was done: From a human man to a long-haired, curvy, werewolf woman in probably less than two minutes. Somewhere along the way, the potion's magic had adjusted her clothes, turning her pants into thighhigh socks; her underwear into a pair of tight-fitting shorts; and shrinking her shirt to fit her—although, perhaps, that had happened too soon, considering that the growth of her breasts had yanked the top up off of her midsection. "Haa~aahh...ffh.." She huffed air in and out for a moment, blinking her eyes and getting her bearings, before managing to see the blue-haired wolf-boy standing before her with the brightest blush on his adorable face. "Heheh..!" At that, she couldn't help but giggle.

"Soo...what do you think?" she said, crossing her arms under her new bust and leaning down until her face was nearly right across from hers. Her voice was around mid-range for a woman, high enough to be cute but deep enough to seem mature. "Do I look...all right, as a werewolf? To you?" She said this with a huge grin, knowing full well what the answer was.

"Uhh...y-yeah...but...whyyyy did you turn into a girl? That's not uh..n-not a normal, part, of turning into a werewolf."
"It's not!" Milo stood up straight again, enjoying the feeling of her breasts bouncing slightly from the sudden motion. "But to make turning werewolf safer, some of the power has to go somewhere...or, something like that. I don't know all the details about how the magic works. But—not to deceive you or anything—it's not like it had to change my sex. That's just...the kind of potion I got. The kind I wanted."
"Uh. Rh. Really?"
"Yeah! I mean..."

Milo took a couple of small steps forward, close enough that she could lift her hand and easily place it on Elliot's cheek. She was briefly worried he'd bat her hand off or back away, but he didn't—instead only blushing brighter. "I like you—and, you said you like me. So I just thought...for now..." She gently ran her hand up and down his cheek as she spoke. "If you want to a be a guy that badly..maybe we could date this way instead!"
"Erm..d-date?"
"You know. Do stuff as a brand new couple. If you're..okay with that?" she said, feeling her head tilt slightly. Her hand had wandered up off of the wolf-boy's cheek toward one of his ears, and at this point semi-accidentally stroked the base of that ear.
"Rrufh! Uh..um. I'd, really, really like that, actually," he admitted. "Mrrfh..."

With that, he leapt up at her, putting his arms around her in a hug. Milo found her reflexes to be significantly faster than expected; she caught him effortlessly, and got to enjoy the feeling of her huge new breasts squishing into the wolf-boy's chest. "Mmfh!" And then she got something much better than that, as Elliot wasted no time in pressing his lips against hers, initiating a kiss. "Mmh!" She cried out happily in a high, soft voice, holding him closely with one hand and stroking the other down his long, soft hair—just like she'd imagined doing a few times before that week! Naturally, she returned the kiss too, letting him dictate the pace. "Mmm~mmnnn~nnnh..." When he made it more passionate or intense, she ramped things up to match him; when he pulled back a little, she went along with that, too.

Perhaps werewolves could hold their breaths for longer, too? All Milo knew was that they were both completely out of breath by the time Elliot let her out of the kiss, and were left rapidly panting hot breath into each other's cheeks for perhaps an entire minute. Near the end of that, she felt Elliot's hand gently playing its way through the fur of her ears, making her shiver just a bit with delight. "Mrrfh."

"Thih...this is nice. I definitely like this," Milo said. "You..hff..always been this bold?"
"I dunno...I think I've just been holding onto that for two or three days," Elliot admitted.
"Wee~eellll, I like it." She pecked him on the cheek, then another one a little closer to his lips, then her lips landed straight on his again, and they drew together into a much briefer, but no less pleasant, second kiss. "Haffh...obviously..you like it too, huh?"
"Mmhmm."

Milo leaned in again, so that their noses barely touched. "You've got the prettiest bright blue eyes I've ever seen, Elliot~. I've wanted to say so forever, it feels like." She gently stroked a hand down through his hair.
"Oh...h-heh..y-your eyes are really beautiful too..n-now that I'm getting a really close look. Uh..th-they did turn yellow, but it's..n-nice...rrufh."

He was petting her ears back now. "Mrr~rrfh." So she slid her nose over to his cheek for some brief, mutual nuzzling...before going in for yet a third kiss!

They eventually disengaged enough to eat supper together, but the rest of the evening was full of more making out, petting, and cuddling. It was around half a week more before Elliot was able to remember enough for them to find his home, but he wound up moving in with her—saying that he liked the 'scenery' better. Besides, any town could use a good accountant, too.

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The two images for this story were generated. Actually, the background details that the first one came with are a large part of what initially inspired this story as a whole.