A Statue in the Woods 4: Reintegration

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"Mnnh...nn~nn?" Waking up that morning was extremely weird for Tyler. The first thing that came to mind was how oddly high-pitched of a voice that first groan came out in, and the seeming impossibility of making any further utterances come out much lower. Next there was the awareness of hugging a pillow quite tightly, followed by the realization that the body hugging said pillow was small, soft, with curves—including breasts!—and, furthermore, sported big fuzzy ears and a huge fluffy tail. As the last of these dawned on her, Tyler finally let go of the pillow and struggled herself around the covers in the strangely large-feeling bed to finally sit up and look around. Elise was nowhere in sight; it briefly felt like the events of the night before had been some sort of dream. But then, of course, there was the fact she was currently a small wolf-girl to consider.

Elise's head poked past the bedroom doorframe. "Master? I see you're awake!"

"Uh..yeah, I guess I am." The wolf-girl got herself the rest of the way up onto her feet while Elise talked some more.

"I was up ahead of you, but you were far too adorable to disturb. And...you had quite the grip on me, besides. Fortunately, we foxes have our ways out of situations like that. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to make you some breakfast!"

"Oh—you're cooking something?" Without even really thinking about it, Tyler tilted her head upward slightly to sniff the air. And, indeed, there was the delicious scent of bacon cooking—among other things. Her nose was decidedly more sensitive than before.

"Indeed!" The Kitsune hurried closer, stopping a foot or so away from Tyler. "It only seemed appropriate to repay your hospitality, after all."
"Well, uh, thanks I guess. We need to—ugh." The wolf-girl found herself craning her head upward to not just be talking to Elise's enormous chest. "Can you..being this much shorter than you is getting kinda annoying, you know?"

"Oh? Then for my master, I certainly can~!" Suddenly, right before Tyler's eyes, Elise shrank. She grew shorter and smaller in every way, her breasts seeming to rapidly deflate to something a little smaller than the wolf-girl's own pair. Even her muscle tone faded off as she quickly slid down to only barely above Tyler's present height, leaving her a petite, cute fox-girl—although her hips were still something to behold. "How's this?" she asked with her usual bright, teasing grin.

"Uh—th-that's..fine," Tyler said. She obviously hadn't meant to ask for that, but her heart skipped a beat from finding herself face-to-face with Elise's suddenly-smaller form. Her cheeks got hot all over again, and she even felt a tiny bit of fuzziness between her legs...was she thinking about hugging and petting this new form already!?

"Well, if it meets your approval, that's all I need~. Now, I need to get back to work on breakfast, so I'll leave you to freshen up, master~." With that, a puff of red smoke replaced Elise as she—apparently—simply teleported herself back to the kitchen.

Tyler's life was going to be very weird from now on, she realized. This probably should've been obvious much sooner—maybe from the moment a giant fox that was formerly a statue started talking—but somehow this was the point where it really hit her. Well, that was no reason not to wake herself up with a shower like usual...although she was going to need perhaps less soap, but also a lot more shampoo. She realized after tossing the girly clothes aside and getting clean that none of her clothes were going to fit her very well, but decided that a very loose-fitting t-shirt over some boxers she needed to hold onto while she walked were fine for just getting around the house...for now, at least.

Elise had made quite the breakfast; the only complaint Tyler could think of was just how many of her groceries this was using up at once. "Wow...I guess you didn't have any trouble using the appliances." The fox-girl only needed tilt her head ever-so-slightly for her to further explain: "Like, the oven and stuff?"
"Heating food to cook it is centuries older than I am. Those of the demon realm use ovens heated by their rivers of lava," Elise said.

"There's a 'demon realm'?"
"Oh, certainly—where else would all the demons come from? I've some old friends from there who are likely still around, so, I could take you along for a visit sometime if you'd like."

"I dunno about that..rivers of lava sound kinda, dangerous?"
"They're hardly worth mentioning compared to the lesser demons. But I'd protect you, so you'd have nothing to worry about."

"Um..let's put that aside for now, okay? Before you uh...shrank, I was gonna say we need to get in contact with the rejuvenation people. I was gonna look up their number last night, but I got uh.." Tyler felt her face flush again. "Distracted. You know."
"Kitsune are well-renowned for our ability to distract~," she said teasingly.

"Anyway, hopefully we can set up some kinda appointment or something."

"Thank you—that was delicious. I, need to have a smaller breakfast most mornings, you know, but.."
"I understand completely," Elise nodded. "I couldn't resist a chance to show off for the first one."

"I guess I can clean up the dishes later..." Tyler headed back to her room to get her phone, the Kitsune following her. She brought it up in front of her, then paused.
"Is something the matter?"
"Uh...just...I'll probably need to identify myself to these people at some point? I guess they'll know magic is a thing, but they might still find it a little weird to hear...this voice coming out for someone named 'Tyler'."
"You could just call yourself something else?" she suggested.
"Uh, no—what I mean is, they might have access to records of who I am, that say I'm a guy?"

"So, you want me to disguise your voice, or make you male again?"
"Um.." It was genuinely tempting to just pick the former...but this call was to set up a meeting, and Tyler didn't want that to be complicated by the Kitsune casting an illusion over her entire body. "Just turn me back, please. For now."
"Very well~."

Elise reached across and gently patted the top of Tyler's head. She felt a slight rush of excitement from this touch first, before realizing that her body was starting to stretch out and press in in different places: Her curves flattened, her frame squared out, and her height grew. It was about as strange a feeling as turning into a girl, but the whole process seemed to go much faster. "A~aah..aah!" Her voice audibly deepened during the change, and then a low "Rr-rrfh!" came out in Tyler's original voice as she turned back into a boy. His build was back to exactly as it had been before last night, meaning his clothes fit normally again, too. However, the wolfish parts had stuck around, and Tyler's hair was no different either—still just as long and just as white. Likewise, his eyes hadn't changed back.

He looked around, prodding at his tail for a second and noticing that Elise's smaller form looked very cute from up here. "Uh...I guess this works," he said. The fox-girl's head was tilted just slightly, but she didn't say anything while he got his phone, searched around for the right number, and called it.

A high, chipper female voice rang out on the other end of the line: "Rejuvenation service, would you like to make an appointment?"
"Uh—hey. Maybe. I have kind of a, weird situation here," he started. "We, weren't really sure exactly who to call, but it's very much magic-related, so.."
"Indeed? Well then, maybe I can point you in the right direction, sir~."

"Right. So, yesterday..."

He went through a brief account of accidentally unsealing a Kitsune and then finding out she'd been stuck that way for at least seven decades.

"...and we were kinda hoping you might, at least, know of someone who could help her get caught up with modern society and stuff? Like, get an ID at least?"

"One of our divisions should be able to help you out with that. Now, I'll need names, and a general location so I can figure out who to set you up with. Just what zip code you're in is enough."

Once she had that, she said: "Ah..hmm...yyyyeeeessss...aha! You're in luck. One of our people shooouuld have an opening later this morning for you."

"Okay, that's great."

Their appointment was in slightly under an hour, and (a quick map search found) not too far from Tyler's house. With that done, he set the phone down. "I guess we can head out about half an hour from now."
"All right," she nodded.

"So, uh..you left this stuff," he said, prodding one of his own ears. "I guess you, like it that much?"
"I certainly do adore that fur~. But I did try to change you entirely back to how you were before. Those parts simply didn't take," she said with a slight shrug. "I could try again if you'd like."
"That's okay..um." Elise was looking up at him this entire time with a very..expectant sort of expression. He didn't need a lot of brainpower to guess what she wanted, and tried reaching down and gently rubbing her ears between his fingers.
"Mrrr~rrh..." The fox-girl's pleased churring and big smile. Then she practically pounced on him, tossing her arms around him in a hug high enough up for their faces to be in front of each other. "I'm exceedingly happy to have a master who knows my needs," she said, her smile turning a little more teasing but the slight blush on her cheeks reddening as he near-unconsciously returned the hug.

"Y-you know we can't play around for very long," he said.
"I know. But there is one little thing I want." With no further warning, Elise leaned in and pecked his lips. She only pulled back an inch or two to have room to say: "This shouldn't take too long, hmn?" Her ears were lowered a little bit as she expressed this request, which of course meant...
"Uh, I g-guess not.."

"Wonderful~," she said, and went in for a much longer and more passionate kiss. Tyler couldn't help reciprocating it, either, leaving both of them somewhat breathless for a moment afterward.

"Um..I-I did say I'd clean up the kitchen," he said once he started to catch his breath, gently rubbing one of her ears while keeping the other arm around her.
"Mrr~rrh..very well. Don't want to spoil things by rushing them along anyway." She let go and gracefully hopped back down to her feet, then scurried out of the bedroom. Tyler took a moment to actually put on some pants before continuing to the kitchen after her.

Later, he drove them out to the address—a nondescript-seeming office building—and they followed the directions Tyler had gotten over the phone: Elevator to the third floor, take a left into a hallway and the third door on the right. He knocked on the door and waited a moment before a male voice inside said, "Come in."

Their host, sitting behind a wide desk, seemed to be another Kitsune. His hair was a brownish shade of almost-white, with most of his fur being likewise—a much darker brown occupying some patches of his inner ears and the tip of his sole visible tail. He was wearing a suit and some square-shaped glasses that made his eye color difficult to discern. "Hello there—you must be Tyler and..Elise, was it? Take a seat," he offered, gesturing to two chairs that seemed a little hastily positioned on the opposite side of the desk from him.

Elise hurried ahead of Tyler to sit in the chair he started heading toward so he'd have to go to the other one, then seemed to change her mind just as he was almost to that one and actually sit there instead. The man behind the desk, seeming to completely ignore this whole dance, said, "So, my name's Renard. I've been given the brief on your situation, and just need to know a few details before we get things sorted for you."
"I'm a little surprised to see a fellow fox working with the former veilkeepers," Elise said.
He shrugged. "They aren't keeping the veil anymore, and besides—I'm just an accountant. But I have a guess that someone thought it'd be good to have another trickster examine the situation. Which brings me to the first thing..."

"I don't want to be rude, but before committing any resources, we need certainty that the story you told over the phone is actually true. Do you have proof?"

"Well, I was there to see it, plus a friend of mine named Ronan," Tyler said. "I, could get you his number? Oh, actually—he took pictures of her as a statue...since we didn't know it was a person at the time. And the last one might actually show when the curse started being lifted or whatever?"

Renard took a second to adjust his glasses. How was he keeping them straight in the first place, with those giant ears waving around constantly? "That should be adequate. We'll verify those claims later, of course, but I don't want to waste anyone's time doing it now. Next..miss Elise. Where are you from?"

"I once resided in the woods I was sealed in," she said, "and still hold some power over them yet. Perhaps..half an hour's drive from here?"
"Helpful, but not what I meant. When and where were you actually born?"

"Ah. I hail originally from Nippon..or, whatever it's called these days," she said. "That would have been...hmn...perhaps two centuries or more ago, now? You'll forgive me if I don't know the precise year. But I stowed away on a boat a very long time ago, in search of someplace more exciting. This, won't make things difficult for me, will it?"

"Naaah, you prolly don't have any ID there either. We'll just register you as a US citizen if you're planning to stick around for a while, and, you can figure out a passport later if you ever want to visit Japan. I guarantee the country's changed a lot since what you'd remember, even if you went there right before the whole 'holy war' mess."

"Interesting..." The fox-girl had leaned forward slightly, her tail weaving back and forth through the air. It seemed like a trip to Japan might be in Tyler's future.

"Anyway, unless you're planning to either go back to living in the wild, or mooch off of the guy who freed you—"
"Er, 'mooch'?"
"You know, be a freeloader?" Renard tried, but she didn't seem to know that word either.
"He means, like living in my house and eating my food without paying for any of it," Tyler explained.
"Ah. No—I'm no parasite. It would be a deplorable way to show my gratitude."
Renard just nodded. "Yeah—so, in that case, you'd need some kinda job. We're, uh, not actually a job agency or anything, but...you feel pretty powerful. How good are you at transformation magic?"
"I've always had something of a talent for it," she said with a hint of pride.

"Well—you know, our Rejuvenation service involves transforming people. We don't actually need someone like you for the main work, since it's done using Azoth's power, but occasionally there are complaints about the details of the resulting appearance. Like, old women turning into young men by accident, when they wanted to maintain their original sex. You could probably fix that kinda thing, right?"
"Easily enough. But..'Azoth'? That isn't a kind of power I'm familiar with," Elise said.

"I guess your 'rescuer' hadn't mentioned it yet?" Renard said, looking Tyler's way. When he shrugged, the Kitsune continued: "We got a new deity while you were out. Azoth, or Zotha, or Zeke or...whatever. Big part of why the veil was lifted, as far as I understand." He leaned back in his chair a bit, putting his hands behind his head. "Oooh man, even if nothing else checked out—that look of surprise on your face is pret-ty believable. The other gods weren't expecting it either, I think."

"Anyway—" he sat up again. "So you could work for us, doing that. Few times a week, go some place to meet people and correct their looks. Pay's decent enough, to get you started. No commitment or anything—this is a 'starter job' while you get used to the modern world, 'till you find something else you want to do more. Sound alright?"

"It seems like it could be fun," she said, grinning slightly.
"Yeeeaaah...have your fun, but just don't get us sued."
"In trouble," Tyler translated immediately for her. "Don't make their customers angry."
"I can exercise restraint," Elise insisted.

"Ookay then. Next thing, we need an address to mail a bunch of paperwork to. I'm assuming your woods don't have a mailbox." The fox-girl shook her head. "Then, I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you're staying with him at the moment?" She nodded. "You mind if I mail the stuff there, then? We could set you up with an apartment—uh, a place of your own to stay in—in like a month once you're starting to get paid."

"Oh, but I'm very much enjoying staying with Tyler," she said.

"Uh-huh..is that okay with you?" he asked Tyler directly.
"Um..yeah. That's fine. I've, got a guest room," he said (not that she'd used it yet). Renard seemed about to say something else, but he probably caught something in Tyler's or Elise's expression that hinted at..how things had been between them since last night, so he closed his mouth again and shrugged.
"Lemme get your address, then. Stuff should be there in a day or two."

After getting the address, Renard picked up a pen and twirled it in his fingers for a moment, seeming to mentally go through a list. "ID, housing, job...I guess that's about it," he said after a moment.
"Oh? But isn't everyone in this modern world supposed to have a phone?" Elise asked.
"It's true, tragically few people can live without them," Renard said. "But we're definitely not a cell carrier. Hmm..some of them are pretty generous about giving out phones when you sign up, and the bill won't come until after your first paycheck does. So—that shouldn't be too tough for you. And I'm sure you're wily enough to see through any bad deals."

"Uh, we can go look into that after lunch," Tyler offered her, and she smiled again.
"Very well~. Thank you, Renard," she said, hopping to her feet to offer him a hand. "I'd give you a tail under the table if I thought I could get away with it."

"That's okay—I'm pretty stubborn about how I wanna earn mine," he said, shaking her hand. "Heck, I'll give you my number. You have troubles your, ah, benefactor can't help you with, maybe another fox can." He handed her a business card from one of his desk drawers.

Back out in the parking lot, Elise said, "What shall we do now?"
"I guess—go shopping for phones? Then get lunch..."
"Would you like to be a woman again?" she asked, about as casually as asking someone if they wanted the last of her fries.
"Uh—maybe. But like, not—getting transformed out in public here," he said.

"I didn't necessarily mean right away~. But, it would be nice to expand my wardrobe a bit, and I thought you might like to join me in that endeavor."

"Oh. I've..definitely never shopped for clothes as a girl before. I guess it'd be something different..wait. You don't actually have any money to buy them with yet, though."
"You could lend it to me?" she said, lowering her ears in the usual way. "I promise I'd pay you back, master! I'd even pay for your wardrobe, for the benefit of seeing your beautiful form in it."
"O-okay, okay! That's fine, I guess we can do that after the phone. There's just one thing, though."
"Which is..?"

"Well—if Ronan hears we went shopping for clothes, especially girl clothes, without him...he'd be pretty upset. So, we're gonna have to invite him along."
"I see...well then, the more the merrier~! I do owe him a favor or two, after all," she said, smiling. Tyler had the slight impression that she'd inferred something from that which he hadn't necessarily meant to imply, but decided to just let it go and get in the car for now. They had a lot to do today, after all, and he kind of needed to get it all done to have time to do his job tomorrow.

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Here's that advantage of generated images I was talking about back in part 1: It's relatively easy to get multiple "versions" of the same character, with some recognizable features but possibly completely different body shapes. Given Elise's self-professed talent for transformation magic, it only makes sense that she'd be able to mess around with such details practically at will. However, that might raise the question of how her attempt to shift Tyler's ears and tail back to normal could possibly "not take".

And as always, I do enjoy inserting cameos from other stories; Ren here was introduced in Midas Journal and also a connected caption. It does force me to commit to where certain characters "are" at various times, which could be a lot to keep track of if I ever decide I want them for something else around the same time period.