Aetuornos Beta 3a-3

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3a-3: Sciuridae Anthropophagus

Scylla got bored of walking-without-talking very quickly, and audibly set out to find another topic of conversation. "Let's see..oh! If you don't mind sharing...what's your line of work? I own a gym, Kite does uh, computer modding?"
"Magic computer modding," the fox-girl said.

"Right!"

"I'll go as far as to say I'm a professional musician," Hatchet said. "You might've guessed as much from our talk earlier—or at least that it's among my interests, anyway."

"Uh.." The bunny-girl fidgeted nervously for a moment. "Fra—um. I'm, actually still in college," she said, surprising herself slightly by automatically talking in her in-character manner at first. "Haven't really..figured out, what exactly I wanna do yet, either."

"Eh, you'll figure it out," Hatchet said. "That's what college is for, right?"
"I wouldn't know," Kite said. "I'm pretty much all self-taught. Started doin' my stuff as a hobby in high school, and figured: No use wastin' time, money and effort when I've already got a living lined up. That road ain't for everyone, though."

"Wait, how'd you get in the beta then?" Scylla asked. "I mean, not to brag, but the pod and stuff is kinda expensive, right?"

"I um.." Franka found herself tapping her index fingers together a couple of times, and quickly stopped, dropping her arms to the sides. "Guess you could say I'm from a, pretty rich family? Our parents adopt a kid every few years or so, and most of them end up wealthy, or famous, or both. I was super excited about this game when I first heard about it, and my big brother's a major investor in it, so I basically begged him to let me play. He eventually gave in, on a few conditions I'd, rather not mention right now..." One of which was having a female player character.

"Do you...feel a lot of pressure from your family to be successful?" Scylla asked, her tone a mixture of curiosity and faint concern.
"Mmh..it's not that they ever, talk or even act like they expect me to get an amazing career..but, seeing what my siblings have accomplished, it's hard not to feel...I dunno, inferior? Like I'm not contributing enough. If I don't at least do something. I mean, I can't help being kind-of-a spoiled rich kid sometimes, but I really don't like the idea of being a freeloader."

"I bet you'll figure somethin' out," Kite said. "If your family's that well off, you got plenty of time, so 's long as you keep lookin' and really want to, you'll find your niche. Worst case, they cut you off and you work 'cause you have to, right?"

"Um...I really hope it doesn't come to that." Not one of Frank's siblings had ever been 'cut off' before, but again—it seemed like all of them knew what they were doing by this point in their lives.

"Hey, back in character—look over there," Hatchet said, pointing. A bunch of sheepbits were scattering away from something on the other side of a nearby hill. "What d'you think spooked them?"

"I guess we better go find out!" Scylla drew her sword and took off running, leaving everyone else to try their best to keep up with her. She stopped at the top of the hill, pointing down it. "Look!" she said excitedly, but quietly.

Franka's 'ingame lore knowledge' had let her know that man-eating squirrels were pretty big—big enough, after all, to conceivably eat a person. But it was really something else to actually see a pair of them! Even at this distance, they seemed to tower over their surroundings, their gigantic bushy tails looking capable of squashing a person flat all on their own. Their mouths were lined with big, razor-sharp teeth, and their paws were large enough for each one to be currently physically holding a sheepbit up in the air, rotating, shaking, and examining the struggling creature like it was an acorn.

"You all ready to get 'em?!" Scylla asked. Everyone was still somewhat out of breath from chasing after the wolf-girl, Hatchet the least so and the bunny-girl the most.
"Hhf...h-hang on," Franka said, still bent over forward and trying desperately to catch her breath. "These monsters...ffh...work in packs, taking their prey back to their den. Sorta like the way normal squirrels hide nuts?" She finally managed to stand fully up again. "Following them would reveal where they're hiding. To make a new buddy, Franka needs the soul of their alpha, so knowing where it's hiding really would be best!"

"We could still kill these and track where they came from," Hatchet said, "but that sounds like more trouble than just following. Unless they notice us following and turn around to attack."
"If that happens, then we kill 'em," Kite suggested.

While they'd been discussing this, the two giant squirrels had been bashing the heads of their prey on the ground until they stopped moving. Now they picked the sheepbits up gently with their mouths, went on all fours, and began bounding away.

"Okay okay~! If we're gonna follow them, then we'd better start!" Scylla said, hurrying after them.
"Not too close, now!" Kite advised in a sort of loud whisper. She seemed to accept this advice enough to slow her pace a bit, so the others were able to mostly keep up with her without going into a full-on sprint.

The squirrels' path was fairly straightforward: They skirted around some woods, took a cut through a valley between some hills, and then scattered as they came upon what looked like the ruins of a fairly large fortress.

"Which one do we follow?" Scylla asked, darting her head back and forth to watch them as the rest of the party caught up to her again.

"I think this is the den, actually," Hatchet said, pointing as one of the squirrels made its way through an oversized doorway (missing its doors) near the front. The other one went up to the mostly-destroyed ruins of a side structure and straight into a big hole leading to what had once been its basement.

"Well then—which way in first?"

Kite said, "If I had to guess...that basement's prolly 'storage', and the main entrance goes to the 'den'. Maybe we can sneak in easier through storage if it's connected? Though, charging in the main way is an option for sure."

"There's no guarantee that basement is even connected to anywhere else if these big guys can just carry their prey around outside," Franka pointed out. "Franka thinks straight in is the better choice."

"Charging in it is~!" Scylla said, starting off in that direction herself.

"Just try to be a little cautious..it might be bad for us to get pinned between two groups of those things," Hatchet pointed out as everyone followed her.

There were no squirrels immediately inside the entrance, leaving the party to look around on what appeared to have once been a grand entrance hall, complete with a balcony at the top connected to the upper floor beyond—perhaps a place for the ruler to come out and be seen by the commoners going in and out. In its present state, the balcony was half-collapsed, its entire left side converted into a large pile of rubble all across the floor. There was practically nothing left as far as furniture or decoration went, and the once-tiled floor was heavily scratched, broken, cracked, and largely covered in debris with an extra topping of shed fur and dirt from the building's present occupants. The doorways from the balcony to beyond were only human-sized, but the three first-floor doorways—one left, one straight, one right—were either large enough for the man-eating squirrels originally, or had been "modified" by way of some additional destruction.

Scylla led the way through where it was clearest of debris, taking the group over toward the left wall and around toward the forward-center part of the room.

"Which way now? Which door?" the wolf-girl whispered, looking around as she went.

"Hmm...you'd think the leader would be in the throne room, and that should be straight ahead," Hatchet said at a similar volume.

"Who says squirrels'll think like people?" Kite said. "Just as likely it's living in the guardhouse or servant's quarters or whatever."

"Llllet's just go left, then," Franka suggested. "It's the closest entrance."

Scylla nodded, and continued toward that doorway. "Hey, you used the first person," she observed.
"Err. Franka, couldn't think of a way to say that that wasn't super awkward." the bunny-girl said with a small shrug.

"...Me either, actually."

They entered a hallway with several doors on either side, none of which would be large enough for the squirrels, and most of which had collapsed or just led to small rooms full of debris. One of them did lead to a room containing a large blue crystal, the game's equivalent to a 'save point', which everyone made a mental note of. At the end of the hallway, they came to another "expanded" entrance with a large room beyond it. Scylla signaled for quiet (not that anyone was being loud at this point) and crept a little closer, leaning in toward the door to look. There were two of the man-eating squirrels inside, neither of which looked particularly special. But there was also...

"Treasure!" she whispered after turning her head back. "And two baddies. Let's kill 'em and get it?"

After everyone shared a few contemplative glances, Franka said, "Yes, but—allow Franka to take advantage of the element of surprise, please?"
"Me too," the fox-girl chimed in. "Sounds like they're eating?" Everyone present having animal ears made it easy enough for them to hear the noise of sheepbit flesh being torn up and chewed.
"...Yep," the samurai reported, carefully drawing her sword. "What're you two gonna do, then?"

"Uh.."

Since Franka was hesitating to answer, Kite answered first, pulling out a charm from her inventory. "One-use explosive. Not big enough to kill, but maybe leave 'im stunned—has to be attached to the target."
"Ooh..! Target some of the roof instead?" Franka suggested, pointing diagonally forward-up, roughly toward the top of the room the squirrels were in.

"Rocks fall, every-squirrel dies," Hatchet chimed in, "hopefully."

"Yeah, but I ain't sure how I'd reach all the way up there."

"Kite doesn't have to," the bunny-girl said, holding out her 'little friend' and having it wave its left 'hand'.

The miko nodded, "Gotcha," and offered the charm over; the rabbit doll 'held' the charm in its hand. "I'mma charge it up now, hold it, lemme know when I oughta release."

"'Kay."

Franka's doll floated, under her power, through the door, then up to the ceiling over where the two squirrels were. They were too focused on their food to notice something so small floating around, and it had the glowing charm affixed to the ceiling in no time at all. Then Franka floated it over to a corner of the room, well clear of where all that stone would fall to. She nodded to Kite, who'd been holding her gohei up in front of her in both hands this whole time. The fox-girl shook the gohei just once, and an explosion sounded from above, followed by the sound of an entire upstairs room falling onto the pair of giant squirrels. They squeaked and chittered with distress, starting to push and throw the pile off of them in the process.

"Okay—now go in for the kill~!" Scylla proclaimed, running inside without a second thought.

"Wait a—ugh." Hatchet reached to hold her back but was too slow, so instead he just facepalmed and shook his head. Kite ran past him, quickly summoning a barrier in front of herself and the wolf-girl before they could get hit by a bunch of debris being thrown out off of the pile. Franka's doll quickly ran over to behind the two of them to stay safe too, and she herself went up as far as just inside the doorway to wait the barrage out.

"Uh, sorry—thanks Kite!"
"No prob'. Better you're closer to 'em once they're free, anyhow."

"It'd just be better if we'd planned to do this ahead of time," Hatchet said, coming up next to the other melee fighter now that there was a shield to protect him.

Nobody present had actually encountered an angry squirrel before (in the real world), so they didn't really know what to expect. Once the two monsters were free, both of them stood fully upright and loudly squeaked, swiping their forepaws around in the air threateningly. Kite dismissed the shield, and Scylla stepped forward. "What's the matter—you still hungry?" She unsheathed her weapon. "I've got something you can eat right here!" With those last two words, she leapt forward at the nearer of the two squirrels, slashing into its upper belly and kicking off of its underside to jump back and land on the floor before it could catch her in its paws. It pounced after the wolf-girl and landed hard on the floor, catching nothing and leaving its back wide open for her to land on top of, run up, and slash it a few times in the back of the throat.

Hatchet threw one of this eponymous weapons at the other squirrel to goad it his way, and made a lucky hit right in its left eye, sending the already-injured carnivorous rodent into a frenzy. It went on all fours and ran at him with distressing speed, only to bounce violently off of one of Kite's barriers, shattering it in the process. The axe was dislodged from its face and fell loudly to the ground, so he ran up and recovered it on his way to bury another one into the top of the stunned animal's head.

Once Scylla's opponent had landed face-first on the ground, the rabbit doll came up, hands fully converted into flame-wreathed knives, to chop up its face. It stood up and Scylla leapt back; it grabbed for the doll but Franka managed to quickly float it away, just out of reach. The squirrel tried three more times to catch the small target floating around in midair just in front of it, during which time the samurai wolf-girl sheathed her weapon and tensed up, readying a technique. Then she executed it, seemingly disappearing before reappearing an instant later on the opposite side of the beast with her sword most of the way in its sheath again. When she put it the rest of the way in with an audible clink, the attack took effect, making the monster "feel" some ten or twenty slashes all-at-once through its hind legs and lower body.

The wolf-man drew back when the squirrel started to stir, after making his second chop into its head and leaving the weapon behind. It stood up, loudly squeaking again and thrashing back and forth, and so succeeded in throwing the axe off its head and over toward a far wall. He gave it another one, which made a fairly shallow cut into its underside before glancing off, and it went to charge at him again. Kite was ready with a barrier, but the squirrel bounded right over it upon coming within pouncing range of the two of them, and she had to quickly place another one above them so they could dive away to either side and get out of the way of its slightly-delayed landing. Franka quickly sent her doll over to stick some knives in its face while it was still stunned, and—more importantly—to get its attention on her little buddy so her two party members would have time to recover their feet.

Scylla, meanwhile, was having basically no trouble with her opponent. After having its hind legs turned into mincemeat, it was trying scrabble around after her with its forepaws, squeaking and chittering furiously the whole time. She laughed and taunted it in her usual way, letting it get close before leaping over it and slashing through its back with her sword mid-leap. Between all the damage it had taken from the roof collapsing and what it was enduring now, that squirrel was not very long for the world.

The other one obliged Franka by trying to catch her doll as it flitted around in midair, giving Hatchet some time to recover his feet, draw two of his axes in his hands, and ready a technique of his own. He held his arms out in an X-shape in front of him, then jumped at the monster from the side, slashing hard with one axe, then the other, both strikes having enough force behind them to go all the way through the beast's flesh. He kicked his feet off of the monster's side (not quite as adroitly as Scylla's similar maneuver earlier) and landed rolling away, leaving behind two very deep cuts in its side. The squirrel shrieked and tried to jump after him, but got caught by another barrier, skidding down it (as this impact hadn't been enough to shatter it) and crumpling onto the floor briefly.

Franka's doll had traded knife-hands for having a small ball of fire floating over each hand now, and went to work tossing them a few feet over at the prone beast, which quickly succeeded in setting some of its fur on fire. It panicked, shrieking and flailed around wildly—no longer interested in prey or revenge, only in putting the fire out—so everyone just stood clear of it, Hatchet tossing it a few more axes for good measure. When it seemed to have just about gotten the fire put out, Scylla ran up from one side, leapt, and made a clean slash right across the front of the squirrel's throat, finishing it off. She landed, then its body landed loudly on the ground behind her. The other one had died from her assault just a few seconds earlier.

The samurai maintained a dignified stance with her sword out for a second or two, then gracefully sheathed it. Then she raised her hands in the air and celebrated: "WOOOOH~! That was awesome!"

"We didn't bury the treasure, did we?" Hatchet asked, looking around.

"No, it's over there," Franka said, pointing to a part of the room beyond the pile of collapsed upper floor. A few stray stones had been thrown in that general direction by the squirrels in their initial flailing, but a small pile of gold flanked by two treasure chests was all still quite intact.

"Loooot!" The wolf-girl dashed over in that direction immediately.
"Don't forget it might be trapped," Kite pointed out.
"I know, I know..."

"So: What have we learned?" Hatchet said, going around the room to retrieve his scattered weapons.

"These squirrels don't pay attention to much of anything when they're eating," Franka said.

"Rocks fall, monsters die! Or at least get easier to kill," Scylla added.

He nodded his agreement. "Most important, though: Fire status effect, super effective. It basically stopped attacking once its fur was on fire."

"Wouldn't you?" Franka said.
"Sure," Kite said. "So we oughta be ready to take advantage of that 'gainst the alpha, too."

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Another case of managing to write more of a story I haven't touched in a while.

...I feel like Dan Shive wouldn't approve of this episode.

A Summoning, Part XLIV

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Part XLIV
~Tower~

"Full moon tomorrow night." Boreas said this in about the tone of voice an old farmer might use to announce the likelihood of rain the next day.

"Yeah?" Prama said. "I suppose that has a lot more meaning for a werewolf than it does for me."
"Sure. I'm never open full moons, so don't show up. I used to take a nap all day, since I got old. But maybe I'll run 'round my land for once, hunt something. Been a while."

"Got it."

---

At one point during supper Tuesday night, Onida paused, sitting up in her chair slightly. "Uh, hey." Sam had noticed something was on their alpha's mind ever since she got home, so she also sat up to listen. "I...need to admit something, I think. I feel a little bit like I've been dishonest, not mentioning it 'till now..."

"I'm sure it can't be that bad," Damon said.
"W-well. It's, not that it's bad. It's just a little—embarrassing? Strange?"

"We've got a lot of strange going around in the first place," Sam replied. "Aah, don't feel like you gotta bring it up if it's too embarrassing, though."
"N-no no..I just. I'd rather let you know. La Lune's blessing..that made me a werewolf. Came with um, a bonus? Something she said was 'unique'. I can...turn into a man, if I want to."

"Wh—really!? That's amazing," Sam said. "I didn't think La Lune could grant something like that!"

"What do you look like?" Damon added.
"Uh. W-well, I guess I can just show you...later. I've, tested it a few times, and bought some clothes that'll fit better than, what I have on right now. But, sorry I didn't mention it until now."

"Naah, I can see how it'd feel a little awkward," Sam said. "Especially since, aaah, you know.." she added, folding her ears down a little bit and blushing.

"Right, exactly..."

True to her word, Onida showed off the male form right after they'd cleaned up the dishes. She went to her room, took everything off, changed, and put on some clothes that now fit: Boxers, gym shorts, a tank top. Looking in the mirror...the tall, fit, handsome man with long silver hair and the ears and tail of a wolf, felt like he could've been her older brother or something...but that was Onida now—was him. He took a deep breath, and stepped out to the living room.

"S-so uh.."

"You look great!" Damon said first; Sam was still taking it all in.

"Th-thanks, I guess. This feels really weird too." Looking at Sam was making him feel...something, in that part girls didn't have. She was blushing, and seemed even cuter than usual right now...!
"C'mon, what do you think?" Onida's sister pressed her.

"Aaah. It's just. I've never, aaaah, felt attracted to a dude before in my life?" she said finally, and slowly. "Let alone...this attracted. You're...really good-looking, Onida."

"Um," Onida flushed. That compliment, plus the expression on Sam's face...he was feeling kind of dumbstruck for a moment. And, also, kind of like picking her up in his arms and aggressively kissing her and...!

"Uh. Th-thanks. But I'mgonnachangebacknow!" He turned and ran back to the bedroom, shifting back to female form along the way. She had to catch the shorts and underwear with her hand to keep them from falling entirely off on the way into the door.

After Onida returned, Sam said, "Aaah, I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable or anything?"
"N-no. It's just, really weird being the other sex. I guess I don't have much ground to stand on with that around you two, but..."
"Nah, at least we both get it," Damon said. "Buut, you bought clothes for it anyway! So you must be planning to use it sometimes, riiight?"
"Uh, m-maybe. I don't know, I just thought..." What had she been thinking? Something like, 'if I need to be male for some reason, I want to be presentable.' But why would she ever need to? Maybe 'need' was a little too strong, but at some point she and Sam might want to...

"Hey, aaah, don't worry about it," Sam said. "You let us know, you showed us. We can just move on from that if you want. Like, tomorrow's a big day, right? First full moon for you—second for Damon, but, practically the first really."

"Oh. Y-yeah." Damon's expression fell a little bit, thinking about that.
"We'll be here for you," Onida reassured her (glad for the rescue!). "It's just one night, anyway. I guess—if we won't be able to sleep, we could spend some of the day before napping, and then just..hang out around here. You can still play games in werewolf form, right?"
"Aaah, technically?" Sam said. "I usually don't, though. Too restless, and the claws make your hands kinda clumsy. A little running around can help."
"Maybe, something with motion controls then? Or, I guess we could all just go into the back yard if the zoomies are that bad."

"Yeah, we can figure something out. Anyway, Damon can still type or write even if she can't talk, so aah.."
"R-right. I'll be okay," she said a little bit softly, but nodded.

---

Since becoming a young woman, Boreas hadn't actually tried out her full-wolf form. He'd usually only shifted to that shape when he absolutely had to; making a mess by shedding a bunch of extra fur around the shop was just a pain, and he could usually burn off plenty of moonlight by just keeping the ears and tail around. That part about not wanting to make a mess was still much the same, and as Wednesday wore on, she could feel the steady buildup of a youthful urge to go out and hunt—something that she'd last felt so long ago that it was barely familiar now. So she went outside a little before sunset, wearing only a very loose-fitting tank top and shorts, in order to voluntarily shift before the moonrise could force her to.

She needn't have been so cautious about the clothes. The difference between her 'human' and 'wolf' forms was about the same as it had been before that recent transformation: A little taller, a little more muscularly built, but otherwise just herself, covered in rough fur in the same pattern as a regular gray wolf. Some women apparently gained a cup size or two when shifting forms, but that wasn't the case for Boreas—which suited her just fine; those things were big enough to deal with as it was.

The self-examination done, and nothing else really on her mind, she went for a little patrol of her 'territory'. It had been so long since she'd gone outside like this that hardly any of it was familiar. Maybe a few of the trees were the same, but the rest was all quite different. A canine's sense of direction, and her own scent, were the main things ensuring she didn't get lost or wander far enough out to get outside her own property.

She eventually found a few deer in the more wooded part of her lands, and carefully stalked one before taking it down. Freshly-hunted meat was a somewhat nostalgic flavor, but her sense of taste had been ruined by her work as an alchemist for so long that even being young again hadn't fixed it. She ultimately lacked the appetite to have more than a little of the meat, and willingly left the rest of it to scavengers, heading off to a small stream nearby to drink and clean up. Nature, at least, was efficient in that way.

It was more than two thirds of the way through the night by now. She rinsed off, lapped up some water, and then paused, sitting up, at a specific sound in the distance. Her ears twitched: Someone was howling.

Wolf howls might sound very much the same to most humans, and even to young werewolves. Some of even the latter would have a hard time distinguishing an animal from a fellow werewolf. But Boreas had the experience, plus the time running around with some really wild werewolves to know...that howl didn't sound right. It was from a werewolf, but it didn't have any information in it. It was like a person screaming out incoherent nonsense at the top of their lungs.

It was someone who'd gone feral. And they were close enough for her to get to tonight.

According to old traditions—which someone of Boreas's age held to with full devotion—dealing with feral wolves, those under La Lune's curse, was a burden that fell upon all werewolves who benefited from La Lune's blessing. The howl repeated, and Boreas carefully traced the location. Outside of her territory proper, but she didn't know of any wolves who'd seriously staked a claim that nearby. Which meant this was her responsibility. She took off at a run right away; the owner of that voice hadn't moved much between howls, but there was no telling what a feral would do next.

At least a quarter-hour later, Boreas paused, hearing the noise of another wolf running up, slowing down, coming to a stop. She moved carefully, quietly in that direction, sniffing the air occasionally. There were...at least two werewolves nearby, besides herself. Another feral? Or someone from around here she didn't know about? It was too far from the campus to be a student unless they'd run a really long way over the course of the night, which wasn't impossible.

The one she'd been hearing was making more noise, making it easy for Boreas to get closer. Through some brush, and then...

"Waugh!" Boreas turned a corner and nearly ran into her. She yelped and jumped back slightly, landing on all fours. "Who—what are you d—are you—!?" The strange werewolf tensed up, trying ask several questions at once, completing none of them. She was quite a sight to see: Brilliant silver fur with some light-blue highlights, blue eyes, a chunk missing from her left ear—and taller, curvier, and stronger-looking than the alchemist could imagine ever being. Maybe Lucent in his prime would've been a match for someone like that...maybe.
"Easy." Boreas took a small step back and just sat on all four feet. "I'm not the feral 'round here."

"Feral? Oh—you mean. So you're, not, the one who howled a few minutes ago?"
"I'm not. You don't know a feral when you hear it?"
"I-I don't know about that, but. But what I do know, is that my bro—my sister recognized the voice of the werewolf who bit her, from over a month ago!"

"Over a month? Hmm. This been reported to them celestials?"
"Cele-what?"

"Veilkeepers," Boreas tried.

"I guess? Uh, last full moon, he—she. It's, a long story."

"You reported it when she turned," the alchemist concluded for her. "That would explain why they haven't tracked 'im down yet. Got it."

"So, you. You're after this, 'feral'?"

"I heard the howl. Someone's got to take up the burden. Didn't know you were 'round."
"What were you...planning to do?"
"Whatever's necessary. You?"
"I-I-I don't know. Catch him, hold him down to make him listen? Demand to know—to know why he bit my brother?"
"Feral won't have an answer. Like talking to a wild animal. Might be nothing we can do for him."
"Nothing—what do you mean?"
"Just what I say, miss. Not much you can do for a rabid dog." Although, if this one had gone unnoticed for more than an entire month...then his human form probably maintained some level of sanity. Or else he was just especially people-shy, but that didn't track with him actually biting someone. Boreas thought it best not to bring all that up; if this girl wasn't prepared for the worst possible outcome, then she shouldn't be along for the hunt at all.

"Th-that's not. It—I know someone, who can fix it! M-my sister was feral, before she—before that someone did something to her, and she's back to normal now! M-mostly. If y—if we could just, knock him out and get him to her.."
"A minute ago you sounded awful angry at 'im. Now you want to help 'im?"
"If...if he really couldn't help it. Then yes, I do. I..I know what that looks like, a-and some of what it feels like..."

"Hmm.

"Trying to just knock out a feral is tougher and more dangerous than going for the kill. Don't think I could do it on my own, but you look plenty strong. I'll give it a shot if you'll help."
"Uh—sure. Of course!"

"After that, you can call your miracle worker. Long as he don't cause any more trouble, it won't be my business anymore."

"Okay," the silver-haired wolf nodded. "Okay."

"But first, we have to track him down. Keep quiet, and follow my lead."

"O—" she started, then cut herself off, and just nodded. Well, whoever this was, she was very inexperienced at hunting. But at least she picked things up quickly enough.

Boreas raised her head and sniffed the air, trying for that other scent now that she'd eliminated her temporary partner's from consideration. After a moment she caught it, and began following it. The two of them had made an awful lot of noise, between the silver-haired one's loud running around and her yelp, then their entire conversation, and they had most likely spooked him. But Boreas's sense of smell was exceptionally good even compared to other wolves—one of the things that made her such a talented alchemist in the first place—and she could follow a scent quickly and quietly. Her short-term companion kept up easily, and was steadily picking up on the way the old werewolf was moving to keep from being heard, making her own movements quieter and quieter.

Eventually, Boreas stopped, raising her head to look around and to sniff the air once more, and soon realized something. Of all the... They were back where she'd been only a short while ago. Even the silver-haired wolf had to hear it—had to smell it. The scent of carrion, and the sound of someone's sharp teeth tearing through flesh. It was the deer Boreas had left behind earlier, which meant she had, entirely by accident, baited a trap for that feral werewolf.

Boreas pointed in the direction of the noise, just in case the silver-haired wolf didn't get it. Then she pointed to herself, and off to the right: I'm going to flank. Her hunting partner nodded recognition of this signal. Then Boreas just barely whispered: "Tackle him, pin him. Make a fist." She demonstrated doing this with her own right forepaw. "Then go for the head. It'll look real bad, but we heal up quick if we're not dead." And, she nodded again.

Assured that they both knew the plan, Boreas headed off. She made a wide circle, came up to him on one side. He was huge, with thick brown fur all over; a tank top and some shorts were clinging tightly to his body, looking considerably less damaged than one would expect from someone who'd been running loose for over a month—which was even more evidence that something a little unusual was going on. Ignore the clothes, and it'd be easy for a human to mistake him in the dark for a grizzly bear...which could be another reason he'd gone unnoticed for so long.

Now that she could see what they were dealing with, Boreas formed the rest of the plan. The silver-haired wolf was the physically stronger of the two of them. Boreas had the fighting experience and speed to take down a feral wolf properly with her fangs and claws, but even her regained youth hadn't made her all that strong. So...it was better for her to flush him out. She ran out in his direction, loudly barking. The feral wolf yipped and ran, his wild side obviously somewhat of a coward despite his impressive size. Then a great mass of silver fur, gleaming brilliantly in the moonlight, appeared from the shadows, leaping right on top of him. The two of them tumbled, rolling, the feral swiping and yowling. Boreas moved up to them, readying to assist in case he got loose, as the roll came to a stop. The silver-haired wolf was holding him down with her right hand on his chest and her knees on his belly. He kept flailing and squirming, but couldn't get loose before she'd raised her left hand up, balling it into a fist, and then struck him on the forehead, bashing it in once—and then, when he kept moving, a second time. After that, the feral wolf went limp.

Boreas untensed; the silver-haired wolf quickly stood up. "Is—did I—?" she asked, her voice high and mortified.
"Sshh." After a second's silence, the alchemist said: "Hear that? He's still breathing. You did fine."

"Oh. Okay...good. Um." She looked around. "I...have no idea where we are. A-and I left my phone at the house, and.."
Boreas sighed, intentionally making it audible in order to cut her off. "You oughta be able to smell your way home. But it'd be a long way to drag this one. We're not far from my place, and I got a phone. You know this person's number?"
"Yes!"

"Then let's get this over with." Boreas gestured for her to pick up the unconscious feral, and then started off on a straight line towards her shop.

"So. Name's Boreas. Alchemist by trade."
"Oh! Uh. Onida. I'm uh...just an office worker.

"So uh...alchemist is aaaa. Real job title."
"Yep." This one must've been yanked out from under the veil pretty hard, Boreas decided.

A short while later, Onida made a brief, choked noise. "What...what is that...what is that smell?!"

Right—they were getting pretty close now; Boreas hadn't even noticed. "I told you I was an alchemist. We work with plenty of chemicals. You didn't smell 'em on me?"
"I..I guess I just wasn't paying that much attention, now that you mention it. You smelled..distinct to me, but I wasn't sure why. But that...! It's so strong! How do you even—?"

"You get used to it."

Boreas stopped in front of the door. "Hold on to 'im there for a minute. I got something that'll keep him asleep 'till morning."

"Uh..nothing dangerous, I hope?"

"Not at the right dosage." But so much for not shedding a bunch of fur around her work area. Boreas went inside only briefly before coming back out with a vial of the potion. It was really an accelerated healing potion that knocked the drinker out for a while as a side effect, but in this case both would be helpful. She dumped it into the feral werewolf's mouth, made him swallow it, then stood up. "That'll do it. Let's get him to a couch, and you can call whoever you need to."

"Okay. I...I should probably also call home. Let them know what happened, that I'm okay."
Boreas just shrugged. "My phone's not billed by the minute."

---

Felix woke up unusually groggy, and with a pounding headache. He shifted slightly, raised a hand to his forehead to feel it, and found the spot somewhat sensitive, like it had a bad bruise. He quietly groaned a complaint, wondering whether he'd managed to fall out of bed and climb back under the covers without remembering it. He hadn't heard his alarm or anything, and he felt really sleepy, so he just wanted to stay there with his eyes closed and go back to sleep...but he couldn't get comfortable. It took a fair bit of shifting around before he started to notice that something was actually quite wrong.

There was only a blanket on top of him, with no sheets. There wasn't a pillow under his head. The 'bed' had a cushioned wall on one side and dropped off very close to him on the other. And, he could hear someone talking not very far away.

One woman's voice practically grunted: "Prolly should've arranged a meeting in-person earlier, I s'pose."

Another, in a more chipper tone of voice, said: "It's no trouble. Prama's directions were about as perfect as you'd expect."

It required more willpower than it really should've for Felix to shove the blanket off at this point and try to sit up. He winced pretty hard when that exacerbated his headache, but he pushed through it, rubbed his eyes, and looked around. He'd been...lying on a couch, in a small, unfamiliar room. There was some..what, chemistry equipment? Lying around on some shelves and a small table, all in a fairly messy arrangement. That was about as much as he registered before one of the doors opened, and the owners of those voices stepped through: A tall woman with short, largely gray hair, and a black-haired woman of more average height.

"Uh.."
"Looks like he already woke up," the tall (grunting-voice) one said.

"Well, that should make things more convenient," the other one said, and then actually addressed him with a greeting that was far too cheerful for this early in the morning: "Hello there~."
"Uh. Hi. Who are you, where am I, uh..?" He was still feeling a little disoriented.
"And what's going on? We can do things in that order if you'd like," she said in a friendly tone of voice. "I'm Zotha, this is Boreas—we're at her house-slash-place of business. As for what happened, that's..slightly more complicated."
"You remember anything from last night?" 'Boreas' asked.

"Uh, not really? I mean, I got sleepy really early, went to bed...next thing I know I'm here, with this..ugh..headache." He shook his head slightly, trying to clear it, and instantly regretted that, as it again made the pain slightly worse. But: "I guess..I've been having some weird dreams lately. Did I, sleepwalk? All the way here?"
"After a fashion," Boreas said.

"Er, to clarify—do you have any specifics about these dreams?" Zotha asked.
"Uhhmm...I've been keeping a dream journal lately, ever since they started. Sometimes, it's like..I'm running through a forest or something like that? I've also had dreams about standing in front of this huge pit, and someone runs up and pushes me over, but not lately..."

"You ever wake up with a stomachache? Or notice anything out of order in your room?" she continued, gently.
"Yyyyeah, sssometimes. I usually get over it, but I'm not hungry like, all day when that happens. I toss and turn pretty bad..been thinking about getting a sleep study done..." Come to think of it, his stomach kind of hurt right now.

"I think I should just rip the band-aid off at this point. What would you think if I told you you were a werewolf?" Zotha said.
"Uh..?"
"Like Boreas here?" she said, pointing at the other woman's head..or, more specifically, a short distance up from where her ears probably were under her hair.

"I don't think he can see 'em," Boreas said, observing Felix's look of further confusion. "Well, isn't this a pickle. Turning, but staying under the veil the whole time..." Were these two being serious? But, it was hard for Felix to see how they could be saying all of this without really meaning it.

"Ah," Zotha clapped. "I can do something about that! Just, watch this for a moment." She held out her hand, and...something appeared above it. Felix would be hard-pressed to describe just what it was. Bright lights, shifting colors, a roughly spherical shape, would all have been words he'd try, and still come up inadequate. His mind reeled briefly at a sense of sheer impossibility, which clashed hard against the undeniability of...whatever it was she was doing. He blinked a couple of times at it, wondering whether he was actually still asleep and in the middle of a particularly lucid dream—like that one with the weird catgirl a few nights back. But, after only a few seconds, the...whatever Zotha had done...was gone, and he could turn his eyes elsewhere.

"...Bluagh!" The first place he'd looked was back at Zotha again, and the shock of the sight had him bound entirely over the back of the couch to behind it, landing a little roughly onto the floor. "Ooowwh..." Of course, this made his headache act up again. But how else was he supposed to react to her suddenly looking like some kind of...demon!? With, like, cat ears, and horns, and big bat-like wings, and a tail..?
"Take it easy—I'm no threat to you," Zotha said.

"Interesting trick," Boreas commented—probably to Zotha, unless she somehow thought Felix clumsily scaling the back of the couch and hitting the floor was impressive.

Felix carefully picked himself up and peeked over the couch, looking over the two women again. Zotha still looked..rather like a demon to him, and he felt like he could see what she'd been trying to point out about Boreas before: Two big, furry ears poking out past her hair. There was also a furry tail moving around behind her, not to mention some sharp teeth showing in her mouth when she spoke. But the more he looked at those unusual traits on both of the women, the more it felt like..they really had been there all along, but he just hadn't been paying..enough attention to them before? How was that possible?!

"Okay, I guess I'm seeing..something that was always there, but I couldn't..see it, before?"
"Right. Long story short, there's a thing that keeps 'normal' humans from seeing unusual things. But, since you're a werewolf, it's not supposed to still apply to you," Zotha said. "So I went ahead and fixed that. Can you remember anything more specific about your dreams now? Especially on the nights before you woke up sick?"
"I uh..not really? It's still pretty fuzzy," Felix said. "But...I don't think. I didn't, really fall asleep, did I? It..something was hurting, pretty bad," he realized aloud "A-and the morning, there was all this shed fur! It got all in the vacuum, and—I thought it was just dust!"

"Try not to panic too much," Boreas said. "Take a deep breath or two."
"Okay, okay..." He inhaled, then exhaled again. "So I—I guess I am a werewolf. Is that..how bad is that?"

"Depends on the person," Boreas said. "It's meant to be a blessing, but sometimes it's a curse. Your case in't normal, being separated from your wild side by the veil itself for so long."

"So, next time there's a full moon...d-do I need to, lock myself in or something? Have someone guard the door?"
"It'd be easier if we could just fix the separation—which I probably can," Zotha said, "and definitely fix your bruise there at the same time," she added while pointing at her own forehead. "There might be a, side effect to my cure, but I can undo it easily enough."

"That sounds. Um." Felix stood all the way up, brushed himself off slightly. When he looked down, he realized he was brushing brown fur off of his white tank top. "If I'm being honest, suspiciously convenient. How..how'd I get this bruise in the first place?"

Boreas crossed her arms. "Sane wolves have to keep feral ones from hurting folks. I thought you needed to be put down. Another werewolf by the name of Onida thought Zotha here could fix the problem, so I let her knock you out instead of me tearing your throat out."
Felix felt far more distinct emotions from that explanation than should have ever fit into such a short time span: Sheer terror at the idea of being 'put down' and basically disappearing forever with hardly a trace, shock at hearing Onida's name come up (there weren't very many people with that name, right!?), relief that he hadn't been killed by this terrifying woman who apparently had no hesitation about the idea of doing so...then, finally, a spark of realization. Onida had been looking..different lately; now that he thought of it, he could actually remember the ears, the tail! How had he not noticed that, either?!

And then: "Waa, wait a minute. Onida's brother went missing after a bear bit him." Felix's memory of those dreams still wasn't very good, but he thought he remembered standing over someone, and then running away from a lot of noise. "Thaaaat...that wasn't a bear, was it?"

"I'd guess not," Boreas said.

"Oooh, boy." This was going to make things extraordinarily awkward at work today. Or...probably tomorrow, or whenever he managed to get back to it. "Okay. I think I believe you know," he said in a near-falsetto tone.

"You want me to try my cure, then?" Zotha said.

"Yeah. Nooo, no more biting people for me, please and thanks."

"Okay. Just hold still; this won't hurt a bit." the demon-looking woman said. And then, after taking a moment seemingly to consider what word to use, she put her right arm out toward him and said: "Uɴɪᴛᴇ."

There was something strange about what she said..or how she said it. It was a lot like that floating ball of..whatever that had been above her hand a moment ago; Felix could barely comprehend it but not entirely put it into words. It felt like, for that word, her voice had authority. It was...an irresistible command. It brought on a faint purple light that flowed from her hand swiftly into him, and the sound of her voice saying that word seemed to echo briefly in his mind. It drowned out his thoughts, his worries, made him feel calm..and seemed to dredge up something that he hadn't noticed.

In the dreams Felix had of running around, things were too vague and abstract to make out his own form—his own appearance—and his mind had played tricks on him, simply filling in that he was his usual, human self that whole time. But he remembered those dreams more clearly now, enough to make out what he'd really looked like—what he really was, in some sense. He could remember..not so much thinking, as feeling, during all of that time. He felt that he was a wolf; he needed to run around; he was hungry, or scared, or angry, at various points. All of these were things the wolf felt, but they were also things he felt. He was, after all, one and the same as the wolf.

One and the same...all along. Something—that 'veil'—had kept him from noticing. But, like a lot of other things in the past minute or two, it seemed terribly obvious now.

"Aah..r-rrfh..!" A soft bark came from Felix's mouth, as he felt his ears unfold, a tail make its way out from his back. It was strange, but extremely familiar—this, and more, had happened each night he had one of those so-called "dreams". But this was followed immediately by a strange, sharp tingling that ran inward from the bases of those ears and that tail, all the way across his skin. The tingles went down through his scalp and head, and up from the base of his spine, meeting around the middle of his torso, while some more of them spread downward through his legs. He shuddered violently, almost falling over but leaning on the couch instead, in response, as he felt the weight and motion of his hair suddenly fluttering out longer and longer. It tickled his cheeks, landed on his shoulders, then gently tumbled its way down along his back.

"R-rfh..? A-aa~aah..?" Felix being the wolf, and the wolf being him, made an utterly bizarre amount of sense. What was happening now, however, was a complete surprise. He felt the tingling give way to a warm, massage-like pressure all over, and the world rushed upward around him, his clothes loosening around his body, as that pressure shrank him smaller and smaller. This motion didn't make his head hurt..in fact, it no longer hurt at all—the injury evidently healed during that first bit of tingling. "A~ah, arffh, rr~rfh..!?" But that didn't make it any less strange to find himself shrinking, and as he let out some soft barks, to hear his voice coming out in higher and higher pitches...!

Just before his boxers might have given up entirely, Felix's clothes shrank, pulling close against his slimmer, shorter frame. The shorts seemed overeager in this effort, quickly losing half the length of their leggings and pulling awfully..tight...down between his legs. "A-aa~ah..!" That was what prompted him to notice that he was quite a bit...smaller down there than he was used to, and was starting to feel a weird kind of tugging feeling down there. That feeling, strangely, seemed to excite him, making him pant heavily between soft, high-sounding barks and squeaks, his face going terribly warm. "Rr~rfh..! Aah, aa~aah..!"

"W-waa~aah..!" And, just like that, a final tug took away Felix's manhood entirely. All of her—her wolf side, her human side, which were both the same thing now—shivered again, feeling a nice, fuzzy feeling down between her legs as a new sex settled into place down there. "M-mm~mmnnn~nnnh...!" Her hips gently puffed out, her chest tingling sharply for just a second before starting to grow, gently shoving the material of her top out as it reformed into a mid-sized pair of breasts. "A~ah, rr~rrfh..!" She could only happily bark in response to these last couple of changes—thanks to how bizarrely nice they felt! And..something about how cute, and pretty, she was becoming was...nice, too.

"M—mngh..." Felix let out a soft noise, then panted for a moment, slowly blinking her eyes open. In no time at all, she'd gone from a human man to..a werewolf girl, her ears and tail as plainly visible as Boreas's were. She was a little shorter than Zotha...maybe average-ish height for a woman, with a fairly slim build but still a pretty good figure.

"A..ahahah..s-so, 'side effects'...meant this?" she asked, trying to get used to the high voice that came from her lips. It wasn't that high, maybe a mid-soprano or so, but still a stark contrast to how she'd sounded a minute or two ago.

"Yes, that's pretty much what I expected," Zotha said. "I can change you back if you want."
"Uh, well." Looking down at herself for a second, patting her chest with one hand for a second due to a lingering uncertainty that all of this was real, Felix felt unusually hesitant. She...really should ask to be turned back to normal, right? What would everyone at work say, seeing this walk in? Even if most of them couldn't see the furry parts! "I uh.."
"Hmm, you seem conflicted. I can change you back in a way that'll let you look that way again, if you wish," Zotha said.
"R-really?"
"Sure," she shrugged. "I've done it for plenty of other people. Your clothes won't change with you when you do it yourself though, so be ready for that."

All of a sudden, Felix's mind lit up with..exciting possibilities! For the exact same reason as her worries a moment ago—nobody would recognize her—she could do things looking like this that 'Felix' couldn't possibly be seen doing. But she had to accept the offer first, so she quickly tried to calm herself down...

"Th-then yeah! Yes. I uh, i-it'd be best if I look uuh..as much like myself as possible. But, seriously, thanks. Oh! Also uh...I don't suppose I could bother one of you to, help me catch a ride home?"

---

The full moon was always going to be some kind of big deal, but it took me a while to figure out exactly why and how to handle it. And it's going to continue to bother me that the dates of full moons between this story and Midas Journal don't and can't make sense without some kind of local time paradox, and/or this universe's Earth having a different-length lunar month, but I'll get over it. If there's a fourth full moon within these stories, it will be at a time that actually makes sense, I swear...

Anyway, I've recently stumbled onto a (in hindsight slightly obvious) method for refining the results of my image generation stuff a bit better. At least, I think the results have been better. The image in this story part is the first actually published instance of said results; I'm hoping some of the other results can be shown off soon in other stories, too.

Vixen Society - Cycle 16

Vixen Society

---

  Beginning / Before / After / Last

---

Cycle 16

“Um...” After their...evening together, Dennis had promised Tory a date, but it had still felt a little strange for him to get a call from her asking if they could meet for dinner tonight. And even now, sitting across from her in a restaurant, both of them in casual wear, it felt a little strange. Did a woman that beautiful really like him?

“Pffheehee,” she giggled in response to his hesitation. “You don't need to be nervous, it's still just me! Anyway, we've been in a much more compromising position than across from each other at a table, riiight?”
“Uh, y-yeah. Heh,” he half-chuckled at himself in agreement. “I guess...you really like being a girl, huh?”
“Yeah! It was kind of a surprise when it started happening...but it just kinda clicked before I'd even finished. I guess..once I was female, my own magic kicked in or whatever? So, I wound up looking even more like I wanted to than I otherwise would've. And knowing I have magic is amazing!”

“Oh, right—did Stephen text you or something? He was bugging me about, uh..how I didn't want to stay a dog girl right away.”
“Mm-hm! We'll meet up tomorrow at my place,” she said. “I hope you're not jealous—I'm not really interested in him, to be honest. Beyond having a good test subject..heheheh....”
“Y-you sound a little scary saying that,” Dennis said. “But I guess it's just what he's asking for.”

“Yep! If he...rather, if she doesn't like her looks, I can probably fix whatever. But I can't really be blamed if my first try doesn't go perfectly,” she said with a faux-innocent tone. “Anyway...”

Tory leaned in a little bit—grinning, blushing, with her ears down slightly and her tail wagging...This expression made Dennis instantly feel positively helpless. “You'll let me try a few things out on you too, riight? Later on, I mean.”
It took a lot of willpower to not just say 'yes'. “Uh—we'll see. You, uh..what happened the other night makes a convincing argument for b-being a dog girl some of the time anyway.”
“Heheh, yeah! Joooiiin the dark side,” she said teasingly, sitting up again. “Honestly, I dunno if I'd want to keep you that way forever if it was all up to me. You're really cute as a guy too...I like it in a different way, if that makes any sense, and I wouldn't wanna miss out.”
“Um, thanks,” he half-mumbled, not sure what to do with the compliment. “You're uh..well, you don't need me to tell you how amazing you look, right?”
“Awwh, go ahead and try anyway~,” she said, grinning.

The rest of the date went a lot like that, the conversation swinging back and forth between normal things they might've talked about as friends and flirting...well, mostly her flirting with him, but she seemed to like how it flustered him, and how he awkwardly fumbled half of his already-scarce attempts to return the gesture. They got along really well as, perhaps, potential romantic partners. Actually, the way Tory was acting made Dennis feel like a big part of her thought she was his girlfriend already, and he found it hard to disabuse her of the notion.

Before too long, the dinner was over. They'd agreed beforehand to go dutch—since Tory wasn't particularly used the idea of being paid for and this was kind of a 'trial run'—so there was no need for discussion there. Then they walked out to the restaurant parking lot, and she gestured for him to follow over to the side of the building, stopping to turn around once they were there.

The big, curvy wolf-girl looked slightly nervous; even that much seemed like an unnatural expression for her, but...it was kind of cute. “Uhm..I'd do this at someone's doorstep, but we both drove, soo...I had a great time!” she said, grinning. “Would you mind...just a little kiss, maybe?”

“Oh. Uh, no—not at all,” he said.
“Great~!” Spreading her arms, she immediately pushed herself on him in a close embrace—a gesture he returned as if by instinct, pulling his arms around her. Her face was close enough for him to feel her breath for a moment, her blushing face and bright golden eyes taking up most of his view. And then, of course, she went in for the kiss.

“Mm~mmh...” While Tory had proposed a 'little' kiss, she lacked the restraint to leave it at that. Instead she kissed him aggressively and passionately, like they were a married couple who weren't going to see each other for a year. Dennis...didn't have any complaints about this, instead giving as good as he was getting, keeping one of his hands on the back of her head to push her into him until they both started to run out of breath.

Their embrace continued, their faces only a few inches apart, after the kiss. Tory was panting rapidly and blushing much brighter than before, a slightly shy grin on her lips. “N..not bad...hehehe!” she giggled giddily. “Um...hffh..a-another?”

“Fine, just...one more,” he said, feeling considerably more conscious of their somewhat public location than she seemed to.

After waiting a few more seconds for both of them to catch their breath, he pushed his lips onto hers for a second kiss, and found this one a little different from the first. It was no less enjoyable, certainly, but where Tory had pushed herself onto him aggressively before, she instead seemed submissive to his advance this time, maybe even a little shy. Also, somewhere in the second half, he could feel a slightly familiar tingling and stretching across his ears...followed soon after by a steady push from about the base of his spine, a new appendage tingling sharply as it quickly grew longer and fluffier.

Dennis released the wolf-girl a second time, and found his breath coming in and out as rapidly as hers had before—and now was again. As she started to catch her breath, she muttered, “Uh—s, sorry...my magic kinda...leaked?”

So, she'd given him some canine traits similar to the girl-form from the other night—but left the rest of him alone. “Um..it's alright.”

“You wanna, um. I can undo that,” she said.

“No, no. Uh..I guess I should try to get people used to seeing me with a tail anyway. It's..less of a shock than if I walked into work a girl, at least.”

“Oh. Y-you, uh, you like it?”

“Well. I never said I didn't,” he said. “Anyway, I'm sure you like me better this way, right? So if we're gonna keep dating...”
“H-heheh...” she giggled softly, blushing and smiling happily at the prospect.

They finally peeled apart, although they remained standing very close for a moment longer. “Although—don't feel like you have to be part-dog, you know, just for my sake,” she said.

“No, I'll ask you to change me back if I hate it,” he said. “But a couple of days' trial run, you know, 'till our next date, doesn't sound too bad.”
“Oh? Heheh...our next date?” she asked, and he nodded.

Putting a hand up to ruffle the top of her head (and a little bit of her ears), Dennis said, “See you next time.”
“Rr~rfh! Uh, y-yeah! You too!”

---

Like any college student, Miles generally liked to sleep in on Saturday mornings. This usually suited his pet feline just fine; if anything, Beth seemed irritated when he had to get up particularly early for a class and disturbed her beauty sleep by the mere act of getting himself up and ready to go. So, when he found himself partially awake a bit before sunrise out of habit, and so turned onto his side, stirring only slightly before drifting off again, this was perfectly normal.

However, after the sun was midway through its rise—still well ahead of when Miles would normally get up on a day like today—he was awakened again by external stimuli: Specifically, an impatient high-pitched mewing, and then prodding at his face. "Mnuh..?" He blinked his eyes open in a still-half-asleep confusion to find Beth sitting up on the pillow in front of him, her tail flicking back and forth impatiently behind her. At first he thought that she was framed by the light of the rising sun in the window, but the warmth of the sun was behind him, so that couldn't be right. No—Beth herself was emitting that light, a halo of a bright white glow surrounding her.

Seeing that he was more or less conscious by this point, she meowed impatiently again, holding out her right forepaw toward him. "Uh..?" he sort of half-mumbled at first, still confused, then "..Oh! It's—you're..i-it's time?!" Miles's cat answered only by placing her paw gently on his forehead, which seemed to cause the glow surrounding her to suddenly flow itself in toward the paw—toward him—brightening into an almost-blinding flash and a sudden rush of warmth spreading rapidly into his body, from the point of contact outward.

"Oh..w-wow...it's...aaah...!" As the warmth reached as far as his toes, it was accompanied by a sudden sensation of pressure, like invisible hands pushing and massaging Miles's entire body. The effect was immediate and drastic, his body compressing inward, shrinking shorter and slimmer all at once! "Aa~aa~aahh...!" This also brought on a rapid shift of his voice, driving its pitch rapidly higher and higher.

A soft, boyish gasp drew air into his lips then, as he felt a sharp tingling all across his body making him shiver. In an instant, Miles found himself feeling light and soft all over, every trace of roughness and hardness quickly vanishing away. "Ooh, oo~ooh..!" As his voice drifted up into the feminine range, the tingling seemed to fade off everywhere except for his scalp and...down between his legs. The former sensation was joined by the feeling of soft hairs quickly spreading their way out across his head and neck, while the latter brought on a strange tugging, slipping sensation that could only be the rapid withdrawal of his manhood away, in preparation for it to be replaced with what he'd asked to get down there...!

"Aa~ah, aa~aAAAah...!" The small, soft boy found himself squirming and thrashing in place as his manhood steadily melted away, his voice settling up into a cute, lower soprano tone. Then, finally, he let out a breathy "Aa~aahhnnn..!" as it vanished completely, and then womanhood quickly settled into all the right places to give her a taste of girlish pleasure.

In between gasping for breath, the new girl let out a soft, high "Ha~aah..." as she felt her hips and thighs gently pressing outward, giving her some nice, girly curves down there. "Hff, hff...wah, woo~oowwh...!" Her chest was next, tingling sharply and making her new girly parts tingle too!

Her face was burning up with a blush as she welcomed the steady push of growth from around her nipples, raising a pair of small breasts up into place and then quickly filling them out, brushing new, sensitive skin across the soft material of her tank top. "Mmn~nh..aa~aah...ooo~ooh, y-yeeaa~aaah...!" she murmured helplessly, squirming again, as the steady growth and all the sensations that came with it treated her to another wave of feminine pleasure. Miles could feel the sense of warmth, lightness and softness settling deeper and deeper into her very being, making her feel cute and girly down to her very core. It was...wonderful! Far better than anything she'd ever imagined it could be!

With that last bit done, the transformation came to a close—under a minute having passed. The new girl was left lying there, panting softly, for a moment or so more, until she realized that her cute little kitty was still sitting there expectantly in front of her. "Heheheh~!" The next thing to come out of her lips then was an adorable giggle, as she reached over and pulled Beth into a tight hug, rubbing her cheek against the white cat's muzzle and ignoring a protesting meow, knowing full well that she was enjoying the attention. She turned over onto her back, lifting the feline up over her head briefly and grinning up at her. "Whoooo's the best kitty in the whole wide world?" she sang happily. "It's Beth~!" After that, she finally turned onto the other side and gently set her pet down. Beth made another faux-angry meow at her, but stayed there rather than jumping away, letting Miles sit up and stroke her from ears to tail several times.

Somewhere during all of that—probably while other things had her attention—Miles's clothes had been altered to fit her. Her boxers had turned into some tight, light-blue gym shorts; her tank top had shrunk so much that it didn't really do a good job of covering her belly, and exposed some cleavage and a bit of the sides of her impressive bust. And, for some reason, a long-sleeved soft jacket in the same color as the shorts had appeared over that. Her hair, she observed as she reached her non-cat-petting hand up to brush through it a little bit, had changed color to a pure, snowy white, just like Beth's fur. Her face was soft and smooth now, too, of course, the scars completely gone.

Laughing happily again after that, Miles fell back onto the bed and reached a hand across at her nightstand to get her phone. There was, of course, someone who needed to know this had happened! ...Come to think of it, there were actually several people, but there was someone she wanted to tell first.

She sent this text to Kiara: Guess whose kitty just made her a cute girl?!

As she lay there waiting for a reply, Beth reached out a paw and gently prodded her arm.

"Gawwh, you still want more?" Miles sat halfway up to rub Beth's ears a bit. "Or is it just time for me to feed you, huh?" She got an affirmative-sounding meow from that, so it seemed it was time for the new girl to hop up out of bed and show her appreciation the same way she always did: Attention, affection, and food.

---

Angie was as helpful as Olivia could ever have hoped for when it came to pointing out opportunities to play little tricks. She really did just point most of the time, not even needing to say anything for the Kitsune to see what she did in a situation—or at least to see something she could do for a harmless prank, anyway. The wolf-girl was full of energy, too, easily keeping pace with the taller vixen despite their difference in height, and occasionally even ran ahead of her.

She was also adorable in just about everything she tried on, too. Olivia often had a hard time coming up with words beyond the likes of 'cute' or 'looks great' when Angie asked her opinion of an outfit, but her little maid seemed to happily blush in response to the compliments anyway. She seemed eager to try on a wide variety of outfits, from some more tomboyish things like what she'd already been wearing to the frilliest, girliest of dresses. It seemed she was eager to try out everything she could with her new form, and Olivia enjoyed watching her experience it all too—plus the show of the cute wolf-girl in all those outfits! She made a sort of mental note of each outfit Angie said was a 'keeper', in preparation to make copies of them all back at their house.

Their house? Her house, technically...but it felt more like 'theirs'.

There were also a few times Angie pointed out an outfit she wanted not for herself, but for the vixen instead, commenting how good she thought Olivia would look in it. The Kitsune couldn't resist the wolf-girl's big cute eyes, and tried on each one, making mental notes of them too. She..wasn't so much into wearing anything even approaching a skirt, but the way Angie looked up at her and grinned when she tried on a couple of the dresses she'd suggested made her willing to make a few exceptions.

In what seemed like no time at all, it was past noon, and both of them were hungry for lunch. Not that Angie complained, but the fox ears could easily hear her stomach growling as they walked out of their last clothing store of the day. "Hey. You uh, wanna go someplace to eat?" Olivia offered.

"That in the budget?" Angie asked, tilting her head slightly. "We still got a few groceries to pick up, remember."
"Well—sure! We don't have to go anywhere fancy anyway," she shrugged.

"A'right then," Angie nodded, a small smile appearing on her face. "Lead the way, master~," she added—the last word quiet enough that only Olivia's ears could really hear it.
"H-heheh.." The Kitsune giggled softly, and went looking for somewhere nearby where they could sit and eat.

They sat across from each other after ordering at the counter, and for a minute or so Angie leaned forward, her hands on her cheeks and her elbows on the table, with the most adorable grin and her tail gently wagging behind her. After that, she sat up, her face taking on a more serious expression. "Miss Olivia..."

"Hmn?"
"You do know, under all this fluff and cuteness, I'm the same old man as ever, eh?"

"Yeah, I know that. What do you mean?"

"Just—eh, don't get me wrong. I really appreciate the new looks! I've never imagined myself 'cute' before, but I'm getting used to it awful quick. And, it ain't escaped my notice the way you blush a little bit sometimes..."
"Well—yeah! You're really cute!" Olivia said.

"It don't bother you I'm still the same old Angus inside, though?"
"Why would that bother me? It's, what I like most," she said.

"Oh..?" The wolf-girl unexpectedly blushed at this. "R-really, now?"

"I mean uh—your, personality, and who you are..is, why I wanted to hang out with you in the first place. Enough to, hire you and stuff. Um...I admit seeing you as a cute wolf-girl makes me feel...different, a little bit, but I still mostly like you for the same exact reasons as before. Among all those other things, you're really good at helping me, uh, 'be a Kitsune'? I mean..you're good at spotting opportunities that I don't. And coming up with ideas, and stuff."

"H-heheh..." Angie's blush remained, joined by a bright grin, and her tail went into overdrive for a moment. She seemed to need to make an effort to calm down.

"Oh, pardon me. It's just—hearing you really like me that much makes me a little bit giddy. I ain't used to it at all...don't think I'd feel like this as an old man at all. A-and here I was sayin' I was just the same."

"Well, you are physically younger," Olivia said. "N-not to mention, uh, female hormones instead of male ones, or whatever?"
"Sure...well, whatever the reason, I'm just happy you like me," she said, smiling brightly. "Pretty sure I like you just as much."

"Hmmh..." It seemed to be Olivia's turn to smile and blush.

---

Life was going pretty well for Vincent lately. It hadn't been going all that poorly before, but it felt a little bit like she'd lacked some perspective necessary to realize that. And now, while she was no less of a cynic than before, something about becoming a Kitsune and coming to like Luca the way she did...really had improved her mood quite a bit.

It had only taken a few days for them to mostly unpack the catboy's belongings, but not long afterward he'd let slip to his parents that he'd moved in with someone...and so they started bugging him to propose to her. Vincent hadn't really thought about things in terms of a wedding...and was still turning Luca into a girl every night anyway. It felt like...the end result would be nice, but the process was going to be a pain. So she told him to say he'd already proposed, and they were still 'figuring things out' otherwise. His parents were still calling him almost every other day so far...but maybe they'd been in the habit of doing that before.

Around a week after the move, they were just sitting across from each other having a supper made by a catgirl Luca, and she was talking about how her day had gone. "..Oh, yeah, and Ryker's started complaining about some guy bugging her at the gym..."
"What, like, harassing her?"

Luca shrugged. "I didn't really ask for details? She totally said something about guys flirting with her like a day or two after being a girl, but I guess this one's just a little more persistent."

The fox-girl got an image in her head..an idea, all at once. It didn't particularly matter how severe this person's offense was—her idea would work, and would be pretty funny, regardless. She could easily tune the level of cruelty to match how awful of a person they were dealing with, anyway.

"Uh...are you okay? You've got a...kinda scary look on your face."
"I'm perfectly fine," Vincent said, smiling. Luca's reaction suggested that she'd already been smiling, and that said smile was the 'scary look'. "I was just wondering..do you know what gym Ryker goes to?"

"Yeah? Pretty sure it's, like, the one right across the street from where we work. But, seriously, what's with the look?"
"Nothing to worry about—I just, thought it might be fun to help her out a little bit."

"I dunno if I can really worry less after hearing that..."
"I'll bring you along to see what I do. As long as you can keep quiet, at least."

"Promise I can!"

---

Pics?

Kiera only had to wait a few minutes for a reply. A few selfies came through of a smiling, white-haired girl's cute face, then one a little farther out to show her upper body, and finally one showing probably as much of herself as she could manage to get using the bathroom mirror. The Neko spent a couple of minutes looking at the pictures before her roommate interrupted.

"Hey, what're you blushing at?"
"Huh? I-I'm not blushing! Just—here." She shoved her phone at Ella. "Miles's magical cat or whatever picked today to transform her. Him. Him into her."
"Oh wow, that's a pretty huge change! I guess we're not ones to talk, though."
"Yeah...she's really cute, right?"
"Eeeh. I mean—cute, sure. Doesn't seem that much better than you or me to me though. Oh wait, is thaa~at why you were staring so hard earlier?"

"I wasn't staring that hard! Just—trying to get a good look." Kiera tried to get her phone back, and Ella played keep-away with it only briefly before the catgirl managed to fake her out and swipe it. "Someone's gonna have to help her pick out new clothes, after all—so, I was trying to guess some sizes!"

"Yeah, sure. Sizes. Like the size of her eyes on that pic of just her face."

"Whatever. You coming or not?"
"Sure. Maybe you two need a chaperone~."
"Do not!"

And the Neko sent back a reply: guessing your old clothes dont fit now. so, shopping trip?

aack I didn't even think of that!

PLZ @_@

---

The first three sections of this were sitting around, completely written, for a truly absurd length of time. It took some serious brainstorming and a bit of restructuring to get to where I felt like I had a good way to fill in the remaining two sections. I'm reasonably hopeful that the next part of this won't take so long to get going.