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.