A Summoning, Part XL

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---

Part XL
~Empress~

When Prama came in to work Monday, she found Boreas staring down at a table in the shop's back room which usually had next to nothing on it. Today, that table was covered in various containers of strange substances in various sizes and levels of fullness, most of which she was pretty sure she had never seen before. The werewolf didn't seem to respond to the noise of her entering, so she went a little closer. "Hellooo?"
"Oh. Mornin'." Boreas didn't take her eyes off of the table.
"What's...all this stuff?"
"First of, all don't touch it. Most of it's very dangerous."
"Okaay?"
"Second, ingredients for a potion."
"Like..just one?"
"I oughta say, 'possible' ingredients. Not sure yet which of these will actually turn out to be useful."

"You get a sudden burst of inspiration to make something new..and, I guess, dangerous?"

"All alchemy's dangerous, remember. As for the first part of the question..you could say that," she shrugged, finally looking Prama's way, and then making a brief visual tour of the room while saying, "Guess I should set you some work while I keep thinking about this...you feel ready to handle some of our standard fare on your own?"
"Oh, most definitely. I, can still ask you if I have a question, right?"

"Long as I'm not doing anything delicate. Just wait a sec if I am."

Boreas gave out a list of things for Prama to work on, and then said, "Guess you're curious what I'm making."
"I mean, I definitely won't complain if you tell me," she said while starting in on that work.

"Well..you're only recently out from under the veil, right? So, I guess the phrase 'last great pack' won't mean much to ya."
"Afraid not."

"Let's just say...there was a man by the name of Lucent Merrow. He was wealthy, influential, and incidentally, one of my closest friends."
"I see—and a werewolf, leading this 'pack' you mentioned?"
"Mm," she said: an affirmative grunt. "His grandson's lived off that wealth his whole life—married into even more wealth, too. Most folks who knew the old man don't like him much, myself included. But he sure does know just how to get people to do what he wants 'em to."

"Sounds a lot like someone I know," Prama said—picturing Jess, or more accurately, Jarod. "And, so, he got to you? Wants, some kinda difficult potion?"

"Supposedly his daughter wants it. I've never met the girl, so can't say whether it's a lie or not. Don't seem like the kind of thing he'd come up with on his own, for sure. And—I used to like coming up with new recipes, when I was—this age," she said, waving at her own face.

"I see. So, this one sounded interesting enough to try?"
"Combination of things. Hoping I can be a little more careful than back then in my old age, besides."

"Well, don't forget you've got a genius apprentice now, either! I won't dare handle the dangerous stuff myself, buuuut if you need ideas, or someone to bounce them off of...?"

"Hmm. We'll see."

---

Steph was on his way out from lunch when he nearly ran into the little white-winged girl from the previous week. "Whoa—hey."
"Hello there, Steph," she said, her tone and expression almost too cheerful and friendly. "I wanted to thank you and your friend for your helpful advice the other day."
"Uh...yeah?" Now that he was looking, he noticed that dragon he'd met before was also standing nearby.

"I would also like to introduce you to Toma, a friend of mine," Stella continued, waving in said dragon's general direction.

"Uh...yeah. We've kinda met," he said.
"True," the dragon-girl agreed with a slight nod..while still standing there kind of menacingly with her arms crossed.
"Oh! Well, if you're already acquainted, I'm sure you've already given her the proper tribute for the first meeting with a dragon, then?"
"Well uh. You only just became a dragon recently, right?"

"Also true. So, when we met before, I wouldn't have known about that particular tradition."

"I see, I see," Stella nodded; Steph could kind of tell she was only pretending that this was new information. "Then you wouldn't have had a chance to, yet. All the more reason to make up for it now, correct?"

"I guess..? What kind of 'tribute' is this, anyway?"
"Well. It doesn't look like you have any precious gemstones or gold bars on you," Toma said.
"Y-yeah, I don't really own anything like that," Steph said. Even though he could sense that he was being taken for some kind of ride, the pressure of the dragon's power, plus her kind of displeased expression, made him not want to challenge the situation outright.

"Well, I thought that sounded kinda outdated when I heard it. Surely you can afford some chocolate bars, though? Even a 'newborn' celestial like Stella could handle that."

"Uh, yeah, sure. I..don't have any on me right now though, soo..."
"Next time we meet. Sure. I've got classes to get to anyway," Toma said, heading off. The celestial gave Steph a slight curtsy, then followed the dragon out.

---

Pulling her truck up into the driveway, Graham mused that the nervous, slightly giddy feeling she was getting could, to an outside viewer, be mistakenly attributed to a cat entering the home of three dogs—or, more accurately, wolves. But her slight grin, and the way her tail flicked around excitedly behind her while she walked up and rang the doorbell, would quickly dispel that notion.

Her ears almost immediately picked up some footsteps, and then Sam answered the door. "Welcome, aaah, miss Graham. Miss?" she added a second later, uncertainly.

The Neko just shrugged. "Never been much for formality, myself. I'm not that familiar with how this works, but if you're more comfortable with 'Smores', that's all right too."

"Heheh, okay then. Come on in—Damon's upstairs," she gestured, getting out of the way.

"Thanks, 'miss' Sam," the Neko said, heading through. By the time she got to the foot of the stairs, Damon had eagerly run out to a balcony over the living room. "Um, hi!" The wolf-girl had on a shirt that must've fit her properly as a man before, judging by how loosely it hung across her slim form, the collar revealing part of her neckline and most of a shoulder while its lower hem stopped partway down her thighs. It completely obscured whether she actually had anything else on.
"Hey there. You want me to come up?"
"Y-yeah, please!"
"Alright."

Just a month or two ago, Graham would have dreaded these stairs. But now she bounded up them with very little effort, and it was hard to tell if her heartbeat picked up at all from the exertion—or if it was just from proximity to the little werewolf. "Um—!" It certainly didn't help that Damon's face was pretty red, her ears lowered a bit and her tail whipping around excitedly behind her. The motion of that tail made the hem of her shirt flutter around, enough to occasionally make out the lower edge of one of the pairs of shorts the Neko had 'helped' her buy the other day. "Y-you look really cute in that!" she said after a second. "The uh..monochrome look? Really brings out your eyes. And, I-I-I still don't think I'm brave enough to wear a skirt at all, especially one that short..."

The catgirl hadn't really even given much thought to her outfit today; it was 'casual and comfortable' as far as she was concerned: A sleeveless white top, some black stockings and a short white pleated skirt, plus one other thing. "Well," she said, "since becoming a lady I thought I oughta get the full experience, dresses and all. Besides—" she lifted the skirt's front slightly, showing off the very lowest bit of some black bike shorts. "I've got something on under it."

If Damon's face had been red before, it nearly turned into a tomato for a second at that. "Uh! Oh, I-I see..heheh, y-yeah..still though!"

"Anyway, I think what you've got on suits you well enough," she said with a slight shrug. When Graham and his wife were both young, he'd honestly appreciated her looks the most when it was time for bed, or just after waking up—when she definitely wasn't putting on a show for anyone. Damon's casually thrown-on shirt and slight bedhead gave her the same kind of sense, even if it was clearly just what she usually wore.

"Uh, th-thanks. Um..r-right this way then, heheh!" She gestured nervously, then led the way to an open door.

Peeking partway through it as they got closer, the Neko saw an office setup and...a bed? "Er, is that your bedroom?" she asked, stopping. It felt like moving a little too fast to go into a lady's bedroom on their first...date? Visit? Official meeting? 'Hangout'?
"Uh, y-yeah, but..it's, also my office. Aannnd, where my games and stuff are!" Looking a little closer, Graham could confirm there was more to the room, including a couch with a rip across its back and a big-screen TV facing it. "S-so uh. I-I mean, if you wanna, I guess Sam has a setup with some of her stuff downstairs, but..."
"Nah, I think I get it," Graham said. "Don't forget how old I really am, is all—give a gal a little warning first, eh?"
"O-oh, uh. S-sure. So um..c'mon in?"

"Certainly."

They spent the afternoon talking and playing, both of them maintaining a polite distance from the other—not squeezing to opposite sides of the couch, but trying not to get too close. Graham wouldn't have minded a little bit of physical flirtation, but Damon seemed awfully nervous about getting too close for some reason, and she wasn't one to disrespect a lady's wishes. It only ended once an alarm on the Neko's phone reminded her that it was time to go pick up her granddaughter.

---

"Um..you look a little different, Master."

Zotha took a moment to stand up and get to a mirror to examine herself. She could've just had Jess send an image mentally, but there was no need to resort to a mystical solution for such a mundane problem. "..Huh." Her hair had shortened to just reach down to her shoulders, and her body had made significant gains in muscle tone, including a faint six-pack on her belly. Her horns were small enough to be pretty much hidden behind her hair; she lacked a tail and had human-looking ears; and her wings were black-feathered, like those of an enormous crow. Furthermore, there was a faint golden glow around her entire body, but she was able to turn that off easily enough once she noticed it. "Weird to just wake up looking different."

"You..still have control over it, right?" Jess asked, concerned. Zotha turned and rubbed the top of her little priestess's head.
"Why, you don't like this look?"

She blushed adorably. "N-no, I just—!"

"Pfft, only teasing. Yeah, I can still shift to whatever I want. But, I guess this might be a result of working so closely with Sol's 'people' for a while?"

"It isn't making you more like him though, is it?"
"Mentally? Don't think so. Still don't like the idea of people having to die because of the veil, at least. I think it's just as cosmetic as the changes we made to meet La Lune. Anyway—maybe I'll keep this for a little while, out of appreciation for the power boost all those requests have been feeding me."

"So...you haven't been getting tired or anything?"
"Nope." The goddess stretched, spreading her wings out in the process. "I feel more energetic than ever, at least since sorting out how to approve most of them automatically."

---

Thursday afternoon, Boreas was midway through her twenty-sixth attempt at the potion. "Prama. Need to ask somethin' you really won't like."
"What's that?"
"Someone's walking up, and I can't look away from this for a second."
"Oh..y-you need me to go, t-to the front counter."
"Just remember, behind the counter is your territory." That probably would have helped her, if she were a fellow werewolf! But she was as eager to see this experimental potion succeed as her master was, at this point.

"I-I'll do my best..."

A dark-haired guy in skinny jeans and a tank top walked into the shop not long after she got to the counter. He had an average build, but seemed fit and overall pretty cute—in a scruffy-looking kind of way, at least. He had bright yellow eyes, wolfish ears and a medium-thick furry tail, so he was probably another werewolf. He kind of nervously looked around as he walked in, before finally noticing the girl behind the counter. "Oh, uh, hey."

"H-h-hi. Can..can I, help you with. W-w-with something?"

"Uuuh." He put a hand behind his head. "Where's, you know, the other girl who works here? I mean, you're pretty cute too, but uh.."
Now that she'd heard a little more of his voice, Prama realized: This was the guy who'd bugged Boreas before. That made her feel a little better—even if they'd never actually met, he was marginally familiar, and also known to be annoying. She leveraged that annoyance to try and project a little more confidence. "The owner is busy with very delicate right now; th-that is why I'm here. Now, can I help you with something," she said, her tone a little flat for a question. She even managed a little bit of a glare up at him.

"Well uh..." He seemed to try to lean back and forth to see the area behind the counter. After a couple of seconds of this, he jumped slightly and looked a little bit pale. "Y-yeah!" he said suddenly. Prama had a feeling Boreas had permitted him a peek at her very displeased face. "I was, uh, I was thinking of changing things up a little, you know, with my look? Maybe I'd come off as a little more intense as a redhead!"

Prama crossed her arms. "Not to advertise our competitors, but y-you do know dye exists, right?"
"Dude, on all my fur, though? It'd look really wacky after only a couple of showers. Or especially on the full moon coming up!"
She sighed. "Yes, we have hair-coloring potions, a-and since a werewolf runs this place th-they obviously change fur, too. R-right over there," she said, pointing. It was a good thing she'd memorized their stock arrangement earlier. "Arranged b-by color and duration. There are even, uh, color swatches so you can pretty much tell what the result will be."
"Oh, yeah! So uh, so you do. I'll juuuuust...take a look, then."
"You do that. L-let me know if you find one that you want."

Once he bought his potion (which would last two entire months, putting it in their upper tier of both price and duration) and left, she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Not bad," Boreas said. "That's the rudest customer we've got lately. May have to let you take over the front a bit more often."
"P-please don't. I mean, not more than necessary. I-I'm still..."

"It's a part of the business," the alchemist said. "You've got to learn to deal with customers sometime."
"I guess..." But surely it didn't always have to be face to face! Actually, thinking about that a little more deeply..started to give her some ideas.

---

When making an agreement through texts about when and where to meet up and hand over his 'tribute' for the dragon, Steph made sure he could bring Andrew as backup. A four-tailed Kitsune was probably still nowhere near a match for a dragon, but at least the two foxes combined would probably be enough for them to cast some convincing-enough illusions and escape.

They met up at a table outside the cafeteria; Stella and the dragon-girl were already waiting there when the two Kitsune arrived. "Uh, hey. This is my...friend Andrew," Steph said, getting a big bag of various chocolates, freshly bought from the grocery store, out of his backpack. "I was hoping, this'd be enough for both of us?"

Toma picked up the bag and turned it over in her hands, seemingly examining it very carefully. Stella watched this performance—and the two Kitsune's slightly-nervous faces in response to it—for a good several seconds before letting out a soft "Pfft—" that erupted into some positively helpless, uncontrollable giggling and laughter.

"Heh." The dragon-girl also, for the first time Steph had ever seen it, grinned just slightly, her cheeks also tinged with a slight blush, as she put the bag down on the table. "Got you good, huh?"

"Wha—you? You..."

"I think this whole thing was a prank, Steph," Anika said. The fact that the celestial was beating the table with a fist, still trying to stop laughing, gave plenty of evidence for this theory.

"For the record, this was her idea," Toma said. "As 'revenge' for your thing. I don't really get how Kitsune work or whatever, but...I guess we can just share these? If either of you even like chocolate, I mean. Oh, wait—is it poisonous to dog people?"

"...No, it's not," Steph said, letting out a slight sigh. "And foxes aren't dogs, anyway."

"I mean, like, canidae?"

Finally finished laughing, Stella took a deep breath and wiped a few tears out of her eyes with a handkerchief from her purse. "It would be terribly inconvenient if some people couldn't eat chocolate, Toma," she said. "So, yes, let us feast!"

This, of all things, was how Steph got to personally know a celestial for the first time...not to mention the dragon.

---

"Hey, Dai! Check this out!"
"Huh?"

Not all of Dai's friends were 'in on' the whole magic business. One of those stuck a phone in his face tuned to a stream highlight from the night before. "Oh..incu-whatever again?" This was the same guy who'd introduced him to that weird stream from the obviously-werewolf girl...and then to her friend, who was also probably a werewolf.
"Yeah, yeah, but look! They had a guest last night."
Turning up the volume a little, Sam was saying: "So, aaah, this is Smores, who's been hanging out in our chat lately. Turns out we're practically neighbors."
The white-haired catgirl waved a little awkwardly at the camera. "Hey there!"

"Isn't she really cute?" Dai's friend continued over whatever was said next.

"Eh, yeah, I guess."

"I mean, with that getup, I can't believe she's not already a pro streamer. You seen her before?"
"Nope." And, he was probably referring to the 'fake cat ears' that Dai could very well see were actually real.

"Well, whatever. You should give it a watch! They made her play Dark Souls, and some of her reactions are hilarious!"
"Yeah. I'll check it out later," he promised, nodding and handing the phone back. "Thanks."

---

Plonk.

After Prama walked into the shop on Friday, Boreas wordlessly placed a large glass bottle, globe-shaped at the bottom with a long, somewhat thinner neck going up from there, onto a table. It was a little over two-thirds full of a potion swirling with bright pink and dark blue, with a silvery shimmer occasionally visible.

"So...success?" It looked like she'd pulled an all-nighter. And the werewolf wasn't the type to say it aloud, but both of them knew that a few of Prama's suggestions had, in fact, panned out.

"I have a potion now," she stated flatly. "Can't say whether it's a success without testing it, though."

"You aren't confident it's right, even after all that work?"

"The hard part isn't something a potion's ever been made to do before, to my knowledge. I can't ship something like that out without a better guarantee."

"Hmmn, and that's a tricky thing to test, right? Because..."

Prama counted off on her fingers: One: "You need a werewolf."

Boreas nodded.

Two: "A male one."
She nodded again.
Three: "Who you know no major magic has been done to all that recently, especially anything that interferes with or relies on 'moonlight'..."

"Mm-hm."

"Well, I don't think you'll be surprised to learn that I don't know any werewolves. Zotha might, but anyone she's in contact with, well—frankly, she's probably done something to that qualifies as 'major magic', like yourself."
"Fair enough. Wasn't really counting on your help with this part in the first place," she said with a slight shrug.
"I..guess we could put out an ad or something? 'Help wanted: Potion test subject. Probably not lethal! Pay..'" Prama trailed off, aborting her joke, since Boreas didn't seem to think it was very funny.

She sighed. "Well, we both know of one werewolf you can probably use. He's bound to show up again sooner or later."

---

"Thank you so much for visiting, Basty~. I think we've had a very productive conversation, don't you?"

The cat goddess sighed. "You have been less insufferable than usual tonight, La Lune."

"That's too kind of you. Oh, there is one other thing I wanted to bring up before you go. Silly me, nearly forgot it again!"

Bastet's entire body immediately tensed up. "...Which is?"
"Well, a friend of mine wanted me to ask you—on her behalf, expressly as a friendly, polite request and not a command of any sort—for a visit. Perhaps you could just, show up in her dreams?"

"Oh." She relaxed only slightly after hearing this. "And, pray tell, do I need to guess who this 'friend' is?"
"Hmmn, no," La Lune said, seeming to briefly consider the possibility of making it a guessing game, "although I suspect you could."

---

All I can say is, I hope there's still somebody interested in reading this particular story.

A Summoning, Part XXXIX

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---

Part XXXIX
~Wheel of Fortune~

Somewhere in the middle of Saturday afternoon, Graham's phone rang. "Hello?"

"Good afternoon, Graham cracker~! How are you doing?" It was Val.

"Uh, just fine, thanks." She'd had to pause a game in the middle of a fairly exciting section to answer, but that wasn't too different from having to place a bookmark in the middle of a momentous part of a novel. Neither one would be worthy of comment to an employer, at least.

"I've got a little problem..uh, let's say a conflict, going on, and thought you might be able to help solve it for me. See, some associates of mine down in the demon realm want me over to talk about an important business proposition their son's got, and they want to meet tomorrow morning. I've got an assistant manager tied down to handle the workers, but when it comes to the kinds of customers we've been getting a lot of lately, weeelll..."

"You're sayin', you want me to come in to work tomorrow morning?"

"It would really help me out. I solemnly swear I won't make a habit of asking you—maybe I won't have as much trouble finding a college student with a tail or wings to hire for weekends, given recent events? But this is just such short notice! I'll pay you time and a half?"

"Hmm...well, all right. Under those conditions, you understand. 'Till about noon?"
"Yes, yes! I'll definitely be back by then. Or if I am slightly late, it's not your problem. That's the assistant manager's job to figure out."

---

Onida woke up Sunday morning, turned to look at the clock and register that it was the time her alarm usually went off, then turned back over and went back to sleep for another hour and a half. This was still earlier than her night-owl brother used to always get up, but for her, it was sleeping in. After all, it was her day off.

An idea occurred to her in the shower, while she was thinking about what to do for breakfast, and after using a hairdryer on her tail for even longer than her hair, she went across the hall to knock on the door to her brother's room. Well—'sister' was technically more correct here, but the idea of Damon as her brother was stuck too firmly in her mind to not think of the brown-haired wolf-girl that way first.

A soft bark responded after her third, somewhat louder and more insistent attempt. "Rrfh...hmmn?"
"Hey, Damon. You awake?"
"Who's asking?" (a typical joke of his...hers, that basically meant 'yes').

"You wanna go out to brunch today?"

"Oh! Yes!"
"Okay then, get ready. I'll go tell Sam."

The three werewolves piled into her car to drive out to the restaurant she had in mind. They were walking across the parking lot of the shopping center it belonged to when Damon seemed to more-or-less accidentally glance a certain way and stop in her tracks, gasping slightly. It was a voiced sort of gasp that conveyed shock but not horror or distress, and when Onida looked the same way her sister had, she just saw a clothing store—in fact, one they'd been to quite recently. "What—you see an outfit you like?"

"Uhhm...no. It's—Sam!" she turned abruptly, grabbing the other girl's forearm. "Are catgirls real!?"

"Aah..yeah. I mean..like," she put a hand up behind her head as Damon let go of her, "there's all kinds of beastfolk besides werewolves, after all..."
"And—do I remember wrong, or..? I really like catgirls, right?!"
"Nnnow that you mention it, aah, yeah. I, kindaaaa remember something like that." Onida was getting pretty used to Sam's way of talking, and had the feeling this hesitant, drawn-out response wasn't an indication that she barely remembered Damon bringing it up once or twice, but rather the complete opposite.

"So, you saw one in the window just now?" Onida cut in.
"Yes! She had really bright white hair and fur and looked super cute!"

"Well, I don't see her now."

Damon looked through the window again, and her ears drooped slightly. "Yeah..."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Sam said consolingly. "If she's in town, we might run into her again. Or, aah, maybe someone even cuter?"

"C'mon, aren't you hungry?" Onida said. This brightened her sibling up immediately.
"Yes! Let's goooo~!"

---

After eating, and after talking over plenty of things both important and trivial, Stella and Thomas sat in silence for a moment. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable, but more had the sense of them peacefully keeping each other's company. The celestial seemed to jump slightly, either remembering or thinking of something.

"So, listen...there's a small, fairly trivial thing...which, I am hoping you might be able to help me out with."

"What kinda thing?"

"I hardly need you to do much more than stand around looking intimidating while I talk to some people. For a dragon, just crossing your arms and not looking too happy is more than enough."

"Okaaay?"
"Right, you obviously require context," she said, nodding. "A pair of Kitsune tricked me the other day—harmlessly, I assure you. I'd just like to return the favor. As far as I understand, they will view this as a friendly gesture."
"Uh-huh. And, you want to be friendly with them?"
"I believe I would like to make many friends, and these two seemed like fun. Besides, the population of foxes in the world has grown quite large in recent centuries—if my initial knowledge is to be believed, that is. Therefore it would be helpful for me to learn firsthand how to ingratiate myself to them."

"Well, okay then. I guess I don't mind, but—I'd still like to know what your plan is? Also, I've met at least one Kitsune before, and Zotha knows some, so..."
"Right, right," she nodded. "Their identities may be relevant too. I shall tell you all of the details, then."

---

Graham was having a fairly boring shift overall; practically no customers showed up the entire morning. She noticed some of her coworkers playing on their phones, or on small handheld consoles, and almost felt a slight pang of jealousy. Something like: I could be doing that too, if I had one! She actually had to remind herself that playing while on the job, even if there weren't any customers, was incredibly unprofessional. Still, given their collective, boring situation, she couldn't blame them, and certainly didn't feel compelled to really say anything. Besides, when the assistant manager came out and walked around, he clearly saw them doing it didn't so much as comment on it.

So maybe this week's pay, with the extra from today, would be enough to get an older handheld from that place she'd gone to before...

She was more or less daydreaming about that, maybe half an hour away from the end of her shift, when some people actually walked in. She wasn't anywhere near the front door, but her feline ears twitched and turned and easily picked up on some of their conversation...despite the fact that it was kind of half-whispered and probably not intended for eavesdropping.

"I, aaah, really doubt she's still in here, you know?" Well, that voice sounded pretty familiar. "It's been over an hour."
"It's fine. I want a couple more outfits anyway. And maybe you wanna try something new on?" Graham was pretty sure she didn't know this one.
"Uhm, no, I've got enough clothes." And that was..!

"Well, you'll have to at least pretend to be shopping if you want to go looking all around the store, right?" said the second voice.

The Neko took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down. They had never actually met in any sense of the word she knew, so acting excited or overly familiar would just make her seem strange. Besides, she was still on the clock. So, she went casually and slowly walking around toward another section to intercept their footsteps. Her coworkers would surely appreciate the opportunity to keep playing rather than having to deal with customers anyway, right?

The two wolf-girls Graham recognized from (mostly) a few recent nightly streams were with a third one around the same height, with bright silver hair and a small chunk seemingly bitten out of her left ear. She walked up toward them with a friendly wave. "Hey there. You ladies need any help?" she asked.

"I think we'll be okay," the less-familiar one said; the one who wasn't 'incupokal' seemed to have stopped in place as soon as she saw the Neko. "You work here?"
"Sure do. Part-timer, name's Graham," she said, pointing to her nametag. "Actually, I'm afraid I've got you two at a bit of a disadvantage here," she added with a slight gesture Damon and Sam's way.

Damon jumped slightly, and then nervously (and rather adorably!) took a slight step forward. "Um, hi! Y-you know us somehow?"

"Maybe, aaah, seen us on stream?" Sam added, and the Neko nodded. "Oh, wait. Smores?" she guessed aloud.

"'Smores'?" The silver-haired one repeated in confusion, obviously completely out of the loop.

"Er, an online name I've been using lately," Graham tried to explain. "Something of a pun."
"Yeeaah, Smores! Nice to meet you in person!" Sam said, nodding and waving a hand out toward her in a friendly-seeming gesture. "Had no idea you lived around here. Aaah, this is Damon's sister, Onida," she added, finally introducing the third girl.
"Yes, that's me. I guess you've..chatted with them some?" she asked, seeming slightly uncertain about the right terminology.
"Off and on," Graham shrugged. "Not to get too distracted though—you sure you're all fine on looking for clothes? I'm the only one here this morning equipped to help folks with, uh..certain traits," she added, curling her tail up to in front of her waist to gently point at it a couple of times.

"Oh, that. I—we already kinda figured that part out, to be honest," the silver-haired girl said.

"I was, aaah, born this way, you know," Sam said.

"Yeah, and, I had some help from Val the other day, if you know her?" Onida continued. "Buuut..." she gently elbowed her sister. "Maybe you could still teach Damon a thing or two, hm?"

The wolf-girl squeaked slightly, her face flushing a little bit. "Uh—y-yeah! I'm, uh, y-you know.."
"Still not so used to being a lady?" Graham guessed, her voice barely above a whisper. "Believe me, I know what that's like, too."
"Um! R-really!?"

"Sure. Someone offers to make you young and healthy again, you don't ask too many questions at my age," she said with a shrug. 'Smores' had already mentioned how old she really was a few times, after all, alongside talking about being quite new to games in general.

"Th-that's great! Um, maybe you can recommend some stuff, then?"

"Don't mind at all," the catgirl answered.
"Okay, well, you two have fun, then," Onida said. "You don't need to yell if you need any help from me, though, alright?" she added to Damon, pointing at her damaged ear.

"Guess I'll go with you?" Sam suggested, following her off toward another part of the store.

---

Out of other ideas—since of course none of the previously magic-unaware members of her 'cult' had any idea where to find a dragon—the goddess tried the people who she and Jess had first come to to report their 'unexpected changes'. She'd gotten an answering machine and left a message, and only now, after a couple of days of patient waiting, was she finally getting a call back. "Hello?"
"Miss Zotha. Something we can help you with?"

"Yeah. Soooo...a guy I know awakened as a dragon. You're probably already aware of her, I'd guess."

"Indeed. We tend to keep an eye out for anything that powerful. She has been very well behaved so far, if not outright helpful."

"Great. It's just—she's having a little bit of difficulty adjusting to the new instincts and everything. So I was wondering whether you might know of any other, slightly older dragons who might be willing to help her adjust."

"We can contact someone for you. No guarantees, you understand—dragons generally do whatever they wish."
"Sure, sure. I would absolutely want someone who actually wants to help anyway."

"Very well. We'll be in touch."

---

"So, uhm...your tail's uh...forked?" Damon asked, just fishing for some reasonable topic of conversation.

"Yep. Ever since I first grew it," Graham said, drawing it around in front of her again and sliding it across the palm of her hand to right before where it branched off. "This split's been moving up toward the base now and then, too."
"That's not like uh...an unhealthy thing, is it?"
"Nah." She let go, allowing it to go back to swishing back and forth behind her. The wolf-girl watched, half-transfixed by this motion, but tried to focus on what she was saying: "From what I was told, it's a pretty good sign. Nekos like I turned into have their tails start splitting if they're 'wise' enough, and once it goes all the way up, we get 'amazing magical powers'. Supposedly."

"Oh, th-that's really cool!"

"Lessee here...you're into 'tomboy' looking outfits, I'd guess? Maybe some tank tops like this?" she suggested, gesturing. "Shorts? Skinny jeans?"
"Y-you um.." The werewolf felt her face flush slightly. "Think I'd look good in those?"
Graham didn't seem sure how to take the question, and hesitated for a second. "Er...the right fit, sure," she nodded.
"C-could you..pick a good color, then?"
"I'm not too good at coordinating, to be honest...maybe just somethin' dark?" Graham said, her tone making it quite clear she was just guessing. All the same, she went to pull a couple of things off of the rack, continuing: "Or, reddish to bring out your eyes?" She pulled out four pieces she'd just picked, holding them out where Damon could see them.

"Um, th-that'll work!"

"Off to the changing rooms, then." She started leading the way. "I gather there's some details to what happened to ya you couldn't share on stream." This put Damon behind her to watch that slim white tail flicking back and forth, which was quite the distraction...but at least easy to follow. "You and your friend and sister are..werewolves, I guess?" she asked, pausing briefly in her walk to turn her head slightly backwards. "Don't mean to pry or anything."
"O-oh, no, that's okay! It's—um—well. Onida and I weren't, before, you know? I-I actually got bitten by, what I thought was a huge bear, a-and...and, on the next full moon..." Her voice kind of trailed off at the mere thought of that entire experience.

"Oh, pardon me. Sounds awful touchy."
"Uh, th-that's okay. It was—someone super nice helped me out, in a way that kinda, also happened to accidentally make me a girl. So, that's how that happened. I...also lost a lot of my memories at the time. But she managed to track down my sister, and...somehow, even though I couldn't remember anything and looked completely different, we still recognized each other. It was like ma—uh, like that nice person...made a miracle happen, just by being there."

"A 'miracle', huh?" Graham stopped in front of the door to the changing rooms, turning around. "Guess that's how I'd describe what happened to me, too. I was pretty sick at the time, you know, and my granddaughter was desperate for anything that might help me keep going. Joined up with some..not so nice folks. Somehow or other, it worked out, though—they got the attention of someone powerful but kind, who offered to grant everyone a wish. Rachel—that's her name, by the way—'wished' me better. That's who made me young again too, later on."

"Oh! Um..." Something occurred to the werewolf at right this moment, after hearing all of that. "Do you think maybe..it's possible...we're actually talking about the same person?"

"Could be. Named Zotha?"

"Yes! That's her exactly! Wow. Hahah—small world, huh?"

"I suppose so," Graham said, smiling. Oh, and she had the most beautiful smiling face. Was she blushing a little bit too? Damon wasn't entirely sure; maybe 'just slightly red' was how her cheeks normally looked? She paused, reaching her free hand up to twiddle the end of one of her feline ears for a second. "Er, so, these're the changing rooms. I don't expect you need help getting these tops on."
"Uh—n-no no, I should be fine," Damon said quickly, taking the tank tops as soon as the catgirl offered them over at her. She was probably going to cost Onida a little more money than expected at this point, because she'd have a hard time not buying anything if Graham smiled at her like that again while she was wearing it. Well, she'd make it up to her sister somehow, later.

---

"Goodness, I hardly recognized you, Boreas! I mean, I know some people age differently from others, but..."

"Can it. It's a long story anyway."

"Pfft. I guess I don't have to doubt your identity, at least. Same old sour disposition." For the moment, the old-made-young werewolf was sitting behind her counter, playing host to the grandson of an old friend. He looked like a fairly unremarkable human, a fit thirty-something-years-old man with brown hair and brown eyes, but his scent would give him away to any werewolves..or other canid types like foxes, for that matter. There was also the mouth full of razor-sharp teeth he showed whenever he opened it to talk.

"Doubt I smell too different, either," she answered.

"Smell? How could I smell anyone in here?" Her guest waved his hand around in front of his face for a moment. "The scent of all these chemicals carries for miles, you know. I'm astonished the EPA isn't snooping around just beyond the borders of this little realm of yours."

"Araneus. You haven't been for a 'visit' since Lucent's funeral. I don't imagine this is a social visit, either."

"I'd be more inclined to come chat if you were more sociable in the first place, old man. Old..girl?" he corrected, shaking his head slightly. "Whatever. I know you're as disappointed as all the others that I didn't take up the old man's crown. But I'm just not cut out for managing that many people. Giant packs are out these days, anyway."

"You think a lone wolf like me ever cared about that? Lucent was already talking about dissolving the 'last great pack' before the heart attack anyway."

"Yeah? I guess you'd be the one to know.

"But! Speaking of that. My little girl's grown up during all that time. You should see her—a real powerhouse on the full moon already. And I believe she might already be making moves toward forming a little pack of her own. I couldn't be more proud." Araneus grinned big enough to bare some of his teeth. He always looked his most threatening when he was happy.
"Hmmh. Maybe you could take her to meet me someday."

"Maybe so, maybe so! She might especially like to if there's something to be grateful to you for."

"You want a potion," Boreas said flatly.
"Ooooh no no!" he spread out his arms dramatically, then used them to point sideways at an imaginary other person. "She wants a potion! Something very particular, at that. Can you imagine it? 'Daddy'," he said in a falsetto tone intended to imitate a small girl, "'can you buy me a potion?' She's never had much of an interest in alchemy before! Great big moon, I didn't even think she knew potions were real!"

"So you thought of me first. How touching."
"Weeeellll.." Araneus exhaled. "The thing is, what she wants specifically, sounds just a little bit impossible? But I'd still like to give it to her if I can. I know we spoil her a little bit, but Lue's turning out great so far! So—I think the strategy is working, and I'd hate to give it up now. You...do still enjoy a challenge, don't you, Boreas?" he asked, leaning forward and putting an elbow on the counter. "Especially if that newfound youth has resharpened your mind...perhaps you'd like to test it? Money, you know, is no object for me," he added with the brief gesture of rubbing his thumb across his other fingers.

---

Onida looked at the small pile of clothes on the countertop for a moment, then over at Damon. "I'm not sure we really should've left you alone with her," she said—a joke, but deadpan.
Damon didn't initially recognize it as a joke. "Um—"
"At least these all fit you, right? You tried them all on?"
"Yes! I did," she nodded quickly.
"Please don't feel like you have to get all of that if your budget's tight," Graham said. "I know what that's like, ya know."
"Pfft, it's fine," Onida said, finally letting out a small laugh. "I'm just glad to see some actual variety here. Anyway, we really should get outta here. I think Sam is shopped right out." She pointed to where the third wolf-girl was leaning against a nearby wall with her head tilted upward and her eyes closed; Sam audibly yawned at this point.

"Uh. S-so uh. When you're, done working. Do you, maybe wanna hang out and play some games or something?" Damon offered hesitantly, stumbling through half of her words. "We, I mean I have a lot of different..things to play on. At home."
"Well, I'd like to sometime, sure. Not this afternoon, though—I promised Rachel I'd take her out to lunch since I had to work all morning," Graham said. "I could give you my number to figure something out later, though."

"Um, yes! That's, that would be fine," she said, nodding rapidly.

After the three of them left, Graham checked her phone to find her shift about fifteen minutes past over. "Well then. Guess I'll be off, too."
"Proooofiii~iit!" Looking over toward the door, she found Valoz coming in, looking positively gleeful. "Excuse my outburst. Was that your doing, my good luck charm?" she said, waving excitedly behind her after she hurried over toward the Neko.
"They made their own decisions on what to buy," Graham said, crossing her arms.

"Well, you're fifteen minutes overtime anyway. So I might blame you just enough for a small bonus to appear in your next check anyway," she said, ruffling the catgirl's hair with one hand.
"I suppose I would appreciate that regardless. Anyhow, I've got to get on now."
"Yep! See you later~!"

Thinking about on her way out...Graham decided there was no way just a few more clothes sold had put the Mammon in that good of a mood. Presumably her meeting that morning had gone well, too.

---

Wow, it's been over a year on this one, huh? I've had a lot of writer's block with this one, but feel like I've managed to mostly get out from under it.

One fun and exciting challenge/intense frustration (depending on my mood) with this story is trying to make sure it "syncs up" with Midas Journal just right. Not only for basic consistency reasons, but also because I want characters and events from the two stories to interact with and inform each other. Chronologically, this time period in Midas is where there's a fair number of time skips, which means I have to find some way to fill that time over here. I've been hoping to make a bit of a quick-montage of a week or so's worth of time on "this end" to help deal with that, but some things just really needed to be established and/or tied up before I could do that.

But, yes, speaking of Midas Journal: I have made some progress on that story too. There's a couple of parts that I want to form a "pair" and publish close to each other, and the second one is more or less fully planned out but has been unexpectedly difficult to finish. Anyway...a certain person's former name was never revealed over there, was it?

Lost and Found, Part 4

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---

Part 4: You Want to Know?

Jared allowed herself a second or two to appreciate the silence. But the way the now-short, now-wolfish, now-girl was still bouncing around excitedly made it pretty clear it wouldn't last if she hesitated too much to take advantage of it. "Uh—yeah. So. I'm not really a witch, I think. It's just—when I pretended to 'cast a spell', this wand..did this to me," she explained. "And then doing the same thing turned uh—my friend into that, and also you. So.."
"No way! That definitely means you are a witch, though!" the wolf-girl said. "I mean, who else can transform people with just a wand and an incantation, right?"
"Um—but I think it's just the wand doing things. And, also I can't figure out how to transform myself back? Or anyone else?"
"Why'd you wanna turn back, though? You're really cute! And your friend is super hot, too!"
"Uh—"
"Most people don't enjoy their bodies being randomly rearranged," Greg said, practically grinding her teeth at this point.

"Oh..maybe? But yeah, if you're a real witch, it'd make sense you couldn't turn yourself back, but you should totally be able to turn her back," she said, waving at the catgirl.

"Huh?" Jared said. "Wait, why?"
"Uh, it's like..your magic can't do something against its own nature, or something? I dunno the details," she said, shrugging.
"You never actually tried turning me back, did you?" Greg said.
"I guess not? I didn't think it'd make any sense for that to be possible, though!"

"Hey-hey," the wolf-girl said, "if she's not your familiar, that means you're in the market for one, right? What about me?"
"Uh—you?" Jared repeated, visibly confused.
"Like as a familiar!"
"I, uh, don't even know your name, though?" she protested, still having no idea what they were even talking about.

"Oh, yeah! It's Don. Maybe I'll go with Dora or something instead, though! And you?"

"Um—Jared."
"That's not a very witchy name," Dora said with the lightest, teasingest hint of annoyance in her tone of voice. "What about Jade?"

"Stop, stop!" Greg cut in, putting herself between the two of them. This put her back kind of close to the blond girl, and she felt compelled to back up a little just to not get hit by that rapidly-flicking tail. "Can you not shut up and listen to anyone for half a second!? Nobody is anyone's familiar here, and you are not changing anyone's name but your own!"

"Awwh, but I thought you might like something like Gretel?"

"No! Now quit interrupting us so Jared can come up with a spell to change me back into a dude!"

At this point, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of someone laughing. "Pffft—hahahah..!" It wasn't any of the three girls, because it was a male voice. "HAA—hahahah..!" The two with animal-ears seemed to find where it was coming from near-instantly, leaving Jared (or maybe Jade, she kind of liked the sound of that...at least, if she was going to be stuck this way!) to turn her her head the same way just in time to see something pitch black rolling out from inside a collection of nearby bushes. "HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

The voice's owner was...a fox? A fox covered in pitch-black fur rolled over onto his back with his forepaws crossed over his belly like it was in pain and his hindpaws kicking around in the air. He laughed uproariously for a good several seconds longer before finally gasping for air and rolling back to where he could stand on his feet. "Oooh Ruler and all the rest. I can't...heheh..I could not even..!" Suddenly he ran around to one side of Jared, tilting his head up toward her face from not two feet away. "You are hilarious!"

"Wah!" The blond girl startled badly enough from the fox's sudden approach to jump backwards and drop the wand to the ground.

"Uh, Jared—" the catgirl had turned around to face the two of them, and started to say something in an attempt to calm her down.

It was slightly too late to actually achieve that, as Jade waved her hands excitedly in the air. "Talking fox! Talking fox!" she repeated louder, gesturing both hands at it. This would've been the end of her little freak-out, except that—rather to her own surprise if not anyone else's—a bunch of electricity sparked out from her hands upon this gesture, joining together into something like a miniature bolt of lightning that struck itself straight into the fox, making him yelp and jump back a little bit himself.

"Seriously, dude..." Greg sighed, facepalming and shaking her head. The weird black talking fox at least seemed fine—uninjured anyway. However, there were some golden sparks coming out from his body for a moment, which he seemed to observe with an air of curiosity. After a couple of seconds of this, there was a sudden, audible poof of black smoke taking up the space around the fox and also several feet upward from there. The smoke cleared unnaturally quickly to reveal an adult man with furry black ears and a tail matching those of the fox that had been there a second ago, wearing a bright-colored kimono.

"Oh..impressive," he muttered, in the same exact voice as the fox. Some more sparks flew off of him, and a second tail seemed to sprout from his back to join the original one. "Ah—even more so," he said, running a hand across that tail as yet a third appeared too, and then a fourth. "My, what power.." A fifth tail appeared too, as the sparks now finally began to have an effect more like they usually had before: The complexion of his face shifted, and his hair trailed its way out to shoulder length over the course of a few seconds.

It was obvious enough that he was about to get turned into a girl, too. But it didn't seem to bother him; rather, he grinned. "Mm~mh..interesting..." His voice lilted just slightly, instantly taking on an even deeper alto tone than Greg's. His hair continued to grow a little more slowly after that first burst, and now his shape began to melt inward and slightly downward, his outfit loosening as his form slimmed and narrowed.

"Aa~ah..mmr~rrrh.." Golden sparks danced across his clothes, merging and reshaping them. All of the color washed out into a pure white, the sleeves pulled themselves all the way off of his arms and revealed some quickly-narrowing shoulders, and the pants split and spread into a long skirt with a frilly hem. "Rr~rrfh..!" A slightly higher bark came out as his face shifted itself smaller, rounder, and cuter. The part of his clothes around his torso pulled tight against his slimming waist, but remained quite loose around his chest.

"Mrr~rrh.." His face began to redden with a blush, his ears lowering and eyes fluttering shut. He'd only lost a couple of inches of height, but his body had rapidly slimmed into an extremely feminine shape, and his hair was trailing out nearly to his upper legs in the back. He jolted just once, letting out a low "Mngh—!" and then, despite the tight top and long, loose skirt hardly making it visibly obvious, all three onlookers immediately felt they were looking at a woman. This impression was strengthened further when she immediately followed with a soft, sultry "Oo~oooh...!" as her figure began to fill out all at once: Her thighs thickened, her hips plumped out, and her chest quickly began to push out into the free space left by the top part of her dress.

"M-mnn~nNNNnnh.." Her blush grew steadily brighter, her body squirming around a bit, as her breasts grew out to fill the dress's top, only to then keep pushing out bigger, forcing it to make some extra room. "Aa~aah...rrfh..! Mrr~rrrnnh.." She seemed to struggle to keep up any sort of composure against wave after wave of girlish pleasure as her breasts kept on getting bigger, until finally they'd become at least a match for the catgirl's pair. She gasped as they gave one last push for good measure, and let that breath out in a soft, high, breathy "Aa~aah..." of relief as the change came to a close.

She opened her eyes, a sly grin making its way across her lips. "Well now...aren't you a powerful witch, m'dear?"

Jade protested: "But I'm not a witch, though! That wand—"
"Wasn't in your hand when you cast that spell. Besides which, it's hardly capable of anything like this," she said, gesturing at her own new form. "It has only a tiny little enchantment on it that zaps anyone who waves it around."

"Wh—really!?"

The fox-girl nodded. "Like the magical equivalent of one of those trick lighters? I ought to know, since I'm the one who planted it in the dryer. I must say, though, I wasn't expecting anything nearly as entertaining as this from such a little prank!"

"...WHAT?!"

---

After a full week stuck as a girl, Jared was really starting to just accept it. She'd tried wearing her 'old' clothes at first, but kept getting stares and jokes...then started using spells to 'adapt' them to fit her...but today, for the first time since the change, she'd gone out wearing a skirt and stockings (along with a top, obviously). It had been strangely..freeing. Of course Greg and...well, it was apparently Dora now, weren't nearly so unfortunate. One of them was the plaything of a five-tailed Kitsune, and the other had a witch at her/his command.

"S-so uh..."
"Mrowh?" Greg—who, male or female, retained bright red hair and kitty ears, and who had absolutely rejected any change of name—had Jade pinned on her back on the dorm room bed, nuzzling her cheek while she pet her.

"One of the books Minori gave me had a 'familiaring' spell. It's supposed to amplify the mage's power, but also share it with the person who's uh, the familiar."
"Hmmh." Sensing that the catgirl was mostly just annoyed the petting had stopped, Jared went back to rubbing her ears while she continued.

"I-I mean—it can work with any animal, apparently, and if it is just a normal animal then it turns sentient or whatever. But with a person, the power boost is way higher. I mean, I don't really feel like I need more power, but um.."
"Mrrr~rrh...guess Dora was right about yet another thing, huh."
"Y-yeah. But uh, it's just. If, you know, we did, then you could pretty much change yourself whenever you wanted."
"Mrowh? Inconveniencing you too much?"

"Uh, n-no, but um. You mmmiiiight, also be able to turn me back using the link? Sometimes? I'm not totally sure I get it, but it seems like as long as the person actually using the witch-magic is a girl, it still works?"

"Hmmph. I guess I could take one for the team."

"O-oh, really? That's great!"
"Yeah...mrr~rrh...just don't be surprised if I use it to make you a catgirl sometimes, too."
"Uh.." Jared felt her face flush even brighter than it already was. "I-I guess that's okay..."

---

Yes, I could've spun this story into a bit more of the fallout from the immediate event, gone into more character detail and stuff...but I really just wanted to finish it and move on so I could focus on other stories I'm more interested in. So: smash cut to a week later feels like a pretty effective way to achieve that. I think the cut between parts 3 and 4 is probably the most awkward, and this part is a little shorter than the others, but that's fine; splitting this into pieces was fairly arbitrary in the first place. And if you're curious, the image used for Office Prankster was a "castoff" while coming up with the image used in this part, for Minori.

Lost and Found, Part 3

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Part 3: Would You Mind?

Greg, now an unbelievably hot catgirl, was holding her roommate's hand, pulling the witch-looking girl straight out the door to their room and into the hall. Jared's heartbeat picked up a little more from just this slight touch, her cheeks starting to burn...what was going on there!? "Wa-wait!"
"What?"

"I-I-I uh, m-my ID card and stuff is..."
"Oh." Greg exhaled an impatient sigh. "Go get it, then."

Feeling a dire sense of urgency, Jared took the minimal time possible to grab the strange magically-appeared purse, only taking a second as she walked out the door to also stuff the wand responsible for all of this mess inside of it.

No sooner did she make it back out than the catgirl grabbed her by the wrist to lead her on, and the strange, excited feeling started up again. Not just from confusion about that, but because Greg was (like always) much stronger than she was, Jared let herself be pulled along the hallway, off to the stairs, and then all the way to the cafeteria. People they passed sometimes spared a confused glance, but even though she'd lost some height, the catgirl had no less of an imposing presence than before—besides which, she was pulling the shorter girl along pretty fast, not giving many people time for more than one brief look.

Once they got inside and lined up for their trays, Greg finally let go of Jared's wrist. She was finally able to take a deep breath and calm down slightly—but only slightly; now that they were staying relatively still in one place, she could feel people's stares. Still, nobody seemed to approach too closely, either because they didn't look as weird as she thought, or—again—Greg's glare keeping them away.

Now that she was surrounded by the smell of food, Jared had to admit...she was pretty hungry too. Her body didn't usually appreciate skipping lunch to begin with, and perhaps casting "spells" or transforming or just all of the excitement in general had taken something out of her. So she went about picking up a bunch of food for herself, paying for both of them, and then meekly following the big redhead outside. There was a little sort of "picnic park" nearby which students were encouraged to eat at so the cafeteria wouldn't be so crowded, but far fewer people ever actually used it than it seemed built for. It made for a relatively quiet and sparse area for them to sit across from each other and eat.

Jared couldn't help noticing the catgirl had put together a plate of...mostly fish for her lunch. Greg often liked to go for a lot of protein, varying which kind of meat from one meal to the next, so it wasn't impossible that this was what she was going to eat anyway—but if so, it was at least an interesting coincidence. The catgirl kept a frown on her face while she ate, but it felt more and more fake the more Jared looked at it; she was definitely enjoying her food...if not the company.

Their peace and quiet didn't last quite long enough to finish eating, however. Just as Jared was getting started on dessert, a tall, brown-haired guy basically bounded up right next to their table. "Whooaa! Are you a real witch!?" he asked excitedly. "Can you do magic!? Oh oh—is she your familiar, too?!"

All of these questions came on a little too quickly for Jared to actually respond to. Greg shoved herself to her feet at this point, brandishing a fist at him. "You're gonna be really familiar with my fist in a minute if you don't leave us alone," she said, looking genuinely angry for maybe the first time since turning into a catgirl. Something about the way her ears folded back made it feel a lot more honest.

The excitable guy put up his hands, backing up a step or so—even though Greg was a fair bit shorter than him. "Whoa, hey—I don't mean any harm, miss kitty-cat! But I've never seen any real magic before, let alone an actual witch! I just think it's super cool, is all!"

The catgirl looked between Jared and the weird guy, then sighed, unclenching her fist and dropping her hand. Probably she'd noticed the blond girl's expression of, more or less, 'please don't actually beat his face in!' "Look, I'm not—what you just said, I'm Greg. You got that?" she said, glaring.

"Yeah, okay," he nodded. "So—Greg—you think you could get your master to cast a spell? Just one!?"
Her cheeks went almost as red as her hair. "My what!?"

"Uh, is that not the right word? I mean—you are her familiar, right? Oh wait—does that mean you can do magic too?"

"Let's get one thing straight—I am not her 'familiar' or whatever, and nobody is my master! But—okay—why don't you show him a little magic, huh?" she said, gesturing from Jared to him.

"Um—I don't know if that's a good idea.." she said a little quietly.

"He is asking for it," Greg said, crossing her arms again. One of the several things he'd called her in the last half-minute or so had clearly crossed a line which no apology from him would entirely make up for. And if Jared didn't want her to start wailing on him, this was apparently her only acceptable non-violent substitute.

Well, they were hoping to find a way to change back anyway...maybe someone this excited about magic would have some clue of, at least, who to ask? Holding onto that fairly weak rationalization, Jared carefully stood up, pulled the wand out of her purse, and tried to come up with a reasonable spell. She was pretty sure that an animal's name was needed, so: "Um—wolf who interrupts our meal, here's some magic for you to feel!" And she pointed the wand right at him.

Just like usual, a spark went out from the tip of the wand, hitting their interloper dead center in the torso. He yelped at the slight shock. "Whoa! That was so cool! With the incantation a-and everything.." He trailed off slightly as some sparks raced across his body, starting to soften his skin, and his body and facial hair began to shorten and thin. However, he didn't seem to pause because of that, but rather so he could reach up and scratch his hears. "Huh..hey, my ears are..?" They were already covered in some soft brown fuzz by the time his fingers started working on them, and it was getting longer and thicker by the second. "Growing..? Was that a transformation spell!?"

Jared stammered, "Um—"
"Yes, it was," Greg interrupted her, putting her hands on her hips.
"Th-that's so~o co~ol!" he said, his voice cracking mid-vowel, twice, and coming out a little higher in pitch each time. He lowered his hands from his ears to lightly touch his cheeks, and by now the magic had done its work on his skin, leaving them visibly—and no doubt palpably—quite smooth. His ears grew even faster now, rushing outward and upward into a pair of fuzzy triangles even bigger and taller than Greg's.

"A~ah—whoa..!" The wolf-eared guy lifted his hands off his cheeks in surprise, shuddering slightly, as his hair suddenly burst outward, taking less than a second to grow some wild locks sprawling out onto his shoulders on the back and sides, with some longer bangs helping to frame his face. "A~ah..!" His voice continued to change with each utterance, lilting up to a youthful-sounding tenor as a slim, dark-brown tail slid its way out from his back. "Aa~ah, arfh..!" He let out a sort of barking sound as the tail quickly fluffed out thicker and kept getting longer. "Rr~rfh, rrfh..!" With his mouth open from the barking, some of his teeth could bee seen growing into longer, sharper fangs. Soon they, and the tail, reached their full size.

"W-wow, wow!" He sounded like a young boy—in how he talked as well as the pitch of his voice—as he curled the tail up between his hands to feel it. "A real tail! Man, I've always wondered wha~at it..aah.." He let go of the tail, dropping his arms to the side as he shuddered slightly once again. His hair grew a little bit longer on the sides, but gained at least half a foot of length in the back. "Mm~mnh..!" His voice changed even more now, lilting out of masculine range entirely. There was a sudden, brief eruption of sparks off of his body, and then...

"Aah, aa~aah..!" He brought his arms up to hug himself tightly, squirming like he was struggling against some invisible restraints. His body rapidly shrank downward and inward, losing maybe an inch of height per second. "W-wah, aa~ah..rr~rrfh..!" His shirt and pants seemed to keep up with the shrinking, continually pulling tight enough to show his shoulders narrowing, his waist slimming, his arms and legs getting shorter and thinner. His pants didn't seem content to just pull close around his legs either, instead pulling their leggings up shorter and shorter to show off some smooth, increasingly slender and girlish legs.

"Rr~rfh..w-wa~ah. aa~aah..!" The shrinking went on and on, turning his face soft, round and cute, pulling his height down to match Greg's..and then even more! By now his voice had shifted into an adorably high, soft soprano tone, and his pants had beecome a pair of shorts steadily making their way up his thighs, and also starting to pull awfully tight against an unexpectedly small bulge between his legs. "Mm-mm~mnn~nnh.." His eyes fluttered shut, his face alight with a blush, as the bulge visibly shrank too, his height loss finally slowing down just as his eye level crossed below Jared's.

"Mm-mr~rfh..!" This bark came out high, like a cute puppy's. His shrinking came to an end at last, leaving his eye level about where the blond girl's chin was. "A-aa~aah...!" Finally, his sex changed, the pants pulling completely flat between her legs.

"O-oh. wah, wo~ooOOOOO~OOOWWWwwhh...!" She dropped her hands back to the side, wobbling back and forth excitedly, as her hips and thighs pushed themselves out slightly thicker, and at the same time her chest insistently pushed itself out against her tight shirt, a pair of small bumps forcing it to grow back some of its lost size. "M-mnngh..rrfh, rr~rrfh..!" Her ears were low and her tail wagging happily behind her as her new breasts continued to grow, and her hair steadily flowed out even longer. "Aah~...mrrfh!" There was one last push from her chest as her hair grew long enough to fall across the base of her tail in the back, growing them to an impressive size for her diminutive height—now a bit less than even Jared's.

The wolf-girl blinked her eyes open, still blushing, her lips opening into an adorable grin.

Soon an equally cute giggle erupted from her mouth. "H-heehee~..! Dude, that was amazing!" She looked around at her surroundings, at the other two girls.

Jared started, "Well uh, I'm glad you think so, but—"

"Waah, everything's so big, too! At least I won't bump into any doorframes like this, though!"

"You should probably know, I'm not exactly sure how to—"

She rushed up to Greg, stopping just outside her personal space to grin up at the now-much-bigger catgirl. "Hey, did she transform you, too!?"

"Yes, actually. And if you'd quit interrupting her and listen for half a second—!"

"Oh, yeah—sorry. I'm just super excited to get turned into a cute wolf-girl, is all! I am cute, right?" she asked Jared, scurrying up a little closer to her.

The blond girl felt her face flush at this rather unfair question. "Um—"
"Shut up for a half second!" Greg said angrily (jealously?), saving her from having to answer.

"Oh yeah, whoops. Shutting up now. Zzzzzp," she made a noise and motion like zipping up her lips.