A Summoning, Part XLIV

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Part XLIV
~Tower~

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

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

"Got it."

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Right, exactly..."

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

"S-so uh.."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Veilkeepers," Boreas tried.

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

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

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

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

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

"Hmm.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"You get used to it."

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

"Uh..nothing dangerous, I hope?"

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"I'd guess not," Boreas said.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

Vixen Society - Cycle 16

Vixen Society

---

  Beginning / Before / After / Last

---

Cycle 16

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Oh. Y-you, uh, you like it?”

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Promise I can!"

---

Pics?

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

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

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

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

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

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

aack I didn't even think of that!

PLZ @_@

---

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

A Statue in the Woods 8: Introduction

  First / Previous / Next / Last

---

After getting out of the car, Tyler paused to just stare at the house for a moment. "Is something the matter?" Elise asked after starting toward the door, pausing upon realizing he hadn't moved, and then turning to face him.
"Uh...no. It's just..." The house looked perfectly ordinary. It wasn't some gothic mansion; it didn't even look particularly big. It was just...a plain, average, everyday suburban house. "I didn't expect a place where super-rich demons live to look so...normal."

"I admit, it hardly fits their tastes from back when I knew them," Elise said, turning back to look at the building herself. "They must have been living here before the veil was cast off. Blending in used to be an absolute necessity, you know, at least if one wished to live around 'enveiled' humans."

"I guess that makes sense.."
"You may be surprised by the interior, however. Come, let's not keep them waiting!" she said, eagerly starting off toward the door again.
"Yeah, sure."

He'd barely pressed the button for the doorbell when the door opened. And the person waiting behind it...well, definitely fit his idea of a 'demon'. It was a very tall woman with dark green skin, bright red eyes, big curly horns poking up through some bright, grassy-green hair, and also a long, medium-thick tail ending in a sharp spike that waved back and forth behind her. Aside from all of that, her clothes were the same kind of stylish dress as Valencia had been wearing the day before, minus any jewelry. "Hello there~!" she said cheerfully. "Welcome, please come in. It's wonderful to see you again, Shigenori, and—Tyler, was it?" she said, smoothly offering him a handshake.

"Uh, yeah." The shake was a very brisk sort Tyler would expect from a high-power CEO or something like that.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance. Azlathoth—or just 'Azla', if it's easier to remember," she said. "And—that's a lovely form you've got there, Elise."
"Thank you~," the fox-girl said.

They were guided into and through a fairly big antechamber with...a bit more of the kind of thing Tyler had expected at first: Gargoyle heads and banners on the walls, and other bits of fancy, decorative stonework. When they proceeded from this room into a wide hallway with several paintings (a mixture of landscapes and portraits, the latter featuring humans, demons, and a few people of other various races) lining its walls, then eventually took a left turn into a huge dining room, his brain started screaming at him that this space didn't fit inside that house. But then, if magic could bend space to make Elise's forest a real-world lost woods, then why couldn't it make someone's house bigger on the inside?

Another demon around Azla's height—so, probably her husband—awaited them in that dining room. "Greetings," he said. He was slightly on the thinner side build-wise, had short, spiky horns rather than curly ones; his tail was thin and ended in a kind of spherical bulb; and his skin and hair were dark red rather than green. "Tezalel, at your service." He was dressed in old-school men's formal wear, and he spoke a bit more formally than his wife, with kind of a posh accent. "Dinner should be ready soon. Until then, we were hoping to entertain with some conversation. There's much catching up to be done."

"Yeah—that'd be fine. Right?" he asked Elise, who nodded. So the four of them wound up sitting, each pair across from the other, near one end of the long dining table.

"To begin with, this is Tyler," the fox-girl said, gesturing his way to introduce him once again. "He freed me from my stone prison, so I've decided to make him my Master for the time being~."

"We're more than pleased about that," Azla said. "To think we played the 'lottery' for years and came up empty..but it really only matters that someone cured you. On the other hand, I was under the impression the curse could only be lifted by a human?"
"Uh, yeah?" Tyler said, then paused. "Oh, wait—Elise transformed me after we met. The ears and tail are, uh, part of that. Does that make me...not human?"
"Not necessarily, but..I thought..." The demon woman tapped her index finger against her chin a couple of times.
"You have the aura of a Celestial," Tezalel said. "It isn't really possible for demons such as us to miss it. Perhaps Elise accidentally awakened you by way of that transformation?"

"Oh...uh. Is that, bad?" Tyler asked.
"Not at all. Intriguing, but not all that surprising. The persons who sealed her were, themselves, the descendants of Celestials," he replied.

"It would explain why I was unable to shift those fuzzy parts back to normal," Elise said. Then she reached up and gently stroked one of Tyler's ears. "I'd apologize if you didn't obviously like them~."
"Uh, w-well..."

"Still, you finally took on a Master after all," Azla continued. "Back when we first met, Shigenori said the practice was 'utterly ridiculous' and he'd 'never be caught dead with a master'! Hahah.."

"You needn't have brought that up," Elise said, folding her ears down slightly in embarrassment.

"It's, still a little weird for me," Tyler said. "A-anyway. So you've been adopting human kids, for years, just to try to unseal her?"
"Hardly that reason alone," Tezalel said. "It just seemed like something convenient to try, so long as we were already adopting."

"I take that to mean, you are still not rid of that curse?" Elise said.

"Uh, curse?"

Before the demons could answer him, their conversation was interrupted by a child's voice yelling "MOOOOOOOM!" Its owner, a little girl, ran into the room, followed by a...maybe thirteen-year-old boy, shuffling slowly in behind her. She ran straight up to Azlathoth; Tyler couldn't help but feel it extremely surreal to see a perfectly normal human child jumping up into the lap of a literal demon woman. But clearly this was 'normal' for them. Azla caught her into a hug like it was second nature.

The young girl continued her complaint: "Richard kidnapped Ken and is gonna cut his head an' all his limbs off!"

The teenage boy, who had black hair, eerie red eyes, and (even in this situation) a calm demeanor that made him seem even creepier, defended himself: "You very clearly said you 'didn't ever want to see him, ever again'. I saw no reason to let it go to waste."

"That was pretend! Barbie didn't wanna see him again! But he was gonna make it up to her with cake and diamonds and flowers!"

"Rich, dear, give Nancy her doll back. You can buy your own Ken for your art project," Azla said gently.
"Very well." He held out the doll in question (which he'd apparently been carrying) and Nancy hopped back to her feet to snatch it from him. "Perhaps Barbie can rescue him from a kidnapper."
"Hmph!" The girl just stormed off.

Richard finally seemed to notice Tyler and Elise's presence at this point. "Oh, excuse me..you had company?"

"We do indeed," Tezalel said. "This is our son Richard; Richard, this is Shigenori—now going by Elise—and Tyler."
"Shigenori?" He stared at Elise for a second, tilting his head slightly. "I was under the impression you were a man?"
"I was for a long time. But it's no trouble at all for a fox as old as I am to change every bit of my appearance," Elise said.

"I see..." His response sounded kind of neutral, but also slightly interested. After that he said, "Well, I'll get out of your way," and shuffled out of the room at about the same pace as before.

"Aah, kids," Azla said after he left, a kind of happy sigh in her voice. "They can be a handful, but they are the very best of investments."
"That's...not the word I expected you to go for," Tyler admitted. He decided it wasn't a good idea to tell them that that Richard kid seemed like kind of a weirdo—first of all because they had to know that already, and second because he couldn't think of a way to say it that wouldn't sound insulting.

"The two of us are specifically Mammon—greed demons," she explained for him. "It's hard for us to not think of most things in terms of money."

"Okaaay...so anyway, you said something about a curse?"
"Indeed. We are cursed to be unable to naturally have children," Tezalel said. Then he stood up, as if responding to some cue invisible to everyone else. "Pardon me. Dinner is prepared. I'll have it out in just a moment." And he headed off toward a doorless opening that..probably went to a kitchen or something.

"I'm astounded you've been unable to break that curse in all these years," Elise said.

"Oh, it's not that we can't, but we've chosen not to," Azlathoth said. "In the years since our wedding, we've studied curses quite extensively—hence why we were also hoping to take care of yours."

"So, I guess..someone cursed you at your wedding?" Tyler said.

"From one point of view, certainly," she said with a nod. "I should explain from the beginning: A very long time ago, before either of us were born, there was a certain megalomaniacal demon. He wanted to rule the entirety of Earth—just imagine that! When he inevitably failed, it involved some of those who'd originally supported him turning against him, and with his dying breath he cursed those 'traitors'. It was in the demons' language, but you can think of the curse as pretty much saying, 'you deprived me of what I wanted the most, so whatever it is you want the most, may you never have it'. And since it was cast with his death, it had staying power across generations. Both of us are descendants from different lines of those 'traitors'."

While she'd been speaking, Tezalel had come back with a plate of food balanced in each hand...and some kind of magical reddish glow holding up two more plates, and four cups, all floating in the air around him. He got to work setting them down one at a time, and also continued his wife's explanation: "The curse didn't appear to do anything at first; some thought it had failed entirely. But it turns out that it's simply not as well directed as he might have hoped, due to being cast by someone with the concentration of a dying man. But it's lingered in our bloodlines, and every once in a while it comes out to strike, causing some inconvenience or other for certain demons. Really, most of us demons are descendants of the traitors in some way or another by now. Azla and I made the mistake, perhaps, of declaring together that we wished to have many children, and that's when the curse struck us. It was quite a theatrical affair; some even thought it was part of the ceremony."

Azlathoth said, "The thing is, though, even a curse created by something as potent as a dying wish still only has limited 'fuel'. The more 'effort' it must expend to achieve its desired effect, the more of that 'fuel' it uses up. So, we figured, rather than forcibly breaking the curse off of us, why not instead try to use up whatever it has left by forcing it to keep working? Do the rest of demonkind a favor. And in the meantime, we can have all the kids we want by finding human children who don't have anyone else to take care of them, and adopting."

"If, one day, we do succeed in having a child who is biologically ours, then we can declare the old fool's curse finally, fully, and completely broken," Tezalel finished, sitting down next to his wife again.

"So, uh...I guess that means you're. 'Trying' to have kids pretty often, then," Tyler said.
"Indeed," Azla said with a fairly big grin. "I would dare say that the curse isn't really causing us the unhappiness it was supposed to."

"All the better for it. Now then, the first course is served."

They had some more conversation throughout the dinner—which had, as it turned out, three courses: appetizer, main dish, dessert. It was mostly casual stuff, including the Tanners trying to help Elise catch up with modern day a little bit (although she'd caught on to most things already). They listed off their children at some point: Valencia—who was running her fashion business alongside another Mammon nicknamed 'Val', which had to be confusing—her younger brother who was some kind of avant-garde artist; then a girl close to graduating high school; then Rich and Nancy, who they'd met earlier; and, finally, the (currently) youngest, Frank. They hadn't had all those kids come to this dinner to avoid overwhelming Elise and her new master—and because it'd be hard for adults to talk much with so many kids around.

The subject of jobs came up, too. Tezalel offered to find Elise some 'more gainful employment' if she wasn't satisfied with the job the Rejuvenation people had come up with for her, and made a similar offer to Tyler. When he insisted that he liked his current line of work, the two demons seemed very happy to hear it, and didn't press the subject any farther. The Kitsune said she'd keep the offer in mind, but she still wanted to at least try this job out before hopping to another one.

Eventually, the dinner was finished. They exchanged various contact information, and Azla escorted them back out the hallway and the front door. "Don't be strangers—come visit again sometime soon!" she said.
Tyler said, "Uh, sure."
"Most certainly," Elise added.

Back in the car, as they drove back home, Tyler said, "Well...they seem like a pretty happy couple."
"Indeed they are~. But is something troubling you?"
"I guess it's just, out of everyone I'd imagine having a marriage stable enough to last over half a century, demons aren't the first thing to come to mind..."

"You're thinking of lust demons, maybe—it's far more difficult for Incubi and Succubi to remain so loyal for so long, so their spouses must have quite a bit of patience and understanding. For Mammon, the mere fact that married pairs get a tax break is enough to make the idea of separating feel unpalatable. Not that that is what keeps Azla and Teza together. The two of them have been in love practically since they first met."

"Love, huh..?"

"It's a wonderful thing—or so I've heard," she said.
"Yeah. People talk about how amazing it is...I've never been sure if a feeling like that is real."

"I'd be delighted to learn that it is~."

It was...surprising, at least, for the woman who'd advanced on him so hard the past couple of days, including petting him into wolf-girl form, shifting her back into a guy so they could kiss, teaching him (her?) to dance, and plenty more petting besides...to still seem so unsure. But, it was also kind of reassuring for Tyler. Like he wasn't the only one who wasn't completely certain what he was getting himself into...

After a moment, his mind went back to a different concern. "So, uh..does being a 'Celestial' mean I have any, special powers ooorr, weaknesses, or anything?"

"Any Celestial is able to effortlessly cast 'holy' magic, which is especially effective against demons and other unnatural threats," Elise said. "And since you have the traits of a wolf, you must be more specifically an Ookami. I've never actually met one before, so I'm uncertain what abilities that entails. There are tales of Ookami being capable of incredible physical feats; making plants grow near-instantly; healing the wounded even from the point of near-death...but there is no telling which of those stories is actually true, if any."

"Okay, but uh, when you say 'effective'..."
The Kitsune nodded. "Demons such as my—shall I say 'our'?—friends back there can easily sense Celestials for the same reason prey can sense a predator. You've no need to worry about injuring them accidentally, but if we encounter any lesser demons—which are not people, are never friendly, and do not belong in this realm—that power would be a great help in getting rid of them."

"Okay, that's..good. But there's, like, no way to tell what I can or can't actually do?"

"I'm uncertain. As a fox, the powers I possess came naturally to me, or even instinctively. I suppose there must be some way to test or train one's magical abilities when they aren't so obvious. Ah—perhaps my recent employers would have some idea? They must have accidentally awakened some of those who they made young again—especially considering that the power they rely on is evidently known to be 'chaotic' and 'unpredictable'."
"Okay, cool. I guess I can, reach out some time?"

"I'd be delighted to see what my Master can do," Elise said with a sweet, winning smile.

Once they were inside the house, she followed him as far in as the living room before asking: "Say, Master—are you finished with your work for the day?"
"Huh?" He turned around to face her. "Oh, yeah, I'm pretty nearly caught up. Should be okay to take a break the rest of the night."

"Wonderful~." With that, the Kitsune hopped up at him to hug him, and he caught her into his arms more or less by reflex. There wasn't much time to think about that before she'd pushed her lips onto him for a long, passionate kiss. He paused only a couple of seconds out of surprise before joining in on it, and both of them were left somewhat breathless by the end. Then, Elise reached her arms up and gently rubbed Tyler's ears, causing a rush of tingling to spread down from them all across his body...

"R-rrfh..!" He began shrinking pretty quickly, even as he leaned in to start nuzzling her face, and began petting her ears back. "Mm~mh, aah—aa~aaAAaa~aah..!" Tyler's voice rapidly shifted higher and higher in pitch, as he shrank down more and more...Elise's weight soon left his arms as the balls of her feet landed on the floor.

His body had grown slim and soft, his voice high and cute like the first time he'd turned into a wolf-girl; at the same time, his shirt had kept on pulling itself tight against his upper body, while his pants split apart into a skirt fluttering around his upper thighs and a pair of tight leggings pulling close against some now-slender legs...not to mention his underwear shifting into a pair of tight, feminine boyshorts. It was only a couple of seconds from this point to him turning the rest of the way into a girl, letting out a soft, high "R~rrfh..!" in the process, followed quickly by a girly "Mm~mmnngh..!" as the fuzzy feelings down there started up.

Of course, Ty's chest and hips sprang to life right about then, giving her body some curves; her breasts pressed into Elise's small bust as they grew out, expanding out to just a bit bigger than they'd been her first time as a girl. All the while she was letting out some soft, cute barks and yips, while Elise quietly churred in response.

After a little bit more petting, Elise let go and gracefully pulled back a few steps—probably just far enough to get a really good look at her 'master' now. "Well? Did I surprise you?" she asked.

"Uh, y-yeah..heheh..!" Ty felt around her body a little bit; her hair seemed to have gotten pretty messy from Elise's hands running all over it. But..this wasn't bad. They were close to the same height now, and the cute fox-girl being right across from her instead of below was a pleasant change for the moment. "N-not bad, though.."

"I'm glad if you enjoyed it~," Elise said. "Perhaps we could dance for a little while?"
"S-sure!" Being around the same height would make that easier too, probably...

---

Having a shared universe is fun. Although part of me does wonder whether anyone reading this actually finds this connection interesting. And the other "Val" is a considerably more obscure connection you might not get without a direct link to something relevant.