Contract Trap

On the table in the middle of the room was a statue, just starting to glow ominously. It was a little taller than a person's head, cast in some pitch black stone, in the shape of a sort of rectangular-prism plinth with a detailed human figure standing atop its center. That figure would appear well-dressed at a first glance, but then the distressing detail of a collar around the figure's neck, with a chain-leash attached, would reveal itself to any careful observer. After the glow had brightened a little, it lifted itself an inch or so off of the table's surface.

Niko, who'd been sitting at the table in front of it, jolted back slightly. "What th—?"

A voice from the statue interrupted him: "In exchange for altering the contract's terms, one must taste it in full."

"Aack! No, wait—stop..!" Being an experienced mage, and an expert particularly in enchantments, artifacts, and the sort, he put some active defenses up between himself and the statue to add to all of the passive ones already built into the room. But it was no good; he'd intertwined his magic with this artifact's own in the process of 'negotiating' with it to alter its rules. He realized this after a second and started trying to sever the connection, at the same time saying, "I didn't want to—I wasn't even finished with...ugh!"

It didn't seem interested in these objections, instead continuing to push its power into him, initiating its 'contract' just the same as if he'd spoken its usual activation phrase. It felt like the harder he tried to pull his own magic apart from what was flowing in, the more that power seeped into and took it over. Pretty soon he'd be practically powerless against it.

Niko groaned, leaning over and putting his face in his hands. "Auuugh! Stupid, dumb—first rule is to not mess with anything you don't have to!" But he'd only meant to make an indestructible, horrid curse of an artifact less dangerous for anyone who stumbled across it in the future! It wasn't like he could guarantee it'd stay locked up somewhere forever, no matter how hard he tried to make it so.

He sat up, starting to feel a sharp tingling racing across his scalp, and immediately saw his bangs growing longer before his eyes. By now, the statue had stopped glowing and floating, and just looked like an inert hunk of rock on the table, but its power had entirely swallowed Niko's, and now it was using his own magic to start transforming him. His ears were tingling too, as that hair's color brightening from brown toward red, and—given the state of the last person to activate this thing—he was fairly sure he knew which way this change was going.

Niko had an idea: Maybe he could stall or cancel this with some other enchantment's power! It was unlikely, but worth a try. He quickly stood up and hurried out of the room to go look for something, mentally sifting through a list of what he knew he had. The tingling was spreading its way down his face and to the rest of his skin, making him pause in the hallway to shudder briefly, and he stopped again when he was passing a bathroom, catching sight of his face in the mirror: That hair had turned a blazing, brilliant red by now, was long enough to almost touch his shoulders, and framed a smooth-shaven, soft-looking face. Furthermore, he'd started to feel his ears stretching as their tingling got stronger, and now they were big enough for their pointed tips covered in reddish peach fuzz to poke out past that hair.

The strange thing was, seeing his face like that, the thought that popped into his head was: Wow, cute.

He quickly shook his head. Focus, dummy! It was only a brief sprint from there to where the item he hoped would help was held. As he ran, the tingling was replaced by a squeezing sensation, and his perspective began sinking downward, his stride and balance starting to change. Niko stumbled, caught himself with a hand on the wall, and then had to slow his pace as he continued to shrink. He could feel his face growing smaller and rounder, his shoulders narrowing, his arms and legs and waist all slimming down, and as he made his way into the storage room, the shelves already looked strangely tall.

He kept on shrinking as he went and rifled through a box, before finally pulling out a small metal bracelet. "Ah—he~ere!" Niko tried to ignore his voice cracking strangely, and how small and delicate his fingers looked holding that item, and simply snapped it onto his left wrist. It was an unremarkable enough item, something novice mages wore sometimes; its enchantment canceled out a large portion of one's own power so that casting even basic spells would become meaningful practice. But no sooner had he put it on than he felt a rush of his stolen power straight to that wrist, and the bracelet glowed a bright red before disintegrating into dust.

"Shoot!" He'd hoped that would at least buy him a few more minutes! As if in response to his attempt to stop it, the change briefly accelerated, squeezing Niko hard enough to briefly fix him in place and making his height plummet. "Aa~aa~aah..!" At the same time he could feel his ears pushing their way up hard, growing into a pair of huge, fluffy triangles, and a tail sprouting from the base of his spine, too..!

"Ugh...ffh..." Niko panted briefly, feeling some heat in his cheeks. He looked around the room he was in, trying to think of what else might work here. "W-wah!" A high, cute surprised cry came out when he tried to move, as he nearly tripped over his pants. He realized then that they'd fallen off of him, and his shirt was hanging awkwardly loose across a very slender frame; his underwear, however, miraculously stayed on? Or, maybe it wasn't such a miracle, he realized, as he noticed its leggings were gone and it felt awfully tight, especially..down there.

Speaking of which, he was starting to feel...kind of tingly, in that same area.

"Urrgh, no no no...s-something else..." Niko's voice came out in a soft, mature, womanly alto now, as he carefully stepped over the lost pants and went over to another shelf to pull out another item. What he decided to try next was a necklace that normally did nothing if a man wore it, but turned a female wearing it male. He hurriedly pushed it past the new huge, vulpine ears to hang it around his neck, hoping it would at least reverse that part of the effect once it happened.

That tail he'd sprouted earlier pushed its way out past the hem of his shirt now, swishing back and forth behind him. The heat in Niko's cheeks had grown stronger, and his heart was racing—was that because of the sprint earlier, or the change? Maybe both? The tingling downstairs had been steadily picking up in intensity, and he could feel the...what were surely panties, starting to fit more comfortably as there was less and less in the way. This felt...nice? He hadn't felt bad at all after the sprint, so...was his heart racing because he was...excited? Niko remembered how cute his face had looked in the mirror; he had to be even cuter now.

"Urgh..n-no, stop that..!" He shook his head again, hard enough for the bright red locks to swish around and the big animal ears to flop around. "Th-that's the...enchantment talking...!" But his voice did sound kind of nice like that...low enough to be mature, but cute too.

"Mnnfh!" The tingling progressed now into a tugging, slipping sensation; Niko's new tail had grown out into a huge, fluffy pillow nearly as long as one of his arms, and was whipping back and forth excitedly behind him. His ears lowered out to point to his sides, and he felt warm all over...! "Aah...mnn~ngh...!" His sex was changing...! He tried to reassure himself that the necklace would stop it, or at least soon reverse it, but then he realized that his neck and the skin around his left shoulder exposed by the too-big shirt could feel no such object on them. But...he'd put it on, hadn't he? Then he realized that when he'd been shaking his head, his magic had reached out and swallowed the necklace's, just like the statue had his own. So...he'd only made it stronger!

"Aa~aah...-m-mmrr~rr~RRRRRRRrrrhh...!" This realization was punctuated by the immediate shift down between Niko's legs. What had made him male his whole life disappeared, swallowed fully into his body, and a rapid shift from there up to the pit of Niko's stomach replaced it with everything that would now make her female. It felt...unimaginably nice! And it was immediately followed by a tingly, fuzzy feeling down there, drawing a soft, low "O-oo~ooh...!" from the new girl's lips.

"R-rrgh..." She tried to get a hold of herself, as that fuzzy feeling faded slightly. Her hips were starting to press outward, and her chest tingling, but she mumbled. "M-must be..s-something that c'n...rrgh..." There were plenty more items similar to the first two she'd tried, but Niko knew deep down this was a statement of denial; it was pretty much too late. Her mind was hazy from the pleasant sensations of turning into a girl, and now of starting to grow some curves; she was distracted by thinking about how cute and sexy she must look now and kind of wanting to go back and look in a mirror; and already she was starting to think about who...who to...

"M-mnnhh...aah...mrr~rrrrrh..." Her mental fortitude exhausted, the fox-girl just cried out softly, letting out some vulpine churring, as her hips and thighs filled out, and the tingling across her chest gave way to a gentle, pleasant push, expanding them out into some small breasts. "Aah..AAH!" Her voice went high and squeaky as her bust continued to push out, then descended again to a helpless "Oo~oh...mm~mnnfh.." when the feeling of some suddenly-sensitive breasts pushing into and sliding across the material of her shirt made her new girly parts erupt into more fuzzy tingles. "Mrr~rrnnh..ah...oo~ooh..." There was pretty much nothing she could do but enjoy the ride as those puppies continued growing for a moment longer, spreading out into some generous breasts that completed her new soft, curvy figure.

"Hfff...ugh..." Niko blinked her eyes open (wondering when she'd closed them exactly) and then turned around and hurried back to the bathroom to get a good look in the mirror. What awaited her was more or less expected, but no less distressing: A short, curvy redheaded fox-girl, with an adorable, brightly-blushing face, bright yellow eyes, huge fox-like ears, and a big, fluffy tail—red with a white tip.

"Aauugh! Th-this is even worse than I thought," she said, tugging at the edges of her shirt with her hands. "I can barely even feel my own magic." Normally a transformation like this would be easy for Niko to reverse, but now, thanks to that statue's contract, she needed someone else's help.

About a week back, Niko had gotten a call to help with a "cursed" statue, and what he'd found was much worse than that description suggested. The girl who'd been affected by it was extraordinarily lucky to have a friend she could actually trust—but they would be much better off not knowing the full truth. He kind of wished he didn't know how it worked, because that meant that someone had intentionally made something like this. It was purpose-built, and the worst part was that its age suggested that it had served its purpose for quite some time in the past.

Ancient enchanted artifacts such as this were like the radioactive waste of magic. In some ways they were worse, since magic itself could be coaxed into making that mundane waste a little bit less of an issue. The insidious thing was that this "Servant's Statue" didn't really have a curse at all; it was instead a channel and source for a very particular contract spell. Curses could be cured, but someone who agreed to a contract spell was most likely stuck with the results for good. And, unlike legal contracts, magic didn't particularly care if it was "signed" under duress.

That was how she'd wound up in this situation. After helping the two "renegotiate" the terms of their contract (which required the "master" to be willing, so again the one affected was very lucky), Niko had claimed it as 'payment', hoping to defang its effects once he got it home. And he'd taken every precaution he could think of before even touching it, too!

Trying to destroy or disenchant something like this would cause its magic to throw a tantrum, whose effects would be vastly worse than anything it could do while intact. So the only reasonable way to make the statue less dangerous was to change the terms of its contract. He'd spent over an hour analyzing that contract, poking and prodding it to see what kind of changes it would accept, and then taken another hour to actually make the changes it would accept, and which would make it do as little harm as possible, even in the wrong hands. And now...that new form of the contract was what the fox-girl was stuck with.

Ordinarily, the statue's magic granted the person who activated it a certain amount of power. It charged up energy over time, then dumped whatever it had built up into the next person to use it. Its immediately-previous owner had been after a very long time of disuse, and so had wound up with power on the level of maybe a three-tailed kitsune. However, that power was only usable under the orders of the "master".

Since Niko had acquired it right after that, it had little power to grant, but he hadn't realized that it would lock up the user's own, intrinsic power too. Of course it made sense for the new power to join with one's existing power, but for a mage like Niko, having her power sealed like this was somewhat scary and extremely irritating! And this effect was something Niko had been completely unable to change, along with the statue always transforming its activator into a form designed to "please the master".

She crossed her arms, sighing. "Who can I...?" Fortunately, she had removed a lot of the nastier mental effects: Almost no emotional manipulation, no compulsion to talk or not talk in any particular way, little-to-no constant urge to please the 'master', didn't even have to call them 'master' in the first place. But whoever she took on as the other member of this contract, she'd still be compelled to do whatever that person ordered her to do. Unless the order would keep her from talking. Niko had thought that both parties being forced to obey each other was at least a decent compromise, but she hadn't expected to actually be one of said parties! The worst part was that, now that the contract had begun, she'd feel an increasingly strong compulsion to choose a 'master' and convince them to agree to it...

That compulsion had already started, too; right now it was a dim but persistent thought in the back of her mind. So it was best to do this now, when she could actually focus and think more or less rationally. Niko went through a mental list of people she knew, trying to decide who would be the best to ask. However, she was slightly distracted on each name, when picturing that person, with some foreign-seeming thoughts: He'll think I'm really cute. She isn't really into animal ears. He'd pull my tail. She'll just be jealous of how big my...

"Urrgh...s-stupid statue...!" Shaking her head again, the fox-girl tried to clamp down on those thoughts, and focus on who she could actually trust—and who might willingly agree to this absurd contract. One person did stand out as the right answer once she really thought about it. Only—at the same time—he was...

That is, he really liked...

Niko huffed, crossing her arms and glaring at her reflection in the mirror like it was whoever made that awful artifact. "Did it already decide for me?!" It wasn't an impossible notion, considering the original form of the contract chose whoever the activator looked at first as a 'master' and caused a transformation into what that person would like. Niko had accepted the transformation happening right away for the ability to actually choose and require both parties to agree, but hadn't considered how this could still satisfy the condition of "pleasing the master". Many artifacts had something like a 'mind' to them, but she hadn't expected this one's to be quite that sophisticated.

"Always expect the worst," she mumbled to herself, turning around to go get her phone. The sooner he came over, the sooner she'd have access to her own power again, and then she could turn back....

...If he wants me to.

…......If I really want to, I mean!

Since some of the artifacts Niko had (and would lend customers the use of) could transform people, she kept some spare clothes around in various sizes. It didn't take her long to locate a shirt and some shorts that would fit. Her ears twitched as she pulled the shorts on, picking up the buzz of her phone vibrating to notify her of Jordan's response to her text. She felt a brief urge to run and look, but forced herself to take a deep breath and walk slowly over to pick it up. Still, her heart skipped a beat when it was a response from him.

Their conversation, in full, was:

Need your help badly. Artifact screwed me over.

whoa

sounds serious

how?

I got a contract spell forced on me, and need another person to 'sign' it.

It sealed my magic until I do.

And transformed me.

so you want me to 'sign'?

what r the terms n stuff?

Short version: We'd have to obey each other's spoken orders.

Plus other things I can tell you in person

ok ill be over when im off work.

Thanks, sorry.

Niko was briefly worried that needing to wait a couple of hours for Jordan to get off work and come over to her house-slash-place of business would result in the compulsion to find a 'master' driving her crazy the entire time through. However, she actually felt that mental effect fade off instead; it was 'satisfied' that she'd found a candidate, apparently. However, she did catch herself thinking about how it might feel for him to put his hands through the fur of her ears...which he would almost definitely want to at some point.

That is: She could trust him not to screw her over, but she also knew that he was really into furry girls. His computer's desktop wallpaper, some art he hung around the rooms of his house, and some of the media he liked ensured this was no secret, and he wasn't shy about it if someone asked. He wasn't weird about it or anything; Jordan was just someone who knew what he liked, and didn't care if other people knew that too. It was just that—the way she looked right now—Niko was pretty sure that what he liked included that. And now, some kind of mental effect of the contract that she hadn't even noticed was making her kind of want him to pet her almost as much as he was going to want it.

Well...no...that didn't make any sense, actually. Niko had had a very close look at the entire contents of that statue's magic. He couldn't have missed something this big, especially not attached to its transformative effect—as it would have had to be. Was she just thinking like this because of the dull but still-present urge to 'please the master'? Yet, Jordan wasn't her 'master' according to the contract yet; she could very well pick someone else, or he could decide not to agree to the contract, so...

So...?

She struggled over this for a few minutes before deciding it was best to just distract herself instead. So Niko stood up from her chair and went to get something to snack on, and thought about picking out something to watch until Jordan's shift at work was over.

Eventually her phone buzzed again, and on seeing that it was a text from Jordan saying that he was on his way, the fox-girl hopped to her feet and took five or six rapid steps toward the door. Then...she slowed herself down, eventually stopping around halfway there, and took a deep breath. "Ugh...he's not here yet. Why'd I want to...? Oh, right...compulsion.." She was at least pretty sure this was part of the compulsion to hurry up and get a 'master'. At the same time, when Niko tried to figure out which part of her thought process said mental effect had hijacked, she remembered only thinking of showing off her cute, curvy new form to him. Realizing that brought on some warmth to her cheeks...and she quickly shook her head hard again. Nope—nope! I just want really my magic back, and out of this stupid, tiny form!

Hearing a car pulling into the driveway, Niko clamped down on another brief spike of excitement, and then made herself take some slow, deliberate steps to the front door. Then she waited until Jordan knocked to open it.

"Uh, so...hi," she said, craning her head up. A brief thought of wow he's tall! flashed through her mind before the realization that actually, she was just short now. Really, Jordan was a little on the short side for a guy, with black hair and clear blue eyes. He worked an IT job sitting in front of a computer, and wasn't a very active person in general, so he was a bit overweight, and usually wore loose-fitting shirts to partially hide that fact. But he had a handsome enough face, at least, which lit up with a slight blush at this moment.

"Uh—wow! You uh.." He was checking her out! "...didn't mention what kind of transformation, huh?"
"It's r-really annoying," she said. "Please don't be too weird about it...come in." With that, she got out of the way, and hurried back through the foyer to the living room.
"Um, sure," he said, closing the door behind him before following.

"So, like—what kinda artifact was this, anyway? A hot vixen maker?"

Niko sighed loudly, although she could feel her face burning with a brighter blush on being called 'hot'. "It's called the 'Servant's Statue'. It was originally designed to force people to be slaves against their will, with a constant compulsion to 'please the master' in any way possible."

"Oh." That deflated him a bit, thankfully. "That sounds pretty gross."

"I was trying to make it less gross and dangerous, and mostly succeeded. Now if someone uses it, then it makes two people obey each other instead. But it decided that me changing its effects counts as 'using it', and now I have to find someone else to be the other party of the contract."

"So, like, that's me, huh?" he concluded, and Niko nodded. "What'd I have to do?"

"Well—agreeing is easy," Niko explained. "I'll ask you if you want to, and you just say yes. But after that, any time one of us tells the other to do something, they have to, so we'll need to be really careful how we talk to each other afterward. I know that's inconvenient, so if you don't want to then I can.."

"No, no—I can see you're kinda in a bind. I guess you can't dispel it or anything, or you wouldn't have asked me."
"Right. It seized control of my magic. You'll need to tell me to use it freely first thing, so I'll have access to it again."
"Okay, sure, I can do that."

"All right. If you're ready?" Niko was starting to feel that compulsion come on fairly strong. With someone right in front of her more or less willing to agree to the contract, she almost wanted to force him to do so!

"Yeah, sure," he nodded.
"Okay. Will you...'be my master and my servant, aiming to please me as I do you?'" The phrasing came out this way partially against her will.

"Uh..?" he looked a little concerned about the wording.
"I have to put it that way; stupid magical contract nonsense," she said.
"Okay. Then, uh—yes. I will."
Immediately Niko felt the compulsion lifting off of her mind, and breathed a sigh of relief. At the same time, a piece of her magic flowed out to in front of her, gathering into a brightly glowing red orb. And now that she could focus a little bit better...she realized that she'd forgotten to mention something.

"Oh—shoot!"
"Uh, what? Is that not normal?" he asked, taking a couple of small steps backwards as the orb started moving toward him. "Like, is it supposed to do that?" It wasn't like he'd be able to escape it anyway.
"Yes, but—listen. One of the things this contract originally did was make the servant transform into a body that would 'please the master', and I couldn't get rid of that part. So it's gonna..." By now the orb had made it to him, and sunk its way into his body; he was starting to gain a halo of red light all around him, and lifted his hand up in front of his face to get a better look at it.

"Whoa..uh, so this is..?" Jordan's hair started to grow longer at this point.
"Um—yeah. But, don't panic, I'm pretty sure I can fix this part once I have my magic back!" she assured him.

"S-sure." As his hair grew to shoulder-length, Jordan's beard started to thin out and disappear. "Uh, wow, this feels we~eird," he added, his voice cracking slightly.

"It'll..probably get weirder before it's over," she warned him.

He nodded, picking up some of his hair to run it through his fingers. "Uh..w-wow..." It became softer and more voluminous as it tumbled out, at the same time starting to look messy and unbrushed. Jordan shuddered as it reached about halfway down his back, then let go of the hair to pull his arms close around his body.

"Aa~ah...w-who~oaa...!" He began to shrink then, growing slimmer all over. Jordan's face—already missing all of its facial hair by now—turned round and cute; his shoulders narrowed; his arms and legs slimmed down; and his shirt loosened across his belly as the fat there began to disappear. "Aah, aa~aah..!" His voice audibly changed bit by bit, its pitch steadily rising. However, unlike Niko's transformation earlier, he didn't seem to be getting any shorter at all.

After all...she did kind of like how tall he was now. Especially if he was fit, solid and strong enough to easily pick her up...

"Aah, aa~aah..I-I...nn~nngh...!" Jorrdan's clothes began to change, too. His pants and shirt alike started rapidly pulling tighter and shrinking shorter. Soon the slight pudge of his belly was exposed, just in time for the last of it to vanish away; his shirt quickly went from hanging loosely across his now-slender shoulders to being sleeveless, with a deep dip in the middle, and so only hanging on to those shoulders by a pair of straps. His hair tumbled out as far as his hips as his body finished slimming down, leaving him a fairly androgynous, slender, cute-looking guy. However, his pants—now a pair of tight shorts—had pulled very close now against a bulge between his legs, and the way that was beginning to get smaller made it clear he wouldn't stay a guy for very much longer.

Jordan dropped his arms back to his sides, looking around briefly and then down at Niko. His cheeks were getting increasingly red. "U-um..N-niko..?" His voice was a high, soft tenor, barely male-sounding at all. "I...th-this feels super we~eird..! Wah, was it like this f-for you, to~o...?" Through a couple of little cracks, his voice completed the shift from tenor to a cute, girly mid-soprano.

"Uh..y-yeah...it does feel really weird," she assured him. It was hard not to stare at that bump between her friend's legs getting smaller and smaller..but he was going to be positively gorgeous once it was done, an intrusive thought informed her.

"Aah...a~aah...o-ooh...aa~aa~AA~AAAAAAaahh..!" With one particularly loud, high-pitched cry, Jordan's shorts pulled completely flat between the legs. "O-oh...mnn~nngh..." Between her legs. She squirmed them back and forth, her face turning completely red, and wobbled around briefly in place. "Aah..o-oo~ooh..!" Already her hips were beginning to push out wider, her thighs growing thicker, and her bottom pushing out bigger; thankfully, the new girl's very tight shorts seemed content to let themselves out a bit to continue to fit those growing proportions.

"Aa~a-aah..w-wah..? M-my ears feel...f-funny.." she mumbled softly, still swaying in place. And then, Jorrdan suddenly let out a high, cute "Y-yip! Wha..? Rrr~rRRRUFFH!" Each sudden dog-like noise came with the sudden growth of an ear, covered in pitch-black fur, pushing its way past her hair to become a big fluffy triangle. Seeing those appear above Jordan's now-adorable, blushing face, Niko felt like she very suddenly understood the appeal of girls with furry parts.

"Aa~ah..y-yip, yip! Rrufh!" Next, a tail sprouted from her back. The motion of it spreading out into view drew the fox-girl's eyes back down that way, and she could now see the new girl sporting some very impressive curves down there. Plus, her slim, flat belly was starting to get more solid, showing off some faint abs so far. "Aah..o-oh...m-maa~aahnn...!" As the tail continued growing longer and thicker, Jordan's chest pushed itself out into the tiny tank top that her shirt had become, quickly stretching its material to its limit before it finally loosened itself up to make them fit. "Mnnh, mrr~rrrRRrfh..!" Only then, those new breasts pushed out even bigger, pulling it tight all over again. "A-aa~aah..o-ooh...wah, w-woo~ooowh..." Jorrdan's eyes fluttered shut as this cycle continued, again and again. Before long she had a tail at least as long and not quite as fluffy as Niko's wagging back and forth behind her, but still her bust continued to expand out. The fox-girl couldn't help but watch, wondering how big they were going to get...but, at the same time, feeling like she already knew.

After all—not that Niko had ever broadcasted it anywhere—he really liked tall, busty, curvy women. So...of course, that was what Jordan was becoming. The wolfy parts and barking were unexpected, but the rest was...no huge surprise, on reflection. It still looked great, though.

"Aa~aa~aaAAAaa~aah...! Mmh-mnngh..." Finally, the wolf-girl's breasts finished growing, bouncing out into place as the tiny tank top loosened itself one last time, just slightly, so they would fill it out comfortably. She huffed briefly, slowly catching her breath, and then opened her eyes, looking down a her new figure. "Uh..w-wow..." She then realized Niko was looking up at her, and pulled her hands together, wringing them briefly.

"S-so uh..this is...I mean, you're into this kinda girl?" she asked, having apparently, at some point, put together the way the contract spell chose a form to change someone into.

Niko flushed. "Errrrr..y-yeah...if you let me use my magic, I should be able to turn you back, though."

"N-no way!" she said suddenly. "Uh, I mean. I-I'm not totally sure I wanna be turned back. L-like, I've never been..fit before," she said, patting the solid abs of her belly for a second. "Never mind, like, actually hot. H-heh, I almost feel like I could get used to this. Especially with you lookin' at me like that."
"L-like what!? I-I wasn't," Niko started, but couldn't properly finish the sentence. "J-just hurry up and let me use my own magic again!"

"Uhh..erm..I can't, be ordered to do that?" Jordan said slowly. "Uh, wait, I wasn't trying to say that! Why'd I say that?"
The fox-girl facepalmed. "Ugh, right. Obviously. Remember how we can order each other around now?"
"Oh..right," Jordan nodded.
"Well, clearly it'd defeat the purpose if we could order each other to give specific orders. So—as a request—please let me use my own magic again! I won't do anything to transform you again unless you want me to."
"Oh! Uh, sure. Let's see...um, Niko, use your magic however you want to from now on to forever," she said. Jordan had definitely played enough roleplaying games to know she should word a magically-binding order carefully.

Immediately, Niko felt her power returning to normal—plus a little extra. She tested it out by holding a hand out and making a point of light appear above its palm, and then dismissed that, breathing a sigh of relief. "Phew. Thank you. It's like suddenly not being able to move your own arm, I swear!"

"Hahah, you do seem a little more relaxed," Jordan said. "So, now that that's done, uh..."

"..What?" The wolf-girl had stopped talking, just staring down at Niko with her tail wagging back and forth behind her. The blush from just after her transformation hadn't faded much, and she had a slightly expectant look on her face. "Wh-what's with that look?"
"Would you..? I mean, would you maybe be willing to? Pet my ears a little bit?" she asked, seeming to remember at the last moment to phrase it as a question rather than an imperative.
"Uhhm. W-well, I can't exactly reach them. Since this stupid contract spell made me so short," Niko said, crossing her arms. "I-I guess, if you picked me up then I probably could, then."

"Oh, yeah? Theeen—!"

With that, Jordan picked the small fox-girl up into her arms. Niko was immediately assaulted by the feeling of those slim, strong arms wrapped around her, and the wolf-girl's huge breasts squishing close against her own (rather sensitive) pair. It was all...a bit much! But it felt nice, and she didn't want it to stop, either. Something was...really coming over her. And it couldn't be that statue's magic, either! So it was just...?

Jordan was looking at her expectantly again.

"Uh-um..r-right..." Niko returned the wolf-girl's hug, reaching her hands up to gently touch those fluffy black ears. At the slightest touch Jordan flinched, the ears twitching, but then she smiled as the fox-girl's small fingers pressed into that fur and began gently brushing through it, properly petting those warm, soft ears.
"Rrufh! Aah, that feels amazing~..!" she said. "I...I just wanna...! Mrrr~rrfh." With no further warning, Jordan pressed her nose hard into Niko's cheek. This made her feel warm again, her heart racing as the fuzzy feeling from the tail end of her transformation began to come back in force.
"O-o~ooh...mmnngh..." She couldn't help herself, and began nuzzling the bigger girl back. Part of her tried to demand What am I doing!?, but it felt really nice after all, plus Jordan definitely liked it.

"Mrr~rrrhn..."
"Ehehee! Y-you're super cute, you know that? B-but really sexy too," Jordan said, probably just babbling in her excitement. Not that that kept Niko from enjoying the compliment.
"P-pet my ears too—if you want," she said and then quickly added, barely remembering in time.
"Heh..s-sure..!"

"Aa~ah!" They were very sensitive! Niko had touched her own ears earlier, and they hadn't seemed nearly so responsive then, but something about someone else doing it...or maybe Jordan specifically...! At any rate, she would be very weak at the knees right now if she wasn't being entirely held up in the air by the tall, strong wolf-girl. "Mmh, mmrr~rrrrh...!"
"Aa~h, so cuuute...!" Jordan gushed, then went back to softly barking and yipping.

It did not take Niko very long to want to feel the other girl's tail, too, and—knowing full well that Jordan was into this kind of thing—curled her own tail forward to brush them across each other. The wolf-girl jolted in surprise, then let out a soft, helpless "Aa~aaah...!" She didn't (probably couldn't) make her tail stop wagging, and that motion had their big wads of fluff running constantly across each other with very little extra motion on Niko's part. After that, the wolf-girl stumbled awkwardly around before finally falling backwards to land her button the couch.

Still holding one of Jordan's ears in her hand (moving the other one to the back of her head to gently stroke through her hair), Niko pulled her head back enough for their noses to almost touch. "Hmmnh?"
Jordan returned a slightly apologetic look with an extremely bright blush to her cheeks. "M-my legs were getting, kinda weak...heheh...! Uh, g-girls have it pretty good, huh?"

"Mmnh." Niko went back to nuzzling the bigger girl, gently pushing her down until she was lying flat across the couch with the fox-girl on top of her.

Much later that evening, the two of them were lying in a similar position on Niko's bed, both completely exhausted. The wolf-girl let out a soft "Mrr~rfh," already half-asleep.

The fox-girl thought: I'm gonna bury that statue in the middle of a desert somewhere. Maybe teleport it ten miles down from the bottom of the deepest hole I can get dug.

...Then, I think I'll ask if she wants to move in with me, or the other way around.

---

This is sort of a "soft sequel" to A Friend When Cursed. I started writing this not long after publishing that one, but the first draft started out when Niko acquired the statue, went through the precautions and negotiations with the statue's magic first...in short, it was very boring and I couldn't figure out a good way to continue. Pushing the transformation to the story's start, while interleaving some of that information (and cutting out unnecessary detail), really did the trick.

The Next Chapter: 20

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 20: Aren't You Another Fox?

Ed woke up first when Jay had to get up; she stayed in bed, managing to eventually fall back asleep. She had her own alarm set—usually so she wouldn't waste the entire morning sleeping, and/or have to be in a rush to get to class on Tuesday afternoon. But today, when she woke up to that alarm and got ready, it was for a different reason.

There was still plenty of time for breakfast, of course. She headed to the kitchen after showering and changing, thinking through what was probably still in the communal fridge to eat. As she approached, her wolfish ears picked up the sound of someone inside, and—of course—when she entered she found a short, white-haired fox-girl scarfing down probably her second or third previously-frozen sausage-biscuit.

"Mmfh..." She put a hand up to wave.
"Uh...morning. I guess you're Ulrich?"
"Glmp." She nodded, but then sat up slightly. "I don't think I wanna go by that name, like this, actually. It really doesn't fit, right?"
"Well—I mean, it's your name."
"Sure, as a guy. This face," she said, pointing, "is just not an 'Ulrich', though."

Ed headed toward the fridge to get her own breakfast. "What'll you use instead, then? Ulrica or something?"

"Nope! Rejected! Do you picture anything cute from that name?"

"I..dunno? You really can't tell just by someone's name." They were both talking at normal volume, despite being in different (though neighboring) rooms; this was one advantage of everyone involved in a conversation having animal ears.

"Fair, but...well, I don't like it anyway. Instead, uh—um. Hmm. Lrrr..ich..liirii...ah! I've got it!" She actually snapped her fingers. "Lyrica! Nice to meet you, Edward, I'm Lyrica~!" she said enthusiastically as the wolf-girl came back with her own breakfast: One donut.

"Uh—same, I guess. Are you still hungry?"

"Hmm...nope. I'm finally full! I guess going for meat helped out," she said.

"'Kay." Ed sat across from her to eat. "So uh..I've got a list in my phone of stuff you'll need—besides clothes, I mean. Nancy lent me the card to pay for it. The only thing is, we're supposed to use a specific store for the clothes, and...it's kind of a long walk."
Lyrica tilted her head slightly. "You don't have a license?"

"I don't have a car."
"Oh. Well, that's no problem! I've got a car. It's parked by my old dorm, so not too far to walk."

"...Are you..planning to go out in, that?" Ed asked. "I'd be embarrassed just leaving my bedroom in that little."

"Hahah! This is my house too now, right? Everyone's got a right to be shirtless and slovenly in their own home," Lyrica said.

"I...don't think the 'shirtless' part works when you're a girl. Especially when some people living here are gonna be guys. Look—you're, looks like around the same height as I was when I was first changed. So you can borrow some of my clothes."
"Oh?" The fox-girl leaned up slightly. "How'd you get so much taller, then?"

"Fe—uh, L'hoxifel helped me uh..'customize' a little bit, I guess. She'd probably do the same for anyone—once, I mean. Not, like, repeatedly." Somehow Lyrica seemed like the kind of person who might 'shop around' for a form she liked if given too much of an opportunity, and Ed had no desire to promise that on the demon-girl's behalf.

"Hahah. Nah, I think I'm good. Buuut, if you bought all your clothes pre-'customization', that does explain why your top's showing off your belly! "

Ed's face flushed slightly. "Uh..y-yeah."

They went to Ed's bedroom after that, and she offered Lyrica a few options from her dresser. The fox-girl went into the bathroom briefly to get the top she'd woken up in from half-off to entirely off, then put on a white t-shirt and some shorts. "Oh, hey—I promised my parents a pic after I'd changed! You mind taking one?" she asked as she came out.
"I..guess not?"
"Just use your phone, 'kay? I'll give you my number to send it over."
"All right."

"Cheese~!" Once Ed had her camera app ready, Lyrica posed, grinning and putting up double-peace-signs.

Ed showed her the picture after that. "Okay, happy?"

"Yeah, that's perfect!"
"Let's get outta here to buy your stuff, then..."

Lyrica needed a moment to adjust the seat and mirrors, of course, but at least she didn't ask Ed to do the driving. On the way she asked, "Say Ed—you game, and you're majoring computer science, right?"

"Yeah."

"So—are you planning to make a game some time?"

"Well...no. I mean, I had that dream once—like in middle school. But, that whole industry's just..." She shook her head. "The big studios basically abuse their workers with crunch time, and lots of other awful stuff. And there's so much competition for independent games that they hardly make any money unless they're really amazing. I just, don't think I'm creative enough to come up with something that'd stand out in the crowd."

"Awwh, that's kinda sad. I say, if anyone has a dream they should chase it! Even if something seems unrealistic, work even harder to make it a reality. But don't get me wrong—I'm not telling you what to do with your life or anything. Do you at least have a new dream now?"
"I dunno..not really."
"Well, I'm sure you'll find one. Maybe game dev truly isn't your fate, but I bet there's a calling out there just for you!"

What a nice way to view the world, Ed thought. Even if it's a little unrealistic...

Before long, they'd gotten all of the other necessities, and were on to the clothes store. This part of the list said, feel free to get a few things for yourself if you're bored!, so Ed took the opportunity to pick out a few tops that actually fit her new height...and bust size.

A short while later, Lyrica came out of the dressing room in a dark purple dress. "Eheh..aaa~aaahaha..I still feel kinda weird in this," she admitted, blushing.

"It's all breezy and open. Isn't that ultra weird?!"
"Yeah," Ed nodded. "Have you noticed I don't do dresses or skirts? The, uh, usual tightness of girl-pants is already weird enough for me."

"Well, I need to get used to it quick! My costume in a play could be literally anything! More skirts!" she said, whirling and going back inside.

"Urrrgh, I cannot get my hair to behave. It's always been curly, y'know, but now it's all long like this it's such a mess! You think there's room in the budget for a curling iron?"

"Uh..sure." The list had mentioned that as 'optional'; Lyrica must have simply forgotten. "The hair dryer and shampoo we got should help some, too."
"Right, right."

She came out next in a short skirt, dark collared top, and thigh-high black leggings. "Hmmmh.."

"This feels a little better. I guess 'cause there's at least something on my legs. I tried on the more 'tomboy' stuff first, sooo..guess I'll go out in this, try to get really used to it."

"Okay, great. I think...after getting the iron, we should have time for lunch on the way back," Ed said. "I can help get your stuff inside if we stop right in front of the house, but then I've gotta get to class after that."
"Sure~. I really appreciate your help with this! Now I can try out for the play this afternoon instead of having to wait!"

"Uh, yeah—no problem."

---

Late in the night, Kyosuke woke up very briefly. She'd felt...something. She sat up in bed, looking around, and identified the direction it had come from, determining that it was definitely outside her own room. Then she fell back onto her pillow, making a mental note to check on that later as she turned over and went back to sleep.

Once he was finally done with his classes for the day, he entered the dorm and went looking for where that feeling had come from. He only sort of remembered what it had felt like; he'd been half-asleep, after all! But the direction he was fairly sure of. He circled for a bit before stopping in front of a particular bedroom door. This was where their newest member had moved in the night before, he was pretty sure. He was also fairly sure she wasn't inside right now.

"Hmm..." he tapped a finger on one of his ears, thinking about the best way to bring this up.

"Some reason you're staring at my bedroom?"
"Wah!" Kyo jumped, finding Lyrica just a couple of feet away to his right. Either this thinking distracted him a little too much, or the resident of that room was a particularly quiet walker. "Oh. Sorry. It's just—hmm." He tilted his head slightly, examining her. "I thought I felt..?" He wasn't feeling anything right now, but that didn't necessarily mean much.

She just quietly tilted her head back. "Yooouuu 'felt'?"

"Yeah, hey—would you mind helping me test something out real quick?" he asked, deciding this was probably important enough to bother her about. "I need to go get some leaves."
"Leaves? Aaaall right then; I shall be in my abode," she said, shrugging.

He came back a little later after locating a potted plant in the lounge and "borrowing" a couple of its leaves; Lyrica was sitting at her desk with the door open. Kyosuke knocked and came in, offering her one of them. "Sorry if this doesn't work," he said, "but I just can't help my curiosity."
"That's okay, I guess?" she said, carefully taking the leaf.
"Just—see if you can copy what I do."

This was one of the simplest tricks for foxes; even kits could usually manage it, though they usually couldn't maintain it for more than couple of seconds. Kyosuke held the leaf up in his right hand and, with a brief puff of black smoke, turned it into a pencil. Its true form would come back as soon as he stopped concentrating, but it had all the useful properties of this false form in the meantime. There had been a few times he'd "made" a pencil like this because he'd forgotten his real one for a test in school.

"Hhhuh." Lyrica tilted her head slightly, staring at it for a moment. Then, holding the stem of the leaf he'd given her, she perfectly imitated the effect, a puff of white smoke turning it into an identical pencil. And, for the very brief instant that she was doing it, Kyosuke felt the same thing as the night before: Not just the power of a member of his own "kin", but a pretty strong burst of it!

"Aah! I knew it! Lyrica, you're a kitsune!" He was excited enough to wave his hands out and accidentally toss the pencil in his hand out to one side; it reverted back to a leaf in the process, and gently floated down to the floor.
"Wha—really? A magic fox-person, like you?" she asked, pointing with the pencil.
"Yeah! The house must've awakened you despite trying not to, which would mean you had a pretty strong potential to be one in the first place!"

"Cool! Can I do anything else?"
"Probably lots of things." He thought: When she'd sneaked up on him earlier, she might have been hiding her presence without even realizing it, just by wanting to. "You seem fairly powerful already, too—maybe enough to earn a second tail without much effort? I know a guy in town, if you want to see about that."

"Maybe later~. Buuut, if there's any basics you wanna teach me now, I'm down for it."

"Yeah, sure!"

---

When writing stories off of images, I always tend to take some inspiration from the details of the image itself. This is arguably much more the case when I'm using something someone else drew, but here I wound up with kind of a little "dialogue" of inspiration with a generated one. I got an image that I mostly liked for Lyrica where she was sort of holding up a peace sign, but the hand was screwed up. So I wound up trying to re-generate that while specifically asking for a peace-sign until I got the rather decent one used here. Then I needed an excuse for her to actually be posing, and someone taking a picture made the most sense...

The Next Chapter: 19

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 19: Ready for Your Cue?

Ulrich had been prepared to act.

That is: He wanted, he needed the part badly enough, that he would do anything he had to to make it happen. It was a step toward his dreams, and, while maybe not every imaginable cost would be worth it, there were plenty of things he'd be willing to do to make that step. Getting himself turned into a girl for an important part was certainly worth it in his eyes, and so was pretending to like a group of people, plus doing whatever would ingratiate himself to them. So, when Nancy set him the challenge of seeing whether he was a "good fit" for Omega Zeta Kappa, he had come in fully prepared to do some chameleonic improv, to make at least a majority of these strangers want him there, and of course to pretend he wanted to be there, too.

...He certainly hadn't expected to like this group this much!

There were plenty of gamers; there was Jay, an energetic dreamer like himself; there was Kyosuke, who he didn't talk with much but gave off the vibe of another kindred spirit anyway. L'hoxifel was a cheerful ball of energy; Polaris was hilarious; and even Tokanwa (though she wasn't a member yet) seemed like she'd be fun to hang with. He didn't have to pretend to like them, or pretend to have fun, because those things were really happening.

After dominating everyone in the house at Smash, Mary waved him over. "Hey."
"Yeah?"
"Have you..spoken with your parents about this?"

Despite her emotionless, monotone speech, Ulrich could tell this was someone genuinely concerned about those around her. "Hahah, yeah!" he said. "I called 'em before I ever came over."

"That's good," she nodded. "Do you need any help getting your things from the dorms?"

"Weelll...I kinda got what I need packed up and ready before I came over too. I figured, if I was in, I'd grab one trip today and get the rest—plus turn in my key there—tomorrow. Don't worry, I've got this."

"Okay." She wandered off after that.

It did seem a little weird that she was covering this stuff; shouldn't it be Nancy's job as the "boss" or "founder" or whatever? But Nancy seemed to have disappeared somewhere right after supper. Maybe she had some last-minute homework to catch up on, and had specifically asked Mary to look after him in her stead.

But either way...the sun was already threatening to set, so it was about time he actually did that. After saying a couple of goodbyes, Ulrich headed out to grab his stuff.

"Hello." He'd opened the door to find his (soon-to-be ex-) roommate working on some homework at his desk.

Dante sat up. "Oh, hey. So..?"
"I have succeeded in joining! By tomorrow morning, you can expect me to be the woman the part requires," he announced.
"Ah. Man, I still can't believe you. Doing all that just to get into a play."

"Anything to advance my dreams. But, dude—they're actually a lot of fun to hang with! Since I'm joining, you could always come over as my guest. Hang out, maybe have a look around and stuff?"
"Sure," he nodded. "Lemme know the first time you want me over, I guess."

"Mm-hm! Just don't fall asleep inside."

"Yyyyeah.

"It's still gonna be a little weird, though—you being a girl. How do you think you'll end up looking?"

"I dunno...cute, I guess? Hopefully. Attractive actresses definitely tend to get more and better parts," Ulrich said.

"Dude, that's harsh."
"It's just the reality I'm working under." He finished getting his stuff together. "Well—see you later!"
"Yeah, see ya."

He would have a new roommate at some point, but for tonight, Ulrich settled into a previously-empty room by himself. Maybe some extra privacy for tonight would be better, though; Ed had seemed concerned enough to warn him that changing might feel "really weird". He'd also heard from a couple of people that one tended to wake up from transformation ravenously hungry. Things like that made it feel like they already cared about him, which was nice.

Ulrich found himself getting kind of excited, and maybe a little nervous, as he finished up what he needed to before bed. Becoming a girl was a practical need for him, but now that it was down to actually happening, he really did kind of wonder how he'd end up. Those in the house who'd been changed by it came in a variety of shapes, but he did notice that (apart from Polaris) they'd all wound up part-animal, with some fuzzy parts, if they weren't already. That'd be a new and interesting experience, he thought; such traits might also help him (rather, her) stick in the director's mind after trying out for the part.

He got into bed feeling fairly eager and excited, ready for it to happen..! But this had the ironic effect of making it harder for him to fall asleep, which delayed it instead. He wondered why they'd decided on "falling asleep" being the rule this magic worked under, rather than just having some object one touched or wore, or a food or drink one consumed, in order to change. Maybe this was easier? He'd have to ask one of the "magic experts" in the house later...

Eventually Ulrich did fall asleep.

He found himself in a little dressing room, the details of it not familiar though the context felt extremely clear. He was here to get ready to go out on stage, to play his part. He glanced around the room for a moment, trying to figure out where he was in the process of preparation. Did he have clothes? Make-up? Any props he needed? After a moment, he noticed a full-length mirror on a nearby wall, and...

...and walking up to it, the reflection it showed was very different from what he expected. "Whoa..what?" He looked down at himself, then back up again. "H..hahah!"

The mirror showed a cute, white-haired girl with tall furry ears, flowing white hair, and a big fluffy tail, wearing a white dress that showed off her neckline and cleavage, and which only went down to her thighs. "Heheh!" What Ulrich found funny about this was that, well, he was actually wearing that dress! And somehow hadn't even noticed it? Or...remembered it? How had he missed that? Maybe this was some kind of prank, he thought for a second—and if so, he could certainly appreciate the humor!

"Uh..hmm." He crossed his arms, and so did the cute reflection in the mirror. He remembered why he was here again—to get ready for his part—and thought about it for a moment. "Actually, I...yeah..." He realized that the mirror was showing what he was supposed to look like on stage. He was dressed, but (of all things!) it was his body that was wrong for the part. He needed to...somehow...change that? How?

He thought about it a moment longer, then reached a hand up to where the reflection showed a furry ear. The girl in the reflection was able to touch that ear of hers; when this happened, he felt that actual ear of his beginning to tingle sharply. "Oh..?" He put his other hand up to "touch" the other of her ears, and that one started tingling too. The sharp tingling turned into a pushing, stretching sensation, and soon he could feel his ears pushing out into place, running into his hands. "Ah..th-there we go...!" It was a nice feeling on both sides: Those ears were soft and warm to his hands, and his hands brushing through all that fur stimulated some rather sensitive nerves in the ears. "Mmh...mrr~rrrh..." Continuing to rub them brought a soft churring sound to his throat; the girl in the mirror's tail began to wag, and as it did, he felt another rush of tingling and stretching from his lower back. Soon he could feel a tail just like that waving back and forth through the air behind him, erupting in one more burst of tingling as its fur grew thick and long, and by the time he thought to let go of the ears and turn around to check, he found it already fully-grown to the very same size and shape.

"So..that's..hmm." Now that he had the ears and tail, Ulrich tried to think of what else he could do. He turned to the little make-up station near the mirror and picked up a brush. His reflection also found a brush, and—indeed—when he began to brush his hair, she brushed hers too. Bringing the brush beyond where his hair actually was caused a sharp tingling to hit his scalp, and his hair flowed out rapidly longer and longer. He caught sight of his bangs as their color faded through a light gray to the same pure, snowy white as in the mirror, and before he knew it he could feel those locks across his shoulders and back. "Ye~eah..?" He hadn't noticed it before, but his voice had changed a little bit during that churring; now it cracked slightly and came out higher still.

"O-oh..? Is..a~am I..?" Ulrich paused to look around the room; it seemed taller than before. It seemed, now that he'd gotten things started, his body was happy to continue in that direction on its own. Looking down at it, he saw his shoulders narrowing, his waist trimming inward, and his arms and legs growing slimmer. He hadn't noticed it before, but his chest and legs—exposed as they were by the dress—already seemed clean-shaven and smooth; a quick feel of his chin found it much the same. "I~I'm..r-re~eally..!" He brought the hand that had done that up in front of his face, then the other one too, dropping the brush to the floor with a brief clatter; before his eyes, those hands shrank smaller and softer, the fingers turning slender and delicate, and the nails even growing out a little longer, shifting into a perfectly-manicured shape.

His heart was racing; his face felt warm. The girl in the mirror had started out with a slight blush earlier, but now her face was as completely red as his felt. Ulrich realized that there was soft, tight underwear holding onto his hips, and that it was now pulling rather tight between his legs. "Oh..mm~mh..?" The upward motion of the room around him settled, leaving him small, soft, and cute; his voice, likewise, was leaving the male range for more adorable horizons. "Aa~ah...I-I'm really..o~ooh...!" A tingling between his legs started, then rapidly grew in intensity. "Aah...rr~rrrh..m-mnn~nnfh..!" Then it was a tugging, and slipping, and...!

"Aaa~AAA~AAAaaah..!" Ulrich's manhood vanished away, the panties hugging her hips pulling completely flat down there. "O-o~oh..m-my goodness..!" Her voice began to settle into a soprano just deep enough to be mature, yet still high enough to match her cute stature; at the same time, she could feel her hips and bottom pressing out bigger, her thighs thickening a bit, and her chest pushing up into the dress, some small breasts beginning to fill it out. "Heheh..hahaha~..! Y-yeah..!" She looked down to see her body looking more and more like the one in the mirror, and enjoyed the fuzzy feelings hitting her down between the legs. She could see where someone might think this sensation weird...but it was wonderful, too! She was really starting to look forward to being a girl for a while!

"Mmh, mm~mmh...mrrr~rrrnh...!" Her tail wagged excitedly as her lower curves settled into place, and her bosom began pushing out a little harder and faster. Soon she'd be..just as curvy as the reflection! Perfectly fit for the part! And...and then she could...? Something! It felt like a concept was on the tip of her mind, but she was a little too distracted by the tingly, girly feelings down there to fully grasp it. Either way—getting into character was what mattered most right now, so she could always figure that part out later!

"Aahh...mm~mnnh..." Finally, the new girl's bust finished growing, leaving her looking just exactly the same as what she'd seen in the mirror to begin with. She was about to look into that mirror again to double-check when there was a knock on the door. "Ah!" Quickly Ulrich turned to the door, starting that way. A knock like that could only mean—it was time for her cue! No time to waste!

"Mrr~rrrrrnnh..." She awoke to the feeling of sunlight on her skin, and slowly sat up in the bed. "Ah..oh..?" Looking down, she found herself in the same cute, curvy body as in the dream, with the same fluffy tail and snowy-white hair! Only..that hair was kind of a mess from tossing and turning in the bed, and she was in quite a state of undress right now—just a pair of panties and a nightshirt half-unbuttoned. Still—she could see herself smiling back in the reflection of the dresser across from the bed—it was perfect!

"Yeah!" Her eyes shone a bright, golden yellow; her teeth sported some fangs. She certainly hadn't expected being part-...some kind of canine, to feel this natural! Let alone being a girl, though that was certainly convenient. She hopped down to go up to the mirror and get a slightly closer look, running a hand through her hair.

"Look at you, cutie~! Aah, this is amazing! I'm so...so..?" She paused, tilting her head as her stomach audibly growled. "I'm...so...hungry!! Aaaaah!" With that, the new girl scampered straight toward the kitchen. She was starving!!!

The Next Chapter: 18

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The Next Chapter
Chapter 18: How Do You Like It?

"Oh. wow!"

The pale young woman stared impassively back as Tokanwa leaned in slightly to get a better look at her eyes. "Can you see through those?"

"Yyyeeeah?"

"That's amazing! I've never seen pitch black irises before. Though, now that I'm looking a tad closer, your pupils are a tiny bit darker still." She stood upright again. "I wonder if your epidermis is anything like a demon's—like, an actually different pigment, since it's definitely not an unhealthy complexion?"

"I appreciate a curious mind, but I'm not a science project, you know."

"Oh! Whoop, sorry. I'm Tokanwa," the werewolf introduced herself, shaking the shorter girl's hand. "You're Mary, right?"
"Guess you've heard of me, then."

"Uh-huh! Nice to meet you."

"..Same. But I think we're supposed to be going to the dining room now."
"Oh—right, right!" She hurried off that way, and the goth girl shuffled along slowly behind her.

"Okay, everyone—this is Ulrich." She heard Nancy's voice from inside the door, and opened it to find her gesturing at an unfamiliar guy standing next to her. "He says he wants to join up, so I offered to let him meet everyone this afternoon to see whether he'd be a good fit."
"Hi!" the guy waved. "Pleased to make you guys' acquaintance."

L'hoxifel was busy carrying dishes full of food out of the kitchen, and behind her—helping with the same task—was a brown-haired wolf-man who had to be Ed. The rest of OZK's members, aside from Mary, were seated at the table already. Tokanwa had had a chance to meet most of them already, but the two-tailed kitsune sitting across from Jay was new to her. They said their hellos to the newcomer while the werewolf went to take an open seat near the middle of the table, and Mary entered after that. Pretty soon everything was ready, and they were invited to tuck in.

The demon-girl's cooking was as delicious as it had smelled, of course. The whole group seemed like a lot of fun, some of them quiet and pensive while others were rowdy and energetic. Ulrich seemed to fit in with the latter crowd, and made no secret of wanting to join specifically so that the house's magic would turn him into a girl. Tokanwa thought this might be a kindred spirit—at least in that regard—and got into talking with him a little bit more. It turned out his desires were more practical than mere curiosity, but he didn't deny having at least a little bit of the latter anyway.

Someone asked Tokanwa about her major, and she energetically talked about some lab work she'd been doing recently. After a little of that, Nancy interrupted her by saying, "Uh, you like to work out too, right?" It turned out Camilla and Rob the cat-boy were on a basketball team, so the three of them talked about exercise routines and sports teams for a bit. Her ears could pick up some bits of other conversation along the way: Ulrich talking with Ed and Jay about video games, Polaris talking some kind of magic jargon with Kyosuke, and so on.

Near the conclusion of the meal, Ulrich said, "So—hey..what do you guys think? Do I pass? Can I join?"

A number of voices gave their various sorts of assent; Mary nodded. "Seems so," Nancy concluded once the noise died down.

"In that case, is anyone free tomorrow morning? As in, bereft of classes? I shall apparently have need of a chaperon to help buy garments and other necessities. It's crucial that I start living here as soon as possible!"

"Uh...why?" Ed asked.
"I must try out for that part tomorrow! Before the doors begin to shut on this glorious opportunity!"

"Well um..I guess, I don't have a class 'till one," he admitted.

"Anyone else?" Nancy asked the whole group. Tokanwa figured she wasn't really being asked, considering she wasn't even a member yet, and so kept quiet—not that she was free anyway. After a second or two of silence and/or head-shaking, she said, "Well, seems like you're up, Ed—if you don't mind helping us out a little. I'll give you the card and instructions later on~!"

"Uh..s-sure."

"Okay!" Jay suddenly stood up. "Anyone who wants to—let's play Smash!" she pumped her fist high into the air, as if this was a meaningful declaration.

"Uuhh.." Tokanwa's confusion as to what the phrase 'play smash' meant was matched by that of around a quarter of the others in the room.
"It's, a fighting game," Ed explained, his tone betraying a tiny bit of annoyance at Jay's failure to give any context. "Video game. Like, four-player competitive. Easy to pick up and play. There're some copies and consoles in the 'arcade', plus enough TVs..."

"Yeah! I'm so in," Ulrich said.

"I shall demonstrate my superiority easily!" Polaris announced.
Mary mumbled "You wish" in her characteristic monotone immediately after that.

"I, guess it sounds like fun?" Tokanwa said. "As long as it's really that easy to figure out."
"It should be," Camilla said. "I'll help you figure it out."

"I'll join second round," Ed added after most of the other members had announced intentions to participate. "Gonna, help with the dishes here first..."

Ultimately, Tokanwa's efforts to play this game amounted to largely—in the gamer vernacular—"button mashing". She still won several matches, however, thanks to Camilla helping her pick a good fighter for a beginner to play as. Ed showed up in female form around the third round, a slight blush on her cheeks, and seemed too flustered to play very well for her first couple of games. And by the end, Mary went completely undefeated, even coming out on top in a three-on-one match against the night's runners-up. It probably helped her that Polaris didn't seem to want to be a team player with those other two.

All in all, it was a fun evening. She did eventually need to say her goodbyes and head out to her apartment. Her things weren't going to pack themselves, after all!

---

After their tour of OZK's house, Alyssa and Beth headed to a Chinese restaurant in easy walking distance to get supper together. "Hey.." Alyssa asked once they'd been walking for a minute or two. "When you saw that...thing, coming out of Mary's back. Weren't you—weren't you terrified?"
"Uhhh, no? I mean—it was kinda freaky looking, but nothing to be scared of, really...considering the context. Heh, I thought it was kinda funny. Polaris must be enough of a jerk to deserve that kinda treatment sometimes, so if anything it's like, a good thing someone's around to keep her in line."

"Hmm." Alyssa thought carefully about how seeing it had made her feel. It wasn't that there was something conceptually scary in front of her, but her body had gone into fight-or-flight paralysis before the sight had even fully registered, and then her mind had followed suit. "Beth...I'm pretty sure, you actually passed a will save back there."
"What, really? Huh."

As they continued, they passed a couple of guys talking. "I'm telling you, man! A house full of cute girls! Full of them!" One of them was trying to convince the other of something, his body language animated and ecstatic.
The other one sighed, just seeming annoyed. "Whatever, man...I guess it takes that many to think you'd have a chance with one."

"Hey, c'mon, that's a low blow!"

"Well, I'm still not over the..."

They turned a corner out of earshot at about this point. "Do you think..?" Alyssa asked.
"Yeah. Don't know of any other thing that could really be about."

"Surely they'd reject someone with intentions like that."
"I dunno. You can't judge a book by its cover, right?"
"...Maybe not..."

Finally, they got to the front of the place, and the third member to join their eventual group. "H-hi," he said, waving. Zurik was a fellow freshman, a guy so short and scrawny that it seemed like puberty had forgotten to finish its job before he turned eighteen. He had black hair, blue eyes, and a generally nervous disposition—like how Alyssa was around strangers, only with everyone instead. She'd felt a certain empathy toward someone like that hoping to meet people and come out of his shell through DND, and had agreed to let him join the group on that basis alone.

"What do you uh..th-think? I-is the place any...any good?"
"It is pretty sweet," Beth said, giving a thumbs-up. "Plus we've got at least two more players."

"This should be an interesting group so far," Alyssa said. "And they'll let us use the space as 'guests' even if we don't join."

"Th-that's great!" The three of them headed inside to eat together and discuss the details.

---

The group cleared out fairly quickly—those who weren't off to play going elsewhere—and it wasn't long before Ed was left alone with L'hoxifel in the kitchen, working together to get the last few dishes into the dishwasher.

"So...uh..."
"You decided on a male form!" She stood up, pre-empting him, and waved her arms up toward him. "Heehee—sorry. I didn't get a chance to say much in all that noise, but you look great like that, Eddy~."
"Oh..um, g-good. I guess...it's still slightly weird, having fur, but I'm also just so used to it already..."

"Soo—!" She knew he was just babbling, and that it was fine to just interrupt him. She was leaning forward and slightly up with a grin. "I think I might like wolf-boys after all~. Let's finish up here and go somewhere with comfier seats."

"Uh...s-sure." Ed realized at this point that he actually was more used to how a girl's body reacted to someone cute flirting with 'her' than how his was reacting to that same stimulus now. His heart racing and tail wagging were nothing new, though.

The demon-girl grabbed his hand once they were done and led the way to the lounge (which was unoccupied) and then over in front of one of the couches. She reached her arms up toward him with an expectant expression. "Um.." Hoping he interpreted this correctly, Ed gently picked her up into a hug, and immediately she started petting his ears and sliding her tail on his! "Rrrufh!"

"Awwh~, that's kinda cute too," she mumbled in his ear once he started nuzzling her. "Ye~esss, I could get used to this~."

"Mmh...mrrrfh...!" While this still felt very good, he was getting a mounting urge to...

After a while, Ed pulled his head back a bit. L'hoxifel did the same, stopping when they could see into each other's eyes. "Fel. C-can um..could we..?"
"Yeah!" she seemed to read his mind, and enthusiastically pressed her lips into his. So he kissed her back, giving fully in to that urge. One of his hands was on the back of her head, pushing her toward him, and he found himself feeling unusually aggressive, not letting her out of it the first time she moved to try. The second time, he'd recovered enough self-control to pull out with her and let both of them catch their breath.

"Pffh...hahah..hffh...heehee..!" She giggled incoherently in between breaths. Ed thought he was hyperventilating at first, but it seemed like it was just a 'part-canine' thing to pant this fast. "Where've you been..haa~aahff..hiding that!?"

"Um..w-well, I've never kissed anyone before, s-so.."

"You're good at it, Eddy," she said, running a hand up and down his cheek, through the beard. "Again? One more?"
"Uh, s-sure...!"

She didn't want out of this one, it seemed. The demon-girl pushed so hard into him that he fell backwards and wound up sitting on the couch—which, maybe, explained why she'd maneuvered them to in front of one in the first place. Ed had to be the one to decide that they needed to come up for air, and was left gasping for breath even longer than the first time.

"Hffffh...." L'hoxifel's hand slid down his arm to hold one of his, her fingers tracing the edge of the ring currently keeping him male. "Eddy...I know it's greedy of me, but. I kinda want it both ways? Can I, take this off for a bit?"
If anything, this offer was something of a relief. After that second kiss, Ed's body was reacting like it wanted to do something...much more extreme than he felt anywhere near ready for. "S-sure, Fel," he nodded. "Um—d-don't lose it, though."
"I'd never!" She protested, sliding the ring down his finger and then seeming to let go of it. He didn't hear it hit the floor, but there were very swiftly other things to think about.

Ed, of course, began rapidly shrinking and shifting from the instant the ring was off. Only a couple of seconds changed him back into a girl (a soft "Aa~ah!" coming out of her mouth at that moment), and within a couple more her breasts pushed out to their usual size, pressing into the other girl's pair. L'hoxifel grinned at her for a moment, stroking her cheek again with a hand.

"Mm~mh...mrrfh." She felt like...reciprocating this gesture. It was a show of affection, after all. Ed pulled one hand from around the other girl's back to try to touch her cheek back, and bumped it clumsily into one of her horns instead. "Uh—sorry."
"Pffhaha~! Y-you can touch it if you wanna," she said, her face flushing redder than before.
"N-no, I mean—I was going for your cheek, s-so."
She grinned. "Touch it."
"O-okay!"

She gently slid her hand up and down L'hoxifel's horn for a moment. Its surface was largely smooth, with horizontal ridges that seemed to divide one section from the next. The end was a spike, but looked sharper than it felt. The demon-girl shut her eyes, smiling and letting out a soft "Mmm~mmh.." Eventually she pushed herself forward enough to press a nose into Ed's cheek and started petting the wolf-girl again.

For a few minutes, Ed lost track of time, and just enjoyed herself. She hadn't really...fully accepted how nice this kind of thing could feel for a girl until now. But something about L'hoxifel saying she liked 'both', the fact that she could turn back whenever now, made it feel like simply enjoying it wasn't going to trap her.

By the end of this, she was on her back with L'hoxifel on top of her. "Heh...this's nice, Eddy~," she said quietly. "We'd better stop before someone comes looking for you, though."
"Um..rr~rufh...y-yeah.." As soon as the demon-girl had pushed herself up enough to see her face, Ed gently placed a hand on one of her horns again. "Th-thanks, Fel."
"Oh?" She blushed brightly again, a terribly cute expression overall. "Heheh...n-no problem! Anytime!"

---

"I think I have a solution. Hopefully." Fritz had classes earlier on Tuesday morning than her roommate did, but they had agreed to wake up at the same time to try to sort out the 'Hendrix being turned into a dog-girl' problem. Even if the victim didn't seem to really consider it a problem.

"Sweet!" She gave an encouraging grin and a thumbs-up. "What've you got?"

"I've...hopefully..figured out how the ring works. To turn me back. So, I'll just..try to do that. Hold still..."

The blue-haired girl held up her right hand like she was getting ready to throw a baseball; a small ball of sparks gathered into the area that ball would be. Then she gently "tossed" it forward, and the ball floated over to the dog-girl's chest. She jumped slightly at the moment of impact. Then..

"Whoa...aa~aah..heheh! I think i~it's wo~orking..!" It took ten or twenty seconds, but by the end of it, Hendrix's body and clothes were back to normal—he was the same man he'd been before last night's accident. "Cool! You can just do that now! Isn't that awesome!?"

"I..guess so. But, uh, there is a problem." Felix took a moment to slip the actual ring on her own finger; standing across from her objectively handsome roommate as a girl was already feeling very awkward.

"Yeah?"

She waited out the transformation before continuing. Then he said, "Well—this ring would come off if I fell asleep with it on..and then I'd just turn back into a girl. So—I'm pretty sure that will go away if you go to sleep."
"Ah. Well, that's kinda inconvenient."
"...Sorry. I don't really know what I'm doing," Fritz admitted. "But—when they get someone to help me go permanently back to normal, I can take you along, and hopefully they can do something for you, too."

"Heh, well—'till then, I guess it's better if we both sleep as chicks anyway," Hendrix said. "But no napping in class for the next couple days, huh?"
"Not if you don't want to have some really awkward conversations."

---

Here it is! The first chapter of this story to not feature an image. But I don't consider that a huge deal. I think we're close to an average of 3 images per part anyway, and that was never really the most important thing. The next couple of parts will continue to have images, though.