A Summoning: Part IV

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IV
~Star~

“Wh—hey, lemme go! Cameron, seriously I swear—”

After being shoved inside, Andrew turned around to find that demon woman looking at him. “Uhhh.” Looking back out the door, Cameron had of course retreated back to the other end of the lounge, and Riana looked ready to begin scolding him. Then he turned forward again, to...her.
“You can go right back out if you want to,” she waved. “All the way outside even. Seriously, nobody's keeping you here.”

“...You know what, whatever. Fine.” He pushed the door shut and walked inside. Zotha was leaning against a comfy chair facing the door, and waved toward a chair just across from it. He slowly, cautiously walked up and took a seat, whereupon she slid herself around onto the opposite chair, sitting about halfway forward on it probably to leave room for her enormous wings and that tail. Then she steepled her fingers, smiling sweetly at him. “I think I recognize your voice,” she said, “you're the one who tied the ropes, right?”

“Uh, yeah...sorry about that, really,” he said, putting a hand behind his head. What had he been thinking? Well, he probably just hadn't been thinking. Lately whatever Jerod told him to do, he did, like a good little cult member. He was too terrified of what the others could do to him if he didn't.

“On the contrary, I'm glad you convinced them I didn't need to be blindfolded or gagged. That stuff probably wouldn't have slipped off of me so easily. Anyway, you managed to get them tight enough to hold me without them actually cutting into me or anything, which is nice. How's your eye doing?”
“Um..” He unconsciously brought up a hand to poke near it a couple of times. “It's a little sore, but uh..no offense but you didn't really hit it all that hard.”

“Believe me, I know,” Zotha said, shaking her head with a look of mild disappointment at herself—her past self, maybe. “Anyway—what is it you want the most?” She dropped her hands and leaned in toward him slightly, her tail flicking back and forth like a cat's.

“W-well, uh...”

“Take your time. I know I wouldn't want to rush a free wish,” the demon-girl said.

“Do you even need wishes? After that ritual, you're practically some kinda god,” he said.

“Is that so?” Zotha headtilted slightly. “I haven't asked for the details of it all quite yet. I was under the impression that he thought it summoned a 'demon lord' into the target body from elsewhere, when in fact it just gave me the power of one. But it would explain what I've been feeling ever since then...”
“Uh—so like—he kept telling everyone in the cult exactly what kind of demon lord it would summon—a beautiful, powerful woman who would rule over us and make all our dreams come true or whatever.”
“I sorta remember that speech, yeah,” she nodded.
“And—well, I don't think I was supposed to overhear this, but one time Parker asked him why he kept emphasizing and repeating that, every time we got a new member and more, and he said something about how the ritual would make what everyone believed it would. He said if not enough of us believed, or we didn't have enough of a 'solid vision', then it wouldn't work at all. It reminded me about some stuff I read, like you know, how in some fantasy stories gods 'eat' people's belief in them and sorta are what their believers collectively see them as.”

“That sounds...spot-on, honestly. I should probably see if Jess still has the original reference for—wait, I think we got off track somewhere.”

Zotha cleared her throat emphatically. “What I meant was, I wouldn't want to rush a free wish if I wasn't some kind of..demon deity or whatever I am now. Like I was the day before yesterday.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry.” Andrew looked around the room for a minute or two. “Can you..do...like, immortality?” All that talk of gods had him thinking about the fact that they lived forever. As far as wishes went, living forever—or at least a lot longer than a piddly human lifespan—sounded neat.

“I don't think I can make you invincible. Heck, I'm not invincible; I can say that with confidence,” she said.

“I don't mean—like obviously if someone stabs me or shoots me I expect to die. Just, like, you know—I don't grow old and get weak and sick and useless and then wither away,” he said.
“Ah! Eternal youth,” Zotha nodded. “That's way more manageable, we just need to come up with an acceptable method. Well, hm. Technically doing what I did with Jess tied her to me and I can keep her young as long as I like, but I can only have one high priest or priestess at a time...apparently. My powers keep telling me new things, it seems. Obviously I have magic that can youthen a person or make them healthy...I don't want you to have to come back to me every thirty years or so for that, though. Since I exist it's not unfathomable that there's a fountain of youth or whatever out there that we could find and use, but those things tend to run the risk of overshooting. Nngh, it's surprisingly difficult to keep a human from growing old,” she said, getting slightly frustrated.
“A human, huh,” Andrew said.

“Just..spitballing here, but uh..what are the alternatives? Is there some way I could, y'know, look mostly human but be something with a way longer lifespan?”
“Oh! That's a great idea,” she said. “Let's see, let's see..Kitsune. I could try making you one of those; they never get old and they have a nice suite of powers too. You may even keep yourself alive in a lot of situations you'd die from as a permanently young-adult human.” She closed her eyes, seeming to think to herself for a second or two, and then opened them again, putting a hand to her lips. “Uhhm, this is sort of weird to say—I can try to make you one but it's not up to me if it 'takes' or not.”

“If it doesn't work we can just think of something else though, right?” he said, crossing his arms.
“Yep! There are other options, but this sounds like the most convenient one. Now let me see...there's a certain sort of ceremony to this. We'll need to both stand up.” Zotha got up, and Andrew followed suit; she strode a little closer, about an arm's length away. “Okay. Let's see if this works.”

The demoness took in a deep breath, and spoke in a strangely echoey, powerful-seeming version of her usual voice. “A ғʀᴀɢᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴏғ ᴍʏ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ I ᴏғғᴇʀ ʏᴏᴜ, ᴄᴏɴᴠᴇʀᴛᴇᴅ ɪɴᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴀɪʟ ᴏғ ᴀ ғᴏx..” She raised her hands up into the air, forming a bright purple glow in each; she then lowered them and placed them together; the glow gathered and coalesced into something resembling a ball of purple fur the size of Andrew's head. She looked him in the eye with a serious expression, her bright yellow eyes blazing with power and making the entire rest of the room seem pitch dark by comparison. “Dᴏ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀᴄᴄᴇᴘᴛ ᴛʜɪs ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ, Aɴᴅʀᴇᴡ?”

“Uh—yes. I do,” he said, nodding slowly.

“Tʜᴇɴ ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪs ᴛᴀɪʟ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʜᴀɴᴅs,” she said, reaching her arms out toward him with the ball of fur on them.
“Um..” Andrew carefully put his hands on either side of the fur and tried to pick it up. It felt impossibly soft and warm, and despite its size the fluffball was surprisingly light and easy to move. Once it was out of her hands, the demon-girl dropped her arms with a small sigh, and the glow and sense of power from her faded. Meanwhile, the “tail” faded in color from purple to white, and then glowed steadily brighter.

Half-mesmerized, Andrew lifted the ball closer to his face. He felt unable to even contemplate letting go of it, but he still had enough presence of mind to speak. “Is, it supposed to be—” he got out before the glow abruptly brightened into a blinding flash, and he felt something not easily described—like the fur itself burying its way into both of his hands simultaneously, and snaking its way up his arms, through his shoulders, up through his head and all the way down his torso and legs. When that sensation reached his ears they instantly flipped upward, each one growing in a fraction of a second into a giant, fuzzy white triangle—somewhat like the ear of a fox—and after it had finished filling his entire body he felt a push from his lower back as a thick, fluffy tail sprouted and, a bit more slowly than the ears, grew until it was as long as half his height, covering itself in thick fur—pure white like his ears, except for the third or so of it that included its tip, which sported a brilliant, hot pink instead. He curled it around in front of him instinctively as it grew, and witnessed the thickening of fur and the pattern of colors himself; he put his hands on either side of the tail and felt them running down the fur—both his hands experiencing the same warm, fluffy kind of fur as they had held a moment ago and the new appendage feeling hands moving across it, which was itself a curiously pleasant sensation.

The instant they appeared, the gigantic ears and the tail felt natural to him; there was no sensory confusion from the feeling of air across all of that brand new fur, no difficulty balancing with a significant weight now coming from his lower back. If anything he felt better-balanced than he ever had before, and had a curious sense that his hearing had been at best half as well as he should be for his entire life until these new ears appeared. But in the midst of all of that, one unusual detail hadn't quite escaped Andrew's attention.

As his tail slid its way back behind him and his hands brushed past the last part of it, he muttered to himself: “Pink?” It was an expression of curiosity at why his tail had taken on such a hue—mild confusion at worst. But unfortunately for him, it appeared to also immediately trigger a certain effect. He felt something soothing and warm wash over his body as it gained a bright pink glow all around it; he shuddered at a cool tingling running across his skin and blinked a couple of times at the sight of pure white locks sliding their way down before his eyes as his hair grew out almost as rapidly and enthusiastically as his tail had just a second earlier.

Andrew reached his hands up and brushed his hair aside, out of the way of his eyes; it seemed to naturally fall into place, shorter locks from the front and side of his head framing his face while the rest trailed all the way down his back to the bottom of his waist. It felt soft, much nicer than it usually did—and, it hadn't escaped his notice either that it was snowy white now, like most of his fur. Also, now that his arm was raised he could see that the body hair had vanished from it—and an accidental touch of his palm to his cheek as he brushed away the hair discovered equally smooth skin there, suggesting that the beard was simply gone from his face too.

“W, wha...I, I'm...?” The warm sensation invited him downward—that didn't make any sense, but it was the best he could have hoped to describe it in words. As a result he shrank, rapidly becoming both thinner and shorter. His clothes mostly hugged even closer around him despite this, his shirt growing longer sleeves as it held tight against his swiftly narrowing shoulders and slimming waist. His pants grew tighter around his legs as they became smaller and smaller, but looser around his hips—which grew rather than shrinking, becoming wider with his bottom slowly puffing out. He stared down at the floor slowly rising up, his clothes shifting on his transforming body, and then looked up at the demoness, who was watching with what seemed to be an expression of curiosity mixed with a tinge of concern. “Zotha, wh—” he started to ask, but his throat made a croaking noise instead of the second word's vowel. Not dissuaded, he tried again: “What's—” and stopped short again, hearing a voice he hadn't had since turning sixteen come out. He brought a hand (a much smaller one than had held his tail just a few seconds ago!) to his throat in surprise, and found it smooth, missing its adam's apple. “What's ha~appening to me~ee~ee..?!” he managed through more cracking and squeaking, each one leaving his voice sounding younger, ending up like that of a young boy trying to imitate his father.

“Some sort of...side-effect?” Zotha suggested, as his vertical shrinking slowed to a halt; the top of her head had risen from his lower chest to nearly his chin. Then his pants split apart at the thighs, the leggings turning into soft black cloth and hugging his slim legs close while the rest fluttered and combined into a patterned skirt mostly the same shade of pink as the tip of his tail. “It doesn't hurt, does it?” she said, her head tilting ever so slightly and the concern growing marginally more prominent in her expression.

“No, but I,” Andrew started, and squirmed back and forth, feeling heat in his cheeks at a tingly sensation down between his legs. “I fe~eel we~eei~rrd,” he said, his voice changing still more as he did so. Its pitch dipped slowly downward again, seeming to re-mature..but to do so all wrong. It sounded like a teenage...girl's now? “Mngh..!” As he thought this, he felt the tingling grow stronger. It was distressingly nice, and it made his ears slowly lower themselves toward the horizontal, his tail swish back and forth behind him a little faster in an increasingly pleased, submissive gesture. He felt his tongue growing longer and a curious sensation from his teeth as they gained sharper, longer fangs in place of human canines. “Mrr~rrh..?” Then he made a noise like an animal, still in that teenage-girl voice, as he felt his underwear rapidly tighten between his legs, the suddenly ultra-soft cloth finding much less to constrict against than it really should be.

“I, I..? Zo~otha, I'm a—a boy..right..?” he said half-deleriously, and immediately wondered why he'd used the word 'boy' instead of 'man'. His voice matured again, sounding even more feminine as it deepened. “Aah, aa~ah..!” The tingling got stronger again, and his underwear changed into a pair of panties in that moment, squeezing what little was still there uncomfortably close.

“Well—not for much longer, would be my guess,” the demoness said, frowning slightly. Her concern had disappeared entirely, replaced with what seemed like a purely intellectual interest.

“MrrRRrh~nn...n-no no NOo~oo!” Andrew stopped himself mid-vulpine-churr and shook his head back and forth, his hair audibly swishing and his ears flopping along with the motion. “I'm a boy not a girl,” he said in a deep, womanly alto, and felt the thing down there starting to pull inward. He tried to will it to stop, to go back out, his body to change back. “I'm a girl not a boy!” he repeated—and then clapped a hand over his mouth when he realized that it had come out in the wrong order. But it was too late to take it back, it seemed, as a pleasant sensation accompanied the final melting away of Andrew's manhood, and his hand slipped down off of his mouth, and then slowly slid along the center of his torso, while he let out a deeply feminine “MmnnnaaaAAA~Aahh~!” at the feeling of her sex fully changing down there, the panties pulling comfortably flat against new equipment as a gentle push coursed its way upward into the pit of her stomach—the growth of every little thing she needed to be a full-fledged woman.

She blushed brightly, her face burning with embarrassment and..ashamed enjoyment of the feelings down there. “Aah..w-wha..why..?” she mumbled as her chest began to tingle. She looked down to find her shirt converted into a long-sleeved, black blouse with white trim and a pink sort of tie-thing around her neck, a giant bow hanging down over her chest that matched the pattern of her skirt. She patted that still-flat chest with one hand, and discovered a bra underneath while a thick pink scarf wrapped its way around her neck, its ends hanging down between her long, voluminous hair and her back. “N-no no nonono,” she muttered, pressing her small, delicate hands ineffectually against each side of the bra as her chest began to push forward. It filled the tiny piece lingerie in no time, deeply sensitive new skin brushing against the soft cloth of both it and her top.

“No~ooh~mm, mrrh, mrrr~rrh..” Her protests disintegrated into more vulpine churrs as her womanhood informed her of just how much she liked this sensation (whether she liked it or not!), and the little bumps began to grow out faster, straining the bra until it was seemingly forced to expand itself out to a new cup size to accommodate them. “Mrrn, ahn..” The fox-girl fought hard against the wonderful sensations and the growing breasts, but it was all in vain; her voice betrayed the sheer pleasure she was feeling as she grew steadily more addicted to it. “AaaAAa~ahn, yip! Y-yip!” Her eyes fluttered closed, her ears all the way down and her tail wagging like an eager puppy's, as her hands slid up the growing breasts, on top of them, and retreated a short way into her slightly overlong sleeves. She made more helplessly cute, high-pitched yips and barks as her bra size grew again, and again, and her breasts kept on surpassing it, until finally she was left with an enormous pair of globes that not even the loosest of clothing could ever hope to hide—and which were presently housed in a perfectly-sized bra behind a rather tight top.

“Aah-arf! Y-yip! Mnh, mrrr~rrrh...” The fox-girl churred softly, finally feeling the undeniable, intense pleasure subside and her mind hazily, slowly return to her own control.

She opened her eyes slowly, panting softly and still blushing quite a bit, her hands still on top of her gigantic breasts. Later she would learn that her eyes had also turned that characteristic hot-pink color of hers while shut. The similarly pink glow had persisted throughout the entire change, but was gone now. She hadn't shrunk very much; she was pretty tall for a girl, but—well, still very much a girl now, with amazing curves, gigantic breasts, and hair all the way down to her shapely bottom. Her clothes weren't much help either: Thigh-high black stockings, a short skirt, and a tight dark blouse that left little of her figure to the imagination. She watched the demoness in front of her for a moment, deeply embarrassed that anyone had seen (or heard) what just happened—how she had just reacted to it especially.

At the same time, she could feel power washing through her body and mind—power over illusions, form, the elements of fire and wind. She became subtly aware of three more tails besides the one obviously behind her back, ready to be summoned into visibility if she wanted, but their power available to her always. In short, she became fully aware of herself and her newfound abilities as a Kitsune. She lowered her hands down to her sides as she fully caught her breath, dreading to speak for a moment in fear it might somehow trigger something else, something even worse. But after a moment she did find her voice.

“W-why did it turn me into a girl?!” she said. “I-is, are Kitsune a female-only race or something stupid like that?!”
“No..this really does seem unusual,” the demoness said. “From the moment you became a Kitsune, a curse appeared on you..I certainly didn't do it, which I think can only mean one thing.”
“A c-curse? What kind of curse?” She stepped forward and grabbed the demon deity by the shoulders. “What's it do?”
“Uhh..I don't know if I should tell you, you probably really won't like it. I mean, if you haven't already guessed.” Zotha pressed gently against her arms, and the fox-girl let go of her shoulders and dropped her arms again, feeling defeated already.
“It makes me a girl, doesn't it? And, what, I can't change back? I can't even say 'I'm a girl' without it turning into 'I'm a girl'. Is that it?”
“Pretty much,” she nodded, guessing correctly that her intended first hypothetical phrase had also been corrupted by the effect. “I was gonna say you have enough power, and Kitsune are good with shapeshifting anyway, to turn back, but with that going on I guess not. That's some pretty strong stuff, too; I...don't think even I can break it.” She said this last bit with a slight tinge of worry, evidently encountering the first thing she was not powerful enough for.

“Wh-who put it on me, then?!” she demanded. “Shouldn't you be protecting your followers or something?”

“Well..like I said, it wasn't up to me if becoming a Kitsune 'took' or not,” Zotha said. “Technically you're under the authority of someone else too now, just from being one.”

“Y-you mean..” Her ears drooped. “Nnn, I swear I can hear someone laughing at me.” It wasn't physical sound, but 'hearing' still seemed the right sense for what she was perceiving.
“That'd be her,” the demoness said. “Her? I didn't know that until I said it, interesting. Hmm.” She tapped her head a couple of times with a finger. “Okay..even more interesting. I have the feeling that 'I helped you cheat and gave you enough power for four tails when you didn't even have the potential for two before. So this is your punishment for cheating. It'll go away when you earn a tail by your own efforts.' That's a...weirdly specific feeling.”

“Greeeaat...” The vixen's entire body deflated in despair.
“Oh, and—'What do you think the chances are you don't grow to like that better than your ugly old self by then? Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha, ha'.” Her tone of voice during the 'laugh' was completely flat, as if reading it very poorly off of a cue card. “Okay, you can stop doing that now, whoever,” Zotha said, shaking her head with an annoyed expression.

The Kitsune grabbed her ears in her hands and pulled them downward, a natural-feeling expression of discontent. “Now I really can hear her laughing at me! Ugh, this was a terrible idea...”

“Well, it's not the worst thing in the world, is it?” the demoness said. “Similar thing happened to me, so I can relate. You are eternally young now! And you've got some phenomenal powers of your own, too. I'm sure you'll feel better once you get a chance to try those out. Just think positive, hmn?” She said, reaching out and lifting the vixen's chin with her hand slightly.

“Okay, okay...” She wrung her hands a bit. “But you better help me get that fifth tail! Not—in a cheaty way, obviously, the curse would prolly get worse then, but there's gotta be some help you can give me to earn the power to change back.”

“I'm sure there is,” Zotha nodded. “Absolutely certain. That voice from earlier isn't denying it either, and I can feel she would if it weren't so. Oh, hey,” she said, seeming to suddenly realize something, “would you try something for me?”
“Hmn?”
“Try saying 'my name is Andrew'.”
“Uhh...” This seemed like a pointless exercise. “My name is Anika,” she said. “Mmph!” And put her hand over her mouth again, surprised at her disloyal tongue. “Nonono, that's not right. I-it's Anika! Anika? Aaah-nee-kaaah. Uuugh...” She slumped in defeat again.
Zotha gave a small sigh, “About as I expected. Can you say 'my name is Samantha', even though it isn't?” she asked.

“My name is Samantha,” she tried. Her ears flipped upward for a second on realizing it had worked, and she tried her real name once more: “It's not, though, it's really Anika! Grrrr...” She made an animal growl, her ears lowering again and her tail sticking up in an annoyed expression.

“You're allowed to tell people a different name as long as you perceive it to be a girl's. But you default to 'Anika', at least for the moment,” the demoness said. “If you don't like it we can think of something else, maybe?”
“Noo...it's fine,” she said. “We'll get rid of this curse soon enough and then it won't matter!”

“That's the spirit,” Zotha nodded encouragingly. “Now, I know I felt better after flexing my new powers a little bit. You wanna try that?”

“Okay.” The vixen crossed her arms (under her boobs, which already felt more normal than she knew it should). “Let's see...” She raised a hand, and made a pink fire appear in it. Then she waved her other hand, and a light breeze blew through the room for a second, running across her fur and fluttering her hair and skirt a bit. “I can do way more than that, but I probably shouldn't in here,” she said, closing her hands. “How about..” She made a spinning motion with one of her hands, and a white wind-like effect swirled around her for a moment, making an illusion of Zothra around her. To the eye they looked positively identical. “I guess you can see through this, though,” she said, in a perfect match to the demoness's voice.

“Yeah, because you look like me and did it right in front of me. I dunno if I'd catch on so quick otherwise, and it's fairly resilient to dispel attempts too,” she said. “Not that I couldn't manage at least that.”
“Heehee. Feeling a little defensive after seeing a curse you can't lift?” the Kitsune said in a teasing tone. Even though a part of her thought it was a bad idea to poke the ultra-strong goddess, another (new?) part couldn't help the urge to mock and tease, just a little bit. “Let's see what else~.” She waved her arms again, and produced an illusion of her previous appearance. “Aha! I can—wait.” Her voice was still that default 'Anika' voice. And on closer inspection, the illusion was actually that of a particularly flat-chested girl of a moderately similar build passing for Andrew by wearing his clothes. “Grr, this curse is so annoying,” she said.
“Still, that'd be good enough to keep from spooking Cameron. I get the impression he'd bolt at the slightest mention of you two turning into girls,” Zotha said.
“You...two?” The fox-girl returned to her normal appearance with a brief pink fire-like motion, her ears one-up, one-sideways in confusion/curiosity.
“Perhaps it's better you see it for yourself,” the demoness suggested. “You're feeling a little better now that you know how powerful you are, right?”

“Yeah..I think I am,” she nodded. “This isn't even a fraction of the tricks up my sleeve, heehee~!” Anika said with a bright, cute smile. The idea of using those tricks to..well, trick, was sounding better all the time. “I'll earn that fifth tail in no time with all this!”

“Confidence is good,” Zothra said with a little nod. “Now—go help Parker convince the others to come if you can. No forcing, though.”
“Yep!” A brief flash of white wind put her back in the 'almost-Andrew' glamour (this time with a deeper, if still female, voice) and she turned and strode confidently out of the door.

Outside, a squeaky, breathy voice Anika didn't recognize was saying: “Yep, she made me super smart. So how about it, Cam? I'm sure you'd like to lose that pudge.” The owner of the voice was a small, cute bespectacled girl with two long braids of light brown hair, who now poked Cameron right in said overweight gut. Now that she was looking at her, the Kitsune could 'feel' the presence of an illusion, and perceive its effect on the other two in the room: Cameron and Riana saw and heard Parker where she saw a petite little girl and heard her adorable voice.
“I dunnoooo..” Cameron was putting on a token show of resistance.
“Come on, are you chicken?”

“I ain't chicken!” he said, insulted.
“Well, go get what you want then. It worked for me~,” she said. The feminine lilt in her voice didn't carry into the illusion.

“Hey Andrew!” Cameron waved, noticing Anika and taking any opportunity to distract himself from the conversation with Parker. “What'd you get, huh?”

“I'm immortal now,” she said, trying her best to affect a masculine tone. “And I have some neat powers of my own, too. You'll, ah, you'll totally flip when you see them.” It occurred to her that nobody present seemed to be asking about the...somewhat loud noises she'd made while in that room. That meant it was a secret between her and Zotha; she could only be so fortunate.

“Nnrrrgh...okay, that's it!” he announced. “I'm goin' in! Don't try to stop me!” Nobody was, although his girlfriend was sporting quite the facepalm by this time. With that, Cameron barreled straight into Jess's room. Probably somewhere in that head of his he'd decided that was less risky than entering the room with the literal demon in it. Or—realistically—maybe he wasn't thinking at all, and it was just the closer of the two doors.

Riana sighed once the door shut. “I really don't think it's a good idea to just give him whatever he wants,” she said.
“Come on, this is your boyfriend you're talking about,” Parker said. “How bad can it be?”
“Some people,” she said with a glare, “shouldn't get wishes yet. Some people need to grow up first. I guess I'll see whether our new 'lord and master'” (she used a deeply sarcastic tone for this phrase) “can help with damage control.” With that, she strode into the demoness's room. The tiny, brown-haired girl crossed her arms and watched Riana go with a pleased smirk.

“People are so easy,” she said, and then turned to Andrew. “You look a little different. In fact you look just like a girl in boy's clothing. What happened to you, hmn?”
“Uh..” With a small wave, Anika dispelled her illusion, a small flare of pink fire revealing the excessively womanly form she was stuck with for the moment. “Things...lots of things. Not all of them pleasant.” Some of them way too pleasant. “You?”
“I became a super genius, just like I said,” she declared with a hand proudly placed on her chest. “It cost a few things I don't care about—like manhood” (she added in a rapid near-whisper, which Anika's gigantic fuzzy ears had no trouble hearing) “—but it was worth it.”

Then she took a second, pausing and looking up at the fox-girl, the bottom of whose chest the top of her head failed to clear. “Hey...why'd you get to stay so tall?!” the small girl demanded with her hands on her hips.