A Summoning: Part IX

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IX
~Judgement~

“So..um, maybe I didn't mention it before now but these woods are...fairly big?” Jess said. “I mean, they're not that huge, but they're a little big for two people to canvas on foot, is all.”

“Worry not, my dear little priestess~. It's an easy thing for me to reach out with my power and sense people or animals in a certain radius. I'll just do that and move us to the nearest person who still seems to be in the forest,” Zotha explained.
“Oh! That's nifty.”
“Yep. Now..”

The demoness closed her eyes, and her body faintly glowed purple as she 'felt' for nearby entities. Leaving aside herself and Jess, the nearest person still surrounded by trees was...not too far from the concrete monument she'd attained her powers at. She even got a sense of what position that person was in: Sitting awkwardly on all-fours in a seeming imitation of a dog's posture. That was probably their guy.

“Got it. Now, hmn...he's under the control of his animal side, and I imagine a werewolf will have rather good senses and reflexes. I'm going to appear us a short ways behind him; you get ready to use my power to hold him in place, and then I'll take care of the rest,” she advised.
“Right!” Jess gave a determined nod, after which Zotha made a swift motion of shadow, transporting them instantly to their target location.

The priestess took in a breath, just enough warning for the wolf-man to turn and stand before she spoke a single, heavily emphasized syllable of the language of Zotha's prayer, holding out her hand. He pounced toward her, arm raised to attack, but the purple glow snared him in place, floating in the air. The midair position gave them both a better view of him: Thick beard on his face, deep red eyes, and long, predatory teeth in his mouth; his short brown hair and the beard were a complete mess, brambles and grass and some of what might have been blood staining them in places. He was a bit on the tall side, his muscular torso partially covered by the torn shreds of what had probably been a t-shirt at some point and similarly torn jeans covering his legs only to the knees. From that point down his legs were covered in deep, rough brown fur, ending in tall, wolfish paws with sharp canine claws; his arms were similarly furry from the elbows down, with a paw-like hand bearing pads on the palms and long, hard claws in place of fingernails.

He struggled against the hold ineffectually, growling angrily for a second or two. Then the rage in his eyes turned abruptly to a fearful, wide-eyed expression, and he shuddered briefly in place, looking between the two of them. “P-please...rr...run..!” he said slowly, seemingly fighting another angry growl the entire time.

“There'll be no need for that,” Zotha said, taking a small step forward. She spread her arms out, hands toward him. She uttered a command, pressing her full might behind it: “Bᴇ ᴛᴀᴍᴇᴅ.” Her magic's usual purple glow spread out from each palm, wrapping around his body like ropes before seeming to sink into his skin. He growled angrily, his eyes going wild as the wolf took over again, and fought against Jess's hold once more, with no better results than the first time. Then the demon goddess's command began to take effect.

The werewolf shrank ever so slightly, his muscles just perceptibly softening while the beard and the fur on his limbs thinned slightly. Then he growled, the wolf fighting it, and the changes reversed. Zotha could see a small flicker of worry in Jess's face, but kept her hands spread, knowing that this resistance wouldn't be enough. He shrank again, a little farther than before this time, and when he gave an angry bark the regained muscle, height, and fur wasn't quite as much as it had been the first time. He struggled a little more as he shrank down, slightly past the point he'd reached before, and growled again, growing back less than he had with the recent bark. And then his expression changed again, becoming the wide-eyed human one but with a touch of confusion at what he was now feeling. “W-wha..?” He muttered as the shrinking accelerated, Zotha's power taking advantage of the lapse in resistant willpower to take away a significant chunk of his strength, wildness, and size. The beard became short, the fur from his elbows to his wrists and from his knees to his upper ankles turning to ordinary body hair.

He barked a few times, fighting once again, but was only able to grow half his regained height and muscle, the fur evidently lost to him for good. Then he made a distressed whine and squirmed in place as he shrank back to his latest minimum size and his head-hair emitted a brief shower of purple sparks, turning clean and soft all at once. “Rrgh...Rruf! Rrr..rrf?” He made a few much more confused barks, continuing to squirm as he lost another couple of inches of height and his hair spilled out down his shoulders and back, reaching as far as his upper chest in the back while the bangs framed a face which now featured only sparse stubble instead of any proper beard.

Master...are you..? Jess asked, curious, as the werewolf barked and growled aggressively again and slowly regained one inch of height and a little bit of muscle, but his hair remained the same.

I'm fighting that feral wolf side's willpower, so it's much easier to do this within my 'nature', Zotha replied. If he doesn't like it once he's sane, then I can put it back again.

His human side took over once again now. “Aah..I-I feel...rrf..!” He squirmed in place again as the fur fell away from his paws, returning them to the form of human hands and feet, and the long claws on his hands shrank into pink, manicured nails. He quickly lost a full foot of height and his muscles went from extremely toned to barely visible as his body and facial hair thinned away to nothing, leaving his skin soft and smooth.

The wolf growled again, taking back quite a bit of muscle but barely any height, and failing to regain its paws, fur, or even the body hair. It lost much of what it had recovered almost instantly afterward, even as it barked a few times, each time a little higher in pitch, trying to resist the increasingly pleasant feeling the transformation was giving it between its legs. Zotha now focused her power on continuing that, as the werewolf's barks descended into more submissive whines and yips, his soft, round face gaining a prominent blush. This was the tipping point, the wolf side enjoying the change too much to continue to resist it.

“Aah, rrf...ruff...rr..w-wha~aaa...?!” His wolf side fell away from dominance, leaving his equally-confused human side to squirm in place and make confused sounds in a voice that already sounded fairly feminine. “Aah, aaAArrrf...!” The fur of his ears and tail changed, cleaning itself in a shower of purple sparks just like his hair had and turning soft and fluffy. His muscles faded completely now, his shoulders narrowing and his flat stomach slimming while his hips puffed out ever so slightly.

The human and wolf side momentarily lost distinction as his sex changed. “Y-yip! Ah, aah, aaahhrroooOOOooo~!” The new girl howled, her eyes shut and her head tilted up toward the sky.

“Aah..rrf..!” The howl had left her voice—including the wolfish sounds—higher and squeakier than even Jess's, as her ears now lowered to the sides of her head, her tail wagging rapidly in complete submission. Her chest puffed forward steadily now to the tune of some increasingly excited and happy barks and yips alongside the occasional girlish “Aah~” or “Ohh~”, until her body was undeniably that of a woman.

Zotha nodded to her priestess, and Jess gently lowered her onto the ground, where she landed on her hands and knees, her eyes still shut and her tail still wagging just as quickly. With a gentle wave of the demoness's hands, the scraps of cloth on her torso pulled together into a white, long-sleeved top that barely reached far enough down to cover her new fairly large bust, while the scraps of denim recombined into a pair of extremely short shorts hugging her hips atop a pair of tight bike shorts reconstructed out of the leggings of some partly-torn boxers.

“Aah~...hff..hff...” The werewolf girl panted slowly as Zotha's magic, finished with its work, stopped affecting her body, and her eyes slowly opened up, her head turning upward toward the goddess and her priestess.
“W-wah! Get away!” She popped back to her feet, holding up her small hands and manicured nails in what may have been intended as a threatening gesture—but failed utterly, only looking cute instead. “I don'-wanna hurtchu!” She was rather on the short side now, the tips of her ears matching the top of Jess' head.

“You've little chance of doing that,” Zotha informed her, crossing her arms. “Anyway, you should be in control of yourself now.”
“I..” Her arms lowered down to her side, and she looked around with a confused expression for a moment. “I don't...oh! I don't wanna eat people anymore!” she realized aloud. “Rrf! That's great! Did you do that?!” she said excitedly, looking between the two of them.
“Seems so,” Jess said.
“Yip! I'm so happy~!” With no further warning, the werewolf girl pounced at Jess, grabbing her into a hug and proceeding to lick her cheek affectionately.

“H-hey! Get offa me! OFF!” The priestess pushed her off and back onto her butt on the forest floor, taking a large step back and shaking her head as if hoping to clean it that way. “Uck, gross...”
“Let me clean that up for you,” Zotha said, doing so with a brief wave of her hand. Then, toward the other girl: “Please don't do that again.”

“Mmh? But, how'm I supposed to say thank you then?” she said, lowering one ear in confusion.
“You could...just say thank you?” Jess suggested, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, okay! Thank you!” Her ears popped straight back to vertical, her tail wagging rapidly while she looked up at the two of them. “I hated being all growl-y and mean and stuff, and you fixed me! It's like the big, mean ol' wolf turned into a nice li'l puppy!”

“I..suppose that's one way of describing it,” Zotha said. “So..who are you exactly?”

“Um...?” She frowned, initially struggling to understand the question and then finding herself uncertain how to answer once she did.
“Your name? You've got a name, don't you?” Jess said.
“Uh...yes...but...” The wolf-girl whined a couple of times. “Not one I can remember...”
The priestess's eyes widened. “Y..you have amnesia? You can't be serious!”

“B-but I am,” she protested, sounding like she expected to be scolded for it.

“It's certainly not good, anyway,” Zotha said. “What..can you remember?”
“Um..uh..I remember..the first thing I can remember is seeing the moon, and it hurting a lot.” She paused, wincing deeply in remembered pain. “...A whole lot. And then, after that, running through a lot of grass and trees and on some, some hard stuff..um...concrete? Yeah,” she nodded to herself. “And some yelling at people to get away 'cause the wolf was hungry, and wanted to eat them...but I didn't want him to, didn't wanna hurt people so I had to keep telling him no,” she said. “I had to let him eat some squirrels and deer and things..oh, ew, yuck!” She made a pinched face, realizing this. “Aah, that's disgusting!”
“Better than eating people, though,” Jess pointed out. “So, nothing else? No clear reason why you can't remember?”

“I um..well. The wolf was so mad I wouldn't let him chase after what he wanted, to eat, so he..he ate me,” she said slowly. “I remember..it hurt..he swallowed up, what I'm s'posed to remember piece by piece, and now...I'm just, only what little's left. And, him. Her...she's me now,” she said slowly, as if realizing something. “B-but the puppy's gotta still have it all in her belly,” she said, moderate desperation rising in her voice. “She's just gotta! Right?!” In another rapid motion she popped to her feet approached Jess, this time grabbing her by the shoulders and looking up at her face with a desperate expression, ears folded back and eyes wide.
“I um...yeah. At least, we'll try everything we can to get those memories back,” Jess said. “R-right, Master?” she added after a second, her gaze briefly turning toward Zotha.
“Of course,” the demoness nodded.

“Aah! Master has a master?” the wolf-girl said in a surprised tone, letting go of Jess and looking from her to the demon-girl with a confused expression.
“Uhm..'Master'?” the priestess repeated. “I'm, not your master.”
“B-but. You told me what to do!” she said, as if this was a bulletproof argument. “And I obeyed! Puppy says, that's what my Masters do!”
Jess gave a very worried frown. “You're...really messed up in the head right now, huh.”
A sudden change came to the wolf-girl's expression: A knowing look in her eyes, a deep sadness visible in her entire posture. “...Y-yes. I don't...I can't...” She shuddered, looking on the edge of tears. “Wh-why..?”

“H-hey, calm down...” Jess reached out a hand almost instinctively, running it across her hair. “Please. We're gonna fix this, okay?”
She gave a couple of upset-sounding whines, but opened her eyes again after a second. “O..okay..if Master says it'll be okay, then...”

I think you should let her call you what she wants for the moment, Zotha suggested, just before Jess could protest to the title again. She's really not in a good place right now...I guess going nearly feral for almost two full days kinda broke her.

Jess took a deep breath, dropping her hand back to her side. “We're gonna get you back in control,” she repeated, looking the wolf-girl straight in the eyes. “You understand?”
She nodded, slowly, and then her expression abruptly brightened again. “Thank you, Master!” Her tail wagged eagerly, but she stayed respectfully away from Jess rather than tackling her again.

What's going on, seriously? What am I seeing here? Jess asked, deeply worried by now about the mood swings.

Zotha had a bit more insight, knowing what her command's effects had consisted of. I think the wolf side is still mostly in control right now. It's just that it's 'tame' now, so it won't keep trying to dominate her or hurt people. Maybe...given time, it'll let the human side take over more?

I sure hope so...this is horrible to watch.

“Hmn,” Zotha said aloud. “Maybe we can get a clue to who you are if I try to track you back to wherever you came from? Hold still for a second, please.”
“Okay~!” The werewolf girl did as told, though her tail didn't stop moving. Zotha held a hand over her forehead, trying to 'read' her, and then felt for a trail of her movements. Reaching out, she saw...nothing but a lengthy trail going all around the forest. There was a faint trail from about the middle of the night before the previous one which went halfway across an adjacent road before fading away completely.
The demoness frowned to herself. “Why can't I..oh.”
“What's wrong?” Jess said.
“I can't...track her past a certain point. I think it's because the very nature of her soul changed so significantly over the night of the full moon, turning partway into a wolf's..which I get the impression is 'normally' what a werewolf's soul is supposed to be. So she's not who she was before, from a certain perspective. I think this would create trouble for identity-detecting spells, too; it's something that runs that deep.”
“So not even the unusual incidents people can help us here, huh,” her priestess concluded.
“Probably not. And I don't really want them asking her questions about how she came to be that way just yet, either. After all, you're not a very good liar, are you?” she asked the little werewolf.
“Nope! I'll tell you anything you wanna know!” she said eagerly, seeming to miss the context of the question entirely. “...That I can remember, at least.”
“Exactly.”

“So..what do we do with her, then?” Jess said. “We can't just..leave her out here.”
“I agree. Say, you haven't slept the whole time you were running around taken over by the wolf, have you?” she asked the werewolf.
“Um..no,” she said after a brief hesitation, shaking her head. “I was...I remember being terrified that if I let the wolf sleep, it would gobble up the rest of me in my dreams. It...doesn't make a lot of sense, but..” She was interrupted by a sudden, long yawn. “O-oh..wow, I'm super sleepy...now that you...” Another yawn. “..Mention it.”

Zotha looked at Jess, who nodded her full agreement. Then she said, “We'll get you to a nice, soft bed to rest in, then. How's that sound?”
“Great! Master's master is so nice~,” the wolf-girl said, turning her eerily happy face Zotha's way.

“Well, uh..stand close to me, then.” Both of them did so, and the demoness moved them into the dorm room.

After making a third bed appear in the room for the werewolf girl, Zotha watched her leap into it, knead the top cover with her nails like they were claws, and then twist around on it a few times on all fours before finally curling up directly on top of the middle and instantly falling asleep. “Uh..hmn.” The demoness snapped a finger, making the cover and sheets go on top of her in an arrangement that kept her head poking out so she could still breathe. Then she waved her hands gently over the sleeping werewolf, casting a spell that would keep her asleep, and prevent her from hearing nearby sounds too, for the next eight hours. She could feel the girl needed to catch up on at least that much rest anyway, and if they needed to wake her sooner for some reason then of course Zotha could dispel the effect early. “..There. Now we can speak privately without disturbing her,” she said, turning toward Jess.

Her priestess looked pretty distressed about the whole thing still. “I..that was so horrible to see, Master. I don't know how you stood it. She was...I could see little flashes of whoever she used to be constantly, but it was like something else had taken over and it just wasn't ever gonna let her go.”

“I'm glad we got to her when we did,” Zotha said, crossing her arms. “I think there must be some hope for recovery, if there's still enough of that person in there to show like that.” That encouragement didn't seem to help as much as she'd hoped. “...You still look really upset. What's wrong, huh?”
“I-I..” Jess teared up slightly. “I realized...that's the exact same thing I was trying to do to you!” she said, pointing with one trembling hand. “I was gonna, I thought the demon would eat your mind, take it over and..and I was okay with that! It was fine to just, destroy a whole person just to make what I wanted.” At this point Jess lost it, and started sobbing. “I...I'm..” she tried to say through it, but wasn't able.

Zotha came closer and pulled her arms around the smaller girl, trying to comfort her. Finding speech impossible for the moment, Jess resorted to mental communication. I'm so sorry. I don't know how I can even make up for wanting to do something like that to you..to anyone! No matter how it turned out...when I really thought a demon had eaten your mind the first thing I was was happy!

“There, there..” The demoness let her cry into her shoulder for a moment. “We can't change who you were before, or what you wanted then,” she said. “What matters is that you know it was wrong now.” She pulled out of the embrace just enough to lift Jess's chin a bit. “You wouldn't do something like that now, would you? Not after seeing what it did to her...”
Jess took in a slow, slightly ragged breath, fighting off more sobbing to be able to speak aloud again. “I...I don't know. That's the worst part,” she said. “I've never really learned to think about anyone but myself, and what I want. I-if you just..left me alone, to do whatever I felt like doing with all this, with your power...I might really destroy someone else. You, you've gotta keep me under control, Master. I never..ever want to hurt someone like that...”

“If you really feel that way, I seriously doubt you will,” Zotha said, running a hand across her cheeks, using a little magic to dry and clean up the tears. “People can change, especially when they really do understand why what they were doing was wrong. You should have a little more faith in yourself than that. Okay?”
“O-okay...”

Zotha drew herself back a bit more, placing her hands on Jess's shoulders to brace her. “Now. Take a deep breath and try to calm yourself down. We've got a little bit more to do today, before we can rest.”

“R-right.” She nodded slowly, taking the breath as asked, and then sniffing a couple of times. “I'll show you exactly where I found it all, Master. I'll do everything I can to help us understand the nature of your empowering.” She gave a determined nod. “And, we'll figure out..h-how to fix her...”
“Of course,” Zotha nodded back. “Attagirl.”

---

“For the record, I still can't believe you want this,” Riana said, reaching over to her boyfriend's head to start rubbing his ears. They were sitting on the couch in her apartment, resting together after the long morning. There had been talk of watching something on TV, but...well, he wanted something else first.
“It's exciting! And new! Rrf..! I-it feels good, really good, too,” Cameron said while he started to shrink. He shuddered slightly, animal instinct fighting to take over before he could finish talking. “Mmrf..I kinda wish I could letchu see what it, aa~aah...f-feels like, too..” he muttered, his voice rising an entire octave with the one little pleased noise as his eye level fell down toward hers. Riana found that she had control over the speed of the change, and over what it changed first, too; if she just told her power over him to 'change him' then it would do it, but she was also able to make his hair and fur change first, like she just had. It made her wonder something...

“Aah~..mrrf...!” The wolfman blushed as he changed back into a wolf girl, her clothes shrinking into a tight tank top and denim shorts, and then she gained a modest figure. But through the tight clothes and, of course, what all they failed to cover, it was quite clear she'd retained a lot more muscle than the first time. Riana withdrew her hand, admiring her work: A wolf-girl only slightly taller than her (instead of much taller), and every bit as strong as Cameron was now able to be. She sighed contentedly, in her squeaky voice, and opened her eyes as her senses came back to her once again.

“Hmn..I feel sorta different,” Kamari said, looking around. “..Am I taller?”
“Yep,” Riana said. She reached over and poked her in the belly. “You're a bit more solid too. I wanted to see whether I had a little more control than just toggling your look between male and female—and it looks as if I do. Heheh, you look good with a little muscle, seriously.”
“I-I do?” Kamari blushed from the compliment. “I-I mean, of course I do! Woof! I'm a strong wolf, so I can protect you whether I'm a boy or a girl!” she said, flexing an arm.

Riana couldn't help a laugh at that. “Okay, okay. Well, if you like it then we might as well keep it that way for now. But you know, the original idea was for being a girl to be punishment for being bad. It's really no good if you like your punishment...”

“Don't people, like, learn better from good stuff than bad stuff anyway?” she said.
“Positive reinforcement is great and all, but it can't fix everything,” her girlfriend said, crossing her arms. “Well, you've been good so far, so I'll let you be how you like. But if you're ever bad, you get the tiny-weak treatment. How's that for 'bad stuff'?”
The wolf-girl's ears folded down slightly. “P-pretty bad. But I'll try to be good even if you don't!”

Riana nodded. “I know you can do it. I don't think it'll be easy, but I'll do what I can to keep you on the right path.

“Now—” she winked, and started changing back to the male form again. “—not to call you a liar, but I do know a little bit of what you feel as a wolf-girl.” Riana cleared her throat as her voice deepened again, and took a brief, sharp intake of breath during the change of sex. “That at least, I'm glad I could share.” He pulled her close, listening to her squeak like some sort of chew toy in response, and gently ran a hand through her hair, grinning at her blushing face as his transformation completed. “I have to admit, I like the way this feels, too,” he said, and then pushed her down onto her back underneath him throughout another long, deep kiss.

---

“Now let me see...” Anika wasn't sure why she was agreeing to brainstorm pranks with her roommate. It was usually him doing something to her, though, so this was a nice change of tone, to be honest. He realized something: “Hey! What're your elements, anyway?”
“Uh..? I wanna say, wind and fire?”
“That's what it is then. Any fox knows what they are, deep down,” he nodded. “I'm earth and water. My second tail's a really dark blue, it's easy to mistake for black like the first one. I earned it after I figured out I had some talent with water magic and got pretty good with it.”
“How, um..how exactly do we earn tails?” she said.

“C'mon, there's no way you don't know that,” Steph said.
“Humor me?” Even though her own mind spat back an instant answer from what seemed like instinct, getting it confirmed by someone who'd grown up in this 'society' seemed like a good idea.

“Fine,” he said with a small sigh. “Advancements in magic, deception, or understanding,” he said, counting out the three with a hand. “Either you make a significant amount of progress in gaining raw magic power—like becoming proficient in a new element—you pull off some amazing prank, or a long enough series of decent ones—or um..I dunno how the last one works really. You're supposed to understand, like really deeply get something, but I hardly ever hear of anyone earning a tail that way, so the requirements must be pretty high.
“Oh, but it's not like you have to do any one amazing thing,” he clarified. “At least with the first two, it's like a point system—every time you get better at magic, or pull the wool over someone's eyes well enough, you earn a little credit toward a tail for that. There's no such thing as a 'mixed reward', it's always for either deception or magic, so sometimes you hear of someone pulling off some huge prank that also required them to make a lot of tough magic work and earning two tails at once for it.”
“So...if there's a 'point system', then who keeps track?” Anika said.
“We all do,” Steph said with a small shrug. “Well—I mean our magic itself, or somethin' like that, really does the 'keeping track', and you earn a tail whenever you get the attention of someone with at least three more tails than you've got; they can get a sense of how much you've accomplished, as well as whatever they're aware of firsthand, and decide whether it's worth a tail or not. Some're more generous than others, but after you get a tail the Ruler comes in and decides whether you really earned it or not. And she knows everything, so if you fool someone into thinking you did enough to earn a tail when you really didn't...well, uh, sometimes that's worth enough and sometimes it's not, and you can get punished.”

“I see...” Well, that part was clear enough to her from personal experience.

“Ah, one other thing. Each tail is tougher to earn than the last,” Steph said. “Especially if you're goin' for the same thing. Like, if you try to earn them with just magic it can take a half-millennium or more before the fourth one comes in. Better to mix it up as much as you can, but even then a fifth one can take for-ever.”
“Greeat...” Anika's ears folded down slightly; had “the Ruler” given her this many just so she would suffer the punishment longer? It hardly seemed out of character.

“Oh, and it's also way tougher after the sixth, because nine is the maximum. So only the Ruler can award tails after that, and for that—you gotta earn her attention,” Steph continued, not seeming to notice her reaction.

“Wait...if nine's the max, then how does the Ruler award them? Does she has twelve?”

“Well, someone has to have more than nine or else nobody would ever get past six,” Steph said. “The way I was told, whoever's the Ruler gets to have effectively 'infinity' tails so they can give away as many as they need to—y'know, however many get earned. It pretty much makes her a god. But in return you lose your name and some other stuff, and you have to enforce the Rules. Technically we're all supposed to hold up the Rules, but a nine-tailed Wise One who sees someone breakin' the Rules can choose to ignore it with no consequences. The Ruler sorta is the rules, though, so for her breaking them is like breaking herself, and that's no good.”

“And I guess stronger Kitsune do enforce the rules to get in her good graces, so she'll be inclined to actually give them tails,” Anika said.
“That's the ticket,” he nodded. “It sounds like a side-effect of the 'six or more' thing. but I think whoever—I mean if there is one person who made up all these Rules in the first place, it seems like it might'a been intentional. There's a lot of stuff in the Rules like that,” he shrugged.

“Are the rules..written down somewhere, so I could check them or something? Seems like not breaking them is pretty important...”
“Nah. Some people have tried to write them down, but somehow nothin' ever really gets published. I think it's an intentional thing, like, if you knew exactly what all of them were you could find loopholes easier. But if you're about to decide to break the Rules then you can feel it. At least—that's what they say.”

“Hmm.” Anika wondered whether that applied to non-Kitsune breaking the rules, or just foxes themselves. She remembered Zotha saying she wasn't sure whether her giving a tail would 'take'; maybe she was 'sensing' a potential rule violation but not interpreting it correctly.

“Anyway, uh, enough of this technical stuff,” Steph said. “I've got a great idea for somethin' we can do with wind,” he said, pointing.
“Oh, really?” Anika could feel her tail starting to swish back and forth, like an eager puppy's. “What's that?” She didn't try to restrain it, or even use the illusion to hide it. It felt like..Steph understood her newfound urge to tease and trick better than anyone else available. And she wanted to help bring his ideas to fruition more than she was really willing to admit...