Wishing to Dive Headfirst Into

"Miranda! Miraaaannnndaaaaa!!!" Carlos saw her in the hallway; with her brilliantly blazing long red locks, it was easy to identify her even from the back. But he was pretty far away, and she didn't stop when he called, and by the time he did catch up to where he thought she was, she had turned a corner and promptly disappeared, now nowhere to be seen.

"Darn!" he punched the air in frustration, disappointed in himself. Everyone else found that girl so easily, it seemed—the very moment you wanted to talk to Miranda, the rumor went, there she was—but after no less than a week of trying, Carlos just didn't seem to be able to reach her. She'd be off somewhere in the distance, sitting perfectly still, and then—poof—the moment he looked away or tried to approach her, she was gone, vanished into the crowd or—when that was unavailable—thin air itself! Some of his classmates swore she was in the same classes he shared with them, but he could never find her even there! And now this...

Carlos slumped forward in defeat, another attempted meeting with the mysterious woman aborted. Maybe she wasn't even real, he thought, somehow a collective delusion of the entire campus including himself? But no, there was simply too much evidence: He'd seen the amazing things she could do, and had done, for people, for himself time and again. Carlos picked himself up again, redoubling his resolve. Next time he'd get her to talk to him for sure!

That was when a voice came from far too close to him to not have been noticed its owner before. "Bwaulg!" He jumped, shuddering, and rapidly turned to the source of the voice, all before properly processing the words.

"What do you want?" And there she was: Miranda herself, standing with her arms firmly crossed together not three feet away from him, the annoyance as plain on her face as it had been in her voice.

Carlos stared at her, wide-eyed and unbelieving, almost past the point of rudeness. "It's really you! You are real," he said happily, fistpumping. He knew she was upset and was aware this reaction of his wasn't helping matters, but his absolute elation was overriding whatever sense of propriety he usually had.

"Of course I'm real," she said. "Is that what this is? Somebody wagered with you that I did not exist?"

"Noo, nononono," Carlos held his hands out, shaking his head violently. "It's just—you're kinda hard to get a hold of, is all. A-and I really wanted to talk to you!"

"Why?" she asked, still affronted. "You are not in any pain that needs my advice."

"Yeah, but...you're so cool!" He waved his hands out toward her. "Always helping everyone out with their problems. Plus you're magic too, right? I mean, I've met people who said you did impossible stuff for them."

"That is...meant to be a secret," she said with a slight shake of her head. "I...suppose I have not been so discreet about it lately."

Her arms uncrossed and her expression softened somewhat for the first time. "It is true. I am a somewhat accomplished witch."

"That's so awesome!" Carlos spouted. "Can you teach me?" he further blurted. "Like, magic and stuff? I want to be able to help people out like that too!"

"Heh.." Miranda chuckled softly. "Well, you certainly aren't shy about your desires. However..." She shook her head. "I will tell you a secret better kept than my powers, but you must not repeat it. In truth, I am far older than I appear to be. The college employs me as a covert counselor of sorts, and in addition to payment I am allowed to audit whatever classes I like to keep up the appearance of a fellow student. Every six years or so I take on a new appearance and name to maintain the act. So I don't want for money, besides which I am no teacher of spells, and hardly in the market for an apprentice at the moment. Whether you even have potential for the kind of magic I use is unknown, and by your age even a fairly strong potential would be difficult to properly train."

Carlos visibly deflated throughout this explanation, especially the last sentence. "Aww..."

"I'm sorry if I bugged you or anything," he said sadly. Maybe he could find someone else who knew magic and wanted to teach him, he thought.

"Hmm." Miranda had fixed him with a searching look while he wasn't looking; Carlos tried to stand up straight and look innocent, although he was uncertain what she was—possibly—suspicious about. "Why do you want magic of your own?" she asked finally.

"Well—like I said. It's so cool. There's so many ways you can help people with magic, when nothing else works. Right? That's why you use it, isn't it? I bet I could even save some people's lives if I knew the right spells and stuff!"

The witch nodded slightly, but her expression turned a bit dark. "I do not want to crush your hopes. However...If you became desperate for power, even with noble intentions, there are many who would prey on that desperation and harm both you and others in the process. Perhaps it is best I don't leave you be."

"Oh." Carlos wasn't sure he liked the sound of that. "You gonna obliviate me or something?"

"Obliviate?" She stared blankly back, understanding the reference at all.

"Uh...make me forget we had this conversation or something...?"

"Of course not," she shook her head.

"The problems I listed still stand, but I believe there is a way around them. With my enchantments in increasing demand around campus, I could use a familiar. This would entail me channeling my magic through you, which would eventually awaken whatever potential you have as well as grant you familiarity with my spells sufficient to cast those that fit your nature yourself."

"That sounds so awesome," he said with a grin. "Um—aren't familiars usually like, animals or something though?"

"The most powerful familiars are humanoid," Miranda explained. "Although I would deceive you to not admit to a high likelihood you gain some animal traits as a result of the status, you would remain capable of essentially everything you are now."

"There's no downside, then!" Carlos concluded aloud. "I'd love to be your familiar!"

"Heheh," she chuckled again, finding his energy amusing if not infectious. "Calm yourself, please. While it would be a temporary state of affairs, it's not to be taken lightly. I want you to take at least until this weekend to mull it over before making a firm decision; I require about that long to prepare for the necessary ritual anyway. Give me your number, and I shall text you directions to where to go if you still wish to go through with it."

"Okay!" Carlos said, and rattled off his number right away, while she was still busy digging in her purse for her phone.

"Heheh, hold on a moment!" Miranda said. "Allow me to—there." Her phone in hand, she said, "Again, please. Slowly. And what is your name?"

"Oh! It's Carlos," he said with a nod. "Uhhh." Then he went through his number again, as slowly as he could manage. This time she got it.

The place she had him go was a particular office inside one of the campus's administrative buildings, which from the outside had all the look of a maintenance room or perhaps some unused space. Her texts had indicated the door would be unlocked, so he carefully opened it to find something very different on the inside.

It seemed—bigger than should fit in there, for one thing. There was an area of the room with an entire couch facing a big screen, a corner with a computer chair in front of a long desk, and a wide open space in the middle with a pentagram inscribed in a circle faintly glowing red on the floor. Just on the other side of that pentagram was the witch, still in the same sort of casual wear as the day before, but in the faint glow her usual mysterious presence was enhanced into a downright mystical appearance.

"You are here," she said, stating the obvious. "Please, shut the door behind you."

"O-okay." Eager as he was, Carlos couldn't help some nervousness at the imposing sense of power radiating from Miranda just now, lending her a sort of firm, commanding aura. He carefully shut the door and took a couple of steps inside.

"This is my 'office', for lack of a better term," the witch explained. "It is space allotted to me by the college, although I essentially only come here when I am not meeting with anyone. It has some comforts, but I usually spend little time here, favoring my own home. Nonetheless, I think this is the best place for the ritual."

"Well...sure," he agreed blindly. "Is...that what the circle thing's for?"

"But of course," she nodded. "I have prepared everything necessary. Allow me to explain the procedure: First you must step in the center of the magic circle," she said, pointing. "Hold it," she said, putting out an arm palm-first as he began to step toward it. "Allow me to finish explaining before you do so."

"Oh. Uh. Sorry."

"It's all right. Your eagerness is part of your charm, after all," she said.

"Now: Becoming a familiar is a mutual contract. Once you are on the circle I will use it as a focus to channel my magic through you and grant your nature better compatibility with mine, as is necessary for a familiar to have. This is likely the point at which you will take on some animalistic traits. You can back out afterward if your mind changes, and be returned entirely to as you are now. After that, I will begin the contract spell. You will completely understand the terms and conditions, and be given an opportunity to accept or reject my contract. The point of no return comes if you should accept; although I have prepared a contract which allows us to nullify it harmlessly, that is only possible after a period of adjustment which could last anywhere from a week to a full year, depending on several factors which I am unable to accurately measure. Do you understand?"

"Yeah," he nodded slowly. It was a lot to take in, but she had explained it so carefully and well that he couldn't help but understand. Did she really think she couldn't teach anyone anything, or was that 'I am no teacher of spells' thing just part of her efforts to rebuff him, he wondered. "I still wanna do it. So, can I..?"

"Yes," she nodded seriously, "Proceed."

Carlos stepped carefully toward the glowing circle in the ground, and then carefully picked his foot over all the glowing red bits to plant it squarely in the center without touching them, followed by doing the same with his other foot. Maybe it wasn't necessary, but he didn't want to screw up all her careful preparation, after all!

"Brace yourself," Miranda instructed him, and when he nodded that he had, she began softly chanting in some incomprehensible tongue. It was fascinating, somehow, to hear, as though he understood something ineffable of their meaning even though any literal translation was far from him. The circle began to glow brighter, and lines traced inward from each point of the star toward the center, stopping where they reached Carlos's shoes and seeming to flow the red glow upward across his body. Before long he saw the glow make its way down his arms to his hands, and was aware of it covering his head, too. Then there was a sensation like something warm pressing itself inward onto—and into—his skin.

It felt unbelievably pleasant, like a warm, friendly hug from a gigantic teddy bear. Carlos found himself wrapping his arms around his body as if instinctively wanting to return that invisible hug, and let out a small, pleased "Mmmh" as the warmth seemed to sink deep inside him, right down to the bones.

He felt as though he was melting from that warmth, and yet it wasn't uncomfortable—just the opposite in fact. His point of view sank downward as his height diminished; he could feel his body pulling itself inward, slimming and narrowing everywhere. Looking down, he saw his sweater billowing out around him, slipping off a shoulder as it rapidly narrowed and softened. "Mmmh" came from his throat again as he found he enjoyed the shrinking; it felt like he was simply meant to be much smaller than he had been, and now that error was being fixed. Looking forward periodically, he saw Miranda's forehead, then her eyes, then her chin, all rise past his eye level as the warmth steadily melted him away.

It was not merely size he was losing, either, as Carlos's pleased sighs and "Aaah"s and "Mmnn" sounds came in steadily higher and higher pitches. He was aware of his manhood wilting and shrinking away from the warmth as if it, too, didn't belong. His pants and boxers both slipped down his legs, revealing soft, smooth skin on shapely limbs, curvy thighs tapering down to slender ankles. His hips, too, looked rather wide compared to his slender frame, and he knew from the sensation of warmth across his skin that his belly was flat with a sharp inward curve to the sides. His hands had slipped out of view under the cuffs of his sweater, which now fell loosely across his tiny, skinny arms; its collar was halfway down his left shoulder, only the opposite side hanging on his neck keeping the whole thing from falling off like his pants had.

"Mmh, mmMMmmh..!" Carlos became abruptly aware of a couple of little tugs between his legs. In a high, girly voice he murmured in response to each one, feeling the warmth being joined by a blush all across his face. His bright blonde hair fell out across his shoulders, tickling the exposed one, then two especially long tails loosely slid their way down across either side of his back, down past the hips to the exposed bit of his thighs, tickling the smooth skin there, too; the very tips of those locks darkened to a near-black shade as though singed by the fiery warmth within him. "O-oh...mnh.." Two more little tugs, not that there was much to feel them with at this point. Then Carlos's ears tingled, and they began to do something which felt like stretching, impossible as that was for something normally stationary on the sides of his head.

"MmMMmmnh." Away his manhood slipped. "MmmMMMmmrrRRrrrhhh~...!" As Carlos's sex fully changed, she found the pleased noise from her throat—much to her surprise—suddenly erupting into a distinctly feline purr. Her ears stretched up and up, newly grown fuzz on them sliding across her silky-soft hair, erupting past that hair and beginning to twitch around, picking up the subtleties of the motion of air across them and detecting distant sounds with their suddenly powerful hearing.

"Mnh, mrrr~rrrh...!" She purred again, feeling a distinctly pleasant sensation in the new equipment between her legs as a tail slid its way out of her lower back, a slim line of soft fur spilling past the hem of her sweater in the back to begin twitching from side to side periodically in a further feline expression of pleasure as it grew to a length no less than half her (quite diminished) height. "Mrrh, mroo~oww..!" Next she felt her tongue moving strangely—growing ever so slightly longer, it seemed—and a sensation in her teeth which was later explained by the discovery of some sharp, slightly longer fangs taking the place of her human canines. The feeling of being distinctly a cat washed through her as she let out another delighted "MrRRrroooOOooww~!" at the feeling of her chest gently puffing forward into the material of her sweater, stretching the suddenly tight top as the two little bumps rapidly bloomed out into a mid-sized pair of breasts that felt nice and big on her tiny, petite figure. This, too, gave her the most wonderful feelings deep between her legs, making her appreciate womanhood—in addition to cathood—all the more. She briefly felt something sliding its way back up her legs as the changes to her body finally stopped, followed by the pull of a snug, soft pair of panties against the sides of her hips and the strangely blank spot between her legs. Finally, she felt something just touching the hair of the corner of her head and some soft material tying itself around the new tail a bit before the tip—both of which she would later see to be floral accessories accentuating her newfound cuteness.

"Mew...aah..?" Carlos opened her eyes and blinked a couple of times, having a brief oblivious episode where she wondered why Miranda was so tall all of a sudden that the witch's impressive chest was right at her eye level. Then she looked down and instantly felt very exposed by the sweater hanging barely to the top of her thighs, and tugged down on it with her tiny, delicate hands, her cheeks flushing, ears spiking straight upright, and her tail twitching wildly in shock. "Waaah!"

"Heheh," Miranda chuckled at this reaction. "I thought for sure you'd turn out to be a puppy, but it seems a feline form fit you better. It's all right; we're both girls here, after all,” she said with a mischievous smile.

"Wh-why?!" Carlos demanded first. Then: "I-I mean..um. Why did, why am I a girl?"

"Well," Miranda said, "Being a witch, my magic is inherently feminine. I suppose it should have come as no surprise that you would accept it so completely as to not even resist that part; it ultimately makes you far more compatible now than you otherwise would be. But—as I said, we have not committed to any contract yet; I could retract my magic and return you to normal now, if you wish."

"N-no way!" she said excitedly, leaning forward. "I-I was just um. Curious and surprised, is all, like maybe you should've warned me or something! But it's totally worth it!" Her tail went into overdrive during this outburst, expressing her panicked energy better than anything on her face could.

"All right, all right. Settle down," Miranda said, holding out a hand. Somehow this instantly made Carlos feel calmer, and she leaned away again, standing upright.

"Now...Are you prepared?" Miranda asked.

"Yes," Carlos nodded with as serious an expression as she could manage.

"Then, let us begin."

Miranda began chanting again, in that fascinating almost-language. Carlos's ears twitched as she listened, her attention drawn far more closely to the sound of the witch's voice this time and her mind seeming much closer than before to comprehending that ineffable meaning. This time, it was Miranda's body which glowed first, brightening to the same brilliant red as her hair—which now floated up all around her as though weightless—and lighting up the entire room. The witch's eyes, she realized, were covered with that light as if emitting it themselves. Then Miranda raised her arms up, palms pointed forward and in toward Carlos's body, and streams of the luminous magical light flowed from those hands straight into Carlos's center, making the catgirl glow just as brightly before gently lifting her off the ground, floating her up just enough for her face and the witch's to be at the same level. Their eyes then met and—instantly—Carlos understood.

As Miranda's familiar, the witch's magic would be channeled through her very being in order to amplify and focus it, which would significantly enhance its power and versatility. This flow would prevent Carlos's own magic from expressing, preventing her from using it for whatever she would have otherwise been able to for as long as she was a familiar. In exchange, Carlos would have access to Miranda's magic for her own use, and it would naturally keep her body healthy, young, and unnaturally resilient to both physical and magical harm for the contract's duration. Additionally, the flow of magic would give each of them constant access to mental communication with the other and an intuitive sense of the other's intentions. The contract could be nullified and its effects immediately dispelled by either party, but since doing so before the flow completely stabilized would risk great harm to both of them, this option would only be available after that point.

Miranda was offering the contract, which meant she had already assented to its terms. Carlos could feel the spell pressing on her mind for a yes or no answer as to whether she also agreed to it. The diminutive catgirl hardly hesitated at all before saying Yes! as loudly in her mind as she could, and immediately felt the contract taking effect, the bright red glow sinking into her body as a pleasant warmth again while she was gently set back down onto her feet. This time the warmth seemed to settle and remain inside her, a constant, pulsing sensation of Miranda's power and will flowing into and through her and back again. Both of them took a deep breath and let it out slowly in sync as the rest of the spell's glow faded off, leaving only the relatively faint illumination of the magic circle to light the room.

Well, how do you feel? Miranda's voice came to Carlos's head despite the witch not moving her lips a bit.

"Amazing!" her familiar shouted excitedly. "I can do magic now, right? Ooh, watch this!" She held up her right hand and snapped it, producing a small flame floating above her upheld palm.

"Heheh," Miranda put a hand up to her chin, unable to suppress a giggle at the adorable catgirl's enthusiasm and her big, goofy grin. "It is impressive you've taken to its use so quickly, but please put that out. I don't want to have to explain why we set off this building's smoke detectors."

"Oh!" Closing her hand, she instantly dismissed the fire. "Whoops. Heehee."

"There's a good girl." One of the witch's hands reached over and was rubbing Carlos's ears before she could react to the motion. She purred, surprising and embarrassing herself, blushing but lowering those ears in submission, leaning into the petting with her tail twitching happily back and forth.

"Waah!" Carlos snapped out of it just as suddenly, pulling herself back upright and her ears popping straight to vertical again. "Wh-what was that?!" she demanded; the contract had felt like an 'equal partnership' sort of thing, and some portion of her newfound feline instincts also yelled that she was 'not a pet!'

"Sorry. I fear some of your youthful impetuousness is rubbing off on me through the connection," Miranda said, suppressing a laugh at her reaction. "You did enjoy it, didn't you?"

"Nnn..yes," the catgirl said, the truth coming out past her embarrassment and confusion.

"Then I see no reason to deny you the experience. It is just us here, after all," she said, coming around to put an arm over her cute little familiar's shoulders.

"I...I guess so," she agreed slowly, letting herself be guided over to the couch and sat down nice and close to the tall, gorgeous witch.

Before she knew it, the catgirl was purring again, eagerly pulling herself up around the witch in a close hug and even permitting her to run a hand gently down along her tail. She nuzzled Miranda's cheek affectionately in appreciation, and was a little surprised to find the witch nuzzling her right back.

Now then, Miranda's voice came to her mind; their present position did make it a little tough to speak aloud, after all. Do you wish to keep your name, or use a new one? I'm a little partial to Catrice, myself.

That's... she sent back, finding this way of communicating as easy as breathing. I wanted to say you can't just name me like some pet, buut..III...actually really like that one.

Catrice it is, then, Miranda replied cheerfully, a bit of that mischievous smile evident in her mental voice. So, Catrice, perhaps we should learn a little more about each other. Where do you hail from?

By the time they parted ways, the two of them knew as much about each other as a couple of old friends, and Catrice was embarrassingly, hopelessly addicted to the witch's gentle petting. She made her way back to her apartment, thankful for her previous lack of a roommate. Tonight would be her last time there—it would include packing up her things to take them all to a new home with her witch—so she tried to think of some magic tricks she could safely test out while she was by herself to get used to using Miranda's magic. Maybe there was a spell or two that could help with packing, she mused, or at least something to conveniently convert some of her gigantically oversized old clothes into something more fitting to an adorably petite catgirl like herself...