A Summoning: Part XVI

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Part XVI
~Hanged Man~

The dorm room lock turned, and in a moment Steph strode inside. Anika sighed slightly to herself—being careful to hide it—as she finished pulling back up the illusion hiding her present, true appearance from him. It wasn't a difficult thing to maintain, but dropping the illusion was kind of pleasantly relaxing, like letting a muscle stop being tense after several hours. “Hey,” she said once he shut the door. “How'd it go?”
“We came to an agreement,” he said, “I'll help Prama meet a guy, and in exchange Jess told me a little more about Zotha. My job's not hard, so I didn't think it'd be fair to ask for any more than that.”

“She probably would've given you something way bigger,” Anika pointed out. “They've got loads of power to spare, from what I can tell.”
“Yeah, but I'm happy with what I have right now,” he said, heading over to sit at his own desk facing her. “If there comes a point where I want something big, then it'll be a big advantage to say 'I've never really asked you guys for anything before'.”

“That..makes a lot of sense,” she agreed with a small nod.

“Hey..” Steph leaned forward toward her a bit, his tone indicating a change of subject. “I know you can keep a secret, right?”

“Pretty sure,” she said. There had been plenty of practice doing that with Jerod's cult thing, plus what she was doing right now indicated she was probably even better at it than before. “Why?”
“Well, now that you're a fellow fox I'm thinking about letting you in on a trick I've been doing. Bit more long-term than Thursday's prank. If you can keep our talk here from being heard?”
“I've, been doing that since yesterday,” she said, “whenever I'm here at least.”
“Good.” He stood up, rubbing his hands. “You ready to be amazed?”

“Uh, as much as I ever am, I guess.”

“Okay.” Steph took in a deep breath and let it out in a slow “Fffffh.” Then he made a noise like a sigh one would make while relaxing some tense muscles, and Anika saw an active magical effect which she had never noticed before beginning to dispel itself. Steph's hair began to grow out; his facial features softened, and his height slid down a few inches. She found herself sitting up, watching with interest, as his limbs trimmed down slightly and his t-shirt shrank up off his midriff and in off his arms, revealing a steadily slimming waist and soft, flat stomach. By now his hair was long enough to frame a now-cute face, with two long locks trailing their way out from either side of the back of his head already at the chest level. His jeans split apart at the thighs, the lower leggings slipping down an inch or two before tightening into stockings while the upper part pulled tighter against gently widening hips.

Finally, a soft, high “Haa~aah” came from Steph's lips as a pair of bumps raised themselves up from beneath the shrunken top, signaling a complete change in Anika's roommate from an about average-height guy into a slim, tall, fit girl with hip-length twintails from her back—a change which her own sense of magic registered not as a transformation to a non-native form, but the dispelling of a drastic change instead.

“..Phew.” Putting one hand on her hip and another back behind her head, Steph gave a mildly mischievous grin her roommate's way. Her voice was just a little higher than Anika's in pitch. “Well, anything to say?”
“You're a girl?!” The shocked shout came out of Anika before she could really filter it into something less extreme, but at least her muting of the room's noise to outside was more than good enough to handle something of that volume.
“Mm-hm,” she nodded, taking it in stride. “From that I can guess I had you fooled. Yeah, all the way through high school I worked my tail off to get good at transforming myself so I could come to college as 'Stephen' and keep everyone, from professors to students, believing that to be my original form. I had a tiny bit of help from my parents with registering and such, but the rest was aalll my own effort.”

“You—but—so—” her roommate sputtered, unable to decide on the best question to ask first.
“My real name is Stephanie, but I've been shortening it to 'Steph' forever,” she said. “Easy enough to introduce myself with the nickname and encourage people to use what I'm already used to.

“Anyway, you can't tell anyone this, got it?” she said, pointing dramatically. “My plan is to graduate before letting the secret out that I was a transformed girl the whole time—at least to anyone not too far behind the veil to know it. But I figure letting one co-conspirator on won't diminish the impact too much, plus I got that miniature reaction out of you.”

“Y-yeah..” Anika said. “I won't tell anyone. Zotha, um, may be able to read my mind or something, but I think she'd respect other people's secrets anyway.”
“Of course, of course,” Steph nodded, taking a couple of steps back and landing back in her seat, sitting just at the edge and leaning in toward her roommate with her hands on her knees. “Whoo, it feels pretty good to not have to maintain the male form nonstop. Usually I only get to do this when I know you'll be away for a day or two. At the moment it's been a couple of months since I last slept in my native form.”

Her tail swished back and forth excitedly behind her, and her grin was kind of intoxicating...slowly Anika realized that the girl sitting in front of her was incredibly cute, and watching her was making her heart race almost as much as it had threatened to a couple of times with the male Steph. “Hey, how's it feel to have a cute girl as a roommate, though, huh?” Her ears twitched slightly, and she sat up again. “Think I can hear your heart going faster already. But you know better than to try anything, I'm sure.”
“Oh! Um. Y-yeah.” Realizing she'd been leaning in quite a bit herself, Anika made an effort to straighten back up. Her illusion of a male face hid the furious blush that had been building from view, but she could still feel the heat in her own cheeks. “S-sorry. You know I wouldn't anyway, right?”
“I know, just teasing you. I'm almost sad I didn't do this to you earlier, with those reactions. I think it could've been even more entertaining than the conventional pranks. Then again—I'm not sure how I'd pull it off when you were still under the veil.”

Looking at Steph—how happy and relaxed she was, and knowing now how big of a secret she'd just let her roommate in on—Anika felt the words slowly come out almost involuntarily. “Uhm...can you...keep another secret, for me? If I show you something?”

“Oh? You got somethin' to show already?” Steph said, giving a look of curiosity.

“Well um, j-just since I became a Kitsune,” she said. “Uh..look, it's—not as big as yours, I mean there are several people associated with the cult who know this. Maybe...I don't know, I wasn't sure that if I told you, I could trust you not to make fun of me, b-but that was before I found out you were a fox too and all this, and especially that,” she yammered nervously, waving a hand at Steph's present appearance. “Soo um..”
“Yeah?” She leaned forward just slightly, enough to indicate interest but also communicate a reluctance to push too far.

“I'll just, show you.” In a visual effect resembling a brief puff of white smoke, Anika fully dropped her illusion before her roommate, revealing a curvy girl with very long white hair and bright pink eyes dressed in an oversized t-shirt (one of her “male” ones) which hung down to her thighs, hiding a bra and a pair of soft, tight shorts with boyshorts under them, with the end result of making her lower body appear totally bare. Her head turned away slowly, the earlier blush returning itself as she felt her roommate looking at her real appearance. “Um...y-yeah..” she mumbled—letting Steph hear her new voice for the first time.

“Ooh, I see,” she realized aloud. “The Ruler cursed you, huh? Four tails and all.”
“Mm-hm.”
“I thought your voice was a little weird Saturday night, but you seemed exhausted and I didn't want to press the issue, plus you looked 'normal' the next morning. I guess she had a Deal for you overnight?”
“Yeah.”
“Well...hey. You're really cute,” Steph said with a bright grin—making Anika blush yet deeper. “That hair—and those eyes—go just perfectly with your ears and tail. I'm almost jealous.”

“Mmmngh..” the white-haired vixen squirmed in her seat, feeling deeply conflicted about the compliments. Then again, most of what had just been said was hair and eye color—things she could have even in a male form. But that was over-rationalizing; there was no mistaking the fact that her curvy body with a huge bust would be the envy of a lot of girls. Still, hearing Steph compliment her appearance excited her like it was something she'd wanted since this had happened to her—even now that he'd turned (back) into a girl himself.

“Oh, sorry. I'm being insensitive, right? Since it's a curse and all. Sorry,” Steph said.
“N-no, no, it's..fine. I'm gonna be stuck this way for a while. If we're still staying in the same room together, and probably both looking, um, t-this way when we're alone here, I'd kind of rather that someone likes this even if I don't...”

“Hey, can you stand up for a sec?”

“Uhh..sure?” Anika obeyed, and Stephanie did the same, taking a few steps closer and grinning at the confirmation of a guess which the other vixen was just now catching on to.
“We're the same height,” she said, putting her hands on her shoulders for a second. “I'm sure the Ruler had some say in your stuck form, so this was on purpose.”
“H-heheh, yeah,” the white-haired girl giggled nervously, feeling a little giddy from the combination of sudden proximity and physical contact. She wanted desperately to reach up and rub the other girl's ears just now, but worked hard to restrain herself until the arms were dropped again.

“Um...my curse makes me identify myself as 'Anika' when I try to use my real name, and it makes me refer to myself as a girl—I had to think quick earlier, at supper, to make an illusion of the sound of me saying 'guy' instead. I, d-don't mind if you call me that...here, though,” she said.
“Mmmaybe. I should be able to avoid getting too used to it,” Steph said. “Also: Cute. I know I keep saying that, but it's a little hard to resist with what you've got going on,” she said with a quick, sweeping wave.

“Uh, um.” Anika flushed yet again, her ears lowering and tail swishing around nervously. “Ithinkyou'recutetoo,” she blurted out afterward. “Uh...I-I mean..”
“What? You can mean that,” Steph said with a pleased grin, even blushing a little bit herself. “Hey, I can use a compliment or two to let me know I've still got it after being a guy for so long. Anyway, even if I didn't like it, it'd only be fair, right?”

“Um..yeah...s-sure.”

Anika wrung her hands nervously, rocking back and forth on her feet for a moment. “Mmngh..”
“What, something else wrong?” Steph said.
“Mwanna..petchur ears,” she mumbled at minimum volume.
“Whaat was that?” Her roommate held a hand up to her ear, turning it Anika's way while pretending not to have heard what she said at all.
“Uh. Um. I h-have the sudden urge to pet your ears...or, something. They're, really fluffy and soft-looking,” she said quietly, shyly.

“Oh, is that all? It's not too unusual for beastfolk races to do stuff like that, even just among friends. The instinct comes with the territory, but I guess you don't have much practice suppressing it, huh?”
“No..”

Steph's grin was sly, mischievous...and conspiratorial. “Well, I'll help you get it out of your system if you want. I mean—I hadn't seen your ears for a minute before wanting to know what they felt like, to say nothing of that tail...”
“Oh, u-um..okay.” Anika took a tiny step forward, shaking slightly with nerves. Then Steph surprised her just a little bit by pulling close, her arms suddenly wrapping around her waist in a hug. All at once, she could feel her roommate's slight curves pressed against her own generous proportions, very nearly overloading her senses. She squeaked like a deflating balloon, returning the hug and letting her cheek push into Steph's, finding it just as warm as her own.

“Amazing...mr~rrh...” Steph muttered, the sound of the pleased chur vibrating her cheek a bit. At this point it became abundantly clear to her that her roommate had wanted this as much as she did—her heart was, and had been, racing, too!—so Anika gently reached her hands up and ran them down the black-furred ears, starting at the tips and working their way down to the base. The fur was soft and warm between her fingers, and Steph's reaction to this—more pleasant churring, her nose gently nuzzling Anika's cheek—made it even better. And then, to make it better still, she felt some small, delicate hands gently running their way down her own ears, discovering for the first time just how deeply sensitive they could be under the right circumstances and finding herself returning the nuzzling and the low, vulpine murring in response.

After a seeming eternity of bliss—lasting just over a minute in reality—Steph gently pulled herself back just enough for their noses to be a few centimeters apart, her face glowing with the same sort of blush Anika felt on her own cheeks and wearing the biggest, goofiest grin she'd ever seen on her roommate—not that her own expression was any more dignified. “Hey, you're pretty good at this,” she said, her hand touching Anika's bangs and brushing back, over her head and on down the full length of her hair, slowly tracing past her neck and along the arch of her back—making her shiver slightly in enjoyment. “Can you...make your bed a little wider?”

“Mrrnh?” She felt her head tilt slightly as her overloaded mind struggled with basic language comprehension. Then Steph's hand happened to brush the base of her tail, drawing a sudden, high “Aah—!” from her lips as her power reached out to do it before her conscious mind even finished registering the words' meaning. In another quick poof of white smoke, her bed became twice as wide, taking up some of the very little extra space the dorm room usually had. Then she felt Steph pull around to one side of her, arm still around her slender waist—and Anika's left arm found itself in a similar position on the other girl, her left dropping to one side. She was gently guided over to the bed and they sat down, side by side.

The white-haired girl's ears twitched, picking up the distinct swishing of three tails across the bedspread—her own, and both of Steph's now revealed. She felt her own second tail—pink with a white tip, the opposite of the first—sprouting out into view for the first time since she'd turned into a fox, and let herself be gently pulled down onto her side, her fellow Kitsune moving to the side of the bed opposite the wall before pulling her just as close as they'd been while standing up before. “Thee~ere we go,” she muttered softly, making Anika's heart skip a beat as she also realized her roommate's stockings, hoodie and shorts were gone, leaving her lower body only covered with some boyshorts and her slender legs almost entirely bare. As they pulled closer, starting to nuzzle and pet each other's ears again, she found their legs starting to tangle up with each other, giving her ample opportunity to feel the soft, smooth skin of the other girl's limbs—as well as appreciate that trait in her own.

“Mnh, mrr~RRR~rrh..!” Anika's tails were curled up on top of their bodies now, and had just begun to make contact with both of Steph's. These, too, steadily tangled up together, making both girls shiver a bit as the deeply sensitive appendages found plenty of soft, warm fur to brush across.

The petting and closeness continued for at least half an hour—subjectively another two or three lifetimes—before Steph gently drew herself back again—just her head, though, leaving their bodies and tails quite entangled. “Hmmh. A little unfair, huh?”
“Rrr?” Anika's question came out like a confused dog-noise, but she found it difficult to care just now.
“Seems like the Ruler cursed you, but blessed me.”

“Rrf..mngh..d-don't say that,” Anika said, starting to emerge out of the animal haze enough to think a tiny bit. “Th-this is um...I love this too. I never knew anything could feel like...mrr~rh...l-like this..”
“Heheh. You're the most adorable girl I've ever seen,” Steph said, “even in the mirror.

“B-but, really, I mean..I get to take my native form and enjoy...that, and you're...stuck. If you turn—if you could turn into a guy right now and did, I'd probably kiss you.”

“Mmnh. If you turned back I m-might, too.”
“Yeah, see?” She ran a hand through Anika's hair again. “That's no good. You wanna be a guy, right?”
“Mnh..yeah, but...I'll be stuck this way for a while..” she murmured. “At least I c'n enjoy this while I am.” Her own hand found the base of Steph's tails, her fingers gently brushing across it.
“Mrr~rrRRF!” She squirmed slightly in response, clearly enjoying it. “Well—okay. Heheh. I'll stop second-guessing for you, then. If you wanna enjoy this, I'll help you, and I won't take advantage either. 'Cause I know you wouldn't in my position.”

“You can take a little advantage,” she said softly. “Long as you're like that...”
“Aww~wh....! The way you said that was sooo cuuute!” Steph pulled forward again, suddenly finding her fellow vixen completely irresistible after that, and drew Anika into another round of close, soft petting.

I want to go back to being a boy...! Anika thought to herself insistently, mentally fighting back against the overflow of sensations hitting her body. But...I could get used to this..in the meantime, the retort came back as her thoughts started to go fuzzy, the animal instinct and physical enjoyment overwhelming her rational thought even worse than before. It's so wonderful...

At some point in the middle of the continual petting, Steph mumbled something in between pleased vulpine noises: “Mrr~rh..covers...mnnh..” Anika's power responded immediately, poofing the covers up on top of the two fox-girls, tails and all, and moving her pillow to the spot beneath both of their heads. They maintained that position, apart from some constant wriggling in pleasure, until their bodies finally ran out of energy and they drifted off to sleep, still fully entwined together with their faces as close as they could get.

Steph's last conscious thought, on the other hand, was: Just as planned.