To Be the Greatest

"I'm gonna be...the greatest witch ever! Better than Glenda or her mysterious grandma, better than Tricks or Treats. Greater than old Miranda, wherever she went...I will outdo the pink witch herself someday!"

When the old warlock Rillimia was applying to apprentice under asked her what she wanted out of life, that was her answer. Of course, she was all of fourteen years of age at the time—a short, red-headed, freckle-faced girl full of unrealistic ambitions—and he chuckled at her answer like any wise old magus would. Nonetheless, he gave her a chance, and she proved she had the work ethic to back up her goals. By the age of eighteen she was recognized as a full-fledged witch, and had both a more solid idea of what it meant to be the 'greatest', and a plan of how to begin achieving her dream.

She made a name for herself, over the next few years, as someone who fixed other people's problems, even when they couldn't pay her much—or anything at all—for the favor. This entire time, she ran on purely her own unenhanced magic, with no "crutches" or boosts whatsoever, but it wasn't her plan to stay that way forever. No, no—with the exception of the pink witch, who was exceptional in a great many other ways as well, just about every great witch also had a humanoid familiar...some sort of sapient owl, cat-girl, or even a nekomata for crying out loud! To compete, she was going to need one of those, too.

A Kitsune would be original, at least among those she considered her future competition, and the power boost could be immense no doubt—but there were a lot of problems with that idea. Older, "wiser" foxes would either never agree to help her in the first place, or constantly try to trick her and take more power than they gave. Younger foxes would start out nearly powerless and could easily turn wily with age, too. No, Rillimia needed the power balance—in terms of magic control—to be in her favor. And, of course, someone with the right sort of attitude. Someone she could make a loyal friend of, in addition to their being witch and familiar.

In short, she wanted a werewolf, and was biding her time to meet the right one.

Eventually it happened that the "helpful witch" Rillimia got an email from someone desperate. Well—not that that was unusual, with the reputation she'd built, but this person was special. It was a werewolf, and a fresh one too—bitten just a couple of moons back.

I didn't even know I'd been bitten until I started changing, the message read. Somehow I managed to keep control over myself that horrible first night, and I've been told that's the one hard part. But I have another problem: I can't change back, even a little bit. Seriously, I'm stuck as this hulking furry man-beast all day and night, my clothes are all itchy, tight and uncomfortable. I'm having trouble typing this email with these stupid claws! Nobody local seems to be able to do anything about it, but one of them gave me your email, saying you've helped a lot of people with "unusual problems" before? Please let me know if you can do anything.

Rillimia had heard of werewolves who couldn't keep at least some wolfish traits from manifesting most of the time; they were the ones with an exceptional amount of "lunar energy" or whatever it was called. To be stuck in full werewolf form had to indicate quite an overflow of that particular flavor of magic! She rubbed her hands together like a supervillain just reading the email, but paused briefly when she came to the end, a "signature" of the desperate person's name.

Hayden Ford

...It was a man. Familiar magic was sensitive to a wide variety of factors, gender among them; a witch with a male familiar (or a warlock with a female one) was generally at a disadvantage in terms of the efficiency of the flow. Some bore with that and hardly even seemed to notice the difference, but being the greatest witch ever required everything to be perfect. When it came to just-plain-animal familiars, it wasn't unusual at all to use a bit of magic to alter the target before the familiaring ritual when necessary. And..thank Azoth, magic like that certainly existed for people, too. That meant the only thing left was to see whether he had the right disposition...and if he'd be willing to join her pursuit of being the greatest. While she accepted the possibility of failure when it came to those two issues, Rillimia couldn't help but feel excited to meet this werewolf. It was like seeing the first three of the five lottery numbers matching with one's ticket!

When she came knocking on his front door, the person who answered was exactly as advertised: an incredibly tall, muscular werewolf with deep brown fur that faded to a bright cream color on his underside, dressed in a black shirt that didn't make it all the way down his torso and a pair of jean-shorts. One could feel the discomfort and itching just from looking at all his messy fur stuffed into those clothes. "Uh...hey," he said awkwardly, almost craning his head down just to be able to see her over his long muzzle. "'Re you..Rillimia?"

"That's me," she said cheerfully, putting out a hand for him to shake. "Hayden, I presume?"

"H-heh, yep." He carefully placed the padded palm of a forepaw against her hand, letting her do all the work of the handshake in his desperate effort not to scratch her with his claws. "I've got a..look that's kinda hard to mistake for anybody else just now."

"Indeed..at least during the daytime," she agreed, dropping her hand back to her side. "Let's not prolong things more than necessary, then; I'd be happy to take a look at you inside."

"Uh..sure," Hayden nodded, making his way in and leaving the door open for her.

After closing the door carefully behind her (clearly afraid of his beastly strength breaking the hinges or something), he led her into a small living room. "So, uh, what do we..?"

"Just hold still somewhere for a moment," she said. "I'll cast a couple of scanning spells to get a better grasp of the situation, beyond the obvious. May tickle a bit."

"Okay." He nodded, standing in the middle of the room and turning to face her.

Since she already had a pretty good idea of what the problem was, the battery of tests was rather brief, and she nodded to herself as she confirmed her theory. "..All done~."

"Oh? So, wha'd you find out?"

"Well, all werewolves gain the power to change form—or more accurately, to be partially or wholly in werewolf form—from the moon. That energy is commonly called 'moonlight'," she said, reciting the most official term her for it her research had turned up. "You generate moonlight every time the moon is out, depending on its phase—regardless of whether you can actually see the moon or not. And when your body has too much to store, it vents it out by forcing a transformation. The full moon 'overflows' all werewolves."

"So, what..I'm 'overflowing' all the time, then?" he said, folding his ears down a bit.

"Indeed," Rillimia nodded, remaining encouragingly cheerful. "The issue seems to be that you have an unusually high 'efficiency' when it comes to your moonlight generation, but your 'battery' for storing that energy is..slightly below average, at best. It's a somewhat complex issue, so I'm not surprised a lot of people would be hesitant to even try to fix it, but I've reconfigured people's magic before. I should have little trouble helping improve your 'storage capacity'."

"Oh..cool!" He looked legitimately happy for the first time. "Do you uh, need to do any prep work for that, or..?"

"Not particularly," the witch said, shaking her head and letting her long red tresses flutter around a bit in response. "Altering your magic does require a sort of passive participation from you, more or less amounting to an expression of your consent to my doing it. It can have some unexpected side-effects too, but nothing that can't be ironed out afterward. And...it will be much easier if I can reach your head." After briefly looking around, she indicated a decently tall, sturdy-looking chair nearby.

"Would you like me to get to work now, or do you require some time to think on this?"

"Uh, no, I don't need any time. Please help me fix this and not be covered in scratchy fur all the time," he said.

"Very well. Come over here, then." Rillimia went to the chair and carefully climbed up onto it on her knees; Hayden's head still rose over hers, but at least now it'd be possible to reach. Hayden did as he was asked, stopping a bit too far away until she gestured for him to get closer.

"Now, this will involve some touch. Just try to relax and focus on wanting me to do this," the witch advised. "It may help some if you close your eyes."

"Well..okay." Hayden's dark brown eyes shut, and she reached up, putting her hands on his ears, already beginning her spell. He flinched slightly from her fingers brushing across that sensitive fur, particularly near the base, but the very first component of her spell hit just then, making the target feel calm and at ease with the situation. As he visibly relaxed a bit, he probably imagined that it was his own effort achieving this, which was just as well.

Next, the witch began gently tugging on the excess of moonlight burning throughout his body, using it as the very power source to begin to correct his problem. At the same time, she wove her magic into that moonlight, hijacking the natural transformation capabilities of a werewolf to achieve a form of change they usually weren't capable of...

The first thing to do, was to make everything much easier to reach, so she wouldn't have to keep stretching her arms out so far. Rillimia's spell began shrinking the tall, strong werewolf, making him slightly slimmer but primarily shorter. She also began working on his fur too, turning it from uneven and wild to soft and fluffy—beginning with the ears, so her hands would have something much nicer to feel, and spreading it on down throughout the rest of them. He shuddered slightly—that had to tingle a bit—and let out a soft, low "Ruff" involuntarily. His height slipped down, down, down..until his head was the same height as hers, boosted as she was up on the chair.

Hayden's magic was beginning to refit itself, and—since he really wanted to stop being in full werewolf form—he began to lose some wolfishness. His muzzle shortened ever so slightly, and his fur began to thin. Rillimia continued her work alongside this change, gently teasing his softened head-hair out longer. It flowed down around his face, framing it; it fell to his shoulders, gaining a bit more volume all around; and then it steadily cascaded its way all the way down his back, growing into a lovely set of straight, deep brown locks. While this happened, Hayden lost a few more inches of height not from the witch's meddling, but just from his feet changing from wolflike to humanlike. His hands lost their paw pads, and all of his claws retracted away, losing their beastly roughness and sharpness. His muzzle was dipping under half its original length now, and he softly barked again, another deep "Rrf."

Right..there was much more work to be done. Rillimia reached through the werewolf's ears with her magic, down into the rest of his body. Under her influence, his frame began to diminish, his big, manly muscles shrinking and slimming. His shoulders gently narrowed, the visible six-pack of his belly fading away even as the cream-colored fur on it came close to vanishing. The sensation of this change drew more barking from him: "Rrf..rr~rrf..!" Rillimia was pleased to hear the first of these a little higher in pitch than before, and even more so that his voice audibly shifted during the second, rising a little more and subtly losing its masculinity.

The werewolf's feet lost the last of their fur first, followed by the effect spreading upward through his legs to the rest of his body. It left behind soft, supple, smooth skin that any woman would be rightly jealous of, and as the change spread up his neck to his face, his muzzle shrank the last little bit inward and his head became small, round and girlish, his lips opening to let out a soft, very human "Aa~aah..!" Already his voice was hard to identify between male or female, and it was changing still more.

Hayden's ears and tail were left behind by the de-wolfing, allowing Rillimia to keep petting the former. Convinced that it was time now, the witch reached through those fluffy ears, through his beastly nature and transformation, appealing to his manhood to disappear. It began shrinking right away, making the effeminate werewolf shudder and his face flush a bright red from the very sensation. As it became smaller and smaller, he let out another "Rrf!" followed by a distinctly feminine "Oo~oh" in a low, mature alto that Rillimia instantly decided was perfect. Then, it swiftly melted away, and Hayden swooned, his lips erupting with a high, cute "Aaa~aahnn..!" and her entire face becoming enveloped in a deep blush as she tasted the pleasure of womanhood for the very first time.

The wolf-girl panted heavily, letting out a low "Mrr~Rrfh..!" as she did something unexpected, suddenly reaching forward to pick Rillimia up into her arms. Even though they looked very slender and soft now, the new girl's limbs, and body in general, still possessed every bit of that wolfish strength which had been present before. The witch had to strain her own self-control to its limit to react calmly to this gesture, allowing her own arms to be brought into a return hug around Hayden's body so that her hands could stay on those fluffy, wolfish ears.

Of course, Rillimia didn't think Hayden's body was finished changing already; she was an unusually flat and androgynous girl at the moment. However, with the werewolf's blushing face pressing itself into hers, nose-on-cheek in an abrupt nuzzle, the witch became aware of a kind of feedback taking place. Where she had had control over the trajectory of the change before, now Hayden was, perhaps unconsciously, grabbing control of Rillimia's magic woven through hers by pulling on her own control over transformations as a werewolf. And..she seemed to have some very specific wants for this change.

"Rr~Rrf!" A high, cute bark came as Hayden's hips and thighs thickened, her bottom pushing out behind her. Her tail whipped audibly back and forth through the air, and her shorts seemed to vanish away, the underwear beneath rapidly tightening and shrinking itself. "Oo~o, aa~ahh.."

Her chest began to push violently forward, pressing into Rillimia's own average-sized breasts as it filled out at an increasingly fast rate. The witch herself couldn't suppress a high, breathy "Ah~!" at how this felt, especially with the werewolf's shirt shrinking rapidly, pulling entirely off of her midriff and arms and neck and reducing to nothing more than a string in the back and over the shoulders. Actually, now that she thought of it, Hayden's slim, strong arms felt pretty good around her body...this further distracted her focus and pulled control of Hayden's change even more into the new girl's small, delicate hands.

"AaaAAa~ahnn~..!" As a result, Hayden grew even curvier, her breasts threatening to burst the small piece of cloth her shirt had become if it didn't grow quickly enough to accommodate them. She squirmed and swooned in place, leaning Rillimia's view back and forth, as her womanhood went through a wild burst of pleasure in response to the growth, and her body in turn demanded more pleasure, more growth...! She yipped high and barked low, and all of this intensity, especially fed back to her through her own magic, had Rillimia feeling some pleasant, fuzzy sensations down there as well—losing her just as much to the wild demands of Hayden's wolf side..and possibly her human side, too.

Finally, mercifully, the wolf-girl let out a howl, a high "Awroooo~!" which Rillimia responded to with a high, squeaky sigh as the last burst of growth came to Hayden's chest, leaving her with an enormous pair of globes perfectly complimented by her slim, flat belly and wide, luscious hips. The witch found she had control over her magic once more, and quickly reeled it back; she also discovered that one of her hands had wandered from the other girl's ears over the last several seconds to feel her generous curves and soft skin, and swiftly brought both arms to the position of a relatively tame hug around Hayden's upper waist.

The werewolf panted rapidly, slowly regaining her mind, and stepped backwards, setting Rillimia down on her feet (with the witch's cooperation in letting go). She took another several steps back, looking around and then down at her own body; during this time the witch observed that her eyes had turned a beautiful, brilliant purple shade, the same color as Rillimia's magic sometimes had. And..her clothes had reduced themselves into an extremely revealing, tight-fitting, black bikini.

"H-heheheh...uh," Hayden stammered once her breath was caught, hugging her arms underneath her extremely generous chest and still blushing brilliantly.

"WHOOOO! That was, s-some crazy side effects, huh?!"

"Er, uh..i-indeed..." Rillimia didn't really have much room to talk; her own face was burning hot too. "I, it seems as if mixing my magic with your moonlight, er...s-some kind of transformation, um.." She was having some real difficulty reciting the excuse she'd practiced for when her target became female, partially because she was trying to make sense internally of just how Hayden had grabbed control over the change, and how...it had made both of them feel in that moment.

"..Um.."

"Hh-hey, t-take all the time you need to explain," Hayden said. "I-I guess that wasn't much less intense f-for you than it was for me, huh?"

"R-right..."

The witch looked away to one side, quickly coming to a conclusion: She couldn't do this. There was no way she could lie to someone she wanted to be her familiar, or at least her...close friend, about what had happened. "Actually, I have to confess...I didn't only try to do what you agreed to let me try."

"Hmn?" Hayden's head tilted cutely, which made it all the more painful to continue explaining.

Rillimia's finger twirled through a bit of her hair, a nervous habit she thought she'd left behind at least two years ago. "Er..th-that is..I was also using the same spell to attempt to change you into a woman," she said, wincing. "Because, um...well, for reasons which are complicated, but horrifically selfish. I'm terribly sorry."

"Um.." Hayden's ears were folded down; she looked sympathetically sad, not angry, which seemed impossible to Rillimia. "You meant to turn me back to a guy if I didn't like it though, didn't you? That's why you went out of your way to mention 'side effects'?"

"Well..y-yes.."

"Hey, no harm no foul, then!" she said, brightening up. "Clearly it kinda, ran away with you, or me, or both of us at some point too, right?"

"That it did...but that doesn't really excuse my intentions," Rillimia said.

"Well, y'know..it's not something I would've ever thought to ask for," Hayden pressed. "But I..definitely was enjoying it, a lot, to want to yank control of it. I mean..I guess I made myself pretty hot, too, right?"

"You are..stunningly beautiful," the witch agreed, feeling her blush return with a vengeance.

"H-heheh. I wasn't really paying attention to your looks much before, but you're super cute, you know?" Hayden said. "Um..l-lemme get a shirt on, and maybe you can explain your reasons for doing it? I'm curious."

"Er..C-certainly. It's, the least I can do, i-if you really wish to know," she nodded.

"Okay! Be right back!" Hayden waved behind her as she turned to go to her bedroom.

She returned wearing a red shirt that hung loosely on her, exposing some neckline and one shoulder, still easily revealed most of her curves, and reached down only as far as her upper thighs, leaving the rest of her long, gorgeous legs exposed. "There we go! Slightly more decent, a'least. Um..take a seat?" she suggested, sitting on her couch and patting a spot next to her. The stunned witch hadn't moved the whole time she'd been gone, and numbly came to sit in the indicated spot.

Rillimia patiently explained the nature of familiar magic to Hayden, alongside how she'd been hoping to find a werewolf willing to be her familiar for a while...ending with how it worked its best when the familiar was the same sex as the witch or warlock.

At the end of the explanation, the wolf-girl was quiet, clearly thinking. Then: "So.." Her head tilted a bit. "You thought I'd be a good familiar?"

"W-well, in terms of power, certainly. I did intend on, finding out whether our personalities were compatible," she said. "A-and, of course, whether you'd be willing to do it. It is a mutual contract, not something that can be forced on another person."

"And, if I was your familiar, I'd get some access to your witchy powers? We'd hang out a lot, probably? Help loads of people with problems like you did with mine?"

"Erm..preferably. Not that I would want to pull you away from your life, but I would sometimes need you in closer proximity in order to benefit the most from the link..."

"Heheh. Dude, that sounds awesome," the wolf-girl said brightly. "I can at least say I'm very interested."

"Er..r-really?" Rillimia was stunned by this response, even though she would scold herself later that Hayden's questions were very clearly leading this way. But it was hard to even realize that over realizing that the taller, curvier, stronger wolf-girl was kind of leaning over her. If the witch's blush from before had ever truly subsided, it came back again now.

"Yeah, sure! I guess it's cool if you wanna talk some more first, find out if we'd get along well enough. But uh, I'm into it!" This announcement was followed shortly by a "Whoop!" as Hayden finally reaped the consequences of leaning in too far, and fell directly onto Rillimia, knocking the shorter girl onto her back with their chests pressed against each other again.

"Um..oops." Their faces were also rather close to each other, and Hayden was blushing again, too. "S-sorry." She wasn't moving to pick herself up. Her tail was rapidly wagging above/behind her. "Um.."

"D-did you...do you, like..? How my hands feel, on your ears?" Rillimia said slowly, stumblingly.

"Yes." Hayden nodded slowly, the motion seeming to cause both of their faces to grow redder and hotter. "I'd really like it again," she added, her voice plumbing the depths of its range to come out in a smooth, mature, deeply womanly tone.

Saying nothing, the witch reached her hands up around the big, curvy woman's body, and gently ran her fingers down each ear from tip to base. On the way down, Hayden softly cried "Aa~aah.." and when they reached their destination, she barked cutely: "Rrrf!" With that, she slid down on top of the witch, nuzzling her face vigorously again while Rillimia continued petting the ears with one hand, letting the other one wander its way down the werewolf's long, lovely hair, prod at her curves through the shirt a little bit, and finally settle on gently holding tightly around her waist. The whole time, Hayden continued yipping high and barking low, until the witch's other hand trailed its way down her hair to her waist, leaving them both panting once again—the wolf-girl much faster, but Rillimia's no less heavy.

Once she was panting around normal human speed, Hayden said, "I think..hff..we're very,..hhh..very..'compatible'."

"Y-yes...I w-would like to talk some too, however..j-just to be certain.."

"Th-that's cool," Hayden nodded, gently lifting herself off before offering the witch a hand to help her sit up again.

Rillimia stumbled through the most pertinent-seeming of the questions she'd mentally prepared for an occasion which was...admittedly nothing like this one, expressed her own opinion on a few things, and answered the wolf-girl's questions as honestly as she knew how. All the while, Hayden stayed sitting right up against her, soon reaching an arm up over the witch's shoulder in a loose hug. Halfway through the conversation, Rillimia's own arm made its way around the wolf-girl's waist in return. Their faces drew dangerously close toward the end of her answer to Hayden's last question, and they were both blushing again.

The werewolf drew back a little bit, giggling. "H-eheh! So, we seem to agree on lots of things, right? I guess I pass your test?"

"Inasmuch as it qualifies as one, anyway," the witch nodded.

"I think it goes without saying I wanna do this, Rill," Hayden continued, running her hand through the smaller girl's hair and making her shiver for a second before she could respond.

"R-rill?"

"A..nickname? I thought it sounded cute, like you." Her ears folded down a bit in worry that it might be ill-received.

"Oh. Erm. I don't mind it at all, it was just..surprising. Much like everything else about you," Rill said.

"Heheh!" The wolf-girl giggled again, and then very deliberately leaned her face in once more.

"So, little Rill.." Her voice was back in its deepest, sexiest register again, rendering the witch completely dumbstruck. "Shall we go through with it? What do we need?"

"Uh—um, er..n-not much. j-j-just..!"

Hayden laughed and politely pulled back again. "Sorry, sorry! I guess you need to actu'lly concentrate for this, huh?"

"A little bit..h-having some mental faculties intact will certainly help."

"I'm just stoked I can have that effect on you whenever I like," the wolf-girl said, grinning adorably/viciously. "This is gonna be a lot of fun, I can tell."

Fun..? Rillimia had never thought of her goals in quite that way. But...being with this beautiful, strong werewolf...definitely would be fun, wouldn't it? And really, she wouldn't have persisted in her personal method of pursuing greatness for so long if she didn't enjoy it.

When the spell was cast, the trace that Rillimia's magic had left in Hayden's body awakened, erupting into a powerful flow between the two of them. It manifested visibly in the werewolf's bright purple eyes gaining a faint glow that enhanced their beauty all the more. And, no sooner was the ritual over than the wolf-girl picked up the smaller witch and pulled her into a close embrace down on the couch, her face wearing a downright predatory grin and her tail audibly whapping against the back cushion.

Rill's hands went unbidden to the gorgeous wolf-girl's ears, their link amplifying the other girl's desires as they resonated with her own. Her new familiar yipped and barked, pulling her close enough to feel each other's rapid heartbeats, and this time the witch's hand continued past the wolf-girl's hair to the base of her tail, drawing a deep, sexy "Oo~ohh..!" which progressed into more deeply pleased sounds as the hand stroked its way down the soft, furry appendage. The witch lost herself in Hayden's animal enjoyment, her own body feeling an unprecedented intensity of pleasure that lost her to the world just as much as the wild werewolf whose arms she was in.

A long, immeasurable time later, they slowly, steadily calmed down, their bodies staying every bit as close but their hot faces pulling apart just enough to attempt futilely to catch their breath. After even longer of just holding on to the wolf-girl, getting just enough breath to possibly speak, she whispered into Rillimia's ear: "Hey. Rill. Name me."

"Mmnh?"

"Gimme a nickname, like I did you. I wanna hear it," she said softly.

"O-oh. Erm..." Rill expected to take a very long time to come up with a name, but it seemed to burst into her consciousness unbidden a mere instant after she began to try. "..Hyra...?"

The werewolf giggled.

"Y-you, like it?"

"I love it," she replied. Then, quieter, deeper: "Just what I was thinking."

---

I did set out to write a caption with this one, but it just came out way too long. Oh well. 

If you're wondering who the pink witch is, well...she's been involved in lots of captions and stories. Like October Magic, or The Free Puppy, or Senses of the Wolf. If you spot an unnamed character with pink hair who seems to be primarily responsible for a transformation, there's a decent chance it's her.