A Summoning, Part XXXIX

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Part XXXIX
~Wheel of Fortune~

Somewhere in the middle of Saturday afternoon, Graham's phone rang. "Hello?"

"Good afternoon, Graham cracker~! How are you doing?" It was Val.

"Uh, just fine, thanks." She'd had to pause a game in the middle of a fairly exciting section to answer, but that wasn't too different from having to place a bookmark in the middle of a momentous part of a novel. Neither one would be worthy of comment to an employer, at least.

"I've got a little problem..uh, let's say a conflict, going on, and thought you might be able to help solve it for me. See, some associates of mine down in the demon realm want me over to talk about an important business proposition their son's got, and they want to meet tomorrow morning. I've got an assistant manager tied down to handle the workers, but when it comes to the kinds of customers we've been getting a lot of lately, weeelll..."

"You're sayin', you want me to come in to work tomorrow morning?"

"It would really help me out. I solemnly swear I won't make a habit of asking you—maybe I won't have as much trouble finding a college student with a tail or wings to hire for weekends, given recent events? But this is just such short notice! I'll pay you time and a half?"

"Hmm...well, all right. Under those conditions, you understand. 'Till about noon?"
"Yes, yes! I'll definitely be back by then. Or if I am slightly late, it's not your problem. That's the assistant manager's job to figure out."

---

Onida woke up Sunday morning, turned to look at the clock and register that it was the time her alarm usually went off, then turned back over and went back to sleep for another hour and a half. This was still earlier than her night-owl brother used to always get up, but for her, it was sleeping in. After all, it was her day off.

An idea occurred to her in the shower, while she was thinking about what to do for breakfast, and after using a hairdryer on her tail for even longer than her hair, she went across the hall to knock on the door to her brother's room. Well—'sister' was technically more correct here, but the idea of Damon as her brother was stuck too firmly in her mind to not think of the brown-haired wolf-girl that way first.

A soft bark responded after her third, somewhat louder and more insistent attempt. "Rrfh...hmmn?"
"Hey, Damon. You awake?"
"Who's asking?" (a typical joke of his...hers, that basically meant 'yes').

"You wanna go out to brunch today?"

"Oh! Yes!"
"Okay then, get ready. I'll go tell Sam."

The three werewolves piled into her car to drive out to the restaurant she had in mind. They were walking across the parking lot of the shopping center it belonged to when Damon seemed to more-or-less accidentally glance a certain way and stop in her tracks, gasping slightly. It was a voiced sort of gasp that conveyed shock but not horror or distress, and when Onida looked the same way her sister had, she just saw a clothing store—in fact, one they'd been to quite recently. "What—you see an outfit you like?"

"Uhhm...no. It's—Sam!" she turned abruptly, grabbing the other girl's forearm. "Are catgirls real!?"

"Aah..yeah. I mean..like," she put a hand up behind her head as Damon let go of her, "there's all kinds of beastfolk besides werewolves, after all..."
"And—do I remember wrong, or..? I really like catgirls, right?!"
"Nnnow that you mention it, aah, yeah. I, kindaaaa remember something like that." Onida was getting pretty used to Sam's way of talking, and had the feeling this hesitant, drawn-out response wasn't an indication that she barely remembered Damon bringing it up once or twice, but rather the complete opposite.

"So, you saw one in the window just now?" Onida cut in.
"Yes! She had really bright white hair and fur and looked super cute!"

"Well, I don't see her now."

Damon looked through the window again, and her ears drooped slightly. "Yeah..."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Sam said consolingly. "If she's in town, we might run into her again. Or, aah, maybe someone even cuter?"

"C'mon, aren't you hungry?" Onida said. This brightened her sibling up immediately.
"Yes! Let's goooo~!"

---

After eating, and after talking over plenty of things both important and trivial, Stella and Thomas sat in silence for a moment. It wasn't awkward or uncomfortable, but more had the sense of them peacefully keeping each other's company. The celestial seemed to jump slightly, either remembering or thinking of something.

"So, listen...there's a small, fairly trivial thing...which, I am hoping you might be able to help me out with."

"What kinda thing?"

"I hardly need you to do much more than stand around looking intimidating while I talk to some people. For a dragon, just crossing your arms and not looking too happy is more than enough."

"Okaaay?"
"Right, you obviously require context," she said, nodding. "A pair of Kitsune tricked me the other day—harmlessly, I assure you. I'd just like to return the favor. As far as I understand, they will view this as a friendly gesture."
"Uh-huh. And, you want to be friendly with them?"
"I believe I would like to make many friends, and these two seemed like fun. Besides, the population of foxes in the world has grown quite large in recent centuries—if my initial knowledge is to be believed, that is. Therefore it would be helpful for me to learn firsthand how to ingratiate myself to them."

"Well, okay then. I guess I don't mind, but—I'd still like to know what your plan is? Also, I've met at least one Kitsune before, and Zotha knows some, so..."
"Right, right," she nodded. "Their identities may be relevant too. I shall tell you all of the details, then."

---

Graham was having a fairly boring shift overall; practically no customers showed up the entire morning. She noticed some of her coworkers playing on their phones, or on small handheld consoles, and almost felt a slight pang of jealousy. Something like: I could be doing that too, if I had one! She actually had to remind herself that playing while on the job, even if there weren't any customers, was incredibly unprofessional. Still, given their collective, boring situation, she couldn't blame them, and certainly didn't feel compelled to really say anything. Besides, when the assistant manager came out and walked around, he clearly saw them doing it didn't so much as comment on it.

So maybe this week's pay, with the extra from today, would be enough to get an older handheld from that place she'd gone to before...

She was more or less daydreaming about that, maybe half an hour away from the end of her shift, when some people actually walked in. She wasn't anywhere near the front door, but her feline ears twitched and turned and easily picked up on some of their conversation...despite the fact that it was kind of half-whispered and probably not intended for eavesdropping.

"I, aaah, really doubt she's still in here, you know?" Well, that voice sounded pretty familiar. "It's been over an hour."
"It's fine. I want a couple more outfits anyway. And maybe you wanna try something new on?" Graham was pretty sure she didn't know this one.
"Uhm, no, I've got enough clothes." And that was..!

"Well, you'll have to at least pretend to be shopping if you want to go looking all around the store, right?" said the second voice.

The Neko took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down. They had never actually met in any sense of the word she knew, so acting excited or overly familiar would just make her seem strange. Besides, she was still on the clock. So, she went casually and slowly walking around toward another section to intercept their footsteps. Her coworkers would surely appreciate the opportunity to keep playing rather than having to deal with customers anyway, right?

The two wolf-girls Graham recognized from (mostly) a few recent nightly streams were with a third one around the same height, with bright silver hair and a small chunk seemingly bitten out of her left ear. She walked up toward them with a friendly wave. "Hey there. You ladies need any help?" she asked.

"I think we'll be okay," the less-familiar one said; the one who wasn't 'incupokal' seemed to have stopped in place as soon as she saw the Neko. "You work here?"
"Sure do. Part-timer, name's Graham," she said, pointing to her nametag. "Actually, I'm afraid I've got you two at a bit of a disadvantage here," she added with a slight gesture Damon and Sam's way.

Damon jumped slightly, and then nervously (and rather adorably!) took a slight step forward. "Um, hi! Y-you know us somehow?"

"Maybe, aaah, seen us on stream?" Sam added, and the Neko nodded. "Oh, wait. Smores?" she guessed aloud.

"'Smores'?" The silver-haired one repeated in confusion, obviously completely out of the loop.

"Er, an online name I've been using lately," Graham tried to explain. "Something of a pun."
"Yeeaah, Smores! Nice to meet you in person!" Sam said, nodding and waving a hand out toward her in a friendly-seeming gesture. "Had no idea you lived around here. Aaah, this is Damon's sister, Onida," she added, finally introducing the third girl.
"Yes, that's me. I guess you've..chatted with them some?" she asked, seeming slightly uncertain about the right terminology.
"Off and on," Graham shrugged. "Not to get too distracted though—you sure you're all fine on looking for clothes? I'm the only one here this morning equipped to help folks with, uh..certain traits," she added, curling her tail up to in front of her waist to gently point at it a couple of times.

"Oh, that. I—we already kinda figured that part out, to be honest," the silver-haired girl said.

"I was, aaah, born this way, you know," Sam said.

"Yeah, and, I had some help from Val the other day, if you know her?" Onida continued. "Buuut..." she gently elbowed her sister. "Maybe you could still teach Damon a thing or two, hm?"

The wolf-girl squeaked slightly, her face flushing a little bit. "Uh—y-yeah! I'm, uh, y-you know.."
"Still not so used to being a lady?" Graham guessed, her voice barely above a whisper. "Believe me, I know what that's like, too."
"Um! R-really!?"

"Sure. Someone offers to make you young and healthy again, you don't ask too many questions at my age," she said with a shrug. 'Smores' had already mentioned how old she really was a few times, after all, alongside talking about being quite new to games in general.

"Th-that's great! Um, maybe you can recommend some stuff, then?"

"Don't mind at all," the catgirl answered.
"Okay, well, you two have fun, then," Onida said. "You don't need to yell if you need any help from me, though, alright?" she added to Damon, pointing at her damaged ear.

"Guess I'll go with you?" Sam suggested, following her off toward another part of the store.

---

Out of other ideas—since of course none of the previously magic-unaware members of her 'cult' had any idea where to find a dragon—the goddess tried the people who she and Jess had first come to to report their 'unexpected changes'. She'd gotten an answering machine and left a message, and only now, after a couple of days of patient waiting, was she finally getting a call back. "Hello?"
"Miss Zotha. Something we can help you with?"

"Yeah. Soooo...a guy I know awakened as a dragon. You're probably already aware of her, I'd guess."

"Indeed. We tend to keep an eye out for anything that powerful. She has been very well behaved so far, if not outright helpful."

"Great. It's just—she's having a little bit of difficulty adjusting to the new instincts and everything. So I was wondering whether you might know of any other, slightly older dragons who might be willing to help her adjust."

"We can contact someone for you. No guarantees, you understand—dragons generally do whatever they wish."
"Sure, sure. I would absolutely want someone who actually wants to help anyway."

"Very well. We'll be in touch."

---

"So, uhm...your tail's uh...forked?" Damon asked, just fishing for some reasonable topic of conversation.

"Yep. Ever since I first grew it," Graham said, drawing it around in front of her again and sliding it across the palm of her hand to right before where it branched off. "This split's been moving up toward the base now and then, too."
"That's not like uh...an unhealthy thing, is it?"
"Nah." She let go, allowing it to go back to swishing back and forth behind her. The wolf-girl watched, half-transfixed by this motion, but tried to focus on what she was saying: "From what I was told, it's a pretty good sign. Nekos like I turned into have their tails start splitting if they're 'wise' enough, and once it goes all the way up, we get 'amazing magical powers'. Supposedly."

"Oh, th-that's really cool!"

"Lessee here...you're into 'tomboy' looking outfits, I'd guess? Maybe some tank tops like this?" she suggested, gesturing. "Shorts? Skinny jeans?"
"Y-you um.." The werewolf felt her face flush slightly. "Think I'd look good in those?"
Graham didn't seem sure how to take the question, and hesitated for a second. "Er...the right fit, sure," she nodded.
"C-could you..pick a good color, then?"
"I'm not too good at coordinating, to be honest...maybe just somethin' dark?" Graham said, her tone making it quite clear she was just guessing. All the same, she went to pull a couple of things off of the rack, continuing: "Or, reddish to bring out your eyes?" She pulled out four pieces she'd just picked, holding them out where Damon could see them.

"Um, th-that'll work!"

"Off to the changing rooms, then." She started leading the way. "I gather there's some details to what happened to ya you couldn't share on stream." This put Damon behind her to watch that slim white tail flicking back and forth, which was quite the distraction...but at least easy to follow. "You and your friend and sister are..werewolves, I guess?" she asked, pausing briefly in her walk to turn her head slightly backwards. "Don't mean to pry or anything."
"O-oh, no, that's okay! It's—um—well. Onida and I weren't, before, you know? I-I actually got bitten by, what I thought was a huge bear, a-and...and, on the next full moon..." Her voice kind of trailed off at the mere thought of that entire experience.

"Oh, pardon me. Sounds awful touchy."
"Uh, th-that's okay. It was—someone super nice helped me out, in a way that kinda, also happened to accidentally make me a girl. So, that's how that happened. I...also lost a lot of my memories at the time. But she managed to track down my sister, and...somehow, even though I couldn't remember anything and looked completely different, we still recognized each other. It was like ma—uh, like that nice person...made a miracle happen, just by being there."

"A 'miracle', huh?" Graham stopped in front of the door to the changing rooms, turning around. "Guess that's how I'd describe what happened to me, too. I was pretty sick at the time, you know, and my granddaughter was desperate for anything that might help me keep going. Joined up with some..not so nice folks. Somehow or other, it worked out, though—they got the attention of someone powerful but kind, who offered to grant everyone a wish. Rachel—that's her name, by the way—'wished' me better. That's who made me young again too, later on."

"Oh! Um..." Something occurred to the werewolf at right this moment, after hearing all of that. "Do you think maybe..it's possible...we're actually talking about the same person?"

"Could be. Named Zotha?"

"Yes! That's her exactly! Wow. Hahah—small world, huh?"

"I suppose so," Graham said, smiling. Oh, and she had the most beautiful smiling face. Was she blushing a little bit too? Damon wasn't entirely sure; maybe 'just slightly red' was how her cheeks normally looked? She paused, reaching her free hand up to twiddle the end of one of her feline ears for a second. "Er, so, these're the changing rooms. I don't expect you need help getting these tops on."
"Uh—n-no no, I should be fine," Damon said quickly, taking the tank tops as soon as the catgirl offered them over at her. She was probably going to cost Onida a little more money than expected at this point, because she'd have a hard time not buying anything if Graham smiled at her like that again while she was wearing it. Well, she'd make it up to her sister somehow, later.

---

"Goodness, I hardly recognized you, Boreas! I mean, I know some people age differently from others, but..."

"Can it. It's a long story anyway."

"Pfft. I guess I don't have to doubt your identity, at least. Same old sour disposition." For the moment, the old-made-young werewolf was sitting behind her counter, playing host to the grandson of an old friend. He looked like a fairly unremarkable human, a fit thirty-something-years-old man with brown hair and brown eyes, but his scent would give him away to any werewolves..or other canid types like foxes, for that matter. There was also the mouth full of razor-sharp teeth he showed whenever he opened it to talk.

"Doubt I smell too different, either," she answered.

"Smell? How could I smell anyone in here?" Her guest waved his hand around in front of his face for a moment. "The scent of all these chemicals carries for miles, you know. I'm astonished the EPA isn't snooping around just beyond the borders of this little realm of yours."

"Araneus. You haven't been for a 'visit' since Lucent's funeral. I don't imagine this is a social visit, either."

"I'd be more inclined to come chat if you were more sociable in the first place, old man. Old..girl?" he corrected, shaking his head slightly. "Whatever. I know you're as disappointed as all the others that I didn't take up the old man's crown. But I'm just not cut out for managing that many people. Giant packs are out these days, anyway."

"You think a lone wolf like me ever cared about that? Lucent was already talking about dissolving the 'last great pack' before the heart attack anyway."

"Yeah? I guess you'd be the one to know.

"But! Speaking of that. My little girl's grown up during all that time. You should see her—a real powerhouse on the full moon already. And I believe she might already be making moves toward forming a little pack of her own. I couldn't be more proud." Araneus grinned big enough to bare some of his teeth. He always looked his most threatening when he was happy.
"Hmmh. Maybe you could take her to meet me someday."

"Maybe so, maybe so! She might especially like to if there's something to be grateful to you for."

"You want a potion," Boreas said flatly.
"Ooooh no no!" he spread out his arms dramatically, then used them to point sideways at an imaginary other person. "She wants a potion! Something very particular, at that. Can you imagine it? 'Daddy'," he said in a falsetto tone intended to imitate a small girl, "'can you buy me a potion?' She's never had much of an interest in alchemy before! Great big moon, I didn't even think she knew potions were real!"

"So you thought of me first. How touching."
"Weeeellll.." Araneus exhaled. "The thing is, what she wants specifically, sounds just a little bit impossible? But I'd still like to give it to her if I can. I know we spoil her a little bit, but Lue's turning out great so far! So—I think the strategy is working, and I'd hate to give it up now. You...do still enjoy a challenge, don't you, Boreas?" he asked, leaning forward and putting an elbow on the counter. "Especially if that newfound youth has resharpened your mind...perhaps you'd like to test it? Money, you know, is no object for me," he added with the brief gesture of rubbing his thumb across his other fingers.

---

Onida looked at the small pile of clothes on the countertop for a moment, then over at Damon. "I'm not sure we really should've left you alone with her," she said—a joke, but deadpan.
Damon didn't initially recognize it as a joke. "Um—"
"At least these all fit you, right? You tried them all on?"
"Yes! I did," she nodded quickly.
"Please don't feel like you have to get all of that if your budget's tight," Graham said. "I know what that's like, ya know."
"Pfft, it's fine," Onida said, finally letting out a small laugh. "I'm just glad to see some actual variety here. Anyway, we really should get outta here. I think Sam is shopped right out." She pointed to where the third wolf-girl was leaning against a nearby wall with her head tilted upward and her eyes closed; Sam audibly yawned at this point.

"Uh. S-so uh. When you're, done working. Do you, maybe wanna hang out and play some games or something?" Damon offered hesitantly, stumbling through half of her words. "We, I mean I have a lot of different..things to play on. At home."
"Well, I'd like to sometime, sure. Not this afternoon, though—I promised Rachel I'd take her out to lunch since I had to work all morning," Graham said. "I could give you my number to figure something out later, though."

"Um, yes! That's, that would be fine," she said, nodding rapidly.

After the three of them left, Graham checked her phone to find her shift about fifteen minutes past over. "Well then. Guess I'll be off, too."
"Proooofiii~iit!" Looking over toward the door, she found Valoz coming in, looking positively gleeful. "Excuse my outburst. Was that your doing, my good luck charm?" she said, waving excitedly behind her after she hurried over toward the Neko.
"They made their own decisions on what to buy," Graham said, crossing her arms.

"Well, you're fifteen minutes overtime anyway. So I might blame you just enough for a small bonus to appear in your next check anyway," she said, ruffling the catgirl's hair with one hand.
"I suppose I would appreciate that regardless. Anyhow, I've got to get on now."
"Yep! See you later~!"

Thinking about on her way out...Graham decided there was no way just a few more clothes sold had put the Mammon in that good of a mood. Presumably her meeting that morning had gone well, too.

---

Wow, it's been over a year on this one, huh? I've had a lot of writer's block with this one, but feel like I've managed to mostly get out from under it.

One fun and exciting challenge/intense frustration (depending on my mood) with this story is trying to make sure it "syncs up" with Midas Journal just right. Not only for basic consistency reasons, but also because I want characters and events from the two stories to interact with and inform each other. Chronologically, this time period in Midas is where there's a fair number of time skips, which means I have to find some way to fill that time over here. I've been hoping to make a bit of a quick-montage of a week or so's worth of time on "this end" to help deal with that, but some things just really needed to be established and/or tied up before I could do that.

But, yes, speaking of Midas Journal: I have made some progress on that story too. There's a couple of parts that I want to form a "pair" and publish close to each other, and the second one is more or less fully planned out but has been unexpectedly difficult to finish. Anyway...a certain person's former name was never revealed over there, was it?

Lost and Found, Part 4

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Part 4: You Want to Know?

Jared allowed herself a second or two to appreciate the silence. But the way the now-short, now-wolfish, now-girl was still bouncing around excitedly made it pretty clear it wouldn't last if she hesitated too much to take advantage of it. "Uh—yeah. So. I'm not really a witch, I think. It's just—when I pretended to 'cast a spell', this wand..did this to me," she explained. "And then doing the same thing turned uh—my friend into that, and also you. So.."
"No way! That definitely means you are a witch, though!" the wolf-girl said. "I mean, who else can transform people with just a wand and an incantation, right?"
"Um—but I think it's just the wand doing things. And, also I can't figure out how to transform myself back? Or anyone else?"
"Why'd you wanna turn back, though? You're really cute! And your friend is super hot, too!"
"Uh—"
"Most people don't enjoy their bodies being randomly rearranged," Greg said, practically grinding her teeth at this point.

"Oh..maybe? But yeah, if you're a real witch, it'd make sense you couldn't turn yourself back, but you should totally be able to turn her back," she said, waving at the catgirl.

"Huh?" Jared said. "Wait, why?"
"Uh, it's like..your magic can't do something against its own nature, or something? I dunno the details," she said, shrugging.
"You never actually tried turning me back, did you?" Greg said.
"I guess not? I didn't think it'd make any sense for that to be possible, though!"

"Hey-hey," the wolf-girl said, "if she's not your familiar, that means you're in the market for one, right? What about me?"
"Uh—you?" Jared repeated, visibly confused.
"Like as a familiar!"
"I, uh, don't even know your name, though?" she protested, still having no idea what they were even talking about.

"Oh, yeah! It's Don. Maybe I'll go with Dora or something instead, though! And you?"

"Um—Jared."
"That's not a very witchy name," Dora said with the lightest, teasingest hint of annoyance in her tone of voice. "What about Jade?"

"Stop, stop!" Greg cut in, putting herself between the two of them. This put her back kind of close to the blond girl, and she felt compelled to back up a little just to not get hit by that rapidly-flicking tail. "Can you not shut up and listen to anyone for half a second!? Nobody is anyone's familiar here, and you are not changing anyone's name but your own!"

"Awwh, but I thought you might like something like Gretel?"

"No! Now quit interrupting us so Jared can come up with a spell to change me back into a dude!"

At this point, their conversation was interrupted by the sound of someone laughing. "Pffft—hahahah..!" It wasn't any of the three girls, because it was a male voice. "HAA—hahahah..!" The two with animal-ears seemed to find where it was coming from near-instantly, leaving Jared (or maybe Jade, she kind of liked the sound of that...at least, if she was going to be stuck this way!) to turn her her head the same way just in time to see something pitch black rolling out from inside a collection of nearby bushes. "HAHAHAHAHA!!!"

The voice's owner was...a fox? A fox covered in pitch-black fur rolled over onto his back with his forepaws crossed over his belly like it was in pain and his hindpaws kicking around in the air. He laughed uproariously for a good several seconds longer before finally gasping for air and rolling back to where he could stand on his feet. "Oooh Ruler and all the rest. I can't...heheh..I could not even..!" Suddenly he ran around to one side of Jared, tilting his head up toward her face from not two feet away. "You are hilarious!"

"Wah!" The blond girl startled badly enough from the fox's sudden approach to jump backwards and drop the wand to the ground.

"Uh, Jared—" the catgirl had turned around to face the two of them, and started to say something in an attempt to calm her down.

It was slightly too late to actually achieve that, as Jade waved her hands excitedly in the air. "Talking fox! Talking fox!" she repeated louder, gesturing both hands at it. This would've been the end of her little freak-out, except that—rather to her own surprise if not anyone else's—a bunch of electricity sparked out from her hands upon this gesture, joining together into something like a miniature bolt of lightning that struck itself straight into the fox, making him yelp and jump back a little bit himself.

"Seriously, dude..." Greg sighed, facepalming and shaking her head. The weird black talking fox at least seemed fine—uninjured anyway. However, there were some golden sparks coming out from his body for a moment, which he seemed to observe with an air of curiosity. After a couple of seconds of this, there was a sudden, audible poof of black smoke taking up the space around the fox and also several feet upward from there. The smoke cleared unnaturally quickly to reveal an adult man with furry black ears and a tail matching those of the fox that had been there a second ago, wearing a bright-colored kimono.

"Oh..impressive," he muttered, in the same exact voice as the fox. Some more sparks flew off of him, and a second tail seemed to sprout from his back to join the original one. "Ah—even more so," he said, running a hand across that tail as yet a third appeared too, and then a fourth. "My, what power.." A fifth tail appeared too, as the sparks now finally began to have an effect more like they usually had before: The complexion of his face shifted, and his hair trailed its way out to shoulder length over the course of a few seconds.

It was obvious enough that he was about to get turned into a girl, too. But it didn't seem to bother him; rather, he grinned. "Mm~mh..interesting..." His voice lilted just slightly, instantly taking on an even deeper alto tone than Greg's. His hair continued to grow a little more slowly after that first burst, and now his shape began to melt inward and slightly downward, his outfit loosening as his form slimmed and narrowed.

"Aa~ah..mmr~rrrh.." Golden sparks danced across his clothes, merging and reshaping them. All of the color washed out into a pure white, the sleeves pulled themselves all the way off of his arms and revealed some quickly-narrowing shoulders, and the pants split and spread into a long skirt with a frilly hem. "Rr~rrfh..!" A slightly higher bark came out as his face shifted itself smaller, rounder, and cuter. The part of his clothes around his torso pulled tight against his slimming waist, but remained quite loose around his chest.

"Mrr~rrh.." His face began to redden with a blush, his ears lowering and eyes fluttering shut. He'd only lost a couple of inches of height, but his body had rapidly slimmed into an extremely feminine shape, and his hair was trailing out nearly to his upper legs in the back. He jolted just once, letting out a low "Mngh—!" and then, despite the tight top and long, loose skirt hardly making it visibly obvious, all three onlookers immediately felt they were looking at a woman. This impression was strengthened further when she immediately followed with a soft, sultry "Oo~oooh...!" as her figure began to fill out all at once: Her thighs thickened, her hips plumped out, and her chest quickly began to push out into the free space left by the top part of her dress.

"M-mnn~nNNNnnh.." Her blush grew steadily brighter, her body squirming around a bit, as her breasts grew out to fill the dress's top, only to then keep pushing out bigger, forcing it to make some extra room. "Aa~aah...rrfh..! Mrr~rrrnnh.." She seemed to struggle to keep up any sort of composure against wave after wave of girlish pleasure as her breasts kept on getting bigger, until finally they'd become at least a match for the catgirl's pair. She gasped as they gave one last push for good measure, and let that breath out in a soft, high, breathy "Aa~aah..." of relief as the change came to a close.

She opened her eyes, a sly grin making its way across her lips. "Well now...aren't you a powerful witch, m'dear?"

Jade protested: "But I'm not a witch, though! That wand—"
"Wasn't in your hand when you cast that spell. Besides which, it's hardly capable of anything like this," she said, gesturing at her own new form. "It has only a tiny little enchantment on it that zaps anyone who waves it around."

"Wh—really!?"

The fox-girl nodded. "Like the magical equivalent of one of those trick lighters? I ought to know, since I'm the one who planted it in the dryer. I must say, though, I wasn't expecting anything nearly as entertaining as this from such a little prank!"

"...WHAT?!"

---

After a full week stuck as a girl, Jared was really starting to just accept it. She'd tried wearing her 'old' clothes at first, but kept getting stares and jokes...then started using spells to 'adapt' them to fit her...but today, for the first time since the change, she'd gone out wearing a skirt and stockings (along with a top, obviously). It had been strangely..freeing. Of course Greg and...well, it was apparently Dora now, weren't nearly so unfortunate. One of them was the plaything of a five-tailed Kitsune, and the other had a witch at her/his command.

"S-so uh..."
"Mrowh?" Greg—who, male or female, retained bright red hair and kitty ears, and who had absolutely rejected any change of name—had Jade pinned on her back on the dorm room bed, nuzzling her cheek while she pet her.

"One of the books Minori gave me had a 'familiaring' spell. It's supposed to amplify the mage's power, but also share it with the person who's uh, the familiar."
"Hmmh." Sensing that the catgirl was mostly just annoyed the petting had stopped, Jared went back to rubbing her ears while she continued.

"I-I mean—it can work with any animal, apparently, and if it is just a normal animal then it turns sentient or whatever. But with a person, the power boost is way higher. I mean, I don't really feel like I need more power, but um.."
"Mrrr~rrh...guess Dora was right about yet another thing, huh."
"Y-yeah. But uh, it's just. If, you know, we did, then you could pretty much change yourself whenever you wanted."
"Mrowh? Inconveniencing you too much?"

"Uh, n-no, but um. You mmmiiiight, also be able to turn me back using the link? Sometimes? I'm not totally sure I get it, but it seems like as long as the person actually using the witch-magic is a girl, it still works?"

"Hmmph. I guess I could take one for the team."

"O-oh, really? That's great!"
"Yeah...mrr~rrh...just don't be surprised if I use it to make you a catgirl sometimes, too."
"Uh.." Jared felt her face flush even brighter than it already was. "I-I guess that's okay..."

---

Yes, I could've spun this story into a bit more of the fallout from the immediate event, gone into more character detail and stuff...but I really just wanted to finish it and move on so I could focus on other stories I'm more interested in. So: smash cut to a week later feels like a pretty effective way to achieve that. I think the cut between parts 3 and 4 is probably the most awkward, and this part is a little shorter than the others, but that's fine; splitting this into pieces was fairly arbitrary in the first place. And if you're curious, the image used for Office Prankster was a "castoff" while coming up with the image used in this part, for Minori.

Lost and Found, Part 3

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Part 3: Would You Mind?

Greg, now an unbelievably hot catgirl, was holding her roommate's hand, pulling the witch-looking girl straight out the door to their room and into the hall. Jared's heartbeat picked up a little more from just this slight touch, her cheeks starting to burn...what was going on there!? "Wa-wait!"
"What?"

"I-I-I uh, m-my ID card and stuff is..."
"Oh." Greg exhaled an impatient sigh. "Go get it, then."

Feeling a dire sense of urgency, Jared took the minimal time possible to grab the strange magically-appeared purse, only taking a second as she walked out the door to also stuff the wand responsible for all of this mess inside of it.

No sooner did she make it back out than the catgirl grabbed her by the wrist to lead her on, and the strange, excited feeling started up again. Not just from confusion about that, but because Greg was (like always) much stronger than she was, Jared let herself be pulled along the hallway, off to the stairs, and then all the way to the cafeteria. People they passed sometimes spared a confused glance, but even though she'd lost some height, the catgirl had no less of an imposing presence than before—besides which, she was pulling the shorter girl along pretty fast, not giving many people time for more than one brief look.

Once they got inside and lined up for their trays, Greg finally let go of Jared's wrist. She was finally able to take a deep breath and calm down slightly—but only slightly; now that they were staying relatively still in one place, she could feel people's stares. Still, nobody seemed to approach too closely, either because they didn't look as weird as she thought, or—again—Greg's glare keeping them away.

Now that she was surrounded by the smell of food, Jared had to admit...she was pretty hungry too. Her body didn't usually appreciate skipping lunch to begin with, and perhaps casting "spells" or transforming or just all of the excitement in general had taken something out of her. So she went about picking up a bunch of food for herself, paying for both of them, and then meekly following the big redhead outside. There was a little sort of "picnic park" nearby which students were encouraged to eat at so the cafeteria wouldn't be so crowded, but far fewer people ever actually used it than it seemed built for. It made for a relatively quiet and sparse area for them to sit across from each other and eat.

Jared couldn't help noticing the catgirl had put together a plate of...mostly fish for her lunch. Greg often liked to go for a lot of protein, varying which kind of meat from one meal to the next, so it wasn't impossible that this was what she was going to eat anyway—but if so, it was at least an interesting coincidence. The catgirl kept a frown on her face while she ate, but it felt more and more fake the more Jared looked at it; she was definitely enjoying her food...if not the company.

Their peace and quiet didn't last quite long enough to finish eating, however. Just as Jared was getting started on dessert, a tall, brown-haired guy basically bounded up right next to their table. "Whooaa! Are you a real witch!?" he asked excitedly. "Can you do magic!? Oh oh—is she your familiar, too?!"

All of these questions came on a little too quickly for Jared to actually respond to. Greg shoved herself to her feet at this point, brandishing a fist at him. "You're gonna be really familiar with my fist in a minute if you don't leave us alone," she said, looking genuinely angry for maybe the first time since turning into a catgirl. Something about the way her ears folded back made it feel a lot more honest.

The excitable guy put up his hands, backing up a step or so—even though Greg was a fair bit shorter than him. "Whoa, hey—I don't mean any harm, miss kitty-cat! But I've never seen any real magic before, let alone an actual witch! I just think it's super cool, is all!"

The catgirl looked between Jared and the weird guy, then sighed, unclenching her fist and dropping her hand. Probably she'd noticed the blond girl's expression of, more or less, 'please don't actually beat his face in!' "Look, I'm not—what you just said, I'm Greg. You got that?" she said, glaring.

"Yeah, okay," he nodded. "So—Greg—you think you could get your master to cast a spell? Just one!?"
Her cheeks went almost as red as her hair. "My what!?"

"Uh, is that not the right word? I mean—you are her familiar, right? Oh wait—does that mean you can do magic too?"

"Let's get one thing straight—I am not her 'familiar' or whatever, and nobody is my master! But—okay—why don't you show him a little magic, huh?" she said, gesturing from Jared to him.

"Um—I don't know if that's a good idea.." she said a little quietly.

"He is asking for it," Greg said, crossing her arms again. One of the several things he'd called her in the last half-minute or so had clearly crossed a line which no apology from him would entirely make up for. And if Jared didn't want her to start wailing on him, this was apparently her only acceptable non-violent substitute.

Well, they were hoping to find a way to change back anyway...maybe someone this excited about magic would have some clue of, at least, who to ask? Holding onto that fairly weak rationalization, Jared carefully stood up, pulled the wand out of her purse, and tried to come up with a reasonable spell. She was pretty sure that an animal's name was needed, so: "Um—wolf who interrupts our meal, here's some magic for you to feel!" And she pointed the wand right at him.

Just like usual, a spark went out from the tip of the wand, hitting their interloper dead center in the torso. He yelped at the slight shock. "Whoa! That was so cool! With the incantation a-and everything.." He trailed off slightly as some sparks raced across his body, starting to soften his skin, and his body and facial hair began to shorten and thin. However, he didn't seem to pause because of that, but rather so he could reach up and scratch his hears. "Huh..hey, my ears are..?" They were already covered in some soft brown fuzz by the time his fingers started working on them, and it was getting longer and thicker by the second. "Growing..? Was that a transformation spell!?"

Jared stammered, "Um—"
"Yes, it was," Greg interrupted her, putting her hands on her hips.
"Th-that's so~o co~ol!" he said, his voice cracking mid-vowel, twice, and coming out a little higher in pitch each time. He lowered his hands from his ears to lightly touch his cheeks, and by now the magic had done its work on his skin, leaving them visibly—and no doubt palpably—quite smooth. His ears grew even faster now, rushing outward and upward into a pair of fuzzy triangles even bigger and taller than Greg's.

"A~ah—whoa..!" The wolf-eared guy lifted his hands off his cheeks in surprise, shuddering slightly, as his hair suddenly burst outward, taking less than a second to grow some wild locks sprawling out onto his shoulders on the back and sides, with some longer bangs helping to frame his face. "A~ah..!" His voice continued to change with each utterance, lilting up to a youthful-sounding tenor as a slim, dark-brown tail slid its way out from his back. "Aa~ah, arfh..!" He let out a sort of barking sound as the tail quickly fluffed out thicker and kept getting longer. "Rr~rfh, rrfh..!" With his mouth open from the barking, some of his teeth could bee seen growing into longer, sharper fangs. Soon they, and the tail, reached their full size.

"W-wow, wow!" He sounded like a young boy—in how he talked as well as the pitch of his voice—as he curled the tail up between his hands to feel it. "A real tail! Man, I've always wondered wha~at it..aah.." He let go of the tail, dropping his arms to the side as he shuddered slightly once again. His hair grew a little bit longer on the sides, but gained at least half a foot of length in the back. "Mm~mnh..!" His voice changed even more now, lilting out of masculine range entirely. There was a sudden, brief eruption of sparks off of his body, and then...

"Aah, aa~aah..!" He brought his arms up to hug himself tightly, squirming like he was struggling against some invisible restraints. His body rapidly shrank downward and inward, losing maybe an inch of height per second. "W-wah, aa~ah..rr~rrfh..!" His shirt and pants seemed to keep up with the shrinking, continually pulling tight enough to show his shoulders narrowing, his waist slimming, his arms and legs getting shorter and thinner. His pants didn't seem content to just pull close around his legs either, instead pulling their leggings up shorter and shorter to show off some smooth, increasingly slender and girlish legs.

"Rr~rfh..w-wa~ah. aa~aah..!" The shrinking went on and on, turning his face soft, round and cute, pulling his height down to match Greg's..and then even more! By now his voice had shifted into an adorably high, soft soprano tone, and his pants had beecome a pair of shorts steadily making their way up his thighs, and also starting to pull awfully tight against an unexpectedly small bulge between his legs. "Mm-mm~mnn~nnh.." His eyes fluttered shut, his face alight with a blush, as the bulge visibly shrank too, his height loss finally slowing down just as his eye level crossed below Jared's.

"Mm-mr~rfh..!" This bark came out high, like a cute puppy's. His shrinking came to an end at last, leaving his eye level about where the blond girl's chin was. "A-aa~aah...!" Finally, his sex changed, the pants pulling completely flat between her legs.

"O-oh. wah, wo~ooOOOOO~OOOWWWwwhh...!" She dropped her hands back to the side, wobbling back and forth excitedly, as her hips and thighs pushed themselves out slightly thicker, and at the same time her chest insistently pushed itself out against her tight shirt, a pair of small bumps forcing it to grow back some of its lost size. "M-mnngh..rrfh, rr~rrfh..!" Her ears were low and her tail wagging happily behind her as her new breasts continued to grow, and her hair steadily flowed out even longer. "Aah~...mrrfh!" There was one last push from her chest as her hair grew long enough to fall across the base of her tail in the back, growing them to an impressive size for her diminutive height—now a bit less than even Jared's.

The wolf-girl blinked her eyes open, still blushing, her lips opening into an adorable grin.

Soon an equally cute giggle erupted from her mouth. "H-heehee~..! Dude, that was amazing!" She looked around at her surroundings, at the other two girls.

Jared started, "Well uh, I'm glad you think so, but—"

"Waah, everything's so big, too! At least I won't bump into any doorframes like this, though!"

"You should probably know, I'm not exactly sure how to—"

She rushed up to Greg, stopping just outside her personal space to grin up at the now-much-bigger catgirl. "Hey, did she transform you, too!?"

"Yes, actually. And if you'd quit interrupting her and listen for half a second—!"

"Oh, yeah—sorry. I'm just super excited to get turned into a cute wolf-girl, is all! I am cute, right?" she asked Jared, scurrying up a little closer to her.

The blond girl felt her face flush at this rather unfair question. "Um—"
"Shut up for a half second!" Greg said angrily (jealously?), saving her from having to answer.

"Oh yeah, whoops. Shutting up now. Zzzzzp," she made a noise and motion like zipping up her lips.

Lost and Found, Part 2

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Part 2: Who're You?

Jared paced back and forth in the room rapidly in a small panic. "I, I'm not supposed to be a girl! I can't—I've got a class in like two hours! How did any of this—!?" Her eyes settled on her bed, and more specifically the stack of now-neatly-folded clothes on it. They'd finished their "work" while she had finished hers. It wasn't so much the clothes themselves as remembering how they'd gotten that way that got her attention. "The wand!"

Scrambling around, she quickly found where the thing had disappeared to—it had rolled itself under a nightstand. So she fell to her knees and carefully reached in, managing to get a hold of it and pull herself back to her feet with it in her hands. There was also a purse on the floor, cast in black with yellow accents much like her outfit, which turned out to contain what had been in her pockets before.

She glared at the little black-and-white cylinder. "You! How did you—why did you..?! Aaugh, I'm talking to an inanimate object!" she declared, violently waving it around in annoyance. Then she thought: If casting a spell with the wand had done this to her—even though she definitely hadn't said anything in that spell resembling 'turn me into a chick'—then maybe another spell could just...fix this?

"Uhh.." Jared had no idea which part of the way she'd cast the spell had made the wand work, if any. But she had some moderate grasp of the scientific method. "Alakazam, turn me back?" she tried, waving it backwards at her own face. That didn't get a response, but...maybe rhyming was the important part? "I don't wanna be a girl, so turn me back before I hurl!" she tried, giving it the same kind of flourish that had succeeded in making her clothes fold themselves. There was, however, still no response.

"Gaaaaah!" Feeling very annoyed by now, the little blond-haired girl shook the wand around in frustration. But as soon as that sound had finished leaving her lips, she heard something that made her close her mouth after a brief, squeaking "..Eep!"

Footsteps in the hallway had been plenty to remind Jared that she was very much not alone in this dorm, and the walls weren't exactly soundproof. She'd made a lot of noise in the past few minutes, including some shouting. Was that one of the RA's coming to her door to ask what was going on? But the footsteps faded after a moment, and she breathed a small sigh of relief.

She now spoke in an exaggerated almost-whisper: "Okay, okay, uhhh...animal?" She'd said something about a lamb with the spell that had worked, right? So she tried waving the wand around again with another spell: "Turn me back into a male..like a, bird? Without..fail?" It occurred to her that all of that hesitating might be making it not work, but she'd sort of stuttered out the one that did work, so that couldn't be it either!

"Uhh, umm..." While she was still trying to come up with another spell, Jared heard more footsteps approaching through the hallway outside. This time, however, instead of fading...they stopped. This was followed by a knock on the door—on her dorm room's door! She jumped, letting in a high gasp, and barely maintained the presence of mind to not drop the wand all over again.

"Jared, you in?" This was even worse than the RA's, or a complete stranger—it was her roommate! "I forgot my econ book."
"Uh—" she started, then realized her voice was way too high pitched, and tried to sort of clear her throat and force it to sound low, like a boy's. "D-don't come in! I'm..in the middle of, something really embarrassing!" This was technically true, just probably not in any way he'd imagine.

"Dude, seriously?" Greg wasn't having any of it. "We've seen each other just out of the shower."

"But I'm—uh—sick!" she protested next.

"You were fine this morning." He was turning his key in the lock! And the door opened outward, so she couldn't even barricade it if she had the time! "I mean, you do sound a little weird, but can't you just..."

He trailed off at this point because he got the door open, and she hadn't even thought to grab the doorknob herself to pull it shut or to hide somewhere. So, instead, Jared's roommate was now standing directly in front of her, looking directly down (why was he so tall!?) and taking in her entire, bizarre new appearance. "You're..not Jared," he concluded.
"I am!" she insisted.

"Um. How do I put this," Greg took a step inside, crossing his arms. "My roommate is not a short chick in a weird, like, witch costume?" he said, lifting one of the arms slightly to gesture at her.
"It's not a—my clothes just—look, something really weird happened, okay!?" she said. "I found this wand in the wash," she said, brandishing it, "and I was just playing around with it, like pretending to cast a spell, and then—it like, zap and then this happened!" she said, gesturing it at her present appearance.

"Uh huh.." He wasn't buying it.

"Look, it did—like, actual magic!" she gestured backwards. "It folded my clothes!"
"Those are Jared's clothes," he admitted, making her very briefly feel like she was getting somewhere with this. "Look, did he put you up to this or something?" It was true that Jared pulled a few jokes in the past, but surely he didn't think this was one of them! What even was the joke supposed to be? How would it be funny?

Laying aside those objections for the moment, Jared came up with a better plan to prove she was telling the truth. "Look—I swear this thing is magic!" she said, pointing at the wand with the hand not holding it. "I'll, cast a spell with it in front of you to prove it, and then you'll have to believe me!"
Her roommate, who was probably thinking that he didn't have time for this nonsense, sighed, gently kicking their door shut behind him. "Okay, fine, show me something."

"Uhhmm..." Jared only now remembered her several failures earlier to cast a spell to turn herself back. Maybe this wasn't such a good plan, but now she was committed to it! So, she just..went with something! Worst case, it didn't work and he kicked her out of their room and she'd...have to figure something else out from there. "Prove you're a real wand by making a..cat! Make one appear, just like..that!" she hesitantly improvised, waving it around randomly the whole time.

"Aack!" A bright yellow spark audibly jolted out of the front of the wand, and she felt a recoiling force from it knocking her hand back slightly! What she didn't realize until a second or so later was that the final position of the wand wasn't some spot on the floor or whatever, but rather pointed directly at her roommate. He jumped too, when the spark hit him, about how one might expect from receiving a slight shock.

"Ow.." Greg rubbed the spot near the middle of his chest where the jolt had hit slightly. "Okay, that definitely did something, but...what?" he interrupted himself because the weird girl who claimed to be his roommate was now staring, wide-eyed, up at him.

"Y-your hair..." It had started growing almost immediately, its deep auburn color rapidly brightening as the strands spread themselves out longer and longer.
"What about it? I—" he stopped suddenly, no doubt because he saw some locks falling before his vision, or felt them touching his cheeks. "Um."

"Okaaay..?" Now confused, he reached a hand up to touch the hair and make sure it was real. By the time his hand had brushed through some of it, the hair was already long enough to touch his shoulders on the sides and back. Then: "Aah!" He shuddered. "Wh-what the..?"

What Jared had felt happening to herself before, she now witnessed on him: Little golden sparks making their way down from his scalp, along his face to his neck, shoulders, arms and upper body, and on downward. Everywhere they touched, his facial hair first—then body hair—vanished away, leaving the skin soft and smooth in their wake. But that could only mean...!

"Ah—agh..!" Greg shuddered again just as the last of the sparks leapt past his feet; his hair was now a brilliant, blazing shade of red, and nearly as long as Jared's! "What di~id you..d-do~o..!?" he demanded, his voice cracking slightly, as his body began to rapidly, visibly shrink. He became shorter and slimmer all at once, his face turning round and cute—especially with the way the loose red locks framed his face. His adam's apple was gone in an instant; his shoulders were narrowing, his waist and arms and legs all getting smaller.

"I-I don't know!" Jared protested. "That spell wasn't even supposed to be aimed at you!"
"W-well, it w~as!" he said, his voice coming out at only a slightly higher pitch, yet sounding less masculine with each crack or squeak. "S-so wha~at..aah..!"

His question was interrupted by something that Jared hadn't experienced. Suddenly something shoved its way out from the left side of his head, pushing all the way through and well beyond his hair: A bright red, fuzzy triangle with a white tuft of fluff inside. "A~aah!" His voice went quite high and soft as this same thing happened on the right side, too, granting him a pair of big, fuzzy catlike ears. They were clearly alive and mobile, too—not some kind of fashion accessory, but his own ears grown out into a brand new shape.

By now, Greg's body had shrunk to just a half-foot or so taller than her, leaving his shirt to hang awkwardly around his slender frame, his pants just barely hanging on. His cheeks had gradually reddened with a blush, which now was almost as bright as his hair or those ears. "Mm-mm~mnn~nh..!" His voice came out at a low, womanly alto as he squirmed around in place, reacting to something that Jared couldn't see at first. "M-mrr~ooww~wwh..!" But then she could—as a slim line of fur the same bright red as his hair slid its way out past the hem of his overlong shirt, twitching itself around in the air: A tail, to match his new ears!

However, the growth of the tail was clearly not the only thing affecting him; he continued to cry out helplessly even as its growth slowed to a halt, leaving it at least as long as one of his own arms. "M-mr~rrnn~nnh..! Aah, aa~aggh..!" His blush became even brighter as Jared had the feeling she was no longer looking at a man at all. And, soon, it was true; Greg let out a high, breathy "Aa~ah!" as his sex changed fully and completely, followed by a low "Oo~oooOOO~OOO~OOooh..!" as her hips and thighs quickly plumped themselves out—a motion visible even through the oversized shirt hanging down around them.

"M-mngh, mrr~rrooo~oowh..!" Another feline noise escaped the redhead's lips as her clothes began to change. The first thing that happened was that everything rapidly became shorter: The shirt's hem raced up past her hips and lower waist, like it was overly eager to fit her properly, and continued all the way up until her entire midriff was exposed; the pants lost nearly all of their leggings, quickly exposing her smooth, shapely legs all the way to the upper thighs.

"Aah, aa~aah..!" More high, cute cries came out as Greg's chest visibly puffed forward a couple of times, beginning to form some breasts; at the same time, her clothes now tightened around her: the shorts that were left of her pants pulling even closer against her wide hips and becoming quite snug and flat between the legs, while the shirt pulled entirely too close around the small, budding bosom.

"Mnngh, aa~aah...mrr~rrrh...!" The next couple of bursts of bust growth came with sounds halfway between protest and enjoyment, but as the last, longest one came, she couldn't help but purr with enjoyment! Her shirt was stretched out by the growing breasts, forcing it to sacrifice the material from its sleeves first, then dip its way down her neckline farther and farther until some cleavage showed—all just to keep from bursting. "Mrr~rrnnnh.." Her purring was low and sexy, her eyes closed, ears low, and her tail flicking around excitedly behind her, until finally her chest finished growing out, leaving her an extremely curvy catgirl. To make matters perhaps even worse, she was still just as fit as ever—her slender arms and legs still visibly toned, and the slim midriff exposed by her shirt converting into less than a tank top still showing off some impressive, solid abs.

Still blushing brilliantly, Greg blinked her eyes open a couple of times and then, seemingly fighting a desire to do otherwise, deliberately curled her lips into a frown and glared down at the shorter girl. Her eyes had changed while they were closed, turning from deep brown to an orange-red even brighter than all of her hair and fur, complete with tall slits for pupils.

"You really couldn't think of a better way to prove it than turning me into a chick too?!"

"I wasn't trying to do that!" Jared protested again. "I swear I was just trying to summon a cat!"
"Well—" She turned partly to one side, curling her tail up and forward so she could run a hand along it, "—looks like you made a catgirl instead, huh?"

"It's not like this thing came with instructions!" she protested further. "I found it in the wash!"

"Well, maybe you should've left it there! Can you at least turn me back?"
"I've been trying to turn myself back since this happened!" Jared said. "I mean, I can try, but—"
"No, yeah," the catgirl sighed. "We probably need to find an actual expert on magic to fix this. Rather than you waving that thing around transforming everyone in sight or whatever."

"Um, okay.." That did sound sort of sensible. "Do you, uh, know anyone like that?"

"..Nope.

"Anyway, I'm even hungrier than I was before I got turned into a catgirl," Greg continued, crossing her arms—and seeming to instinctively do it in a way that emphasized her impressive bust. "So before anything else, you are gonna buy me some lunch as an apology."
Jared felt her face heat up just from watching the strong, curvy catgirl move around. But she said, "Wh—seriously!? How can you think of food at a time like this?"

"Because I'm hungry."

"I mean—look how we're dressed right now!"

"Pfft, it's not like anyone will know who we are anyway. So come on already," she said, grabbing Jared's hand to gently pull her out of the room.

---

Unlike how I write most stories I expect to publish in multiple parts, I didn't really think about or plan out where the separations would be while writing this one. Nearly everything was put together in one free-flowing piece, and afterward, during editing, I went and looked for reasonably logical places to split things up. I guess it worked reasonably well, at least.

Lost and Found, Part 1

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This is one of several projects I've been working on off-and-on for a while (a list which does include continuing some of the longer stories, I should mention). It's basically a quick, silly one-and-done in four parts, and I'm publishing all 4 in a row this week now that I've finished writing them all. This isn't nearly as ambitious as The Academy was; I basically had a dumb idea for a premise, generated images for the story I wanted to tell, and ran with it.

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Part 1: What's That?

"...Huh."

It wasn't every day that Jared did his laundry. Okay, to be honest, it wasn't quite every week. After all, between all of the classes he was taking and maintaining his social life, he had a hard time fitting in a trip down to the dorm's laundry room to sit and wait for the washer and dryer to finish their work. He certainly didn't have time to wait around on someone else if all the machines were full, leading to an increasing trend of him trying to strategize his laundry time to when he thought absolutely nobody else would be there. That sort of thing was what led him to do it around lunchtime on a weekday, when normal, sane people who didn't have classes were eating. It didn't mean the place was perfectly deserted, but his chances of getting his load done were pretty good.

But all of that is rather beside the point. Which is: After he hauled the heavy basket full of freshly-laundered laundry up to the dorm room, set it down, and started pulling out its contents to fold and put away, he found something unusual. He'd gotten about halfway down and pulled out a shirt, shaking it out to make sure static cling hadn't trapped a sock inside of it or something, when something fell out and clattered on the floor. His immediate instinct was, naturally, to put the shirt down, bend over and pick up the object, all before even registering what exactly it was.

As far as he was concerned in that instant, it might have been just about anything he'd stuck in a pants pocket over the past week or so and forgotten to remove. But it turned out this wouldn't have fit in a pocket at all—at least, not all of it. He realized that once he had it in his hand: It was too long for that, even though it was fairly thin, about as thick as his middle finger. It was cylindrical in shape, lightweight—perhaps made of plastic—and black except for a bit of white at each of the ends.

In short, it wasn't every day that one stumbled across a magic wand.

The most reasonable conclusion, which Jared's mind jumped to as soon as he'd properly registered the object he was holding in his hand, was that someone else had, somehow, misplaced it in the dryer. He hadn't checked all that carefully while throwing his own clothes in, so it could've been there. Maybe it should've made enough noise for him to notice, but...then again, the laundry room was a pretty noisy place to begin with. His clothes could've prevented it from hitting the walls of the dryer, too.

"Weird." It seemed like some cheap knockoff toy, not likely to be something anyone would seriously miss. But Jared was an honest enough guy. He thought he might take it back downstairs once he was through folding his clothes and, if nobody immediately rushed up to him wanting it back, maybe set it on a table. Leave a hastily-scribbled note, even, indicating that it had been in a dryer. However, he also found the situation bizarre enough to crack a little joke to himself about it all before putting the thing down.

And so, he waved the wand dramatically, like he was in a Harry Potter movie or something, and recited a fake spell: "Abracadabra, alakazam! Fold my clothes, as quick as a...uh...a lamb?" While he stumbled on the last bit, it at least otherwise had decent meter, and..a singular rhyme, anyway. He wouldn't have expected anyone to be impressed with the performance, but it was only to himself anyway. He certainly didn't expect...well, what happened next.

With Jared's final swing of the plastic wand that had shown up in his laundry, there was a sudden, visible spark, like a miniature bolt of lightning, that went out from its tip to his clothes hamper, spreading out from there across the remaining laundry within. "What the...?" Right away, the clothes at the top were pulled up, the sparks that had spread along them impossibly puppeteering them up into the air and folding them neatly with a few swift motions before sweeping them over into a stack on his bed. Then the next ones below those followed suit.

Seeing this, of course, left Jared pretty dumbfounded. "What the..!?" There was no way—no way that that fake, toy wand was really, seriously, literally magic! Right? It was impossible. Hand shaking slightly, he raised the wand up in front of his eyes, holding it vertically so it was pointed up at the ceiling. "No way!" he said, and then, "Ow!"

Jared wasn't one to say 'ow' suddenly and out of nowhere, of course. Rather, when he was looking at the wand in shock, it had suddenly—seemingly, at least—shocked him! It was a minor one, like he'd grabbed a doorknob after shuffling along some carpet in his socks. It was still enough of a surprise for him to drop the thing, which made the same clattering noise as it had when hitting the floor the first time.

"That was...that was a coincidence, right?" he said to no one in particular, still watching his clothes pick themselves up and fold themselves like they were Merlin's furniture in The Sword in the Stone. "It can't...! I mean, I don't know what, but..!" His confusion about the clothes, however, was going to have to wait, because at this point Jared finally noticed something that had been happening since the wand had shocked him—physically, that is, not emotionally. The way he noticed was the feeling of something tickling his cheeks...followed by the sight of some of his own bright blond hair falling down in front of his eyes.

"Wha..hair?!" he mumbled incredulously, reaching up a hand to feel it. It was indeed there—locks that before had hardly made it to his upper cheeks now threatening to brush his shoulders, and with his hand on them he could even feel their motion as they kept on growing out. "How...what..?" But hair was soon the least of his worries.

"Aah!" Jared jumped slightly as he felt a somewhat bizarre sensation. It was kind of like the feeling of the static shock the wand had given him a moment ago, except that somehow it didn't hurt, and rather than being a single burst localized to the hand holding the wand, it felt like it was racing all across his skin: starting from his scalp, dancing down his face to his neck, then along his torso and arms and, of course, the rest of the way down to his hips, legs and feet, all in the perhaps second-or-so that his surprised utterance came out.

By now, Jared could feel the weight of long, golden locks on his shoulders, and maybe a third of the way down his back, too. But there wasn't much room for comment on that, as another weird feeling followed the last. "Wh-wha~at...!?" His voice cracked strangely as he tried to react to the staticy feeling, only to be interrupted by a strange sort of inward pressure hitting him all over. "Aa~aah..!" He let out another startled yelp in a higher pitch than before, another voice-crack interrupting it midway through. "Muh-my, vo~oi~ce..!?" It audibly changed in his throat, the pitch rising higher still!

There was just too much going on to react to all of fast enough. While he'd noticed his voice changing, Jared's perspective had noticeably sunk downward, his body's very height diminishing a good few inches in that time alone. Not only height, but size overall fled his form in response to the strange pressure on his body, causing his shirt and pants to loosen around a slimming torso, narrowing shoulders, and thinning limbs.

"Aah, aa~aah, aa~aah..!?" The pressure grew stronger, and Jared's perspective sank faster. His shrinking accelerated enough for him to feel his shirt tent out around his body before gravity had it falling back down awkwardly around his shoulders. Between his entire self getting smaller and his voice rising higher, he had the bizarre thought that he was like a deflating balloon. He might've been happy to lose the fat quickly shrinking away from his belly, but not all the rest of this! Besides which, he was starting to feel kind of...weird, down between his legs.

A cape of golden blond hair flowed out from the back of his head by now, the tips of the long, soft locks falling as far as the top of his hips—although this was less distance than it would've been a moment ago. Though he couldn't see it, his face had long since lost the complexion of a man, taking on instead a soft, delicate look and rounded shape that best fit words like "cute". When he felt his pants slipping down his now-slender legs, a small, delicate hand rushed to grab at them, but only just caught his boxers to spare them the same fate; the legs exposed in this manner were covered in soft, smooth, hairless skin. And when he let out a soft, confused "Mm~mnnh..!?" at the feeling of his manhood starting to gently tug itself inward, the voice that came out was much too high to be that of any man.

"I..w-wha..?" The pressure across Jared's body was gone all of a sudden, leaving him small and slender, with a soft, flat belly. This wasn't much comfort, however, as he began to understand what was really happening—the slipping sensation downstairs being more than enough to work it out. "Nuh, no, I'm..a guy..! I-I'm...mm~mngh..." He felt the warmth of a blush on his cheeks, and even as it..retreated away, his manhood was strangely excited by what was happening.

"A, a, b-boy..?" Jared's high, cute, girlish voice said hesitantly, followed by a soft, breathy "Aa~ah..!" as the tugging down there grew even stronger. Then there was no more time to protest his gender, as Jared now experienced the feeling of his last bit of manhood melting away, reforming rapidly into something exceedingly different.

"I, I...aa~aa~aAAA~AAaaah...!" This final cry he began as a man, but she ended it as a woman, all of the necessary equipment for that sex forming itself into place astoundingly fast. Just as swiftly, the new girl felt a weird, fuzzy feeling deep inside those new parts that made her cry out helplessly once again, an incredibly feminine "Mm~mm~mMMM~MMMMmmmnn~nnhh..!" accompanying a rapid outward push from the area surrounding her new womanhood that grew her hips wide enough to hold onto the boxers she'd just let go of due to all the distraction, along with some thick thighs and a generous, soft bottom to match.

Coming out of this burst of girlish pleasure, Jared stammered in shock. "Wha, wha, wha—I, I'm..!?" But this was as far as she got before feeling an electric feeling, a jolt not unlike the ones racing across her skin before—only this one coursing through her core, making its way up her midsection to her chest before spreading all the way out across its surface. This was followed immediately by a burst of growth, a forward push centered on each of her nipples that suddenly formed a pair of bumps—the beginnings of a girl's breasts.

"Mm~mMM~MMM~Mmn~nnh..!" The swelling bosom was incredibly sensitive, stimulating the new girl even more strongly than she'd been upon first changing. "Ah, aa~aah..!" Jared could never have imagined wanting her chest to get bigger, but now that it was, and in the throes of feminine pleasure sparked by their growth, that was just the desire she found herself with. And so the little bumps swelled up bigger and bigger, pushing against the material of her ill-fitting shirt, until they had become a nice pair of womanly breasts, not huge but impossible to deny—and certainly big enough to match the generous curves of her lower body. "M-mngh..ah, aa~aah..!" All the while, she was treated to something of a full-course preview of the sort of enjoyment her new sex could experience that she could never have before. And when it did finally end, Jared found herself letting out a high, breathy "Aa~aah..." as a mixture of relief and satisfaction washed through her.

"H-hff, hff...!" As the new girl panted helplessly in the wake of the sudden change, some electric sparks arced out of her body and ran across the clothes she was—or recently had been—wearing, and those clothes began to come alive and move. Unlike those affected by her earlier attempt at a spell, however, these clothes didn't just move around, but actually began to change. The shirt grew rapidly tighter around her small, slender form, but not much shorter. Instead, it spread out quite a bit near the bottom, turning frilly and ruffled as that lower bit became the skirt of a dress. Her poor boxers shrank all at once into a pair of tiny panties, their snug fit between her legs emphasizing her new sex all the more. And her lost pants raced their way back up her legs as two separate pieces of soft cloth, pulling tight around them as a pair of very long dark socks reaching up past her knees. Not even this seemed to be enough either, as the electricity generated a few pieces of brand new clothing too: A bra and an undershirt appeared beneath her shirt-turned dress, a bright yellow ribbon tied itself around its collar, and, last of all, a huge, wide-brimmed hat sparked itself into existence a few inches above her head before gently dropping itself down onto it, proving itself to be a perfect fit.

"I...wh-wha..." Finally catching her breath, Jared looked down and patted her small hands at various bits of her new body and outfit. Lifting the front of her skirt briefly gave her a full view of some soft, luscious thighs and the soft panties clinging strangely close and flat between them. Feeling embarrassed to even see such a thing, she quickly pushed the skirt back down over it!

"WHAAAAAAT!?"