A Statue in the Woods 2: Explanation

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"A cave full of crystals? There are no caves in my forest. Or—were none, at least, before. It wouldn't be impossible for one to have been dug or raised, but it doesn't seem very likely."

"I told you those pictures were faked," Tyler said.
"Wha—you don't know that! Maybe they just lied about where they were taken! You know, to like, hoard the crystals for themselves or something."
"Pfft—heeheehee," Elise giggled lightly. "I think you were just tricked. But I am quite grateful, all the same. If I ever happen to meet the prankster responsible, I must reward them appropriately..."

"You know it sounds kind of like a threat when you say that," Tyler said.

"Oh, but I meant it quite sincerely," she said. "Perhaps the way tones of voice are interpreted has changed during my time as a statue."

The Kitsune and the two formerly-lost humans had been walking along the path between the trees for a few minutes now. Elise seemed to dislike awkward silences, and had started up a more-or-less casual conversation with the two guys so smoothly that Tyler took a moment to realize it had even happened. "I guess I wouldn't know," he said. "I mean—seventy, eighty years? We weren't even around for three-quarters of that time."
"Doesn't it freak you out at all?" Ronan asked. "Like, finding out how much stuff you've missed?"
"I think it's exciting," Elise said. "I was around for twice as long as that before being petrified, and the world as I knew it changed very little during that time. Yet it seems to have changed quite rapidly while I was 'away'. Humans seem to have been busy inventing all sorts of interesting toys...and the gods finally gave in to the Ruler's demand to drop the veil, too? There must be all sorts of new things to see and do...and plenty of new opportunities besides."

"Uh, 'opportunities' for what?" Ronan asked.

She paused to turn half-around and give him a brief but searching kind of look. "Hmm..perhaps you are the naive, innocent sort. But I'm certain your friend is well-enough-aware of a fox's favorite pastime."

"She means opportunities to prank and trick people," Tyler clarified for him.

"Ooooh, yeah, that."

"We can have all sorts of fun together, master~," she continued. "That is—I hope you wouldn't try to put too tight of a leash on me, knowing the nature of my kind."
"We still haven't exactly, uh, agreed on this whole 'master' thing," Tyler said cautiously.

"I was just trying it on for size," she said with a slight shrug. "But I do think I like the sound of it. Why, don't you?"
"It's..still a little weird. You've gotta understand, among human culture, the idea of one person calling another 'master' is synonymous with being their slave most of the time, and that has like, a whole entire, super unpleasant history for us..."

Tyler trailed off at this point, because the corridor suddenly opened up, and the three of them stepped abruptly out of the woods into the golden light of the setting sun. The road they'd driven on to reach the gas station was in clear view—the station where he'd bought some of their supplies, and where Ronan's car was parked.

"And here we are!" Elise said, gesturing out with her right hand. "I believe it's your turn to guide me from here on out."

"Uh, yeah—I think the station's that way," Tyler said, pointing.
"Right," Ronan agreed. He probably had no clue, but was happy to defer to Tyler's sense of direction at this point.

"We've gotta get to our car first, and then we can drive—uh—somewhere, I guess?" Tyler explained to the fox-girl as they started off. "You..do know what a car is, right?"
"Is it something like a cart?"
"Uh—maybe, automobile?" he tried.

"Oh! I am somewhat familiar with those. I suppose they've seen some improvements compared to the ones I'm familiar with as well."

"Oh, totally!" Ronan said.

"Surely they no longer require burning up that dreadfully stinking oil to move, then?"
"Uh...we're still kinda working on that part," Tyler said. "I mean—ours, or more specifically Ronan's is electric, but the electricity still kinda comes from something like that...I think."

"It's electrified?" she said with the usual head-tilt.

"Not like 'it'll zap you', but it uses electricity to run. It's—perfectly safe," he tried.

"Pfft—I was teasing you on that one. I don't imagine humans would be adventurous enough to use a vehicle that often shocks them. Although that does give me some ideas..."

They got to the station before too long, and, thankfully, Ronan's car was still there. The Kitsune seemed to at least understand that the front passenger seat held some form of prominence, as she hurried to sit in it before either human could do much about it—pausing only to make all but one of her tails vanish from view. Tyler hadn't had his heart set on riding shotgun anyway, so he sat behind the driver. "I guess we'll get back to town first, at least?" Ronan said.
"Yeah. Maybe you can buy us supper, since this whole mess is your fault."
"Mess!? We befriended a super-powerful Kitsune...right?"

"That is hardly mutually exclusive with being a mess~," Elise said teasingly. "Mmh, now that you mention it—I am quite famished. Even discounting the time I was turned to stone, I've had nothing to eat for at least half a day."

Tyler dug around in his backpack, getting a granola bar. "Town's like half an hour away, so.." He offered it up towards her. "You want a snack?"
"Oh, certainly!" She said with a heart-melting smile—but after taking the bar from him, she held it up in front of her face and audibly sniffed the packaging like she wasn't sure whether she was supposed to eat the plastic.
"Uh—that's—you're supposed to tear that part off," Tyler tried to explain. When this just made her tilt her head, he took it back long enough to open it partway. "Like this.."
"Oh, I see~! Thank you," she said, and then went right to eating it. Considering how talkative the fox-girl had been until now, her complete silence while she rapidly devoured the snack evinced that she hadn't been exaggerating her hunger.

Guessing that she might be at least slightly thirsty after all of that, Tyler offered her a water bottle as she finished the bar. "Mmh..." She didn't have as much trouble figuring out how to open that, and took a long gulp before actually speaking. "My, you're considerate! Thank you again."

"Yeah, sure. Uh, I guess we need to figure out what to do with you at some point?"
"Hey, if people being petrified or magically sealed or something is a thing, it's gotta be a more-than-once kinda thing, right?" Ronan said.

"It isn't exceedingly common, but I'm hardly the first case," Elise agreed.
"Yeah—so, uh, maybe there's some like...non-profit or something whose job it is to deal with this stuff? Or like, the regenerator people could handle it?"

Elise, of course, didn't know what he meant by that. "The..?"

Tyler sighed. "Rejuvenation service. They're..some kinda charity group who use magic to make old people young again, or something like that. Mostly celestials, I think?"

"Hmmn." Elise appeared to think carefully about this information for a moment. "A certain world-spanning organization—its members mostly celestials—was responsible for maintaining the veil in my time. It isn't inconceivable that they might have a new occupation now that there is no veil to protect. And—I believe they also helped newly-created celestials to integrate into society."

"Uh—'created'?" Ronan asked, confused.
"Oh, yes! Are you unfamiliar with the process? Sometimes when Sol hears of a job that needs doing, he makes a brand new person to do that job." Elise explained this with a perfectly straight face, the way someone might explain the job of firemen to a grade-schooler, but Tyler still had no idea whether she was messing with them or not. "So they should surely be able to help me."

"Okay then, I guess we at least have a plan for now," Tyler concluded. "But it's getting kinda late to try to contact them today, so—I guess you can just crash at my place for tonight?"

"'Crash'?"

"He means, like, y'know, come in and stay the night? Sleep and stuff?" Ronan said helpfully.

"Ooh! You mean to invite me into your home?" Elise said, obviously delighted. "You'll make for a wonderfully kind master indeed~!"

"We still haven't—ugh." Tyler just facepalmed and shook his head. "Look, it's—just for tonight. Until we find you something more permanent. So you don't have to like, sleep on the street or in the woods or something."
"Sleeping in my forest isn't so bad~," Elise said. "But I'm very grateful for your hospitality all the same."

A short time later, she said, "Hmmn..I actually know precious little about you two. Other than your names and personalities, I suppose. What can you tell me?"
"Well, I'm a fashion designer," Ronan said, "and sometimes artist and photographer, but that's kinda more of a hobby."
"Is that why you wanted a picture with me before?"
"No, he just wanted to post about meeting a Kitsune," Tyler answered for him.
"Post...meaning, mail?"

"Uh, no—there's..."
"Awwh, man, now you've done it!" Ronan laughed. "Now you get to explain the internet to her!"

Elise, mercifully, was a very swift learner. Once Tyler had the basics out, she started drawing her own conclusions aloud—most of which were more or less correct. "And your phones are connected to it as well? I suppose that is what makes them so valuable."

"It's definitely a big part of why," Tyler said.

"Ehehee~, now I just want one even more. I don't suppose I could just borrow yours for today?"
"I literally watched you drop Ronan's phone, on purpose, just to mess with him," Tyler deadpanned. "I'm not gonna trust you with mine."
"I wouldn't dare damage something belonging to my future master," she said, her tone a kind of feigned astonishment at the suggestion.

"Maybe not, but you could do way more harm using my phone than breaking it. So—no. Maybe whoever we talk to tomorrow can get you one."

"I certainly hope so! I'd hate to miss out for very long," she said.

"So, you're an artist of various media, then," Elise concluded—returning to where the conversation had been before an explanation was needed. "What about you, Tyler?"

"I'm a game critic."
"You..criticize games?"

"You heard us mention video games once, right? They're..another, newer art form," Tyler explained. "Interactive. The people who make the game do most of the work, but the person who plays it is still, like..a participant, in a way."

"Intriguing. Like an improvisational performance at the theater? I'll have to try one of these games some time," she said.
"Hey, there's plenty of 'em at Tyler's house!" Ronan said, seeming more than happy to throw him under the bus.

"I guess you couldn't do that much harm trying a couple tonight," Tyler said with a slight shrug. Actually, it'd be great to have something to keep her busy enough to not be constantly on top of him.

"Wonderful~! I knew you'd be an excellent host," Elise said—although there was no telling what her evidence for that was. "And so, you judge works in this new art form?"
"Yeah. And write articles about them for a journal. Uh, a publication. Like a magazine."

"Is it on the internet?" she asked, seeming to immediately make the connection that it'd be a natural way to publish things.
"Yes, actually."

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I made the decision to just let this story flow more or less naturally, rather than trying to shove a transformation and/or image into every single part. I think the results are much better than if I'd done that.

A Statue in the Woods 1: Petrification

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Two men were walking through a forest. One of them—Tyler—was average-looking in nearly every way: Dark hair, dark eyes, unremarkable build—neither fit nor fat. The other one, named Ronan, was slightly shorter, built skinny, with bright blond hair and emerald green eyes. Tyler was wearing moderately thick clothes and a backpack full of supplies; Ronan was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, like he was just taking a walk down the sidewalk.

They stopped, and Tyler sighed. "We're lost."
"Wha—no way! We're not loooost!" Ronan spread out his arms as he emphatically spread out the word. "We've totally been going, uh, north this entire time. So, we just need to, like—turn around, and go...south!"

"Uh-huh." He crossed his arms and glared. "And which way, exactly, is that?" They couldn't even see which direction the afternoon sunlight was coming from through the thick canopy of trees above. And he was pretty confident they'd turned around innumerable times since entering this forest, which had happened at least a few hours ago.
"Um..that way? I think?" Seeing that Tyler was unconvinced, he briefly fidgeted nervously before visibly having a realization, and getting out his phone. "A-ha! We'll just use technology to get directions outta here."
"You mean like I tried to, like, five minutes ago?" They were out of cell-tower range; GPS wasn't working. Tyler had already turned off his own phone to conserve what was left of its battery life.

"Weeelll uuhhh..but—wait! I got a—mine has a built-in compass!" Ronan announced confidently after some verbal fumbling, holding his phone out with the screen toward his friend.

"By which you mean...you installed a virus app claiming to make your phone work as a compass." Tyler shook his head.
"No, no—it totally works! Look." Turning the phone around did indeed appear to make the needle rotate. "Sooo, we just go the way this says is north."
"You mean south?"
"South! Yeah, right," he nodded.

Tyler just shook his head. There were enough supplies in his backpack to last them one night, and these woods hadn't seemed very big in the satellite picture. If they could just get going in a singular direction and not turn around again, then they'd definitely be out before they ran out. Or, at least, in range of a cell tower. It wasn't like he had any better ideas, and their entire situation was Ronan's fault to begin with, so Tyler was in the mood to make him keep trying to fix it for as long as it took for him to finally give up and beg for help.

Ronan had seen a bunch of 'totally real' pictures online of a cave with brightly-shining, supposedly-magical crystals strewn throughout. They'd all been tagged with the same location, which was somewhere in the middle of these woods, and he'd even reached out to one of the people taking the photos to get more exact directions. Tyler was pretty sure the pictures had been faked from the start, but he couldn't make him see reason, and he also couldn't let him go out into the woods to starve alone—or worse, eat some nightmarishly poisonous mushrooms or something. Someone with half of a brain needed to be with him when the trip inevitably went wrong...which it very quickly had.

They continued going "south" by Ronan's phone's reckoning for a good several minutes, and it did at least feel like they were going in a straight line. They carefully went around trees, thick brush, and other obstructions in a way that kept them more or less still on that same line after every detour. Tyler thought again on the images of these woods from the satellite picture—they really hadn't looked so thick as this, nor like they should take this long to get out of. Had he underestimated those things, or was something else weird going on? He had heard of some real places genuinely being somehow 'bigger on the inside' ever since the veil over magic was lifted, usually the residences of gods or other absurdly-powerful magic users. But then, who would ever want to make a forest bigger?

His thoughts were interrupted as Ronan pushed past some brush in front of him and suddenly stopped. "Whoooaaa!"

"What is it—" Tyler came up next to him to look. Past the brush was a sudden, complete break in the trees. It wasn't the outer edge of the forest, but a roughly circular, treeless grove, carpeted by soft grass that seemed like it could've been mowed just last week, surrounded by the woods all around like a wall. His friend had probably been impressed not by this very unnatural-seeming phenomenon, however, but rather by what sat in the middle of the clearing: An exquisitely detailed, larger-than-life stone statue of a fox. It was standing upright on its four legs, had a large tail that would be bushy if it weren't made of stone, and came up to maybe two-thirds the height of a person.

Ronan stepped farther into the clearing, spreading out his arms. "Dude, look at this! Where'd it come from? How's it so clean!? I gotta get some pics!"

"Uh, hang on—" Tyler was immediately suspicious and worried. Something as weird and incongruous as this had to be magical in some way. Maybe it was a weird trap laid by some old-school "eat your children"-type faires or something. But then, Ronan ran right up to the statue and took a bunch of pictures of it with no apparent effect. Tyler just sighed and trudged up to a bit behind him, letting him have his fun for the moment.

"Oh yeah, I wanna take a selfie with it too!" Tyler shook his head, quietly sighing again. Ronan's cheerful, carefree attitude, even in a dangerous situation like 'lost deep in the woods', was a big part of why a lot of people liked him. Whether it was a virtue or a fault tended to depend on the situation, but he had to admit it was, at least, endearing. "Hey, you wanna pose with it?"
"Uh, no thanks."
"Aww, c'mon! We might never see this thing again once we get outta here!"

"My phone's off to save batteries. You know, in case your 'compass' idea doesn't work out?"

"Well I'll take it with my phone then!"

"Okay, okay...sheesh."

He went and stood next to the statue and crossed his arms, tilting his head slightly toward the statue. Ronan took a couple of pictures, then said, "Hey, get closer! Like, lean on it or something."

"Why?"

"People aren't gonna believe you were really there if you're not touching it!"

"I don't know if I really want them to believe, to be perfectly honest."

"Come ooon...!"

"Fine, fine..." They needed to move on at some point, and just giving in seemed like the most expedient choice. So Tyler went and lightly leaned his right hand on top of the vulpine statue, somewhere toward the middle of its back. Ronan took his pictures, and Tyler started to pick his hand up off of it again when he noticed...something brushing across his fingers. Something that felt soft and bristly—an awful lot like fur.

"Uh—" Turning fully toward the statue, Tyler saw the spot he'd touched suddenly looking a lot less like stone, and a lot more like the top of an actual, living fox, complete with bright orange fur. The edges of that spot were also in motion, a stone-to-fur transition visibly spreading outward. "Ronan..!"
"What?" He was, of course, busy flicking through the pictures on his phone, and still wasn't looking up from it even now.
"Ronan, look!"

"Wha—oh! Dude, what'd you do?!"
"I didn't do anything!"
"But you touched it!"

"That was your idea, and you touched it first!" Tyler kept his eyes on the statue while he argued, quickly taking several steps backwards as he saw the effect spread toward its limbs, head, and tail. If it was coming to life, well...a normal fox might run from humans, but something this size might be willing to consider either one of them a handy snack!

"Well nothing happened when I touched it!"

"RrrrrAAAAAAAAaaaah...!" At this point, they were interrupted by a deep, bass voice making a sound somewhere between a growl and the groan of someone just waking up, feeling exceedingly stiff, and stretching hard to try to work it all out. At the same time, the now-non-statue giant fox violently shook, seeming to employ for this action every muscle it had from its nose to the tip of its tail. "Oough..." It then sat—the way a dog might sit—and looked around. It had bright orange fur everywhere except near the tip of its tail and its inner ears—which were white—but its eyes were a bright, piercing shade of blue. "Pardon me, that was most entertaining, and I'm ordinarily not one to interrupt an argument—but you've no idea how uncomfortable it is to come out of a petrification." The fox's muzzle moved in perfect time with the deep voice, and it seemed to be coming from that direction, too. So: The giant formerly-stone fox was also a talking fox, apparently. Tyler was quickly returning to his original conclusion that this was some kind of highly-dangerous magic thing.

Ronan wasn't so worried. He stepped slightly closer to the big fox. "Petrifi..you mean, like, in video games?!"

The fox's head tilted slightly. "Err..video what? Mayhaps that's a new term..."

"So, someone turned you into that statue?" Tyler said. "And you just turned back?"
The fox turned its head his way, then nodded it a couple of times, saying, "Oh, yes, that is an accurate summary of events. Hmph, shameful for an old fox to be fooled so easily."

"You know, uh, who did it exactly?"
"I have a pretty good idea, yes. Those fools didn't do much to disguise their methods. I'm certain, to them, one less 'monster' in the world for a while was worth the expensive ritual, plus the risk that one of their relatives might stumble upon me and accidentally..." He trailed off for a second, seeming to realize something.

"Ah, that's right!" Suddenly the fox stood up and moved, closing the distance between him and Tyler in maybe a quarter of a second.

"Aaack!" Tyler stumbled backwards slightly. If the huge canid had intended to pounce on him and tear his throat out, he wouldn't have even realized it was happening before the pain started. Instead, he went right back to a seated position.
"You! Yes—you're not actually associated with the so-called 'holy warriors', are you?"
"Uh..no, I don't know anybody like that."
"In that case—I owe to you my freedom! You have the gratitude of a five-tailed fox, son!"

"Five-tailed...wait, like a Kitsune?"
"Oh, but of course." The fox took a moment to preen himself with a forepaw, as though he were brushing some hair atop his head. "If you know our kind, then you must know how much power I possess."

"Hey, what about me?" Ronan asked.

He gave the blond man a brief aside glance. "Hm? Well, you didn't free me, did you?"
"But having Tyler touch you was my idea! A-and so was coming out here in the first place!"

"It's true," Tyler added quietly.

The fox's upper body moved in a way that seemed to suggest a shrug. "I suppose that is worth a small favor or two, when I get around to it. But you," he said, turning his head back toward Tyler, "I could very well take you on as a master if you'd like—for a while, at least. Until I become bored with it."

"Uh, 'master'? Like..some kinda slave thing?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" he huffed, standing up and aggressively baring his teeth. "No fox will ever be anyone's slave. But some of us do enjoy the game of behaving as a willingly obedient pet. It is usually entertaining to see what an 'ordinary' mortal will do with the power of a fox at his disposal."
"Um, okay, I dunno about that. But—do you think you could uh.."

"Yes?"
"It's just...I mean, Kitsune can shapeshift and stuff, right?"
"We are excellent at taking on all manner of appearances, indeed. In fact, I pride myself on being especially talented in that regard."

"Do you think you could..I dunno, try to look a little less threatening? I keep thinking you're gonna literally bite my head off."

"Oh, I see. Yes—I wouldn't mind giving a small demonstration—for my potential master."

As soon as he'd said that, a brilliant red glow appeared all across the fox's body, seeming to turn him into a bright silhouette against the dark backdrop of the forest behind him. He stood on his hind legs, the fur visibly thinning and shrinking from most of his appearance as he grew and reshaped into a humanoid form. The tall, fluffy ears remained unchanged, and the huge tail coming from his back seemed to split once, then each resulting tail split again, and then one of the 'copies' of the original split one more time, for a total of five visible tails. Just as the former-fox's body had taken on the proportions of a very tall human man, it suddenly shrank a few inches downward again, its frame narrowing and slimming.

Hair streamed out from the top of his head, growing longer and longer, as his waist visibly trimmed inward, his hips spread outward, and he sang out a soft "Aaa~aa~aaaahh.." that began in the original deep, male voice, but rapidly lilted higher and higher in pitch until it hit a mid-range, feminine low-soprano tone. As the glow faded, a pair of extremely short, tight shorts appeared around the now-humanoid Kitsune's hips, pulling visibly close and flat between—now—her legs. A tight, white tank top appeared around her upper body as the last of the glow faded, and then her chest suddenly, abruptly pushed out into a pair of breasts, rapidly forcing the top tighter and yanking it up off of her midriff as they filled out larger and larger, quickly becoming a huge pair of globes—easily some D cups or more. Finally, what was left was a very tall (slightly above Tyler's height), fit, curvy woman with long, brilliant-red hair. She had a bright blush on her cheeks and a big, teasing grin on her lips.

"Well?" she said. "I hope this is unthreatening enough for you. I thought of using my typical form at first, buuu~ut..."

"Uh, yes, that's fine," Tyler said quickly.

Ronan had a characteristically bigger reaction. "Dude! You can just, like, turn into a hot chick at will!?"

"'Chick'?" She tilted her head rather like she had as a fox before.

"You know, like—lady, woman, girl?"
"Oh, yes. A new meaning to an old word, I suppose?" she said, turning her head Tyler's way again to ask this.
"Uh, yeah."
"In that case—I suppose 'hot' means..attractive?"
"Right again..."

"Then—indeed. Powerful enough foxes can look however we like, after all. These are quite real~," she added, placing her hands under her impressive breasts to lift them slightly.

"Uh—anyway, mister—uh, miss..I assume you have a name?" Tyler said.
"Oh, my, I must have been so excited that I completely neglected the introductions," she said. "I hope you'll understand. You may call me Elise," she said. If her 'typical form' was male, this probably wasn't her 'real name', but that really wasn't important right now.

"Yeah, okay. I'm Tyler, he's Ronan."
"Hey!" he waved. Then, half-under his breath: "Man, no one's ever gonna believe this.."

"We have kind of a problem, and I'm sure someone as, uh, powerful as you can probably help us out with it?"
"What ever could that be, hmn?" Elise leaned in toward him a little bit while saying this, making Tyler feel threatened in an entirely different way from before. He wasn't sure he liked this any better, to be honest.

"Hey, can I take a pic with you?" Ronan, probably accidentally, interrupted them.
"A 'pic'...picture? You have one of those cameras somewhere nearby?" she asked, looking around as if expecting to locate a large piece of furniture. Tyler would've been grateful for the save if he didn't have something actually important to ask her for.

"Uh, yeah? Right here?" he said, waving the phone still in his hand.

Elise went over to examine it more closely, moving no less swiftly than she had in giant-fox form. "My...that's unbelievably compact compared to what I've seen before."

"Uh, hey, Ronan?" Tyler said. "We kinda have something more important to worry about right now!"

"Like what?"
"Like how we're still lost in the middle of a forest!" Then, seeing that he'd gotten the fox-girl's attention again with this short burst of shouting: "Uh, yeah, that's the problem I was talking about."

"Oh, I see," she said, nodding lightly. "I should have no difficulty getting you out of these woods. After all, they were my home, once." Elise reached out and gently took Ronan's phone at this point, examining the screen with an expression of intense curiosity. She turned it around in her hand, watching the whole screen turn itself around to match its orientation.

"Uh—whoa, hey—that's uh, kinda mine," Ronan said, having taken a moment to even realize she'd slipped it out of his hands.

"Is this truly a camera? How do you take pictures with it?" she asked, practically ignoring him.

Tyler sighed and walked a little closer to them. "Uh, it's actually a phone—it just has a lot of other features, including being a camera," he explained carefully. They were definitely dealing with some kind of rip-van-winkle situation, he'd realized by this point. And they didn't know exactly when she was from, but if she knew what a camera was, she probably had some clue of what a phone was. "I'm sure we can uh, get you one of your own once we get back to civilization," he suggested.

"Oh? Is that a promise from my potential master?" she asked, turning her head his way while holding the phone out kind of in Ronan's general direction, pressing its very edge between just a few of her fingers like she was dangling it in front of him.

"Well, uh, phones do cost some money..."
Elise's ears lowered slightly, like a cute dog begging for a treat. "Please?" She let go of the phone at this point, prompting Ronan to quietly yelp and practically dive at the ground to catch it. She didn't even turn to watch this happen, but Tyler had the distinct impression that she was laughing on the inside anyway.

"Uh—look, it seems like you were petrified for a while. I mean like, probably at least a few decades or something? A-and I guess since we found you in the woods and all, it'd only be responsible to help you get used to modern society anyway," Tyler suggested. "Nearly everyone has a phone, so, I'm sure that'd be uh, a normal part of that at, some point?"

"Oh, you're too kind," she said, smiling brightly. With that face she'd been making, he actually wasn't sure he could've said no to her if he'd wanted to. "I really think I will make you my master. But first, I agree—we should depart from these trees. Come with me, gentlemen..."

Elise turned in a seemingly specific direction and started walking toward the edge of the clearing, raising her right hand and gently waving it forward before dropping the arm down again to her side. As she did this, the trees in front of her parted, a gap between them appearing and widening until there was a corridor between them, brightly lit by the sun, floored by the same soft grass as the clearing and wide enough for two people to comfortably walk it side-by-side. There was something about how it happened that made this feel like an optical illusion—as if the trees had never actually moved, but rather they just hadn't noticed that the path had been there all along.

Ronan, halfway through standing up from his dive, froze in place with his mouth agape. "Duuuude!"
Elise turned her head partway backwards, just enough for one of her bright blue eyes to be barely visible from behind. "Well, are you coming?"
"Uh, yeah," Tyler nodded, going to follow her.

"Yep! Hmp—on my way!" Ronan said, grunting as he stood up and then half-running to catch up to Tyler as he came up to just a bit behind her—just out of reach of the big, fluffy tails still waving out from behind the redheaded woman's lower back.

...He kind of wanted to touch one of them. Someone with Ronan's level of self-control probably would've. But Tyler had Tyler's level of self-control, so he didn't.

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Yes, it's another new story. Well, it's not that new to me; I've been chipping away at it for some months. I didn't even wind up using the image that originally inspired it (which had black hair and yellow eyes), and it doesn't even entirely follow the outline I first drafted for it. I must admmit to some concern that you may find this story a little predictable; stories with the same overall premise are a dime a dozen. But as always, I feel like the value of art is not in its idea, but its execution. So, I hope you'll enjoy what I have for this so far.

...And yes, this will be using generated images. By part 4 or so, you'll see how this story makes use of some of their advantages.

A Summoning, Part XLIII

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Part XLIII
~Death~

Sometimes, certain events can have effects that precede their cause. People who travel between many universes, or who live in worlds where time travel (and particularly altering the past) is possible don't have too much difficulty accepting this idea. One such case went like so: In one course of events, Thomas spent Tuesday afternoon in a very mundane fashion: Eating supper, going back to her dorm room, watching some videos on her computer. But that isn't what "really happened," at least not anymore. Rather, while she was on her way from the cafeteria to the dorm room, someone interrupted her who otherwise wouldn't have.

"Excuse meeee!" Thomas stopped, turning toward the clopping sound of someone running in hard shoes, and was faced with a girl a little on the short and curvy side, with short brown hair, waving her down. She was wearing some frilly feminine clothes including a skirt, stockings, and some loafers for shoes—although the first things Thomas actually noticed were: small wings; huge, thick tail. The tips of some pointy ears sticking out just past that hair, and some black, upward-pointed horns coming out from the upper corners of her head, registered after that. "Ah, good, you stopped," she said, slowing her gait as she came up into reasonable conversational distance. She panted slightly as her running came to a halt, some bits of black smoke coming out of her mouth and nose when she did so—as if Thomas needed any further confirmation. This was...a fellow dragon. The first one she'd ever seen.

"So—hi hiii~! I'm Frelye, first of all," she said, offering out a hand to shake. Uncertain whether there was any more procedure than among humans, Thomas tried just taking the hand and allowing the short girl to eagerly, rapidly, pull it up and down a bit—exerting a level of force that might have yanked a human's arm out of its socket in the process! "Short for Frelyenebar Tirith Augustine, but I'm sure that's a bit of a mouthful for you. I tell ya, when some celestials came knocking on my cave entrance—so to speak—and told me a new dragon had hatched, I thought they were after my hoard!"

"Uh..yeah. It was kind of a surprise for me, too. Thomas—by the way," she added after a second.

"Mmhm, mmhm—lemme get a good look at ya." Frelye eagerly bounced around, examining the taller dragon-girl from a few different angles. "Weird your horn's already broke. You smell kinda like...an earth-type, maybe? Acid breath?"

"Something like that, yeah."

"Yeah, I'm the stereotypical type myself—pure fire. Not that there's anything wrong with that! And, you tussled with a lesser demon already?"
"Who, told you about that?"
"Those celestials, of course. Couldn't stop yapping about how you'd 'saved one of their kind', or whatever. I guess that's nice of you though. Oooh, that's not what broke your pretty horn, was it?" she said with a look of deep concern.
"No—it kinda just..grew in this way," Thomas said, unconsciously reaching a hand up to prod the broken part a bit.

"So you're—what." Thomas finally remembered, at this point, Zotha's offer to find an 'adult dragon' to give her some advice. "Here to help me..adjust, or something?"
"Hmmh, a little of that if you wanna. I'm mostly just stoked to meet someone else who hatched this century," she said. "I'm only seventy-one years old myself."

"'Only'?" An age like that made her older than the concept of "rock and roll".

"Dragons live on bigger timescales than humans, my friend—can I call you that?" she interrupted herself to ask. "I mean, I know we just met and all."
"It's whatever. So, you just want to, talk for a while?"
"Yeah, that'd be great! Maybe we could trade digits after, or whatever it is people say these days..a demon friend of mine introduced me to cellular phones pretty recently."

---

A man stood on a cliff, very near to the edge of an absurdly wide, deep, long chasm. It seemed he was in some sort of cave, perhaps, given the dim lighting which made it impossible to see the bottom of the pit before him. He waited for just a few moments, and then...

He felt someone coming up behind him. Who then stopped, just next to him. A...some kind of...catgirl? This part was different! "Are you thinking of jumping?" she asked.
"Huh? Uh—no. This iiiiis, usually the part where someone comes and pushes me off, and then I kinda..fall for a while before waking up." It was as he said this that he realized he was dreaming, and not actually in a cave standing in front of a deep chasm.

"You know they're coming. But you don't move to stop them?" she pressed.

"Uh, well—I dunno. I guess I never really thought to do that. I've been, keeping a dream journal lately, so I actually think this has happened a lot over the past few months. I've got this theory that it's like, a subconscious expression of this deep-seated fear I have that all my accomplishments are fake and all my friends secretly hate me, and someday soon that's gonna finally be something everyone knows...you know, so the falling is, like, a metaphor?" It was a little weird how compelled he felt to overshare like this, to a complete stranger no less—but then, this was a dream.

The strange catgirl fixed him with a long stare; her expression seemed to be a sort of permanently-fixed, sour scowl. Finally she said, flatly: "Don't be ridiculous." She waved her hand at the pit, then turned on her heel and walked away. He watched her leaving for only a second, but when he turned back around, there were suddenly safety railings between him and the pit—except for one gap, which was only so people could easily get onto a sturdy bridge now crossing the length of the chasm.

"Uh.." Looking back and forth again, the strange woman seemed to be gone. So, he shrugged to himself and tried walking across the bridge. Reviewing his dream journal some time later, he'd realize this was the last time he ever had this particular dream.

---

Thomas led the way back to an outdoor table near the cafeteria, a decent distance from anyone actually still eating. Her visitor gladly took a chair opposite her, immediately crossing her legs and curling her tail partway up around her thighs. "So uh..is having a long, complicated name a normal, dragon thing?" Thomas tried.

"Eh, a little bit, I suppose? At least among 'naturally-hatched' ones like myself. I understand it's pretty different to grow up a human than it is to literally come out of an egg! But anyway, it's pretty common for us to get some mutation of various parts of our ancestors' names, which is somewhat like some human traditions. My first name is based on my grandfather, Frelbeyrintirth—whose hoard I also inherited! Apparently he died when I was just a year or two old during some war, because some dumb humans came into his cave looking for weapons or something. I mean—they did manage to take him out, but only because he'd just woken up from a very long nap, and not without them going down too."

"I guess that's what you meant earlier..your home's literally a cave?"
"Well, it's more hospitable than that sounds, especially with some renovations I've been doing lately. There's electricity and running water! But it's a tradition for a reason, though: There isn't any other kinda natural formation large enough to store a lot of treasure in!"

"Yeah...so I found out we 'need' some kind of treasure to sleep on, already," Thomas said. "It's..a little inconvenient."
"How so?"
"Like—if I want to travel for a while, or something?"

"Hmm...I guess I can see that. You're not full-grown enough yet to take on proper dragon form, for sure. I was able to fly here from where I live—which is pretty far, mind—in like half an hour. And the celestials don't get uppity if you just use some illusions and steer clear of planes."
"So, have you never slept anywhere else?"
"I wouldn't say 'never'. A full-size dragon has some options for taking a small piece of home with her, after all. And we can go a few days without sleep if we have to."

"So, sleep deprivation isn't as bad as it is for humans?"

"I guess not?" she shrugged slightly, not seeming that confident. "What's the hurry, anyway? You could wait a few decades 'till you can fly big, and no need to pay human fares to get across the ocean or anything!"
"Uh, well—there's someone I want to travel with. Anyway, things change a lot over 'a few decades'..at least, for human culture."

"Hmm.." Frelye uncurled her tail so she could lean forward a little bit. "The way you say that—this must be at least a pretty close friend, huh?"
"I guess. I mean—I haven't known her all that long. It's—you know, the celestial I helped out with the demon problem. We were talking about maybe going to Europe, since she's like, 'newly made' and hoping to look around the world for herself."

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmm." This excessive hum came with something of a searching look. "How would you feel if...someone, kidnapped this person?"
"What?"
"I mean, like—what would you do?"
"I guess, I'd go get her back? I mean, free her. Hopefully not have to kill whoever did that."

"Heheh. But you were thinking of killing whoever was responsible anyway. And what you said first sounded more honest to me."

"Okay, yeah."

Thomas crossed her arms and frowned. "I've been dealing with some..I guess, possessive instincts sometimes."

"That's quite natural for us dragons."

"I still really don't like it. But what's your point?"
"The only thing we're ever possessive of in quite that way, is our hoards and all the treasure within. And there are many kinds of 'treasure'. You can't tell me you've never heard stories about dragons kidnapping princesses?"

"Wait, so...you're suggesting a solution?"

Frelye nodded. "If it's yours enough to go take it back when it's stolen, then it's yours enough to sleep on."

Thomas's face heated up a bit. "S-sleep on.." The idea of taking Stella to bed with her was complicated for entirely different reasons!

"Well, it's just one idea. You could also buy some single, relatively lightweight thing that's really valuable, make sure that you obsess over it as much as possible, and then stick that in your luggage. I've heard things like old cards and ancient coins can go for a pretty penny online these days, although I'd be worried about burning or melting something like that myself. My hoard is mostly stuff that keeps its value after having fire breathed on it."

---

Another man dreamed of being a grandmother: Rocking grandchildren in her chair, cooking meals for her children and children's children all gathered around a big table in her house. As it was a dream, the meals were indistinct, the number of people at the table, and their ages and appearances, ever-shifting. This was no strange fantasy, but a sort of blurring together of countless memories from year upon year.

Someone spoke to him, a while into this—someone who seemed to have been watching the whole thing. "You will probably never see them again," she said.

Waking somewhat from the form of the "grandmother", he looked around briefly, confused as to who was speaking. While he didn't see anyone around, he felt compelled to respond all the same: "That's how it was already! I'd have never woken up without the help of that angel."

"And these memories..don't make you sad?"
"'Course not! I've looked up my own obituary, you know—pretty strange thing to see, that. It says all the folks who 'survived' me, and I know I gave 'em all a good start on life. I could've died with no regrets."
"And yet, you chose not to."
"What's the use of ending my life, if I've got an opportunity to move on and start over? Besides, it's a real kick, gettin' to be young again!"

He had the impression that whoever was speaking shook her head. After that, the dream went back to normal, shifting back to exactly what it had been before.

---

Graham waited until they were both in the truck, and had started out onto the road home, to ask: "Say, what's your impression of those werewolves, Rachel?"

"Hm? Well, they seem pretty nice, I guess. Onida's a better cook than you are, grandpa."
"Aww, well, guess I can't argue with that."

"I guess it's a little weird two of them used to be male, or..something? But it's less weird than you, so that's not really a complaint either. I've also never met a 'streamer' in person before...they honestly seemed more normal than I expected, if I'm being honest."

"Even for being part-wolf and all that?"
"Yeah, definitely.

"Hey, no need to beat around the bush, though. You and Damon..like each other, don't you?"
"Well." Graham blushed furiously for a second or two. "Sure. You could say that. It's part of why I wanted to give you a chance to properly meet all of 'em."

"Yeah, it's not that hard to tell. Your face lights up whenever you talk about them, but especially her. Honestly, I don't think there's anything wrong with you living your own life now that you're young again, whether I like the people involved or not."

"But.."
"But I don't dislike them, sure. Anyone you're that fond of can't be too bad anyway."

"Awwh, Rachel..."

---

Riana was walking down the hospital hallway, and stopped. An old man's breath was frail and wheezing, audible through the door. Looking around briefly and not finding anyone, she carefully prodded the door open and sneaked inside to take a look. He looked, maybe, even worse than he sounded. So, she quietly whispered a 'prayer' to Zotha, gesturing his way, and after a moment his breathing slowly but surely normalized, becoming calm and quiet.

When she made her way back out the door, someone was suddenly standing there, maybe two inches from her face. "Waah!" She jumped back a bit, flailing her arms. "Personal space!!!"

This person was dressed like a hospital orderly or nurse or something, but it seemed like she'd been waiting for Riana to come outside. On second glance, she had...cat ears and a tail? Not that that was impossible, but it wasn't typical for people in...

Actually, come to think of it, this person hadn't been here when this had happened. Because this..was something that had already happened. Wasn't it? This was getting a little bit confusing.

The strange woman seemed to deliberately wait just long enough for this confusion to set in before saying, "What was the point? He'll just get sicker again and die anyway."

"Th..what?!" she demanded. It was less that this question confused her, and more that the implications it carried outraged her.

"His ailment was his own fault. He chose to smoke, again and again, day after day, for every single year of his life since age thirteen."

"Wh..so what?!" Okay, now she was mad. "So he deserves to suffer and die from that?!"

The stranger crossed her arms. "People reap what they sow. It is a natural fact of life."

"Oh, yeah? And who says it has to be that way?

"Listen, you—you!" She advanced on the cat-eared woman. "Whoever you think you are! If you ask me, one more day to live, for anyone, is worth fighting for! Who cares if it's 'their own fault'? If they 'deserve it'?! People can change. Especially if—if they realize what they've been doing wrong has hurt people, or—or just how much has been done to help them!"

She stood her ground throughout this, regarding Riana stoically—maybe even haughtily. "Most people never change."

"Maybe that's because nobody tries to help them," she spat back.

"You..."

The strange woman gave a defeated-sounding sigh. "You'll learn the hard way, I suppose."
"What's that supposed to mean?!"

She just shook her head. And then Riana woke up, suddenly sitting up in her bed. She looked around for a moment, disoriented, and eventually her vision settled on the clock. It was around 2 AM; the whole strange experience had been some kind of dream. Weird...

Not giving it too much further thought, she lay back down and tried to go back to sleep. Tomorrow was going to be another busy day.

---

"I see..." Stella nodded slowly. The two Kitsune were looking at her expectantly while she tapped an index finger on her cheek a few times.

"You seriously buy this?" Thomas asked. "I mean—there's not like, some other way Kitsune can 'earn tails' or whatever?"

"There are, but nowhere near as efficient," the celestial explained. "A sufficiently impressive prank demonstrates all of the traits for which tails are rewarded at once: Cleverness and wit, magical power, wisdom, a good sense of humor, and most of all..." She trailed off for a second, seeming to think of something, before finishing her sentence: "...audacity."

"You have an idea? Please tell me you've got something good," Steph said.
"Weeeeelll. I don't know whether it's good, exactly."
"That's even better! Just tell us," he pressed.

"Okay. So..in my time since becoming a student here, I've noticed two particular buildings on campus, situated just next to each other. Hmm..." She took a moment to get out her phone, and eventually navigate it to a map of the college's campus, then turned it the two fox-people's way, pointing. "These two. The English department uses this one, while that one's used by chemistry. Their layouts are quite different from each other, let alone the contents of the rooms themselves."
"Well, yeah, obviously," Steph said.
"And yet...their exteriors are quite similar. The main differences are just the name carved into the top at the front entrance, and on some of the other side-doors."

"So...what...you think we should try swapping the names?"

Stella put her phone back in her purse. "That would hardly be very audacious, would it? Most students and faculty walk into the correct building without even glancing at the name, especially this late into the semester."

Andrew said, "So then what—waaaaiiiit."
"Stella." Thomas interjected. "Are you suggesting that they should somehow swap two entire buildings?"

"Well, I wouldn't say 'they'. It would require quite a bit of physical strength to achieve a feat like that. Or else, the capability to move the earth itself?"

"You want me to do this."
"Part of it? It would hardly be 'their' prank if you alone did all the work."

Steph put out a hand. "Hoooold up. There are a lot of practical considerations when it comes to moving entire buildings, Stella! Like—the water, gas, electricity—all hooked up, underground. Not to mention that the physical action of moving a chem building involves uh, possibly shaking around some containers of very dangerous chemicals!"
"I did say that I wasn't certain it was a good idea. Practical considerations such as that occurred to me, but not how to solve them. If we were to attempt this, then I trust things like that would be the clever foxes' task to sort out."

"Ugh, yeah, I guess that's fair. What do you think, Andrew?"

"Um..I don't know about actually doing it, but we could like..scout around? Try and figure out where everything is that we need to worry about. If it looks totally impossible, we can just back out and try something else. Like—the moment of commitment is just when we start actually doing things, right? Snooping around won't actually disturb anything. But, also..would you, really be okay with helping us, Thomas? I don't think the whole thing would work if you're not willing, and uh, I totally understand if you're not."

The dragon-girl crossed her arms. "Hmmh." Looking between everyone's faces, it was Stella's rather eager, expectant expression that won her over. "Look. If you want my help with this crazy idea, then I do have conditions. I need to know exactly what the plan is, to the slightest detail, and you have to convince me that we're not gonna risk hurting anyone, or actually destroying anything valuable or important...or dangerous."

"But, if we meet all those conditions?" Steph said.

"Then...hm. I really feel like I should still ask for some kind of payment." Thomas shook her head. "No, sorry, that's probably just—stupid dragon instincts talking. We're friends, and you have a curse you want rid of. You just meet those conditions, and I'll do it."

---

Bastet appeared in two more dreams—two of 'her people', both only recently taken out from under the veil and awakened. She entered as soon as they fell asleep, placing the guest in a hastily-constructed room with her sitting on the other side.

To each, she said: "Ask. If you could wish for anything, and it must be selfish, what would you want the most?"

A Neko more than three-quarters of the way to being able to grant her own wishes, with white hair and bright purple eyes, said: "For myself, eh? I don't suppose you could bring back the dead? My wife and kids, say.."
Bastet shook her head. "Death is something not even the gods can undo. I'm sorry."
"Aw, that's all right. In that case, I'd wish for a long and happy life for the one family member I've got left. My granddaughter's a good kid, she's worked hard, and I think she deserves it. But...I suppose that isn't very 'selfish', eh?"

"Not really. But more so than 'world peace', or some vapid nonsense like that."
"Let's see..drat, next best thing I can think of is for Damon's condition to get better—it seems like she's still in a bit of pain, after all. You want to get really petty, I could ask for...more money?"

Bastet sighed. "It's all right. Your first two answers are good enough."

That woman's granddaughter, another Neko, said: "Uhhm...is it really okay for me to wish for something else? I mean, Lady Zotha already granted the wish I did have, and then gave me even more after that!"

Bastet glared. "I am not Zotha."
"I-I just don't wanna be greedy," she said nervously, putting up her hands apologetically.

"I'm not saying I'll grant this wish, either. I just want to know what it would be."

"Oh! Um. I-in that case. I'd love to meet someone who makes me as happy as grandpa is with Damon..heheh."

Her expression softened considerably. "I see. Perhaps you will, someday."

---

You might wonder: "Why 'death' for this particular entry?" Well, my reference for what the various tarot things are supposed to mean says that death can indicate things like "mortality", "letting go of attachments", and "profound change".