A Summoning, Part XLVI

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Part XLVI
~Temperance, Part 1~

Late Thursday afternoon, Boreas heard the door to the shop opening, and smelled a familiar scent. She hurried out to the front counter right away. "Good, you're here."
"Uh.." Her visitor—the same werewolf pup who'd been by a few times before, and whose hair and fur was now a bright, fiery shade of red thanks to his last purchase, stopped completely in his tracks, confused. "Me?"
"Yes."
"I thought..you didn't like me," he said, taking a couple of steps closer.
The alchemist just shrugged. "I don't operate on 'like' and 'dislike'; I've got a use for you, and was pretty sure you'd show up again. Your business first, though—what're you here for?"

"Uuuuh." It seemed like she'd managed to trip him up completely. He took a long moment to figure out what he'd probably been intending to say before coming in.

"I just..uh. Wanted to know if you'd be free sometime uh. Later this week or something?"
"I'm a lone wolf," she said. "Always been free."
"No, I mean, you knooow. Like, off work, or. Not expecting to, need to work or something? Long enough for uh. Look, I just really wanted to ask you out on a date, okay?!" At this point, he started talking fast, and only went faster and higher in pitch as he continued: "I—feel super dumb for just coming in and gawking and acting stupid, and I'd really like to just—get to know you for real? Like, have an actual conversation over dinner or somethiiinng?"

"Oh. Hm."

Boreas rubbed the bottom of her chin with an index finger. This wasn't a complete surprise, really; if anything, the level of respect he was giving her, compared to their first couple of meetings, was the only truly unexpected part. "Alright, I'll make you a deal." Boreas reached under the counter and produced a particular vial, placing it on a holder on the counter. "This is an experimental potion I've been working on with my apprentice lately, for a big commission. Nothin' dangerous, but there's a part of its effects I need to check whether or not it works how it's s'posed to. It only works on werewolves, but I can't test it myself. So: You help us out, I'll treat you to a dinner. You pick the place, and we can have all the conversation you want." It wasn't like Boreas knew very many restaurants these days, apart from the few she occasionally got meals delivered from.

"Uh. So. You, just want me to test this potion for you?"
"Mmhm," Boreas nodded. "I'll need you to check in now and then, for..a few weeks after you take it. Say, hmmh, 'bout through the next full moon, and I'll know if its effects are fully stable. If it don't work right, I can make something to reverse its effect easy enough, or worst case my apprentice knows someone who can put you right regardless. We can do the dinner tonight, though, if your schedule allows."

"Uh, t-tonight? Yeah, I'm fr—uh, I'm not busy. You, uhm, so should I just take it now, or?"
"Sure. The effects oughta only take a couple of minutes." Mentally noting that he still hadn't bothered to ask what the potion was even supposed to do, Boreas picked the vial up and offered it over at him.

He took it, staring at the odd-looking liquid inside. "So I just..drink this, right?"
"'Course."
"Okay..." He opened the top and chugged it before carefully offering the vial back. "Tastes..I dunno, kinda fruity? Is it working?"

"We'll see in a bit," she answered, placing the empty vial back on the rack.

He didn't seem able to bear the awkward silence for very long. "Uh, so..is your apprentice around today?"

"Nope. Think she has classes at this time."

"Uh-huh..uh, I feel pretty stupid for waiting this long to ask, but.."
"Name's Boreas," she cut him off, guessing the question before it came. "You?"
"Oh, uh, Jack."
"Nice to meet ya."

At about this point, Jack's hair started growing longer. Boreas watched the locks extend out several inches, already threatening to fall onto his shoulders, before he followed where her eyes were looking and put a hand near the tips of some locks to feel them growing out. "Uuuh."
"That's normal."
"Okay..?" He shuddered very slightly after this, maybe not even noticing he was doing it, and then—with his hair now shoulder-length and still growing out in the back—he began shrinking. His clothes loosened around his frame as it slimmed down, his height visibly sinking downward. "Uh, I-I guess this is too~o..?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly at the end of the last word.

Boreas nodded. "About what I'd expect."

"O~okay.." he sort of mumbled, his voice coming out at a higher pitch and cracking again. "Um..aah..aa~aah.." Jack's voice kept changing, the masculinity draining out of it, as his body continued slimming and shortening: His shoulders narrowed, his arms and legs thinned, his hands shrank, his face became softer and rounder-looking. His hair reached down past the back of his chest by now, and seemed content to keep on growing; meanwhile, the bit of facial hair he'd had vanished away when his face changed shape, and the hair visible on his arms and legs thinned and shortened, too.

Jack shuddered again, a little more violently than before, and mumbled: "O~oh, this is super w-wei~ird..." in a voice that started at a high tenor and shifted to a low soprano tone, as the Adam's apple disappeared from his throat.. His cheeks reddened with a blush, his ears folding down and his tail moving around excitedly. His hands, now small and delicate-looking with longer nails that looked freshly manicured, moved to just in front of his groin..maybe unconsciously. "Aah.. r-rrfh..!" His hair finally stopped growing as its locks settled around his hips, some of it waving back and forth in response to the base of his tail brushing through it. "R-rrfh..aa~aahh...! M-mmnggh..!"

Jack's blush got worse, his whole face going red, as he dropped his hands to the side. "O-o~oooh..." He shivered, then gasped, as the potion's effect changed his sex. Then she let out soft, high "Y-yip!" as her hips pressed out, the loose pants around them tightening a bit in response. "A-aaa~aah..." Her chest soon followed, a pair of bumps swelling out and pulling the ill-fitting shirt up around them. "M-mngh...r-rfh...!" She crossed her arms, sort of hugging herself, and her hips swayed back and forth briefly, as the small breasts steadily filled out into a full, proper bosom. She gasped again, then panted softly, as the change came to a close.

Boreas waited patiently for the young woman to regain her breath and composure. "U-uh.." Still blushing brightly. "I-I guess this is what it was supposed to do?" she said, using her right hand to point at her breasts.
"That was the easy part," Boreas said. "If it really worked, you should be able to change yourself back."

"Uh, h-how?"

She shrugged. "Feel for it. It oughta be as natural as going between wolf and human."
"Uhhm..."

Jack closed her eyes, visibly trying to concentrate. After a moment, her curves started flattening out, and then she started growing taller, her hair receding and darkening toward its original shade. Within only ten seconds or so, Jack had turned back to his original, male form—only his hair and fur no longer red. "Ffh..phew. Okay, that..wasn't so bad."
Boreas nodded. "Your hair went back," she observed aloud.

"Oh?" He pulled his tail up in one of his hands, looking at it. "Yeah, it did.."

"Prolly an interaction with the potion you took before...I'll have to make a note of that. Still, seems like a success so far. Try going back to the other form?"
"Uhm...s-sure." In a motion about as swift as going back to male, Jack turned once again into a young woman—long, bright-red hair and all. Boreas felt a little bit like..Jack looked better this way, really. But regardless...

"If you don't mind, it'd be good to observe you holding that form for a while. Maybe during our dinner? I'd like to make sure it's stable, and doesn't take constant upkeep to maintain."

"Uh...um. B-but I kinda..I mean, my clothes don't really..fit?" she tried.
"Oh, right. My apprentice left some spare outfits, just in case. This way.." Boreas gestured, then led her to one of the rooms in the back before closing the door to it to give her some privacy.

After audibly struggling with the clothes for a little while, Jack came out wearing a tank top and some shorts; the latter fit well enough, but the former failed to cover over half of her midriff. "Uh..th-this stuff doesn't really fit super well.."

"Women's clothes tend to be a little tight," Boreas said, coming a little closer after looking her over. "And you're taller than she is, among other things. 'Least you're decent." She reached down and pet the shorter girl, rubbing the base of her right ear a little bit.
"Rrfh..!" Jack responded positively, leaning into the petting slightly, before realizing what she was doing and taking a big, startled step back, her face flushing bright red. "Uh, w-wha?!" That expression was a very good look on her...
But rather than pursuing, Boreas crossed her arms. "We are going on a date, aren't we? I s'pose you've got a car parked outside?"

"Oh, uh, r-right. M-m-my keys are in my actual pants, hang on.." Jack turned around and fled back into the room.

"Might want to borrow the purse in there, too," Boreas called after her. "My apprentice keeps telling me women's clothes are awful stingy with pockets."

---

One minor obstruction to Felix's plan of going out and having fun as "someone else" was the near-complete lack of clothing that fit that "other self". There was pretty much the one outfit that his torn-up bedclothes had turned into the morning after the full moon, and that was it. He made sure to launder those before going out...just in case any of the dirt from running around in huge-wolf-person form had "stuck around" through them shrinking into something that fit "her". At any rate, this all meant that the first place to go as a woman was a clothing store.

She realized after shifting forms and putting the clothes on that...they didn't have any pockets. After looking around the house a little, she found a tote bag that could store a few things...but it'd look weird for her to carry this around much. Women..usually employed the humble purse for this kind of task, right. So she'd need to get one of those too. But—clothes first.

When shifting into female form, Felix had grown her ears and tail back out into furry view sort of reflexively. From a brief look in the mirror, well..the opinion she arrived at was that they complemented her looks more than hurt them, at least among people who could even see them. Anyway, apparently werewolves sometimes needed to "let off moonlight", and maintaining a partial transformation like this was a very common way to do it, so...it couldn't hurt.

She went into the store and looked around for a little bit, wondering how adventurous she'd be willing to go: A more tomboyish outfit like the one she'd started out with, or an actual dress or something, like with a skirt? How would that work with the tail?

"Hello the—"
"Bwuah!" The wolf-girl jumped back at a sudden voice from over to one side and a bit below her. "Uh. Sorry," she said, turning to look. It was a short, white-haired...catgirl, apparently? With two tails?

"No, pardon me—didn't mean to startle ya," she said back. "I'm Graham," she said, indicating an employee nametag attached to her top. "Just wondering whether you could use some help?"
"Uh, sure, maybe. I, I'm Feeee....uh. Fel. Just Fel," she said quickly. That was..surely different enough, right? "Y-yeah, maybe I could use a little advice, if you don't mind? I'm sorta..new to having a tail, you could say?"

"Sure," the catgirl nodded, "I've got some experience with that. Helped some other folks out before, too. What sort of outfits are you after?"

"Oh, well, so. I was just sort of trying to figure out what would—uh, what to go for today. Yeah. I'm used to stuff like this, but thought maybe trying something new could beee, interesting? Might look. Uh, l-look cute on me," she said, the words feeling weird in her mouth...but they were right to her mind.

"I see. In that case—it's hard to know what you really like 'till you try it on and have a look in the mirror. I don't know that much about color matching, to be honest, but my granddaughter says I do a pretty good job of it all the same."
"Your uh.." 'Fel' felt her head tilt, one of her ears going sideways.
"Heheh, right. I know I don't look the part. Let's just say some folks can help you get younger," Graham said. "Now—what'd you think looked interesting on this rack you were staring at before?" she said, pointing.

---

After hearing about his first visit...and the second one...Jack's friends didn't understand why he kept going to the alchemy shop. He couldn't explain it to them very well, either. Boreas was beautiful, but there were lots of beautiful girls all over campus if he really just wanted that. But more than that, she was tall and imposing, with a deep voice, and an obvious sense of confidence and self-assuredness. She was...intensely dominant.

Jack had...imagined her taking over. Petting him, and doing...other things. He hadn't imagined that happening alongside her turning him into a girl. So now, after adjusting the seat and watching the alchemist buckle herself into the passenger seat...she was feeling pretty conflicted. The feeling of the tall woman's hand on her ear had been so nice, but the fuzzy feeling down between her legs was equal parts pleasant and..confusing. Plus, the process of changing into someone else's clothes had given her an awfully good view of her new...'alternate form'.

The thing to do right now was just..drive. Try to concentrate on that for a little bit. What would Boreas like, though? An old-school werewolf like her probably...ate lots of meat. So...a steak place? But then, Jack was the one being treated now, so—would Boreas take that as her taking advantage to get an expensive meal for free? A brief glance over at the tall, silver-haired woman revealed the usual, unreadably stoic expression. The only other one Jack knew from her was that withering glare...a look which had taught him the true meaning of 'scaroused.'

"Something bothering you?"

"Uh—" Of course, if Boreas was impossible to read for Jack, it was exactly the opposite the other way around. Jack wore his—or her—heart on her sleeve in the first place. "J-just trying to figure out, where to go exactly.." Her voice still sounded so weird!
"This potion you're testing is a big commission for me, so don't worry about price."
"Uhm—oh. O-okay." Steak place it was, then.

"S-so you uh..how long have you, been an alchemist?" she tried after an awkwardly silent minute-and-a-half.

"Nearly my whole life. An old friend of my family, Neko, took me on as an apprentice at a young age."
"It's..I hear it's pretty hard. And super dangerous."
"It is."

"So—you must be super good at it, to—not be hurt or anything."
"Ooh, I've been hurt plenty," she said. "Thank being a werewolf for my surviving some early mistakes. Mostly luck I'm not missing half an arm or leg. Lot of the old scars got removed when I was changed into this."

"Oh, y-yeah? So uh..how'd that. Happen anyway?"

"You familiar with the new goddess, Zotha?"
"Uhhm. Yeah." Some of Jack's friends were friends of some of her 'followers' who'd come out from under the veil. They'd told him some crazy stories, many of which he wasn't sure he could believe.

"My new apprentice is one of hers. Offered to borrow a little of her power to make me young again. 'Pparently Zotha's magic has some bias toward female forms."

"Well, it—I mean. Y-you know.." Jack's face was kind of hot, her heart racing a little bit. Given how previous attempts at complimenting Boreas's appearance had gone, she was terribly nervous about this..but had to try! "The end result's..really gorgeous. I-I think. Um. Suits you really well."

Boreas didn't say anything for a nail-bitingly long moment. Then she just sort of mumbled: "...Interesting."

"Uh. Whaaat do you mean?"

"Just. I've never paid much attention to appearances. Myself, or anyone else's. Not much of a clue what's supposed to make a man handsome, or a woman beautiful. Folks come into my shop wanting all sorts of different changes to their looks—don't seem any of 'em would agree with each other on what a body's supposed to look like."

"W-well, it's subjective. But...on you.."

"On me?"
"Y-you're really tall. For a girl, especially. A-and your voice is really deep."
"Mmhm," she let out a kind of neutral grunt that indicated she didn't understand Jack's point at all.

"I-it's just, you also seem like someone..in total control of your life. Commanding. Intimidating, I guess—but in a good way?"

"Hmph. Don't really think of myself as alpha material."
"N-no, I guess, not like that...but anyway, you..s-s-sort of, look and sound the way you act. Besides having some, uh..a-amazing curves..."

"I see..." If Boreas took any joy from that, her tone of voice and face didn't show it. But, at least she wasn't angry...

---

"I'm not going."

"Come ooon, it'll be good for you." Jess pulled at Prama's wrist not hard enough to force her through the door, but enough to make a point. "All work and no play—right?"
"This is not play. You're asking me to go be in a crowd of complete strangers rather than being nice and safe here in my room!" she emphatically yanked her arm out of Jess's grip with this last word.
Jess crossed her arms. "You do want to get over this social anxiety at some point, don't you?"
"Obviously. Eventually. When I feel like it."
"You're not ever gonna just 'feel like it'! That's the entire point of the price you paid, you realize? Come on..you can just disappear into the crowd. Everyone'll be focused on dancing, or the music, or the drinks. No one will even notice you!"

"So what if someone does anyway?"
"Then you can either flee, or maybe practice responding like a normal human being? Come on, you told me you handled that problem customer just fine before, right?"
"That was different. That person was..familiar. Kind of. And, it was on my own turf."
"Well, if you ever want to get that business idea of yours off the ground, you'll need to be able to present it to investors on their turf, won't you? Not to mention broaching the subject with your 'master' in the first place."

Jess leaned over slightly, placing her head at the same level as her friend and former roommate. "I'm not gonna make you go, you know. But I am trying to help out, here. You've been a little tired and stressed lately, and maybe letting a little bit loose physically will help. We both know you are so far beyond ahead on your homework, and you've got the night off from work...sooo, at least give it a try for just an hour or so? Then you can come back here and read a book, or whatever you like. I'll treat you to a milkshake or something on the way back even?"

Prama sighed. The 'reformed' Jess had all the manipulative power of Jerod...but also seemed to be determined to use that power for 'good'. It was as hopeless arguing against her now, and with that look on her face, as any other time before that change.

"Okay, fine. One hour. I'm going to be keeping track."

"Okay!" Jess stood up straight again, giving a satisfied clap of her hands. "Do you want to change, or go in that outfit?"
Prama glanced down at what she was wearing for a second, then shrugged. "This is fine. Let's just get this over with..."

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This part's image was generated using my "older" methods, not too long before I started looking to improve them. But I'm still pretty happy with this particular result anyway.