A Summoning, Part LIII

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Part LIII
~Hermit~

Bill sat up slowly in bed, lifting her legs a bit to free her tail along the way and felt the weight of some long, soft tresses of deep black hair falling about halfway down her back. The strange occurrences of the day before paled in comparison to that dream, followed by waking up in a body which seemed in every possible way to match the description "young woman". Still unsure whether any of this was even real, or if that strange dream was simply continuing, she obeyed an instinctive need to stretch, first reaching up toward the ceiling and then slowly arching herself backwards. "Mrr~rrh." A low purr rumbled in her throat as she slowly realized that her present posture could be the envy of some yoga experts. Then she pulled herself around and dropped off of the bed onto her feet. This...was feeling more real by the second, as the sunlight coming in through her bedroom window took away her lingering drowsiness.

"Pffh...heheh.." She turned her head downward to get a realy good look at herself, bringing her hands around to feel. "Well, ain't this a pretty big surprise. There's really nothin' down there...those are some real nice legs, though." She seemed to have retained all of the strength she'd had as an older man, which presented as some fairly solid muscle tone here and there. "And just look at these curves..and these knockers! Whoo! Not to mention...all this haaaiir...!" At this point her right hand made it up into those locks to brush through them. This was all, definitely, very much real.

"I believe I really do like this. Pretty odd, though—I must be half a foot shorter 'r more. Not to mention this tail..." At her command, it came around in front of her, landing in the palm of a hand and sliding down across it. "Mrr~rrh. Guess I really am part kitty cat or somethin'. I oughta get a good look at all this in a mirror!"

Feeling younger and more energetic than she had at any point the previous day—or, maybe the previous three to four decades—she scampered off to the bathroom to admire herself in the mirror, giving a few quick poses and feeling up certain parts of herself again with some light giggling. This was where she realized that her eyes had turned a bright, golden yellow, and some of her teeth had grown a little longer and sharper, becoming some feline fangs. A body this nice...well, it was hard to say if she could actually attract a woman like this, but it'd certainly attract someone anyway!

"Hmm." The catgirl slowly dropped her arms back to the sides. If this was real, that was wonderful, but it also introduced a lot of complications. Nobody who know 'Bill' would ever recognize the young, beautiful feline lady in the mirror as the same person! But then it occurred to her that the nice woman who'd helped her out the day before, with buying jeans...also sported the exact same sort of kitty ears and tail as herself. How she hadn't noticed them then was beyond her, but they'd definitely been there! So...she could fill out a sick-leave form online with the university, then head to the shop and hope to run into that person, who might know something about what she should do. Or, at least, might have some chance of believing her story.

That posed another minor issue, of course: Bill certainly couldn't go outside wearing only underwear and a shirt! She turned and headed for the chest of drawers in her bedroom, thinking to just make creative use of an oversized t-shirt and a belt to at least get decent, and found another surprise. The first t-shirt she pulled out...had shrunk! It was the same design and everything, but seemed perfectly sized for her new form. Looking deeper, she found shorts and—somehow—skirts that seemed made to fit her, too! There were entire dresses in her closet! And finally turning her attention to the underwear drawer, all of the male-fit undergarments had been replaced by lingerie not unlike what she had on now..plus plenty of bras that a quick little test seemed to suggest were fitted to her new bosom. So..that was at least one complication that her new looks created, which seemed to have somehow solved itself!

She could question how or why that had happened later, though. For the moment, the catgirl went off to the computer to file her sick day, deciding at the same time that a quick shower and breakfast could also precede heading out to try and find that mystery woman who might have some idea of what she could do to keep her job and identity in the wake of this drastic change to her appearance.

---

"Heey Jack."
"Uh—whoa! Hi." It took the werewolf a second to recognize the person who'd suddenly approached him out in the campus courtyards. The body, clothes, and face were the same, but his hair was a big floof out to his shoulders, and blue, his eyes were red, and he had the ears and tail—two matching tails—of a fox. "Llllogan?"
"Yeah, it's me." He sighed. "Look, I've already been through this with my roommate, so—I'm gonna try to speedrun this part. Late yesterday afternoon, I 'awoke'" (he used his fingers for airquotes with this word) "as a kitsune. Someone who was around to see it happen helped read me in on all this...magic and veil stuff. But, man—I already knew you had furry ears and a tail. I just had no idea why."

"Wha—really? Uh, how long—?"
"Since we've met." He crossed his arms. "I've been able to see this stuff since freshman year."

"Oh wow. Uh, I can't imagine. I mean—I've been, you know, a werewolf my whole life. Dude, I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine." He dropped his arms again. "I mean—I think I get it. It's supposed to be really important to keep this veil thing up, so, it's not like you had a choice. Aaaand I guess I did a pretty good job of hiding what I knew, too. So, look—let's put this behind us, and help me feel a little less weird and awkward about it. I just—have a tail now, and I guess some kind of fox superpowers."
"Okay, uh, sure."

"C'mon, let's walk and talk. I'm hungry."
"Oh, yeah—me too, dude." Logan led the way toward the cafeteria; that was where Jack had been headed himself.

"I'm a little curious about something, though, since that is out in the open now.."
"Oh, yeah, what?"
"I swear I'm not asking this to make fun of you—I've got some, uh, follow-up questions, is all. Your hot date last week...did she turn you into a girl?"

"Uh." Being asked flat-out like that, and being a terrible liar in the first place, Jack hesitated only briefly before deciding that honesty made the most sense. "Kiiindaaa? I mean, it's more—like, there's more to it than that. Like, she's an alchemist—you, know—"
"I know what an alchemist is, yeah. Makes magic potions and stuff."
"Right. So—she had this really specific one she wanted someone to test, and agreed to pay for a dinner..or, maybe more than one, if I did it. This potion, uh..like, you know how werewolves can change between a 'human' and 'wolf' form, right?"
"Let's just assume I understand that," he said with a slight nod.

"Yeah. It—lets a werewolf go between male and female the same way. Pretty much."

"So, you spent the date in that girl form...to, help test this potion?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Make sure it's stable and...stuff."
"Did you..enjoy the date that way?"

"Well, it wasn't any worse. I mean—she wasn't any less gorgeous. Or dominant, or...uh." He could feel a slight blush coming on when he thought about all of the physical contact...and the petting at the end!

"I guess I mean...being turned into a girl is, weird, right?"
"Yeah. Super weird. But..."
"You had to, because you were testing that potion? Or, you wanted to because she wanted you to?"
"I dunno. Maybe something like that. I'd have to say...by the end of the date, it wasn't so bad."

"You have another one coming up, right?"
"Oh, yeah, uh—this Friday, so—tomorrow," he said, needing a second to realize it was that soon already.

"Think she'll want you to be a girl for that one too?"
"I dunno? I kinda hope not."

"Have you..turned into a girl, since the date?"
"Uh. Yeah. Couple times. In my dorm room. You know, just—back and forth. I'd feel pretty dumb if she asks me whether it's still working the same and I've got no answer 'cause I never tested."

"Yeah, makes sense. Sorry for the weird questions."

"Uh, it's fine." It seemed like Logan had gotten whatever he wanted out of them anyway. "I mean—there must be a ton of stuff like that, that magic comes with, that seems super weird to you!"

"Yeah, man. I mean like—actual, literal gods that people can just, talk to?! Apparently fox people get to elect one, too..."

---

Thursday after sunset, Jess knocked on Prama's dorm room door. "It's me," she said after a second with no answer.
"Oh. Come in."

While she had officially changed roommates, Jess had 'conveniently' forgotten to return the key to her previous room—which was now Prama's alone. The little genius was fine with this, as it saved her the inconvenience of actually going to the door. So Zotha's high priestess let herself in, shutting the door behind her. Prama was sitting on her knees on the bed, arms around one of her stuffed animals, her head peeking past the top of it to see the portable console she was playing.

"What's up? News? Official business?"
"Uh, not really. I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"Well, I'm perfectly fine. No homework or studying left to do right now. Just finished a shift of alchemy." Aside from a brief glance or two toward Jess, her eyes were still glued to the game's screen.
Jess crossed the room to go sit in the computer chair. "You know, your answers get shorter and blunter when you're in a bad mood. Did you dislike last week's excursion that much?"
"Huh? No, I nearly forgot that happened. It was fun, actually."

"You want to go again?"
"I guess..but, not tonight."

She counted out fifteen seconds for her former roommate to say something else, then said, "You know I really do want to help out, right? I guess I can't blame you if you don't trust me these days."
"Don't start getting histrionic. We all get it—Zotha changed you into a nice and wonderful person, and Riana was always good, and Cameron's as clueless as ever, and Anika has no more of a backbone than before, despite her spine extending into no less than four separate tails now. So we're all alignment-good now."

"I think the intelligence you traded for has you smarter than me these days. I can't quite follow your point," Jess said. This was about half a lie, but Prama would feel better if she expressed her frustration properly instead of having someone else infer it.

The bespectacled girl sighed, pausing her game and lowering it slowly, turning her eyes Jess's way with a familiar, annoyed expression that said 'I'm onto you, but playing along anyway.' "I met someone new last Friday. Guy by the name of Logan. Anika told me this guy could awaken as a kitsune, so I thought I'd 'help him along'. The awakening turned him into a girl, and Anika helped her turn back."
"I'm following you so far," she said with a slight nod.

"She was obviously uncomfortable being a girl, and relieved to be back to normal. But I liked her that way, and felt disappointed when he'd turned back."

"Okay..?" Jess shrugged slightly.

Prama set her console down next to her. "...You remember what I wanted, back when you and Zotha were granting everyone's wishes."
"Certainly. Are you..disappointed with the results, after these past few weeks?"
"Hardly. But—maybe because of it, I can see beyond myself a little bit better than before. Only, all that's helped me do is realize that I'm fundamentally, immutably selfish.

"I wanted to feel one of Logan's tails, and I guess I bullied her into letting me do it. It was..it felt as nice as I thought it would." She ran a hand up and down the stuffed animal she was still hugging, then closed that hand around one side of it, moving her other hand to grab the other side. "When I really thought about it afterward, the reason I was disappointed she changed back, was because I thought it was a shame to lose someone—more like something—so cute and fluffy. Like she was mine in the first place to be losing." Prama's grip grew steadily tighter as she spoke, and at this point she lifted it up a couple of inches. "Ridiculous!" And in a surprising show of strength, she threw it across the room, making it hit the wall opposite the bed with a light thunk.

Jess turned her head toward the stuffed animal as it lightly landed on the floor, bouncing just once. Maybe throwing it across the room didn't require that much strength after all. Then she slowly turned back Prama's way to find her friend with her glasses off, wiping a few tears from her eyes with a sleeve. "Awwh, Prama...you're not so bad. Realizing there's something rotten about yourself is a step in the right direction! If you know what you want changed, then you can work to change it, right?"

"I have no idea how. My mind works how it works."
"I can at least try to help you. But, in the first place—what's so horrible about being selfish?"

Prama sniffed, visibly willing herself to stop crying so she could put her glasses on and glare back at Jess, hard.

"You need me. To explain that. To you?"

"I mean, obviously there is such a thing as taking it too far...but in the very first place, you said you wanted 'everyone you care about well taken care of'—wasn't that it? Caring about even a few other people, and wanting them to have better lives, is a much better form of selfishness than I had. And you're no 'spoiled-brat' type of selfish, either. You could easily get a steady supply of money and stuff from Zotha and me, but instead you want to earn everything by your own efforts, and even give something back. You even frowned at me every time I presented you with a little gift lately, just out of a sense of friendship."

Prama sighed. "That's just—I want to be self-reliant. I don't even trust you, or our wonderful goddess, to give me the things I want forever."
"You can't tell me you don't enjoy learning new things, and applying that knowledge."
"Yeah, sure. So—I do it because I like to."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with that! As long as what you 'like to do' benefits other people, or at least doesn't harm them. There's nothing wrong at all with a little bit of mutual benefit."

Jess hopped off of the chair, went and picked up the stuffed animal, then brought it back over to the bed, placing it in front of Prama. "There's no need to be so hard on yourself. Just be honest."

Prama stared her down for a long moment, then sighed. "You still have the same way with words. And I can hardly keep a pity party up with you looking at me like that. Fine, honesty."

"Now tell me: Do you like Logan? As a girl, as a boy, whichever?"
"Uh. I don't know." She blushed, but shrugged forcefully.

"You wanted to feel one of her tails. Are they less fluffy as a man?"
"Nope."

"Well, then, you can be honest with him. Tell him what you told me, apologize if you have to. We've gotten to know quite a few people with fuzzy ears and tails lately, you know—maybe he actually enjoyed it, a little tiny bit?"

Prama's blush grew a little brighter. "Er—maybe. I guess it'd be better than making things more awkward between us. I still..want his help with my business idea. Mutual benefit—right." She nodded, slowly, leaning forward to pick up the stuffed animal into a hug again. "He'd make plenty of money too, if everything works out the way I've planned it..."

Jess smiled. "That's the spirit!"

---

Valoz came to the front of her business to open it, and found a potential customer already waiting outside: A pretty, dark-haired Neko girl wearing tight jeans and a t-shirt. "Hey, come on in. We're just now opening," she said, pulling the door opening and gesturing to come inside. "Not all of our workers are ready quite yet, but I can help you out if you need anything."

The catgirl regarded Valoz with a long stare that the Mammon had grown somewhat used to over the past few weeks—since that new goddess Zotha's ascension. She was pretty sure she knew what it meant by now, but let the other party make the first move. "Er, sorry. Ain't seen nobody living with blue skin before," she said, finally heading through the offered door. "Don't mean to be rude."
"Oh, that's all right. I'm the manager here, so—I'm in my office pretty often."
"Well, in that case—don't suppose you know of a lady who works for you, by the name of Graham? Kitty ears like mine, but white? Two tails?"
"I certainly do know who you mean, but if you're looking for her specifically, I'm afraid this is a day off for her," Valoz said. Thinking about it, this girl had the aura of that freshly-empowered Nekomata's magic practically seeping off of her.

The dark-haired Neko looked only briefly disappointed, before visibly getting an idea. "Oh, well—I suppose you might be able to help me all the same," she said. "Erh, how do I put this—I came in here yesterday to buy some jeans. This pair to be specific, actually," she said, gesturing to what she was wearing. "They fit me fine yesterday, and now they still fit me. Even though I seem to be some twenty or thirty years younger than I was..and of the opposite, ehh, persuasion?"

"I see...and I guess your tail must be an equally new addition?" Valoz said, and received a quick nod in response. There was a slight tendency for powerful foxes and cats to want to make 'more' of themselves out of unsuspecting humans...really, she wasn't certain if it was intentional or some kind of sneaky instinct one wasn't even aware of. Demons certainly didn't do this kind of thing! Whatever the case...this wasn't a problem she had to solve herself. "I can point you the right way, then. It might be tricky to change you back—that fur of yours is especially here to stay, I'm afraid—but there are some folks whose job it is to help people in situations like yours." While she spoke, she smoothly produced one of her own business cards and a pen, then scribbled an address and phone number onto a part intentionally left blank, pointing to it with a finger as she held it in front of the catgirl.

"I see...well, I can't say I'm disappointed if all this is here to stay," the Neko said with a bright grin. She gently took the offered card, staring at the part Valoz had written for a moment. "It'd just be awful inconvenient if I lost my job or liscense or such to it."
"Right, that's exactly the sort of thing they can help you with. It'll be best if you go to them as soon as you can," Valoz said. "Afterward, though—I hope you'll consider our store for any new clothes you need. We have a wide variety of options that support the presence of tails, horns, wings, and so on, which not every store knows how to accommodate."
"Ah, well, sure will. I appreciate it, miss Valoz," the catgirl said with a nod, turning and heading out.

The Mammon wasn't one to be disappointed by a lack of instant profit. At the very least, that now-young woman might feel a small pang of gratitude from the people who pointed her the same way...and, perhaps she had some unconscious understanding that it was Graham who had helped awaken her. If she regarded the new form as entirely a blessing, then surely she'd be back later, even if she didn't need any new clothes.

---

"So..I guess this must be the right place." Logan looked around at the group of people who, with his addition, threatened to overcrowd the little meeting room in the library. Anika was there 'wearing' the same very convincing illusion as their first meeting, plus two other kitsune, a tall guy with dark green hair and creepy lizard eyes, and a short girl with white hair and conspicuous feathered wings.

"That's right. Everyone, this is Logan," 'Andrew' said, gesturing. "Recently-awakened kitsune."
"Aww, you got to start with two? I just earned my second one a couple of weeks ago!" said the one obviously-female kitsune present.

"Some people just have more potential than others," the dark-haired one said gently. "Think about it this way: He didn't earn his first one until just now. Hey, I'm Steph," he added, offering Logan a hand to shake. "I hear you were stuck half-under the veil, too. Must've been a little rough."
"Yeah...you could put it that way," he said, taking the handshake. "Anyway—I just wanna be clear about this: I don't really get the appeal of messing with people, but Andrew helped me out, so I'm repaying the favor. When uh..I first 'awoke' or whatever, it turned me into a girl for some reason, and he helped me turn back."

"I know how that is," the green-haired guy said. "I'm Thomas, this is Stella," he added, gesturing to the girl with the wings, who gave an honest-to-goodness curtsy Logan's way. "Hey, why does that happen, anyway?" he went on to ask her.

"There can be a number of different reasons," the winged girl said. "In your case and mine, it's likely due to lady Zotha's involvement more than anything else. But more generally, it could have to do with one's subconscious, personal desires, or ancestry. Perhaps your kitsune descendants are all on your mother's side?" she suggested to Logan, tilting her head slightly.

"Uh, how would that even work? Like, my X chromosome specifically is part fox or something? Complete with encoding for light blue hair and red eyes?"

"The creation of one's soul involves those of both parents," Stella said, with the air of an experienced expert on the subject. "In that way, one's soul contains information about one's ancestry for quite a long way back—similar to one's DNA. Actually, it's more robust, since transformative magic can always alter DNA. However, any individual person can only be one thing at a time—there are no 'half-demons', or 'half-kitsune', or such."

"Uh, so—you're a 'celestial', right?" Logan asked. "Like, an angel person?" Stella nodded. "But, no halo?"
"Oh, I can have a halo if I want," she said, gesturing gently above her head to make a golden ring of glowing light appear there. "It's an easy enough illusion to make." The halo disappeared again.

"So, what if a celestial and a demon had a kid?"

"The child would most likely be either a human or demon."

"Wait, so, never another celestial?" Thomas asked.

"Oh, no," she said, shaking her head lightly. "Well, there are a few kinds of people who are 'celestial' in nature, with strong talents for that kind of magic—but 'true' celestials such as myself, with wings and intrinsic armaments, cannot be born. We are only created directly by Sol. Even two of my kind would only ever have a human child—or, in very rare cases, the child could awaken into something else in the womb or during birth, I suppose."

"Uh, okay, this is all really fascinating, but we're getting off track," Steph said. "So Andrew explained what we're trying to do, right Logan?"
"Basically—swap two buildings by changing their signs, and making portals that go between them. I assume this is perfectly safe?"
"Yeah. That was my condition for helping," Thomas said. "After the mess that rain caused..."

"The rain...wait, you mean on April fool's day?" Logan asked. "Was that you guys?"

"Just us three," Steph clarified, gesturing to herself and the two fox-people who weren't Logan. "And we only made it rain. The Ruler was the one with the bright idea to have the rain transform people with weak magic resistances."

"You're talking about the 'ruler of foxes', right? Like, the god?"

Steph nodded, "That's the one."
"She thought it'd 'help' Zotha," Anika added. "Or just wanted to give her some extra messes to clean up."

"Suuure, okay.

"Anyway—how, exactly, am I supposed to help with this? I've barely figured out how to do basic illusions at this point."
"Oh, that part is simple," Steph said. "Once we're all together on the day of the prank, and as long as you're willing, I just do a channeling spell so everyone present can donate magic to Andrew to help fuel the effect. It'll involve a lot of sitting around, and probably be slightly tiring having your power spent for a while like that. The method I'm using will stop pulling from you before it'd risk doing any harm. For a newbie like you, 'stretching' your power a little bit like that might even help you get a better feel for it."

"That's great, I guess. At least it'll help Andrew out, anyway."
"Right," 'Andrew' said, nodding. "A little more progress toward that tail."

"So—originally, this meeting was to decide on a day," Thomas said. "Now that the introduction's done, I guess we can still do that?"
"Yeah, of course," Steph said. "Everyone free tomorrow, early to mid-morning? Or at least, got a class you can survive skipping?"

After some brief discussion, they had a time and place hammered out. Steph seemed to have done his research, or just been lucky, to pick a Friday, since everyone could seemingly make it then. He and Andrew had scouted out an ideal location too, somewhere behind the two buildings to be 'swapped'.

On their way out, Logan decided to satisfy a small bit of curiosity he'd felt since meeting everyone. "So, uh, Thomas..."
"Yeah?" The green-haired guy was very tall, enough that even though Logan was back to his original height, he still had to tilt his head down to look the kitsune in the eyes.

"I'm, still really new to this stuff, so I dunno if it's offensive to ask, but...what are you, exactly?"
"Oh, Andrew didn't say? I'm a dragon," he said with a slight shrug. "Earth dragon, specifically. Guess it'd be more obvious if I wasn't practicing maintaining a 'human' form right now. Y'know, without the wings or tail. Or horns."
"Oooooh. Okay." Prama had told Logan that dragons were very rare, and he had the impression they were also extraordinarily, scarily powerful. "Cool. See ya."

---

So, both images of Bill's catgirl form were generated. I was impressed at how relatively easy it was to take an "almost there" image I had for the standing one in this part, which had a couple of details wrong, and just...have it fix those details.