A Statue in the Woods 9: Recreation

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"Rrrfh..."

Ty woke up hugging a pillow again. This was probably going to be a pretty regular occurrence, unless she could start waking up earlier, or learn to wake up when Elise (no doubt) teleported herself out of bed, or stop being so clingy while asleep. Then again, she didn't actually mind, especially considering the nights that preceded waking up this way. So she gently let go, pulled up and sat on the side of the bed, stretching out and yawning.

"Morning, master~!"

"Wah!" The wolf-girl toppled backwards in surprise at a voice suddenly not two feet away from her, and sat up to find Elise leaning partway down toward her, wearing shorts and a tank top again.

(old image)

"Oh." She'd either teleported in or been standing there, invisibly waiting, either way with the express intent of startling Ty. "Morning. Your boobs look bigger than last night."
"Pffheheh! Why is that your first thought?!"
"I dunno, just something I noticed. It's a good look."
"Well, thank you." Elise offered out a hand, and the wolf-girl took the help hopping up out of bed, then allowed herself to be briefly spun around and pulled into a brief hug.

"Mrr~rfh. I guess for you, changing around your proportions is the same as any other girl getting a haircut. Or changing clothes."
"Indeed—though I do like to have some consistency. But I can do just the same for you, master~."

"Sure," Ty said, and gently freed herself from the embrace, taking a small step back. "I guess I'll go take a shower now..."
"All right. I'll have breakfast ready by the time you get out!"

While this breakfast wasn't as extravagant as the first one she'd made, Elise's cooking was as good as ever. "Don't feel like you have to do this every morning," Ty said. "I mean—I know how to cook too. Or, we could go out for breakfast some time."
"Ooh, I'd like that," Elise said—but this also helped the wolf-girl remember how it had gone when they'd gone to a restaurant with Ronan right after releasing her. Elise just softly giggled at the brief face Ty made in imagining a repeat of that.

"Uh—anyway. Tonight's usually board game night with the guys. And it's my turn to host, so..obviously you're invited too."
"I see. So I might get to meet some more of your friends?"
"Right. Rona'll be here too, unless some conflict comes up."

"That may be a good opportunity...considering that you awoke as an Ookami, and she gained a feline appearance without my meaning to—well, my magic may have accidentally awoken her as well."

"Does that uh..come with any special powers?" Ty asked, trying hard not to imagine the chaos that could ensue from Ronan having Elise's level of magical power.
"Not immediately, usually. Neko do have a little more talent than an ordinary human if they put in the effort to learn certain kinds of magic, and they can gain a second tail and ascend into Nekomata—whose power is comparable to that of a nine-tailed fox. But that tends to take an entire lifetime, and a great deal of wisdom; most never even come close."

Ty's ears picked up the mail truck coming and going while she was doing the dishes, so after that she went out to the box. Aside from a couple of pieces of snail-mail spam, there was a large packet from the people who were supposed to be hiring Elise. "I think this is your paperwork," she said, placing it on the table and opening it up. The kitsune watched from one side while Ty picked up the pages and sifted through them to find a quite boilerplate, mundane-seeming agreement. The only thing sort of notable was that the contract could be terminated by the employee at any time, as opposed to needing to give some kind of notice. "Looks pretty normal. There's like ten places you'll have to sign or initial."

"Thank you~." Elise took the papers, then spread them out on the table before her, leaning over them.

"I'll find you a pen...I guess you want to read the whole thing yourself?"

"Indeed. A wise fox never enters any agreement in ignorance," Elise said.

"I guess I'll get to work while you do that, then." Ty handed her a pen, and Elise set it on top of the papers before straightening up and pulling the wolf-girl into another close hug.

"You don't mind if I steal a kiss first?" she said, already starting to shift her master's form. Ty's curves flattened out as she started to get taller.

"N-not a~at all," she said, her voice quickly deepening. In a moment, the wolf-girl had turned back into a tall, strong man, and holding the cute, curvy fox-girl in his arms created an entirely different—but no less pleasant—set of feelings for him. It was no less so when she locked her lips onto his, initiating one long, passionate kiss that left both of them panting as he gently set her back down onto her feet.

"H-heehee~...You're getting very good at that, master~! I believe I'll be grateful to be sitting down for a little while," she said.

"Uh, y-yeah, good, thanks," Tyler sort of mumbled, feeling too flustered to form a meaningful sentence right now. She just giggled again in response, halfway falling onto the chair, so he headed over toward his office to try and focus on something else for a while.

Elise took at least half an hour to thoroughly read through the document, calling out to ask Tyler the meaning of a couple of terms at first before coming to one he didn't know off the top of his head—at which point he pointed out she could look them up on her phone. After mailing the signed contract back out, she went and played more of the game from their first night until lunchtime.

It was an occasional bad habit of his to stubbornly continue working on an article until it was done, pushing a meal out an hour or more past when it should really happen. Today, the Kitsune came into the room and said, "Maaasteeerr~...I'm hungry."

"Oh." Looking between her and the clock in his computer, he nodded. "Yeah...I'll make us something." So he didn't wind up having a late lunch this time.

After lunch, he tried calling Renard's number. Elise stuck around in the kitchen to listen in on the conversation, her curiosity obviously piqued. "Helloo...Renard speaking."
"Hey, this is Tyler—"
"Oh, with the rip van Kitsune?"
"Uh, yeah," he said, taking a moment to interpret that figure of speech.
"Guess I did give the number to both of you. Something wrong? Is she giving you trouble?"
"No—uh, nothing like that. It's just—well, we thought you, or youuurr...organization? Might know something about Ookami?"
"Huh. Well you're in luck, actually. I dunno about the organization overall, but I did some studying out of personal curiosity a couple years back. Wait—is it you? I caught a whiff of celestial magic when we met, but thought it was just leftovers from that curse you freed her from."

"Well—that's the thing. I, was, a normal human before..she stopped being a statue. I mean, that same day, but slightly later, she transformed me, and I guess—accidentally 'awakened' me too?"
"I see..makes sense you'd want to know, then. Lemme just, take a minute to pull up some old notes, huh? Make sure I'm not imagining what I think I remember..."

After a brief pause (during which Tyler heard the faint clicking of his keyboard's keys), Renard said, "Okay, right, right. So—Ookami have powers concentrated heavily into 'protective strength' and 'restoration'. That first one, it's not like their magic makes them super-strong all the time the way dragons are, although they can 'force' it to enhance their strength with some general magic practice. But anyway...you ever hear of people picking up, like, an entire car to get someone else out from under it? 'Miraculous' strength like that, that comes up in a time of need, is a kind of celestial magic that humans have wielded sometimes even while completely under the veil. And, Ookami are supposed to be naturals at that. If a lesser demon is threatening you or someone else, for example, you can probably banish it in one punch, without much effort."

"That's...pretty cool, I guess." Kind of hope I never need that, though.

"And, 'restoration'. It's partially what it sounds like—healing magic comes in many flavors, but the easiest and most convenient kind is the celestial one. It's doesn't require you to have a medical doctorate to do it right, 'cause it's incapable of doing something 'wrong' in the first place. But it's also more general than that. Things like fixing recently-broken objects, or reviving wilted plants, or whatever. I'm not sure how much of it comes naturally, or how much you need to actually train to use, but pretty much every Ookami I was able to dig up information about was able to do that sort of thing."

"Also sounds good."

"That's most of what I've got. Help you out some?"

"Yeah, thanks. I haven't really, felt like I could do anything new or special, but I guess I haven't been in a situation where I needed either of those things, so..."

"Hey, if you want—I know of exactly one other living Ookami. Now I've never actually met this person, but, I'm aware of him since he's one of Sol's lieutenants." Tyler sat bolt upright; Elise didn't seem at all impressed by this name-drop, but she was also probably very good at hiding her reactions in the first place. Renard just casually continued: "I could kick an email upstairs, see if something gets all the way through to my boss's boss's boss's..aah, you get the point."
"Uh, wai—hold up a minute. What does your boss have to do with the god of the sun?"
"Oh, you didn't know? Our organization is full of former veilkeepers, and Sol was always in charge of those guys. I guess technically we're a joint venture by Sol and Azoth, but he's the one who had all the administrative structure and financing in place back when this whole 'rejuvenation' thing started out. So, yeah, I dunno if it'll go anywhere, but I could send something off to just try and let that guy know another Ookami exists, and would he like to meet up."

"I guess..that's fine? If you can, maybe try to make sure he doesn't show up completely unannounced? I mean, I have no idea how intense someone who directly serves under a literal god is gonna be..."
"Yeah, good point. I'll hold off on giving contact info, maybe, act as a go-between for setting an appointment up."
"You don't mind? I mean, that's not really part of your job or anything..."
"Nah, it's fine. Should be interesting," he said. "Okay, I'll admit: I'm also hoping to get to see an Ookami's powers for myself. Maybe I can learn a thing or two."

After hanging up, Tyler said, "He wants to learn from a celestial? Can Kitsune do that kind of magic?"

Elise nodded. "We can learn any kind of magic we like. It simply takes much more effort to do things that stretch outside of our usual nature..." She paused, titling her head slightly. "Ah—I see. He said something about wanting to earn his tails a particular way. 'Magic purists' are quite rare...I'll be interested to see how far he can take that road."

Tyler went back to work for a few more hours, happy to have some articles to write to take his mind off of all of the magic stuff. Then it was time to get everything out and ready for board game night. Elise watched with interest as he started getting a bunch of snacks and junk food out, then started following him around, eventually coming so close behind him that he nearly ran into her when he turned around.

"Bwah!" He bounced several steps backwards.
"Pff—heehee!" Elise just giggled.

"Uh—do you wanna help?"
"I wouldn't mind lending some aid to my master when he's working so diligently~," she said teasingly.
"Okay then." After that, they did the rest of the preparations together, winding up with everything ready a good half-hour ahead of time. Then she offered to teach him to make rice balls, and they wound up with several of those (his were merely passable, while hers were of course perfect) for everyone to enjoy as well. Then, finally, everyone else started showing up.

There were eight of them in the group—nine counting Elise: Tyler, Ken, Clay, Al, Jay, Rona, Lucia, and Freya. Those last two were women, and Elise, of course, remembered Tyler calling the whole group "the guys" before and took the opportunity to briefly tease him about it. He tried teasing her back, asking if she was jealous, and she responded by glomping and kissing him, nearly (but not quite) knocking him over onto a table. If any of them had been unclear about the relationship between Tyler and the fox-girl, then they probably weren't anymore.

Their first game was the latest leg in a several-session-long, cooperative campaign. Elise declined joining the game formally and instead watched them with interest while reading through the rules. By about halfway through the session, she suggested a strategy to the entire group that would get them through a tricky situation they were in. Everyone celebrated when it worked, and wanted her on for the next week's game. She just smiled peacefully and said, "We'll see!", which gave Tyler a very bad feeling. But that would be a problem for next week. For now...

"Come on, this is pick-up-and-play!" Their next game was a fairly simple game that used regular playing cards, to mentally cool down from the intensity of the first one.
"Yeah, you'll figure it out in no time. Rona understood it after one hand!" Lucia said.

"Heey, what's that supposed to mean?" the catgirl protested.
"What's the rook do in chess?" she shot back immediately, twirling her bracelet with her index finger.

"Hmph." Rona just momentarily pouted at that.

"It's really not much fun to just watch," Tyler tried, and Elise nodded.

"Very well, then—I shall join your game. I'm certain you'll all be honest with me about the rules~," she said.

"Okay, great," Ken said. "So, once Jay finally finishes shuffling, he'll deal us each seven cards..."

On their fifth hand, Elise was the first one to go out. "Hm..'tis the trouble with a game largely of chance," she said, shrugging.

"Yeah, that was a bum hand, sorry," Freya said with a shrug—having been the dealer.
"Nothing to apologize for, unless you know the sleight of hand to guarantee such a thing."

"Nah, no Vegas dealers here," Al said quickly. "Anyway, we cut the deck after shuffling..."

After they went a couple of rounds with nobody else going out, Elise sat up. "I'd like to make this a little more interesting for myself...you all are aware of how powerful I am, hmn?"
"Oh, yeah—like seven tails or something, right?" Clay said.

"Five, but I do appreciate the flattery."
"You're not gonna make the cards start coming to life or something, are you?"
"Oh, no—nothing like that. I only meant—I'd like to offer the winner of this hand a small boon," she said with a grin. "To be claimed at the end of the night."

"Ah. Like turning Ronan into a catgirl," Lucia said. "Cool if you're into that..."

"Perhaps. I cannot grant every possible wish, but I'm quite good at altering appearances~," Elise said, demonstrating by growing herself half a foot taller. "The winner and I could..negotiate. That ought to keep things interesting."

"Uh, okay, sure," Ken said. "We don't do gambling here, ever, but if you want to offer a prize of your own free will, that's fine. Winner gets a fox-magic boon, I guess," he said with a shrug.

The hand went several more rounds before ending, with Al as the winner. By that time, everyone had mostly forgotten about Elise's prize, and the conversation moved immediately to picking their next game to play for the night. But Tyler didn't forget, and of course the Kitsune didn't forget either.

A few hours later, they wrapped things up, put everything away, and began filtering out. Elise disappeared in a puff of red smoke, appearing next to the front door as Al came to it. "Whoa! Uh, hi," he said.

"As I recall—you won a boon," she said. "Unless you don't intend to claim it?" She gave a slightly hurt-looking expression at that notion, although Tyler could tell this was faked.
"Oh. N-no, I..actually almoooost forgot about it. I mean, I waaaas thinking about it for a while, then I got distracted," he said, letting her lead him back away from the door. Tyler took over letting everyone else go, taking advantage of his wolfish ears to pick up on the rest of their conversation.

To Rona he said, "Hey—just so you know. Elise 'accidentally' awakened me as an Ookami, which is some kind of magic wolf-person thing. And, we're pretty sure she might have made you a Neko, hence the 'accidental' ears and tail. You may..want to look something up about that."
"Oh, really? Cool!"

"Just...if that is the case, you might be stuck being part-cat forever, I guess.."
"Oh, that's fine! I'm getting pretty used to it~," she said, bringing her tail up in front of her to run a hand along. "Mrrr~."
"Okay, well, as long as you're happy I guess."

"Yeah! I don't say this kinda thing too often but...thanks for letting me know, and you know. Being concerned enough about me to come out to those woods in the first place," she said.

"Uh—yeah, sure. Couldn't let you get lost alone."

Meanwhile, Elise was saying: "I'm pleased to hear that~. It'd be a shame not to carefully consider how to spend such a generous offer."

"Y-yeah, of course." He was probably a little afraid to insult her. Although their group had had plenty of friendly back-and-forth with her joining in, it was different being one-on-one with a magically powerful fox-girl.

"So, what is it you were imagining?" she said; Tyler could hear her predatory, trickster sort of grin in her voice at this point.

"Well, you knooow—you said you're good at changing how people look?"
"But of course~."
"Does that...I mean, is it completelyyyy, superficial, oooorr, actual anatomical changes?"
"Transformation magic is a quite thorough thing," Elise explained. "I made myself female, and I am that in every sense of the word~. Less extreme alterations—height, proportion, hair color—are all no different."

"Oh, cool. Soooo, just.."

Tyler had finished speaking with Rona at this point, so he headed to the living room where the two of them were talking, stopping in the doorway. He had a guess where this was going...but part of him really wanted to let it play out, and see what happened. Maybe being Elise's 'master' was starting to get to him...

"You knooow.." Al patted his belly. "I've carried some weeeight, pretty much my whole life. I guess I've been lazy about exercising most of the time, but I've been trying lately. So what I'm getting at is—you cooouuuld, like, just transform me to be more fit, right? Maybe have a little bit better metabolism, so I don't gain the weight back in like two weeks?"
"Oh, certainly," Elise nodded. "A couple of little things like that are no trouble at all for me~. But you understand, of course, I can't make you permanently fit. Maintaining your fitness is still up to your own efforts, even if it is a little bit easier."

"Yeah, sure. So if..that's not too much for like, a boon from juuuust, winning a card game? I'd love that."
"Hmmm~..." Elise pretended to just now remember that it was only supposed to be a small boon, and lightly tapped her index finger against her lips a few times. "Do you want this...badly enough, that you won't mind if I play a little trick or two on you along the way?" she asked.

"Iiiii..guess not? These are, uh, harmless tricks, right?"
"Oh, of course, of course! Besides, my Master's around to make sure I don't misbehave too much~," she said, gesturing Tyler's way. Al turned to look, and jumped slightly at realizing he'd been there the whole time.

"Uh, yeah, hi." He waved. "Sorry to, eavesdrop like that.."
"Nah, it's cool—this is your house and all. Iiiii dunno where we could go so you couldn't hear us with those ears anyway," Al shrugged. "Besiiiides, you've heard me complain about my weight before..."
"Yeah. So, I'll make sure Elise doesn't leave you with something you hate," he said. "Right?"
"Oh, certainly~," she said with a reassuring nod. "Then, in that case, shall I grant your boon?"
"Uh.." Al looked back and forth between the two of them a couple of times. "Yeah, sure. Please, go ahead. Do I need toooo, do anything special?"
"Just stay right there...and enjoy~," she said. Before he'd even asked the question, a familiar red glow had begun to surround his body.

"Okay...? Ah!" He jolted slightly, then shuddered. "W-whoa.." All at once, Al's complexion shifted, becoming a little paler and softer. The bits of fuzz on his cheeks and chin thinned and vanished away, followed by the hair on his arms—and probably his torso and legs too, but his clothes hid those from view. At the same time, his black hair spilled out from the top of his head, his bangs threatening to hide his eyes while the rest quickly fell down across his shoulders on the side, and a good few inches farther down his back. The glow faded off as he reached a hand up to feel the silky-looking hair, running down some locks that now framed his face. "Uh..?"

Al jolted again. "O-oh!" Then he started shrinking. "W-wha~a..?" He only took a couple of seconds to lose half a foot of height, and at the same time his frame swiftly collapsed inward, his shoulders narrowing, arms and legs slimming down, and his face growing rounder and cuter. This first bit of shrinking went so fast that his shirt seemed to hang in the air around him briefly before falling down across his smaller form, only to continue to loosen around him as it went on. "Aa~ah..aa~a~aah..aa~aah..!" His voice cracked and squeaked, its pitch rising rapidly higher, as his height sank down one jerking step at a time; each time his shirt fell back around him, it revealed a smaller belly, until about the fourth jolt when it had become completely flat. By then, the shirt's hem was down around his thighs, and his pants had given up completely, their fall to the ground revealing soft, smooth, slender legs. His face flushed increasingly red as his height slid down to Elise's level, and then past that to the shortest the fox girl had been, and then—with one final little jolt and a soft, high, almost child-sounding "AaaAAaa~ah!"—he was a few inches shorter than even that.

"Mmh—mnngh..w-wa~aah..!" Al's face was completely red now, as he squirmed there in place for a moment. Tyler guessed that his underwear had shrunk with him, as otherwise it would surely be on the floor with his pants. The shirt now tented around him began pulling itself smaller and tighter, and when the hem flew up past his hips it revealed a pair of boyshorts tightly hugging his slim upper thighs and hips and a very small bulge between his legs. "Aa~aah...!" His voice went even higher for just a second as that bulge flattened away completely, leaving Al an extremely petite girl.

"M-mnn, n-naa~ah.." Then, just as suddenly as everything else, her voice began to audibly deepen and mature again—though, obviously, toward sounding like a woman rather than a man. This came with a sudden shift to Al's eyes, as a deep gray color seemed to flow out from their pupils into their originally-brown irises like paint staining water. "A-aa~aah.." With her mouth open, Tyler could also see the growth of her canines into fangs. Then—"A-arrfh!" Al barked, as her right ear suddenly pushed out past her hair as a big triangle covered in pitch black fur. "R-rfh..!" The other ear followed suit with this second bark, and a slim, black-furred tail pushed out from her lower back, starting to wave back and forth behind her.

"Rrr, ruffh..!" Just as her shirt finished shrinking to fit her tiny torso, the new girl began to grow again. Her height shot up a half a foot or so at once, her hips and thighs spreading out a bit thicker in the process, and the now-tight top made visible the growth of a tiny pair of breasts. "Aah, aa~aah..!" Her voice continued to deepen and mature as she steadily grew taller now, and curvier too. "Rrhf..y-yip! Aa~aah..oo~oo~OOO~Oooh..!" She squirmed her legs back and forth as her breasts spread out bigger and bigger, pulling the top up off of her belly. It struggled to hold her growing bosom, and in the process seemed to need to sacrifice the material for its sleeves and short way down her neckline. Besides getting bigger and curvier, her tail grew thicker and fluffier, and Tyler began to see some muscle tone appearing on her limbs and her now-flat belly.

"M-mngh..ah, AAH, Aaa~aaah...!" Al's height pushed up past Elise's again, as her breasts expanded to what must have been at least C cups, her ears lowering and her tail wagging the whole time. "R-rrfh..a-a-ARROOOOOOOO~OOh..!" Finally, as one last little burst of growth brought her height up a few inches more, she helplessly let out a loud howl. She was..still half a head shorter than before, but was now a curvy, fit wolf-girl with a solid set of abs. During the howl, the pants she'd lost to the floor crawled their way back up her legs, splitting apart as they went; most of the leggings converted themselves into a pair of soft black thigh-highs, while the leftovers pulled up around her hips as a tight pair of jean-shorts. With that, the change finally finished.

"Aa~aah...hff, ffh..." Al panted, slowly coming down from all of the excitement. Her voice seemed to naturally come out at a very deep, mature-seeming alto—but that howl earlier had revealed a very high ceiling to her voice's range, too. She blinked a couple of times, looked down at herself and patted her bust, her belly, then her tail.

"So—what do you think of your new form?" Elise asked.
One of her hands still hovering a short way above her new breasts, Al looked up, at the fox-girl and then at Tyler. Her lips curled up into a slight smile, the remnants of a blush still on her cheek. "Hmm~mm.."

"This's not so bad..I think I could get used to this?" She reached a hand up, running it through her hair. "Am I..hot now? I feel like I must be at least an eight out of ten, right?" She directed this question at Tyler—which made some sense; he was the only male present at the moment.

"Uh, I'd say so. But—as a girl? Besides being furry now..you don't mind that part?"
"I dunnoo~oo.." She shrugged. "I definitely wouldn't have ever asked for this, but uuuh...Elise's turned you into a girl too, before, riiight? So you knoooww...what I mean?"
Tyler's cheeks heated up. "Uh..y-yeah." Elise was grinning over at him, which didn't help matters. "But, you might—I mean you wouldn't. I-if you change your mind and really hate it later?"

Al shrugged again. "Yeah, that's a risk. But—maybe I could just try and earn another 'boon' then, right? Or, maybe I'll get to be such good friends with your fox waifu that she'll just be willing to do it, huh?"

Tyler stammered, "Uh—"
"His fox what?!" Elise said, and burst into an immediate fit of giggles.

"That is totally the situation you're in, right? Magical manic pixie dream girl whatever?"

"...Okay, I guess that's fair. But we're still kind of uh—figuring things out?"
"Yeah, cool. I can befriend her either way then, right?"

"Obviously. Uh, Elise, the moment's seriously passed.." The Kitsune was still doubled over, trying to regain her breath and composure from the laughing fit.

"Pfffh...you're going to have to explain that one to me, Master~," she said, finally straightening up.
"Yyyeah, I'll do that."
"So—hey, do you drink? Tyler's a complete teetotaler," Al said, practically ignoring their conversation.

"Oh, indeed? I was wondering about that," Elise said.
"Yeah. If you want—Tyler's got my number; I know some good places. Not to stereotype, but if you're fond of sake, there's this bar downtown..."
"That sounds delightful," Elise said with a bright smile.
"Yeah. Maybe we can drag him along, get smashed, make him drive us home."

"I feel like I'm starting to understand why you couldn't keep the weight off," Tyler said.

"Aww, a few drinks won't hurt my weight that muuuch. Anyway, I guess I've got some shopping to do tomorrow, so I'd better get back and get a good night's sleep. Thank you soooo much for the boon, Elise~."

"Ooh, you're very welcome," the fox-girl said.

After Al's car left the driveway, Tyler said, "So...how many of my friends are you planning on swapping the sexes of, anyway?"

"Hmmnnn...perhaps half of them? I can't really predict when the mood might strike me," Elise said. "Now, Master—what, exactly, does 'waifu' mean?"

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This story part has one image generated using the "newer" methods, and one using the "older". You can probably tell which is which.

(The above comment is outdated, as I have re-generated the image made using "older" methods with a newer one.)

A Statue in the Woods 8: Introduction

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After getting out of the car, Tyler paused to just stare at the house for a moment. "Is something the matter?" Elise asked after starting toward the door, pausing upon realizing he hadn't moved, and then turning to face him.
"Uh...no. It's just..." The house looked perfectly ordinary. It wasn't some gothic mansion; it didn't even look particularly big. It was just...a plain, average, everyday suburban house. "I didn't expect a place where super-rich demons live to look so...normal."

"I admit, it hardly fits their tastes from back when I knew them," Elise said, turning back to look at the building herself. "They must have been living here before the veil was cast off. Blending in used to be an absolute necessity, you know, at least if one wished to live around 'enveiled' humans."

"I guess that makes sense.."
"You may be surprised by the interior, however. Come, let's not keep them waiting!" she said, eagerly starting off toward the door again.
"Yeah, sure."

He'd barely pressed the button for the doorbell when the door opened. And the person waiting behind it...well, definitely fit his idea of a 'demon'. It was a very tall woman with dark green skin, bright red eyes, big curly horns poking up through some bright, grassy-green hair, and also a long, medium-thick tail ending in a sharp spike that waved back and forth behind her. Aside from all of that, her clothes were the same kind of stylish dress as Valencia had been wearing the day before, minus any jewelry. "Hello there~!" she said cheerfully. "Welcome, please come in. It's wonderful to see you again, Shigenori, and—Tyler, was it?" she said, smoothly offering him a handshake.

"Uh, yeah." The shake was a very brisk sort Tyler would expect from a high-power CEO or something like that.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance. Azlathoth—or just 'Azla', if it's easier to remember," she said. "And—that's a lovely form you've got there, Elise."
"Thank you~," the fox-girl said.

They were guided into and through a fairly big antechamber with...a bit more of the kind of thing Tyler had expected at first: Gargoyle heads and banners on the walls, and other bits of fancy, decorative stonework. When they proceeded from this room into a wide hallway with several paintings (a mixture of landscapes and portraits, the latter featuring humans, demons, and a few people of other various races) lining its walls, then eventually took a left turn into a huge dining room, his brain started screaming at him that this space didn't fit inside that house. But then, if magic could bend space to make Elise's forest a real-world lost woods, then why couldn't it make someone's house bigger on the inside?

Another demon around Azla's height—so, probably her husband—awaited them in that dining room. "Greetings," he said. He was slightly on the thinner side build-wise, had short, spiky horns rather than curly ones; his tail was thin and ended in a kind of spherical bulb; and his skin and hair were dark red rather than green. "Tezalel, at your service." He was dressed in old-school men's formal wear, and he spoke a bit more formally than his wife, with kind of a posh accent. "Dinner should be ready soon. Until then, we were hoping to entertain with some conversation. There's much catching up to be done."

"Yeah—that'd be fine. Right?" he asked Elise, who nodded. So the four of them wound up sitting, each pair across from the other, near one end of the long dining table.

"To begin with, this is Tyler," the fox-girl said, gesturing his way to introduce him once again. "He freed me from my stone prison, so I've decided to make him my Master for the time being~."

"We're more than pleased about that," Azla said. "To think we played the 'lottery' for years and came up empty..but it really only matters that someone cured you. On the other hand, I was under the impression the curse could only be lifted by a human?"
"Uh, yeah?" Tyler said, then paused. "Oh, wait—Elise transformed me after we met. The ears and tail are, uh, part of that. Does that make me...not human?"
"Not necessarily, but..I thought..." The demon woman tapped her index finger against her chin a couple of times.
"You have the aura of a Celestial," Tezalel said. "It isn't really possible for demons such as us to miss it. Perhaps Elise accidentally awakened you by way of that transformation?"

"Oh...uh. Is that, bad?" Tyler asked.
"Not at all. Intriguing, but not all that surprising. The persons who sealed her were, themselves, the descendants of Celestials," he replied.

"It would explain why I was unable to shift those fuzzy parts back to normal," Elise said. Then she reached up and gently stroked one of Tyler's ears. "I'd apologize if you didn't obviously like them~."
"Uh, w-well..."

"Still, you finally took on a Master after all," Azla continued. "Back when we first met, Shigenori said the practice was 'utterly ridiculous' and he'd 'never be caught dead with a master'! Hahah.."

"You needn't have brought that up," Elise said, folding her ears down slightly in embarrassment.

"It's, still a little weird for me," Tyler said. "A-anyway. So you've been adopting human kids, for years, just to try to unseal her?"
"Hardly that reason alone," Tezalel said. "It just seemed like something convenient to try, so long as we were already adopting."

"I take that to mean, you are still not rid of that curse?" Elise said.

"Uh, curse?"

Before the demons could answer him, their conversation was interrupted by a child's voice yelling "MOOOOOOOM!" Its owner, a little girl, ran into the room, followed by a...maybe thirteen-year-old boy, shuffling slowly in behind her. She ran straight up to Azlathoth; Tyler couldn't help but feel it extremely surreal to see a perfectly normal human child jumping up into the lap of a literal demon woman. But clearly this was 'normal' for them. Azla caught her into a hug like it was second nature.

The young girl continued her complaint: "Richard kidnapped Ken and is gonna cut his head an' all his limbs off!"

The teenage boy, who had black hair, eerie red eyes, and (even in this situation) a calm demeanor that made him seem even creepier, defended himself: "You very clearly said you 'didn't ever want to see him, ever again'. I saw no reason to let it go to waste."

"That was pretend! Barbie didn't wanna see him again! But he was gonna make it up to her with cake and diamonds and flowers!"

"Rich, dear, give Nancy her doll back. You can buy your own Ken for your art project," Azla said gently.
"Very well." He held out the doll in question (which he'd apparently been carrying) and Nancy hopped back to her feet to snatch it from him. "Perhaps Barbie can rescue him from a kidnapper."
"Hmph!" The girl just stormed off.

Richard finally seemed to notice Tyler and Elise's presence at this point. "Oh, excuse me..you had company?"

"We do indeed," Tezalel said. "This is our son Richard; Richard, this is Shigenori—now going by Elise—and Tyler."
"Shigenori?" He stared at Elise for a second, tilting his head slightly. "I was under the impression you were a man?"
"I was for a long time. But it's no trouble at all for a fox as old as I am to change every bit of my appearance," Elise said.

"I see..." His response sounded kind of neutral, but also slightly interested. After that he said, "Well, I'll get out of your way," and shuffled out of the room at about the same pace as before.

"Aah, kids," Azla said after he left, a kind of happy sigh in her voice. "They can be a handful, but they are the very best of investments."
"That's...not the word I expected you to go for," Tyler admitted. He decided it wasn't a good idea to tell them that that Richard kid seemed like kind of a weirdo—first of all because they had to know that already, and second because he couldn't think of a way to say it that wouldn't sound insulting.

"The two of us are specifically Mammon—greed demons," she explained for him. "It's hard for us to not think of most things in terms of money."

"Okaaay...so anyway, you said something about a curse?"
"Indeed. We are cursed to be unable to naturally have children," Tezalel said. Then he stood up, as if responding to some cue invisible to everyone else. "Pardon me. Dinner is prepared. I'll have it out in just a moment." And he headed off toward a doorless opening that..probably went to a kitchen or something.

"I'm astounded you've been unable to break that curse in all these years," Elise said.

"Oh, it's not that we can't, but we've chosen not to," Azlathoth said. "In the years since our wedding, we've studied curses quite extensively—hence why we were also hoping to take care of yours."

"So, I guess..someone cursed you at your wedding?" Tyler said.

"From one point of view, certainly," she said with a nod. "I should explain from the beginning: A very long time ago, before either of us were born, there was a certain megalomaniacal demon. He wanted to rule the entirety of Earth—just imagine that! When he inevitably failed, it involved some of those who'd originally supported him turning against him, and with his dying breath he cursed those 'traitors'. It was in the demons' language, but you can think of the curse as pretty much saying, 'you deprived me of what I wanted the most, so whatever it is you want the most, may you never have it'. And since it was cast with his death, it had staying power across generations. Both of us are descendants from different lines of those 'traitors'."

While she'd been speaking, Tezalel had come back with a plate of food balanced in each hand...and some kind of magical reddish glow holding up two more plates, and four cups, all floating in the air around him. He got to work setting them down one at a time, and also continued his wife's explanation: "The curse didn't appear to do anything at first; some thought it had failed entirely. But it turns out that it's simply not as well directed as he might have hoped, due to being cast by someone with the concentration of a dying man. But it's lingered in our bloodlines, and every once in a while it comes out to strike, causing some inconvenience or other for certain demons. Really, most of us demons are descendants of the traitors in some way or another by now. Azla and I made the mistake, perhaps, of declaring together that we wished to have many children, and that's when the curse struck us. It was quite a theatrical affair; some even thought it was part of the ceremony."

Azlathoth said, "The thing is, though, even a curse created by something as potent as a dying wish still only has limited 'fuel'. The more 'effort' it must expend to achieve its desired effect, the more of that 'fuel' it uses up. So, we figured, rather than forcibly breaking the curse off of us, why not instead try to use up whatever it has left by forcing it to keep working? Do the rest of demonkind a favor. And in the meantime, we can have all the kids we want by finding human children who don't have anyone else to take care of them, and adopting."

"If, one day, we do succeed in having a child who is biologically ours, then we can declare the old fool's curse finally, fully, and completely broken," Tezalel finished, sitting down next to his wife again.

"So, uh...I guess that means you're. 'Trying' to have kids pretty often, then," Tyler said.
"Indeed," Azla said with a fairly big grin. "I would dare say that the curse isn't really causing us the unhappiness it was supposed to."

"All the better for it. Now then, the first course is served."

They had some more conversation throughout the dinner—which had, as it turned out, three courses: appetizer, main dish, dessert. It was mostly casual stuff, including the Tanners trying to help Elise catch up with modern day a little bit (although she'd caught on to most things already). They listed off their children at some point: Valencia—who was running her fashion business alongside another Mammon nicknamed 'Val', which had to be confusing—her younger brother who was some kind of avant-garde artist; then a girl close to graduating high school; then Rich and Nancy, who they'd met earlier; and, finally, the (currently) youngest, Frank. They hadn't had all those kids come to this dinner to avoid overwhelming Elise and her new master—and because it'd be hard for adults to talk much with so many kids around.

The subject of jobs came up, too. Tezalel offered to find Elise some 'more gainful employment' if she wasn't satisfied with the job the Rejuvenation people had come up with for her, and made a similar offer to Tyler. When he insisted that he liked his current line of work, the two demons seemed very happy to hear it, and didn't press the subject any farther. The Kitsune said she'd keep the offer in mind, but she still wanted to at least try this job out before hopping to another one.

Eventually, the dinner was finished. They exchanged various contact information, and Azla escorted them back out the hallway and the front door. "Don't be strangers—come visit again sometime soon!" she said.
Tyler said, "Uh, sure."
"Most certainly," Elise added.

Back in the car, as they drove back home, Tyler said, "Well...they seem like a pretty happy couple."
"Indeed they are~. But is something troubling you?"
"I guess it's just, out of everyone I'd imagine having a marriage stable enough to last over half a century, demons aren't the first thing to come to mind..."

"You're thinking of lust demons, maybe—it's far more difficult for Incubi and Succubi to remain so loyal for so long, so their spouses must have quite a bit of patience and understanding. For Mammon, the mere fact that married pairs get a tax break is enough to make the idea of separating feel unpalatable. Not that that is what keeps Azla and Teza together. The two of them have been in love practically since they first met."

"Love, huh..?"

"It's a wonderful thing—or so I've heard," she said.
"Yeah. People talk about how amazing it is...I've never been sure if a feeling like that is real."

"I'd be delighted to learn that it is~."

It was...surprising, at least, for the woman who'd advanced on him so hard the past couple of days, including petting him into wolf-girl form, shifting her back into a guy so they could kiss, teaching him (her?) to dance, and plenty more petting besides...to still seem so unsure. But, it was also kind of reassuring for Tyler. Like he wasn't the only one who wasn't completely certain what he was getting himself into...

After a moment, his mind went back to a different concern. "So, uh..does being a 'Celestial' mean I have any, special powers ooorr, weaknesses, or anything?"

"Any Celestial is able to effortlessly cast 'holy' magic, which is especially effective against demons and other unnatural threats," Elise said. "And since you have the traits of a wolf, you must be more specifically an Ookami. I've never actually met one before, so I'm uncertain what abilities that entails. There are tales of Ookami being capable of incredible physical feats; making plants grow near-instantly; healing the wounded even from the point of near-death...but there is no telling which of those stories is actually true, if any."

"Okay, but uh, when you say 'effective'..."
The Kitsune nodded. "Demons such as my—shall I say 'our'?—friends back there can easily sense Celestials for the same reason prey can sense a predator. You've no need to worry about injuring them accidentally, but if we encounter any lesser demons—which are not people, are never friendly, and do not belong in this realm—that power would be a great help in getting rid of them."

"Okay, that's..good. But there's, like, no way to tell what I can or can't actually do?"

"I'm uncertain. As a fox, the powers I possess came naturally to me, or even instinctively. I suppose there must be some way to test or train one's magical abilities when they aren't so obvious. Ah—perhaps my recent employers would have some idea? They must have accidentally awakened some of those who they made young again—especially considering that the power they rely on is evidently known to be 'chaotic' and 'unpredictable'."
"Okay, cool. I guess I can, reach out some time?"

"I'd be delighted to see what my Master can do," Elise said with a sweet, winning smile.

Once they were inside the house, she followed him as far in as the living room before asking: "Say, Master—are you finished with your work for the day?"
"Huh?" He turned around to face her. "Oh, yeah, I'm pretty nearly caught up. Should be okay to take a break the rest of the night."

"Wonderful~." With that, the Kitsune hopped up at him to hug him, and he caught her into his arms more or less by reflex. There wasn't much time to think about that before she'd pushed her lips onto him for a long, passionate kiss. He paused only a couple of seconds out of surprise before joining in on it, and both of them were left somewhat breathless by the end. Then, Elise reached her arms up and gently rubbed Tyler's ears, causing a rush of tingling to spread down from them all across his body...

"R-rrfh..!" He began shrinking pretty quickly, even as he leaned in to start nuzzling her face, and began petting her ears back. "Mm~mh, aah—aa~aaAAaa~aah..!" Tyler's voice rapidly shifted higher and higher in pitch, as he shrank down more and more...Elise's weight soon left his arms as the balls of her feet landed on the floor.

His body had grown slim and soft, his voice high and cute like the first time he'd turned into a wolf-girl; at the same time, his shirt had kept on pulling itself tight against his upper body, while his pants split apart into a skirt fluttering around his upper thighs and a pair of tight leggings pulling close against some now-slender legs...not to mention his underwear shifting into a pair of tight, feminine boyshorts. It was only a couple of seconds from this point to him turning the rest of the way into a girl, letting out a soft, high "R~rrfh..!" in the process, followed quickly by a girly "Mm~mmnngh..!" as the fuzzy feelings down there started up.

Of course, Ty's chest and hips sprang to life right about then, giving her body some curves; her breasts pressed into Elise's small bust as they grew out, expanding out to just a bit bigger than they'd been her first time as a girl. All the while she was letting out some soft, cute barks and yips, while Elise quietly churred in response.

After a little bit more petting, Elise let go and gracefully pulled back a few steps—probably just far enough to get a really good look at her 'master' now. "Well? Did I surprise you?" she asked.

(old image)

"Uh, y-yeah..heheh..!" Ty felt around her body a little bit; her hair seemed to have gotten pretty messy from Elise's hands running all over it. But..this wasn't bad. They were close to the same height now, and the cute fox-girl being right across from her instead of below was a pleasant change for the moment. "N-not bad, though.."

"I'm glad if you enjoyed it~," Elise said. "Perhaps we could dance for a little while?"
"S-sure!" Being around the same height would make that easier too, probably...

---

Having a shared universe is fun. Although part of me does wonder whether anyone reading this actually finds this connection interesting. And the other "Val" is a considerably more obscure connection you might not get without a direct link to something relevant.

A Statue in the Woods 7: Reconnection

  First / Previous / Next / Last

---

A little while after they got back to the house, Elise cheerfully made dinner for both of them. It was as good as the breakfast had been, although it was certainly much more "Asian" this time...or maybe specifically "Japanese". Perhaps the Kitsune had wanted to hide her country of origin initially for some reason, but figured it didn't matter now that that was out in the open?

"What'll we do tomorrow, Master?" she asked cheerfully, once they were about midway through the meal.

"Uh..well." Ty took a second to scratch the back end of one of her ears. "I kinda need to get back to work. I mean—I originally planned on getting some work done after Ronan's whole, adventure, or else today..but that, didn't really happen. I'm not really..like, in trouble yet, or anything, but I will be if I don't get a good amount of writing done tomorrow. And—I do need that job to pay for, y'know, all those clothes we bought today—besides food, bills, taxes, and..so on."

"I see.." She didn't look particularly upset by this information, just cheerfully nodding. "Well, don't worry about me—I'm perfectly capable of entertaining myself."

Ty wondered whether the fox-girl would do more damage playing more of her video games, or going outside and finding people to 'play' with. But..that wasn't really her problem, right? "That's..good. Yeah," she said kind of lamely after thinking through all of that.

Elise leaned forward slightly, seemingly inspecting the wolf-girl's face. "Is something the matter? You seem concerned," she said.
"Uh, well—it's just." This wasn't exactly what she'd been concerned about a moment ago, but it was something that had been in the back of her mind nearly all day. "I don't, really know how to feel about this situation at this point? I mean—I don't get why you want to..stay with me? Or, just suddenly decided to take me on as a 'master' and try so hard to get me to accept it—including turning into a girl for, maybe the first time? I mean, I get that you're 'grateful' I freed you, but that was basically an accident. It just seems, kinda more like you're doing all this on a whim?"

"Ah, well. There's nothing to worry about, then," she said with a small nod. "My friend...all of life is built out of whims and accidents. A young man decides on a new hobby, and enjoys it enough to keep at it—and one day he finds it has become his lifelong passion and occupation. Two people accidentally bump into each other at a party, one spilling the other's drink—and they come to enjoy each others' company enough to become companions forever afterward. It isn't all quite so positive, of course: A whim can lead to one's death, or an accident to a crippling injury, or a generations-long blood feud. But accepting that everything in this life comes down to accumulations of such small events has allowed me to live in general contentment so far. And—I find that I like this whim and accident in front of me all the more, the longer I spend with it," she said, gesturing Ty's way with one hand. "I hope you'll forgive my impertinence in saying, I think you're enjoying it just as much?"

Ty's face felt a little red after this last part, her heartbeat picking up a little bit. "Uh...y-yeah." It was pretty surreal—in a way, Elise's speech had betrayed her age, seemingly showing off some kind of wisdom from a long life of experience..but it also, somehow, made her even more attractive than before.

As they worked to put away the dishes, Elise said, "Master, do you dance?"

"Uh—well." Ty had to think about her answer for a second. "Not—I mean, I don't really know how to do..anything I think you'd recognize as 'dancing', at least."
"Oh?" she said, tilting her head a bit to show curiosity.

"Like—a lot of 'dancing' these days is just, people kind of twitching or jerking to the beat of the music. Or—some songs just give you a list of basic moves to do, like 'step to the right' or whatever."
"Ah, like square dancing?"
"A..little bit, I think? Anyway, I definitely don't know how to do like, any real dancing."

"Well then—perhaps I could teach you a little? I was able to find recordings of some of my old favorite songs, you see..and since you were kind enough to share your games with me last night...?"
"Uh, well." The expectant expression Elise had on wasn't the usual, irresistible one; Ty felt instead like she'd be rejecting a lavish gift to say no to this one. Anyway—it couldn't hurt. "Sure, I guess?"
"Very well," she nodded, looking beautifully pleased.

A little later, they stood in the living room with the coffee table moved aside to make space. Elise set her phone down on the couch, already playing some sort of classical music. "Hmmn.." She looked the wolf-girl up and down, then suddenly grew back up to her taller, 'original' form, her clothes shifting with her to still fit. "I shall lead you through a few simple steps. Please don't be nervous, now—I'd hardly expect you to be an expert at your first try." With that, she took hold of Ty's hands, and began guiding her slowly through the dance.

"...Uh—like this?"
"Yes, just so. You're doing very well!"

It probably shouldn't have been very surprising, but for as impressively good of a learner as the Kitsune was, she was also an exceptional teacher—at least, it seemed so when it came to dance. Ty seemed to have some of the basics down (at least enough to no longer step on Elise's toes) by the end of that first song and the start of the next.

"Listen a moment, this is a waltz—groups of three. One-two-three...you hear it?"
"Yeah."

"All right. I'm certain I don't have to tell you, you've only got two feet. So don't get tripped up now—"

They spent an entire hour dancing like this, but it only felt like a few minutes. Elise seemed satisfied to stop the lesson just when Ty was physically tired enough to start making clumsy mistakes. She led the way over to the couch, gracefully picking up her phone to stop the music and then setting it down out of the way on their way down.

"Well, Master~..did you enjoy yourself?"

"Uh...hfff.." She was surprised to find herself slightly out of breath, and had to take a second to catch it before she could answer. "Yeah. Definitely. But it's way more of a workout than I expected.."
"Eheheh—I thought the same thing when I was first learning. I believe the expert's trick is, as in many things, to make it look effortless."

The fox-girl grinned mischievously for a moment, seeming to wait for something. Then, just about when Ty felt she had her breath back, Elise pounced on top of her, knocking her over onto her back on the couch. "Wha—aah!"
"Heeheehee~!" Elise giggled, pulling her arms around the wolf-girl in a close hug. After that, she lowered her ears slightly, still smiling. "Well, Master—you know by now the price of keeping a fox around."

"Oh, uh.." Ty's face flushed, her tail starting to wag and her own ears going a bit lower. "Y-yeah. Not that that's really, costly or anything..." she said, the last few words trailing off into a low, quiet mumble while she reached her hands up to start rubbing the Kitsune's ears.
"Mrrrh~.." Elise churred happily and pressed her nose into Ty's cheek. She muttered: "Feeling that way is a mark of a good Master..."

---

After a fairly early breakfast (and having Elise turn her male again), Tyler went to work. The Kitsune headed outside to..probably explore the neighborhood or something, so the house was quiet and he was able to concentrate very well for a few hours.

It was somewhere close to lunchtime when the doorbell rang. He finished writing the sentence he'd been on before getting up, a part of him hoping that it was some kind of salesperson and, further, that his delay would make them give up before he got to the door. But he opened it anyway, and the visitor was still there.

"Hiya." Tyler was faced with the sight of a woman, about average-height, fit and reasonably pretty, dressed in a combination of stylish clothes and jewelry that his vague sense of fashion gained through his friendship with Ronan informed him might actually cost more than his house. She'd said this greeting with a brisk, friendly wave, and then continued: "Is, this where Shigenori is staying?"

"Uh..I don't know anyone by that name," he said.

"But you are Ronan's friend Tyler, aren't you? Allow me an introduction—" She produced a business card seemingly from her sleeve and pushed it at him. "Valencia Hammond, maiden name Tanner. Ronan works at my company, and he—or she, I guess—posted recently about accidentally 'waking up' a fox sealed in a statue."

"Uh-huh.." Glancing at the card, she wasn't kidding about it being 'her company'. It would be accurate to describe this person as, maybe, Ronan's boss's boss's boss...or maybe five or six levels higher than that. "So..you have a special interest in that fox, then?"
"I sure do. See—my parents, Azlathoth and Tezalel Tanner, would be very happy if she'd come over for supper tonight, or whenever's convenient, to catch up."

"Could I bring one more with me, then?" This was Elise's voice, coming very unexpectedly from behind Tyler, and causing him to jump and make a slight 'aack!' sound of surprise. Turning to look, he found her to have just appeared right there, leaning in past his shoulder. Valencia also jerked slightly, betraying some surprise, but managed to maintain most of her composure.
"Oh, certainly! Plus ones welcome," she said after only a brief hesitation. "Shigenori, I presume?" She put out her hand.

"Indeed." Tyler turned himself slightly sideways to make way, and Elise moved into that space to shake the offered hand. "Although I am introducing myself as 'Elise' most recently."
"Got it."

"So uh—you know this..Azla...whatever?" Tyler asked the fox-girl.

She nodded. "A couple of demons, good friends of mine from back...what must have been long ago, now. I attended their wedding, but they had no children before I was sealed."

"Yeah—me and my siblings are all adopted," Valencia said. "And we have this weird family tradition of going off to a forest on the tenth birthday to go poke some statue in a forest somewhere. Guess we'll have to come up with something else to do now though, huh?"

"I see..are we busy tonight, Master~?" Elise asked.
"Uh, I guess not. So—where, exactly..?" He trailed off, seeing that Valencia had already produced another card seemingly from her sleeve and was offering it to him. This one had a phone number and address handwritten onto it.

"Only like a half-hour's drive from here," she added. "Shall I tell them, around six PM maybe?"

"Uh..sure."

Once Valencia was gone, he shut the door. "So...'Shigenori', huh?"
The Kitsune shrugged. "A fairly common name, where I was born—but also a masculine one. I chose 'Elise' after the title of a song I'm fond of."

"Got it," he nodded. "And, how long were you here but invisible?"

Elise grinned. "Not more than half an hour; I thought it best to not disturb your work. Are you hungry for lunch, Master?"

---

"So, like...did you have any idea your company was owned by the adoptive child of two literal demons?"

"No way! That's awesome!" Rona said, over the phone. "I'm kinda jealous, too..."

"Do you really want to hang around the person who could decide to fire you if she just felt like it? Let alone her whole family?"

"Eergh, okay, maybe not, if you put it like that. Then, like, you better not make a bad impression either!"

"I'm sure we'll be fine...I mean, unless Elise goes out of her way to antagonize them or something."

The fox-girl gave Tyler a look like, I'd never do such a thing! But he figured that came with the disclaimer: '...If it wasn't funny enough.'

The doorbell rang. "..Hang on, I've gotta get the door again." Tyler stood up, setting his phone down. "I mean—unless you want to." Elise just shrugged, so he headed that way.

A fairly familiar face was waiting...that of the cashier from the day before. She was wearing an oversized shirt rather than the dress, but the face and hair were exactly the same. "Er, hello there," she said a bit nervously. "I don't suppose you've got a..sister or such? Someone with the same hair color? Or, know a redheaded young woman with, er.."
"Fox ears? Yeah." Tyler turned half-around. "Eli—oh." The Kitsune had already come up to just barely behind him, and had also shifted herself back to the smaller form so the cashier could more easily recognize her. "This is who you meant?"
"Yes," she said.

"It's just that, err..how do I put this?" It had to be a little more awkward to explain this to Tyler, who as far as she knew 'hadn't been there', but she pressed on: "'Fore yesterday, I was an old man, and all of a sudden I'm looking like this? And after reviewin' some security footage and thinking about the evidence, it seems like you" (she was saying this to Elise) "or one of your two friends who were there must've been responsible? 'Specially since you said somethin' about a reward..."
"How ever did you find this house?" the fox-girl asked, and Tyler immediately realized that he probably should've had the same question.

"Well, that's eh—let's say, the store's owner was keen to help me out once I explained the unusual situation and all..."
"Surely nothing illegal was involved, was it?" Elise continued in a kind of innocent tone of voice..but Tyler could tell she was just teasing her.

"Errm."

"Uh, that aside," Tyler said quickly. "If that did happen, you...want to be turned back or something?"
"Well. Er. N-not necessarily. That is, I'm awful grateful to get to be young again, it's just that this has made things awful strange with my wife..."
Those last two words made Tyler's ears jump upright. From what the old man had said that day, he'd assumed he was single, or at least a widower..but apparently not. So that did make things really awkward, when neither of them was, say, a magical Kitsune with the power to shift them back and forth at will.

"Okay, yeah," he nodded after that, and turned toward the fox-girl. "Elise."
"Yyyes?" she said with a winning smile.
"As your 'Master', I'd like you to fix this. Do what you need to to make her and the wife actually happy with the results. You wanted to reward him yesterday, not punish him, right?"
"True enough. All right then~," she said, looking very pleased. Maybe just at him claiming or using the title of 'Master' himself for once. "Could you bring me to meet with this wife of yours, perhaps~?" she suggested, moving past Tyler to speak to the short, young girl.

"I, suppose so," she said, seeming fairly surprised by how quickly the decision to 'fix' things for her had been made.

After they left and Tyler shut the door, he took a deep breath and let it out. This would probably take at least an hour, so...he could get the rest of his work done undisturbed. Once he finished talking with Rona on the phone, at least.

Elise showed up again with still an hour to go before they'd need to leave and meet her demon friends. She didn't really seem to need a key, or even to open the door apparently—she simply walked into Tyler's office-slash-bedroom and said, "I'm back, Master~!"
"Uh, great. So, you fixed things? Everyone's happy?"
"They are indeed! That young woman's husband couldn't be more pleased," she said with a big grin. For her to put it that way...well, Tyler could've guessed she'd offer to solve the problem like that. But, as long as they were happy with it...

A Statue in the Woods 6: Decoration

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It was like Ronan had been studying her entire life for this particular shopping trip. She had a store (which catered exclusively to women) picked out before Ty even had time to start her car, and apparently the place had special considerations for people with tails—something the wolf-girl hadn't even realized might be an issue. She offered to measure their chests, but Elise rebuffed this by noting 'they might not remain the same' and that she could just 'make the bras fit' anyway. The catgirl shrugged and went to have a professional measure her.

With undergarments out of the way, Elise didn't seem to have much trouble picking things out (both for herself and Ty), and Ronan threw in some of her own suggestions while excitedly dashing around seemingly the entire store to find outfits for all three of them. Ty had to have help figuring out how to put some things on, which Ronan seemed to be already an expert on.

With each outfit, Ronan just had her (or Elise) come out and do a turn-around in it, asked for an opinion, and gave feedback on what she thought and, especially, how well it fit. It took disturbingly little time for her to seemingly catch on to Ty's desire to dress more, say, 'tomboyishly', and Elise wanting much frillier, girlier things for both of them. As a result, it wasn't long before Ronan was picking out exclusively things that either Ty found she liked herself, or that she couldn't say no to on seeing Elise's reaction to her wearing them. She was basically just stuck in the changing-room area trying one thing on after another, always getting a few more added to the pile just as she came to the last of its previous contents.

Honestly, it was kind of convenient this way. Ty didn't know what she was looking for in the first place, much less where to look or how to be sure things would fit. Ronan seemed to intuit everyone's exact sizes before very long, and..she really was good at picking things out the two of them liked, by all appearances. How in the world the blond catgirl found time to try on her picks for her own outfits in between everything else was a complete mystery, but by the time Ty was getting exhausted of trying things on, and even Elise seemed just about done with this errand, Ronan had a bundle of clothes about as big as both of theirs combined.

This was going to be...somewhat of an expense, but Ty could still afford it without too many worries. However, depending on how generous her pay was, Elise seemed likely to need two or three months' worth to pay it back...if she didn't 'conveniently forget' she was supposed to be doing that or something. But then, it wasn't like Ty was going to charge her any interest.

Ty changed back into her original outfit to leave—being the kind of person who really wanted all the labels removed and the clothes fully washed before wearing them around. The other two had no such compunctions, and the fox-girl came to the checkout counter wearing a white-and-red sundress, while Ronan went with a short-skirt-camisole combo. There weren't very many people in the store to begin with, so the line to check out was conveniently near-empty. A fairly old-looking man, maybe in his sixties given his balding, grayed-out hair, checked them out—taking care of Ronan first, then the rest.

While he was scanning that second batch of items, Ronan was squinting at her receipt for some reason. "What, something more expensive than you thought?" Ty asked.
"Uh, nah. Actually, it's less..Hey, what's this 'percent-sign-EMP' thing?"

"Oh, pardon me for not explaining," the cashier said. "Since you young ladies have brought us so much business, I went on and applied my employee discount to your purchases. Ten percent off."
"Oh, sweet!" Ronan grinned big.
"That is terribly kind of you," Elise said. "You ought to be rewarded for such ample generosity."
"Awh, it's no big deal," he said. "Old feller like me doesn't get much of a chance to use it here anyhow."

Ty already had a fairly good read on the Kitsune's sense of humor. So, when she saw Elise grinning at this remark, she had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen next. Ronan was hardly paying attention to the conversation beyond 'ten percent off', and was at this point running off a short distance toward the entrance to take some selfies in her new outfit. Looking at the old man as he kept scanning outfits and sort of hummed to himself, Ty caught sight of a faint red glow outlining his body. Then she looked at the fox-girl. "Elise.."
"Ssshh." She gently placed her index finger on the wolf-girl's lips, which—besides making her hear skip a beat and her cheeks heat up a bit—made it feel like she was somehow complicit in this whole thing, and so had to stay quiet and not spoil the surprise. So Ty just turned to watch.

The first sign of something happening—other than that faint glow, which had already disappeared by now—was the old cashier's hair. Its color darkened as it spread up into the bald area, the gray shifting back into a deep brown as he soon regained a full head of hair. He seemingly failed to notice this happening, beyond reaching a hand up to scratch at the top of his head while he continued working with the other one. His hair continued to grow, fairly slowly but still visibly, while another shift started. The wrinkles and knots of his face started to tighten up and fade off bit by bit, and his beard and mustache started to shorten and thin. When he hummed to himself a little more, the age seemed to be disappearing from his voice too, leaving it sounding a bit higher and brighter.

His complexion softened, his face growing fully smooth, at about the same time as his hair trailed out to halfway down his cheeks. He now looked not a day over thirty, maybe less, as he paused to scratch his head once again—still seeming to not notice anything strange. This began the next phase of the change, as he started shrinking. "Hmm~ hmm hmm~m.." The pitch of his humming lilted even higher as his shirt steadily fell looser across his narrowing shoulders, and his pants began threatening to slip right off of his waist and hips. Soon his face's shape had rounded off a bit, completing its very feminine new look alongside the soft locks framing it on either side. "Hmm~ hmm~ hmm~mm..." His shrinking accelerated, and so too did the growth of his hair, and all the while he kept humming in an ever higher, softer, cuter voice. Before long, he was nearly as short as Elise, and just as slender, with hair down to his waist in the back.

At this point, the formerly-old man's shirt began to shrink tighter around his slim frame, its hem fluttering out and gaining some frills as it converted into a thigh-length dress. His pants gave up entirely, slipping off of his hips, but then suddenly split apart at the thighs and pulled close against them as a pair of stockings. He shuffled the last item over into its bag before looking up, seeming to jump slightly in surprise and confusion at what must have seemed a very sudden shift in perspective for him. "Uh, s-say..?" he started, and then seemed to notice the high pitch of his voice for the first time. "Erm.." His cheeks were starting to redden, and Ty had a guess that he was rapidly approaching a change of sex. "Do I, er..that is, is somethin' kinda odd..? Mmm~n.." His legs fidgeted back and forth against each other, his blush deepening.
"What ever do you mean?" Elise asked. "You seem like a normal enough young woman to me."
"Y-young woman? But I...I..." He trailed off. "Mm~nnngh..!" His hair went through a sudden spurt of growth at this point, becoming long enough for the tips of the locks to reach past the dress's skirt and touch the backs of his legs. "Aah, aa~aah...?! O-oo~oh.." This last, fairly quiet utterance came with a slight jerking of the cashier's body, an immediate further brightening of the cheeks...and was almost certainly the point at which he turned fully into a girl.

"A-ah..mm~nngh..!" She squirmed her legs back and forth a little more as curves began to come to her. The dress's skirt fluttered out, visibly widening a little in response to the growth of her hips, and at the top it was quite tight enough to show a pair of bumps steadily raising themselves up from her chest. "O-oo~h..m-my goodness...mngh...!" Her blush didn't get any better as the tiny bumps began blooming outward, forcing the top of the dress to grow a bit of space for them. "Aa~aah...hff, ffh.." It didn't take very long for them to grow to a moderate size—a perfect fit for her petite height. "A-ah..um..."

(old image)

"Are you quite all right?" Elise asked at this point. "You seem somewhat distracted, but..our items have been..'scanned', yes?" she continued, the word 'scanned' sounding like it was still a little foreign to her.

"Uh—um. Yes. Tha~at's, uh," she stammered a little nervously, clearly trying with no success to make her voice sound at all 'normal'. "That's everything, ma'am. The total's right there on the screen," she said, pointing at the screen—and seeming to use a very familiar habit of her job to recover a little bit of composure.

"Uh, thanks," Ty said, going and taking care of the payment.

"Are you...are you quite sure nothin' unusual just happened?" she asked. Ty felt like the word 'unusual' was going to lose a lot of its meaning for her pretty soon.

"How do you mean?" the Kitsune asked, almost audibly grinning from ear to ear.
"W-well, I coulda sworn just a minute ago, I was..a little older?" she tried cautiously. "M-maybe not quite so..short?"
"I'd say you've been just as young and cute as you are now ever since we first got here," Elise said. Considering that she was over a century-and-a-half old, even not counting her time as a statue, Ty could see how one might interpret that as a true statement. "Thank you again for the discount~."
"Err, certainly. Anytime," the cashier girl nodded, her face wearing a slight blush still alongside an expression of near-total confusion.

"My, in that case, we may have to come here again," the fox-girl said.
"Uh, c'mon—we're done paying," Ty said, feeling like she couldn't keep this up much longer without saying something. Seeming to sense this—or maybe just deferring to her so-called 'master'—Elise nodded and followed her out.

Ronan finally looked in their general direction as they came up to her, Ty gesturing to follow. "Heeyy, where'd that cutie come from? The nice old dude have some trouble or somethin'?"
Ty just sighed. "I'll, tell you in the car, okay?"
"Okaaay..?"

After Ty told her what happened, Ronan's response was..fairly predictable. "Duuude! That's a heck of a way to thank someone for a discount!"

"I just thought it'd be entertaining," Elise said. "I used some illusions to hide it from him as long as possible so he wouldn't panic until it was too late~. After a certain point, there is no not noticing such a drastic change."
"Are you sure it's okay to just, like, leave her like that?" Ty asked.

"I'm certain she'll work it out. After all, she's quite mature and experienced for her age...which should be around nineteen or twenty now, I believe," Elise said with her usual bright, teasing grin. "Our world now has people whose job it is to make the old young again, so I'm hardly disrupting society by getting a little bit ahead of them, now am I?"

"I mean—we might get in trouble or something," the wolf-girl said. "I'm not sure if it's a crime to transform someone against their will, but it...sounds like something that probably should be?"
"A crime is only a crime if one is caught," Elise said.
"Uh. Okay, do me a huge favor, and don't test that theory," Ty said.

"As you wish, master~.

"By the way—would you like to use a new name?" Elise asked the catgirl, suddenly changing the subject. "While female, I mean. Since you were kind enough to grant my master one~."
"Uh, I dunno. I guess it wouldn't hurt, huh? Something liiiike...'Rona'?"

"I think that fits you quite well," Elise said.

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Sometimes I think that the reason a lot of transformation stories feature the "whole reality changes, nobody remembers how it was before" angle is due to the author being inexperienced and/or lazy, and so not wanting to deal with the fallout--nor even to let the reader imagine it. But I think dealing with the consequences is part of the fun. This story has us tethered to the main character's perspective, so we get shuffled away from this person quite quickly. But her life has kind of been turned upside-down all the same! And whether or not this will have further repurcussions for the "main characters" remains to be seen.