A Summoning, Part XXX

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Part XXX
~Moon~

A gigantic, black-furred cat wandered into the garden. It had the shape of a domestic cat, perhaps, but at a size any wildcat would envy or fear; it had a broad-collar necklace around its neck with a golden winged-scarab charm hanging from it and earrings in its ears, all of which tended to faintly jingle from time to time—the only sound the cat's movement ever seemed to make. Its eyes were bright yellow, slitted, and glowed in the moonlight. Rather than one slim, black tail coming out from its back, there were two identical ones. It stalked its way to the center before moving onto its hind legs, changing in an instant to a slightly more humanoid form with faint feminine curves, standing before the garden's owner.

"Welcome, welcome..." The owner was a woman of about average stature—well, what would be average for a man, anyway—with moderate curves and extremely long, flowing, bright silver hair, sitting on a sleeping wolf slightly larger than average with fur cast in that same color. "I'm so glad you could come~," she said, smiling brightly.
The cat hissed. "You know full well that I cannot refuse your invitation. If you only wish me to do you another 'small favor', I owe more than enough for you to simply order it from afar again."

"True, but I always miss seeing your pretty muzzle~. The fox is never so reluctant to visit." As she spoke, the giant cat licked at one of her forepaws and then used it to brush at the fur on her ears and the top of her head, making her host wait until she was done before she would respond.

"That fox, is obligated to beg favor from everyone, always," she said. "She allows you to pet her only to stay in your good graces, La Lune."

"If you'd experienced it for yourself, you'd know otherwise," La Lune argued. "Not that she can't hope to achieve more than one thing at the same time—but I of all people should know whether a canine's enjoying herself or not."

The cat growled, but said, "Fair enough. Immaterial anyway.

"Now, I am eager to get this over with."
"And back to your nap?" La Lune teased lightly, and got back another hiss in reply.
"Who is it tonight?"

"How are you so certain that's what I want in the first place?"
"Isn't it," the black cat asked in a flat tone that communicated her rapid loss of patience with the moon goddess.

"Perhaps I'd rather pick your kitty brain about the newcomer."
"I have already expressed my opinion." A hint of a roar rumbled in her throat. "She is young, irresponsible, and dangerous."

"That's what you said about the latest fox, too, when she got promoted to Ruler."
"And who took this new one's side first?"

"Only because I was too slow to speak."
"Have you been watching her actions lately?"
"Every minute I can~."
"...I suppose I know you too well to think you care how much trouble her very existence is bringing to your brother."

"Oh? And how well do you know him, exactly?

"Anyway, you're one to talk of being irresponsible, Basty. With all the kittens you have wandering the Earth?"
Bastet finally roared with anger at this one, taking an aggressive step forward, drawing out the claws in her right forepaw and taking a stance like she was ready to pounce—and not in a friendly way. "That is an irrefutable part of my nature, and you know it!"

"Pffheheh—easy, girl. I just wanted to hear you really roar for once," La Lune said, "like you so often did when you were young."
"Do you even remember when I was young?" Bastet retracted the claws and relaxed her stance some, but retained a posture of open hostility. "I certainly do not. You may get to be young every new moon, wolf, but not the rest of us."

"You certainly haven't always been as much of a codger as you're acting now. And if you really do wish to know what it's like to be a kitten, I think our new arrival could help you out with that someday."

"...Ask something of me, La Lune," Bastet spat. "I won't even count it in the ledger. I'll do it just for the privilege of being allowed to leave, and be left alone by you for a day or two afterward."
"Come now, that would be unfair of me," the moon goddess said. "But since you're so eager to pay the debt off, I do have one little thing I was thinking of doing tonight..."

---

Onida went to bed confused. Happy, yes—but still very, very confused. The world of magic was still very new, strange, and foreign to her, and the idea of keeping not one, but two werewolves in her home, was still absolutely surreal. That wolfish instinct that had expressed itself in Damon as she threatened casually to rip out the throat of anyone who threatened them—that was in both of the short, cute girls who acted more like puppies than humans sometimes. And both of them seemingly thought of her as leading their 'pack'? What did that even mean!? How could a human lead a pack of werewolves in the first place?

And then there was the lingering memory of Sam's soft body holding close against hers, the feeling of her fur between her fingers. It was...very strange, no single part of it resembling what she might have imagined enjoying this way. The fact that Sam could be male, and...that male form was pretty attractive too, crossed her mind. But there was a problem with that also. A human and a werewolf probably couldn't be together—at least not for very long, before the human stopped being human. Lycanthropy could at least be caught by a bite, accidental or not; all it might take would be Sam affectionately nibbling on her ear and putting in a little too much pressure. Or, maybe it even spread through kisses, or..other things! She just didn't know. And asking seemed...inappropriate.

Maybe it wasn't necessary to figure any of this out right now, but...Onida had always been an instinctively responsible person. Not thinking about how her actions now might cause consequences for the future was simply against her nature. If Sam wanted to go get all the rest of his..of her stuff, and move in for good...she would feel happy about that. But it was hard to imagine how things could go from there without some very difficult problems cropping up.

Onida knew how much her brother had suffered from turning into a werewolf for the first time. She knew how she had suffered from him going missing, and from seeing her like that, all throughout the week: Still damaged, and in pain sometimes, visibly feeling like she was last with so many memories gone. Putting herself through an experience like that was unimagineable, and that Damon would inevitably suffer because of it too pushed it into 'never ever' territory. If she had to be a werewolf to stay with Sam...having either of them bite her at some point was just out of the question, far too risky. If she had to push Sam away to keep herself, and Damon, and maybe even Sam herself safe, then she would ultimately do it with very little hesitation. But...it wasn't necessary to do that right now. Maybe Sam would move on on her own and find someone else, or maybe things would work out some other way. Maybe...

She fell asleep with a lot of half-reassuring "maybe" still in her head.

It was where she woke up—or at least initially thought she woke up—that was really confusing. One moment, Onida was lying back in her bed with thoughts spinning through her tired mind, and the next thing she knew her eyes opened to stare up at a starry, moonless sky, her back lying on soft grass and cool earth beneath her. "Uh...what..?" She slowly sat up and looked around, blinking. In every direction there stretched an impossibly gigantic garden. The sight was positively surreal—if beautiful. It seemed to be bathed in unusually bright, silver moonlight, despite the seeming lack of a moon overhead...

Her head eventually turned behind her, just for a second in the process of scanning around, and then a second or two later she did a double-take. "W-wah!" There was a huge...something there, standing almost close enough to have easily stepped on her head when she was lying down a moment ago, and realizing it was there immediately startled her and triggered her fight-or-flight instinct, causing her to twist around and crawl backwards a number of steps before falling back onto her butt on the ground looking up at it. At...her?

It looked like a werewolf: Female, covered in bright silver fur with hair in the same color falling out in a gigantic cape behind her, green eyes glowing in the moonlight. It looked like a werewolf, but Onida's senses seemed to insist that that description was inadequate, something instinctive in her immediately telling her to be terrified of the furry woman standing over her as if this entire situation wasn't already enough to warrant that!

"Hmhm, sorry..I didn't mean to startle you," the...whatever said, squatting and placing her hands (forepaws?) on her knees. "Well—not quite so much, at least. Want to stand?" she offered mildly, holding out one of those forepaws just into Onida's reach. She took it and let herself be pulled up, largely out of that same instinct suggesting that it would be a terrible idea to..disrespect?...this particular being. Now on her feet, Onida found her eye level almost matched the big, furry woman's chest, which sported a fairly impressive, entirely unbound bosom—uncovered too, if one didn't count the thick fur.

"Uh, w-where..what...how?"
"Excuse me. This is a dream, first of all. You're dreaming, with your actual body still right where you left it," she said. "It's rather difficult most of the time to ask a mortal for permission to enter their dreams, but they do usually find that realization reassuring, I think?" It sounded like she was consulting someone else with this question, even though nobody else appeared to be present.

"Um..okaaay..?" Onida looked down to find herself dressed the same as when she'd gone to bed, and lightly brushed off what seemed to be some very real dirt on her clothes and hair. "Wait, did you say 'mortal'?"
"I did! Glad you picked up on that," the wolfish being said with what had to be a smile.

"And you really mean to imply that you're not."
"Right again."

"...Awwh, I won't keep you in the dark any longer. Allow me to introduce myself," she said, placing a hand on her chest. "La Lune, moon goddess. And you're Onida, right?"
"Uh..r-right." Even though someone showing up in her dreams and claiming to be a literal deity was absurd and ridiculous, Onida instantly felt that she was telling the truth. The terror she'd initially felt from this being seemed to make more sense the instant she heard the word 'goddess' come out of her mouth. "And y-you uh..what do you..why am I here, then?"
"I've taken an interest in your family lately," she said with a smile that exposed more razor-sharp teeth than one ever wanted to see alongside a declaration of 'interest'. "I'm impressed with you, and I wish to offer you a blessing...perhaps. But I have a question first."

"A—uhm.." Onida stumbled over her words for a moment more before working to gather herself up and speak coherently for once, against all of the surreality and intimidation she was feeling right now. "Excuse me, but I really don't know the proper etiquette for this kind of..encounter. I mean, I wasn't aware you existed in any sense last week, and if you're real, as in an actual person instead of some kind of worshippable abstraction, then right now is my first time learning that."

"'Worshippable abstraction'. How do you like that?" La Lune said, turning her head to one side in a way that made it obvious she was not asking Onida this question. "Hmhm. Well, I don't have any unreasonable expectations anyway. Honesty is all I really care about," she then faced forward to say.

"That's...good, I guess. So you, have a question for me?"
"Yes," the moon goddess nodded, and then asked it.

"How would you like to be a werewolf?"

"I...a werewolf? Like my brother? Like Sam?"
"A werewolf like you," La Lune said insistently, reaching a forepaw toward Onida to gently poke a spot in the upper center of her chest with the tip of a claw. "But, I know what you mean—yes. The same 'kind' of person in general. But no two are really exactly the same."

The doubts Onida had been thinking through before falling asleep flooded back in. "It's...there are..."
"You have good reason to be concerned," the giant wolf-woman said patiently. "There is always a risk to having a wild side. But, supposing that you didn't have to do it in the normal, painful way, and had a guarantee of at least retaining your sanity and sense of self in the process?"
"No trying eat people, or amnesia, or anything like that," Onida half-asked, and La Lune nodded.

"Right."

"I..it would make living with two of them easier, I suppose. Is that your 'offer', too?"
"You're sharp," La Lune nodded, "it is—or some of it, anyway. As the one in charge of werewolves, I can 'make them' relatively painlessly. But more than that, I can 'bless' any of my people in a physical sense, granting an especially strong form of the advantages that come with simply being a werewolf. As someone who's managed to become an alpha while human, and with the leadership qualities you possess, I believe you're more than worthy of that."

"And I could...I wouldn't have to worry about..." Onida was thinking half-aloud, too overwhelmed by the situation to really worry about the fact that she could be heard. The rest of the 'blessing' was somewhat immaterial to her—it might mean something later, but the main thing on her mind was the opportunity to become a werewolf in a way that eliminated rather than invoked all the risk that came with living with two of them. In a way that made the idea of being with Sam longer-term even possible for her.

"Do you have an answer to my question?" La Lune asked after she was quiet for a long moment. "Not that there is any real rush if you need time to think—this being a dream and all, time is somewhat subjective."

"I—yes."
"You have an answer?"
"I mean, I, would like..with those qualifications at least. I feel like my becoming a werewolf in a way that doesn't, hurt me, or anyone else—with minimal risk. If anything, it'd be a relief," she said.

"Some people would expect a predator to be disappointed in so much caution," La Lune said, "but I couldn't be more proud, myself: You're thinking of your pack, after all. Then I will bless you, if you are willing. It will hurt once, briefly, and not afterward."

"That's what you mean by 'relatively painless', huh. Well—okay. I'm willing," Onida nodded.

La Lune gave her the biggest, most worryingly sharp-toothed smile for this. "Very well. Please don't be too alarmed, now."

"About wha—aah!" In what seemed like an instant, the wolf goddess had suddenly closed the distance between them and picked Onida up in her arms. She was very strong, but held her gently enough for it not to be painful; the more concerning detail after the startle reflex wore off was that it pressed their chests together—Onida not having worn a bra to bed, and La Lune obviously not wearing anything up there at all. "Uh...o-okay..?" She flushed some from this sensation, if not also the embarrassing position; La Lune was busy slowly leaning her muzzle over toward the left side of human girl's head. In a second, she could feel warm breath across her ear, slow exhalations with enough force to waft her hair aside. Once...twice...

"AAGH!" The wolflike jaw closed on the upper part of her left ear, the razor-sharp claws burying themselves deeply and painfully right through the skin and cartilage. Then that entire section was torn roughly and abruptly off, making Onida gasp and tears come out of her eyes from the sudden shock.

The injury had not impaired that ear's ability to hear, and it picked up a soft "pfft" sound from the moon goddess's muzzle—the sound of someone quickly spitting something out.

"Aah, oow, oowwwh..!" It somehow hurt less for the piece of her ear to be torn off than the initial bite, but its removal was followed by a steadily increasing wave of pain, the feeling of some blood coming down, that made her pant and tear up all the worse. One of La Lune's forepaws came up to the injured ear and waved just above it, brushing though some hair in the process, and suddenly the pain was simply gone. The broken ear hadn't been repaired, and it wasn't numb—it just suddenly felt like it had been that way for a long enough time to fully heal and so, no longer count as an injury.

"Ahhhh...hffh...hffh..." This didn't stop the shock from continuing to affect her for a moment, the tears finally rolling down Onida's cheeks and her heart still racing as she slowly panted. She shuddered once, and then again, her arms automatically closing around the moon goddess still holding onto her in what seemed to be intended as a reassuring manner. She could feel without words, physically somehow, a message that the painful part was over, and the rest was going to be much better.

"Hffh...mmngh.." Onida felt her ears tingling, and it spread out across her scalp, seemingly causing her hair to start growing longer, falling out across her back and past La Lune's arms around her waist. "Agh, rrrrgh..." The ears felt like they were starting to stretch, like they were miniature limbs of some sort that had been stiff for far too long. They grew larger while soft hairs steadily pushed out and thickened across them—making them increasingly sensitive to their own motion up across and through her hair. "Rraah, aahh..aagghh..!" Onida felt compelled to open her mouth and move her jaw around, and when she did there was some notable rearrangement in there, her tongue growing longer and her teeth gaining long, sharp fangs. "Rr, rraahhf..!" This was followed by a soft but distinctive sound from her own mouth, a reflexive response to the feeling of her ears pushing and unfolding to their full size: A canine bark.

"Ah..arrfh..rruhf..!" The next thing to come was a sharp push from the base of Onida's spine. As a new appendage stretched itself out, swishing back and forth as its entire length sharply tingled from the steady growth of fur, the thought that came to her about it was 'my tail'. My tail, particularly, as though it had always been hers and had somehow been simply missing before now. The idea that she was more than human—that she was a wolf, and the ears and tail and fangs were all quite natural, seemed to take root in her mind and grow into an absolute certainty by the time the tail had completed its growth into a big, long, thick line of soft fluff, drawing another high "Aahhrrfh~!" from her mouth.

There was only the briefest of pauses before Onida realized—felt—that there was more. From the woman, the wolf, the moon still holding on to her, she could feel something pouring into her body..a sense of light, and wildness, and strength which made her feel simultaneously manically, happily excited and worryingly panicked all at the same time. It began to manifest on her body as wave of more tingles, this time across the entire surface of her skin, and an even more violent shudder than before. "Aaaahh..!"

This was..because Onida was a werewolf, of course. Excited, almost impatient anticipation rose through her as the tingling brought with it a growth of fur, soft hairs coming out from nearly every inch of her skin. Along with the fur growth, she began to squirm around as her body started stretching itself taller, her muscles undergoing one wave after another of tensing that each seemed to burn more strength into them. "Rrgh, aah-rfh..rruhf..arfh, rrfh..!" Her voice, caught between human cries and canine barks and growls, audibly deepened as she grew and shifted. The moon—the whole moon—was holding onto her, and it was its light pouring into her to change her like this.

"Rr, rufh..aah, arrh, arrfh..!" Onida's face began to push and stretch forward, while her feet stretched out into tall, canine hindpaws. Besides gaining muscle tone from her increasing strength, her transformation also came with an increasingly noticeable enhancement of her body's more feminine qualities: Her hips widened, and her chest puffed forward to squish a little bit tighter against the moon goddess's impressive assets. "Rrrrrh...rrfh, rrRRUFH..!" Soon she could feel her hindpaws touching the ground, her voice pulling into a low alto range as all of the growth slowed to a halt. Her hands shifted too, growing pawpads and claws, as her face gave one last push forward into a long, canine muzzle. "Aah, rrfh, rrufh, AWROOOOOooooooo~!" The last pulse of change came with an irresistible urge to howl, and giving in to that urge felt indescribably good.

Onida panted heavily and rapidly, frequent enough to qualify as hyperventilation for a human, as La Lune gently disengaged her from the embrace and took a couple of steps back. As promised, this transformation had not only not been painful, but almost indescribably pleasant. Being tall, and strong, felt good; the change itself had felt amazing. Growing deeper curves...was...unexpected, but not unpleasant anyway. She slowly opened her eyes and turned her head downward, feeling a slight bit of confusion at the muzzle in the center of her eyesight at first—but it was at the same time a natural-feeling sight, giving her the strange impression that she'd be used to it pretty soon. The more notable thing she could see looking down, besides a well-toned, strong, tall body with a curvy build, was the bright silver fur covering her entire form, and the much-lengthened hair (whose tips tickled the back of her waist after all the height gain) which was now the very same color.

"Rrfh...uh..." Oh, wait—no, the most notable thing was that Onida's clothes had vanished! She felt the sides of her muzzle warm with a blush as hot and deep as any cheeks could feel as she looked up again. "Wh-why am I naked?!" was the first thing she asked, quickly crossing her arms over herself.

"What you were wearing before wouldn't exactly fit that form," the goddess said with a shrug. "Anyway, there's nothing to be embarrassed about. Fur covers quite well, and you're in good company as far as lacking clothing," she said, gesturing toward herself.
"Uh...f-fine, I guess..." She loosened up a little, but kept one arm over her chest anyway and didn't stop blushing.

"Apart from that, how do you feel?"
"I..I admit I feel good." Onida couldn't help hesitating every time she heard her voice as it was now. It sounded particularly deep and mature, and...kind of intrinsically sexy, in a way she wasn't used to at all. "I never thought of 'strong' as something I wanted to feel, I-I suppose, but, now that it's there I know I'd really miss it."

"That's wonderful," La Lune said, sweeping closer and running her forepaw down through Onida's hair. She felt certain she couldn't prevent the goddess from doing this, but—it also felt good to such an extent that she didn't really want to put up much resistance anyway. "Now, my blessing for you has one other facet, which you should be able to discover once you awaken. It's something unique that I could hardly have managed on my own, but I truly hope you'll enjoy it. As well as the rest...have fun being an alpha," she said with a grin.

The sight of it all blurred away in an instant, and then Onida slowly came to, lying in her own bed once more. She still felt very different from how she had before falling asleep, however: Her body was still very tall—enough for the hindpaws to hang out from the end of the bed—and strong, and curvy, with a long, thick tail coming from behind her to fall along the side of the bed and have its tip lightly touch the floor. As she slowly opened her eyes and blinked them in the morning sunlight a couple of times, the new werewolf realized that the covers—and her clothes—were actually gone, and she quickly sat up with another blush on her muzzle to look around and try to figure out what had happened to them.

The good news was that she seemed to have thrown the covers off in some moment of mid-sleep excitement, possibly during the whole transformation thing. It had been some particularly violent throwing at that, landing the sheets on the floor by one far wall and having the comforter drape itself over her dresser. The bad news was that her clothes had been shredded and torn—by growth, by claws, and by who knew what else—into many pieces of tattered cloth scattered all around her nearby. Well..at least there wasn't anyone around right now to see her like this, she thought, pulling around and standing up out of bed to briefly stretch.

Her forepaws almost made it to the ceiling like this, Onida realized. This body just wasn't made for being indoors, in civilization—it was a wolf's body, after all, at least to a great enough extent that it felt uncomfortable and cramped in a space so small and civilized. She had another form for being 'human', after all, which she could return to at-will now that the full moon wasn't literally holding on to her or staring her in the face...but, there was also something else.

"Hmmh..what..?" Onida decided first to try this other thing—a sensation similar to, yet off to the side of, the instinctive knowledge she had on how to change her form between wolfish and humanlike. "Ah! O-ooh..!" The slightest twitch of it had her body stretching up a little bit taller still and rapidly reshaping: Her large breasts began to pull smaller and smaller, and her curves softened and flattened. "Mnh, mm~m, mmMMh...!" Her voice shifted, remaining about at the same pitch yet sounding...different, as a very strange feeling came through the pit of her stomach—something shifting around and pulling in before making its way downward.

"Ah—aagghh..!" No sooner had the new werewolf's curves vanished away than..that pushed out between her legs. Between his legs. "O-oh..mmnh..." a deep, bass tone came out as Onida looked down with the hottest blush yet on his muzzle, finding a very tall, somewhat lean, and extremely muscular man's body down there. The complete lack of clothing made this all the more undeniable—he now had the, 'equipment', to be counted as a hundred-percent male, too. It felt...strangely, kind of nice in a way..and his mind almost immediately turned to thinking about how cute Sam was—girl Sam in particular—which excited the unfamiliar thing down there and made his tail wag and his heart race a little bit.

"Oh, th-that's..uhhh. Umh, nnnoooo-nonono.." Onida quickly shook his head, dispelling the thought. This seemed to be the 'extra facet' to the blessing—being male?! Or...being able to be male, rather—he could feel the same ability he'd just used was still there, ready and waiting, to turn him back. Wanting to dispel...those thoughts and end the strange physical feeling they came with as soon as possible, he quickly did so, shrinking back into a female werewolf once more.

Finally, she took a deep breath and willed herself back to a 'human' appearance. It felt unnatural to her to lose the tail, fangs, or ears, and so she didn't. However, as the fur faded off of her body and she shrank down—muzzle flattening back into a face, paws becoming hands and feet again—she found herself shrinking rather more than expected. By the time it was over, she was around a head shorter than she'd been when she went to bed the night before. Besides that, of course, there was the longer, now bright-silver hair...and her ears and tail. She took a moment to carefully pick the cover up off of her dresser so she could look at herself in the mirror affixed to the top of it, and slowly reached a hand up toward her left ear as she realized that, even as a wolf ear, the top chunk of it was still missing. Some kind of..mark of La Lune's blessing, perhaps? It was also possible that she'd lost control for a very brief instant to her own 'wild side' to bite that part off instead of only puncturing it with her teeth...yet, beforehand, anticipated that it might happen. If so, it could just be that an injury directly inflicted by a deity was impossible to heal or something like that...

"Why'm I so..wah!" Onida paused, realizing that her voice was suddenly very high-pitched. "Uh..oh. Hmn." That wasn't quite right—it was just back to 'normal', and sounded high when compared to the very deep one she had in full werewolf form. It seemed there was more to that form than just 'being more wolfish'—hence, a change of voice in addition having big, visible muscles and huge enhancements to her curves. Actually, even as she was now she could see a six-pack on her belly in the mirror, and she didn't feel the slightest bit weaker even though her body otherwise looked fairly normal and soft.

She crossed her arms slowly, thinking: She also seemed to be..younger? It wasn't just that she was shorter; her face looked a little bit fairer and softer without any visible signs of age, and she felt more full of energy, not the least bit sore or anything. There seemed to be a lot of facets to La Lune's 'blessing', even without that 'extra' one. The inconvenient part was that many of her clothes were going to fail to fit like this...and getting used to being shorter was something to deal with too.

But..Onida slowly let herself smile, her tail wagging slowly. All of those complaints were minor—miniscule even—compared to how good the blessing really was. Was really going to be! It not only seemed to fix a majority of the worries she'd had before, but it left her feeling good in ways she hadn't even known to be possible before—and in others she hadn't known she'd been missing. For the first time in forever, she felt the kind of youthful hopefulness that said the world was wide open in front of her. Not that she was about to let that make her act irresponsibly, but...it was still a refreshing, freeing thing to feel!

---

La Lune clapped her forepaws together. "All done. Thanks, Basty!"

"Why did you bother asking for her power merely for this? If you really just wanted them to make puppies, it was well within your power alone to have simply made her male."

"Ah, but I don't know how happy she'd have been with that." The moon goddess split herself apart again, the wolf dropping down and curling up for the human body to sit atop once more. "And anyway, this is merely a first trial. Once I see how it goes, I'm thinking there might be several of my people who deserve a blessing, and might enjoy something like this..."
Bastet hissed again, lowering into a feline sitting-up position and losing her humanoid traits—but not the power of speech. "You think you can get away with collaborating with her to such an extent?"

"'Collaborating'? You wound me," La Lune said, grinning widely. "I'm demanding the use of a lesser goddess's power for my own purposes. I'd like to know just what her response will be to such demands—probe her willingness and ability to provide what I desire. After all, if she's going to be a wish granter, then she'd better at least be able to grant some tiny little wishes of those who have seniority over her."

The cat goddess took to grooming herself throughout this speech, and again made her host wait until she was done to get a response: "You want me to believe that you are merely testing her?"

"If it's the truth, why not believe it?"

"She gains power when you use her power to make someone happy."

"Well, I'm certainly not going to persuade her to help me out in making people unhappy. None of us can do anything about our own natures, after all, much less against those of others."

Bastet narrowed her eyes, giving La Lune a long, half-threatening glare; the moon goddess didn't so much as flinch. "...That fox, is a bad influence on you, wolf."

"Good, bad—as the senior, aren't I the influence on her?"

"I'm taking my leave now." The two-tailed, black cat stood and turned to go, then paused, turning only her head back to her host. "Do not disturb me for at least three days."

"Oh, bargaining up, are you? Well, that's fine by me. See you on Wednesday, then~."
Bastet hissed. "That was not an invitation!" She immediately slinked off at speed to avoid any further conversation with the wolf goddess.

---

Onida's shrunken height was about the same as her brother's—the same as Damon's—which was also about the same as Sam's—that is, girl Sam. They were all three the same height, at least while all three were girls. She spent breakfast wearing only underwear and a t-shirt that was now much too long, telling the two of them what had happened.

"Aah, woow. Man," Sam said. "I mean, I've heard—you could call them rumors, or maybe even legends, about werewolves with La Lune's blessing getting gleaming silver fur, but...never imagined I'd see one right in front of me. Much less someone going straight from human to blessed!"

"So, this color, is an identifying trait? Will it make me a target of some sort?" Onida said, dropping her ears slightly.

"No no, it's more like—anyone who recognizes it should know not to mess with you. Since, aah, no matter how adorable you might look, La Lune's blessing means you could still tear a car in half with your bare hands." The silver-haired wolf-girl couldn't help blushing and wagging her tail a little bit at being called cute. She...hadn't mentioned the part about being able to turn into a man at will. She wasn't sure she wanted to just yet, actually.

"So, what're you gonna do now?" Damon asked.

"Well..first of all, I'd like to find some clothes that fit me a little better. Actually...some of what we bought you the other day should fit me okay, but—I still need to go to the store to get clothes of my own."

"Will that eat into your budget too much?" Sam asked, tilting her head slightly in concern.
"Nno..I don't think it'll be too much of a problem. I know how to bargain hunt, so—you probably spent more than I will on groceries yesterday, anyway."

"Heheh, all right."

After they ate, Onida picked an outfit Damon seemed loath to wear—her sister being rather partial to more tomboyish outfits and decidedly reluctant to put on something as feminine as a skirt. She came out of the upstairs bedroom wearing it: a shoulderless, long-sleeved white top and a red plaid skirt. "Ohh, cute!" Damon said. "It looks better on you than on me."
"You just don't wanna wear a skirt...whatever." They went downstairs together, to where Sam was sitting on the couch. She pulled herself around to peek her head up past the back cushion.

"Oh, hey, aah—you look gorgeous in that," she said, putting on a goofy grin that said she wasn't entirely sure if saying so was going too far.

"Uhh..th-thanks." Onida could feel herself blushing again, and her tail slowly wagging, too...

Taking a brief sideways glance, she found a huge smile on Damon's face that had a hint of teasing to it. The three of them were...going to be a rather strange pack, Onida thought. But..at least they could be happy together for now.

---

The way I get inspiration for, and write, these stories, is a mixture of the ideas I have and the images I find to use as references to work with. In this case, I've had three images with what became "Damon" in them available since at least the time I posted her initial transformation, and have gradually come up with a way to use all three of them. But it's not like I felt absolutely compelled to use more than the first one; the opportunity just came up alongside the more natural development of all of the involved characters.

A Summoning, Part XXIX

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---

Part XXIX
~Sun~

After the fallout from the April fools' prank, things settled down for a while. Zotha's friends and "followers" still came to her and Jess now and then for a few things over the weekend, but largely seemed happy. Anika was still stuck as a curvy fox girl but seemed to have found some measure of happiness with her roommate. Thomas was getting used to being a dragon, and was finding several reasons to be happy about it—especially when Zotha hid her from view while she gave actual flight a try above the forest. Prama went to work with Boreas almost as often as she could. The goddess felt as if she had a little more time to actually take care of some long-term homework and relax. Maybe it was only the calm before another storm (literal or not), but it was at least pleasant for now.

---

Graham came back to work after some brief training and a decently long lunch break, and stuck around Thursday afternoon, planning to clock out around the time she reckoned she'd need to leave to be home ahead of her granddaughter. Not long after she started properly working, walking the floor, she found a tall, curvy young woman with feline traits, quite dark hair and fur, regarding the ladies' underwear section with a perplexed, apprehensive sort of expression. She made her way up next to her before speaking: "You, havin' some trouble there?"

"Waah!" She jumped, startled, even though she certainly should've been able to hear Graham coming or notice her standing there. "Oh uh..s-sorry," she said, flushing a bit and looking awkwardly down at the much shorter catgirl. "Uhhm...kindaa...I don't really know how to, uh, explain it, but.." She placed her hands together during this, nervously playing all of the fingers against each other.

"Pardon me if I'm out of turn with this, but..maybe you find yourself with a surprisin' need for this sort of wear?" Graham ventured, gesturing to the merchandise the customer had been eyeing. "Maybe this is a little new to you, too?" she added, pointing to one of her own ears.

"Uhhm...yeah." Her hesitation seemed partly from processing the strangeness of the question, and maybe another part from deciding whether or not she could trust the stranger asking such a question.
"Well, maybe I can give you a few tips? Name's Graham," she said, offering up a hand to shake.

"Uh..Shhh..uh, Shana," the much taller catgirl said, hesitantly taking the hand and shaking it. She was quite strong, but much too nervous right now to have a firm grip.

"Pleased to meet ya. Now, I work here—for full disclosure—so it is somewhat in my self-interest to 'help you' buy clothes. But I've also been through somethin' fairly similar myself recently."
"R-really?"
"Yep. And I'd be happy to make some recommendations for picking out good attire for your present looks," the white-haired Neko said gently. "We got some things a little better fit for, ah—" (she whispered the word 'tails' under her breath) "—if you're interested in outerwear too."

"Oh. Uh, th-that's great. I have aaaaaaa....fffffriend with..that kind of thing going on too, who might also need some help with that...later."
Graham nodded, deciding it was better customer service to not question such a blatant lie. "But for now, let's get you fixed, eh?"

This turned out to be the first of several such encounters in that short span of afternoon—that is, people who found themselves with unusual new traits, many of which seemed to have been totally unaware of magic before...not that she pried them on the matter, but their unfamiliarity with the idea of people having tails or the like was easy enough to spot. Among them was a certain young man, 'Shane', of the same fur and hair color as 'Shana'; Graham just re-introduced herself to him without further comment, ignoring his terrible acting at pretending he hadn't seen her before, despite his making an instant beeline toward her the instant he entered the store.

---

"Hwaa~aah..."

Sam pulled herself together and sat up in bed, stretching and cutely yawning. She'd been partially awakened before by the sound of her host getting a hasty breakfast and leaving for work, but had stayed perfectly still and fallen back asleep easily enough. Now it was...after nine, and she could hear some noise from a neighboring room she hadn't been in: The faint sound of music, and Damon's voice softly muttering. She decided this was worth investigating, and hurried into that room to see what was going on.

"Damon?" It was a laundry room.
"Ah! Uh, morning!" she waved. Damon turned away from staring at the washer to face her. She had on a slightly oversized shirt that hung off of her right shoulder and had some likely claw-made rips across her midsection, a pair of boxers that didn't really fit her all that well, and apparently not much else. Well— there were some headphones which were more 'against her head' than 'on her ears', attached to a phone in her hand.

"I really hope I didn't wake you," she said.
"Nah, I woke up naturally. What're you up to in here?"
"Well uuhhmm. I'm, sorta kinda, completely out of the new clothes we bought to fit this..girl body. And, I remembered, I'm usually s'posed to do laundry in the middle of the week 'cause Onida's always at work...buut.."
"You, don't really remember how?"
"M-hm," she nodded sheepishly.

"That's fine, I'll show you. It's not too difficult," Sam said, coming up to the machines to work them.

"By the way..d'you know how to uh, wear headphones with ears like this? I, thought listening to some of the music I put on my phone might remind me of something, but..."
"Ehh, if you can hear it, that's an okay grip. Really, you could probably hear 'em hanging around your neck." She put a load's worth of laundry in the washer and looked around, locating a bottle of detergent. "They make some, aah, designer stuff for animal ears, but every ear is different, so those are rarely all that comfortable," Sam said. "If you really need headphones, the standard werewolf response is to just make your ears human during that time, but..I guess you still don't have that much control yet."
"Yeah..." Damon looked a little sad about this, folding her ears down a bit. This motion brushed them against the headphones, and she had to quickly reach a hand up to adjust them back into place before they slid off. "Uhm, I feel like the..wild animal that woke up in me that night, the full moon..it got turned into a puppy when I became this, but it's no less wild. It's..friendlier than it was now, but still kinda angry..like it could lash out at any time, if I felt really threatened."

"You have to make peace with it," Sam said, nodding. "Accept it, and convince it to accept you. I'm, aah..not the best for advice on this stuff, 'cause I was born with it. Maybe we can find someone who's made it through a wolfbite online? Anyway—you pour the soap into the top up to this marking, put it in here...turn this knob, and push go."

"Waah!" Damon jumped at the noise of the washer starting up. "Oh...it's s'posed to do that, right?"
"Mm-hm," Sam nodded. "Now, aah...have you had breakfast?"
"Nope..I kinda came in here in a panic after I realized I was outta clothes that, uhm, properly fit me," she said, blushing."
"That should be our next order of business, then. Me either." She waved the other werewolf to follow her to the kitchen.

"Anything you can tell me about what your wolf side is feeling?" she said once they were sitting across from each other at the table.

"It um..definitely feels safe here. 'My territory' or something, I guess?"
"With your family—your 'pack'."

Damon nodded. "...Submissive toward Onida. She did some of raising me, I think, after...s-something happened to our parents."
"At least for now, you see her as an alpha."
"It uhm, wasn't sure about you at first...but you 'feel like' part of the pack too now, I guess?"

"We have been under the same roof for a bit, and you maybe have a few memories of me to say we were familiar before, right?"
"Yeah...some." She looked away as she answered.

"Hey, there's no need to feel shame for that! It'll come back," Sam said.

It wasn't something to discuss with the amnesiac wolf-girl, but Sam's wolf side was feeling increasingly like she belonged here, too. The pack's pecking order went Onida, Sam, Damon—less that she had authority over the "alpha's sibling", and more that she felt a need to take care of her. As for Onida...even though she was human, Sam's wolf side was definitely starting to see her as an alpha too. Being pet by her was...more pleasant than she felt it was proper to admit aloud, especially when it might make things awkward. It hadn't...escaped her that Onida was blushing afterward; she probably wanted to do it again, and Sam had no objection if so. But...due to her sense of propriety, Damon's sister might never actually ask, no matter how much she did want it.

---

"Through for today?" The Mammon manager of the clothes store caught the Neko on her way to clock out for the day.
"Mmhm. I got a granddaughter to get home to," Graham said.
"Okay, well—here's your first week's pay." Valoz quickly scribbled a number onto a check and then presented her with it, so she paused her walk to accept and examine it.
"Already? Thought I might need to do a full week of work first...is this number right?" Doing the math in her head, this was definitely more than fifteen times the number of hours she'd actually worked so far.
"I added on a little bonus. You, personally, made a lot of sales yesterday."
"I'm not sure I can rightly take credit for those," Graham objected gently. "I get the feelin' something unusual happened to cause all them to need new duds."
"All the same, you did help handle that flood where I alone would've drowned. Plus I've seen you working on the floor, graham cracker~. You've got a natural, mild-mannered sort of charm that makes our customers feel at ease—and they're a lot more willing to spend when they're relaxed. And, until it's proven otherwise, I believe that you're just plain good luck to have around. Either way, I've already handed you your check, so enjoy it!" Val clapped her gently on the back and hurried off toward her office before another word could come out of the catgirl.

She stared at it for a second or two more, then shrugged. "Guess it's off to the bank, then..."

---

Anika got up to stretch in the middle of a bunch of homework, and happened to glance at was Steph was doing. She was almost always a girl in their dorm room now, maybe to save energy now that Anika knew..and presently she was leaning over a sketchpad with her pen and an expression of a bit too much concentration. "Hey," she leaned over her roommate's shoulder a bit to get a better look, "what're you up to, huh?"
It looked like a bunch of little stick-figure cartoons of people being pranked in various ways. "Oh, just..brainstorming." Steph sat up a bit, reaching a hand up to brush across Anika's ears and through her hair apparently without even thinking about it. "There's not much hope of topping yesterday's work any time soon, but that's no reason to not look for opportunities."
"Mrr~rrh." Very little of Anika's mind could be bothered to care about this touch; they'd pet each other enough by now that this was pedestrian, and it felt nice too, so—whatever, who cared. "Already looking for the next big thing, huh? You just earned a third tail yesterday, I thought you might just wanna celebrate that for a while."

"Andrew," she turned her head to look up at her. "How d'you think foxes celebrate new tails and more power in the first place?"
"Looking for ways to use them, I guess?"
"Mm-hm! And anyway, I've got you to worry about. You're still a long ways away from earning that fifth tail, after all."

"Oh..yeah," she nodded, feeling a faint negative emotion at the reminder about the curse on her being overshadowed instantly by gratitude that Steph was still thinking of her first. "Well, don't uh, overdo it I guess. Feel free to bounce ideas off of me..I mean, I'm still not really sure I know what I'm doing, but.."
"Outsider perspectives can be helpful too, sure," Steph said, grinning brightly up at her. "No matter what, I'll make sure it's fun."

---

"I forgot all about the laundry! Thank you two so much, I might've run out of work clothes for tomorrow..."

It was just as Sam thought. Onida wanted, deep down, to praise her and Damon both with some petting; Sam and possibly Damon would've fully understood and appreciated that gesture; but she didn't do it, and it was equally as easy to guess why. Sam quashed the tiny bit of disappointment her wolf side felt about this with a reminder that it would be thanked with food instead, and that shut it up.

"Are you, planning to stream again tonight?" Onida asked at supper. Sam shook her head.

"I'm, aah, telling people I'm not feeling well. Today and tomorrow specifically."
"Some particular reason? You don't seem sick."

"I guess, aah..I should tell you what I'm doing. Did you know...there's a rare but known, hereditary medical condition that causes people to undergo minor to drastic physical changes over the course of a few days—even as much as changing sex?"

"Uh..there is?" Damon headtilted, and Onida was visibly skeptical.

"Well, not really..that I know of. But there is one, aah, on the books. It's how the people who have to keep the veil working 'excuse' transformations that don't get undone."

"Oh. Hmn..I almost forgot, those people we went to the other day said, if Damon was going to remain female, we should say that she was sick for several days and came to look like that by the end of it..." Onida nodded slowly. "This is the same thing?"
"Mm-hm," Sam nodded.

"The thing is, I aah..asked someone to help me look like this 'cause I think it'll help my career a bit. Believe it or not, people are aah..usually happier to watch a cute girl play games than a guy, on average. I've..found myself happy with this for other reasons since then, but that was the original goal."
"So...you're telling people that you're sick to supply an excuse for why you'll be...female the next time you actually stream?"
"Right. I, aah...I don't really enjoy lying like this very much, but this one's necessary. It means a lot less work for the people whose job it is to keep the veil working right," Sam said.

Damon went upstairs to play video games after supper—not to stream, just to play something. Sam took the opportunity to set next to their alpha—that was, her host. Onida watched TV and played on her phone for a while, and Sam brought in her laptop to mess around on for the first half hour or so. She took occasional glances Onida's direction, letting her tail wag freely each time; it would be difficult to miss the sound of it lightly whapping against the back of the couch. After this, she set the laptop over onto an end table, turned the older woman's way and did the tail-wagging bit one last time.

"Uh, y-you know..if I didn't know any better..."
Sam moved like she was going to get up, then paused and fell back when Onida spoke, tilting her head. "Hmn?"

"Uh, n-nothing," Onida said, shaking her head lightly and blushing.

"Come on, it's fine. What were you gonna say?"
"...If I didn't know better, I'd say you were acting like..."

"Yes?"

"Someone's dog lying on the couch..."
"Uh-huh?"
"...Hoping the human was going to pet them.

"...Th-there, I said it. Sorry, just err, what came to my mind first for some reason."
"Well, aah, there's no real reason to be sorry for that."

"It's not...insulting? Demeaning? Misinterpreting..something.." Onida trailed off, as she visibly realized that Sam was grinning up at her and wagging her tail again.

"Heheh..If anything, I'm sorry for teasing you like this. Lemme just get it out in the open: I'd actually like it if you'd pet me. Just a little bit?"

"Uh, y-you would?"
"Sure. Instincts can be a weird thing to negotiate with, but aah, I liked the way you did it last night and wanted a li'l more," Sam said.

"Well uhm...o-okay."

Onida reached a hand over her head hesitantly, unintentionally drawing out the anticipation and making it even more satisfying when the hand came down to gently rub Sam's ears. "Rr~rrh..rrfh~!" She leaned in, softly barking and yipping, as a second hand joined the first. "Mm~mnh..y-yip!" Sam's face felt warm, and her tail was whipping back and forth wildly...she couldn't remember her fur ever seeming this sensitive before, male or female. She realized after a moment that she was also leaning up and over at the taller woman, but then slowly decided to let it happen...bringing her arms up into a hug.

This was maybe a step too far, too soon: Onida stopped. "Uhm..." Sam opened her eyes, blinking them innocently a couple of times, and pulled herself back to sitting up right just next to her alpha.
"Heheh, sorry. Aah..instincts, got the better of me," she said, feeling a very real, strong blush come on. It wasn't really from embarrassment, but it was maybe better if Onida thought it was. "You're really good at that, though."
"Um..th-thank you?" she said, obviously unsure how to deal with the situation.

"No, thank you," Sam said. She hopped up off of the couch and got her laptop, deciding it was most prudent to make an exit for now. "Sorry if I made it weird."
"To be really, really honest..I don't know if it was possible for it to be any weirder than it already was to begin with," Onida said. "So..you certainly didn't do any harm."
"That's, aah, good to know. I'm gonna go play some games for a while." Like she wasn't already...

"Okay, you have fun, then." Her tone shifted suddenly from uncertain to casual and comfortable, probably because this was at least a situation she understood and knew a good response for.

"Thanks~," Sam gave her a bright grin back, and appreciated the sight of Onida's cheeks still looking quite red. Hopefully..she wasn't misinterpreting anything, herself.

---

"Hmmmnh..." Zotha woke up a couple of hours into the morning on Saturday, in a fairly typical position of lying on top of Jess with the cute little priestess holding on tight to her. She wriggled in place for a moment, feeling a vague sense of discomfort she couldn't at first identify, until it came to her—it was time for another change. To satisfy this need, she shifted her tail first, making it thicken and grow fur until it was a soft, fluffy canine tail, and then grew her ears up and out into some that matched that tail—black fur and all. A slight shift to her teeth to give her fangs seemed to come automatically after that.

She took a moment to gently brush the tail across Jess's bare thigh, making her shiver slightly. "Mmh..m-master?"
"Morning, sleepyhead~," she said, gently stroking some of the smaller girl's hair.

"Uhm, a-another change?"
"Yep," Zotha grinned. "I guess I'm feeling a little wolfish at the moment." She leaned down, gently nuzzling Jess's cheek for a moment. "Mrrr~rh." The response was predictable but no less enjoyable for it: a soft, adorable squeak.

"...Say. If I keep on changing, it might happen that I really don't look much like a demon at all at some point. Think you'd be disappointed with that?"

"I uh..no. Not at all," Jess said after a brief consideration. "It's you, Master, that I'm uh..enamored with now..probably forever."
"Heheh..good to know." She stroked Jess's hair one more time, then pulled herself up out of bed. "You can go on and take a shower first, 'kay?"
"Okay~!"

While the priestess did that, the goddess got out her phone. There was something she'd thought of Friday afternoon that needed to be dealt with, but she just didn't get around to making this call then. She called Riana.

"Hey. You're still going to the hospital to help people." It wasn't a question, since of course the goddess knew when and from where and for what her own power was being requested.

"Uh, yeah. Something wrong?"
"Well, I'm just a little concerned about it becoming conspicuous. A few people awakened from my magic going through them, and our local hospital is going to start looking unusually competent pretty soon."
"So—what—you want us to stop?" she asked, half-accusation. 'Us' because, in addition to Riana and Kamari, she'd recruited a couple of other followers she knew into the scheme.

"No, no—nothing like that," Zotha said. "It would just be a lot less conspicuous if we spread the love a little. Heal people the same way in other hospitals, elsewhere. Instead of driving out to ours, ask me and I'll put up a portal somewhere and give you invisibility and inaudibility. Then we cane make the medical miracles a little more widespread."
"..Ah. That's, actually really good thinking," Riana said.

"Do you still not trust me at all? After I brought Jess to her knees within a couple of hours? And how we handled your boyfriend? And after our last discussion on this particular use of my power?"

"I'm..just not wired to trust people right away, I guess. You've made a pretty good first impression this past week, though, I'll admit."

"Heheh. Okay then. Anyway—make sure everyone else gets the message for me please."
"No problem."

---

"Is uh...is memory loss a...known side-effect of the, hereditary thingy that changes people?"
Sam had made breakfast—or more like brunch—for herself and the other werewolf in the house again. She'd also gone ahead and snooped around the kitchen, pantry, refrigerator and freezer while getting things ready, and made a private grocery list in her phone. "Aah, I dunno. Guess I could check. I was only really looking at the guidelines for what to do to help preserve the veil under my kinda conditions. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a 'related condition' that does something like that, though."

"Mmh."
"Why, are you thinking of streaming again soon?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "I kinda..sorta halfway remember...like, not actually doing it on any, uhhm, at any specific time. But I sorta, halfway remember what it felt like. Hanging out with friends like you, that way..."

"But unless you remember most everything by then, you need some 'mundane' excuse why you've forgotten so much." Damon nodded.

"...Lemme tell you something. People knew that something weird was going on with you because you inadvertently streamed that one time. It's why I came here. I've been telling people that you're alive and okay, but I don't want to say any more to respect your privacy. 'Cause..I had to say something to some of the other people who knew you, to keep someone else from doing something dumb like packing their bags and traveling out to your place to check," Sam said, "especially someone who wouldn't be able to see that you're a werewolf."

"That makes sense..."
"If you like, maybe we could do a stream together once I'm 'better' and people are a little used to my new look..? I could introduce you, say a little bit about what happened and how traumatized you were by the illness and amnesia...something like that. Assuming it's something we can claim under the same 'medical condition' umbrella, I think most people will buy it. Anyone not under the veil will know a little of what really happened, of course, but..that's probably inevitable, and shouldn't really cause any problems. What do you think?"
"It sounds like fun!" Damon said, smiling brightly and wagging her tail.
"Great. It'll still be a few days before we can do it, though. In the meantime..I'll play with you some, if you wanna warm up?"
"Yeah!"

After a couple of hours, Sam left to 'run errands', and used her own funds to buy the groceries she'd noted down. Actually, she entered the store in male form to be able to carry more, but turned back into a girl once the car was back in the driveway. She couldn't help wagging her tail a little as she put everything away, thinking how happily surprised her alpha—er, host—would be to find she'd hunted down some food for them all...

On a brief pause and reflection, she realized that she really seemed to be feeling her instincts overall a little stronger since being able to turn into a girl...maybe only while female? She'd looked this way so much more often since she was able to that it was sort of hard to tell for sure. Was it the magic that had been used to change her that had done it, or something about how she naturally was while female? Something from La Lune, somehow? Or was it just...the way she'd come to feel about Onida and Damon? It was impossible to untangle it and tease out any one cause as the main one, or even rule any of them out, without testing that she didn't really care to do.

---

Graham's morning walks seemed to get a little farther every day. She certainly didn't want to overdo it, but her body seemed so healthy and full of energy that no round trip so far was even enough to wind her. Today she made it as far as a big shopping center, and she was about ready to turn around and head back home when the display of one particular store caught her eyes.

It was a place that dealt entirely in used video games, consoles, accessories, and so on. They had a display in the window of a console from the previous generation to advertise a sale: The console itself, plus three games, all in a bundle for a little over half of her recent paycheck. She stopped, put her hands in her pockets and stared at for a moment, mentally combing through her finances, before shrugging to herself and heading inside. Of course her retirement and everything else was enough to cover the bills, there was plenty in savings...so as a result, the extra from the new job was practically burning a hole in her bank account. It couldn't hurt too much just to try anyway; a place like this would just buy everything back or maybe even accept a return if she really didn't want it.

It didn't seem like anybody was really manning the store when she first came in. That is—her feline ears could pick up movement in the back, but there was nobody in the small floor space, nor at the front desk. "Hello?" she called after a moment, and heard footsteps hurrying up from the back.

A young, slightly overweight man with a nametag that said he was the owner came out. "Oh..hey! Wow, nobody comes in this early, sorry! I usually use the opportunity to reorganize the stock."

"But you are open?"
"Yeah, yep! That's what the sign says."

"You're awful trusting of your clientele, then," Graham said.

"Awh, we got security cams," he said, shrugging. "Anyway—how can I help you, miss?"

"I was interested in the sale out on the window—" she said, pointing "—if it's still going, leastwise. I'm thinking about getting into games a little bit, maybe. My computer's a dinosaur, so something that can just hook up to a TV and run would be better for sure."
"Oh, yeah yeah! I'll hook you up."

He beamed, hurrying over to a glass case with some of the consoles locked inside, starting to happily explain everything about how to hook the console up and what games he thought would be good for a newcomer. She didn't get the impression he was in a hurry to make a sale necessarily, more that he was happy just for the opportunity to share the hobby with someone new. It did ultimately have the effect of persuading her to actually make the purchase, however. She even sprang for a second controller in case Rachel wanted to play too.

---

"Phew...another week, another six dollars..." The sound of the car in the driveway was easy enough for wolf ears to pick up from anywhere in the house. Damon came up to the front door because of her mind being not fully in balance, her wolf side taking over when it could get away with it—but Sam did the same exact thing despite being fully aware and in control. So, as was quickly becoming usual, Onida opened the door to find both of them standing here. "Oh! Hey you two," she said, gently ruffling Damon's hair and—after a brief hesitation—Sam's also. "You really, don't have to come all the way to the door, you know. As long as I know you're here, you could just..stay upstairs or wherever."

"Uh, sorry—just, like, feels like I should somehow?" Damon said.

"I was passing by anyway," Sam half-lied.

"Well, I guess..you two must be hungry, anyway," she said, shrugging. After putting some things down, she headed toward the kitchen. Damon went to the couch at first, but sat up and watched Sam follow her with an obvious air of curiosity.

It only took her opening one cabinet door, plus a moment's staring inside, to realize that something was different. She had the funniest look on her face as she rifled through the refrigerator, freezer, and a few more places—a confused one with a hint of worry that she'd somehow forgotten what was there. "Uh..hmn."

"I, bought us a few things earlier," Sam volunteered once she couldn't stand it anymore. "Figured aah, since I've been eating your food, it's only fair."
"Oh, sheesh! You could've mentioned that earlier—I was starting to think I was losing my mind."
"Heheh..sorry, I just wanted to see the aah, look on your face," Sam said, blushing and running a hand through her own hair, her ears down and tail wagging.
"And—you didn't have to go and do that!"
"Maybe not, but it felt right to me," she said with a slight shrug.

"It's not eating into your income too much? I know you don't make money if you don't stream," she said, putting her hands on her hips.
"My finances are perfectly fine," Sam insisted, crossing her arms. "I've lived on my own for enough years with no credit card debt to count as a responsible adult!"

"Okay, okay—sorry. I didn't meant to imply otherwise," Onida said. "Then: Thank you. I have to make sure that much is clear. Let me see what I can make for us with all this..."

After supper, and after the three of them had been in the living room for an hour or so—Damon and Onida on the couch, Sam on a chair—the younger sister suddenly got up, announcing that she wanted to go for 'a nap', and scurried up the stairs to her room. Sam was starting to suspect that she had some intuition—mental, instinctive, or otherwise—about what their visitor was after...and supported it. She quietly waited a polite length of time before saying anything.

"Onida..."
"Hmn?" She'd caught the older woman staring at her ears again, but wasn't about to mention that.
"I can't, aah, stand to be dishonest with someone for too long. But I also didn't know how to bring this up either, aah, without maybe making things too awkward."
"Uhhm..what do you mean?" Onida had turned her head to stare at a corner where the walls met the ceiling and away from Sam.

"Guess I can just say it. I like you, and it's much more than I really think I should like someone I haven't really known for as much as a week. I aah..I know my wolf side's..well, when I listen to my instincts they insist that we're in a pack together and you're the alpha. I ahh...hope that's not too weird.."

"Uhm.." The older woman blushed furiously throughout this half-confession. "I-it's..well, I'm not going to pretend it isn't weird. Or that I, know what it's like to have wolf instincts. But I..certainly can't hear you being that honest and lie myself. I...definitely like having you around. You're kind, and thoughtful, and responsible; you've been helping Damon with all sorts of things when I couldn't. It's hard for me to not feel like you belong here already, too.."

"But you..." She turned, almost dramatically, Sam's way, to ask: "You 'like' me?"
"Yeah. That's aah...s-sorry if it's a step too far or something. It's not something I ah, couldn't get past, if you don't...but it's aah..there, all right."

"Erm. Don't get me wrong, you're very cute." Despite the assurance she'd just given, it was hard for the werewolf to not immediately feel a stab of sadness from this lead-in. "It's just, I..I haven't thought of myself that way, as someone for someone else tooo...'like'. Not in years. Not since my parents passed away. I haven't dated anyone, or anything. All of my focus, and attention, and love has been directed toward my brother. But at the same time, I.."

Onida sort of tilted her head upwards, seeming to express an uncertainty as to whether or not Damon was really asleep up there, or if she could hear every word of this conversation, and then whispered: "I know, my brother—or sister—or whatever. She wouldn't, want to hold me back that way. She'd probably be upset to think that I'd held back any of my own happiness for her sake. But I haven't done that, either. This home we've built together—is my happiness. But like I said before, it feels to me..a little like you belong here too."

"Mmhmn?" Sam's expression had brightened just slightly toward hopeful again, and she tilted her head a bit at this point.

Her host softly cleared her throat, returning to a normal speaking volume again: "What I mean to say is, I-I think you're very cute. I definitely..feel...something, just looking at you, and it's hard to admit to myself that it's more than a dumb part of my brain thinking 'look, cute puppy!' But I realized that had to be true last night, when you..erm.." She cleared her throat again, cutting her off. "But it'd be unfair to you to not admit that I just, don't really know what I'm doing in the first place?"

"Ah. W-well...that's better than I was hoping for," Sam said. "I, aah..I can work with clueless. I mean, I've been a guy for a pretty long time and still act like one in some ways, can still be one..aah, so I'm not totally used to a lot of how I feel like this. So, more than a little would be too much for me, too! I think I'd be happy enough for now if you'd just pet me a little bit..maybe let me hug you?" She sort of reached her hands up toward the other woman without sitting up just yet.

"Er." Onida's eyes sort of darted around all over the place briefly, her face reddening again. "S-sure. Aah!" She probably didn't expect the wolf-girl to immediately act on the offer, pouncing on top of her with a hug. "O-oh..hi there.."

But she didn't push Sam off either, instead gently returning the hug with one hand while using the other to lightly brush through the smaller girl's hair a couple of times before moving on to gently petting her soft, fluffy ears again. Sam softly barked and yipped a few times, then let out a slow, breathy "Mmm~mmh.." as she nuzzled Onida's cheek for real this time. With this, her wolf side, human side, and any other sides she had, were all perfectly happy. It felt—like she'd been truly accepted into the pack, and more.

They stayed close for a few hours after that, with only occasional petting. Half an hour into it Damon came down and took up the still-empty other side of the couch with no comment whatsoever, looking happy more than anything else. She'd...definitely been listening in to at least some of it, and seemed just as pleased with this arrangement as either of them were.

---

One of the challenges I've caused for myself in identifying this story as taking place sort of simultaneously to Midas Journal is that that story has a lot of time skips built into it, while this one has until now tended to have a ton of different things all happening on the same day, each day. Several of the things I have planned must still wait in-setting for some time in order for them to make sense, so I believe the best way to handle the issue is to gloss over a few days at a time now and then. However, there are some events that I still need to cover here and there.

Another unique thing about Summoning in particular is that it has certain things and people who will receive a lot of focus, and some characters who are just going to mostly fade into the background as things progress unless something happens with the events the story is focused on and which they have a good reason to be involved in. Some may only appear in one part and have brief cameos from then on. I think this is okay; it definitely helps me manage a story with so many characters in an easier way than something like Battle Vixens where it's a narrative necessity to know what each fighter is doing at every single battle, and missing someone causes continuity issues. That's not to say that I have the same problem there, however; in that case I generally have a good reason for them to all receive some focus because they're all involved in fighting those battles.