A Summoning, Part XLVI

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Part XLVI
~Temperance, Part 1~

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

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

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

"Oh. Hm."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Uh, h-how?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(old image)

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

"Something bothering you?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Uh. Whaaat do you mean?"

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

"I'm not going."

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

A Summoning, Part XLV

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Part XLV
~Judgement~

Over the phone, Onida had only briefly outlined the situation: She'd found the source of the howls, she was okay, she'd be heading home in a moment. She arrived at the back door only a little before sunrise, looking dirty and tired, so only after everyone had resumed human form and she'd had a chance to take a long shower had Sam and Damon (non-literally) dragged her into the living room to get the full story.

"...And then I ran back here as fast as I could, uh..following my own scent, I suppose...and, you know the rest."

After a brief pause, Sam said: "Look at you, taking down a feral werewolf!"
"Uh—"
"If that doesn't make you a 'serious' alpha, I don't know anything else that would. I've got a whole branch of my family that'd be super proud of that!"
"I didn't really...'take anyone down', though. I, I-I didn't want to! I couldn't..."

"Hey, aah, knocking him out still counts! Even better since he actually gets to live, with Zotha around."

"I—I guess."
"Anyway, there's seriously a local alchemist, too? You hardly hear of anyone making potions these days..." Sam finally read the room at this point, and quieted down to look over at Damon.

"So, so—no one else's gonna get bit," she said, "right?"
Onida nodded, "At least...not by him. I'm pretty certain that...if Zotha somehow can't do for him what she did for you..." she trailed off, not really wanting to finish her sentence.

"Yeah, Boreas sounds like the kind of old-school wolf you don't wanna mess with," Sam said. "Thing is, it's still in our traditions to 'take care of' feral werewolves, even though there's barely any of them around in the modern day. And the veilkeeper guys are usually on top of them before any werewolf even hears about it."

Damon said, "When you say...'on top'..."

"Well, yeah. Those guys are literally created with weapons in their hands. I think. Aaah, most of 'em anyway?"

Sam really couldn't bear to see the expression Onida had on right now. "Aaaah...hey, look!" she waved a hand around to get both siblings' attention. "Lemme put this another way: You saved that guy's life. Boreas wouldn't have given him a shot, right? So, whatever happened...someone's still alive 'cause of you. Isn't that great?"
"Y...yes." She nodded, slowly, and her expression turned a little less dark. "You're right. That, is, a good thing. And, I'm glad...as strange as it is...we could get some closure. About, what happened to Damon that night. It wasn't...someone being openly evil, or hurtful for no good reason. It was just, another man in pain, lashing out without meaning to." She took a deep breath. "I'm relieved because..when I thought, for only a few minutes, that there was someone to be angry at for what happened...I really don't like what I was thinking about doing to him right then."

Sam nodded. "Aaah...not that I've had it happen myself. But, the wild side can put some bad thoughts in you, in the wrong situation."
"Y-yeah," Damon nodded—speaking much more from experience herself. "I'm...glad you're okay, sis."
"Oh? Yes," she nodded, "Me too."

---

"Are you sure you're okay with this?"
"I don't know why I wouldn't be," Stella said, tilting her head slightly. "There's hardly anyone I trust more than I do you."
Thomas put a hand on the side of her head. "Aauuugh, that really just piles on the pressure to not screw it up!"

"I'm sorry. Should I have said: 'I don't trust you in the slightest, but do it anyway'?"

"No, yeah. You have a good point." The dragon-girl sighed. "Hhhokay. Just. Stand. Really. Still."
"Just like a statue~."

Frelye didn't like to change her own form much—aside from going between 'humanoid' and 'proper dragon' shapes—but she had done it before. She'd had two tips for Thomas: First, that a fire dragon found it easiest to accomplish transformations by 'forging the body in flames', so an earth dragon would probably find it easiest to 'sculpt' a body instead. And second, that it was much easier to figure it out by doing it to someone else first, then apply the same general idea to oneself. That, in turn, required a volunteer...which was why Stella was now standing across from her in Thomas's apartment, trying her best to keep her white-feathered wings from fidgeting around.

Like a statue... If Thomas really were looking at a statue right now...her powers over rock seemed to have enough fine control to just take little pieces off, or add pieces on from elsewhere, and rearrange what was there, to give it a different shape. She hadn't actually done that before, and it probably would've been a good thing to do before this, but this was what she was dealing with now, and it'd be really stupid to back out so soon. Stella was, pointedly, not made of the element she felt she had such fine control over...at least, not mostly. Thomas knew full well that humans were mostly water, and there was no reason Celestials weren't that, too. But if a fire dragon could breathe fire on a person and make them change shape instead of just burning to a crisp, then...

The dragon-girl tried something very, very simple. A height increase of..just a few inches. Her right hand moved as if she was raising a few pebbles up out of the ground to float them in the air. A faint, dark-green glow appeared around Stella's form, and she shuddered slightly for a second before suddenly shooting up half a foot taller, her bust popping out an entire cup size in the process. "Wah~!"

She jumped slightly from the motion, then looked around and down at herself, letting out a slightly relieved giggle: "Pffheheh..."

"Uh, I was going for something more subtle than that," Thomas said.

"But you got it to work!" the winged girl said happily, clapping her hands together a few times. "Rome wasn't built in a day, and not even its lowliest brick was fired in a mere few seconds."

"Okay, point. I did something. First thing I want to know is if I can undo it."
"All right~."

Back to normal, back to normal... Thomas could vaguely remember some kind of quote from a sculptor or something, about how he tended to envision the statue he'd be making as the 'true form' of the block of marble he started out with, which he was simply 'freeing' from all the rest of the stone. So she tried to 'free' Stella from that most recent shift. Her hand waved out in the Celestial's direction, and closed into a fist. Just as suddenly as she'd grown, she went back down to her original size—or, at least, the size Zotha's healing had given her. That had gone..unexpectedly well, given the first attempt.

"Good work! I appear as if unaltered."

"Uh, yeah. Somehow that felt a lot easier to get right."

"Do you know there are two kinds of transformations?" Stella said.
"Whaaat do you mean?"
"One's soul is said to 'remember' one's original form, generally. In the distant past, baleful transformations were always those that did nothing to that memory, and dispelling them allowed one's body to 'snap back' to the original shape that it remembers. On the other hand, Lady Zotha's power is clearly able to alter that true form itself. In addition some beings, like werewolves, can also have multiple 'true forms'."

"Multiple...so, is that what she did for Dai, then? Where he can just go back and forth whenever?"
"I suppose so. It seems like the most likely explanation."

"But—yeah, okay. So I'm not altering your 'true form' here, and that's what makes it easier to put it back how it's supposed to be."
"Most likely," she nodded. "I've no doubt that a dragon's magic is powerful enough to make the deeper change, but you'd have to put much more effort and 'weight' behind your spell to do so."

"Right, okay. That makes me a little more relieved..that I probably can't screw it up so bad I can't fix it."

"I'm glad~. But in that case, we should keep going, should we not?"

"Uh—yeah, you're right. Okay..."

---

It wasn't often that someone was called into the manager's office, and the manager was the one dreading the meeting. But this morning was special. Felix had to push away a deep-seated urge to procrastinate and put it off until the afternoon—but waiting through the entirety of the day before, when he'd been quote-unqoute 'sick', had been bad enough. This conversation needed to happen now. Still...he didn't like it.

A quiet knock came on the door. "Come in," he said, and it opened; Felix tried to put on something resembling a reassuring smile. "Welcome. Uh, please—shut the door and take a seat," he said, gesturing to the chairs in front of his desk.
Now that Onida was standing in front of him, he wondered again: How had he not noticed that tail? Those ears? The fact that she was shorter than before? The shift in hair color was excusable as dye, but the rest of that...and, now that he knew he was a werewolf, somehow he felt sure he recognized her scent from that night, too. Wait, but that meant...!

She took a seat, her face managing to look neutral, but her ears folded partway down with worry. "You, wanted to see me?"
"Uh. Yeah. This, isn't really a professional matter, but it's. I, can't ask you to keep working under me without clearing the air. Okay—I feel like maybe you already know. But, yeah, I didn't. Until, night before last."
"You were..the one who bit Damon," she summarized for him.
"Yeah." He leaned way back, running a hand roughly through the hair on one side of his head. "Ssssheesh, I don't have any idea how to apologize for that! 'I'm sorry' really doesn't cut it, huh?"
"It..you weren't really in control of yourself. You didn't know," Onida said. "It's all right.

"When I first...thought I could chase down, the person who'd brought so much suffering into our lives...I was really angry. But...that was wrong. You're just as much of a victim as my brother. Do you, have any idea how you became a werewolf?"
"Uhh, nope. I can't remember being bitten by anyone, or anything like that. Even though I have been able to remember a bunch of things differently since night before last. Really weird."
"Anyway, you shouldn't feel too guilty. You were..really kind to me, when we were dealing with the worst of it. When he went missing, and...when he returned, too. And in a weird kind of way..it all ended up working out pretty well. So, no hard feelings." She gave a small smile his way.

"So..we're okay, then? I mean—I was prepared to, you know, if you didn't think you'd feel comfortable working for me, I could arrange some kind of transfer.."
"No, please. You're the best boss I've had," she said.

"Including biting your brother?"
"Like I just said, that doesn't count. You didn't have control over that."

"All right. Then—you know, you've been getting a lot done lately. Sorry to interrupt you today, but..we really needed to clear the air about this."

"I agree." She got up, and came close enough to offer him a hand across the desk. "Let's put it behind us, and I can get back to my work."
"Yeah. Sure." He could definitely shake to that agreement...

---

In a study room in the college library, Andrew scrolled through pictures on her laptop of the 'fire escape route' maps of the two buildings the Kitsune wanted to try swapping out. She leaned in hard for a long moment, then back again, splaying her arms out. "Auugh, it's just no good. I can't think of any way to make any of it safe!"

"Um, yeah, sorry. No good ideas here, either." The girl who'd helped them with the rain prank before said with a shrug. "I think we'd need an electrician, a plumber, and someone who can make a bunch of chemistry equipment stay perfectly still during a seismic event...just for starters."

"There has to be a way to do this," Steph said. "Well—I'd like there to be one, at least. I guess there never was a guarantee that Stella's idea could be made practical."

"I wish we could just swap the entrances instead of swapping the buildings," the other girl said.

"Wait." Andrew sat up straight. "What do you mean?"
"Well, uh, you know. Like, in a video game you can swap the loading zone that an entrance goes to," she said, making an 'X' symbol with her index fingers. "So this one goes to that place, and that one goes to the other place? It's pretty much the same as if those two places had swapped locations, like, from the player's perspective?"

"Portals. Zotha can make portals!" Andrew said, spreading her arms out. "That means it's a thing magic can do in general, right!?"

This question was directed toward Steph, the one who'd been raised to know a lot about magic, and he said: "Uh, yeah. Teleportation is definitely a kind of magic, including linking two places. But it's something you have to..figure out how to do. And I think maintaining a portal requires some energy upkeep."

"Let me try.." Andrew stood up, and first just tried a short-range teleportation. With a puff of pink smoke, she disappeared and reappeared in a spot a few feet away—then briefly stumbled around before using her tail to regain her balance. "Okay, that's pretty easy."

"Right, of course. Disappearing to a short distance off is a very fox-ish kind of thing," Steph said. "Good for making a quick getaway after a prank. I'm not sure if the other kind is really in our nature, though."

"Well.." Putting a hand out in front of her, Andrew concentrated on trying to make it where she could step forward..and come out from where the door to the study room was. It took putting a lot of concentrated effort in, but eventually she felt like it had succeeded, and she demonstrated that the portal was working by walking through it.

Still holding her hand out toward the portal's 'entrance', she waved with the other one to Steph. "Hey, see if it works for you, too."
"Sure.." Once Andrew got out of the way, Steph also succeeded in stepping through and winding up coming from the doorway. "It works! But..you look like you're having a hard time keeping it up."
"Ugh..yeah." Andrew dropped her hand (which had just started trembling after Steph stepped through), and took a deep breath as the portal disappeared. "I'm gonna need to practice this. Holding it up feels pretty hard..and I think a longer distance would make it even tougher. I may not..ffh...be powerful enough to keep it up for long enough for the prank to work." She bent over, placing her hands on her knees and panting to try to get her breath back.

"Well—it's not exactly what we originally agreed on...but we do have a certain dragon's promise to help us with this," Steph said. "Dragons are chock full of power. I'd just need to use a spell to let her donate the energy to you, the same way we did for the rainstorm."

"Ooh! And if we swap the 'labels' of the two buildings with an illusion, it'd make the confusion hit even harder..right?" the other Kitsune said.

"Right," Steph said. Yeah—if we can get Toma on board, and pick a good day—I think we could actually do this!"

---

After several successes with minor shifts (although none of them resulted in exactly what she'd been picturing), and with going back to normal each time, Thomas felt ready to try a bigger change. "Okay," she said, rubbing her hands. "You ready?"
"Certainly~," Stella said cheerfully.

"Hhokay. Here goes nothing."

Thomas tried to 'scuplt' Stella's form to a male one. More specifically, she was going for a copy of how she'd have looked originally, when they first met—minus all the injuries, of course. With several motions of her hands matching more or less the various ways the Celestial would need to change to take on that appearance, a faint dark glow appeared around her as before, but this time it steadily grew brighter and brighter until it nearly blocked her body from view.

"Aa~ah..oh, mm~mmh.." Stella's voice deepened and shifted just slightly, as her silhouette within the glow of Thomas's magic shifted around, growing slowly taller and losing its slight curves. When the dragon-girl's efforts came to an end, a soft, barely-male sort of tenor came out with a couple of brief cries: "Ah~! Mmh." Then the glow faded off to reveal..not exactly what Thomas had had in mind.

Stella was male now: A guy with a slender build, a fairly androgynous face, the same long white hair and bright purple eyes, and only slightly below Thomas's height. The only real change to his clothes was the skirt and leggings turning into some baggy knee-length shorts, which left his top fitting kind of close with its hem trailing an inch or two up from where the shorts started. He was physically fit, the tight shirt showing some decent abs, but overall it wasn't quite the tall, broad-shouldered guy Stella had originally been. At the same time, looking over it all, Thomas felt like this slim, cute look suited him very well.

"Errm..it seems to have been a success!" he said, his face flushing red a little bit from the dragon-girl's staring.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Thomas said, making herself look away.
"No, no—that's quite alright. It..brings me a great deal of joy to see you admiring me like that..." He took a couple of steps closer, and gently placed an index finger on her chin to guide her head back to facing him, so her eyes could see his face. "You—wouldn't mind a little kiss, would you?"
"Uh.."

Stella's face looked very similar to that of his usual, female form...but this blushing, semi-shy, expectant smile was a new expression to see on that face. Alongside the request, it made Thomas's cheeks burn and her heart race a little bit. How she'd felt about Stella before had never before...come on quite so strong. "Um—s-sure..." came out of her mouth before she could really think about it.

"Heheh—all right." With that, Stella wrapped his arms around her and placed his lips on hers. That brought on an entirely different reaction.

Thomas had felt briefly nervous and giddy, but as soon as he was holding her and kissing her like that..she grabbed him tightly (not enough to hurt, of course) and started returning the kiss with a demanding intensity and passion. Mine! Her wings spread out to their full size and wrapped themselves around his form, her tail curling forward and twisting itself down around his left thigh. All mine!

"Mmh—!" Stella was definitely surprised by all of this, but didn't seem to mind..he returned the passion of the kiss and held on tight, for as long as both of them could hold their breaths to keep it going.

It took quite a while before the dragon-girl pulled out with a loud smacking sound from their lips, and then quickly turned her head out to the left side, leaning a cheek on one of his. "Uh...hfffh...s-sorry.."
"What ever..f-for?" Stella was no less out of breath than she was.

"I j-just uh..hfffh...that, possessive instinct...really flared up..!"

"I rather enjoyed the experience." Stella reached a hand up and ran it through some of her hair, making her jerk slightly, then shiver. "You are usually...ffffh...so calm, rational, and cautious. I do appreciate all that consideration, but I think I rather like this wild, aggressive side of yours, too. Especially if it's just for me." He pulled her head around gently so that their noses were touching, and his eyes directly in front of hers. "I'm not nearly as fragile as I look, you know~."

"Mmh." With that much of an invitation, Thomas couldn't help grabbing him into another long, deep kiss.

Hunter & Hunted

It was never supposed to go this badly.

Nolan was a professional hunter. He hunted game for exotic restaurants to put on their menus, and he hunted problematic predators: Bears that needed to be put down, or anything like that. His latest commission was to find a wolf that had been continually eating the livestock of a group of farms, and capture it—or kill it, if necessary. This wolf was especially large, by all accounts, and its behavior was a little strange too. It worked alone, for one thing, which was very rare among wolves. And it seemed unusually intelligent; every time the farmers grew more vigilant in one area, it would move on to the next. It seemed to know when their guard was down to go grab its latest meal from their sheep, chickens, goats, or whatever else it could get its paws on.

He'd tracked the wolf into some woods; the size of its tracks matched the claims about its size, despite how unusual they had seemed. He'd brought a crossbow with tranquilizer darts, and a regular bow, and a pistol, and his usual knife. He'd been quiet, careful, worn camouflage, masked his scent. Yet it seemed all of that had not quite been enough.

The sight of the actual beast was something else. He'd thought he was looking at a brown bear, at first, given the thing's size. Regardless, he had enough knockout drugs to put an elephant to sleep, so he thought it wouldn't be a problem. He thought it hadn't noticed him, which was probably his first mistake. Nolan had carefully raised the bow and tried to take a shot, and...the wolf had dodged it. It just suddenly jumped away to one side. Then it turned its full body his way, and its big yellow eyes were practically staring him down—even though it shouldn't have been able to see him! Then it started running in his direction. He fired at it several more times, and it dodged every one. He tried one more shot, nearly point-blank, and seemed to land a hit—but this was somewhat futile, because the wolf had been hit mid-pounce, and it landed on him before he could try to dodge.

As the giant animal's weight hit his body and the crossbow clattered to the ground several feet away from them, he had several thoughts. He should have just dropped it and run after that first miss. He should have gone for a killshot. He should have loaded more drugs into each dart instead of counting on landing multiple hits if the beast was too big for just one. It shouldn't be able to tear into him for too long if the one shot he managed to make had an effect, and maybe...just maybe, he could survive. But while those thoughts were going, his body more or less moved on its own.

He drew his pistol and fired a couple of times, before the animal's paw knocked it out of his hand. Then he got out his knife and started trying to cut its throat. The wolf drew its head up out of his reach—again displaying an unusual amount of intellect—and continued clawing at him, tearing through his clothes and his skin. Keeping the thing from biting his face or neck did let Nolan survive a little longer, but it seemed increasingly likely that he was just going to bleed out if the wolf didn't finish him sooner. He fought as hard and long as he could to get free, despite feeling that the effort was entirely futile.

There was a small flash of hope when the wolf suddenly, without warning, collapsed. The knockout drug...had worked after all? Or maybe he'd inflicted more wounds than he thought with the gun and knife. But now Nolan had a new problem: He was, himself, very badly wounded, much of his strength spent, and the giant animal lying on top of him was too heavy for him to move. He grunted, trying three or four times, without making any headway. He could feel the beast's shallow, ragged breath across the side of his face—it wasn't dead, and it would wake up in only a few hours. Would Nolan even be alive by then?

He seemed to have lost a lot of blood...he felt kind of lightheaded. Nolan tried one last time to shove the animal off of him, with no success. He thought, desperately, as he started to lose consciousness: I want to live...!

This was when something very, very bizarre happened—bizarre enough that Nolan thought perhaps he was starting to hallucinate, or had already lost consciousness and was dreaming his final dream. The giant animal lying on top of him..started to glow. A bright yellow light surrounded its body, and then seemed to swallow it up, turning it into a brilliant silhouette. And then there was a blinding flash from that light, and..the wolf was gone! He could no longer see it, nor feel any part of its body or fur on top of him.

Also, Nolan suddenly felt..better? He breathed in and out slowly a couple of times, feeling less faint and more conscious, and then slowly sat up and looked around, trying to take stock of what had just happened. The wolf..wasn't anywhere he could see. Looking down, he found his clothes just as torn-up as before, but his wounds...seemed to be in the process of closing themselves at an impossibly rapid rate.

"Uh..what..?" he mumbled softly, his sense of confusion only growing stronger. He reached a hand up to his forehead as he felt a slight headache coming on. Thinking back on the last several minutes, he thought he could remember...seeing himself from far away, running up toward himself, from a lower perspective. Shaking his head slightly to try to clear it, and trying to make sense of this memory, he felt sure it had to be what the wolf would've seen! But..why would..?

Nolan shuddered slightly at this point, feeling a sharp tingling sensation race down his spine. At the bottom, this continued, joined by a strange sort of stretching feeling, like there was a limb right there that had been cramped up before. On top of that, his ears went through some similarly intense tingling, then stretching, prompting him to reach a hand up and touch one to try to comprehend what was happening. "Aah!" He jerked slightly in place as his hand found soft hairs all over an ear that was bigger than it was supposed to be, and at the same time the ear itself proved terribly sensitive to his hand's touch. "I..w-wha..?" He ran his hand along the ear to try to comprehend what was happening, and only felt the hairs growing longer, and the ear getting bigger. On top of that, he felt something from beyond the base of his spine, covered in a mass of long hairs, moving along the ground behind him as it continued to stretch out. When he turned around to look, he caught sight of a mobile, growing tail!

The strangest thing about finding a tail presently growing from his back was that it made Nolan feel a little bit less confused. His first thought was, oh, that's just my tail, and it required a mental double-take for him to realize it should've been why am I growing a tail!? But then his ears stretched out a little more, and the one his hand was still touching ran across his fingers, drawing an odd sound from his lips. "R-rrfh..!" But—barking was perfectly normal too, wasn't it? He was starting to get another slight headache. He moved his hand from the ear to his forehead.

Just as the tingling started to fade off of his now-huge ears and a fluffy tail covered in deep brown fur, which was now at least two-thirds the length of an arm, it seemed to spread down from the base of those ears across Nolan's scalp. He shuddered slightly, finding this sensation odd but difficult to focus on. He was remembering..hearing the sound of a projectile coming toward him, and moving quickly to dodge. And then, before that, a whole day before that of being a big, fur-covered wolf, wandering the forest. And the day before that, and a week, and a month...

"I..I-I'm..?" His confused stammering was interrupted by the feeling of hair tickling his cheeks, and falling across the back of his hand that was still on his forehead. "W-wha..?" Turning his head around and feeling with that hand, Nolan discovered hair that was now long enough to touch his shoulders, and was still rapidly growing longer and more voluminous in the back. Besides that, the tingling had spread down past his face to his neck, and now was steadily flowing its way down the rest of his body. His hand happened to move from his hair to his cheek at about this point, and found the skin there surprisingly soft and smooth, all traces of his beard completely gone. That was weird, he thought at first—shouldn't he have more fur instead of less? But...fur? No, he wasn't supposed to have any fur!

Nolan shook his head, feeling even more dazed and confused as he argued with himself. He could remember watching humans try to guard their flocks, keeping track of the ones most likely to slack off or doze, stalking in at just the opportune time of night, coming away with a sheep or goat and gorging himself on it for nearly a week. But that wasn't right..? Or...was it?

"A-aah..?" He found himself shuddering again, just as the tingling finished flowing down through his ankles and feet, the part that hit his toes beginning to fade. He felt..a pressure starting to build all around his body, making him feel strangely tight. It made him pull his knees up to his chest and hug his arms around them, shuddering. "W-wa~aah...rr-rfh..!" His voice cracked strangely, and a higher-pitched bark than before came from his lips, as he found himself becoming..decidedly smaller. The strange pressure pushed his body inward, making him shorter and slimmer all over. He could see, and feel, his arms and legs slimming and weakening; his clothes fell loose around him as his frame collapsed inward, his shoulders narrowing. "Aah, a~aah..r-rfh..y-yip!" He couldn't help making noises this whole time, and every single one came out in a higher pitch than the last. His heart was racing, his face burning with a blush, and he was starting to feel a sharp tingling..down between his legs!

"A-aa~ah..wah, w-why~yYYyy..aah, aa~aah..!" Nolan felt deeply confused as he kept steadily shrinking. He was...supposed to be bigger and stronger, not smaller and weaker! Every part of him seemed to agree with this, and yet his body and voice seemed determined to contradict these thoughts.

"Rr-rfh..!" The tingling between his legs progressed into a tugging, slipping sensation as the pressure began to ease off, his body having reduced to a small, slight thing with slender arms and legs. He slowly relaxed his arms and legs, but he still felt very excited, his whole body hot. "Aa~ah..hff, ffh, hff..!" He was panting rapidly, his ears going low out to the sides of his head and the new(?) tail wagging back and forth behind him, as he felt his manhood slipping away. All because...he...enjoyed it? This feeling..! Even though he—that is, the wolf—had always been male..!

Nolan gasped, and then let out a high, helpless, "Aa~aaah...rr-RRRFFH..!" as his last bit of maleness melted away down between his legs. "AAAH! Hffh...aaAAaaAAAHH..!" Then there was a rush of feelings from down there, as womanhood formed rapidly into place, and finally a deeply pleasant, fuzzy feeling. "M-mnnNNNnngh...r-rrfh..!" She shivered again, not because of any chills or tingling, but from sheer enjoyment. At the same time, the new girl could feel her hips gently puffing out, her thighs growing a little thicker, and her chest tingling sharply before quickly springing to life. "Aa~aah..mm~mmh..." The feeling of her nipples spreading forward, growing a pair of bumps of terribly sensitive skin out behind them, was exciting her newfound womanhood too. "O-ooh...hfffh...mrr~rrfh.." Even if it was a fairly short-lived feeling, she enjoyed it immensely, and it left her with a nice pair of breasts to match her new small, cute form with its girly figure.

She collapsed onto her back, and was left panting, gasping for air, for a long moment. Then, slowly, she sat back up and looked around and down at herself, trying to take stock. her clothes...had shrunk. Shifted. They were still torn up from the fight, but suddenly all of her gear and thick clothes had been replaced by a tight pair of pants and a close-fitting shirt. "W-wha..?" she was still feeling very confused. And now, her ears twitched, picking up the sound of someone approaching.

Her first thought was: Oh no, is it a hunter? She felt so small, weak, and defenseless now...she'd have to get up and run. But she couldn't even get herself upright before the owner of the footsteps appeared from behind a tree: A man, reasonably fit and about average height, with black hair. He was considerably better-dressed for being out in the forest than she now was.

"Helloo?" he called, coming closer. "I thought I heard a gunshot out this way...oh, what happened to you, miss?"

"I-I.." She struggled to come up with an answer, the 'human' and 'wolf' sides of her memory giving conflicting suggestions on what to even do.

"Are you in any pain? Looks like your clothes, at least, took a beating."

"N-no, I. I'm not hurt. I-I'm a hunter!" she managed finally.

"A hunter?" He knelt in front of her to get his eyes at her level. "You don't look too well-prepared for being out in this forest."

"I..I don't know, what happened to my weapons, b-but, I can take care of myself," she said.

"You sure? It really looks like you've had a rough time." He stood up straight again, and offered her a hand. "Can you walk? C'mon, I'm a local doctor around these parts. I'd like to make sure you're okay."

"I-I-I.." Nolan's face was flushing red, her heart beating fast again...! And her tail was wagging! What was happening? Well, this guy was...cute..! Especially that sweet, concerned expression he had turned her way just now. But..that wasn't right at all! So rather than taking his hand, she hopped up to her feet all-at-once on her own. "D-d-don't treat me like I'm helpless! I'm a wild animal, I'll bite you!" This second part she blurted out suddenly, and only realized how absurd it was afterward. She'd shrunk so much..this guy would've been slightly shorter than her before—than human-her at least—and now her eye level was at his broad, manly chest. She had to tilt her head up to actually address him to his face. "I mean—I'm a perfectly functional adult! And I'm not hurt. My name's Nolan."

The doctor tilted his head. "That's an odd name for a girl..but all right. You at least seem a little confused, maybe you got a concussion and didn't realize it? If you can walk, I'd really like to take a look and make sure you're okay."

"I-I..uh.." With that look of genuine kindness and concern on his face, she just couldn't reject his offer. "A-alright. B-but I can walk on my own! S-s-so don't, try to do anything weird, or I will bite you, seriously!"

"Hahah, okay okay," he nodded. "The way out's back where I came from," he said with a gesture.

"I-I know that! You think I'm stupid?" she said. Although, the reason she knew...was it because she'd studied maps before coming to hunt the wolf, or because lived in these woods for a long time? It was...both???

"No, of course not. Anyway—my home's not too far from the edge."

After that, they started walking. The wolf-girl's stride was much shorter than she was used to—in either side of her conflicted sense of self—but she seemed to have enough energy to take two or three times as many steps, and so kept up with the doctor.

"I suppose I can see why you might be uncertain about things around here," he said, "we don't have too many beastfolk. Oh—is threatening to bite people just a cultural thing? I hope I haven't been too insensitive."

"Cultural? No, I will bite you if I don't like what you're doing!" she said first. Then: "I mean I—I don't know why I keep saying that. I wasn't, I haven't bitten anyone since I was like three years old. Except—I mean..? I..?" She wanted to contradict herself immediately: After all, she—the wolf—had bitten the hunter...which was now also her. But how could she tell him that she'd bitten herself? That wouldn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense to her!

"All right, all right," he chuckled. And she felt a little insulted—was he not taking a dangerous wild animal like her seriously!? "Anyway, my name's Angelo. Nice to meet you, miss Nolan."

"Uh.." Miss!? she thought. But then—she was, undeniably, very much female now. "Uh, s-same..." she half-mumbled.

As they came out of the edge of the forest, Angelo pointed. "My place is just down that way, a little farther. Are you still okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine!" she said. In fact, even though she felt terribly weak now, her body still seemed to have as much stamina as ever, if not even more. Still, she was kind of looking forward to going somewhere indoors, and maybe getting something to eat. Right away she remembered nostalgically the taste of raw meat..but she quickly shook her head. No, she was a human, and wanted something properly cooked! But...meat sounded really good right now either way...

"So, what brought you out this way in the first place?" Angelo asked.

"Like I said—" Nolan cut herself off, and made herself take a deep breath. Snapping at this guy wasn't making her more believable; however insane the thing that had happened to her was, she needed to present it as rationally as possible. "You—you live around here, right? You must have heard about the big wolf stealing people's livestock, then."
"Oooh, yeah. I remember hearing they'd hired someone to capture it or take it down." Angelo sighed slightly. "A real shame, in my opinion. That wolf must be a beautiful, clever creature; treating it like a monster to be slain is terrible."
Beautiful!? Nolan's face flushed again, and she had to take a moment to catch her breath. Even though..it wasn't her he'd called beautiful. Or, it was only sort of her, now. "Uh, y-yeah, but he..it was doing people a lot of harm. So—that's, me. I'm the hunter who was, hired to do that. Except, something really weird happened, and now I'm, I'm like this."

"I see..." Did Angelo believe her? His response was too neutral to tell. "Anyway—here we are, home sweet home." They'd arrived at the front door of his house. "Let me just, get the door now..."

After leading her a short distance inside, Angelo turned around, looking the short wolf-girl up and down. She felt her ears lowering, her tail wagging...and, simultaneously, an urge to pounce at and bite him. He said, "Well, you really do look uninjured. You're ambulatory for certain, don't seem to be having any pain or exhaustion from all that walking. You just seem a little confused...you haven't felt dizzy or lightheaded, have you? Any headaches?"
"No, not at all," she said, shaking her head; this was a slight lie, with the tiny headaches she'd had while the wolf's memories rushed into place. Knowing that that look had been to assess whether she was okay made her feel equal parts pleased and disappointed. Was it her 'wolf' side that had wanted him to like her, or her 'human' one? No, both felt the same way...this conflict was entirely separate from that one!

"Let's see now..maybe you can take a seat in the living room?" Angelo said, turning and trying to lead the way into his living room. It took Nolan a good several seconds to realize he'd moved and hurry after him. Then she sat pointedly far away from where he did, leaving her on a chair and him in the middle of a couch.

"So..how would you say you're 'like', and what weird thing happened, exactly?" he asked.

"Oh—well. F-first of all, I'm. A girl? And I, I wasn't before! A-a-and I keep thinking..feeling like I'm. The wolf. You know, the one I was hunting. It's like I can remember everything from hi—from its perspective. To the point where I, can't tell the difference between me and him at all."

"That is pretty weird. I guess some kind of magical event happened?" Angelo said. Despite 'magical event' sounding absurd, he said it as though it were a perfectly normal, clinical term.
"Well, it was. I fought—we were fighting, I mean. I tried to shoot me—to shoot the wolf! With a tranq dart, and I dodged it and jumped on me and tried to kill me. We tried to kill each other. I think, I feel like, we should've succeeded. But then, the wolf was unconscious and there was this flash, and it was gone! And then I, turned into this," she said, gesturing to herself emphatically.

"I see..." Angelo nodded, looking obviously interested. "Definitely some kind of magical event. That wolf was known to be unusually smart and strong. Ah, maybe he was one of those 'magical creatures' you hear about now and then!"

Nolan's head tilted hard. "Magical...creatures?" In all her time as a hunter, she'd never heard of such a thing.
"Yeah, you know. Usually cats, or foxes. But a magical wolf isn't unimaginable. They're usually really smart, maybe as much as a person. And they're supposed to be able to 'merge' with humans to become a single being, if both parties agree to it."

"Buh..but I didn't agree to any of this! A-and, I was male! I mean, the wolf was male, and Nolan was male. So why..?"

Angelo shrugged. "I guess you'd have to ask a mage that question. I couldn't guess, beyond 'magic is weird'. As for the agreement, well, do you remember what you—either of you—were thinking, just before all that happened?"

"Well..." The wolf-girl turned her head to one side, thinking. "It was...I was pretty sure I was dying, and that I was dying. I mean—both of me. And I thought—I just want to live. I don't want to die here. Now that I think of it, the wolf was, thinking that too."
"Ah, see? So, you may not have made a very formal agreement, but both of you were desperate, and wanted 'the same thing', to some extent. Maybe that's enough?" Angelo said.

"Maybe..." She put a hand on the side of her head. "Ooh, having two sets of memories is a headache. And, I'm gonna have to figure out all kinds of things with my body being completely different now..."
"I can imagine. Well, at least the 'wolf problem' is taken care of now, even if in a very unconventional manner? So you might still get paid," Angelo said. "Anyway, maybe you can put off figuring all that out until tomorrow. The sun's close to setting now, so..perhaps I can put you up for the night? Share some supper?"

Food! Meat!! The wolf-girl suddenly remembered how hungry she was, and suddenly sat up very straight. "Uh. Th-that'd be really nice of you. I-if you don't mind..."

"Yeah, sure," he said, giving her a kind smile that made her heart skip a beat. Then he got up and started across the room toward the kitchen. He paused in front of her for a second, looking down at her.

"W-what!?" She was getting that pleased/upset emotion all over again.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Just the strangest..." He backed up a couple of steps. "I had this odd temptation to pet you for a second. Really sorry, I know that'd be pretty inappropriate," he said, continuing on toward the kitchen at a safe distance away from her.

"Y-yeah! I'm not a pet, like I told you—and now you know I'm a wolf!" she called after him. "You don't pet wild predators if you wanna keep your hand!" But she was also very disappointed that he hadn't done it...

Supper was good, and did include a healthy portion of well-cooked, well-seasoned meat! Angelo spent some of the time talking about himself, how he'd been hired on as a local doctor for the people nearby. In turn, Nolan managed to sort out her thoughts enough to talk about her past, human, life and interests without getting it too tangled up in her memories of being a wolf. He didn't seem to think it was a big deal that he was getting groceries and minor favors from most of his patients in place of actual payments, even though it sounded like he could be making a very generous salary in an actual hospital in a city or something.

"So...I don't have too much around here to do," Angelo said, getting up and taking the plates. "Just some books..but I think the medical ones would just bore you."

"I wouldn't understand them," Nolan agreed. "Besides, I...a big part of me just wants to curl up and go to sleep right now. I think, 'merging' or whatever, is exhausting."
"Almost dying certainly is," Angelo said. "That is a medical fact," he added with a slight grin.

"Heehee..." A small giggle escaped the wolf-girl's lips while she stood up. "S-still, I wouldn't mind talking for just a little longer first," she said, starting toward the living room.

"Yeah, sure. Err—I wouldn't mind sleeping on the couch if you'd like a bed."
She put her hands on her hips. "Don't start that 'chivalry' garbage with me! I've been a man all my life, and slept in the grass more than half of it! I'll sleep on the couch or the chair just fine!"
"Hahah, okay okay. I'm sorry if I insulted you. It's just..still a little hard to believe, looking at you, I guess."
"Hmph..." Nolan huffed and continued on her way. But her cheeks were hot again, and her tail wagging. She went back to the chair and leaned back, yawning quietly. The running water and clinking from Angelo cleaning dishes in the kitchen should have been noisy enough to bother her, but instead she found it kind of soothing. Maybe...a short nap until he finished up wouldn't hurt. She closed her eyes and dozed off for a moment...

Those noises ceasing stirred her partway out of sleep, and the sound of Angelo's footsteps coming in from the kitchen brought her up into near-consciousness. She was aware enough of her surroundings to know he was standing over her like before...and that part of her that had wanted him to pet her was much more awake than the part that wanted him to stay away. If only he'd...!

And...! He did! "Mrrfh..?" The wolf-girl awoke a little more fully to the feeling of a man's hand gently rubbing the base of her ears. "Aa~aah...mm~mmh.." She leaned up and forward slightly into the petting, feeling her tail start to wag as she came up into full consciousness. Only..when she blinked her eyes open and looked back up at him, that other part of her was back at full force.

Angelo had stopped short. "Uh.." he drew his hand off of her ears, seeing her expression, but that was hardly enough. All of a sudden, Nolan was very mad.

It was just...he didn't know what it was like! To suddenly find himself a girl, and part-animal, and want someone to pet him! And to..enjoy the whole process, of changing and her looks being admired, and someone putting their hands on her fur! It wasn't fair that she had to put up with all of these weird feelings, and he could just take advantage of them!!!

That sudden burst of thoughts expressed itself in the form of Nolan pulling herself suddenly forward and upward, opening her mouth wide and snapping it down around his hand. The bite only lasted a second or so before she realized what she was doing and let go, quickly falling back into the chair. "Aack!"
"Owh.." Angelo winced, shaking his hand around briefly before bringing it up toward his face to examine at it for injuries.

"I-I-I told you!" she said first. "I said I would bite you! E-even though I really didn't mean to! It's just, I was half asleep and you were—and I was—!"

"Uh, i-it's okay. I really shouldn't have done that," he said. "At least..it doesn't look like you broke the skin, even though those fangs are awfully sharp."

"Um, tha-that's good," she said. "J-just don't..."

"Huh?" He dropped his hand to look at her, because she'd suddenly trailed off. She'd been about to tell him not to do it again when something strange had caught her eye. "What's wrong?"
"Y..your hair.." she said, raising a hand to point. It had grown several inches longer in a matter of seconds, and was continuing to grow, his locks beginning to fall down across the sides of his face.

"My..huh..?" He reached a hand up to feel it. "That's...stra~ange.." Angelo's voice cracked slightly mid-word. "A-and...huh.." Then he shuddered slightly. "O-oh..I..I'm starting to feel pretty we~eird.." His voice cracked again, coming back a little higher in pitch afterward. Nolan could see his face's complexion shifting now, turning softer and smoother as the bits of facial hair he had thinned and shortened themselves out of existence. His pitch-black hair was now down across his shoulders, fully framing his face with some long bangs, and showed no signs of slowing down in the back.

But Angelo had much worse problems to worry about than hair care. "A-aa~aa~aaah..!" He suddenly shrank, no less than half a foot all at once. At the same time, his voice rapidly changed, the masculinity draining out of it and leaving him sounding quite boyish by the end. His shrinking was not only vertical, as his shirt seemed to hang in the air where it had fit him for a second before falling down very loosely around a body that was suddenly much slimmer than before. He staggered backwards, his pants slipping off of him and landing on the floor before he fell back onto the couch.

"Aa~ah, aa~ah, aa~aa~AA~AAAAAAH...!" No sooner had his butt landed than he shrank again, this burst lasting longer and doing even more damage than last time. His voice landed at a soft, mid-range alto, entirely a girl's voice, and his shirt became too long for his arms and slipped off of one of his shoulders, its hem coming down to his upper thighs. He was now only a few inches taller than Nolan!

"W-whaa~aah..I-I..m-mnngh..!" Angelo mumbled confusedly, shuddering again, as his face grew increasingly red with a blush. His still-growing hair began to land on the sides of the couch, and now his ears suddenly poked out past it on the sides of his head. They were now a pair of black-furred, fuzzy triangles with white fuzz inside them, and were quickly growing bigger and fluffier. "Aa~ah..rr-r-fh..!" What Nolan half-feared was happening now proved to be true, as Angelo let out a soft bark. His mouth was open wide enough to make out his canines rapidly growing into long spikes—fangs, just like hers. "Rr~rrfh..!" And now a black-furred tail pushed its way out too, forcing its way down and forward past his bottom to appear hanging down between his legs.

"Aa~ah..o-oo~OOO~Ooohh..!" Angelo shivered, his ears lowering out to the sides of his head. Nolan could actually smell the change of sex happening somehow, and it was only a brief moment before there were two wolf-girls sitting in that living room. "A~ah..rr-rfh...o-oo~oohh.." The new girl's hips and thighs began to push visibly out wider and thicker.

"M-mah, m-my, I-I'mmMMMMMMmmmmMMMMMhhh..!" She tried valiantly to form some kind of sentence, but only wound up groaning in pleasure, as a pair of small bumps from her chest pushed out big enough to lift her shirt a little bit. And then, "Rr~rrfh! Aah, aahh..!" They began to grow bigger..and bigger..! "Oo~oh..oh, ah—aAAaah!" Angelo squirmed around in place, rubbing her legs together, as she grew rapidly bustier and bustier. "Rr-rfh..y-yip! A-arfh..!" Her voice proved itself to have quite a range, too, as some of the canine noises coming from her lips sounded just like those of a small puppy. "AA~AAAHHhhffh..!" Her own puppies grew to what must have been C or D-cup size without showing any signs of stopping. But only a little after that, they did slow down, then gradually settled themselves into an enormous pair of globes, impossible to miss even under her now-very-loose shirt.

"R-rrfh...aa~aah..." Like Nolan before, Angelo was left panting briefly before she could gather herself. Her eyes had, at some point, turned a bright, piercing shade of red; she blinked them a couple of times before looking around the room briefly in a confused daze, and then slowly turning her gaze downward, at her own girly, curvy body. "I-I...uh..?"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!?"

"Uh—um." Nolan wasn't sure what to do or say about this. It had all happened so suddenly!
Angelo seemed to agree on that point, at least. She hopped to her feet. "I-I turned into a wolf-girl, like you! I—I've got boobs and a—! A-and furry ears and a tail! A-and my underpants turned into..uh..!" Her face flushed red all over again, as she seemed to realize her tail—which was now waving out high behind her—was pulling her shirt almost far up enough for Nolan to see just what her underwear had become. And she quickly put both her hands on the front of the shirt to try to prevent that. "H-h-how did this happen!?'

"I-I don't know!" Nolan said, hopping to her feet herself.
"Did you curse me or something?" she asked, risking letting go of the front of her shirt with one hand to point forward. "M-magic animals are supposed to have those kinds of powers too!"

"I, I don't—I didn't mean to! But I did bite you..!"

"And you were really upset at me, too! Oh, no...I, th-then this is my fault. I knew better than to just pet you unsolicited...!"

"I, b-but I kinda. Wanted you to! Even though...even though—I thought it was unfair, that you didn't have to go through all the weird things I did."

"W-well I guess this is weird enough, huh?" Angelo said, putting her arms out to the sides.
"I-I'm sorry..." Nolan lowered her ears apologetically, bowing her head and frowning.

"Oh...oh no..!" Angelo dropped her arms again and shuffled slightly closer. "I-I didn't mean to make you feel bad. I-it must've just been an accident, after all. A-and it was completely my fault. A-a-a-and anyway..um.."
"'Anyway'?" Nolan asked, turning her head upward slightly. Angelo was...blushing very brightly! And despite the fact that she probably didn't want it to keep flipping her shirt up right now, her tail was wagging vigorously away behind her.

"I-it was...the feeling of changing was, strangely pleasurable.." she said. "I-it's kind of nice to be able to look you right in the eye like this..y-your face is so cute~..." Each sentence came out a little quieter and more shyly than the last. And her expression was the same kind, gentle look as before, only now...!

Nolan's heart raced. She stepped closer. "I-it's really weird, to be called cute, you know...e-even more that I want to. Especially, if you're the one saying it. W-well, now you're cute too, s-so how's that!"

"I-I'm...cuu~uute.." Angelo mumbled softly, her head turned downward slightly to look the shorter wolf-girl in the eyes. They differed by just a few inches or so; turning her head like that wouldn't be necessary if they weren't standing so close.

"Y-yeah! S-so you'd better get used to it!" Nolan said, then suddenly, aggressively pounced up the small distance to pull herself around the bigger girl in a hug—one that had their chests squished together, and their faces right across from each other.

"I-I...oh, oo~ooh..." Angelo's voice went low, her blush getting even worse as her ears lowered down to point out the sides of her head. Nolan's ears were in much the same position, and she was feeling...about as hot as she had right near the end of her own transformation. "I-I think..I really could get used to this~..." she said, her deeper voice succeeding in making this statement sound extremely sexy to Nolan. At the same time, she wrapped her arms around the smaller girl.

"Uh. Um. Uh." Nolan felt extremely flustered by all of that, but also felt a strong urge to be the one in charge here. She was...a man. A former man, and a wolf! A—former—big, strong, predatory wolf, after all. "A-a-and, this too..!" she said, reaching her hands up to start rubbing Angelo's ears. They were so soft and fluffy, and the big, curvy, busty wolf-girl's reaction to this touch was—to yip softly, then bury her nose in Nolan's cheek.

"Rr-r~rrfh..! O-oh...I-I think I might actually..arfh...l-like this curse quite a bit...!" she said, slowly stumbling backwards before falling back onto the couch—with Nolan now on top of her. Then she reached up and started petting the smaller girl's ears.

"Aa~ah—!" This time, there was no conflict at all. A burst of fuzzy, girly feelings hit her right between the legs, and she pushed her nose hard into the bigger girl's cheeks, starting to nuzzle her back. "M-mrrfh..rrfh..!" She couldn't talk right now if her life depended on it...! All that came out were those high, cute puppy noises.

"M-mrr~rrfh..." But the same seemed to be true of her 'pet'...or maybe her 'master'. "Ooo~ooh..." Aside from the occasional deep, womanly groan, that is. Angelo slowly sank and twisted around until she was lying on her back across the couch, Nolan on top of her. They stayed in this position for a long time...and neither of them wound up sleeping in the hostess's bed.

Within a few days, everyone came to know the village doctor by a brand new appearance, and a slightly different name: Angela. And they were more than happy to welcome a career huntress, a short wolf-girl by the name of Nolan, as a member of their community, too.

---

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted something, hasn't it? Well, I've been pretty busy. I've actually been doing a lot of writing, however, and have it in mind to dump a lot of what I have in one lump across this next week or two.

One thing that I've been busy with lately, although this is far from the only thing that's delayed publishing more things, is improving the tools I use to make generated images. The pictures used for this very story are some of the fruits of those efforts. I'll emphasize again that I am not an artist in any reasonable sense of the word; I can't even claim to have done any of the work of building the tools I used to get these images generated. But I'm still very pleased with the results, and find them extremely helpful for writing more stories and things. Hopefully you're happy with the results, too.

This was going to be a caption to come back with, but of course its length got to be a little much, and really I didn't feel like it would flow as well as two separate captions/stories. For a one-off, I guess the distinction is kind of arbitrary anyway.