A Summoning, Part XLIX

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Part XLIX
~Sun~

The green-haired dragon-girl showed up to the game session Sunday afternoon slightly late, with a small smile on her face.

"Welcome, welcome," Zotha said, waving her inside. "I've got some food ready~."

"Hey, you look like you're in a pretty good mood," Dai said from his position already slouched way back on what had become his usual couch ever since their venue changed to the goddess's domain.

Thomas shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Things have been going well with Stella lately, and..just life in general I guess. Also: Watch this..." Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes, she clasped her hands together, pressing their palms hard against each other. And then...with a dark green glow around her body, her form shifted, quickly losing its curves and gaining some height, until Thomas had turned into more or less a draconic version of how he had looked before Zotha awakened him. His hair was still the same shade of green, and his eyes still very much non-human.

"Oh, you figured out how to transform yourself!"

"Nice work," the goddess said, applauding. "I suppose Frelye's advice really came in handy."

"Yeah—thank you for that," he said, looking over at her. His friend's appearance had grown increasingly mercurial in the last couple of weeks, and right now she was looking fairly draconic herself: scaly wings, scaly tail, razor-sharp teeth lining her mouth. "Although—Stella definitely helped me the most," he said, putting a hand behind his head. "She let me uh..experiment on her first."
"Oh, yeah?" Dai sat up. "It looks like you had some fun with that too, hahah!" he said, having not missed the slight blush appearing on his friend's face.

Thankfully, his response to this ribbing wasn't nearly as violent as it had been at one lunch recently. He just shrugged and said, "Yeah, yeah...let's get on with it, huh?" He went over and grabbed some meat, stuffing it into his mouth without really thinking about it. He was...kind of getting used to everything that came with being a dragon, it seemed.

---

Early Saturday afternoon, Graham walked up behind her granddaughter, coming up beside her to grab her into a brief hug. Rachel's feline ears were perfectly capable of hearing her trying to sneak up, so she'd set her pencil down well ahead of the 'attack', and happily returned the hug from the kitchen chair. "Hey there, little genius. Still working on your homework, I suppose?" Graham asked, then let go and took a couple of steps back.

"Yeah, but I think I'll be done by suppertime. You off to—hey, has your tail finished splitting?"

"Hmmn, not quite," she said, shaking her head. "I checked it in the shower this mornin'—still an inch or two left, I think." But from her front, it did look like two completely separate tails. "Anyhow, yes, I was just about to go, uh, 'hang out' with Damon for a bit. Oughta be back by suppertime, or you can call to remind me if I'm not."
"Okay. I should be fine here, so—have fun!"
"Sure..." Graham paused a moment in place, then quickly put out her hand to gently ruffle Rachel's hair a bit. "Heheh! See you later, dear!"
"Yeah, same!"

---

Jess's whole 'make new friends' concept had gone reasonably well Thursday night, Prama decided. Maybe she was onto something; Fel was kind of a weirdo, but not so bad to talk with—and she might even be a decent business contact if they ever figured out who she really was. Right, just like Jess had said: If Prama wanted the idea she'd been cooking for a while to work...ironically, she'd need to get more comfortable around people anyway. Maybe today was the right day to propose it to Boreas...if she seemed to be in a good enough mood, at least.

Since she didn't share a lunch time on Fridays with anyone she knew all that well, she'd been either ducking out to her dorm room, finding a corner to eat alone, or—what she considered the worst case—hanging out with some of the 'lower ranking' former cult members, just listening to their chatter and quietly mumbling in response. Today was the day to put an end to that. She would sit with someone she didn't know, and actually talk to them! Somehow.

After putting together her tray of food, she went looking around, trying to decide what the best approach to take was. Well, the place was quite busy this time of day, so a lot of tables were packed with people. She really didn't feel ready to deal with more than one or two strangers right now, at least in terms of an actual conversation. Eventually she managed to pick out a good target: A guy sitting at a booth alone. There were very few open seats near that spot, and zero open tables, so he'd believe the excuse that she just wanted somewhere to sit. So she walked up in front of the booth and...

And...

Stood there for at least an entire minute. It was bad enough that she was feeling too shy to say anything, but he seemed to be entirely inattentive to his surroundings, instead just staring down at his food as he ate. Prama thought Notice me! at least two or three times in his general direction during that time period, but evidently Jess and Zotha's telepathy had still failed to rub off onto her. There was simply nothing else for it. If she wanted to sit here and eat...if she wanted to meet this new person...she'd have to be the one to say something first.

"Uh, um." Well, that was a start, at least. She turned out to be close enough, and his hearing good enough, that her quiet stammering caught his attention. He looked up at her, and she felt her heart rate pick up involuntarily. He had dark brown hair and eyes, a basically average build, a fairly handsome face. Looked like there was some Japanese in his family tree.
"Oh, hey, sorry. You, need a seat?" he said, gesturing to the spot across from him. Prama silently nodded. "Go ahead, I won't bother ya."

She slid into the seat across from him, mulling over that last statement. That meant..if she wanted bother, if she wanted a conversation, she would have to initiate it. That was bad! She still couldn't even squeeze a full word out! Besides, he was at least halfway finished eating by now, so if she took too long to try to say something, he'd just silently get up and leave.

Prama took a long sip of her drink, trying to steel herself. "Uh—P. Pr. Praah."
"Huh?" He looked up at her, which made it even worse; she jumped slightly. "Oh, sorry, thought you were talking to me."
"P-p-prama!" she forced out, maybe a little too loud. And then squeaked—maybe he didn't entirely hear this part but made it out from context—"is my name."

"Oh. Logan," he said. "Nice to meet you, I guess."
"Mmh."

After taking a few bites of food, and hoping that saying something to him already would make her a little less nervous, she tried to say some more. "I, I'm. En, engineering major. T-though, I'm th-thinking about adding business. A-advertising. A-and I'm working...um. An internship." The last hesitation was more because she wasn't sure about this guy's position relative to the veil, and needed a way to say she was an apprentice alchemist that wouldn't sound insane.

"Wow, that's a lot. I'm just doing web dev," Logan said. "Uh, are you sure you're okay? You don't have to force yourself to talk to me."
"N-no, it's. I-I have some..issues, but I need to get over them," she said.
He sort of tilted his head with a concerned look. "I know people say it's good to try to heal mental problems and stuff, but like, not everyone can, right?"

"Th-this is definitely...I-I'm perfectly n-n-nnnnnnnnnnnnnnormal, around people I already kn. Know," she said.

"Okay, okay."

She tried to engage her genius mind, as a way to talk more normally. That had worked with Fel the night before, and entirely by accident. What had he just said? Web dev....web dev! She needed someone who could do web dev! Not that she couldn't figure out how to make a website functional by herself, but if she had access to someone whose entire education was in that...!

"Y-you, uh. What classes, does your major involve? M, mostly programming?"
"Oh, nah," Logan shook his head slightly. "I'm actually doing tons of art classes, more than anything else. Some of my friends say I'm doing 'graphic design lite'. But, I've got just enough of a logical brain to make that HTML-five work properly...most of the time."

"Do you. Have a plan for after gruh. Graduation? Jobs lined up?"
"Oooh, not exactly," he said with a slight, performative wince. "I mean—it's my junior year right now, and if I fail out of one of my tough classes, I'm gonna be a super-senior before I need to worry about that," Logan said. "I've been to some job fairs and stuff; it sounds like it won't be that hard. But...I dunno, I guess an internship like you've got would be better? It's just a little too much work for me, all at once."

He might have thought he was being self-deprecating, but so far Logan was saying exactly what Prama wanted to hear. "Wh. What class, exactly?" She was stammering less and less..good!

"Huh?"
"Which class are you having trouble with?"
"Oh..uh. Math. Hahah, like I said, I have 'just enough' of a logical brain, sooo...not that much."

"I do..."

Prama had kind of mumbled that last statement to herself, so of course he hadn't heard it. Logan sat up slightly. "What was that? Sorry, it's getting louder in here I think."
Rather than repeating herself, Prama sat up straight for the first time in their entire conversation and said, "You're lucky to meet me, now."

"Uh..how so?" Logan said, taken slightly aback by her sudden display of confidence.

"I am a genius. I can get you through that class easily if you're anything other than a total idiot."
"Uh—so you're offering? I mean, do you have time for that?"
"I'm something of an expert at managing my time," she said.

"But you—are you saying you want to do professional tutoring for me? I don't, uh, get much allowance..."
"No, don't get me wrong. I'm not in need of money right now—I have a few friends who are extremely wealthy, you see. In exchange, though...maybe you can show me some of what you know about making websites?" she said, starting to twirl one of her long braids a little bit between her fingers. "Demonstrate your skills for me a little bit."

"Uh, that's a kinda weird thing for you to want, but..sure, I could do that easy. If you, really wouldn't mind helping me a little bit."
"No problem. This arrangement should be mutually beneficial," Prama said with a sweet smile.

"H-hahah..." Logan laughed slightly nervously. He was pleased, but also a little bit scared now. She couldn't blame him, since from his perspective her entire personality must have seemed to change. But his exact feelings right now didn't matter, as long as she still had him on the hook.

---

The white-haired Neko knocked on the front door, and it was Onida who let her in this time. They exchanged a brief greeting, but the catgirl needed no prompting at all afterward to go straight up the stairs and into Damon's room. "Heey, Graham~!" she said, hurrying over and pulling her into a hug. The Neko purred, hugging her back for a moment, and they went over to the couch. They picked out a game and sat side-by-side on the couch, Graham gently curling her tail around the wolf-girl's own. Then they played for a while, chatting happily back and forth.

She felt happier than she could remember being since the death of her wife. A brand new life seemed to have opened up to her out of nowhere; in the time from becoming physically young again until now, she felt like she'd also gotten mentally young too—in all of the best ways. And it was partially thanks to Damon, Sam, and their other online friends. In the midst of some relatively shallow, happy thoughts about the present moment, Graham's mind flickered through this bit of reflection, and came to the end of it with a strange conclusion: If only I could give this to someone else, too. The same way that Zotha had made her healthy, then young again, offering her the opportunity to meet this beautiful young woman and join those helping her to recover...it'd be nice to give others similar sorts of opportunities. To have that kind of power, and use it for the benefit of others in general.

Some time later, Graham had just won a round of their third game of the afternoon. "Aww, that was just lucky!" Damon said, faux-complaining.

"If luck ain't a skill, then taking advantage of it is," the Neko replied smugly.

"Hmph. One more round! I'll win this one!"
"So—best out of three?"
"Yeah, that!"

Damon slumped slightly, her ears going down, after she lost the next round too. "Aww..I think you're just getting too good for me."

"I'd never be too good for you~," Graham responded immediately, putting her hand on top of the werewolf's head.
Damon, of course, flushed immediately. "I-I didn't mean like that! Pffheehee..!" Giggling, she grabbed the catgirl into a close hug.
"Ah~! Hello there.."
"Uh, um. W-wasn't really thinking when I did thaaat..." Her tail was starting to wag vigorously, making it hard for the Neko to keep her tail-ends around it.

"Maybe your mind wasn't, but I'm sure your body was," Graham said, gently running a hand through the wolf-girl's hair.

"O-oh..r-rfh..!"
"You'd like some more petting, wouldn't you? I know I would..."

"Uh..s-sure..!"

With that, they were off. Damon turned and leaned back until she was lying down on the couch with Graham on top of her, and they pet each other's ears, each nuzzling the other's cheeks affectionately. "Mrr~rrrh.." The catgirl purred happily, enjoying the sound of the other girl softly barking and yipping back. She kept both ends of her tail twisted around the wolf-girl's fluffy tail, letting its continued wagging rub their fur together. This was bliss...!

After a moment, she did notice something a little strange. While mutually petting the werewolf was wonderful and exciting, she felt somehow...even more excited than that. More specifically, it was a feeling of anticipation, like something was about to happen—even though exactly what didn't occur to her at all. For a little while, that excitement seemed to slowly build up, until...

"M-mro~owh..a-ah..?" It came as somehow a complete surprise to her when the base of her tail erupted in a sudden burst of tingling. She felt a rush of movement back there, as that entire part of her tail broke apart at once, the one forked tail finally becoming two. "O-oh...!" It sent a wave of tingling out across her body from the point in her spine where both bases now met, a little similar to something she'd felt back when first turning into a young woman...yet there was something different about this one that she couldn't quite put her finger on. When it reached her thighs and forearms, it seemed to become especially intense from that point downward on each limb.

Graham felt an extremely strong urge to stretch her body out—especially her legs—and when she did, she felt a wonderful feeling, like her entire body had been tense for so long, but was now being made to fully relax. "M-mrr~rrrRRRrrhh..!" It came alongside a wave of fuzzy, girly sensations between her legs that had already been greatly threatened just from being on top of Damon. But this was no ordinary stretch, for she found herself actually taking up more and more room, her legs soon reaching out past an armrest that her feet had previously failed to touch.

"Ah, aa~aah..! Mmmh, mrrrr~rrrh..!" Besides getting taller, Graham's chest was pushing forward, and her hips and thighs outward...she was becoming curvier and bustier too! This also brought on more feminine enjoyment, and she could make out the tone of her voice deepening ever-so-slightly each time she cried out in response to that. However, she also heard the sound of something tearing, as the tingling across her upper arms and most of her legs continued unabated; her clothes tried to resist the rapid growth her body was undergoing, and lost. Even her leggings weren't safe, as she felt an increasingly-thick bunch of hairs on her lower legs being exposed to the open air—as well as the feeling of Damon's legs directly touching their upper two-thirds or so.

"M-mro~oowh..! O-o~ooh...!" As the steady growth of her body continued, Graham felt like she was beginning to understand something. That tingling, stretching, and shifting..it was different from when she'd been youthened by Zotha in a very important way. Back then, it had been something that another person's power had done, but this...this wasn't coming from the outside. The thing that was changing her now, was herself. And...she was beginning to understand how it was working. The sensations of change were increasingly coming with a gain of knowledge, a realization of a power that had been waiting, buried deep inside her, for at least as long as she'd been a Neko...if not even longer.

"Mmh—mm~mhh..." Graham's form began to settle into place, but not without a brief, slight tensing all over which rapidly strengthened and toned all of her muscles. "Aah—! Mm~mmmnnh.." Her voice had descended into a mid-range alto, a mature but womanly tone now ringing from her throat, as she pulled some now fur-covered arms close around the smaller girl, pressing her face hard into Damon's cheek and nuzzling her just a little bit more.

"Aah...r-rfh..g-grrfh...mmnfh..!" Damon was wriggling around, then shivered with delight—but she had been trying to say something for a second there. Graham enjoyed herself for just a little bit longer, as the understanding of the power that had changed her, her power now, settled fully into place. She also realized that her clothes were in tatters—her skirt had sort of survived but come apart; her top was barely decent, and her bra a lost cause. Somehow her underwear had held on without snapping apart, or perhaps she'd semi-unconsciously made it grow to continue fitting her. So pulling off of Damon now would expose an awful lot of her skin to the wolf-girl's view...but then, she could fix that if she so desired...

"Mrr~rrnh." Graham finally decided to have mercy, and peeled herself up off of the wolf-girl, making her way to a properly seated position. Damon carefully pulled herself up to the opposite side, barely finding enough room for herself. For now, the Neko just wove what was left of her clothes together into some shorts and a tank top; she could remake it into something more resembling its original form later. Although she now realized that not only were her upper arms and her legs from the thighs down were covered in thick white fur, but that fur ended with slightly paw-like hands and very paw-like feet. Her lower limbs being in that state would make wearing any kind of socks or shoes quite challenging, let alone leggings.

"Uh—um." Damon finally hopped to her feet rather than continuing to try to squeeze herself into that corner of the couch. "Y-y-you grew!!!"

"Mmhmm~..I really did, huh?" she said, spreading her arms and legs and tails out—still feeling a little bit of that stretching urge from before. "I suppose...this is what happens when a Neko's tail finishes splitting?"

"Your legs are all furry!" Damon observed helpfully, pointing.
"They are...but they can not be, if I like," she said. With a simple twitch of her will, Graham's arms and legs went back to a fully-human look. Then she hopped up onto her feet.

What was that word Zotha had used before...'Nekomata'? It seemed like that was what she'd become, including all of the promised power. Besides the thoughts she'd had earlier about sharing her newfound youth with others, she was now getting some ideas on how to use it to have some fun with the werewolf right in front of her...

"Well, I guess I'm a little taller than you now," she said (knowing it was something of an understatement; standing up had given Damon a quite direct view of her expanded breasts), "but this isn't such a bad look, is it?"
"U-uhm..n-no, you're..super hot like that..!" the wolf-girl admitted. "M-maybe too hot!"

"Heehee~.." The Nekomata reached across and ruffled Damon's hair a little bit. "Say..if I made you a man right now..what would you do?"
"A-a man? I-I dunno, I haven't been um—male, s-since turning into a werewolf."

Graham moved her hands from Damon's hair to one of her ears, and let the other hand join in too. "Well, sure, but, what do you think you'd like to do, hm~mn?"

"Rrfh..! Uh. I-I'd definitely just wanna grab you in my arms and kiss you and..uhm." Damon's blush grew even brighter. "Th-then uh...!"

"Awh, I'm sure you'll be a perfect gentleman for me~..."

With no further warning, the Nekomata exercised her power on Damon, shifting her from female to male. "W-wha—aa~aaah...!" She grew up to Graham's height—still a little short for a man—quickly lost all of her curves, and then changed sex. Since the werewolf was in the habit of wearing shirts that had fit her original form, only her underwear needed to be shifted into a pair of boxers for everything to fit. "O-oh..r-rfh..!" The shirt was still a little loose on him, but his face had reshaped to become a little more handsome—while still looking fairly cute, framed by the same long brown hair as ever.

He was left with her still petting his ears. "G-graham...th-this is kinda d-dangerous," he said, visibly trying to get used to the now-strange feeling of being male, and the mid-tenor voice coming out of his throat.
"I'm feeling pretty confident I can take it," the two-tailed catgirl assured him.
"I-I...rrrrRRRUFH!" he suddenly let out a deep bark and pounced at her, grabbing her in his arms—which proved to be quite strong now. And he aggressively pushed his lips onto hers, forcing a kiss.
"Mmm~mmh.." Graham caught him in her arms, holding him back just as tightly, and willingly returned the kiss. Seeing that she wasn't resisting him, the werewolf pushed for more passion, and she gave that too. Only after both of them were well and truly out of breath did Damon finally pull himself off of her—and then only barely leaving enough room for them to breathe, making the hot huffs of his rapid panting hit her cheek.

"You really do have a wild animal in there, hmmn? I think I could get used to that," Graham said, running a hand down through his hair. She'd used her newfound powers to get her breath back near-instantly, which was admittedly very unfair. "I love you, dear~..."

"Hffh...ffh..I-I...rrfh..l-love you...hafffh...t-too..." he said.

"That's wonderful.." She put the tip of her nose on his, waited just long enough for him to catch his breath, and kissed him again. After a brief instant of surprise, he went back to the aggressive passion he'd displayed in the first one.

It was obvious Damon's 'wild side', at least while he was male, would want quite a bit more, but Graham was pretty sure he didn't really want to go quite that fast—and neither did she. So, for now, she began shifting him back to being a girl. No sooner had he begun changing than that aggression started to ebb away. "M-mrr~rrfh..!" His voice audibly shifted as he shrank, his weight entering her arms as his feet lifted off of the floor. Graham continued to passionately kiss him, and now he was submissively returning the kiss instead, as his masculinity steadily drained away. Finally, with a loud smack, she pulled out of the kiss, and Damon let out a high, cute, soft "Aah—!" as he turned back into a girl, followed by a helpless "A-aa~aahnn..." as her curves pushed back out into place, and no doubth all of the excitement the Nekomata had given her as a boy was translated into a girl's kind of enjoyment.

Graham waited patiently for the wolf-girl to get her breath back. "Aah..I-I, um...d-d-don't know if I could stand up right now, if you dropped me.." Damon admitted.
"Heheh..let's just set you back down on the couch then, my dear~..." Graham turend and gently placed the wolf-girl down on one side of the couch, then sat herself down on the other. Then...

"Mrr~rrh." Letting out a soft purr, the Nekomata shrank herself back to her original proportions—or, at least, the ones she'd had walking into the werewolves' house an hour or two earlier. Her deeper voice and muscle tone she kept, but the latter was mostly hidden away when she rearranged her clothes, and the shreds of her leggings, back into the outfit she'd come in with, as well.

"Uh...w-wow, you can just do that now?" Damon said.
"If I could turn you into a man, this much is easy. But it does feel like that look you saw me in first, fur on my arms and legs and all, is the 'real me' now. But.." She gestured to herself. "This is still awful comfortable to me, though—I mean, I'd just gotten used to being this height. Leeet's just say that 'grown up' form is a secret between the two of us...for noo~ow."
"Uh—um. S-sure."

"Well, I think we'd left off somewhere before all that happened," Graham said.

"Oh..y-yeah?" Damon turned her head briefly to the screen, then back to the catgirl. "I-I guess you won, though..."
"Oh, I didn't mean that," the Nekomata said, scooting over next to the werewolf and pulling her arms up around her.
"O-ohh..uh, s-sure..." Graham had already started purring by this point, in her now-deeper voice, so Damon hardly had a choice but to start up petting and nuzzling her again.

The kisses had been amazing, but the two of them needed to cool things off a little bit before fully disengaging to go back to the video games—to keep that from being too awkward. At least, that was what Graham had been thinking, but it looked like they might be keeping this up until almost suppertime...

---

Late into Monday morning, two Kitsune were walking through the library toward where they'd agreed to meet with a dragon and a celestial. They paused at the sight of a familiar face.

"Soooo...is Prama dating that guy?" Steph asked, gesturing at the glass doors to one of the small study rooms.
"She says she's just 'tutoring' him," Andrew answered with a shrug. "Though..."
"'Though'?"
"It feels like he's...two or three inches from awakening as a Kitsune. Can you feel that kinda thing?"
"Sometimes. I'd guess you've got a better sense for it than I do."

They started walking again, Andrew leading the way. "Do you think...I should tell her?"

Steph held up four fingers of his left hand. "Rule number four of being a Kitsune: Do whatever you think will cause more chaos."
"That's..not rule number one?"
"No, that's never tell anyone how many tails you have! We've been over this."
"But I thought that was number three."

"Rule number three is to hide your shed fur whenever possible."
"You definitely told me that was number four before!"

---

And so the third "loop" kicks off with a bang! Graham's new form is a great example of where I find image generation particularly liberating. In this setting, full-fledged Nekomata were always supposed to look kind of like that, but good luck finding a drawn image that has all the right traits, especially since I'd obviously already established her hair and eye colors, and wanted a bunch of other particulars besides. This image wasn't easy to find this way, but it was possible, and I'm glad for that.

A Summoning, Part XLVIII

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Part XLVIII
~Justice~

It was hard to know just how to be ready for a meeting with a god-dragon. So Zotha just went about her usual business Saturday, keeping the fact that that was going to happen on her mind. After all, she'd made no particular preparations for the meetings with the other gods, and Bastet had been more-or-less a surprise...

At any rate, after she fell asleep with Jess, as usual, in her arms, she found herself back in a dream for the third time since ascending. She was standing in front of a giant mouth of a cave; there was the vague impression of a path leading up to that entrance, surrounded by some hills, grass, and trees, but similar to the hallway of the "school building" before, there was also a sense that those details weren't important enough to focus on.

After she'd had just a moment to look around and take all this in, she actually felt Bastet appearing nearby, just slightly out of view to her right as she was looking left. "Oh..hello," she said, finding the cat goddess in the same appearance as their initial meeting.

"Just letting you know I'm here. It's..best if you meet him as 'alone' as possible," she said, and then vanished again.
"Oh, okay—uh. Well, thank you, anyway." If she was 'here', then she could hear that despite no longer being visibly present—and this was her domain anyway. The goddess of change was fully aware of what happened throughout her domain, so it was likely the same kind of thing.

With a slight shrug at that, Zotha started into the cave. The entry cavern was unusually large, with just one opening going deeper out of it, which was closer to human size. Then there was essentially a winding hallway, which in all of its twists and turns quickly lost the sunlight from outside entirely. Despite what soon became total darkness, Zotha had the sense that she knew exactly where the walls were, just as if she could see. Maybe this was her own power, or maybe this was because it was a dream—she hadn't had much occasion to experience this little light since becoming a goddess.

The trek continued, gradually descending downward as the path wound and twisted around. If there had been any branches, one would greatly fear becoming lost when descending this far for this long, especially in complete pitch darkness. But eventually that darkness gave way to a faint, reddish glow from up ahead. A few more turns later, Zotha found herself facing an opening to an enormous cavern—the source of that light. It was considerably brighter straight-on, yet also dimmed a bit by a thick layer of smoke.

Walking through the entrance revealed the source of the light, and also further elucidated just how unimaginably enormous this particular room of the cave was. It seemed to be deep enough underground for magma to be present, as well as a number of large, continually-burning torches lining the walls. The ceiling, quite far above, seemed to have an opening through which some of the smoky haze escaped, keeping the place from being entirely suffocating. And, of course, the entire back two-thirds or so of the cavern were occupied by a suitably gigantic dragon, covered in pitch-black scales that shone in the fiery glow. His eyes were closed, and seemingly his only movement was slowly breathing in and out.

Zotha hadn't felt any "pressure" from Ouroboros up until this point of the dream. But coming into his actual "home" hit her with a wall of heat that was at least as much magical as physical. On top of that, the imposing sight of such an enormous creature triggered something deep in her still-human instincts that strongly suggested she back away and leave before he woke up. She had no choice but to pause, take a deep breath, and try to be a little less overwhelmed. He probably meant her no harm, she reminded herself—and, maybe more importantly, Bastet would not allow him to harm her within a dream. So, gathering the courage accumulated through a couple of weeks of being a deity and having to meet with other, vastly more powerful ones, she began walking forward again. Finally, she stopped within what felt like decent conversational distance—and far enough away that he'd have to at least stand up or crawl forward before he could snap her up in his mouth and swallow her whole.

"Er...hello?" she tired.

"Mmh..?" The giant dragon grunted softly, blinked his eyes a couple of times, and then yawned. It sounded like an old man, deep-voiced and gravelly, and was even followed by a couple of soft smacking sounds as the dragon opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. His eyes themselves were a brilliant red that matched his surroundings quite well. "Oh, hello there. I must have the pleasure of meeting...miss Zotha, is that right?" Even though he was speaking now, he still sounded kind of like he was still yawning.

"Yes. And you're.."
"Ouroboros, indeed. My pleasure to meet you. You'll forgive my impoliteness if I can't properly stand up to greet a lady of your status," he said. "Hmmh..yet I can at least..." The giant black dragon slowly stretched his wings out, briefly dimming the entire cavern as their shadow blocked the light from all of the torches on the walls, leaving only the glow of the magma along the edges of the floor. Then he closed them again, fidgeting a few times as he did. "Aah, phew. Not bad to have a little stretch now and then." At about this point, Zotha realized that maybe half of the smoke in the room was coming directly out of his nostrils, and even more of it appeared whenever he opened his mouth to speak.

"So, you're pleased to meet me?" she said. "I didn't think you liked me too much."
He tilted his head just slightly. "I had not met you before. How could I possibly have such an opinion in the first place?"

"Well, you were one of the ones who voted to get rid of me."
"Oooh, that. One must make policy decisions based on information and logic, not feelings. I never had anything against you personally. But I know which way the wind is blowing now, and so—it really is a pleasure to meet the now-youngest ascended mortal. Congratulations. However accidentally, you have achieved something almost nobody else has, or ever will."

"I guess I hadn't thought of it that way. But..you've been asleep for almost a hundred years now, right? Do you only know what's happened through Bastet?"
"I certainly have...her impressions of things. But that is not my only source of knowledge. The world is my hoard, after all, and even a dragon fast asleep will feel distress when something is being stolen. Besides, I can see through the eyes of my kin, and those who are especially devoted to me."

"Devoted...you mean like some of the Mammon are?"
"Indeed. Though, so many of them are well-off, and dragons are awfully rare these days. It's difficult to get a view without quite a bit of bias. Bastet is..a little more pessimistic about things, and it is good for me to know when the world is not as wonderful as the wealthy folks think it is."

"I also thought you might have..taken up her opinion of me, or something like that?"

"When she speaks to me in dreams, her true feelings are difficult to hide, yes. I do try to take it with a grain of salt. Besides, you should know...the lady of dreams spent a few nights recently trying to do damage control. Saying some very complimentary things about you, and the behavior of you and yours. I would be well and truly mollified by now either way."

"That's...good to know. And, unlike her, you're okay with me bringing the aspect of 'change' to the table?"

"Change, too, is a part of every cycle. You have surely heard the saying: 'The more things change, the more they stay the same'? Hohoh, if anything, I could be jealous of you for taking up a part of 'my' domain as your own. But...I have done all I can to leave such prideful emotions behind, a long time ago. No, if anything, I should be glad to have that bit of work taken off of my shoulders, and onto more eager and youthful ones. Besides that...your exercising your power has gained me another member of my kin to see the world through already, and I've a feeling that a world with more change will afford more such opportunities, in the near future.

"I have a question for you, now," Ouroboros said, "as long as another viewpoint is standing right in front of me. What do you think of the state of the world?"

"Hm. Pretty good?" Zotha shrugged. "Could be better, could be worse. There are definitely some flaws I'm working to iron out to some extent myself. Lots of people are able to live long, happy lives, but not everyone or everywhere. No big wars happening right now. We've done a pretty bad job with nature and the environment, but at least a decent number of people are trying to fix that. I think, though, there are a lot of problems that could be solved, or at least made a less bad, which some more-or-less arbitrary barriers are keeping us from solving."

"You speak, perhaps, of the veil?"

"Weeellll. I won't pretend that wasn't on my mind. There are other inequalities of power and opportunity, but it's a pretty big one, which I guess I'm a part of maintaining for now, so I find it especially distasteful."

"Obviously Bastet would not have withheld your opinion on that from me. I think, perhaps, it should be phased out soon."

"You..really? You want the world to be stable and profitable, right? For everything to go in a neat, clean cycle?"

"Oh, well. I am not really satisfied with a flat circle. All dragons want their hoards to grow, you know. Besides...

"The veil is not the natural state of the world. It is something which we introduced, artificially, for reasons with which I wholeheartedly agreed at the time. But it is part of a natural, healthy cycle for things to return to their original state—in a safe, stable manner, of course. I have not missed, in our meetings on maintaining the veil, how much hard work Sol and his people have needed to do in recent years. Adding rules upon rules, exceptions to exceptions, to keep the whole thing from collapsing in on itself. We've increasingly many incidents of humans dropping out of the veil because they believe hard enough, or they happened to see just the right thing at the right time, and sometimes the veil will simply slip off of a person for unknown reasons. And some are awakened with nobody nearby either capable or interested in helping maintain the veil, and their confusion tips off humans who'd otherwise remain fully ignorant. If we do not control the unveiling, I fear it will take care of itself, in a far more destructive manner than we would like. That debacle back around the 1940's was bad enough.

"But—do not mistake my willingness for haste. I speak of what must be done within...mmh, the next decade or so? Perhaps by the time I wake up, or...a little afterward."

Zotha crossed her arms, leveraging a little bit of outrage to keep herself from just agreeing with the gigantic, powerful dragon-god in front of her. "I wonder how many people will die in that span of time, who didn't have to. Who might have all kinds of useful things to contribute to the world. Don't get me wrong, I agree being careful is the right approach, but there is such a thing as hesitating too much."
"Haah..well. I would hardly insist on waiting any particular period of time. My interest is that a solid, well-thought-out plan is in place before the thing is done. I tend to think on draconic timescales, so forgive me if what I think to be reasonably fast feels terribly slow for you."

"...Fair enough.

"Can you tell me a little more about your philosophy?"
"My philosophy?" Zotha was pretty sure he moved his head just slightly, tilting it perhaps. "That's quite a deep matter."
"What I mean is—how you feel about the world overall, and your beliefs on how to 'manage' it. I've heard something of the kind from the other gods, for the most part, and I have some indirect information that you've partially confirmed: The world is your hoard, cycles, and all that. But it'd be nice to know exactly how you think about things, from your own mouth."

Ouroboros's head moved back to its original position. "Aah, I see. A wise thing to wish to know, for being so early in your time with us. Let me see...

"The best way I know to explain it, is to say how I first started. I was one of many throughout history who thought to..take over the world. Manage it myself, as I saw fit. I had grand ideas of the right way for it all to be done, you see. I was a powerful, and talented, but most importantly an extremely stubborn young dragon. I gathered a collection of genuine followers, including even many of my own kind, who aided in my ascension to true godhood. That very moment of success...is when things began to go horribly wrong.

"Tethering myself, with my own recklessness and the instinctive greed inherent to my kind, to certain aspects of the world, caused a great wave of disasters, both natural and societal. I came to meet with the other gods thinking to make demands, and they were the first to open my eyes to just what had happened: The true price of my hubris. Not even my own followers, those I had promised to help and protect above all others, were spared from harm. And I tried to fix things myself, by my own actions, but that was not enough. The root of the problem, after all, was me. Therefore, the only way to change things, was to change myself. This was not a task I could accomplish quickly, nor on my own. But my willingness to repent alone, my coming back to the other gods to beg their forgiveness and aid, was enough to begin to quell the disaster.
"With their help, I rebuilt myself. The first thing to do was to make my instincts work for us instead of against us, and so we made the world my hoard. After that, I had to work on my personality and beliefs. Ironically, perhaps, to our present conversation...what I thought I wanted to do when I ascended was enact a great wave of change. Seeing that the change I had brought was so disastrous, I now needed to undo it—to bring things 'full circle', so to speak. Those left faithful of my followers adopted the snake biting its own tail as a symbol, and deliberately spread a belief to all they could that I was a god of cycles rather than of the irreversible. It is a miracle that it worked—the aspects gods preside over are usually entirely outside of everyone's control to intentionally modify, as I'm sure you're beginning to find in yourself.

"It is only after adopting this particular view of the world, which I did for entirely practical reasons, that I began to see the wisdom and logic that it holds. For instance, a wider view of history revealed to me that my behavior was far from unique—except for its level of success. It seems that every once in a while, some individual gains power and influence and believes that he or she knows the best way to run the entire world. There is a rise, and a fall, and a fallout.

"But it is not just the grand, broad strokes of history. Even individual people go through phases of their lives, only to return to where they were by the end—in one way or another. Sometimes the cycle is from one generation to another, as a son inherits many of his father's virtues and vices, despite all of his efforts to the contrary. At other times, the old become young again, or those who are changed come to propagate similar changes in others themselves.

"As I said before, however, I don't favor cycles as a form of stagnation. The one small bit of my old self that I keep around is the one that wishes the world to change for the better. I sneak it in by saying that I want my hoard to grow. What appears at first to be a circle, may be an upward spiral from the right point of view.

"I wonder...miss Zotha, are you familiar with those, Tarot cards?"
"Hmm..vaguely? I mean, I've heard of them, and played a game or two that use them as part of their setting."
"A relatively recent invention, to be sure. Silly, perhaps, to take a deck of mere playing cards and assign so much meaning to every one...but I find the overall idea rather compelling. Life progresses through a cycle, from The Fool to The World—or, at least, for a very rare few it may go in the 'right order'. For the most part, however, the phases of life are much more like a properly-shuffled deck. What was there before eventually comes back around...but you can never quite be certain exactly when that will happen. If you're lucky, or careful enough, then the cards may come out the right way up, in the right order, and you live the happy life you want. Sometimes it's very hard work to discard something you don't need, so that something better can take its place. It's a funny thing, to take a philosophical tool like that, and imagine that it can actually predict what's coming—when the entire point of shuffling the cards seems to be that you cannot really know."
"I guess so. You must do a lot of thinking about things like that."
"Certainly. There tend to be long stretches of time where thinking is really all I can do, so I hope you'll forgive me whittering on like an old man every now and then."

"It's fine. If anything, someone as experienced as you, who spends so much time thinking, might have much better ideas or solutions than the rest of us. Maybe you should be the one to come up with the plan for the 'unveiling', for that matter."
"Hmm. Perhaps so. Wouldn't hurt for me to think about it, at least."

Zotha said, "You know...it didn't occur to me at first, but: This is a dream. Both of us are asleep. Yet I came down into this cave to find you asleep..while you're asleep. Or—at least, doing a pretty good imitation of it."

"Aaah, well. Closing my eyes makes it easier to see through those of others. And I enjoy dreaming of familiar environs; the lady of dreams kindly provides me with a portion of her realm to 'live in' while I am asleep, since having too long of a dreamless sleep would leave me dangerously disoriented upon my awakening. My true domain consists of a volcano, and the cave system connected to it. Naturally, the way to my physical form is a considerably longer and more perilous walk, through a great underground maze...but that body does reside in a chamber very much like this one. And I have not left my volcano in...hmmmh...I am not sure. A very, very long time, it must be. Old dragons grow awfully sedentary, and I am no different. Besides, maintaining the veil would be exceedingly difficult if a large black dragon were to suddenly, publicly emerge from a well-known, scientifically studied dormant volcano, collapsing the entire mountain in the process."

"Not gonna lie, that sounds really boring. Just—lying here in your cave forever, watching the world through others' eyes? I'm sure you do..some things with your godly powers at a distance, but never actually getting to walk around and experience the world seems kind of...sad."
"Hmm. Perhaps, it is a little sad. Humanity has built a great many fascinating things I would like to see or do for myself. Perhaps...once we are rid of the veil. Though, unlike modern dragons, I am not able to change my form. So—it would be difficult for me to look very closely at anything without destroying it. Truly a shame..."

"You can't take on a humanoid form? Or even make yourself a little bit smaller?"

"Yes..dragons were not capable of such things in my day. Besides, much like the lady of dreams, my nature as a god locks my physical form all the more. Although...hmmmn."

"'Although'?"

"Err...Bastet is reminding me that I am not to speak of that. My apologies. Or rather—I should say: Maybe a powerful enough goddess of change could..." The dragon shook his head slightly. "Well, the moment to excuse myself with a white lie has already passed. Sorry for being so slow, to both of you. And to you, Zotha, for having to be so cryptic."

"It's fine. I'd rather not know something everyone doesn't want me to know, to be honest. But I wouldn't mind trying to free you from this place—or, that is, its equivalent in the real world—some time in the future. I guess it'll be a blink of an eye for a dragon like you."
"Hhahah. Perhaps so."

"Well, I can't think of much else to talk about at the moment," Zotha said. "Hey—Bastet, if I really want to pick his brain for something, you wouldn't mind a request to talk now and then, would you?"

"...Fine," her voice said, coming from vaguely above them. "Just don't abuse it."

"Well then...perhaps I shall see you again, before I wake," the old dragon said. "Either way, it has been a pleasant meeting for me. I will look forward to seeing you again, lady of change."
"Likewise."

---

It kind of sneaked up on me, but this is a pretty momentous occasion for this story! This is the very last part of the second "loop" through all of the Arcana, so it definitely needed to be something special. What better than Zotha's last formal meeting with one of the preexisting gods? And he leans on the fourth wall a tiny bit by talking about the Tarot themselves! Also, having only one choice for the title managed to be kind of lucky this time; I think this arcana fits Ouroboros fairly well.

What? Are you thinking that we forgot somebody? One of the gods? Surely not...

Vixen Society - Cycle 17

Vixen Society

---

  Beginning / Before / After / Last

---

Cycle 17

Tory picked up the sound of a car parking in her driveway, and made it to her front door to open it before Stephen could get his hand all the way to the doorbell. "Oh! Hey," he said.

"Yo. C'mon in," she said, waving before heading for the living room. Stephen was probably the shortest guy Tory knew; he was on the thin side, and usually wore clothes loose and covering enough to make it hard to tell whether he had any muscle—but he probably didn't. His job was QA testing games, and his hobbies were largely sedentary, so he was probably lucky his metabolism kept him from really gaining weight.

He shut the door on his way in, and then stood excitedly fidgeting in place across from her for a moment. "So just to be perfectly clear. You want me to test my powers on you."
"Yeah! Please." Stephen said with a big nod.
"Gotta say, I didn't pick 'wants to be a girl' on my 'hidden personality trait' guesses for you."
"Well—you know," he shrugged. "I've been wondering what it's like 'on the other side' for a while now. And I'm..sure you'd be willing to help me go back after a month or two, right?"
"Yeah, sure," she said with a casual shrug. "But really—do you have anything specific in mind? Or should I just start trying things? There's some stuff I'm curious whether I can do, since the only ones I've changed so far are myself and Den."
"Then, yeah—go ahead and try stuff!" he said, gesturing at her. "I'm excited by the idea, but..I bet I'd figure out what I really like by experiencing it, you know?"
"Sure sure..let's see..."

Tory really hadn't used her magic all that much yet, but after learning she was a witch, she'd done some research on how 'witch magic' was supposed to work. Apparently, there were standard spells that 'anyone' could theoretically learn, but for witches and warlocks, there was usually some kind of 'personal style' that worked for inventing one's own spells. She had a guess what her own 'personal style' was, but since her power was apparently strong enough to just 'leak out' with Den that one time, maybe she didn't even have to do that?

So, she first tried a gesture, and imagining a relatively simple effect: Make him a half a foot taller or so. It took a long moment of concentrating on trying to do that before a faint red trail of light went out from about the palm of her outstretched hand to his core, and he shuddered slightly while gaining just an inch or two of height. "W-whoa..! Huh..." He looked around, clearly interested in the change of perspective—however slight it had been.

Tory crossed her arms, thinking. "Hmm." That had been a lot of trouble, and not as effective as intended, either. So she really was pretty powerful, it seemed, but it was still better to do things 'her way'. "Okay, let's try: 'A fox's ears I give to you, and not only one tail, but two!'" This came with the slightest flick of her wrist, and immediately a bright glow spread from her hand over to his body, quickly flickering over to his ears and lower back.

Stephen jumped, reaching a hand up to feel his left ear as it rapidly grew larger, taller, and fluffier."Ah—wow!" First one thick black tail with a pure-white tip made its way out from his back swishing out to his right, then a second one joined it, coming out to the left. Both tails then swished back and forth, crossing each other so that they generally stayed on opposite sides of him. After feeling the ear, and the other one, he was able to make one tail curl up in front of him and run a hand across it, shivering slightly from the feeling. "Weeeird.."
"You like it, though?"
"Uh, yeah! I think I could get used to this."

"What about the height change?"
"It's kinda nice...I do think I'd like not having to look up at everyone all the time," he said.

"So—even taller, then?"

"Yeah, sure!" he nodded.

"Okay~..."

Tory decided to try one more thing. On reflection, the gesture-from-a-distance being hard didn't really match with her managing to even partially change Den by accident. Maybe being farther away was the problem. Or maybe physical contact was another way her magic particularly 'liked' to work. "I'll try another thing, then. Hold still," she said, approaching him with a grin.
"Uh, s-sure."

Even though her heart definitely belonged to Den now, seeing Stephen blush at her sudden proximity was still fun and gratifying. But never mind that—Tory had a goal to achieve. She reached her hands down and gently rubbed his ears, exerting some effort to try to make them sensitive to her touch—to make him, over all, a little bit more beastly—and got some immediate success. A bright yellow color flowed out from the center of his eyes, quickly taking them over entirely, even as they slowly closed themselves. "A-aah, m-mrrrh..." Opening his mouth revealed the rapid growth of some vulpine fangs, and then he was letting out a soft churring sound. And now that she'd changed him through petting those ears once, Tory had a sense of a sort of channel between her magic and his body, something that made it feel like any change at all should be positively effortless...

To test this feeling out, she went for his hair first. It began spilling out longer and longer, rapidly falling down around his hips and no doubt tickling those two tails. Then it was time to do a little more. "M-mmrr~rrr~rRRRrrrh...!" Stephen's voice began changing, quickly lilting up out of male range, as his body's shape changed: Shoulders narrowing, face growing softer and rounder, legs growing longer. "Aah, aa~aah...!" He gained a few inches of height from the legs alone, and stretched a few more upward, as his voice peaked at a high soprano and then began deepening once again.

"M-mrrh..ah, a~aah..!" Tory focused her efforts on the most significant change now, and the shivering, squirming, and soft crying out from Stephen's mouth made it seem pretty likely it was succeeding. She quickly shrank his pants into tight, short shorts, his underwear into some feminine-cut boyshorts, and could now see the bulge between his legs shrinking away. And she wasn't even pushing at it now—once she'd initiated the change of sex, it seemed to gain a momentum all its own. His face flushed bright red as she took this opportunity to remove some unneeded masculine body hair, and gave him a few more inches of height, enough to place his face right across from hers.

"O-oh, aahh, aa~aa~AAA~AAaaah...!" Stephen's voice went high again as he cried out helplessly, the small bump between his legs disappearing away, allowing the tiny shorts around his hips to pull flat across her groin. "W-waa~aah...!" Her face became even more red as Tory pushed her hips wider, her bottom bigger, and thickened up her thighs. She gave the new fox-girl a little more height while she was at it: Even longer legs, and a body stretched up to a full six feet. But she left it at that—any more, and the witch might start to have trouble reaching those ears!
Now it was time to work on the rest of Stephen's curves. "Mm~mnngh...mrr~rrrh...." She squirmed her legs against each other, excitedly wagging both her tails, as her chest pushed out, forming a small pair of bumps beneath her shirt. Tory decided to shrink the shirt into a tank top now, and its sleeves disappeared, the collar expanding down to show off her neckline while what was left pulled tight against her slim belly. "Mrr~rr~RRR~rrh...hff, hfff—aah, aah, aaaAA~AAAAaahhh...!" The new girl shivered and squirmed, crying out with increasing excitement, as Tory mercilessly kept her chest growing bigger and bigger.

"Mm-mmnngh...! Ahh, aah.. ffh, oo~oooh..." A girl this tall would look great with a huge pair—and besides, she was clearly enjoying the process of growing them. They shot past A, B, and C cup, and only as they began to approach the size of Tory's own impressive bust did she think to start slowing the growth down. At the same time, she saw that the tank top had been pulled most of the way of of Stephen's slim, flat midriff, and thought: Maybe she could do with some muscle there. Besides, a little bit of extra strength to help carry those puppies was sure to be appreciated. So she got to work on that as the growth of the fox-girl's breasts slowed down, and all at once her arms and legs began to grow more fit and toned, her belly quickly solidifying into a visible six-pack.

Tory finally let go of the tall, strong, curvy fox-girl's ears. "Aah, a-a-aaaah...!" Stephen shivered again, her voice going shaky, as the transformation came to an end. She gasped, and let out a soft, low "Oo~oooh..." as, no doubt, the pleasant feelings in her new girly parts settled out and began to calm down. She was still left panting for a good half-minute, while Tory took a few steps back to really admire her handiwork.

Stephen slowly blinked her eyes open as she caught her breath, parting her lips to give a kind of embarrassed, nervous grin.

"U-uh, w-wow..heheh..hahahaha!" She couldn't help a giggle that turned into a full laugh at first, then finally managed to regain a little bit of composure. "Uh—th-the way that felt, man. Dude! Woman!" she said, putting her arms out and waving them around excitedly. Her voice seemed to naturally come out at a mid-low pitch now, what one might call a higher alto or very low soprano.
"I know, right~?"

"I-I mean like. D-did you do that on purpose?"
"Not really?" Tory shrugged. "I just tried to make my magic transform you. I mean—when I transformed, I got a pretty similar experience. Guess I could've warned you about the possibility, though.."
"N-no way, it's..heheh...it's kinda even better as a surprise. Like, I kept think it'd stop feeling good and start hurting or something—or at least feeling uncomfortable—but then I'd change a little more and like it even better! And—wow." She looked around at her surroundings from the suddenly-much-higher perch of her head, flexed an arm, patted her chest. "You really went all-out on the looks department, huh?"
"I thought you might appreciate it. Anything you don't like?"
"Well, I dunno. Not so far? I gotta get a good look all this in a mirror, though!"
"Oh, no problem. I bought a full-length not too long ago," Tory said, gesturing to follow and then leading the way toward her bedroom.

---

"Not that I don't think ya 'made' clean clothes, but..." Angie tapped her foot a few times and gestured at the large pile of outfits on the floor before her. "I still feel like it'd be best to launder all these before folding or hanging 'em. Oughta make it easier to sort them out, too."

"Uh, sure. Do you need any help?" Olivia asked.
"Nah." The wolf-girl spun and hopped up, ambushing the taller Kitsune with a hug. Despite the surprise tactics, her 'master' caught her easily enough. This was mostly for the purpose of rubbing her ears while she continued: "Thanks to the 'job training', I'm more or less a pro. No offense meant, but you might just slow me down."
"H-heheh, if you say so." Olivia's warm, soft tails curled forward and enveloped the wolf-girl for a moment, and then she let her free to land on the floor and get to work.

"You just sit back and relax, now. I'll have all this taken care of in a jiffy!"

The mystical house that Olivia had 'inherited' didn't have a modern washing machine or dryer, but rather some devices that looked older than Angie was, yet accomplished basically equivalent automation for the same task using some sort of magic. Of course, the maid had as much control over these as she did the rest of the house, so all she had to do was carry a few armfuls of laundry to the right spot, put in the soap, and fire things up. She'd also be able to sense it when her further attention was needed, which would likely be a couple of hours from when the process began with this many clothes.

After that, she headed for the living room. Her 'sense' of the house let her know who was in what room, but she didn't even need that to guess that Olivia would be back at her chair watching TV for the afternoon. The wolf-girl didn't bother to wait for a formal invitation before hopping on top of her, burying her face in her cheek and enjoying the feeling of the Kitsune's fluffy tails wrapping all around her. It was strange, for someone as old as her to want this feeling of being warm and secure so badly...but maybe the many years she'd been alone had created that urge in the first place. Whatever the case, she couldn't have imagined getting that feeling from anything half so good as the kind, strong, beautiful-and-cute 'master' she'd wound up with.

"R-rrfh..." She softly barked, knowing full well how cute Olivia found that, and the fox-girl churred back. It'd be easy enough to persuade the Kitsune to take on a temporary male form now and then, and then maybe plant a good kiss on his lips...but this soft hug was quite good enough for now.

Angie decided: Falling in love could be such a wonderful thing.

---

Falling in love could be such a terrible thing.

Quill got out of his car, closing the door behind him, and stopped, staring off at the gym for a long moment of indecision. This was the time he'd regularly come to do his daily exercise for a good couple of years now, and he was a terribly routine-oriented person. And it wasn't that he didn't want to go in now, but that his reason for wanting to made him worry on reflection, and doubt whether he really should.

It had been maybe a week now since he first saw her: A tall, curvy, strong woman with a cute face, beautiful bright yellow eyes, gorgeous long, light-brown hair..and also some big fuzzy ears and a giant, fluffy tail. Quill had never really felt one way or another about 'animal people' before, but somehow, on her, those parts seemed to enhance a beauty that already surpassed any reasonable comparison. He was hardly alone in that assessment, with several of the guys who frequented that gym around this time—and probably some who just so happened to be there for some other reason—took note too. Maybe he'd acted too soon, joining that crowd, and making it seem insincere when he'd asked her out..but he hemmed back that line of thought. It was disrespectful to assume her disinterest in him came down to a "bad strategy" on his part.

He'd heard that her name was Ryker, that she'd been a guy who came to the gym routinely before then. None of that was particularly relevant to Quill, except that maybe an "extreme tomboy" like that might know what it was like to be a man smitten with a beautiful woman. But that hardly meant she owed anyone a positive response when she wasn't interested.

Getting another look at her would be nice. Quill could even pretend to himself that asking her out this time might give a different result. But after several days of persistence, he really had to accept that it wasn't meant to be. He was only annoying her at this point, or worse. And...staring at her was wrong too, wasn't it? So he shouldn't go in. He should change his schedule, and just disappear from her life more or less for good. But he'd already driven here today...and besides, she didn't come every weekday like he did, so she might not even be there. Maybe he could work out the best way to do all that after today.

And so, Quill went inside. Inevitably, he was wrong, and she was there. He just kept his distance, and clamped down, forcing himself to look away or go somewhere else whenever he caught himself giving her too long of a look. He knew it wasn't the right way to behave, but his heart—or maybe his body—just wouldn't let his rational or moral mind win. If he really wasn't going to see her again after this, then a part of him still desperately wanted enough of a mental image to look back on later. What an absurd desire, too, when he knew that would only make him more upset!

---

"There's nothing to be embarrassed about," Kiera said. "They measure people for this stuff all the time."
"Gaawh..okay, if you say so."

"I do! So go on in," she said, half-shoving her.

Miles still came out looking very flustered, but now she had a list of sizes. With that, the three girls were off to pick out clothes.

"Uh, you think this would look good?"

"Yes! Try it on," Kiera said. "Or—grab some more. How about this skirt?"
"Uh—"
"Don't feel like you have to go straight for that," Ella interjected. "Wear what you think is comfortable."
"It wouldn't hurt to try this, though," the catgirl insisted. "You can't know how it feels unless you try it on."
"I uh..gawh..how do you even put a skirt on, though?"
"It just goes around and snaps or zips together. Very straightforward. You can tell me if you can't figure it out, okay?"
"Uh—okay."

It didn't take them very long to get a whole cart's worth of clothes for the new girl. Kiera complimented how she looked in the outfits a lot more often than Ella did..although the fox-girl did usually agree.

"Gawwh...I'm glad I already explained what happened to my folks, kinda," she said, watching the price steadily climb as the cashier scanned one outfit after another. "They'd think someone stole my card.."

"Yeah, always best to deal with that stuff first."
"A-anyway, seriously—thanks for helping me with all this. I'd be totally clueless on my own."
"No problem—both of us had to figure it out mostly alone," Ella said. "Not to mention the complications added by having a tail."

"Yeah. Very annoying," the catgirl added, curling her tail up in front of her to run a hand across it. "Totally worth it, though."

Kiera and Ella helped grab the bags to get back to the car with. "By the way..."

"Uh, yeah?"
"Are you thinking about using a different name?" Kiera said. "I mean—both of us did, but it's not like you have to or anything."

"Um..I dunno. I'm used to my folks calling me 'Miles' at least..but..gawh. Not that many people, uh, at college, really know me, so this'd be the easiest time if I did want to.."

"Any ideas come to mind?" the Kitsune asked. "It was pretty easy for me and her—'Kiera' literally just dropped one letter."

"I dunno..gaaawh..."
"What about 'Millie'? That'd be cute," the catgirl suggested.
She blushed. "Oh..c-cute, huh..?"

"Yeah. But. No pressure or whatever."

"Anyway—once you've got all this stuff put away..you wanna hang out for a while?" Ella asked.

"Uh! Yeah. D-definitely..."

---

After the day off, it was time for Olivia to go back to work. Things went mostly as usual, until a newly-subscribed member was assigned to her. She tilted her head slightly at the very tall woman; from a distance, she'd thought this was another Kitsune—which would make the first one she knew of that she was meeting in person. But, magically speaking, there was basically nothing there. It felt to her like just a 'human' who happened to have furry ears, yellow eyes, and two tails. Well..it could be someone really powerful who was hiding it, or someone who was just really good at hiding her power...

She shook her head slightly; none of that actually mattered anyway, and she had a job to do. So long as this maybe-Kitsune wasn't playing a trick on her, at least. "I'm..a little surprised you're not already a member of a gym somewhere. What's your routine been before now? Oh—or uh, did you just move?"
"Oh, no—it's weirder than that. How do I put it...a friend of mine magicked me fit," she said. "I've never really needed to worry about, you know, getting fat exactly—but having muscle is brand new. And I like it, and wanna maintain it. I guess that's pretty weird, huh?"
"Maybe..a little? But, actually, you've come to the right trainer then."
"How so?"

"Well—you see all this?" she said with a slight gesture to herself. "I was very overweight just a few weeks ago. It wasn't as..instant as you're making your situation sound, but...a-anyway, I do know what it's like to suddenly need to maintain my fitness."
"Oh, that's cool!"

Olivia nodded. "Anyway—I guess the first thing we should do is actually find out how strong you are, so we know where to even start from. Exercise doesn't really do much for you if it's really easy, you know?"
"Yeeaaah, so I've heard."

"Okay, in that case, we'll start with some basic warm-ups. No matter what you're doing, you should always warm up and cool down, so you don't hurt yourself..."

While they did that, Olivia considered whether to benchmark this customer's stamina or lifting strength first. Running, or weights? Well, her bust was so big—even in a sports bra—that it was going to make running a little bit harder for her. It'd be best to make her feel some confidence first, so..weights it was.

She could lift about as much as Olivia could—unless Olivia was using magic to 'cheat'. Being around her this long, the seven-tailed Kitsune became increasingly confident she wasn't dealing with another of 'her kind'. This woman had a very honest, straightforward personality, if not a little bit awkward and blunt. Not that Kitsune always lied all the time, but one who was this honest probably wouldn't feel a need to hide their power around other 'magical' people. With that established—and Olivia making a point to help her feel very good about being that strong already—they moved on to the running.

The black-haired fox-girl managed a pretty good dead sprint, but when she stopped, bent over and panting, she said, "Hffh...th-think I...found..the problem...with huge boobs..." It seemed like Olivia had predicted things correctly. It was probably also safe to guess that the magic that made her fit had also enhanced the size of those things..if not given them to her in their entirety. Thankfully—while she wasn't that big, Olivia still had some tips for dealing with the bounce. Also, a little bit of research had turned up some more specialty sports bras intended specifically for this kind of problem. Maybe this customer wasn't interested in doing a ton of running in the first place, and they were a little more expensive than the standard kind, but it didn't hurt to let her know they existed...

By the end of their session, she had a satisfied, if quite sweaty, customer. So it seemed like Olivia would be working with this person pretty regularly from now on. That was fine—'Star', as she introduced herself, had a cheerful, positive personality that made her reasonably easy to get along with. After waving her goodbye, Olivia moved on to her next task...

The gym had some customers quite a bit on the older side. Olivia didn't handle those people directly for the most part, since the job was more physical therapy than ordinary exercise, and required a particular sort of expertise. She'd occasionally looked in on the real experts in that field working with those customers, and today, glancing that way, a vague idea began brewing in her head. One of the older men got very grumpy and stormed off—but this wasn't his first time doing that, and judging by the trainer's casual reaction, it must have been pretty common.

A seven-tailed Kitsune could easily enough make people younger...but just suddenly doing that to all of those customers would cause lots of problems for several people. They were healthy enough for the moment, and the rejuvenation service existed if they really wanted to be young again. All the same, Olivia was thinking of picking just one of them out to mess with a little bit...and that old man stuck out as a potential target. Not today, she decided...she had nothing resembling a solid plan yet. And, she kind of wanted to talk through the general idea with Angie to see if it was a good one, or could be improved...

---

The image used for this story part was generated. I had some results using my older methods that I wasn't entirely happy with, and was going to settle for one of them...but mid-writing this or so was when I started improving my methods, and it was fairly easy with the new ones to get something much better.