Alex Shifted

Chapter 1: First Shift

My head bumped against the window as the bus went over an uneven patch of road. I let out a small sound of pain. The bus turned into the bus terminal, and I moved to grab my bag, standing up and moving to the door. I stepped out as it opened, quickly making my way into the terminal. I searched for a restroom, which was just down the terminal. I waddled to the bathroom and emptied my bladder. I let out a sigh of relief, the bus ride was excruciating. I then moved to the stairs to take the walkway over to the subway station. I normally wouldn’t need to go this way, but I had to pick up my student ID, which had brought me all the way out to Mississauga. Luckily the process to get the ID was uneventful. Now I have a card with my ugly-ass saying I am supposed to be here… yay.

I was about to start my degree at the University of Toronto. I was studying history, a subject which had fascinated me ever since I was little. My parents hadn’t exactly approved, but it wasn’t like they had any say in what I did anymore since I had turned 18 back in April, thank gods. I unfortunately still lived with them since I couldn’t afford to move out yet.

The train ride was boring so I decided to listen to some music on my phone on the ride. I listened to songs I actually liked, not what my parents forced me to listen to, I.E. a lot of Avril Lavigne, Nirvana, and Queen. I got off the train at Yonge, getting on the train to head north up to Sheppard. From there, it was a short bus ride to my parents house, near Sheppard and Bathurst.

Almost home. I veered to the left side of Don River Boulevard. I carefully walked along the grass on the side, hoping no driver had the stupidity to drive into me going 20km over the speed limit. It was getting dark. It had taken longer than expected to get my ID.

I glanced at a driver who barreled past at a clearly too fast speed, probably driving up from Earl Bales Park. I flashed my middle finger at the rear of the car. They probably didn’t see it, but it was cathartic after the fucking day I had.

After the car had passed, I noticed something in the bushes across the road from me. Weird. There was a faint purple glow near the small footpath that made its way through the small patch of trees. I quickly glanced in both directions on the road. Seeing no other cars, I ran across the road to check it out.

I made my way through the overgrown, suffocating trees on the path, then ducked under the rickety wooden railing to get closer to the vibrant glow.

Call me stupid, but I had always been too curious for my own good. When I got near the glow, I slipped my space-themed backpack off and placed it on the ground.

I stared at the source of the glow; it was a dark grey, it had the texture of shale. Curved lines glowed with a pulsating, light, fading between indigo and a dark burgundy; the lines looked almost like lava, undulating and flowing around the statue.. It appeared to be an idol; Anthropoid…almost human, yet not quite. Two rounded spikes projected from the head, the face was longer, a tail spiralled around the figure, framing it in an elegant, authoritative, yet whimsical pose. Maybe it was a figure for cosplay? A religious symbol? It was well-crafted, I didn’t know for sure what it was. There was some writing on it that I couldn’t identify. Glyphs, in a script unknown to me. It was flowy, each symbol melting into one another. There were barely any straight lines; the text was glowing with that same light as the other parts of the statue. It was beautiful, and it was fascinating.

Then, I did something even stupider; I bent down to pick it up. I know, completely insane of me, but my curiosity got the better of me.

As soon as my hand made contact with it, purple energy raced up my arm. It tickled at first, but then it felt hot - too hot, blistering, boiling. It felt like my arm was on fire. It happened so fast, I barely had time to scream before I blacked out.

When I woke up, everything ached. I had fallen over. My body felt weird. I sat up, groaning. There was a large soft mass enveloping me. It felt cosy, comforting, safe; it was like sleeping in a faux fur blanket on a memory foam mattress, heavenly. Also, everything was suddenly super loud. I could hear every little sound; the rustling of the leaves, the sounds of cardinals and bluejays calling, and the gurgling of the nearby river, which I definitely should not have been close enough to hear. It was too much, this noise needed to stop; it was painful.

I moved my hands to cover my ears, but instead got smacked across the face by the limp end of my sleeve.

Wait, what?

I examined myself. Where before my hoodie had fit perfectly, it now dwarfed me by a huge margin. The hem now reached to my knees. The sleeves as well hung off the ends of my arms by a little bit. My jeans were loose around my waist. I knew if I stood up I would need to hold them up. Either my clothes had gotten bigger or I had gotten smaller.

I tried to stand up, but my head swam. I braced myself against a tree. Just as I expected, my jeans fell to my ankles. I sighed and pulled them up.

They didn’t go back up all the way. I felt them bumping against something near my butt. The funny thing was, whatever they were bumping against, I could feel. I tried to look behind me to see what it was, and saw a big fluffy mass of white. My eyes went wide. I reached out to touch the fluffy thing, and it twitched away from my touch. I twitched away from the touch. It was a part of my body.

I had a tail.

“Ok, Alex, don’t freak out boy.”

I freaked out. How the fuck did I get a tail!? How is that even biologically possible? I don’t know. All I knew was that I changed drastically.

Then I noticed the object that was the source of the glow. Key word being was. The glow was gone, the writing faded away. Had that thing…given me this tail? Had it made me smaller?

I gave up on trying to wear my navy jeans. My hoodie was more than enough to keep me covered. I neatly folded them and clambered back up to the walkway.

Fortunately, my parents wouldn’t be home until the weekend-they were away on a vacation to Bora Bora for their anniversary (Stupid and cliché, I know), so I had the house to myself for about a week. I wouldn’t have to explain to them why their son was coming home suddenly much smaller and with a tail and no pants on. I quickly snatched my bag, and haphazardly stuffed them in the pocket with my brand new laptop my parents had bought me to use at school. It was a Lenovo with Windows 11 on it; not too bad for a college work-horse, thank gods it wasn’t a Chromebook.

I could feel that the tail was pushing on my underwear, protruding just above the waistband, preventing it from covering my entire butt, but it would have to do. Hopefully I could do something about that.

I quickly tucked the tail up and under my hoodie to keep it out of sight. Fortunately, there was more than enough room. Unfortunately, the fabric brushing against my tail was uncomfortable. It was like the feeling you get when you move your hair too much and it tugs on your scalp. I picked up my bag, slinging it over my back again. I briefly fiddled with the backpack. I had to adjust the straps so it would stay on. Still, the backpack was several sizes too big, it reached from my tail to my neck. I felt utterly ridiculous. Not to mention it was too heavy. What was easy before was now taxing.

I turned around and glanced at the idol. I thought about taking it with me, but I did not want to touch it again. it just took away a good chunk of muscle mass in exchange for a tail. There’s no telling what it would do to me if I touched it again. I decided against taking it with me. I made my way back to the road, checking to make sure there were no crazed drivers, and resumed my walk back home. I had no idea how long it had been since I touched that thing, but it had gotten even darker, the sky was inked with purple. A purple like the light of the statue.. I made my way down the road, nervously watching for cars. If there were any, I hoped they’d see my pasty white legs so they didn’t run into me, because there was no way they’d be able to spot my black hoodie.

My feet kept slipping around in my shoes. gods, had my feet shrunk too? I carefully walked towards home, avoiding the dim yellow glow of streetlights as I went. I didn’t want to draw any attention. Seeing a pasty white boy running in a black hoodie would have left all those conservate fossils that lived on my street quaking in their boots. Eventually, I made it home. I sighed as I realised my keys were still in my jeans pocket. I quickly fished them out of my backpack, which, miraculously, were still safe in the pocket. I pushed the key inside the lock and opened the door, home at last. I slipped inside, closing and locking the door again. I scampered up the stairs to my bedroom. I tossed my bag on the floor at the foot of my bed. I flopped limply into the bed, exhausted. I laid back, sighing.

I was sticky; beads of sweat were accumulating on my face. I needed to take a shower, but I didn’t want to get up. So I continued to lie there, staring up at the off-white popcorn ceiling of my small bedroom. It was so ugly, the texture was terrible, and it made me anxious. Inside, the sounds of the outdoors were absent, but were instead replaced with other noises. I could hear the faint humm of the fridge in the kitchen, and the whirr of the fans on the desktop in my dad’s office. It must have pulled itself out of sleep to do a Windows update or something. Even the lights buzzed. My ears were assaulted by the electric hiss. My smell was heightened too. I had noticed outside that the smells of nature had grown stronger, but now that I was inside, I could smell the cleaner my mom had used a few days ago before we had left. I couldn’t remember the brand. It smelled flowery, antiquated, almost like a grandma’s perfume.

I finally stood up. I couldn’t put off taking a shower, I could smell myself. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell (it actually didn’t smell half-bad), it was different, but I still smelled like I’d been doing exercise for a good half-hour. I struggled out of my hoodie, throwing it on the floor. A slight movement of my tail saw my boxers falling to the floor right away. I glanced down, and my mind ground to a halt. I stumbled, catching myself on the door to my bathroom.

“Where’s my penis?”

It was just gone without a trace, as if it wasn’t there to begin with. Additionally, pushing against the inside of my t-shirt were two bumps which definitely hadn’t been there before. Looks like that strange object had changed me more than I realised.

One of my hands reached up to my chests, not quite believing what I was seeing. The hand had brushed against the bump on the left. I could feel that, it felt good.

I quickly pulled my plain white t-shirt over my head, throwing it behind me as I stumbled into my bathroom. I stood in just the right spot to see my whole body in the mirror over the marble sink. I was nervous, usually I avoided the mirror like the plague, but this was the only way to understand what happened to me. I slowly turned and faced the mirror head on.

When I saw my reflection, I gasped. I hadn’t just gotten smaller and grown a tail, I had completely transformed. If you looked at my face, you could maybe see a small resemblance to what I had looked like before, but other than that I looked like a completely different person. Where before my face had hard, defined edges, my face was now much softer and rounder. The facial hair was completely gone, where before I had scruffy facial hair along my chin and lips. My nose looked about the same as before. My lips looked softer, although how much of that was a lack of coarse facial hair nearby I wasn’t certain. Where before I had been rather gaunt and pale, my face now had much more colour, and my cheeks were much fuller. My eyes were larger, and shone with a bright purple colour. I also had a bit of freckles over my nose. I hadn’t had freckles before. They looked kind of cute… okay, really cute. The most startling change at head level was my hair. It had changed from my normal brown to completely white, almost like silver, matching my new tail. It had also grown out significantly. Before it had been cut super short at my parents’ insistence, but it now reached my mid back. As well, poking out the top of my head, covered in white fur, were a couple of big, triangle-shaped ears, like a fox’s. I reached around and felt them. They rapidly twitched as soon as I touched, before relaxing ever-so slightly. They were soft and silky. I traced the shape from the peak all the way to the base where my old ears had been. That explained why all the sounds had been more intense. They tickled. They were extremely sensitive.

Lower down, I noticed my shoulders had gotten much narrower. No wonder I had needed to adjust my bag’s straps, I was tiny. Even my breasts were pretty small.

Oh yeah, breasts. I have those now.

I had of course seen breasts before, I’d watched porn. But these were the first ones I’d seen in person, and they were part of my own body. Mine! They weren’t small small, but they weren’t super large either. They’d easily be missed if I wore my hoodie again. Then again, I think anything short of double Ds would be missed in that hoodie on my small frame. The nipples were also a bit larger than I was used to. I gingerly grabbed my finger and softly touched one. Holy fuck, it felt good. I let out a quiet moan; the sensation was out of this world.

At my crotch level, I found the one piece of hair on my body other than on my head or tail-my pubic hair. It had changed to a white colour just like all the other hair. Rather than being wild and messy like before, it was a much tamer and also much shorter patch of hair just above my vagina.

Yup.

My vagina.

No dick. No balls. Just a little slit between my legs.

Internally, my stomach did a weird flip at the realisation. I felt…happy?

I did. I realised I was grinning. Why was I grinning? I was a guy, right? I shouldn’t be happy to suddenly have the body of a girl… right?!

“Fuck, I’m hot! Why am I so hot!?”

I glanced at my hair and tail. Those would be a pain to dry off, but I was feeling pretty sticky and gross. I turned to my shower, turning the water on. I stuck my foot under the spray until it felt warm enough to get in. Once under the warm spray of the water, I felt my muscles relax. I hadn’t even realised how tense I had been.

I squirted a bit more shampoo onto my head than usual before beginning to rub it into my scalp and over my now much longer hair. I carefully washed my ears, feeling them twitch every time I tried to touch them.

I glanced at my tail. I thought about bringing it in front of me, and it obeyed my commands. I grabbed a hold of it,then got to work rubbing shampoo into it as well. It was covered in hair too, right? I guessed shampoo would be the way to go. Afterwards, I quickly scrubbed the rest of my body with some body wash. When I scrubbed my new breasts though, I yelped. They were even more sensitive than my ears were! Hell, my whole body felt even more sensitive than it used to be. It was weird, weird but nice.

After I rinsed off all the soap, I continued to stand under the spray. What was I going to do? I couldn’t go to classes like this, not with the ears and tail, anyway. They would draw way too much attention. Maybe this was temporary?

I felt conflicted about the idea of changing back. On the one hand I was a guy, and this was a girl’s body. On the other hand, I kind of…liked looking like a girl. Maybe I could swap back and forth, or maybe it was temporary. My stomach churned at the thought; I don’t want this to be temporary. Fuck.

I tried to focus on what I had looked like before, to see if somehow that would force another transformation. No dice, I still had my tail. I was still a hot girl.

I sighed and turned off the water, climbing out of the shower. I started trying to dry off with a towel, but it quickly became evident I would need something a bit more for my hair and tail.

Ah, fuck it, no one else is home with me. I quickly made my way out of my bathroom and through my bedroom out into the hallway. I felt a little exposed, being naked outside of my room-my ‘space,’ as it was - but obviously no one could see me anyway. I made my way to my parents’ bedroom, and into their bathroom. I quickly found what I was after - my mom’s hair dryer. I grabbed it and bolted back to my bathroom with it, my wet feet pitter-pattering on the tiles. I plugged it in and set about drying my hair and tail. The warm air from the appliance felt really nice, and every time it passed by my ears, I could feel them twitch at the sensation. When it came to drying my tail, I just held it in front of me, and just ran the dryer over it, brushing my hands through the soft fur so it wouldn’t get tangled.

I turned off the hair dryer and put it down on the shelf next to my sink; I was definitely going to need it again. I pushed my bathroom door open and stepped back into my bedroom. I excitedly leaped back into my bed, my tail coming to rest between my legs so I wasn’t lying on it. I stretched my arms over my head. Normally I would feel self-conscious about still being naked, but for whatever reason I felt entirely comfortable, invigorated even. I started softly wiggling. First my toes, then my legs, then my tail, then my whole body Whether or not the feeling was related to my transformation or my parents not being home to arrogantly barge into my room, my personal space, without even the slightest thought of what I want.

My eyelids started to feel heavy. I brought my tail up to hold it, appreciating just how soft it was, and was soon fast asleep, completely at ease.

Chapter 2: Maple

When I woke up the next morning, I noticed that I felt really good. I hadn’t slept that well in years. There was something fluffy on top of me. I dimly realised I was completely naked, but that didn’t bother me. It normally did, but at the moment it didn’t. I continued lying in bed, eyes closed. I felt the fluffy thing brush my face, and my lips formed into a smile.

I opened my eyes. In front of my face was the end of my new tail. I grinned wider. I absentmindedly started to stroke it a little. It was sensitive - not nearly as much as my new breasts or even my ears, but it felt nice.

I was startled out of my blissful moment by the muffled buzz of my cell phone followed by a musical alarm noise. I pouted. I didn’t want to get up! I had to, however. I had classes today.

I froze.

Classes. Shit.

I couldn’t go to class looking like this!

Ok, maybe I could go to class looking like a hot girl, but the ears and tail would definitely draw far too much attention. Maybe I could hide them in my bulky hoodie? It would be uncomfortable, but it was definitely more than big enough to hide them. Only question was how I was going to comfortably wear my jeans.

I groaned and sat up, stretching my hands over my head. I let out a little sigh. “Alright, Alex. You can figure this out boy.” I frowned. “Girl.” I smiled. Definitely girl, I liked that better. I hadn’t noticed during my freak out the night before, but my voice had also changed. Gone was the rough scratchiness from puberty; instead, my voice was high and melodic. It sounded nice to me. I liked it. I felt my stomach do jumping-jacks in excitement. I giggled.

“I’m a girl,” I squealed. “I’m a girl, I’m a girl, I’m a girl!”

I knew this would bring massive problems when my parents got back in under a week, but I couldn’t dwell on that at the moment. I was a girl! That was exciting, right? I was allowed to be happy about my transformation, right? I wasn’t a complete idiot, I knew trans people were a thing. It was 2023, it was difficult to go anywhere online, especially on Twitter - sorry, X - without seeing some reference to trans people. If I actually liked that I was a girl now, maybe that made me trans. I wasn’t sure, I hadn’t engaged too much with anything because I was afraid that if I said anything too supportive, my parents would punish me severely. How they would find out, I had no clue. My parents didn’t know about my account and they weren’t nearly tech savvy enough to find it. Of course, could they see me now, they would probably have a heart attack.

I stood up and wobbled over to my bathroom on unsteady feet. I stopped in front of the mirror again. The excitement built more as I looked over my reflection again. I was just so pretty. My ears wiggled slightly, and I noticed that my tail started wagging. I grinned. Fine then, I was a girl. More specifically, I was a cute foxgirl. Of course, the fox part of that would likely cause me some issues… okay, a lot of issues, but I was just so flippin' adorable that I looked past that. I grinned, and noticed something else new. My teeth were suddenly much sharper than before. The canines were slightly enlarged. I decided to try baring my teeth at my reflection. I supposed it would look kind of intimidating if the rest of me didn’t look so gosh-darn adorable. I just looked adorable, like a puppy trying to act tough.

I figured I would have to do something different when brushing my teeth, but I just brushed them the same way I always had, and it was fine. Afterwards, I remembered I was still naked, but I still didn’t feel any shame. Honestly, why should I? I was hot now, there was nothing to be ashamed about with this body, with my body. I would obviously still need to put on some clothes to go to class, but - after checking my phone - I still had a bit of time before I had to leave.

I picked up my hoodie off the floor and pulled it over my head, just in case someone happened to glance in the window while I ate breakfast. I was about to leave my room when I stopped. I headed back into my bathroom. I wanted to see what I looked like in this hoodie. I looked at myself in the mirror, and my brain went a little fuzzy. The girl looking back at me (the girl who was me) looked so fucking adorable. The massive hoodie made me look even smaller. It felt so cosy. I instantly fell in love with the look. 

I kept staring. Before I would have been terrified to look at a girl this cute, but I was the girl. I was looking at myself - my true self - for the first time. I had to pull myself out of this it was so difficult to look away. She… I was gorgeous. I finally managed to pull away 5 minutes later. I rifled through my clothes hoping I could find a forgotten pair of pants from when I was little so they would fit. I didn't have luck. So, I walked to my parents' bedroom. I knew they weren't there, but I was still petrified. I opened my dad's drawer and found a spare belt. It was a tacky Texan cowboy belt that he bought decades ago. It had a giant brass star instead of a normal clip. 

"I am not wearing that."

It took me several more minutes to find a more modest belt, but I finally found one. A plain leather with a gunmetal clip. Good enough. I raced back to my bedroom, pulled up my new jeans and clumsily did the belt. I had to be careful so I didn't hurt my tail. Fuck, I had a tail. The jeans still wouldn't fit. I went to my drawer and grabbed a pocket knife. The only cool thing I was allowed to have since I guess it was "manly". I cut a slit in the jeans for my tail. It was uncomfortable to get on, but I managed to push it through. I had to hold the hairs forward and slide it on. I needed a more permanent fix, but for now this would have to do. I tucked it back under my hoodie, then pulled the hood over my ears. My ears twitched before eventually settling down flat. I quickly took my backpack and ran to the bus stop. I was just in time, the bus arrived as soon as I turned the corner; I leaped on and tapped my Presto card. Soon, I was off to my first day of university…  and my first full day of being a girl.

The bus ride was mostly uneventful. I did notice a bunch of guys staring at me. A teenager across the bus was trying to hide it. He wasn't fooling anyone. Well, I can't blame them. I stared at myself too instead of getting ready or eating. Still, it felt weird. Eventually the bus came to a halt. I got on the Yonge subway line to head down to UofT. Again, uneventful. I thought about listening to some music, but didn't think I could get my headphones over my ears properly. The subway stopped at Bloor. I took the Bloor line to St. George, which was so short of a ride it barely was worth mentioning, other than the creepy old guy who stared at me the whole time. I leaped out of the doors and jogged all the way to campus. UofT's Campus was massive. It would take ages to walk. Luckily the large campus would mean I got less attention, or at least I hoped it would. 

Luckily for me, when I got to campus there was no one there checking IDs or anything, so I was in the clear for a bit. I pulled out my phone to check my course schedule and the campus map to find where I needed to go. I hoped they didn't check ids in the class itself. I quickly found where I need to go.

I was a bit early, so I stopped at a Tim Horton's to buy a sandwich or something. I ordered a bacon melt. I normally didn't go for much with meat, but I was suddenly craving it for some reason. Maybe something to do with my transformation? I was clearly a hybrid with some sort of predator animal; an arctic fox, I thought. I had always thought foxes were pretty adorable animals.

I ate my sandwich as I walked to the lecture hall my first class was at. Once there, I was relieved to once again find no one checking IDs, so I found a seat in the back row of the massive room, sitting down carefully so my tail didn't get hurt. I was just in time, too. The professor immediately greeted us and then got right into explaining the course's syllabus. I tried to listen along, but it was nothing I hadn't already learned from the course page weeks ago after I had enrolled in my courses. So instead I pulled out my phone. I thought about browsing reddit, but it left a sour taste in my mouth. I had stumbled onto a subreddit called egg_irl in the past few months. I had found it weirdly fascinating, and now I knew why. Unfortunately, most of reddit was filled with reactionaries and other assorted assholes living in the recesses of their parents house. I instead opened my discord.

I found that I had a few notifications. There was a stream announcement from some streamer whose discord I was in, and a few DMs from my friend from high school, Maple. They were non-binary. They had come out over the summer, but only to certain friends in discord. I decided to see what they had to say.

MapleLeafEnby: yo, where were you. last night? I thought we were gonna game?

I groaned. I had completely forgotten in the wake of the transformation. I typed out a quick response.

AlexanderPlays: sorry. Something came up and I forgot. We can game tonight if you want? I doubt we'll get much homework today.

The response was quick.

MapleLeafEnby: what happened Alex?

I hesitated. I was nervous about telling, but I could trust Maple, right? They were trans too, so they'd definitely accept me being a girl. Still, I was nervous. I don't know why, but I was. After a minute of building up the courage, I decided to tell them.

AlexanderPlays: I realized something last night.

AlexanderPlays: I'm a girl.

The response to that was even faster.

MapleLeafEnby: HOLY SHIT

MapleLeafEnby: Welcome to the queer club.

I smiled. We had agreed to meet up for lunch on campus. They were studying geology, also at UofT. Odds were we'd spend a lot of time together.

AlexanderPlays: maybe I should change my username?

MapleLeafEnby: lol if ya want

MapleLeafEnby: do you want to change your name?

Not really? I mean, I liked Alex. It was itself pretty neutral. But 'Alexander' was definitely more masculine. Not my cup of tea for my name. Also, my horrible middle name would have to go. I mean, seriously? Clyde? What a stupid ass middle name. I briefly considered using the name Alexandra, which was a feminised version of Alexander, but I didn't particularly like it.

I had actually always disliked being named Alexander, especially being as much of a history nerd as I was. In a lot of the spaces I hung out in online, people would often make dumb jokes about Alexander the Great.

I went into Discord's settings and found the name change option. I hovered my finger over the button, but didn't tap. I continued thinking about my name. Obviously if I changed my mind later, I could change my username again, it wasn't any sort of commitment. I tried to think of girl names that could shorten to Alex. I could only think of one more - Alexis.

Actually, I liked the sound of that. I whispered it to myself.

"Alexis."

I giggled.

"My name is Alexis."

It sounded perfect. I tapped the button and quickly entered the name 'Alexis,' but stopped. I didn't want to leave it at that, but what could I…

Oh. Right.

'AlexisSnowFox'

I hit the confirm button. My stomach did a flip in excitement. It was done. All of my discord friends would see the new username.

MapleLeafEnby: Congrats! That name is adorable ASF! what made you choose it?

Telling someone your trans is one thing, but telling someone you got magically transformed into a hot foxgirl is something completely different. I trusted Maple, but did I trust them that much? I didn't think I could fully explain over discord though.

AlexisSnowFox: um…

AlexisSnowFox: there's something I need to show you.

There we go. I could show Maple my transformation. And if they didn't believe me, I would just have to prove it.

Just then, the other students started getting up. I guessed the lecture was over. I scrambled to get up, shouldering my bag and slipping my phone in my pocket. I only had the one lecture this morning, and Maple's were all in the afternoon, so they should already be waiting for me at the little café we had found when we had taken a tour of campus back in June. It was a cosy place - calm and quiet. I needed quiet. The noises of the students all around me were getting extremely overwhelming for my newly heightened fox senses.

I walked to the café. dodging and bumping into the sea of bodies going to lunch. It was extremely overwhelming compared to the small private school my parents had stuck me in (side note, school uniforms suck; why are they always so gendered?) I almost had a panic attack, but made it to the café anyway. I rushed inside, immediately relaxing. In the corner of the café was Maple, patiently waiting for me. They were wearing a denim jacket, with a red shirt. in the centre of the shirt was a white heart. Their messy brunette hair bobbed along to their rhythm. Their dark skin was painted with cute dark freckles. Their olive eyes gazed absently at her phone. From either ear they had large metallic purple earring loops. From her neck was a necklace with a beautiful teardrop bead. I hadn't seen them in person since we graduated. They changed a lot. They were comfortable, happy. I was relieved. They made me feel safe.

  I ordered a hot chocolate and a sub, and went to wait for it.

Maple was sitting at that counter thing that's next to the window, in one of those chairs that's too tall for your feet to reach the ground. Beside her was an empty seat, my seat. Their feet were swinging back and forth as they scrolled through some social media app or another. Their vibrant neon pink shoes kicking along. I sat down next to them.

They didn't look up or acknowledge me in any way. Made sense, I looked nothing like they remembered.

I sent them a message on Discord.

AlexisSnowFox: I'm right next to you.

They looked up and spotted me. Then they frowned and turned back to their phone.

MapleLeafEnby: only one next to me is this really cute chick with white hair in a bulky hoodie.

MapleLeafEnby: it looks like they have some sort of cosplay thing under their hood too. Like a set of animal ears.

"It is me, Maple," I said out loud.

They turned to me again, startled. "Alex?!"

I nodded shyly. "Yup. That's me."

They scowled. "You look nothing like her. Is this some sort of joke?"

I frowned. "N-no, it's really me. I'll prove it!" I showed them my phone screen.

They looked at it, but didn't stop scowling. "So what? You could have stolen my friend's phone."

I hadn't thought of that.

"W-what if I told you something only we would know?"

They crossed their arms. "I'm listening."

I took a breath. "Ok, so. Remember in grade 9? You had this crush on that girl, Mary Miller. You even asked her out, but she turned you down because she's straight. You made me promise not to mention it to anyone ever, and-"

"Ok, ok, jeez. I don't need more reminders of that. So either my friend suddenly turned into a real asshole, which I doubt, or you're telling the truth. But if you are telling the truth, that begs the question. How did all of this-" they gestured at my body "-happen?"

I opened my mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the cute barista at the counter. "Hot chocolate and sub for Alexis!"

"That's mine," I said.

I quickly went to grab the drink and sandwich from the worker, thanking her quietly. I couldn't look her in the eyes, though. My parents always tried to insist I should, but it just stressed me out every time.

I returned to sitting next to Maple, and started telling them the story of last night as I ate my sub. It really was delicious. I had ordered one with turkey and bacon in it. Once again, my new fox brain made happy noises at the taste of the meat.

When I was done telling, they sat staring at me incredulously. "You actually touched it? When you didn't know what it was? It was glowing for fucks' sake."

I swallowed a piece of delicious turkey. "I was curious! I wanted a closer look. Besides, it turned out alright. Well, mostly alright."

"What do you mean 'mostly?'"

"Well, I just thought someone dropped it on a walk. How was I supposed to know it was going to turn me into a foxgirl? I'm not complaining though, I am fucking adorable."

Maple retorted, "Well, what did you do with the figure?"

I ashamedly admitted I had left it.

"No gaming tonight, we are going back to the trail and getting that statue dweeb."

I hope no one stumbled on the statue since I had been there last night. I doubt they would find anything noteworthy, but what they hell, why not. 

"Deal, I'll walk with you there. umm… by the way, I don't know if this is permanent. If I can't change back… could I stay with you? I know this is all on such short notice. I don't think my parents would be very pleased with me looking like this."

"Of course you can stay in my dorm. Don't eat all my food. I will poke and prod at you to make sure you are my Alexis. You act like my Alexis, so I am pretty sure you are. Still fucking bizarre!"

It was bizarre. I don't know how I transformed, just that I did. All I remember was pain. I can only assume the energy from the idol remodelled every system in my body. No modern medical technology has ever come close to that. I glanced at my phone's time; lunch was almost over. I finished my hot chocolate and said goodbye to Maple. 

"See you there after school?"

"Fuck yes."

I tossed my cup into recycling and headed to my next class. I am so glad they believed me. That could have been a lot worse if they didn't. I guess my nerdy tendencies still apply, even as a cute foxgirl.

The day dragged on. More introductions, more basic lessons. Rinse, repeat. Finally the classes ended. I sent a quick message to Maple.

AlexisSnowFox: Where are you parked? I was hoping I could take a ride. The bus and train ride here was uncomfortable.

MapleLeafEnby: I'm parked by the ROM

I made my way across the block to the Royal Ontario Museum. I should have expected Maple to park there. They love rocks, and dinosaur fossils are just cooler rocks. Right by the entrance I spotted Maple, sitting in their red Toyota Corollawas Maple, lighting up a joint. They were barely too young to smoke, but I didn't care. Life was bullshit and anything that made the bullshit feel better was good. I opened the passenger side door and slid in. 

“Thank you so much for this Maple.”

“Don’t sweat it Alexis… I am curious on what the fuck is going on.”

I lifted my hoodie, my fox ears twitched and moved nervously at Maple. I lifted my hoodie and my tail popped out, curling around my chest. Maple reached out towards it before quickly drawing away.

“May I?”

“Of course Maple, I don’t mind.”

Maple carefully placed their hand on my ears and gently touched them before petting my head. If I opened my mouth I would have been mindlessly drooling; it felt so good. My eyes closed and my face had a huge grin. My tail began to flutter back and forth. I let out a low rumble from my chest. 

“Okay, aren’t you adorable Alex.”

“Umm… ummm… *purr*” You know the pleading emoji? That was the exact face I made when they said that. Call me pathetic, but try keeping a normal face when a cute enby is petting you. That’s right you can’t.

Maple took their hand away. I returned to normal, readjusting my body in the seat. I kind of wished that they could have kept petting me forever. I let out a small yelp when I accidentally pinched my tail between me and the seat. I contorted myself in the seat in order for my tail to not be squished. I struggled to get my seatbelt on. After a minute of struggling I got it on. Then we were off to Don River Boulevard; the place where I first shifted.

The drive was quiet, which was nice. All that I heard was the bassy rumble of the road and the quiet breathing of Maple. 18 minutes passed before we parked nearby at the dog park. I threw on my hood and carefully tucked my tail into my hood. I opened Google Earth on my phone and placed a pin on where I found the artifact. We walked through the dog park and quietly jumped the fence into the wooded trail. There, in the ditch below the fence I jumped, sat the artifact. It was still completely dull, the shape was all that was identifiable. I bumped shoulders with Maple and pointed it out to them. Maple was dumbfounded.

“I came all this way for a fox-shaped rock?”

“Trust me, that is what did it. Please take a look at it.”

“I will give me a week and I will give you a report my foxy Alex”

“Thank you so much! Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Maple snatched the idol. I winced, but nothing happened. Maple then shoved it in their backpack and started walking back to her car.

“See ya tomorrow Alex!” 

“See ya!”

They walked back down the footpath to the dog park to drive off. I dusted off my jeans and made my way back out to the road, walking back to my house. I wasn’t feeling anywhere near as skittish as I had been the night before, but I still walked quickly. I made it home, unlocking the front door and slipping inside.

I sat down on my bed with a snack I grabbed from the kitchen, watching YouTube videos on my laptop. Mostly let’s plays for some games I liked, but I was having issues focusing.

I audibly whined. It had felt really nice when Maple had pet me, and I wanted more of that. I reached up to stroke my own ears, and while it felt nice, it wasn’t quite the same as having someone else do it. I flopped against the pillows, sighing, my laptop completely forgotten about.

I continued lightly stroking my ears, and my eyes fluttered shut. I remembered that other new parts of my body had felt even more sensitive. I quickly shoved my hoodie over my head, followed by my t-shirt. Immediately, I grasped my breasts.

Holy shit.

I squeezed them a little, and sighed a little at the feeling. So good. I brushed my thumbs over my nipples, and I heard myself moan at the feeling. I experimentally pinched one of my nipples, and let out a high pitched whine. I was breathing heavily. I carefully took off my jeans and boxers, pulling my tail through the hole I had made that morning. I tossed them onto the floor.

As I went back to playing with my tits, my mind started to supply images of a certain sexy enby climbing on top of me and pinning me to my bed while they took over pleasuring my sensitive boobs. I shivered. That was a wonderful image. It felt so good. I started playing faster. I started moaning Maple’s name. They were so hot, I couldn’t help myself. I just wanted to grab onto them; to be theirs. I was so wet, I kept pleasuring myself. Periods or slow motions before periods of fast ones. Every inch of my body was shaking. It felt so so so so so so so good. I flipped around so I was on all fours. I stuffed my face into the pillow, and bit down. It felt like the natural thing to do. My moans were only getting louder, more intense. I was yearning for Maple’s company. They were so… hot. I just wanted to be near them, to see them, to touch them… and strangely enough: to smell them. I bet they smelled really nice. Maple had been close for a lot of our high school years, but I never realized I felt this way about them. They finally came out of their shell, they had an aura of confidence that I loved. I hadn’t imagined how different they became since graduation. They were so fucking awesome. They made my brain melt at the slightest touch. I bit harder and started screaming into the pillow. The bed was creaking loudly. I needed to release. Maple flipped a switch in me. I felt more feral, wild, powerful. I moaned her name one last time and then finally released. It felt like I was coming for hours, but it was realistically only a dozen or so seconds. Afterwards, I relaxed against my bed, panting hard.

My pillow had a whole row of holes pricked in it. My teeth were sharper; I bit into my pillow so hard I tore it, without even trying. I realized that that had been from my teeth. I felt really happy and satisfied, but also tired. I latched onto my torn pillow and embraced it; squeezing it, pretending it was Maple. I slowly drifted off to sleep cradling the pillow in my arms.

Chapter 3: Pizza

I woke up later that evening. It was dark out, and I was still naked. That was the second time in a row I’d slept naked. Is this going to become a habit? My phone buzzed. I groaned. Not right now! It buzzed again. Please no, I do not want a phone call. It buzzed a third time. Fuck, this is a phone call. Please be Maple, please be Maple, please be Maple.

I grabbed my phone off my nightstand.

Fuck me.

It was not Maple. It was my parents.

“FUCK!”

I answered the phone. I tried to disguise my voice. “Hi, mom.”

She must not have heard anything weird about my voice (or if she did she didn’t say anything about it). “Hey, sweetie, just wanted to ask you how your first day of classes was. I tried to call earlier, but you wouldn’t pick up.” 

Fuck, she must have called when I was asleep.

“It was fine, mom. Mostly just syllabus stuff, no actual material yet. I was feeling tired so I decided to take a nap. You must have called during it.” That was the truth, so hopefully she bought it and let it go.

“Oh, alright, Alexander.” I hated when she called me by my full name, and I hated it even more now that it wasn’t even my actual name. Then she asked how Maple was doing; of course, she deadnamed them, but in this instance I can’t really chalk that up to her being transphobic considering she didn’t even know Maple was NB yet. Thank fuck, Maple was my only friend, if she or my father found out, my friendship was toast.

“They’re fine,” I said, not wanting to misgender my friend. “We hung out a bit after classes.”

“That is great! You seem to be adjusting to college well! I am so proud of you son.”

Yeah, I was getting used to my transition to college… and being a fox girl. 

“Dad and I will be home in about a week.” My Father then shouted from across the room at the call to add, “Yeah champ, don’t have too many girls over before we come back.”

I hated when he said uncomfortable shit like this. “Champ” was completely unnecessary; for that matter, so was the creepy part about having “too many girls over” . I have lived with him for eighteen years, he should know I don’t have girls over. He should have said nothing to begin with.

“I, uh, don’t think that’s going to happen. Need to focus on my studies.” I laughed nervously.

“Glad you’re willing to put effort into something, Alexander,” my mom said. God, really? Just because I hadn’t managed straight-As once during high school did not mean I wasn’t trying my best.

“Hey, how’s Liam?” my dad asked.

My heart sank.

Liam had been my friend during my last year of high school. Maple had been spending a lot more time with their part-time job, and we hadn’t been able to spend much time together. I hadn’t had many other friends, but Liam and I had clicked. We liked a lot of the same things. Sure he may have had some… unsavory opinions about minorities, but he was at least willing to spend time with me.

And then Maple had come out, and Liam had taken those garbage opinions out of offhand comments, and tore into them. I had obviously immediately gone to bat for my best friend.

Liam and I were no longer friends, but my parents didn’t know that. Hell, he was even still going to the same university as I was, so it wasn’t out of the question for them to assume we had met up at some point.

Obviously, we hadn’t. Hell, Liam wouldn’t even actually recognize me anymore.

“He’s fine,” I lied. “We haven’t talked much.” Technically not a lie.

From there, the conversation wound down. It was one of the few traits my parents had that I actually liked; they never talked to me, just at me, before quickly exhausting themselves. It made it easier to ignore them. I said bye and hung up. Even though I just woke up, having to mask for them was exhausting. 

“You know what? I need to eat.”
I picked myself out of bed and lazily wandered to the fridge. Nothing. I then moved to the freezer. Nothing again. Deep Freezer. Nothing! Pantry. Guess what? NOTHING! I never knew why my parents always got the same shit. It was all cheap ramen, old bread, and i don’t know what the fuck else. None of it is what I wanted. Then I had an Idea. Pizza. That's what I want. Warm, flavorful, pizza. I rifled through my pockets to find the spare change for one. The pockets had nothing except 2 nickels and a quarter, (the quarter was even American, somehow…). Fuck.

I checked my room for my wallet. It was nowhere to be found. Well, shit. Where the fuck did I leave it? I hope Maple has it. I will ask them tomorrow I guess? Still, I. Want. My. Motherfuckin’. Pizza!

Then I got an idea. I don’t have money, but you know who does? My shitstain parents. They wouldn’t mind –hell, they wouldn’t even notice –if $20 were to suddenly vanish from their room. I shifted between my feet, creeping to my parent’s bedroom. I knew I was alone, still, It felt kind of wrong, yet kind of right. Sitting on my father’s bedside table was a 3 digit lockbox (which he kept at 000 because he was lazy). I slowly lifted the lid, In the box there was a haphazard pile of notes. Not organized in any way whatsoever. Coins all sank to the bottom, weighing down the box. I sifted through the mess, and eventually pulled out two green 20s.

“We’re in business”

Now, I guess I should walk to Pizza Pizza. It's only 10 minutes away. Ugh.. I really don’t want to interact today, my parents drained me of being able to people any more tonight. Well, I can order online and toss the money out the mail slot when they come. That sounds much better. I flipped open my laptop and started ordering. I ordered a stuffed crust medium with mushrooms, green and black olives, onions, sundried tomatoes, and pepperoni (I don’t usually eat pepperoni, but the fox in me was craving meat.). I added Parmesian and extra cheese. I additionally added some garlic bread and a coke to my order, then I clicked order and selected pay on delivery. Then I waited.

I was practically sitting by the door. I pulled up Twitch to watch some streams. I briefly checked a trans gamer Maple told me about, QueerHazel. She was a small channel, but cool. She was playing Stardew Valley. She was so cute! She was speedrunning marrying Abigail. I typed, “Abigail is awesome, she’s my favorite villager.” I hit send. Guess what I saw? Deadname. Even worse, she interacted with it. The dysphoria bells were ringing in my head. I rapidly changed the username to be the same as my discord. After the changes were sent, I typed out another message; “sorry, forgot I had to change my username here too.”

Hazel read the message. “Oh, new username? Trans, huh?”

I sent a message to confirm that.

“That’s awesome girl, always love to see more queers in my chat - oh fuck me, stupid crop fairy. Cute name, by the way. Oh also, your pronouns with the pronouns extension are still he/him.”

“Oops Let me change them, and install that extension.”

I added the extension and selected she/her.

Ding dong!

Oh, there’s my pizza!

I stuck my hand with the cash out the mail slot. “Just leave it on the porch please.”

“Um, ok,” a confused voice, cracking from puberty, said. I heard the sound of them putting the pizza down, then I felt them take the cash out of my hand. I started to pull it back inside, but they interrupted me. “Um, miss, I gotta give you your change first.” Oh right. After a few seconds, I felt them drop the change in my hand, and I pulled it back inside. I waited a few seconds and then quickly opened the door and snatched up the boxes and Coke can, pulling them inside and closing the door. 

I carried my food to the counter. Since I was shorter The counter was chin height, so I had to lift the boxes up. I clambered up the tall chairs, using the bottom supports as a step to get up. I lifted the cardboard to reveal the pizza. Steam billowed as I lifted the box up. That classic smell of hot, crisp pizza filled the air. My heightened fox senses let me notice every nuance of the ingredients. I could smell each ingredient. I removed the center pizza stand and pulled out the first slice. As I freed it from the other slices it drooped down, cheese melting and dripping. I bit down onto the pizza. It was like an orgasm in my mouth. Even my sense of taste was so much stronger. All the flavors swirled and combined in my mouth, layering one on top of the other until it all spilled over. The warmth of the slice warmed my whole face. I swallowed. That heat traveled down, first pinging down my throat, before settling in my chest. It felt so good.

Soon, the whole pizza was gone. I bit into some heavenly garlic bread and washed it all down with the Coke. I loudly burped. I giggled to myself, I thought it was funny hearing a small fox girl burp so loud. I got down and opened the trash can and discarded the box, bag, and can. I walked down to the large glass doors to my parent’s backyard. I stood on the old cracking cinereous-colored wooden porch. The fairy lights were hanging from post to post, nictitating with a yellow glow. I lowered myself on the bench, my tail curling to cover my legs in the cool September air. I laid on my side and listened to the backyard. I could hear the chirps of thousands of cricket calls. The rustling of the grass and the two large oaks in the yard. I could hear the mechanical drone of the streetlights and electrical wires charged with energy. The distant rumble of cars driving down the road. The sound was such a nice backdrop. It was much more pleasant than what it had first been. I was still just as sensitive, but I was more used to it. I heard my tail brush against my thighs. It was soft and quiet.

That was when my phone started ringing.

I panicked, I didn't want to talk to my parents again. The sound was so loud, it was painful, unbearable. I was fearing the worst. I pulled the phone out of my pocket. Maple.

"Thank fuck."

I can talk to Maple. I clicked answer.

"Ummm… Alexis? The figurine is glowing again. It’s pulsating red and orange. What do I do? The rumbling is so strong. I…"

"Don't do anything, I'll be right over"

I hung up.

Chapter 4: Second Shift

“It’s a different color.”

“Is it?”

“Yeah, it was all purply and stuff, now it’s more red.”

“Purply?”

“I mean, I’m pretty sure it was. I dunno, I didn’t really examine it much before I touched it.”

Maple snorted. “So it might have been bright green.”

I rolled my eyes. “I can definitely remember it was not glowing green when I first found it. Anyway, I know for a fact it was not glowing this color when I found it.”

Maple and I were watching the small idol, discussing it. It looked largely the same as when I had first found it - the writing hadn’t noticeably changed, and the shape - human body with fox ears and tail - was still the same. But rather than glowing with a purple light, it now glowed with a more orange-red light; the glow lit up rays of Maple’s wardrobe. The idol was sitting on the floor of Maple’s closet, laying in a bundle of unfolded black shirts. Neither of us wanted to touch it. While the changes it had given me weren’t bad, they still had the fun side effect of me both looking nothing like any of my ID and having massive, hard-to-miss fox ears adorning my head. I loved that I got turned into a girl, of course, but I could acknowledge it presented me with several issues.

“We should probably take it out to examine it better,” Maple said.

“We should not touch it.”

“It already transformed you.”

“That doesn’t mean I can touch it again.”

“I touched it earlier and it was fine.”

“It wasn’t glowing then! Now it is.”

Maple rolled their eyes before grabbing a pair of gloves off the shelf at the top of their closet. “Use these then.”

I accepted the gloves. “What if it works through gloves?”

“What would it do? Make you more girly?”

“It could fully turn me into a fox.”

“Ok, good point.” They moved to place the gloves back, but I grabbed them. Maple smirked. “Thought you didn’t want to touch it?”

“It will still be easier to examine it on your desk.” I pulled the gloves on. “I dunno, like… knock it out of my hands if it looks like it’s doing more magic on me or something.” I took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.”

Maple shot me a worried look, but I steeled my nerves and grabbed the idol.

Nothing happened.

I lifted it out of Maple’s closet. I turned around and looked for a place to set it. The first thing I saw was Maple’s bed beside us, but I decided against placing that there. The last thing I want was Maple shifting when they wanted to enjoy theirself. Across from the bed was Maple’s desk. It only had a stack of their geology notes, a pencil, a laptop, and a lava lamp. There was plenty of room to put it. I set it down next to the left wall.

“Guess the gloves worked then,” I said.

“Or it can’t affect you a second time,” Maple said, stepping towards their desk. “It looks a bit like you.”

“The only similarities are the ears and tail.” I snarked. “You can’t even tell what gender this is.”

Maple frowned. “You’re right. Weird. I could have sworn it looked like a girl before.”

“Maybe it was the angle,” I said, moving to look at it from the side.

“Nope, it is most definitely NOT a girl.”

I poked the idol’s head, but it stubbornly stayed androgynous.

“Hey, have you already had something to eat?” Maple said from behind me.

“Yeah,” I said, distractedly, lifting up the statue to look at the base. “Hey, there’s more writing under here.”

“No script I recognize,” Maple said. “You want snacks though?”

I shrugged, placing the idol back on the desk. “What snacks do you got?”

“Chips.”

“That’s it?”

“I have ice cream too.”

My ears perked up. “Ice cream?” I turned to face my friend.

Maple nodded. “Strawberry ice cream.”

I started salivating. I love strawberry ice cream! “But, what about the idol?”

Maple shrugged. “We can’t read what’s written on it. There’s not much else we can figure out about it just by looking at it. I don’t have any equipment to examine its chemical make-up.”

“That’s fair, I don’t want to try anything else without more safety. I doubt throwing random cleaning supplies will help us narrow anything down. I guess we should take a break.”

“Ice cream then?” Maple asked.

“Ice cream,” I confirmed.

Have I mentioned that I love strawberry ice cream? Because I fucking love strawberry ice cream.

We walked out of Maple’s room and entered the Kitchen. I sat at a chair on the other side of the peninsula while Maple rummaged through the freezer to find the ice cream.

“Got it!” Maple pulled out a pint tub of ice cream and set it in front of me. They went back and opened a drawer and retrieved a spoon. They handed it to me and I started eating immediately. It was so good. Ice cream tastes so much better as a fox, trust me.

Our break consisted mainly of Maple munching on a bag of chips while I viciously attacked a bowl of delicious pink-colored ice cream. It even had little strawberry bits in it, which I really like.

Once I finished my ice cream, I looked up at Maple, grinning like a lunatic.

Maple snorted. “You’ve got some on your face. Right here.” They pointed at the side of their lips.

I reached up to wipe it off, but apparently I got the wrong spot, because Maple shook their head, smiling.

“Right here,” Maple said, reaching over to wipe the ice cream with their finger.

My tail started wagging back and forth, “Thanks Maple!!!”

“No problem Alex. You looked adorable.”

“Oh ummmmm… thanks!” My face felt super hot. It was probably bright red too.

Maple grabbed the empty box and threw it into the garbage can on the end of the peninsula. They dropped my spoon into the sink and started rinsing it.

“You wanna watch something? I got the Transformers box set.”

“Like the cartoon?”

“No, the Michael Bay movies.”

“Aren’t those really bad or something?”

“They’re fun! Okay, more like so bad they’re fun. I like to watch them while stoned.”

“Wait, you’re not stoned now, are you?”

Maple shook their head.” No, but I’m probably gonna take an edible. You want one?”

“I have never tried one as a human… I have no idea how being a fox will affect getting high.”

“You’re still mostly human. Should be fine.”

I grabbed a handful of chips from Maple’s bag. “I’ll try one, sure.”

Maple grinned. “Awesome. Edibles last a while, so we should be good to marathon the whole thing.”

We left the kitchen and entered the common room. It had 1 couch, a love seat, and a chair. All made from the same worn out blue upholstery. We both decided to sit on the beige carpet instead. Maple turned on the T.V., which was tiny and over a decade old, and opened the DVD player. They reached over to a long shelf full of orphaned DVD cases and picked out one that said, TRANSFORMERS on it. It was a black case with a silver sharpie written in Maple’s distinctive handwriting. They opened the case, took out a blank DVD, and put it in the player. I ran up to it and pressed play.

“That wasn’t so bad,” I said after the first movie. “Sure, it was a big goofy action movie, but those are fun.”

“The quality really goes down from here though, you sure you wanna keep going?”

“Fuck it, I’m enjoying myself. If I don’t like it, we can watch My Little Pony or something.”

“My Little Pony?” Maple teased.

I blushed. “Shut up. It was the first thing I thought of.”

“I don’t have My Little Pony.”

“Ok then, something on Netflix.”

“I don’t have Netflix.”

“What do you have?”

“Transformers, uh… Scott Pilgrim-”

“I have never seen Scott Pilgrim.”

“Wait, really?”

“Do you ever think Scott might be trans?”

Maple looked at me funny. “Why do you ask?”

“He keeps bringing up lesbians.”

“He mentioned lesbians twice, Alex. Plus, one of Ramona’s exes is a girl.”

“Didn’t he bring up lesbians before she showed up?”

“Well, yeah. Why? Does that make him trans?”

“I think about lesbians a lot… a lot, a lot.”

Maple snorted. “So do I. I think a lot about kissing them.”

“I’m a lesbian,” I said, “I AM A LESBIAN!!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!”

“Ok Alex, you’re stoned.”

“I had like one edible. How stoned could I be?”

Maple gave me an amused look. “You would have barely any tolerance. You’re tiny and you’ve never had weed before.”

“I feel fine,” I said. I tried to get up to get another bag of chips. “Ok, well, my legs don’t want to move, but I’m fine, I swear!”

“No, you’re super stoned. You should probably get some sleep. I’ll carry you to my bed, and I’ll sleep on the couch.”

“I am but a damsel in distress and my knight must carry me to safety!” I kept giggling to myself.

I felt Maple pick me up off their couch and carry me back to their bedroom. I noticed the idol still sitting on its side on their desk. The eyes felt like they were following us as Maple placed me on their bed, pulling the blanket over me.

“Get some sleep. I’ll drive you to class in the morning.”

They started to leave, but I grabbed their shirt. “Stay.”

“Alex, the bed isn’t big enough for two people.”

“I’m really small.”

“You’re not that small.”

They started pulling away, but I refused to let go. “Please?” I gave them my best puppy dog (wait, but I’m not a dog) eyes. “I’m cold! I need warmth!!”

Maple hesitated, but managed to get me to let go of them. “We won’t both fit.” They started walking back to the door. “Good night, Alex.”

I whined, yanking the blankets off and getting out of bed, stumbling over to Maple. They turned just in time to catch me before I fell over.

I giggled. “My hero.”

Maple started saying something, but I can’t remember what it was. They had such nice lips… I wondered what they’d feel like touching my own lips.

“Alex, are you listening?”

I shook my head vigorously. “Nope!”

Maple sighed, smiling. “You’re adorable.”

I blushed and whined loudly. “No I’m not! Um… you are!”

Maple smirked, but I could tell they started blushing a little. “Whether or not I am adorable, you definitely are.”

Oh what was that wonderful feeling? I started melting a little and… oh, they were stroking my ears…

I moaned. Loudly. Shit, Maple had a housemate…

Maple kept stroking my ears. My worries were melting away. I forgot all about Maple’s housemate as their hand gently rubbed the back of my ear. It twitched involuntarily in response.

I stood up on my toes, and placed a quick kiss on Maple’s lips. The ear stroking briefly stopped, before Maple kissed me back, stroking my ears and back. My tail was wagging, smacking against Maple’s desk chair.

Maple gently pushed me towards the bed. Maple isn’t getting rid of me that easy! I grabbed their back and held on. We both tumbled into Maple’s bed, making a loud creak. Maple was still half off of it and started to lean to the side to kiss me. I held on tighter and started pushing myself against her, twisting and turning with her. It felt so good. Maple went in for a big kiss and launched their legs off the carpet next to the desk to get into the bed. I heard both the bed and the desk rattle. I heard the sound of the stone hitting wood. Maple shot a glance over at the table. The idol had fallen and was starting to roll off. Maple contorted her body and instinctively reached for the idol. I tried to move, but Maple pinned me to the bed. The idol was falling through the air. I slowly watched Maple’s hand stretch out for it. I was helpless.The stone made contact with skin. Red light started pulsating from the stone. Inorganic veins of light traveled up their hand. They started writhing. Muscles were spasming throughout their body. Sweat started to bead across their body. Their facial features started to deform and reconstitute themselves. I could hear the sound of bone and connective tissue shifting and growing to accommodate. I saw bone after bone develop from their tail. Hair rapidly growing and changing hue. Maple fell to the floor, their eyes closed.

When the transformation finished, Maple was still recognizably Maple. Their face seemed slightly different, but I couldn’t place exactly how. Well, outside of the bright orange-y red hair adorning their head. It was the same shaggy style Maple had had since we were 15, but now, sticking up through their hair were a pair of ears, almost identical to my own, save for the same red coloring present in the rest of their hair and on their fluffy tail. Yes, Maple had also grown a tail of their own. It was about the same length as my own. It was mostly red except for the tip, which was a white color. Actually, the tips of their ears were white too. They were still passed out on the floor. I started trying to help them into the bed, but it quickly became clear to me I had nowhere near enough upper body strength for such a task. They were still breathing, which was good. I sat next to them on the floor to wait for them to wake up.

I didn’t have to wait long. After around 10 minutes, they started to stir. Their eyes fluttered open.

“You ok?” I said, my voice full of concern.

“What just happened?” Their voice sounded slightly different. Not nearly as feminine, but also not masculine either.

“Uh, you touched the statue.” I pointed to where it was lying on the ground, smoking. The writing was blacked out again.

“Oh fuck. How do I look?”

“Um, mostly the same, actually. Aside from the ears and tail, of course. Although, yours are red, not white. Same with your hair.”

Maple grabbed a lock of their hair, holding it in front of their eyes. “Could be worse. I’ve been meaning to dye it for a while now. I can live with this color.”

“Also, um… your face looks slightly different. I guess you don’t look exactly feminine anymore. Not that you look masculine either.”

“I can live with that.”

“And your voice.”

“What happened to my voice?”

“It’s deeper. Just a bit. Um, I wouldn’t call it feminine or masculine either.”

“So I’m just more androgynous then?”

I nodded.

They grabbed at their chest. “Well, at least these stayed the same. I quite like these.”

I blushed. “Yeah, uh. I like having those too.”

Maple smirked. “They suit you well.”

My blush intensified.

Maple used the bed to help them get to their feet. They seemed a bit unsteady, but they didn’t fall. “Well, guess I don’t need to go on T then. Good, I really didn’t want body hair.”

“What did you want T for?”

“Voice, which just changed a bit, so I’m good. Also bottom growth, but if that thing did give me my ideal body, I got that too.”

“Ideal body?”

“Honestly, outside of the fox features, I love being more androgynous. I feel ever so slightly more comfortable in my skin.”

“I mean, I have no complaints here.”

Maple nodded. “Exactly. But uh, I think I’ll go check to see what changed.”

Maple moved to go to the bathroom, but hesitated. A mischievous grin appeared on their face. “You wanna see too?”

I was definitely bright red after that. I opened my mouth to say something, but the only sound that came out was a low whine.

Maple laughed. “God, you’re so adorable. Nah, I’ll just head to the bathroom.” Maple stepped over to their bedroom door. They stopped and turned to face me. “But maybe I’ll show you some other time.” They winked.

They fucking winked at me. They stepped out and walked down the hall before disappearing into the bathroom to the left.

I was left gaping at the empty doorway after them.

When Maple returned their face was painted with the biggest grin I had ever seen. Even bigger than when I looked at myself in the mirror.

“What’d ya get?”

“Oh you’ll see soon enough Alex, be patient.”

I ran up to Maple and I hugged them tight.

“I am so happy for you! You’re the bestest.”

Chapter 5: Cat in the Bookstore

“I hate this.”

Maple shifted uncomfortably in the seat next to mine. We were in a place over on Church Street - a sort of mix between a cafe and book shop. They were dressed in an oversized green hoodie borrowed from me, and were using it to try and hide their new foxy features. The night before, they had been really appreciative of their new appendage, hugging it and marveling at how soft it was. This morning, they were moaning about how bulky hoodies just weren't their style.

“I know, Maple.” I picked up a book off the shelf. “This one looks interesting.”

Maple glanced at it. “I thought you were after coffee?”

“I also wanted to check out the books.” I read the blurb on the back of the book. “I might buy this one, actually.”

“Well, I want coffee,” Maple said.

I put the book down. “Alright, we’ll look at books afterwards.”

I walked up to the counter. A girl was standing there waiting to take orders.  She had messy, short black hair. Her name tag read, “Christina, She/They.”

“Hi! What would you like to drink, miss?” She asked me. I took a moment to bask in the euphoria from being called ‘miss.’

“Ummm… I would like a mocha, and I’ll also take an affogato for my friend.”

I handed her the change and went back to Maple. “I got you an affogato. I hope you like it.” I picked up the book. It was The Sun and The Star by Rick Riordan. I hadn’t read it yet, despite adoring Percy Jackson throughout my childhood.

Christina wandered up to our table, “Here you go, enjoy your coffee!” She looked at me, “And you enjoy the book, it's one of my favorites. Anyway, if you need anything, I’ll be here until my shift ends in 10 or so minutes.”

Maple and I silently finished our coffee. Maple was studying for her geology class on her laptop. I read up to chapter 5 of the book. I went back to the counter and paid for the book. Maple and I packed up our things and got ready to leave. Christina’s shift was also ending, so she exited at the same time as us.

It was cloudy outside. It wasn’t raining yet, but a part of me felt like it might. Maple and I started walking towards the subway stations, Christina walking silently alongside us.

We were passing a bus-stop, when I spotted him.

Liam.

My blood ran cold. I never wanted to see him again. Fortunately, he shouldn’t recognize me. Unfortunately, he might recognize Maple.

“Maple,” I said. “Liam.”

Maple tensed up, looking around and spotting the boy walking down the sidewalk towards us.

He was carrying a bag. He had messy, coarse, stubble, that wasn’t well kept in the slightest. He had a long crew cut with a fade on either side. He put so much pomade in it that it could set his whole head on fire. His grey eyes shone with a distant, cruel, malevolent stare. His tall, lanky figure made long strides down the sidewalk. He wore a plain white V-neck and nark navy pants. Behind him there were 2 of his lackeys: probably friends he coerced ‘made’ over the summer.

I should probably explain who Liam is. Well, in high school, Liam was someone who would always hang around Maple and I. He would constantly try and make me “more manly.” He would constantly nag me about playing sports or playing Call of Duty. I tolerated him as best as I could. I felt far worse for Maple; Liam was constantly trying to make moves on them. It made them really uncomfortable, but no one stopped him. Well, when Maple came out as non-binary, Liam basically went on a temper tantrum. He started identifying as “Super-straight”, religiously watching American conservative grifters, calling any queer students “mentally ill”, the whole nine yards. Luckily he was ostracised and fell out with nearly everyone. Sadly, instead of reflecting on his actions, he just got even more vitriolic towards minorities.

He scanned the street. His soulless stare penetrated us. You could see the gears turning in his head. After eight seconds, it clicked. He recognized Maple. Fuck. In long strides, he walked towards us; kicking up dust from the asphalt with each stamp of his foot. His lackeys in lockstep behind him. Fuck.

“Look who it is. The stupid, confused bitch. Who do you have there? One of your weird dykes and a perverted man in girl’s clothes.” He turned to Christina and asked, “have you even had the surgery yet?”

Um, what?

Christina apparently shared my thoughts. “Dude, what?”

He turned to me,”A young, fertile girl like you should be interested in starting a family, not playing around with a fake relationship with a woman”

“What the Fuck!?” I said.

Maple growled. “She is literally 18, you creep.”

He shrugged. “Legal.”

Maple scoffed at him. “Come on, Alex. You have a class soon, yeah?”

I nodded. “Yeah, nineteenth Century History.”

We started walking away from Liam, but he moved to block our path.

“Leave us alone, Liam,” Maple growled.

“Alex?” he said. “Can’t be.” He was looking at me in a way that made me very uncomfortable. “Impossible.”

“Leave,” Maple said, fire in their eyes. “Now.”

“Or what, bitch?”

Maple bared their teeth at Liam, and unlike me, it was actually kind of intimidating. “You really wanna find out?”

Liam didn’t back down. “I won’t hit a woman. But I will if I have to.”

“That makes no sense,” Christina said.

“Quiet, troon!” Liam said.

“I am literally cis, dumbass.”

Liam ignored her, instead advancing on Maple. Maple squared up to fight.

I glanced at Liam’s buddies, expecting them to get involved too, but they had backed up some distance, looking nervous. Good, just Liam then.

Liam threw the first punch. Maple dodged so fast that I wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it normally, but I had a feeling my new foxy nature aided me a bit. Liam was left a bit disoriented, leaving him open to a punch thrown by Maple right after. Liam grunted as he staggered backwards a bit, but he came right back. He swung at Maple’s head, and they blocked, but Liam just slammed a fist into their stomach. Maple doubled over, and Liam threw another punch, causing Maple to land in a heap on the ground, their hood falling off.

“What the…” Liam said, seeing Maple’s fox ears. “You some sort of furry?”

Maple quickly got back up. There was a bruise forming over their right eye, but they just grinned back at Liam. “That the best you’ve got?”

Liam growled, and charged at Maple, swinging a fist towards their head. Maple dodged it and checked Liam in the side against the bus shelter. They grappled for a bit, before Maple kneed Liam straight in the balls.

Liam staggered backwards. “You bitch!”

He hobbled over to Maple, swinging again for their head (excellent strategy Liam; keep repeating that). Maple blocked, and slugged Liam in the stomach. Liam grunted before slamming Maple against the bus shelter again. He kneed them in the crotch, which I figured would have been ineffective, but Maple doubled over in pain.

“Fuck,” they said. “Did not expect that to hurt that much. Periods are still worse, though.”

“Huh?” Liam said. Before quickly recovering, kneeing Maple in the ribs. He was about to go in for another hit, when, with a loud hisss, Christina grabbed him by the neck and slammed him to the ground.

Except, Christina looked a little different now. Now, she had a pair of cute fluffy triangular ears on top of her head, and a long furry tail.

She was a catgirl.

Liam lay on the ground, gasping for air. There was blood on his chin from a busted lip, and he had a black eye.

“I think you should leave now,” Christina said. Her tail was all puffed up as if she was agitated.

Liam’s eyes widened. “What is with all this furry shit today? First that bunny girl, now you two!”

“Three,” I said. My voice shook, but I stepped up next to the catgirl and my friend, who was standing, but wincing as they massaged their crotch. “There’s three, actually.” I pulled off my hood, revealing my big fluffy fox ears. “They’re real, by the way. And I am the same Alex you knew in high school. Amazing how things change, huh?”

Liam stared at me. “Bullshit. You look just like a real woman. No way this could happen in only a few months.”

“You should leave now,” Maple said. “I may be unused to this pain, but it’s no worse than the worst period I’ve ever had, so I can still beat the snot out of you if I need to.”

“I was winning!” Liam exclaimed.

“No, you really weren’t,” Christina said. “I just stepped in to end the fight.”

Liam turned to his buddies for help, but they were staring at the three of us with fear.

Liam staggered to his feet. “This isn’t over.”

“I think it is, actually,” I said, giggling.

“Do your parents know?” Liam said.

My smile disappeared.

Liam smirked. “See ya ‘round, Alexander.” He and his buddies walked off, Liam still with an unwarranted confident swagger, and his two friends looking ready to be anywhere but here.

Maple and I were about to continue on our way to the subway, when Christina stepped in front of us.

“We need to talk.”

Maple sighed. “Can it wait until after our classes? We’re already pretty late as is.”

Christina looked Maple in the eyes for a second. “Alright, but you two need to hide those ears.”

“Yeah, uh, how did you make them go away? Earlier, in the store, they weren’t there, and you had your normal human ears.”

Christina shrugged. “I just-” her tail shrunk until it was gone, and the ears moved down to the sides of her head, changing in shape until they looked like her human ears again. “-visualize it. I focus on how I looked before.”

“Oh,” I said. “I uh… I don’t want to look how I did before.”

Christina’s face softened a bit. “Trans?”

I nodded.

“Ok, well, I don’t have firsthand experience, I’m cis, like I said, but maybe just… focus on this body but without the fox parts?”

I did as she said. I closed my eyes. I tried focusing on my human form. I grit my teeth. I opened my eyes; my fox tail was still wiggling behind me.

"It's so hard to imagine me as anything but a fox."

 I was so happy with everything– my ears, my tail, my vagina– I couldn't imagine anything else.

I tried again… nothing. what was wrong. I was starting to get nervous.

"Focus on who you are now, and slowly shrink the tail and ears into you. I know it sounds weird, but you have to visualize the parts sinking into you."

I focused again on my form. I imagined my ears. I made myself indulge in the fake sensation of them dissolving into my scalp and moving to form my human ears. I felt something shift. My physical form followed my fantasy. I felt them dissolve, disappear, and form a pair of human ears. I did the same with my tail, and it shrunk into my back. 

When I opened my eyes again, Maple was looking at me. “Holy shit.”

“What?” I asked. Yes! My voice still sounded girly!

“Your hair…”

“That can happen,” Christina said. “I met someone once whose hair got darker in their hybrid form. Mine stays the same. I've tried to change it, but I haven't had any luck. I guess not everything can be changed.”

“What happened to my hair?” I grabbed some of my hair, holding it in front of my eyes. I expected it to be my old colour, but it wasn't. It was pitch black. “Oh.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly opened the camera app. It was already in selfie mode from earlier that day when I’d taken several selfies in the cute new outfit I’d gotten that morning - black thigh-high socks, a black skater skirt, and the same bulky hoodie I had been wearing when I first got turned into a foxgirl. Staring back at me now, however, was almost the exact same face, just slightly different. Rather than purple, my eyes were now blue. And of course, rather than white, my hair was black. I actually really liked how I looked. “I like this,” I said. I was grinning. I snapped a few selfies before putting my phone away.

Maple and Christina were watching me.

“What?” I said. “I spent eighteen years hating how I looked. Can’t a girl be excited she looks cute now?”

Maple snorted, “you are adorable, Alex.”

I blushed. “Th-thanks.”

Maple closed their eyes, and within a couple seconds, they shifted to a human form. Along with the tail going away and the ears reverting to human ears, their hair reverted to its old colour. Maple opened their eyes. “Did it work?”

I nodded.

Maple grabbed their crotch. “Oh fuck yes. I get to keep it!”

“Thanks, by the way, Christina,” I said.

“Yeah, thanks for stepping in earlier,” Maple said.

“Any time,” she said. “Always happy to help a fellow Shifter out. Also, call me Chrissy. All my friends do.”

“Shifter? What’s that?” I asked.

“That’s the term me and a few other Shifters I’ve met have started calling ourselves. It means someone who’s used one of those statues. Since you’re both foxes, I’m assuming you used the same one?”

“Um, yeah,” Maple said. “It’s back at my place right now.”

“Can I see it?” she asked.

“I don’t really wanna touch it,” Maple said.

“Well… I'm not going to touch it. I might be fine because I am already shifted, but I don't know for sure.” Chrissy replied. “If it isn't glowing it should be fine. My roommates touched mine, despite me telling them not to, when it was dark and they weren’t shifted."

We continued walking back to the station. We continued in silence.

“Alright, Chrissy,” Maple said, “after classes, I can drive you and Alex back to my place so you can look at our statue.”

Chrissy opened up a notepad in her backpack and scribbled something in it.

"Here's my number and address, call me after classes." 

I got a girl's number. Okay, well, she gave it to me for non-romantic reasons, but still! I got a girl's number!!!!

When Maple and I finished our lectures, we met in a café near campus. We ordered coffee and worked on our assignments together. Nothing big, just some worksheets. After we finished the work, I dialled Chrissy's number. Chrissy picked up immediately, "Hi! Alex! Bee tee double-you, you need to change your caller ID.”

I winced. "I knew I forgot something."

"I'm outside of campus, I'm on the corner of St. George and Hoskin. Could y'all give me a ride to your place?"

"Okay, we'll be right there."

We walked to where Chrissy was. She excitedly waved at us.

"Thank you both again for letting me come over!"

"No problem." Maple said.

We walked over to Maple's car. We were silent. I still noticed my hearing and smell was unaffected by the shift. I could hear the flutter of leaves and distant traffic. I could smell the grass. However, that wasn’t the smell I focused on, I instead focused on another smell: Chrissy's scent. I could smell her; it wasn't a bad smell at all. It was pleasant. It was hard to describe. It was strong, but in a weirdly cozy way. She smelled wild. She smelled hot.

I hope I smelled as good as Chrissy did. The thought made me feel affirmed in a strange way: I wouldn't smell like old me.

“Here we are”

Maple unlocked the doors and got in the driver’s seat. Went to the other side of the car and sat shotgun. Finally, Chrissy sat in the back. Maple started driving.

“So how’d you find your statue Alex?” Chrissy asked as Maple pulled out of the parking lot.

“It was in a patch of trees near my house.”

Maple snorted. “Yeah, and you left it there.”

“It’s heavy,” I said. “I have less muscles than I used to.”

“You could work out,” Chrissy said. “I bet a bit of muscle would look really h– good on you.”

I blushed. “I mean, Maple’s muscles look pretty great.”

Maple turned ever so slightly pink, “okay, we can all agree, everyone here is hot.”

Chrissy barked out a laugh. “Who said anything about being hot?”

“You almost called Alex hot,” Maple retorted.

Wait, what? Hot? Me? For real? How? Oh… wait… I’m a pretty girl now. Hehe.

“What is it, Alex?” Maple asked.

Oh, was that mental giggle not entirely mental?

“I’m a pretty girl now,” I said happily.

“That you are,” Chrissy replied. I could see her smirking in the car’s mirror.

The drive continued uneventfully. Maple turned onto the street and parked their car near their apartment. We walked down the street, opened the door, and took the stairs up to Maple’s apartment. 

Maple swung open their door. We all stepped inside. Maple’s roommate was passed out on the couch, an empty box sitting next to her.

Maple groaned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” They stepped over to the couch and jabbed the girl in the shoulder. “Avril, bitch, wake the fuck up.”

Maple’s roommate startled awake. “Huh, what?”

Avril was a bigger girl. She had shoulder length black hair and some intense scars over her face.

Maple scowled at the girl. “Bitch, those were my fucking edibles.”

The girl shrunk in on herself. “Sorry, I just… I’ve had a shitty week, and-”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. But you need to fucking ask first,” Maple said.

“Sorry…” Avril cowered in her blanket.

Maple’s face softened. “Look, I get it, shit gets intense sometimes. But yeah, please ask first?”

Avril nodded.

Maple closed the door after Chrissy came through, and continued on to their room. 

Maple opened the door. Their room was just as we left it the previous visit, including the shifter statue on the floor next to the bed.

Chrissy turned to Maple, “I assume this is the statue that turned you both? It looks similar to mine. Mine looked more cat-like though.”

I replied, “Yes, this is the statue.” I shifted back into my foxgirl form. “That’s much better.”

Chrissy and Maple followed suit, both seeming to visibly relax as well.

Maple picked up the statue; nothing happened. “I only changed after it started glowing. It glowed different colors for Alex and I.”

“Well, you are a red fox and Alex is an arctic fox. These work in mysterious ways. No one I have met knows anything about them either.”

“Well,” Maple said. “I think we can safely say that these statues do tell you what you get out of them. Look, this one is all foxy, you said yours was more cat-like, right?”

Chrissy nodded, “yeah. Obviously the ears were similar, but the tails were definitely different. What’s also confusing me is how your statue started glowing again.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’ve had my statue stashed in my closet for the past month since it turned me into a catgirl. It has not glowed since that day.”

“But once I took it home with me, within a few hours, it started glowing again,” Maple said. “Actually, Alex touched it just fine while it was glowing, but as soon as I touched it… bam, fox-mode. Not that I’m complaining, I got a bit more androgynous too.”

“Oh that’s really cool,” Chrissy said. “Like, I really can’t tell what your assigned gender was, not that I even want to know.”

“It took a foot of my height,” I said.

Chrissy’s eyes widened. “That drastic of a transformation, huh?”

Maple nodded. “Oh yeah. She looked very different before. Also, wasn’t your hair more brown, Alex?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I used to have brown hair. Now I guess my options are black or white. I don’t mind, honestly.”

“You have purple eyes,” Chrissy said.

“Yeah, that was a bit freaky, but I like them.”

“Well, so far no one I’ve met has had any complaints about their transformations, which is good. It would be quite an issue if these things just started transforming people in ways they hate.”

Maple handed the statute to Chrissy, who started examining it. “I can’t recognize the writing on here. It’s not like any script I’ve ever seen.”

“Same here,” Chrissy said. “Doesn’t mean it can’t be translated. Might just be some obscure writing system from thousands of years ago.”

“I don’t think it’s pictographic,” Maple said. “Might be some form of alphabet, but it could also be an abjad or abugida? I honestly can't tell, my specialty is rocks, not scripts. That was just a hobby a few years ago.”

I chimed in, “yeah, nothing here looks like actual things, really. Just some squiggles and stuff.”

Chrissy put the statue down on Maple’s desk. “No point in staring at writing I can’t read.”

Maple turned to Chrissy and asked, “hey, do you wanna hang out here for a bit. Watch a movie or something?”

“What about your roommate?” Chrissy asked.

“Avril works nights,” Maple said. “She normally sleeps in her room, I don’t know why she fell asleep on the couch today. Anyway, she’s probably gone back to her room to continue sleeping until she actually needs to leave for work. We should be fine.”

We went back out into the main living area. Sure enough, Avril wasn’t there.

“May I have your discords, Maple, Alex?” Chrissy asked.

Both of us showed her our handles. First Maple got one, then thirty seconds later, I got her friend request. I clicked accept.

Immediately, she sent us an invite to a discord server.

“This is a server I am a part of. It has people like us. It's small, but chill.”

I looked at the users, there were five; Maple, and I’s account of course, as well as Chrissy’s, ChrissyRose. There were also two other accounts: xXgaymessXx, and ApparentlyABoy. Both of them waved at us:

AlexisSnowFox: Hi!

xXgaymessXx: hallo!

ApparentlyABoy: Bonjour!

MapleLeafEnby: I guess we should introduce ourselves.

ChrissyRose: Probably a good idea, I’ll make an introductions channel.

Chrissy Created the channel and all of us started typing.

xXgaymessXx: Hi! I am Keira, 20! (she/her) I am a lesbian that is also a wolf. I like playing Minecraft and Life is Strange.

ApparentlyABoy: I’m Adrian, 21. I am a transmasc boy (He/They). I am from Québec. I can turn into a bird. I like skateboarding, playing Hollow Knight, and napping.

ChrissyRose: I’m Chrissy (you all already know that lol). I am a bi cis girl (She/They). I like working on machines and tech! I am a cat shifter.

Chrissy added another message.

ChrissyRose: oh yeah, I’m 19

Then Maple sent their intro:

MapleLeafEnby: My name is Maple, I’m 18, I’m studying geology. I’m non-binary, they/them. I like playing games, TTRPGs, and drawing. I got foxy stuff going on :P

I added my intro:

AlexisSnowFox: I’m Alex, short for Alexis, also 18, studying history. I’m a trans foxgirl, snow fox, like it says in my username. I like gaming, pizza, and being a super duper cute girl!

I switched back to general

AlexisSnowFox: It's nice to meet you all. I honestly didn’t know if there were more like Maple and I until today.

ApparentlyABoy: 🥺

xXgaymessXx: ditto!

MapleLeafEnby: Where’d you all meet?

Chrissy broke the silence, “You know you can just ask me in person.”

Maple replied, “Yeah, I still wanted to let everyone see that I was asking.”

Chrissy started to type a response.

ChrissyRose: I was in Kingston and I was on the bus heading to the train station. I saw a boy hiding in a hoodie. He looked scared, so I sat next to him. When he got up, his hoodie fell off. I saw a bunch of feathers, and I knew he was like me. He was running away from his family in Sherbrooke. I helped him pay for the ticket here, and I got his discord.

ChrissyRose: As for Keira, I met her in Barrie. She sat next to me in the park. We met before we shifted. Keira told me the night she shifted, she was all the way in her hometown of Sault Ste Marie when it happened. After a month, she and I figured out how to assume human form. 24 hours later, I found my statue.

How many shifters were there? If statues were showing up in Sault Ste Marie and Sherbrooke, there could be a lot more… something was going off inside my brain: I could have passed another shifter in class, or while I was shopping.

Wait… What did Liam say earlier? I searched my mind for a specific line in all the bigotry he said. Finally, I found it, First that bunny girl, now you two!

“Hey, Maple, Chrissy, didn’t we hear Liam say something like, ‘First that bunny girl, now you two!’” I did my best Liam impression.

Both of them giggled before their faces suddenly shifted.

Chrissy replied, “Holy shit.”

Maple added.” Holy fucking shit.”

There was a bunny shifter somewhere in Toronto, and she had to deal with Liam.

Chrissy quickly started typing to Keira and Adrian. 

“We have to find her, right?” I said

“Right.” Chrissy replied.

The realization was palpable; all of us were tense. Just when I felt like things couldn’t get any more crazy, my phone started going off. 

I looked at the number. Shit, my parents.

I picked it up. My dad responded, “Hey Alexander! Good news. There was a change of plans; Mom and I are going home early. We can’t wait to see you! We will be there tomorrow night. Sorry for not sticking around, but I have work to do.”

Fuck.