When I regained consciousness, I was lying on my back, my whole body feeling light and refreshed. I opened my eyes only to become petrified, as a giant creature was looking down on me.

At first, I could only make out a blurry silhouette in the endless white that had surrounded me, but as the fog cleared up, it slowly gained color and more detailed features. When I finally realized it was Ofris, I felt both relieved and anxious.

“Why does he look so worried? How long was I gone? Did something bad happen?”

A random idea grew somewhere inside of my head. It was something I didn't dare to dream off before, something I had long given up on. I felt a faint smile growing on my lips.

“Did I really turn back into a man?!” Within a heartbeat, I was wide awake. “Of course he is shocked! I never told him anything about my past life!”

“Are you ok?” He asked, clearly hesitating to do so.

「I am!」 My answer came immediately. 

A cold shiver went over my body. What should have been a cheerful and almost childish answer, instead came out as two high-pitched yelps. I felt my whole body turning stiff.

「A- a fox?!」

「Yes, you are~」 Cilia confirmed my fears. 「And such a cute one~」

I tried to jump up, trying to expose her lies, but instead of my usual, rather slender arms and legs, four small paws were now waving in the air, desperately trying to turn around my body.

「No, no, no!」

“It is all ok!” Ofris called out to me. “Calm down!”

「How can I calm down?! She turned me into a fox!」

「Didn't you do it yourself?」 Shiro asked, fake innocence coloring her voice.

「It was you that did it to me! You gave me the magic! Now turn me back!」

「I can't.」

「OF COURSE YOU CAN!」

“Calm down, Rika! I don't even understand what you are saying! It's all barks and yelps!”

「WHO IS TALKING TO YOU!? TURN ME BACK!」

「I told you I'm unable to!」

「What do you mean unable to?!」 I barked at her.

「I would die if I were to do it right now...」

「What?!」

A deadly silence spread in my mind. The vixen was gone once again, leaving behind not a single word of explanation.

“Can't she just tell me?”

“Have you calmed down now?” Ofris asked, sounding rather worried.

「I'm fine...」

“I guess that means yes.” A loud sigh left his lips. “Just turn back for now.”

「I can't!」

“You don't want to?”

「...」

“Let's try to use the magic again. I should be able to bark just fine…”

Naturally, I could bark like a fox now, but that did not mean I was able to say those 'kons' the magic demanded. When I tried to imitate them, only cute sounds left my lips, cute enough to lure in the rest of the party members who had probably been hiding away upon hearing my angry barks. Mabel was the first to attack me.

“So cute~”

「...」 

She picked me up from the ground just the way I was, lying on my back, and placed me onto her warm lap. Two well-formed mounds were now blocking away part of the sky and her face. I couldn't help but gulp.

“Oww~ I want to pet you! Can I pet you? I can, right?!”

 

I couldn't even answer. Her attack had come too sudden and the unintended diversion hadn't exactly helped, either. Before I realized what was going on, Mabel was already full in cute-little-pet mode. With me being the pet, obviously.

She rubbed my furry chest, my soft tummy and my neck. When she then scratched the area behind my ears, I felt pure bliss. A faint purr could be heard coming from me.

“Did she plan for this to happen?” I heard Ofris ask.

“What do you mean?” The rather envious looking Sophia asked.

Sophia didn't exactly make a secret out of what she felt when seeing me. She seemed to have a thing for cute pets, just like Mabel did. Sure, I didn't see myself yet, but I could easily see from their reactions what wonders this magic had done. This didn't change a thing about me hating it, though.

“That's the spot~”

“The book she gave me before has a chapter about foxes,” Ofris explained. “I didn't know why there would be something like that in there. Now it is kind of obvious…”

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“You mean she wants us to spoil her?” Jack asked from somewhere out of my field of vision. “She should just have asked.”

Ofris did the only thing he could think of. He pulled forth the book from god-knows-where and hurriedly skimmed through the pages, searching for an answer to his troubles. When he reached the chapter he had talked about earlier, he began to read.

“Food, Daily necessaries... ah, there it is!”

“What did you find?” Sophia asked.

“She will turn back once she has exhausted her mana. There is no other way.” I heard Ofris gulp. “The transformation requires less mana over time than she is able to regenerate without resting…”

「Wait- does that mean... I WILL STAY LIKE THIS FOREVER?!」

⊱————　❈　————⊰

Since hours ago I had been staring into the ever-changing fire, trying to find an answer to this new curse of mine. Ofris and the others had tried everything they could think of to cheer me up, but obviously failed miserably. How could I just forget that I was doomed to live as a fox now!?

It was one thing to be a fox girl, foxkin or whatever they called it, but losing even this semi-human body was too much for me to handle. What could I even do like this? I wouldn't even be able to fight back, should anybody attack me! They could just abduct me, or kill me, or do whatever they felt like!

“Why…”

「You have to see the positive side of it!」

“Positive side?! There is nothing positive about this!”

「Isn't it far easier to get closer to him if you are like this?」

“Who wants to get closer to him?!”

「He is petting your back right now, you know?」

“That has nothing to do with each other! He is just stroking my back!”

「And scratching you behind the ears, and the neck. He even has rubbed your belly~」

“Don't even mention it…”

「Why? It was cute!」

“Cute?! I don’t want to look cute to them!” I let out a way too precious sigh. “If only it would need more mana.”

If I still was able to speak, I would simply chant magic over and over again until I wasted all of it. I would just run back onto that meadow and search for some remaining slimes to toss fire and death on. Or burn the grass itself, if there was nothing to be found. I certainly wouldn't think twice about doing it.

“Damn chanting... wait- wasn't there that foxy stuff?!”

「Foxy stuff?」 A far too stupid goddess asked. 「You couldn't be any foxier, you know?」

“Licking, Brushing... was it blinking? It was!”

The first two of them were not at all an option. Neither Ofris nor Mabel, Jack or Sophia was carrying an injury on their body. There wasn't even as much as a scratch. This obviously left only one choice: blinking at them to activate the seduction spell Shiro had given me. But who should I aim it at? Mabel? She would certainly like that. Jack and Sophia were out for obvious reasons. But the only one who knew of this magic and was forgiving enough to never mention it again was Ofris. Seducing him seemed like it was the sole choice I had. Still, I couldn’t do it. I just couldn’t.

“Mabel it is. There is no other way.”

I didn't waste another second. Before Mabel had even realized what I planned on doing, I had already strolled over to her and rolled on my back. Her hand, which had been busy cleaning her weapons seconds ago, was soon lying on my belly. She stared at me with a smile.

“What is it?” She asked. "Do you feel better now?"

「Sorry, Mabel...」

“What? I can't understand you. Are you hungry? I will prepare you something right now!”

“Don't make this even harder than it already is…”

「She is such a nice girl~」

“And you force me to hurt her…”

「Hurt her? Why would I do that? I want you to make ‘him’ fall for you!」

“I hope you can wait.”

「You will do it?!」

“In a few hundred years.”

「But he won't live that long!」

“Yes, exactly.”

「Maybe we can make him?」

“What? We can?!”

「I can teach you a magic spell! Anything for my little Rika~」

“And there I was, thinking you were a decent god for once…”

「Oww~ that's so nice of you~」

“Screw this!”

“Is everything ok?” Mabel asked again.

This time, I didn't let myself be hindered by the vixen or my guilty conscience. I stared deep into Mabel’s green eyes and started blinking at them. At first only once, then again and yet again. When the first wave of mana was sucked out of my body, I started blinking even faster, trying to overcome the feeling of shame that stemmed from Mabel’s slowly ever-changing expression.

At first, she looked confused, then she seemed to realize what I planned on doing, but it was already too late for her to fight back against my magic. Her eyes already turned dreamy, her cheeks red.

「Yes! You got her!」

「Shut up!」 I yelped at her. 「You stay out of this!」

Again and yet again I used my magic. My body was feeling slightly colder already, as if all warmth was drained out of my body, and I felt weaker too. The most obvious sign of my mana being low was without question the dizziness that threatened to force me to the ground.

If it wasn't for Mabel's gentle hands that still tried to hold me up, I would probably be lying on the dirt by now, seeing stars and gasping for air.

"So beautiful..."

「What?!」

"I love you, Rika."

「Wha... ha?!」 

A gleeful laughter echoed in my mind as Mabel slowly lifted me up and towards his face. Her eyes came closer and closer. When I finally realized she wasn't trying to get a better look at me, it was already too late. Two far bigger lips were pressed onto my own, gently and with a little hesitation, as if I was a fragile piece of porcelain.

She didn't leave it at just a single kiss. Again and again, she forced her lips onto my own, draining more and more mana with each of her attacks as every single kiss seemed to count for a lick. When the cursed transformation magic finally wore off, I couldn't even celebrate my freedom anymore, as my vision had long since turned blurry. I fell into the darkness, unable to free myself from Mabel’s greedy lips.