I woke up early on Sunday morning, feeling a familiar sense of unease. It was the day my family went to church, a weekly ritual that had lost its appeal for me. As a child, I had been deeply religious, following in my mother's footsteps. But as I got older, I realized I was not as straight as I had thought. After meeting my best friend, Lucina, I gradually began to understand my true feelings.

Exiting the bed and stretching my arms, I noticed a faint tingling sensation in my fingers. I shook my hands, thinking it was just a standard morning stiffness. Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I saw that my hair was longer and thicker than usual, and I shrugged it off, thinking it was just a result of not getting a haircut for a while.

As I dressed, I noticed my favorite ring missing from my finger. I searched the room for it, but it was nowhere to be found. Shrugging it off, I decided to wear a new ring I found in my jewelry box. It was a small silver ring with the symbol of a fox etched into it. It looked cute, and it fits my finger perfectly.

“Good morning, Kasey. You’re up early today,” my mother greeted me as I entered the kitchen.

“Morning, Mom,” I replied, grabbing a cereal box from the pantry. “I went to bed early last night.”

“That’s good to hear. Oh, by the way, don’t forget to watch for potential suitors at church today.”

I rolled my eyes. “Mom, can we not have this conversation again? I’m not interested in getting married.”

“You should feel happy that I at least give you a choice to choose someone yourself. I never got this choice, you know.”

I didn’t give a reply back. We have similar conversations at least once a month. My father comes into the kitchen, so the topic is immediately dropped. My father, while religious, is way more down to earth. He is submissive, so he usually lets my mother do what she wants. Not surprising, and she can be a bit scary.

As we ate, I noticed that my father was acting strange. He kept glancing at my new ring, and a look of concern crossed his face. I wondered if he knew something about it that I didn't. If he did, he didn’t say anything.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

As I finished my delicious cereal, my dad said, “Let’s go.” I guess it’s church time now. I’ve hidden my tail well so far, so I hoped to continue to hide it for the rest of the day until I returned to Lucina’s house after church.

During the car ride, I noticed that sitting down wasn’t as easy as before. I got a constant bump above my butt, which is the start of my tail. Otherwise, the car ride went by without a hitch. Only my anxiety punched my gut at worryingly increasing strength the longer we spent.

When we finally got to the church, I felt relieved. I already used to hate sitting for long periods in the car, but now that I got a tail? It’s so much worse. As I got out of my car, I could tell there were a lot of people here today. We all sat down at our seats, my paranoia still high. I had to sit weirdly and move around to find a good way to sit. My mother stared at me, and I was making a ruckus, so I tried to calm down and just sat down quietly as it began.

After an hour or so, I got distracted because I never went to the bathroom this morning and had to go. I whispered to my Mom, “Mom, I have to go to the bathroom. I will be right back.”

She rolled her eyes and just gave me a nod to go. So I stood up quietly, trying not to stand out. The bathroom was back in the reception, so that’s where I went. When I stepped into the bathroom, I bumped into someone and fell to the ground.

Thump

“Ouch… Oh gosh, I am so sorry” I got up in a hurry to apologize, but also because my tail was briefly showing, hoping they didn’t notice, I hurried towards them and helped them up.

“Oh no, it’s quite alright, don’t worry about it, dear.” As I helped her get up to her feet, I see she was wearing a ring… A silver ring with the engraving of a fox. It looks exactly like mine. I looked down at my own ring. Yeah, they’re the same.

“Excuse me, ma’am?” I looked back up to ask her where she got her ring, but she was gone… How weird. I could swear she was just there. How odd. I shook my head and entered the bathroom. I went about my business and sat back down in my seat. I briefly looked around to see if I could find that woman, but there were too many people to find anyone.

Let’s hope she wasn’t some secret agent or some such, like from those novels Lucina introduced me to—one of those secret agents from a secret magical society.

The rest of my time at the church was so uninteresting I almost fell asleep. No songs and singing today, just a lot of preaching upon more preaching. So I managed to survive today as well. When we arrived home, I noticed my fingers were feeling tingly again, and I had a weird headache. My ears hurt a lot as well. I probably imagined it, but it felt like my hearing had diminished just ever so slightly.

I felt relieved again, and now it was time to visit Lucina. I sent her a quick message saying I was on my way. We will be researching whatever is happening to me, and I also got some stories for her. This strange ring, my hair growth speeding up, and that lady at church who wore the same ring as me.