Everyone seemed impressively okay with the informathatn tha Alana's true form was that of a dog. Nobody had judged her, they still treated her like their friend and their only worries woud be, if Alana understood correctly, that somebody would want to take advantage of whatever Alana was. It was heartwarming, really.
There was, however, a small little detail in this scenario. One person who was not as sure of this revelation as all others.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I AM A DOG?" Alana would have said, but all she could do was to bark.
For all of her life, she had been a girl, she was sure of it, she had the memories, her grandmother was human, and she assumed her parents were as well, so where and when did she become a dog? Was it at the academy? Was it when she was absorbed by a spirit? Was it some curse? She did play with a few fairies and drank more than one mystery potion because it had pretty colours.
Now that she thought about it, there were plenty of chances for her to become a dog, but what these people were saying, made it sound like she had always been one, and that was just ridiculous, right?
And yet, when she looked back at it, she felt so comfortable right now as comfortable as she was in her human form before she lost the black band. When she used a transformation spell, like she had to escape the Tengu Agents, she didn't feel like this.
She started to pace about atop the table, looking confused, having an existential crisis in her little dog head.
"Oh? Alana..." Maze whispered, her voice so low after that verbal beatdown from Qullqi. The werewolf seemed to have a link to the wilds and animals, so maybe she would be able to understand Alana's emotions, even if the witch-turned-dog couldn't speak.
"I see..." Maze nodded, giving the dog some hope. But then, what she did to pick up a meat flavoured snack and give it to Alana. "Don't worry, Qull isn't looking."
Alana was almost offended that Maze thought she had been this bothered because of a ban on snacks. She did immediately and eagerly grab the snack with her mouth and munched on it though.
Not soon after, she froze up, her senses picking up a killing intent, or some other type of very intense gaze, landing upon her. Tensely, Alana turned to meet the eyes of Rumina.
"So..." the schoolgirl whispered through gritted teeth, her body shaking and her fingers starting to wiggle. "So... cute. I must... I must pet."
Qull, who had been talking to Sefirah, immediately turned with a worried expression. "You can't. She is a human still, remember that! Not a little animal for you to play with."
Rumi's head fell in disappointment, then a smirk appeared on her face. "NOW! BLOCK THEN SEFI!"
The automaton answered with a playful "Yeah!" and then rushed to hold Qullqi and Mazeline back, leaving Alana at the mercy of the magical girl, her intense aura extending across the room as her hands loomed over the dog. Alana was helpless as she received back scratches, ear scritches, boops, pats and so much more.
"Ahh she is so fluffy and she smells so nice. A dog that knows the importance of showering every day is the best." Rumi said happily pampering the mage.
Alana wagged her tail and her mind went dizzy, she wanted to resist but it was so nice...
The eyes of Qullqi and Mazeline grew jealous, with the taboo broken, it was clear that they too wanted to pet the dog.
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In the early hours, the group had massive speculation over what Tengu is doing as well as all the strange things happening around Lullaby, to distract themselves. It also helped nobody know anything, apparently, Rumi just sort of found Sefi in the ruins, having no idea who could have combined an ancient core with a modern machine, the slime was not easy to explain either.
As that became too repetitive and boring, they started to fidget with their phones and watch videos on Rumi's laptop, which was still extremely boring for Alana, even if she was a talking human. Wanting to change that, she started to bring their attention to the door, making it clear she wanted to get out of the home a bit.
To her surprise, they agreed.
Seeing the world from her current perspective was very scary, everything towered over her, she could not see colours, and she couldn't ask questions or make comments.
On the flip side, people were far more likely to notice her, smile at her, speak to her, give her free treats and kids would even play with her. Somehow, being a dog massively increased her social standing, which was kinda depressing.
She tried to socialize with other dogs but she could not speak their language, and well, she wasn't willing to sniff their rears nor to have her own sniffed, and that made her a very anti-social canine. When one dog tried, she barked at him, and the dog growled back, then Qullqi intervened, picking Alana up her in her arms.
Sefi and Rumi approached again as they saw that, a mischievous smirk on Rumi's lips as she stole Qullqi's hat and placed it over Alana's head. This made the chimera extremely shy, and Alana could see why, she was like a totally different girl without her hat casting a shadow over her face. Her facial expression became softer, her taciturn scowl became pouty, her eyes looked less scary and her hair got all puffy and messy.
Alana couldn't help but notice how integrated the magical girl had become with her group, over a period of fewer than 24 hours, actually, the better wording would be how integrated Cerberus became with her group, as it was Rumi who had the protagonism here. Unlike with Qull and Maze, however, Alana did not feel like this girl would end up some mainstay in her life. She had peeked at her photos when she was using the computer, and it seemed like she met a new group of weirdos just like them every other week.
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When she was put back in the ground, she noticed something odd.
Mazeline, who had lagged behind for the entire trip, and had been down for a while, had fully vanished now. Alana tilted her head at that. She didn't feel like Mazeline was unfairly criticized, but she also did not want her friend to feel sad or excluded. It was a bad example to base her life on adventure novels, but this was the part where the cute protagonist would seek her friend, right? Alana had only gotten cuter ever since she became a dog, according to the reactions of everyone around her, so this was a good chance for her to show her worth to Cerberus and help them back instead of just being helped by them.
Sniffing the air, she easily got the scent track of her friend, and bolted into the crowd, dodging the steps of unaware humans and crawling beneath the food stalls as she traversed the shanty town. Finally, as she was up in a makeshift walkway, she got a glimpse of her friend. Except, she wasn't moping dramatically by the lake shore like Alana would expect, instead, she was hiding in an alleyway, and she was not alone. Chalry de Bourgogne was talking to her.
Alana jumped over to the roof of a shack and tip-toed closer, but the crowd ahead was making it hard for even a canine like her to pick it up, and jumping down wasn't an option. She decided merely observing with her eyes would have to suffice. They seemed a bit confused, shrugging a lot as they talked, Maze was particularly unsure, while Chalry started to move more emphatically as the conversation continued, pointing over and over to the dark band Alana used on her neck, the elegant lady seemed to try to explain something, even at one point taking hold of Mazeline's arm, the weird part is that it didn't seem aggressive, it seemed worried. Finally, Chalry took a deep breath and asked the werewolf a question, Mazeline looked unsure, eyes darting to the side, then she steeled herself and nodded empathically, Chalry then nodded back.
Then they left, the more elegant one vanishing back into the alley and Mazeline checking out the street a few times before blending in with the crowd again, moving back to where the rest of their group was.
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"Hello! I have finished the task." Chalry declared by the end of the day, much earlier than they were expecting.
"You changed it," Qullqi said with narrowed eyes before the woman had even got the chance to step inside.
"Change it, I did." the smirked. "I have added clasps so it may close around the neck. I cannot do it like the original, for obvious reasons."
"What reasons?" Qull questioned, her tone coming out too aggressive.
"Come on Qullqi, think about it. The original was more like a ring, it had no connection or openings." Mazeline answered.
Qullqi clicked her tongue with annoyance at Mazeline jumping in without being requested. "Any other changes?"
"Well, I added a little ringlet so she may add some enchanted talisman to it later. Anything more felt unwise! After all, if you are suspicious of selfless little me over clasps, I cannot imagine how you would react if I added an enchantment of my own. Even if it's necessary."
Before Qullqi could ask more, Chalry walked forward, approaching Alana, patting her on the head before she wrapped the choker around her neck.
She expected to immediately turn human, but that didn't happen. Chalry then knelt and whispered to her.
"You will need to reclaim your shape. It won't be easy, but it won't be hard either. It's all within your mind, do not overthink, just be yourself, right? Think of your memories, but also of the memories you want to make."
Alana closed her eyes and pondered over that, her mind was a mess, but with the gentle words from the alchemist, she had a path forward. She started to visualize herself, but, it was impressively hard, she knew well the faces of others around her, but she rarely looked at herself. The harder she tried to think of that, the tenser she became, she redrew her appearance a dozen times and it was never right.
She went back to what Chalry had said, just be yourself, a simple command that was incredibly hard when she thought about it, you never had to make an effort to be yourself, so how could she even start to work on that? It was then that she noticed the one anchor to herself that she had, the choker, ultimately, seemed to keep her form, to give her shape, she followed the corrections it made and allowed her form to flow around it. She put her trust in it, taking a leap of faith as she put a lot of her energy into the transformation and then let go, making no effort to force herself in any particular shape.
When she opened up her eyes, she was looking at Chalry still, but now at the level of her torso.
"Oh! Magenta! I knew it! Cyan, Yellow, Magenta! You three wear colour-coded clothing!" The human witch said, causing Chalry to laugh, adjusting her burgundy coloured blazer.
"By total coincidence, I assure you." Chalry snickered. "But maybe you should care a bit less about what I wear, and a bit more about your state of dressing?"
Alana tilted her head confused, looking as everyone around her had a slight blush, except Rumi, who was complaining as Sefi had hands over her eyes. The witch looked down and noticed why, she lacked any clothing over her form.
"Ah. Yeah, I do kinda lose clothing when I transform." She said casually, she was past caring, anyone who was bothered could close their eyes. "I wish there was a way to fix that. It's a bit annoying to hide all the time."
Maze, trying to avoid eye contact, gave her the outfit she had been wearing earlier.
"So it seems! You should get yourself an enchantment on that band of yours so that it will store and recreate your clothing when you transform. It does not seem you are shy, which is good, but we do live in a society." So that was what she wanted to put in the choker, or at least, that was what Chalry was implying, but she had lied already today, and so had Maze.
The witch didn't know what to do about having seen that meeting, and realizing that even after everything the werewolf was still hiding things from her. She wanted to believe deep in her that her friend had not sold her out or anything, but she couldn't help but to still be frustrated that she was taking decisions about her without telling her what was in her mind.
"So, what was this band anyway, I have been so confused about this, hehe." Alana played coy, winking and rubbing behind her back.
"Oh nothing too strange really, the production is peculiar I will not lie, but it's just something there to regulate your shape. Think of it as wearing bracers to fix your teeth."
There was a moment of silence as Rumi and Qull shared glances.
"But is it not strange that I am uhm, a dog with a frame?" Alana asked herself, waiting for Qull to overthink an answer that would cost them the evening.
"Ahaha. What? No. Oh stars, so that is why you have all been so tense? No non, friends. Young magicians with a talent for transformation sometimes do mess up their natural form, and even if she happened to be a dog, which I doubt, dogs are still within the 12 higher species and therefore do have frames, just not as complex as a human one."
Nobody answered for some time, letting a tense silence take over the room. Alana could see in their expressions, the doubt growing, especially Qull, who started to think she may have made a mountain out of a molehill.
Maze then timely intervened. "Bwahaha, and we were here speculating about her being some anomaly, damn." the werewolf said with a loud laugh. "This is what happens when we dummies try to play detective."
This further drove the point, and Qull seemed convinced, blushing hard and hiding her face as she did so. Everyone laughed.
Alana joined them with a nervous laugh, earlier today she would have believed Chalry, what she proposed aligned with her memories, and played down her situation to a more manageable level, just a consequence of her magical skills. But after having seen that secret meeting and seeing how Maze and Chalry were both lying so much, she had no doubt this too was a lie.