A cute girl was talking to me, but I was too tired.

No wait that was my sister now. How complicated.

I closed my eyes.

“Daniel!”

My tongue felt too numb, I didn’t want to respond.

“Daniel! Stay with me! We’re almost there.”

I wouldn’t leave her, how dumb was that. I couldn’t even move!

“Please! Please help us! He drank…”

“Soernolia. Soernolia!”

“Please! Look! Look!!!”

“…Fol. Ame ga Ol o Gata?”

“Yeah. Yeah, he drank. He drank that fucking inverted water. See? Drank.”

Was my sister doing a very racist rendition of a French mime? That was really not politically correct.

When I woke up for the fourth time, I felt better. There was nothing weird floating in front of my eyes, well, except for the red system square in front of my face.

You have lost status effect: [Stroke]

I suffered a stroke? For drinking two mouthfuls of water? How hellish was this world, really?

I didn’t have to tell the system to go away this time, it did it on its own, and as the screen in front of my eyes disappeared, I finally got a good look at my surroundings. It looked like the inside of a farm, everything except the brick walls was made of some sort of dark green wood. The bricks were thick, more like square boulders put on each other, the seams were barely visible, the sheer weight of it enough to hold everything together. The furniture was rustic. The room I was in was large, I saw something akin to a kitchen at the back, a large table with stools in the middle, and I was in a bedroom with one small window, the only thing able to make the bed area private was a curtain that was currently open.

I saw the hand in mine, and sat next to me was my sister, asleep on an uncomfortable-looking chair, her head half-posed on my leg.

“L?” I said weakly.

She blinked awake in seconds, before rising to meet my gaze. “Daniel! Oh my god.” She didn’t say anything, simply crushing me in a fierce hug. “Thank you. Thank you. Thank you…”

“I’m okay. I feel fine, just a bit groggy.” I caressed her gently, and she sobbed on my shoulder.

Someone else entered the room. I saw sunlight follow the tall woman inside before she closed the entry door.

“Ame ga ii? Shogotta…” She sounded relieved, but I understood nothing of what she said. Something Asian? Even that seemed wrong.

She came towards us, and I had time to examine her more closely.

She had to be in her forties and had the weathered look of someone having worked outside her whole life with the hips of a mother. She had rough features, her hair dirt blonde.

She tried not to disturb my sister still crying in my arms, while checking for my health. She put a finger in front of my eyes and moved it left and right, then forced me to open my mouth. She had a commanding enough air that I was letting her do as she pleased.

After a minute of basic checks, she seemed satisfied as she angled her head to the side like she had water in her ears. If I had to hazard a guess, that was this world’s version of a nod.

“Ame ga Orbe?” She asked.

I shook my shoulders, having no idea what she had just said.

“So. So. Malabe.” She waved her hand in a sign of ‘it doesn’t matter’. So this one was a universal one? Or was this just randomly the same? This was all greatly itching my professional curiosity about body language.

She looked at my sister, teary-eyed, then left the house with a smile.

Well, except if every basic human function was different here, I was pretty certain this specific resident was actually nice. That was a change for once.

“L? I’m here I’m okay.” I tried to shush her to ask exactly what had happened.

“I thought you were going to die. I saw…” She sobbed. “I saw the [Stroke] and I thought…”

“Seems like our new bodies are strong, a little stroke won’t make me leave you here all alone. How long have I been out?”

“I don’t know…I carried you to the road, I hoped that the village… They had swords and bows; I was so scared.”

“They?”

“The…I think they were this village’s hunters.” In between a sob she laughed. “One was a wolfman, a very large and imposing wolfman. I almost pissed myself.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I had a sudden flashback, just one or two sounds and images.

“I remember, I think. You weren’t scared at all.”

“I was terrified. But you were there and…That was way scarier.”

“Yeah. Yeah of course. And then?” I continued hugging her.

“They talked to each other, while you were dying there!” Anger pierced her voice. “But they decided to help us. They pulled their weapons away and the wolfman carried you on his back and started running back to the village. He was so fast, but I wasn’t going to let him just leave with you. I think he was surprised when he saw that I managed to follow him.”

“That’s my sister. Beating monsters in a marathon.”

“It’s not a monster. It’s a wolfman. Like a man, but with fur and the face of a wolf. And very big. He talked to me, I didn’t understand anything of course, but he seemed nice. And he saved you. He brought you in here, and the lady you saw made you drink a lot of purified water, they held you upside down for a while as well. That was weird. I probably got in their way a bit.”

I sighed.

“That’s horrible. I’m the big brother, I’m the one supposed to protect you, not the opposite.”

“You saved me from the ground dragon. I think you can still be proud of yourself.”

“I did nothing, the giant whatever it was saved the both of us.”

She hugged me harder.

“That’s not true. That’s the least true thing I ever heard.”

We stayed like that for a few moments, then I broke the hug. My sister sniffed once more, wiped her eyes, tried to hide away she had put snot all, then smiled when looking back at me.

“I think it’s been five, maybe six hours.” She tried. “Oh wait I’m dumb. Bonnie? How long for the door to be ready?”

I nodded appreciatively. “Good thinking.”

After a look of concentration, my sister gazed back at me. “Sixty. So I guess seven? Six hours?”

“Something like that, I don’t know how long since the dragon fiasco.”

“Still. Sixty hours more to wait.”

I was pensive for a while. “Let me get up, I want to see this village.”

“Wait you’re…”

The sheets fell off to show my naked, foreign, body.

“Oh.”

“There was a lot of blood, probably mine, and our host took them with my pants. I hope they’re washing them, I don’t want to walk around in this skirt.”

“I don’t want to walk around naked either!”

“Suck it, you’ve got a great body anyway, no one would complain.”

“L…”

She gave me a toothy smile full of mischief.

I looked around but found nothing that could protect my virtue.

“Wait here, I’ll find her and well…try to communicate.” She stood up.

“Are you sure? L, if I’m not here...”

She met my gaze, her eyes determined. “I’ll be fine. You’re not leaving me.”

I stared for a few seconds, shock gripping my throat, then blinked once, slowly. “I’m not L, I promise.”

“Don’t start breaking your promises to me now.”

“I won’t.”

She breathed in, breathed out. Then left the room.

Ten minutes passed, then she reappeared with the woman in her tow, and some hulk of a beast that immediately made my heart go in a frenzy.

I saw the sharp teeth and the canine face and then saw the eyes…Which looked friendly and calm.

So that was the wolfman.

It took a few seconds to get my breathing back in control, and then I tried to smile at him. Until I remembered that showing teeth could be considered a challenge with wolves.

Then again it was a humanoid. The result of my hesitation was one weird expression, I was certain.

He did smile back, but without opening his mouth.

He stayed to the entrance, while my sister was already back to my side with the woman bringing some basic clothes.

She set them up on the bed. As I rose to grab them, she rushed to close the curtains.

I heard the wolfman chuckle behind the fabric wall, and when the woman turned, she seemed a bit peeved.

“Ame ga oshi Soer.” She told me. She was reprimanding me if I had to guess. Not showing my torso to the wolfman, or to men in general, was good advice. I had no desire to be enticing to literal furries.

I put on the clothes that had been brought to me. The wool shirt and vest were simple enough, as were the briefs/panties that my grandmother would have loved, but I had no idea what the bottom part was supposed to be. My sister had gotten her own and had put it on easily enough.

It looked like a skirt, but then again those were obviously shorts.

“It’s a skort.” My sister explained.

“A what now?”

“Pants and a skirt all in one. Very practical.”

“…Ok? How do I…?”

I rose to my feet.

“Oh come on, it’s nothing hard. Also, you need a new bra if they don’t give you the previous one back.”

I squirmed.

“You need one, Nielle.” My sister insisted.

I sighed. “I’ve got spare ones in my bag.”

Gaëlle gave me a look full of pity.

“Well then, I suppose you can get undressed again then.”

“Oh for…”

“Put on the skort in the meantime, it’s just like shorts.”

“…Fine…”

As I finished the act of hiding my lowers parts, I had to uncover my top ones once more.

My sister fished our remaining backpack from one corner, got a plain white bra out of it, and helped me put it on.

Our host looked at the whole affair with a very interested look.

“It’s a bra.” I explained. “Wait, why am I even trying…”

“No no, do it. It’ll change their lives. Especially with her bazongas. Oh maybe it’s not for the best, you know free the boobs and all. But their backs will bless us.”

I took out another bra and handed it over to our host. She would not be able to benefit from this one, she needed one at least three sizes bigger, but maybe it would give ideas to their village tailor.

She pocketed it with a short: “Puli.” And one weird 90° nod.

“Puli to you as well. For, well, everything.” My nod was the usual one from good old Earth, but she seemed to get it.

Once finally decent, our hostess opened back the curtain.

She egged us forward, handing us over to the wolfman.

He examined us for a short moment in a nonchalant manner, trying to be professional, but the glaze in his eyes made me feel a bit uneasy.

“Ooh, wolfman likes our sexy bodies.” My sister said out loud.

“Really? Or maybe he wants to eat us.” I countered.

“Don’t be like that, I’m sure that’s racist somehow.”

“Well, sorry, but it’s disturbing.”

The wolfman gave us a gentle smile, not understanding a word of what we were saying, and he opened the door for us to get outside.

“Ooh. Gallant as well.” She smiled at the wolfman. “Thank you.”

“Gaëlle, are you flirting with the big furry wolf?”

“Why not? He’s got muscles, the fur looks very clean, and with that size…Do you think he has a dog dick or a human one?”

“L!”

“What?”

“Please, concentrate. They look ni…” That wasn’t exactly true, so I quickly corrected myself. “Erm…acted nice with us, sure, but we don’t know how we’ll be treated now.”

My sister hugged my arm closer.

“I know, I’m not an idiot. But I came here to have fun, and I’ll be damned if I don’t at least try. It’s the first time we’re not in danger! Let’s enjoy it.”

“That’s quite the low bar you’re setting.”

But as we got out, I stopped talking, taking in my surroundings.

The village was larger than I would have thought. The first thing I noticed was that the roads were made with planks set up directly on the dirt, and that the houses were quite far apart from each other. The second was the thickness of every house. The walls and roofs looked almost castle-like in their design. Thick, heavy, and solid. There was also a tall wooden rampart on our right.

It felt and seemed medieval, but also quite foreign.

There were a few people scattered all around, and everyone stopped what they were doing to look at us.

My sister didn’t seem to care, but I felt slightly oppressed. This new body… Was I imagining the look of hunger in the men’s eyes? Everyone mostly looked human. Some were like our wolfman friend, heavier and more muscled than their Homo counterparts, but still definitely humanoid. They didn’t act differently from anyone else. Looking at us with interest. I thought I saw someone with long ears among the neighbours, but the woman hid inside her house when she saw us coming out.

I felt a hand gently push me forwards and looked up to the wolfman clearly asking us to move. We went to the left, away from the rampart.

Deeper into the village.