Whoever turned up the world needed to go and fucking die. The littlest noise was akin to stabbing my brain with a needle. There also seemed to be a dog or something lying in the bed with me, given the soft fur tickling my legs. Other than the itching, I preferred the animal over the scratchy synthetic blankets I was used to. Well, that and maybe the heat the creature put off.
I was one of those people that ran cold whenever I slept, no matter how many blankets I piled over myself. Now though, I was practically burning up. Still, I was too comfortable to turn and push the creature away.
Without warning, my bladder took that moment to remind me that it needed my attention. It was insistent, not willing to wait even five minutes. Threatening to release here and now if I didn’t get up and moving.
My eyelids, coated in gunk as they were, refused to move. The curtain blocking the sunlight fluttered just as my eyes popped open, allowing the sun to hit my face and sending pain lancing through my skull. “Woah,” came a voice I did not expect to hear. Carefully opening one of my eyes just enough to look at the speaker. Xander was scrambling out of a chair. “Your body is still weak from all of those debuffs.”
“What debuffs?” I asked as I worked to lift the blanket off. The thing weighed a ton. “Where am I?”
He didn’t answer my questions, instead asking one of his own. “What do you remember?” Seeing that I was going to have to find the answer myself soon enough, I humored him.
Do you know how hard it is to look back at a series of memories and try and work out what was real and what was a nightmare? To then sort through those memories as you tried to put them in order. If you haven’t, be happy. It is nerve-wracking and mentally tiring. Before I finished, my bladder decided to send me a subtle reminder in the form of a twinge. “I need to use the bathroom.”
The emotions I saw flashing across his face confused me. I could swear that I saw sadness, happiness, fear, and even anger. He didn’t say a word, instead, he lifted a hand to point at a door set into a wall. It was on the other side of the spacious room with only a table between here and there.
Undaunted, I scrambled across the bed. My legs wobbled, threatening to give out, as I went to move from the bed to the floor. Xander’s arms caught me just as my legs gave out. Lifting me in a princess carry as his stride ate up the distance to my goal.
The bathroom on the other side was different than the room. Where the room was made of dark wood, this one was covered in stone. Tiles covered most of the exposed surfaces, save for the mirror and the counter. Jet black marble, cut with silver and gold striations, covered the counter.
Setting me on my feet in front of the toilet, he looked conflicted. Scoffing at him, I said, “I think I can handle going to the bathroom on my own.”
“That’s not,” he started. I was pretty sure that his cheeks turned crimson, but he turned before I could get a good look. “Call if you need help. And please, don’t freak out, or if you do, don’t kill me. I can't help you if you kill me. Well, I can but…we will figure something out.” He almost sounded panicked as he blurted everything out.
Confused and a bit concerned for him, I didn’t have a chance to demand any answers before he shut the door. I could have yelled through the door but another twinge had me scrambling for the toilet. A short lift of a long t-shirt later, I finally got some blessed relief.
Likely, the sudden relief and relaxation was why I didn’t notice a few oddities. Oddities like the fact that I didn’t have to position any equipment, or that the stream was coming out of the wrong place. But at least the fur was no longer tickling my legs. No, now it tickled my back.
Closing my eyes, I reached up, praying that I wouldn’t find flesh that should not be there. Hoping that my transformation was a part of a nightmare and nothing more.
Tingling followed my fingers as they trailed up my body. The moment they reached my pecks, the tingles turned into miniature fireworks.
Needing to confirm what my hand was telling me, I tilted my head down. Slowly, fearful of what I would see, I opened my eyes.
Sitting there, as if they had always been there, sat two round orbs of fat. They were not all that large. Looking large enough for me to get a good handful and nothing more. That wouldn’t be so bad if they were the only changes I recalled, but they were not.
My hand continued up. Moving past my neck and face. Fear stopped my hand from moving past my hairline. “Alex?” Xander’s worried voice carried through the door. While I didn’t answer him, his voice did serve to push me to continue.
My hair turned to soft fur as my fingers brushed against something on top of my head. Whatever they were, the parts I touched were not connected to my scalp. At least, not at the spot my fingers brushed. The object felt oddly pleasurable and tickled as my fingers rubbed against the thin cartilage tip.
“Alex,” the tip twitched as Xander’s soft voice called out. “Please answer me.”
It took me a moment but when I did, my voice caught in the middle as I answered him. “What happened to me?”
“While I didn’t see,” he hesitated as he spoke. “But I have an idea. First, though, tell me, did you use the SoulStone?”
Memories of confronting the city captain and fighting him came to me in a rush. Tears exploded from me. “It was the only way!” I wailed out as everything clicked into place. I didn’t hear the door open or his footsteps before I found myself wrapped up in his arms. I buried my head into his chest as I cried harder than I had ever done before. It was like a damn had burst. I hadn’t even cried this hard when both of my parents were killed in a car crash.
I don’t know how long we sat there. Nor did I need to. It was embarrassing enough to find that I had soaked my friend’s shirt with tears and snot. “Are you feeling better?” He murmured into my hair. It caused his chest to vibrate. Unable to speak through the knot in my throat, I nodded. “I know it is a sensitive subject, but we have to talk.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Just thinking about talking caused fear to fill my mind. I rapidly shook my head back and forth. Determined to try and forget everything that had happened in the hopes that I would wake up and find that this was all a bad dream.
Thankfully, he seemed to let the topic drop. A squeak escaped me as he stood up with me still in his arms. Not showing a sign of strain as he did so. One of his arms held me against him while the other supported my ass. I had no clue how I felt about this.
On one hand, it felt nice to be held by someone. Yes, it wasn’t a chick, but something about how he was holding me was comforting. I felt safe in his arms. Of course, there was the other side of me that felt like I was losing myself. Fearing the changes that seemed to be happening. To say I was mentally thrown by the situation would have been an understatement.
Before I could figure out what to feel and how to react, he set me down on the edge of the bed. He took a seat in the chair and looked at me for a second before speaking. “So, you remember using the SoulStone. Do you remember fighting a demon?”
My eyes dropped to the ground in shame as I recalled the fight with the demon and how I lost. As my mind went over the entire fight, I realized that he had just been playing with me. In fact, I was fairly sure he had done something to win. “Wait,” I started to say, only to have to stop for a second as I fought to keep from bursting into tears again. “Did the demon get you too?”
A hand came into view as he reached for my chin. Softly tipping my head back as his thumb gently caressed my cheek. “No,” his voice was soft, calming, as he spoke. “I killed it right after you passed out.”
I snorted at that. Grateful for the joke and distraction from the situation. “You, the guy that hates online games because people might track you, took down a demon. Right.”
“Just because I hate playing online does not mean I have not done so before.” He spoke as if he was afraid I would bolt if he said the wrong thing. “How else do you think I knew about this game?”
“The internet?”
His lifted eyebrow told me what he thought of my answer. “One of my buddies told me about the game. He even helped me out in the beginning.”
“And now?” I tried to keep him talking about something, anything, not related to demons.
“He is still around, we even get together now and then to hang out still, but enough about that.” Damn it, he always seemed to know when I was trying to distract him. “Your body has changed. I don’t mean one part or even your race, I mean everything.”
I sighed, “I know.” Xander breathed a sigh of relief. “But it's not permanent. I mean, no game can force you to play something you’re not. Ok, so it can make you play as another race, but gender? It would cause too many mental issues when the person goes back to the real world.” His grimace told me that there was something I was missing. “What?” I demanded.
“Have you been keeping up with the forum posts about people’s experiences with their SoulStones?”
Shaking my head, I said, “No, I have been too busy training.” His obvious hesitation coupled with his twiddling thumbs had me practically had me growling. “Spit it out.”
Xander’s eyes shot up to meet mine in surprise. Seeing my resolve, he sighed before speaking. “SoulStones don’t just affect your character. They also affect your real body.”
I fell backward as I burst out laughing. “Good one.”
His tone wasn’t that of joking as he spoke. “The description warned everyone about what it would do. It is our fault for ignoring the damned thing.”
“You mean that whole thing about combining the soul and the body? There is no way that was real. It was like flavor text in other games.”
Xander shook his head. “You have changed as much there as you have here. Just ask your AI.”
Rolling my eyes and wanting to prove him wrong, I humored him. “AI, can you tell me my body's current status?”
“Your body is currently not in the pod.” The AI’s voice echoed in my ears.
“What do you mean it is not in the pod.” Great, now the sensors on the damned AI were going out. Yet another thing to spend money on. Then again, was there a point in doing so? My chances of finding a way to make money wherever I was likely non-existent. “When did it disappear from your sensors?”
“Sensor records indicate that the user's body vanished around twenty real-world hours ago.” What was that, two and a half in-game days?
“What was I doing at the time?”
“You used an object before fighting the demon, Kaelis Morrowgrave.” The AI reported. “Sensors recorded a bright burst of light and radiation at the same moment your body vanished.”
My mind rebelled against the AI’s report coupled with Xander’s words. He waited a moment before reaching out to gently squeeze my leg. “As I said earlier, I will help you figure this out.” Suddenly, I needed out. I knew it was stupid but I had to get away from this game. He must have known what I was about to do because, as I went to demand the system log me out, he held something up and said “Stop!”
My eyes locked onto the small round ball in his hand as every muscle in my body froze. Seeing it brought back memories of the demon and his promises, sending waves of fear and dread racing down my spine. I was sure that the air on my tail was standing on end as I waited for his next order.
With the orb in his hand, he could get me to do anything with a simple word and there would be nothing I could do. To my surprise, he held it out to me. “Keep this safe. Maybe put it somewhere no one else can find, or maybe buy a subspace item to store it if you can.” As I grabbed the object, I pulled up its information.
Item:
Kyren’s Kitsune Orb
Rank:
Unique
Special:
Permanently bound to Kyren Vulpier (Alex Morgan).
Cannot be placed in spatial inventories.
Use (Anyone):
Gives the holder control over the orb’s bound creature.
Use (Bound Only):
Transform into a fox – 25 mana
Transform into a human – 50 mana
Transform into a Kitsune – 10 mana (Current Form)
Special Use:
Locked
100 mana
Limit 4 hours
Mana Charge:
100/100
Charge Rate:
+7.5 mana per hour in the current location.
Description:
A Kitsune Orb is part of their spirit, their soul. Those that are smart protect it fiercely as those who possess it have full control over them. Warning to those who would dare to steal it. The moment they are free, they will get revenge. No matter how long it takes or what they have to do.
They tend to not forgive or forget.
Groaning, I asked him a question. “Did you read the description?”
“Yes, how else would I have known to give it back to you?”
“Did you notice where it says that it cannot go into spatial inventories?”
“Ah,” he perked up as he spoke. It was almost as if he had found a safe topic that he knew enough about to keep a conversation going. “Spatial inventories and subspace items are different.”
“How so?” I knew I was about to get a lecture, but I figured I would give him this before vanishing.
“Inventories and most storage items are considered spatial inventories. From what I understand, they use compression and other tricks to store more items in a smaller area. Subspace items, on the other hand, are items that connect the item to a small pocket dimension. As you can guess, the latter are way more expensive, but they tend to be worth it.” He lowered his voice a little as if to tell me a secret. “There are even rumors of some bags having the ability to follow their user as they log in and out.”
Rolling my eyes, I thank him before logging out of the game. Every fiber of my being joined me in wishing, praying, hoping, that he was wrong about the changes being carried over to the real world.