I yanked the box back as soon as the alpha let it go. While I had seen my orb, I had ignored the rest of the contents of the box. My orb sat in the center of a nest of interwoven wires. Each of the wires was as thin as a hair. The mix of colors caught my breath. A platinum color dominated the lot, but it was intermixed with some iridescent blues and purples.
Tiny jewels caught in the light as I carefully lifted the piece of art out of its container. Just how much had this thing cost? Stones, no matter the size, couldn’t be all that cheap. Add in all the work that Steven had put into it, I doubted I could ever have had enough money to even put a downpayment on it. I almost wanted to get Ginger to return it.
Not that Xander or Ginger would have ever let me turn it down. Hell, they would probably tell me that I needed something that we knew wouldn’t break easily. It would also help that its beauty distracted anyone who might see the orb.
With an internal sigh, I tried to figure out how to put the thing on. It was missing any sort of clasp or hook. “Let me,” Ginger said as she took the necklace out of my hands. She did something and the thing expanded to the point that the spread-out threads became a thin cord. In its newly expanded state, it easily slipped over my head and settled on my neck.
The moment her hands released the thing, it practically snapped to my throat. My neck hurt where the necklace hit. It hurt worst where the orb had smacked into my throat causing me to cough.
“The dwarf does good work as always.” Ginger sounded as if she was gloating over her son or something.
“Is that a sealing spell woven into the wires?” Pendragon asked out of curiosity.
“You caught that?” She sounded as if she had expected him to. “I asked him to add it. Not to seal her powers but to seal whatever she ordered to her person.” He whistled while the alpha simply let out a grunt of approval.
“Um, where is the nearest bathroom I can use?” I felt a bit awkward asking but that didn’t change the fact that I suddenly had to go. I hadn't even had much to drink today yet here I was having to find a restroom.
The alpha pointed at a hall on the right side of the room. “Third door on the right.” I took off like a missile with a mission. The moment the door was open I mentally took a vacation as I tried to slip my pants down my legs. A sharp tug at the base of my spine reminded me that I had a tail to deal with now. I am fairly sure I growled a little while my hands fiddled with the latch hidden in the seam of my pants.
With the latch released, the fabric dropped, taking my panties with it. While I still cursed the gods and my change in equipment, the pressure on my bladder was a more immediate concern. One that I knew how to fix. Though, it didn’t help that I happened to have a brief flashback of my last attempt. A flashback that was enough to convince me to take at least a moment to adjust myself before I released the flood.
A relieved sigh escaped me as I let it all out. This time, the stream was pretty steady. I still had to wipe myself, but it was nothing like last time. As I finished washing my hands, I looked into the mirror over the sink to find that my choker had changed slightly.
Surrounding the orb, almost looking like it was holding it there, was a single tail. Whatever it was made out of shimmered like blue fire. Its fire matched that displayed by the orb, allowing it to blend in better.
The sight made me question if I was in a dream or not. There was no way I would ever be allowed to own something so beautiful. Surprisingly, while it looked like it might choke me, I barely felt it. Out of curiosity, I pulled up the item's stats and nearly cried out in shock.
Item:
Seine Last Tragen
Rank:
Unique
Special:
Sealed to Kyren Vulpier (Alex Morgan).
Socketed Gem:
Kyren’s Kitsune Orb
Passive:
Adjusts to the user's size.
Access to the Socketed Gem from inventory.
Mana Battery.
Unknown.
Unknown.
Unknown.
Active:
Bell, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown, unknown.
Special:
This item can travel between worlds.
Mana Charge:
2500/2500
Charge Rate:
+10 mana per hour in the current location.
Description:
While this is a mere trinket, I hope that it is able to help you carry your heavy burden.
-Steven
I shook my head as I shut the window. What the fuck was this thing? If one ignored all the unknown stuff, and the pitiful mana charge, the necklace could hold over three times what I could. It almost felt like cheating to even have the thing. And that description. The dwarf called this a trinket. Just what would he consider useful?
Stolen novel; please report.
As I opened the door, I heard Ginger talking, “Do you really have no idea who keeps killing the oracles?”
“We have combed the place with everything we could. I even sent people in wolf form to try and sniff out the culprit.” The Alpha sounded pissed about the lack of progress. “Yet we get nothing. I am starting to think it is a group working in concert to disrupt our defensive lines.”
“What do the other investigators think about that idea?” Pendragon asked.
“They don’t agree,” Brandi answered for her alpha. Given the low growl, he didn’t like that she had done so. Not that she seemed to care. “Most are in agreement that our security is too tight for more than one or two to have slipped into our ranks.”
“They are going so far as to disrupt my investigation.” He growled. “And before you ask, I already checked to see if they were clean. While they have a few issues, they have had nothing to do with the murders.”
“Are they following any sort of pattern?” Ginger asked.
“Their only pattern is in who they are targeting and the fact that they have never used the same method twice,” Brandi spoke as I heard the front door open.
Whoever it was didn’t speak all that loud before exiting the building. “Kyren, you can stop eavesdropping and come out here.” My cheeks burned as I stepped into the hallway. Everyone's eyes converged on me for a moment before he turned to look at the other two. “I suggest that the two of you get going.”
Pendragon and Ginger shot me a worried look but did as he suggested. As they left, Brandi and her followers did the same. “I will make sure they get out safely and let everyone know we will have someone new joining us tonight.”
While the alpha turned to face me, he didn’t speak. Even after the thump of the door against its frame was followed by silence. I almost wondered if he was waiting for me to say something until, finally, he broke the silence. “Do you know how to shift?”
What kind of question was that? Of course I didn’t know how to shift. The only hint I had about being able to change came from my orb. I mean, if I had to I could probably figure it out but why would I want to? Okay, I had to admit it was nice to have a fluffy tail I could pet anytime I wished. Oh, and the senses were fairly decent. But everything else was just, I could do without it. I didn’t say any of this though. Instead, I simply shook my head in answer.
He didn’t seem all that surprised or annoyed at the fact that he would have to teach me. In fact, he looked a bit relieved. “Well, there are a few different ways someone can shift. Mostly it is due to the race. Weres,” he gestured at himself, “for example, just will their animal forward. The moon can force us to shift, but she only does so when she is full. Selkies, their non-human form is their dominant shape. Then you have creatures like Skinwalkers, not that you will see them around here, but they must don the skin of the creature they want to shift into.”
“And Kitsune?” I asked.
He shrugged, “I don’t know. Are there any hints in your race description that might point to how you can shift?”
I highly doubted it, but there was a hint in one place. My hand reached up to tap against the orb as I reluctantly spoke. “The only place I have seen the option to transform was in this item’s description.”
“Is it in the use category?” He didn’t sound all that surprised which made me think he had decided to take a look at my orb before we got here. So why had he handed it back? Was he trying to get on my good side? Was the theft of my orb what he claimed; a way to force me to come see him?
“Yes, it lists fox, human, and kitsune as options for me to transform into.”
“Okay,” he smiled. “Now comes the part you might not like. It is up to you if you want to get naked before changing or not. I would personally recommend taking it all off as you have no idea how big your animal will be. They could either get trapped in the clothes or tear them to ribbons. Trust me when I say that tearing them is not a pleasant experience.”
Oh, great, shifters were streakers. I get that he wanted to be frank and give me every piece of information I needed to make a decision, but I was not getting naked in front of him, let alone in front of any other guy. At least, not for a while. To be honest, I wanted to yell at him for even suggesting I do such a thing. He could of at least offered for Brandi to watch me if someone had to be here to make sure I didn’t get into trouble.
Before I could say a word, he offered a third option. “You could use the bathroom to transform. That way you won’t be uncomfortable.” His soft, deep chuckles chased after me as I bolted for the bathroom. “Just paw at the door when you are done and I will open it.”
The last of his words filtered through the closed door as I leaned against it. My mind raced over the fact that I had to do this. I had no choice but to shift into a fox. Would it hurt? I mean, my muscles and bones would shift around as my human body changed into the shape of a fox, so it had to didn’t it? Then again, it was magic. Magic was a pain at times. Sometimes it would help and other times it would just make the pain worse.
Wait, could you use a healing spell wrong and do more damage? Like, if you broke your leg and healed it without setting the bone would it heal that way? Would the flesh grind against the sharp points of the bone? Would it…focus! I needed to focus on shifting. Which meant I needed to get undressed.
Yeah, my hands didn’t move. I knew I was avoiding what I needed to do but this wasn’t like going to the bathroom. I couldn’t simply ignore what was going on with a bit of mental effort. Not with the balls of fat on my chest. Both of which refused to be ignored when they were free. Especially the nipple region. At times, those sensitive bundles of nerves just loved to get my attention at the littlest touch, while at others they were just as insensitive as ever.
Thankfully all of that was contained within a bra. A bra that I would have to remove without help. An action that would, on its own, remind me about how my body had changed.
How that, below all the fabric, was a body I didn’t want – one that would have made part of me hard, back when I still had a body capable of such reactions. Of course, now the feelings were different. They were alien. They were not mine, yet, they were.
I get that most people would love to see how the other side lived, but what would they do if they were told it was permanent? Most would run. Hell, I would have. But what if you were given no other choice? Would you hide from your new body or experiment? As for me, the majority of my mind wanted to ignore it all, to just never look at my body until I forced a god to change me back. Yet, there was a tiny part of me, lying in the back of my mind, that wanted to see just the body. Wanted to see just what was so different about it. The worst part was, that tiny part of myself was growing louder.
It didn’t help that I had no choice but to take my clothes off. At least for this one time. Just so that we could see just how big my other form was. If I was lucky my other form would be small enough that I could wiggle my way out of my clothes. Of course, that was assuming I ever shifted again.
Yeah, this wasn’t helping. I didn’t know how long I had been standing here but I was sure that the alpha was probably starting to wonder what was going on. I needed to get undressed and I could either do it with my eyes closed and hands fumbling, or I could just deal with my new body. It wasn’t like I had seen it before. If anything, I had gotten a great look over my body as Ginger forced me into various pieces of, well, I wanted to call them lingerie but that was being too gracious given how much skin the pieces left uncovered.
While they were shaky, I forced my hands down to the hem of my shirt. The fabric felt silky against my skin as I pulled it up and over my head. It went into my inventory as my hands reached back to clasp on my bra. The things fought me tooth and nail as I twisted, pushed, and pulled the fabric to get each tooth disengaged. As soon as the last tooth released its hold, the entire thing was shoved into my inventory.
Of course, my breasts reminded me why I needed the damn piece of fabric the moment I went to remove my pants for the second time in less than an hour. They swayed and caused my tail to stretch out as it worked to keep me balanced.
Then, I found myself completely naked. Well, save for the collar. Inside of which sat the orb that should allow me to change forms.
One of my hands reached up to touch the orb. Its information came up without issue. I stared at it as I tried to think about how to initiate the transformation. Touching the screen did nothing, my hand passed through it as if it wasn’t there, which it wasn’t, not really.
But what if… I focused on selecting the fox transformation option. It blinked once before mana flooded out of the orb. Mana surged around me. Everywhere tickled as the mana started to push and pull at various parts of my body.
Every part of my body vied for my attention, but my nose took priority. I watched as it was slowly pulled away from my face as it changed color and grew fur. Suddenly, I lost my footing as something shifted inside me. I fell to the ground in a heap as bones snapped and muscles shifted. None of it hurt, it just felt, weird.
I must have whimpered or something because the alpha was suddenly standing over me. His nose was inches from mine as his eyes bore into mine. They had gone from the chocolate brown color I had seen earlier to a bright amber color with golden striations. The effect was almost mesmerizing. Almost.