"-UCK!" James screamed.

"Keep it down!" a voice yelled, accompanied by a sudden banging on the wall, causing his—no, her ears to fold back from the loud noise. She brought her hands up to her head in pain from the deafening noise, and the tips of her fingers brushed against her fuzzy ears, causing them to flinch. "Oh, no, this is so wrong."

James put her hands down and breathed deeply, only to start coughing. She felt as though she had been punched in the nose, and her hand shot to her face, covering her nose in disgust. "Gah! What's that smell?!"

She sniffed around momentarily, trying to identify the source before she raised her arm and smelled the robe covering it. "Oh, it's me... Why is it me!?"

James sank to her knees and buried her face in the blankets of the bed. They smelled of laundry soap and age, but it was at least manageable. The softness of the blankets helped soothe the overwhelming sensations. Her free hand felt along the top of the bed as she searched for the device on the bed.

After a few moments of fruitless searching by feel, James peeked up from where she had buried her face in the blankets. Her eyes quickly roamed over the covers only to find no sign of the device she had used to summon her current self and cast the spell that had landed her within it.

"Where is it?" she asked, tears forming in her eyes as her own smell once more made itself known. She could see the two devices she hadn't used and the Heart Strike Fox and Kuyo cards, but there wasn't any sign of what she wanted to find most in the world at that moment.

James stood up, pinched her nose, and breathed through her mouth instead. The nose felt strange, smaller yet still significant, but she pushed the thought aside. A glance around the room revealed nothing.

She began to feel panic creep up inside of herself, only for it to be crushed down the next moment. She wouldn't give up so easily. She got down to her knees and checked under the bed. Her eyes effortlessly pierced the darkness and revealed the complete lack of her quarry.

She rocked back onto her butt only to jump in surprise as she pinched her new tail under her as she did so. She scrambled but fell against the floor.

She smelled the dirt and dust of the carpet as she planted her face into it. She exhaled in annoyance as she pushed herself up and sat back again. This time, she moved her tail out of the way with a hand. The fur was matted with dirt and grime but still quite soft in some places. Most concerning was that she could feel herself touching it.

With a cough, she again placed her fingers on her nose and tried to think about the situation logically. She honestly wasn't even sure how she could do anything but turn into a puddle of nerves right now. She might have been pushed so far over the edge that she had come around the other side.

"Okay," James said to herself. "First, the device is missing." That was a significant issue, of course. The implications were worrying, but she could do little about it.

Her eyes wandered around the room again before settling on where she had been sitting before she became... a monster? A fox girl? No, she needed to stay on task. Those were thoughts for later.

"Second, there is no sign of my original body or clothing," she said out loud. That was even more concerning, had she killed herself? That wasn't good. How long could cards remain summoned?

She shook her head and regretted it as she let some of the overwhelming stink into her nose. No, she thought, there was no point thinking about things she couldn't change.

"Okay, so what can I do," she said, once again to no one. There weren't any options as far as she could see it.

"Actually," she said as she considered the two remaining devices on the bed. "There are a few options."

"I could try to find that guy who beat up those thugs," she said but immediately dismissed the idea. She had no idea what his goals were, and she had enough problems right now.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Then, maybe I can just destroy the monster..." she said as she glanced down at herself. The grey robe splayed across the floor as she sat there. "No. That's too risky. I might actually die."

James closed her eyes as she considered her options once more. There was one option she could think of, and it was both the most straightforward and complex.

"I need a Disruption card," she said to the absence of an audience. It would destroy a magic card and send it to the graveyard. Oh, the graveyard. Nope. That's way too dangerous.

"Maybe Pyx's Rewind, then," she said. That card would let you return a magic card from play and return it to your hand. It was a rare card. All of the most useful ones were.

The plan was simple, but she had a few additional appendages that would make getting one more difficult. She would have to be insane to think someone who knew about the devices wasn't watching the card shop. They would spot a monster a mile away.

"Oh, right! There must be other card shops, right?" she said, her ears perking up. But they sank down again a moment later. "No, that has the same problem."

"Ugh," she said as she released her nose. "I need to deal with this first."

The smell was unbearable. It hadn't been a problem before, but James' new nose refused to ignore it.

She stood and began to pull the robe off, only to pause halfway through, realizing what she was doing. She felt her face start to heat up and hesitated. This lasted a few moments, but then she began coughing again as the robe hung around her head. There was no escaping the smell. She quickly pulled off the ratty robe and tossed it to the floor.

The smell lessened, but not significantly. The robe certainly smelled, but so did her body. Despite the need to deal with the issue, she couldn't help but feel a bit overwhelmed. Her face burned as she carefully looked down at herself.

She did have underthings on, but they weren't much better off than the robe had been. She didn't even want to think about what lay under them. But she had little choice but to confront the problem.

James immediately looked away and closed her eyes. "Just don't think about it," she said, steeling herself before peeling them off carefully and tossing them into a pile with the robe.

Her eyes were already starting to water as she picked up the pile and took it into the bathroom with her. She had nothing else to wear, so she would wash them as best she could.

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James sat on the shower floor under the slowly cooling stream of water that emanated from the showerhead. She had washed the clothing first as best she could but hadn't done a particularly good job. The small amount of soap and shampoo provided by the motel wasn't a lot. She reserved the shampoo for herself and used the soap to clean the clothing.

The three items she had were now drying in the other room but still showed significant signs of dirt.

She had learned quickly not to get water into her ears if she could help it. That, along with several other discoveries she made, made it all too clear to her how alien this body was.

The gentle fall of water from the shower had deadened the smells and sounds around her. It disguised the ugly crying she had done as well. Her life circled the drain in more ways than one, and she was only just holding on.

"I guess I should get moving," she finally said as she pulled herself from the floor and turned off the water, which had finally gone cold.

She stepped from the shower, grabbed the fluffy towel, as there was only one, and took it from the towel rack to begin drying off. She had more hair now than she used to, not even counting the tail. But she had to be careful around her rather sensitive ears.

The towel proved insufficient, and she turned on the hair dryer, which irritated her hearing. Still, she had begun to get used to the sensations and used it to dry the more stubborn parts of her new anatomy.

She passed her reflection as she went to exit the bathroom and stopped to examine her reflection. Despite looking somewhat bedraggled, the girl in the mirror looked far more normal than she had only an hour earlier.

Resisting the urge to sigh again she left the bathroom and checked on her clothing, such as it was.

It was still slightly damp, but she didn't have much choice. She had made plans while she sat thinking in the shower.

It was getting late, and the card shop was already closed. But the late hour would help disguise her odd features. On that note, she would buy some new clothing, including some specifically to hide those same features.

Then she would sleep here tonight and head out tomorrow to acquire the needed cards. She hoped she could slip past whoever was watching the shop without being confronted.

She had considered contacting Paul and having him help her, but explaining all of this was beyond her at the moment. Even if he had believed her, she was treading the waters of oblivion, and she didn't want to pull a friend down with her.

She checked her wallet and winced at her low cash reserves. She could use her credit or debit cards. However, she was still somewhat concerned about being tracked down, particularly given her appearance, which would be a dead giveaway.

The limited cash she had left would hopefully be enough for something. What did James know about women's clothing? Beyond the very basics, she knew very little. She didn't even know her own size or a hundred other things, but she would try.