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A man with gray skin, silver eyes, and a white beard sat in a dark office, staring intently at the computer monitor on his desk.  He had watched the footage a few dozen times already and was certain he was onto something.  “Who are you?”  He muttered, leaning back in his desk chair while tapping a ben against his chin.

There was a sudden knock at the door, causing the gray-skinned man to reply, “come in,” without looking up.  He was well aware of who was here to see him.

A man stepped in and closed the door before approaching the desk.  “How are you today, Grant?”  He politely asked.

“Been better, but not awful,” Grant replied with a shrug, brushing a hand over his bald head.  “When I mentioned this incident, you said you may know a girl who fits the description; light, sandy blond hair and red eyes aren’t exactly a typical combination.”

The other man nodded.  “Yup.  An acquaintance I met at my doctor’s office fits the description quite aptly.  I was surprised when you told me everything.”  He pulled an additional desk chair up and sat next to Grant.  “Can I see it?”

“Yeah.  I’m impressed you made it here so quickly; aren’t you teaching at the community college these days?  Doesn’t seem like I see you around here much,” Grant replied.

“Only on Saturdays,” he grinned.  “Just enough for me to tell people I’m a college professor.  I prefer it if others don’t know about the work I do here.”

“Fair enough, Jonas.  I suppose you do stand out for a detective, so maybe that’s for the best,” Grant smirked.

“You’re not wrong,” Jonas laughed, crossing one leg over the other, resting a hand on a hoof that used to be a foot.  He brushed some hair behind one of his backward-curving horns and intently focused on the paused monitor.  “Let’s have a look.”

After Grant hit play, Jonas carefully watched the footage.  A woman with light, sandy blond hair walked down a sidewalk in the evening with a large, darkly-furred wolf man at her side.  Despite the poor lighting, there were instances that allowed Jonas to see them clearly through the CCTV footage.

“Damn-- yeah… That’s definitely her,” he muttered, scratching his scruffy beard while scrunching his eyebrows.


“That’s good to hear.  Now for the incident,” Grant continued, fastforwarding the footage.  At this point, a strange distortion could be seen in the air, though it was just barely visible due to the angle of the CCTV footage.

Jonas carefully observed the incident.  An explosion that, based on recent incidents, should have created a sonic boom and a great deal of destruction was completely nullified after the young woman apparently muttered something under her breath, raised a hand and faintly glowed for a split second.  At that point, the point of explosion shimmered and ceased.  Soon after, she seemingly collapsed due to exhaustion.

He sat back and cocked his head, adrenaline pumping through him.  As society gradually learned more of magic, they learned of the limitations.  While they wouldn’t pretend to understand everything, they could at least gauge when a magic-related happening seemed unusual.  “It was completely nullified…  Well, I’ll be damned,” Jonas muttered, placing a hand on his chin.  “Not only that, but I doubt she understood what was about to happen.  Some way or another, she had the reaction timing and instinct needed to prevent a disaster.”

Grant nodded.  “Perhaps she knew it was going to happen and came here to stop it,” he suggested. “If so, I’ll have quite a few questions for her.”

Jonas pursed his lips hesitantly and crossed his arms, carefully considering his next words.  “Without violating too much of her privacy, I can say that this individual recently went through a severe case of transience.”  He took the mouse and rewinded slightly before hitting play again.  “See the way she collapsed?  This indicates she’s highly inexperienced with magic.  She expended far more of her mana-- err, energy, than necessary.”  The public was still largely undecided on what to call the energy used for magic; overuse led to exhaustion and sometimes anemia.  “Also, based on her behavior from the footage, I see no signs that she was doing anything other than enjoying an outing and trying to deal with the effects of her transience.”

“I see,” Grant quietly replied, fidgeting with his pen.  “We need to talk to her and find out what she knows, and what she can do.  I’m sure you can understand why her abilities would be useful to us.”

Jonas nodded.  “Of course; you don’t need to tell me twice.  I already know what doctor she goes to, so I’ll start some investigative work,” he insisted.  “We have to be careful not to spook her, though.  As I said, it’s likely she has no idea what’s going on; we probably know more than she does about all of this.”

“It’s probably a good idea not to scare off someone who likely saved lives,” Grant agreed.  “You can get to work on this tomorrow.  I’m about to end my shift, how about grabbing a drink at the usual place?”

“It’s been four or five months, huh?”  Jonas mused, trying to recall the last time they went to the bar.  “You know what?  Sure, why not,” he conceded.

As they left, Jonas couldn’t stop thinking about the footage and of Chris, the freshly-turned woman he met at Dr. Rowena’s office.  What would the best way to approach this be?  Should he just walk up to her on a street and pretend it was a coincidence to run into her?  ‘Considering the fact I can also use magic…  Maybe a white lie wouldn’t hurt.’   His best option would be to find a way to run into her in a way that seemed organic, and then tell her he witnessed her stopping the explosion.  From there, maybe he could offer to help her with the whole magic thing. ‘Good enough; I’ll work on it.’

Chris took a sharp breath, leaning back on the park bench as a warm breeze wafted by.  It was a perfect day, with the occasional white puffy cloud dotting the pure blue sky.  She shifted and pushed her legs together, glancing at her text conversation with Gretchen.  After letting her dear friend know that she had fully developed fox traits, she was eager to meet up.  Considering how much energy she had now, she felt it would be a shame to stay cooped up inside regardless.

It was strange to consider how much things had changed in a short period of time.  A few weeks ago she was mulligan over the frustration of yearly prostate exams and now she was, in her own eyes, a gorgeous woman who would be trading in one form of evasive physical examination for another.

She glanced down, leaning forward slightly to get a glimpse beyond the shape of her perky breasts, which were nicely contained within one of the properly fitting bras she acquired on her last outing with Gretchen.  A pair of white capri pants covered her lower body, clearly showing off her curves and a distinct lack of male equipment where the fabric hugged her crotch.  There was no way she could have worn something so form fitting as a man, and the lack of needing to adjust her testes would still take some getting used to.

“Hey, there!  Waiting for someone?”  A male voice called.

Chris looked up and saw a tall, handsome man wearing jeans and a gray, form-fitting V- neck shirt.  “Yes, actually.  A dear friend of mine,” she curtly responded, already fearing where this conversation would go.

“It’s a gorgeous day, so I don’t blame you,” he replied, taking a seat on the opposite end of the bench. “I’m Chet, by the way,” he said with a smile.

“Chris,” she replied, her ears apprehensively tapering down.  “Not to be rude, but was there something I could do for you?”  She politely inquired.

“Nothing in particular; just making conversation with a lovely lady,” he grinned, showing off his pearly whites.  “I’m pretty new in town, actually.  If you’ve lived here long, I wouldn’t mind a tour sometime,” he suggested.

rained

Chris winced.  If Gretchen or Rodrick called her a lovely lady, she’d probably blush and feel confused over why the compliment made her happy.  However, when this stranger complimented her, she felt nothing but discomfort.  “My sense of direction is awful; you should find a better tour guide,” she replied with a smile, shifting focus back to her phone in an attempt to show she wasn’t interested in further conversation.

“Hey!  My sense of direction sucks, too.  I’d be fine getting lost with you in the urban jungle; we have Google Maps if needed, right?”  He scooched a bit closer to her as he spoke.

“I’d rather just wait for my friend.  I’m not interested,” Chris calmly replied.

“Hey, hey, hey…  You don’t even know me, right?  Why don’t we change that?”  He insisted.

Chris glanced up at him, feeling a mix of emotions.  She wasn’t particularly scared, but she was greatly annoyed and uncomfortable.  Now only a foot from the man, she clearly smelled the fragrance of alcohol on his breath. ‘Great,’ she sighed.  “I’ve never been a fan of people who beat around the bush and refuse to give a straight answer, so I’ll be honest with you,” she began, pulling her tail closer so it was further from Chet.  “I’m sure you’re nice, but I have no interest in getting to know you or being your friend.  There’s even less of a chance that I’d ever date you, hook up with you, etcetera, etcetera.  I know it’s ingrained in men that they have to always make the first move and what not, and I’m not upset with you, but I would like to request for you to leave me alone.”

Chet’s face briefly contorted into an angry scowl, his hand clenching.  A split second later, he was smiling again.  “Speaking bluntly and playing hard to get, eh?  Come on…  I’ve never met a fox like you before; can you blame me for being drawn to you?”  Without warning, he brushed his hand over her tail fur.

Chris shivered and let out a sharp gasp.  In an instant, she pulled away from Chet’s unwanted touch and stood to her feet.  “Do NOT touch me.  Why the fuck do you think touching my tail randomly like that would be remotely okay?  Are you out of your mind?”  She demanded, her anger mounting.

Chet’s mask cracked and his face contorted into anger, this time without reverting to a smile.  He stood and took a couple of steps toward her.  “What gives you the right to be such a damn bitch to me?  All I want is to be your fucking friend.  You have no right to be so fucking cold; there’s no reason for you not to get to know me better,” he insisted, closing the distance.

“I’m warning you,” Chris said dangerously, taking a step back.  “If you come any closer, you will absolutely regret it.  I’m not scared of douchebags like you.”  As she spoke, she let a familiar whispering flit into her head. ‘Passa Iz Salva…’  She kept the phrase at the ready, but reduced the intensity of that internal voice to a mere whisper.  

“I don’t take insults from bitches and demi freaks,” the man spat, roughly grabbing Chris by the forearm.

Chris refused to be a victim when she had the means to protect herself.  As soon as Chet grabbed her arm, her fight or flight response kicked in, landing cleanly on ‘fight’.  She kept the spelle’s image and words clear in her head and silently mouthed the incantation while maintaining eye contact with the belligerent male. 

“VVVRRRMMMM!”

A loud shrieking sound erupted from Chris as she imagined the shape of a frontal cone.  She made a concerted effort to reduce the spell to a weakened state, not desiring to cause any permanent damage.

Chet’s eyes opened wide as he staggered back a few steps, blood coming from one of his ears as he trembled and fell to one knee.  It was apparent from a glance that his sense of balance had been completely decimated.  “Y-- You-- what??”  He stammered in sheer confusion, barely able to hear his own voice beyond the ringing.

‘Oops…  I may have ruptured an eardrum,’ she mused, wincing at the damage she caused the man.  Any guilt she may have felt was immediately sated by the fact that this drunk bastard threatened her, touched her twice without permission, and showed intent to cause her further harm.

When Gretchen appeared at the end of the sidewalk with a worried expression, Chris took this opportunity to get the hell away.  “Good luck,” she waved to Chet before scurrying past him to meet her dear friend.

“Y-- You!  What-- did you--...”  Chet shakily stood before stumbling and firmly falling into a sitting position on the bench.

“Hey, Gretchen!  Let’s go somewhere else so you can fawn over my fox traits, okay?”  She insisted, quickly grabbing her hand as she nearly dragged her from the park.

As they trotted off, Gretchen glanced back at the man and then at Chris.  “Of course,” she warmly replied despite her confusion, knowing her friend well enough to start asking questions right now.

They left the park and made a b-line for a cafe on a street corner directly across from the park.  Upon entering, Chris quickly asked the waitress for a booth in the back and they were promptly seated soon after.  Thankfully, this cafe had tail-friendly seating, so Chris was able to pull her tail through an opening in the back of the booth rather than having to awkwardly curl it to one side.

Finally away from prying eyes and ears, Chris let out a sigh of relief before leaning forward and resting her forehead on the table.  “Creep…  Touched me twice without permission…  Threatened me…  Defended myself with a spell that casts a sonic burst or whatever,” she mumbled, giving Gretchen a cliff notes version of what happened, knowing she’d likely have questions.

“Are you okay, sweetheart?”  Gretchen asked warmly, rubbing the fox woman’s back.

“Yeah-- just shaken up.  He should be okay, but I may have ruptured an eardrum.”

“That’s his problem.  Shouldn’t be putting hands where they don’t belong,” Gretchen quickly replied.  “You’re an adorable woman with some handy self-defense tools built in; you have every right to use the tools at your disposal to protect yourself,” she insisted.

Chris tilted her head to face Gretchen, offering a weak smile.  “Thanks; I appreciate it,” she said genuinely.  After a moment of silence, she blushed and asked, “On a different note, how do I look?”  She asked timidly.

Gretchen gazed upon Chris’s ears and then looked back at her tail pulled behind.  “You look cute as all fucking hell and completely my type.  Can I touch your tail?”  She asked eagerly, her cheeks flushing red.

Despite the incident minutes earlier, the thought of Gretchen touching her tail resulted in a warm, fuzzy feeling and positive emotions.  She lifted her head from the table and pulled her tail carefully, wrapping it around her side so it rested in her lap.  “Yes, of course,” she assured her.

When Gretchen grinned and slid her fingers through Chris’s fluff, she gasped slightly and felt a warm tingle spread through her.  This was way different than having her tail groped by a random asshole.  She listened to Gretchen express how soft and amazing her fur was while going on about how they’d have to get her a fur brush and special shampoo.  All the while, Chris felt infinitely grateful that she was here and not anywhere else in the world.  Considering the strange feelings having her tail stroked invoked, she couldn’t help but wonder if a true lesbian experience might be in store for her soon.

CHAPTER END

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