(Woman to Chipmunk)


Marcus Palmer stood outside of Michaud’s Trading Post, one of his eyes twitching slightly.  He hated to be in... in this place.  There were too many eyes, too many people watching him at all times.  Canadians.  He snorted slightly at the thought.  They’d been allies in the Great War, sure enough, but he didn’t doubt for a second that they were planning to invade the United States of America.  He’d seen it in his visions, an army of Mounties led by General Horton.
His journey was bad enough: with no teleport point for him to reach in Canada, he’d had to make the journey in the traditional way.  To make matters worse, everyone he’d bumped into since he’d crossed the border had smiled or waved to him.  They were on to him!  He could feel it in his teeth, teeth that he ground angrily.  The man took a few deep, calming breaths.  He had to stay easy, stay cool.  He was a wizard, damn it!  No, more than that—a warlock.  Sounded better because it had ‘war’ in it, like the very war he was trying to prevent.
That’s right, he was here for a reason: to prevent a war.  He purposefully adjusted his coon-skin hat, scratched both sides of his mahogany beard, and dusted off his coat.  Then, Marcus strode into the store.
“Hello there!”  A man behind the counter waved at Marcus cheerily.  “What can I do for you, sir?”
Courtesy.  A sure sign of hidden plots.  Marcus looked for a spittoon.  Finding none, he cleared his throat, gulping down a gobbet of phlegm.  “’M here for one o’ them ‘Canadian Geographical Journal’ thingies.”  He made sure to enunciate each word, to speed up the process.
The attendant smiled and nodded, pulling out a stack of digests.  “Just got them in last night!  I hear this issue’s got all the information on our land’s national animals.  Can’t wait to read it later tonight.”
“Mn.”  Marcus grunted, reaching into his wallet to pay for a copy.
“So, American, eh?”  The man nodded, smiling as he looked Marcus up and down.
Marcus stiffened with shock.  They were onto him!  Damn it, he knew his cover had been blown!  In one smooth motion, he conjured up his cane, pointing it towards the man behind the register.  “You’ll never take me alive!”  He roared as mystical energy coursed its way through his being.

Jane was in the storeroom, snacking on some spare hazelnuts.  Well, they weren’t exactly spare.  Or free.  But she worked at the trading post, and it was the least they could do for her.  She popped another hazelnut into her mouth, humming as she enjoyed the rich flavor of the kernel.  It wasn’t a well-paying job, but it was a quiet one at least...
“You’ll never take me alive!”  A gruff voice bellowed from the other room.  Jane immediately hushed up, fearful for her life.
“What the—aaunk!”  A second cry followed it.
That one sounded like Thomas!  She blinked in confusion.  Well, it would sound like Thomas if Thomas could do a good goose impression.
She pushed at the door gingerly, determined to be as stealthy as possible.  It responded by creaking loudly in protest, then swinging fully open.  Jane blinked like a deer caught in the headlights, taking in the scene before her.
A Canada goose was struggling to free itself from what looked like Thomas’ clothing.  Before it was a bear of a man, in an old leather duster.  His coon-skin cap completed the image of the stereotypical American, a rough unkempt appearance suggesting years in the wild.  He held a simple but beautiful cane, the wood seeming to have been grown into its purpose.
Said man glared at the goose.  “That takes care of him.  Now as for you...”  He turned to Jane, slowly raising his staff.
By now, she had pieced everything together, and had to get her two cents in.  “Ooh, can I be an Eastern Chipmunk?  Those are really cute!”  Her eyes sparkled as she interrupted him.
Caught off guard, the man blinked a few times, opening and closing his mouth in search of words.  “Y—you aren’t afraid o’ becomin’ an animal?”  His cane lowered slightly.
The twinkling in her eyes seemed to grow even brighter as she answered him.  “Absolutely not!  I’ve long dreamed of changing forms, and you’ve given me just the means to!  Thank you ever so much!”  She was practically bouncing on her heels as she jogged up to the counter, grabbing the goose and locking it in their employee lounge.  The window was always open, Thomas would find his way out.
The man watched all of this happen, still at a loss for words.  “W—well.  Uhm.  Thanks, I s’pose.”  He scratched at the scruff beneath his chin sheepishly.
“Here, let me help you with that.”  She grabbed one of the journals from the counter, flipping through the pages.  “It’s right here.”  She pointed at a picture of an adorable chipmunk.  “This one.”  She added the last bit just to be safe; there was also a flying squirrel on the page, and she didn’t want him to be confused.
“Uhm.  Sure?”  The man raised his cane once more, pausing when Jane brought both of her hands up once more.
“Oh wait, hold on, I’ve got a great idea!”  She ran back to the storeroom, emerging with several large bags of hazlenuts.  She dropped them with a huff, then scooped up a handful, placing them on the counter by the register.  Then, Jane hopped up on the counter, standing ramrod-straight.  “Okay, now I’m ready.”  She nodded, a perky smile on her face.
The American slowly closed his slack jaw.  “All right.”  He started to raise the cane again, but paused yet again.  “You sure?”
Jane nodded eagerly.
“This here isn’t supposed to be something to look forward to, you know.”  He said.
“Don’t care.”  She chirped.
“Fair enough.”  The man closed his eyes, and when he opened them, they glowed a faint amber with power.
Jane squeaked with surprise as she felt a tingling across her entire body.  She looked herself up and down, only to find nothing had changed.  As she looked up to question the American, she blinked with surprise.  Was he taller?
As soon as she realized that, the room, her clothes, everything seemed to grow around her.  She realized she was shrinking, and almost clapped with glee.  The only thing that kept her from doing so was her stupid work shirt, which she was now fairly tangled in.  It was like being in a pillow fort, only made of her clothes.
Her nose tingled as it shifted to a shade of pinkish brown, turning upward.  The bridge of her nose flattened out, enlarging to three times its previous size.  She took in a deep breath through her new nostrils and cringed slightly.  Did her clothes always smell that bad?  Her shirt reeked of sweat, and her panties—she dismissed the thoughts from her mind, trying to climb out from her clothes.
As if to assist her in this matter, her fingers and toes splayed out, each joint lengthening and becoming pinker.  Her thumbs disappeared into her palms, which shrank slightly as if to give more room for her fingers.  She used her new paws to clamber out from the pile of clothes, shivering at the crisp air.
Jane shook her head to accustom herself to her new perspective.  With a start, she realized she could feel her hair sway less and less on each motion.  The girl reached a hand up to her head to find that she was left with close-cropped hair, thicker despite its length.
She ran her paw up and down, blinking as she noticed there seemed like there was more hair on her forehead, the nape of her neck, her ears...  The hair continued to grow down past her neck to her chest, and she watched a swathe of white cover up her breasts.  She looked at her arms to find the fur there was white, too; with brown running along the back of her limbs.
As the fur reached her tailbone, she could feel that begin to lengthen, and she found herself forced forward to keep herself from sitting on the long, fluffy tail.  She chittered with pleasure as she shook it, watching how the striped fur there reacted to her motion.  Then, she chittered again, realizing that she had lost the ability to speak.
Well, that was to be expected, but it’d make communicating a lot harder...  Jane itched at one of her cheeks as the thought about this; but any downsides were quickly overturned as she realized her cheeks felt puffier.  Her upper lip twitched with amusement and change as it joined with her nose, puffing out a little.  Her jaw grew out into a cute muzzle, and she leaned back to feel her new face with both paws.  It was such an odd sensation to have more skin there to feel, let alone the sensation of being felt beneath her fur!
As she leaned back, her body puffed out, arms and legs shrinking to suit her new body and make the position easier.  Jane patted herself up and down, feeling the changes were complete.  Then, her eyes tingled as they darkened, sliding apart slightly, giving her a much wider view of the counter and room.  She put her paws to her head as a tugging sensation assailed her ears.
They folded over partially as they made their way to the top of her head, and Jane chittered to see how it sounded to her new sense of hearing.  Her voice sounded much the same, though a little louder.  Still, her voice wasn’t as loud as everything else.  If she concentrated, she could almost make out the pounding of her heart in her chest—though that may have just been her own imagination.
Now a chipmunk, Jane looked herself over; then gave the American her best approximation of an ‘OK’ symbol using her paws.
The man blinked a few times, then spoke up.  “Hold on a tick.  You mean to tell me that you can still think like people?”
Jane nodded, then darted over to the register to pick up a hazelnut.  Just as she expected, it tasted even better as a chipmunk!  She rolled around for a few seconds, hugging the glorious seed between greedy bites.  Then she remembered she was having a conversation, and rolled back to her feet, ready to continue.  She didn’t let go of the nut, though—her priorities were still in order.
“And you can understand me!  This here’s extreeemely unexpected!”  He stretched out the word, running a hand through his beard.  “You know, I could use someone to test my work on.  How’d you be willing to defect to the United States and help secure the borders of our land of Freedom?”  He leaned in close, opening one of his eyes wide to examine her.
She squeaked with mirth as his bushy eyebrow twitched slightly, then nodded.  He reached down to scoop her up and she held out her paws for him to stop.
He did so, looking mightily confused.  “What in the Sam Hill?”  He breathed.  “I thought you was ready to defect from these here Canadian lands!”  He realized his voice had rose, and he looked left and right sharply, as though he expected the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to burst from the walls and arrest him.
The chipmunk waved, then pointed insistently to the bags of hazelnuts behind the counter.  The old wizard put his hands on the table as he leaned over to see what she was gesturing to.  A broad, gap-toothed smile spread across his face as he caught onto her meaning.  She nodded, crossing her little furry arms while tapping a foot impatiently.
“Ah, I getcha.”  He pointed his cane at the sacks, and they vanished, a faint ‘pop’ marking their departure.
She squeaked, then looked up to him.
“Back at m’ cabin.  Didn’t much feel like carryin’ them.”  He held out a hand, and she scurried onto it.
“We’re comin’ for you, Timmy m’ boy!”  He laughed maniacally, holding his cane aloft.
Jane looked up at him, and with a squeak, replicated his motion, holding a tiny fist aloft.
Then, he slammed his cane upon the floor.  With a clap of displaced air, the two vanished, leaving a very confused goose squawking as it finally found its freedom.