(Woman to Beaver)


“Beth?  Beth??”  Millie called to the skies, one hand cupped around her mouth.
The brunette pouted as her cries echoed through the cave she was exploring.  Beth mentioned applying for a job at Millis National Park, and then she dropped off of the face of the earth.  It had been nearly three days since Millie had heard from her friend, and so she decided to take matters into her own hands.  Hopefully Beth was just sucked up in her new job, but...
Millie shuddered as her mind explored other possibilities.  Beth was always getting lost back in Canada, and that was on the streets!  She hated to think of what the girl would do if left alone in the woods for too long.  Hopefully the rest of the staff would help her find her way, but if she got lost...  That was why Millie rushed over, taking a few weeks’ leave from Tim Horton’s.  She’d been meaning to go to the U.S.A. anyways, to spend some time with Beth.  Beth, who was now nowhere to be found.
Millie shivered again with worry, popping her last stick of chewing gum into her mouth.  She worked it anxiously between her teeth, suspecting only the worst.  The guard outside tried to keep her from entering, something to do with... Canadian license plates, or something?  Maybe they knew she was looking for her friend and were trying to keep her from her.
As her mind wandered, the end of the cave drew closer, and she found herself calming down.  It was almost magical what seeing the outdoors could do to you, and this was a sight indeed.  A verdant range of trees lay before her, pine trees rustling almost in time to a faintly babbling river.  Millie only had to set one foot out of the cave to realize that she needed a picture of this.
She reached for her back pocket to find her phone and jumped in surprise as her fingers brushed something rough and scaly.  Did a bug get on her?  She swatted at it and yelped in pain as pain blossomed from her rear.  It felt like she’d hit herself, despite the fact that her palm definitely grazed something that had no place on her body.
Millie turned her hazel eyes to her bottom, nearly passing out as she saw her problem.  There was a brown, scaly tail extending from her tailbone!  Almost as if it could sense her gaze, the tail twitched, growing longer and forcing her shorts down further.  It kept growing, flat and paddle-like, almost like a beaver’s tail.
She chewed her gum more intently now, anxiety overtaking logical thought as she retreated to the cave.  Why did she have a tail?  Were there any other changes?  A quick tug on her pants revealed that that her new tail was the only thing out of place on her body.
She turned back to the forest before her.  “Beth?”  She called louder, trying not to let her fear show in her voice.
Her cried echoed in the cave around her, and she stuck her head out to have her call carry further.
“Beth!”
Again, no response.  She chewed her gum a little more intently, yelping as she bit her tongue.  That was stupid, she must be more nervous than she thought.  Millie took a deep breath and went back to chewing.  She bit her lip this time, and nearly choked on her gum in surprise.  She spat it out, bringing her fingers to her mouth.
Her front teeth felt longer, as though they’d been stretched somehow.  The Canadian girl quickly flipped out her phone, looking at her teeth in the reflective screen.  They were definitely an inch or two longer, and maybe a little sharper, too?  Either way, they confirmed her suspicions: she was somehow changing into a beaver.
She tried to calm herself down, but it wasn’t working.  She reached for her gum packet to remember that was her last piece.  Quietly, she cursed, biting her nail.  She needed to chew on something, it was always a bad habit of hers...  Her gaze wandered out to the forest, settling on a fallen tree branch.  She gingerly bit her lower lip, mulling over her options.
Clearly something beyond her power was changing her into a beaver.  That was a given.  She had two options: the could try and fight it, which she had no idea how to.  At best, she’d probably stay the way she was, which would take thousands of dollars in surgery to fix.
Or, she could take option B, and go along with the ride.  She shrugged, walking out of the cave to pick up the branch.  She’d always tried to experience everything she could in life, and this definitely was something she hadn’t been through before.  She stooped over to pick up the branch, noticing how her clothes felt looser around her.
Millie popped the piece of wood into her mouth, gnawing on it tenderly.  The taste of oak filled her mouth, and she continued to munch on the branch happily.  It wasn’t that bad, almost tasting like a winter cider she’d had once.  The changing girl noticed she had trouble focusing on the branch, her eyes sliding to either side of her head as her face pushed out into a muzzle.
Just in time, too—the branch was getting larger in her mouth.  Millie twitched her darker nose as she realized that she was probably shrinking; understandable since a human-sized beaver would certainly be something of an oddity.  She shrugged off her loose-fitting shirt and slipped off her shorts and shoes, noticing how her hands and feet seemed to be... thicker; almost like she was wearing thin leather gloves.  The webbing between her toes spread up to their tips, and her nails were lengthening, surrounding the first joint of her fingers.
Millie hurriedly folded up her clothes and left them by the entrance, never one to make a mess.  Besides, maybe a park ranger would know what was going on and help change her back.  Or keep her as a pet...  Her ears twitched as she imagined someone scratching them, rounding and making their way to the back of her head.
She brushed her claws across her arms as a numb tingling ran across her body, fur poking its way through her pores.  She shook one of her arms, impressed at just how shaggy it was.  Beavers in pictures she’d seen always had matted fur, clinging together from emerging fresh from the water.
The tingling sensation continued to spread across her chest, and she sighed as her breasts sank into her flesh, their fat being distributed to other parts of her body, like her waist and hips.  Millie willingly dropped to all fours, remembering that beavers weren’t bipedal creatures.  Her hips clicked behind her, and her legs and arms shortened to make her posture more comfortable.
She twitched an ear, her jaw clamping down on her branch as she felt the changes focus on her hands next.  Holding the oak was a little tougher now, her fingers sinking into her palms while her entire hands shrank before her eyes.  She looked at them front and back.  This would be something to get used to...
Her toes tingled next, lengthening in contrast to her fingers.  Her arches shortened, and Millie grinned from ear to ear as she contemplated how much easier that’d make swimming.  In fact—she thought, looking looked her body up and down—this might not be so bad to get used to.
Her sensitive ears perked up as she picked up footsteps coming from the cavern, and she looked up to find the security guard from before looming over her.  Slowly, Millie took the branch out of her mouth, then tried to offer him her pile of clothes.  After a few moments struggling to pick it up, she settled on fumbling for her phone, lifting it up to him as he bent down.
“Well, dad-gum it.  No-one ever looks at our no trespassin’ signs.”  He sighed, taking her phone, then her pile of clothes.  He blinked as he looked them over slowly, then he turned to her, folding them under and arm.  “You that girl who was lookin’ for Beth?”
Millie nodded, chirruping her assent.  She raised a paw to her throat for a moment.  She’d forgotten what beavers sounded like.
The man half-grinned, scratching his throat.  “Well, she’s kind of a moose at the moment.  I’d go into it more, but to be frank, I’m tired of explainin’ the magic ‘round these parts.”
Millie nodded again, doing the best she could to shrug.
He chuckled at that.  “We’ll have someone to fix you in a month or two, but for now, you want to live indoors ‘r outdoors?  Couldn’t offer this’n to Beth what with her bein’ a moose and all, but we could use a beaver in our ranger station.  One o’ them mascots, and whatnot.”  The ranger bent down and offered her an arm.  “Plus it’ll be a damn sight better’n getting’ accidentally mated with one a them male beavers.  You was just tryin’ to help your friend, no reason to get into trouble.”
Millie chirruped, padding over to him.  Her picked her up, and she closed her eyes as he stood, the air whooshing around her as she was brought several feet in the air.
“Now’n...  Millie, is it?”  The man glanced to the nametag on her phone.
She nodded, looking up at his weathered face.
“How’d you like a job here once this is all said and done?  Dale could probably make you a decent beaver girl as our mascot, and it’s kind of a sausage fest up there, truth be told.  Hate to not be able to offer the same to Beth, but moose girls...”  He pursed his lips and shook his head.  “Not really a hit with the young ‘uns.”
Millie chirruped again.  She’d have to think about it, bit all in all it seemed like a good deal.  Maybe she could even get Beth a spot as an assistant.  Either way, she had a decent vacation lined up for the next few weeks.