The magnificent landscape that resembled a castle was the highlight of the small town, silver-plated coat of arms hanging above the entrance gate. 
This was the school grounds of the Proteus Academy of Magic, a relatively new mage school. What it offered was specialized education in the shapeshifting arts - headed by the best talents of transformation a student could want.

"Shapeshifting is an art that isn't pursued often in this day and age," said Ms. Marianne, 1st year teacher at the academy, "and we hope to offer a place where interested students can keep this unique branch of magic alive and well. It may be one of the more complicated schools of magic, but we believe it has useful potential and has a place in today's magic culture."

The curriculum at the academy was one that followed most other magecraft schools, with basics in most of the essentials. In its core focus however was emphasis on shapeshifting, which was not offered in many other schools. 
Heather Arelle was one such student who enrolled in the academy, at 13 years of age. She was part of the 6th batch of students, along many boys and girls that were interested in the art of shapeshifting. 

-----



A few things had changed for Heather since that fateful day she changed into a rabbit by accident. She had a familiar now; a ferret named Agena, magically bonded with her. (It was a requirement for the shapeshifting course to have a familiar.) She had grown a little, obviously, and was of average height for a 13 year old, looking demure in her uniform. 
Some things were still the same with her, though. She was still a little shy, and a little forgetful. She hadn't yet done any shapeshifting magic since her 7th birthday. However, she was still the same cheerful and curious girl from her childhood, and she was looking forward to classes. Something sparked inside her when her parents suggested enrolling in the school. She wanted to learn more about shapeshifting; revisit that time when she was a rabbit and find out more about that feeling of magic.

Classes were in groups of 6, the better for individual attention from the teachers. In a branch of magic like shapeshifting, one-on-one attention is useful, according to the teachers. It had been a month or so of classes in the boarding school, and Heather had acclimatized into the school's environment well. She knew her 5 classmates' names and personalities, and though she wouldn't describe anyone as a close friend yet, got along fine with everyone. Despite it being her first time staying away from home for an extended period, she didn't feel that lonely. Agena was good company, if a little dry at times and annoyingly overbearing.

-----

"Alright, classes for the day are over! Get some good rest for tomorrow, it's going to be an abso-lutely fabulous day m'dearies!" 
The robed lady swept out of the classroom, her pointed hat colliding with the doorframe and falling off. "Excuse me, children." She bent down to pick it up, some papers spilling out of her arms.
"Here you go, Ms. Marianne." The short boy in glasses had gone over to the door, helping the teacher pick her papers up.
"Oh, you're a sweetie, William." The teacher smiled at him, accepting the papers and leaving the room. William followed his teacher out.



"Why's Ms. Marianne always bumping her hat into that door? That's the second time this week." The boy with short red hair looked at the departing teacher with a vaguely bored expression.
"Some things will just remain an eternal mystery, it seems." The girl with black hair deadpanned, petting her cat familiar.

"Oh? Leaving already, Meridith?" Heather asked the passing blonde with long hair as she straightened out her papers.
"Indeed, I must return to my quarters to get ample rest." Meridith gave a small bow. "See you, Heather, Eliza, Anthony."
The pair next to Heather waved as the girl exited.

"I guess we'd better leave too, shouldn't we." Anthony grinned. "I can't wait for tomorrow! We'll finally get to try a practical transformation... I've been waiting for a long while. Eliza, how about you?"
"I can aleady-"
"Do a full transformation, we know." Anthony sighed. "I suppose you're gonna change again just to show off-" He broke off as he caught a glimpse of the girl's ears poking out from her head.

They were dark and pointed, a good deal like her familiar’s. The two twitched atop Eliza’s head as she smiled impishly, a rattle coming from her throat that took Heather a moment to realize was a purr.
The girl seemed to smile even wider at Heather’s awe, and she naturally fell onto her hands. Only they weren’t hands anymore, not entirely. Now they were paws, the girl’s fingers having lengthened in some places and plumped up in others.



It looked as though a similar change had happened to her feet, because she was able to easily slip them from her shoes, purring louder now. This time, the sound was almost exactly like a cat’s, and it was accompanied by the growth of a tail.
It started as a small nub within her skirt, soon growing longer and longer still until it was a perfectly furry cat’s tail, swaying from side to side in time with Eliza’s evident amusement. She crinkled her nose as it stretched out into a muzzle, and she meowed cutely.

All the while, Eliza had been shrinking. She’d gotten smaller and smaller, to the point where she was now just a little smaller than a dog, though a tad larger than her familiar. This soon corrected itself as the collar to her shirt slipped over her head.
For a moment, she wriggled within her clothing. Then, a cat’s head popped out from the shirt, followed by the rest of herself. Fully changed, Eliza meowed, grinning as only a cat can.



Indeed, there was now two quite similar-looking cats prowling around the table.

"...you're still impressed by that, Heather?" Anthony noticed Heather's starry-eyed stare.
"Ah, I..." She looked away from the felines, blushing. 
Anthony shrugged. "It's not really that impressive. Eliza only has this one form down, and of course it's the very familiar that follows her around... hey!" He swatted at the hissing cat.

"...by the way, should we wake Tobias?" Heather turned to the back of the class, where a boy was sleeping on the desk, a hawk perched on his head.
"Nah, let him be. He'll get up eventually by himself." Anthony picked up his bag. "Well, I'll head back to the dorms too, then."

"So will I." Eliza placed her cat familiar on her head and got up from her chair.
Heather gave a start and turned back. "W-When did you change back? A-and... you got back into your clothes so quickly..."
Smiling, Eliza gave a passing wave as she too left the classroom.

Heather busied herself with packing up the classroom, empty save the sleeping boy and the hawk. That was her class: Anthony, the outgoing one. Meridith, the dignified ladylike one. Eliza, the prodigy. William, the short polite one. Tobias, the quiet sleepy boy. And her teacher, Ms. Marianne, who Heather still found a bit of an enigma at times. Looking at the class photo as she passed by it on the way out, she couldn't help but smile at the odd group.

Though she didn't show it, in answer to Anthony's question... yes, yes she was very excited for the next day's practical lesson.

-----

"You're not going to bed just yet, Heather?"
"Not yet, Agena. I'm... a little too excited, eheh." 

In her dorm room, Heather studied her book in a T-shirt and shorts, the light from her lamp casting a glow on her face.
The ferret hopped over and leaned over her shoulder. "You'll get a chance tomorrow, so why not come to bed?"
Heather didn't respond, instead turning the page, lost in her thoughts.



The familiar sighed. "Alright Heather, maybe one last bit of practice will help."
"O-Oh? You'll do that with me?" 
Agena gave a resigned shrug, or rather a motion as close to a shrug that a ferret could muster. "I'm not getting any sleep with that light still on, so I might as well. Put your book away, though, we'll do these exercises without it."
A smile crept onto Heather's face as she packed away her books and turned to face her familiar.

"Alright, so we'll go through some quick exercises. Ears... alright, try cat ones." Agena flicked her own ears as she mentioned them. "They're big and different enough to make a good exercise."
Heather nodded eagerly, closing her eyes and focusing hard on her ears. She imagined them stretching, changing, growing to those cute triangular tips that Eliza had sported.
Then, much to her surprise and delight alike, her imagination became reality.

She could feel them tugging gently along the sides of her head, lobes stretching as they elongated; tips sharpening slightly. They itched madly as short, dark hairs poked out from them; growing long in time with the growth of her ears.
“I-I think it’s working!” Heather stammered, cheeks flushing with excitement.
Agena nodded, watching over the girl intently as her ears began to drift towards the top of her head.

This was the oddest part of the change for Heather, her head molding as though it was made of clay. She could vividly feel her skull reshaping, and it flooded her with an excited delight. Eliza wasn’t the only quick study!
Her ears twitched happily at the thought, and Heather smiled widely. She brought a hand up to them as the changes seemed to still, cooing at how soft and pettable they were.



Agena nodded. "Not bad, not bad. Alright, change 'em back and we'll move on. Hmm... a tail would be good, those are tricky. How about a squirrel? Big and fluffy, picture it."
Again, Heather nodded. This time, she had to concentrate a little harder, focusing on her old form. According to the book, her normal body would come naturally to her, which was a good thing: tired as she was, she couldn’t exactly remember how her ears were supposed to look. It wasn’t like she paid any special attention to them or anything.
The girl smiled with relief as she felt them slip back down her head to their proper places, though she soon sorely missed their mobility.

Still, she had another change to do, and it was one she was looking forward to. Eliza had looked so cute with a cat tail that Heather couldn’t wait to have one for herself. And now she’d be able to! The girl beamed at the thought, then yelped with surprise.
It didn’t feel like what she’d expected. Heather had imagined the feeling of someone pinching her spine, stretching it out. Instead, it was more like someone had shoved a feather duster under her shorts, and was jiggling it frantically, tickling the girl.

Heather laughed aloud as she looked to her backside, finding the tail was already to her knees. It was as long as it was fluffy, a pillow-soft appendage which doubled, then tripled in size.
The girl waggled it as she turned, trying to get a better look at herself. Unfortunately, even as long as it was, it was a little hard to look at. It was like the mischievous thing was trying to escape her field of view!
Heather turned a little faster this time, feeling her long squirrel tail reach its full length. It was brown and so plush that she wanted to hug it and snuggle it and-



Distracted as she was, the girl didn’t notice how close she was to her bedside stand before her tail bumped into it hard, dislodging some of its contents. She squeaked, covering her mouth with both hands in mortified shock.
"Whoa, watch the bookshelf." Agena ducked under the tail and pushed some of the dislodged books back into place. "So far so good, your tail looks passable. Okay, back to normal and we'll do a muzzle. A fox's one is good and long, let's do that for practice."

This time it was easier for her to revert her body back to normal. The more experience she had with it, the simpler it got; and her tail almost effortlessly slipped back into her body.
It was a little strange, but she soon got used to the feeling of having the tail slurp back into herself. It was like she was slurping up spaghetti, but through her tailbone. The comparison made it easier to think of, which made it all the faster.

With that out of the way, Heather was free to concentrate on her face. She pictured a fox’s muzzle: how long and furry it was, how odd it would feel to have that instead of a human mouth. Then, with a small smile, Heather tapped into the magic around herself, concentrating on letting her imagination meet up with her world.
This was probably one of the hardest changes Agena had offered her: to change only a part of her face, and not even the whole thing. It was so easy for Heather to let her mind wander and change her entire head, but she had to stay focused.

Heather opened her eyes to watch as her nose darkened, drawing upwards on her face as her lips turned black as well. Slowly her face began to extend from the rest of her body, growing out a little at a time.
As her jaw stretched out, Heather flexed it curiously. She’d never really thought specifically on muzzles before, which made this all the more novel of an experience. With only this part of her body changing, she was free to focus on how long it was; how her teeth were shifting around to match.
Heather ran her tongue along it only to blush in surprise as she realized that even that was growing longer, becoming flat in a typical canine fashion. She played it along her gums and smiled slightly as she realized that even her saliva was changing, drool feeling just a little thicker.

So strange were the feelings from her new muzzle that Heather almost missed the fur which covered it. This time, the itching of new hair was so subtle that she’d ignored it, at least until she saw a good deal of orange in her peripheral vision.
By then the change had very nearly come to an end, needing only a little growth here and a little fur there to be perfect.
Finally, it was complete; and Heather had a perfect fox’s muzzle, complete with a foxy tongue and a dark and wet canine nose.


"You look odd, Heather." Agena pawed at her nose.
"W-what do you expect, it's only the muzzle-" Heather had a bit of difficulty speaking through her new face, blushing and twitching her nose. It was like speaking through a mouthful of food. Of course, if she had changed completely, she would be incapable of speech, so this wasn't too bad.
"Just a bit of fun at your expense Heather, don't mind me. Alright... one more and we really should go to bed. Try changing your hands into paws... dog ones will do."

One more change… Heather crinkled her nose as her muzzle pulled back into her face, snapping back to a human form like it was elastic. She’d concentrated a little hard on getting back to normal, and as a result the change was that much more intense.
She tried not to let her surprise at the sudden reversal show, instead smiling to Agena as she held out her hands. This was an easy thing to picture, she’d always imagined her growing big, fluffy sheepdog paws.

Her thumbs were the first to change, almost without any prompt from her mind. They pulled back into her hands, sliding towards her wrists the second she’d thought of them. The girl smiled triumphantly, holding both of her hands up to Agena to show her changes, in the process revealing that her nails were becoming claws already.
“Very good, but make sure you keep the changes to your hands.” Said the ferret, watching over her pupil intently.

Heather squeaked in surprise, looking back to her arms in surprise. Sure enough, though her hands were growing white fur as intended, her arms were growing some of the long hairs as well. Heather concentrated on them and corrected the changes with a frown, letting the hairs simply fall from her arms so that they ended around her wrists like furry gloves.
She looked to them with pride as they grew larger and larger, her hands swelling and popping audibly. A smile on her face, Heather wiggled her fingers, feeling them puffing up and losing much of their dexterity. Soon she could barely wiggle them at all, her four fat digits resting immobile along a thick-padded paw.
“And, ta-da!” Heather beamed, holding out her thick sheepdog paws for inspection.



"There we go. See, Heather? Nothing to worry about." Agena placed a paw on the back of her neck. "You'll do alright tomorrow, trust me!"
"...alright, Agena. I trust you." Heather stared at her paw as it reverted to a human hand, rubbing her wrists and hands together when the process was complete. Fur always left a lingering itchy feel after it was gone.

"Come along now, you really need to rest or you'll not be able to wake up for class tomorrow." Agena had bounded back to her usual spot in the bed, waiting for her human companion.
"Alright, alright..." Heather climbed into bed, excited thoughts whirling through her head. Staring up at the ceiling, she couldn't help but smile. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day!