Bella's Big Night

Part 4

Bella was worried about tonight.

She’d arrived at Bruin Hall in plenty of time, wearing the gown she had bought especially for the evening. The dress was a red off-the-shoulder affair made from a specially designed satin. It was one of a number from a collection that had been designed specifically for the Bear Ball. There were dinner suits and tuxedos for the men from the same designer.

Relatively inexpensive, the money from their purchase all went to charity on the understanding that they would only be worn once. They were designed to tear easily when a guest assumed their bear shape, with the remaining fabric to be recovered by the designer later. Bella’s wasn’t a perfect fit, but she was used to adjusting her figure here and there to get the best from the clothes she wore.

She looked for a sign to indicate where the public attendees were expected to go. Her ticket had made it quite clear that she wasn’t to go anywhere near the VIP entrance. She had forsaken her glasses for the night, and so had conceded to shifting her eyes to compensate. As a result, it didn’t take long to find a sign that pointed the way.

There was a short queue of well-dressed folk of all shapes and sizes, leading up to a small set of double doors fronted by a uniformed member of the Hall’s hospitality staff. Bella idly wondered how many of the faces in front of her actually belonged to their owners. She’d never been one for altering her looks (much!) when she went out, but there were plenty who did. She soon reached the front and was ushered in after showing her ticket.

‘You’ll find the changing room just down this corridor on the right,’ said the doorman.

Bella followed a couple who looked as if they knew where they were going and soon found herself in a large modified cloakroom whose walls were lined with dozens of mirror-adorned sinks. In front of each of these was a guest who was transforming, transformed or about to transform.

Some changed quickly, bursting through their clothes and then making their way out with a minimum of fuss. The majority were slow and sure, shredding their clothes as gradually as they were shedding their humanity. Hospitality staff gathered the discarded clothing and bagged it up.

There was one ‘poof!’ transformation from a witch, who apologised for the lingering smoke that was left in its wake. And there was one shapeless blob, who coalesced into a cartoon version of a bear, a mesmerising process that caught Bella’s attention so completely she almost missed it when a sink and mirror became free for her.

Aware of the no-nonsense way everybody was going about their transformations, Bella launched into hers straight away. She eased herself into the preliminary stage of her change, flattening all her wonderful curves and reducing her size with a series of sustained tugs. She adjusted her dress as it began to hang limply on her shrinking frame, then hung on to it as she anticipated the expansion that was brewing inside her. Time to grow...

She knew how it felt to be big now and she urged her body to recreate that feeling once again.

‘I want to be huge,’ she told her legs and they obediently stretched and thickened, covering themselves with black fur that spread at the same rate as her growth.

‘I need to be bigger,’ she confessed to her hands and they willingly padded out, forming dangerous claws as they twitched and flexed. Broad, powerful arms soon followed, stretching the sleeves of her dress.

‘Let me be large,’ she said to her heart and with each one of its beats, she grew. Breasts, belly and butt all expanded in unison, tickling fur emerging across them, shivers of pleasure greeting every inch gained. Her dress should have been rent by now, but instead it clung to her burgeoning form and accepted everything she had to give.

Bella adored muzzles and snarled in delight as she gained her own. The thick black hair of her face contrasted with the fierce red braid that fell back between the points of her new ears. As the transformation slowed, she knew, as before, she wasn’t going to shake off all of her humanity. For all the bear in her, her eyes were still her own and it was clearly Bella’s face that was sporting that muzzle. It was recognisably a woman’s cleavage threatening to breach the dress’s neckline, and although there was the bulk of a fearsome beast, there were also the curves of a human bombshell.

This fabulous creature walked out among the grizzlies and the polar bears. Bella felt amazing, her hybrid form experiencing sensations that would have been mostly lost if she’d been entirely an animal. Being big as a bear would have been one thing. But as she was now, she still had a foot in a human world that was now far too small for her. Every door frame she ducked under and every lightshade she banged her head against emphasised how much she had grown. She drank in the looks she was receiving from the surrounding sloth and strode toward the main hall.

Only to be stopped by one of the hospitality staff, a bald giant of a man almost big enough to be a hairless bear himself. Without saying a word, he pointed to the inscription above the doorway to the hall.

“All Bears Welcome, But Only All-Bears Welcome”

Bella howled with rage. This wasn’t fair! But she recognised the stone that contained the inscription as one used for warding. Even if the bald bear-man let her pass, she wouldn’t be able to enter while it was there.

‘Is something the matter?’

Bella turned to see a man about her age, fully human and wearing a tuxedo and white tie. He had a hipster beard and gave off the confidence of someone who thought you should know who he was.

‘Mr Higgins,’ said the bald bouncer, addressing the newcomer. ‘I’m afraid I’ve had to refuse entry to this woman as she isn’t entirely bear. And I won’t be able to admit you either, sir, while you remain in that form.’

Mr Higgins approached Bella.

‘Goodness me, is that Bella Cochrane? What a coincidence, I think I was in one of your dreams recently.’

Bella growled at him quizzically. Higgins appeared to understand her perfectly.

‘No, chances are you won’t remember that. I only know because in my work as a Reality Coder I get alerts if I turn up in someone’s dreamscape.’ He held up his phone by way of explanation.

Bella growled again.

‘I know, it’s been years. You look fantastic, by the way.’

Bella wrinkled her muzzle appreciatively.

‘Let’s get inside and catch up properly,’ said Higgins.

The bouncer interjected.

‘I said that wouldn’t be possible, sir.’

Higgins leaned forward and inspected the bald man’s name badge.

‘Martin, have you ever been to one of these dos?’

‘No, sir.’

‘Would you like to? I think you’d enjoy it. The food alone is enough to make it worthwhile.’

Martin pointed at the inscription again.

‘I’d love to, sir. But like you and your friend here, I’m not all bear.’

Higgins turned to Bella and gave her a conspiratorial nudge.

‘Then let’s see what we can do about that. I think I’ve still got enough credit on my phone to alter reality a bit.’

Bella had heard of Reality Coders – weren’t they supposed to be some sort of technology-based magicians? – but had never actually seen one in action. It occurred to her that Chris Higgins must have done particularly well for himself since she’d known him as a spotty teenager.

The grown-up version of her first boyfriend held up his phone as if taking a photo of the inscription. He rotated it to landscape orientation and made some adjustments on its screen.

‘There, that’s better,’ he said with satisfaction.

Bella looked up. The inscription now read “All Bears Welcome. Even Mostly-Bears".

Higgins pulled a small flask out of his pocket and turned to Martin.

‘Now, Martin, my original plan was to drink all of this potion, change into a bear and get stuck making small talk -’ he paused and nodded at a grizzly couple entering the hall, ‘- well, small growl, with completely random bears at the bar. But I would much rather spend it in the company of my old friend here instead. So, my new plan has me drinking only half the potion, becoming only half a bear, and giving the other half to you. And later on, when you join us in there, I will gladly stand you the drink of your choice. Or some honey if you prefer.

How does that sound?’

With that, Higgins popped the cork of the flask and took a couple of gulps from it. He gestured impatiently for Martin to take the flask. Martin complied, just a second before Higgins shot up into the looming shape of an anthro polar bear. Wearing a bow tie.

Higgins offered his paw to Bella and she took it. They entered the hall together. And as easily as that, Bella forgot that she’d ever been small at all.

Bella growled at Higgins.

Higgins growled back at Bella. Then he growled at her again.

Bella growled back.

Then Higgins growled again and -

And there was a lot of growling from that moment on.

A lot of growling.