21 candles


"Happy 21, Keegan," My mother said, placing the large chocolate cake in front of me.

"Mom, aren't I a little old to be having surprise birthday cakes?" I asked, my eyebrow raised. I was joking, of course – who doesn't love cake?

"No one's too old to have surprise cake," my mom chuckled as my dad lit the twenty-one candles. I looked around at my family as they began to sing "Happy Birthday". I looked to my sister, then to my mom and my dad, and smiled. I stared at the lit candles, pondering. At the back of my mind, the children's story of receiving a wish on one's birthday nagged me. If I blew out all the candles, I would get my wish… but that was just a children's story.

I'm Keegan. I write TF/TG stories on a site called DeviantArt. It's my birthday… and I would love nothing more than to have my stories, my ideas, come true.


"Okay…" I said with a smile and took a deep breath, leaning forward and blowing out all the candles at once.


Suddenly everything went black.


When I opened my eyes, my parents were looking around in confusion. I froze.

"It must've been a power surge," my father said. "No big deal."

"Well, congrats, you got all your candles blown out," My mom smiled. "What did you wish for?"

"She can't say or it won't come true," My sister smirked, poking my leg.

"I bet it must've been really cool!" Kelly exclaimed with a giggle. I just stared, wide eyed as I looked from my mom, to my dad, to my sister, to my… other sister?

I looked down and stared at myself. Two ample orange and black-furred mounds that were my new bosom blocked my view, and my clothes were radically different. I was wearing a red sweater and a black knee-length skirt. I felt my face and found a muzzle where my mouth and nose were, and long red hair invaded the top of my vision. I brushed my bangs out of my eyes and looked around at my family. They were all tiger anthros now… and the fact that Kelly was sitting next to me, grinning, meant that my wish… my stories… they had come true.


After a shocked and silent supper, I was digging through my stuff, trying to find secrets to what my history was like in this new world. Was I smart? Funny? Did I have a… boyfriend? What had changed? What was the same?

While digging around, I found something labelled "Best Friend Scrapbook". I opened the book and discovered a bunch of photos of me and Kelly doing various things – on the beach, at a dance, at a bar… I blushed as I looked at some of the things I… I mean, the Allison of this world had done. When I turned the page, I was met with another shock.

A picture of a line of anthros, I was at the end, on the left. From left to right, there was a four-breasted naga anthro girl, followed by a skunkette, a leopard girl, a wolf girl, a lioness, a white wolf anthro, a female phoenix, a squirrel girl, and a female anthro Volcarona, followed by Kelly at the end. The caption under the picture read: "1st monthly DA girl's night out – left to right: Allison, Yasmine, Bella, Andrea, Tobi, Julie, Steph, Kim, Karen, Anna, Kelly".

My eyes watered with tears. My friends… they were here too. I had contact with them, and hung out with them every month, at the very least. It was… something amazing, and I couldn't believe it. It HAD to be a dream, but everything my body told me said that it wasn't.


But my day wasn't over.


As I left my room, I was met with a chorus of "Happy Birthday" as many arms grabbed me and hugged me. I looked, confused, and stared at the faces of the people I had seen in the picture. They were all here – the people I cared about the most were really here, in front of me. I couldn't believe it… this would have never happened before, back in my world. Surprises like this just wouldn't happen… the fact that all my friends were here, or at least a version of them were here, hugging me brought tears to my eyes. I silently cursed my new hormones and smiled.

"Thank you," I said to them, and to the unseen entity that had caused this. "Thank you all…"


Happy birthday to me.