“Dave, hey, are you feeling okay?” Arin asked Dave. She was still curled up under her covers. The sound of their voice made Dave wake up, but she still stayed under the blanket. “Dave, I didn’t want to wake you up, but it’s nearly sunset and I’m getting really worried.”

“What?!” Dave had never slept in that long in her life. She threw off the covers and jumped out of bed.

“AH!” Arin yelped and took a step backwards. Their hands clasped over their mouth.

Panic immediately set over Dave. “What, what is it?” she asked, rushing towards the bathroom mirror.

Arin moved their hands, and their wide eyes softened as realization set in. “Oh, oh right. Your curse. Sorry.”

  Dave skidded in front of the mirror, grabbing the counter to stabilize herself. Her eyes grew wide as she saw her reflection. Her hair had grown longer and shabbier. Her ears had changed shape, growing pointed in the back. Small grey hairs had begun growing on the back of them. Her teeth seemed even sharper as well. But the most prominent change was her small, black, puppy-like nose. If this was Millicent’s image of cute, it didn’t match Dave’s at all. 

She began checking the mirror to see if there were any changes in her face. If there were, they were too subtle to really define. Same for her height, but maybe she’d had some changes in amounts of muscle and fat? She seemed to maybe be little more thin, but it might have simply been a while since she’d taken a close look.

Out of hope, she reached up to check if any changes had happened to her chest. Arin rounded the corner and peered into the bathroom through the still-open door. She snapped her hands behind her back.

“Dave, I’m so sorry I freaked out back there.” Arin said. “I swear you don’t look bad, it just surprised me.”

“No I look pretty bad right now, but it’s alright.” Dave brushed her hair aside in the mirror, seeing if there was any way to part it where it looked okay. It would probably just take a little combing to clean up. 

“Just so I fully understand, it’s alright because it’s just temporary?” asked Arin.

“Well, it won’t go away on its own, but the witch promised me she’ll fix it up. Also I don’t actually think it’s done yet? I have to wait until we know exactly what creature I’m turning into, but I’m not sure.” Dave smiled at her strange reflection.

“Something canine would be my guess,” Arin said as they took a closer look.

Dave nodded.

Arin began to walk away, but stopped themself and turned back. They looked at the floor instead of at Dave. They said, “You seem pretty casual about all this, and I just want to check. Is everything alright?”

It was hard to disconnect this moment from the night before. She stood there for a while, a churning feeling rising in her stomach, unsure if this was the time, if this would be the moment. She looked to Arin, then away. Then at her reflection. Dave gave a smile that she wasn’t sure was fake or sincere.

“I’m alright.”

“Got it.” Arin held their arms out, inviting Dave for a hug. “But if you ever need to talk to me, you can. You never have to, but you can.”

Dave accepted Arin’s hug. They stood, embracing for a few moments in the bathroom doorway before breaking away.

Dave brushed her hair away from her eyes, and had a momentary rush of excitement as she realized that was something she could now do. She tried to focus on addressing concerns Arin might have. “So, I apparently slept through the whole day.”

“Yeah,” they replied. “That’s a thing.”

“I wonder if that’s going to happen every night. I might be turning into something nocturnal?” She looked in the mirror again despite knowing it wasn’t going to give her any information about her sleep habits.

“Does it feel like a regular thing?” Arin asked.

Dave shrugged. “I’m probably going to be up late tonight at least. Probably not going to be able to go back to sleep after only being up for a couple hours. Maybe it will correct itself, but considering how easy it was to stay awake until sunrise, I have a feeling it’ll be regular.”

“Well, please keep me up to date. I’d be willing to try and stay up late and sleep in later if you need company.”

Dave nodded. She looked outside the window. The sun was still out. She could have gone out and helped shear sheep, or help repair a house, or cut logs and haul the wood back for the town to use later. All the things she usually did. But not right now.

She scratched the back of her neck, which quickly turned into fiddling with her hair. It felt so strange to ask this of Arin after how closed off she’d become to them. And she couldn’t shake the fear that if they got too close then the changes she’d make would just lead to them falling apart again. But she still very much needed them.

“I’d appreciate it if you could stay up with me. I mean, as long as you want to.” She pointed at the mirror. “I don’t think I could really go outside looking like this.”

Arin nodded, and started walking toward the kitchen. They lit the stove and began heating it. “Do you want me to cook you anything while I’m up?”

“Oh you don’t have to do that,” said Dave. “You’re already doing so much for me.”

“Dude, you’re the one who’s cursed right now. You deserve some pampering. Besides, you do a lot for me too.” Arin reached into the ice box. “Want anything in particular?”

“Meat.” Dave was already at the kitchen counter, eyes wide and excited.

“I had a feeling you’d ask for that.” Arin grinned.

Dave waited for a bit while Arin cooked. She wanted to talk, but not about the things that  were difficult to talk about. It had been so long since they had just really talked. Finally a topic popped into her mind.

“Do you want to hear about this witch?” 

Arin nodded. Dave immediately went into detail about the entire trip, the encounter, and the curse. Dave joked about how she’d been terrified the coffee was cursed, only for her to have been cursed the entire time. Arin laughed out loud. Dave giggled about it too. The conversation carried them all the way through the meal, through making tea, and to sitting on the opposite ends of their couch.

“So that’s how I got the fuzzy ears,” Dave concluded. She drained the last of her tea and got up to go make more. 

“You know what’s the funniest part of this?” Arin said as Dave walked to the kitchen.

“What?”

“They’ve been getting fuzzier.” Arin took another sip.

“Really?” Dave set down her cup as quickly as she could and felt the back of her ears. Sure enough, there was more hair. Also the whole ear felt larger and more pointed. And had it shifted location somewhat? She wasn’t sure.

“Yep. I’ve been sitting here and watching it happen the whole time we’ve been talking.”

“Wow.” She rubbed the back of her ears more. It felt different than it used to, and not just because of the soft layer of fuzz. It was more satisfying in a way she really couldn’t place.

“You seem so excited for someone who’s getting this undone. Or did I misunderstand?” Arin gave a quizzical look.

Dave blushed. “It’s still cool. And, I don’t know. Maybe if I really like it when it’s done, I’ll keep it.”

“Fair warning- that’s going to be tough to explain to the lads.”

Dave, forgetting about her tea, walked back to the couch and fell back down into it. She’d been trying not to concern herself too much about what the lads would think. Or worse, what the lads would do. With her head down, looking at the floor, she said, “I don’t care. The lads can pick on me all they want.”

Arin waved their hand in front of Dave’s face. When they had her attention, they pointed at themself. “I care. And I’m going to fight my hardest to make sure they don’t do anything to you.”

“I don’t know if it’s going to be necessary, but thank you.” Dave shook her head a little. “You’re being so good to me. After I’ve been so terrible to you.”

“You’ve needed space. I understand. I can’t say that it’s always been easy for me to deal with, but I understand.”

Dave wanted to look away, but kept her focus on Arin. She felt tears coming on again. “I don’t know how you’ve even been able to stay in the same house as me.”

“Of course I have, Dave,” said Arin. It didn’t feel good hearing that name coming from them, but she didn’t have a replacement yet. And Arin didn’t even know.

They continued, “You’ve been there so much for me through the changes I’ve made. Do you remember a couple years ago? You told off Chad and got him to start using my pronouns. You helped build this house just because I needed somewhere to go. I’m not saying I owe you anything for any of that, but I want to be there for you just as much as you were for me.”

It was Dave’s turn to offer a hug. They hugged on the couch for a long time. Dave hoped it hadn’t gone on too long, that she wasn’t communicating what she longed to. But she didn’t let go.

Arin’s head drooped into Dave’s chest a bit, then shot back up. It had gotten late into the night, and Arin’s eyelids were half-closed. “Ah, if I try to stay up any longer I’m just going to fall asleep on you.”

“Right.” Dave relaxed her hug, giving Arin room to slide out of her arms and off the couch until they were standing upright.

“Goodnight. Guess I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon?”

“Sounds good.”

In not very much time at all, Arin had brushed their teeth, changed clothes, and gone to bed.

Dave blew out the lights, but realized after a quick moment of adjusting that she didn’t really have more any difficulty seeing the room in the dark. She walked over to her bedside table, picked up her book, and skimmed over the words. They were perfectly legible. After a few minutes of reading, she started feeling a bit antsy. This was the second day in a row she hadn’t really done anything productive, and she hated feeling like she wasn’t contributing. Everyone else in town was probably in bed by now, so if she stayed quiet there was little chance she’d be seen.

She dug around in her dresser and pulled out her winter cloak. It was thick and heavy, which wouldn’t be comfortable to work in. But it also was black, long, and hooded. The perfect camouflage, if she needed it to be. She threw it on. On top of the dresser, the warp crystal glowed a faint blue. There were a lot of things that could happen out there with her looking like this, and it certainly couldn’t hurt to have a quick method of escape. She picked up the stone and slid it into the cloak’s inside pocket. Then she headed out into the moonlight.

Again it seemed like most of the work around town had already been done. One of her neighbors had a ladder resting against the building and many tools laid out - apparently reconstructing the roof - but she’d hardly be able to repair that without waking someone up. The same was true for replenishing the town’s lumber supply. Cutting down a tree made a lot of noise, and even someone of her size and strength would have trouble hauling a log back to town by herself. She walked over to the sheep pens. Most of the sheep were already asleep, but the ones that weren’t were keeping themselves as far away from her as they could. She circled around, eventually finding a plank on the fence that appeared to be rotting. Someone else had apparently already started fixing it- as a partially cut log, a saw, and strips of sandpaper were already lying there.

Fixing the fence passed the time quite well, and working without anyone else around was actually really calming. Wolves occasionally howled from miles away, but otherwise the only sounds were her and the wind rustling rustling the trees. She started sanding down the plank, but found the sandpaper was hurting her hands more than usual. A quick walk back home to retrieve some gloves fixed that problem. The sheep being scared of her proved to her benefit; not one made any attempt to leave as she, as gently and quietly as possible, pried off the old board and nailed the new one on.

Trying to work without making too much noise made the process take much longer than normal. Not long after she finished, she was ready to head back to bed. She went back home and read more of her book. Something stuck out to her. “Magdalene” would be a nice name. But she wasn’t sure she could disassociate it from this character, who she liked reading about but didn’t necessarily want to be. She’d have to sleep on it.