Eva was in my bed.

That particular fact had my thoughts ricocheting around inside my skull as I lay there next to her, scattered and unfocused. My large queen sized bed was pressed against the wall opposite the door, the main window above our feet at the end of the bed. The window was shut, blinds down and curtains pulled, of course, but normally I’d gaze out into the starry sky as I tried to go to sleep.

I liked the night, not like so many others who feared it. The world was so calm in the early hours, soothing and silent in a way that my oddly built mind relished.

Until the last few years, when tensions all across the states had started to rise, I’d made a habit of sneaking out with my longboard. I’d cruise along empty streets, gliding back and forth from one side of the road to the other, basking in the calm of those moments.

The world outside my window right now was anything but peaceful. It raged, violent and alive in a way I’d never experienced before, tearing up the city like a crazed and rabid animal.

“It’s like a hurricane,” Eva murmured, her tone full of awe.

I nodded. “Except this one is alive.”

“Feels like it yeah,” she agreed, rolling over to face me.

“No, I mean that literally,” I explained quietly, unsure how much more I should say.

“Uh, what do you mean?” she asked worriedly.

The shine of her eyes in the dark drew my attention away from the gently swaying curtains. I paused for several long moments, trying to figure out how to tell her what was happening without giving too much away. I was pretty sure I knew what it was, one of grandfather’s oldest books had described something like this.

“I think… I think it’s a soulstorm,” I replied eventually, hoping she couldn’t see the half truth in my expression.

“What’s that?” she asked, eyes wide and searching.

“Okay please don’t think I’m weird but, one of the things I’ve always been interested in was like, weird folklore and old myths and stuff. The type of thing that would have gotten me burned for witchcraft like three hundred years ago,” I began, laying down my cover story. “With all that has been happening in the last two days, I’ve seen some of it coming true.”

“Like you being a really cute fox girl and tree spirits down in the amazon and stuff?” she asked excitedly while wiggling closer in the bed. It was a good thing it was dark or she’d have caught the blush that spread over my cheeks.

“Yeah, that stuff,” I nodded. “So back in the really distant past, some old germanic tribes wrote of these things called soulstorms. When huge numbers of people die, like from a battle or something, their souls can get caught on the wind.”

Her voice was hushed and eager as she asked, “Really?”

“Yeah, and with everyone dying all over the place because of covid, their souls are getting sucked into the westerly trade winds that run up the east coast,” I explained, feeling more and more ridiculous about my theory even as I knew that it was probably correct.

“New York isn’t far from here, yeah,” she murmured thoughtfully. “But like, how do we know that this isn’t just a random storm?”

“We don’t,” I told her apologetically. “It’s just my theory, and I’m not convinced that the old germanic tribes knew what the hell they were talking about anyway. Just because some old dude wrote some shit down in a book, don’t make it true.”

She laughed and settled down onto her back again. We watched each other for a moment, just staring into each other's eyes in companionable silence. It was sort of crazy how much the other girl featured in my life.

We’d known each other for a really long time, since my memories began, actually. Our mothers had been friends or something in college, the details were vague. Either way, they had reconnected when both Eva and I were about two years old, and ever since then we’d been pretty good friends.

Not absolute best friends forever though, as the saying goes. Real life doesn’t totally work like that. Instead, we drifted in and out of being close as the years went by, never far enough to say she wasn’t one of my closest friends, but we’d had periods where we didn’t talk much. Other priorities drawing us apart, that kind of thing.

“That night, at the protest,” Eva said, bringing me back to the present. “That girl, the superhero or whatever… I spoke to her.”

“O-oh, um… really?” I asked, hating the way I stammered. Play it cool Itia- Tia… play it cool!

My friend nodded. “Yeah, she was so cool… cute, like you. It was weird, she was so awesome and confident when she was fighting those assholes, but when she was talking to me, she was like… almost shy.”

“I um, I see,” I mumbled, unable to keep up the eye contact as I deal with this conversation with anything other than single syllable words.

“She said her name was Lette, but I’m pretty sure that was just like, a cover or something,” she explained with a little giggle. “I feel like anyone running around using magic and stuff wouldn’t tell some random girl they met at a protest their real name.”

I gulped and nodded, pretending to close my eyes tiredly for a moment. “That makes sense.”

“I hope she made it away from those scary looking cops though, one of them was super scary, chasing her and stuff,” she said, continuing to ramble as her eyes began to droop further and further.

“I’m sure she did,” I replied, trying not to wince as I remembered in vivid detail what it felt like to not get away.

“Yeah,” Eva smiled, eyes opening again to stare at me. She was silent for a minute, then out of the blue she asked, “Can I touch your ear?”

“Uh, what?” I blinked.

“Your ear,” she repeated, extracting a hand from under the covers to point at it. “I want to touch it, it looks so fluffy.”

My voice went all awkward and squeaky as I shook my head, “Um, no? Where is this coming from?”

Pouting, she swapped to begging, “Aw… pleeaase?”

I let out a long, frustrated, embarrassed sigh. “Fine.”

“Yes!” she giggled, lunging for my fluffy appendage.

Face screwing up from the strange feeling of her fingers exploring my ear, I found myself growling slightly in irritation.

Eva didn’t seem to care, a grin spread across her face as she played with it. “Wow, your fur is so soft. I love how nice the fluff inside it is.”

I squirmed, wiggling out of her reach. “Okay, no stop that! It tickles!”

“Fine, fine,” she said with a big cheeky smile. “I’ll let you free, for now…”

I gave her a glare as she retreated back to her side of the bed, but otherwise stayed silent.

Unbothered by my grumping, she repositioned herself to la on her back and gave a long, drawn out sigh. “This has been fun, staying with you.”

“Yeah,” I conceded, then repeated myself with more sincerity, “Yeah, it was fun.”

We lay there for a long while, the sounds of the storm battering at the house filling the silence that our conversation had just vacated.

I began to think she might have fallen asleep when she spoke again. "I kinda wish I'd gotten changed too," she mumbled. "Then I could be like you."

Making a sound of mild dissent, I shook my head, even if she couldn’t see it in the dark. “I have a feeling that a lot of people aren’t going to be as understanding as you and your mum have been.”

“I’ll fight them,” she murmured with a yawn, hands snaking across the space between us to wrap around my arm. “I’ll fight… them.”

A smile snuck its way onto my face as I watched her fall asleep while mumbling protective threats of violence on any who dared to hurt me. She was one hell of a friend.

As she fell asleep, I was able to pry her fingers off my arm and replace it with one of my plushies. I vaguely remembered her saying she slept with her old stuffed toy still because it was habit, so I figured she’d sleep better with something to hold onto.

It took me almost an hour longer to get to sleep as I mulled over everything that had happened to me recently. I felt like I was going to get slammed by the reality of my new situation when I least expected it. It had to, right? I was taking to this way too well, when every piece of media I’d ever seen said I should be freaking out.

I’d read a manga and watched a few anime where the character got transformed into the opposite gender, and each time they freaked out about their lost bits. Me though? I couldn’t care less about the limp slug that used to dwell between my legs.

I fell asleep trying to figure out how I felt about my tiny boobs, and woke up again a few hours later for no discernable reason. The storm had died down, and judging by the way my magical reservoir was calm and sedate, I’d say whatever magic that had been outside was gone now. Still, something nagged at me, an indescribable feeling.

Carefully, I sat up and gently pushed the curtains aside to stare out into the dark. The wind was still going hard, but other than that, everything in the backyard looked fine. That is, until something moved.

Alarm froze my limbs in place as I stared, but that surprise quickly gave way to intense curiosity. Outside on the lawn, staring up at me, was a fox. It’s eyes glowed with a faint and unearthly silver, and as though it realised I had spotted it, the creature yawned and tilted its head, still staring at me.

“Hello?” I asked, voice barely audible.

The fox flicked an ear and sat down, still watching me. I flicked an ear back. My eyebrows rose when it appeared to laugh and flick both ears in unison. I did the same, smiling now. What on earth was going on?

I didn’t get to find out, because a cat hopped up onto our fence, startling my new friend. The fox dashed off into the flowerbed and then up onto the fence opposite the intruder. It turned there, perched on a wooden post, and gave me a wink. Then it was gone, off into the night.

What a strange encounter.

Although I’d been alarmed at first, something within me knew that the fox hadn’t meant me any harm. In fact, it felt like it had been trying to make friends, to connect with me in some way.

I lay back down in my bed with my thoughts full of questions, and when I began to dream, I dreamt of silver-eyed foxes and pleasant woodlands. For some strange reason, I was a fox too, taking my true form as I chased the other fox between twisted oaks.

QuietValerie

Updates won't be consistent from here on out, but I'll do my best. Going into the hospital for surgery soon, health might improve after that... or I'll be living the rest of my life in intense pain. Wooooo....... nerve damage is so fun v.v