“... too… loud…”

As I watched my best friend curled up on the floor in agony, one thought dominated my mind.

What can I do to help?

She had done so much for me yesterday, when I was scared and confused from my sudden change. I wanted to be the same kind of comforting presence to her, as she was to me. Stepping forward slowly, so as to not make too much noise, I knelt down in front of her. Placing my hands on her head, I folded her furry ears shut.

After a few moments, her shaking stopped, and she slowly sat upright. Opening her eyes, she stared wide-eyed at me for a moment. I gasped slightly, noticing that her pupils had become slit, like a fox or cat, and her brown eyes were now a much lighter colour, resembling amber. She pulled me into a very tight hug.

“I had a really bad dream… and these ears… am I possessed?!”

Looping my own arms around her to return her hug, I spoke softly.

“It’s alright. I’ll help you out. It’ll be okay. You’re still you, I promise.”

“...okay.”

As her grip on me loosened, my left hand slowly wandered up to her head. After patting her hair for a bit, I started lightly scratching the base of her new furry right ear. Her entire body began to go limp as I scratched, which made me notice something interesting.

She’s really light!

I quickly snuck one of my arms underneath her knees, resting the other one on her upper back, and lifted, causing her to squeak slightly.

“Eek!”

This was, without question, a princess carry. I walked over to the bed with her in my arms, gently laying her down on it.

“Feel any better now?”

“Wh-wh-what are you doing?!”

The colour had returned to her face, along with her energy, as she glared indignantly at me while blushing. I smiled, giggling a little, sitting down on the edge of her bed with my back to her.

“Alright, you seem much better now. Could you tell me what happened?”

The glare instantly disappeared from her face. She sat up, leaning on my back before slowly beginning to speak.

 

“I had a dream last night. I was sitting on your roof, and in your backyard there was this… hole? Or like a portal or something. A whole bunch of smoke and… weird swirls poured out of it, and then a horde of small creatures, like faeries or spirits, came rushing out. This weird, like, ghost fox came along with them, and charged right at me. I woke up in the middle of the night, and it felt like my whole body was on fire. Next thing I knew, it was morning, and I had these ears and tail.”

 

I sighed, leaning back a little into her weight.

“Well, whatever the case, you’ve turned into a… fox girl, or something.”

“I knew it, I’m possessed!” She wailed. Immediately, I turned around and grabbed her shoulders.

“Calm down! Look, yesterday I suddenly turned into a girl. Do you think I’m possessed?” I couldn’t help but think that what happened to Emily was related to what happened to me. We both saw a dream before transforming, and we both saw the same portal, though from different ends. Emily looked up at me, shocked.

“...no, I don’t think so.”

“Then why do you think you’re possessed? I turned into a girl, and you grew fox ears and a tail. We’re in this together.”

“But what if-”

“No buts. You spent all of yesterday helping me,” I interjected, cutting off her panicked words. Leaning forward, I pulled her into a hug.

“So let me help you this time.”

“...okay.”

 

Looking at the fox ears sitting on top of Emily’s head, the gears turned in my mind trying to figure out what to do next. We should find some way to hide them. If she can’t make them disappear, then how would you cover them? Maybe a robe, like the ones the prisoners had? But people don’t wear robes nowadays. What’s the equivalent… Aha!

“Emily, do you have a thin hoodie that you can wear with your uniform?”

“Huh?” She looked startled at my sudden suggestion. “I… do. Let me go find it.”

After I stood up off the bed to let her pass, she leapt up and rushed to her drawers, her fox tail flowing behind her. Rummaging through them, she eventually grabbed out a thin black hoodie.

“Alright, try putting it on. I wanna see if you can hide your ears with the hood.”

Emily dutifully put it on, pulling the hood up and pushing her fox ears forward with it, to the point that they were closed.

“How’s that?”

As soon as I spoke, her ears pinged upright, throwing the hood off and completely exposing them.

 

“Hmm… that’s not going to work.”

The ears themselves were quite long, much larger than the small triangular ears you would find on a real fox. As they stood upright, twitching back and forth slightly, a thought occurred to me.

“Can you move them? Your ears, I mean.”

“... I don’t know, I’ve never tried.” Emily turned to the mirror hanging in her room, leaning forward to carefully examine her new ears. She started contorting her face, groaning a little every so often. Her fox ears flicked backwards a brief moment, instantly returning to their upright position as she slumped forward, defeated.

“A little help? Please? This isn’t working.”

What would be good in this situation? I took a few steps forward, moving to stand diagonally behind her. Reaching up, I grabbed the tips of her ears, trying to apply as little pressure as possible. They’re so soft! I gently pulled them down, into a folded back position.

“Does that help?”

“Y-yes, but it really tickles! Hold it there for a bit.”

After a few moments, I let go. Her ears slowly loosened, before quickly flicking upright.

“Nnnrgh, damnit, this isn’t working!” She screamed, causing them to fold back briefly. I called out.

“That’s it, you had it!”

“Huh?” Emily turned to me, confused.

“Try screaming again.”

“Um, okay…” She took a moment to breath in, before screaming again. As her fox ears pulled back, I quickly reached up and lifted her hood upright, covering them.

“That’s got it!” As I spoke, I examined her now upright hood. Looking closely, there were two raised points on the top of her head, where her ears were pushing up. The protrusions slowly grew bigger and bigger.

“Hey Flora, this feels really uncomfortable...”

Her fox ears flipped out the front of her hood, throwing it off again.

 

*****

 

After a long while of groaning and pulling her ears, Emily finally learned how to fold them back on command. While wearing the hood, she could pull them back to the point that the tips pushed on the back just a tiny bit. However, the shapes they made were so small that I figured people probably wouldn’t notice, and we considered that task completed. Emily moved to sit on her bed before yelping, having accidentally sat on her tail.

 

“Now, how are we gonna deal with this…”

Emily’s new fox tail dropped down to just above her ankles in length, and was quite fluffy, to the point that you probably use it in place of a large stuffed animal. She looped an arm around it to lift it up, carefully inspecting it.

“Hmm…”

“Umm, what are you doing?”

“It’s weird, like… I can feel it as if it’s just a regular part of my body.”

It IS a part of your body! I held back my interjection, remembering that I felt roughly the same way about my sudden transformation yesterday.

“Can you hide it under a dress?”

“Maybe… let me try.” Emily rushed to the wardrobe in the corner of her room, pulling her school uniform out. Laying it down on her bed, she unzipped her hoodie and took it off. Moving to undress so she could put her uniform on, she froze, before turning to me.

“Turn around for a bit.”

I thought you said that we were all girls here!

 

With her uniform on, the end of her fox tail peeked out just a little from under the hem of her dress. If she was careful, and people weren’t deliberately looking for it, chances are that it wouldn’t be exposed. Along with her hoodie, we successfully hid most of the evidence of Emily’s sudden transformation.

At that point, I suddenly remembered what was meant to happen today.

 

“What’s the time?”

“10:15… wait, we need to be there for recess. We gotta go, like now!”

“Where’s my uniform? You said you were gonna lend me one.”

“Here.” Emily ran to her wardrobe again, quickly pulling out another school uniform and chucking it to me. I stared at it blankly for a moment.

 

“How do I put on a dress, again? I forgot…”

 

*****

 

Having successfully put on the dress and mostly hidden Emily’s fox parts, we leaped onto our bikes and quickly rode to school. Emily yelped as she jumped on, having sat on her fox tail again while in a rush. Neither of us were wearing our helmets, because of how little time we had. Emily managed to grab her school bag in the rush, while I was missing mine, since I ran out of the house without it in the hurry to get to Emily’s place. Hopefully I didn’t need it for the meeting…

 

We arrived at a little after 10:30. Zoey was waiting for us at the gate in a huff.

“Emily, where were you?! I couldn’t find you at your locker, and you never texted me saying you’d be away from school!”

“I’m sorry, there was… a bit of a situation. I’ll explain later.”

She narrowed her eyes a little, staring at Emily suspiciously.

“Hmm… okay then. In that case, let’s go. I’m already late for my meeting.”

“Hey, wait up!”

Locking our bikes at the designated stands, we ran after Zoey who was rushing towards the admin building of the school.

 

Ducking through the maze of corridors in the teacher’s wing, we reached a nondescript door near the medical offices. Zoey knocked three times on the door, before calling out.

“It’s me, Zoey. I’m here for my meeting.”

“Come in.” A voice responded from inside.

As she opened the door, we were greeted by the sight of a young woman sitting on a swivel chair facing us, with her back to the computer on her desk. She held up her hand as we were about to move inside.

“I didn’t know you wanted to bring visitors. Sorry, but they’ll have to wait outside.”

“Can I bring them in?” Zoey spoke up. “I need to talk to you about the small girl.”

Small girl?! I’m only a little shorter than both of you!

“Sure, but only after our check-in.”

“Alright, fine.” Turning to us, Zoey continued. “Wait here for a bit, I’ll come get you once I’m done.”

 

A minute or so into the meeting, as we waited outside leaning against the wall, Emily suddenly stiffened, and grabbed my arm.

“What’s up?”

“Can you hear what’s going on inside there?” She whispered, trembling ever so slightly. I strained my ears.

“... nope, I can’t hear anything.”

Looking up at her, Emily’s face had fallen, showing a very uncomfortable expression.

“I can hear every single word they’re saying in there. And... I can hear all the other teachers talking.”

A quirk of the fox ears? Now I’m curious, what is she hearing in there?

Emily moved her hands up to the side of her hood, pressing down in an attempt to cover her ears while talking under her breath, “I shouldn’t be hearing this… why can I hear everything... this is too much...”

 

Zoey opened the door while she was still muttering.

“Alright, we’re ready for you now… what are you doing?”

I grabbed Emily’s arm, startling her slightly as she released her hands from her head. Pulling her along, we shuffled inside the small room.

 

The young woman in the office swivelled away from her computer to face us, her black ponytail swaying as she rotated. Pushing her thin glasses up, she addressed our group.

“Now, what can I help you all with?”

 

Zoey took the lead in the conversation, guiding me towards the chair in the middle as she talked.

“This girl needs to be able to attend school, but there’s a big issue with her enrolment.”

“Oh? What issue are you speaking of?”

“Currently, she’s enrolled under the name Felix… what is your last name?”

Oh, I never actually told her. Oops. Emily spoke up from the corner of the room where she stood.

“Caldwell.”

“Right, Felix Caldwell. She needs her registered gender changed to female, and her first name changed to Flora.”

The guidance counsellor leaned forward in her chair, turning to face me directly and speaking in a soft voice.

“Alright then. Can you explain the situation for me, and why you need to change your details?”

Wait, what exactly am I supposed to say?

“Umm… would you believe me if I say that I just woke up like this?”

“Flora? Are you sure about this?” Zoey interjected.

“She’s the guidance counsellor, so I don’t want to lie to her. She’s the best chance we have at actually letting me attend school again.”

Our bickering stopped as we noticed her leaning back in her chair, adjusting her glasses again. After a few moments, she began to speak.

“Presuming that what you say is true, and you really woke up one day like this, then can I assume that you haven’t seen a doctor yet?”

“... no, not yet.”

“Then that would be the next thing you need to do, as without proper proof of the circumstance, such as a doctors’ note, I can’t change your registered details.”

That makes sense…

At that point, Emily hopped forward a few steps, until she was standing next to my chair. Taking a deep breath, she faced the guidance counsellor.

“Would you believe us if you saw this?”

She pulled off her hood.

 

“Fox ears!” Zoey leaped up, zooming to Emily’s side to closely inspect her new ears. “Are they real?”

“Yup.”

She poked the fox ear.

It twitched.

She poked it again.

It flicked backwards.

She ran a finger along the fur, stroking it.

“It’s so soft!” Zoey had sparkles in her eyes again. Why is she so excited at this stuff? We had so much trouble actually dealing with it!

 

“Yesterday morning, Flora woke up as a girl. Today, I woke up with fox ears and a tail.” Emily lifted her dress slightly, exposing her tail to the guidance counsellor.

“We both saw similar dreams before transforming.” I added.

“Is this enough proof for you?” Emily looked determined as she said that, but her expression started twitching as Zoey began to stroke her tail.

 

“I don’t know if I can do anything immediately, especially without the proper documents. Come and see me tomorrow, all of you, and I’ll see what I can do.” The guidance counsellor massaged her forehead. We were clearly putting her on the spot, with my unique circumstances.

“Sorry about all this.”

“No, don’t worry about it. It’s my job to help people like you out.” She showed us a weak smile. At that point, we shuffled out of her office.

“See you tomorrow, then.”

 

Dejected, we walked over to where our bikes were parked.

“Not staying for the rest of the day?” Zoey came with us to see us off, despite the fact that recess was already over, and classes had started.

“No, since I don’t want my ears to be exposed. Putting on a hoodie is only a temporary measure, since the teachers will probably tell me to take it off immediately.”

“I guess so. In that case, I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

Unlocking our bikes, we rode home.

 

*****

 

The morning of the next day, Emily came over to my house early. She charged in my front door, talking about how she didn’t want to be near her mother in case she saw her ears and tail. I busied myself making breakfast and getting ready for school as she sat on my living room couch, fiddling and playing with her fox ears.

 

As we arrived at school, Zoey was waiting for us in the same spot as yesterday. Walking through the admin building towards the guidance counsellor’s room, we stopped partway when a teacher called out to us.

“Oh, Zoey, Miss Elena called earlier to say that she wouldn’t be coming today.”

“Wait, really? Did she say why?”

Miss Elena? That must be the guidance counsellor’s name…

“No, she didn’t. She just said that she couldn’t come for some reason.”

Zoey stared wide-eyed for a moment before running outside, pulling both of our hands. Dragging us to an empty corner near the wall of the building, she quickly grabbed out her phone.

 

“I have Miss Elena’s number, so I’ll call her and see what’s going on.”

After a few moments of ringing, the call connected.

“Elena? What’s going on? Why aren’t you- “ Her face went pale. Turning to us, she spoke in a small voice.

 

“She said she grew wings…”