Back at Laura’s house my anxiety started to set in. These would be my last moments in this body. I felt bitter, even still. I had spent twenty-seven years in this body and now a little damage and I had to throw the whole man away. It seemed extreme, but supposedly they didn't prescribe animated clay for a reason. I kinda wanted to call the doctor and ask about the clay, in fact, but I also just wanted to be done with everything with as little fuss as possible.

Supposedly, the whole point of the KT was to either change completely or not at all, and since I didn't have any actual problems with my body, I was solidly in the second camp. 

“Are you ready to go, Jake?”

I blinked out of my thoughts, genuinely wondering where we would be going before I realized what she meant.

“Oh. Like… okay right now?”

She nodded and I gulped down my anxiety as best as I could.

“Yeah, I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be.”

“Okie dokie, let's go out to the garden.” My confusion must have been obvious because she continued. “We, uh… something has to happen to your old body, right? I don't think I can lift you, so it would be best if… god this is awkward.” She screwed her eyes shut and clenched her fists. “I planned to turn your old body into fertilizer for my garden.” 

She peeked out of one eye, I assume looking for approval of some sort, but I was speechless. 

“Fertilizer?” 

I wasn't angry; thankfully, she didn't take it as such, but it was hard to process regardless. 

“Yeah. Unpleasant, I know. It's not like I'm doing a shallow grave or something, it’ll be transmutation.” 

I was already nodding; it made sense, really. We were about to have a cadaver on our hands and I didn't particularly want to donate to science today. I mean organ donation is good and all, it was kinda a waste in that respect, but I didn't even really want to think about that right now. I already felt like a switch had flipped in my mind from “This body is worth fighting for,” to “Might as well get something worthwhile in trade when I yeet it.”

“Just don't transmute me till you’ve moved me okay?” I tried to sound lighthearted, but neither of us laughed. “Okay let's just get this over with.” 

She wheeled me out the back door and gave me the choice of whether I fertilized the tomatoes or the butternut squash. I chose the tomatoes, cuz honestly fuck tomatoes. Not really. I just don't like them, so I'm less likely to eat them in the future. God, that was a weird thought. I didn't have long to dwell on it, though, so I crawled awkwardly into the garden and laid down on my back. The earth was cool and damp, soaking through my tee-shirt and giving me a shiver. 

“So it's pretty simple; I'm just going to put you to sleep and then carry you over, okay?”

She muttered under her breath, some sort of incantation, and I let my eyes fall closed for a moment. I took deep even breaths, wondering if I'd feel tired or disoriented when it happened. At some point she stopped talking and I felt a hand on my forehead. I squinted and blinked at the blue sky and Laura, who had suddenly gotten much larger and moved to my other side.

“Bwuh” My voice came out higher pitched than I expected.

“Welcome back,” she murmured, furthering my confusion. 

“Huh?” I rubbed at my throat and found fur, not hair, fur. “What?” 

I tried to sit up, but felt weak all of a sudden. I looked to my left and instantly regretted it. The mound of soil looked like a sandcastle of me, so I looked back at Laura instead.

“How do you feel?”

“Weak.” My throat itched. “And thirsty. Are knot things vampiric?”

“No,” she smiled down at me, “You aren't thirsty for blood, dofus.”

I managed to sit up, probably because she half scooped me up. I felt her fingers comb through the thin fur of my back and shivered involuntarily, causing her to let go. 

I took a sort of inventory on my new form. I didn’t immediately feel small, the world just felt big. I tentatively reached out and touched my legs. I was plush, but at least I was there. Two perfectly good stuffed dragon legs. Complete with little claws that I quickly found I could wiggle independently. I wiggled my finger claws tentatively. They were so stubby I couldn't even touch two together, but I could move them. That at least seemed important. 

I craned my neck at the giantess sitting on her knees next to me. “I have legs.”

“You have legs.”  she agreed. “Do you want to try walking on them or would you like a lift?”

I rolled over and did a pushup; strength was rapidly returning to my body and I managed to stand, though I pinwheeled a bit to keep my balance. 

“I've got this.” I took a step and paused, surprised by how my weight shifted. For some reason, this whole time, even holding the knot thing during the car ride to the house, I had not internalized the fact that I would have a tail and wings. 

“Oooooh, this is so trippy.” I turned slowly in place, looking over my shoulder to see how my little wings and tail swung around. I could feel them. 

“I have extra limbs.”

“You do,” she agreed.

I did a little wiggle experimentally and batted my tail into her knee. 

“This is fucking hilarious.” 

“I'm glad you’re amused.” I heard her giggle as I tottered across the tomato patch. I decided ‘fuck it’ and tumbled over the retaining wall, rolling to my feet easier this time before looking up to my old wheelchair. It was like the size of a playhouse now and giddily I walked under it, crawling through the support frame and then up onto the seat. Laura started pushing it as I settled in and I shouted “wheee” as we rocketed across the ground toward the mansion that was our destination.