"Were there any other questions?" Selene asked.

I'd shed more than a few tears over the last half hour there in her little shop. In fact the whole day so far had been a non-stop voyage of self-discovery. I was starting to feel better though. I was coming to terms with the knowledge that this really was the best possible life for me to live.

I was Ariana, and I was a girl. More than that, I was a catgirl. But I was a catgirl who still had questions.

"Yes actually. There's been times when I've remembered parts of my new life automatically, and there's been moments where I've remembered new things once prompted or when I've deliberately tried to think about them? But it seems that most of the time when I think back it's the other timeline, my other life that comes up first. Will my memories always be spread across two timelines? Will the old one always come up first?"

Selene shook her head, "It happens differently for everyone, but generally within a couple days the old timeline will have faded and the new one will take precedence. The two factors which seem to determine how quickly or slowly that happens are age, and how tightly one clings to the old versus how readily they embrace the new. You'll never truly forget the original timeline, but those memories may continue to fade with time."

It took me a few moments to get my head around that information before I asked, "By age, I assume you mean my previous age?"

"Yes," she replied. "You had sixty-eight years in that timeline, so it's not surprising those memories would seem to outweigh the twenty-one years you have in this timeline."

I nodded slowly, "So how would I go about embracing the new timeline and memories?"

One of Selene's eyebrows arched up and she commented, "That didn't require much deliberation."

My cheeks took on a pink tone but I shrugged, "I'd be lying if I said this hasn't already brought me a lot of joy. I don't think I've ever felt so comfortable in my own skin as I have today. Even my name makes me happy. About the only thing that's been a disappointment is the piano I had in my apartment is gone. And I didn't come here asking you to undo or change anything, I just wanted answers."

She smiled slightly, "Very well. The easiest and most effective way is to simply start living your new life. Work on your music, catch up with your friends, play with your cats, but do it all as the new you. Don't try and compare this life to the other one, just live it and enjoy it."

Before I could really respond to that Selene prompted me, "Tell me who you are. What's your name? How old are you, what do you do?"

"I'm Ariana Lloyd," I replied. "I'm a twenty-one year old catgirl, and a musician. I'm an independent singer-songwriter, and I've done some music for a couple indie video games."

"Good answer." she said with a grin.

I smiled back and agreed, "Yeah, I think so too."

After a few moments she asked, "Were there any other questions?"

"No," I slowly shook my head. "I think that's everything. I suppose I should get back home and get on with my life then?"

She agreed, "Yes, you should. Me and my shop are part of your old life. There's really no reason for a young catgirl musician to know anything about my obscure little magic shop, and certainly no reason to visit."

"That's not true," I replied with a frown. "You were a big help to my dad. You helped him ensure I'd have a good life after he was gone. Even if you and I never met before today, I knew about you and knew how you helped."

Before she could respond that I added, "And you know there's at least one Discord server where some of your past customers compare notes and potential customers learn about you and your spells. That's how my dad found out about you."

Selene raised an eyebrow again as she took all that in. Finally she responded, "Be that as it may, you really shouldn't be loitering about here Ariana. You need to go and live your life. This is the right path, all you have to do now is follow it and you'll find happiness."

I nodded, then smiled. "Thanks Selene, for everything."

She bid me goodbye and good luck, but before I left I gave the cat some more pets and scritches. Then I turned and left the mysterious woman and her cute cat and her little shop. They were part of my past, I had to move forward into my future.

My music was playing again for the drive home, and like on the drive up I sang along with all my tunes. And this time I wasn't so embarrassed about my cover of that Alphaville song. I was Ariana after all, so why not make it about me?

It was late afternoon when I got back to the apartment. Ludwig and Wolfgang were waiting to greet me and I spent some time playing with them to apologize for leaving them alone all day. Then I messaged a few friends to see if anyone was available tonight. Though with the pandemic there wasn't much we could really do. Maybe hang out online or meet up in a game or something.

I also joined that 'Magic of the Moon' Discord server my dad knew about and typed up a little introductory blurb. The spell Selene sold me didn't have a name, or if it did she never mentioned it. I described it had green and white candles and was a blend of two other spells. And I even shared a great selfie I took last weekend, when the sun caught the tabby pattern in my hair just right.

By dinner time I'd heard back from a couple friends. Chrissy and Terry were both up for some gaming tonight, so the three of us made plans to be online at eight o'clock. Me and Chrissy were in the same music program, we'd been friends almost from the start. And the two of us met Terry online last autumn during the lockdowns, he was in his last year of a game dev program.

All three of us graduated last week. Chrissy was going to try getting into doing music for TV or movies while Terry was looking for work in the games industry. In the meantime he was still working on his own indie stuff too.

After dinner I received a direct message and a friend request on Discord, from a girl with the screen-name Clover. According to the message she was another of Selene's customers, and in fact she was the one my spell was originally created for. She recognized it from the vague description I left in my intro post on the server.

We ended up chatting a bit, it was kind of fascinating to compare notes with her. Neither of us revealed any details of our past selves, though there were some hints here and there which led me to believe we may have had somewhat similar circumstances. In this life she'd just graduated from high-school and was already two years into her new life, which meant she'd started much younger than myself.

Suddenly I was happy about being twenty-one and finished college, rather than having to repeat a few years of high-school. Although Clover seemed really pleased with how things worked out for her. She enjoyed school a lot more this time around, and in September she'd be starting a biochem program at university.

And that made me feel better about my own situation too. It reinforced what Selene said, about the spell picking the best age to go along with all the other changes our 'ideal lives' required.

When Clover mentioned she and her sister lived in the west end I told her I probably wasn't too far away from them, and she got excited about maybe meeting up. We didn't actually make plans but left the idea on the table for another time. By then it was nearly eight so I had to fire up the game and meet up with Chrissy and Terry.

• • • • •

I still felt sleepy as I woke to the feeling of whiskers in my face, and a rough tongue licking my nose and cheeks. I didn't need to look at the clock or even open my eyes to know it was too early to get up.

"Oh come on you little shit," I groaned. "I don't wanna be awake this early."

Wolfgang just purred and gave me a headbonk on the nose. As far as he was concerned it was time for me to get up and fix his breakfast.

I grumbled, "Dude please fuck off for an hour ok?"

"Not the nicest way to wake up," a pretty voice commented behind me.

I rolled over to face her, "Sorry Claire, Wolfgang was all up in my face. I didn't mean to wake you."

The gorgeous brunette looked as sleepy as I felt, her long light-brown hair was all over her face and the pillow. She smiled, "Don't worry Ari, you didn't wake me. Ludwig took care of that, he was kneading my tits a minute ago."

"Ouch. That's uncomfortable," I winced. Then I added with a grin, "And anyways, that's my job."

The two of us shifted closer so we were in each others arms and we shared a sleepy kiss, while my heart fluttered happily and a loud purr started rumbling deep in my chest.

The first time that happened I thought I'd die of embarrassment, but now I was used to it. And Claire liked it, she said it was nice having instant positive feedback so she knew when she made me happy. Which she did a lot.

We'd only known each other about a month but the two of us really hit it off together.

I felt a little guilty about it at first. I was supposed to be meeting up with Clover, she wanted to be friends. But she brought her big sister along, and something just clicked between Claire and I. Then Claire told me her little sister had been playing matchmaker and planned the whole thing all along, so I had nothing to feel guilty about.

I didn't understand why Clover felt she needed to play cupid, Claire was gorgeous and I couldn't imagine she had any trouble meeting people. Then near the end of our first date she told me she was trans and she wasn't planning on getting 'the surgery'. Something in her voice when she told me that made me think she'd got to that point with other people and they bailed on her.

There was no way I'd do anything like that though. I was totally into her and loved everything about her. And I thought we were perfect together.

Claire was the same age as me, her twenty-first birthday was in June. And like me she just graduated college two months ago. Her diploma was in marketing, but her real passion was art. She was into photography, painting, and drawing.

Her creativity meshed perfectly with mine, her paintings and photos inspired my music, and my music inspired her art. She promised to come up with something great for my first album cover, and I was going to compose some custom music for her first solo gallery show.

Claire helped me in other ways too. Through her I learned a lot about what it meant to be trans, and I quickly came to appreciate just how lucky I was in this new life of mine. She opened my eyes to the inequality and systemic injustice a lot of people like us faced, and I knew I'd have been facing that too if I hadn't been so fortunate.

That new knowledge and understanding led me to make some radical changes to my investment portfolio, much to the chagrin of my financial advisor.

I started moving money into queer- and PoC-owned businesses, and I found ways to support my fellow trans creatives online. In short, I started sharing my good fortune with others like me and Claire. I knew I wasn't going to change the world, but I did what I could and helped out where I could.

My thoughts were suddenly pulled back to the present as Claire's fingers scritched the small of my back just above my tail. It was such an innocuous thing, but I knew exactly what that did to female cats and it had the same effect on me. It was like a new erogenous zone, with a direct connection between my groin and the pleasure centre of my brain.

My back arched and my muscles tensed, as shivers ran up and down my spine. My purring grew louder as the rest of my body quickly responded to the stimulation. I gave Claire a long, passionate kiss as my hands started gently kneading her beautiful breasts. And unlike Ludwig, I never used claws when I did that.

Unfortunately the other two cats were still with us and they assumed our activity meant it was definitely time to get up and serve them breakfast. Ludwig started attacking my and Claire's toes under the sheets while Wolfgang climbed onto my pillow and started licking at my ears.

"Oh for fuck sake," I sighed. "Fine I'll go feed you two little shits!"

Claire giggled, "Distract them with food, then while they're eating we can slip into the shower together."

"It's a deal!" I gave her one more kiss then rolled over out of bed. My tail was sticking up straight as I walked naked out of the bedroom.

Claire headed for the bathroom while I called over my shoulder, "Ludwig, Wolfie, come get noms!"

PurpleCatGirl

Folks might recognize Clover and Claire, they're from the story Starting Over, which was the 2nd installment of this series.
If you're enjoying our work and you'd like to support us, please consider joining our patreon & get early access to bonus chapters, new chapters, and new stories! https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl