Naru awoke next to a sleeping woman.

A thought rose to her mind.

[She’s naked!]

The woman was very beautiful. She had a naturalistic sort of beauty. Her chest was slowly rising and falling as she snored softly. She had deep mottled brown hair and tanned skin with delicate facial features.

Naru herself was still a deer.

[Who is this lady!]

Naru had remembered falling asleep next to her deer mother.

Naru stood up and slowly started backing away from the lady until she saw the woman twitch.

More importantly, she saw the woman’s ears twitch.

Why was this important you ask?

Because the woman had deer ears of course!

The woman also had an amethyst nestled in between her chest. A gem that looked suspiciously like the amethyst that her deer mother had.

[Is this mother?] Naru thought

The woman seemed to wake. She yawned opening her eyes. They were large and doe-like with the same creamy brown as her hair.

Looking at Naru she spoke

“Oh, you’re still like that?”

Apparently, Naru could understand her perfectly.

[Eh? “Still like that” does that mean I can transform too?] Naru thought. She desperately wanted to be done with this gangly deer form.

She closed her eyes and tried to transform. Thinking extremely hard about how she looked before she became a deer.

She felt her upper body burn.

When she opened her eyes, she had her hands back.

“My hands!” She yelled.

[My hands! My glorious hands! Praise opposable thumbs! Wait!]

Naru felt something wiggling on her butt.

[Hmm, I still feel my tail? Did I do it wrong?]

She looked to her mother who appeared to have a troubled expression on her face.

“Oh deer, it seems you are having difficulties”

[Difficulties?] Naru thought. She had her hands back and except for her tail everything should be alright…

She tried to stand and then immediately flopped forward into a faceful of grass.

[Why do I feel like I still have 4 legs?]

Naru looked to her lower half and screamed.

Her torso was normal it felt like a younger version of her previous body, but where her waist should’ve been connected to two human legs it was instead the body of a deer. Naru realized that she was in a form not dissimilar to a centaur.

“EHHHH!”

“Shhhhh, it’s okay just transform back to your deer form” Her mother said

Naru reluctantly closed her eyes imagine herself as a deer again and felt her torso and arms burn. When she opened them she was once again a deer.

Her mother was holding her head and laughing. A clear bell-like tone rung out throughout the clearing

“You’re quite ambitious. I supposed I should be the one to blame. I did force you in that form to start since I wanted a naturalistic birth.” She suddenly said

[Ambitious? I just want to be human! And wait! are you saying that this could’ve been avoided? Was this just a vanity of yours!]

Her mother’s ears were twitching, and it looked like she was trying to stifle a laugh.

“It’s okay. Here, let’s match!” Her mother’s body seemed to fold on itself and once again that doe-eyed deer was staring back at her.

Naru felt her head being licked.

[Stooooppp! I want to be human, not a stinky deer!]

Naru continued to try to change her form. She was getting closer. Now she was looking more like a satyr than a centaur. At the very least she was bipedal and could walk like a human.

Her mother watched her in bemusement. Often giving out tips when Naru was having difficulties.

“Try to feel the change in your body”

And

“Don’t rush it you will figure it out in time”

It was very helpful that Naru understood the language her mother spoke.

She asked her mother several questions about where they were. From what she could glean she was most definitely not on earth. At least she was pretty sure that transforming deer didn’t exist on earth.

When Naru asked further she was told that magical deer are a type of species.

At first, Naru thought it was very odd that her mother was not shocked by her intelligence but apparently this was rather normal. Naru was perhaps a little more astute than other deer but they matured fast. They were “Magic” deer after all.

Naru also found that she was able to keep her name. Most deer had a family given name and a chosen name. They could decide which one to be referred to. When Naru asked her mother to refer to her as “Naru” her mother didn’t bat an eye. Incidentally, her mother was called “Fern” apparently nature-related names were very common among the deer.

[I guess this makes sense in a weird way but why is she still naked!] Naru thought after learning all this.

Through all this talking Naru’s mother hadn’t once bothered to put on her clothes. At first, Naru thought it was because they were mother and daughter but even Naru was unnerved by her lack of modesty.

“Can you put some clothes on?” Naru asked, averting her eyes from the beautiful woman.

“Clothes? Why?”

“Please” Naru pleaded

Her mother shrugged her shoulders and her torso warped and blurred, soon she was wearing a light green bodice with a long brown corset skirt.

[Wait we can just make clothes!] Naru thought in surprise.

Naru tried to do the same thing but was only able to make herself wear a baggy t-shirt. It was brown and overall quite a sad piece of clothing.

Her mother in contrast was clapping her hands cheerfully nearby

“Very impressive! It takes most fawns a few months before they can even do that!”

Naru currently was a bizarre mix of a satyr with a t-shirt. She didn’t feel “impressive” at all.

[This is going to be difficult…] Naru thought

“Oh, please don’t make such a glum expression it’s not going to come instantly; you need to work at it.” Her mother said encouragingly

“How long did it take you?” Naru asked

“Oh, about a year or so” her mother answered

[A whole year!] Naru thought