While Dawn cheering on his attempts at transforming made Niphru feel better, and his alterations to the body he was using made it easier to stay shifted, he still found it useless.  Despite his best efforts, all he could manage after several hours was crawling on the floor.

 

Dawn did admit to him, however, “I find it really weird to see you there looking so similar to me.  If I didn’t know it was you, I’d think it was really creepy!”

 

At the time, he was lying on his back on the bed trying to figure out his arms, and still unable to speak.  As he attempted to use an illusion, however, his transformation collapsed, and he found himself in his true form once more.

 

Dawn couldn’t help but giggle at him, as a fox lying on its back waving its legs around looked quite comical.  With a huff, Niphru shifted forms once again, having forgotten what he was going to say originally.

 

A while later, Dawn asked him, “Will you be okay if I go help out in the village?  We’ve been here for quite a while.”

 

Niphru was still unable to speak, but he nodded his head, having at least managed to get used to that much of his new body.

 

When Dawn left the room and closed the door, he was able to hear her speaking with the owner of the home, informing him, “Niphru is busy practicing something; he may make a bit of noise, but he is fine.  Please leave him alone until I get back.”

 

The man agreed easily enough, and Niphru heard Dawn through their bond informing him, “If anything goes wrong or you need anything, just let me know, and I’ll head right back!”

 

Suddenly feeling foolish for not trying to use their bond to communicate earlier, Niphru let her know he would, then resumed his attempts to get used to the wildly different body he now possessed.

 

Hours later, he had managed to at least get used to moving his arms around, though his hands were still much more complex than he was used to.  He had imitated them with force magic before, but it was an entirely different experience actually having hands, and, surprisingly, much more difficult for him to deal with.

 

When Dawn told him that it was time for dinner, Niphru found himself quite surprised, but quickly let go of his focus and shifted back into his true form, letting out a deep breath as everything returned to how it should be.  A quick bit of magic popped the door open, and he headed out to get his meal.

 

His desire to succeed distracted him throughout the meal, and before he knew it, he was back inside with the door closed again.  Try after try, he attempted to get used to his new body, eventually giving up on the hands and focusing on his legs.  Similar to the arms, they were relatively simple until the end, with the ankles being surprisingly flexible.

 

The sudden realization that he would have to learn to walk upright terrified him, however.  With how wrong the body felt, he was unsure if he would ever manage such an insane act.  He never had understood how humans could balance on two, or in some cases, even just one leg.  He had only even been able to stand on two legs when he was supported by something else, after all.

 

Finding himself demoralized from that knowledge, he decided to try speaking again.  While it was also extremely difficult, he at least knew how the end result should sound, having heard Dawn’s voice for what seemed like ages, and inhabiting a near-copy of her body now.  As before, he struggled to do more than make totally unintelligible sounds, but he felt he was getting closer.

 

Dawn returned while he was still trying out his voice and sat beside him as he practiced for a time, trying to help him by imitating the noises he made and shifting their pitch closer to proper speech.  This was surprisingly helpful, as he hadn’t considered trying to change the sounds mid-way, instead attempting individual noises one at a time.

 

Within an hour, he managed a few simple words, and when Dawn suggested going to bed for the evening, he agreed, feeling he had at least made considerable progress on one of his goals.  As she got into bed, he shifted back to his true form and curled up against her.

 

Once morning came, Niphru found himself waking up before either Dawn or dawn, and slowly slid himself off of the bed, trying to avoid disturbing his companion.  He was suddenly struck with an idea, and attempted to repeat the internalized understanding of a form with his own, but smaller.

 

The next thing he knew, his head was closer to the ground, but he was still in a proper fox body, and had no difficulty moving around.  As soon as he tried to use an illusion, however, he reverted in size, smacking his head on the bottom of the bed as he shifted back.

 

After shaking his head due to the stinging sensation where he hit it, he looked up on the bed and found that Dawn was still asleep, surprisingly.  Not wanting to bother her, he made sure to move to an open area of the room and lay down before repeating his earlier efforts.

 

Though it took him dozens of attempts, he did finally manage to get an illusion to form while also shapeshifted.  No matter how hard he tried, however, he seemed unable to form more than one ball of foxfire, or manifest a single illusion until he returned to his true form.

 

Eventually, Dawn awoke, and while she went to get breakfast, Niphru shifted back into the new humanoid form and began attempting to move again.  His practice with the arms and legs individually seemed to have helped, as shortly after Dawn returned, he managed to stand up on his knees and elbows, and she cheered him on.

 

While he was shaky at first, it was much closer to his natural method of walking, discounting the flopping upper arms and lower legs, and he found it easy to push himself into a seated position against the bed as well.  Once he sat up, however, he had the problem of trying to balance, and fell over to the sides multiple times, to Dawn’s amusement.

 

A few tries later, he found it possible to avoid falling by sticking out an arm, then pushing back upward, and began working on learning to balance much more rapidly.  Eventually, Dawn had to leave to help around the village, but she told him she’d be back if he needed anything, just like yesterday.

 

It was around this point in time that he finally realized he was in a female body, having previously simply been too excited with being able to change, and focused entirely on the process.  Of course, this surprise threw off his, or her concentration, and a rapid return to fox occurred.

 

He quickly informed Dawn through their bond, and received a wave of amusement in return before she replied, “You really didn’t notice until now?  How is that even possible, you silly fox?!”

 

After a pause, he simply shared his own amusement and replied, “Well, I guess I’m a girl sometimes now.”

 

Shaking his head, he tried to focus again, shifted back into his humanoid form, and resumed attempting to sit upright without leaning against the bed this time.  Niphru found this far more difficult, as she could fall in many more directions, and it was much harder to reach behind herself, the action feeling incredibly wrong, as in her true body, she couldn’t move a forelimb behind her back like that.

 

After telling herself she had to get used to it, even if it felt wrong, she leaned to the side to support herself and repeatedly stretched an arm backward, trying to push away the odd feeling.  A while later, and having switched sides several times, it wasn’t anywhere near as bad, though it still felt extremely odd.

 

Having at least taken the edge off of the weird feeling, Niphru then began working on her balance again, finding it much easier now that she was more used to the range of motion her arms had when she needed to stop herself from falling over.

 

Several hours later, Dawn contacted her through their bond, remarking, “This is weird; it feels like you’ve changed somehow.  Anyway, lunch is ready, so come eat something if you are hungry!”

 

Niphru paused in confusion for a few moments before shifting back into a fox and asking Dawn, “Do I still feel different, or is it back to normal?”

 

It took a bit of thinking after hearing it was back to normal before he finally realized that maybe it was because he decided to consider himself female while in the other body.  To test, he changed shape again and focused on the idea that he was male, then asked Dawn the same question again.

 

Hearing her response, he informed her, “It seems if I think of myself as a girl, you feel something different from our bond than if I think of myself as male.  That is very strange.”

 

As he reverted back to his natural fox form, he felt Dawn’s agreement, and began to head to get some lunch.  When he sat beside her, she began telling him that they were nearly ready to leave the village, having helped with almost everything they could think of.

 

Their work in the village also included calling the local town for some assistance and actually getting a reply back this time that help was on the way.

 

Niphru found himself nodding and wondering if he’d be able to figure out the new body before they left, doubting it would be possible to practice it while they traveled.  While he was new to the body itself, he did understand that being naked in public was not acceptable as a human, and Dawn’s clothing wouldn’t fit with the tail he added to the body.

 

Even worse for the idea of practicing on the move, he couldn’t properly stand or walk yet when using that form.  Eventually, he did come up with the idea of maybe laying down in the wagon and covering up, then practicing talking and using his hands.

 

After sharing his idea with Dawn through their bond for privacy, he felt her considering it before agreeing it might be possible, if the others didn’t mind.

 

By this point, both had finished their food, so Dawn returned to her work while Niphru took their dishes to help with cleaning them.  After a bit of work, he returned to their residence and closed himself back in the bedroom for more practice.

 

With a new goal in mind, that of trying to stand in the new body, he shifted form again and began crawling up the side of the bed as best as possible.  After a few attempts, she managed to get her torso up onto the bed, and began pushing upward, using her arms to hold herself up as she tried to put more weight on her legs.

 

Time after time, she fell, often picking up bruises before shifting back to fox form to get rid of them.  Each time, however, led to feeling more and more tired before a deep lethargy set in, and trying to produce foxfire in his original form only produced small flickering lights rather than the normal healthy flames he was used to.

 

After a moment of panic, he thought things through and relaxed a bit.  He had previously been without his foxfire after exhausting his spirit, and when they had gotten help restoring him, it had returned.  He also guessed that he could only use one orb of foxfire or one illusion while transformed because the other portion of his power was being used for the transformation.

 

Combining these things, and that he hadn’t felt anywhere near as tired before he kept getting bruised, he assumed that healing by changing forms was what led to the loss of energy and the deep lethargy.

 

Not wanting to worry Dawn without being sure there actually was a problem, Niphru simply told her that he was more tired than normal and was going to  sleep earlier than normal, then leapt onto the bed to get some rest, making sure to leave room for her.

 

Eventually, he awoke in the middle of the night, finding that Dawn had gotten into bed without waking him.  Though it may have been a poor idea, he focused on a normal-sized fox and tried to shapeshift, finding it nearly effortless again.

 

With his much-reduced size and weight, it was easy to leave the bed without risking waking Dawn, after which he returned to normal and summoned a foxfire, with the intent to not burn anything, underneath the bed, finding it had returned to its normal strength while he slept.

 

Much happier, and far less worried, he shifted back to the female humanoid form and began working on balance again while sitting upright without any support, confident in not falling and hitting the floor at least.  If nothing else, she was certain she wouldn’t wake Dawn up with this practice.

 

Eventually, Dawn awoke on her own, and Niphru smiled while waiting for her to become properly aware before informing her through their bond, “I was trying to practice standing last night and found out several things!  First, I can’t stand, obviously.  Second, falling from a standing position hurts.  Third, I can heal myself basically instantly by shapeshifting.  And finally, shapeshifting while injured seems to drain my spirit significantly, but I recover after sleeping.”

 

As was halfway expected, Dawn was quite irritated at the news, with her emotions coming through their bond strong enough to surprise Niphru into reverting to fox form.

 

“Why would you try something risky without me there to help, Niphru?!  You know I’d help if you asked!  I know I told you that if you needed anything I’d come back, so why didn’t you?  And why didn’t you tell me you were hurt?” she exclaimed, this time verbally instead of over their bond, which still roiled with worry and irritation.

 

Surprised by how much worry she was projecting, Niphru quickly defended himself, “It’s okay, Dawn!  Remember, I can heal myself both with normal magic and with my foxfire, I was fine!”

Dawn simply shot back with tears forming in her eyes, “And people have died from falling over!  I can’t stand the thought of that happening to you!  What would I do without you, Niphru?”

 

To this, Niphru had no response except surprise and worry of his own.