After their meeting with the high mages, Dawn and Niphru returned home.  Dawn planned to resume reading the books she had been given as a reward for the expedition before last, while helping Niphru occasionally.

Until dinnertime, Niphru sat on the bed in humanoid form, working on her speech and balance.  After a meal, Dawn began to help her try to stand upright again for a while before it was time for them to sleep.

Niphru, however, had an idea, asking Dawn, “Is it okay if I try sleeping in humanoid form?  I don’t want to bother you, but I also want to see if I can manage to stay transformed while resting.”

It only took a few moments of thought before Dawn agreed to the idea, and Niphru squirmed under the covers before Dawn joined her.

“I see why you use sheets now; it is much more comfortable like this.  Having fur makes it pretty comfortable just lying on top.  Goodnight, Dawn,” she remarked.

In the morning, Niphru had reverted back to fox form and, upon noticing, grumbled a bit before getting up, having noticed Dawn was already out of bed and wouldn’t be disturbed.  Walking into the living room, he saw her making food in the kitchen and padded over to help her.

After a quick meal, he volunteered to take care of the dishes for her while Dawn discussed her plans of meeting up with the rest of the group before buying some clothes for Niphru’s humanoid form.

While that form was still unable to be used for much of anything yet, Niphru did want to eventually use it in public, and was thankful that the issue of clothing would be handled.

“Just remember about the tail, please.  Maybe see if someone can modify the clothing to have a hole?  I suppose you’d need to know how big my tail is in that form, though.  Should I transform now so you can check?” Niphru asked as he considered the possible issue.

“Sure, I can check how big it is for you, and I’ll try to find a tailor who won’t ask too many questions,” Dawn replied, leading to Niphru laying down and changing form.

When Dawn touched her tail, she jumped slightly at the sensation, though it only lasted a moment before Dawn remarked, “Okay, I know how big it is now, Niphru.  I’ll remember that while I’m out.”

Niphru nodded before shifting back into a small fox and returning to the bedroom for more practice, settling in the middle of the bed before transforming again.  A few hours later, she’d managed to remain sitting for over half an hour without difficulty.

Excited by the success, Niphru sent Dawn a message through their link, “I think I’ve mastered balancing while sitting finally!”

Dawn immediately responded, “Congratulations!  Also, it turns out the rest of the group has agreed with my thoughts, and don’t intend to do much of anything besides practice for the foreseeable future.  So it looks like we don’t have to worry about any other adventures for a while.  And yes, I remember the tail hole for your clothes.”

Niphru nodded, though Dawn obviously couldn’t see it, and replied, “Thank you, Dawn!”

Having informed Dawn of the success, Niphru shifted back to a fox and headed to the kitchen to grab a cup before returning to the living room.  After shifting back to humanoid form, she pulled herself up into one of the chairs and used force magic to bring the cup up into her hands to practice using them while continuing to work on speech as well.

Around an hour later, she decided that was enough time spent working on such tiresome tasks and floated the cup to the floor before shifting back to a fox.  After returning the cup to its proper place, he went back into the bedroom and hopped up onto the bed, curling up before closing his eyes and focusing on the bond with Dawn.

As he linked with her senses, he saw her wandering through the city, a number of articles of clothing in a basket by her side.  While he rested, he watched her travel through the city, occasionally visiting other shops and picking out an item or two of clothing.  From time to time, she stopped to ask people which shops they liked, and used those conversations to guide her.

Eventually, she got directions to a tailor, finding the place empty when she arrived.  It didn’t take long for her to attract the attention of the owner, a middle-aged man in a well-fitting shirt and pair of pants.  He was understandably confused by her request for the modifications to the clothing, but agreed to do them as long as he was paid properly.

The price the man gave, however, was significantly more than what Dawn had left after her shopping, and Niphru felt her reaching through the link from her side—an odd feeling—before her words reached him.

“Niphru, could you please go to the store below the spire and get eight gold coins and bring them to me?  This is a lot more expensive than I thought.  We’re also going to need to earn more money soon,” she said through their bond, mild annoyance in her tone.

Niphru opened his eyes again, hopped off the bed, and put on his harness before immediately beginning to head downstairs as he replied, “Of course, I’ll be there soon, Dawn!”

It didn’t take long for him to make his way to the base of the spire and to the store, where he met with Franklin, the man in charge, and asked about converting credit from the spire into coins.  A moment later, he’d transferred a large amount of credit he’d earned from helping the spire, filling one of the pouches on his harness with coins.

Thanks to their bond, it was easy enough for Niphru to trace Dawn’s location, and he swiftly trotted in her direction, hidden by an illusion to appear as a young woman to those around him, picking that form due to a random feeling that it was better than male for the time.  Several minutes later, he made it to the shop, entering and spotting Dawn sitting in a chair and watching the tailor work on a dress.

“Ah, there you are, Niphru!  Thanks for coming so quickly; now we can pay for the rest of the work.  If you don’t mind, maybe you should show him why we need the clothes modified?” Dawn exclaimed with a smile as she waved for Niphru to come closer.

Following her spoken words, Dawn sent through the link, “Maybe show him an illusion of yourself wearing the dress he is working on?  It is up to you, though.”

He transferred the coins to her, and, after a moment of thought, Niphru decided to go ahead with the idea, waiting for the man to finish his work before telling him, “I’m sure you’re wondering why such an odd request, right?  Well, I’ve been experimenting with transforming myself, and was told one of the forms was cute, so I thought I’d try using it for a while.”

He followed this by having his illusion wave her hand, then formed another illusion, this time of his humanoid form, wearing the dress that the man had just finished working on.  He then had her spin around, tail trailing behind her before swaying side to side as she stopped in place again.

The man paused for several moments before shaking his head and remarking, “I don’t see how, but not my business to care.  That does make a lot more sense now, and I think I can make the rest of the clothing fit better now that I know what this is for.  Thank you for sharing.  What is your name?”

In response, Dawn chimed up, “She’s Niphru, and I’m Dawn; we’re both mages learning at the spire closest to here!”

The man nodded before responding, “Alright, Dawn, Niphru, this will likely take several hours.  Would you prefer to come back tonight, or tomorrow afternoon?”

Niphru looked at Dawn and began, “I think tomorrow?  What do you think, Dawn?”

In reply, she nodded and told the man, “I’ll be back again tomorrow to pick them up.  Thank you for your work!”

As the man nodded and resumed his efforts, the two of them left and began their trip back to the spire.  Upon entering, Niphru dropped his illusion as they returned to their residence.

Keeping in mind the reduction in their credit with the spire, the two of them agreed that they should do some more work charging mana stones, since it was easy and quick, as well as allowing them to practice as they worked, now that they were more experienced with it.

For the rest of the day, however, Dawn wanted to read the book on light magic that she had been given, and Niphru simply wanted to rest.

The next morning, they had a simple breakfast before heading to work on siphoning ambient mana and storing it.

Several hours, and dozens of charged crystals each, later, they returned to the tailor to pick up Niphru’s new clothing before going back home.  This time, Niphru felt he was well-rested, and decided to try more practice with his new body.

After getting Dawn’s help, they both moved to the bedroom and Niphru shifted back to humanoid form before beginning to practice standing again.  After the practice sitting up, it was a bit easier, but she still found her new ankles to be incredibly difficult to balance on, since they could move in so many different ways.

As they practiced, Niphru also spent some time working on her speech, finding it increasingly easy to manage, often succeeding in a given word on the first try.  With so much success, she began trying to repeat entire sentences back to Dawn.

Several more days passed in similar fashion, along with occasional meetings with their group.  Lisryn only rarely showed up, spending her time at the Chuch of Conflict, performing her role as their leader.

Eventually, after many more days of practice, Niphru thought standing up was within the realm of possibility.  With Dawn’s help, she attempted to stay upright without any support, managing to remain standing for almost five minutes before wobbling too much and falling into Dawn’s arms.

The success greatly boosted Niphru’s spirits, especially since she had occasionally tried standing on one leg during her practice sessions.  While it took a few more days, she did eventually get permission to try walking.  With Dawn hovering at her side, she slowly took a few wobbly steps, barely managing to remain upright, but succeeding even if it was a close matter.

After Niphru was able to prove they could at least control which direction they would fall towards, Dawn even agreed to let her continue trying to walk on her own as long as she remained adjacent to something she could catch herself with, such as the bed or a wall.  By this point, she was also confident enough to wear clothing without worrying about damaging it, and spent some time dressing herself upon taking humanoid form.

This, in fact, revealed something that had already been happening, but gone unnoticed; going from one fox form to another didn’t break or drop the harness during their time at the village.  Likewise, somehow, the clothing worn on the humanoid form didn’t fall off or rip when turning into a fox again, but instead vanished, reappearing the next time the form was used.

By this point, Niphru had seemingly mastered speaking in humanoid form, only extremely rarely taking more than one or two tries to be understood.  Combined with several hours of practice per day, even the complex task of walking was eventually a relatively easy effort.

With both Dawn and Niphru pleased with the successes, they met with the group again, Niphru in fox form, as he had always been when in public.

“I’ve finally succeeded!” he exclaimed to them, then shifted into humanoid form in front of them, appearing wearing one of the dark green dresses Dawn had gotten tailored for her.

Shard

Don't think I'll manage to get a chapter for next week, I'm afraid, but hopefully the week after I will.  Been having a rough time, grandma died, mother thinks she might die from whatever illness she has, getting sick myself, and depression acting up all at once.