Salt & Pyrrha

A Changing World Novel

Chapter 01 - Enter the Wolfkin

 

[ - content warnings: light misgendering, light coming out fears - ]

 

“Sam- er, Salt, are you sure about this?” Mom asks in a hesitant voice, correcting herself to my chosen name and nearly bringing me to tears on the spot.

 

I smile widely at her. “Absolutely not! But what the hell, the worst thing that happens is I miss a bit of sleep tonight. And hey, I get to spend some extra time with you, if you want to stay up?”

 

Mom crosses her arms, though she has a ghost of a smile on her face. She’s standing in my bedroom doorway, having woken up when I used the bathroom a bit ago. It’s two am in the morning, Saturday June 22nd, 2024. The full moon peaks in eight minutes, and when it does I’m going to recite some words for a magic spell that’s been going around on the internet. 

 

“I suppose I’ll stay, if it means getting to spend some time with my wonderful kid,” Mom decides.

 

“Yay!” I say happily, “Have a seat!”

 

I pat the bed beside me, and Mom comes over and sits down, putting an arm around me and squeezing me tight.

 

“You know I love you?” she asks.

 

“I absolutely do,” I reply.

 

“And you know that, even if, somehow, magic isn’t real, I’m still going to do my best to respect who you are?” There’s just a hint of sarcasm about magic being real, but I take it in stride. It’s not like anyone could blame her. The odds of someone discovering magic and then not trying to monetize it are astronomical.

 

“I do Mom, I really do,” I say softly, side-hugging her right back.

 

I’ve been doing a short ritual prep spell every night for the past month, gathering energy for the big transformation spell I’m about to cast. Do I really believe it’s going to work? I sure hope so, an instant magical transition is so incredibly preferable to having to deal with the years long waiting times for hormone therapy and surgery consultations here in the U.K..

 

“So when do the sparks start flying?” Mom asks cheekily.

 

“Five minutes,” I say with a smile.

 

“And what sort of changes are you hoping to make with this magic?” 

 

Uh oh.

 

“Oh, you know, make myself more androgynous, less boy-y, that kinda stuff?” I say nervously, trying to hide the fact that I’m absolutely hiding something.

 

Mom turns to look at me, and I try to meet her gaze steadily. She obviously sees right through me.

 

“Oh yeah? No wolf ears?” she asks with a grin.

 

I blush deeply. “N-no, of course not,” I reply, “that would be crazy.”

 

“Well, I never really imagined your mother and I would raise a non-crazy child,” she says seriously.

 

“Aha, well, um, I have to focus now Mom, sorry!” I say quickly, turning away and forcing myself to study the spell I’d printed out earlier today. 

 

I wait the last couple minutes in quiet contemplation, Mom sitting companionably in the silence beside me. 

 

Just before it’s time, I take out my phone and set it up on the desk across from us, hitting the record button on my video app. Mom doesn’t comment on it, though she has a raised eyebrow when I turn back to the bed.

 

“If this is real, I want to help spread the word. No one should have to live with dysphoria, Mom.”

 

She holds up a hand. “I didn’t say a word. That’s a noble goal, I’m happy to costar in your magic show.”

 

“Okay, this is it,” I announce to the camera as I settle back cross-legged onto the bed. Mom’s already scooted off to the side, giving me space.

 

“My name is Salt Carlysle, and in a moment I’m going to use Cindy’s spell.”

 

I take a deep breath and try to still my racing heart. When I next open my eyes, I begin reading. Reciting the magic words is strange and surreal. I keep my mind laser-focused on my ideal body - fangs and tail and all - as I read through the foreign syllables in a steady voice. When I finish, I put the paper down beside me and close my eyes.

 

“It’ll take a second,” I say quietly to Mom. 

 

When she gasps aloud a few moments later, I open my eyes to find floating motes of pure white light swirling around my body. I focus even harder on the form I want to inhabit, and then have to shut my eyes again as the lights grow too bright to handle. 

 

When I open them again, there’s a small obstruction in the bottom part of my vision. I wrinkle my nose, and the little black dot at the end of the grey snout wrinkles in time with it. Holy shit.

 

“Salt!” Mom exclaims beside me, “Are you okay? How do you feel?”

 

I look down at myself, and find fur covering my exposed arms and ankles. My hands are furred as well, and each finger ends in a wicked-sharp looking claw.

 

“Holy shit!” I exclaim, and then slap a hand to my throat - luckily avoiding slashing myself with my claws. My voice is a little softer than before, but still identifiable as mine. Exactly how I’d wanted it. 

 

“Hey be careful with those!” Mom says worriedly.

 

“I will I will,” I say quickly, “And I feel good, better than good!”

 

I gently feel my face with my hands, careful to use the pads of my fingers rather than my claws. It feels kinda like I’m wearing long fake nails, except instead of worrying about damaging my nails on everything I touch, I’m worried about the claws tearing said things to shreds.

 

Oh, gods. This is everything I could ever have dreamed of!

 

“Be right back!” I squeal as I hop off my bed. 

 

Everything’s a little bigger than before, or rather, I’m a little smaller. I race out of my room, across the hall, and into the bathroom. I shut the door behind me and carefully start trying to extricate myself from my baggy sweat pants and oversized hoodie, both of which are now extra oversized on me. I accidentally tear a couple new holes into the sleeves and hood as I pull the sweater off, but manage to mostly avoid doing the same to my pants.

 

When I’m naked, or at least, as naked as it’s possible for me to be with all this fur, I stare at myself wide-eyed in the full length mirror. I’m the spitting image of my fursona: about 165 centimeters tall, covered from head to toe in silver-grey fur with triangular floof-filled ears atop my head and a short - even floofier - tail wagging behind me. My face has a delicate imitation of a snout that only reaches a few centimeters past where my nose used to be, and my mouth is still more-or-less the same except with a few small fangs in place of my previous teeth. I’ve got small breasts on my chest as well - also covered in a light dusting of silvery fur - and the sight of them brings me such a powerful wave of euphoria that my legs nearly buckle.

 

In a word, I am perfect.

 

A knock at the bathroom door startles me out of my trance. 

 

“Salt, is everything okay?” comes Mum’s voice. Mom must’ve woken her up.

 

“Yes ma’am!” I say happily, “Everything is so much better than okay.”

 

“I don’t want to rush you, but I’d love to see you when you’re ready,” she replies. 

 

I can hear the sincerity in her voice. No anger, no fear, just genuine happiness that I’m happy. 

Gods, I wish all parents were as kind as mine.

 

I end up tearing a few more holes in my sweatpants and sweater as I pull them back on. I’m considering filing my claws a bit, so they don’t cut through things as necessary as clothes quite so easily, but other than those practical concerns my mind is mostly filled with happy bliss and nearly incomprehensible excitement about what this means for my life, and for the world as a whole.

 

When I open the bathroom door, Mum towers over me with wide eyes and a shocked expression on her face.

 

“Fuck Sare, you weren’t kidding!” she says to Mom, who’s standing a little behind her.

 

“Why would I kid about the both of us being mommas to a literal wolfling?” Mom asks.

 

“Actually I’m going with ‘wolfkin’ for now,” I say with a cheeky smile.

 

“Okay, so, let me get this straight,” Mum says.

 

“You’re not,” Mom and I both chime in immediately, honoring the age old joke of our people.

 

Mum’s eye twitches, and that’s the only acknowledgement she gives us.

 

“Magic is real, our darling child has turned themselves into a wolfkin, and you two are just cracking jokes about it? Doesn’t this seem, I don’t know, completely life changing to you both?”

 

“Oh absolutely,” Mom replies, “I’m in complete shock and awe right now. Jokes are about the only thing available to my poor little brain.”

 

“Same,” I add, “I have no idea where to go from here. I honestly did not think I’d get this far.”

 

“So, y’know, questions like will your school accept you, will the government recognize you as a human still, those just aren’t on the table tonight?” 

 

“Absolutely not,” Mom replies, “those are questions for after we’ve all gotten a good night’s sleep.

 

“The only question I care about tonight is, um.” I hesitate. “Is whether you’re both still actually okay with me being like this? I’m really, really happy about it, but I know it’s weird and strange and--”

 

Mum boops my snout with a finger, completely derailing my train of thought. 

 

“We love you just as intensely as we loved you before, table salt,” she says with a compassionate smile.

 

My tail immediately starts wagging, and I only realize in retrospect that it had been wagging until I got caught up in asking that question. Now that I know I can relax, my tail seems to just happily do its own thing. I notice my ears perking up too, displaying my elation for all to see. 

 

“Exactly what your mum said, sweetie pie,” Mom adds, pulling me into a tight hug. 

 

“Thank you both so, so much,” I reply, tears obscuring my vision.

End of

Chapter 1 - Enter the Wolfkin