Since it was nearly lunchtime I decided to skip breakfast and make sandwiches for Tabby and me instead. It was a bit weird preparing our lunch while completely nude, but it didn't actually bother me that much when I stopped and thought about it.

I figured it was because nobody could actually see me. Like there wasn't anyone in the house but me and Tabby, and we'd got over the nakedness stuff the night before. People couldn't really see in through the windows either, the way the townhouses were set up the kitchen was on the second floor so unless someone on the second or third floor across the street was specifically looking in our windows there wasn't any chance anyone else would see me.

One thing that was going to take some getting used to was how high up some of the shelves in the kitchen had become. Like I had to stretch just to reach the plates, and if I needed something off the top shelves I was going to have to stand on a chair or something. I wasn't upset about it, but it was a strange sensation.

Another strange sensation I was going to have to get used to was having my large boobs get in the way a couple times. Even that didn't really bother me though. And a few minutes later I had a couple ham and cheese sandwiches ready, plus the coffee machine was finished doing its thing too. Then with almost perfect timing Tabby came back down the stairs before I could call for her.

She was fully dressed, but despite being clothed she somehow didn't look any less sexy than she did when she was going around in just her skimpy undies. Her jeans were skin-tight and showed off all the curves of her strong legs and shapely behind, just like her tight top highlighted her chest. Her sneakers looked comfy, and that orange collar around her neck made the casual outfit seem slightly naughty. She also had a cute little black and grey purse I was sure I hadn't seen before, looped over her left shoulder.

"Let's eat in the living-room. The sofa's way more comfy than those kitchen chairs," Tabby announced as she came into the kitchen. She picked up the curse book then headed back out again.

"Yes mistress," I replied in a sing-song voice, then followed her down the stairs with our food.

A half minute later we were sitting next to each other on the sofa, her purse and our mugs on the coffee table and our plates on our laps as we started eating.

"Thanks Cheryl," she added after a bite of her sandwich. "It's not exactly 'breakfast' food, but it'll do."

I replied, "It's like half past eleven now, so I figured it was close enough to lunch. Mistress."

Tabby rolled her eyes and between munching on her ham and cheese she asked, "Why are you still calling me that?"

"I don't know?" I shrugged. "Still trying to tease you I guess? And it's kind of funny."

My friend leaned forward and picked up her mug, then after a sip of coffee she stated "Please stop calling me that Cheryl. The joke's over and it's making me uncomfortable. Plus if your sister came in and saw you going around naked and calling me 'mistress' she might literally murder me."

I grimaced, "Sorry Tabby, I didn't realize I was making you uncomfortable. And now that you say it, you're right. Avery would definitely flip."

"Thanks cutie," she replied. Then after another bite of her sandwich she asked, "Hey Cheryl? I want to ask for your help with something, but I don't want to take advantage of you and I know with that curse on you until tomorrow morning I'm worried you won't be able to refuse."

I shook my head, "I wouldn't say no even without the curse. You're my best friend Tabby, you know I'll help you out any way I can. What do you need?"

She gave me a grateful smile, "Thanks Cheryl. My mom texted while I was getting dressed, she asked when I'd be home. I told her I'd be there in an hour or two, but..."

Her voice trailed off for a moment and she grimaced, "I was wondering if you'd come with me? For moral support? I basically have to come out to them all over again, only this time as a catgirl. And I have to explain how it happened and everything? And I don't know, I guess I'd like to have you there to back me up."

"Of course I'll be there for you!" I insisted. "Just like when you came out as trans. And if my mom was still here I'm sure she'd say the same thing she did back then, you're always welcome with us if things go badly with your folks. Not that I think that'll happen."

"Thanks Cheryl," she said with another grateful smile. "I really appreciate it."

I smiled back, "Any time Tabs."

When we were both finished eating I took the dishes up to the kitchen and rinsed everything off and left it in the sink. Then I went back down to the living-room where I found my friend looking through the curse book yet again.

"You're not going to do another curse are you?" I asked. "It feels like every time we try one something backfires or there's weird side-effects or whatever."

Tabby sighed, "I was thinking of using it to fix some details on my ID. I forgot to do that last night after I cursed my clothes."

"You know what's weird though?" she added as she continued flipping through the pages of the book. "This thing's supposed to be a book of curses right? But I noticed there doesn't seem to be any of what you'd think of as 'traditional' curses in here."

I frowned, "What do you mean, what's a traditional curse?"

She explained, "I don't know, like you'd think there'd be curses to make people have bad luck? Or to make people get sick? Or even to make people die? Not that I'd want to do anything like that, but for a book of curses this seems to be kind of focused on..."

Her voice trailed off for a second as she looked thoughtful. Then she grimaced, "The curses in here aren't exactly all sex-based, but it does feel like there's a lot of that sort of thing in here? Plus the related stuff, like the compliance curse? And I did see something that was a little harsher, more of an obedience thing. Plus there's the one you used, that made you a girl. And the one I used, to transform myself? The one that made you shorter? You know what I mean? It's not all kinky stuff, but it's all curses that could potentially be used in kinky ways."

"Hmm," I thought for a moment, then shook my head. "That's not true though, I saw some curses like you were saying before? When I first got the book and started looking through it I saw one that basically would curse someone to get cancer? And that made me think of my mom, which got me so upset I almost threw the book out right there."

"What?" she frowned. "I've been through this book from cover to cover Cheryl, there's nothing in here like that."

"Sure there is," I stated. "I know what I saw."

I moved closer so I was almost pressed up against her side, then the two of us went through the book together one page at a time. We weren't reading every single word, just slowly flipping pages and checking the titles of each curse we saw. It took us about ten or twelve minutes, but by the time we got to the end I was completely confused.

"I swear it was there," I said with a frown. "I know I saw it. There were a few of those 'traditional' curses like you were saying. It wasn't until I got further into the book that I found the gender bending curse, and the obedience thing, and the horny curse."

Then I added with a deeper frown, "Except now that I think of it, I never saw that transformation curse you used. Same with the compliance one Miss Holly found?"

"That's weird," Tabby stated.

She flipped back to the front of the book and looked at the title page again, where it said 'Hexinomicon ~ A Compendium of Consistently Curated Curses for the Casual Caster'

"Consistently curated," she said. "You don't suppose the book is changing its contents somehow?"

I shook my head, "That's not possible, is it? I mean, it's a book. Books can't change what's in them."

Tabby shrugged, "It's a magic book full of magic curses right? Last night you suggested maybe I could use the gender bending curse on myself, but I was worried it might backfire and do the opposite of what I wanted depending on how it defined the idea of 'opposite sex'? Then next thing we know, I found the transformation curse that did exactly what I wanted."

"And now you're telling me that curse I found and used on myself wasn't in here when you first looked at the book," she added. "And before that you saw some nasty curses that made you want to get rid of the book. Now those curses are gone."

Thinking about that sent a little chill down my spine. I gulped, "What do you suppose it means? Like if the book can actually change itself?"

She frowned as she stared down at the book in her hands. After a few seconds she responded quietly, "My guess is the book wants us to use it? It wants to be used. That has to be what the 'consistently curated' thing means, it's getting rid of curses we won't use and offering us curses we will use."

"That's probably how your tutor found that one she used on you," she added. "Maybe she was looking for something like that, so the book provided it."

I was still trying to get my head around the idea that the book was changing itself, that it somehow wanted us to use it, when I remembered another weird thing from yesterday. I gulped, "The very first time I opened it, I was sure it wasn't English. I couldn't read anything in it? Then it's like the letters shuffled around and suddenly I could understand it. I thought I was just seeing things, but maybe it really was in some other language. Maybe it translated itself?"

"What should we do?" I added as I looked at her. "This feels like it's getting too weird for me."

Tabby grimaced, "Me too cutie. I think we should put it away and stop messing with it, that feels like the safest option. Except I still want to use it to update my ID, I never got around to that last night."

I hesitated, "Do you think it's safe?"

"No idea," she sighed. "I'm tempted to say it should be fine, since this would be a super small minor thing? Just updating a few plastic cards. I don't even need to do that much, just the picture and my height? I want to say it should be foolproof? But now I'm not so sure."

We were both quiet for a few seconds after that. Tabby looked like she couldn't decide what to do, and I couldn't really suggest anything either way. Like I understood she wanted to fix some more stuff, but I also understood why she didn't trust the book anymore to do it right.

Then I reached over and took the book from her. I held it up in front of my face and started talking to it like it was a naughty puppy or something, "Ok Hexinomicon, listen up. I'm Cheryl Weaver. I'm your new owner and you belong to me. I'm never going to use you to hurt anyone. You better not hurt my friend Tabby either, or my sister Avery. I get that you want us to use you, but that's not going to happen if you misbehave. Got it?"

I stared at the book for a few seconds, but I wasn't really expecting any kind of answer or response. It was just a book after all.

Tabby gave me a funny look as she asked, "Do you really think that did anything?"

"I dunno," I shrugged. "If it's smart enough to change its contents to suit us, and it wants to be used, then maybe it can hear us? Maybe it'll play nice if it knows that'll help."

She frowned, then sighed as she took the book back. "I'm going to do the curse to fix my ID, and hopefully it doesn't backfire somehow. Then you and me are going back up to your bedroom, and you're going to get dressed. I'll help you figure out your new style and stuff. Ok Cheryl?"

"Ok Tabs," I smiled. "Good luck."

"Thanks," she grimaced.

The sticky-note flags Avery used were still in the book, so Tabby easily found the curse she wanted. I stayed quiet as she read through it again, then she closed her eyes and concentrated for a bit on the details of how she wanted the curse to work. And when she was finally ready, she quietly read out the strange words again.

When she was finished she closed the book again. She set it down on the coffee table and picked up her purse to check her ID and stuff.

I wasn't expecting to see anything since the curse should have been focused on her ID, so I was surprised when I spotted one small change. Her orange collar had a little bell-shaped thing hanging from a metal ring at the front, now there was a small oval tag there next to the bell. The tag looked metallic, and it was the same orange colour as the collar.

While I was staring at that Tabby pulled some cards out of a side pocket on her purse. She flipped through them and smiled, "Looks like it worked! All the photo ID cards have my new picture on them, and my drivers license has my new eye colour and height too. One-sixty-eight centimetres, down ten from my original height."

"That's good news right?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah. I think the curse worked exactly the way I hoped."

I wasn't sure if I should mention the collar, but after a second or two of hesitation I decided I should probably bring it up.

"Did you mean to make any changes to your collar?" I asked. "Because something happened there when you changed your ID."

She frowned as she reached up to it, "What? What happened?"

I replied, "A little orange tag appeared on it, next to the bell. Or I'm assuming that's a bell, I haven't heard it ring at all."

"Oh crud," Tabby grimaced. Her cheeks coloured as she leaned closer and asked, "Can you check if there's any writing on it? Tell me what it says?"

"Sure," I agreed as I moved closer as well. I reached up and took hold of the little tag and turned it so I could check both sides.

"Ok this side has one of those square barcode things that you see on ads and stuff sometimes, they tell you to scan it with your phone?" I told her. "And the other side has a couple lines of text. The first line is your name, 'Tabby Gardner'. The second line is like a registration number I guess? It says 'Reg.# 420-69-08558'. The third line says, 'if found please call' and the fourth line... Uh, the last line is my phone number?"

I felt a little confused as I asked, "Tabby, why is my phone number on your tag? Actually why do you even have a tag? Or a collar?"

Her cheeks went from pink to bright red as she slumped back on the sofa and facepalmed. Her tail was wrapped around her side but the tip started twitching around, while her ears folded back like she was upset. Based on the blush I figured she was embarrassed rather than angry, but I wasn't sure if that was better or worse.

After a couple seconds I asked, "Uh Tabs? What's going on? This is something to do with the catgirl character you're writing about, isn't it?"

"I really don't want to talk about it right now Cheryl," she sighed.

"Ok," I replied. "If it's something embarrassing why don't you just take off the collar?"

She still had her hand covering her eyes but I could see her cheeks got even brighter as she mumbled, "I can't. It doesn't come off."

"Oh," I frowned. I didn't know what else to say though, or even what to think about that. So I just went quiet and let it drop.

After another couple seconds Tabby finally let her hand drop from her face and sat up straight again. She was still blushing though, as she put her ID cards back in her purse. Then she got to her feet and suggested, "Let's head back upstairs and get you sorted out with some clothes, ok? Then maybe we can head over to my place and face my folks."

"I can't believe you've been sitting there naked this whole time," she added with a smirk.

"You're the one who made me strip!" I protested as I stood up as well.

She rolled her eyes, "And you wouldn't have done it if you weren't ok with it. Now c'mon cutie."

"Yes Miss Tabby," I teased as the two of us headed up from the living-room.

We paused in the kitchen to grab a couple cans of cola, and I gathered up the leggings and top I was wearing earlier along with my purple hoodie. Then we headed up to the top floor and back into my bedroom.

PurpleCatGirl

If you're enjoying our work and you'd like to support us, please consider joining our patreon & get early access to new chapters, bonus chapters, and more! Patrons have already read chapter 17 and you could too!
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl