“I hate this.”

Maple shifted uncomfortably in the seat next to mine. We were in a place over on Church Street - a sort of mix between a cafe and book shop. They were dressed in an oversized green hoodie borrowed from me, and were using it to try and hide their new foxy features. The night before, they had been really appreciative of their new appendage, hugging it and marveling at how soft it was. This morning, they were moaning about how bulky hoodies just weren't their style.

“I know, Maple.” I picked up a book off the shelf. “This one looks interesting.”

Maple glanced at it. “I thought you were after coffee?”

“I also wanted to check out the books.” I read the blurb on the back of the book. “I might buy this one, actually.”

“Well, I want coffee,” Maple said.

I put the book down. “Alright, we’ll look at books afterwards.”

I walked up to the counter. A girl was standing there waiting to take orders.  She had messy, short black hair. Her name tag read, “Christina, She/They.”

“Hi! What would you like to drink, miss?” She asked me. I took a moment to bask in the euphoria from being called ‘miss.’

“Ummm… I would like a mocha, and I’ll also take an affogato for my friend.”

I handed her the change and went back to Maple. “I got you an affogato. I hope you like it.” I picked up the book. It was The Sun and The Star by Rick Riordan. I hadn’t read it yet, despite adoring Percy Jackson throughout my childhood.

Christina wandered up to our table, “Here you go, enjoy your coffee!” She looked at me, “And you enjoy the book, it's one of my favorites. Anyway, if you need anything, I’ll be here until my shift ends in 10 or so minutes.”

Maple and I silently finished our coffee. Maple was studying for their geology class on her laptop. I read up to chapter 5 of the book. I went back to the counter and paid for the book. Maple and I packed up our things and got ready to leave. Christina’s shift was also ending, so she exited at the same time as us.

It was cloudy outside. It wasn’t raining yet, but a part of me felt like it might. Maple and I started walking towards the subway stations, Christina walking silently alongside us.

We were passing a bus-stop, when I spotted him.

Liam.

My blood ran cold. I never wanted to see him again. Fortunately, he shouldn’t recognize me. Unfortunately, he might recognize Maple.

“Maple,” I said. “Liam.”

Maple tensed up, looking around and spotting the boy walking down the sidewalk towards us.

He was carrying a bag. He had messy, coarse, stubble, that wasn’t well kept in the slightest. He had a long crew cut with a fade on either side. He put so much pomade in it that it could set his whole head on fire. His grey eyes shone with a distant, cruel, malevolent stare. His tall, lanky figure made long strides down the sidewalk. He wore a plain white V-neck and nark navy pants. Behind him there were 2 of his lackeys: probably friends he coerced ‘made’ over the summer.

I should probably explain who Liam is. Well, in high school, Liam was someone who would always hang around Maple and I. He would constantly try and make me “more manly.” He would constantly nag me about playing sports or playing Call of Duty. I tolerated him as best as I could. I felt far worse for Maple; Liam was constantly trying to make moves on them. It made them really uncomfortable, but no one stopped him. Well, when Maple came out as non-binary, Liam basically went on a temper tantrum. He started identifying as “Super-straight”, religiously watching American conservative grifters, calling any queer students “mentally ill”, the whole nine yards. Luckily he was ostracised and fell out with nearly everyone. Sadly, instead of reflecting on his actions, he just got even more vitriolic towards minorities.

He scanned the street. His soulless stare penetrated us. You could see the gears turning in his head. After eight seconds, it clicked. He recognized Maple. Fuck. In long strides, he walked towards us; kicking up dust from the asphalt with each stamp of his foot. His lackeys in lockstep behind him. Fuck.

“Look who it is. The stupid, confused bitch. Who do you have there? One of your weird dykes and a perverted man in girl’s clothes.” He turned to Christina and asked, “have you even had the surgery yet?”

Um, what?

Christina apparently shared my thoughts. “Dude, what?”

He turned to me,”A young, fertile girl like you should be interested in starting a family, not playing around with a fake relationship with a woman”

“What the Fuck!?” I said.

Maple growled. “She is literally 18, you creep.”

He shrugged. “Legal.”

Maple scoffed at him. “Come on, Alex. You have a class soon, yeah?”

I nodded. “Yeah, nineteenth Century History.”

We started walking away from Liam, but he moved to block our path.

“Leave us alone, Liam,” Maple growled.

“Alex?” he said. “Can’t be.” He was looking at me in a way that made me very uncomfortable. “Impossible.”

“Leave,” Maple said, fire in their eyes. “Now.”

“Or what, bitch?”

Maple bared their teeth at Liam, and unlike me, it was actually kind of intimidating. “You really wanna find out?”

Liam didn’t back down. “I won’t hit a woman. But I will if I have to.”

“That makes no sense,” Christina said.

“Quiet, troon!” Liam said.

“I am literally cis, dumbass.”

Liam ignored her, instead advancing on Maple. Maple squared up to fight.

I glanced at Liam’s buddies, expecting them to get involved too, but they had backed up some distance, looking nervous. Good, just Liam then.

Liam threw the first punch. Maple dodged so fast that I wouldn’t have been able to pick up on it normally, but I had a feeling my new foxy nature aided me a bit. Liam was left a bit disoriented, leaving him open to a punch thrown by Maple right after. Liam grunted as he staggered backwards a bit, but he came right back. He swung at Maple’s head, and they blocked, but Liam just slammed a fist into their stomach. Maple doubled over, and Liam threw another punch, causing Maple to land in a heap on the ground, their hood falling off.

“What the…” Liam said, seeing Maple’s fox ears. “You some sort of furry?”

Maple quickly got back up. There was a bruise forming over their right eye, but they just grinned back at Liam. “That the best you’ve got?”

Liam growled, and charged at Maple, swinging a fist towards their head. Maple dodged it and checked Liam in the side against the bus shelter. They grappled for a bit, before Maple kneed Liam straight in the balls.

Liam staggered backwards. “You bitch!”

He hobbled over to Maple, swinging again for their head (excellent strategy Liam; keep repeating that). Maple blocked, and slugged Liam in the stomach. Liam grunted before slamming Maple against the bus shelter again. He kneed them in the crotch, which I figured would have been ineffective, but Maple doubled over in pain.

“Fuck,” they said. “Did not expect that to hurt that much. Periods are still worse, though.”

“Huh?” Liam said. Before quickly recovering, kneeing Maple in the ribs. He was about to go in for another hit, when, with a loud hisss, Christina grabbed him by the neck and slammed him to the ground.

Except, Christina looked a little different now. Now, she had a pair of cute fluffy triangular ears on top of her head, and a long furry tail.

She was a catgirl.

Liam lay on the ground, gasping for air. There was blood on his chin from a busted lip, and he had a black eye.

“I think you should leave now,” Christina said. Her tail was all puffed up as if she was agitated.

Liam’s eyes widened. “What is with all this furry shit today? First that bunny girl, now you two!”

“Three,” I said. My voice shook, but I stepped up next to the catgirl and my friend, who was standing, but wincing as they massaged their crotch. “There’s three, actually.” I pulled off my hood, revealing my big fluffy fox ears. “They’re real, by the way. And I am the same Alex you knew in high school. Amazing how things change, huh?”

Liam stared at me. “Bullshit. You look just like a real woman. No way this could happen in only a few months.”

“You should leave now,” Maple said. “I may be unused to this pain, but it’s no worse than the worst period I’ve ever had, so I can still beat the snot out of you if I need to.”

“I was winning!” Liam exclaimed.

“No, you really weren’t,” Christina said. “I just stepped in to end the fight.”

Liam turned to his buddies for help, but they were staring at the three of us with fear.

Liam staggered to his feet. “This isn’t over.”

“I think it is, actually,” I said, giggling.

“Do your parents know?” Liam said.

My smile disappeared.

Liam smirked. “See ya ‘round, Alexander.” He and his buddies walked off, Liam still with an unwarranted confident swagger, and his two friends looking ready to be anywhere but here.

Maple and I were about to continue on our way to the subway, when Christina stepped in front of us.

“We need to talk.”

Maple sighed. “Can it wait until after our classes? We’re already pretty late as is.”

Christina looked Maple in the eyes for a second. “Alright, but you two need to hide those ears.”

“Yeah, uh, how did you make them go away? Earlier, in the store, they weren’t there, and you had your normal human ears.”

Christina shrugged. “I just-” her tail shrunk until it was gone, and the ears moved down to the sides of her head, changing in shape until they looked like her human ears again. “-visualize it. I focus on how I looked before.”

“Oh,” I said. “I uh… I don’t want to look how I did before.”

Christina’s face softened a bit. “Trans?”

I nodded.

“Ok, well, I don’t have firsthand experience, I’m cis, like I said, but maybe just… focus on this body but without the fox parts?”

I did as she said. I closed my eyes. I tried focusing on my human form. I grit my teeth. I opened my eyes; my fox tail was still wiggling behind me.

"It's so hard to imagine me as anything but a fox."

 I was so happy with everything– my ears, my tail, my vagina– I couldn't imagine anything else.

I tried again… nothing. what was wrong. I was starting to get nervous.

"Focus on who you are now, and slowly shrink the tail and ears into you. I know it sounds weird, but you have to visualize the parts sinking into you."

I focused again on my form. I imagined my ears. I made myself indulge in the fake sensation of them dissolving into my scalp and moving to form my human ears. I felt something shift. My physical form followed my fantasy. I felt them dissolve, disappear, and form a pair of human ears. I did the same with my tail, and it shrunk into my back. 

When I opened my eyes again, Maple was looking at me. “Holy shit.”

“What?” I asked. Yes! My voice still sounded girly!

“Your hair…”

“That can happen,” Christina said. “I met someone once whose hair got darker in their hybrid form. Mine stays the same. I've tried to change it, but I haven't had any luck. I guess not everything can be changed.”

“What happened to my hair?” I grabbed some of my hair, holding it in front of my eyes. I expected it to be my old colour, but it wasn't. It was pitch black. “Oh.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and quickly opened the camera app. It was already in selfie mode from earlier that day when I’d taken several selfies in the cute new outfit I’d gotten that morning - black thigh-high socks, a black skater skirt, and the same bulky hoodie I had been wearing when I first got turned into a foxgirl. Staring back at me now, however, was almost the exact same face, just slightly different. Rather than purple, my eyes were now blue. And of course, rather than white, my hair was black. I actually really liked how I looked. “I like this,” I said. I was grinning. I snapped a few selfies before putting my phone away.

Maple and Christina were watching me.

“What?” I said. “I spent eighteen years hating how I looked. Can’t a girl be excited she looks cute now?”

Maple snorted, “you are adorable, Alex.”

I blushed. “Th-thanks.”

Maple closed their eyes, and within a couple seconds, they shifted to a human form. Along with the tail going away and the ears reverting to human ears, their hair reverted to its old colour. Maple opened their eyes. “Did it work?”

I nodded.

Maple grabbed their crotch. “Oh fuck yes. I get to keep it!”

“Thanks, by the way, Christina,” I said.

“Yeah, thanks for stepping in earlier,” Maple said.

“Any time,” she said. “Always happy to help a fellow Shifter out. Also, call me Chrissy. All my friends do.”

“Shifter? What’s that?” I asked.

“That’s the term me and a few other Shifters I’ve met have started calling ourselves. It means someone who’s used one of those statues. Since you’re both foxes, I’m assuming you used the same one?”

“Um, yeah,” Maple said. “It’s back at my place right now.”

“Can I see it?” she asked.

“I don’t really wanna touch it,” Maple said.

“Well… I'm not going to touch it. I might be fine because I am already shifted, but I don't know for sure.” Chrissy replied. “If it isn't glowing it should be fine. My roommates touched mine, despite me telling them not to, when it was dark and they weren’t shifted."

We continued walking back to the station. We continued in silence.

“Alright, Chrissy,” Maple said, “after classes, I can drive you and Alex back to my place so you can look at our statue.”

Chrissy opened up a notepad in her backpack and scribbled something in it.

"Here's my number and address, call me after classes." 

I got a girl's number. Okay, well, she gave it to me for non-romantic reasons, but still! I got a girl's number!!!!

When Maple and I finished our lectures, we met in a café near campus. We ordered coffee and worked on our assignments together. Nothing big, just some worksheets. After we finished the work, I dialled Chrissy's number. Chrissy picked up immediately, "Hi! Alex! Bee tee double-you, you need to change your caller ID.”

I winced. "I knew I forgot something."

"I'm outside of campus, I'm on the corner of St. George and Hoskin. Could y'all give me a ride to your place?"

"Okay, we'll be right there."

We walked to where Chrissy was. She excitedly waved at us.

"Thank you both again for letting me come over!"

"No problem." Maple said.

We walked over to Maple's car. We were silent. I still noticed my hearing and smell was unaffected by the shift. I could hear the flutter of leaves and distant traffic. I could smell the grass. However, that wasn’t the smell I focused on, I instead focused on another smell: Chrissy's scent. I could smell her; it wasn't a bad smell at all. It was pleasant. It was hard to describe. It was strong, but in a weirdly cozy way. She smelled wild. She smelled hot.

I hope I smelled as good as Chrissy did. The thought made me feel affirmed in a strange way: I wouldn't smell like old me.

“Here we are”

Maple unlocked the doors and got in the driver’s seat. Went to the other side of the car and sat shotgun. Finally, Chrissy sat in the back. Maple started driving.

“So how’d you find your statue Alex?” Chrissy asked as Maple pulled out of the parking lot.

“It was in a patch of trees near my house.”

Maple snorted. “Yeah, and you left it there.”

“It’s heavy,” I said. “I have less muscles than I used to.”

“You could work out,” Chrissy said. “I bet a bit of muscle would look really h– good on you.”

I blushed. “I mean, Maple’s muscles look pretty great.”

Maple turned ever so slightly pink, “okay, we can all agree, everyone here is hot.”

Chrissy barked out a laugh. “Who said anything about being hot?”

“You almost called Alex hot,” Maple retorted.

Wait, what? Hot? Me? For real? How? Oh… wait… I’m a pretty girl now. Hehe.

“What is it, Alex?” Maple asked.

Oh, was that mental giggle not entirely mental?

“I’m a pretty girl now,” I said happily.

“That you are,” Chrissy replied. I could see her smirking in the car’s mirror.

The drive continued uneventfully. Maple turned onto the street and parked their car near their apartment. We walked down the street, opened the door, and took the stairs up to Maple’s apartment. 

Maple swung open their door. We all stepped inside. Maple’s roommate was passed out on the couch, an empty box sitting next to her.

Maple groaned. “Oh, for fuck’s sake.” They stepped over to the couch and jabbed the girl in the shoulder. “Avril, bitch, wake the fuck up.”

Maple’s roommate startled awake. “Huh, what?”

Avril was a bigger girl. She had shoulder length black hair and some intense scars over her face.

Maple scowled at the girl. “Bitch, those were my fucking edibles.”

The girl shrunk in on herself. “Sorry, I just… I’ve had a shitty week, and-”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. But you need to fucking ask first,” Maple said.

“Sorry…” Avril cowered in her blanket.

Maple’s face softened. “Look, I get it, shit gets intense sometimes. But yeah, please ask first?”

Avril nodded.

Maple closed the door after Chrissy came through, and continued on to their room. 

Maple opened the door. Their room was just as we left it the previous visit, including the shifter statue on the floor next to the bed.

Chrissy turned to Maple, “I assume this is the statue that turned you both? It looks similar to mine. Mine looked more cat-like though.”

I replied, “Yes, this is the statue.” I shifted back into my foxgirl form. “That’s much better.”

Chrissy and Maple followed suit, both seeming to visibly relax as well.

Maple picked up the statue; nothing happened. “I only changed after it started glowing. It glowed different colors for Alex and I.”

“Well, you are a red fox and Alex is an arctic fox. These work in mysterious ways. No one I have met knows anything about them either.”

“Well,” Maple said. “I think we can safely say that these statues do tell you what you get out of them. Look, this one is all foxy, you said yours was more cat-like, right?”

Chrissy nodded, “yeah. Obviously the ears were similar, but the tails were definitely different. What’s also confusing me is how your statue started glowing again.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I’ve had my statue stashed in my closet for the past month since it turned me into a catgirl. It has not glowed since that day.”

“But once I took it home with me, within a few hours, it started glowing again,” Maple said. “Actually, Alex touched it just fine while it was glowing, but as soon as I touched it… bam, fox-mode. Not that I’m complaining, I got a bit more androgynous too.”

“Oh that’s really cool,” Chrissy said. “Like, I really can’t tell what your assigned gender was, not that I even want to know.”

“It took a foot of my height,” I said.

Chrissy’s eyes widened. “That drastic of a transformation, huh?”

Maple nodded. “Oh yeah. She looked very different before. Also, wasn’t your hair more brown, Alex?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I used to have brown hair. Now I guess my options are black or white. I don’t mind, honestly.”

“You have purple eyes,” Chrissy said.

“Yeah, that was a bit freaky, but I like them.”

“Well, so far no one I’ve met has had any complaints about their transformations, which is good. It would be quite an issue if these things just started transforming people in ways they hate.”

Maple handed the statute to Chrissy, who started examining it. “I can’t recognize the writing on here. It’s not like any script I’ve ever seen.”

“Same here,” Chrissy said. “Doesn’t mean it can’t be translated. Might just be some obscure writing system from thousands of years ago.”

“I don’t think it’s pictographic,” Maple said. “Might be some form of alphabet, but it could also be an abjad or abugida? I honestly can't tell, my specialty is rocks, not scripts. That was just a hobby a few years ago.”

I chimed in, “yeah, nothing here looks like actual things, really. Just some squiggles and stuff.”

Chrissy put the statue down on Maple’s desk. “No point in staring at writing I can’t read.”

Maple turned to Chrissy and asked, “hey, do you wanna hang out here for a bit. Watch a movie or something?”

“What about your roommate?” Chrissy asked.

“Avril works nights,” Maple said. “She normally sleeps in her room, I don’t know why she fell asleep on the couch today. Anyway, she’s probably gone back to her room to continue sleeping until she actually needs to leave for work. We should be fine.”

We went back out into the main living area. Sure enough, Avril wasn’t there.

“May I have your discords, Maple, Alex?” Chrissy asked.

Both of us showed her our handles. First Maple got one, then thirty seconds later, I got her friend request. I clicked accept.

Immediately, she sent us an invite to a discord server.

“This is a server I am a part of. It has people like us. It's small, but chill.”

I looked at the users, there were five; Maple, and I’s account of course, as well as Chrissy’s, ChrissyRose. There were also two other accounts: xXgaymessXx, and ApparentlyABoy. Both of them waved at us:

AlexisSnowFox: Hi!

xXgaymessXx: hallo!

ApparentlyABoy: Bonjour!

MapleLeafEnby: I guess we should introduce ourselves.

ChrissyRose: Probably a good idea, I’ll make an introductions channel.

Chrissy Created the channel and all of us started typing.

xXgaymessXx: Hi! I am Keira, 20! (she/her) I am a lesbian that is also a wolf. I like playing Minecraft and Life is Strange.

ApparentlyABoy: I’m Adrian, 21. I am a transmasc boy (He/They). I am from Québec. I can turn into a bird. I like skateboarding, playing Hollow Knight, and napping.

ChrissyRose: I’m Chrissy (you all already know that lol). I am a bi cis girl (She/They). I like working on machines and tech! I am a cat shifter.

Chrissy added another message.

ChrissyRose: oh yeah, I’m 19

Then Maple sent their intro:

MapleLeafEnby: My name is Maple, I’m 18, I’m studying geology. I’m non-binary, they/them. I like playing games, TTRPGs, and drawing. I got foxy stuff going on :P

I added my intro:

AlexisSnowFox: I’m Alex, short for Alexis, also 18, studying history. I’m a trans foxgirl, snow fox, like it says in my username. I like gaming, pizza, and being a super duper cute girl!

I switched back to general

AlexisSnowFox: It's nice to meet you all. I honestly didn’t know if there were more like Maple and I until today.

ApparentlyABoy: 🥺

xXgaymessXx: ditto!

MapleLeafEnby: Where’d you all meet?

Chrissy broke the silence, “You know you can just ask me in person.”

Maple replied, “Yeah, I still wanted to let everyone see that I was asking.”

Chrissy started to type a response.

ChrissyRose: I was in Kingston and I was on the bus heading to the train station. I saw a boy hiding in a hoodie. He looked scared, so I sat next to him. When he got up, his hoodie fell off. I saw a bunch of feathers, and I knew he was like me. He was running away from his family in Sherbrooke. I helped him pay for the ticket here, and I got his discord.

ChrissyRose: As for Keira, I met her in Barrie. She sat next to me in the park. We met before we shifted. Keira told me the night she shifted, she was all the way in her hometown of Sault Ste Marie when it happened. After a month, she and I figured out how to assume human form. 24 hours later, I found my statue.

How many shifters were there? If statues were showing up in Sault Ste Marie and Sherbrooke, there could be a lot more… something was going off inside my brain: I could have passed another shifter in class, or while I was shopping.

Wait… What did Liam say earlier? I searched my mind for a specific line in all the bigotry he said. Finally, I found it, First that bunny girl, now you two!

“Hey, Maple, Chrissy, didn’t we hear Liam say something like, ‘First that bunny girl, now you two!’” I did my best Liam impression.

Both of them giggled before their faces suddenly shifted.

Chrissy replied, “Holy shit.”

Maple added.” Holy fucking shit.”

There was a bunny shifter somewhere in Toronto, and she had to deal with Liam.

Chrissy quickly started typing to Keira and Adrian. 

“We have to find her, right?” I said

“Right.” Chrissy replied.

The realization was palpable; all of us were tense. Just when I felt like things couldn’t get any more crazy, my phone started going off. 

I looked at the number. Shit, my parents.

I picked it up. My dad responded, “Hey Alexander! Good news. There was a change of plans; Mom and I are going home early. We can’t wait to see you! We will be there tomorrow night. Sorry for not sticking around, but I have work to do.”

Fuck.

gayannabeth

So, that's chapter 5. Hope you liked it. Anyway, be sure to check out Montana's Patreon, since they are co-authoring this with me. As well, please check out my Patreon, my monthly short story should be up tomorrow, and I have started writing a new story, and the first chapter got released two weeks early for Patreon supporters. The first chapter should be public soon, but chapter 2 will be posted shortly on there as well.