It had been about three hours since Kiba was taken into Metamor
Keep. He and Professor Harlan had a long, detailed discussion about all the
things that had happened to him since the day he left home. He learned, though
was hesitant to accept, that Lyte was just like any other magic, nothing
special to his cult; he shouldn’t ever mention Itmen to anyone lest he be
prosecuted as a heathen, and above all he couldn’t go back to Trenador. It was
for his own safety.
Kiba was now in a large tub, being scrubbed down by a few attendants. One of
them was a fox morph, the other was a transgendered man turned into a woman.
Harlan had assigned them to this task, and they had hesitantly accepted.
“So, little guy, what’s your story?” Asked the woman, kneeling by the tub and
trimming and cleaning Kiba’s claws.
“I… I was betrayed by my master… I don’t wanna talk about it.” Kiba said, his
eyes closed tight. He didn’t want to see anyone, cursed as they were… as he was…
“Aww, there, there, little guy. I got over my curse… somewhat. It stinks not
having the right parts where they’re supposed to be, but at least I’m still
able to take care of myself. Speaking of which, you are too. You’ll be bathing
yourself in the future. This is just a pity b- err… we’re just helping you out
this one time because, uhh… w-well you’re obviously in no state to…”
“Watch your mouth, Martha. You’re just making it worse. Kiba… that’s your name?
Kiba, don’t worry. Things will turn around. We were all in your position at one
point or another.” The fox comforted him as he scrubbed his back. “You haven’t
had a proper bath in a while… there’s all this dirt and grime in your fur. Then
again you were camping out right outside the walls for two weeks.”
“My name is Martin! And… fine. I’m sorry.” The woman lowered her eyes, ashamed.
Suddenly getting an idea, she stood up and retrieved a square mirror from the
wall over the water basin. She knelt by the bath again and held it up, the
reflective side pointed away from Kiba.
“I’m going to turn this around now, and I want you to look at it. You have to
get used to your reflection if you want to live here comfortably, okay sweetie?
Err… Kiba? I’m sorry. It’s an automatic reaction… I call all the age regressed
‘sweetie’ or ‘darling’. It comes with being a woman… kinda… you get used to it
after acting like one for seven years…” She laughs weakly.
Kiba closed his eyes and looks away. “Please… don’t. I don’t want to see.”
“Aww, but you’re so cute! You might like the new you.”
“Don’t call me that! I’m still the old me! I…” He sniffed, looking down at his
paws. “I… I’m not the old me…” Kiba whimpered. There was no way the old him
would have anything against his master like he did now. He was still upset
about the cyanide.
“You’ll have to see eventually, deary. It won’t help to put it off.” Martin
says.
“Yeah, man, just look. You may like what you see.” Says the fox, James by name.
Kiba slowly turned his head towards the wooden back of the mirror. “I… o-okay…
show me.” He cringed slightly.
“Alright.” Said Martin softly, turning the mirror around.What Kiba saw
surprised him, even though he’d been expecting it. There was a very young
raccoon cub in the reflection.. The first thing Kiba noticed was his eyes.
Their green sheen was as brilliant as he’d always been told they were. He
searched his furry visage for any other signs of his old self, but found none.
There was a very dark gray mask around his eyes, going from side to side. It
reminded Kiba of a bandit. His ears were larger than they needed to be, proof
of his forced prepubescense. They were a mix between being triangular and
round, halfway between a fox’s and a bear’s. He had a short muzzle with a small
shiny black nose on the end.
Kiba hesitantly looked down at his body for the first time, seeing his belly
was colored lighter than the rest of his body. He had two short legs that each
ended in a long, padded raccoon paw with darker fur than anywhere else on his
body. Kiba wiggled his toes experimentally, feeling the warm water flow between
them. They were more sensitive than his normal feet had been, making him gasp
slightly in surprise.
Behind him, trailing out between Kiba’s legs like a cushion was a large fluffy
tail. It had three dark rings and two lighter rings in between. This tail
seemed far too big for his little body, though it was actually the perfect
size, its largeness attributed to the fact that he was now a child and that he
was a bipedal raccoon rather than a feral one. Kiba tried moving it, but found
it quite difficult since it was so new to him… and because he was sitting on it.
On top of all this was a layer of soap that James had scrubbed into his fur to
get him clean.
“I… I’m… uhh…”
“Cute?” Asks James.
“Uhh…”
“Huggable?” Asks Martin.
Kiba slowly nodded, and then touched his nose with a tentative paw, feeling his
muzzle. He looked back at the mirror, watching his movements. His paw traveled
up to his forehead to his ears, then down the side to his cheek…
“Hey!”
“What? What is it?” Asked James.
“I… I still have my fang tattoos from Trenador!” There were two triangular
patches of red fur on his cheeks right where his tattoos had been. Kiba hadn’t
noticed them until he had actually taken a good look at himself..
“I was wondering what that was… I couldn’t get them out with the brush.”
“I thought you’d been attacked by something.” Martin chimes in. “Thought it was
blood or something.”
“Nah, if he’d been attacked by something he probably would still be in shock or
something… or he would have a lot more ‘red fur’.”
“Oh, yeah, you’re right.”
James put the brush to the side and picked up a bucket of water that had been
sitting next to him.
“Hold your breath, Kiba. I gotta get this soap off of you or it’ll make your
fur all hard and chunky as it dries.”
“…my fur? Oh… oh yeah… That’ll… that’ll take some getting used to…” Kiba
sniffed.
“Oh, it does, believe me.” Said Martin as she went back to the sink and
returned the mirror.
“How would you know? You didn’t turn into an animal. You stayed human, you have
no fur.” Retorted James.
“It still takes some getting used to changing, okay?”
“Umm… you were going to rinse me?” Kiba said, breaking into their argument.
“Oh yeah. Hold your breath, little guy.”
Kiba did as he was told, taking a deep breath and holding it while shutting his
eyes. He felt a warm splash of water cascade down his form, taking the soap
with it. He shook his head, a reflex he didn’t have before, splattering the
water all over Martin and James.
“Aah! Hey, watch it!”
“Eek! I’m all wet!”
“I-I’m sorry! I don’t know why I did that!” Kiba apologized quickly..
“Hey, it’s okay.” Says Martin. “It’s okay.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t stop doing that either when I got wet when I first changed.”
Kiba lowered his eyes and sniffed, feeling odd… he’d never shaken like an
animal before. He usually just used Ly- err… magic… to make it all slide off.
“Alrighty, Kiba, up! We gotta dry you off and get you clothed.” Said Martha.
“Can’t have you walking about Metamor Keep all wet and dripping all over the
place.” James added.
Kiba gripped the edge of the tub and pulled himself up. He felt a lot heavier
underneath his soaking fur.
“Unnf!” He grunted as he stood up, the water falling off of his body in
rivulets. Kiba’s fur had soaked up a lot of water and it was weighing him down.
On top of that he had been age regressed and was now weaker than he had been
before.
James quickly wrapped a towel around him and began rubbing him dry with it,
Martin grabbed another one and toweled the top of his head dry as well. The
sensation of the cloth rubbing Kiba’s ears caused him to murr; the sensation
was quite pleasant.
“Hehe, you like that, little guy?” Asked James, his ears perking and picking up
the sound before Martin.
“Mmm, mhmm…” Kiba responded, enjoying it indeed.
“I’ll take that as a yes!” James laughed.
Martin put a towel on the floor for Kiba to stand on after getting out.
“Alright, just step out here, sweetie, and we can dry you the rest of the way
off.”
“I’ve never had to take so many measures to get dry…”
“It all changes when you get fur.” James agrees.
With a small effort, Kiba lifted one leg over the side of the porcelain tub…
only to realize the way down on the other side was too far. the bathtub was
being held off the ground by at least a foot by its four legs. He faltered for
a moment, and then stepped back into the water.
“Uhh… I can’t do it…” Kiba whined, peering over the edge. “It’s too far.”
“Oh, I forgot!” Martin rummages through the closet, pulling out a small set of
portable wooden stairs; a stepladder. She puts it at the base of the bathtub
and stands back.
“Now try, dear.”
Kiba tried again, this time finding the step under his feet gave him something
to stand on. He pulled his other leg up, the water running off in small
torrents from his tail as he stood on the ladder. He felt very off-balance and
James had to help him stay standing.
“My back end is so heavy… I can’t stand up right.” Kiba said solemnly. Every
word he’d uttered since he’d been changed was either a scream of terror or
something quiet and introverted “Yeah, that’s the hardest thing to get used
to.” James gently wrang out Kiba’s tail, making it lighter and slightly
fluffier.
“Oh!” Kiba yelped as James did this. The new extension to his body felt very
weird, like his spine had been lengthened. Oh, that’s right; it had.
James brought Kiba’s tail around to his front and handed it to him. “You may
wanna try carrying it your first day or two. You’ll eventually learn that it’s
easier to use a tail for balance once you get the hang of manipulating it. Try
not to get it caught in any doors or anything. You’ll regret that.”
Kiba held his tail to his chest, shivering at the sensation. “It feels so odd…
like a part of me that was always there and I just never felt it before… not
noticing it ‘till now.”
“Myep, that’s pretty much the case. It’s not new, exactly. Just… a lot longer
than it was when you were human. Oh, and covered in fur.”
“While we were bathing you your robes were being tailored into a new, smaller
set of clothes. They’re big enough to make two outfits for you. You may want to
consider getting more. At least one for every day of the week so you can wash
them between days.” Martin chimed in.
“They’re in the closet, here. They came while you were getting clean.” She
rummaged through the closet and pulled out a pair of robes that perfectly
matched Kiba’s old ones… save for the fact that they were half as big. And they
were still too big for him by at least a foot!
“My robes…” Kiba stared, wide-eyed. “You still have them!”
“Err, yes, but it looks like they still need a bit of tailoring yet. Hold
still.” Martin said as she grabbed a pair of scissors from a basket in the
closet. She had Kiba don the robe after toweling him down so he doesn’t get it
wet.
“Now wear this. James, will you be a dear and hold down the hem for me? Thank
you.” She smiled as James cooperates. “Now Kiba, hold still. I don’t want to
accidentally cut you, okay?”
Kiba nodded and shuffles around a bit on the stool, repositioning himself so he
could have a better balance. Martin began to cut the hem off of the bottom of
Kiba’s new robes so they wouldn’t drag on the ground as he walked, making sure
not to cut the end of his tail off as well.
“Great!” Says Martin, discarding the excess cloth to be reused later. “Now we
have to make a hole for your tail. We haven’t already done that yet because we
don’t really have your measurements. Hold still. This may get a little
uncomfortable.”
“Ptch, tell me about it.” Scoffed James.
Kiba whined a bit as he felt James grip the base of his tail “Just try to
relax. It feels weird, but you’ll get used to it.” The fox said.
Martin diligently began to cut a hole around where James instructed her to, and
then stitched the hole outward against itself so the loose edges wouldn’t fray.
James then gently pulled Kiba’s tail through the newly tailored hole, letting
Kiba grab it and hold his tail to his chest once through. He was comforted by
it somehow… like a security blanket[MW1] . Kiba stroked his tail, shivering at
the odd sensations of the new extremity.
“It’s okay.” James patted Kiba’s head, knowing he’d enjoy it. He did himself…
most of the transformees did. “You’ll get used to it. Now come on, we’ve gotta
get you registered!”
“R-registered? What do you mean?” Kiba did indeed enjoy the pats James gave him.
“Well you can’t very well go gadding about the Keep without an official
residency, can you?”
“Yeah, you have to get your name in the books before we do anything else. Lunin
will help you with that today. He’s the best spider monkey librarian in the
business.”
“Spider monkey?” Kiba had never seen one of those before. He’d heard of regular
monkeys before, but not spider monkeys. “Does he have, like… eight legs or…
something?”
“Nah, he builds webs with spinneret’s in his butt.”
Kiba tilted his head, utterly confused. “What??”
“James, stop toying with him!” Martin gave James a bap to the snout, making him
wince.
“Ouch! S-sorry. No, a spider monkey is just another kind of monkey, one with
long, lithe arms and an extremely dexterous tail.” James confessed. “He runs
the library. He’ll help you get registered; maybe you can look up your species
there.” He winked. “It’s kind of a tradition for the animal. Come on, we’ll
take you.” James took Kiba by the paw and led him down the steps, heading
towards the door.
“James, I have to get back to my regular duties.” Martin protested. “I can’t be
a tour guide for the rest of the day!”
“Alright, fine, you go and do whatever it is you do. I’ll take him myself. Come
on, Kiba, let’s go. Cross your fingers and pray we get there before dinner. I’m
getting hungry.”
[MW1]Interesting concept and cute mental picture =D
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