Tom Herald raced back to his apartment for a quick shower and a bite to eat before getting on with his day covering the Seattle Seahawks practice* and other pregame events.
But as he walked into his bathroom to strip and get in the shower, he heard that British voice in his head say You're doing the right thing mate.
Tom looked in the mirror and saw his reflection as a werefox, dressed in a Robin Hood outfit staring back at him. But instead of some type of animated scene from that movie he's loved since childhood, it was a real life, anthropomorphic vulpine in the mirror.
"Please tell me one thing," Tom requested, even as he prepared to get in the shower. "Everything within the last couple of days. It's all real, right?"
Of course it is, swore the mirror image. Alice Stevens loves you. You love her. Once the two of you are intimate for the first time, you join were society and become the werefox of both your and her dreams, promised his reflection.
"Does it hurt?" asked Tom, grabbing a towel.
I won't lie to you mate. It can be a bit painful the first time, but only because it is your first time, which is why we like to couple the event with something quite pleasurable, like sex, admitted the mirror image. Yet after that first time, changing back and forth between forms will be as easy to you as breathing.
"I am doing the right thing, ain't I?" wondered Tom.
This certainly isn't the time to get cold paws mate, replied his reflection. Think of the future. You and Alice have a couple of centuries of happily married bliss ahead of you.
"Centuries?" asked Tom in disbelief.
You better hop in that shower and get ready for work so that slave driver of an editor doesn't get mad at you again, and I'll try to explain the ins and outs of being a were, promised the mirror fox, as Tom turned on the water and hopped in the shower.
BACK IN MOON LAKE...
"Say, Samantha," began her wife Frances, as she reluctantly got out of bed and started getting ready for the day. "I was wondering, do you think Agent Green can help with our Dieter Wilhelm problem**?"
"I've thought about it. But he and his wife technically will only be here off duty, on vacation. Besides, do we really want to involve the FBI in this problem?"
"Well, with Wilhelm being in Alabama sending his henchmen here, that does cross state lines and gives the bureau some jurisdiction," pointed out Frances.
"I know. I still hate to involve the Greens when they're just coming here to finally be together, but I'll run it past Chief O'Hara and see what he thinks," replied Samantha, before running downstairs to fix some breakfast.
MEANWHILE...
"Jay, I feel itchy again," complained Leon Howler, as he got dressed for school.
"So do I," replied his twin brother.
"Does this mean...?"
"Everyone we've talked to says that somehow, they always manage to happen at night, but otherwise..."
"Soon," they said with a smile, realizing that they would probably be experiencing their first transformations before the weekend was over.
ELSEWHERE....
"DAMN! Whoever created these alleged Ready to Assemble furniture kits should be hung, shot, drawn and quartered, and any other applicable method of execution!" cursed Dymixious, throwing the screwdriver down to the floor in anger while pushing aside the sections of crib he was trying to unite.
"Please don't lose your temper," requested his wife, while rubbing her very pregnant belly. "If you transform into your true form here, you might wreck the house in the process," she cautioned, referring to his scaly were-dragon form.
"I know, but this kit is beyond me," he confessed.
"Do you want to call the store and request someone come assemble it for us?" wondered his mate.
"My father warned we're supposed to keep a low profile here in Moon Lake," Dymixious reminded her. "But I can take the pickup truck to the department store and buy one pre-assembled," he said, getting up and hugging her.
"Maybe you should call your father and have him make those arrangements for you, because this close to my due date, I don't want to be alone," admitted his spouse.
"Whatever you want my love. Whatever you want," he promised.
And outside the rented house, the occupants of an unmarked car were keeping an eye on their suspect.
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*While this story is taking place in October 2015, the Seahawks were actually in Texas getting ready to face the Dallas Cowboys that weekend.
**The villain of the current plot point in the Moon Lake, Andersons thread.—tmw.