Prior to going to see her grandmother, Skyla and Curt were still in each other’s arms. After a few quiet moments in each others embrace, Skyla broke the silence. “Master, where are you and Anna off to, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Well, when you told me about how you used the gun to stop your grandma’s death, it reminded me of my mom’s health.”
“Oh?” Skyla’s eyes wandered as she tried to recall. “Oh, right, the neuropathy. Are you going to use the gun to heal her?”
“I don’t know of any other way to help. I’ve been looking through texts and emails to her. Apparently in the newest realities I’ve been using my money to help her look for a way to treat it, but the best anyone’s been able to do is keep the pain from getting worse. It looks like changing her might be the best way.”
The wheels in Skyla’s head were turning, her mind still on the temporary nature of her Master and boyfriend’s existence. Sure, the gun couldn’t be used to make Curt into an anthro directly, but what about about indirectly?
“What species do you plan on making her?”
“I was thinking about making her a dragon.”
“I guess you’re thinking what I’m thinking, huh? Kill two birds with one stone: heal your mother, and also maybe find a loophole to make yourself anthro, too?”
“Yeah, pretty much.” Curt nodded. “It seems like it would be a good thing for everyone involved.”
Skyla was about to agree, when she suddenly remembered something else. “On second thought, I’m not sure that’s a great idea. I mean, look what happened to grandma. In a lot of ways, she’s still the sweet old lady I grew up with, but being centuries old, and having magic powers have made her completely different in others.”
Curt frowned slightly. “You’ve got a point. Then again, we don’t know how long it takes a dragon to reach adulthood, but I doubt it’s 800 years. She’d only need to be made old enough to have had me and Anna. Plus, western dragons aren’t as heavily associated with magic as kitsune. And they aren’t typically seen as trickers, either.”
“No, but they are usually greedy, destructive, and arrogant. I don’t think most maids have had their personalities affected that much by stereotypes about the animals they became, but it is something to think about.”
“I think I’ll be able to make it work,” Curt said, a hint of hesitation in his voice. “I’ve got it figured out.”
+++
Curt and Anna arrived at one of the estate’s guest houses (Skyla had stayed behind, feeling it would be better if it was just them and their parents). Curt had been a little surprised to learn he had given his parents their own little house on the estate in this timeline, but he figured it made sense that if he had become excessively wealthy, he might as well share it with his family.
He knocked on the door, and it was answered by a tall, balding man. “Curt! Anna! How are you doing?” Their father motioned for them to come inside.
“It’s been a bit of a hectic week,” Curt said as they stepped in, closing the door behind them. “Sorry we didn’t think to visit much.”
“It’s fine, I know how busy life can get. Besides, Tammy here makes for good company.” He gestured behind him to a crow woman in a maid uniform, dusting off shelves of dolls Curt’s mother had collected over the years.
On hearing her name, the maid turned around and Curtsied. “Hello Master. Nice to see you again, as always.”
“Nice to see you too,” Anna said.
“Good work on keeping this place spotless,” Curt said, noticing how pristine it all looked. Nothing like it had been the last time he’d visited his parents. His dad had trouble keeping up with chores, work, and caring for Mom, so usually something had to give.
“Thank you, Master!” The crow woman said with a smile, before returning to work.
“How have you been, Dad?” Curt asked.
“I got a chance to enjoy doing some fishing on the weekend, and your mom and I watched some mystery shows when I got back, so I had a pretty good weekend.”
“How about Mom?” Anna asked quietly.
Their dad frowned. “Eh… Today’s been one of her better days, I think. She tried to walk to the kitchen and back for a little exercise. Regretted that pretty quickly. She’s resting now.”
“Do you think we can see her?”
“Well she wasn’t asleep last time I saw her, so I don’t see why not. I think she’ll enjoy having some company that’s not me, Tammy or Mercy.”
“Let’s go then,” Curt said to Anna.
As they went down the hall from the living room, checking each door to figure out which one was the bedroom, Curt’s mind drifted back to what Skyla had said. Changing her into an anthro would definitely cure her condition, regardless of which species she became. And in the end, that was what mattered, right? And as a dragon, she’d live much longer on top of everything else. The possibility of him becoming a dragon too was just icing on the cake. So what about this was bothering him?
So far, he had only intentionally changed people into creatures they’d wanted to become, or, in the case of Marceline and her bandmates, creatures that they would find unique and surprising, reflecting their desire to stand out. This was the second time he was using the gun primarily for its effect of “autocorrecting” health issues, and this time, as far as he knew, his mother had never even thought of being an animal. So in theory, it wouldn’t matter that he didn’t ask what she wanted, or select the “target’s favorite” option.
But if this was really JUST about healing her, and species didn’t matter, why insist on making her a dragon? Surely she’d ultimately be happier with her favorite species, whatever that might be.
No, no, it wasn’t just about finding a loophole to make himself a dragon. It was also about letting her have a long, happy life. If dragons reached puberty at a little under sixty, while humans reached it at thirteen, they probably reached adulthood at eighty. And that could mean their lifespan was hundreds of years.
But if he’d really thought she would be happier with a longer life, why wasn’t he making her a unicorn, since most legends made them out to actually be immortal? Or even a jellyfish, if he wanted something more grounded in reality?
Okay, he guessed he couldn’t deny he had some ulterior motives for this. But still, after all he’d been through, didn’t he deserve this?
He stopped. “Greedy, destructive, and arrogant.” Skylas words echoed in his mind. Yeah, with this attitude, he supposed he did ‘deserve’ to be a dragon, just not in the way he was thinking of. He knew there was no good reason to deprive his mother of whatever would make her happiest. Still, as far as he knew, this was his only shot at fulfilling his own dream, after he’d given his friends theirs, and even then, with how the anthro gene seemed to work, even that wasn’t a guarantee.
Anna bumped him with her elbow, getting him out of his thoughts. She mouthed the words ‘found her’ to Curt, and knocked on the door she had been peeking through.
“Who is it?” Came the quiet voice of their mother on the other side.
“It’s me, Anna, and Curt too.”
“Come in.”
The two stepped inside to a spacious bedroom, with a large window, letting in plenty of light. Their mother was lying on her back in bed, a large TV was in front of her, but it seemed like she wasn’t really paying attention to it, and was just using it for background noise.
“Nice to see you both,” She said, wincing slightly as she started to prop herself up.
Anna spoke up. “Mom, don’t-”
“It’s okay, I want to be able to talk face to face.” Mrs. Evenson winced again, making a quiet grunt as she brought herself into a sitting position. She took a deep breath when she’d finished. “How have you both been? I haven’t seen either of you in a little while.”
“We’ve had an big week,” Curt said.
“I had some fun time out around town with Misty and Ashley a while ago, and I’ve started working for the animal shelter today.” Anna said with a smile. She was tempted to mention the good looking horse butler that was working for her among her good news, but thought better about it.
“I found out Skyla’s grandma was really an at-least eight hundred year old Kitsune,” Curt said. “And she’s joined the staff. She has some… Interesting views. I also got to see another one of Marceline’s concerts, and met up with Danielle again.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” their mother said. “Good to hear you’ve found some way you can help out, Anna. I’d give you a hug, but…” She sighed.
Curt nodded. Her neuropathy had started out as simple numbness, but because it had taken so long for the doctors to figure out what was wrong, it had progressed to a stage where her nerves seemed to interpret just about any contact as pain.
“And as for her grandma, well… some of that might be a product of her time. But I bet she’s pretty knowledgeable too.”
Curt was a bit amused to hear how casually she accepted that, even if he knew that this was normal for her. If only trying to explain the gun to her would be so easy.
“How have you been, mom?” Anna asked.
She sighed. “The usual. But I will say, having Mercy as a nurse is a lot more bearable than most of the doctors I’ve dealt with. So thank you for having her meet with me. Tammy’s pretty nice to talk with, too. She has a cute little pair of mongoose daughters that sometimes visit come with her and help her clean, and they always have interesting things to talk about.”
Mercy? Another name he might have to look up in the profiles. “So uh…” Curt spoke up. “Do you think, if you woke up tomorrow, and everything was mostly the same, except you had never been sick, do you think you’d want to remember what life had been like before? Even if you were the only one that remembered it? Or would you rather just remember the new world.”
His mother stared at him in confusion. “That’s a strange question… I guess I might feel more empathy for people in my situation if I remembered, but it could be confusing not to remember what I did during all the time I was healthy… I would probably want to remember the new world. Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering,” Curt said, pulling the ray gun out of his pocket.
“Is that a toy one of the Jr. Maids dropped?”
“Not exactly,” Curt muttered. He set “Change Awareness” to “Off” and the busty/adorable and nude/maid toggles to “target’s favorite. Then he looked at the species setting. With a sigh, he switched it from “dragon” to “target’s favorite,” then pulled the trigger.
As the lightning struck, Mrs. Evenson sat straight up, without any indication of pain, as her shirt and pants turned red, and began to weave together into a dress, and a white apron and headband appeared seemingly from nowhere. Thick white fur grew over her arms and legs, spreading under her dress, before coming over her head, with brown patches around her eyes and ears, and on her back.
She started to look a bit taller to Curt and Anna, and not just because she was standing without pain for the first time in months. Her feet stretched and became digitigrade as her toes curled to resemble paws, with soft leathery pads growing on the bottom of her feet and toes. A hole appeared in the back of her dress, allowing a fluffy tail to stretch out a little over a foot behind her. Like her feet, her palms and fingers grew soft, leathery pads.
Finally, her head began to change. Her brown hair kept its length and color, mixing well with the fur on the back of her head. Her ears moved toward the top of her head, become larger and larger, brown fur covering them as they flopped down on the sides of her head. Her eyes didn’t change color, but they seemed to grow a little wider and brighter. Her jaws stretched forward, her teeth sharpened, and her tongue grew longer. Her cheeks elongated and flopped down while her nose grew larger, and turned black, giving her the distinct muzzle of a saint bernard, if a bit shorter and less angular than normal. Her whole head had a rounded appearance, giving her a surprisingly adorable look for the breed of dog she’d become.
The world seemed to blur around Curt and Anna for a bit, and they suddenly found themselves in the guest house’s living room again. Their mother and father, as well as Tammy, were all sitting comfortably across from them, chatting over coffee as if nothing special had happened.
“And then Lori told me that her sister had cleaned her side of the room for her, and asked me to tell her to stop stealing her chores!” Tammy said with a laugh.
Mom laughed with her. “Oh, that wouldn’t have happened when Curt was a kid. Anna was neat as could be, but Curt always left something out. Good thing you can afford to pay someone to help you clean up now, isn’t that right?” she said with a smile. Even sitting down, their mother’s new larger size was apparent.
“Yeah.” Curt smiled back, feeling a little relief that his mother didn’t call him ‘Master.’ His life was weird enough without that. He and Anna both got up, and gave their mother a hug. For them, it had been the first time they’d done it in months.
Mom, Dad and Tammy all looked a bit surprised by the sudden show of affection, but their mother hugged them back quickly. “Was it something I said?” She said as they let go.
“No,” Anna said. “We just… felt like we needed to.”
“Not like we need a reason to hug our mother.” Curt checkled, realizing how odd this must have looked from an outside perspective.
“Well, I appreciate it.” Their mother smiled.
Curt glanced at himself, realizing he was still human. So, all that worry had been for nothing. Whether it was due to the gun’s safeguards, or just the gene hitting his sister, but skipping him, it looked like he was fated to be human. Seeing his mother healthy again, though, he supposed he could live with it.