"And now, gentle reader -- I have a confession. Up till now I have tried to recall and portray the thoughts of Phillip Seawell, physicist. But it is at this point that 'Phillip' becomes only a memory ..."
~ Excerpt from From Earth to Arret
Become a courtesan.
Oh God... Phillip bit his lip as the thought became clear in his mind. That can't be right. "Courtesan" was just a fancy word for prostitute -- as was obvious from the demeanour and lack of dress of those around him. No! I can't possibly want to be a plaything! To be... like them...
He gazed up at the two courtesans on the dais. They looked so radiant, so poised, so confident, so... sexy. Despite the beliefs he'd been brought up with, their proud sensuality resonated deep within the scientist. He found his desire growing to sit with them, curving flanks and bare breasts on display for all to admire. A warm shiver ran through him at the thought of males helplessly lusting for his flesh.
Really? I can't! I... can't...
Yes, he realised. I can. I'm not going home. This is where I am... this is the culture I'm going to live in. I don't need to worry about what others will think... only what I want...
But... was this what he wanted? And if so -- what flesh would he display? He considered his memories of beautiful women. Looked at the lounging, red-gowned femme whom he took as a Succubus. But then his eyes shifted to the Queen. Yes. That bright fur, that elegant muzzle. That long, bushy tail. That was what he wished to be -- a literal vixen.
"I..." He choked, his mouth dry, his throat clenching. No! There are other options! I'm a man! -- a man of science! Not a woman, much less a slut! Surely this was wrong? But he wanted it so much!
A fox, maybe. But why not a male? Why do I want to be a female!? Yet he did. The sight of the femmes, proud of their bodies, had jarred loose something he had long buried, and it -- she -- would not be denied, despite his protests. And the Queen gave the lie to his notions that intellect was incompatible with lust. She obviously wielded great power, both political and magical, yet flaunted her flesh as freely as the courtesans.
Queen and court waited patiently as he glanced around at the beautiful noblewomen and lesser courtesans seated along the aisle. Drawing strength for his desire. A deep breath helped to steady his nerves. I can't go back. And... if I'm going to live in a world like this... then... I want...
"Courtesan." The word came out in a croak, and he took a moment to moisten his mouth. To take another deep breath. "I-I want to be a courtesan, Your Grace. A red vixen, like you... i-if it please Your Grace."
The Queen laughed, her voice warm and light. "It would please me greatly, Phillip." She rose from the throne, tail waving gently behind her as she descended the dais. The guards drew back as she approached the scientist, leaving him feeling strangely alone with the royal, magical vulpine. Vulnerable. The anxious excitement fluttering in his stomach grew stronger, and he found his gaze drawn to the King, as though seeking reassurance from the regal male.
Wulfrik was leaning forward eagerly, his own tail starting to thump against the throne. Catching Phillip's eye, he nodded in encouragement. The human's choice obviously pleased him. And Phillip knew why -- he was looking forward to seeing this plain, "unlovely" human male turned into another voluptuous vixen for his pleasure. But... it was encouraging. Phillip wanted to please the big, handsome, friendly monarch.
"Eyes on me, Phillip," the Queen teased as she stopped in front of him. "For now. You will have plenty of time to feast on my husband's body in the future."
Phillip looked back to her, feeling suddenly shy. Her words made him wonder. "Your... your husband. How... I mean, where I am from, women do not, um, share..."
"Not so different from the barbarians then, hm? But outside of breeding rights, we do not begrudge pleasure to each other. And remember -- you will be my concubine as much as his. Now, my dear, is there anything else, before I cast the spell?"
"Ah..." The scientist's mind threatened to go blank under the awful weight of his decision. There was still time to revoke it. Did he really --? YES. Yes I do. He took another steadying breath -- then something did occur to him. "M-my clothes. Should I disrobe?"
"You may, if you wish to preserve them as a relic of your old life. Otherwise my magic will refit them to your new form."
Phillip nodded, and unbuttoned his lab coat (not that he had needed it in his work, but they made him feel professional). However his movements slowed, and stopped once he'd undone the last button. On second thought... "Change my clothes, too, Your Majesty... I... I don't want to look back."
"As you wish, dear." She seemed to approve the decision. "Now let us begin."
She stepped back, giving the man space. Phillip felt as though a spotlight was on him as she lifted her hands, and began speaking softly. Indeed the light spilling through the stained glass seemed to dim as half-heard words -- "vixen," "beauty," "release" -- slipped into Phillip's ears. Maybe it was his mind, maybe it was the magic, but he saw myself glowing while the rest of the throne room was shadowed. Even the Queen's form was dark except for her golden eyes and the bright motes sparkling around her arms and upraised hands.
Motes that leaped to Phillip as Lightfell whispered the trigger phrase, dancing around him in shimmering trails of light. He lifted his own hands, looking down on them, shivering not only at the touch of mystic energy but also with a sense of wonder. Strangely -- considering what he was about to become -- Phillip felt almost childlike in that moment. Nor did the simple delight in the beauty of the whirling sparks fade as a very adult warmth began to spread through him. Rather, the two feelings merged, and the scientist felt... whole.
But of course it was not just arousal. The magical motes drew tighter to his figure, touching him and vanishing in tingling kisses. And wherever they touched he changed. Fur sprouted, black on his hands, shifting to rich red on his arms, which became more and more exposed as his lab coat and shirt pulled back. Pads and claws formed as he ran his hands over his arms, watching them become slender, toned, and elegant.
The same was happening all over his body. Phillip shuffled a bit, changing his stance as heels grew strong and lifted up, black fur covering his forming paws, red spreading over his legs, revealed as his slacks lifted. They merged into a short skirt that flared up in magical wind to show off his rear as it swelled with his hips and thighs. He shot a glance over his shoulder, now bare and furry. A gasp of surprise turned into aroused panting at the sight of his lush ass, male arousal blurring into a feminine sense of power in his desirability. He saw his tail push out above his thick buttocks, wriggling in excitement before extending and sprouting thick fluff.
Then he threw his head back, arching his body as the heat intensified. Phillip heard himself moaning as pleasure exploded in his chest. Sensation and awareness flashing across his mind as he set his hands to the breasts expanding into heavy roundness beneath his shirt, unable to stop himself. And soon that shirt -- "AH!" With sharp pinches of delicate flesh, that shirt was nothing more than golden barbells pierced through his fat nipples; and his fingers brushed across the satiny fur and pink aureolae unobstructed by cloth.
And oh! It was not that touch alone that drove his euphoria. Quickly following the blossoming of his chest, his manhood took its leave, balls retracting to make room for an even sweeter flower to bloom between his -- now her -- legs. The hard, full feeling of male desire was replaced with a delicious hollowness, from which leaked sweet-smelling liquid to coat her plump new petals and soft inner thighs.
The mental transition to thinking of herself as female came fairly smoothly -- as did other things. For as the Queen's magic changed his body, it also changed his mind. An inner vixen stirred, feeling her first glorious freedom from her dark dormancy. Already Earthly inhibitions were melting in the fire of her passion, freeing her to take her rightful throne in Phillip's mind; paralleling the growing strength of her body as the sedentary human form was subsumed by beastwoman sinew.
It would still take time, of course. As the magic faded, and the light returned to normal, Phillip began to remember that there were many eyes on her. She blushed beneath her fur, bashfully looking down at her new self.
Her body tingled now in the knowledge of how exposed she was. Her labcoat had become a silken harness like those of the other courtesans, dark royal purple lifting and outlining her pierced breasts, tying off to the same belt that held up the short "skirt" -- slit up the sides and cut away from the front. Her socks had become clinging stockings slashed to showcase her fur; her shoes, black bows cinched over her hocks.
Her privates were covered, but only in name. Phillip's briefs were now black linien panties. Completely exposed by the skirt, they were so tight she could feel them rub on her lips and clitoris with the slightest movement. Needless to say, they were soaked, a vixen's natural perfume suffusing the air around her. And so they provided no modesty at all, only emphasised her womanhood.
But while she was embarrassed, the vixen in her was already proud of what she was. Phillip could not help but move her hands over herself; aware of the audience as she slid them up her breasts to her narrow shoulders, then down her sides over her flanks and around to her thick-cushioned rear. Taking a moment to catch her tail -- her brush -- admiring the feel of the thick fur, and the appearance of the black ring offsetting the red fur from the brilliant white tip.
She wrestled a moment with herself, tempted to take a sample of the honey leaking through her saturated panties. But enough of Phillip's old morals remained to keep her from doing that in public. Instead she lifted her hands to her face, gingerly feeling her sensitive whiskers, running her fingers over the muzzle she could barely see. Giggling as her ears flicked away from her touch. Luxuriating in the feel of long, flowing hair, soft as the silks caressing her. Bringing a lock around to admire the deep, fiery red that had replaced Phillip's old brown.
"Congratulations, my dear." Phillip let the hair fall back as she focused on the Queen. Seeing her smile, the new vixen smiled back, even as she marveled at the feel of fuller lips parting from sharp, narrow fangs. "You are a beauty, a vixen among vixens, just as I knew you would be. How does it feel to be uplifted?"
A bit of the old Phillip winced -- this is not how he would have defined "uplift." But the vixen -- the new Phillip -- blushed deeper, dipping her ears and wagging her tail.
"I feel... amazing, Your Highness." She put a finger to her throat, as if confirming by its smoothness the higher, feminine pitch of her voice. "I... have no words." How could she ever describe the mix of weakness she felt from being exposed while at the same time feeling the power to command the male gaze? And the utterly different power latent in her fur-clad muscles, in fang and claw?
Besides, the Queen knew. She had never felt the sense of liberation Phillip did, but she did know well what it was to be a vixen. And the new girl took comfort in Lightfell welcoming her as one of her own kind.
"Thank you... thank you so much..." Phillip swallowed. Her mouth was still a little dry -- would this really work out? Now that there was no turning back -- had she made the right decision? But... no, anything that felt this good had to be right. "Thank you for making me a woman."
Her enthrallment in the Queen's presence was broken by a hearty laugh from the throne. Phillip's stomach fluttered anew as she lifted her eyes to see King Wulfrik rise from his seat.
"She has made you a vixen, aye; but you are not yet a woman! One thing remains still to be done."
Phillip's eyes widened. Her blush was surely visible now, fur or no. "Y-you mean...?" Just as surely, the Queen's magic or Arret itself was affecting her mind. The old Phillip would not have grasped the King's meaning so quickly. As it was, her thighs were rubbing together in anticipation. "M-my virginity...?"
"Aye, lass!" The vixen could plainly see now how the dire wolf's kilt was tented out. The rod underneath must be as big as she'd hoped -- and dear God was she impressed at his lack of concern, showing off like that in front of everyone. Of course, she would soon realise that the folk of Middengyard had no hang-ups about displaying lust in public... but the King's manhood was impressive, regardless.
"'Twould be an honour to take your maidenhead and welcome you properly into our service!" He strode down the steps of the dais, tail wagging. "Would you like me to do it here, so that all may witness your rite of passage, or in the privacy of my chambers?"
"Dear husband!" The Queen put her arm around the trembling girl with a laugh, shocking her with the familiarity. "I love your impetuous spirit, and it would be any maid's honour to be deflowered by the King! But Phillip has only just changed, and that after a harrowing exile from her own world! Perhaps you should give her time to reflect, to come to terms with what she has lost and what she has gained, before you offer her your bone."
"Oh, yes of course." The King's laugh took on a rueful tone. "Your pardon, Lady Phillip! My hot blood got the better of me again. Of course you may have time to rest and consider your new life."
"P-please, Your Graces," the new vixen stammered. "'Phillip' is a man's name. It -- I don't want to be called that any more."
The Queen nodded. "What would you prefer, my dear?"
She thought, but only for a moment as a new name sprang quickly to mind. It seemed so natural, reassuring her that she had made the right decision. She straightened a bit. "Ruby. Please... call me Ruby."
"Lady Ruby you shall be," affirmed the Queen. "An exotic name, appropriate to one who came to us from another world."
The vixen felt like she was glowing again. "Phillip" had not been a bad name, but... it certainly did not catch the radiance, the fire she felt burning in her now. And it was wonderful to have that reflected back by the Queen's praise.
"And... as for His Majesty's offer..." Ruby hesitated. Queen Lightfell was certainly right -- she had been through a lot. Some time to herself would be appreciated. But... she was so wet, and had been fantasising about the "bone" between the King's legs since she was brought in. Even the thought of losing her virginity as she had her manhood, in front of all these witnesses, held a strange appeal. To tear through another taboo in pursuit of the freedom the vixen craved.
But was she really ready for that? Maybe she was pushing things too fast.
"I..."