“A day. Maybe a few hours longer than that, but as a magi-medical professional I can’t suggest pushing things that close.”
Eric sat half-naked in an examination room at the resort’s clinic, which was surprisingly modern-looking amidst all the quant log cabins and other traditional architecture at the resort. The werewolf doctor who had first examined him a few nights earlier was looking over his notes, with his doctor’s coat hanging open to reveal he still wore nothing underneath (“If I didn’t wear it, people would think I’m trying to eat them instead of heal them”, he often had to remind people).
“Y-you’re sure about that? That’s all I have left until there’s no turning back?” Eric asked, though admittedly he was oddly relieved to hear it. He’d make his choice tonight or have it made for him, and having that kind of deadline looming over him was, if nothing else, refreshingly blunt.
“Am I sure? I’m a magical werewolf doctor living at the North Pole. If anyone’s qualified to give you a diagnosis on this sort of thing, I think it would be me, don’t you?” the doctor said with an amused smile on his muzzle. He withdrew the circular glass instrument he had used before and slowly ran it across Eric’s body, and the colors in the glass shifted and swirled like a prism. “See here? You have an even distribution of magical energy flowing through you right now, doing its work on your body. But the big thing is that you’ve already changed here, here, and here.”
The doc point to Eric’s ears, eyes, and sheathed crotch with his pen.
“Sensory organs changing is a sign that the magic has really sunk its hooks into you, and having the reproductive system shifting like this is a clear sign that you don’t have much time left. I’m sure you didn’t notice, but your digestive system is fully reindeer now, too. Lay off the meat and cheese, or you’ll really regret it. A while back, Tag wanted to try some ‘human food’ and ate a bacon cheeseburger… Not a pretty sight,” the werewolf finished, setting his notes aside. “But I think that’s all. Any questions?”
Eric sat silently for a moment or two, taking in what the doctor had said. By this time the next day, he’d be all reindeer, just like Clyde, Tag, and the others. It would be as it the tiny scraps of his human form would just blow away in the wind, and he’d never get them back. He’d be a reindeer, doing reindeer things and living a reindeer life, only occasionally dipping his hooves into human society if he managed to learn how to shift into a new human form. That should be terrifying to him, but somehow the fear he was feeling was being tempered by the knowledge that he had already found a new family up here that would take care of him.
“Umm… I have just one question…” Eric asked, hoping the doctor could tell him what he needed. “I want to fly better. Can you help?”
-----------------------------------
Clyde was waiting outside the doctor’s office, nervously pacing back and forth so intensely that even the kids on the street that would usually be crowding around him steered clear. He had wanted to accompany Eric to meet the doctor, but the doctor had made it very clear that it should be a private visit between himself and the patient.
“Doctor-patient confidentiality, my hooves,” Clyde grumbled, kicking a pile of snow to let off a little steam. “Pretty sure North Pole Medical isn’t a real medical school, ‘doctor’…”
“Clyde! Over here!”
Eric ran out of the clinic and leapt up to give Clyde a hug, rubbing their antlers together and enjoying his lover’s warm fur and lovely scent.
“E-Eric, come on now… You’re making a scene…” Clyde sputtered as he saw some tourists giving them amused glances. “Anyway, what did the doctor have to say? You seem to be in a good mood, so I assume it’s good news about how much time you have left to decide?”
“I got great news! Here, I need to show you something!” Eric side, agilely sidestepping the question about the time limit. “Okay… Take a deep breath and…”
Focusing intensely, Eric took a big jump into the air and…
“Y-you’re flying. How is that possible…?” Clyde said with his jaw hanging open. Eric wasn’t wearing the collar, and he still looked mostly human except for the antlers, ears, and hooves. However, Clyde couldn’t deny that Eric was currently hanging in the air, doing a few twirls and weaving from left to right quite adeptly before gently setting himself down on the ground again.
“Clyde, the doctor said that I’ve got enough magic of my own now to fly without the collar,” Eric said proudly. “In fact, he said that if anything the collar was holding me back! And that instead of learning to fly with a magical object helping me, I needed to learn how to do it with my magic.”
“…That actually makes a lot of sense,” Clyde said thoughtfully, tapping his antlers pensively. “Us natural-born reindeer start learning how to fly throughout our lives as our bodies grow. But that collar forcibly stuffed you into a reindeer body that you hadn’t grown up with, so it would be difficult to control effectively.”
“But, now that I am growing into a reindeer body of my own… I mean, it’s completely different!” Eric added, effortless floating himself up a few feet again and doing a quick spin. “Before, it was like I was driving a car with the parking brakes on compared to right now!”
Clyde was struggling to take this all in, but he had never seen Eric looking this happy before. The usually shy, quiet young man was currently jumping all around in the air, doing tricks for the passers-by and obviously having the time of his life.
“Eric, this is incredible… We need to get you back to the village. Now that we know this, we’ve really got a chance, if you train-“
“I already told you, sopo,” Eric said, using the pet name Clyde had given him. He set himself down on the ground again and walked up to give Clyde a kiss on the muzzle. “Today’s a day for us. Not for training, not for worrying about the sleigh team. Now, shall we?”
Eric put out his hand for the bigger reindeer to take, and Clyde noticed the nails on Eric’s fingers already darkening and thickening slightly into the beginnings of a hoof.
“Of course. I guess I was getting ahead of myself,” Clyde said sweetly, wrapping his hoofed hand around Eric’s mostly human one. “Oh, you didn’t say how much time the doctor thought you had-“
“So, what else is there to do around here, anyway? I’ve been here for a few days now, and I’ve only seen the reindeer training yard, the bar, and the doctor’s clinic! I feel like I’m wasting Tom’s money, at this rate!” Eric said, cutting off Clyde’s question for the second time.
He’s definitely been spending too much time with Tag, Clyde though to himself with amusement. Neither of them let anyone finish a sentence, do they?
"And it's söpö, Eric. We're gonna have to improve your Finnish, or you'll never make it through the marriage vows."