As soon as his afternoon classes let out, Dare stuffed his books into his backpack and headed straight for town to get his shopping done. He’d already made a list and knew where to get what he needed thanks to Max, so he hoped it would be a short in-and-out. On the way off campus, he spotted Todd and another wolf chatting, and when they passed by him Todd waved to Dare and jogged over.
“Hey, Dare! How’s it g-going?” Todd asked with a big smile on his face. Dare and the others had been quite impressed with the speed with which Todd had made his change, and even Stripes had a hard time explaining it beyond ‘he was just always meant to be a wolf’. Dare had to agree, if only thanks to the improvement to the other man’s confidence that came with becoming a wolf.
“Heya, Todd. Doing good, just need to get some shopping done,” Dare replied, then he glanced at the older wolf who Todd had been walking with. “New friend of yours? Don’t tell me that you and Sam…?”
“Huh? N-no, of course n-not!” Todd stammered, a blush visible under the shorter fur on his muzzle. “Dan’s just a member of my p-pack, and he’s teaching me… w-wolf stuff, I guess? It’s complicated, you might not understand…”
“Yeah, sounds tough. Stuff like where not to bite a skunk unless you want a face full of spray, right?” Dare laughed, raising an eyebrow at Todd’s explanation. “Well, you have fun with your ‘wolf stuff’, see you around.”
Todd tilted his head in confusion at Dare’s joke, but eventually it got a little laugh out of him. “Y-yeah, see you later, Dare!” Todd exclaimed excitedly, his tongue lolling out a bit as he ran back to Dan with his tail wagging, and once they were walking away together Dare resumed his walk into town.
Dare headed down Mane St., taking the chance to learn a few of the shops and landmarks in town. After all, if he decided to stay past the semester it never hurt to know more about the town he’d be living in. Why would you want to stay? The longer you stay here, the more you become someone else. Is that what you really want?
“Quiet. It’s complicated and you know that,” Dare muttered under his breath, walking past the local mechanic’s garage. Since it was a warm day, the garage was open to let a cool breeze in; Dare could see the team of mechanics hard at work fixing up a truck, most of them wearing little more than a loose pair of overalls and with engine oil slicking down the fur on their arms. Something about the sheer masculinity of the sight got Dare’s cock rock-hard in no time at all, and he quickly shuffled down the street to keep himself from staring at the mechanics for the rest of the day.
You’re not just a skunk. You’re a skunk that gets off to big, hunky animal men completely owning you. Just a little tweak of that little green button drilled through your nipple is enough to-
“Jesus, I’m in public!” Dare hissed quietly, then he glanced around nervously and hoping nobody noticed the outburst. He picked up the pace as we walked down Mane St. and soon he spotted the grocery store Max had advised he not shop at for his baking project. And standing right in front of the store, looking in the front window contemplatively was…
“…Curtis? You okay?” Dare asked cautiously, seeing the sheepdog had a blank look on his face and a bit of drool running down his cheek as his tongue stuck halfway out of his mouth.
“…Nah. Hungry, you know?” Curtis slurred slightly, not looking away from the display of bagged snacks that had been set up inside the grocery store. His eyes were a little unfocused, and he was quietly humming a song to himself.
“Dog, are you high or just depressed?” Dare joked, unused to seeing Curtis look so out-of-sorts. His improved sense of scent picked up a slightly acrid odor on Curtis’s fur, which told him that at the very least he’d been with someone who was imbibing. He gave Curtis a gentle shove on his shoulder, which seemed to shake the other man out of his daze a bit.
“Umm, a little of both, to be honest. I was just relaxing with Shro and Linus and needed some air… And then I got a little hungry, and then I wandered over here somehow,” Curtis said slowly, not realizing that he’d ‘wandered’ almost half a mile from the dorm. “So, what’re you doing, Dare? Getting some air, too?”
“Right now, I’m keeping you from wandering into traffic,” Dare sighed, grabbing Curtis’s paw and gently leading him down a side street. “You’re a mess, you know that? Whatever that roommate of yours gave you isn’t helping you right now…”
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Keeping a close eye on Curtis, Dare headed down a side street and eventually he found the general store that Max had recommended. The store was packed with a variety of different local goods, from handcrafted specialty foods to locally-sourced fruits, vegetables, and meats. Curtis’s eyes went wide and he began wandering the aisles and checking out the food, grabbing a couple of bags of jerky and different flavors of potato chips, while Dare just watched on with amusement.
“Fuckin’ lightweight…” Dare sighed, then he got to work getting all the flour, sugar, eggs, and chocolate (canine and feline safe, naturally) that he’d need to prepare the cake he was planning on making. He knew he’d probably end up making a spare one for the others, but most of his effort was going into the one he planned to give to Milo to apologize for how he had been treating him. Once he had gathered up his ingredients, he looked around to see where Curtis had gotten to so they could head back to campus.
“Ollie… I just wanna know what’s wrong…”
Dare could hear Curtis quietly mumbling to himself, but when he looked around he couldn’t see hide nor hair of the sheepdog. “Curtis? Where the hell did you get to, man?” Dare called out, wandering the aisles before finally spotting his friend in the farthest corner of the shop, intently contemplating a bag of something called ‘Puppy Chow’.
Dare frowned, wondering how exactly he’d managed to hear Curtis mumbling to himself all the way across the store, but then he felt something flick on top of his head. He sighed, already suspecting what it was, but just to be sure he reached up and felt a pair of small, rounded ears twitching as they stuck out from his hair. By now, nearly all of the blond had bled out of the fur atop his head, letting the deep black of his ears blend in perfectly with his dark fur, and Dare had a feeling it probably wouldn’t be too much longer until he was all skunk without even a trace of human left. Just a bit more fur on his body, arms, and legs, and of course he’d need to grow a tail. At this point, he probably more closely resembled a balding skunk instead of a furry human, a thought which was difficult for Dare to come to terms with.
But then, he thought back to the few precious nights he had spent with Milo, feeling the boar’s snout press lovingly into the fur on his back. His heart beat wildly as he remembered how Milo had complimented his little pink nose that morning. Or how Milo had tried to reassure him that Dare would look good with a coat of black-and-white fur when Dare had first realized what he would be becoming. Milo likes Dare. He’ll like you when all this is done, I’m sure of it.
“Yeah… I hope so. As long as I don’t fuck everything up again,” Dare mumbled quietly, then he tapped Curtis on the shoulder insistently. “Curtis, come on, we’re done in here. Pay for your Scooby Snacks or whatever and let’s get going!”
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Once they got back to campus, Curtis wandered back up to his room (or so Dare hoped), while Dare set up shop in the common room’s kitchen and made his plan. He’d bought extra ingredients just in case anything went wrong, but he still wanted to be as careful and cautious as possible.
‘If you don’t trust the oven, rotate the pan three times instead of just twice. And double your preheating time, just to be sure as much heat as possible gets moving around in there.’
“Thanks, ‘mom’,” Dare said, rolling his eyes at the sudden memories of Saturday morning spend baking with his mother. If he wanted to, he could have all the skills needed to bake this cake perfectly on his first try, but he’d have to be willing to dip into the experiences of his new life and risk losing more of his old one in the process.
‘You’re welcome, stinker. Don’t screw up the cake ‘cause you’re too busy talking to yourself, though.’
Dare laughed to himself and began setting out all the bowls and measuring cups he needed, working as if on autopilot as he began the long, hard process of baking his apology cake for Milo. As he worked, he grabbed his phone and sent off a quick message to Milo: Mind if I stop by tomorrow? Wanted to talk and maybe take a few pictures with you.