Elim glanced up and down Ferin, noting the guardsman’s injured arm in a sling and a few minor cuts on his face and arms that seemed to be healing adequately. His eyes lingered on the patch of white fur peeking out from Ferin’s collar, making him narrow his eyes.
“You’re on your feet, then? Good, we’ll be leaving soon,” the prince said simply, clasping his hands behind his back in a gesture of confidence that was undermined by the nervous and very obvious twitching of his ears. Despite the fact that the prince was dressed in a commoner's clothes, his pompous attitude more than made up for his otherwise plain appearance.
Ferin was silent, unable to bring himself to speak out against the prince’s wishes. As much as he found the young royal’s attitude irritating, Elim was a prince and it was expected that Ferin obey his wishes. That was just how the world worked, with the common folk running themselves ragged trying to please a bunch of clueless, blue-blooded fools. Especially, it seemed, fools like Elim that were only fourth in line to the throne and had about as much chance of ever being king as Ferin did.
Tell, however, had no such reservations about speaking his mind, considering he’d been raised by his no-nonsense father for as long as he could remember. In his experience, anyone who swaggered onto the scene and began making demands of others was just asking to be smacked down a few pegs.
“Ferin is still hurt. He’s not going anywhere,” Tell said quietly, placing a paw gently on Ferin’s shoulder. “And he is a guest in my family’s home, so his safety is my first priority…”
Elim glanced at the smaller otter for a short moment, completely disregarding the young man’s speech before turning back to Ferin.
“We’re leaving. If he’s got a problem with it, then that’s his problem,” Elim replied pointedly, starting to turn away and try to find his way back to Kessen’s cabin to prepare himself. “Get whatever you need and let’s try to be out of here by-“
“I think we should stay right here, Prince Elim.”
Ferin had finally managed to find his voice, encouraged by Tell’s bravery in standing up to the pompous royal without any hesitation. He was trained enough to know that wandering around through the wilderness with a wounded arm and no map was a terrible idea, and even if that weren’t the case he wasn’t sure he’d want to spend that time babysitting a prince with no survival skills.
“What you think is not important. I said-“ Elim began, but Ferin quickly cut him off.
“We’re in this mess because of you and your royal family. How about you listen to people who actually know what they’re doing for once in their lives?” Ferin replied coldly, making the prince stop dead in his tracks. Ferin knew he’d crossed a line and he’s probably regret it, but gods if it hadn’t felt good to say it. He closed his eyes and held his breath, waiting for the prince’s fury to rain down upon him.
But it didn’t come. After a tense few minutes, Ferin opened one of his eyes when he heard a quiet, shuddering breath, and he saw a few tears start to drip down the prince’s cheek. Elim quickly wiped them away, hating being seen like this by a bunch of commoners (and beastmen, to boot).
“I didn’t want to come, you know. You think I wanted to stuff myself into a carriage for weeks, just to visit some backwater city like Tulis?” the prince replied quietly. “To leave my friends behind? My sister? But I had a duty to go when my father and brothers ordered it, just like you did, guardsman.”
The prince stopped and reached up to gently tug at the rabbit ears sprouting from his head, letting out a quiet whine as he felt the soft fuzz between his fingers.
“If I don’t hurry back… Will my friends and family even recognize me anymore?” he despaired, the tears now flowing freely down his cheeks as he turned to look straight at Ferin. “Will yours? Don’t think I have seen that white stuff poking out from your collar. That’s not just chest hair, and these things on my head aren’t a cute fashion accessory! Something’s changing us, and it’s not going to stop until we’re just like them.”
Elim pointed straight to Tell, who backed up a couple of steps in surprise at the prince’s sudden accusation.
“Your Highness, you can’t say that! I’m just as confused as you, but Tell and his father have been perfect hosts to me, and the rest of the village healed both of us. We’d be dead without them!” Ferin exclaimed, putting a hand on Tell’s furry shoulder reassuringly.
“But they haven’t told you what happened, have they? I bet you noticed that fur and asked about it, and they told you ‘We’ll explain later’, right!?” Elim shot back, his voice strained and panicked. “Well, they’ll keep pushing that ‘later’ back until it’s too late! Then you’ll just be another beast in the woods, a fox or a beaver or a deer or something even worse! Not a man, not a human, not anymore!”
As Elim continued to rant and sling his accusations, he didn’t notice the tall, furry, orange shape approaching him silently from behind. Kessen reached out and grabbed the prince by the back of his tunic and lifted him into the air, letting his feet dangle and kick futilely.
“Put me down, tiger! Or I swear, I’ll-“
“You’ll what? Make an even bigger fool of yourself?” Kessen replied, sounding more amused than anything else. “Our tribe has given you so much. Food, healing, shelter, and most importantly advice. We understand that you are afraid, but you are making a poor impression on us of your so-called ‘royal family’. Settle yourself down and we’ll find a way out of this. Getting frustrated will only make this more difficult.”
Elim let out an almost bestial snarl at being called a fool, but eventually Kessen’s words seemed to sink in. He went slack in the tiger’s grip and his ears drooped down, making him look completely defeated and mortified. He continued to silently cry his eyes out as the reality of everything began to sink in; he was leagues away from anyone who knew him and weeks from being rescued, and he had already had (in the elders’ words) his very soul warped into something savage and animalistic.
“I just want to go home…” Elim whimpered, his muscles feeling both tight and weak at the same time. The prince thought this was strange for a moment, but he chalked it up to some lingering fatigue from his injuries.
“And you’ll get home. Just don’t make any more absurd demands of our tribe or put us in danger,” Kessen said as he gently lowered the prince back down to the ground. “You’ll be fine, trust us…”
However, just as Elim’s feet touched the ground, he knew something was very wrong. His feet slid around in his boots, throwing him off-balance and making him tumble down to the ground. Kessen could see that the prince’s footwear no longer fit him like they had just a few minutes earlier, and he curiously kneeled down and slowly removed the prince’s boots to investigate.
“Oh, my… This is…” Kessen muttered, his long tail twitching behind him and betraying his otherwise calm demeanor.
At the end of the prince’s legs were a pair of slender yet sturdy paws coated in a thick brown fur that matched the color of Elim’s long ears. Hidden away inside Elim’s boots, the bones and muscles of the young man’s legs had warped and shifted, lengthening his ankles and putting all his weight on the tips of his robust four-toed paws, which were each tipped with a short, black claw. Brown fur had spread all the way up to the middle of Elim’s calves, making it look almost like he’d slipped his feet into a pair of furry socks, but the wiggling of his toes and the twitching of his new claws made it clear that these paws were not coming off anytime soon.
“So, Ferin’s got white fur and the prince has rabbit’s feet… You two really are lucky, aren’t you?” Tell murmured as the others just stared in amazement at how much Elim’s body had already changed. Elim gazed at the alien paws tipping his feet, lifting one of them up off the ground to get a better look. He reached out and gently touched the fuzzy paws, confirming that they truly were his feet. An animal’s feet.
The edges of Elim’s vision went white and all the strength left his body. The last thing he heard as his head hit the ground was Kessen saying, “Damn it… Tell, get your father! I’m bringing him back to your home to rest… Toreg’s better at dealing with overgrown kids than me…”
“Right! Hey, what’s that supposed to mean!?” Tell protested before rushing off to find his dad in the village, while Kessen hoisted Elim up into his arms for the second time before confidently walking toward Toreg’s house just down the path, leaving Ferin looking around wildly at the sudden flurry of activity…