Cerise glanced around. There was no way she was opening that drawbridge. She could see stairs going up and down, but she had no real hope of evading the witch in her own home, assuming either path even led to a way out. She also spotted a weapon rack -- but she was no warrior. She'd come here to find help, after all!
This is so unfair. She clenched her hands, tears forming at the edges of her eyes. But there was no use whimpering; she obviously wasn't going to move this sorceress with pleading.
"If I..." She swallowed, hard. "If I accept your terms, you will... let me go? Without harming me?"
"Of course, my dear. What would be the point of harming you? You'd be unable to fulfill my command then."
"And... this command...?"
"In due time, dearie. I promise it won't bring you to harm, and won't interfere with your vengeance, should you choose to pursue it."
Vengeance. Cerise grimaced. What hope do I have for that now? What hope did she have for anything? Finding something or someone benevolent at this tower had been quite literally her last hope. With that so cruelly shattered, what was the point in further resistance?
"Very well." She sighed. "Just get it over with." She paused. "It won't hurt, will it?"
"Don't resist, and it shouldn't."
That's encouraging, Cerise thought wryly, but she did her best to relax, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. She had nothing to lose, after all -- the sorceress couldn't do anything worse to her than what she'd already suffered.
The sorceress wasted no more words, raising her arms and beginning to chant. A circle of light appeared around Cerise, lines running out from it into a complex pattern of shapes and embedded glyphs; and inward to Cerise.
She felt it as the light touched her feet, the flow of magic up into her. At first she willed herself to remain calm, to remain accepting.
Just let it happen...
But while she tensed at first, at the foreign touch, the sensation of the power penetrating her was... not what she was expecting. It was warm, almost soothing as she let it permeate her, like a hot bath. She continued to breathe deeply, letting her tension go, feeling it easier and easier to relax in the magic's embrace, allowing it to flow through her unrestricted. Her own flesh began to glow as it took in the power.
She could no longer hear the sorceress' voice for the song in her ears, distant notes of magic faintly vibrating beneath the rushing of her own blood. She felt light, and realised, dream-like, that she was actually floating, the magic lifting her from the floor --half a foot, one foot, two feet, three. Streamers of light spiraled up from the edges of the circle around her, into her, as her body's own glow grew brighter and brighter; a display of beauty that only the sorceress' eager eyes were privy to.
Cerise lifted her own hands slightly, palms up, welcoming the caress of the magic pouring into her. She felt her clothes dissipate from her, her old rags misting away. Now she floated naked in front of the sorceress, but she didn't care. Indeed Cerise for the moment had forgotten the terms she'd agreed to, caught up in the unexpected euphoria of the enchantment. She felt freed, the spell cleansing her of the tragedy of her old life.
Then she felt the change begin. It wasn't painful, but it was strange. It was like something was... pushing, from within her. At her fingernails; her face; her groin; her spine. All over her. She tensed a bit at that, and felt a twinge of pain in her ears and teeth and fingers.
Relax. Accept. A deep breath. "Ah!" The feelings were intensifying. Her skin prickled as a pelt -- red tinted with pink on her back and sides, white on her front, black on her lower etremities and the edges of her ears -- began to emerge. Claws begin to push out under nails. There was a growing tightness in her lower body, organs churning, increasing pressure in her spine and in two points on her lower abdomen.
Relax. Accept. Relax... She focused on the warmth, the power inside her, and let it mold her. The pain faded, the tension eased away from cramping and towards the coiled excitement of a limbered athlete. The power fused with her soul, and she began to grow into the form the power demanded to house it.
The pressure in her face melted out into a slender, intelligent muzzle, red and white, with black markings near the wet nosepad. Her ears flowed up, the pressure in her ear canals released with a satisfying pop. Behind her eyelids, her irises changed to gold ringed with black, her pupils becoming elliptical, keen to the sense of motion.
Her hair also grew longer, a somewhat darker, more definite red in contrast to the more pink shade of her fur. Her breasts became rounder, fuller, heavier. Her malnourished form filled out, and gained muscle that she had never had before, giving her torso a sleek, predatory form that mingled fox and woman.
But all this was nothing compared to what was going on inside, and in her lower body. A tail had appeared, wiggling above her expanding butt. But her hips weren't just growing to child-bearing proportions, and the tail wasn't the only extension to her spine. The pressure on her front resolved as two nubs formed and pushed out, becoming defined as forepaws, vulpine in shape and black fur but over-sized.
Her hips drew back, expanding and twisting down, muscle and bone growing and realigning into a quadruped's hindquarters. Another pair of hips formed below her ribcage, supporting her new forelimbs. And the two pairs of limbs grew further and further apart as a second ribcage formed between them, her lower body continuing to expand.
What is... happening... to me... The thought slipped silently from her as the change neared its climax. Her breathing became faster as the soothing heat of the spell became something more intense. The vague sense of her organs shifting and redistributing themselves through her much larger body focused down to her genitals, now distant between her hind legs. Her pussy had grown in proportion to her body, but it also altered, flesh becoming black, human lips puffing out into a vixen's spade.
But even that was not what drew her attention. An entirely new reproductive system was forming within her. A powerful new lust began to suffuse her, finally breaking her from the peaceful trance she'd been caught in. But it was not a painful change -- far from it. It was nothing if not pleasurable as the hot power grew hard and long along her rear underbelly, transmuting to phallic flesh swelling out around a baculum, pushing out of a new satin-furred tube. Large, potent testes forming and falling into place behind it, making her breath catch and heart pound harder and faster as new hormones flooded her system.
She arched her back, yowling on the verge of orgasm, acutely aware of her erect nipples -- both on her now larger breasts and the eight hidden in her underbelly fur -- her heated pussy, and that ponderous new assembly throbbing beneath her. Thoughts of relaxing and accepting were gone -- now she needed release!
But at that, the spell ended. The euphoria began to drain as the light faded and she sank back to the floor. She opened her eyes, blinking as they struggled to adjust to the fading brightness, focusing once more on the sorceress, now smug in triumph. Then Cerise's feet touched the stone -- all four of them.