When she’d spotted the oddly-colored fruit amongst a large bag of oranges she’d bought in her recent grocery trip, Kim Li had first taken it for maybe an odd bruise, or evidence of spoiling. The orange was a deep red color, but white at the top. But with all the news about those strange fruits that granted people weird powers going around, she was too curious to just toss it out. Peeling off the outer layer revealed no bruised or rotten portions. It seemed she’d stumbled on the real deal.
Kim had a relatively good life. A stable job, a loving husband, two kids who could make themselves a pain at times, but she still loved. There was no rational reason to gamble on biting into a fruit that would almost certainly change her physically in some way, in hopes of getting some superpower that she might not even enjoy. But on the other hand this was something she wasn’t likely to come across again. While worldwide, she’d heard about hundreds of these things getting found, the world was a big place, and locally the only person she’d known who’d found one was a woman who worked at her grocery store that got turned into a living pool to version of herself, and gained the ability to slap nozzles onto people that could temporarily turn them into animate pool toys versions of themselves as well. The stories were getting more and more common, sure, but hundreds was not even one percent of one percent of billions.
And yet, despite the risk, the sweet smell of the fruit enticed her. All alone in her quiet little kitchen, the kids out playing with their friends down the street, her husband working overtime, she had nothing to remind her of what she could lose. The fear of missing something amazing grew too strong, and overwhelmed the fear of permanently enduring a horrible change. She pulled off a section of the fruit, and began to chew.
As she did so, she felt her teeth getting sharper, and her jaw stretching forward. Her eyes widened immediately, as she saw her nose turn dark and pull out to the front of her jaws, as the scents of the room around her began to grow stronger and more distinct, including the scent wafting off the remains of the fruit she’d taken a piece of; while her mind was still trying to process every other new odor she was picking up, the scent of the fruit screamed out “fox” in her mind.
“Oh please no, oh please no!” She mumbled as she scrambled to her bathroom mirror, watching in shock as red fur began to sprout from seemingly every pore on her head, with white appearing on her lower jaw, and the front of her neck. She felt her ears bend into triangular shapes, and climb an inch or two up the sides of her head, as the sounds of the house’s electronics, appliances, and air conditioning became far more prominent. She grabbed at them and her snout, trying futility to find some way to
She whimpered, feeling more fur growing from her neck, then under her clothes, then spreading down her arms and legs. It passed her sleeves, letting her watch it progress again. As it passed her elbows, the growing fur switched from red to black, and stayed that way all the way down to her fingertips. Her fingernails began to dissolve as little black claws began to poke through the skin and fur instead, accompanied by little leathery pads both her fingertips and her palms.
Black fur had already spread below her knees, and her feet quickly snapped upward into a digitigrade stance as they became narrower. Her toes shrank and curled back, becoming the hind paws of a fox, complete with little claws growing in place of nails, and soft pads.
Finally, she felt an unpleasant growth in the spine as it began to stretch down, past her rear. Hesitantly, she reached back and pulled it out from her pants before it got a chance to slide down her pant leg, awkwardly trying to keep her pants up despite them never being meant for a third appendage. The new tail grew out longer and longer, the red fur rising up from it becoming incredibly, almost parodically fluffy, nearly as long and wide as the rest of her body.
She looked at her new form in dismay; “foxy” was not the look she had been hoping for. She barely looked like her old self, she barely even looked human, anymore, and none of her pants would fit without modifying them. Her only hope now was that whatever power she’d picked up from the fruit with this body would be worth it all. But what power could come along with a form like this?
Her ears twitched as she heard the front door opening. Intentionally or not, she might find out what “power” she’d gained soon enough.