As Flynn helped himself to another drink from the fountain, memories of the new reality came to me just like the first time I used the book, without overwriting my old ones. I now remembered meeting back in highschool, (still a snake-man, even back then) and my parents, thinking he seemed trustworthy, offered him a job as my own servant, paying for his education while he stayed on campus with me. And I had a bunch more memories of spending time with him, talking about fantasy, mythology, and even letting him in on one or two of my secret interests.
Then again, was telling him I found furries cool that big a secret when now he’d been born as one? (Okay, okay, he’s technically a “scalie” don’t nitpick me while I’m talking.)
The book really was something. But I couldn’t end the test at JUST that, could I? Why not find out if I could use it to introduce MORE magic into the world? It’d be a waste for this book to be the only source of magic in the world, and then just bury it once I was done, right?
I looked over at the two anime fans arguing about their favorite ‘ships. I wasn’t as into anime as some, but I did enjoy some of Japan’s mythical creatures, and being in the furry, I’d seen a healthy number of one or two particular creatures given mythical reverence.
Once again giving myself enough space to later write a “not” into each sentence, once I’d finished with my fun, I wrote down three sentences in the RealiTome.
"Brenda Verdan is a tall, slender, three-tailed kitsune anthro, and able to do all kinds of neat magic, and some shapeshifting skills as well. Natalie Christoph is a short, pleasantly plump tanuki anthro, with less general magic skill, but great shapeshifting ability. Though they have their disagreements, they're friends with each other and me, and have agreed not to pull any major pranks on me."
I watched as the page glowed with a golden light, and a similar light surrounded them. The glow continued for a few moments, without much effect, and for a minute.
I thought to myself, “Aw, what gives? Can it really not do magical creatures?”
But, just as it was fading, I saw Brenda's ears grow light brown fur, bend into a triangular shape, and move up the sides of her head, twitching slightly.
Ah, so that explained that.
I smiled and walked up to them, Flynn slithering to my side. "Hi Brenda. Hi Natalie. How are you doing?"
"Oh, hey there, Katy," Natalie said, "Brenda and I were just having a little chat about how Taichi is OBVIOUSLY meant for Izuku, and-"
"Ha!" Brenda laughed, "didn't you see the way Taichi was looking at Subaru during the last tournament but? What other explanation can there be, than a hidden longing?"
I quickly interrupted before they could get any further. "Must have been a tense argument. Your ears are showing, Brenda."
"Oh come on!" Brenda groaned, feeling at her fox ears.
"Ha ha!" Natalie chuckled. "Told you you were out of shape!"
I shrugged. "I don't see why you're trying to hide your real selves here. It's not like Flynn looks human, and nobody freaks out about him."
"It's important to practice," Brenda said, "magic, like most other skills, is 'use it or lose it.’"
"Yeah,” Natalie chimed in, “and she doesn’t have a lot left to lose.”
Brenda growled, three fox tails rapidly shooting out behind her.
I did my best to suppress a giggle. “Honestly, I just think your real forms look better than your human disguises.”
“Eh, I can agree with that,” Brenda said, as she gave up the disguise, brown fur growing all over her face. White fur grew out below her chin as it stretched out, into a long, pointed snout, her nose turned dark and wet, and her teeth sharpened. Her plain figure grew taller, her waist pinching inward while her hips widened, and her chest swelled a couple cup sizes. All her clothing, except her purse and a blue bandana she wore around her neck, seemed to flicker and distort, before fading away completely, revealing the fur beneath, white in front, brown on the back. Her hands and feet both bore blunted claws and little black pads, though her feet had changed more dramatically, her toes becoming thicker and her ankles altering for digitigrade walking.
Brenda casually stretched, and shook her shoulder-length red hair. “This is MUCH better!”
I tried not to make my staring at her slick fur and curves obvious. She wore that fur and those tails well.
I turned to Natalie. “You gonna keep up your disguise all day?”
“I mean, I CAN, but you have a point. Why hide my beauty from the world?”
With a shrug, her arms became covered in dark brown fur, the scrawny limbs getting a bit wider as she gained little claws and pads, as well. A “mask” of dark brown fur appeared around her eyes, a lighter shade covering the rest of her face as her nose and mouth grew into a short, rounded snout. Her ears grew wider as fur covered them, and then moved up toward the top of her head. Her belly began to swell slowly bigger, her boobs and butt swelling right up with it, even as her body lost nearly a foot in height. A short, fluffy tail poked out above her expanded behind, flicking around eagerly. With a snap of her fingers, all her clothing barring her backpack and a red vest (which didn’t reach far enough around her to cover her belly, much less her chest) disappeared in a puff of smoke, replaced by fallen leaves.
“Yeah, you’re looking good, Natalie,” I said. It wasn’t a lie. There was a kind of cuteness to her rounded physique, in a way I hadn’t thought of before. And judging by the way one of the Richard looked when she dropped her disguise, I probably wasn’t the only one to think so.
“Thanks, Katy!” She smiled. Then she looked up at the clock and gasped. “Uh oh! Brenda! The simulcast for ZeroXHero’s premier is almost on! We gotta go!”
“It’s pronounced ‘Zero Cross Hero,’ not ‘Zero Ecks Hero.’” Brenda’s eyes widened as she turned to the clock. “But you’re right, we gotta scoot! See you later, Katy. Don’t forget, my two-hundred-and-ninetieth birthday is this Saturday.”
And with that, the two furry girls darted for the doors. What Brenda said suddenly dawned on me.
“Flynn, did you hear what Brenda said?”
“Yes, Mistress,” he nodded. “Though I’d heard that the X in the title was supposed to be silent, myself.”
“No, not that, the part about her being two-hundred and ninety!”
“Oh, yeah, this Saturday. To think, she’ll get a fourth tail in another few years.”
Shoot. I’d completely forgotten about Kitsune getting their extra tails every one hundred years. That had some unusual implications. Like, what was she doing here in college? A new set of memories informed me that Brenda liked to use places like these to practice her disguises, which was how we’d met. I also remembered her showing off impressive fire magic, and feats like psychically rearranging the furniture in my dorm to show off.
That’s a lot to take in. I wasn’t done playing with this book, not by a longshot, but I was glad I left space to undo this change, eventually. Leaving Brenda older than her original family would have been too weird.