Danielle blinked as she realized what she was saying. True, she found Brandon more and more attractive, but if she gave in it would be doing precisely what Kat wanted her to!
"Brandon?" Danielle asked.
"Yes, sweetie?" he replied with a sly grin.
"We can't just give in and accept this. If we just do what Kat wants who knows what she'll do next? I don't think she was bluffing about being able to put us through dozens of lifetimes of whatever she wants to!"
Brandon tried to hide a frown, obviously more disappointed than he was willing to admit. He wouldn't admit it, but by now he was enjoying this new form a great deal. So much, in fact, that he sort of hoped there would be several lifetimes of it in his future.
"Okay," he replied as he did his best to put on a hopeful expression. "Either way, we still both need a bath! The tiny little stream we stopped to drink at this morning probably leads to a pond if we go back and follow it."
Danielle nodded and within five minutes the two were back at the stream - with all the chatting and soul-searching they hadn't gone very far at all that morning. It was barely an inch deep, but flowing water has to end up somewhere. The two foxes followed it downstream without speaking much, saving their energy to keep up the pace.
Brandon took the lead and Danielle followed him. For some reason she felt natural letting him take the lead. She'd usually been the decision-maker in their relationship, but since the change she found herself more willing to go with the flow. It was a good feeling, knowing she had someone to defend her, not to mention someone so sexy!
She stopped in her tracks as she realized what she had just thought. "No, that's just the body talking," she thought to herself, "keep it together, remember that this is just temporary." Even as she was mentally telling herself to focus, she realized that for the past half-mile she had been staring between Brandon's legs. She sighed at herself and continued on, doing her best to keep her eyes on the ground.
Brandon heard Danielle stop for a moment and looked back, worried that she may have tripped or hurt herself. She started moving again immediately, so he knew she was all right. Had she been staring at his equipment? She had quickly moved her eyes to the ground as soon as he looked back, but he could have sworn they were locked on him when he first looked back. Either way, he grinned to himself. He felt great! This was the first time he'd felt like a leader, and it felt fantastic! Not only did he feel in control of things, he felt powerful and more than anything felt right. He was healthy, had all the time in the world, and had a darn fine girlfriend. What more was there to want?
He knew he was getting used to this pretty fast, but he didn't care. Everything just felt so perfect. The only part he didn't like was having to do all this walking, but in this form even that felt exhilarating.
Before long, the forest ahead of the two foxes revealed open sky. Lots of open sky. The little stream did lead to a pond, but not until it went over a massive waterfall! The cliff provided the first opportunity to get a good survey of the terrain, and it was quite a shock. As far as the eye could see in every direction was miles of forest, from this height looking more like strands of grass in a field than a carpet of giant trees. There was absolutely no sign of civilization in any direction.
"Well," said Brandon, "Looks like this lifetime's going to just be you and me." He thought it sounded a little bit romantic.
Danielle sat down as the reality set in. She had been holding on to the hope of escape, or some means of reversing the spell, or even some sort of civilization that might have some way to send them back. Now the true power of Kat's spell dawned on her: There was no escape. The two of them would either learn to love it or learn to hate it, but they were there for keeps.
"Brandon?" asked Danielle.
"Yes?", he replied.
Danielle looked him in the eye as she began to sob. She collapsed into his arms as she tried to choke out her question. He held her tightly, gently kissing her on the cheek as he listened.
"What are we going to do?" she asked.