As school ended, Jennifer hopped down the stairs and halted beside Rich, who put his arm around her armless shoulders. She leaned into his side and they both watched the six-breasted pig girl Kyle struggle to open the door of her mother's car with her forehooves, before giving up and waiting for someone else to do it. She saw the kangaroo girl and her boyfriend watching her from twenty yards away and blushed furiously, pacing back and forth in frustration. The loud clicking of her built-in shoe-hooves on the sidewalk just added to her embarrassment, and she stopped, shoulders bowed in defeat.
Jennifer looked up at Rich. "That was really cruel", she said.
He glanced down at her. "I know, but was it any worse than what he did to you? And tried to do to me?" She shrugged helplessly. He was right, but it still felt wrong somehow, taking someones life away from them forever. Had she really been so mean to Kyle that this had seemed like fitting revenge to him. Perhaps she WAS to blame for at least some of this.
Rich looked at her, guessing some of what was going through her mind. "Look, for better or worse it's done. He has the curse but can never pass it on or even talk about it, so hopefully that's the end of the damn thing. You're stuck like that, but I'll always be there for you. There's nothing that anyone can do to change the situation now."
She was quiet for a while, holding up a forepaw and staring at it while wiggling the clawed digits. This was what she would have for the rest of her life. Could she live like this?
After a minute or two she sighed, turned to Rich and said, "Come on. I need to call my mother and let her know where I am. Let's go back to your place, I can't face going home at the moment." He nodded, and they began walking (and hopping) towards Rich's home. He was hoping that since he had returned to normal, his SUV would also have reappeared and would be waiting for him when they got there.
As it turned out, it was, and he patted it as they went past. Inside, he sat down in the living room while Jennifer squatted next to him, supported by her tail. They talked for hours, trying to decide what they should do next. There was a year left of high school, and they would be old enough to marry if they so chose after that. Then what, though? College, followed by university, had been what both were planning, but it would be very difficult for a half-kangaroo girl to deal with either, especially without any real hands.
Eventually, she said firmly, "I'm going to try, at least. There are people with far worse disabilities that manage to live full, functional lives, and I'm damned if I'm going to let a little thing like being a weird marsupial hybrid get in the way of doing something with my life."
Rich smiled at her with love in his eyes. She thought for a moment, and added, "Anyway, technically I'm not even disabled. I'm perfectly healthy, just a perfectly healthy kangarootaur. I'm not going to let that stop me." She stood as straight as her body would allow and crossed her forelegs over her kangaroo chest. They wouldn't go as far as human arms would under the same circumstances, but the effect was the same.
Grinning, Rich said "OK, you've made your point, and I agree. Like I said, I'll always be there to help. Now, are you planning on calling your mother?" Jennifer yelped, attempted to put her hands on her cheeks in surprise, and scowled when the limitations of her new body once more became apparent. Even after two days, she kept forgetting.
"I forgot. Where's the phone?" He pointed, and she bounded over to it, then realised she couldn't pick it up or dial a number. Or, for that matter, hold it to her ear. "OK, this is going to be more of a nuisance than I was thinking. Can you dial for me?" Rich came over and dialled the number she told him, then held the phone to the side of her head. She was forced to bend her ear down somewhat to be able to hear it properly, as her kangaroo ears weren't in the conventional position, but managed.
After a short conversation, which mainly involved being told off for not coming home after school or telling her parents where she was going (apparently they hadn't realised she had spent last night with Rich, for some reason probably due to the curse), she calmed her mother down and told her she was studying with a friend and would be home late. Which was almost true.
She was dreading going home, not wanting her parents and sister to see her like this, but realised that logically they believed she had ALWAYS been like this, like everyone else did. Presumably her house was even set up for a kangarootaur.
After the phone call, she stood looking out the window for some time, deep in thought. Rich left the room after a while and made some snacks in the kitchen, the brought the food and a bottle of wine in. They snuggled on the sofa, watching a dvd and drinking. A couple of hours later both were slightly feeling the effects of the alcohol, but had held off drinking as much as the night before.
Jennifer looked at Rich who was resting his head on her shoulder, and shyly asked, "Can you help me get this halter off?" He glanced down in mild surprise, then realised what she meant. Her huge breasts wobbled around as the garment was removed, and soon he was naked as well. They just fooled around a little for some time, Rich lifting and fondling her enormous breasts, and tugging lightly on her ridiculously long nipples. She found she really enjoyed the feeling this generated, and watched in amazement as her nipples lengthened and stiffened to the point they looked like small penises.
Eventually they got more into it, and inevitably were working out all over again how sex between a kangarootaur and a human worked, having forgotten most of what they'd learned last night due to the large amount of wine consumed. It took quite a lot of maneuvering and giggling, but they managed, and it was even better than before. Once more she had multiple orgasms, much more intense than she had ever managed as a human. This strange body definitely seemed to have some advantages in this area. It didn't make up for the whole being half-kangaroo thing, but it helped.
She leaned back against the sofa, watching Rich who had gone to get more wine. She frowned, staring at his chest. Something looked wrong, but it took her a moment to work out what it was. It suddenly struck her. "Rich? There's something weird going on with your nipples!" he looked down at his chest and nearly dropped the open wine bottle. His nipples seemed to be sticking out much more than the should.
He put the bottle on the small side table near the sofa, and reached up to feel his nipples. Touching them send a wave of sexual feelings rolling though him. This definitely wasn't normal. What was happening? He knelt down next to Jennifer, who had pushed herself up to all four legs and tail, with her torso reared back. She leaned forward, inspecting him closely, and realised that not only were his nipples much longer and thicker than normal, but they were growing steadily. And the growth was getting faster!
Rich was very worried by now. What the hell was going on? A strange swelling sensation began around his nipples, which were by now over an inch long. As they both stared openmouthed, his chest began to expand into breasts. The mammaries grew and grew, staying firm but expanding over more and more of his chest. They realised more or less simultaneously that they were going to end up duplicates of the ones sprouting from Jennifer.
"The curse!" shouted Rich. "It's got to be. But HOW?" He reached up and lifted his by now huge breasts, which were still growing. They were very heavy, but incredibly sensitive to the touch. He let go hurriedly, and winced when they flopped down and rebounded, slapping together in the process. He stood and paced around the room, frowning when he realised that his breasts were swaying from side to side and bouncing up and down. By now they had stopped growing, but were indeed identical to Jennifer's.
"I don't understand", said Jennifer, staring at him. "You stopped Kyle from passing the curse on, and neither one of us has it anymore. How could it be affecting you now?" She looked more closely. His ears were slowly changing shape and position, sliding up the sides of his head and sprouting fur.
He stopped and swung to face her, again wincing when his lavish breasts kept going, the right one slapping into the left and bouncing off it. They were incredibly elastic, wobbling back and forth several times until they settled down. "I have no idea. I thought I'd worked out all the loopholes and plugged them." He became aware of his ears and raised his hands to feel them, as they settled into their final configuration, obviously the ears of a kangaroo. Just like Jennifer's.
He felt something odd happening just above his rear, and reached back. The beginnings of a kangaroo tail were slowly developing. Both of them racked their brains trying to work it out. Over the next few minutes his tail grew in, and forelegs sprouted from his hips. The change seemed to pause there for a while, and he eventually tried sitting down. His tail made this very awkward, and he ended up lying on his side on the floor near Jennifer. She reached out with a foreleg and stroked one of his breasts. The feelings this engendered were very nice, and he didn't complain.
Nothing more happened for a while, but he was becoming more and more aroused by her paw on his huge breast. He reached up and began playing with his nipples, rolling and tugging them. His erection was throbbing away, and still keeping his hands on his breasts he began to stroke his penis with his forepaws.
His midsection tingled, and the beginnings of a pouch developed. He stared down at it, and jumped when Jennifer suddenly shouted in triumph. "I've got it!" she said with a mix of excitement and worry. Rich looked at her, one forepaw still stroking his penis gently, but dropping his hands from his breasts.
"What?" he asked.
She rolled to her feet, hopping around the room in excitement and waving her forepaws to emphasise her words. "I know what happened. It's obvious, what he said when he cursed me, but we missed it. He said 'When you have sex with him, he will change into an exact duplicate of you, the exception being that he will keep his face and voice to remind him of what he once was.' Don't you see? Kyle said 'when' I had sex with you. Not ONCE I had sex with you, but WHEN. The curse is still active. You made him change you back, but as soon as I had sex with you again it reactivated and changed you again, just like he said."
Rich stared at her in disbelief. She was right. He groaned in annoyance, then looked at her again. "OK, I can see what you mean. But then, how do you explain this?" He grabbed his breasts with his hands, and waved his left foreleg at the rest of his strangely mutated body. "Why didn't I change back completely? I'm only half-changed into a kangarootaur." Climbing to his feet, he looked down at himself, turning his head to see his tail. His pouch had finished developing while she was speaking but other than that there were no signs of the transformation going any further.
She stopped and looked at him. It was a good point. Eventually she replied, "The only thing I can think of is that the curse is maybe losing it's strength somehow. I mean, I have no idea how this magic works, before yesterday I'd have said there was no such thing as magic, but perhaps having the transformation reversed and then started again used up some of whatever powers it."
"I suppose that's possible", he said after thinking about it.
She continued slowly, thinking out loud. "You changed like this after we had sex, like Kyle's original curse said, but you only changed about half-way. When I was playing with your breasts, you changed a little more. Um, OK, I think it's triggered by sex or sex-type acts between us, but maybe now it needs us to do it more than once. Perhaps you'd change completely if we had sex again, or a couple more times..." She trailed off, the obvious conclusion hitting both of them.
He finished the thought. "And if we don't have sex, I won't change any more?" She nodded silently. Appearing both upset and relieved, he sat down on the sofa with a grunt, then muttered in annoyance and stood up again when his tail got in the way. The large muscular appendage was nearly four feet long and thicker than his arm at the point it joined his body, and really got in the way. After a little experimentation he found he was able to press the last foot or so of it on the floor and more or less sit on the rest of the tail, in effect having a built-in chair. Leaning back, he crossed his arms under his breasts and spread his forelegs as widely as he could with a quick grin. "Look, no hands!" Jennifer watched with interest, he didn't seem to be having any trouble coping with a new set of limbs oddly enough.
Becoming serious again, he went on. "So, if you're right, if we don't have sex I won't change any further. Do you think possibly I'll change back?" She shook her head.
"I doubt it. As far as I can see the curse is slowed, not stopped. I think if it's not triggered again you will just stay like you are." He looked upset.
"Well, it's better than going all the way, I guess, but it's not ideal." She glared at him, taking a single hop towards him and thrusting her huge breasts towards him as they bounced wildly.
"Yes, I know how much worse it could be, thanks very much!" He looked abashed and blushed slightly.
"Sorry" he mumbled. She calmed down, and smiled at him.
"I know what you meant, but don't rub in the fact you've changed. At least you still have hands. And you don't have to do this stupid hopping all over the place!" She moved up to him and he reached down and took her forepaws in his hands.
"I'm sorry", he said once more. "I wish there was some way of changing you back." They were both silent for a while. "Can you stand not having sex?" he asked a few minutes later. "I really don't want to go back to being a kangarootaur, but if it will make you happy I will. I love you, now and always, and I'll do whatever I must to make you happy."
Touched she gazed up at him with a smile. "You have no idea how much that means to me. There must be some way to beat this curse. I mean, look at you! You're proof it isn't all-powerful, just nearly-all-powerful. This whole situation proves magic exists, so perhaps there is other magic that can undo the curse."
Rich stared at her, dumbstruck. That hadn't occurred to him at all. "But how can we find it, if so? Neither one of us can mention the curse to anyone but each other and Kyle, and SHE certainly isn't going to help. Not that she could anyway, I made sure of that, real smart move there!"
"I don't know. But we'll find some way." He bent down slightly and hugged her for a long time.