A Change Would Do You Good

                            By:

                        Fox Cutter:

07/21/1999:

I stared at the door in front of me, waiting for a reaction
from the other side of the metal. I was tempted to knock on
the door again, but not just yet. It would do to wait just a
little bit longer.

That little bit was long enough, as a moment later the door
slid open, revealing Ken on the other side. He looked both
pleased to see me, and concerned by my presence.

"How are you feeling, Fox?" he asked, as he stepped aside
and motioned for me to come in.

I walked past him into the lab, glancing around at the
various tables, and the documents and items that covered
them. Nothing had really changed since the last time I had
been there. Though I did note that he had righted the table
I had thrown over.

"I'm alright," I said to him, turning back to face him as he
closed the door. Ravindar took up position just inside of
it, looking a bit stern. "A little food and a little sleep,
and I'm back to normal."

I paused and glanced down at my hands. Flexing my fingers
slightly, I watched as the tips of my claws slid from the
tips. "Or as normal as I ever am," I said, half speaking it
to myself.

Ken placed one of his paws on my shoulder, and squeezed
gently. "Did Oriana tell you what happened?"

I nodded. "Some of it; it didn't make a lot of sense to
either of us. What I do know is that apparently I really am
a full lioness now."

"Yes. At least your soul is. It was a change that I
suspected, but believed couldn't happen." He gave a long
sigh, "I believed a lot of things couldn't happen with you.
Sadly the soul sickness was proof that nearly all of them
did."

I nodded again, and smiled slightly. "At least I understand
it now. That's a start."

He smiled a bit in return. "Did your other self get home
safely?"

"Yep, Little Fox went home yesterday," I replied. "It was
nice that he stayed until I was feeling better. That was a
pleasant surprise."

He flicked his wings slightly, and nodded. "Do you know when
he'll be back?"

I shrugged. "No, I don't, not exactly. Before he left we
worked on his ability as a natural. He knows how to get here
on his own now, and has an open invitation to do so."

Ken nodded, and folded his wings back. "That's good. I hope
I get a chance to talk to him when he does. I want to get a
better look at that curse of his."

I smiled, "Of course. So, my friend, what do you have
planned for me?" I asked, moving back to the point of my
visit.

He smiled a bit in return, and flicked his wings slightly.
"We have a lot to do right now. I need to test a few things
before I can be sure of exactly what is going on."

"Alright, but I have a question first. What exactly did you
give me that caused me to shift forms. I thought you
couldn't do that?"

A slight frown crossed over his face, but he shook it off
after a moment. "Things have changed. Allow me to show you,"
he said, and turned, walking between the tables of his lab.

I followed just after his tail, curious as to what he was up
to. He hadn't been expecting me to ask that question, or
perhaps he just wanted to tell me something first. If it
were important, I hoped he still would.

As we came up to Ken's workspace he picked up a pitcher of
water from the desktop. He poured some of it out into a
glass and waved his paw over it, muttering a few words.

When that was completed he looked into the water, swishing
it around in the glass for a moment. After a few moments of
inspecting he looked satisfied.

"Here," he said, offering me the glass.

I took it from him, glancing down at it. "What is this
suppose to be?"

He reached over and took my glasses from my face. "It's what
I gave you before. This will shift you into the fox-morph
form that Oria gave you.

I squinted my eyes, looking closer at the glass. It looked
just like water, in every way I could see at the moment.

With a shrug I raised the glass to my mouth and gulped it
down. It tasted just like normal Corban water as well. From
what I could tell, it was just plain old water.

It only took a moment to tell that it wasn't just ordinary
water. Suddenly I lost a few inches, and shifted unsteadily.
Losing my balance, I fell out of my shoes.

Ken was at my side in an instant to catch me before I could
fall. Gently he helped me back onto my now digitigrade feet.
I looked down at myself in surprise, staring at my hands,
now paws.

He was right; I had shifted to my fox form.

"That's some powerful stuff," I commented.

He smiled, and presented me with another glass. "You haven't
seen anything yet. This one will turn you into your morphic
lioness form."

I nodded, taking it from him, and downing it just as
quickly. With a short spurt of growth, I was changed once
more, back to standing flat on my feet, and female.

"I'm impressed," I told him, handing him back the glass. "I
didn't even have to take off the pendant."

Ken nodded, his smiling fading for a moment. "I'll explain
that soon. Here," he handed me a third glass, "this will
turn you back to a human."

"Right," I said as I took the glass. A moment later I was
back to my usual self, and half-blind again.

Ken fixed that by handing me back my glasses, as he took the
water glass away from me. I returned them to my face, to
find my friend looking a bit stoic.

"So, this stuff can counter the curse?" I asked, a bit
hopeful. The thought of being able to remove myself from the
leash that was the pendant was pleasing.

He paused, and shook his head. "I don't know, Fox. I think
it might be able to, and after what just happened I'm damn
near sure of it."

I tilted my head, looking over my friend's face. "What
aren't you telling me, Ken?"

He picked up the water jug, and held it out in front of
himself, almost like a shield. "This is just normal water,
Fox. There is nothing special about it. I did nothing to it
at all, no spells, no magic, it was just ordinary tap
water."

I frowned, lifting my hand to press my fingers against my
lips. "Water, but then... How?"

"It's a placebo effect," he said, pulling his wings closer
to himself. "You believed it would cause you to shape-shift,
so it did so. But it has no real power, it was just a way
for you to use your own abilities."

"What?" I asked, in disbelief.

He reached out, and touched the pendant through the fabric
of my shirt. "The pendant has no effect on you, and I
believe the norm-shift stone is the same. There's no magic
here anymore, the spells on the pendant broke months ago. As
close as I could tell, it happened the moment you put it on,
after you gained your morphic lioness form."

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open in shock. "Ken, if
those spells have broken, how can I possibly be human? I
thought that was the only thing that allowed me to be in
that form,"

"The power is in you, Fox. Somehow, and I don't yet know
how, you have become a shape-shifter."

"What?" I asked again, totally dumbfounded.

Ken's paw was suddenly on my shoulder, as he guided me down
to sit on a chair. "You can change form at will. Though it's
not something you can do consciously at the moment, as you
were not previously aware of it. You've been using the
pendant and the norm-shift stones as keys to the power, but
they no longer hold it."

I shook my head, trying to understand this. It was too much
to take in at once, so I tried to break it down into
digestible bites.

"The pendant has no real power now?"

He nodded, "That's correct, Fox, that's why you were able to
change back to human earlier when you were dealing with
Cain. It was just a hunch on my part at the time. I knew
something had to be going on as soon as I discovered all the
spells had broken."

"Since I first used the norm-shift stone?"

He nodded again.

"But then, how is it possible?" I asked.

Ken flicked his wings, sitting down on the edge of his desk.
"Your ability to shape-shift, from the best I can tell,
absorbed the changed form."

I rested my head in my hand. "This is heavy," I muttered.

The dragon sighed. "Very heavy. The same thing happened to
the morphic lioness form, and the fox form. I think it's why
you were occasionally shifted into it last year. Sometimes
some random magic or some flicker of thought would cause it
to happen."

"Like my flashbacks," I said.

He nodded. "Something like that. The best I can guess, your
ability to shape-shift was still very unstable at the time.
Which is why it hasn't happened for a few months."

"Right, right. But how did my soul change?"

"That was the curse's fault," he replied. "The change was
total, in every way. It remade you body, mind and soul. The
mind came back, split with Rhea, and I was able to somewhat
restore the body, but the soul stayed the same."

I nodded. "I'm just a lioness who can become human." I said.
"I've known it for a while, but this is the final nail in
that coffin."

He sighed again. "The shape-shifting has also absorbed the
curse, in the same fashion as the fox form. I can never
remove it now."

"I don't want you to, Ken," I said with a slight smile. "And
it's not a curse, not really, not anymore. It's a blessing."

He nodded. "I'm glad to see you've come to terms with it,
Fox. The shape shifting ability is also the reason why you
and Rhea are still alive."

"What?"

"It's true. When Rhea killed you, she did it completely,
your mind was wiped out, destroyed. Fox, you were gone then,
dead. When Rhea was nearly killed in the fall, the shifting
ability forced you back."

"Wow," I said, rubbing my forehead again.

"It's also the reason why Rhea became a person in her own
right. It seems to have tried to merge the two of you,
creating the nearly perfect double of you to become the Rhea
we know."

I leaned back in the chair. "The same Rhea who has no rights
at the moment..." I said, and then frowned. "It also means
that, as I'm a lioness like her, I have no rights either.
Shit, we're going to have to keep this very secret."

Ken nodded again.

"So, when did this start?"

He paused for thought, as he flicked his wings out about a
foot from his body, before he pulled them back in. "I'm not
sure. I first noticed, something, that might have been it
when I was studying the body-swap spell on you and Oriana."

"Two years now, that's quite a while."

"I know. I refused to believe it, Fox. I could not accept
that what I was seeing was what I was seeing. It had to be
something else. So I ignored some of the signs. It was my
arrogance that made you sick, Fox. If I had believed what I
was seeing, I would never have let you go so long without
shifting back to a lioness."

I bit my lip, thinking about that. I had every right to be
mad at him. What was a serious situation could have become
life or death if I had waited a few more days. "I
understand, Ken," I said, "It's hard to see past what we
believe. I'm not mad at you, but please don't let it happen
again."

He nodded. "All right, Fox."

"And calling it my lioness form isn't quite right anymore.
Perhaps my true self should be better," I observed.

"Perhaps," Ken replied, not sounding too pleased with the
suggestion.

I adjusted myself in the chair, flexing my fingers slightly,
feeling the claws slip out once more. "Do you know where
this ability came from?"

"Not really," he said with a sigh. "It's almost like an
infection. It started growing in your blood, and has moved
into the rest of your body."

"Well, as it saved my life, I can't really argue that it's a
bad thing," I said. Then reached up to feel the top of my
head, pressing my fingers down on the small growths under
the skin.

"What about the horns?" I asked.

Ken blinked in surprise, and let out a low growl-like hum.
"I'm still not convinced you have them. That fact that the
idea comes from one of your enemies makes it difficult to
take seriously."

"I know, but I've had my new doctor looking into it. He's
not sure what the growths are, but they are not really
bone."

"Really?" he asked, a look of curiosity on his face. "May I
see, then?"

I nodded, leaning forward in the chair, and lowering my
head.

Ken reached forward, and placed his claw-fingers on the top
of my head. He felt around for a short time, pressing gently
until each thumb came to rest over the small bumps.

He pressed down, and started to whisper words under his
breath. I shivered, feeling a strange tingling running over
my skull. It wasn't a wholly unpleasant feeling.

A minute passed before he pulled his hands away, looking a
bit concerned. "There is magic in there in some form. I'm
not sure if it's from the shape-shifting, or something
else."

"Well, it's something to look into," I said, looking up at
him, as I leaned back in the chair.

"I suppose so."

"So, if I'm a shape-shifter, I can control this, right?"

"Right. I'm not quite sure how you can consciously do it.
Right now it's something you can control when you think it
should happen."

I nodded, fishing my hand down the front of my shirt.
Grasping the pendant in my fingers I lifted it out, and over
my head. A moment later I was once again female.

Ken tilted his head, looking puzzled at my course of action.

Taking a deep breath, I reached back over, and picked the
pendant up. As soon as it was in my hand, I was human again.

"Wow," I said with a soft purr. "I'm not locked for three
days as a female. I can come and go as I please."

He nodded. "Yes."

I set the pendant to the side again, feeling the change
sweep over me for the sixth time that day. This time it left
me feeling a bit dizzy.

"Ugh," I said, placing a paw against my head, and pulling my
glasses off.

Ken was at my side again, his paws on my shoulders. "You're
not that strong Fox. Shifting drains you; doing it a lot in
a short time will leave you weak. I think it's best for you
to stay like this for a bit, then stay as a human for the
next few days."

"Right," I said with a nod. "That's probably a good idea."

He nodded, and returned to his perch on the edge of the
desk. "There are still limits on your ability. Fox. You're
going to have to spend some time as a full lioness each
month. Otherwise you'll become soul-sick again. The only way
to truly be safe is to go back to the three days. At least
you're not on as tight a schedule. You might be able to go
as long as forty days between your times in full form."

"Well, that's better than before," I said with a sigh.
"Anything else I should know about?"

Ken nodded. "Many things," he said, a very serious look on
his face.

* * *

Later that day, and back to being human, I entered the
shipyard. I was heading for a meeting I had scheduled a few
days before, and didn't plan to miss.

My head was still swimming from everything Ken had told me.
A lot of just pure speculation on his part, but it was all
we had to go on at the moment. It was weighing heavily on
me, settling into the pit of my stomach like a rock.

He had spent a couple of hours trying to teach me how to use
this shape-shifting power on my own, but with no luck. The
pendant was a crutch, a stone around my neck in even more
ways. Somehow, I had to force myself past that, to learn how
to actively control these powers.

I let out a short burst of laughter as I walked. Funny, I
had 'Powers' now, like some sort of comic book superhero. It
was so completely not who I was, it struck me as funny.

Not that I didn't have a power to begin with. Being a
natural was one that took a lot of skill and control to
learn how to properly use. Little Fox's visit had reminded
me of that.

To me, it was a power, but not a 'Power'. Not like the
shape-shifting now was. It felt somehow different, something
more dynamic than being a natural was.

Of course, I wouldn't have given up being a natural for my
life. The shape-shifting power was too new to me to be
considered in one way or another. It was just there for the
time being.

Shaking my head, I cleared away such thoughts, and pushed
open the door to one of the small conferences rooms at the
shipyard. Milgrove was already there, waiting for me.

Sie was settled in a chair, reading a book with a leg kicked
to one side. Sie was a flying squirrel morph, who could
actually fly, and _The Falcon's_ pilot. When the shipyard
had started production, sie had joined up to train the test
pilots, and was now their manager.

"Hello, Fox," sie said as I entered, and marked hir place in
the book.

"Sorry I'm late," I told hir, pulling out a chair and
sitting down myself. "My last meeting went a bit long."

Sie waved a paw in the air, and smiled at me. "Don't worry
about it. I know how busy you are."

"Not as much as I used to be," I replied, glancing over at
hir. Sie was dressed in something akin to coveralls that had
been built to work with hir anatomy.

Sie set hir book down on the table, and leaned forward
slightly, "so, what did you want to talk to me about?" sie
asked, the overhead lights catching on the small pair of
horns that were between hir ears.

I began to speak, but stopped before I got a sound out. My
attention was drawn directly to hir horns.

Right before Oria and I had our bodies swapped, I had been
shot, and came very close to dying. The only reason I had
survived at all was because Jadith had come along, and was
able to heal me.

But I had lost a lot of blood, and she had to do a
transfusion from someone else. The only person whose biology
had been compatible had been Milgrove.

And right after that had been when Ken first noticed the
infection.

I reached up and touched the top of my head, where the
growths under the skin were, and decided to take a leap.

"Milgrove, are you a shape-shifter?"

Sie narrowed hir eyes slightly, looking hard at me as sie
shifted slightly in the chair. "I don't quite understand the
question," sie said.

"I think it's pretty plain, and quite direct," I replied.

"True," sie said, twisting hir ears back slightly. "I'm
trying to understand the context of it."

I sighed, and shook my head. "The context is that some how
I've become one, in a very limited capacity. It started as
an infection in my blood, that has spread to encompass my
whole self."

Sie frowned slightly, shifting once again in hir chair.
"Yes," sie said.

I nodded slightly, biting my lip. "Did you know that sharing
your blood with me could cause something like this to
happen?"

"No," sie replied, with a shake of hir head. "I didn't even
know that it was possible."

I nodded again. "I have a few question for you, then."

Sie glanced up, a slight frown crossing hir muzzle. "Can we
talk in private?"

"Sure, that's probably for the best," I said, rising from my
seat.

Sie followed me in silence as I left the shipyards. Ravindar
was following slightly behind us both, looking a bit puzzled
at this turn of events. As it was, I wasn't heading home,
but towards the Marble Hall.

The silence continued as we descended into the building,
moving through its stark white hallways. We passed people as
we went, most of whom didn't even seem to know, or care,
that we were there.

After a short time, we came to a familiar door. Fishing out
my keys, I selected the correct one, and opened it. It swung
inward, revealing a room no bigger than a closet.

Taking a step inside, I opened the small control panel, and
typed in a few commands, along with it's own unlock code.
This caused a teleport curtain to flair to life in the back
of the small room.

"Come on," I said, slipping through it, feeling the now
unusual experience of being transported in that fashion to
the old house.

Blinking as I came through the other side, I unlocked the
inside door as well, opening it up into the living room. The
place was exactly as I had left it a year before.

Milgrove and Ravindar followed after. Sie was used to the
trip, having been to the house countless times before.

For my bodyguard, it was a different experience. His
unflappable state of calm had flapped a bit, leaving him
looking a bit pale under his white fur.

Still, he took up a position by the door, taking in a deep
breath to help regain his composure.

Milgrove walked across the living room, past the old couch
we had left there after the move. Sie approached the sliding
glass door and fumbled with the handle for a moment before
it opened, then stepped outside onto the porch.

I ducked back into the alcove that held the teleport curtain
and shut it down for the moment. I didn't want anyone
stumbling in uninvited.

When that was finished, I followed my friend outside.

Sie was standing at the edge of the dock, as it jutted out
into the small lake behind the building.

Hir form had changed, the flaps of skin that made up hir
wings having vanished into hir body. It made the long slits
down each side of hir coveralls look strange.

I walked up to stand beside hir. I started to say something,
but sie was faster than I was.

"I would like to check something first, if you would let
me?" sie asked, turning away from the lake and towards me.

"Alright," I answered

Sie nodded, and lifted hir paws, gently placing them on my
head. Sie felt around with hir fingers for a few seconds,
then nodded. "This might hurt," sie warned.

Suddenly I felt a burst of magic crash down on my head. At
the same time there was a sudden, aching pain racing over my
skull and through my skin. I pulled back, away from my
friend's touch, my hands going instantly to my head.

Under my fingers, I could feel, rising out from my hair, a
pair of small horns.

I felt them with my fingertips, and shivered. I could feel
my touch on them.

"I'm sorry," Milgrove said, casting hir eyes down and
fidgeting. "It was the only way that I could be sure."

I frowned slightly, touching the tips of the horns, before
dropping my arms to my side. "How am I going to explain
this?" I asked to no one in particular, punctuating it with
a heavy sigh.

"You won't have to," sie replied, "They will fade away on
their own in a few hours."

I let out a long breath, and nodded. "That's good, it's hard
enough to explain the claws."

Sie sighed softly, wringing hir paws together. "I'm sorry I
did this to you. If I had even thought something like this
could happen, I would have stopped Jadith on the spot."

Slowly, I shook my head, feeling the air pass over the
horns. It was a surprising, and unexpected feeling, and
slightly pleasant. "Milgrove, no one else could have donated
blood. If you had refused Jadith, Grasion's plan would have
worked, and Oriana would have died, trapped in my body." I
sighed slightly. "And I probably would have realized I loved
her as soon as it was too late."

Mil shifted on hir feet, biting hir lower lip a bit. Sie
looked like sie was trying to say something, but couldn't
find the words.

"Your aid saved me a second time too," I said, placing a
hand on hir shoulder. "It's the only reason I came back
after I was cursed. Ken told me that it also helped in
giving me my human form back, and was partly responsible for
the claws. It's also possible that Oria and I would not have
our children without it."

Sie nodded, and lunged forward to hug me, wrapping hir arms
tightly around my chest and pressing hir face against my
neck.

I was shocked, and stood surprised in hir embrace for a few
moments, before wrapping my arms around hir. Gently I
started petting the back of hir head as sie pressed hirself
tighter against me.

"I guess we're kind of family now," I said after a few
minutes had passed.

Sie just buried hir face tighter into my chest, and pulled
hirself closer.

I continued to run my fingers through hir hair, holding hir
gently. I had never seen this side of hir, and I suspected
sie didn't show it to many people.

"Did Page know?" I asked after more time had past.

Milgrove pulled hir head back, and looked me in the eye.
"Yes," sie said, "sie knew all about me. When we started
getting serious I told hir everything about me."

Suddenly, things made a lot more sense. "Which is why you
were so mad at her for lying to you for so long."

Sie nodded, "After I told her everything about me, to know
that every part of her past was a lie..." Sie turned hir
head to the side, and let out a long sigh. "I miss her, more
than I can say, and I have to decide so many things before
she comes back."

I stroked the back of hir head again, and nuzzled hir
gently. "Well, you have lots of time to decide."

"All the time in the world," sie said with another sigh. The
way sie said it, sie made it sound like the weight of that
world was on hir shoulders.

Sie pushed away slightly, and frowned. "I just had a bad
thought. I have some other abilities you might have
inherited as well."

"Oh?" I asked, tilting my head. "Such as?"

Sie looked up at me again, hir eyes seeming to grow dark, a
serious look crossing hir face. "Fox, I'm immortal. Unless
something kills me, I'm going to live forever."

I paused, staring back into Milgrove's eyes and digesting
that tidbit of information. Sie looked back at me with total
conviction, and a strength behind hir eyes I had never seen
before. As well as the wisdom of a lifetime and more, which
had always been there, but I had never known just how deep
it was.

"How old are you?" I asked in a quite voice.

"Almost a thousand years old," sie replied, breaking eye
contact, and staring down at the dock beneath our feet.

Placing my hand on hir shoulder, I squeezed it gently. "You
don't look it. If anything you look closer to my age."

Sie smiled. "Flattery will get you nowhere, Fox," sie said.
Then hir smile faded into a slight frown. "What worries me
is that you might stay this age for as long as I do."

A thousand thoughts ran through my mind. The ideas and
thoughts of being immortal, living to see the distant future
and time. Living to see Oria die of old age, and the
children, and all my friends I ever knew, or ever would
know.

"That is worth worrying about," I said in a weak voice.

Sie lifted hir paws, framing my face with them, holding
firmly. Sie ran hir thumbs over my nose and lips, a slight
rumbling sound echoing from hir throat. Hir eyes fluttered,
and dilated as I felt hir magic run over my skin like
electricity.

A moment later, sie let out a gasp, and dropped hir paws.
Sie held one to hir chest, panting hard.

"Milgrove?" I asked, concerned.

Sie looked up, still panting. "You're not immortal, Fox."

I let out a soft sigh.

"Relieved?" sie asked, starting to regain hir composure.

"Should I be?"

Sie paused, thinking, hir ears flicking forward as sie did
so. Eventually sie answered with a simple, "Yes."

I nodded, and pulled hir back into a hug.

My friend returned it, holding me tightly against hir. Sie
was shaking in my arms, burying hir face against my neck.

We stood there for what must have been half an hour. The
suns were warm on my back as they moved across the sky, and
still I didn't let hir go.

Finally sie pulled away, brushing hir fingers over the fur
on hir muzzle. "There are some side effects, Fox."

"Oh?" I asked, tilting my head slightly.

Sie nodded. "I'm not sure, but I think your life span has
doubled."

I let out a hum, petting hir ears. "I'll have my doctor take
a closer look at it."

"I would like to hear the results. If there is anything I
can do for you, Fox, anything I can help with, please ask,"
sie said, sounding almost like sie was pleading.

"I can think of one thing, Mil," I said, placing my hands on
hir shoulders. "I can't control this ability yet. All my
changes are attached to external things, at least in my
mind. I need to learn how to use this at will."

Sie nodded again, a small smile playing over hir muzzle. "I
can try. I've never had to explain how I could change forms,
but I'll try."

I smiled to hir. "That's all I ask," I said, cupping hir
chin in my hand. "That's all anyone can ask."

-----

This story is copyright 2003 by Fox Cutter. Hardcopy
reprints limited to one per person, all other rights
reserved. This story may not be distributed for a fee except
by permission of the author, and this copyright notice may
not be removed. 'Milgrove' is copyright 2003 by J. 'Packrat'
McCoy, and is used with permission.