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**The Victoria Chronicles

Changes**

**Chapter 03

The Rise and Fall**

Victor slowly came back to the world of the conscious. Opening his eyes his vision slowly focused on a woman sitting at a desk working at a computer.

He blinked several times before his vision cleared fully. His head was still full of cotton, but at least it wasn't throbbing like a pile-driver anymore. Though he still had the feeling of having heard voices far off in the distance.

"Oh! Look who's finally awake." The woman said glancing over from her monitor open noticing movement. "You had us worried there for some time."

Victor groggily tried sitting up. The woman quickly came over to assist.

"Careful there hun." She said while assisting him, "Your body has had quite the workout while you were out of it."

"Wh...w...air, 'm ah?" Victor said groggily, his mouth not quite responding as he remembered it. His body felt like it wasn't responding fully to his actions, like remote controlling it through a laggy server.

"Oh! You can talk? Sort of?"

"Ar 'm ah." He repeated, "Oo rr oo?" His voice didn't sound right either. Both higher in octave and full of gravel. It felt like his mouth was too large, full of unfamiliar teeth and a tongue way to large.

"Easy there. You are in my clinic." The lady said. "My husband and father found you collapsed in a stall in the barn. You've been out for almost a day. Frankly we were wondering where you came from honestly."

Victor stared at her blankly for a moment, trying to get his brain in gear. Everything was foggy and slow. He went to scratch his head only to find a mane of hair he didn't remember having and a pair of velvety pointy ears where ears shouldn't be.

That's when his brain finally noticed what his eyes had been trying to tell him since waking up. There was something in his lower-central vision that never used to be there before. Reaching a hand up and touching it he felt around a nose that was several inches from his face and instead of being where he almost never looked or even noticed now he could actually focus his eyes on it without straining.

His next surprise was the hand touching the out-of-place nose. It wasn't quite a hand. Well, it resembled a hand in shape and function, but was covered in short dark-brown fur and the fingers ended in short claws. He raised both in front of himself and turned them back and forth, looking at both sides.

The back of his hands had the brown-black fur while the palms had black pads similar to a dog's, but not as firm, but firmer than his palms used to be. The fur didn't just cover his hands and fingers but ran up him arms and changed to a longer orange fur two-thirds from his elbows and ran all the way to his shoulders.

His thinking was getting clearer as he continued his examination. The fur didn't stop at his shoulders but in fact seemed to cover his whole body. Peeking under his torn shirt he noticed that the fur changed to a snowy white. But that wasn't the only thing hiding under his shirt.

Or more accurately her shirt.

The shock nearly knocked him of the table as he suddenly found that he had two pert breasts sitting on his fur covered chest.

The lady misinterpreted his confusion thinking he was surprised about the state of his cloths, rather than the state of his body.

"Sorry about tarring up your shirt more than it already was. I had to cut it open more to address your wounds." She said getting out her stethoscope, "Though to be fair, it was already a fairly sorry sight when they found you. A bit large for you don't you think? Bulletin holes non-withstanding."

Victor looked back up to the lady sharply, remembering her presence suddenly when she spoke.

"Now let's see how your heart is sounding now." The lady, obviously a doctor of some kind victor deduced, reached her stethoscope under his baggy shirt and listened to his heart-rate. "A little on the fast side, but otherwise much better then yesterday." She said after listening for a few seconds. "Let's check your pressure."

The doctor then put a pressure cuff around one arm and pumped it up before slowly letting the air out while listening to her stethoscope.

"I'll be honest, I don't know rightly what your pressure should be, but it seems perfect for a human's." She said then looked at him with a slightly lopsided look. "Though I'm not sure whether you qualify as human, vulpine or other."

"Wah 'apnd oo 'e?" Victor slurred. He couldn't seem to get the hang of his mouth. Or should he be referring to himself as herself? This was all rather much to wake up to after...after whatever the hell had happened to her. She couldn't really remember quite what had been going on before this. The events of the last few days were an incomprehensible blur.

"I wish I could tell you, I'm baffled myself." The lady said laying a hand on Vic's furry shoulder. "Like I side, my husband and father found you in the barn, clothed in baggy clothes and with several bullet wounds in your arm and chest. By rights you shouldn't be breathing right now. And without the bullets in that pan over there and your blood there wouldn't be any evidence either. How does your body heal so quickly anyway? And who did you piss off to be shot so many times? There were nine rounds in you!"

Vic tried to remember the past events again, without success. However, there was a vision of an uncaring man's face that made her blood start to boil without her really knowing why. The lady noticed this as Vic's facial features started to contort in anger.

"Easy now! If you don't want to talk about it you don't need to tell me about it. You need to remain calm. Your body is still healing from whatever it was that happened to you."

Vic tried to slide off the exam table and stand up. Well she got it half right anyway. Sliding off the table she kept sliding once her feet hit the floor, her legs not wanting to support her weight.

"Oh sugar! I said to take it easy, not jump off the table." The lady exclaimed rushing to help Vic up off the floor where she now lay in a crumpled mass. With a little effort Vic was soon sitting on the exam table wearing a disgruntled look on her face.

Vic, with growing irritation looked at herself again then begrudgingly in a calmer tone looked back to the lady before muttering in an unfamiliar mouth. "Ay oo 'elp'n ee?"

The lady paused while she ran this through an internal filter to understand the sentence before responding. "Why am I helping you?" Victor just nodded rather than attempt another awkward sentence. "Well way not?"

Victor motioned to her fur covered body and vulpine visage along with her rather non-human appearance. Basically indicating in her own opinion that she looked more like a monster than a person.

"I don't care what a person or a critter looks like." She said pointedly, "If someone is hurt or suffering I help them." In a more kindly tone she continued, "Now no more unpleasant thoughts. Why don't you tell me about yourself? Do you have any family or friends nearby?"

Friends? _Friends!!_Victor remembered suddenly like a sack of bricks to the face, where were her friends!?"

Sliding off the exam table again she gripped the edge tightly till she was sure her legs would support her. With great effort, and the aid of the table, this time she was able to keep from falling over again.

"Woah, easy there girl! I said you need to take it easy. Where do you think you're going in such a hurry?"

"Ah 'ends! Ah eed oo iend ah 'ends!" Vic said as she awkwardly made her way across the room from furniture to furniture, eventually making it to the doorframe.

"But you are in no condition to go anywhere!" the lady said hurrying over to support Vic before she fell again as she tried to walk unsupported from the doorway, it didn't last long. With a surprised sound somewhere between a high pitched shriek and vulpine squeak Vic found herself on the floor again. Being on the floor again was the second most bothersome thing at the moment, the pitch of her voice was much more distressing. Lying on the cold floor she could almost deal with. She tried standing again, first pulling herself up with the doorframe then once she had her balance letting go and taking a hesitant step. After the second step she was unbalanced by an alien weight behind her that threw her center of gravity off. Overcompensating she was soon on the floor again. Letting out a huff Vic reached behind herself to try and find what threw off her balance. What she pulled forward was a long tail covered in fluffy orange fur with a white tip.

Well that could do it.

Wait, what!? Where did the tail come from!?

Giving a light tug confirmed that it was definitely attached just above her rear. As well as uncomfortable to tug on.

"Oh bother, there you go again!" Kristine said hurrying over to the mass of orange fur and angered vulpine squeaks and chirps. Putting her hands under Vic's arms she hauled the angry fox into a nearby chair.

"Now then, let's slow down and start over shall we? My name is Kristine, to whom do I have the pleasure of treating?"

Victor worked her mouth a few times silently trying to work out the complicated muzzle movements.

"Fffvviicc."

"Try again?"

"Vvicss!"

"Vix? Like short for Vicky or Victoria?" Kristine asked quizzically.

Victor shrugged, giving in for the time being. "'Es." It was close enough for now.

"That's a pretty name Victoria." Kristine said "So forgive me if this is a bad question, but what's wrong with your friends that you would risk multiple falls?"

Vix looked up and griped her shoulder where she had been shot.

"They've been shot!?"

Shrug.

"Are they somehow involved with who shot you?" Kristine asked after a moment's thought.

Nod.

Kristine thought for a few seconds before continuing. "If I promise to get you some help will you promise to stay in this chair till I return?"

Vix gave a reluctant nod.

"All right. Stay here while I go have a talk with Earle and Pops." She said. When she got to the door she paused and turned around. And said sternly but not unkindly, "And I don't want to see you on the floor again when I return. I expect you to remain in that chair young lady!" then she was gone from the room.

Lady. That was going to take some getting used to.

Wait. Young Lady?? Victor thought after she had left. I'm in my mid-forties.

Looking to the side she caught a glimpse of her reflected face in the polished chrome panel of some sort of medical equipment.

Is that what I look like!?

Vix glanced around the front office for something more reflective then a small piece of chromed machinery to look at. Across the room on a desk she saw a framed mirror sitting on the desktop. Keeping to his/her word to stay in the chair she scooted the office chair across the floor to the desk and looked in the mirror. What she saw looking back at herself was the visage of a foxes face staring back. She reached up a hand and touched the points of her ears, feeling the velvety surface. Not only did she feel the soft fur touching her fingers, she felt the sensation on her ear as well.

Yep, those were hers.

Moving on she looked closer to the muzzle on her face. Looking in the mirror she moved her head from side to side, looking down the length of her long slender snout. Then grinning, or more accurately grimacing, she looked at her teeth. If not for the fact that she knew it was her own face Vix would have recoiled from the mirror. She still had to suppress the urge to do so anyway. In her mouth were rows of pointy, sharp teeth. Vulpine teeth.

Turning away from that, Vix then grabbed a handful of her hair, something that she really hadn't been able to do before, having always cut it short. Letting the hair slide through her fingers till she could view it properly she looked at the length of long red hair in her hand. Well, it was long and red. And silky to the touch. And there was a lot of it!

"Ell, 'at's a lot o' air." Vix mumbled before remembering about her speech impediment.

Brushing her hair back Vix looked down on her chest. Her chest. With hesitant hands she first slowly placed then under her breasts, and feeling embarrassed about it, slowly cupped them from underneath. They weren't the largest she'd seen on women before, but they were large enough. Perhaps large C's. Vix looked in the mirror again while trying very hard not to grope herself. They were firm and sat well on her chest despite the lack of support from a bra. After all, why would she have had one before this point?

Examining herself in the mirror she found it hard not to find the creature in its reflected surface attractive. Despite the fur and face. Actually the face looked quite beautiful in its own way.

Having had enough of looking at herself as a whole she moved her attention back to examining her mouth while trying to talk to watch how the movements acted while talking. Maybe if she saw how her mouth moved she could figure out how to talk properly.

Meanwhile, Kristine headed across the farmyard in search of her father. If Vix was going to look for her friends she would need help, least of all help walking and standing if her observations of recent event were anything to judge.

She found her father and husband in the barn looking for anything else out of place.

"Hey Dad? Can you come with me on a little trip?" Kristine asked, "Our guest is very concerned about her friends and I'd be happier about her wellbeing if she wasn't freaking out so much."

"I guess I could leave the farm for a bit." He said rubbing his chin in thought, "Seems like we got off with minimal damage." Turning to Earl we said, "That work for you?"

"I can deal with nailing a bit of loose tine back up, and tighten some fence wire." He said before continuing more begrudgingly, "Is that thing safe to be around if its injured? How do you even know about its friends? Or even that it has any?"

"She told me." Kristine said matter of factually.

"It what?!" Earl said shocked, "It can talk?"

"'She' can. More or less." Kristine said correcting Earl's choice of pronoun, "It's a bit slurred, but understandable."

"I don't know." Earl said a bit sourly, "I don't know if I like the idea of you going off with that creature alone."

"That's why I'm asking Pops to come along." Kristine said not backing down, "Besides, she's still unsteady on her legs. Poor thing keeps falling down every time she stands up."

"How does it keep falling over on four legs?"

"She stand on two legs, like as in how you are standing right now." Kristine said.

"It can stand on two legs?!" Earl said in disbelief with a touch of concern."

"'She' can." Kristine corrected him again.

"Look." Pops said stepping into the conversation before things could escalate any further. "If it makes you feel any better I'll bring along the shotgun. Happy?"

"Not really. But I guess I don't seem to have much choice, now do I?"

"Can I come along?" Katie asked excitedly.

"No! Absolutely not!" Earl said sternly.

"Not this time Katie." Kristine said more kindly than her husband. "The trucks going to be full enough."

"Katie, you stay here and help your father with the repairs. I'll tell you all about it later when we come back." Pops said as he and Kristine started back towards the vet building.

When they entered the clinic Pops and Kristine were treated to Vix looking at her face in a mirror and making funny noises.

"Ah, ee, ai, oh, oo. Ah, eee, I, oh, ooo." Vix was emoting while carefully watching her muzzle movements.

"Well, I see you've been keeping busy." Kristine said with a slight chuckle.

Vix startled, nearly dropping the mirror, her ears flattening against the back of her head and her tail fluffed up just a bit.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to startle you." Kristine apologized.

"S...ith oh kaay." Vix shrugged, calming slightly.

"Amazing." Pops murmured, stepping closer, "I've never seen anything like her before."

"'A'k a icture. Ith'l last oonger." Vix said getting slightly irritated. She had yet to get comfortable in "her" new skin, and was getting quite tired of being the center of attention.

"Sorry."

"Everiend." Vix said as she started to get up from the chair, "'ets ust get go--aaaah!" She started before falling over from her baggy pants pooling around her ankles. Once she was face down on the floor she opened her eyes and just huffed, her tail lashing about in irritation.

"Sweetly, I told you not to get out of the chair." Christine said kneeling down to help her, "And I think we need to find you some better fitting cloths before going anywhere. Pops, can you stay with her while I go and find something more suitable?"

"You go ahead, I'll help our guest here." Pops responded lifting Vix off from the floor and gently placing her back in the chair.

Christine left the office and it was just Vix and Pops.

"So...tell me about yourself young lady." pops said sitting down in another chair across from Vix.

"'M not at...that young." Vix said before looking down at herself then back up to Pops before adding, "Appearances ot with'anding."

"Well, you look like your about what? Late-twenties?"

"Off aye tan, two ek, decades." Vix resounded.

"Mid-forties?"

"Yep." Vix said flatly.

"You've got to tell me sometime how you do it."

"Ah'd ike to noe my elf." Vix said. If she concentrated enough and talked slowly she found that she was able to form her words better.

"Your speech is getting better." Pops remarked.

"T's...hard. Id, Deedn't oose to be."

"Did you have an accident? If'n you don't mind my asking."

"Oo...You uld...could ay that." Vix replied.

"If you don't want to talk we don't have to." Pops said sympathetically. "I can see it's hard for you."

"No. 's helping."

"You do seem to be getting better at it rather quickly. What do you want to talk about?"

Vix shrugged, "What do you want to know?"

"Well, I am curious as to who shot you." Pops asked.

Vix's face contorted slightly with anger at the half remembered memory. "Ah don't 'member. Ot clearly any'ay."

"Alright, calm down. You're starting to slur more, take a deep breath and take it slow." Pops said in a calm tone. "Now what do you remember?"

Vix thought for a bit before taking a deep breath, "He 'us...was 'are...wearing a black suit, crew cut 'air, and was a nasty 'ease of work." Vix said slowly working out the words one by one. "He and 'is men were dragging ah fffriends out of their 'ents. Ah 'ied...tried to inter'een, then 'ee wit'out hesi'ating emptied 'is ppp, pp...pistal into me. I fell ow'n a hill and blacked ow't. After uming...coming to I ooked...looked around without finding anyone. I 'ent...went or...for help and ow, now I'm here."

"Hmm. Shot without asking questions did he?" Pops asked patiently.

"Yess."

"Hmm." Pops said rubbing the stubble on his chin. "Not good."

Just then Kristine came back with a bundle of cloths in her arms.

"I think I have something that should fit."

Getting up from his chair Pops turned towards the door. "You go on and get Vix sorted out. I have to get something from the house." He said before stepping outside.

"What's he getting?" Kristine asked. Vix shrugged. "No matter, lets see what we have here that fits."

Stepping inside Pops pulled out an ancient looking flip-phone from his pocket and dialed a number from his contacts.

While he waited for the call to be answered he headed to the hall closet and pulled out his shotgun from it resting place at the back of the closet behind the winter coats and then reached to the top shelf for a box of shells. As he started unloading the rocksalt he kept loaded in the shotgun the call was answered.

"Hello Frank?" he said as he started replacing the rocksalt with buckshot. "I've got a favor to ask."

When Pops returned to the clinic he entered onto a scene that at first seemed confusing. Vix hadn't liked any of the obviously girly cloths Kristine had ready to hand and had insisted on keeping her own and had simply tightened her belt to compensate for her smaller waist. The jeans were cinched tight with a belt around her narrow waist. A small cut had been made to the jeans above the seat and then pined with a safety pin to accommodate her long fluffy tail. Over the shirt she was still wearing her battered flannel. Vic had stood fast on that no matter how loose the garment now hung on her.

"Hold still hun. Almost there." Kristine said as she gently pulled the last remaining bundles of red hair through a hair-tie.

"There, all done. Now that wasn't so bad was it?" Kristine said. Now your long hair isn't constantly falling in your face."

"Hmph." Was all that came out of her muzzle. It was hard to tell from her expression whether she was upset, embarrassed, or angry. Probably a combination of all three Kristine supposed.

"Ok." Pops said after clearing his throat, "I've got backup to come with us."

"Do you think that is really necessary for a short trip into the hills?" Kristine asked her father.

"Yes. Something doesn't feel right about this." Pops said tightly. He looked at Kristine's and Vic's faces before continuing. "I mean more than the situation in this room. People going missing, armed men attacking innocent campers. Yeah alright, and anthropoid foxes found in previously empty barn stalls too. That's why I'm not taking any chances."

"So who's your backup?" Kristine said putting her hands on her hips.

"Frank."

"Frank? You're going to take Frank, or anyone for that matter with us and Victoria here." Kristine said in minor disbelief.

"Frank can be trusted to keep a secret and be discrete. Believe me." Pops said flatly.

Vic, still sitting on the table gave an annoyed but still quite auditable vulpine huff, showing her frustration in these delays.

"Ok," Kristine said somewhat apologetically, "what do you think? Do you mind Frank coming along?"

"'Ah 'ohn't really c--are one 'aye or the other." Vic said slowly. "'Ust as...long as we ggoe."

Vic carefully slid off the exam table and using the cane Kristine had given her eased her weight on it. She found that if she moved slowly she could walk somewhat with its aid.

Halfway across the room however she stopped and slumped forward as she was hit by a series of sharp abdominal pains. "Erf! At 'u'sen't eel right!" she said as she held her free arm across her torso before a disembodied voice sounded in the room.

"That's because you are moving about too much before I'm finished putting you back together you rash being!" the somewhat synthetic voice said reproachfully. "Now sit the hell down before you fall down! This next part is really going to hurt!"

The voice seemed to be coming from the device attached to Vic's wrist.

Vic curled up on the floor writhing before blacking out from the intense pain.

"What have you done to her you, you...monster!" Kristine cried out to empty air.

"Who or what are you?" Pops said nearly at the same time. "Why are you torturing this poor creature?"

"You can call me Percii if you must know, and I'm not torturing this "Creature" as you call her, but saving her." Percii said in an offhanded way, "Now if you don't mind a life forms nervous system is a very complicated set of organic wiring and merging two life-forms together into a new one is very tedious. I need to concentrate to patch everything back together. Honestly, I'm amazed she could walk or talk at all!"

"Will she be ok?" Kristine said concerned.

"After she wakes up next and the Mistress and I are finished she will be fine. Better even." Percii said, "Now leave me to my work!"

"Who's the mistress?" Kristine and Pops asked together but Percii was done responding to any further questions.

Pops scratched the back of his head as he and Kristine contemplated all this. "Well," he said finally, "I'm not sure how think about all this."

Just then the door opened and a man about Pops age walked in. "Ok Pops, I got here as soon as I could. What's so important that you couldn't tell me over the phone?" He stopped in his tracks when he saw the mass of orange and white fur on the floor that was occasionally giving slight twitches.

"Oh." Frank said after he picked his jaw off of the floor. "That's what you meant."