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Breaking Apart

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Daniel18

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"So... Is this it?"

Diane Foxington looked up, her ears twitching back and forth, little bits of her still crumbling from them. With the curse in effect upon her, she was still breaking apart and falling apart at the seams - well, more than that, in fact. She was crumbling and falling into a pile of grainy "fox", if she didn't keep her concentration and think constantly about holding herself together. For the vulpine, it took more energy and attention than, at that hour of the night or the morning, she didn't even know anymore, than she had ever thought possible. And she was the Crimson Paw!

Mr Wolf shook his head, holding up a small casket, his muzzle wrinkled. He held it out at arm's length, as if the casket, black with green webbing in the design over the top of it, was going to leap up and bite him, though Diane didn't blame him. If it was indeed the very object that had cursed her to keep breaking apart and losing her form, itching and tickling all over as her body re-formed itself and fought to stay stable, it was hardly something that he would willingly have taken on for himself either.

She might have wished it on him though, as she watched the wolf peer into the casket with due caution, blinking at the golden amulet, which had a flat, green crystal laid into the setting.

"There's a paper here too...but I can't read it?"

The wolf craned his neck, trying to see what was on the slip of paper, while Diane rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, Mr Wolf," she scoffed. "Do you think you're going to be cursed too? Whoever heard of a curse getting two at once? It clearly is attached to me, nothing's going to happen to you."

Mr Wolf dithered, poking at the paper, and Diane had to stifle a laugh, which made her muzzle crumble, the itching and tickling prickling across her face. Curses! That itching meant that she was struggling to hold her focus again, though she didn't honestly blame herself for slipping there. It was so difficult, all with how her skin prickled and itched, no longer the body that she knew and recognised.

"Hm..." He squinted, tilting his head, still not wanting to get in close to the parchment. "It says... To turn back to the form you once had, wearing the amulet is key. So...you just have to wear the amulet? Oh, wait... There's more."

She sighed, puffing out her cheeks with air.

"Get on with it then!"

"Alright, alright... So, it says... Yadda, yadda, yadda - ah! If the crystal, that thing in the amulet, gets cracks too, you'll turn into sand in sunlight, even if you're wearing it. And...wow, if you lose even one piece of the jewel or the body of the amulet, I think it says...you'll be stuck as sand for eternity!"

The wolf gaped and shook his head. Cripes, he was glad it wasn't him stuck in Diane's place! He even felt just a little bit bad about breaking her apart and teasing her so much, but it had been rather fun to get a little payback on her too.

Diane shuddered, holding out her paw for the amulet.

"Just give it over, huh?"

She took it from the offered casket, a gold chain dangling from it when it was drawn from the velvety interior. At least it was wearable. Hooking it quickly around her neck, she concentrated on her fingers, on forming the solid shape of them, the tiny clasp hard to fight with.

"Curses!"

She never wanted to ever deal with another curse again, not as long as she lived. The fox frowned, lips turning down, getting it into place, even if her legs itched and disintegrated. And yet the amulet did just what it said it was there to do, her whole body suddenly struck by a sense of heaviness and solidity, something that she had almost thought that she would never get to experience ever again!

"Oh, finally!"

"Ahhhhh!"

Her head whipped around, her expression of relief ahead of the curve as Mr Wolf shuddered, his fur suddenly turning...greyer? No, that was not right, but it flaked off as if it was wafting in all directions, fluttering and curling, all as he wiped at himself.

"Wolf..." She breathed, taking a step back, heart suddenly hammering again. "You're turning...into ash!"

"What? No! Get off me - it's the curse! Diane, for guinea pig's sake - help me!"

But there was nothing she could do, not as he swiped and wiped at his body, trying to get rid of the ash with increasingly desperate movements. Yet the more frantically he tried to wipe it away, he weakened more and more, his fingers fluttering away in soft, light ash, his body shaking and wobbling as if he had been sapped of every last little bit of his strength.

"Ugh - what's...what's happening?"

His tongue grew soft and ticklish in his mouth as the wolf reeled back, though he couldn't stand, not as his legs fluttered away from him, no more than ash, panting and heaving. It didn't feel as if he needed air in his lungs anymore, his attention caught by other things, no more fur on his body, only that fluttering, floating, smooth ash.

His fingers crumbled, arms breaking away, though every bit of his body weakened and felt as if he was being rained on. It was a strange sensation and not one that his mind could lock onto at that moment, as if tiny droplets of rain were pattering down all over his body, from head to toe. Not that he even had toes anymore.

"Mr Wolf!"

She tried to grab him, to hold him steady, but the wolf shuddered back, holding his hands up, though they weren't there anymore, only the stumps of his biceps, ash fluttering around him.

"Don't touch me!" He growled, though it was only fear that made him short with her. "I'm... I'm falling apart! The curse got me too!"

Well, that much was obvious, even though she couldn't get through to him at that moment, the wolf stuttering and stumbling, flapping his stumpy arms about, though his belly fluttered away in flakes of ash too, thighs breaking, clothes falling away.

"Concentrate," she said, a snap in her tone that demanded his attention. "You have to focus, have to think about being whole and solid again!"

That was easier said than done, however, for Mr Wolf as he shook his head and tried to lick his lips, though even his tongue swiped away more weakening flutters of ash from him. The sensation of being rained on was cloying and clinging, like damp ash, clumping together, and he grunted in the back of his throat, his body tight. It all gave him the impression, mentally, that he was wearing very tight clothes, as if his skin had suddenly shrunk to fit a body that was no longer his.

But he still listened, fighting through his worry to form himself, for if Diane could do it then he most certainly could too. Yet the body that he claimed, his arms wet and tight, clinging, as he tried to think of their shape, was not what he'd had. Maybe it was easier for him, now that he had seen Diane do it several times over, but the furrow in his brow was gone, ears fluttering and crumbling, those finer details of his body simply not holding their substance.

He groaned, trying to roll his head back but losing even more of the ash-like substance that his body was, heart pounding even though his ribcage didn't feel like it was strong enough, not anymore, to contain something at all like his heart. He struggled to lift his hand as she told him to concentrate, though it felt as if even his mind was breaking apart, sifting into fragments until it was nothing more than ash in the bottom of an old-fashioned fireplace.

"Concentrate, Mr Wolf," she said slowly, though she did not touch him, her eyes locked with his. "Think of your arms, the sensation of the body you had."

"Unff..."

He groaned, though couldn't do much more, not even as Diane tried to help him. His lips numbed and tickled, though he tried to re-form, letting everything else fall away. Just like back when he'd been out on jobs, as if he was playing the part of a getaway driver. Nothing else mattered then, so why should anything else matter in that moment too?

He was so heavy though, the ash light but weighing him down, swaying as he, however vaguely, managed to reform every part of his body. He couldn't have told how long it took before he stood tall again, taller than the vixen, swaying lightly back and forth with little fluttering waves of ash sifting from him, his stomach turning over.

"I can't say..." He said slowly, trying to form his lips fully even as he spoke carefully. "But...this is probably the worst...thing that's ever happened to me. Ugh, I think I'm going...to be sick."

Diane's lips twisted in sympathy as he shifted back and forth, though moving only contributed to his predicament. He couldn't stay still and he needed to stay still, yet any tiny movement made him feel as if there was pressure on him from all sides, as if he was being showered with ash in a container from which he could not escape.

"Ugh... Does it always feel like this?" He grumbled. "Like...vibrating? But how are we going to get the curse off you and me with only one amulet?"

He'd jumped to the conclusion quickly even as his tail sifted into numbing ash, grunting in the back of his throat, frustrated by his predicament. It wasn't so funny when it was happening to him, taking his attention away from Diane as the fox approached with an increasingly wicked smirk on her lips.

"I'm sure that you are just getting your comeuppance for how you treated me, darling," she all but purred: most unusual for a fox. "You thought it was funny for me to be turned to sand, didn't you?"

She took the amulet as he fought to speak and lost control again, for at least one of them shouldn't have to concentrate on reforming themselves. One had to remain in control and, frankly, it made more sense for it to be her, after all she'd already had to do.

He couldn't control himself, crumbling down, fluttering away, losing more than fingers or an arm and melting into a pile of ash. She sighed, trying to bear with him, though grew annoyed quickly. She'd managed to get control over herself so Mr Wolf should too! But she was still glad that she had become sand and not ash, or else she wouldn't have been able to call Mr Wolf. And then who knew what could have happened?

"It's not fair..." He forced out, just a nose poking out from the pile of ash. "Why do I have to be...ash...instead of sand? That's so much worse!"

Diane nodded, agreeing, sitting down beside him, though the wolf only groaned, getting half his torso out of the pile before crumbling back down again, the lightness of the ash pulling more and more weight into his body. And there was the accursed vibrating too! He swore, but that only made his tongue melt in his mouth, leaving him mute until he dragged his legs out of the pile, wobbling and weak.

The more he moved, the worse the ache inside him was, losing control, crumbling down. He loathed the lack of true sensation to his body, everything taken over by the ash, the tightness, the pulling down, down and down again with the heaviness to him. How was he so heavy when ash was so light? He wanted to rub his arms, to try to rub away the pressure around him, but he couldn't hold it, weakness making him concentrate solely on being himself, on reforming as he was.

"Ugh..."

With a great effort of will, he drew himself up and up, though it was not easy. He'd lost count of how many times he had fallen apart and reformed with the fox's expression growing more and more impatiently before he swayed as his full wolf again. But he was almost more feminine there, more obviously that time, no fur on his body but his muscles defined. He shuddered, losing his tail and half a leg, forcing him to, once again, scrambling to reform while weakness swamped him.

"Well, you clearly need the practice," she chuckled, a wicked look in her eye. "Maybe you shouldn't have treated me so badly when I was falling apart... Hi-yah!"

The cry was not needed, but it felt appropriate as she slammed her hand through his shoulder, jolting his arm off in a crumbling swathe of ash. The wolf fumbled, staggering, losing his legs too, disappearing into a grey pile of ash. So much ash, even as he complained and lunged for her, though Diane grinned, wrapping her arms around him.

"What's the matter, Mr Wolf?" She teased as she hugged him to her, the wolf crumbling away even as she did so. "Is it too much for you?"

It was only apt to take her revenge, forcing the wolf into a state of fury, even if there was nothing he could do about it, concentrating fully on reforming every time. And the vixen was so crude about it! She laughed, shoving her hand through his stomach to make him roil with nausea, even dropping it lower through his crotch! There was nothing there, of course, even though he'd lost his clothes, everything vague, everything ash-like.

"Stop it!" He shouted as the fox grinned, hands at the ready. "You keep making me - argh!"

But the fox struck again, squishing his bicep between her fingers as she wrapped her hands around his arm, taking his fingers of the other hand and making each one "puff" into ash by squeezing them.

"One, two, three, four - and the thumb!"

It was wrong of her to tease him, but, well...there was another aspect to it. With the curves of his body, the wider hips, he was more feminine and, well... Her eyes were drawn to it. She couldn't fault herself for that, not as she snaked her hands around him to steal a quick rub of his buttocks, though they crumbled away before she even got a good feel.

"Aw, you fall apart so quickly here," she said with a pout, though even Diane did not know if that expression was staged. "Why do you do that when you look so good, hm, Wolf? Not so much of the Mr anymore though..."

He wanted to complain, though his cheeks would have been burning with heat if not for the cool rain of ash falling over him, tickling him all over with the pattering pressure. She was clearly taking far too much pleasure from forcing him to break apart and reform, repeatedly, but he couldn't stop her, his head and muzzle some of the last things to reform while his focus was drawn to the parts of his body, again and again, that she was breaking apart.

"Agh! Stop!"

Those were the only words that the anthro wolf could get out, one leg sticking out from a pile of ash, trying to get up. He had a torso formed, but his arms kept fluttering apart, even as Diane darted away. He grunted, getting his second leg up and out so that he was sitting with his legs bent, though the problem there was that he was lower than Diane, the solid fox appearing again with a jug of something.

His heart raced, weakness keeping him in place, as she giggled wickedly and splashed water on him, starting with his legs. His toes crumbled into more sodden lumps of ash, losing control, though she quickly realised that, for him, getting wet made it even more difficult for him to reform. Maybe that was the same for Diane, though it was harder than ever for Mr Wolf to put that nugget of information to any good use as he had to concentrate.

It was no longer like driving a car, not at all, not when everything was overtaken by weakness, by pressure, by the squeeze of it all around him. He gasped and heaved, though his chest crumbled in pattering patterns as she splashed more water erratically onto him, never letting the wolf work out where she was going to attack next.

"Come on, Mr Wolf, you've got to do better than that!"

He groaned, but had to submit. Maybe playing around with her hadn't been the best idea originally after all, but it was too late to go back and say sorry for that. She didn't even allow him a chance to talk anyway, though it was the kind of relationship that they had.

But, slowly, he got better at reforming, Diane pouring the remainder of the jug over his head while he had to draw sodden clumps of ash back together. He heaved and panted, though, finally, was even able to get his tongue to spill out of his mouth. All while he glared reproachfully up at the fox, wiggling his toes and grunting in frustration, all over again, when they fluttered into wet ash.

"Damn you, Diane..."

Yeah, it was definitely less fun when it was happening to him, hardly aware of which parts of his body were broken apart and which were solid. His attention just kept getting dragged from one place to the next, though it seemed that the fox, finally, took pity on him, setting the empty jug aside. Or maybe it was because she simply didn't have any more water, which could have been reason to. He wasn't going to ask as the fluttering, tingling sensations faded a little, finally realising, with a sigh, that he was whole again. With weakness still aching deep, he twitched his ears, relieved to find them in place.

He didn't feel whole. But how were things going to get better if there was only one amulet?

Little did he know that the casket would provide... For while they had been distracted, another amulet had appeared.

But their lives when they were at risk of breaking apart were forever changed...