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"David! Are you here? Help me!"

David looked up from the scientific journal article he was annotating on the work-desk: "Interactions Between Narcotics and Magical Sources of Analgesia in Bone Fractures". His girlfriend was home from work at the perfectly normal time of 5:12 PM, but something was obviously amiss. David stood up from the infuriatingly comfortable rotating chair and strode into the other room of their packed but cozy apartment.

Before he could even ask what was wrong, she all but collapsed into his arms and buried her head in his T-shirt. Stephanie was a bit shorter than him at five foot seven, and a bit heavier too, but she had a naturally charming and warm face. Her bright brown eyes seemed to always be shining out some emotion. Now, David guessed, they were screaming DISTRESSED.

"David, I don't know what's happening to me. There was this guy, on Nicholson Street, he was definitely a caster, unlicensed or maybe he lost control, I don't know, but he got mad at me and hexed me somehow, I'm not sure what he did, but I feel--"

"Stephanie, slow down. Sloooow down. I'm here, and you're safe in our apartment. Tell me what happened at about...half that speed." He tried to smile reassuringly, but he felt the tingling of a nervous sweat beginning on his forehead. His girlfriend had been hexed by someone on the street? What?

She extricated herself from David's chest and slumped down in the nearest chair, at the dinner table. The table was so small you could lean over it and touch the opposite side with both hands. But hey, they were just starting out.

"Okay." She took a deep breath that wavered at one point. "You know how I sometimes bring home stories of picketers, or people in the public who protest what we do at my work?"

He nodded. Stephanie was the receptionist for a law firm that specialized in magically-assisted crime law. The company, Thaumus Law Group, often dealt with felony-level criminal justice, and cases the lawyers dealt with frequently resulted in momentous court rulings.

"Well today, I noticed this short guy with messy black hair pretty much openly staring at me as I left the lobby. I was walking toward the bus stop on Nicholson when he yelled at me and started arguing about the case last Wednesday. Maybe his relative was prosecuted? I don't remember. I tried to walk and talk so I could get to the stop and hop on the bus the instant it arrived. He was really passionate, so I...well, I dunno, it got heated. But he yelled when he was all red-faced, like 'You and your company switch sides every second, it makes me sick! I'll show you how capricious you are, you fickle bitch!' And then he yelled some Latin and did the whole waving arms thing. I took the usual bus and now I'm here. I don't know what the hex did, unless there's one to make your heart pound and your palms sweat..." She laughed weakly.

"Hmmm," I said as I pondered the meaning of the man's words. Perhaps his spell had fizzled? There were no effects evident, other than the typical sympathetic nervous response experienced by most spell victims. Of course, the most serious spells tended to have the longest incubation periods. Like silence before the storm. But a serious hex on the streets of D.C. in broad daylight? Unlikely.

"Listen, Steph." He worked to keep his voice calm and confident. "He was probably just trying to scare you. Or worst case scenario, his spell fizzled. I mean, you wouldn't be assaulted by a powerful caster on a well-traveled street downtown in the afternoon would you?"

The corners of her lips twitched at the absurdity of the suggestion. "No, I guess not. I just feel weird. You know?"

I relaxed as I put a hand on her neck and stroked it with my thumb. "Hey, I've learned a few things so far in medical school. And the little anxiety attack you're having is normal. You trust me, don't you?" I gave her one of my ridiculous winks to reassure her.

Stephanie's pupils suddenly dilated within her light brown irises. Her mouth remained slightly opened, but no words were forthcoming. David's heart skipped a beat. That was Geoffrey's Sign: 'The commencement of the effects of a psychosomatic spell is often immediately preceded by the dilation of both pupils.' Oh, no. The hex was engaging the baser structures of her brain and limbic system. What did that fucking caster do?

"Of course I trust you," Stephanie finally said. "We've been together for over a year, and you know, I don't think there's anyone I trust more!" While being enthusiastic was not uncharacteristic of her, Stephanie never switched moods THIS quickly.

"Um, Steph? Can you-- holy shit! Your arms!" David took a step back from the chair and hit the counter as his girlfriend's arm hairs began to lengthen at an unnatural rate. They were tan in color - not Stephanie's natural hair color. This was magic. In a couple of blinks of the eye, her arms had a coat of light brown fur, and her fingernails were lengthening and changing shape into claws.

"Steph, you're...you're fucking turning into an animal!" A moment later he realized he should probably be reacting in a more encouraging manner. Then again, school hadn't been hands-on yet, being taught solely in the classroom so far. This was his first exposure to a medical emergency, mundane or magical.

"Oh no! Did I do something wrong?" Her face slumped, even as a fine coat of fur sprouted over it. Her distinctive nose blackened and seemed to reach toward David as her entire face extended into a snout. A canine snout. She had the ears, too. Tall and delicate, twitching slightly when David spoke.

"No, not at all Steph. Only, look at yourself. You're a dog...person. A German Shepherd, I think."

Obediently, she stood up and glanced at her arms, then swung her snout over her shoulder just in time for a poofy brown and black tail to extend downward, above the waistline of her business casual pants.

"Yeah, I guess I am. Is this okay?" She implored him with all the sincerity of a well-trained dog on her 'face'.

David pinched the bridge of his nose in response, but only for a moment, as he couldn't resist opening his eyes to look at her strange hybrid body again. With a start, he realized her breasts were bigger. They were two obvious bulges in her white suit shirt. Below her black skirt, her furry legs were dog-shaped, reverse knee and all. He hadn't noticed her stance change. The transformation happened so fast! Her ankles were rising though. Then with a small 'Ouch!', she abruptly reached down and pulled her feet out of her dress shoes. Except they were rapidly becoming paws, as the toes practically slid around on the balls of her feet, changing shape and position. Claws sprouted like...well, magic. No naturally-occurring process could induce such a radical biological change. Stephanie was hexed, badly.

She was still looking up at him, questioning. Worried, even.

"Stephanie, I'm not mad at you, relax!" He blurted out. "But this is crazy! I know you don't realize it, since this hex is affecting the primary emotional centers of your brain, and it's clearly affecting your amygdala since you aren't frightened like you should be, in fact... Anyway, this is serious. We need to figure out how long this will last. And that means a trip to the ER."

He sighed. What a great way to start the week. It was only Monday, and they'd have to take a bus in rush hour traffic to the hospital. Which was by no means nearby. His brooding thoughts were interrupted by Stephanie's step toward him and a lick on the face. Wow, her tongue felt like a real dog's tongue! Mixed feelings about that popped into David's head. He automatically lifted a hand from the counter and began scratching the short fur on her scalp as he wiped off the saliva with his other hand. Stephanie was about to say something, but then her eyes closed halfway and she leaned into his fingernails. A moment later she was softly panting.

"Alright, um, this is weird," David said. A thought occurred to him. "Hey, Stephanie, would you mind if I tried something before we went to the ER? For science, and all that."

"Sure! Of course!" Her tone would have sounded sarcastic at any time other than now. She was loving the scratching.

"Okay. Well, sit down please." The response was immediate. She squatted on the carpet. David smiled. He could get used to this. Then he wiggled both of his hands under her now-tight shirt and scratched her soft belly fur. She actually emitted a short bark and immediately lost muscle tone in her legs. In a flash her back was on the floor. She was rolling and panting, lost in a sea of physical sensation. David laughed in response, and scratched harder.

"Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl!? You are! Hah, this is hilarious! My girlfriend's a dog!" David grinned at how his life had leaped from the analysis of a scientific paper to petting a dog-human hybrid in about five minutes.

"Good dog!" He continued in his cute animal voice, as her hind paws flailed in the air and her tail thwacked the insides of his legs repeatedly. "You wanna play? Oh yes, you're so cute!"

Stephanie recovered enough to respond. "Play? Yes yes, let's play! What are we playing?!"

Sobering, David replied, "Let's play...take the elevator to the ground floor, walk to the bus stop at the corner, and wait for the right bus to take us to the hospital."

Stephanie didn't catch the joke. "Okay, that sounds pretty fun!"

David let out a mirthless laugh. He began to get up from his kneeling position when he noticed his girlfriend's tail was...thickening. The fluffy fur was being pulled into the flesh of her tail even as her tail's diameter increased. The fur deepened in color, becoming a dark brown, like her human hair used to be. Her new tail was longer and thicker, but it tapered to a tip. It was almost as thick as her torso at the base. It extended out between David's knees on the ground. Her legs seemed to actually be pushed apart to make room for the new appendage. She was changing again? What kind of animal had a tail like this?

RRRRRIP!

Stephanie chuckled as the back of her skirt ripped apart. "Well, there goes my skirt. Guess I'd better take it off..." She wriggled her butt side to side, eventually weaseling her way out of the skirt. She kicked it away with her changing foot. Her white underwear was definitely no longer sitting correctly with that tail in the way, but it was still preserving her modesty. The toes widened out a bit and lengthened, and skin spread upward between them - webbing. David just sat back against the kitchen counter and watched her transform. The academic part of his mind was astounded at how fast such a drastic transformation could progress. Stephanie's body seemed to stretch as her torso elongated and narrowed. Her shoulders and hips shifted closer together, giving her a delicate posture while still retaining her feminine curves. Everywhere her fur was visible, its color smoothly transitioned; Her belly and frontal neck fur became a light cream color, whereas everywhere else became that dark brown. The texture of her fur seemed to become denser and shorter, too. Her 'hands' retained their mostly-human form, but webbing crept upward as it did for her feet, and the fur color darkened like the rest of her pelt. Finally, her head changed. The tall ears of the German Shepherd crumpled into tiny ears on the side her head. The canine snout retreated but puffed out at the sides, triggering the recollection of a certain zoo animal in David's mind. His certainty of the animal increased as her dog whiskers lengthened dramatically, and her nose pulled even wider. The underside of her muzzle was the cream of her belly, but the rest of her face shone a deep brown.

"What's the matter David? Cat got your tongue?" Stephanie's tone of voice had transformed with her body from obedient and and sincere to sly and playful. Seductive, even? No, that was just his imagination.

Regaining his powers of speech, David replied, "No, an otter did. You, actually."

"Ah. Someone paid attention in Zoology 101, I see!" Her muzzle crinkled into a broad grin, her eyes squeezed shut. The picture of innocent delight. The sight was one of the cutest things David had ever seen.

"No, I remember from when we visited the zoo together a couple of months ago. The river otter exhibit. The North American River Otter, I think it was. The tail and face are hard to forget." He shrugged. For a moment, David wondered about the nature of the hex affecting Stephanie. Did it draw on the memories in her mind to force the animalistic changes? Or did the memories from the spellcaster determine which animals were used for the transformations? And what triggered the changes? From the last one alone, it would seem a change in emotional state, or perhaps certain keywords induced the change. But there wasn't enough data. Regardless, this was no time to whip out the rulers and notebook. The ER was the priority. What if Stephanie became a fish?!

"Stephanie, I just realized something. We need to get to the ER quick. Get up, please." He reached out a hand to help her up. She slapped her hand into his. The rough pads on her palm and fingers caused David to blink in surprise. But then she pulled her hand back and tumbled down to the floor, the fur and pads gliding through David's fingers.

"Oops, I slipped!" She winked. Clearly, she had not slipped. Not with rugged paw pads like those. "David, relax. Let's just play for a while! This spell is obviously not harming me, now is it? Hey, I know! Fill up the bathtub! Otters love water, right?!"

He tried to argue. "Steph, we don't know what other effects may manifest. This could only be the first stage!" Arguing clearly wasn't going to work on a girl with the personality of an otter.

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, how about this then, Serious Sally." A clawed finger lifted to the first button of her austere white shirt. Then she yanked it down, popping the button out and tearing the fabric. The small, transparent button ricocheted off one of the table's wooden chairs with a small ping.

"Whoops."

She yanked her claw down further, ejecting another button. And another. Each time, more of her chest fur became visible. It was short and packed very closely together. For warmth in the water, as well as to reduce drag, David supposed.

"Stop, that's your best shirt! Ugh, can't you be obedient like the dog? You'll...you'll ruin..." He stopped short. After the fourth button, the upper portion of her shirt finally gave way to her breasts. Those two furry orbs, covered in gleaming creamy fur, pressed open the shirt. The severed central bra strap was visible underneath the shirt. Though now the cups seemed an inappropriate size. The nipples were partially hidden by thick fur, but God. Those breasts were gorgeous.

Stephanie chuckled. "Once again, looks like I've got your tongue. Not literally, but...I think we could change that." A long pink tongue licked her muzzle.

David felt his heart rate increase, his breathing become heavier. Was it wrong to be aroused by something not fully human? Stephanie wasn't even in control of herself. He was being turned on by something that wasn't his girlfriend. She was possessed by the personality of the otter. Which, evidently, was playful.

"Looks like you need some provocation, mister!" With a cry of excitement, she jumped to her otter feet, then offered David her hand-paw. He grabbed her hand, and the feel of it was still foreign. And that excited him. She arched her large tail and hoisted him up with boisterous energy.

David hesitated. Stephanie required the immediate care of a doctor with substantial training in hexes. She needed the ER. But her cute face and sexy body, combined with her burst of enthusiasm, was an opportunity most men would not turn down, in David's mind. They could have sex, maybe learn a thing or two about the hex, and then head straight away to the elevators. It would be quick and academic. Like a class lecture. But more hands-on. Very, very hands-on. Exceedingly so.

"Alright," he decided. "Bed! Let's go."

Her eyes widened in excitement. "Yes! Carpe diem, David!" She grasped his hand once more and pulled him into the other room, home to David's organized work desk, an unadorned dresser containing clothes, a closet with more clothes, and a bed queen-sized bed of fresh, warm, white linen.

"This has to be quick, though, alright? No...beating around the bush this time. You need to see a doctor." He figured an exceptionally stern tone of voice might penetrate her exuberance.

She sighed dramatically. "If that's what you think is best for me, baby." She hopped onto the bed to land on her knees, handling her otter tail like she'd had it her whole life. "Well then, let's do this."

David raised an eyebrow at her down-to-business tone of voice.

The front of her panties slowly bulged outward. A mass of pink flesh was pushing out, above her vagina. In seconds, the underwear was ripped off by udders that were rapidly filling out.

"Ungh, not a cow," David said. He felt a tinge of guilt, wondering if Stephanie would be offended. Then he realized that guilt was stupid in this situation. Who knew if she would even remember any of this? Memory formation could easily be disrupted by the presence of a powerful mind (and body) altering hex.

Stephanie continued to transform, though her eyes remained on David expectantly, as if she was unaware of her changing body. Her athletic otter's build fattened up, to the point that her belly hung out noticeably over the udders. The bed creaked and bent under her. Dainty hands became rough hands topped with thick fingernails. The strange toes pulled together and withered away, the fur being retracted into massive, keratinous hooves. Even by eye, David could tell her fur's texture was changing to become coarser, hairier. At the same time, her dark brown coloration lightened, as if absorbing the fluorescent light bulb's brightness. Splotches appeared, the same pale color as her belly. The tail was hidden by her kneeling body, but David knew it was shriveling into the small bovine skin-and-bones tail. Lastly, her head changed. David's face slumped as he watched her cute muzzle extend toward him to become a cow's snout. Her large nostrils dilated and contracted with her slow breathing. That small detail reminded David more than anything so far that she was, partially, an animal. It was unsettling.

"You coming?" She asked bluntly, in a slightly deeper voice.

Well, his erection wasn't vanishing any time soon, and she still had a vagina. So why not?

"Yes," David replied. "My minotauress. And might I add you are looking lovely this evening?"

Stephanie continued to stare dumbly at him. David sighed and unfastened his belt. As he undressed in front of her, David did not feel even a hint of embarrassment. Her gaze was the opposite of scrutinizing. Cow-Stephanie had as much emotional presence as the dresser. Stepping over to the closet, he rummaged around in a pile of clothes until he found the box of condoms. Did he need to even use one? She wasn't even human! He wracked his memory for any instances in recent history of pregnancies in magically-altered humans. Stephanie watched impassively. His other head might have been clouding his mind, but he couldn't recall any situations similar to Stephanie's. He may as well go ahead without protection. Besides, they didn't have any sexually transmittable diseases, to his knowledge. With regret distant to his current state of mind, David slid shut the closet's sliding door.

He climbed into bed and moved behind her. He reached his hands around to slowly slide his fingers and palms up her breasts, toward the nipples. Wait, why did she even have human breasts in addition to udders? Shaking his head of those distracting thoughts, he began to squeeze and massage her nipples. Stephanie groaned softly in response. Encouraged, David pulled her body to his and dug in with his fingers. She bellowed, sounding similar to a cow. David rested his chin on her powerful shoulder, breathing heavily. Her fur felt so strange against his bare chest, though she didn't smell any different. Then again, David's sense of smell had always seemed to be below average. The breasts on her chest were very similar to her ordinary, human breasts. Bigger though.

"Yeah, yeah, you like this don't you?" He growled in a low voice. "Mmmm, this feels good, yeah?"

"Yes," she stated. Not the hottest thing she'd said in bed. David was too full of lust to care. Looking down, he grabbed her tail gently, and lifted it out of the way of his erection with finger and thumb, like grabbing the edge of a dirty diaper. Then he poked around to find her entrance and slowly pushed in. It felt the same as ever.

David pushed on her broad back, and Stephanie passively leaned forward, thick hands supporting her on the creaking bed. He thrust in and out slowly and firmly, feeling a small squirt of pre-cum with the stimulation. Stephanie continued to grunt and bellow like a cow rutting with a bull. Her tail tickled his thighs as it jerked and wagged softly. The hair was a new, pleasant sensation. The multitude of new sensations built on each other, heating him up quickly. The sheer novelty of this intercourse bumped up his arousal to some of the highest levels he'd ever experienced. He could sense his inevitable orgasm approaching from the horizon.

"Take it, Stephanie, take it! You're an animal, so you're going to get treated like one!" He gripped her fleshy hips as hard as he could as he thrust into her fat brown rear. Stephanie snorted abruptly. She hadn't done that yet. David barely noticed in his world of pleasure. He kept thrusting.

What he did notice was the bestial growl that came from Stephanie after five seconds. His half-lidded eyes opened fully. Stephanie's fur was all white. Her tail was now practically a furry nub at the end of her spine. Her body was even larger than before, and it seemed more muscular. Glancing back, he saw two furry masses where previously there were hooves, and small claw-tipped toes pushed out before his eyes. The jet black paw pads against the thick bright white fur left little doubt as to his girlfriend's new form: Polar Bear. Why a polar bear though?! What had even triggered it, if there was a trigger? Her large head now sat at the end of a powerful neck, and David could see her massive jaws closed tight together in the throes of sexual pleasure. She stopped her savage growling once David arrested his thrusts in surprise. Taking it as a signal of some sort, she pulled off of David's penis and flopped onto her back. The complaining bed-springs might not be able to take much more of this.

The udders were gone, though her large belly remained. In fact, the front of Stephanie looked like a dreamy blanket. If it was colder, David could lie down in that forest of snowy fur, and rest his head on those two huge, furry breasts.

"What are you waiting for!?" Stephanie demanded in a gruff voice that was even lower in pitch than the cow. "Fuck me!" She snarled a warning.

Oh jeez. "Er, yeah, right away." He crept forward, closer to those bared teeth and angry eyes. His mouth felt dry as he lowered his manhood over her powerful hips. The snowy white fur around her moist passage was shorter in that area, but a few moist strands tickled him as he entered. Her eyes rolled a little bit in pleasure as he restarted his rhythm, albeit slower than before. Being face to face with a mouth more ursine than human had caused a dip in David's level of arousal.

Think! Getting Stephanie out of this dangerous morph was the new priority. With massive bear paws tipped with claws, she could destroy the bed, the desk, the carpeting - everything! Moderate to serious property damage was probable if she got angry again or... or if she orgasmed, David supposed. David needed to turn her into something docile. Docile and sexy. Yeah. But what animal? Thinking through his memory's catalog of animals was hard due to one, the deadly danger he was in if he didn't please Stephanie, and two, a growing amount of pleasure. One of those issues would fix itself soon enough, the other would not. Hmmm...

Bingo! Well, it wasn't sexy at all, but there were bigger fish to fry.

"Hey, Steph, could you turn into a turtle for me?"

Her moaning, which sounded exactly like a bear's growly breathing, stopped immediately. She lifted her head and glared at him. A cold chill running down David's spine was impossible in the present situation, but he felt a surge of fear.

"You do NOT tell me what to do, David! Shut up and make me orgasm or I'll rip you a new one!"

"Yep, right away!" David pulled out and plunged his right index and middle finger into her warm depths. He probed her walls until he found her favorite spot. Then he stroked it just how human Stephanie liked.

Polar bear Stephanie liked it too. She growled deeply and loudly. "Yes! That's it. Grrrr... this is so nice! This...this... it makes me feel so happy! Grrr...."

Her eyelids were closed and her black nose pointed at the low ceiling, swinging this way and that in sexual bliss. David allowed his stiff spine to relax. Out of the fire, and back into the frying pan. He dug in with his index and middle finger, doing his best to blow his girlfriend's mind with his stimulation. He let his chest fall forward, just to the left of the wet vagina he was working with his hand. Her belly fur was so soft. A big white pillow.

David's cheek itched. Scratching it, he felt his hand run across a texture that was most certainly not fur. The fur was coalescing, for lack of a better term, into snowy feathers. But as he watched, they changed to a sun-kissed yellow. He pushed off of her receding belly. Her entire build was weakening, but as her belly flattened, her upper torso ballooned slightly. The seeming transferal of mass was quite strange to observe. Her sternum was pressing outward.

"The keel..." David muttered. "At least the spell is making an effort to sometimes be anatomically correct."

David could not stop his hands from darting outwards to grip his girlfriend's huge bear breasts. "No, not the breasts!" But as the wave of change rippled through her body, Stephanie's breasts shrank and were overtaken by pale yellow feathers. Even her nipples vanished under the layer of overlapping feathers. She had the breasts of a bird - namely, none.

From shoulder to claw-tips, Stephanie's intimidating arms changed. First were the shrinking and surface changes. Then her arms flattened and extended. In a moment there two bird wings with long flight feathers that reached to her knees. The feathers of her wings were not yellow, but black-brown, with some white highlighting. Her lower limbs followed. The fur receded, revealing brown-scaled bird legs. The morphing of her big, furry bear paws made David cringe. The toes pulled away from each other and rotated, additional joints becoming visible as surrounding flesh sank into nothingness. A couple of seconds later, her legs terminated in the three forward-facing and one backward-facing talons of most birds. David glanced at her vagina and blinked in surprise, as it was illogically quite human. Large tail feathers extended out beneath her thighs, a black-brown color like her wings.

The musical tweeting of a songbird filled the room. Stephanie's new head made the familiar sharp and sudden motions unique to birds, as her vivid orange beak poured out music. David's senses clashed as he gazed at her slightly open but immobile beak, yet listened to the rising and falling notes of her call. Truly, the sounds that some songbirds could produce was beautiful. It was a shame that her new form was far from what David would call sexy. But he had achieved his goal of changing her to a docile form. Somehow.

Stephanie sat up slightly to gaze at him. Her head was constantly twitching upon her thick neck. "My mating call appears to be ineffective, my love! Won't you please me more? It would make me so happy!" Her voice was now airy, as if very little air was passing through her vocal cords. Stopping to think about it, David realized that with no lips she shouldn't be able to make many human sounds. He could see a strange tongue moving inside her beak, but it still seemed like a pre-packaged and complete voice was coming from her throat. Shaking his head, David wondered if the ER doctors would be able to answer any of his questions.

"Sorry Stephanie, but I guess groups outside of 'Mammalia' don't do anything for me." He lifted his hand to gesture at his member as supporting evidence, but he was still rock hard. Well, that would pass soon. Stephanie was a giant, weirdly-proportioned bird. A goldfinch, perhaps. And not even an incredible singing voice was enough of a turn-on to make him stick it in a bird.

Without a mouth, her face was inscrutable. "Darn! It's alright though, it's a lovely day! Isn't it?"

David glanced out one of the windows. Approaching sunset, slightly cloudy. "Yes, it's decent."

She continued to look at him. Saying nothing. A silent moment passed, then she launched into her mating call again. David figured her present form was likely the least intelligent of the evening. The melody was exactly the same as the first time she sung it. Every note perfect. Amazing. He shifted, and sat on the edge of the bed and let his eyes close. The only three sensations he experienced were the soft blanket beneath him, the slow descent of his failing erection, and Stephanie's song. As the last, terse note passed, David felt clear-headed for the first time in many minutes. He recalled his original intentions of a very quick fuck, and chuckled at how he had failed. Not horribly so, but it had been more than a couple of minute ticks on their small wall clock. But every minute might be increasing the chance of a fatal shift - a shift into a form that would kill Stephanie. The significance of this thought hit him once more, and he felt that stressed and flustered state returning. He stood.

"Okay. That's it. Come on Stephanie, ER time."

She wordlessly swung her legs off of the bed and stood on her talons. The claws looked deadly enough, for a songbird. David hurriedly threw on his clothes. Together, they walked to their apartment door. A thought struck him as he noticed how Stephanie's wings didn't move as she walked with her avian gait.

"Hey." He gestured to her transformed arms. "Can you fly with those?"

Her head twitched as she focused on one of her wings. "Um, I don't know. Can I?" She laughed lightly from her throat.

"Hmm..." David stepped forward and gripped Stephanie's sides, then lifted her up a foot. It was easy. She must have weighed at least seventy pounds less in this form. "Wow! You definitely might be able to! We have to try this! You've got to have hollow bones now! We can... well, wait. No, we shouldn't try this. Damn it, I keep getting sidetracked! The ER! Let's go." And he pulled on his walking shoes.

Stephanie's talons clicked lightly as she stepped onto the white linoleum in front of the door. "Ready when you are!" she trilled.

David nodded. He didn't know the bus schedule for this hour very well, but he guessed it didn't matter in the end; there would be a lot of waiting tonight, at the bus stop, on the bus, and at the hospital. It was going to be a long night. Sighing, he reached for the doorknob. A sudden dizzy spell hit him - nothing intense, just a brief loss of balance and swaying vision.

"Whoa." He rested his hand on the door until it passed.

"What ever is the matter love?" Stephanie queried.

"I don't know," he said as he turned to face her. Her wide-open avian eyes locked onto his. "I just...felt dizzy for a second."

Stephanie tilted her head. "Well they're closing up now...but wow! Your pupils are really, really dilated!"