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A few thousand years ago ...

Claudia hesitated under the light of the full moon as she reached the point of no return for her current effect. Well, it wasn't REALLY the point of no return, but it was the point when she would inflict the damage she regretted most. In theory, she could let the energy dissipate for almost a full minute after that before the real point of no return - but once she inflicted that damage, nothing would stop her.

As she felt her determination wavering, she thought back to that fateful day 4 long years ago. She'd been careless - even she admitted that - and been caught practicing magic. She'd outperformed her peers easily growing up, and been stronger than her parents by age 15. And over the years and decades, she'd let it get to her head. Without even thinking about it, she'd resorted to magic to lift up a bucket of water because her arms hurt and it seemed so easy for her. Sure, she would have to sleep a few extra minutes and eat a bit more, but she was used to those side effects.

But she'd been careless - several families walking to the well together had just rounded the bend and all saw her lift the bucket. The town council was quickly called into session, and within two days, they were ready to execute her. Only the presence of several with the gift brave enough to risk getting caught by sitting on the town council had saved her, as they'd suggested that perhaps exile was a more suitable punishment, since she hadn't been caught using magic for evil.

Claudia had been arguing for years that those capable of magic were harming themselves and creating the very paranoia that all too often led to the executions of those shown to be capable of magic. Show the people that it was nothing to be afraid of, that the people who had the gift were their friends and neighbors, and suddenly it's not a scary thing anymore. Instead, the lack of information simply let rumors run wild, and to the average person, magic users were all evil, clever, and constantly plotting against everyone else. Droughts, natural disasters, and poor harvests become conspiracies of magic; good fortune and plentiful seasons the reward for diligence against its use.

But too many fought to keep magic hidden, and too many more were afraid of the public reaction they would receive if discovered to take any sort of stand with Claudia. And so magic stayed a secret, and those caught (or suspected of) using it were executed. In her four years of exile, Claudia had grown to feel contempt for those too afraid, and pure hatred for those who actively worked to keep magic a secret. She could have been living at home with her children. She could have been there for her grandson's birth, instead of hearing about it when someone finally got around to delivering her mail. Best of all, she could have been free to use her incredibly powerful control over magic openly to make her family's life so much easier.

And with the focus on that bitter loss, her intense hatred of all those who actively fought to keep magic concealed, she refocused on her task at hand. The price to be paid for her revenge was terrible, and would not be hers alone to pay, but the birth of her grandson was the key. She wasn't going to settle for casting a onetime effect. The last thing she was going to do with her incredible power, the final act of her life, was going to reveal everyone capable of magic for all to see, for all time. She needed three generational power to make the effect inheritable, however, which was her biggest regret. But she was filled with too much hate, and she made the connection.

Several hundred miles away, Claudia's two sons, her daughter, and her newly born grandson all stopped breathing at the same time, passing away in their sleep. Their entire life forces, necessary to make the spell permanent and inheritable, had just been pulled in by Claudia and added to her own. She took one last moment to spare a silent apology to the innocent children who would be hit by her spell; she could differentiate the effect a little bit, but couldn't stop it from reaching everyone capable of magic, even those who'd not yet discovered it. Then she willed that energy into the world, draining her own life force completely, and changing everything forever.

---

The spell entered the mind of every human on Earth capable of practicing magic. Once there, it ran through the simple differentiation process Claudia had been able to include. It searched through the person's memories, and the memories of their spouses, and made a choice accordingly. Once that was settled, the spell set to work altering the DNA and physical appearance of the person or couple, transforming them into various animal forms, mostly anthropomorphic.

Children under 15 were automatically given highest priority, along with those who'd most strongly argued in favor of making magic public. The spell worked with the memories it found to choose the animal form that would make the person being transformed the most happy. It was fortunate that Claudia forced the spell to create a strong diversity of species, or nearly every magic-capable boy in the world would have become a dragon. The spell focused on the long term, so many children were transformed into powerful predator species, the better to survive the upcoming chaos, unless the person had a very, very strong preference for something else.

Adults who'd worked to change society to be more tolerant had the next priority, mainly filling out the ranks of the smaller predators. The spell next examined those who'd actively worked to hide magic, and chose the specific animal forms that would make them most miserable. Not only did they wind up mostly becoming prey species, but they were made especially weak and powerless, often winding up closer to the small animal's size than human size, even if they were made anthropomorphic. The indifferent adults filled out most of the rest of the prey species, but were left at their existing human sizes in their new anthropomorphic forms.

For many, the transformation simply woke them up and occurred in private, happening as it did in the middle of the night with no one around to witness it, or only family members who were also transforming. But for many others, the chaos started immediately.

---

Balbus was drinking with his buddies Gaius and Lucius when it happened. The spell entered his mind, and found that he had been actively working to keep magic hidden. He had no wife to worry about, so the spell searched through his memories. Balbus had always resented being shorter than everyone else, and had worked extra hard his whole life to build up more muscle than he really needed to tend his farm, so that he'd always be one of the strongest people in the room wherever he went. The spell, seeing this, made its decision.

Balbus felt a wave of nausea that was way too strong for the amount of alcohol he'd consumed. Concerned, he tried to stand up, only to feel like he was falling in slow motion. He wasn't falling, though, he was shrinking, and white fur was beginning to grow right out of his skin. His trousers soon fell down, too loose about his waist, but fortunately his tunic was now comically large, and covered most of his legs now like a massive priestly robe.

"Magic!" shouted Lucius. "He's using magic!"

"Wait," said Gaius, always the most prone to step back and think of the three, "I don't think so. You know Balbus has always been against magic! I think he's been cursed by someone else."

Lucius looked at Balbus, then suddenly took a step back, as if afraid the magic would hit him next.

Balbus's stomach finally settled down and he no longer felt like he was going to puke. But looking down at himself, he'd obviously been turned into some sort of ... human shaped white rabbit. He was still standing, but he had to look up to see the table he'd just been drinking on. He couldn't be more than two and half feet tall, and he realized that his two friends, both incredibly hostile to magic thanks mostly to his own influence, could become a huge danger to him in a moment if he wasn't careful. He racked his brain, trying to figure out what could possibly be happening, but in the meantime, he had to find a way to deflect his buddies' attention.

"Claudia!" he shouted, alarmed at the high pitch of his voice but relieved that he could at least still speak. "She must have done this as revenge, since I spent her whole trial calling for her execution!"

"That bitch!" exclaimed Lucius. "We should summon the council right now. We'll get together a travel party, and go execute her the way we should've done years ago!"

"But what if it wasn't her?" asked Gaius. "We could all be in danger right here if it's someone else."

Balbus had recovered from his initial shock, and realized that if he could just get himself alone someplace to focus, he should be able to pretty easily revert himself to normal. After all, whoever had done this must have used an enormous amount of power, and would be incapacitated for a long time, whereas undoing the spell would be almost effortless for him, since it was his own body. But first, he had to get himself alone.

"Gaius," said Balbus, hiding a cringe at his squeaky voice, "we can't worry about that right now except to be on our guards. Even if it is someone else, you two have to get to the council, and I have to hide. You need to find out if anything's happening in town, and you need to vouch for me so that everyone knows I was the victim here, okay? Otherwise, the first people to see me like this who didn't see it happen won't even know who I am, and will kill me on the spot."

"Good idea," said Gaius. "You can hide out in the woods behind the house here and watch the road. Stay hidden if anyone else comes, but if you see Lucius or me leading the way, you know it's safe to come out."

"Perfect," said Balbus. "Now get going!"

His two friends jumped up and trotted off, jogging up the road towards the center of town. Balbus walked out into the woods behind the house, focusing on isolating the effect that had transformed him. He reached out with his mind ... and there was nothing there. He didn't understand. Any magic effect could only be temporary, because to make an effect permanent took a full life force. Every effect reversed slowly over time, or could be immediately undone, normally with the same amount of energy as it took to cast. Acting on his own body, Balbus should have been able to revert to human form using a tiny fraction of the energy that had been used to transform him in the first place, since affecting one's own body took much less energy than affecting the world in general.

But there was no effect to be reversed. And then, in a horrifying moment, Balbus realized what had happened. He'd thrown Claudia's name out there as a convenient scapegoat, an easy target that he knew his friends would seize upon. But he must have been right. She must have finally decided to simply commit suicide, stuck off as she was in exile, but done so by committing one last act of revenge upon him. The transformation was permanent - she really had given her life to make it so. And he couldn't permanently reverse it without giving all of his life force, killing himself in the process.

He was still considering the implications and how he could possibly deal with them when his fatal mistake revealed itself. To a muscular adult human male, like Balbus was used to being, the coyotes that sometimes were found in these woods were no big deal, as long as they weren't provoked. But Balbus wasn't a muscular adult human male anymore, and he barely had time to notice something was approaching him from behind before the powerful coyote jaw snapped his neck.

---

Appetus was asleep in the familiar house of Paullus, though he was not local to the region. A skilled horseman, he spent many nights in strange houses or under makeshift shelter during his long trips delivering messages across the land. Whenever he could, he tried to make sure his deliveries let him stay overnight here. He'd figured the first time he was in the area and Paullus offered to put him up that there was a reason such a well off man had not yet taken a wife, and that first night had confirmed it. Paullus offered his home and his body to the traveler, and shown a near insatiable desire to please Appetus.

A groaning from the other side of the bed woke Appetus, but he soon felt a little dizzy himself. Paullus couldn't keep quiet as his body stretched and transformed. Finally the discomfort subsided, and he crawled out of bed in the dark. Curious about how strange his body felt, he made his way through the darkness to the door, and stepped outside into the moonlight to look at his body. The first thing he noticed was his height - he had to duck just to get through the door. Next, he noticed that he was covered in brown fur, and had paws where his hands used to be, including sharp claws.

Appetus wandered towards the noise and froze when he looked out the open door. Silhouetted in the doorframe by the moonlight was a large anthropomorphic bear. Paullus turned around and looked back in the door, and saw Appetus, only his houseguest was no longer human, either. Instead, he was looking at an adorable anthropomorphic fox, and he felt his newly enlarged cock rising at the sight.

Oblivious to the changes to himself, Appetus started backing away in fear from the advancing bear, though he couldn't help but admire the massive erection that was growing on the bear. Before he could get very far, though, a familiar voice came from the bear.

"Wow, do you look cute like that," said Paullus, causing Appetus to look down at himself for the first time. He stared in shock at his belly, which was covered in a light gray fur, with orange-brown fur around the sides leading around to his back. He looked at his hands and was surprised to find paws in their place. He didn't even notice Paullus advancing until the bear had his paws around him and started feeling him up.

At first, Appetus just enjoyed the attention, since Paullus usually did like to feel up his body when he was giving head. But soon Paullus began to guide Appetus towards the bed, and the bear arms were so powerful that Appetus was helpless to resist. Even this didn't bother him much until they reached the bed, since Paullus was sometimes eager to blow him. But that changed when, instead of putting him on his back for a blowjob, Paullus turned him around and pushed him face down onto the bed, then quickly got on top of him, pinning him down.

"Paullus, what are you -" began Appetus.

"Relax," said Paullus, as he lifted Appetus's tail out of the way and began rubbing his hard cock around the exposed tailhole, getting the area nice and wet with precum. A corner of Paullus's mind was totally confused by his actions, since he'd never felt any desire to top before, let alone dominate. But his hormones were running wild, and he kept the fox pinned down while he eagerly kept rubbing his cock around, applying pressure to the tailhole, until finally it let his cock head slip in.

Appetus cried out in pain and struggled to squirm away, but Paullus didn't even notice as he felt a wave of pleasure flow through his body. His powerful body easily kept the fox pinned beneath him, even as he wiggled his hips around, working his cock very slowly into the very, very tight hole. For Appetus, each wiggle of the bear's hips brought another wave of pain, though each one seemed just a little bit less than the last. Finally, one last shift put the last of bear's cock into his tailhole, and the throbbing pain receded to a dull ache.

Paullus spent several moments completely buried inside the fox's tailhole, enjoying the pleasant feelings flowing through him. Slowly, he started to slide himself in and out, working up to a moderate pace. Appetus started feeling pleasure surge through him, gradually replacing the pain. Soon, Paullus was lost in a sea of pleasure, thrusting himself in and out rapidly, building himself up to a massive orgasm. When he finally unloaded, Appetus could feel the massive surge of cum flowing into him.

Appetus waited for the bear to finally stop shooting, expecting to be released so he could walk off the throbbing in his ass, and maybe investigate what had happened to him when he transformed. But after several minutes, not only had Paullus not moved, but the huge bear cock inside of him was still completely hard. He tried to wriggle his way forward to freedom, but instead his movements seemed to bring the bear back to his senses.

"And where do you think you're going?" asked Paullus. Once again, a corner of his mind was fascinated with his new attitude. He seemed to be reacting on pure instinct to the pleasure of Appetus squirming underneath him as he reached out and pinned the fox's shoulders to the bed. "It seems my cock isn't done with you yet."

This time, there was no surge of pain, and Appetus moaned in pleasure as the bear started thrusting himself, slowly and steadily, into and out of his tailhole. There was no resisting the incredible new strength of his friend, so he resigned himself to enjoying it. It wasn't like he could just stroll into his next destination and deliver his message like everything was normal when he'd turned into a fox, anyways. And even if he could, it would be a few days before his ass could handle riding on a horse again.

Neither Appetus nor Paullus ended up leaving the bed that night, and the sun rose well before Paullus finally collapsed, exhausted, after pumping another load into Appetus. He didn't even bother to pull out before dozing off with his head nuzzled on the back of the fox's shoulder, and Appetus, pinned underneath, simply let himself enjoy the warmth of the bear's body as he drifted off to sleep himself.

---

Tiberius was having trouble sleeping again. He was hungry and ached all over, a familiar condition over the last two years, ever since his parents had been convicted of practicing magic and executed. He'd been sent off to live with one of the most vocal advocates of immediate execution for anyone even suspected of using magic, with the hopes that any temptation to follow his parents' lead would be scared out of him.

At first it hadn't been bad. He'd been nine years old when he first went to live with Appius, and the man had seemed very kind and understanding whenever he cried about losing his parents. But soon, Appius seemed to lose interest in the boy, and found caring for him a burden. Any transgression resulted in being sent to bed with no dinner, and lately had been accompanied by a beating like tonight's.

Suddenly a new feeling overtook Tiberius, as if he was being stretched, his feet pulling away from his head and his torso becoming impossibly long. At the same time, his bruises actually stopped hurting, as his skin was slowly replaced by tough scales. His face felt like it was melting as it slowly took a new shape.

Finally, it clicked into place for Tiberius - he was turning into a giant snake! He forgot all about his hunger and disappearing aches in his excitement. He'd always been fascinated with the little snakes he saw in the woods, and only his parents' admonitions that the bigger ones could be poisonous had kept him from pursuing them to pick up every one that he saw. The feeling of stretching finished, and he looked down at himself, a little disappointed at first that the transformation seemed incomplete - he still had arms and legs.

But after moving around for a while he realized he could easily tuck them tight to his sides and slither like a real snake, or stand on his feet and coil his long torso to walk roughly like the boy he was, except that he was a lot bigger now. He decided to explore around the little house he shared with Appius and slithered beyond the low dividing wall that gave him some privacy and approached Appius's bed. As he rose up to peer down at the naked, sleeping man, his new hormones flew out of control. A powerful anger took control over him, and he instinctively struck out, lifting Appius off the bed long enough to begin wrapping his powerful new body around the sleeping form.

Appius woke up confused, taking a moment to realize he was being attacked. He started to scream, but Tiberius instinctively began tightening his coils, limiting the breath Appius could use to scream. Still, the noise was annoying, and Tiberius decided to muffle it by putting Appius's head into his mouth. This woke another set of powerful instincts - he was already underfed for the eleven-year-old boy he'd been, let alone the very large anaconda hybrid he'd become. He stretched his jaws, and to his own surprise, they unhinged, opening wide enough to slip over the man's shoulders.

Hungry as he was, Tiberius's body didn't seem to be equipped to swallow quickly, so he settled for slowly inching his lips down Appius's body, letting the man slide very slowly into his throat. As he slid down, he unwrapped the coils that had been constricting the man's chest, allowing his prey to finally breathe deeply. Inside the snake's mouth, Appius had stopped screaming, struggling just to draw enough air to remain conscious. Even after his chest was released and he could breathe, Appius couldn't seem to find the energy to shout, and his breathing grew more rapid. There wasn't all that much air around him, and the tight lips about his body weren't letting it exchange with the outside air. Soon, he was hyperventilating, his body trying desperately to draw in fresh oxygen.

Tiberius felt Appius breathing rapidly inside his throat, and it tickled uncomfortably. He didn't understand what was happening, but guessed that maybe it was too hot inside his sealed mouth, like it could get if he hid under a blanket and didn't leave any space for cool air to get in. Hoping it would make the tickle go away, he strained his jaw muscles to open his mouth a little wider than it needed to be, unsealing his lips to try to let some of the cool air into his mouth. The fresh air eventually reached Appius, and slowly his breathing returned to normal. He felt his mind clearing up, but the shock and fear and pitch blackness around him kept him from screaming again. He could feel the creature's lips passing his waist now, and his arms were still pinned helplessly to his sides. He could wriggle just a little bit, but not enough to do anything useful.

Tiberius continued swallowing, making sure to keep his mouth open and try to keep his meal cool, so that it wouldn't tickle his throat again. He was sliding down the man's legs now, moving a bit faster now that his prey was getting smaller as he went. It took only a few minutes to get to the feet, and finally to close his mouth once the feet were tucked inside. He could feel his body stretching as the giant meal worked its way deeper inside of him, while he dropped back to the floor and slithered back to his own bed.

The boy's decision to unseal his lips in an attempt to cool Appius turned out to be quite unintentionally cruel. Instead of passing out and asphyxiating before he was even fully swallowed, Appius reached the stomach of the snake boy fully alert and with only partially depleted air. When the flesh around him holding him tight started oozing a liquid onto his skin, the stinging pain finally broke through the shock, and he started struggling and screaming again. His full strength was no match for the powerful snake, however, and all of his movements barely amounted to a pleasant wriggling in the boy's belly.

Curled up in his small bed, Tiberius was staring with fascination at the huge bulge in his body when suddenly he felt Appius's struggles, heard the muffled cries for help, and could see the bulge in his body start to move around a bit on its own. The wriggling inside of him felt surprisingly good, and he lay his head down on his bed, nice and cozy. He was sound asleep before the movement inside of him finally stopped, full and content for the first time in many, many nights.

---

Marcus and Quintina had snuck out of their parents' houses and were out in the woods when it happened, making out with each other. Their families were not on friendly terms, and if they ever found out about the budding relationship between the two teens, tempers would certainly run quite hot. At only 15, Marcus didn't have the courage to risk his family's wrath, but for Quintina, he knew he'd have to develop it at some point if he wanted to stay with her or even marry her. The moment seemed both impossibly far away and approaching quickly, as Quintina would be turning 15 herself in a few weeks. With her looks, it wouldn't be long before her family would look to arrange a match.

In the middle of a kiss, they both felt a wave of dizziness. For Marcus, it wasn't terrible, and he could see his skin seeming to grow a brown, almost-orange shade of fur. He also felt a sharp pain on either side of the top of his head, as if two swords were being driven into his skull from either side. Before he could regain his composure enough to find his voice, there was a loud ripping noise. He looked up, but instead of Quintina, there was a large, naked, anthropomorphic jet black wolfess towering over him. He felt a flash of fear, until he looked into the wolfess's eyes and found them familiar.

"Quintina?" he asked hesitantly.

"Marcus?" she replied.

The both took a moment to look over each other in shock. Marcus was simultaneously intimated and aroused at Quintina's new size, power, and appearance, not to mention her sudden nudity as her clothing had all been torn to shreds as she grew. Quintina thought Marcus looked adorable as an anthropomorphic buck, who seemed to her to have shrunk quite a bit because of her growth spurt and grown a very interesting pair of antlers.

"I don't know what's going on, but we should probably get home and find out," said Marcus.

Quintina reached out to touch Marcus's new fur in fascination, only to make two discoveries about herself. The first was the incredible strength she suddenly possessed, as she had to quickly moderate her movements when her new paws nearly knocked Marcus over from what she'd intended to be a delicate touch. The second was that she had a whole new set of hormones driving her, and absolutely no practice at controlling them.

"Sure, we can head home," she said, "when I'm done with you."

Her powerful claws reached out and ripped Marcus's tunic to shreds before he could react. She then reached down and growled in a low voice, "take them off."

Not wanting to risk those claws around his sensitive regions, Marcus quickly undid and removed his trousers, to reveal that he was having just as much difficulty controlling his hormones. As soon as he was free of the trousers, Quintina firmly pushed him down until he was lying on his back, and she got on top of him, a hungry look in her eyes.

So much for waiting for the wedding night, Marcus thought. By that point, he couldn't have resisted the sexy wolfess if he'd wanted to, and he really didn't want to. They didn't make it home until well after sunrise.

---

EPILOGUE

Aelia focused hard on the desired effect, even as she looked up at the six others who would be joining her in the effort. It had been just over a fortnight since she'd been woken by a wave of dizziness and found herself covered in fur, transformed by Claudia's curse into an anthropomorphic cat. She had indulged the prior evening, enjoying herself at the feast prepared in honor of the seven who would be casting the effect today.

There had been some real scary moments, but luckily most practicers of magic had been prepared in the event that somehow they were all exposed. They hadn't expected quite the situation they'd faced, but most of them had managed to get their families to a pre-designated clearing several miles away from any nearby villagers without being seen.

Those with the skill to pull it off had cast temporary illusions about themselves to hide their new appearance and returned to mingle with the normal humans for short times, subtly guiding the village elders towards suspicion of Claudia and distracting attention away from all the disappearances. While the villagers sent off an expedition to fetch Claudia from exile to interrogate, Aelia and the other most powerful and skilled magic users had thrown themselves into the problem of reversing the curse.

In the end, even together, they lacked the skill to do so. Instead, they could only create the illusion of normalcy about anyone affected by Claudia. Those who were unaffected would sense only what they expected from another fellow human, within reason. Furs who were too large or small, or who touched a human with fur or scale for too long, would have their life energy drawn upon to supplement the illusion's power. There would also be a very, very small energy drain used to maintain a single false image, so that all humans would see the same projection when looking at the same fur. It was the best they could do.

"Ready?" asked Aelia of the six furs around her.

"Ready," came six near simultaneous replies.

"Then release into me," she said, and the six around her threw all their energy into the effect, placing their energy under Aelia's control, then slumped to the ground catatonically. Pausing to mentally say goodbye to her young son, she took a moment to remember his powerful new dragon form. Her best friend had promised to take good care of him, and though how the anthropomorphic bears were going to keep any sort of control over the giant dragon her son had already become was beyond her, she trusted them. Picturing her son with a smile on her face, Aelia released all of her and her six companion's energy into the effect, and collapsed next to their now lifeless forms.

Within a generation, the Days of Claudia's Curse seemed more like a fairytale made up to scare children into line than a real memory of actual events. Soon, the Evil Sorceress Claudia was just another mythical creature among many, said to come to punish children who would not obey their parents. Eventually, the name was forgotten, even by the furs who still lived. Unfortunately, the names of the seven who sacrificed themselves were not recorded, and so were also lost with the passage of time, though more symbolic attachment to the number seven lingered. The nature of the illusion effect was passed down from generation to generation, with records of its strengths and weaknesses maintained by a small, secretive group of furs that came to be known simply as the Council. The existence of furs and the illusion field that protected them simply became the way things were, no different from the existence of light or gravity.

It would be many centuries before anyone even considered trying to change things again.