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Danielle

Daniel took a deep breath and figured his friends were just messing with him. The bit about the dream had certainly caught his attention, but he decided to play along for a while.

"Well then, I chose Truth." Said Daniel as he sat in the floor next to Jake and David.

"Tell us your name." Came Pam, almost mechanically.

"Really, Pam? You could have asked anything and y-"

"What is your name?" Barked David.

"Listen guys, I-"

"Your name." Said Jake, violently.

"Alright, fine! Fuck... Daniel, it´s Daniel, ok?"

They all sat in silence for a couple of seconds, eyes locked on Daniel as he started to wipe the expression of annoyance out of his face.

"You can´t lie to us." Said Pam without breaking eye contact.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"What is your name?" Barked David one more time.

"Guys, come on... This isn´t funny anymore".

"You chose Truth, so now you have to answer our question." Came Jake.

Daniel cursed under his voice and clumsily reached for his pockets, he then noticed he had left his wallet at home. Still, he took out a small leather journal and threw it to the middle of the circle.

"See? There it is, right on the top. My father gave me that journal and had my name engraved on the cover. Are we done yet?"

His friends leaned into the circle and carefully read the engraved letters. They then went back to Daniel while keeping their emotionless demeanor.

"Yes, the journal is right. So, what is your name?" Said Pam without flitching.

"For the love of god... are you guys high? Can´t you see? D-A-N--"

Daniel froze as he himself took a good look at the journal. The familiar binding he had seen a thousand times was still there, but the engraving showed something different. It used to read "Daniel", yet somehow a couple of characters had been added to his name. He never thought he would ever feel so eerily disturbed by two letters stitched on a piece of leather, but still, the fact that his beloved journal now read "Danielle" certainly sent a shiver down his spine.

"You guys are dicks." Said Daniel as he stood up and bolted towards the door.

"Don´t knock anything with your tail on your way out." Came Pam.

"My wha-? Just fuck off, Pam..."

Daniel was truly mad. At first, he thought his friends were just pulling an elaborate prank on him. However, after reading the engraving on that journal, something certainly felt amiss.

On his way back home, Daniel felt way hotter than usual. That was particularly strange considering it was really cold outside. Not only that, but he felt itchy all over. He thought about taking off his coat or his winter-globes, but then he figured he might just be coming down with a fever and decided to hurry and get in bed.

"Hi sweetie, I thought you were staying out late." Said Daniel´s father as soon as he opened the door.

"Erm... I felt a bit under the weather, I think I´m gonna take a nap".

"Alright, let me know if you need anything."

"Yeah, sure..."

Daniel was a bit confused, his dad had always been nice to him, but that was probably the first time he called him "sweetie". Daniel didn´t think much of it and went upstairs to his room. Once in, he mindlessly took off his coat and globes and dove head first into his bed. He was actually feeling sort of sick, so he just dozed off for a while.

After a couple of hours, he was woken up by a loud knocking on the door.

"Honey, dinner´s ready. Your mom made lasagna!"

Daniel sat on his bed and rubbed his eyes. He was still pretty much asleep, so he just robotically walked towards the bathroom to take a leak. Once inside, he pulled down his pants and tried to go about his business as usual. That´s when it hit him.

Daniel was horrified. For a second, he couldn´t speak or move. He touched himself, struggling to reach for something that evidently wasn´t there. He stared at his groin for a good two minutes, desperately trying to make sense of it all. Not only was he unable to find the genitals he was born with, but everything seemed to be covered by a dense layer of orange fur.

He closed his eyes and moved towards the sink while mumbling under his voice:

"This is a dream, this is a dream, this is a dream, this is a dream."

Once there, he soaked his hands in water and practically slapped himself in the face. Facing the mirror, he slowly started to open his eyes. And there it was, something so inconceivably unreal that Daniel couldn´t help but to take a few steps back and lay on the wall behind him. He could still see himself clearly, a couple of wet whiskers in a protuberant muzzle, a pair of deep green eyes, and two small black ears, very much like those of a cat, coming out of his fur covered skull. Deep inside, he was hoping to snap back to reality in any second, but when he realized he could move those small cat ears at will, everything became just way too real.

He wanted to scream, but at that point it seemed quite useless. He stood back up again and, out of curiosity more than anything, disrobed completely. The shower screens were made up of reflective glass, so he got a chance to take a good look at his new body. Everything was completely covered in orange fur, with black stripes all over his back, legs, arms and face. A long and fluffy tail that he hadn´t noticed before extended out of his tailbone. He was as tall as before, and besides his feline head and tail, the rest of his body pretty much resembled that of a human. Not any human though... The hourglass shape of his anatomy and the two humble breasts that protruded from his chest were unfalteringly female, that and, of course, the fact that he was missing the essential parts that once made him a boy.

Daniel was mesmerized by his own image, slowly exploring his new shapes with a sense of absolute wonder. But then another knock on the door came in and broke his dreamlike state.

"Danielle, honey, is everything ok?" Said Daniel´s mother from the hallway. The bathroom door still closed.

"Oh, shit..." Said Daniel under his breath.

"Honey, what are you doing?"

"N-Nothing mom! I´ll be out in a minute!"

"Alright honey. Don´t forget to dry your tail if you took a bath!"

"My ta- Sure mom..."

A truckload of questions swarmed Daniel´s head. How did she know about the tail? Why wasn´t she freaking out? Did she just called him "Danielle"? All that uncertainty coupled with the sheer madness of the situation would have sent anyone else to the psych-ward. But Daniel managed to keep it together. Hastily, he put his pants and shirt back on and opened the bathroom door. After taking a couple of deep breaths to calm himself down, he made his way downstairs, unsure of what would happen.

"Your mom made chicken lasagna. I know you like the beef one better, but she says the store had ran out of beef." Came his father nonchalantly as Daniel shyly took a sit on the table.

"I don´t need you to make up excuses for me Robert! Besides, she likes chicken too. Isn´t that right honey?"

Daniel took a couple of seconds before realizing his mother was talking to him.

"Heh... yeah, sure. Chicken is fine".

"See? Now eat up before it goes cold! Oh, and honey, I love your fur today. It looks wonderful. Did you use that new shampoo I got you?" Said Daniel´s mother as she served the food.

"T- Thanks mom. I don´t know, maybe..."

Daniel was still trying to get in terms with the fact that his parents were not even slightly concerned by his transformation. As a matter of fact, it would appear as if he had always been like that.

"Well, you better use it. It´s supposed to make your fur shinier!"

"Yes mom..." Came Daniel under his breath.

"By the way, I got the bug spray you asked me for a couple of days ago. They only had the big bottle, but you can share it with your friends".

Daniel nodded without taking his eyes off his plate. In a way, he still feared that if he looked up, everyone would see the animal he had turn into and act accordingly. Still, everything was just... normal.

Daniel finished his meal and went back upstairs. An aura of sheer fantasy still surrounded the whole situation. He sat on his desk in silence, doing absolutely nothing for more time that he would have cared to admit. However, after contemplating existence, he decided to make peace with his new self. He may have thought it was curse at first, some perverse twist of fate concocted by the devil himself, but since nobody was making a big deal out of it, he figured he may as well just try to make the best of an extremely awkward circumstance.

He stood up and walked straight to his backpack. After empting it on the bed, he frantically snooped through all his belongings. Everything seemed to be in order, his notebooks, his pens, his books and his notes. Even the hand drawn cartoons he made when he was too bored in class were just where he left them. However, the one eerily different thing was that every instance where his name was written had suddenly changed to "Danielle". It was his very own handwriting, and he was absolutely sure nobody had tempered with his stuff. He tried his luck on the computer just to find the exact same problem. All his social media, all his digital assignments, even the nicknames for the games he played had morphed accordingly. He tried one last place, the photographic archive of his teenage years spread across several digital networking platforms. He expected to find his old self, maybe a couple of pictures from when he just started high school, a couple of pictures of him being a boy... a human boy.

He found them, but just as his name had changed, his body did too. Every picture and video showed a small tigress where he should have been. He even remembered the clothes he was wearing, some of them were dresses or otherwise girly clothing. It was bizarre, he was sure he never wore those things as Daniel, but the memory of Danielle, or more specifically, the memory of being Danielle had started to surface in his confused teenage mind. For a second, he himself felt as if that new body had been his all along. Still, the image of Daniel stood strong among those strange flashbacks of the female cat.

However, a lot of questions remained unanswered. Was he the only one? Why weren´t there any other anthropomorphic animals in the pictures? Why was the entire world disregarding his condition without saying anything about it?

He turned off his computer and fell on his bed like a log. He almost passed out, waking up the next morning with nothing but even stronger doubts pestering his head. His situation refused any form of logic, and yet there he was: a tigress walking among humans, a boy in a body that wasn´t his. Daniel tried to rationalize the situation, find whatever silver lining he could find to cope with the disappearance Daniel. Yet, what worried him the most was that maybe those new memories, the ones that appeared to be surfacing faster as time went by, would end up replacing everything. He feared that in a couple of days, there wouldn´t be any Daniel left... just Danielle, just the tigress.

He allowed himself to be tormented by that thought for a couple of minutes, only to realize that perhaps it was for the best. Perhaps he didn´t need to make sense of anything, but rather learn to forget and move on. Perhaps that gross simplification of life would make him happy.

Then came another knock on the door, ending Daniel´s emotional rollercoaster of existential angst. He quickly hopped to his feet and got to the door in a, suitably enough, catlike manner. He opened it up just to find Jake on the other side.

"Hey Danielle, what´s up?" Said Jake as he made his way into the room without waiting for an invitation.

"Don´t call me that."

"What, your name?"

"Just don´t, ok?"

"Jeez, ok... Grumpy much? Anyway, are you ready for our camping trip? Don´t forget it´s the day after tomorrow. My parents would kill me if we have to reschedule again!"

"Yeah, sure the camping trip..." Came Daniel as he started to remember the plans he had made with his friends about a week ago.

Nobody really liked camping, but it was the first time their parents allowed them to take a trip by themselves. They would borrow Jake´s pickup truck and camp by the forest in the outskirts of the city. And, of course, they would get enough booze to shame a frat-party.

"My mom got us enough bug spray to sanitize a homeless person..." Said Daniel jokingly. It was actually the first time he had cracked a joke since his transformation.

"Sanitize a homeless pe- what´s up with you Danny, you seem even grittier than usual." Came Jake while grinning.

"Nothing, I´m alright."

"Well, you know what would make you alright-er?" Jake´s grin intensified.

"Got something for me, Jake?"

"I wouldn´t ever visit a lady empty-handed!"

Jake´s remark was a little off-putting. Daniel was still getting used to his new body, and being treated like a woman was still quite awkward for him. However, he knew exactly what Jake was talking about.

"Where did you get these from?"

"I stole them from my brother. It´s supposed to be the good shit."

"That´s fucking brilliant, mate!"

"Don´t do that Danny... your British accent sucks balls."

"Just open the window and light it up, and try not to be a dick while you do it."

"Jeez, chill sister!"

Daniel laughed and reached for a hoodie. He even forgot about the whole tigress situation for a second, it was as if everything had gone back to normal. He was about to smoke a joint with his best friend by the window, and talk shit and then eat junk food. Jake was the same laidback duffus he had always been, and Daniel, even if it was only for a moment, was just Daniel.

They lighted one up and started talking about some anime they had both been watching. However, a couple of hits later, Daniel decided it was about time to ask someone about his condition.

"Jake... do you remember when we played Truth or Dare at Pam´s house yesterday?"

"Yeah, you were being a total bitch."

"... so, do you remember anything strange happening?"

"Yeah, you were being a total bitch." Jake laughed.

"Come on, I mean it."

"Well, you came in late, got mad for some reason and left. I was about to go after you but Pam told me to give you some space. Girl things I guess..."

"Didn´t you feel funny at any point?"

"I felt funny as fuck after you left and we cracked open one of Pam´s father José Cuervo bottles!"

"... so everything was normal?"

"Sure, I guess."

Jake took another hit and started playing some music from his cell phone. Daniel simply couldn´t understand why everyone´s world was still the same, as if nothing had happened.

"I would suck a dick for a good burger right now..." Said Jake out of nowhere.

"Well, suck mine."

Daniel answered almost instinctively. That was the kind of joke they used to crack on each other since they were kids. Still, as soon as Daniel remembered his current situation, he froze for a second and waited attentively for Jake´s reply.

"Sure, as soon as you grow one..."

Strangely enough, that was the exact same answer Jake would have given him not three days ago. Daniel could tell Jake was fully aware of the fact that he was a walking tigress, and yet, he was still his best friend, and he wasn´t treating him any differently.

"I may need some help with that. How is yours coming along? Are you done or is it still a work in progress?" Said Daniel jokingly.

"Oh, fuck off..."

They both stayed there for at least two hours, laughing like kids and smoking like grad-students. Eventually, Jake passed out on Daniel´s bed, and Daniel decided to just doze off next to his friend.

By noon, Jake woke up violently and ran back to his house while rambling about how his parents were going to kill him. They probably would, but still, after being left alone in his room, Daniel felt an strange sense of peace that he hadn´t felt since the transformation. It was as if everything was going to be just fine.

"Danielle, get down here!" Screamed Daniel´s mother from the first floor.

Daniel was already awake, but it was still hard for him to muster the courage to go downstairs. His mom was a really nice lady, but when she got mad, she got really mad.

"Yes, mom...?"

"You are in real trouble young lady!"

"Troub- Why? What did I do?"

Daniel´s mom held an unnaturally stern face, way out of character even if she was actually livid. She looked at Daniel right in the eye for a good ten seconds and then slipped into a short burst of laugher.

"I´m sorry sweetie, Jake told me it would be fun to do that... If he could have seen the look on your face..."

"Really...?"

"Come on, don´t be such a downer!"

Daniel´s mom loved Jake, she had known him since he was a little boy, and their relationship was a bit too close even for Daniel´s liking.

"... is that all?"

"No, no... he also told me to give this to you when he left. He said that you would like it." She was still giggling.

"What is it?"

"I don´t know, it looks like a book."

"Erm... alright... thanks, mom."

A book? Jake wouldn´t read a book out of his own volition even if he had been stranded in a deserted island. Still, it was quite a thoughtful detail. Daniel took the package back to his room and unwrapped the plain brown paper covering with an almost morbid curiosity. A geographical history of tigers and how to tame them. It was definitely a flashy title, and the book seemed old and used, as if it had been read more time that it should have. Daniel started to read the first the page, but before he could get even the slightest gist, his father´s voice boomed through the corridor:

"Danielle, we´ll be leaving in fifteen minutes, with or without you!" He said jokingly.

That´s right. Daniel had totally forgot. They had scheduled dinner with his grandparents weeks ago. He quickly changed into a more suiting attire (strangely enough, quite masculine) and complied with his family obligations.

It was a rather uneventful evening. As Daniel expected, not his grandparents nor the rest of his family were even slightly fazed by his feline anatomy. He ate and laughed and got into uncomfortable political discussions just as he has always done. By the time he got back home, he was quite exhausted, so he just Jake´s book on his nightstand and went to bed.

The following day was just business as usual. Daniel was looking forward to his camping trip, so he actually prepared all his equipment and had an early night. He got up at 6:00AM, which was outrageously early for someone his age. Not twenty minutes later, a laud honk from the street signaled the arrival of his friends.

"Good riddance, milady! Please board the carriage and we´ll be on our way." Said Gassan sluggishly.

"God, Gassan, are you drunk already?" Came Daniel.

"I won´t confirm nor deny that statement!"

"You know... it´s six in the morning..."

"Joy knows no timetable!"

He greeted the rest of his friends and shortly after learned that Gassan was trying out the booze they had stolen from everyone´s houses. To make sure it wasn´t spoiled, he said. Still, they laughed it off and started driving towards the forest.

"You know, we´ve got like seven bottles of scotch and vodka, but not a single cold one." Said David in a ceremonious tone.

"There´s a gas station a couple of miles ahead, there´s a seven-eleven right there and they never check for IDs." Answered Pam.

It sounded like a plan. They got to the gas station, picked a couple of six-packs from the fridge, and tried their hardest to look mature and responsible.

"Isn´t it a bit too early to have a party?" Said the store clerk as they were paying for the beer and a couple of random snacks to make it look less suspicious.

"No... I mean, it´s not for us. We ju-"

Jake was a terrible liar, luckily Daniel was ready to jump in and Gassan was sleeping in the car.

"Excuse him buddy, he´s a bit... special." Said Daniel with the sleekest tone he could muster.

"Well, you seem to be quite special too..." Came the clerk.

That was probably the worst pick-up line Daniel had ever heard, however, it was the first time another man was actually hitting on him, so he felt quite awkward. He felt so awkward, the he could only reply with a fit of nervous laughter.

"So, what´s your name?" Came the clerk once again, with a degree of straightforwardness that shouldn´t be socially acceptable.

Daniel was about to reply mechanically, but then he realized that the answer he had been giving to that question throughout his whole life was no longer sufficiently accurate. In the few seconds it took him to reply, he managed to think about his old life, his old body and his old self. He even tried to remember exactly how he looked like when he was a boy, but even that familiar image appeared to be fading. However, he was not about to let himself spiral into another existential crisis. It was a good day, he was with his best friends and they were probably about to have a blast. With his own sanity in mind, Daniel decided to just let this one slide, and replied with words he never thought he would say out loud.

"Danielle... my name is Danielle."

"Ooh, fancy. Is it French?" Said the clerk, completely disregarding the intensity of the moment Daniel had just had.

"Yeah, French for ´my crack´s so hairy shaving is pointless´" Pam promptly replied.

Jake immediately fractured into laughter. So did David, and when Daniel finally processed the whole situation, he couldn´t help but to crack a small chuckle as well.

"Ok so, Danielle, do you plan to stop flirting anytime soon or should we reschedule the trip to a date that you find more convenient?" Said David sarcastically.

"That´s ok kids, I was just making small talk. Didn´t mean to intrude. Here´s your change." Came the clerk nonchalantly.

Daniel and his friends hoped back into the car and drove away with their illegally acquired light-beer. After driving for about thirty minutes, they reached the campsite and started setting things up. There seemed to be nobody around and the weather was on point, so the second they finished mounting the campfire, David started blasting music from the car and everyone lighted up their respective joint or chugged their artisanal cocktails made of cheap vodka and even cheaper orange juice.

It was a great day, they were either high as a mountain seagull or plain wasted, specially Gassan, who passed out on a ditch not two hours after lunch. Everything was fun and games, they even got to take a swim in a nearby river, despite the fact that drunk teenagers and water don´t really mix well. Fortunately, nobody died, and by nightfall they were all exhausted enough to just get inside their tents without even having dinner.

It must have been around midnight. Everyone was sleeping like a rock except for Daniel, by then he had almost completely sobered up and was just laying on his tent pondering both the meaning of life and how he was going to get the cranberry juice stains off his tail. Then, without so much as a warning, a loud metallic thump boomed right next to him. Everyone got up immediately and came out to see what was going on. It turns out that Jake´s cheap tent simple decided it was about time to break, and while he was comically getting out of that polyester rubble, everyone just laughed at him with little to no regard for his wellbeing. Even Daniel chuckled a little, after all, the scene was quite funny.

After emerging unscarred, Jake looked at his friends with sad puppies eyes implying that he had nowhere to sleep. At first he turned to his left, where Pam a David were camping, and before he could even say a word...

"Oh, hell no. If I wanted to wake up next to some dude´s morning boner, I´d have gone to church camp." Came Pam as she got back into her tent and pulled the zipper up.

"Sorry dude, I get hot as hell without somebody else breathing next to my ear. Sleep in the car if you want. The keys are inside." Said David as he too closed up his tent.

Gassan had peaked outside for a minute when Jake´s tent broke down, but as soon as he realized nobody was being mauled by a bear, he went right back inside.

"Hey, you can sleep in my tent if you want." Said Daniel without making much of a fuzz.

"Are you sure, I could just go to the ca-"

"Stop playing martyr and get in!"

Jake complied, and soon after he was already snuggled inside Daniel´s tent. They both laid down back to back and pretended to sleep for a couple of minutes.

"Danielle, are you awake?"

"I am now... what´s up?"

"Did you see the book I gave you?"

"Yeah, and the cheesy prank you and my mother pulled on me too. I haven´t had a chance to read it yet."

Jake stayed silent for a moment.

"Thanks for the book though, it looks fun. Kinnda weird, but fun."

"I read it... it reminded me of you."

"Dude, that´s gay."

"What?"

Daniel then realized it was not gay at all. It may have been about a week ago, but now it was just strangely uncomfortable.

"Erm... I mean gay as in happy. It was happy..."

"That doesn´t make any sense, Danny."

"Shut up, I´m still drunk."

"Are you...?"

Daniel rolled on his back just to find Jake already facing him.

"Not really... hey, this is kinnda weird, isn´t it?"

"What is?"

"You know... it´s like you want to do, I don´t know, something..."

"What? No! Of course not... unless, well, unless you want to do something..."

They were both acting like little kids, which was understandable considering Jake had always been quite silly and Daniel was still coming to terms with all the craziness that had fallen upon his life over the last few days. It was unspeakably strange, Daniel actually felt drawn to Jake, in a way, he had always have. They´ve been really close throughout their whole lives, and Daniel really loved him. He just didn´t know he could love him in that way.

"I don´t know..." Said Daniel under his breath.

"We could... you know, try..."

Daniel said nothing, it was way too much to process and he felt that if he tried to put it into words, everything would fall apart, including himself. Still, he wanted to do it, and if he had learned anything over the past few days, it was that over thinking stuff brought more trouble than anything else.

They were both staring at each other intently, and without breaking eye contact, Daniel slowly pulled down Jake´s blanket with his tail. Jake got the cue, he carefully moved forward and rested his lips on Daniel´s muzzle. It was a soft kiss, one that really showed how much they cared for each other. Daniel then decided to just go with the moment and strongly grabbed Jake as he let his passion run loose. He jumped over him, delicatelly twining his tail around Jake´s leg. They both lost their shirts in a matter of seconds, and suddenly Daniel could feel the warmth of Jake´s chest against his own. Jake quickly threw his shorts to the corner of the tent and laid there on his boxer-briefs while Daniel kicked all his remaining clothes to the side. It took Daniel a couple of seconds to fully realize what he was doing, he was there, naked, sitting on his best friend´s chest while lightly panting in expectation. At first he thought reason would kick in and stop everything abruptly, but Daniel was sincerely happy. He was doing exactly what he wanted to do with someone he really cared about. With someone he actually loved. Daniel carefully ran his paw through Jake´s thighs, feeling his shaft palpitating behind his boxers. He then reached inside, and tenderly positioned himself until Jake was completely inside him. Daniel had never felt something like that before, it was slightly uncomfortable at first, but they were both so kindled that he just didn´t mind. Jake was panting under his breath as Daniel rhythmically moved on top of him. That closeness was almost surreal, Daniel just kept going faster and faster as Jake basically laid there, paralyzed in awe. At that point, they probably being louder than they would´ve liked, but there was no turning back. A couple of minutes passed until they both finished. It was messy and not particularly grandiose, but it just felt right, so they simply didn´t care.

They gave each other one last soft kiss and Jake rested his head on Daniel´s chest.

"You fur is really soft, Danny."

Daniel gently nuzzled Jake´s hair.

"You know, it´s ok if you call me Danielle now and then..."