Tales of Ayre

Jace slowly awakened to the sounds of birds chirping. And a throbbing headache from which he rubbed his head. “Ugh, that’s strange. Why has no one woke me up?” Jace thought through the fog of waking up. Someone’s presence scanning his body, making his fur stand on end. He wished he was able to extend his perception like the others could. An acrid smell invaded his nose. “No…. I didn’t…” He worried.

And that wasn’t all he was smelling. Something was missing. Carefully, peeled back the foul smelling blanket. Placing it back. “Eep!” He covered his mouth. He started reaching down and pressed his fingers around. He almost screamed as he buried his head in his pillow.

A faint laugh came from behind the walls. Jace's cheeks warmed and he became concerned.

“What?!” Evaliena shouted from outside the room, the sound damped by the door. “He changed during the night?!” Another presence scanned his body and he heard Evaliena running up the stairs. She opened the door to come in, and stepped back as the lingering scent hit her nose. “Oh no, he’s pissed himself as well.” Cedar started laughing. Evaliena clicked her fingers, and a scented fresh breeze flew through the room, cleansing the horrid smell and cleaning up his sheets. It even ironed them out and fluffed his pillow. He needed to learn that spell!

“Th-thanks!” Jace squeaked. He pulled up the blankets to cover himself further.

“Have any pleasant dreams, Ashwood?” Cedar snickered as he peaked around the frame of the door to Jace’s room. The new name settled well with him. “You should be careful about sleeping under a full moon.”

“Oh, shut your trap, Cedar.” Evaliena moved over to Jace and got onto her knees. Jace looked up at Evaliena with a pleading set of eyes. “You’re lucky you didn’t kill yourself.”

“I just went to sleep as normal!” Jace yelped, his voice faltering, a higher pitch than normal. “Why am I a girl now?!”

A pernicious smile crooked on the yellow vixen’s muzzle, annoyed. Cedar started walking away with a snicker. “I guess I’m not training you until the next full moon, Ashwood.”

Jace continued to look at Evaliena. “This is going to take some explaining.” Evaliena sighed as she reached for the blanket. Jace pulled it tighter against himself. “You’re also not going to stay in your room either, no matter how embarrassed you feel.” The vixen grabbed Jace and pulled him out of his blankets, using both arms.

“Eeep!”

Only Jace’s poncho seemed to fit. The kilt kept slipping off the moment he pulled the waistband over his hips. Band was not tight enough to stay in place. So Evaliena made him ditch it. The gate of his walk felt awkward too, like his hips were swaying a little too much. And a gap… He did not like to think about it.

Evaliena explained in the privacy of Jace’s room what the problem was now. He must have had a fantasy during the night. It was a full moon and his form changed gender while he slept. And now they forbid him from glamouring to his travel form until the next full moon. Which was about a full lunar month, three bloody weeks, or about thirty days. Because he had to wait for the larger moon, Selene, not the smaller one, Muud, to go through its… entire… orbit.

And Cedar, despite Jace’s pleading. Cedar refused to train Jace until he changed back, saying. “You’re no longer used to your body, so you’re going to hurt yourself and your emotions are… harsher.” So all Jace could think of doing now was sitting in the living room. Slowly going crazy and watching for when the moon makes its revolution around the planet.

“Could you take this form after your second milestone?” Burr said. She was sitting much closer than usual, as if she was enjoying what happened to Jace..

“Butterbur. Not right now,” Evaliena spoke firmly as she scribbled away on some paper. “Don’t you have your greenhouse to tend to?”

“I may need an extra pair of hands today.” Burr responded softly, hinting at Jace.

He continued to stew, curled up next to the hearth, as he didn’t feel like sitting on any chairs. “No.” Jace rolled, facing away Burr.

“Burr, don’t…” Evaliena gave Burr a warning look. Followed by a defeated sign.

Jace yelped as Burr grabbed him roughly and dragged him over into her lap, giving him a tender hug. “Come on, little Ashwood, you’ve done such a wonderful job with gathering all those herbs over the past few weeks.”

“I am not fine with this!” He squirmed and kicked around, protesting Burr’s actions. She cackled.

“There’s no point in resisting Jace.” Evaliena groaned as she kept scribbling away on the paper. “When Burr gets like this, she is not going to stop until she’s satisfied.”

“The next few weeks are going to be so much fun,” Burr sang, gently rocking side to side. “It’s like all my names’ days all come at once.”

Jace squirmed in place, his arms pinned his side. “This is so frustrating…”

“Cheer up, not like it could get any worse. You could have been a pile of guts in your bed,” Burr teased. Jace quit his movement. Locking up at what she said, He slumped as he felt ill as the imagery. “Hmmm, that was a bit too far.”

Evaliena slammed her arm lightly against her table. “Burr! Just let Ashwood survive the next three weeks!”

Jace kept his lunch down and licked around his mouth to clear the taste that welled up in his mouth. Some thoughts ran through his mind. One bubbled up. Should he tell Evaliena about the spirit visiting that night? He can’t remember anything after going to sleep. “Evaliena, can spirits manipulate dreams?”

Jace felt Burr’s playful mood shift. “Aaah, we forgot about that, didn’t we?” Jace felt burr turn her head to Evaliena. Burr shrugged and went back to rocking Jace. “It’s a shame she never comes to me. I could show her a thing or two. But alas, I have you instead.”

Jace had enough. “Personal space Burr!”

Burr’s greenhouse, Jace could best describe the place as walking into a wall of heat accompanied by an intense array of floral and herb smells. A sea of green split neatly by two dirt paths. It made helping Burr gather the crop of herbs she wanted unbearable. But he managed, in spite of how unbalanced his body is currently and how acute his arcane senses became. Baysil was here as well. Now they just had to sort and dry the various herbs…

“You doing alright, Ashwood?” Baysil enquired. “I heard what happened this morning.”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” His voice squeaked.

“Ashwood will be fine.” Burr reached over to the large, gathered pile of herbs. “But since you’re here, Baysil. Why don’t you help us sort these out? You can take what you want after.”

“The offer is tempting…” Baysil replied, then noticed Jace’s helpless expression. She took pity and sat down with the pair of them. “Sure, why not?”

And the three got to work on separating and sorting the herbs. Burr also thrashed some of them for their seeds. Jace puckered up the courage to ask Burr why she’s so interested in him now. “So, burr, why are you so interested in being around me now?”

Burr thought about it as she kept sorting. “I’ll get back to you on that.” Creepy old vixen, he thought. Something Jace came to realise about Burr is that she shares the same crude sense of humour Cedar has. It’s clearly not a cultural thing.

“It’s because you’ve become a girl.” Baysil interceded, picking out particular herbs from the pile for herself.

“So she’s just a creepy old vixen, huh?” Jace looked accusingly at Burr.

Burr sneered and laughed incredulously, stripping herb’s leaves from its stem. “I consider it a worthy challenge to try and keep you as the fairer sex.”

“That’s really concerning…” But this Jace rebutted Burr. “I don’t think you’re going to convert me.”

“Oh? I can be very pervasive.” Burr snickered softly, nudging Jace’s side. “But I’ll let you state your truth.” Baysil leaned in, also interested in what Jace had to say. He spoke about his two sisters from his own world. Leaving out anything the two Reynards would not understand, of course. Mostly how they fought over the littlest things, the mood swings and the pains they expressed. And how Jace never ever wants to experience that.

“Oh… Oh… OOOOH. I guess I have my work cut out for me.” She taunted Jace with narrowed, mischievous eyes.

“Oh, give it a rest Burr, he made quite a lot of good points for why ‘HE’ doesn’t want to be a girl.” Baysil defended Jace.

“Now I have to ask before an argument breaks out.” Jace interjected. “Why are therian children so fluid?”

“I think last night would have given you all the insight you needed, Jace.” Burr explained. “But since, really, the only other Reynard here that could explain it… would be Evaliena.” She started rubbing her chin in through.

“So some children just naturally swap over?” Several questions ran through Jace’s mind. When was the cutoff?

Burr traced Jace’s thoughts. “Those kids usually settle before they reach their second milestone… Unless the couple intend to have a spare son. Then we usually raise the rest as daughters.” She mused with a smile. “Not all of them turn, though.”

“Spare?!” It was a long afternoon of sorting herbs.

Two more weeks until Selene completes its luna cycle. Jace was brushing his lengthened mane. He had gotten walking around with his altered hips down. It wasn’t so bad, so long as he didn’t think about it. He also didn’t know why he was still allowed to continue sleeping in his own room.

He felt something slip into his room. He didn’t bother to turn around. “Oh, you’re back,” he felt tempted to call Topaz a little shit for what she did. “Selene isn’t waxing yet.”

“Pah, I can manifest on any full moon, not just the big one.” The spirit spoke proudly. “Not going to look at me?” Jace heard a shrug and a sigh. “Yes, I caused your current problem. And I’m sorry.”

Jace turned to look at the small yellow canid. “You’re sorry?” he said with frustration in his voice. “Do you know how awkward I feel right now?”

“I never intended to shift where you’re bouncing and jiggling from.” Topaz sneered, leaning precariously to the side.

“Then what did you intend to do?” Jace said flatly.

Topaz’s tail lashed at the floor as she sat up on her haunches. “What do you think?” her brow slanted with a simper on her muzzle.

“Nothing wholesome considering what you did to cinnamon.” Jace thought.

Topaz trotted up and placed her fore paws lightly on Jace’s thigh. “I am sorry, if you’ll accept that at least.”

Jace sighed and accepted the apology. “I have to wait a further two weeks before I can go back to normal.”

“Oooh. Well, good luck with that then.” Topaz pushed off and started walking away. She looked back at Jace.

“Why don’t you go give Burr a visit?” He went back to grooming his mane.

“Because I don’t have the energy to deal with that lecherous vixen.” Topaz made a spitting motion. Nothing followed the impact.

“Says you…” Jace snorted. Only to notice Topaz had already left. He really didn’t like the ease with which the spirit came and went as she pleased.

The large moon had finally completed its full circuit of the planet. It was an experience for Jace. A tiny part of him was curious and wanted to stay. The rest of him, however, wanted to go back because that’s what he had known for the past fifteen years of his life.

Burr had tried her best. She faced constant obstacles in her efforts to convince Jace to turn. The orange vixen was a good sport for it.

Cedar had to make it clear to Burr that Jace did not have any commitment, either in heart or mind, towards the change. Forcing Burr to admit defeat as Evaliena grabbed Jace’s arm when night approached. Taking the far step up to the clearing up the mountain. He felt sick from the translation to a new space, but not enough for him to fall to the floor and start emptying his stomach on the floor. Maybe he was getting used to this teleportation.

Nope. Jace ended up hacking up an empty stomach on the floor. He received a helping hand to stand up as he wiped his muzzle clean. He groaned. “At least I lasted a few moments this time.”

“It’s going to be a long road until your body is fully used to being suddenly elsewhere.” Evaliena told Jace flatly. “But you’re improving.” “Now You remember the mirror, right?”

“Yeah, you showed me it the second day I was here and helped me get back on two legs.” Jace recalled. How time flew.

“Hopefully, I don’t have to tell you how this works. We have time.” She stated as she summoned the quicksilver mirror from her Lemis. Like the bookcases back at the keep. Silvery mana surrounded it. He could roughly make out the complex script that ringed the mirror’s edges. He could feel a sense of purpose from the object. Like it was inverting specific aspects reflected in it. “The point of the mirror in this purpose is to be a guide. Once you commit to the change, you must pull all the way.” She instructed.

“Is the collapsing into gore really true or just a thing to frighten children?” His voice faltered.

Evaliena gave the young Reynard a flat expression of. “Do you really want to find out?” Jace gulped audibly and focused on the task at hand. The changes happened rapidly. They were subtle, a bit of mass removed here, a bit of mass added here. However, after the transition, his loins burned with pain. Apparently, that is considered normal.