According to Plan

I look over at my mother, still unconscious and swathed in bandages, slumped in a wheelchair. Bringing her to this chilly, damp place would have risked her condition deteriorating, were it not that the transformation should restore her to perfect health. Apart from my mother, everyone else is back at what should be a safe distance.

I reflect for a moment on recent events. When I first saw Andrea, in her fox form, not all that long ago, I could never have guessed what a strange turn my life was about to take.

Then I return my full concentration to the business at hand. I feel myself gradually attune to the Crystallic, so that I can telepathically "talk" to it. Then I tell it to go into the slipgate. Any normal order it would execute without question, but this is far from a normal order. Are you sure? I hear a voice in my mind say.

Yes, I respond.

It all happens so fast as to be confusing. It is not a gradual transformation, as I had rather been expecting, but abrupt. What adds to the confusion is that, as a parting shot, the Crystallic has opted to leave my mother and myself in our full fox form. I suddenly find myself much closer to the ground, my vision obscured by the pile of my own clothes that I am buried under. I wriggle free, and see that my mother is also a fox. Though it's hard to interpret a fox's facial expression, no doubt she is confused and afraid. The last thing she will be able to remember is being hit by the fireball.

As I understand it, if the Crystallic has done its stuff my mother and I should be able to speak to one other whilst in fox form, even though no human would be able to understand us (unless they have magical assistance). "Mother, it's me, Exotica," I yip. "Don't be afraid. We've been turned into demifoxes. I'll explain everything later, but for now just concentrate on being human. Then you should change, not to fully human but to a sort of intermediate form, part fox and part human. Most importantly, you'll have a human voicebox and vocal chords again, and will be able to talk normally such that humans can understand you."

I try to give my mother a demonstration by changing myself. In fact it proves far easier than I have been expecting, and it seems completely natural. Suddenly I am standing upright again, with the sort of body which I had been led to expect, one which would be voluptuous even if I was as tall as I used to be and which seems somewhat out of proportion now that I am only three feet tall or so.

I put on the clothes that have been left beside me in anticipation of this moment. My mother, who has had no more trouble in changing than I did, follows my lead. There has had to be an element of guesswork as to just what our dimensions would be, but both outfits fit reasonably well. I'm glad to see that my mother seems fine, if naturally rather shocked. Our demifox faces are different enough from our old faces for it to be hard to be sure, but I think she looks quite a bit younger. She had aged a lot over the last five years, as her relationship with my father had got worse and her position ever more difficult.

So much has happened that only then do I realise that the Crystallic is nowhere to be seen. It seems as though the teleport has worked.

Once we have got dressed, the others approach.

1. "I have quite a story to tell you, Mother," I say, "but first let me introduce my new friends."

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