"We should just tell her the truth," Yuki stated. "We're going to have to tell her sooner or later, so we may as well get it over with now."
I frowned as I quietly munched on a piece of sausage while I tried to picture how that conversation would play out. Then I responded by thinking to my cute little arctic kitsune headmate, "Even if it's the truth you know she won't believe it. I wouldn't believe it if she texted us with a story like that."
Yuki shrugged, "So we'll send her a selfie."
"I know she probably won't believe that either," she added before I could respond. "But at least it's a start. Then next time we see her in person she'll recognize us. And she'll realize we weren't trying to mess with her."
"Yeah maybe," I sighed as I glanced at our phone again, and the most recent text from our sister. Shirley sent it about a half hour earlier, asking again for us to respond so she'd know we were ok.
It was about seven in the morning and both Yuki and I were feeling a lot better now that we'd had a good night's sleep. We were dressed in the new clothes I'd bought us, and that gave me another big dose of euphoria. The bra and panties were perfect and the leggings were good except they felt a bit funny tucked down under my tails at the back. I had one of our new tops on, beneath a large plaid shirt that hung down far enough to keep us decent at the back. The new socks and sneakers completed the outfit.
I thought I looked amazing, and some of the hotel staff and other guests must have agreed since a few of them stared at us when we headed into the attached restaurant. Our room came with a complimentary full English breakfast, so I was enjoying a good meal before it was time to hit the road.
After a bite of toast I finally picked up the phone and began tapping out a reply to our sister's texts. I started off by saying we were fine and we'd made it safely out of the park late yesterday, then spent last night in a hotel. I also mentioned that Yuki and I had a few scares and close calls when the earthquake happened, but not to worry since we came out of the ordeal even better than ever. I hesitated there, then decided to send that off as-is, instead of trying to explain everything all in one go.
Shirley was one of only a couple people who knew about the arctic kitsune living in my head and sharing my body. My sister had been really supportive when I came out as trans, so both Yuki and I felt we could trust her with the news that we were plural. And we were right, more or less.
She wasn't as supportive as we'd hoped, but she didn't dismiss us and she didn't treat us like we were crazy or anything. She didn't treat Yuki as a problem to be 'cured' either, which I really appreciated. The real surprise turned out to be Shirley's boyfriend Wes. He was totally accepting and supportive, both about us being trans and being plural.
"I don't know how to say this," I sighed as I stared at the flashing cursor. "Whatever I write's going to sound too impossible to believe."
Yuki suggested, "Tell her we don't know how it happened but we got magically transformed. And send her a selfie, like I said. You don't have to try and explain the whole thing right now. And it's the truth right? We don't know for sure how any of this happened."
"Right," I nodded slowly as I basically just wrote down what my headmate said. Then after I sent that off I snapped a quick selfie that showed off my cute face and tall pointed fox ears and sent it as well.
With that done I set the phone aside and focused on the rest of our breakfast, while Yuki and I briefly discussed our plans for the day. Not that there was much to talk about, basically we'd be spending the entire day riding. From Grantown-on-Spey back home to Brighton was nearly the entire length of the British Isles, and we'd be on the road for a good nine or ten hours. Maybe more, depending on how many stops we made along the way.
I'd just about had enough to eat when our phone buzzed with another text from Shirley. She wrote, "Cute filter Aster, I've got one that can make me look like a kitty. Anyways I'm glad you're safe! Are you heading home today? Want to stop by here for dinner tonight with me & Wes?"
"Yeah!" Yuki stated before I could even ask the question. "I want to see Wes and Shirley!"
"And I want them to see us," she added with a smirk.
"All right," I agreed as I typed out another message to our sister. I told her we'd head straight to her place, but warned that we wouldn't get there until after six tonight since it was a very long drive. I didn't say anything about the selfie, I figured there wasn't any way to convince her it was real until she saw us in person.
With breakfast finished and our plans made, we headed back to our room to pack up. As I started loading our stuff into the backpack I commented, "I may as well empty out these water bottles now. No point carrying the extra weight all the way back home."
"Oh no you don't!" Yuki stated. Her tails were swishing around in irritation as she gave me a hard look, "That's water we collected from the stream that was flowing out of the base of the magic mountain. Water you said was glowing. That's the same water that probably gave us our transformation, and our tails. You're not pouring it down the drain Aster!"
I grimaced, "Right. Sorry Yuki. So what are we going to do with it then?"
The little arctic kitsune shrugged, "Drink it of course! We can keep it in the fridge when we get home, then just keep using it until it's all gone."
"I'm still not convinced it's safe," I frowned as I added the one-litre bottles to our backpack. There were five in total, but one was already empty and a second was only about half full. "But fine, we'll bring it home with us and hope for the best."
That was just about everything, except our jacket and our bike helmet. As I finished up I asked, "What are we going to do about Cara? I doubt she'll be happy trapped inside our pack all day long."
The raven spent the night in the hotel room with us, but we opened the window and let her out to 'stretch her wings' first thing this morning. She promised to meet up with us again when we were ready to go, so I assumed she was hanging around someplace outside the hotel.
Despite my initial reservations about the bird I didn't even question whether or not she'd be coming home with us. By that point it was a given that we weren't going to leave our raven friend behind.
"We can just ask what she wants to do," Yuki responded. "I'm sure between the three of us we'll figure something out."
"Sounds good," I agreed as I slipped on our favourite denim jacket. It was too big for us now, but the kitsune and fox patches and buttons felt even more appropriate for us than ever.
Then I slung the pack over my shoulder and made my way down to the front desk to get us checked out. It was almost eight by the time we finally left the hotel, and sure enough Cara turned up as soon as we were outside. The raven didn't say anything right away, she just swooped past us so we'd know she was there as we made our way to the public car park where we'd left our bike at the start of the vacation.
A wide smile settled on my face and my tails all started wagging happily behind me as I approached our pride and joy. She was a Rebel 500, with the black trim finish. We got her brand new right at the beginning of riding season last year, and we'd kept her in near perfect condition ever since.
My tails continued to wag as I crouched down to unlock the big padlock, then I removed the heavy chain we'd used to secure the bike while we were off hiking. When I straightened up again I found myself eye to eye with Cara, who was standing perched on the bike seat watching me. And that's when our raven friend pointed out the next challenge.
"How are you going to fit that funny hat over those tall fuzzy ears of yours?" she asked as she cocked her head to one side.
I sighed as my tails finally stopped wagging. They drooped down a bit as I frowned at the helmet. Then I shrugged, "I'll figure something out. I can fold my ears back, maybe that'll be enough?"
A couple seconds later Yuki commented, "Narrator voice: It was not enough."
Unfortunately she was right. If I positioned the helmet correctly on my head then my ears were painfully squished down against my scalp. But if I adjusted things so it was tolerable for my ears, then the helmet was next to useless in terms of actual protection. I knew we couldn't ride without it, we'd get pulled over pretty quickly. We'd get stopped if I wore it loose too, like raised up so my ears weren't in pain it was so obviously wrong anyone who saw us would know it wasn't done up properly.
"Dang," I sighed as I tried adjusting the helmet and my ears again. "I kind of hate to say it, but unless we can get a custom-made ear-friendly helmet this is one situation where I'd rather have human ears."
I folded my ears into a different position then tried once more to get the helmet settled into place, but I could feel it pinching. With a sinking feeling in my gut I started to realize there wasn't an easy solution to this problem, and maybe we weren't going to get back to Brighton today after all. And as the weight in my stomach got a little heavier, that pinching feeling on my ears shifted into a sort of itchy pins-and-needles sensation.
"Ah!" I winced. "This is even worse..."
My voice trailed off as I realized the whole world had suddenly gone silent, like whatever I'd done to my ears somehow made it so I couldn't hear at all anymore. I pulled the helmet off and moved so I could see myself in the bike mirror, while that pins-and-needles sensation only got stronger and spread down either side of my head.
Seeing my face reflected in the mirror made me smile for a second, then my gut lurched with worry as I realized I couldn't see my fuzzy fox ears anymore. I reached up to feel for them, thinking they'd gotten stuck flattened against the top of my head. Except there was nothing up there but hair.
My heart was racing and I almost started to panic, when I heard a faint crackling noise just before a pair of human ears popped into existence in their normal places. At the same time that pins-and-needles sensation suddenly stopped, and I realized I could hear Yuki talking to me. I hadn't been able to hear her while my ears were completely gone, which didn't actually make any sense since she was inside my head.
"...like magic!" the small white kitsune exclaimed. "I think you somehow did that yourself Aster! You said human ears would be better for riding, right? And presto, it happened!"
I nodded slowly as my heart rate settled down and the panic faded. Then I slipped the helmet back on, and this time it fit ok without any pain. And I could still hear, which was a bonus. I finally sighed, "I'd really rather have my fox ears, but for now this works better."
"Now we just have to figure out what we're going to do with you," I added as I fixed my attention on the raven.
Cara was still perched on our bike seat. She hopped forward and stated, "I get the front seat, you can sit behind me."
"As if," I rolled my eyes. "How about you get in our backpack again?"
The raven ruffled her feathers and huffed, "I'm not spending the day in there with your dirty laundry. Fifteen minutes for the bus ride yesterday was bad enough."
Before I could respond she looked me up and down then stated, "Open your jacket Aster. As I said, I shall ride up front."
I let out a long sigh, but I ended up doing what the bird said. It took a half minute before we were both comfortable, then I found myself straddling the bike with a large black bird almost nestled in between my boobs. It only worked because the jacket was so big on me now, if I'd been wearing something that fit better we'd both have felt squished.
Her head peeked out above the top button so she could breath ok and she could see everything, while the rest of her was protected in between my body and a layer of denim.
"If she's going to keep riding with us we'll have to get her a tiny helmet and goggles," Yuki commented.
"Yes," Cara agreed. "I would like a helmet and goggles. In black of course."
I just rolled my eyes, "Not until after we've found me a fox-ears-friendly helmet."
And with a bird on my chest, backpack on my back, and helmet on my head, I started up our bike then set out on the long drive back home. It was around quarter after eight in the morning as we got going, and I knew we had at least nine and a half hours of riding ahead of us.
As it turned out it took us well over ten hours to get to my sister's place, mostly because we ended up stopping every couple hours for one reason or another. Either Cara needed to stretch her wings or I needed to stretch my legs, or we needed to stop for gas, or someone was thirsty, or we needed to visit a loo.
It was just past seven at night when we finally reached Brighton, and closer to quarter past when we pulled up to the block of flats where Shirley and Wes lived. I parked in the visitor's area then took a minute or two to stretch my legs and tails, while Cara crawled out of my jacket and stretched her wings. And as I stood next to the bike with my helmet off I decided to try something.
"I want my fox ears back now," I stated quietly to myself, then closed my eyes and concentrated.
A moment later I felt that pins-and-needles sensation again, but stronger this time. The world went silent for a few seconds, then with a pop I could hear again. More than that, I could flick and turn my ears again too, I could feel they were back where they belonged on top of my head.
"Yes!" I exclaimed as my tails wagged happily.
Yuki grinned, "That's really cool Aster! We have to experiment more, to figure what else you can do. Can you change more than just your ears? Can you change anything, or everything?"
"Later," I smiled. "Right now it's time to go see our sister."