Chapter 1- Life Changing Experience

Life was normal until my dog got out. After that… well… a lot has happened. Anyway, my beagle was normally confined to the home, but this evening he leapt out the back door off to an adventure. My mom delegated me to cut that short.

Taking a flashlight, I walked out the door, and retreated to the little bit of forest in my backyard. It wasn't a deep, wooded glade, though; I lived in the suburbs, and this was just the few acres of undeveloped land the builders spared. It was nice.

I climbed in and around the foliage, wandering a moonlit path to find little Bosco. I listened and I looked as carefully as I could, but I didn't see him. Now I wasn't using my flashlight, as to avoid alerting him and having him dart off again, so I resorted to the ambient light around me. Eventually, I heard some leaves rustling and a nose sniffing.

"Bosco?" I called. The noise stopped.

Knowing how quick he was, I leapt towards the sound, wrapping my arms around my target. This target, however, was not Bosco. Instead, I collided into a large, furry tail. The owner yelped and scampered off. I quickly shined my flashlight towards the animal, but it was gone. A fox, maybe?

My hand began to itch where I touched the fur, but I shrugged it off as my imagination. No mammal I knew of had irritating fur, and I wasn't allergic, either.

Soon after, I found Bosco. He was curled up, asleep in the foliage. "Hm," I thought aloud. "I wouldn't think you'd come out here just to nap." I picked up the little dog and turned back.

I learned later what happened to the owner of the tail:

She yanked one of her tails away from him, but it was too late. She felt some of her aura leave the tail and enter the human. Her eyes grew wide.

"No…" she whispered. "Aw, crap…" Using her keen smell, she tracked the boy she had cursed.

I was suddenly exhausted. Staying up late had its effect, but this was different. I felt like I had just run the 5K our town held each year in an instant. Now gasping for breath, I stumbled into my house, practically dropping Bosco to the floor. My mom was waiting by the door.

"Lotus? You okay?" she asked.

"Just… more… tired… than I thought…" I responded between breaths. "I'm… just gonna go to bed now…"

After extricating myself from most of my clothes, I dragged myself into bed. My hand was now itching like crazy, and I felt really warm inside, as if I had been in the sun and not the moon.

Despite how exhausted I felt, I just couldn't sleep. The itch began to spread, covering my arm and migrating increasingly fast. Soon my whole body felt like it was covered in little ants, gnawing at my skin. I scratched my hand, only to feel a strange softness. Wait… I thought. Is this… fur?! My breathing, as ragged as it was, sped up. What's happening to me?!

The pain intensified. Not only was my skin itching and growing silvery fur, but the effects spread inside my body, too. My body heat slowly rose. My insides tingled, and I felt an energy tear apart my body and rebuilding it, turning it into something new. Then I felt my skull crack. Paralyzed from pain, I tried to scream, but I couldn't.

In the background, I heard my mother knock.

"Lotus? You don't sound too good." I couldn't respond with the changes happening to my face, but I heard another, softer voice.

"Sleep," is all it said. The door opened and closed again.

My face underwent the most dramatic change- my nose pushed outward, pulling my jaw into a vulpine muzzle. My hair grew incredibly fast, creating a mane that fell down past my shoulders to my back, and a thick layer of fur coated my shoulders and chest. My ears migrated to the top of my head, turning triangular and becoming more fox-like. I felt my eyes burn. Though I couldn't see it then, the irises had turned a golden yellow. I didn't think like my body could stand such a high temperature, but it did. My body temperature continued to soar, well past any survivable fever. Finally, down at the base of my spine, I felt more bones grow. I felt them branching and growing out, forming not one tail, but nine, sprouting out of my backside like weeds. Here the fur was thickest, and it quickly coated each of my tails in luxurious softness, each ending in a blue tip. My feet became paws, stretching the bones such that I stood digitigrade on three blue, clawed toes, and my now furry hands lost their nails, dropping off like bark off a pine tree. Finally, the transformation stopped.

My body still was seething hot, yet… pleasantly so. It kinda felt like a sauna. As my breathing slowed, I opened my eyes, only to lock with the eyes of a fox.

I yelped in a surprisingly animal way, but those red eyes continued to stare at me, looking almost concerned. Recomposing myself, I looked again at the fox. Beyond the face, I saw not a quadruped canine, but a… human one? She was coated in golden-white fur ending in red paws and tail tips, yet she wore a white T-shirt and jean shorts. Out of her back came nine flowing tails that arched over her as she knelt at my bed. Actually, she and I looked quite similar.

"How do you feel?" she spoke softly, with a note of concern.

"What just happened to me…?" I asked, looking at my new, silvery fur and blue paws or hands or whatever you'd call them now. The fox-girl's ears fell, and she looked down.

"I cursed you. I'm sorry."

"You what?!"

"It's part of my gift. When someone touches my tails, I can curse them, sometimes by turning them into an animal. I didn't do this on purpose; you responded so well to my aura that I didn't have to think about it. It's almost like you were meant to be a Ninetales."

"What's a Ninetales…?"

"Oh. That's the name I gave my unique hybrid species. You've heard of hybrids, right?"

"The people with the rare genetic mutations? Yeah." I jolted. "I'm a hybrid now!"

She whimpered like a dog. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to! Here-let me try to change you back." She reluctantly swished her tails towards me. "Hold one of them," she instructed. I complied, and she shuddered. She pulled her pointed ears back against her head. "Sorry, I hate it when people touch my tails. Hence the curses." She closed her eyes. We waited in tense silence. Nothing happened.

"Well?" I probed. With my enhanced hearing, I heard her heart rate increase.

"Wh-what?!" She exclaimed, surprised. "Why aren't you back to normal?"

I looked over my furry body again, crestfallen. "You said you didn't try to curse me. Maybe that has something to do with it…" I sighed. "So am I stuck like this…?"

She whimpered. "Yes… I'm so sorry…" The Ninetales smiled a little. "Though you'll probably find that being a hybrid's a lot better than you think."

I smiled bitterly, which felt weird with a muzzle. "Is that so?" I asked.

She beamed. "For one, you can breathe fire." She blew a little flame out of her mouth, then moved it through the air with her hand like a Jedi.

My yellow eyes widened. "Really?" I exclaimed.

"Oh, don't try that!" She yelped as I took a breath. "It takes a lot of control. You might burn down your house!"

"Oh. Can you teach me, then? I've only been a hybrid for two minutes or so."

"Maybe later. Other benefits of being a Ninetales include immunity to fire, and greater overall strength and endurance. And, you know, the whole curse thing. I should really make a brochure or something..."

I thought over what being a hybrid implied. "Yeah, I could get used to this…"

Her eyes widened, then she grinned. "Actually…" She closed her eyes.

I sat on my bed, wondering what she meant. As I waited, I found that my new tails had fallen into a fan-like shape behind me, each one folded over and lifted vertically against my back. Nothing happened, so I stood up, intending to pace. Instead, I just fell over. Guess walking on paws will take a little practice, especially now that I have to manage nine tails, too. I struggled to my paws again, and this time managed to stand and walk without much trouble, only a few stumbles.

A bright flash suddenly shone in my room. I spun around a little too fast and fell over. "Gah! Stupid paws!" I yelled. A high-pitched, melodious laughter filled the room.

"Aww, the poor teenager can't remember how to walk," a voice jeered, though not nearly as mean as you'd expect. Still, it stung.

"Hey, now, Matthew," the Ninetales hybrid chided. "He's only been a hybrid for a few minutes." Laughter filled the room. I looked up. A pink, cat-like hybrid looked down, right in front of my face. His muzzle was short and rounded, and his long, thin tail ended in a larger tip. I yelped in that animal way and scrambled to my feet. The cat, Matthew was floating. He laughed again. "Priceless!" Matthew said. "Absolutely priceless! I'm Matthew, a Mew. I see you had a bit of an incident with Kyu, here." Kyu. What a pretty name. I smiled. You really can't help but smile when you see Matthew. He's so bright and cheery.

"I'm…" Lotus, I was about to say. But that suddenly felt so wrong. Instead, another name came to mind. "…Eon." I said after a moment. Matthew giggled.

"Nice to meet ya, Eon!"

Kyu walked next to me. She was so much better at that. Odd, to be jealous of someone's ability to walk. "I brought Matthew here because I'd like to bring you to the school I attend, made exclusively for hybrids. He can teleport, as you've seen."

"Wait, you mean now?" I questioned. "Where is it?"

Matthew created a pink bubble out of nothing and pawed it with, well, his hind paws. "Oh, not too far. Just in Minnesota." We were in suburban Georgia. I smiled.

"Dang…" I turned to Kyu. "Can we teleport?"

Kyu shook her head. "No, only a few Psychics can teleport. There are a few Psychic things we can do, though. I put your mother to sleep so she wouldn't disturb us, for example. Also, I found your dog. I was going to return it, but then you touched my tail, so… yeah."

"Hey! Is he hurt?" I asked.

"Of course not! Just asleep."

"Good. Wait- how did you get all the way here without teleporting?!"

"Ah… You see, Matthew brought me here. Some of the students are playing Hide-and-Seek tonight. Our boundaries were the entire country." She preempted my question. "With Psychics, it's doable. Each team has them- some teleport the players, others sense their location. The rest of us use our own powers to directly hunt them down, or, of course, run like heck." She laughed.

Matthew's bubble burst. "Hey! Are we going, or what?!"

I looked down. "Um… I don't want to go yet. I have family and friends here, so I'd like to say goodbye and all that."

Kyu looked at me. "Okay. But do know, they may reject you. You're different now. To them, you're a freak." She suddenly hugged me, wrapping me in her tails. "It happened to me. But you'll never be a freak to us."

Matthew interjected, "No, I think that you're definitely a freak. But so am I, so it's cool."

Kyu chuckled as we separated. "Just ignore him, he's weird."

"I am NOT!"

I joined in. "You just said you were a freak."

This left the Mew speechless. He then fell over in the air floating on his back as he burst into that melodious laughter. His long, thin tail nearly hit me as it swung. "Touché, good sir! Touché!"

"I'll check up on you tomorrow. Good luck!" Kyu said. I waved goodbye as the two teleported away in a flash of light.

My mother opened the door, then fainted again.

Author's Note: My first story that I really cared about. This was based off of an old series called "Hybrid Theory" by shadowlugia249. I loved the idea so much, but he never went anywhere with it. Using roughly the same world, I'm continuing the adventure with new characters and a new plot. So... I guess you could say this is a fanfic of a fanfic! ^_^'