Niphru took a few moments to get himself bapletely under trol, still somewhat uered from the intense rea he had just experienced. Uanding his worry, both Dawn and Morris stood bad gave him time to rex fully.

  Once he had calmed down, Niphru shook his head before deg that he had to hide his newly-ged spirit crystal. As he sidered how best to do so, however, Inari tacted him again.

  “gratutions on taking aep along the path of the kitsune, Niphru. I assume you have an uanding now of why it is so important to keep your spirit crystal safe, do you not? There are some other issues to keep in mind. It is spiritually bound to you, and has rules that it follows; some of these will make things difficult, others may actually help. First of all, your power is linked with your spirit crystal, and you ot use most of your power if anyone else possesses it. Oher hand, this is irely a physical limit,” Inari expined, its voice soothing as it came through the link.

  After a short pause, they tinued, “You may have been too shocked to notice, but because she is bound to you, and has no ill will, your partner does not take ownership of your power if she has your spirit crystal. There is still the issue of the sensation, as you rather obviously noticed, but it is safe for her to i with it. For others, their iion would take your power away, uhey were to allow you to use it. While you may immediately think of hiding it, be very careful. This is a spiritual matter.”

  A moment ter, Inari decred, “If you hide it somewhere outside your trol, such as in the wilderness, is that not the same as abandoning it? This would be extremely harmful, as well as dangerous. Hiding it nearby you is acceptable, or somewhere you are ected to, such as your vilge while you live there, or perhaps your shrine if you gain one iure. For now, however, it is best to simply keep it with you to protect it yourself. It is, after all, far more durable now than before, which will make things easier.”

  Inari paused again to allow Niphru to take in its words before it tinued, “Oher hand, it also bind you to pces of power. Somewhere like the vilge or shrine examples would allow you to temporarily bind yourself to the nd if you pced your spirit crystal somewhere within them. Once bound to a pce of power, your power over that pce will grow over time, and as more beings sider it to belong to you, or you to it. It is possible to both sense everything that happens within your pce of power, as well as use yic remotely. You will additionally find yourself more magically and spiritually potent, while also gaining physical toughness from your nd. Definitely something you should sider iure, little kitsune.”

  Sih he and Dawn trusted Morris, Niphru went ahead and shared what Inari had told him. After a short bit of discussion, everyone agreed that simply keeping it in the same pce as before was the best idea, especially si was small enough that the pouch would look empty, unlike before.

  Niphru was someset with how much of a weakhe crystal had bee, but thinking back, hadn’t it also been a weakness before? The priest they’d met with ba Arrival had mentioned his soul was already bound to it, after all, even back then. And the oime he’d been separated from it, he’d practically died as well.

  After a little mrumbling, he eventually decided that nothing had really ged, except he couldn’t allow ao touch it. Even if he trusted someone pletely, the sensation transmitted through the crystal was too intense, and he didn’t want to feel it again.

  Once he pced the gem bato his harness’ front pouch, he felt much better, si was doubtful anyone or thing could touch it now, especially giverengthening entment on that pouch.

  tent with the security his spirit crystal now had, at least for now, Niphru spoke to the others, “I think I’m all done now.”

  With a gnce back at his tails, he tinued, “It will probably take some time to get used to this, though. Two tails feels weird, and I’m bigger again.”

  In response, both Dawn and Morris chuckled before the tter remarked, “I’d say you are pretty big now; mid-thigh is pretty high up for a fox, indeed.”

  Dawn, meanwhile, asked over their bond if it was okay before moving to pet his tails. After a quick brush of her fingers, she stated, “Your fur is very soft too, Niphru, softer than it was before.”

  Niphru didn’t know how to feel about this, since he wasn’t really impacted much by whether his fur was soft or not, but he found himself enjoying that Dawn liked it more. After she hugged him, the three began to leave the building.

  Once again, Niphru heard Inari’s voice as it informed him, “Once you are either alone or only with your panion, there is ahing to teach you that you are capable of now. It is safe, but will be unpleasant at first, and your partner help.”

  Mildly a the interruption, Niphru spoke over his bond with Dawn, “It seems there is more, but I’m supposed to be alone or just with you. It is supposed to be safe, but they said you could help.”

  In response, Dawn turo Morris and decred, “I’m going to stay with Niphru for a while until he gets used to everything, if you don’t need me for anything.”

  Upon hearing that there was nothing she was needed for, Dawn o Niphru and they began to head back to the home they were staying. Ohey arrived, it turned out they were alohe inal owner of the home havi for some purpose or another, which suited Niphru just fine.

  Just in case, they ehe bedroom and closed the door, however. Then, Niphru tacted Inari again, asking for more information about the ability.

  This time, Inari seemed excited for some reason, while also remaining i about what was going on. But even if that worried Niphru, he still trusted the being; it had made that oath, after all.

  “This is one of the biggest ges a kitsune gh, and one of the more difficult, at first. To make this easier, I want you to study your panion with your healing magi as much detail as you , and memorize everything possible about what you sense,” Inari remarked as a feeling of anticipation began to flow through the liween them.

  fused, Niphru firmed that Dawn was okay with the idea, then did as Inari had requested, doing his best to remember everything about Dawn that his magic revealed to him, taking note of flesh and bone, blood and muscle, and more. Even as he finished, he knew he had fotten quite a bit, and wanting to do well, he began again.

  After a third time through the process, Niphru decided that had to be good enough and asked Inari what was . Iurn, he was told to form the most detailed image he could of what he had just sehen try to push it inward with his spirit as deeply as he could, and hold it there.

  Mystified by the order, he still tried to follow it, finding that his spirit was difficult to turn inward, even if it was effortless to use in an outward fashion. After several minutes, he finally succeeded, and the world shifted around him as his body painlessly cracked and stretched, causing him to fall to the floor in a heap.

  Obviously shocked by this event, Niphru lost his focus, and whatever had happened immediately reversed itself, and he found himself crumpled on the ground, panting iion. Shod disbelief flowed through his bond with Dawn, however. Worried, he looked up and saw her frozen with her jaw open.

  His first question to her was ignored, so he waited for her to get over whatever had shocked her first. As soon as she recovered, however, she immediately asked him if what she saw was real. Uain what she meant, Niphru asked her what she was talking about in a puzzled tone.

  “It looked like you were ging! You fell, but you looked almost like a human for a moment. And I know it wasn’t one of your illusions; I’ve seen enough to know the feeling of them!” she excimed, her eyes still wide from the shock she had received.

  Hearing this, it was Niphru’s turn to be shocked. If that was what had happened, it was no wonder he had felt so weird and colpsed. After sharing that he was going tairied repeating the process, this time while already lying on the ground.

  There was the feeling of his body crag and stretg once again, but this time, he maintained his focus. His body felt pletely fn to him when it settled, his limbs the wrong size, orientation, and shape all at onbsp; His torso didn’t mht, and his head felt attached at the wrong angle—everything was wrong. He didn’t even have a tail!

  The only things that seemed right were that he was still breathing properly, and he could feel his heart pounding away. After a moment of the madness, his focus broke and he snapped back to his proper form, finding himself able to focus outside again, hearing Dawn babbling about him actually transf.

  Niphru shook his head, trying to get rid of the lingeriions ness before inf Dawn, “That was horrible; everything was wrong. Really, everything! I don’t see how I’ll ever be able to deal with that…”Even as he felt the link with Inari stir, he tinued, “I guess I should keep trying, though… Even if I have my force magic, having hands and being able to talk without an illusion seems really useful.”Before he finished speaking, Inari excimed, “Good job. It will likely take a while to get used to, but that is a very useful skill eventually. You may find it easier if you let aspects of your true self through as well, such as your ears and tail. Most of the kitsune in other worlds find that it helps anchor them to their new forms.”“Maybe that would help… How would I do that, though?” Niphru inquired through the link, already trying to mentally form the correct image, but he found it incredibly difficult.

  Amusement flowed down the link as the god spoke once again, “Do not think too hard about it; your instincts help a lot. If you include your own ears, you may wish to remove the human ones, as well. I have heard many pints from those who have kept both pairs of ears at the same time. The tail is part of the spine, so you may o ge that slightly. Many split the spine midway to attach the tail somewhere it doesn’t interfere, though that makes it sensitive and more fragile, so extending it from the end of the spine is more natural.”Niphru nodded a his thanks for the information to Inari before letting Dawn know he was trying again, with the being’s advibsp; His attempt resulted iigo the instant he moved his head and an immediate colpse back to his true form, showing him exactly why having both pairs of ears was a bad idea.

  Several more short-lived attempts, with Dawn cheering him on the whole time, eventually resulted in him having his proper fox ears on the body. He also mao switch the human eyes for fox eyes. The tail, iingly enough, was far easier to bih the body than the ears, despite its rger size. Niphru followed the advice of extending the spine for it, and it only took two tries for it to feel normal. He also added his fangs in the pce of the human e teeth. These ges somehow did actually make it signifitly easier to maintairansformation.

  Once he had all of those ges down, he switched bad forth between forms several times, trying to get used to the feeling ering and holding the transformation. Each time he ged, he would attempt to move, eventually managing to flop a short distance forward, though his attempts to speak were less successful, ing out as nothing but croaking and screeg noises.

  It did, however, feel slightly less wrong after all the attempts, especially with some features of his true body for his mind to g to. Perhaps it might be possible to get used to it, after all.

  Shard