After their meeting with the high mages, Dawn and Niphru returned home. Dawn po resume reading the books she had been given as a reward for the expedition before st, while helping Niphru occasionally.

  Until diime, Niphru sat on the bed in humanoid form, w on her speed banbsp; After a meal, Dawn began to help her try to stand upright again for a while before it was time for them to sleep.

  Niphru, however, had an idea, asking Dawn, “Is it okay if I try sleeping in humanoid form? I don’t want to bother you, but I also want to see if I mao stay transformed while resting.”

  It only took a few moments of thought before Dawn agreed to the idea, and Niphru squirmed uhe covers before Dawn joined her.

  “I see why you use sheets now; it is much more fortable like this. Having fur makes it pretty fortable just lying on top. Goodnight, Dawn,” she remarked.

  In the m, Niphru had reverted back to fox form and, upon notig, grumbled a bit befetting up, having noticed Dawn was already out of bed and wouldn’t be disturbed. Walking into the living room, he saw her making food i and padded over to help her.

  After a quick meal, he volunteered to take care of the dishes for her while Dawn discussed her pns of meeting up with the rest of the group before buying some clothes for Niphru’s humanoid form.

  While that form was still uo be used for much of anythi, Niphru did want to eventually use it in publid was thankful that the issue of clothing would be handled.

  “Just remember about the tail, please. Maybe see if someone modify the clothing to have a hole? I suppose you’d o know how big my tail is in that form, though. Should I transform now so you check?” Niphru asked as he sidered the possible issue.

  “Sure, I check how big it is for you, and I’ll try to find a tailor who won’t ask too many questions,” Dawn replied, leading to Niphru ying down and ging form.

  When Dawn touched her tail, she jumped slightly at the sensation, though it only sted a moment before Dawn remarked, “Okay, I know how big it is now, Niphru. I’ll remember that while I’m out.”

  Niphru nodded before shifting bato a small fox aurning to the bedroom for more practice, settling in the middle of the bed before transf again. A few hours ter, she’d mao remain sitting for over half an hour without difficulty.

  Excited by the success, Niphru sent Dawn a message through their link, “I think I’ve mastered bang while sitting finally!”

  Dawn immediately responded, “gratutions! Also, it turns out the rest of the group has agreed with my thoughts, and don’t io do much of anything besides practice for the foreseeable future. So it looks like we don’t have to worry about any other adventures for a while. And yes, I remember the tail hole for your clothes.”

  Niphru hough Dawn obviously couldn’t see it, and replied, “Thank you, Dawn!”

  Having informed Dawn of the success, Niphru shifted back to a fox and headed to the kit to grab a cup before returning to the living room. After shifting baanoid form, she pulled herself up into one of the chairs and used force magic t the cup up into her hands to practice using them while tinuing to work on speech as well.

  Around an hour ter, she decided that was enough time spent w on such tiresome tasks and floated the cup to the floor before shifting back to a fox. After returning the cup to its proper pce, he went bato the bedroom and hopped up onto the bed, curling up before closing his eyes and fog on the bond with Dawn.

  As he linked with her senses, he saw her wandering through the city, a number of articles of clothing in a basket by her side. While he rested, he watched her travel through the city, occasionally visiting other shops and pig out an item or two of clothing. From time to time, she stopped to ask people which shops they liked, and used those versations to guide her.

  Eventually, she got dires to a tailor, finding the pce empty when she arrived. It didn’t take long for her to attract the attention of the owner, a middle-aged man in a well-fitting shirt and pair of pants. He was uandably fused by her request for the modifications to the clothing, but agreed to do them as long as he aid properly.

  The price the man gave, however, was signifitly more than what Dawn had left after her shopping, and Niphru felt her reag through the link from her side—an odd feeling—before her words reached him.

  “Niphru, could you please go to the store below the spire a eight gold s and bring them to me? This is a lot more expehan I thought. We’re also going to o earn more money soon,” she said through their bond, mild annoyan her tone.

  Niphru opened his eyes again, hopped off the bed, and put on his harness before immediately beginning to head downstairs as he replied, “Of course, I’ll be there soon, Dawn!”

  It didn’t take long for him to make his way to the base of the spire and to the store, where he met with Franklin, the man in charge, and asked about verting credit from the spire into s. A moment ter, he’d transferred a rge amount of credit he’d earned from helping the spire, filling one of the pouches on his harness with s.

  Thanks to their bond, it was easy enough for Niphru to trace Dawn’s location, and he swiftly trotted in her dire, hidden by an illusion to appear as a young woman to those around him, pig that form due to a random feeling that it was better than male for the time. Several mier, he made it to the shop, entering and spotting Dawn sitting in a chair and watg the tailor work on a dress.

  “Ah, there you are, Niphru! Thanks for ing so quickly; now ay for the rest of the work. If you don’t mind, maybe you should show him why we he clothes modified?” Dawn excimed with a smile as she waved for Niphru to e closer.

  Following her spoken words, Dawhrough the link, “Maybe show him an illusion of yourself wearing the dress he is w on? It is up to you, though.”

  He transferred the s to her, and, after a moment of thought, Niphru decided to go ahead with the idea, waiting for the man to finish his work before telling him, “I’m sure you’re w why su odd request, right? Well, I’ve been experimenting with transf myself, and was told one of the forms was cute, so I thought I’d try using it for a while.”

  He followed this by having his illusion wave her hand, then formed another illusion, this time of his humanoid form, wearing the dress that the man had just finished w on. He then had her spin around, tail trailing behind her before swaying side to side as she stopped in pce again.

  The man paused for several moments before shaking his head and remarking, “I don’t see how, but not my busio care. That does make a lot more sense now, and I think I make the rest of the clothing fit better now that I know what this is for. Thank you for sharing. What is your name?”

  In response, Dawn chimed up, “She’s Niphru, and I’m Dawn; we’re both mages learning at the spire closest to here!”

  The man nodded before responding, “Alright, Dawn, Niphru, this will likely take several hours. Would you prefer to e back tonight, or tomorrow afternoon?”

  Niphru looked at Dawn and began, “I think tomorrow? What do you think, Dawn?”

  In reply, she nodded and told the man, “I’ll be back again tomorrow to pick them up. Thank you for your work!”

  As the man nodded and resumed his efforts, the two of them left and begarip back to the spire. Upoering, Niphru dropped his illusion as they returo their residence.

  Keeping in mind the redu in their credit with the spire, the two of them agreed that they should do some more work charging mana stones, si was easy and quick, as well as allowing them to practice as they worked, now that they were more experienced with it.

  For the rest of the day, however, Dawn wao read the book on light magic that she had been given, and Niphru simply wao rest.

  The m, they had a simple breakfast before heading to work on siphoning ambient mana and st it.

  Several hours, and dozens of charged crystals each, ter, they returo the tailor to pick up Niphru’s new clothing befoing bae. This time, Niphru felt he was well-rested, and decided to try more practice with his new body.

  After getting Dawn’s help, they both moved to the bedroom and Niphru shifted baanoid form before beginning to practice standing again. After the practice sitting up, it was a bit easier, but she still found her new ao be incredibly difficult to ban, sihey could move in so many different ways.

  As they practiced, Niphru also spent some time w on her speech, finding it increasingly easy to manage, often succeeding in a given word on the first try. With so much success, she began trying to repeat entire sentences back to Dawn.

  Several more days passed in simir fashion, along with occasional meetings with their group. Lisryn only rarely showed up, spendiime at the Chuch of flict, perf her role as their leader.

  Eventually, after many more days of practiiphru thought standing up was within the realm of possibility. With Dawn’s help, she attempted to stay upright without any support, managing to remain standing for almost five minutes before wobbling too mud falling into Dawn’s arms.

  The success greatly boosted Niphru’s spirits, especially since she had occasionally tried standing on one leg during her practice sessions. While it took a few more days, she did eventually get permission to try walking. With Dawn h at her side, she slowly took a few wobbly steps, barely managing to remain upright, but succeeding even if it was a atter.

  After Niphru was able to prove they could at least trol which dire they would fall towards, Dawn even agreed to let her tirying to walk on her own as long as she remained adjat to something she could catch herself with, such as the bed or a wall. By this point, she was also fident enough to wear clothing without w about damaging it, and spent some time dressing herself upon taking humanoid form.

  This, in fact, revealed something that had already been happening, but gone unnoticed; going from one fox form to another didn’t break or drop the harness during their time at the vilge. Likewise, somehow, the clothing worn on the humanoid form didn’t fall off or rip when turning into a fox again, but instead vanished, reappearing the ime the form was used.

  By this point, Niphru had seemingly mastered speaking in humanoid form, oremely rarely taking more than one or two tries to be uood. bined with several hours of practice per day, even the plex task of walking was eventually a retively easy effort.

  With both Dawn and Niphru pleased with the successes, they met with the group again, Niphru in fox form, as he had always been when in public.

  “I’ve finally succeeded!” he excimed to them, then shifted into humanoid form in front of them, appearing wearing one of the dark green dresses Dawn had gotten tailored for her.

  Shard