Chapter 9: A transformative game of tag.
Sunday.
My arms were still wrapped around Fern when I regained consciousness, although I was still pretty groggy. Fern tossed and turned all night, crying out at times. It sounded like she was reliving her nightmare encounter with Randy.
"Please put the gun down! Don't hurt her! I'll do anything, just don't shoot her! Randy! Nooo!" were some of the things she said in her sleep. She woke up and cried after that last statement. I did my best to calm her, holding her tight, wishing there was some way I could help her get past the memories of that nightmare she lived through.
She was asleep now, thank God. She needed the rest.
I heard noises in the Great Room downstairs, so I carefully separated myself from Fern, moving slowly and stopping frequently until I was able to leave the bed without waking her. I put on the frock I borrowed from Kip and went downstairs.
Holly was there, clearing the table and setting up for breakfast.
"You're up early. Did you sleep well?" she asked, smiling.
"Not really," I answered truthfully, "Fern had nightmares throughout the night, and she was crying in her sleep."
"Poor Fern," Holly said sympathetically, "She went through so much yesterday."
I helped Holly pick up the empty wine bowls and wipe down the table.
"Can you use your magic to make her forget what happened, or cheer her up, or something?" I asked.
"Magic would only make things worse for her," Holly replied, putting out fresh bowls for breakfast, "She needs to work through her grief and trauma. We pixies tend do get over things very quickly, but Fern was assaulted and saw our mother killed, so that's going to take more time."
"Isn't there something we can do to help her?" I asked.
"What she needs is a distraction," Holly replied, "Fortunately, the Festival of the Full Moon is tonight and that should bring her around."
"Any ideas about what we should do in the meantime?" I asked.
"I'm not sure," Holly replied contemplatively, "Let's see how things go this morning."
"What are you two talking about?" Fern asked entering the room.
"I was asking Holly for ideas about what we should do this morning," I replied quickly.
"I really don't feel like doing much of anything today," Fern said listlessly.
"How about some breakfast? Kip, Cal, Tip and Dela went out to pick some fresh berries. They should be back any minute," Holly offered.
"I don't know," Fern said, "I guess I don't have much of an appetite. Maybe I'll just sit on the upper branch for a while."
She turned around and started for the stairs.
"I'll keep you company," I volunteered.
"No, Sky. Stay here and have some breakfast. I'll be fine," Fern said despondently as she started up the stairs.
I turned and looked at Holly.
"Go with her," she mouthed.
My stomach growled as I started up the stairs. I caught up with Fern and sat with her on the large branch at the top of the stairs. I put my arm around her, and she put her head on my shoulder. Neither of us spoke a word.
As usual, the forest was alive with sounds. Normally, the bird chatter varied between food, sex, and predators in the area, but for whatever reason, the chatter this morning seemed to be all about sex. I tried to remember what the sound of the bird calls were like when they meant nothing more than meaningless tweets, but the graphic descriptions were too detailed to ignore. Online pornography sites weren't half as erotic as some of those bird calls. The front of my frock was beginning to tent from my erection.
"I wish there was something I could do or say to cheer you up, Fern," I said quietly, while turning slightly to try and hide my arousal.
She sighed, "I'm sure I'll get over it. We pixies tend to recover pretty quickly from these things."
"That's what Holly was saying," I said, "I just wish there was something I could do."
"Just hold me, Sky; what you're doing now is fine."
We stayed like that for some time, I'd guess about an hour, maybe longer, until we heard a voice behind us.
"Are you two going to sit there and mope all day?" Holly said in a mock stern voice, "Fern, I'm surprised you would treat our guest that way. He's going to start to think we're a bunch of gloomy goblins."
"Just leave us alone, Hol," Fern said, without looking at her sister, "I'm just not in the mood."
"What you need is a distraction," Holly insisted, "Just like what we used to do after Vix bullied you when we were kids."
Fern looked alarmed as she turned quickly to look at Holly, "Oh no! Holly, don't you dare!"
"Too late," Holly said, smiling.
I turned in time to see Holly sprinkle pixie dust over Fern's head.
Fern quickly morphed into a gray squirrel!
"Damn you, Holly. I'm too old for this," Fern chittered.
I couldn't help smiling, despite myself. "How did this cheer her up when you were kids?"
"She used to get mopey after Vix picked on her," Holly explained, "So, we turned ourselves into squirrels and chased each other up and down the trees. It was a lot of fun and we used to laugh ourselves silly afterwards."
"Yeah, but we were only 8 and 10-years-old at the time," Fern chittered sourly.
"So, you're going to turn yourself into a squirrel and chase Fern around?" I asked.
"Me? No," Holly said closing her fist and her eyes, "That will be your job."
Holly opened her eyes and her fist. I saw the sparkling dust in her hand just before she threw it over my head.
My body tingled for a second and when I looked down, I saw my legs were covered with gray fur. My feet were bigger, and my toenails had elongated into sharp claws. My arms were shorter and more muscular, with sharp claws on my hands. I felt an instinctive twitch of the muscles in my lower back and felt a fluffy tail brush against the ears at the top of my head.
"Oh fuck!" I chittered, "I never asked for this!"
"Quit complaining. You were the one who said you wanted me to use magic to help Fern," Holly retorted, "Besides, judging from the size of your erection, I think that being a squirrel is turning you on."
"No," I protested, "I was listening to the birds—"
"Holy shit, Sky," Fern said, giggling, "I've never seen such a big cock on a squirrel; and never one so erect."
"This is so embarrassing," I said as I tried to hide my cock with my paws, only to feel my sharp claws against the skin on my cock.
"Ouch!" I squeaked and I withdrew my paw and tried to cover my cock with my bushy tail instead.
Holly and Fern both laughed at my predicament.
"Poor baby," Fern said mockingly, while swishing her tail seductively, "I'll tell you what, if you can catch me, I have a place where you could put that thing."
She scampered past me down the branch.
"This will be easy, she's going to run out of branch, and I'll have her," I thought, scampering after her.
"Don't forget to get back here before sundown for the festival!" Holly called out.
Scampering down a tree branch as a squirrel is not as easy as it looks. There's a natural tendency to claw the branch to avoid slipping. But you also have to quickly withdraw the claws, otherwise you can't leap forward. Fern already had a head start as she raced down the branch with ease. From my perspective, it looked almost reckless. Apparently, she hadn't forgotten the skills she learned as a child.
"Aren't you afraid you're going to fall?" I called out to Fern.
"Nothing to it," Fern called back laughing, "just don't stop and don't look down."
"Shit," I chittered to myself. I had been looking down at the branch and the ground below this whole time. I looked ahead at Fern, who was now on the outermost part of the branch. The branch bent under her weight.
I took a deep breath and made a dash for her, knowing she had no place else to go.
I was wrong.
Fern leapt and easily grabbed the branch of the nearby pine tree, a distance of perhaps a foot. She laughed as she scampered up the branch towards the trunk.
"Oh fuck," I chittered again as the branch I was on moved up and down after Fern's jump. I continued to run to the end of the branch, realizing I would have to make the same one foot jump that Fern made, only I had to do it from one moving branch onto another moving branch.
I ran to the end of the branch and just as I was ready to jump, I retracted my claws too soon and my foot slipped. I made the leap a little too early and found the branch I wanted to land on was slightly over my head.
I reached up in midair, frantically clawing for the branch. I managed to grab a small twig with one paw. The twig bent downward under my weight while my momentum continued to carry the rest of my body forward so that I was now upside-down and under the more stable part of the branch. I extended my legs and desperately reached up and clawed at the trunk-end of the branch with my feet, hooking my claws at the very last second.
I held on for dear life as the branch swayed up and down under my weight. I was upside-down, facing outward as the forest seemed to bounce up and down around me. I stayed like that until the branch stopped moving, catching my breath in the process.
"You should time your leap when the branch you're jumping from is moving up, not down," Fern chittered casually with her back leaning securely against the trunk of the fir tree. Her voice did little to hide her amusement at my predicament.
"Thanks for the advice," I chittered back sarcastically as I clawed my way upside-down and backwards towards the thicker part of the branch before climbing upright.
"April made that jump when she was only 3 months old," Fern continued.
"Yeah, well April is a precocious child," I said, inching ever closer to Fern, "Besides, she's been a squirrel a lot longer than I've been."
"And Joey—" Fern began.
"Let me guess, he made that jump at 10 weeks," I interrupted, I was almost within springing distance to Fern.
"Nope. Eight weeks," Fern said, springing to her feet, "Now that you're recovered, let's try this again."
She clawed her way up the tree, just as I was about to catch her.