Story commission from  AxiomTF - cover art by me.

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The room is quiet and dark, the door closing gently behind Zeydaan as they let out a long sigh – finally, they were back home. Droplets fall intermittently from their wet fur, the heavy rain outside having made their journey back home far from a pleasant one, as they stroll into the kitchen and take some tissue roll, moping some of the moisture on their face up. Depositing the used roll into the bin, the wolf turns around with a slight smile upon their face – they had been looking forward to having a some ‘me time’ ever since they had left the house this morning. Coming into the living room, they throw themselves onto the sofa with a muffled thud, the impact shooting leftover droplets of water onto the floor from their fur. They sit there for a brief moment, letting out a sigh before grabbing their Switch, as they get ready to play some Xenoblade.

Zeydaan had really gotten into this game in the past months, finding the gameplay to be a ton of fun as they enjoyed playing this long into the night on some occasions, and it seemed as if this was going to be another one of those nights. However, it was not to be, as the TV started up, the wolf looked over to their side, glancing around the room before their eyes locked onto something that seemed out of place – a white wig. Zeydaan knew for a fact that they haven’t brought anything like it recently, as least to their knowledge, as this prompted them to get up and investigate it whilst the game continued to boot up in the background. It sat alone without any sort of note or container, making it seem unlikely that this was left as a gift, the wolf ponders to themselves as they pick it up to take a closer look. That’s when it hits them – this wig resembles the hair of one of their favourite characters from Xenoblade, Nia! Zeydaan smiling warmly upon realising this, forgetting its mysterious appearance in their house for the time being as they promptly put the wig onto their head, adjusting it to get the best fit.

The large mirror on the living room wall reflected back the visage of Zeydaan, smiling from ear to ear with the wig upon their head. Long, cascading white hair now flowed down past their shoulders, shining subtly in the light. It looked so real… so genuine too; one would have to have a very keen eye indeed to spot the fact this wasn’t actually Zeydaan’s own hair, and this fact filled the wolf’s heart with pure joy. After a few minutes of admiring the wig, they thought it be best to leave it for now and return to playing their game – maybe they could assemble a cool looking cosplay outfit of Nia soon using that wig? The idea sticks in their mind, as they remove the wig from their head and commit to following through with that idea soon. Or at least, that’s that they try to do, if they have the time for it. As the pull the wig however, it surprisingly doesn’t budge at all, as consequently Zeydaan starts to tug at it, harder and harder on each attempt, all of which are in vain as it simply stays put. What on Earth is happening? They wonder this to themselves, before something much more alarming then starts to occur…

Slowly, their usual, crimson-coloured irises began to shift into a deeper amber hue, the change making their eyes sting and water slightly as Zeydaan wipes away a tear to see the changes for themselves. Their eyelashes grow thicker, longer, and notably feminine looking whilst the fur around this same area starts to recede away, leaving behind much paler, peachy skin too! It feels very soft to the touch, as Zeydaan roughly gropes and prods the region around their eyes in a blind panic, their breathing becoming short and rapid with their face showing obvious fear. “W-What’s happening to me!?” they shout out loud, their voice having also undergone changes with it coming out as more high-pitched. The sharp, canine teeth Zeydaan has begun to flatten, as more and more of their fur continues to disappear back into their face. Audible cracks come out from their snout, their skull reshaping itself as it begins to shrink! The seconds go by ever so slowly, as Zeydaan is forced to watch their snout morph into a human looking nose and lips! Their sense of smell becomes muffled – less strong, as their ears also shrink considerably. Looking back at the mirror, Zeydaan could see what had happened to them thus far, and although it seemed ludicrous, they already knew what the end result of this ordeal was going to leave them as. “I’m… I’m becoming her… I’m becoming Nia… that’s what’s happening to me, right?” they tell themselves softly, knowing that this was only the beginning of the transformation whilst they glance back at the television screen.

Now hyperventilating, Zeydaan starts to yank at their hair once more in a last-ditch attempt to stop or reverse the changes. However, at this point it had long stopped being a wig, but rather their actual hair now. Of course then, with all of those new follicles now being rooted into their scalp, this frantic pulling does little but hurt them, as their loss of fur began to speed up rapidly over their body, which was shrinking in stature simultaneously.
What then follows was yet another strange occurrence, as faint, white cloud materialises around Zeydaan’s chest. It’s rather beautiful actually; what resembles glittering stars fill the expanding cloud that clings to their frame like and inverted night sky, and underneath this, new material started to appear, cladding their body in new attire. At around the point in which it had appeared, the cloud began to dissipate to reveal this new, yellow fabric, as the edges of the clouds continued to move around the wolf’s body. Snapping out of their awestruck state, Zeydaan begins to swat away at the magical cloud, though their hands simply just pass through it, doing nothing to halt its spread. Feeling defeated, it finally dawned on them that this transformation couldn’t be stopped, at least not by their own actions, as they let out a sigh and resign themselves to just observing what shall happen next.

The cloud continues to roll all over their body like waves in the ocean, the extravagant outfit of Nia being left behind in its wake as at last, the magical cloud vanishes quite literally into thin air, leaving Zeydaan behind. They look at their hands, now clad in snow white, leather gloves and they open and close them, as if testing to see if they were actually theirs. They looked well-fitting, though some amount of elasticity in them prevented them from feeling stiff – it looked as if they wouldn’t have to remove them to properly interact with anything small or fiddly like more chucky gloves. In fact their whole outfit seemed very practical and form-fitting, barring some long, white strips with a red trim hanging down from around their neck, plus some golden embellishments for decoration. There was very little of their, or now more accurately her, original appearance left, as none of their old midnight blue fur remains, nor many of their signature canine features. With an unpleasant crack their ankles push down into regular human heels, whilst her claws become thinner – more delicate. First on the ends of their fingers, and then upon the tips of their toes, her claws shrink down into inoffensive nails. Finally, after many minutes the transformation is brought to a gradual close, as Zeydaan, now Nia, stands alone in the room, totally silent. There aren’t really any words that could be uttered to rationalise or explain what had just transpired, though Nia’s ordeal hadn’t quite concluded just yet.
The TV screen, having remained idle during the changes starts to whir and hum, the brightness growing until pure, solid white mass washed out the menu screen. It glows with increasing blinding luminosity, as Nia brings her hands up to her eyes to shield them. The invasive light grows mightier and stronger, totally covering the room and straining Nia’s eyes, as it even began to travel through her hands which shielded her. “When will this end!?” she cries out in desperation, though surprisingly, this rhetorical question was then seemingly answered as the light spontaneously goes away, and the humming of the television fades into an eerie silence. She also noted that her voice came out in a distinctly different accent now! It seemed somewhat similar to a Welsh accent, though she couldn’t be too sure if that was accurate at this point.

Nia remains in that same pose for what felt like an eternity to her, until a faint, gentle breeze breaks the quietness, as she feels the cool air upon her skin as her white hair drifts in the wind. Cautiously, she lowers her hands down, and is shocked to be greeted by an open field. The night had now tuned to morning, with the sun hanging high above the horizon, basking the long, green grass that stretches far away in light. This… this is where her game took place, right? A place known as Gormott if her memory served her right, as her head seemed to be awash with the mind of both Nia and Zeydaan, the being she had been moments ago. Nia looks around, though no one decides to show up to offer any explanations. Not seeing any alternatives, she decides to go out and explore this land – maybe doing something here could reverse her situation? At the very least, provide some answers about how this happened? Where did that wig even come from in the first place?

“Well, I'm a hot-blooded Gormotti now, I guess... hopefully not forever mind you. I should be fine, as long as I don't run into Rotbart. Though I can’t say that I won’t run into any other issues either; the sky is the limit concerning what else could possibly happen to me today...” she says to herself, though only time will tell, as with a deep breath, she sets off in search of a way to return to her old self...