Calex and Snowheart trry to swap kitten and kitsune magic. Doesn’t quite work.
Swap? Or Not?
By CalexTheNeko
Just a normal day in suburbia. Which for Snowheart often included magic, transformations, misadventures and a little bit of mischief. And today definitely had mischief on the menu. Though it came in a small package.
The pink kitsune was dressed in her usual attire and her collar when she had been walking down the sidewalk. Suddenly, there was a collision with the back of her legs as something ran into her and then bounced off into her tails.
“Oof. Sorry.” A childish voice spoke up. “Wasn’t watching where I was… Oh wow, these things are very easy to get tangled up in.”
“Eh?” Snowheart looked over her shoulder to see the source of the voice. It was a small orange kitten with bright yellow-green eyes and a single fang protruding. He seemed to be just a normal feral kitten, running on all fours but he had clearly been able to talk.
“Gah, help! I’m stuck and can’t get out!” The kitten shouted as he rolled around batting at Snowheart’s tails getting further tangled up in them.
“Heh.” Snowheart had to giggle. “Are you stuck because you’re actually tangled up, or because you can’t stop yourself from batting at my tails?”
“I mean those things aren’t mutually exclusive.” The kitten replied. However, the answer was fairly obvious as he rolled out of them onto the ground. Then, in one fluid moment he stood up on two legs so that he was bipedal like Snowheart. Though he had no clothing.
“Huh so you’re a shapeshifter too then?” Snowheart asked as she looked down at the kitten. There was something… Familiar about him. But she didn’t think they had actually met before now. And yet… “Have… We seen each other somewhere?”
“Probably.” The kitten replied. “I mean I’m basically everywhere. And also nowhere. Don’t recommend the second place. Pretty much nothing to do there.”
“Heh.” Snowheart couldn’t help but let out a small fit of giggles. The childish energy of youth was always fun. And it’s not like she wasn’t guilty of saying silly things when she was a kid. Both the first time and all the times she had been turned back into a kid.
“So… Who are you?” The kitten asked. “I mean, maybe we met but I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen you around this neighborhood. Of course, it feels like it changes everyday and that I run into different people based on what version I have today.”
“I’m Snowheart…” The kitsune hesitated. Maybe it was just a child being silly, but… There was something off about the way the kid said it in such a matter-of-fact way. And the fact she couldn’t shake the idea that she knew him. “And who are you? And what do you mean the neighborhood changes?”
“I’m Calex! Junior Parter at the Ashcroft Investigations Agency!” The kitten beamed with pride as he said it. “And just that. It changes every day. It’s like… My home just keeps moving around. And even though I can always find my home, both it and my treehouse always seem to disappear to some other people when they come looking for it. Yet, I don’t have any trouble finding any of the friends I met, or my place.”
“So… Does your house teleport then?” Snowheart put a paw on her chin as she thought about it.
“I don’t think it’s exactly that.” Calex shrugged. “Probably just kitten magic in action. It’s one of those things you can’t really explain. I mean, you’re a kitsune right? So, you know all about magic being mysterious and all.”
“Well…” Snowheart considered. “Maybe, but… I feel like I understand what my own magic does. If you’re doing magic and not knowing it, that’s kind of different.”
“Huh you can explain how your magic works?” Calex thought for a moment. “I mean I had a friend who said he could explain how his worked but by about the fifth pun I stopped paying attention.” He shrugged. “Either way, don’t know what to say. Kitten magic just does.” And it was that point, the mischief of the day arrived as suddenly the kitten gave a coy smile. He looked around quickly and ran up the trunk of a tree before going out on a tree branch.
“What are you doing?” Snowheart followed after him, curious what was going, taking a stand underneath the tree.
“Oh, I just needed an appropriately dramatic place to announce my idea from.” Calex explained. “Not really any podiums or stadiums here… But this tree branch is kind of up high… So, it’ll have to do. But… I have an idea! We should swap!”
“I’m not saying no… The way you say it makes it sound like it’s something that would be fun. But, I would like to know what you mean before we do whatever it is you’re planning.” She grabbed the tree branch Calex was on and pulled herself up onto it so that she was sitting next to him.
“Swap magic!” Calex threw his paws up. “Temporarily of course. I don’t think something like this could last permanently even if we wanted. But, I’d get kitsune magic, you’d get kitten magic. If you understand how your kitsune magic works, maybe you can figure out how kitten magic works. Meanwhile, I can uh well… Actually, been a kitsune a number of times but… If you understand magic maybe having your magic will help me understand my magic!”
“Uh huh.” It took some effort to keep up with what the kitten was saying. He spoke so fast, and in sentences that didn’t always make complete sense that most people might not have realized what he had been suggesting. Had it not been for Snowheart’s own previous adventures… And times she had been turned into a kid or a baby, she probably would have struggled to understand anything the kitten said. “So… If we swap magic, it’ll probably mean we swap species too then?”
“Yup!” Calex nodded. “You’ll become a kitten, and I’ll become a kitsune.”
“A kitten. So… Not an adult cat?” Snowheart asked.
“Of course, a kitten!” Calex waved his arms. “I mean I said Kitten Magic! Not Cat Magic! I would have said Cat Magic if I meant Cat Magic!”
“I was just checking.” Snowheart gave a hearty laugh. He was an excitable little guy. And it also looked like she was about to have one of those second childhoods again. Really, it was far past second at this point. But after it happens enough timess you can’t really track it anymore. “So, how do we do it.”
“I have no idea!” Calex beamed. “So, let’s get going! I’ll just do stuff until something happens! Either we’ll swap powers… Or something else interesting will happen.”
“Alright, what do you suggest first?” Snowheart was going to let the kitten take the lead here. He was obviously very excited by the experiment he had come up with. She had her own ideas how they might be able to accomplish it, but she wasn’t about to steal his thunder.
“Uh lets see… First let’s… Hold paws…” Calex reached out and grabbed Snowheart’s paws. “And then we should both stand in the same pose and wait I basically only make it up to your knees that won’t work. Hmmmm.” Calex considered. “Uh! You think kitten thoughts and I’ll think kitsune thoughts!”
“Kitten thoughts…” Snowheart tried to go along with what she had been instructed. She focused her mind on playing with balls of yarn. Finding the perfect sun beam to nap in. Pouncing an unsuspecting mouse toy from high above.
An orange and pink light began to fill the area. It seemed both Snowheart and Calex’s magic were responding to each other. The light grew in intensity and then flashed.
Snowheart felt her clothes slip right off of her. If she was going to be a little kitten it made sense… Except… Something was wrong. She… Had no tail! Or ears! Wait, she had ears but they were small and on the side of her head. When the light had dissipated she saw she had no fur whatsoever. She looked like a human… Except for a couple tiny details. One was the fact she was only a couple of inches tall. The tree branch was suddenly large enough to run around on! And she had pink wings! She did seem to be younger, around six years old, and other than her collar she was naked. Those last two were the only things not surprising.
Calex was no bigger than her. And he was partially human. But, he had the ears, tails, and paws of a fox. Nine tails to be exact. Three times as many as Snowheart had. The tiny kitsune, around two inches tall himself didn’t seem alarmed or surprised by the situation. Instead, he was just busy dealing with the fact he now had long orange hair. Plucking a strand of it he used it to tie his hair back in a ponytail.
“Huh, I don’t think that worked right.” Calex looked over at Snowheart. “You’re not a kitten at all.”
“Yeah ,I noticed.” Snowheart looked over her back. She was trying to listen to Calex but she was also curious about what had happened to her. These new wings, did they work. She flapped them a wing times and floated into the air. She could fly! Quite easily! So, she was a faerie not a kitten, but this offered a lot of fun opportunities.
“Huuuuh, I do appear to have become a kitsune.” Calex looked over himself. “But you turned into a faerie… And I shrunk. Hmmmmm.”
“Well…” Snowheart through a hand up in the air as a small pink light flew up and exploded raining down pink dust. It did nothing else other than look pretty. But it was just a test. “I definitely have faerie magic.”
“How did faerie magic get mixed up in the swap!?” Calex sat down with his legs hanging over the tree as he tried to think. “That doesn’t make any sense… Unless…” He looked at the tree. “Maybe… This tree used to be home to a faerie? Or a dryad of some sort? When we did the swap… Its magic must have mixed around with our own putting a little faerie magic on you… But… You got fully turned into a faerie while I was only made faerie sized. Huh… Guess that means you got a bigger blast of faerie magic.”
“Does it?” Snowheart wasn’t sure. She hadn’t felt any magic coming from the tree. Except, she could now after the kitten had suggested it. Maybe he was right and the magic had just been dormant. But something was very off about the situation.
“Well! That didn’t work! But! We did get something exciting! So might as well and get to having some fun with it!” Calex jumped up.
“Eh?” Snowheart looked surprised. “You don’t want to try to understand what just happened?”
“I could try and wrap my brain around it, but by the time I figure anything out, if I figure anything out, it might be over.” Calex beamed. “You’re a faerie and I’m a kitsune. Both notorious tricksters. And we’re children, notorious mischief makers. We gotta go try out our powers on someone and see what they can do.”
“Well… That does sound fun.” Snowheart admitted. “But… You’re not suggesting we just go find a random stranger and blast them with magic.”
“Nah!” Calex pounded a paw to his chest. “I got plenty of friends who I know would volunteer to be our test subject. In fact, one of them is another werekitten who shouldn’t be too far away! Let’s go see if we can turn him into a small feral fox that can fit in the palm of our hands and give him faerie wings!”
“Well, if you’re sure he won’t mind… I mean, I do what to see what I can do like this.” Snowheart was adventurous by heart. Taking her back to her childhood only added to that. While she would have liked to understand what was happening, Calex’s idea just seemed like it would lead to more fun and misadventures.
“Then come on! Let’s go!” Calex shouted. “Uh… Could you carry me? I can’t fly. But I’ll give directions.”
“Sure.” Snowheart laughed merrily as she flew over and grabbed Calex beneath his arms. Then, then flew off, looking for friends to cause a little mischief to.
All in good fun of course.