117: Blind Jump

Cream

I became aware of my body first, because it felt weird. Then I realised my brain felt weird, because wow, it was like I was thinking faster and larger than I ever had before. I wiggled in place, feeling for my brothers and sisters, but they weren’t there. Why was I so warm, then?

A tiny little while later, and I realised why, and more importantly, where I was. I was inside a fruit! A really big treat! I laughed at my own silly treat-based joke, except I was surrounded by fruit juices so I inhaled it instead.

Panicked for a moment, I flailed around trying to claw and kick my way out of the gunk, only to realise after a second that I could breathe the juice. Then I started eating it. It tasted SO good!

Eventually, I came to the skin of the fruit, and when I bit down on it, suddenly I was flopped out onto the ground like a spilled sack of melons. Except I wasn’t a melon, of course, I was a bun. Or… I used to be a bun?

Blinking the sticky liquid out of my eyes, I sat up and looked around with a squint of confusion. I was in Ryn’s forest, and… something fluffy flopped down on top of me, and I looked up. It was my lady! Ryn had put… a towel on me?

“Welcome back, Cream! The disorientation should pass momentarily, and… Wow,” she said, slowing to a whisper, looking me up and down. “I’m making a rule right now, Cream. You are not allowed near the IT department or the ICT faculty.”

“Why?” I asked wiping my eyes some more with my wrists— which were different?

Alarmed, I held my paws out, only to see that they were… hands?!

Frantic now, I wiggled around and looked down at myself. I was all funny looking! My body was all… human shaped! Except I still had fur, and even though I was a girl, I didn’t have the funny double dewlap things like Ryn. Also, to my never ending relief, my legs were still bun legs! They were just attached to my torso like a human. I guess I was… shudder, bipedal now.

“You look like a Pokemon,” Ryn muttered, and I tilted my head at her.

“What is a poking mons?”

Ryn let out a choking, coughing sound and laughed. “Uh… no, it’s one word.”

“Oh,” I mumbled, already distracted by the two paws I still had left. They were so much bigger than I remembered. The claws were huge!

Wait. What about my face?

Quickly, my new hands flew to my face, where I touched and prodded trying to figure out what it was like now. My mouth was the same, and I still had big floppy ears. Actually, they were even bigger now, drooping down to my very slim shoulders.

“Ah, here…” Ryn said, and with a flick of her wrist and a sparkle of magic, summoned a vertical puddle for me to look into.

I gazed at myself in shock. I was like if a bunny was given the same part-sizes as a human! My legs were bun legs, but they connected to a torso like human ones, and because of that, I had big… hips? Yes, they were called hips. My tummy, waist, and chest were all very thin compared to Ryn, and then my arms were also small. Same length as Ryn’s compared to the rest of me, but like… uh, what was the word? Wiry, I think. I had muscles, but they were tight and thin and small.

My face was thankfully still recognisable as mine, but my eyes were bigger and more towards the front of my face. Oh, and my fur! My fur was… it was all pink and shiny! So pretty! I matched Ryn now, but with my old cream thrown in!

I grinned up at my lady. “My fur is so pretty!”

“We’re going to have to change your name to, like, Rose or something, considering your fur is rose-gold now,” she said, a teasing smile binking in her eyes.

I frowned and shook my head, bopping her with the palm of my hand. “No! I like my name! You can… you can shorten it, though. If you want.”

“You want a nickname?” she asked.

I nodded, and my ears flopped around brushing my shoulders. “Yes! Like how you are Rynadria but everyone says Ryn!”

“Okay… what about…” she said, stalling while she thought. “Cee. You can be Cee.”

“Cee…” I said softly, sounding it out. My new mouth was very good at making words, and my new head was much better at putting them together. I think I was still normal bun smart, though. Just different parts of my smart were getting more power now.

“How are you feeling, anyway?” Ryn asked, interrupting my thoughts. “You’ve had some pretty big changes. Do you need help trying to stand?”

“I have only two legs now,” I lamented, holding up my new hands to show her.

Ryn’s funny hairless hands came down to hold mine, and I looked up to meet her gaze. “It’s okay, little bun. We’ll help you get used to it, and who knows, maybe we can find a way to allow you to transform between a normal bun and this half human one.”

“I can do that?” I asked hopefully.

Laughing, she shrugged and replied, “Cee, you’re a grove-tender mage. Anything is possible at this point.”

Oh. Of course. Ryn was a master at breaking the rules to get what she wanted. It was why us buns followed her. She was amazing.

“I didn’t cause you any trouble when I ate the fruit, did I? Those people seemed very angry about it.”

“Not more trouble than they were already causing,” said Ryn, standing up and offering me a hand. “Come on, let’s go see the others and… get you some clothes.”

I frowned. “I don’t want clothes!”

“Unfortunately it’s going to be necessary,” she sighed, and I took her hand. Carefully, she helped me wobble to my feet, until surprisingly I could stand on my own.

“Why?” I asked her while testing out my balance.

“Oh god…” she groaned, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Okay, I guess I’m going to have to start easing you out of your innocence sometime. Basically, back on the world that Avonside originally came from, there was a certain subculture that obsessed over made up creatures that looked like you. Or, well… some of them did. Anyway, it was all fine and stuff, except that now here you are, the fictional object of their… sexual desires, but made real.”

“Sexual…” I repeated, before trailing off and looking up at her again. She was still far taller than me. “You mean that porn thing that the boys talk about?”

Ryn froze, and I could hear her teeth grinding with anger. Did I do something wrong? Was I not meant to know about that?

“Yeah, that,” she said finally. “Shit, I guess you buns do sort of get ignored by a lot of the folks that frequent my grove. Anyway, I don’t want you getting creeped on by pervs, so you’re going to have to wear clothes and learn about human taboos and shit. It’s going to be strange and confusing, but if you want to interact with humans outside the Order’s council, it’s necessary.”

My ears perked up, and to my surprise they swung all the way upright. Whoa! My floppy ears could go up! “I get to learn about human things? I like learning about human things. It’s very fun, and interesting, and it helps me be a better tender-bun.”

My response seemed to surprise Ryn, because she stood there staring and thinking for more long seconds. Then she giggled and put a hand on my shoulder. “That’s good. Honestly, I’m glad it was you, Cee. It makes things so much less stressful. In the future, we’ve decided to choose new mages in absolute secrecy. If even naturally jovial people like Dr Richards can get greedy like that, I think it’s safe to say we need to be much more cautious.”

“Yes, and plus… I think a fruit directly from you is something that is special,” I agreed, my thoughts zooming and binking over ideas and concepts before they could fully form. “What if you give all of your mage-treats to the buns, and then we make fruits for others? Then we can protect you while there aren't many mages, and then when there are more mages, you’ll have lots of loyal buns to do battle in case anyone gets shouty like the Dr Richards man.”

“That’s… a damn good idea, Cee,” she said, surprised and happy. I got ear scritches while she did her own thought-binkies. I was so glad I still got pats and hugs and scritches, now that my body was something weird to humans.

When the scritches were over, she took my hand and helped me take a few experimental steps while she kept speaking. “Honestly, the more I have to interact as a mage with the Avonsiders, the more I realise how and why the ring mages got into the isolationist position they’re in now. Mage fruit are a direct path to unimaginable power and wealth. It makes sense that literally everyone would want one.”

Walking was much harder than just standing up, because I couldn’t walk with my full foot on the ground. I had to press up onto my toes and try to walk like a human. Except, my legs had one more joint than them, so I realised pretty quickly that I needed to change my stride a bit. After some careful and silent moments, I was confident enough to let go of Ryn’s hand and keep walking beside her.

It was so amazing! I was walking beside her, like a human! Oh my goodness, just wait until the other buns see me!

“Humans are like plants,” I said, when we were starting to make real progress back towards the big tree-burrow. “They grow as fast and as big as they possibly can, even if it means choking out the other plants from the sunlight or the soil. It’s only when there’s something hard in the way that they stop. Then they get mad at the hard thing and try to wrap it up in roots and crush it. Some learn to stop before they choke their neighbours out and go on to live in harmony with them, but usually it takes some tending to get that started.”

“When we’re in larger groups we can be like that, yeah,” Ryn sighed. “But a lot of the time we start out living harmoniously, and it’s only a storm or a fire that makes us act badly. Stress is a destroyer of peace, Cee, and I think sooner rather than later, you’ll be learning that.”

“Like when loud noises hurt my ears and make me thump,” I wondered aloud, even as my ears wilted. It wasn’t just a human thing. Ryn was just… she protected us from the stress that would break our peace.

That’s it. She wouldn’t have to protect the grove from stress alone! Not anymore! Cee and the bun mages would be the guardians of this place! We’d make sure the world knew not to mess with us or our magical thumps and kicks would destroy them!

“You have proper facial muscles now!” Ryn exclaimed, and my serious face melted back into a grin.

I nodded enthusiastically. “I can tell people I’m grumpy without thumping!”

“You are definitely still going to thump, Cee,” Ryn teased me, and I just about fell over with happiness. She caught me and asked with concern, “Are you sure wouldn’t rather take a seat?”

“I’ll be fine,” I told her confidently.

“Crossing my fingers for you, then,” she said, wrapping an arm around my shoulders protectively.

Being a mage-bun was going to strengthen my friendship with so many of the humans! This was going to be so great.