I pat my towel on my fur covered face, letting it soak up my tears. For hours, we've lingered in scattered grief, each of us quietly dreading what comes next when we get home.

  We have no signal this far out, so all of us left our phones back with the trucks at the edge of the wilderness. I don’t even know if it’s just us who changed or if everyone has. And I’m not sure which option is worse.

  I look down at my tail wrapping around my leg. I give it a soft pat as I try to make it uncurl. It slowly unwinds, only to curl right back the moment I stop focusing. The tail’s instinct-driven, but it listens when I focus.

  “Okay, that is enough,” Alex barks, even his furry cheeks damp. “Pull yourselves together and start taking stuff down. I don’t know about you all, but I could use a good drink right now.”

  “Yeah,” Trav sniffs. “Yeah you’re right boss. Let’s get out of these accursed woods and find out just how bad it is. Hopefully the world isn’t burning down after these changes.”

  “Assuming we’re not the only ones who changed,” Miguel interjects, his breakdown having happened this morning.

  “God, I hope not,” Dani laments, her tail drooping behind her. “That would suck so much.”

  “Could be worse,” I say. “At least we’re not full-on foxes.”

  “Tents.” Alex barks, his fur bristling, his tail swishing in annoyance. “Down. Now.”

  I wince and start breaking down the tent me and Eva were using. Strangely, the poles seem to have been reinforced when everything changed since it is still a bloody struggle to take the damn thing down. The struggle is a welcome distraction.

  “Ugh,” Travis calls out. “Did these become titanium?”

  “No clue,” Eva whispers, still not used to having a voice. “Probably a good thing they’ve been reinforced. I’d hate for this to break from a slight flick.”

  “Yeah,” I agree as I finally get the bloody poles folded. “Still a pain.”

  I roll up the tent and get it stuffed back into its case while Eva goes to help Alex with the food. Dani packs up the cooking supplies. Travis and Miguel get started on stuffing their daypacks into their larger bags.

  “Hey Alex,” I say as I notice something strange about my pack. “Any idea what this is?”

  I hold up the modified pack with strange straps, magnetic pockets, and what looks like sort of modular frame.

  “Yeah,” Alex calls back to me. “Our daypacks have a similar system, just not as elaborate. It redistributes the weight automatically when we switch from two-legged to four-legged style.”

  “Of course you’d notice,” Travis says, hooking the new pack on. “Gonna be a pain getting used to these.”

  “On the bright side,” Dani yips from where she is standing. “The new frames are reinforced and lighter.”

  Travis shrugs. “Pretty sure that is just us being stronger, Dani.”

  Dani flips him off before hopping onto all-fours.

  “Strange,” Dani chuckles as she picks up her right hand. “If I tried to walk four-legged as a human, my ass would be sticking up. So how come it isn’t?”

  I shrug, dropping down onto all fours, noticing something else as well.

  “Whoa,” I whisper as my hands shift into a more paw-like form. “That’s… honestly kind of neat. Also convenient.”

  I stand up and my paws shift back into a more defined hand. My limbs seem to shift slightly as I change positions as well.

  “Seems there is more to this whole thing then I thought,” I muse while dropping back down and feeling the subtle changes.

  “What gave it away?” Eva taunts. “The superhuman strength and speed? Or the fact that I suddenly know how to speak as easily as signing?”

  I chuckle as I stand up and join the others on the trail.

  “Alright,” Alex barks, his pack shifting as he drops to all fours. “We got an hour left until sundown and a nearly twenty mile hike to the trucks. So let’s get to it.”

  Alex takes off in a brisk trot and I jump forward to keep up. The scenery doesn’t blur, but it’s clear we’re flying faster than any jog.

  “What is this, ya think?” Miguel yaps. “It is clear we’re out-pacing even Olympic level sprinters, but I don’t think it is quite highway speed.”

  I grin at him as my tongue escapes the side of my snout.

  “Don’t care,” I tell him. “Just enjoy the wind flowing through your fur.”

  “She has a point!” Dani yells from the back as a wind picks up around us. “Enjoy this while you can. No telling what is going to happen when we get back.”

  Travis leaps over me as he picks up speed. The crosscut saw is attached to the side of his pack. His golden-brown fur sparkles in the dying light as he lets out an excited yip. Dani chases after him and soon we’re all picking up speed as instincts take over, our old human selves fading. Alex watches us with a smirk on his furry face as I tackle Miguel and Eva joins in. We’re careful not to damage our packs as we roughhouse, but that is only from years of training. Our instincts completely overriding everything else that remains of us.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  If it wasn’t for Alex constantly pushing us to move forward, I might very well have stayed in that forest playing with the others for the rest of time.

  “Ehehehehe,” I call out as the trucks come into sight, my memory jogging as I remember that I’m not just a fox. My steps stutter as Travis hits me from the side. “Those—”

  I start to whirl on Travis, ready to tackle him—only to freeze as something holds me back. I frown as something forces me to stop. I look closer at the trucks and I remember who I am. I quickly stand while backing away in shock. My pack shifts as the gyro’s trigger.

  “Those…” I try again, a soft growl escaping as I force out my words. “Those are the trucks.”

  I grimace as the fog slowly fades.

  “Also, ow. Anyone else think they were foxes for a moment there?”

  “Yup,” Travis says, his hand on the side of his head as his eyes gleam with the same excitement from earlier. “Hopefully this doesn’t happen at the station. I don’t think I could live down the embarrassment.”

  “Eh,” I chuckle, watching as the others slowly regain their senses. “Now then, anyone wanna swing by a gas station on the way back?”

  “Oh god no,” Miguel groans as stumbles over to the trucks. “That would be the worst. Can you imagine the stares?”

  Eva chuckles at his reaction.

  “Of course,” she says. “It would be hilarious though. Especially if we walk in on all fours.”

  My stomach growls and I feel heat flush my snout. Dani snorts and draws a granola bar from her hip pouch.

  “Here,” she calls out. “Try to eat this.”

  At first I try to pry it open with the pads on my fingers before I remember I have claws where my fingernails used to be. I flick my fingers and the claws slice the package in twain allowing me to—

  “Wait!” Miguel calls out, his voice screeching in panic. “Chocolate is poisonous! Don’t eat it.”

  I look down and cuss, sure enough. Chocolate chips are mixed in with the granola bar.

  “I mean…” I state as my stomach growls. “We won’t really know unless…”

  I take a bite out of the granola bar as Miguel jumps forward. He growls while trying to swipe the precious food away. I frown and double-check the wrapping as I crunch on the metallic-tasting oats.

  “Why does this taste so horrible?” I mutter between chewing. “It tastes like I’m trying to eat rubber.”

  I swallow the bite, feeling the too-sweet, too-fake lump work its way down my throat.

  “Well,” I say while tossing the remains into the back of the truck. The shadows starting to creep up the side of it. “That was unpleasant.”

  “Told ya.” Miguel gives me a smug grin as he tosses his pack into the truck. “Should have listened.”

  “Screw off, Miguel,” I growl. “It wasn’t even the chocolate that tasted bad. It was the whole mess.”

  “Sorry,” Dani says sheepishly. “Sort of forgot that processed forms do not taste good. That is going to change what all we can buy.”

  “Focus,” Alex says while tapping his wrist. “We still need to get back before the new ranger leaves… and he’ll be leaving pretty soon.”

  I blush as we quickly pile into the two trucks. I swipe my phone from where I left it in the back seat while Alex and Eva hop up front. I go to turn it on and find that my worries were right. My claws make it nearly impossible to tap the screen and I wind up scratching it a few times before remembering that stylus that Travis got me for my birthday.

  “Aha!” I shout as I finally sign in to my phone. “Now then…”

  I quickly open up google and confirm our suspicions. Not a word of anyone turning into foxkin. My stomach twists as I think about that. I’m not sure if I am happy that no one else changed or disappointed. I look up from my phone and see Eva chatting with Alex as he informs the station of us heading home a day early.

  I notice the way her ears flicker and the smile on her face as she tells him a joke. I turn off my phone and join in on the teasing as Alex explains that we got done sooner than expected to the guy manning the radios. Sure, the roar of the engines hurt my ears, and the scent of burning fuel makes my eyes water. Yet, I feel… content. A strong sense of belonging as Eva reaches behind her and her claws scratch at the base of my right ear. A soft purr escaping as Alex drives us back.