Alex opens the door, and we step inside to the smell of burnt food. A grunt of surprise draws my attention down the hall to where Ace is standing with her mouth wide open. The blonde lady seems surprised to see us, which is fair.

  “Hey Ace.” Dani’s tongue pokes out the side of her mouth as she gives the shocked EMT a crooked smile. “You still down for that round of dice later? I’m feeling really lucky.” That last part Dani purrs, her tail swaying excitedly. I roll my eyes at her performance.

  “Dani?” Ace whispers. “Is that you?”

  Dani bows, her tail whipping out behind her.

  “In the fur.”

  “Fucking hell!” Ace shouts, stumbling backwards into the lounge area.

  “Whoa, Ace. You okay?” A voice shouts from the lounge and a group of people surge into the hallway.

  “Who the fuck are you all?” Jaws shouts as he sees us. His brown eyes narrowing in suspicion.

  “Alex Ridge, and this is the rest of the Westwood Trail Crew.” Alex gestures at us. “Now then Jaws, where is Wyatt? We’ve had a very long day today and I’d like to debrief as soon as possible.”

  “No fucking way,” Jaws growls. “You expect me to believe that my coworkers became—“

  “Foxkin,” Travis interjects.

  “—Fucking foxkin while on a trail hitch?”

  “Where is Wyatt, Jordan?” Alex drops his nickname.

  “He’s gone,” a silver-haired woman says. “Got laid off while you six were out in the woods doing…” She gestures at their forms. “Whatever in the world you all did to turn yourselves into those things.”

  “Fuck.” Alex’s tail whips to the side before stilling. “Is the district ranger around, Lynx?”

  “Down in the ranger cabin,” Lynx answers. “He’s had a long day so you all can debrief tomorrow. For now, I’d suggest getting freshened up. Everyone is going to have questions so I’m going to gather them all in the lounge and you can explain in an hour.”

  Jaws gives Lynx a death glare as she leaves, his lips curling slightly.

  “You know I’m in charge right?” He growls at her.

  “Oh shut it, Jordan.” Lynx grabs the other hotshots and drags them back into the lounge. Leaving us alone with Jordan.

  “Hey Jaws.” I step forward, my tail switching behind me. “You know that we can prove it is still us.” My ears twitch as I recall the events of today. “But I’d really like a shower and something substantial to eat. Snacking on eggs and jerky is useful, but it doesn’t compare to one of Mama Lo’s meals.”

  Jordan winces at the mention of Mama Lo. He shakes his head and returns to the lounge.

  I glance at my other foxkin, the mud caked on their bodies, the way they’re slouching, and how they can barely stay awake. Exhaustion threatens to drag me under, but the nap I had in the truck should suffice for the moment.

  “You all go rest,” I tell them, a faint lisp coating my words as exhaustion seeps in. “Including you, Alex. I got a small nap in the truck, I’ll be fine long enough to answer their questions.”

  “No, I’m the crew boss—“

  “And you will be grilled by the district ranger in the morning. Now go get some sleep.” I give him a slight shove, and Travis grabs his shoulder.

  “I got him,” Travis tells me around the egg in his mouth. “I’ll make sure he actually gets some sleep.”

  “Don’t stay up too late!” Eva calls as she follows Dani up the stairs to the showers.

  I lean against the wall as a wave of exhaustion sweeps over me. A glance at my phone reveals it is almost eleven at night and I still can’t believe that yesterday, I was human. Taking a deep breath, I step inside the lounge.

  Inside is a room packed full of people, but not as full as I was expecting. A few are playing pool near one side of the room while another bunch are sitting on or next to a couch that is positioned in front of a TV playing some nineties cartoon. The rest are digging into a pile of togo boxes. The smell of burnt food is enough to tell me why.

  When they see me enter, everyone goes quiet. Several stare at me as if trying to determine if this is a costume.

  “You know April Fools was last month right?” Terrence, a bigger guy with forest green eyes, calls out. “What’s with the hyper realistic costume?”

  “Not a costume, Grizz.” I flash him a massive grin, my mouth open enough to see that it is, in fact, real.

  “What happened?” A woman asks. “Last I checked, people don’t turn into furries overnight. Hell, if I didn’t have you standing before us, I’d believe this is really good CGI.”

  “Well,” I begin. “We sort of did turn into foxkin overnight. Last night we were all human. Now I'm apparently some sort of half-fox/half-human creature. Miguel insists that we can outrun a plane from earlier tests. I don’t believe him.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Ace exclaims. “Did you just say you can outrun aircraft?”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “According to Miguel, our top speed is 480 miles per hour. So apparently most propeller aircraft fly slower than that. Regardless, we’re getting slightly off-topic.”

  I flash them a toothy grin as I pick up an array of new smells coming off of everyone in the room.

  “I don’t know the ‘how,’ the ‘why,’ or even the ‘when.’ I do know that this isn’t just a biological change. Our clothes, gear, and even tools were modified as well.”

  They look at each other, eyes wide, as I show off my clearly modified boots.

  “Not only that, but we can even shift into a more fox-like creature as well when we drop to the ground.”

  I hop onto all-fours and feel that strange sensation wash over my body as I become fox-like. The impulse to turn around and return to the forest flashes through me as I sit there on the ground, giving them a lop-sided smile. A few give me some head pats before I stand up and my paws turn back into hands as my limbs adjust lengths.

  “Huh,” a brown-haired guy says. “There goes all of my theories. This is clearly magical.”

  “Any more questions?” I ask, my voice wavering as I stand back up. “If not, I’d like to go sleep now.”

  There are—in fact—more questions. I wind up answering questions about dietary needs, how using the bathroom works, what several objects smell like—including some stuff that I’d have preferred they didn’t shove in my face, and at one point they demanded I show off my strength.

  “Guys!” I finally exclaim, my head foggy as I stumble from barely being able to lift my arms. “I need sleep. Ask tomorrow.”

  Ace gives me a guilty look before glowering at the others. I stumble upstairs and manage to slip out of my dirt streaked clothes right before passing out.

  In the morning I awake to find someone poking me with a stick. Opening my eyes, I notice one of the fire gals—Sparks—giving me a strange look. She steps back slightly as I sit up.

  “Yes?” I ask her as I go over to my locker and search for some clean clothes. Unfortunately, none of my old clothes fit me, so instead I wrap a towel around myself and grab all of my dirty clothes from my bag.

  “You foxkin are quite different,” she says while writing something down in one of her notebooks. “You really should see a doctor soon, or perhaps a vet. You all seem more fox than human.”

  I roll my eyes and go to step into the hallway before stopping.

  “Where are the others?” I ask her.

  “They’re currently getting grilled by the district ranger and everyone who showed up to work today to discover that our trail crew is now a foxkin crew.”

  I shake my head, glad to not have to deal with that just yet. Slipping down the hallway, I locate the laundry room and toss my clothes in. Sparks follows me as I make my way towards the showers, scratching sounds filling the silence as she writes tirelessly in that notebook of hers.

  Normally, I wouldn’t be too bothered about someone heading to the showers at the same time as me. Especially since almost everyone sleeps naked—except for Dani. This time though, I feel a slight twinge of annoyance at how Sparks seems to almost view me as a specimen.

  Slipping into the shower area, I give Sparks a warning growl when she goes to follow. She glances up before heat flushes her cheeks. She wisely slips away, leaving me alone to shower.

  I step into the stall and frown. The head is higher up than I expected. Deciding to not worry about it, I turn the water on and close my eyes. It feels so nice to finally wash off all of the accumulated gunk from two weeks of work. Sure we had a hanging shower, but that was barely functional. I needed this.

  I grab my rag and bar of soap only to stop instantly. My eyes snap open. How the fuck does one wash fur? I look at my fur covered body, the rag merely sliding over the damp fur.

  I grab my shampoo and grimace as I test a section of my wet fluff on my arm. Slowly, I work it in, but it takes several minutes to wash the suds out.

  “Fuck,” I growl, stopping myself from punching a wall.

  My tail swishing behind me, I walk back to the sleeping area and grab my brush. I follow the trail of water that I dripped back to the shower and spend way too fucking long combing and washing my fur, one section at a time.

  The water is cold as I step out and discover another problem. Turns out towels and fur don’t mix very well. It takes almost another hour before my fur goes from soaked to damp. I give up trying and instead check on my laundry. Someone was nice enough to toss it in the dryer and I get dressed next to it.

  Damp. Grouchy. Pissed off at everything from my tail to the damn shampoo. And of course—because the universe has it out for me—I step outside into a shouting match between Alex and the district ranger.