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16 year old Jake is caught unaware when his body suddenly undergoes a startling transformation. But it isn't long before he becomes a Were. This is the fourth story in the Were universe.

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I scowled deeply as I leaned back on my bed, staring at the math book and homework questions that I'd been working on for the last half hour. Then with a sneer, I tossed the book onto the floor.

"Who the fuck needs this shit anyway?" I grumbled, wondering where the hell I was going to use the square root of some imaginary number while pumping gas at some station or flipping burgers.

Shifting off of the bed, I leaned over and absently ran my hand over the bright red sweater that was draped over the side, though without any particular reason since I never wore it. The sweater wasn't exactly my style. However, it was the only present that I got for my 16th birthday nearly two weeks earlier. In fact, it had been the first real present that I'd been given in several years.

The sweater had been a present from my parents...my foster parents. I'd been living with these ones for nearly a year now, and they weren't too bad. In fact, they were certainly better than most of the people that I'd lived in the past. I wasn't exactly one of the family, but they were pretty nice to me.

With a deep sigh, I thought about my own family, though I usually tried not to. I'd lost my folks in a car crash when I was only 9, and had been forced to live in the state foster care system ever since. I'd spent 6 years living with strangers, most of whom didn't care the least about me. I was just a way to get a few extra dollars from the state or at best, a means to for them to fulfill their social responsibility and feel good about themselves.

My name is Jake Scott, and I was a pretty decent looking guy, if I do say so myself. I was about average height, had black hair that was perhaps a little long, and I had a fairly athletic body, even if I wasn't into sports. And I wasn't exactly the perfectly behaved and extremely appreciative kid that most foster parents seemed to think I should be.

"I need some fresh air," I muttered, kicking at the math book on the floor and then grabbing my black leather jacket off of the back of my chair. The chains on the shoulder jingled a little as I picked it up.

Then I paused, staring at my jacket for a moment. It was beginning to get dark out, and I knew that my foster parents would freak if I started wandering around the city at night. I didn't particularly care about not worrying them, but I reminded myself that I had a good thing going there and I didn't want to blow it. Otherwise I might end up back with someone like the Terstens.

The Terstens were without a doubt the worst people that I'd been forced to live with. Mrs. Tersten spent half the day drunk, and I still winced whenever I remembered all the bruises that Mr. Tersten left on me whenever he decided to take his bad day at work out on someone.

"I'd rather live on the street," I muttered, knowing that if I got sent to someone like them again, I would immediately run away and not look back. And with a sigh, I set my jacket back down, telling myself, "Don't ruin a good thing..."

With a sigh, I reached down and picked up the math book, dropping it on top of my night stand to look at later. As useless as I thought it was, I figured that I'd probably still have to do the homework if I wanted to avoid the hassle of flunking out.

Just then, I felt a strange tingle shoot through my body. I let out a gasp and staggered, wondering what the hell was going on with me. But the tingle didn't go away. Instead, it got stronger. And I felt other things too. Strange things. Things that I'd never felt before in my life.

"What the fuck is happening...?" I gasped out.

I could feel my body...shifting. My muscles were all twitching and I could feel my internal organs moving around. Everything inside of me felt like it was moving. It was all extremely uncomfortable, though strangely enough, not actually painful. Then, just as I was beginning to think that it couldn’t get any worse, even my bones began to shift.

Suddenly, yet another sensation washed over my body. It was like everything was being compressed tighter....and like I was a balloon with the air being let out at the same time. The sensations were completely unlike anything that I had ever experienced before and I had no real reference for them.

And just as I was trying to get some sort of handle on all of the strange things that I was feeling, I suddenly became aware of the fact that my clothes were becoming extremely loose and getting even more so. I stared down at myself in shock, realizing that somehow...somehow I was shrinking.

"No way," I gulped in horror, but unable to deny that my clothes were getting larger and larger on me, while the things around me such as my bed all appeared to be growing. "This can't happening..."

To my shocked horror, I was now the size of a small child, falling right out of my clothes. And I seemed to be shrinking even faster. Then I climbed out of the pile of clothes which were threatening to bury me, standing naked as I struggled to make some sort of sense of what was happening to me.

"What's happening to me?" I cried out, my voice sounding strange to my ears.

All of the strange feelings continued to rush through my body, even as I continued to shrink. But there were also some new additions, not that I gave them much thought. There was a feeling in my chest, as though it was swelling and pushing out. I felt some sort of pulling sensation in my crotch, and a horrible itching along my shoulder blades.

I let out a loud groan, then spat, "Shit..."

Then I looked down at myself, gasping in shock as I saw that I had no testicles. I grabbed at my dick, but it was shrinking even faster than the rest of me. It was only then that I noticed the two bumps that were pushing out of my chest. My eyes widened at that, and I didn't know which was worse...that or my vanishing dick.

Suddenly, the shrinking seemed to stop, though the rest of my body continued to change for several more seconds. However, I was in such shock that I couldn't really tell what all of those changes were.

Taking a deep breath, I looked up, gasping as I realized just how HUGE everything in my room was compared to me. My dressed almost seemed the size of a skyscraper. And from the size of my massive shoe which I'd shrunk right out of, I had to guess that I was only 6 inches tall...if that.

"Holy shit," I squeaked out, my voice sounding extremely strange to me.

With a wince and a horrible sinking feeling, I looked down at myself again and let out yet another gasp. I was not me anymore. Not in the least.

My hand instantly grasped at my crotch, but there wasn't any sign of my cock or balls anymore. Instead, I felt a little slit. A hairless girl's slit. I nearly panicked at that, though somehow managed not to do so. Perhaps I was just in shock from all that was happening, or perhaps on some level I thought that this had to be a dream.

I frowned, raising my hands to touch the round swellings on my chest which were undeniably women's breasts. Fairly decent ones at that from what I could see. I was certainly no expert, but I figured that if I had been more normal sized, they would probably be considered B or C cup.

"Fuck," I whispered.

I raised my hands, staring at my now longer, more feminine fingers. The nails had even extended a bit, looking a little sharp. And then there was my skin... My skin had taken a sort of golden color...and it was a little...sparkly. A little bit like that makeup some girls at school rub on their cheeks to make them glittery.

All I could say to that was, "What the fucking hell am I?" Of course there was no answer, not that I had expected one.

So with that, I started looking more closely at my body, trying to figure out what I had become, what the...whatever the hell it was had done to me. It was pretty obvious that I had turned into some sort of chick, and my whole body had become very feminine. Thin waist, wider hips, long...or at least comparatively long legs and a tight ass. And I was completely hairless from the neck down.

And while I was trying to look myself over, I became aware of something else that shocked the hell out of me. I had wings. And once I realized that I actually had them, I realized that I could feel them too. I could move them. That let me see them just a little better, seeing that they were sort of like dragonfly wings, mostly transparent but with hints of green and gold in them as they moved.

Once I noticed the wings, all that I could do was stand there in stunned silence, moving them about a bit to convince me that they were indeed real. Whatever I had been turned into, it was damn obvious that it wasn't human.

"Some kind of fucking Tinkerbell fairy or something," I muttered.

I was beginning to get a bit angry, which was a lot easier than being confused and afraid, when I suddenly noticed a glowing light around me. It took me a couple seconds more to realize that this light was actually coming from ME. From my skin.

"Weird," I muttered, pretty sure that I hadn't been glowing a moment earlier. And as I calmed down, the glow faded away. "I'm like some sort of firefly now?"

Then I looked around me again, at the huge room. My eyes widened in realization as it suddenly dawned on me that I had another problem as well. How the hell was I going to get around? For that matter, how the fuck was I even going to get out of my damn room? The door was closed and the knob looked to be about 10 stories up...

After several minutes though, one conclusion kept coming back to me. I flickered my wings and reminded myself that they were there. If I had wings, didn't that mean I could fly? It made sense, though I didn't actually know how to fly.

But then, almost as if with my very thought, I had started to lift off and hover a little off of the floor. I was startled by that, especially as I wasn't really even moving the wings. With just a little concentration, I found that I could float higher, and then lower myself back down to the ground. It was actually pretty easy.

"I can handle this," I told myself.

Hesitating only a moment more, I went up even higher, fighting back any fear that I might have had about being so far from the ground. It wasn't exactly easy, but the sheer easiness with which I could go up and down served to calm me down quite a bit. And as I started to fly, I quickly discovered what my wings were for. Though I could hover without them, I needed the wings to actually maneuver and move about. They also seemed to provide some stabilization.

After practicing my ability to move around and maneuver for several minutes, I finally gasped, "I can fly..."

My fear of being up so high, or at least what seemed high to me, quickly vanished under the thrill of actually flying. Of course, that still didn't solve any of my real problems, such as telling me how and why I changed in the first place, nor especially how to get back to normal.

Then I caught sight of something on the top of my dresser and had an idea. I quickly landed there, right in front of the small mirror that I had. I'd never really used the mirror for anything, but I had it nonetheless. I guess my foster folks figured that it would be handy having a mirror in my room, even if it was only a hand mirror.

I stood in front of the hand mirror, which now seemed more like the size of a full body mirror, and just stared. My eyes went wide in shock at the very sight of the alien creature who stared back at me. She was quite beautiful, but undeniably inhuman. As well as my size, golden skin and wings, I could now see that I also possessed pointed ears and eyes that were just a little too large and solid green inside.

"Is that me?" I gasped.

Taking a deep breath, I carefully ran my hands over my face. It was a beautiful young woman's face, though made rather exotic by the large green eyes, and the fact that it was framed by my hair. My hair was just a little over shoulder length, and it wasn't just blonde...it was golden. It glinted and sparkled in the light, almost as if it were partly metallic or had glitter in it.

"Shit," was all that I could think to say after taking another long look. That couldn't be me. I was a guy...a macho 16 year old guy, not some pretty little fairy girl. "No fucking way..."

Unfortunately, the tits on my chest and the wings on my back vouched for the reflection’s accuracy. Like it or not, I did look like some sort of Peter Pan reject.

Once I was done staring at myself, which took some time as I couldn't get over what I was seeing, I flew around my room, looking for any clue as to what could have changed me. However, I didn't see a damn thing.

I thought about going to my foster folks for help, but several reasons not to quickly jumped out at me. For one, the door was locked and I couldn't get too them. Somehow, I suspected that even if I did get to them, there was no way in hell that they'd believe that I was really Jake. They'd probably just think that they were hallucinating me or something. And on the extremely slim chance that they did believe me, I knew that there was no way in fucking hell that they would be able to do anything about it.

"Ugh, that would be humiliating," I muttered at the very thought of them seeing me like that. Of anyone seeing me as what I had become.

Since I didn't have anything else that I could do, I tried not to worry about what was going to happen to me if I couldn't find a way back to normal. It wasn't all that easy, but I had a lot of experience living in the moment and not thinking about the future. Six years of it.

Then I noticed my bedroom window. I had left it cracked open several inches to get some fresh air in. It was immediately obvious that this was a way out of my room. And without giving it a second thought, I flew right through.

A moment later, I was several stories up above the alley behind my apartment building. It was fairly dark, letting me realize for the first time that I was glowing a bit as I was flying. Strange, but at least it gave me enough light to really see things around me with.

Letting out a deep breath, I settled down on a fire escape on the side of the building, letting the light fade away. But as I rose back into the air, the light returned. I did this several times, wondering if the light was a side effect of using that power or something else. The light did seem to come automatically, but after a few tries, I discovered that I could dampen the light and make it go away while I was flying. However, that did take a bit more concentration.

"Might come in handy," I muttered.

Suddenly, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye and snapped around, seeing a black cat with a white marking on its chest, sitting just on the other end of the fire escape and watching me. I'd seen that cat running around the apartment before, and had even scratched it behind the ears a few times. However, this time the cat was somewhat bigger than me and I felt a shiver of fear run through me at the realization that it just might see me as a snack...

"Nice kitty," I squeaked out, trying to remain calm and in control of myself, "Good kitty... I don't want any trouble..."

I took several steps back, but the cat made no move to pounce on me. And after a moment, I began to realize that it was watching me more with a look of curiosity than hunger. I just hoped that it remained that way.

"Nice kitty," I nervously told it, "We've met before... I've scratched behind your ears..." Then I laughed uncomfortably, "I normally don't look like this..."

The cat meowed at me, though not the kind that cats give before pouncing on a mouse. It remained where it was, watching me, almost looking as though it was listening to what I was saying. That encouraged me to keep talking, hoping that the cat would decide that I was a friend.

"I'm Jake," I told the cat, quickly adding, "I'm normally a lot bigger..." Then the tears started to come a little, though I normally refused to cry at all. Somehow though, it seemed nice to have someone to talk to, and I could let my guard down to a cat without fear of judgment or embarrassment. "I don't know why I look like this," I quietly told the cat, my voice shaking as I gestured down at myself, "I just changed a little bit ago...for no reason. And to be honest, it's freaking me out..."

The cat meowed again, sounding almost sympathetic. Then it stood up, slowly moving towards me, as if trying to keep from spooking me. That was something of a turnabout. It paused right in front of me, then slowly lowered itself before surprising me with a loud purr.

"I guess," I started in surprise, "I guess that means you're friendly..."

To my further surprise, the cat's response was a quick lick to my body, which tickled and felt just a little rough, and then another long purr. This cat was definitely beginning to seem a lot less dangerous than I had first thought. Maybe it recognized me as a friend.

"God," I groaned, "I can't go on like this..." I cringed, "What if I'm stuck like this? Why me?"

However, the cat rubbed its head up against me as if to offer me comfort. Strange how I could find more sympathy and comfort from a cat than I had from anyone since my parents death.

Since the cat was comforting me, I just stood there beside it, petting it and rubbing it behind its ears for a few minutes. Finally though, I told it, "Thanks for listening. I think I'm going to fly around a bit more and try to make some sense of this..."

With that, I started to raise into the air, but there was a faint warning growl from the cat, causing me to quickly drop back. I stared at it in surprise, then started up again, getting the same warning growl, though I couldn't see why. Maybe it just didn't want me to go. However, after staring at it, I decided to try to leave again, this time keeping the light off. And to my surprise, the cat just silently watched me lift into the air.

"Weird," I muttered. It was almost like the cat didn't want me to glow.

I flew around the alley for awhile, stretching my wings and thinking about what had happened to me, though I still had no answers. Strangely enough though, the cat moved around as well. It kept its distance, but it was obviously following me.

Once I was tired with the alley, I flew up, and peeked through a few of the windows that faced the alley, though most were dark or hard to see through. There wasn't really anything interesting going on in any of them at the moment, so I went higher up, eventually landing on the roof of my apartment building and leaving the cat behind.

"Weird cat," I muttered, floating around the top of the building, which now seemed absolutely immense. It seemed larger than a dozen football fields. I guessed that being smaller, I would have to get used to seeing everything else so much bigger.

"No way in hell am I getting used to this weird shit," I told myself firmly.

I looked down at myself again, at the sexy female body that now seemed to be mine. If it hadn't been mine, I probably would have been pretty turned on by it. As it was, I had a sneaky suspicion that I could probably stare into a mirror and easily finger myself, at least if I wasn't so freaked out and confused by everything that was going on.

Letting out a sigh, I just sat down on the roof and stared up into the night sky, staring particularly and the bright full moon which seemed to fill it. It figured that this weirdness would happen on the night of a full moon. After all, that was when all the lunatics were supposed to come out and you couldn't get much more loony than this...

Before very long though, I got tired of just flittering about on the roof so came back down into the alley. I figured that there was less chance of people seeing me if I was there...and kept my glowing to a minimum. And as soon as I was back down into the alley, there was that cat again. Sitting there. Watching me.

"Hey, I'm back," I greeted the cat as I hovered above it for a moment.

Then on a sudden impulse, I landed...right onto the cats back. I could scarcely believe it myself, but I was sitting on a cat as though it were a horse.

"Um...gitty up kitty," I said, feeling a little embarrassed.

For a moment, the cat swiveled its head around and looked at me oddly before getting up and slowly walking, carrying me along with it. Strangely enough, it didn't seem to really mind me on its back. It was pretty strange riding a cat, though not as strange as everything else that had happened to me. However, riding a cat was kind of exciting too. How many other people could say that they've done the same?

The cat riding didn't last for too long. No more than a couple of minutes actually. The cat might be cooperative at the moment, but I didn't know how long that would last and didn't want to push my luck. Besides, flying was even more interesting.

Eventually though, I was beginning to get a little bored of flying around the alley and staring at giant sized dumpsters. I was also getting frustrated at not having found a single clue as to what had caused my change or how to get back to normal. That was kind of easy to put out of my mind while flying around, but it was still there. And of course, it was well past my usual bed time and I was getting pretty tired as well.

"Well," I yawned to the cat, "Thanks for keeping me company..." The cat meowed at that, making me smile faintly. And though I tried to keep my voice steady, it still shook a little as I told it, "I just hope that next time I'll be able to get big enough to scratch behind your ears right..."

And with that, I flew back to my bedroom window and returned inside. I was scared of my foster folks finding me like I currently was, but honestly...I didn't have anywhere else to go at the moment. So I flew around for a minute, then landed on the huge field that was my bed before finally curling up on the corner of my soft sweater and going to sleep.

I had no idea how long I was asleep before I suddenly awoke to a tingling sensation rushing along my body...the same tingling sensation that I had felt when I'd first changed. To my surprise, and incredible relief, I immediately realized that I was growing... That I was returning to normal.

Within a minute of waking up, I had once again returned to my normal body and let out a great sigh of relief at that. I carefully touched my cock and balls, which had returned along with my size. I felt even more relief at that. But I was still pretty tired after that late night of flying around, so without saying a word, I curled up in my bed a little more proper like, then went back to sleep.

When I woke up again later in the morning, I let out a long sigh of relief to see that I was still me. That I hadn't been dreaming about changing back...or perhaps that I had been dreaming about the changes in the first place. However, somehow I doubted that my imagination was strong enough to come up with something that weird on its own.

I used the hand mirror on my dresser to stare at myself for several minutes, to sort of reassure myself that I was really me again. There was no sign of that pretty fairy girl that had looked back the night before.

"What a fucked up night," I sighed in relief, glad that it was over.

And not only was the weirdness over, but it was a Sunday so I didn't have to worry about dealing with all the normal shit at school as well. In fact, if it hadn't been for it being the weekend, my foster folks probably would have come bursting into my room hours earlier to wake me up for school. And if they'd done that, they might have seen me as that fairy girl.

"That would suck," I muttered.

After this, I tried putting the whole incident out of my mind, telling myself that it was just a fucked up dream or something, but still not believing it. However, as it was done and over with, I shrugged it off and moved on. And before long, it was pretty much a Sunday like any other.

I wasted what little was left of the morning hanging around my room, then I went out and spent another couple of hours just goofing off at the small park a couple blocks away. I was mostly just looking at girls, though watching a few of the weirdos who came through was amusing as well.

It was about late afternoon when I got back to the apartment building. I was taking my time as I walked back to the apartment I shared with my foster parents when I noticed a woman standing in the hall staring at me oddly. She was in her late thirties but still pretty attractive. I'd seen her around the building a few times and knew that she lived on one of the other floors.

"Are you Jake?" the woman asked me, looking a bit nervous.

"Yeah," I responded slowly, giving her a wary look as I tried to figure out who she was and what she was up to.

"I'm Anita Chambers," she told me, then shocked me by adding, "I know what happened to you last night..."

Nearly choking at that, I quickly responded, "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about..."

The woman...Anita smiled faintly, "Whatever you say...Tinkerbell."

I froze at that and glared at her, my heart racing wildly. I couldn't believe it, but I was on the verge of panic...just because of something that some strange woman said to me.

"It's all right," Anita held up her hand, "I'm not here to threaten you..." Then she looked around, her eyes wary for a moment, "Can we talk in private?"

I looked down the apartment hallway as well, nodding my agreement. If this was about the night before, I sure as hell didn't want anyone to overhear. But if she was planning on blackmailing me, she'd quickly learn that she had another thing coming.

Since I didn't know what else to do, I asked Anita to wait a minute, then I went and checked out my apartment. And as I'd hoped, my foster folks weren't there. Probably out grocery shopping or something. That's what they usually did on Sundays.

"C'mon in," I grunted, gesturing for Anita to enter.

Once inside, Anita sat down on the couch, gesturing for me to have a seat as well. I grimaced but sat down in the recliner, staring at her for a moment and trying to make out what she wanted. She didn't act like someone who was trying to threaten or blackmail me. Instead, she seemed kind of nice and friendly.

"You know," Anita started, staring at me as she did so, "We've met before."

"Huh?" I frowned. I'd seen her in the hallway, but I was pretty sure that I'd never talked to her before.

"Last night," Anita continued with a smile. "I was the cat you were playing cowboy...cowgirl with."

That statement nearly made me choke again. All I could do was stare at her for a moment in disbelief, sure that she was joking.

"Are you some kind of fucking witch?" I demanded, suddenly realizing that she must have done that to me for some reason. She must have cast some sort of spell on me to fuck with my head...

However, Anita seemed startled by that question. "Me? A witch?" Then she started laughing. "Sorry...but no."

"Then what are you?" I demanded, "And what the fuck did you do to me?"

"Please stop with the profanity," Anita told me with a scowl. "I did nothing to you but make sure that you didn't get into any trouble. And as for what I am...I'm the same thing that you are. A Were."

"Aware of what?" I asked, feeling a bit confused.

Anita sighed, shaking her head a bit. "Don't you know what a Were is?" At my blank look, she asked, "What do you know about werewolves?"

"That they like full moons and don't like silver," I shrugged, having seen that in more than enough movies.

Anita scowled at that, then demanded, "Didn't your parents teach you anything about Weres?"

"My parents died a long time ago," I snapped, beginning to get irritated with this lady. Who the fuck did she think she was? "This is my foster home... What the hell does that have to do with anything?"

"Foster...," Anita started, then stared at me in surprise, as well as a bit of sympathy. After a moment, she cautiously said, "You just turned 16, didn't you..."

I wasn't sure if that was meant to be a question or a statement, so I just shrugged, "A couple weeks ago." I just wondered how she knew.

"Well," Anita mused, looking as though she wasn't sure where to begin. "You can forget almost everything that you know about werewolves...except for the full moon part."

"Okay," I nodded slowly.

"The stories about werwolves and other shapeshifters are based on truth," Anita told me, "but the legends get most of it wrong. We aren't really like that..."

"We?" I blinked in surprise, not sure what to think. Normally I would just assume that she was either fucking nuts or high. But after the night before, I wasn't quite sure what was what so tried not to judge.

"Yes...we." Anita responded, giving me a steady stare. "I am a Were. And so are you..."

"You've got to be kidding," I gasped, "I'm no fucking werewolf..."

"Language please," Anita reminded me patiently, "And no, you're not a werewolf. You have a different animal..." I gave her yet another blank look so she continued, "Every Were is different...we all change into different animals. I change into a cat...and you change into what looks like a pixie..."

For a moment, I just stared at her before slowly repeating, "Different animals? How many Weres are there? And how the hell did I get turned into one..."

"You didn't get turned into a Were," Anita told me gently, "You were born one. You inherited it from your parents...or at least one of them."

"No way...," I started, but Anita held up her hand to stop me.

"I don't think anyone knows where Weres originally came from," Anita sighed, giving a shrug, "As far as I know, we've always been around. Lots of legends and stories are inspired from us, though almost all of them get it pretty wrong. We change shape. We turn into animals. And every Were turns into a different animal. And for some reason, we awaken as a Were...we change for the first time and discover what animal we turn into only on the first full moon after our 16th birthday..."

"Oh," I whispered, shaking slightly as I remembered seeing the full moon the night before.

"Last night was your awakening," Anita told me gently. "I was surprised when I saw you... You were obviously a Were...but you didn't seem to know what was happening..."

"No sh...duh," I muttered, "How could I have known?"

"Being a Were is inherited," Anita responded, "The only way that you can be one is if at least one of your parents is. So a Were's parents usually explains long before it happens..."

I was a bit stunned by that, realizing that if what she said was true, and I had no reason to think that it wasn't, then my folks were Weres. And I didn't know it. I didn't even have any idea what they turned into. It was definitely a strange realization.

Anita nodded at me, then continued her lecture, "Like the legends, we are connected to the full moon. We change every full moon, whether we want to or not...for the rest of our lives. But on other nights, we control whether we change or not." Then Anita rubbed her temples, "You can forget about the whole silver thing...and a normal bullet will do exactly the same thing to us as anyone else."

We talked for a few more minutes, with Anita continuing to fill me in on exactly what a Were was and what that meant for me. It was a lot to absorb. And if I hadn't changed the night before, I never would have believed it in a million years.

One thing though that Anita was especially sure to point out was that I had to keep Weres a secret. I couldn't let normal people find out about us, and I had to admit that she gave some good reasons. For one, I didn't want to end up in some sort of laboratory getting dissected, nor did I want to worry about getting lynched or mobbed by people who didn't understand.

Finally, Anita had to go but she said, "Why don't you come over to my apartment for dinner tonight. You can meet my family." Then she smiled, "This might be a good chance for you to meet some other Weres..."

"Thank," I told her, hesitating only a moment before promising that I would be there.

For the next several hours, I just thought about everything that Anita had told me. And as strange as it had been changing into a tiny fairy girl, all this was even a hundred times more so. I was shocked to realize that I would change into that fairy again next month...and the month after that...and the month after that. It was a scary thought.

"At least I'm not the only one out there," I muttered, thinking about Anita.

Strange how there was another Were in the same building as me, and I never knew it...or ever would have known it if she hadn't told me. In a way, it was kind of a relief to realize that I wasn't alone.

I felt pretty nervous when I went to Anita's apartment for dinner, though of course I wasn't going to let her see that. Then I smiled faintly, thinking about the looks of surprise on my foster folk's faces when I told them that I was going over to a 'friends' for dinner. But I think that they were also happy that I finally had a 'friend'.

"Come in," Anita let me inside, then apologizing, "I'm afraid that my husband Doug had to work late and couldn't be here..."

I nodded at that, then turned and noticed a teenage girl about my own age standing off to the side. She was kind of pretty, with auburn hair in a ponytail. And she looked a little embarrassed.

"This is my daughter Kaylie," Anita introduced me.

"Hey," Kaylie gave me a nervous smile and a bit of a wave.

"Hey," I responded back with a nod.

Anita rolled her eyes and I could hear the unspoken snort of 'teenagers' in amusement.

Kalie looked at me carefully for a moment before suddenly blurting out, "Mom said that you're a mythic..." It was half statement and half question.

I just blanked out. "What's a mythic?"

"You're kidding?" Kaylie gasped in surprise, "You really don't know?"

Anita gave Kaylie a warning look, then turned to me. "A mythic is a Were who changes into a mythical creature. An animal that doesn't really exist... Or at least one that is believed to have never existed."

I nodded at that, "Oh..." Well, there was no doubting that a tiny fairy girl would count as a mythic then, but that didn't explain the excited look on Kaylie's face.

"Mythics are extremely rare," Anita told me, "Most Weres turn into more normal animals, so you've sort of joined an exclusive club."

"Well, any club that would have me as a member," I started, thinking about some quote that I'd heard somewhere about not wanting to be a member.

"I suppose that I should tell you," Anita commented, "We keep what we are hidden for a good reason..." She'd already explained that to me earlier, but she seemed to want to repeat it so I didn't interrupt. "We have to be careful not to be noticed. That's why a lot of unusual Weres live in the countryside where they have more room to hide what they are." She smiled, "I'm fortunate that my animal is much less noticeable..."

With a shrug, I asked Kaylie, "So...what do you turn into?"

Kaylie blushed, then stammered, "I haven't had my Changing Day yet..."

Anita quickly filled me in, "Changing Day is what a lot of us call the day a Were first changes and discovers their other form." Then she gestured to her daughter, "Kaylie's 16th birthday isn't for another four months so we won't know her animal until then..."

"I hope I'm a wolf," Kaylie announced, making me wonder if that was some sort of status symbol among Weres. However, she quickly added, "Or a leopard. Leopards are so cool..."

After this, we sat down and talked a bit, though the conversation was a bit more normal. Soon Kaylie and I were left alone as I told her about growing up in foster homes, something which I normally didn't do. But we shared a secret and it kind of made it easier for me to share others. At first, I didn't even notice that Anita had gone to the kitchen and hadn't come back. And once I did, it just didn't really matter.

Before long, we were sitting at the table and eating dinner. It was pretty good, but I was a bit more interested in Kaylie than the chicken. She was a pretty nice girl, and not bad on the eyes either. However, the chicken was pretty good too, better than the usual hamburger helper that my foster folks fixed, so I helped myself to a bit more than I normally ate.

"Sorry to be a pig," I apologized, feeling a bit embarrassed as I realized that I'd already eaten more than twice what they had.

Anita laughed, "Help yourself to more..."

"Men are pigs," Kaylie announced, but it was with a playful grin. "I know that my dad is..." It took me a moment to realize that she probably meant that literally. Man this Were shit is pretty fucking weird. She continued a moment later with, "He turns into this really cute pot-bellied pig..."

"You know," Anita mentioned, "I have a cousin who's a mythic too. He turns into a unicorn." She smiled thoughtfully, "He has a son about your age who I heard was a mythic too...though I don't know what kind. Maybe I can introduce you some time..."

"I hope I'm a mythic," Kaylie announced.

"What," I teased her, "Like a troll?"

"No," Kaylie stuck her tongue out, "Like a dragon. Then I could eat your sorry ass..."

"Kaylie...," Anita gasped in surprise, then laughed when she saw that Kaylie and I were both grinning. I was really starting to like that girl.

Once we were done eating and the table had been cleared, Kaylie and I sat in the living room talking some more, mostly about bands we liked. Then Kaylie just sat back and stared at me for a minute without saying anything.

"What?" I asked, wondering if I'd suddenly grown a massive zit on my nose.

"Can you change?" she abruptly asked, "I want to see what you look like..."

I started to shake my head, but Anita came up from behind, "It might be a good idea for you to get more used to your other self..."

"Yeah, c'mon," Kaylie urged me, "I want to see a real mythic..."

My first urge was to completely and utterly refuse. Turning into a weird fairy chick was going to be weird enough once a month and I had absolutely no intention of doing it any more often than I absolutely had to. However, there was a look of eager anticipation on Kaylie's face and she was almost begging me to change. In the end, like any other red blooded guy, I couldn't resist the chance of showing off to a girl and trying to impress her.

I looked out the window, seeing that it was already dark out. But then again, I figured that Kaylie had already known that before asking. Then I turned to Anita, feeling pretty embarrassed as I asked, "What do I do?"

After Anita had explained, I stood there, staring out the window for a minute before glancing over at Kaylie, who was still watching expectantly. I took a deep breath, then did as Anita had told me and concentrated, trying to feel it inside of me. It was surprisingly easy...and suddenly I felt something inside of me...shift. It was like a key had been turned or a switch had been flipped.

Unable to help myself, I let out a faint grown as I felt myself beginning to change. It was like the night before, with my very flesh and bones shifting around. With my clothes getting looser. However, this time it seemed to come more quickly.

Within mere moments, I was looking Kaylie in the eye, and then looking up at her, seeing her expression of amazement. And I continued to shrink, my clothes once again threatening to bury me until I had to climb out of them. It was only that this point that I remembered the fact that in order to change in front of Kaylie, I'd have to end up naked. But it was too late to worry about that now.

Finally, I had become tiny and felt the wings sprout from my back. I paused, grimacing as I felt the final changes taking place in my groin while my breasts finished growing out. And as the changes stopped, I stood there, twitching my wings a bit and taking several deep breaths as I adjusted to my new form.

"Oh my God," Kaylie exclaimed excitedly, "That is so wicked...." I looked up at her, gulping at her sheer size. She was like a giant...like a titaness towering over me. She bent down for a closer look and she still seemed unimaginably huge. "You look amazing..."

"Thanks," I responded nervously, looking up at the giant Anita as well. Seeing them like that made me feel incredibly intimidated. What if they decided to step on me...or did it by accident?

"You turned into a girl," Kaylie exclaimed, as if just realizing it. Then she blinked, "That is so cool. I hope my animal is that cool...

I blushed at that, not sure what the appropriate response was. Though I had been thinking that my fairy girl form was a huge humiliation, if Kaylie liked it then it couldn't be all bad.

With that, I tried out my wings, lifting myself into the air, glowing as I did so and then settling down onto the palm of Kaylie's outstretched hand. She seemed even more excited at that, staring at me as if I was some sort of rock star or something. It was kind of a nice feeling, almost making me forget about my nervousness at being so small.

"Since you're a mythic," Anita told me, "you'll have to be extremely careful not to let anyone see you. You are kind of...unique."

I nodded at that, knowing exactly what she meant. Anita had pointed out that Weres had to remain secret and not draw any attention, over and over. And my current shape would definitely get a whole lot of attention if anyone saw me.

"I get it," I responded gruffly, "Keep my lights dimmed if I go out and all that stuff..."

Anita nodded at that. "Good." Then she smiled.

Kaylie just smiled down at me, seeming happy enough just to look at me. I guess it wasn't every day that she got to see a mythic...or a tiny fairy girl. But that was sure a hell of a lot better than her freaking out or anything. If nothing else, she seemed even more interested in me than before, which was a definite plus on my side.

"Let me...change into something else," Anita smiled almost motherly at me, "and we can go outside..."

I nodded at that while Anita turned and stepped out of the room, leaving me with Kaylie. We talked for several minutes, but it was kind of strange talking to someone so much larger than me.

And as I stood there, staring up at Kaylie, then down at myself, I couldn't help being well aware of just how much my life had suddenly change in the last 24 hours. Not only had I gained some sort of twisted super power as it were, but I'd discovered that there were not only a lot of things about my parents that I didn't know...but a lot of things about myself as well. Things that I had been completely unaware of until that moment.

"So unaware," I sighed as I stood in Kaylie's hand.

Just then, the feline Anita come around the corner and move to the window with the fire escape. She paused, then meowed back at me to come and join her. I nodded at her, then said a quick "see ya later," while I grinned up at Kaylie, who seemed a little disappointed as I dimmed my glow and went to join Anita in exploring the neighborhood, and what it meant to be a Were.

It was strange, I thought to myself, that I had spent my whole life, completely unaware of my Were heritage. But I wasn't unaware anymore. Though I knew that it would definitely take some getting used to, I had finally become aware. I had finally become a Were...

THE END