Commission for  tuxedoedpenguin. Three magic university students forget to bring animals needed for their professor's examination, but the professor has a quick fix for this.

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“Jeremy! Wake up, we’re gonna be late!” Alex shakes Jeremy awake, while Mike stands by the door, chuckling at Jeremy sleeping in.

“Alright, alright, I’m up!” Jeremy groans as he sits up, rubbing his eyes. He gets dressed slowly while Alex stands by Mike, practically jumping up and down, eager to get going. Soon, the three of them are on the way out of their dormitory, following the stone path through the covered walkway surrounded by trees on both sides. Rays of the sun peek through the trees, lightly illuminating the covered walkway with natural light.

“C’mon, faster, Professor Martinko is going to kill us if we don’t make it on time!”

Inside his office, Professor Martinko paces around, checking his pocket watch frequently. “Where are those kids? I’m going to get docked if they don’t—” The professor is interrupted by a rapid knocking on his large, mahogany office door. The knocking sound echoes around the stone walls of his office, dimly lit with oil lanterns. Professor Martinko opens the door and before him stand three students, feeling a lot smaller than they are for being late.

“It’s about damn time! Get in here…wait, where are the animals?!?”

“The…oh shit!” Alex looks to the other two, then back to the professor wide-eyed in panic.

“You forgot them?!?” The professor’s eyes light with rage as he stares down at the three. “You realize that now we’ll start late, and I’ll get docked points! I could lose my chance at passing! And it’ll be—wait…I have an idea…” The fire in his eyes dies down, only to be replaced by a emerald green glow, while the same color envelops his hands.

“P-Professor?” Alex stammers, fearful of what is about to happen, and he backs up until he’s against the wall.

The professor first aims at his office door and a bolt of green magical energy shoots from his hands, and a loud clunk can be heard coming from the door as its large lock engages. The three students look back at the door in a panic, then back to Professor Martinko. He then points at Alex.

“You…you three forgot my familiars…I don’t have time for you to go back and get them, so you’ll make a fine replacement!” Another bolt of green energy fires from the professor’s hands and quickly envelops Alex. Alex shivers as he is struck with a chilling sensation throughout his body, as if he stepped into a walk-in freezer. This is quickly followed by the feeling of thousands of pins and needles poking him as he starts to grow orange and white fur all over his body. His hands and feet become covered in black fur, and he can feel an upward tugging as his ears begin to grow longer and slowly move upwards along the side of his head, coming to a rest at the top.

“What the fuck?!?” Alex looks down at himself, staring at the fur growing in. Jeremy and Mike stare in awe, then snap out of it quickly. They rush over to the door and try to open it, to no avail. Meanwhile, Alex’s body is completely covered in fur, his clothes have disappeared, and his thumbs are shrinking away. His fingernails grow longer and sharper, then sink back into the nailbeds, sharpening into pitch black claws. His palms get rougher and plumper, then his fingertips follow as paw pads grow in. Alex whimpers as he looks at the paws where his hands used to be. “You son of a—” Alex yelps as he’s interrupted by a sharp pain in his lower back, followed by a bushy, orange-and-white tail popping out, then he’s forced forward as he loses his balance and falls to his paws and knees.

His hips flatten and merge, followed shortly by his shoulders. His arms and legs shorten and move inward, and his body begins to shrink, slowly losing half his original height. Alex’s feet swell as they grow pawpads, then crick upwards becoming digitigrade, followed by his toenails sharpening into claws. It looks odd, now that Alex is mostly a fox but with a mostly human head. This is quickly rectified as his face stretches out, forming a narrow vulpine muzzle. His teeth sharpen and tongue lengthens to fill his mouth. “P-Please…I’ll do anything…just please stop!” His hair shortens and fuzzes up to merge with the fur covering his face, his nose rounds out and turns black. Finally, Alex feels a sting in his eyes, and he blinks a few times as his pupils turn vertically slit, and irises turn amber.

Mike and Jeremy look back and are shocked to see a normal red fox where Alex used to be. The stop fiddling with the door and then look at professor Martinko, mouths agape. Mike runs up to Alex and picks him up, looking him in the eyes. “Look, we’re going to fix this, okay?”

The professor fires another blast of green energy at Jeremy, and he is quickly enveloped in a green light and the same chilling sensation that Alex went through, followed by pure white fur. “I’m the only one doing any fixing here, put him down!” A red bolt of energy strikes Mike, and he stumbles backwards and falls to the floor, dropping Alex as he feels like he just got hit in the chest with a bowling ball. Alex scrambles to his feet and rushes to Mike, nudging him in an attempt to get him up, but Mike does not move, though he does seem to be breathing.

Jeremy’s ears lengthen and reform into triangles like putty, then move up to the top of his head as his hair shrinks back to merge with the white fur covering the rest of his head. His nose rounds out and turns black, then his eyes cross as he watches his face stretch forward into a narrow muzzle. Jeremy recoils as he feels his teeth growing out sharper, tongue lengthening to fill his longer mouth. He now looks inverse to how Alex looked not long ago, having a fox head but a human body. Jeremy looks himself over as his thumbs shrink away, hands and feet swelling as he begins to lose his balance. Just as he falls to the floor, a loud yell is heard, followed by the sound of a magical blast striking the wall.

“You bastard!” Professor Martinko shouts as he aims for Alex but misses. “I’ll make sure you’re never human again if you try anything else!” Alex stops, looks back and whimpers, then lays down obediently. Jeremy feels pressure coming in from all sides except in his tailbone, where it feels the opposite, as his body shrinks down and white, fluffy tail grows out. He yelps as his back cricks, forcing him to stay on all fours, and then his hips crunch and shift inward, followed by his shoulders. His fingernails and toenails grow out, then narrow and sharpen as they begin to sink back into the beds. His eyes turn a brilliant bright blue, and soon he’s an arctic fox sitting in the middle of the office.

The two foxes scurry back into one corner of the office, scared for their lives, while Mike backs up to the door as the professor threateningly raises a finger towards him. He bumps into the door and starts frantically trying to open it again, no longer thinking about how fruitless it is to try, only panicking and trying to get out as he’s hit with the last green bolt. Black fur sprouts around his body, fluffing and shortening his hair. The cacophonous sound of him fumbling with the locked door soon turns to sounds of scratching as his fingernails sharpen into claws, and thumbs shrink away and he’s scratching at the door in a last-ditch effort to get out. He ignores the pressure of his body shrinking away and tail sprouting and snaking its way out, growing long and fluffy. The black fur growing in is peppered with light grey, almost white fur.

Mike turns around, back against the wall as he starts to lose balance. “Nonononono…” He leans against the door, trying to delay the inevitable and soon he’s on all fours like the rest of them. His feet lengthen and crick upward to become digitigrade, then his hands and feet plump up as paw pads grow in. His face stretches forward, and nose rounds out, turning black. Mike licks his teeth as they sharpen, and he nearly bites his tongue as it grows longer to fill his mouth. His ears grow out longer and migrate to the top of his head as they reform into triangles. His eyes turn amber and then he joins the other two foxes as his changes complete, leaving him as a silver fox.

Professor Martinko chuckles seeing the pile of fox in the corner of his office, and he raises his hand and levitates the three, bringing them closer and up to his eye level. “As I said, you will make fine replacements. Now, follow my lead, and be good familiars, and you might get to walk on two legs again when we’re done!” He laughs almost maniacally as he drops them to the floor, then the three of them disappear in a puff of smoke.

They all appear in an empty field surrounded on all sides by dense forest. Then, three more elder wizards appear, being nearly a foot taller than Professor Martinko. They approach the group, imposing their size upon them. They look down, and take out paper and quills, making some notes.

“You may begin.” One of them says, and Professor Martinko nods. He barks some orders at the three foxes, and they reluctantly line up in front of him. He glares down at them, disappointed in how reluctantly they performed. The three foxes quickly straighten up and try to look proud as they remember what they were told earlier. They are then hit with a wave of magical energy as they are bestowed the magical powers typical of a familiar. The professor then orders the three to gather some ingredients as he is issued an alchemy kit and a table to work with. After several minutes, each of the foxes return with a different bundle of ingredients and the four of them work together diligently. Professor Martinko, encouraged by the prospect of becoming a licensed practitioner of alchemy, and the foxes encouraged by the promise of becoming normal again once this is over.

Various herbs, fruits and root vegetables are added to the small cauldron and boiled together, soon making a steaming potion. Professor Martinko carefully pours it into a filter, then into a small vial, handing it to one of the examiners. They uncork the vial and closely inspect it, sniffing it, then one of them takes the vial and downs it. He smiles, nothing seems to have happened, but he nods and writes down some notes, Professor Martinko and the foxes look hopeful.

After some careful deliberation and what feels like an eternity for the professor, the four of them are poofed back into the professor’s office. He seems confused, and a bit angry. They seemed to like his potion, what could have happened? He starts to think that he failed somehow, and angrily brews a large spell and is about to strike the foxes as they cower in fear, then his eye catches a sealed envelope that was not on his desk before they left, and he aborts the spell. He heads over to his desk and opens the envelope, reading it.

Professor Martinko, and to whom else it may concern at the Carvanshire University of Magic,
It is with great pleasure and our enthusiastic consensus that we declare that Professor Michael Martinko shall be henceforth recognized as a licensed practitioner of the art of alchemy. Please find enclosed our full notes, as well as your license. Please display this in your place of practice, in clear visibility for any inspector that comes around. Thank you again and congratulations.
The professor smiles and looks to the three foxes. They all stand up, looking as happy as foxes can, then excitedly run to the door and start scratching at it, eager to get out. Professor Martinko chuckles.

“I may have left out a small detail. Part of the examination was the use of familiars. Of course, since you three forgot to bring them, I made you the replacements. You see, familiars are soul-bound to their owner. No amount of magic, at least that I’m aware of, can change this. This means you three are well, stuck. Oh, I’d change you back if I could…” The three foxes stop scratching and look to the professor with fear, but something in his tone seems that he’s not being entirely truthful. “…but you see I can’t! I suppose I could make you…bipedal…but that may draw undue attention and raise too many questions I am not looking to answer. You’re just going to have to be my familiars until…well, until I die! Don’t worry, you’ll outlive me and once I die you’ll be free to do what you please!” The foxes swallow hard and the gravity of their fate sinks in, as they lay down, contemplating what they will do now.