The next Octransfur theme is "Flight"! Traveling can be stressful, specially when you're liable to get anxious and grow a fur pelt.

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Octransfur Day 5: Flight

Dan hated flying.

Airports were fine! The day’s established timetable gave everything a nice expected cadence. It wasn’t the crowds. He loved a good bus ride. Intellectually he knew flying was the safest way to travel. There was just something about being in a chair hurling through the sky that convinced his body he was about to die.

Thankfully he wasn’t flying right now. He was sitting in his home office browsing travel websites. He just needed to decide he wanted an early six in the morning flight, or risk getting delayed with something after lunch.

“You doing alright in there?” Sydney poked her head in the door. She was halfway through switching from her work scrubs and into a night gown.

“I’m fine!” Dan said a bit too sharply.

A look of concern crept across her face. “Booking tickets for Thanksgiving?”

“How could you tell?” Dan laughed softly.

She walked into the room and stood behind his desk chair. She reached down and gave his hair a nice brush.

Her hand then slipped around a large pointy black ear.

“Your fight or flight instincts are starting to show kitten,” Sydney smiled and stroked his ear.

Dan looked up at a small mirror they kept on their desk. His hair had been completely replaced by a jet black coat of fur. Resting on the top of his head was a large triangular set of cat ears.

“Oh me-ow, this isn’t going to work, is it?” Dan felt a small purr building up in his throat.

“I’m sure you could manage it. You usually just settle back and read a book,” Sydney started rubbing his ear a bit more firmly.

Dan’s eyes went slit. “Yeah, until I accidentally see the sun shining in from a window in another row and start having a panic attack.”

“That hasn’t happened in a while,” Sydney kept petting his head. The black fur started creeping down his cheeks. Dan could feel it slide down his neck and onto his shoulders.

“Maybe I should just call this whole trip off,” Dan purred. “Hey Mom, sorry, I can’t make it to Thanksgiving this year. Syd and I went steady and oh by the way I’m a witch’s familiar now. If I freak out on a plane I’m liable to turn into a cat.”

Sydney laughed at that. “Honestly, I think she’d believe you. You’ve got nice understanding parents.”

“Purr…” Dan started nuzzling Sydney’s hand. His face was pushing out into his familiar feline muzzle. Dan could shift whenever he put his mind do it, but Sydney could trigger it too. She was, and she wasn’t stopping. He could feel his shirt melt away into nothingness as the fur crept over his chest. It was hard to obsessively fret over booking air travel when your hands were paws.

“So which two flights were you waffling between?” His witch leaned forward to see the screen.

“Six in the morning or two thirt- Nyah!” Dan let out a flustered mew. The fur hadn’t fully shifted down to his legs yet, but he was shrinking considerably in size. His pants vanished before they hit the floor.

“Mhmm, I’m not a morning person, but we’d get there early enough for lunch.” She smiled and looked down at him. “May I have the chair please?”

“Meow!” Dan nodded his head and leapt off the chair. He landed gracefully on the office’s carpet on all four paws.

The room looked substantially bigger now. He had almost finished shrinking down in size. There was just one piece missing….

Dan stretched his paws out in front of him and arched his back. His ropey black tail slowly curled out and started flickering back and forth in the air.

Sydney sat down at this computer and started poking around Dan’s open tabs. The next thing she knew, a purring black cat was leaping back up into her lap.

“Feel better scaredy cat?” She stroked the fur on his back.

“Mhmm…” Dan purred.

She pointed up at the screen, “You know bringing a pet on a flight is cheaper than a second ticket, right?”

Dan perked his head up.

“I bet you’d be nice and relaxed if you could just spend the flight in a carrier on my lap,” she rubbed his ear.

“Maybe…” Dan arched his back out. “It’s gotta have some nice padding.”

“Uh huh,” Sydney chuckled. She opened a new tab and started browsing a shopping website.

“It can’t look dorky either.” Dan purred.

Sydney grinned, “A nice manly case for my kitty.”

“Mh-hmm...” Dan curled up into a bundle in her lap.

“Hey Dan,” she looked down at him and rubbed his ear. “You’ve got this.”

“Thanks Syd,” he purred softly. “Next year you’re totally learning that teleportation spell though.”

That got a nice laugh out of his witch. She leaned forward and clicked the buy button on a good looking pet carrier. “Deal.”