The night time air felt surprisingly lively for Howler. He wasn’t sure if it was his mood, the fact that he was a werewolf and there was a full moon, or if he was just excited that made him have a spring in his step. Maybe it was just a mix of these factors.

Howler took out his phone and whistled jauntily. He flipped through a few apps to get to the map and typed in the address he had almost memorized by heart. “Four, five, nine, two, Gallery Road.”

The directions it gave him led to a simple, ten minute walk down a few streets and to the doors of his destination – the Fluffmaster’s Bakery. He’d heard of this place from friends when they’d occasionally meet up. The place must’ve been incredible, as he noticed those friends would always seem a bit heftier when he’d next meet up with them. Guess they loved the desserts that much?

Tonight was a promotional night for the bakery, according to the email. Its wording was certainly vague with how it mentioned some experimental doughnuts, but Howler assumed this would be the perfect time to finally try the place out. He opened the door and walked inside.

“Hello, hello!” a cheery voice called. “I’ll be out in a moment. Just mopping the floor a bit!”

“Take your time,” Howler called. He looked around the shop and noticed there were a few tables with chairs set up in a semi-circular ring against the far right wall. There were a few beanbag chairs and fake candles lining the area to give it a warm, cozy glow. To his left, he noticed an archway that led into a vacant-looking room. He assumed the chairs and tables must have originally been from that side of the shop.

A good few minutes passed before the shopkeeper came up front. To Howler’s surprise, the man was a werewolf, and a portly one at that. His cheeks looked soft and his belly peeked around his tightly-bound apron.

“Sorry about that, someone spilled some flour and was just finishing cleaning it up,” the shopkeeper said. “Name’s Sarge. What can I get for you?”

“I’m Howler,” Howler said. “I wasn’t expecting to see a werewolf owning a bakery. I guess that explains why the store is open so late tonight?”

Sarge tilted his head to the side and smirked. “It’s not a full-moon thing, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’m just a night owl. Gotta be, since most of my work happens at night.”

“Ahh, sorry for assuming,” Howler coughed. “Though, I like the look, Sarge.”

“What look?” Sarge asked. “My apron?”

“Yeah, like...” Howler scratched his ear. He felt it was better to give a visual example. With his limited shapeshifting powers, he could look like any other person, so long as they were also a werewolf.

He closed his eyes and kept Sarge’s image in his mind. He imagined his belly getting wider and felt it expand as his shape matched Sarge’s. He then imagined his fur patterns shifting to match as well. When he finished, he opened his eyes. He noticed Sarge was staring at him with mouth agape.

“The portly figure, the soft cheeks. You look very approachable. I think it fits the vibe of being a baker, too. Was it a purposeful choice?” Howler looked down at his belly and patted it. “Been meaning to try being fatter myself.”

Sarge folded his arms and examined Howler up and down. “I do have certain protocols in place if a mimic tries to take over my life, y’know.”

“Oh, nonono!” Howler shook his head and imagined himself turning back to normal. “I’m not a mimic. I’m a werewolf. I have limited shapeshifting powers!”

“I used to, but I lost my ability to turn into my human form ages ago,” Sarge said. “Didn’t know all werewolves could do that.”

“Just me. My being a werewolf doesn’t affect these powers at all.”

“Color me intrigued, then?” Sarge scratched his head. “And thanks for the compliment I guess? I’m actually just fat because I’m fat. That’s really about it. No transformation thing about it.” He walked up to Howler and looked closer at Howler’s features. “So, what else can you turn into? What’s your limit?”

“You’re taking this rather easily,” Howler said.

“Paranormal investigator,” Sarge said. He then looked down at his apron. “And part-time baker. I’ve seen a lot.”

“Fair point,” Howler said. “But, no, I can only turn into other werewolves. Hence the ‘limited’ part. It’d be fun to try out other species as well, but unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of ability.”

“Oh, well, maybe I can help with that?” Sarge asked. He immediately backed up and went behind a display stand. Howler was surprised he hadn’t noticed it now, since it was front and center in the store. He saw a few baked goods dotted among several empty plates. Some of the food he noted were croissants, danishes, strudel, and doughnuts.

“How so?” Howler asked. “You do magic?”

“Nah, I do science,” Sarge said. He went to the far side of the display case and bent down to pick up a plate. It had a chocolate, glazed, and light-blue coated doughnut on it. “Sorry there’s only three left. Most went to other people earlier in the day.”

“I did see on the flier it was a doughnut experimenting night. Wasn’t it just new flavors?”

“Nah. My baked and fried goods are a bit different than that. I mean, yeah, I have normal stuff, but on Thursday nights, I usually bring out my experimental concoctions. These doughnuts have some interesting properties to them. Perhaps you’d like to try them?”

“I don’t know if I like how cryptic you’re sounding. What do you mean?”

Sarge sighed and grabbed out a paper and pen. “I have a waiver. All the information is there.”

Howler walked to the display case and picked up the paper. He read through it quickly, taking note of how eating the doughnut was voluntary, and whatever effect happened from eating one doughnut would disappear within a week. It then listed a bunch of possible ‘side effects’ below. To Howler, these effects were sounding very abnormal for a bunch of doughnuts. Rapid weight gain, psychological changes, body changes, juice production….

“You’re really saying your doughnuts can do all these things?” Howler asked. He looked up at Sarge and tilted his head to the side.

“Always love a skeptic,” Sarge smirked. “Just sign the paper and pick a doughnut. I guarantee you’ll be surprised by the results.”

Howler reread the waiver. Once he fully understood what it was saying, he determined it wasn’t meant to be shady. The text was pretty cut and clear, so he took the pen and signed it.

“Great, now pick your flavor. I’ve got Chocolate, Glazed, and Blueberry left.”

“I’ll try the blueberry. What’s this one supposed to do?”

Sarge shrugged. “A random effect from the list. Could just make you fatter or turn you into something.”

“And it only lasts a week?” Howler asked.

Sarge nodded.

“Well, bottoms up, I guess!” Howler lifted the blueberry doughnut off the plate and took a bite out of it. Despite probably being out for hours, the doughnut still felt soft, light, and fluffy. Its aroma alone made his mouth begin salivating. The fruity flavor of blueberry washed over his senses. He then tasted a note of lemon and nutmeg underneath the blueberry. He savored the flavor a bit before swallowing and taking another bite. “Woah! This is delicious!”

Sarge seemed to be looking Howler up and down. Howler noticed Sarge’s tail was wagging.

“I find the effects to be rather sharking, Howler, don’t you?” Sarge giggled.

“What?” Howler followed Sarge’s gaze down to his belly. He hadn’t noticed it before, but now that he was staring at himself, he felt his clothes already beginning to get tighter. He could see his belly was getting a bit bigger than it was before. “Woah! I’m not even thinking about it!”

“That how your transformation usually works?” Sarge asked.

“Yeah, I have to actively-” Howler heard a loud rip come from his backside. He shot his free hand back and felt around the seam. It had been ripped. He continued to feel around the area a bit until he noted that his tail was beginning to widen. Now fully overtaken with curiosity, he looked behind himself and saw a large, grey, tail slowly pushing its way out of his backside. The white fur he was used to seeing was starting to disappear. He then noted, at the end of the tail, a pair of fins were growing.

“F-fins?” Howler asked. His question was answered with a loud rip coming from his front. To his amazement, his body was now pushing out of his jacket, completely ripping it at the seams. Much like with the tail, his white fur disappeared to make way for a pale-gray colored skin that looked smooth.

“I’d recommend finishing your doughnut before examining yourself,” Sarge said. “You’d only be getting half a dose otherwise.”

“Oh, uh…” Howler lifted the rest of the doughnut to his mouth. He tried to take a bite of it, but found it difficult while the shape of his head was shifting. His canine features started smoothing out. His fur continued to disappear.

He finally managed to get the doughnut into his mouth and swallowed it whole.

Several minutes passed. All the while, Howler was busy admiring his body shifting. He’d gotten both taller and wider, and his morphology had completely shifted to that of a wereshark. He didn’t even have to imagine himself changing. It just happened on its own.

“I… I can’t believe it actually worked,” He managed to stammer out once his body stopped shifting. “How did you manage to do that?”

“Eh, took a bit of know-how of weird conceptual thingies.” Sarge shrugged. “It’s complicated.”

Howler got to his feet. He started to wag his tail excitedly. “I see why my friends wanted me to come here. You do this stuff all the time? What if I wanted to turn into a pig? Or maybe a goat?”

He noticed Sarge’s eyes looked thoughtful. The werewolf looked away. “Hmmm. I mean, I do have a pig one, but that one does have a permanent side effect. You’d get decently fat doing it.”

“I can always shift it away if I don’t like it.” Howler said.

Sarge arched a brow. Howler assumed he must’ve said something that piqued Sarge’s interest.

“Come back tomorrow then, Howler. I’d like to test your theory.”

~~~~~

Commission for  howlerfrostbite of their OC being turned into something with a story to go along with it. I like shark OCs. I think they're cute. So, naturally, he's a shark! :D

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Howler ©  howlerfrostbite

Art/Story/Sarge ©  pikminpedia Me