One portal walk, a quick run up some temple stairs, and ducking past any visitors and staff, and Niamh makes her way into the passageways that lead down into the acolyte chambers. She doesn't think anyone spotted her passing through the grounds. If she did, well, it just might inspire stories about deer demons skulking about, naked. Thankfully down here the passages are empty and she's able to duck quickly into the room she's been staying in.
It takes a bit of work to lie down in a comfortable position and catch her breath. Hopefully, Kasumi thinks she's dead, so won't be a bother anymore. Especially important when Niamh needs to enter the forest. But first, she needs to try and harness her borrowed 'yokai energy' to sort herself out before trying to draw on the energy of the forest. The challenge is in trying to figure out how. The Horned God presumably just transformed her instantly, since she doesn't remember the process. After all, her bones have been changed.. and how do you turn hooves back into nails? "Should I ask someone to teach me?" she ponders out loud. But that would mean Noboru, who may or may not be back yet, assuming he actually left at all and wasn't just tricking her.
The clay stove isn't talking, and she doesn't have the broom with the eyeball in the room. So, unless she tries to find Noboru or his parents; who is she really going to ask? Then of course there are the unbidden thoughts that try to creep in; such as 'why would you want to, isn't this better?'. Though feeling her own ears twitch and move is disconcerting; so maybe that's one reason. So's having a wiggly bit above your butt.
Given the choices and likely outcomes, Niamh decides to try on her own to see what happens. Yokai are mostly beings of spirit, just like the Sidhe and fairies. So, she reasons, the changes may be more spiritually related than physical. She just has to use her spirit to change back! She looks at her left foot, and focuses there to start with. For her, her spirit manifests as ectoplasm, but she can still move it around her body. So she tries to push it into her hooved foot. Then.. make it foot shaped. She hasn't gotten very far with that sort of manipulation yet, so this will be good practice at least.
The forest spirit made it seem so easy. She's able to push out her sorta-goo onto her foot. But making it foot-shaped is ... well, how? Right now it looks like someone sneezed a giant booger on her hoof. Where it sits.
It seems; hmm. She can feel the hoof inside the goo, but it doesn't seem to want to change at all. Maybe sh has to somehow convert her entire hoof back into goo somehow, and then shape it from there. Does she even remember what her feet looked like?
"Maybe I'm doing this backwards," Niamh says to her foot. "The hoof is a spirit manifestation, and my foot is a non-spirit manifestation. So.. I should try pulling spirit out of it instead of pushing more into it." It seems as reasonable as anything.. and less scary than trying to melt her flesh. She'll save that as a last resort. So she focuses on not just pulling back her ectoplasm, but trying to pull any other energy out of her appendage as well.
Hah! Now that seems to work better. As she pulls back the 'deer' essence, her foot feels weird. The hoof parts might even be softening? And are they splitting? It's also bending more perpendicular at the fetlock joint too; or what used to be her heel.
Now that she's felt a bit of the difference, Niamh tries to focus on pulling back just the deer essence. But.. she needs to keep it somewhere so it doesn't just mix into her human essence probably. But that's for later. Foot first! Then figure out how to somehow keep the yokai stuff stored separate.
It's slow going, and disturbing to watch, but slowly that hoof starts to reshape back into a human-ish form. It might not help, though, that Noboru's head pops up out of the floor, right between her legs where she lays. "Deer me, do I sense the agony of de-feets?" the annoying fox head quips, then rests its chin right on the upper ridge of her pelvis.
"Ahh!" Niamh yelps. "You! I nearly got killed by your ex-mate!" she says, eyes narrowed and tone accusatory, as if Noboru actually planned it.
One fox-ear splays sideways. "She did?" he asks, "I didn't sense her anywhere near; I would not have suggested you go into the forest if I thought her that close. Hmmm, that's worrying." His head comes up a little higher, then he sticks his cold nose right in her navel and snuffles.
"Where did you go when you left me on the steps?" Niamh asks and tries to roll away from the snuffling. "Miyuki and Daiki-sama hadn't seen you. If not for Mizuchi I'd be all-the-way-dead," she claims, sounding hurt.
Noboru flumps his upper hand now over Niamh's hips so she can't roll away. "I had started to go to the Heart, but then I was summoned to deal with a Shrine matter. One cannot keep other Gods waiting, and they always complain about not feeling important enough if the main shrine sentinel isn't around. I had to turn around and head back here." His ears splay out, and brow sort of droop-arches into a pitiful-puppy look. "I do not wish you dead, I am sorry that happened. And grateful the river dragon stepped in; I shall have to thank him properly."
"And you couldn't tell me that.. wait, another god?" Niamh asks. "Come to see Inari, I assume? And can you teach me how to move between deer and human form?"
"This is the land of Gods, of course another God. You can't sneeze without alerting some God," Noboru claims, "And yes, it wished to parley with Inari regarding harvests in his lands." He wiggles more up and out of the floor, until he's lying on Niamh, and her legs are now bound up in his tails. "I could teach you, yes, but you seemed to be managing some of it without any help. And besides, why do you even want to? You look better like this." He grins.
"Ugh, should I be worried that I knew you'd say that?" Niamh asks. At least Noboru is warm. "I need to be able to turn all the way into a deer in a few weeks. But the people of this town already give me weird looks, and I have things that I need to do. I've been given a grant to draw power from the forest, and I only know how to do that as a human."
"Pfft, as if this silly meatsuit dictated anything at all," Noboru teases, then licks Nimah's chin. "You'll need a place to keep the essence, of course. If you kept, say, the tail, you could store it all in that."
"What about other essences?" Niamh asks, trying to sound casual. "Only the deer yokai would actually work for me, wouldn't it? I couldn't use kitsune or kirin essence if I could store it?"
"Well, you could, yes," Noboru remarks as his head slowly turns in a full circle, somehow. "But do you think you could be amazing enough to try to be one of us, hmmm?"
"Oh, probably not, but it would be more potent than a deer, if I could use it," Niamh says, and tries tilting her head more so Noboru's move doesn't disturb her. "Of course, none of that could compare to forest power though."
Noboru barks a laugh! "A nine-tail could easily supplant the forest with its power," he remarks and even rolls his eyes. His head turns a full circle, again, in the same direction. "Am I distracting you?" he asks while his head is upside down.
"If you're going to impersonate an owl you should at least have wings," Niamh says. "That powerful? Really? And yes, this is a bit distracting, and now you're lying on me so I can't see my foot anymore."
"Oh. Want me to pull your legs off so you can see them?" Noboru offers, innocently.
"I think that would only amuse you," Niamh says. "Maybe you could just release them from your tails?"
Noboru boops his nose on hers, then actually climbs off her and uncoils his tails. He sits down off to the side and rests his chin upon his forepaws. "Impress me," he says, then stares.
Niamh instead tries to ignore him, and focuses again on drawing out the deer energy from just her left foot. As to where to keep it, she does take the suggestion (for now) of keeping the tail. She just hopes it won't sprout legs or anything.
She's really learning; ignoring the fox likely helps! Also, probably the desire to not hear him snicker a lot. After a few more minutes of concentrating, she has one normal foot, and one hoof. She's the most bizarre peg-leg pirate there is now.
After making sure the yokai spirit isn't going to try and sneak back on its own, Niamh moves on to the other foot. She could probably try pulling it all back at the same time, from everywhere, but she isn't sure how much is invested in each change. And the limbs are the more important things to focus on.
Well, while Niamh is trying to shift her right foot now ... her left foot starts to itch, and the nails start to blacken again...
"No no no," she tells her disobedient foot. Clearly a tail isn't going to cut it for storing the energy. There's one place that she does have practice storing this sort of thing, but it's also needed for channeling the forest energy: he actual uterus. So, for now, she tries to move the energy there in hopes it will stay put until she can deal with it properly. So she starts moving the yokai energy from her left foot to there, while trying not to lose the progress on her right hoof.
"Problems?" Noboru asks innocently. The shifting resumes, and she's slowly able to 'draw back' the energy bit by bit ... though it's making her feel weird, internally. What if it's turning her uterus into an actual deer uterus?
The other side-effect is that it's making her feel.. well, like she felt before the infusion: wrung out. Her natural energy level is still low from the sea voyage. But, she's held fae energy in there, so.. it should work until she can move it. Her uterus is one of the few organs she really has some control over, after all. "I can manage this," she replies to Noboru. She also knows she has to practice a lot to reduce the transformation time (and degree). "Am I boring you?"
"Not at all. It's always interesting to watch a yokai foundling find her legs," Noboru comments. "And there is nothing wrong with asking for help. Believe it or not, I do not wish you any harm at all. If anything starts to go wrong, I will step in."
"Go wrong?" Niamh immediately asks. "What could go wrong?" Don't lose focus! Nearly back to two feet with five toes again..
"Plenty. Your flesh could atrophy, or turn inside out, or split, or," Noboru helpfully explains.
"I don't think that will happen," Niamh claims. "Once I get to the forest again and recharge, I'll be in much better shape. I just need Miyuki to be there with me."
"Why her and not me?" Noboru asks, curious. "She is still a kit. Well, as a kitsune anyway; she's old for a human I suppose."
"Well, I need someone who won't be called off to escort a God," Niamh explains, "And because once I'm full up, I can be a bit tipsy and wanton, depending on the energy. Lunar is strongest for that for women, earth more so for men. But this is a new forest for me, so I can't be sure of the effect."
"In Africa I ended up trying to hunt rabbits in the tall grass," the girl notes, sounding a bit embarrassed.
"And you want to be alone with a kitsune vixen that ... finds women more attractive than men?" Noboru asks and arches his brow a little. "Well, if that's also how you tend to feel I suppose that makes sense."
"Miyuki also won't interfere with the energy I'd have internally from the forest," Niamh notes. "Mixing in your energy then could be.. dangerous? If it's so powerful, I mean."
"But if she's not enough, I could probably seek you out," she offers.
"No no, don't mind me. If you want some fluff time with my sister, far be it for me to interfere," Noboru promises. "She may be young, but you're much younger."
"I didn't think age mattered to you," Niamh says, and tries to wiggle her toes. "You're hundreds of years older, after all."
"It doesn't matter, except in knowing how to manage magic," Noboru points out kindly. "You are young, but your manipulation ability is also young. She should be able to assist fine; she's lived, mm, what, four of your lifetimes?"
"You mean my lifetime so far," Niamh says. "I don't know how long I'll live though. Do my legs look human enough?"
"Yes, they look boringly human," the kitsune answers, sadly.
"They look better when I'm not starved," Niamh notes, and starts checking her arms for any needed changes. The ears and tail aren't that critical.
Well, she still has the light fur pelt and two thick fingers with hoof-like nails to deal with!
She likes the pelt for now, so focuses on getting her hands back. The muzzle change will be very odd, but she definitely can't let her parents see that.
It's a little easier to slowly get her hands back than it was her feet. So, after about ten minutes she has more fingers, dainty ones! And less black nails. "Booooring," Noboru comments, and sniffs.
"You thought I was plenty exciting as a human," Niamh points out. Now that she has hands, she uses them to feel her face. And resists the urge to lick the palms for salt. For this.. she probably does need to try pulling the energy from her entire head.
"Your nose looks better that way," Noboru offers while she's feeling up her elongated face. "Are you sure you don't want to stay one of us?"
Niamh glances at the fox, and says, "I'm not one of you though. I'm only a bit yokai. I don't have the sort of abilities you do."
"But you could," Noboru comments, then yawns. "But go, be a human."
"You said I wasn't boring you," Niamh teases, then has to be quiet as she tries to push her nose in while pulling from the inside.
Now that feels weird, and it distorts her vision, too! She can also hear the bone reshaping too; which is beyond creepy. Crackly dough.
She can't even grit her teeth.. so she curls her toes instead. But once it's over.. she can stand up!
And now she feels all weird! It started feeling normal to have hooves and a muzzle, and now it's all so flat. "Congratulations," Noboru remarks, yawning. "At least you kept the tail."
Niamh stands and stretches out her back, then pats around to make sure things are mostly as she remembers. Feeling her ribs and other spots where her flesh seems a bit thin dampens some of her feeling of triumph. She feels shriveled again, like a starved person.
Noboru's tails wrap around her and feel oddly warm; which helps with feeling all thin, then she realizes he's actually pushing something into her to fix that. Energy, nothing perverse. And not that much, just enough to make things less, well, less. Then they let go.
Niamh is surprised, but tries to feel what's different about the energy. "Thank you, I was going to use the forest to fill back out," she says. "That's the energy I do best with."
It's less earthy and more like light than anything; perhaps due to being a celestial kitsune. "Mmmm, I didn't feel that would be safe," he admits and shrugs. "I could take it back if you prefer."
"No, this is fine," Niamh says. "It's not.. foxy. A not so different from moonlight." She takes a moment then to try and move her accumulated deer energy into her tail.
It makes her butt feel all warm and tingly, but it does move and behave for now. "Well, I did try to hold back our best aspects, so of course it isn't foxy," Noboru comments.
"Mmmm, yes, I don't know if could handle so much humility otherwise," Niamh teases, but seems in better spirits. "Oh.. I lost my miko clothing in the forest after Kasumi attacked me. Will that be a problem?"
"No, it's fine, considering the reason," Noboru comments, then stands to all fours and stretches out, and tailflicks some. "I suppose you don't want to keep the tail?" he asks afterward.
"I have to for now," Niamh says. "Maybe when I'm at full power I can handle it differently. Do you like the tail then?"
"Tails are important," Noboru comments, "I was going to offer an alternative, but since you'll keep it, now I don't have to. Good."
Blinking, Niamh asks, "What would the alternative have been? Antlers?"
"No, nothing like that. A simple pendant to house the cervine bi, is all," the kitsune explains and shrugs. "But really, the tail is much better. And it keeps you from being too human."
"I don't know how to move spirits into objects yet," Niamh says. "I need to increase that energy yet too, which I also don't know how to do. It's not mine originally."
"I would have taught you, but I do like you better with the tail," Noboru claims as he saunters to the door. "You should get some rest."
"I should, so I'll be ready when Miyuki gets back," Niamh says, and sits down on the floor again. "I'll have to get out my belt and sickle as well for the energy transfer."
"That sounds suggestive," Noboru snickers as he slips out of the room. "Rest well, I'll keep watch," he says as the door closes. "I'll always be watching ... from the shadows."
"Hopefully with a handy cup of tea," Niamh adds, and flops onto her back.