Previous: Chapter 23  

A few Hours Later

Gillian swims back, feeling a bit lonely and a bit tired from doing laps and diving around the not quite-a-lake, exploring and burning off whatever all this weird energy in her is. Finally, she come back up along the shore where Delia has laid out her towel.

"I think... that's about everything I need to do? I finally tired myself out." She chuckles. "I think I know how you feel when you say you just have to go out and run."

Delia perks up from her book. The corgi is lying on the towel, reading a light novel for a change. She smiles at Gillian: "It's life, and really there's probably worse urges to feel than spending a lot of energy outside."

Gillian struggles for a moment to flop up onto the sand, then rolls over, keeping her tail in the water as she sprawls out a little, "It's... sorta... I don't even know how to explain it. I sorta got lost in the feeling." She looks up towards the sun, "I don't even know how much time went by, sorta lost track of it... lost track of myself... it felt incredible, but sorta scary when I think back on it."

Delia nods with a bit of a smirk: "Is it too haughty of me to say 'yeah, I know that feeling'?" She scoots closer to give the goat-fish a kiss.

Gillian kisses back and giggles, "Oh, right. Of course you know. I'm just... I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. How did you get through this kind of thing alone?" She pushes up to look at Delia sadly. "I am... I am so so sorry you had to go through it like that."

Delia sighs a bit, then just smiles again, waving a paw: "Eh. It's in the past. I lived through it. Least I can do is help you and others to not have to do it alone."

Gillian smiles, "You're certainly helping me... so... what comes next, hm? Just... wait out the change again?"

Delia tilts her head. "Maybe? How are you feeling, like, about the other, this side of you? You could probably do it yourself if you focus."

Gillian tilts her head, "W-wait... like... turn back on my own? I... I don't know. I barely felt like I was in control turning into this! ...do... do you think I really could?"

Delia shrugs: "Yeah, probably. I could once I was conscious during a change."

Gillian lifts her hands up to look at the webbing between the fingers, "Could... try. It would be nice to go home and be back in our bed tonight, rather than sleeping in the water."

Delia giggles softly: "I agree. I think you can do it."

Gillian takes a deep breath, feeling afraid again, but somewhat inspired by her lover's confidence. "Okay... I'll give it a try?"

Delia nods with a warm smile: "You go, girl~."

Gillian lowers her hands down into the sand and tenses up, taking a few breaths as she tries to focus. Her hands dig into the sand and grit of the shore, and she starts to strain, her scaley tail, shifting as it starts to seperate back into legs very slowly, "AHHH!! It- It hurts!"

Delia swallows, then rushes to Gillian's side. "Just... Just let it flow n-naturally!" She kinda suspected this might happen, but with enough differences between the nature of their shapeshifting, couldn't be sure. And well, not like she can do much about it now.

Gillian grimaces, pain evident on her face as she tries to change happen. She really doesn't know how to 'let it flow', the change has always just sort of happened without her thinking about it (and she doesn't connect that important fact now that she tries to overthink it). The change does creep along slowly and painfully back to to her normal 2-legged self, though.

Part of the pain is just because she expects pain, and that's where her mind is dwelling. "I-it's like I'm b-being torn apart!"

Delia holds Gillian's upper body in a hug: "Don't fight it. The harder you do, the more the change hurts. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but just trust me!"

Gillian wraps her arms around Delia, hugging her tightly as the changes continue. Her eyes tear up from the pain, but she does her best to just surrender to the sensations. "I-it's hard! It h-hurts so much..." But the changes do seem to accelerate at least, without seeming to put GIllian in any more pain.

Delia continues talking, since it's what she can do: "It is hard. And it certainly feels unnatural. But you have to remember, change is nature. You're not used to it, so your instinct is to fight the change."

"You have to realize, remember that the change, the 'other you'... is still you. Whichever way you are changing, it's still just your body, your... self, that's working at it."

Gillian focuses on Delia's voice, enough so that she isn't focusing on her changes, on the pain, and after a minute that feels like hours of agony, the changes slow and stop as she regains her 'normal' form.

She pants out, trying to recover a moment, then shakily smiles at Delia, "It... stopped? D-did I do it?"

Delia smiles: "You did it." All that needs to be said, so she just hugs Gillian tightly some more.

Gillian relaxes all at once, all the tension dropping out of her as she hugs back tightly. "Thank goodness..."

Delia kisses Gillian: "My brave little chef~."

Gillian blushes brightly at Delia's words, but forgoes a reply in exchange for a deeply passionate kiss.

Delia holds Gillian close in the embrace as long as they feel like it... which is a pretty long moment or seven. Eventually she lets go with a warm, pretty much glowing smile. "...so, feel like you want to do this again sometime?"

Gillian still holds Delia close as the kiss breaks, "I... I don't know. It's scary to think I might not have much choice... but it did feel good to be in the water like that. I... I guess it wouldn't be so bad. The pain... gets easier..." She recalls the difficulty that Delia had in changing to her human form, "...right?"

Delia nods. "It does. The more you do it, the less you think about what you're doing, the easier and more natural it becomes. It just becomes, well, you." She shifts into a fully feral dog form while still being held by Gillian. "See?"

Gillian giggles, "I see, love. Then, yes, I... I want to try to do this again."

Delia licks Gillian's snout. "Well, there you go~."

Gillian grins, reaching a hand up to wipe the tears out of her eyes. The fin-webbing is gone from between her fingers, but some scales remain, just permanent additions to her body it seems. "I feel so tired from all of this though, I guess both of me's have been through a lot today. I might even be too tired to cook once we get home."

Delia attempts to shrug, then blinks and shifts back towards anthro to actually be able to do that. "So we either order out or endure my cooking. Your call~."

Gillian giggles, "I wouldn't want to make you cook alone, it's fun when we cook together, even if the kitchen is a little cramped." She hums, "Though, is it weird I have a craving for seafood?"

Delia glances at the river, then at the scales on Gillian's hand, then at her lover: "...that's probably the least weird thing today, if I'm honest."

Gillian smirks, "You're not wrong. ...seafood pizza? My treat?"

Delia sticks her tongue out, lolling it a bit: "Yes, but only if I get to pay for half of it."

Gillian giggles, "You know we live together and I deposit my paychecks into your account. But okay. We'll split it."

Delia giggles: "It's the principle of the thing." She gives Gillian one more hug, before offering her a towel.

Gillian giggles, hugging back before taking the towel. She stands up, her two legs a little shaky for a moment as if her brain has to switch over to 'two-leg mode', and then she seems fine, drying herself off as best she can.

Delia is long dry herself, so just starts picking up her stuff and packing them back up to the corgi-sized 'saddlebags'.

Gillian takes a moment to get herself 'presentable', then turns back to Delia, "Home will feel very good... This was... difficult. But fun? In a way... But nothing beats our own bed."

Delia giggles, glancing at the darkened sky above: "You got that right. While we could sleep out here... we don't want to."

Gillian shakes her head, "I don't know much about satyrs, but I know I prefer a nice soft bed and a warm companion snuggled alongside me."

Delia smiles: "Well, to my advantage... I do know those are things that us doggies like."

Gillian retrieves her own backpack, quickly slipping her clothes back on. She laughs, "I can definitely accommodate. Your maid and chef at your service once again." She bows with a wink. "Your girlfriend and lover too~"

Delia wiggles into her 'saddlebags' while simultaneously shifting onto all fours. "You won't be catching me calling you my 'servant' outside of bedroom anytime soon, but otherwise, I agree~."

Gillian giggles, "Acceptable. On both accounts." She pauses to look back over the water with a slight surge of longing, but it's small enough that she can push it down for the moment, her expression shift slightly. "Guess this really is just a thing now, huh?"

Delia nods, her dog form not really allowing for a smile but Gillian can hear it in her voice anyway. "Yeah, pretty much. But it's not like... a bad thing, just... different."

Gillian nod, turning back to start down the path along with Delia, "You've show me that much, at least. Will take some getting used to, but... it's not as bad as I wanted to imagine."

Delia chuckles softing as she starts bounding forward on the forest path: "And the thing is, it's worse if you imagine it is. Minds are weird things when it comes to shapeshifting."

Gillian follows, looking up towards the sunset. "That's... good to keep in... well, mind. Did... it hurt more because I was so scared of it hurting?"

Delia glances over her shoulder: "Quite possibly. Hard to say."

Gillian hums, walking quietly behind Delia. "...I know we've talked about it before, but I don't think I fully understood what you've gone through to get to this point... Delia, you are so strong... I don't know how you managed to get through it all... and I know you say it's all in the past now... but you still got through it to get to here, and now. You're... amazing."

Delia gives a low chuckle, although there is a hint of pride in her voice. "I'm just stubborn. Can't just lie down and wait for death to come, so pushing forward is the only option."

Gillian nods, "Stubborn and beautiful... and look where it's gotten you. Here... with a girlfriend who turns into half a fish..."

Delia giggles: "You're quite literally talking to a dog, here. If you were afraid you getting scales would deter me..."

Gillian chuckles, "I- okay, I might be being a little self depracating..."

Delia jumps forward over a root. "Well, there you go~. Let's go home, I hear that sushi calling."

Gillian giggles, "Home sounds good. Sushi too..." She steps over the root, smiling wide as she follows her lover along the path on their way home.

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