"Aya!"
"Aya? Hellooo~?"
Richard and Juniper paced anxiously around the kitchen, calling her name, but there was still no sign of her. The kitchen was just... still. Smoky, and suspiciously Aya-less.
But then…
"Wait," Ciela said, pointing to the floor near the prep counter. "Aren't those her clothes?"
Richard turned to look, but before he could catch a full glimpse, Juniper lunged forward, one hand dramatically slapped over his eyes.
"Hold up!" she barked. "You don't get to look at Aya's clothes right now!"
"Wh-what?! I wasn't even—!"
"She might've left her undergarments!" Juniper hissed. "You haven't earned that kind of visual trust, dog-boy!"
Richard flailed, face bright red. "Right! Sorry!"
Juniper turned quickly. "Petra! Can you pick those up? Fold 'em or something before anyone else sees!"
Petra turned to her, mid-bite of a snack that she brought with her, and nodded. "On it!"
She knelt beside the small pile of neat-but-now-empty clothing. Aya's dress, her ribbon, even the apron. All folded by gravity now.
As she reached down to gather the fabric, her fingers brushed against something odd beneath it.
"Huh?" Petra frowned. "What's this?"
She pressed lightly.
Something plump.
She gave it a cautious squeeze.
—Squeeeek!
Petra recoiled instantly. "What in the—?!"
The entire kitchen went dead quiet.
Juniper crept forward. "...What did you just squeak? Wait, was that you?"
"No! It's… I—hang on," Petra carefully, gently lifted the rest of Aya's clothes, folding them and tucking away the… delicates.
And then…
There, nestled in the pile of fabric like a freshly baked bun, was a tiny, pure white dwarf rabbit. Round as a puff pastry, no bigger than a palm. With huge watery eyes and short trembling ears.
It looked up at them.
Everyone looked down at it.
Ciela gasped. "...Aya?"
Petra blinked hard, still crouched. "Is this… real?"
"What did you find?" Chef Tulliver asked curiously, then she stepped closer and saw the small creature. "A rabbit? Is that... Ribbuns?"
Juniper nodded slowly, pointing at the small ribbon tied to one of its ears. "Yup. That's her all right."
"Wait, wait," Petra said, reaching forward gently. "Lemme just—"
But before her hand could even graze the tiny bundle of fluff, the dwarf rabbit leapt with surprising agility.
"Wait—Aya—!"
She was too late.
The tiny white bunny zipped across the floor, hopped through the mess of legs, and squeezed cleanly through the slightly ajar kitchen doors with an urgent thump-thump-thump!
"She bolted!!" Juniper yelled.
"Someone close the doors! Wait, don't! No, go after her!" Richard stumbled before he joined Juniper and Petra in the chase.
Out in the halls of the Concorde Summit's venue…
Pitter-patter!
Pitter-patter-pat!
Thump-thump-thump!
Aya zipped past startled guests, chair legs and thick carpeting, dodging polished boots and the occasional dropped handkerchief as she panicked internally.
"Oh no oh no oh no—! I did it again! I POOFED!"
She then made a hard turn past a potted plant and skirted beneath a tea cart.
"And I got so flustered, so tongue-tied that I forgot to bring my clothes with my transformation!"
The horror.
"Now I've got to find somewhere, anywhere! To hide before the spell wears off, or else—"
Her tiny rabbit eyes widened.
"Noooooo! If I poof back while I'm still out here, I'll be naked! I'll evaporate from the embarrassment!"
She dove into a side hallway lined with curtains, and dashed past a few pairs of animal-folk legs walking by.
"Please no, please no, this cannot be the end of me! What would Mum say?! What do I do, Mum? What do I DO?!"
Then a thought occurred to her.
"A room!"
Aya's little rabbit heart thumped harder.
"I need a room! Just one! Just… just somewhere with a door! There has to be something open!"
She scrambled back out from under the table and took off again, feet pattering across the carpet rapidly. Her ears flopped behind her wildly as she turned the corner.
"Okay, think! Think, Aya!"
"Restroom? Too risky! Too many people! Doors open and close all the time! What if someone walks in while I'm mid-poof?"
"Storage closet? Maybe? But what if it locks behind her? Or worse… what if it's got cleaning staff inside? Imagine poofing back next to a janitor!"
"Laundry room? No! Not private enough, and what if I poof next to someone's underpants?!"
Her tiny paws skidded slightly as she reached the hallway of the guest suites.
"There! The living quarters for the special attendees! The suites!"
She thought as she zoomed past a porter.
"If one of these doors is open, even slightly! I can just sneak in, hide under the bed, and deal with the rest later!"
Even if it was occupied, she could explain it to one person. Maybe two.
"Anything is better than…"
Her nose twitched, and she felt her tail twitch rapidly and fluff up like she was feeling goosebumps, and she felt the force of her internal magic pulsed through her body like a little clock ticking toward zero.
"I'm running out of time already!"
"Stars save me! I'd rather wrestle a bear-folk than be seen poofing back to my naked body in the middle of the Concorde Summit!"
She took a sharp left, darting toward the next closest room.
"Open door… open door… pleeeease be open—!"
Click.
The key turned, and the door opened, and Raveena groaned as she swung it completely open.
"Uugh… stars, finally."
She dragged herself into the room, one hand lazily unbuttoning the top of her coffee-stained waistcoat.
"Oh nooo," she muttered sarcastically to herself as she realized the temporary solitude in the room. "Is this… a break? Am I… being relieved of duty?"
As it turned out, the easiest way to temporarily escape assistant work, without getting chewed out, was to have a server absolutely drench her with a full tray of hot coffee, unintentionally, of course.
Thankfully, it had only burned her pride and not her skin.
But still…
Now here she was, shooed away by Professor Vask with a brisk, "Go change, you look like a soggy essay."
And so, go for fresh clothes the task was, before she rejoined the Summit's brain circus.
She barely stepped inside when she froze and heard something.
Pitter-patter-pitter—thump!
Her ears twitched as it picked up the sound.
"…The heck?"
From the left, somewhere near the small sitting nook, a blur of white darted out, a tiny bundle of fluff flying across the floor like a wind-up toy gone rogue.
Raveena yelped, hopping back in genuine alarm. "What in the—?!"
The fluffy thing bolted past her leg with terrifying speed and sprinted into the suite, disappearing behind the chaise lounge.
Raveena slammed the door shut behind her, back against it, eyes wide. "Okay... I didn't imagine that."
Then she stared at the silent room.
"…Did a dumpling just break into our room?!"
She took a slow step forward. Her coat still half on…
Thump-thump-thump!
The white puffball shot out from beneath a chair leg, did a full circle around her boots, and it actually brushed her ankle, and then zigzagged toward the bed like it had mapped out every escape route in advance.
"Wha… hey!" Raveena shouted, spinning around, nearly tripping on her own foot. "What— get back here, you demon!"
But it was too fast. Way too fast!
By the time she turned fully, it had already launched itself onto the bed and promptly vanished, squeezed straight into the folds of the blanket like it belonged there.
Raveena stood still and squinted at the very suspicious lump now wriggled gently beneath the fabric.
"Great," she sighed. "First I get dunked in coffee, and now I'm dealing with a bed goblin."
Her tail flicked in frustration as she rolled her shoulders and tossed off the rest of her stained coat. Then, she took a cautious step closer to the bed, crouched slightly. Then another.
The lump didn't move. Not much… she could see it still breathing, so it's definitely real.
Raveena narrowed her eyes and reached slowly… reeaaally slowly, for the corner of the blanket.
"Okay," she thought, "one hand pulls, the other grabs. I've wrestled worse things back in Westwyn."
"Alright, you," she then said aloud in a serious tone. "Whatever you are, there's no escape."
Then she yanked the blanket away.
PFFFFFWHMMM!!
A massive puff of smoke exploded in her face.
"—WHAT?!"
She coughed once, tried to wave it away, eyes squinting as she tried to see past the haze. "Stars above, what was that—?!"
Thud!
Something kicked her. Right in the thigh.
"Ow—!" she yelped, stumbling sideways.
Caught off-guard, Raveena's foot got tangled together, causing her to lose her balance entirely before she then fell forward, straight onto the bed with a muffled bounce.
She winced. "Agh!"
But then, she heard something.
"Owwwch…" came another voice. It was high-pitched. Definitely a girl's.
Definitely not her own.
And definitely not from anywhere outside the bed.
"Oh no… Oh no no no no no…"
Aya's breath hitched as the full horror of her situation unfolded in her mind bit by bit. Because in her two years at Saint Maribelle's, she'd never had a Trueheart incident this bad.
Not one.
Not even close.
She'd trained herself to stay calm, and to breathe steadily. She kept her feelings in check, even when flustered, even when someone said she looked cute, even when her ears burned.
Because a poorly managed transformation… meant one thing.
Clothes didn't come with you.
And now?
She was lying on her back, on a bed. Utterly bare beneath the very thin veil of leftover smoke and maybe a half-folded blanket. And on top of her, pressed against her… was the unmistakable weight of another body.
She slowly, cautiously looked up, and saw a face.
Wide-eyed. Silent. Just as stunned as she was.
A girl with straight black hair, its strands falling slightly to the side. Accompanying its black color were many streaks of red strands.
Next, she saw a pair of round and dark panther ears.
Then she saw those amber eyes.
"…R-Raveena…?"