Lena set the tuning fork down and crouched to eye level. “That’s the third shifter I’ve seen this month with similar symptoms. You’re not broken, Kit. But something in the environment is shifting.” She glanced at Theo. “The quarry. Is there new construction nearby?”
But she made a mental note to call the geomancer. Something was coming. And whatever it was, it would end up on her exam table sooner or later. furrytails vet clinic
“Sensory migration,” Lena murmured. “Stress is rerouting your neural pathways. Taste buds trying to borrow optic nerve real estate. It’s not dangerous, but it’s uncomfortable.” Lena set the tuning fork down and crouched to eye level
Lena pulled out her phone and typed a quick note. Check geomantic stress lines. Cross-reference with local shifter symptom clusters. But something in the environment is shifting
“Hello, Kit,” Lena said softly, closing the door. “I hear you’ve been tasting colors again.”
On the steel table sat a red fox, but not just any fox. Kitsune—call her Kit—was a vulpine shifter, one of the rare ones who could flicker between full fox, full human, and anything in between. Right now, she was a nervous tangle of both: human-shaped but with tufted ears flat against her head and a thick, cinnamon-tipped tail coiled around her legs like a security blanket.