He woke up again in pain, grumbling to himself about his bad luck before looking around at the strange place he found himself in. It seemed to be some dusty old house, complete with Victorian style furniture and resident spiders. He sat up and ran a hand through his hair, flinching when something sharp on his hand scratched into his scalp.
He brought his hand back down to investigate and let out a yelp of shock to see his skin covered in golden fur with black spots, rough black pads covering his palms and claws protruding where fingernails used to be. He inspected himself in panic only to find cat ears on the sides of his head, fangs in his mouth and a long fluffy tail that grew from the base of his spine.
"What the fuck?" He yelled in shock, flipping his feet in front of him to see cat paws at the ends of his legs. "Holy shit, this can't be happening…" He gasped in a hitched voice, looking around uneasily.
In a puff of smoke and glitter Driscilla appeared, looking at him with a grin of satisfaction. "Oh, I do love a good cat boy. You were quite a looker before but now… rawr." She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Kyle flushed in horror at the elder woman's flirting and bared his fangs. "What's going on?"
"Down, kitty. I'm giving you your second change. It's what you wanted, right?"
"Not as a fucking cat!" He held up his new tail in protest.
"You know, you're quite lucky. For a Beast you're quite handsome. It could be worse." She shrugged.
"B-beast?" He remembered her question from earlier and groaned, putting a hand over his face in dismay. "As in Beauty and the Beast?"
"Oh, you're not as dumb as I thought." Driscilla smiled happily. "Yes dear, though I'm afraid the kitty factor is permanent even with a proclamation of love. The deal is this- you're a were leopard now, a shifter. Every night you return to your human form, and when the sun rises-" She motioned to him. "The claws come out, so to speak. You have one month to make Beauty fall in love with you, or I'm afraid you'll miss your second chance and be dead… for good."
Kyle shook his head in dismay. "One month? There's no way!"
"Oh I'm sure you'll figure something out, dear. Put on the charm or something, shake that cute butt of yours. Though I will warn you, shifters aren't exactly loved around here."
Kyle hesitated at that, opening his mouth to ask why when Backstreet Boys' Larger Than Life started playing. Driscilla took out a glitter encrusted cell phone and smiled. "Sorry love, I have to take this. Good luck, and I'll check up on you in a week. The elementals will explain the rest." With that she disappeared in another puff of smoke and glitter.
Kyle stared at the pile of glitter on the wood floor in shock, not knowing how to react to this new situation. For one, he was a cat. Two, he was definitely not in Kansas anymore, so to speak. The air here felt strange, as if it was slightly charged with electricity.
"So, you must be Kyle." A hissing voice said from his feet. He looked down to see what looked like an orange and black iguana crawling onto his furred leg. "A leopard were? The godmother sure does have a sense of humor."
Oh God, talking lizards, now? "Alright…" He rubbed his fingers at his temples in frustration. "What are you, then?"
"A salamander, of course." The lizard flicked out its tongue. "Fire elemental."
"Elemental? Driscilla said you could explain things to me." Hopefully she had been telling the truth.
"Indeed I can. You are in the world Orza, on the continent of Lirila. There are currently two intelligent species residing on this planet, humans and shifters. They do not get along- there have been many wars."
"Great, that's going to make my job harder."
"Indeed. You are in a human dominated area. They will not kill you if you leave, but I wouldn't suggest wearing out your welcome. Just stay here and you'll be fine."
"What about food?" Kyle put a hand over his stomach as it rumbled. Apparently being brought back to life made you hungry as hell.
"We will provide that for you. We are your servants here, though out of respect please do not get too bossy. We all have volunteered for this job, to help a soul in need."
"Well, thank you." Kyle said gratefully, surprised elementals were willing to help him. As far as he knew, he was a nameless no one.
"You were destroyed before your time. Your fate thread was cut prematurely, and must be mended." The lizard said cryptically, the tip of its tail wagging back and forth idly.
"Right. Fate thread and all that." Kyle said uneasily, not knowing what that meant. "So… what am I supposed to do here?"
"Wait for Beauty of course." The lizard looked around in interest. "This place has the perfect atmosphere."
Kyle wrinkled his nose as he looked around at the cobwebs. "If you're a scary old person, I guess. It needs a serious make over."
The lizard looked at him curiously. "You do not approve?"
"I'd like it… a bit less spidery, honestly." Kyle shrugged. He didn't know if having the house look like it had been abandoned for years was part of the deal or not.
"I will do my best to seek them out. I have not had physical food in a very long time. It will be… delicious." The lizard licked its lips in anticipation.
"Yeah… good luck with that." Kyle winced at the thought of eating spiders. "I'm going to go try to find a bed or something in this place. Get my bearings. See if there's a bathroom."
"You will have about a day or so until Beauty arrives. We will do our best to tidy the place up while still keeping the atmosphere right." The lizard slid off his leg, walking a few steps away from him before disappearing in a burst of flames.
"Right." Kyle sighed. So… creepy old house was part of the deal. Fantastic. He rose to his feet slowly, spreading his new cat toes to find they helped as much with balancing as his normal feet did. Okay, so not too different from human feet, at least. It just looked… different.
He shook himself out, giving a low purr as he stretched and pausing, shaking his head in frustration at the involuntary sound before walking down the hall of the huge building to find a place to sleep.