Three: Transforming

The following week, Tugger made preparations for his transformation. He was only home with Paige for the meals, and then he had to hurry back to the junkyard. He persuaded Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer to raid their male human's closet and come up with some clothes for him, since he had gathered that no human ever went around naked in public. He wanted to blend in and make sure that Paige would talk to him.

At least three times a day he poked his head into Mistoffelees' lair to check how far the magician had come in his attempts to invoke whatever magic was needed. He understood that the process would apparently need Coricopat and Tantomile as well, which frankly made him a little nervous. The Dark Twins always freaked him out just a bit, and their presence alerted him to just exactly how serious this magic would be. Mistoffelees hardly ever needed their help in his spells anymore.

Finally the day came. When Tugger showed up at the junkyard on the morning, the magician was already waiting for him. He was practically beaming.

"I did it," he whispered excitedly. "It's all been prepared. You'll have to come with me now."

"What? Really?" Tugger felt a sting of nervousness, but also excitement. The day he had been waiting for was finally here.

"Yeah, but we can't do it here," said Mistoffelees in a low voice. "It would be too obvious. You need a place where you're hidden from sight by both humans and cats, but which is big enough for you even when you're... changed. So come on!"

He turned and started running. He was acting as if he had taken a large dose of catnip; Tugger had never seen him so joyous. The maned cat followed him into a basement in a nearby house. It was dark and the air had a hint of mildew, but it was warm and dry and the perfect place for this bit of magic.

Coricopat and Tantomile were already there, and their identical yellow eyes followed Tugger as he went up do them. He swallowed and avoided looking at them. Instead he took in the room. On the floor in front of him, someone had drawn a circle in white sand. The sand was so fine it almost looked like flour. In the middle of the circle was a simple white candle, which was not lit.

"Let me guess, I'm supposed to sit in that circle?" asked Tugger.

"Yes. It is a protected environment," replied Mistoffelees. "We can control everything that happens in that circle. Tantomile cast it earlier today. You sit inside it, as close to the candle as possible, and then we'll chant for a bit, and, if everything goes as planned, you shall be human."

Tugger gracefully jumped into the circle and put a paw on the candle. "There. I'm ready."

"Tugger, before we begin, I must warn you. This isn't going to be pretty. Your entire body will change. You will be another specie."

"I know. But it's safe, isn't it?"

Mistoffelees looked at the Twins. "It should be. But... You know, there isn't really any existing magic that deals with this. We had to make some up as we went along. It should be safe and relatively painless, but you still should know... Will it be worth it?"

Tugger grinned. "I think so, yeah." He turned his head to look at the Twins, forcing himself to sound cheerful. "And what about you two, eh? Are you going to try to talk me out of it, too?"

Coricopat and Tantomile both smiled, and when they spoke, they spoke as one voice. "Your intentions are noble, Rum Tum Tugger. Your heart is kind. We know that nothing we say can make you take this back."

Tugger quirked a smile back. "Thanks."

"You are welcome."

Without another word, the magicians went over to sit around the circle. Tugger felt a change in the atmosphere. His fur stood straight up from the electricity, and if he peered to the left he could see Mistoffelees' paws glow. Golden sparks slowly started to rotate around the circle, showering Tugger and the candle with shimmering dust.

Coricopat and Tantomile began chanting. It was monotonous, basically the same command repeated again and again, and it was not in a language that Tugger understood.

He had not expected the change to start so fast. He didn't get any warning at all before it began. The first thing that he experienced was growing. Everything grew smaller, while he seemed to get so big he'd soon hit his head on the ceiling.

The chanting intensified and turned different. Another command.

Tugger suddenly felt cold as all his fur disappeared and he found himself being completely naked and vulnerable on a chilly stone floor. His pale skin became visible as the fur went away, and it darkened to a more human fleshy colour.

Another change in the chanting. Now Mistoffelees joined. With eyes that were slowly losing their night-vision, Tugger could see that the magician's jaws were tense, and that his mouth moved as if he was in a trance.

With a groan Tugger's bones started growing and changing. It felt strange, but there was no pain. He probably should be thankful for that, since he couldn't imagine how the transformation would have been if he would have felt all these changes. As it were, he only felt cold and slightly dizzy.

The chanting reached it's crescendo, and then it stopped. Tugger blinked a few times. The world had turned into a much darker place.

"If we... go on," panted Mistoffelees as he shook himself free of the trance, "you will... lose your ability... to understand us. That would... complicate things. This is... how far we can go." He groaned. "I'm so tired..."

"It shall pass," said Coricopat. He and his sister didn't seem tired at all. "It was your first time doing something this big. You should rest and gain more strength." He looked at Tugger. "How are you feeling?"

Tugger took a deep breath. "I haven't really checked yet." He hadn't been prepared for how loud his voice would be, and he reacted like all cats do to unexpected noises, by arching his back and hissing. But there was something wrong. His body wouldn't obey, and he fell on his side.

He heard Mistoffelees snigger.

"Shut up, Misto," he muttered, still flinching at the sound.

"I can't... help it, Tug. You look... ridiculous."

Fear clutched Tugger's heart. "I do?"

"Do not listen to him," smiled Tantomile. "You look human. The lady will be pleased."

"Remember what you have been taught," said Coricopat. "Do not use all of your money at once. We do not know how much you shall need." He nodded towards the pile of clothes that Tugger had made Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer steal for him. "Now you shall get dressed."

It took Tugger a great while to make himself ready, mostly because putting the pants on forced him to stand up first. He was not used to being so tall, and was on his way to lose his balance more than once before he noticed that he could use his hands to make sure he remained standing. He found himself fascinated by his hands. They were so much more useful than his paws. It felt like he could do anything with them.

Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer had been very considerate in that they had made sure that the clothes they picked lacked any type of buttons or zippers. So when Tugger was finally done, he stood straight, wearing a black t-shirt with a very blurry picture of some kind of flames and a human skull, and black comfy trousers. He had been offered a pair of tight, white briefs as well, but had refused to put them on, saying that the comfy trousers were bad enough. He had wanted to get rid of the white trainers they had brought as well, but he knew that humans always wore shoes, so he couldn't exactly refuse those.

"There," he said when he'd finished. "What do you think?" He spun around slowly in front of the magicians. "Can I pass for a human?"

Coricopat and Tantomile looked at him, and then they looked at each other. They hesitated, but then they said: "Yes."

Mistoffelees smiled weakly. "Now go... and court... this lady of yours."

Tugger frowned at him. "I won't be 'courting' anything. She's only a kitten."

"Hasn't... stopped you before."

Tugger emerged from the basement and into the sunlight. He blinked. The entire world felt different, which was probably to be expected considering the eyes he now saw it with. Everything seemed more... colourful. He had not really bothered with colours when he was a cat. Sometimes he had noticed they were there, but he had never been as aware of them as he was now. The world was full of them.

The street he came out on was packed with people. They brushed by him, not caring that he was there at all, which Tugger was quite relieved for. Granted, he was used to being the centre of attention wherever he went, but as things were now, he was quite happy with being just one in the crowd.

'Now what do I do?' he thought.

The answer came right away. Find Paige. She was the whole reason for this masquerade, and this whole thing would be a waste if he couldn't talk to her. But where could he find her? Just going to her house probably wouldn't be the best idea if he wanted her to trust him, which he did.

'Let's see, what day is it... Wednesday. She should come home early from school today, and this is the way she takes. All I have to do is wait.'

So wait he did. The transformation had taken about thirty minutes to complete, and it was now mid-morning. There would be several hours before he could even start expecting Paige to pass by. It was rather unfortunate, since Tugger had never been very patient in any aspect of his life. He toyed with the idea of sitting down in one of the dozens of small cafés that lined the street, but then decided against it. He had his pocket full off one and two-pound coins, since that was what the burglar cats had taught him were worth the most, but was afraid to use it. He had no idea how much things would cost, and he was planning on buying Paige something.

Instead he sat down and amused himself with thinking of things that he would say to Paige when he met her for his first time as a human. He figured that human girls probably fell for about the same things that queens did, but ever female was different and there was never any guarantee that anything he could throw at her would work. It was a good thing that he had been Paige's cat for several years and knew what she liked and disliked.

When Paige finally showed up he almost didn't recognize her. She wasn't moving as fast as she did when she was home, and she walked with her face staring down on her feet instead of where she was going. She was also very small. Paige had of course always been bigger than Tugger, but now he felt like he could easily pick her up and scratch her behind the ears rather than the other way around. It was a somewhat bizarre feeling.

"Here goes," muttered Tugger to himself.

He took a few steps out on the streets. The few people that paid any attention to him gave him odd looks and pulled back, and Tugger ignored them. He was fully concentrated on Paige. She was just about to round the corner...

He walked into her, just hard enough to make her stop and look up at him. Her eyes seemed to travel forever over his body until they finally reached his face. To his immense satisfaction, it caused her to drop her backpack and spill the contents out on the street. She gasped and muttered a curse under her breath, and then she sank down to pick everything up. Tugger tried a smile.

"Oh, terribly sorry," he said. "I didn't hurt you, did I? Let me help you with that."

Paige blushed hard as he bent down and started to ­ somewhat clumsily since he wasn't quite used to his hands yet ­ pick up her belongings and give them to her to put them back in the bag.

"Oh no, it was my fault," she mumbled. "I should watch where I'm going..."

Tugger's eyes fell upon a photograph Paige had kept in her backpack, and his mouth fell open just a little bit. The picture was that of Paige herself, with her hair neatly combed, wearing a nice dress, having Tugger on her lap and smiling at the camera. Tugger remembered that day clearly. He had fussed a lot about getting his picture taken since it involved him having a bath first, but he had calmed down when Paige had picked him up.

'I truly am one fine specimen,' he thought contentedly to himself.

Loudly he just said: "Nice cat," and gave the picture to Paige.

She smiled widely. "Thank you! His name is Tiggery. He's a Maine Coon."

"I can see that. I've... had a cat like that, once. Very stubborn."

"Tiggery can be that too, sometimes," sighed Paige. "My parents can't stand it. But I love him so much, I don't care about that."

Tugger smiled. "That's nice." He paused for a moment. "My name is Tom, by the way. Tom Tugger."

He had thought of the name almost immediately after having transformed, since he knew that humans had other names than cats. They didn't even seem to care much about what they were called, which was kind of weird.

"Hi... Tom Tugger," giggled Paige. "My name is Paige Talbot."

"Nice to meet you, Paige Talbot," repeated Tugger and smiled. Then he frowned. "You know, there is something about you that's familiar... I can't quite place it."

"That's strange," said Paige. "Because I was just thinking that there was something familiar about you too... Like I... No, forget it."

She blushed again. She reminded Tugger quite a lot of Etcetera, all wide-eyed and innocent with a sweet but child-like face.

"You can say, Paige Talbot," he said.

"I was just going to say that it was like I know you. But that's silly, so forget it. Sorry. I'll go now."

"Why?"

She paused, and then she smiled. "No reason, really."

If Tugger had known what a high-five was, he would have done one in his head.