With the twinkle of the bell above him, Nick Wilde stepped through the door and into the strange shop. The building was that of a small business that sat on the edge of the shopping district, with nobody else inside at the moment except for him. Tables that had been tightly spaced together housed a series of colorful polished rocks, some of which he had never seen before.

"Hello?" he said, hoping that someone would come over and help him out with what he came here for. "I'm looking for something that I'm not exactly sure of."

Nick carefully made his way passed the tables and other shelving, making sure not to break any of the shimmering objects that were on display. He started to make his way towards the front counter, the scent of a strong candle filling his nostrils as he got closer.

A young and brown-furred doe in black attire came strolling from behind, catching him a bit by surprise. "Sorry," she said to him. "It's been a bit of a slow day so far. Not a lot of customers stopping by to browse, let alone buy something. Anyway, welcome to Mammalian Mystics, where we sell the finest of mystical supply. My name is Lily, and I'd be happy to help you find what you need."

"Oh, yes, yes." The fox reached into his pocket and showed what was on his phone. "I have no clue what this is but I'm buying it as a gift for somebody."

The rabbit stepped up closer to the phone's screen to get a look at what he was showing her. It appeared that he was searching for a glass figurine, similar to the others on display, that depicted a certain astrological sign.

"The internet said you we're one of the few places that carried one of these things in this part of the city," Nick said.

"And that is true," replied the doe. "If you will follow me, I will take you to where we keep this figurine and the others like it."

The vulpine followed her as they made their way to the right of the small store, over towards a table with a deep red cloth across its surface. Resting on top of it were some short statuettes no more than a few inches tall. All of them seemed to be sculpted to look like the horoscope signs that Nick was only somewhat familiar with, and among them was the one he came in to this place looking for. To the right of the figurines were two hardcover books with aged pages, as well as an incense burner that wasn't in use.

"That's exactly what I'm looking for," Nick remarked with a smile.

"It's the last one we got in stock of that one right now," the lagomorph responded informatively. "Glad I was able to assist you with finding what will surely guide who you're buying this for in the path the stars laid out for them."

The remark, made with confidence by her, got a confused look out of the fox. "What?"

"The symbol that sculpture has on it. It represents the stars that tell the future of mammals born when they were in a certain alignment."

"See, I don't know what any of that hubbub's about," Nick replied with a short laugh. "I'm just getting this so I can send it to my sister after she broke the one she had before."

The doe named Lily gasped upon him mentioning this, shocked as if she had heard someone utter the most profane words in the world. She scooted behind Nick and quickly grabbed one of the books from the table, starting to flick through the yellowing pages of it with her fingers. "If it's true that she broke one of those sacred statuettes, then she is not in good paws," she informed with a regretful tone of voice. "Bad luck will be laid upon her if we do not intervene."

Nick shook his head as he chuckled under his breath. "Isn't it just a little figurine?"

Lily looked back up at him with widened eyes, slamming the book in her one paw shut. "You might think those are made of just plain glass, but I assure you they are not. They are made with glass and a series of sacred crystals, which are charged under the full moon when certain stars for that sign are aligned just right. Not handling such things with great caution can have serious consequences."

"I'm not thinkin' that can happen just because my sister was a little clumsy when she was dusting her house," Nick replied with skepticism.

"Oh, you definitely don't understand the gravity of those things." The rabbit in black rushed over to another shelf a short distance away, quickly browsing through the stones resting on it and picking some up in a flurry. "You might want to send here these crystals as well. They're amethyst, citrine, and aventurine, all of which can rid of any bad luck that tries to come her way."

"Look, I'd just like to buy her this figurine and be on my way."

The rabbit shook her head as she went back to the checkout counter, where an old-looking cash register sat. "If you won't go through with buying her those protective crystals I suggested, then I at least need to let you know what spell needs to be said over her home."

The sound of something flapping its way towards her came from behind, coming from an owl that flew from behind the back room to the counter. A rolled-up piece of paper was in his beak, which the rabbit took when the bird set it down. "Thank you, Archimedes. I was looking for that," she said to it, petting the top of its head. "Who's my educated owl?"

"An educated owl, huh?" His mind returned back to everything she had told him before, and he thought about it for a brief moment. "Wait a minute. You said you had a spell to give me? This place is for mammals that are into witchcraft?"

"Of course. What do you think it meant when I said this shop sold mystical supply?"

"So that means you're actually…"

"A witch?" Lily grinned back him with pride, a paw to her chest. "Yes, I am. Well, I'm actually still continuing my training, which will resume whenever my sister no longer feels under the weather."

"That's cute," Nick muttered quietly.

The doe's sensitive ears still heard what he was mumbling. At the same moment, the owl on the counter looked over at Nick with its golden eyes and muttered a hiss. The look in her eyes now showed that she was being serious. Her face, however, quickly changed to a smile, and she laughed to herself. It wasn't the kind of laughter one would have made when something was funny, but the kind one made when something was up their sleeve.

"I guess no one ever told you," she said, "what happens when you call a bunny that has training in spell-casting cute. It's a very terrible mistake for one to make." She took the payment for the figurine before placing it in a protective bag and handing it back to the fox. "Here you are."

Nick simply nodded his head and walked out of the store, not saying anything else. All of that stuff she was talking about seemed pretty unusual to him, but what if she did possess some kind of power? And what did she mean when she said he made a terrible mistake? Did that mean something bad was about to come?

He quickly dismissed his superstitions, reminding himself that they weren't real. He got the figurine he needed to send to his sister and that was all that mattered at the moment.

Meanwhile, from behind the shop's counter, the rabbit watched him close the doors behind him. She started to wave her paws in the air and muttered a phrase under her breath. "Filigree, apogee, pedigree, perigree…"

After he had returned to his apartment for the afternoon, he felt that a quick siesta was in order for him. He happily decided to take thirty-minute nap before going on with the rest of his free day, planning to package what he bought up and take it down to the post office.

However, the nap he planned to take for only a half-hour went on for much longer than that. For reasons unknown, he felt peculiarly tired despite it only being the afternoon. And when he closed his eyes to get a short amount of rest, he found himself almost immediately drifting off into surprisingly deep sleep.

It was now three o'clock, two hours having went by, and Nick started to flicker his eyes open. That was, surprisingly, some of the best sleep he had gotten all week.

He let out a hushed yawn as he propped his head up a bit, suddenly feeling a bit odd to him in that instant. The first thing that felt strange being that the blankets felt like they had gotten much longer than they were before. The second thing different was that every little sound louder and clearer, as if his hearing had multiplied by ten over the course of that nap.

He started to pull himself up before making his way towards the bathroom. Looking into the mirror, a buck with tan fur wearing his green Pawiian shirt was what he saw.

"I'M A BUNNY!" he shouted in horror.

For a split second, he denied that this was real.

This wasn't possible.

It couldn't be.

He had to be in some kind of crazy dream. That was all this was, he believed, and soon he would wake up out of it.

He lifted his arm and went to touch the now-floppy ears on the top of his head, which dropped when he realized that this definitely no dream. This was one hundred percent real. He felt right then and there as if he were about to faint upon making the realization. He didn't, however, and tried to pull himself together.

Come on, Wilde, he thought. You've been through some tough times, and this is just another one of those experiences you gotta get past. Sure, it's a lot more bizarre than any of the other things you've had thrown at you, but you'll figure out how to get back to normal.

He would, that is, as soon as he figured out what caused this first.

The events from earlier in the day hit his mind like a load of bricks, and he remembered what the rabbit in the store told him. About the mistake of calling a rabbit cute when they had knowledge in stuff that was on the mystical side.

Could she have somehow caused him to change to this? The pieces fit together when he considered the fact that he was turned into a rabbit out of all mammals.

I'm gonna have to head over to her store again and persuade her to change me back.

The first thing he would have to do, though, was find something different to wear. The bright shirt he had on was draping over his shorter body like a dress.

He exited the room and went to grab his phone, clicking it open to see the picture of him as a fox on his screen. Letting out a heavy sigh, he dialed his friend Finnick's number.

After a few seconds of the phone ringing went by, a baritone voice answered. "What's up, Wilde?"

"Hey, Fin. You still out making grocery deliveries right now?" Nick asked, finding it harder to speak with the buck teeth he now had. How did rabbits speak with those things?

"Just dropped stuff off at the last house for the day," Finnick answered. "Why you askin'?"

"I'm gonna need to ask you a favor, buddy," Nick responded. "You able to head to Targoat or somewhere and grab some differently sized clothes for me? Something meant for, say, a shorter type of mammal?"

"Kind of a strange request—not that ya haven't ever made one before—but okay," his friend replied, going along with the unusual request. "Not sure why ya need 'em, though."

"It's too much to explain over the phone. You'll see why I need them when you get here, okay?"

"Alright, I'll see ya in about twenty minutes or so, mammal."

"Thanks, Fin. You're a lifesaver."

Finnick stepped up to the front door of Nick's place, the bag of clothes from the store in his paw. As soon as he knocked, the door was opened by the fox-turned-rabbit, who peaked his head around the corner.

"This ain't Wilde's apartment, is it?" the fennec fox asked, second guessing himself. "I ain't ever got an address wrong before."

"No, it's the right place, Fin," Nick replied with a sigh.

Finnick's jaw nearly dropped when he heard his friend's voice come out of the bunny looking back at him. "Nick?" he breathed, in denial of what he was seeing.

Nick nodded and responded, "I figured you'd be surprised by this. Heck, I'm still in shock by this right now."

"How in the hell you become a bunny, mammal?" Finnick couldn't help but inquire. "Y'know that just don't happen by wishin' on a star."

The rabbit opened the door invitingly, gesture for his friend to step inside. "Come inside and I'll try to give you the lowdown..."

After explaining what had happened earlier, Nick decided it was best to make his way back to Mammalian Mystics, only this time just before sunset. The trek back over to the shop went a bit differently than it did the first time. For one thing, Nick found out that this new form meant he could run so much faster than he once could. And the quicker he got to the place, the quicker everything would be back to normal.

"Slow down, Wilde!" called Finnick, who was trailing slowly a few feet behind him.

Nick, who had been running down the empty sidewalk without breaking a sweat, grinned back at him. "Can't help it that I'm faster now," he called back. "You know rabbits are known for how quick they can run. This would've came in handy back in high school during Phys Ed."

Finnick walked back up to where he was now standing, the two of them right outside the front door of the shop. "So what we even gonna do?"

"Just remember what I told you," Nick replied. "We have to let that Lily rabbit now that I need to be changed back, but I can't sound like I'm in desperation. Don't say anything right out of the blue."

"Yeah," Finnick said, "I ain't interested in gettin' hexed by this mammal. Now if she could make me taller, on the other paw, that'd be a different story."

"Fin, be serious!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry."

With that, Nick took a deep breath in and out, trying to let out all his apprehension before slowing pushing the door open. The smell of a different kind of incense greeted him as he took a step inside, probably containing sage from the coolness it brought to the nostrils. Since the last time he had been here, it didn't look like much had changed. Other than a few spots on some shelves being bare, where things likely were out of stock, it looked the same as it was during his first visit.

"Hey," Finnick huffed as he stepped in from behind, "what's the big idea with ya puttin' some kinda curse on my friend?"

Nick nudged the fennec fox's shoulder and looked over at him with widened eyes. "Fin, shush," he hissed.

Someone started to emerge from the opposite side of the shop, and Nick presumed at first that it was going to be the one who changed him. It turned out to be, however, a different doe with gray fur.

"I'm sorry?" she inquired quizzically as she strolled over.

"Excuse my friend," Nick said to her with a bit of nervousness in his voice. "Is a rabbit named Lily here by any chance?"

The gray rabbit shook her head, the friendly and cheerful smile once on her muzzle turning into an apologetic frown. "I'm afraid not," she answered. "Sorry about that. Is there anything I might be able to help you with?"

"As a matter of fact, there is." Nick looked down at himself before looking back at her. "You see, I'm not supposed to be a bunny. I'm actually a fox."

A chuckle arose from the lagomorph in front of him. "But you look like a bunny to me."

Nick sighed and responded, "I know I do, but this isn't how I started. Just hear me out a second. I think that Lily rabbit that was working in here the last time I was in here turned me into this, and I really need to get back to my former self."

"You know, when Lily was on her way out earlier, she was muttering something about some fox that she said needed to learn from their fault of calling a bunny cute."

"Yeah, that's me!" responded the fox-turned-rabbit. "And I quickly realized that being this species isn't easy. These ears, first of all, are gonna be the death of me. Everything so much louder with these things that I swear I can even hear the mosquitos buzzing around. And then there's my tail... Gods, you don't know how much you miss a fluffy tail 'til it's gone."

The gray doe frowned sympathetically. "Sweet cheese and crackers," she replied. "I must sincerely apologize for what spell my younger sister might have casted on you. She has a tendency to put those on folks when her mood isn't the brightest. She hasn't realized yet that maturity and knowing when to let things go are requirements in being a skilled witch."

"If anything, I oughta apologize," Nick admitted with a shrug of his shorter shoulders. "I was the one who opened my big mouth." He looked back at the shop keeper with now-desperate eyes. "So can you please help me with my dilemma here? I'll do anything."

"I will gladly help you reverse the effects of that spell. That's what a good witch does."

"Oh, thank you so much, ma'am."

"Please, call me Judy," introduced the doe.

Nick shook her paw, starting to recover his smile once again now that things were seeming a little more positive. "So what's needed to get me back to normal?"

"It's really quite simplistic once you have the recipes down," Judy remarked as she strolled back towards a shelf of books, retrieving one with a brown cover with a symbol engraved into it. "Depending on whatever was placed on the mammal, the spell reversal normally requires more than a couple of ingredients. But lucky for us, we don't have to worry because we'll probably only need a dash of each." She flicked through a couple more pages and scanned through the writings on them, eyes broadening when she saw something. "Shoot!"

"What is it?" Nick inquired.

"I'm afraid," Judy answered, "that the flower whose petals we need for this potion happens to be one that's seriously hard to come by. And we happened to run out of the ones we had left a couple days ago."

"There' ain't no need to worry 'bout that," Finnick chimed in. "Nick and I'll just look 'round and get whatever ya need."

"It's not something you can find in a plant shop or get delivered to your house the next day," the doe replied. "This special plant has a lot of power to it, some of it beyond what a non-believe in magic could wrap their mind around."

Nick snickered and remarked, "Well, trust me. I'm far from a non-believer now. I believe in that magic one hundred percent."

"This flower looks like that of your typical camellia, but as I said before, its deep red petals possess a lot of power. The kind we need to return you to your normal state."

"So where we gonna find one of these things?" wondered Finnick, scratching the top of his head.

"They're grown way outside of this city," informed Judy. "The last place I heard they were being grown out in a forest-like piece of land—you'll know exactly what I mean when you see it yourself. But be warned that you won't be the only ones with eyes on them, as they're being hoarded by some mysterious cult ran by some wildebeest. They're trying to get a hold of as many of those flowers as they can, claiming that they'll use them all to reverse the order in which things had been since before we all evolved. When there was nothing but disharmony between predator and prey."

"Geez, the dude in charge of this operation's soundin' kinda psycho to me," Finnick said in response to the story. "I don't wanna end up bumpin' into him.

"And you want us to retrieve one of these flowers that they also happen to be after?" Nick wanted to know.

With a nod of her head, Judy answered, "I'm afraid so. The last bottle we had in stock of the dried petals sold out a week ago, and I can't say for certain if it was somebody working for that group."

"But if I've never seen this flower before, then how do we know what we're looking for?"

The doe returned to where she kept the books, quickly skimming for the one she was looking for. Standing on tippy-toes, she got a hold of the one she needed, a heavier hardcover with jewels on the front of it, and returned to the two. Opening up to a page in the middle, the corner of it creased for reference, she showed them an illustration of it. "This is what you're looking for," she said to them.

"It actually looks kinda pretty, to be honest," replied Nick.

Finnick's attention went towards what was illustrated on the other page of the opened book, the expression on his face becoming a fearful one. "We ain't gonna run into that thing, are we?" he asked, pointing a paw at that colored sketch.

What the fennec fox was gesturing at was the drawing of a round, slender-armed monster with green skin and a single cyclopian eye. Judy looked at the illustration and shook her head, laughing under her breath. "No, you won't," she assured. "That was a creature that hasn't been encountered in quite some time. Was banished back to the world it came from."

Finnick wiped a paw over his forehead with relief. "Thank goodness fo' that."

"Well, Judy," Nick sighed, "I'm thinking we better head out and hunt down this flower I need. Thanks for being so kind and giving us all of this info."

"Anything to help someone in need out with their troubles," Judy replied merrily.

The tan rabbit looked back at his friend and said, "Guess we're gonna have to go on a road trip, Fin."

Author's Note: Hey there! It's been a little bit since my last little story, but I'm back! :)

This was something I was first going to share this during Halloween but ended up not being able to finish it in time for the holiday. This is actually the first part of this silly tale, with the second one that concludes it coming really soon. I know it's a bit late for a story like this, but I just felt like getting the rest of it written out and finishing it.

Anyway, let me know what your thoughts were on this chapter. As always, your feedback, whether good or bad, is gladly appreciated.

'Til next time! :)