I had always thought that a wereanimal's transformation into their animal form was a discreet, private affair.

Until Auri ruined the enigma of it by transforming in front of me without warning.

We had been walking into the forest when she disappeared from my view, and I almost stepped on her.

Instead, my foot slipped on the hem of a light pastel dress and I fell down on my butt.

"What the—" The words got stuck in my throat when I saw a moving lump under the fabric. A pair of large, broad ears peeked out of a hole, followed by the rest of the golden-haired body.

A rabbit.

"A- Auri?" I exclaimed.

The ears perked up at the name. The gold ball of fur then hopped out from under the dress and faced me.

"Bodie!" Auri's familiar voice came from the small body. "Yes, it's me in my rabbit form!"

My mouth dropped wide open as I scanned her. Auri was already small, but she was now even smaller. Her animal form was so tiny I could scoop her up and she would fit into my palms.

How was that even physically possible? My wolf form had a similar size to my human form, but Auri's transformation was drastic.

What happened to the rest of her?

"Why- Why..." I was fumbling for words. "Why did you shift?"

Auri's nose twitched in the air—every one of these twitches sent a jolt of electricity to my heart. "Oh, we have to go through a tunnel to get to the underground structure. I figured it'll be easier if we do it while in this form."

"A- A tunnel?"

Wait, so did I have to shift too?

This was not what I had expected myself to do today.

As Auri scampered about, I pushed myself off the ground and brushed the dirt off my pants. Occasionally, the rabbit would rub her nose a few times—how did those short limbs even reach her face?—before darting around again. Behind her, a small, round tail dotted her butt like a white button on a coat of gold.

What the heck... She was way too adorable, even in this form.

"Why are you still in your human form?" Auri snapped me back to focus. She wiggled her round body as she tapped on the bark of a tree. "Come on, I found the entrance! It's under this tree. Just leave your clothes here and transform; we'll pick them back later."

I felt my cheeks heating up. "Uh, okay, give me a second..."

As Auri turned around and fiddled with the branches, I quickly unbuttoned my shirt. I had not expected myself to shift today, so I did not wear clothes that were easily removable. I was freeing one of my arms when Auri turned back to me.

"What are you doing?" she asked, tilting her small fluffy head. "Just transform and come over here!"

I covered my torso with my shirt again. The blood on my cheeks had spread all over my body by now. "Uh, well, I... have to take this off to shift. Could you... Could you turn around, maybe?"

"Huh? Why do you need to take your clothes off? Don't they come off when you transform?"

I suppressed a sigh. Auri was not going to understand; she had never seen a werewolf before, much less a werewolf transformation. Instead of explaining to her while half-naked and awkwardly undressing, I decided to shift.

My shirt and my pants ripped into pieces as my body changed into the shape of a grey wolf. I landed on the floor with my paws, kicking away what became of my clothes with my hind legs.

"Oh." Auri froze, her ears growing in both size and height. "You're... huge. I'm sorry, Bodie. I didn't- I didn't realize you'd transform to be so... big."

"It's fine." I lowered my head such that my nose was right in front of hers. "Where's the tunnel?"

There was a pause as Auri's black, round eyes continued staring at me. Perhaps my wolf form had frightened her? I would have changed back if not for the fact that I had just destroyed my clothes.

Then, her small paws reached forward and touched my muzzle.

"Your teeth are huge," she whispered.

I did not know what to say to that, so I pointed out, "Uh, your ears are huge."

She chuckled. "Let's... Let's go to the tunnel," she said as she hopped away. "It might be super tight for you, but I think you can fit."

"I'll... I'll try."

I followed Auri into a small hole under the tree. It was twice the size of Auri, and I had to squeeze my body together to crawl through it. Thankfully, my wolf form was a lot more flexible than my human form. As the petite rabbit hopped in front of me, I slowly dragged my body through the cramped and rocky passageway.

When we reached the end of the tunnel, I stepped out onto a cliff-like platform overlooking a massive cave. The scenery hit me like a tackle hug, and my jaw dropped.

"Whoa," I muttered.