Iximaz knew her day was off to a smashing start when she awoke in the body of a seal.
The seal was a very nice seal. Small and white, a harp seal pup, with a soft white coat and bright black eyes that shone in the light of her room. She was a lovely seal. The problem was that she preferred being a lovely human.
"Don't come crying to me," said Neshomeh, "it's your own fault."
Ix looked around, and then down, and saw that whatever had happened to her had affected Nesh in the same way. Well, sort of. The oldbie had been transmogrified into a mammoth, as befitted her standing in the community; she was covered head to foot in soft brown fur, and even her tusks looked soft and squishy rather than hardened ivory stabbing devices.
"Nesh," Ix said slowly, "why are you a plushie?"
"You're a fine one to talk," piped up FourMoonsWatching, who was presently One Cat Snarking. Specifically, one soft grey cat, with gangly limbs and a happy, friendly face. She was also clearly a stuffed toy, though in defiance of accepted talking-stuffed-cat tradition she wasn't white with pink stripes or even all that sleepy. "You're probably the cuddliest plushie here."
"Moons, it's your fault we're like this at all. You started drinking ouzo, which I didn't even know was a thing you did, and then you did... something... there was a ritual, something about sacrifice, a big ring of... yarn, for some reason? And then I woke up like this. A Pangolyn"
Ix shuffle-hopped on her seal tummy to where the new voice was coming from. It was Kaitlyn. Well, Pangolyn. She was indeed a pangolin plush, with soft ruffles of fluffy stuff to represent the scales and a tummy made of corduroy for some as-yet unknown reason.
"Wait, we're all stuffies?" Ix cried. "I can't be a stuffie! I've got my own! Who'll cuddle them?"
"We all will," said Nesh gently, resting her trunk across Ix's back. "We all will."
And when they cuddled, Moons and Kaitlyn joining in, Ix felt safe and warm and snug, like everything was going to be okay.
