“Any new stressors at home?” Lena asked, pulling out a small wooden tuning fork etched with runes. She struck it gently against her palm, and a low, warm hum filled the room. Kit’s ears perked up.
Dr. Lena adjusted her stethoscope, taking a slow breath before pushing open the examination room door. The smell of antiseptic and cedar shavings filled the air, but today there was another scent beneath it: worry . furrytails vet clinic
On the steel table sat a red fox, but not just any fox. Kitsune—call her Kit—was a vulpine shifter, one of the rare ones who could flicker between full fox, full human, and anything in between. Right now, she was a nervous tangle of both: human-shaped but with tufted ears flat against her head and a thick, cinnamon-tipped tail coiled around her legs like a security blanket. “Any new stressors at home
“Sensory migration,” Lena murmured. “Stress is rerouting your neural pathways. Taste buds trying to borrow optic nerve real estate. It’s not dangerous, but it’s uncomfortable.” On the steel table sat a red fox, but not just any fox
