Niko gets bit by a stray dog in the park and discovers a new life as a dusk lycanroc girl. Art trade with Nikojolt on Discord.

==========================================================

An alarm blares, jolting Niko awake. He slowly gets out of bed and checks the weather on his phone. 65 degrees, sunny, perfect day for a walk. He sits up and turns the TV on and watches the morning news. Nothing much exciting is happening as it is a small town, but one thing that catches Niko’s attention is a story talking about the local park. It seems that they recently made some changes and carved out a forest trail that starts at the park entrance and goes through the forest right next to the park for several miles before coming back.

Niko watches the news story with excitement, he hadn’t been to the park in a long time, after all. He quickly finishes his breakfast and coffee, then starts getting ready to go. After getting his walking gear on and a fresh bottle of water, Niko heads out of his apartment for the park.

Niko gets on his bike and pedals toward the park, dodging cars along the way. It’s a nice day for a bike ride, and he opts to take the longer route, passing through Main Street and passing by different small businesses and even stopping here and there to do a little window shopping. He gets back on track and starts heading more directly towards the park, and eventually he does make it and he locks up his bike and heads straight for the forest trail.

Once he gets into the forested area, he realizes how empty the trail is, and wonders why it’s so empty. One would think that with a new feature opening, and with them talking about it on the news this morning, there’d be more people but so far Niko’s the only one on the trail. Though, it is also still early, being only just past sunrise, so many people are still sleeping most likely. Niko tells himself that’s all it is and nothing to worry about. The trail winds through the forest, and soon Niko is surrounded on all sides by dense trees and other vegetation. Niko sits on a large rock on the side of the trail and is drinking some water when he hears a noise coming from the forest.

Niko stands up quickly and looks around, but before he can properly locate the source of the sound, he feels a sharp pain in his leg. He looks down and sees nothing at first, but then he looks towards the forest and sees a dog running into the forest rather quickly. Niko sits back down and starts looking at the bite on his leg, wondering what prompted the dog to bite. He considers running off to the hospital to get checked out. He gets up and starts walking along the path back towards the trailhead. He realizes his pants feel wet and he stops again and rolls up his pants leg. He immediately sees blood, and nearly faints, then pushes his pants leg back down and starts running down the path. He doesn’t get far when he feels a prickling sensation in his leg where the bite is. He assumes it’s just bugs and keeps going until the feeling gets too unbearable to ignore and he sits down again, rolling up his pants leg.

This is when he notices white fur sprouting from the bite, spreading up and down his leg. “No way…I must be seeing things…” The fur starts covering his foot as it begins to swell, putting pressure on his shoe. Niko quickly takes the shoe off to reveal his foot and toenails growing larger. His toenails in particular are growing very long and thick, and taking on almost a rock-like hardness and texture. The bottom of his foot swells and heels slide upward, the swelling turning to pink, rough pads. Niko pokes at the pads and looks at the paw.

“This is real! No, I must be dreaming…” Niko’s thoughts are interrupted by the sound of footsteps in the distance. He looks over and can hear them coming closer. “I can’t be seen like this; they’ll think I’m a freak or something!” He gets up and struggles to walk with a large paw and a normal foot but manages to limp his way into the forest and stops only once he can’t see the trail anymore. Niko finds a fallen tree to sit on and he watches the fur spread up his leg, turning orange around the knee. It reaches his hip and spreads across to the other leg, quickly transforming his other foot into a large, rocky-clawed paw like the other. “This can’t be happening…this can’t really be happening…” Niko feels the fur on his legs just as the fur spreads up his torso and starts to crawl down his arms.

“N-No! Make it stop!” Niko jumps to his feet as his hands swell and fingernails grow. The skin on his palm and the underside of his fingertips becomes rough and pink, then pushes out to form a set of pink paw pads. Panic sets in, and Niko considers running back to town to get help, but at the same time he doesn’t want to be seen like this. He’s worried that he’ll get hurt or captured or something else bad. He decides it’s best to stay hidden for now. Not like anyone could really do anything anyways. As the fur crawls up his neck, Niko feels a pressure on his chest and tailbone. His pants and shirt start to become tight, but not too uncomfortable. He reaches back and starts to take off his pants when a large, bushy white tail pops out from his pants and flows gracefully in the wind. His chest continues to swell while his whole body feels lighter, and he gets a brief sense of vertigo, as if he had just jumped suddenly. He looks around and realizes something is off, the tree he was sitting on seems just slightly closer to him than it was before. His clothes feel a tad looser which makes everything click – he’s gotten shorter.

“I’m short! And…” He feels his chest, realizing that breasts had grown in. He then reaches down to his pants and feels around, realizing that things are missing. “I’m…a girl?” Niko puts his clawed hands up to his mouth as he realizes his voice is very different, higher in pitch than before. Niko’s jaw then stretches forward, pushing her hands aside. She crosses her eyes and watches as her face is covered with orange and white fur, followed by her nose flattening against her growing muzzle and turning round. Niko licks her teeth as they sharpen, nearly cutting her now much longer tongue. “What am I even turning into! This doesn’t look like any dog I’ve seen!” Niko’s ears grow longer and longer until they flop over and grow hard, rocky tips and slide up to the top of her head.

White fur sprouts around her neck, growing very long and very fluffy. Among the fluff, four rocky points sprout and grow out into a starburst pattern, being just visible among the white fluff. Her hair shortens for the most part, besides a tuft of white fluff that grows longer with a hard, rocky point which droops over her forehead, coming into vision. She reaches up and feels it, then starts running around the forest in a panic. “I’ve got to get out of here, I can’t stay here like this, some animal might come after me!” She stumbles back onto the trail just as someone else is walking along the trail. They both freeze upon seeing each other and making eye contact, and stare at each other for what feels like an eternity.

Many thoughts run through Niko’s head. What if she gets turned in to the government or something? She doesn’t want to be a lab rat! Or rather, lab…dog? Either way, she doesn’t want to be subject to experiments and prodding and having no privacy. She starts to turn and run when the other jogger stops her.

“Wait! Please don’t run! I promise not to hurt you!”

“Wha-really? Y-You promise? I don’t want to be stuck in a lab!”

“Don’t worry, I won’t do anything like that!”

Niko comes back and approaches the woman, albeit cautiously. “I don’t know what happened I just got bit by a dog and then…I’m like this now!”

“Aww…you look just like a dusk lycanroc! And you’re kinda cute like that, too!”

“I-I am?” Niko blushes lightly, and her tail starts wagging involuntarily. She turns around and grabs it, pulling it close to her in embarrassment. “Could you please help me? I just want to go back to normal!”

“But you’re so beautiful like this, I wouldn’t want to just throw away such a fine body! Look at your fur! So luxuriously soft! And your paws, so strong and powerful! And your lithe, feminine form…it’s all so beautiful!”

Niko blushes even harder with each statement, pulling her fluffy tail up to her face to hide it. She then thinks about all the attention and affection she’s getting. She’s never gotten this much attention before. Niko looks to the runner. “T-thank you…what’s your name?”

“Michelle, you?”

“Niko!”

“Well, nice to meet you, Niko. You know maybe we could get some coffee and talk more?”

“That sounds great! Before we go, could you take a picture of me? I want to see how I look.”

“Sure!” Michelle pulls out her phone and snaps a picture, then shows it to Niko.

“Woah, I do look beautiful! I-I can’t believe I’m saying this but…I think I want to stay like this!”

“Aww, I’m so glad you came around! Here, let’s go, I know of a really good coffee shop nearby.” Michelle leads Niko to a local coffee shop, and the barista greets them both as they enter. It seems the barista really knows Michelle as he greets her by name. The both of them order their coffees and sit down. Michelle and Niko start talking about interests, hobbies, and what they do for work. It seems that they really have a lot in common together and really hit it off.

Before long, it’s early evening. “I should probably get going, but I’d love to see you again!” Niko says as she gets up from the table. “Maybe we could go see a movie next?”

“Oh, that’d be great! I love movies!” They discuss movies while walking out to their respective cars and Niko heads home. She flops over in bed, smiling and recalling the events of today. Sure, it was scary to transform but, in the end, it really worked out. She not only found a friend but a potential partner. In a few days, Niko and Michelle go to see a movie together and really hit it off. Michelle suggests that maybe they should see each other much more often and that she really wants to get into a relationship. Niko accepts with a big, fluffy hug.

The two of them spend the next several months dating, while everyone else in Niko’s life adjusts to her new body. Once all of her new identity has been changed to match her new physical form on paper, Niko gets a nice, beautiful diamond ring and proposes to Michelle. Michelle excitedly accepts and the next year they get married at the same park where they met. Now that they’re officially married, they move in together.

Shortly after getting settled into their new home, they start talking about adopting. Michelle and Niko both think it would be a great idea, and head for the local adoption agency. Niko does still get a few weird looks but being a small town pretty much everyone knows about what happened. Some people have even tried tracking down the stray dog themselves, though it’s never certain if they are looking to get bit themselves or not. After waiting, paperwork, and a small fee, Michelle and Niko return home with their adopted son, Jason. The three of them are now ready to begin their new lives together, and Jason is particularly excited to have a mother who’s a lycanroc as that’s his favorite Pokémon.