They walked through the school, Karyn observing her friend with great interest as Jon tried to process the flood of scents in here. Even with her heightened sense of smell she couldn't pick out every trace scent individually, but there were dozens recent enough to be clear, and there must've been hundreds making up the background smell of the school hallway. Thankfully it didn't induce any kind of sensory overload, but it was a pretty heady draught all the same for someone who'd only had this ability for significantly less than twelve hours.
"So, uh," Karyn ventured, ears perked, "what's it like?"
"'Weirder'n hell' would about cover it," Jon sighed. She was grateful to have Karyn with her; this was bizarre enough as it was, but it was much easier to maintain emotional equilibrium with her best friend around for support. "I have three extra appendages but I don't have hands anymore and I'm walking around on four legs, plus there's all this scent information that I didn't used to be able to perceive." She glanced around uneasily as they strode through the hall. "On top of which," she muttered half under her breath, "I'm completely naked and nobody seems to think that's unusual." It was true; not even the other guys seemed to be taking much notice of her beyond a few odd looks which were probably at least as much to do with her being a sphinx.
"Donald Duck principle, I guess," Karyn said. "If you can't see it, it's as good as covered up. And I can smell a little better, too, but it sounds like you're on a whole other level. And do you seriously not have hands at all? I thought you were just walking that way because you're proportioned all different."
"But I know it's not covered," the new sphinx said. "And even the fur only goes so far, and I can't stop thinking 'but what if they notice?' And yep, no hands at all." She stopped and held up one of her forepaws, which Karyn inspected, letting out a low whistle. "Yeah," Jon said. "I'm just glad it's only until I get back home to the stone. Even just today is probably gonna be a pain in the ass. Thanks for helping me, by the way."
The cat-girl smiled. "Hey, no problem. You're my friend. Besides, I wanted to see what'd happened to you." She jerked a thumb over to the right. "This way. They wanted me to bring you to the school nurse before going to class. And I'm kinda surprised that you're so gung-ho to get completely back to normal as soon as possible. You've got the stone any time you want it, you might as well take a couple days and take in the experience."
Jon sighed. "Seriously? I've just been to the doctor. And seriously? I mean, look at me! No hands, no clothes, and I'm suddenly a girl to boot. I dunno, maybe I might be open to the idea of being in another form for a while, but not this one, that's for sure."
Karyn shrugged. "I guess. I just think you might as well see what it's like, just for a while. It's not like the stone won't be there a week from now. But it's your call, I suppose. Here we are." She reached out and opened the door to the nurse's office for Jon, who slipped inside, marveling at how strange it was to see all the furniture from this near the floor. She hadn't looked at things from this height since she was five or so.
The nurse, Mrs. Dagmar, welcomed them in. "Thank you for coming," she said. "I know you're going through a lot right now, but it makes things a lot easier for us if we can get this all sorted out right away, and it's easier for us to help you adjust, too. I did get the doctor's report from your mother, so we can skip the basic checkup, but I do need to do a little measuring first off." She produced a measuring tape and a notebook and began to measure different parts of Jon's new body, while Jon tried not to be weirded out by it.
"Besides," Karyn continued, "being a girl isn't the end of the world. Heck," she mused, "you get to experience it with a full knowledge of what it's like to be a guy. Even I don't have that - I grew up this way. You get to know exactly what it's like."
Jon frowned. "Uh, for starters, I've only been this way since last night. And I've only been awake for a few hours. So I haven't exactly gotten a full report put together or anything. And honestly, I don't think the whole being-a-girl thing has even really registered in my brain yet. My whole body is completely different; it's kinda gotten lost in the shuffle. And I haven't really interacted with anybody who thinks much of it yet. I mean, I know that it's changed, and I can feel the differences, but I don't exactly have any piercing insights on identity or anything. Mostly I just feel too small, and that's got more to do with me going around on all fours. And I never actually wanted this to begin with, you know."
Karyn frowned. "You are kinda small, come to think of it."
"It's not uncommon," the nurse put in. "Many full-body changes follow something roughly like conservation of mass, so with your extra appendages, the rest of you wound up smaller. If you'd been changing into something much bigger, like a centaur, you'd probably have woken up ravenously hungry in the middle of the night and changed as you ate. If it's any comfort, typical size for a sphinx is closer to the size of an ordinary lion, from what I read, so you should grow into it soon enough. And it's a good sign overall, because the fact that you didn't have to eat in order to change into something bigger indicates that you're a mundane sphinx and not a giant sphinx. Otherwise your parents would need to start looking for a bigger house."
Karyn and Jon both stared at her. "...giant Sphinx?" Karyn said. "They have those? Like...like the statue?"
"From what I read they're very rare," the nurse said. "Only a few recorded cases in the entire world since the change virus appeared. And no, they don't get anywhere near as big as that. But they get to be ten or twelve feet at the shoulder, and over twenty feet long. Plenty big enough to require special housing accomodations. Luckily, you don't have to worry about that. You should probably get to class now, Jon, but please stop before you go home; Karyn can help you for now, but I still need to see what we can offer you for accomodations."
