Cozy snuggles!!!

Yep!

She'll probably get bored eventually. For now, though, she wants to just not have to worry about things for a little while. And have positive human interaction. She can read over his shoulder and try to figure out just what's going on to amuse herself.

Isfain reads his book and pets his small soft friend.

His small soft friend is so affectionate!

... She wishes she could ask questions, though. Technically she could, but she doesn't really want to slow down his research just for her own curiosity, and hopping over to her letters to spell out what she wants to say takes a while. She'll just - wonder about the foundations of the concepts this book speaks of, tail twitching thoughtfully. (Safely away from Isfain, she will not be tickling him.)

Well, if she doesn't say anything, the snuggly reading may just go on until he has finished the entire book.

That sounds pretty okay to her, really.

She does eventually get bored of failing to understand the book, and curls up to have Even More Nap. (She has been a little bit sleep deprived, lately.)

Aww. Small soft sleepy friend.

She's so happy!

This nap is much shorter than the last two though; more of a catnap. She stirs awake and yawns, stretching. Then she gives him a little affectionate nose (carefully aimed to prevent cold nose) and gently disentangles herself so she can go take care of Foxly Business. That being, drinking some water, and also going outside to handle, uh. Foxly business.

She returns soon after, to resume cuddles.

When she comes back, he smiles and puts down his book for a moment so he can greet her with a hug.

Awww!

Well then, she will just have to flop on him affectionately. Flop!

Awwww. He appreciates this flop very much. It is a good flop.

Yes!

Snuggles can now resume. Snuggles and reading.

Snuggles and reading! An excellent combination.

When he finishes the book, he puts it down and stretches out and pets Aysilvetea some more.

"I'm going to guess you didn't have the background to follow most of that," he says. "Wizards like making their writing intentionally obscure, it makes them feel important."

She makes an annoyed harrumphing sound and rolls her eyes. Yes, wizards do that. Some wizards aren't assholes, but as an organization... well, they're kind of assholes.

"Well. The relevant part is that there's approximately two ways the creator of that music box could've set his trap," he says. "One of them would take him years of study to figure out how to do and would take me only slightly fewer years of study to figure out how to reverse, unless I'm a lot smarter than he is, which I very well might be. The other one is a little more work for him and a lot less work for me. It depends on whether he intended for you to ever stop being a fox or not. If he meant to be able to reverse it - say, if he was thinking ahead and realized he might get caught in his own trap, or if he was feeling generous and only wanted the transformation to last for a year or two before wearing off - then he would've done it the second way and thereby made my life a whole lot easier. If he was lazy and shortsighted and did it the first way, then instead of figuring out how to lift a fox-transformation spell I have to figure out how to turn a fox into a human, which is much more difficult, especially because I assume you would rather end up looking more or less the same way you did before all this nonsense, which means I'd need to find some way to turn you into a specific human."

Affirmative bark. Then she noses him affectionately and hops over to her letters. One is slightly askew from her earlier running; she fixes it.

Would the music box help? she asks.

"It might. Or it might turn me into a fox, and then I'd need to figure out how to do magic as a fox, which would be a bit of a hassle. I think for now I'll try to distinguish the two cases just by examining you for traces of magic and seeing what sort of a picture they make. Hopefully you're not rigged to turn people into foxes when tampered with."

Nod. She hops back onto the bed for snuggles. She does not want to accidentally turn other people into foxes.

Snuggles! Pet pet pet. So soft.

She noses him affectionately. Yes, good. She's glad she came to him for this problem, he's handling it so well.

Well, he's glad she came to him for this problem! She is charming and cozy and he is very glad to know her!

Being so small and fluffy is convenient! Except for the ways that it's inconvenient. Of which there are many.

She makes an excited little yip, swishing her tail. Is he going to examine her for traces of magic, then?

Apparently he is going to snuggle her. But the gold ring that just appeared on his finger is probably not a coincidence.

Aha. Yes, that makes sense. She affectionately noses the hand with the gold ring, and then focuses on snuggling him again. Snuuuuggle snuggle snuggle.

Snuggle. Snuggle snuggle.

And: "Hm," he says after a few minutes. "That's definitely more life magic than I'd expect from a non-reversible transformation. So it's probably the convenient version."