How Zenni Met Fluffy

## Content Information

*“...and that was “New World Without You”, by our very own Queen Selene, bringing us to the end of yet another uninterrupted hour of all the music that’s fit to play, here on Radio Echidna.*

*It’s 2 a.m. now, and all you night owls know the drill by now. I’ve been Zenni, and I’m signing off. Be safe out there tonight, and watch out for all the things that go bump in the night.*

*Stay tuned for lo-fi beats to study by. And if you don’t like it...then go the eff to sleep already!"*

Tamzen closed the door to the recording booth, and locked it behind her, smiling in satisfaction of the heavy *CLUNK* of the old deadbolt sliding into place. She always hated leaving - the recording booth was like a second home to her - well, more like a first home now, now that her father had moved out of town to live with her older sister Kitty. Sure, her roommate was nice enough, but it still felt *weird*.

Unfortunately, even she could only hang around the studio for so long - much longer and the night janitor would come shoo her out of the building, so that they could finish up and leave themselves. She grabbed her coat from it’s usual peg on the wall, wrapped her scarf around her neck, and slung her backpack over one shoulder, before hurrying out of the station.

Outside, the air was cold and damp, and the low winter clouds and early morning mist refracted and reflected back the lights of Night Falls, causing the sky to glow a soft grey. Tamzen shivered, and pulled her jacket tighter around her, and struck out for Carter Hall.

Didi was pacing the edge of campus, stopping now and then to paw at the earth and leave her scent there, or to listen to the sounds of the campus -- and beyond. She caught something on the wind that made her stop, the fur rising on the back of her neck. She sniffed at the air, not recognizing it but still knowing on a deep level that it was a *threat*.

She scowled as she found the place where it had entered the campus, smelling of death and stale blood -- and detergent. It wore human clothes.

Following the trail, the scent grew stronger. She would soon catch up to her prey.

But before that happened, she came upon a lone student, heading home in the deep night. She paused at the very edge of the pool of light cast by a streetlamp, looking back and forth between the student and the darkness beyond where, somewhere, a monster lurked.

Tamzen froze as she heard the scrabbling sound of footsteps on loose gravel, an unexpected intrusion into her silent walk home, and far too near for comfort. Just past that row of hedges over by the greenhouse? She edged carefully towards the streetlamp, her eyes still scanning the area, suddenly very aware of just how alone she was, out walking at this time of night.

“Hello?” she called out as she reached into her jacket pocket, fumbling for her cell phone, and cursing her gloves for preventing her from calling for help. “Is someone out there?”

From behind the student, Didi locked eyes with the creature in the darkness. Its red eyes were hungry but cowardly; it had come seeking easy prey.

She stepped forward, between the student and the creature, growling and baring her fangs. She was a hulking, vicious presence, far larger than any mere *dog*.

The student, Tamzen, gasped and backed away from the wolf...thing, until her back was pressed against the street lamp. She could feel the cold of the iron seeping through her coat, but she was frozen, half in fear, and half in awe of her would-be rescuer. Was it protecting her - or was it simply one predator warning off another from it’s meal? She hoped it was the former, because the wolf was far too close for her to have any prayer of escaping.

Didi stepped slowly towards the creature, but she’d barely started moving when it *dissolved* into a swarm of shrieking bats, taking to the sky -- and back in the direction it had come from. Frustrated, she barked at the retreating swarm following just a few more steps before she stopped and sat in the middle of the path, gazing off at the sky.

Her ears flicked up at Tamzen’s breathing and she looked back towards where she stood, frozen like a deer staring death in the face. Something deep in the back of Didi’s mind hoped for Tamzen to *run* so she could give chase.

*Oh god, oh god, oh god…*

Tamzen was a native of Night Falls, and like most natives, had developed a certain air of indifference when it came to the town’s...oddities. But to be fair, it was a lot easier to be stoic about the presence of weirdness around you when you weren’t face to face with several hundred pounds of pissed off wolf.

Hoping that she wasn’t about to make a big mistake, Tamzen sank to her knees, and stretched one trembling hand out towards the wolf, offering it a chance to sniff her hand and get her scent. “Hey…” she said softly. “I guess I owe you, don’t I, gorgeous?” She smiled nervously. “Gotta admit, I’m kinda hoping you aren’t hungry, because I *really* don’t want to be dinner…”

At first the wolf just cocked her head, then she got up off her haunches and closed the distance. With Tamzen on her knees, Didi was significantly taller, even on all fours. Scenting Tamzen’s fear, Didi chastised herself for those predatory thoughts, for congratulating herself on the girl’s submissive gesture.

Before sniffing at that offered hand, she checked Tamzen’s *other* hand, just as her pack mother always told her. But she had no weapon, no trick, no agenda besides not being devoured by the giant wolf before her. She took a sniff of Tamzen’s hand and sleeve, then gently rested her fuzzy chin on the outstretched hand and wagged her tail, trying to signal that she wasn’t a threat.

Tamzen remained as still as possible while Didi investigated her, only to break out in a smile when the wolf rested her chin in Tamzen’s hand. Tentatively, she flexed her fingers, stroking at the soft fuzz under the wolf’s chin. “Hmm...is this something you like, or should I stop?” she asked, softly.

The wolf’s smile had too many teeth to be very reassuring, but she tilted her head to press into Tamzen’s hand along her jawline, eventually even rotating to give her the chance to scratch behind her ears. Didi had a distinctive scent, but she kept herself cleaner than any wild animal or even a domesticated dog. And she’d made sure working with Iva that her shampoo didn’t have a scent of its own -- she had a feeling that some of the pack would find her fur care regime to be frivolous.

“Oh, you do like that, don’t you?” Tamzen murmured as she took the opportunity to scratch behind the wolf’s ears. In the back of her mind, some small part of her was screaming that she shouldn’t be so close to a predator this large, but as seconds passed and turned into minutes without her turning into dinner, she started to relax and enjoy the encounter. She paused, and looked thoughtfully at the wolf.

“Hey...I think I’ve got something in my bag that you can have. Don’t freak out, okay?” she said, her voice still calm as she slowly slid her backpack off her shoulder and let it drop on the ground at her side. Keeping her movements calm and smooth, she unzipped the bag, and rummaged around until she pulled out a foil wrapped bundle. She lifted one edge of the foil up, releasing the scent of cold sausages, and held the package out for the wolf to inspect. “What do you think? You want some?”

Didi stepped close to sniff at Tamzen’s bag, then wagged at the sausage aroma, her nostrils visibly breathing and adjusting as she took it in. One of the joys of her transformation was that she could detect every nuance of flavor, every spice.

And one of the downsides was not having thumbs or really any ability to do fine manipulation. She fought the urge to knock the sausages from Tamzen’s hand and eat the scattered meat, instead trying to gingerly grasp a sausage between her front teeth.

“Woah...hang on…!” Tamzen exclaimed as she pulled the foil package away from Didi, and laughed. “I guess that’s a ‘yes’, huh?” She fully unwrapped the foil, and set the foil and sausages on the ground, where it’d be easier for the wolf to eat. “That should be a bit easier, yeah?” She shifted position until she was sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of her new friend.

It was a few weeks later, a beautiful, clear night with a brilliant crescent of moon shining in the sky. Didi was feeling cheerful after chasing a couple of creepy boys into the river, and trotted to the radio station to meet Tamzen. She’d thought the girl’s voice had been familiar, but it was only when she followed her trail backwards one night that she put it together: this was Zenni from the radio!

Tamzen hurried down the steps to meet Didi. The wolf had been meeting her almost every evening since their first encounter. She got the impression that the wolf had made escorting her back to Carter Hall into part of their evening routine. After a few days of that, Tamzen had taken to keeping a container of doggie treats at the station, in order to bribe her new friend.

She smiled, and reached down to ruffle her fingers through the wolf’s fur, before handing over the treat. “Right on time...you know how to make a girl feel special, don’t you?”

The feeling was mutual; there weren’t many people who would befriend a wolf and be so kind. She had packmates and a few friends who knew her in both forms, but her friendship with Tamzen was completely rooted in her wolf form. It was unique.

She studied Tamzen’s expression for a moment, then licked her hand and took the treat. Dog treats were mostly not terribly delicious, but after she’d turned her nose up at the first two kinds, Tamzen had gotten her some actual beef jerky. She gnawed the tough meat with her side teeth, designed to tear through tendons.

Tamzen grinned as the wolf tore into the jerky, and started strolling towards the dorms, her furry friend at her side. Tonight was a good night, and she chattered mindlessly about whatever came to mind, holding up her half of a conversation with the silent - well, non-verbal, at least - figure at her side. She only wished that it was this easy to talk to *people* too…

The next time Didi encountered Tamzen, the girl’s mood was far different. In fact, everything was different. Tamzen was out and about hours before she normally left the station, and she wasn’t even at the station - instead, she was slipping through the back allies behind one of the town’s many bookshops, obviously distressed, and even more obviously not paying attention to her surroundings because of it. She seemed lost...torn between heading in the direction of the dorms, or back to the safety of the studio.

It wasn’t often that Didi visited the town in wolf form. This night, she’d been escorting a couple of tipsy girls home from a frat party, watching over them from the shadows. They lived in town, as it turned out, and Didi did a little exploring. The town smells were so different.

Until she caught that one, familiar scent. She left the shadows and stepped out into Tamzen’s path, waiting for the girl to notice her.

Tamzen did notice her, eventually. Unfortunately, she’d almost walked right into Didi’s muzzle when the wolf gave a soft huff of warning and she found herself face-to-face with the enormous wolf, four feet tall at the shoulder. The sudden sound startled Tamzen, and she yelped, staggered back momentarily and fell, landing solidly on the pavement.

Didi stepped forward, looking a little chagrined, and nuzzled Tamzen’s face with her cold nose and whiskered snout. Tamzen squealed in surprise at the sudden feeling of wet nose, and the light tickling sensation of the wolf’s whiskers on her cheek. She giggled, despite herself, then sniffled, and wiped her face on the arm of her jacket.

“Oh...uh...hey there…” she said, a bit tentatively. “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there. I was...uh…” she shrugged, then sighed and seemed to slump down even further. “Look...it’s been a crappy evening...and I just want...I need to go back to the studio…”

The wolf’s eyes had a very human-looking expression of worry. She could smell the scents of other people on Tamzen, but no sign of physical hurt. She gave the girl’s face another sniff, then licked at her cheek.

Despite her bad mood, Tamzen couldn’t help but laugh in delight. “Hey! No fair!” she giggled. She wiped her face off for the second time in as many minutes, then reached out to ruffle her fingers through the thick, plush fur on the wolf’s neck.

Didi relented from further licking, but Tamzen could still feel her hot breath. Like the wolf’s fur-scent, it was distinctive, but it wasn’t foul like a dog’s.

The wolf lowered herself to the ground, resting her enormous head on Tamzen’s chest and studying her face. The distress and unhappiness from a few minutes earlier was still there, though momentarily sidelined by her joy in encountering the wolf again. She buried her face in the fur on the top of Didi’s head and sighed, relaxing slightly as she breathed in Didi’s scent.

After a long moment she groaned and tried to straighten out. “Okay, okay...this is really nice, but my clothes are getting soaked sitting on the ground like this, and it’s a bit too cold for this. Can I get up?”

The wolf huffed again, a quiet acknowledgement, and rose to her feet. Her ear perked up and she looked off down the alley for a moment, sniffing the air and allaying her concerns before turning back to Tamzen.

Tamzen carefully stood up, only once reaching out to lightly rest her hand on Didi’s back for balance. Once her feet were back underneath her, she brushed loose gravel and dirt off the back of her pants, scritched Didi behind the ears, and started walking towards the studio.

Didi walked alongside her, glancing up at her more often than usual. She couldn’t *ask* what had happened, couldn’t ask if Tamzen wanted to talk about it, but she could listen. It occurred to her that she had never smelled so many people on the girl before. In fact, she’d barely smelled anyone else on her -- just Arsling. Given that they always wound up back at Carter Hall, she figured they were roommates.

For a while, it seemed like Tamzen was going to be content to simply walk in silence, feeling the warmth radiating off of Didi’s body, as the wolf walked so close that she could feel its body pressed against her leg. Seemingly preoccupied, Tamzen reached down and stroked the wolf’s fur.

After a block or so, she sighed and wrapped her jacket closer, as if it were her armor against the world, and started to tell her friend about the events of the evening. How she had gone to pick up some records for the station until Benji - “you know, the drunk guy that I pushed out of the way of the bus a few weeks ago” - had badgered her into staying. How she tried to keep him from making a fool of himself, only to have him drag her up on stage for karaoke, and how she stood there frozen in embarrassment, until someone had cut the lights and given her a chance to escape.

“...so...yeah. That’s how I ruined Open Mic Night. At least, I’m sure that’s how everyone else who was there is going to paint the events of tonight.” She sighed in exasperation as she sank down onto the steps leading up to the station and ruffled the fur behind Didi’s ears with both hands. “I don’t like crowds. I don’t know why I keep letting people convince me to come to things with them - it always ends up like this.”

The natural cadence of Didi’s walk had her nodding along, until Tamzen got to the really stressful parts of the story. She looked up at the girl, wishing she could reassure her, and then gratefully leaned into the pets as they stopped at the station stairs. A little awkward on the stairs, she nonetheless climbed up beside Tamzen, half on one stair and legs propping up her other side, then laid her head in the girl’s lap.

She didn’t know what she would have said, in any event. She knew how Tamzen felt, she thought. Back in high school, she’d been terrified of doing the wrong thing. She’d wound up letting people walk all over her; she might have been better off staying away from them.

And then she’d been turned.

Her ears went up and her heart started pounding. If Tamzen were a werewolf, she wouldn’t have to care about open mic night, about not knowing where she belonged. One of her hands was resting in front of Didi’s muzzle as the other stroked her fur. Just a nip, and she could be strong, fierce, and sure.

Didi sighed, her breath rushing over Tamzen’s wrist. She didn’t think she could bring herself to bite her, not even a nip. Tamzen deserved someone who was safe to be around. She deserved to *be* safe.

Maybe Tamzen would even succeed where Didi failed and find a way to keep on being human.

Tamzen’s hand shifted away from its resting spot in front of Didi’s muzzle, but if Tamzen had noticed Didi’s moment of indecision, she gave no indication of it. She sighed again, more out of ease this time than distress, then chuckled softly. “I wish I knew what to call you...you’ve been such a good friend to me, and I’ve really needed that. Do wolves even have names?” she paused and looked down at Didi’s head resting on her legs. “I bet yours is beautiful.”

She smiled, and scratched behind Didi’s ears again. “I’m embarrassed to admit it, but I keep thinking of you as ‘Fluffy’. Not the greatest name...I know! I’m so bad at names, I swear - if we hadn’t had the contest, the station mascot would have been Ms. Prickles…” Didi could tell that Tamzen was starting to work herself back into a fluster…

The wolf cocked her head at ‘Fluffy’ -- it was a bit undignified. She couldn’t just tell Tamzen her name, though… Then Tamzen mentioned ‘Ms. Prickles’ and she pulled her head back and tilted it to one side, wondering if it was a hedgehog or a cactus.

Didi -- Fluffy -- reached up to give Tamzen a lick to her cheek, to get her attention and keep her from spiraling. When she had her attention, she licked her again, this time just for fun, wagging her tail.

Tamzen laughed, wiped her cheek dry yet again, and mussed Didi’s fur. “Okay, okay! I can take a hint! I’m overthinking this - Fluffy will just have to do until you find a way to tell me what your obviously superior true name is.” She pushed herself back onto her feet, and climbed the few remaining stairs to the door. She paused, hand on the door handle, then gave her friend a conspiratorial smile. “Basically everyone’s gone for the night - you want to sneak in and see where the magic happens?”

In truth, while Tamzen was craving the peace and isolation of the broadcasting booth, for once she also didn’t want to be alone in there. How strange.

She held the door open, and waved the wolf in with a flourish. “Well, what do you say?”

Didi considered the open door, being trapped inside four walls as a wolf, then looked to Tamzen. She started wagging her tail.

Of *course* she wanted to go in.

The sound of up-tempo rock and roll leaked out from around the headphones of the station janitor as they vacuumed their way around the floor, bobbing their head in time to the music and singing tunelessly along. The machine whined to a halt as the plug was yanked out from the wall socket - certainly against the recommendations for care and keeping of the equipment, but a much faster way of getting the work done. The loose cord dragging along behind them, they approached the recording booth, where light was still seeping out through the narrow window on the door.

They sighed, checked that the On Air light was off, and pounded on the door. “C’mon Zenni! Go home so that I can clean your damned booth…”

There was no response, even after a second round of knocking. They sighed, and fished out their keyring. It wouldn’t have been the first time that Zenni had fallen asleep and needed to be shooed on her way. The door squeaked slightly as it swung open, and the janitor peeked in. “Come on! Up and at ‘em, darlin’...” their voice trailed off as they took in the scene before them… a large puddle of grey fur, far too large to be anything other than a wolf, curled up protectively around the radio host who was curled up against it, one yellow eye cracked open and looking up at them.

“Nope. *Nu-uh*. I am not paid nearly enough to deal with this…” the janitor muttered as they backed out of the booth, leaving Zenni and the wolf undisturbed. The door swung shut and clicked into place, blocking out the sound of the janitor's voice as they called in sick for the remainder of their shift.

Inside the booth, Tamzen shifted, nuzzled her face into her friend’s fur, and sank back into a deep, dreamless sleep, lulled by the whirr of the booth’s electronics and the steady drumbeat of a wolf’s heart.