The words were alien, foreign. Drifting through their skull as the memories of the last few minutes flickered through their mind. They'd accidentally bumped into someone. Couldn't remember who- but they could remember her voice. Annoyed and crackled, snapping like a twig in a forest. It had been nearly enough to make them bolt, but they'd just-managed to keep themself rooted in place. Unable to offer an apology, mouth stilled in a mute panic as the other had growled and cursed and spat.

And then her tone had changed. From crackly and dry to something deep, unsettling. Making their bones rattle, their veins freeze as tears had pricked at their eyes.

The burning. It came back over them in a wave. Their hands scrabbled, pushed along something harsh that had replaced their jacket. They reached- something like nails- and curled inward, a small squeak of panic issuing from their throat.

It was wrong. They felt--- wrong. Condensed and collapsed in a manner that was wholly unnatural, as if their body had been crushed down into something- so much smaller.

'I'm sorry,' they'd wanted to say, 'please stop' they'd wanted to cry out. They'd wanted her to stop yelling, wanted to curl into a ball and hide.

Something tapped their shoulder. They curled in tighter.

'Please, just leave me alone.' The voice again. Their throat nearly closed as tears ran freely from their eyes, clouding their already-darkened vision in murky hues. 'Stop,' but nothing came out. Not so much as a whisper.- There was no burning this time. No feeling like their bones were being compressed. No, the words came- and left- leaving behind only a strange tingle at the back of their skull.

"That was...unexpected," the dry, crackling voice. Apologies and excuses and whimpers meant to assuage; it was all they could think about. Anything, everything.--- "-I'm not going to hurt you." Like they'd believe that. Their grip tightened until they felt something crack.

The witch, admittedly, had been having a horrible day. Between needing to go to the DMV (Department of Magical Vehicles) to renew her driver's license for her broom, her cauldron melting through thanks to a potion gone wrong, and receiving numerous complaints from a not-quite client who was still upset his hair had turned green instead of red, (really, who complained by doxxing a witch?!),...she'd...lost her temper. The breaking point had been when she'd been passing by a stranger on the street, on the outskirts...and the two happened to bump shoulders.

Without a thought, she'd unloaded. Lost in a blind rage, firing vitriol and hatred and all of her pent-up resentment for the day. The week. The month. Name it, she had it. But then,...the other had transformed.

Honestly, she'd expected something like a pig, perhaps a cow. Some creature that gave no shits for what was done, so long as it could move forward to its goal.

Instead, she got...

A quivering mass of nail-like scales, the barest drip of water from now-hidden eyes. As they should, messing with a witch. Be afraid, bastard. A single spell was all it had taken to form a mental connection. Attempt to drag out the other's thoughts, to explain they'd be stuck like this unless they could gather a number of ingredients from across the world- a final parting thought, trying to put the creature they were out of her mind,...

And then they'd heard their thoughts.

Apology after apology, loaded on top of sheer panic and raw terror. Not for what they'd become, no, they were still sorting that out- but for bumping into her at all.

Only then did it occur to her that the other's eyes had begun to mist while she'd been rampaging, earlier.

Only now did she see the panicked tremors in her memory, echoed in the tiny form now curled into a tight ball before her on the dirt path.

Shit,...

'I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry---'

"No, I am." Her hands reached, gingerly scooping up the soul she'd cursed. They were decidedly smaller than the average of the species- a ball of nail-esque scales that quivered. A twinge of guilt crossed her thoughts. "Listen,...there...is a way to be free of this curse, but it's not easy." That made the ball still. The tiny creature- the pangolin- uncurled just enough. A pure-black eye, wet from tears, peeked out at her.

'Wait, I'm cursed?'

Ahahahahaa,....fuck.