Lucky immediately began to convulse in the necromancer's metal gauntlet looking hand. Covering her with a warm palm the lich's glowing eyes softened. "I'm sorry there little buddy. The venom works best when it's activated by your adrenaline so it was necessary to surprise you. I promise Cerbi over there would never harm you. You're going to go through some changes as the venom works its way through your body. It'll be painful at first, but then you'll start to feel stronger as the parasites are purged. You had a very nasty infection. You must not have had very clean water. I'm honestly surprised you made it here. That means you're very strong, so you'll pull through." The necromancer put the tiny chipmunk in their lap and rubbed her tummy gently with their finger. "Try to relax, I'm not going anywhere. My name is Medora, or rather that was my first name from my first life, but everyone calls me Zion. I think I'm going to call you Lucky."
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When the exhausted chipmunk opened her eyes again she was still in Zion's lap. While she was definitely still a little groggy, she felt much stronger than before. "Oh good, you're awake." Zion produced a pumpkin seed. "You must be hungry, here."
Lucky grabbed the pumpkin seed and nibbled it slowly at first, but then quickly ate the whole thing. She was starting to feel her energy come back, and felt hungry enough to beg for more food. Zion produced an assortment of different foods for her which she tasted first and then started shoving in her cheek pouches.
"I'm sure you probably have a lot of questions." Zion said as Lucky stuffed her face. "Cereberus lying over there by the fireplace is a werewolf." Cerberus perked up his ears and raised his head upon hearing his name. "He lost his human form a while ago and we're trying to get it back, but I assure you he's harmless." Cerberus put his head back down and whined. "I'm not sure what form you'll take when you shift, since you are now the very first werechipmunk I've ever seen or even heard of. You had a very severe parasitic infection, probably from not having enough clean drinking water. The parasites had weakened your body so much that you were beyond the point of treatment with medication. Since you didn't want to be undead, I had to think of something that could both strengthen your body and expel the parasites. Parasites being very species specific by nature, when exposed to something that causes a shift, would easily be purged. Something that increases strength with a shift like a wereform was really my only option to save you. So I told Cerberus to bite you. Your life is going to be very different from now on, but we'll both be here to guide you through. The acute effects of the venom will be present still for a while. You might notice increased hunger, dizziness..."
Lucky had stopped paying attention a while ago. As sincere as Zion's glowing eyes were, everything they said was super boring, and Lucky's cheeks were full. She needed to find a spot to stash her haul, so she jumped off their lap...plop. Lucky was not very graceful. She heard Zion say something to her.
"If you want a place to store that I have a little home for you." Zion gestured to Lucky to come over.
Lucky hopped over to Zion, hopped on their leg and then jumped and crawled up to their shoulder. Zion then walked down the long hall decorated with dark wooden wainscoting. She could hear the lich softly chanting in a strange language and see different colored dark vapors emanating from their fingers as the house began to change shape. Small wooden tubes with windows now ran horizontally flush with the ceiling. At the end of the hall's floor was a tiny door just her size. She crawled in and saw there were a series of tunnels, all labeled, that lead all over the house. Lucky couldn't help but explore. After she had run around a bit she decided to bug Zion for more food. Winter would soon enough be approaching and she needed a decent supply if she was to successfully hibernate. However, when she returned to the fireplace Zion was gone and Cerberus was asleep.
Lucky decided to jump on Cerberus, but he didn't move, so Lucky jumped on him again. She jumped a third time and felt convinced he was faking so she jumped in front of his face and chattered loudly. Cerberus wrinkled his brows and moved his head away lying down facing away from her. This enraged Lucky and she chirped shrilly before launching into his side head first.
Cerberus, annoyed, stood up and barked. He didn't know where Zion was. Lucky, irritated, stole some of the food from his dish and peed on Zion's chair. In all their lifetimes hadn't they ever heard of leaving a note?