Chapter 1 - Mochi vs. Milly

“W-w-w-wwhat is happening?! Why am I a dog?!”

The princess gazed into the mirror, and reflected back was a small black and white pup. A Papillion. Notable for its small size and butterfly-like ears, it’s aptly named. Really a very cute breed of miniature dog.

“Did I do the spell wrong?! Th-this can’t be-”

As the princess fussed about her new form, floating around frantically in front of the mirror, she heard a rustling from behind her and slowly turned in fear towards the circle where her previous body lay.

To her horror, her body, the one she had abandoned to become a ghost, was moving.

It started stiffly and awkwardly, but eventually the body started to rise and sit itself up, like it had only been sleeping.

It lifted a clenched fist to its face and rubbed its eyes, letting out a wide mouthed yawn before looking down at the hands it just used and letting out a yelp.

“What the heck is this! Where is my beautiful fur! Did someone take it?! I’ll kill you!”

The princess’s former body tried to stand and wobbled once it rose to two legs, struggling to keep balance, and fell over. It let out a ‘grrr’ and clenched its teeth, glaring as it looked around the room.

“Mmmmama! Mama! Where are you?! Fix this!”

At this moment the princess and the princess locked eyes. Our dog ghost princess let out a small nervous squeak, and the princess princess growled again. I promise this will become less confusing very shortly, please bear with me.

“Another dog! Who are you? Why are you in my room?! I’ll kill you!”

“W-what do you mean your room? T-this is my room, and I’m not a dog! I mean, I’m not supposed to be a dog…”

“It’s my room because I’m in it! Who are you!”

“I am… Princess… uhh… Millicent! Who are you?”

The other princess put herself on all fours and crawled over to the ghostly pup, still glaring and baring her teeth. When she approached she sniffed the air, and Millicent let out another squeak.

“You don’t smell like milk! You don’t smell like nothin’!”

“Not Milk-icent! Mill-icent!”

The other princess lunged up at Millicent, mouth agape and snarling, but she passed right through.

“D-Did you just try to bite me?!”

“Your name is too hard! I’ll kill you!”

“F-fine! Milly then!”

“Whatever! Where’s Mama?!”

“Who is mama? Who are you?”

“Mama is mama, mama calls me Mochi. I’m a princess too! Mama says so!”

Although Milly was now a dog, prior to this whole chaotic mess she was quite the well read young girl. While her favourites were always horror stories, she had read her fair share of mysteries as the genres often overlapped. She worked her adorable little puppy brain to try and piece together how her spell went wrong.

“O-okay, okay, ‘Princess Mochi’. Can you tell me what you remember before getting here?”

“No! Where is Mama! I’m hungry! Mama feeds me dinner!”

Clearly Milly would get nowhere with a logical line of questioning, and began to lament her circumstances. She questioned why she was doomed to a sorrowful life no matter what she tried. Milly began to whine and cry a little.

“Hey baby, don’t cry.”

Mochi had softened her face and pawed at Milly, passing through her head.

“I’m hungry, I bet you’re hungry. Let’s eat food. Food is good for sad.”

Milly looked at her former self and was shocked that the violent and aggressive personality from 30 seconds ago had done a 180. Who was this person? She tried to connect the dots in her mind.

“Food -is- good for… sad, I guess. I should have some treats in the drawer over there…”

Mochi perked up hearing the words, and let her tongue fall out of her mouth as she smiled. She spun around in a circle on her hands and knees and sat up with her hands propped in front of her chest like-

“A dog…”

Milly had a realization. She was in a dog’s body, and the dog was in hers. But why was she a ghost? Was it the spell? She’d need to look at her book again, but for that she would need Mochi to turn the pages, since… well, Milly’s new dog paws don’t have thumbs.

Bribery is a great plan, so the priority now should be the treats… She thought.

She flew over to the drawer, and Mochi tried to crawl along just as quickly behind her but stumbled a lot, getting caught up in the Princess’ nightgown.

“AAAAAAA! What is this! I hate this! Get this off!”

Mochi had a small tantrum and bit the clothing she was wearing, before tearing it off herself. Milly flew back to her in a panic that her body was now nude. She fussed over Mochi, trying to convince her to redress, but Mochi just yelled for treats.

This gave Milly a wonderful idea. She’d never had a dog before, but of course she knew that you could train them. The guards of the castle had dogs, and they were all very good dogs.

Milly flew back to the drawer again and proclaimed that the treats were hidden within, and reached out for the handle. Her small paw passed right through and she sighed heavily in defeat. Thumbs weren’t her biggest problem.

“Whose idea was it to become a Spirit?...”

Milly turned back to Mochi and repeated that the treats were in the drawer, and so began the long and arduous task of getting a dog in a human body to open a drawer. After what seemed like hours, with moonlight flooding the room, they had made some progress.

Mochi had unfurled her fists, and was able to wiggle her fingers and move them around in an almost human fashion. Now was the time, and Mochi reached out for the handle. She hooked her fingers awkwardly around it. The two held their breath, and-

*slide*

“It opened!!”

The two celebrated. Mochi gleefully laughed and Milly cried with relief.

Inside the drawer was all manner of midnight snacks; mostly candy, cookies and things a dog shouldn’t eat, but if Mochi is in a human body it should be fine right?

Milly had this pensive thought before looking up to see Mochi already face first in the drawer, trying to eat whatever got close to her mouth.

“MOCHI NO! BAD!”

Mochi looked up and glared again at Milly. A low growl escaped from her.

“It’s mine!”

Feeling dejected, Milly contemplated how her genius plan of training Mochi with treats was going to succeed when she couldn’t touch anything, and this dog clearly didn’t respect her enough to listen without incentive. If she couldn’t bribe her with physical objects, she would need to bribe her with something intangible. Like knowledge.

“M-mochiiii~ I know where there’s even better food, but you have to help me with something first~”

Milly felt proud of herself for coming up with yet another brilliant plan. Then she heard a burp and looked up from her internal praise to see Mochi sprawled out naked on the floor with a bloated belly, and the drawer completely empty. Milly became flustered at the sight and covered her eyes with her tiny paws, squeaking and tearing up with humiliation.

“No! I’m full. I’m sleepy!”

With that declaration Mochi yawned, her tongue flopping out to the side of her mouth, and she began to lightly snore. Milly had made no progress on finding out anything about Mochi or their situation, and cried quietly once again in frustrated defeat. Maybe the light of day would bring new hope. Don’t give up Milly!

Mochi: 1

Milly: 0