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Topics - Shifting Sands

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31
"Greetings, ladies and gents of various mortal ages or immortal states of power!" Kain announces, now actually showing color and not just an outline. He has two curling horns atop his head, a devilish, fanged smile, fancy blue-and-red noble's clothes, and a spaded tail twirling around himself. Despite the demonic appearance, he has a faint tanned appearance and normalish green eyes.

"Our match for the moment in this universe is a creator v. creation cage competition! A fight for the title of who really owns the other! We, the Gods, bring you... Ezgo, the mad scientist, and Mega-06, the hulking machine!"

Both of the fighters enter from opposite sides of the arena, finding nothing of interest for cover or weaponizing across the entire field.

"Commence fighting!" Kain yells, and drops a checkered black-and-white flag into the arena.

32
Role Play Theater / Ye Olde Gods Arena: THE MATCHES
« on: June 11, 2012, 09:21:53 AM »
Early the next morning, some more text begins writing itself out upon your letters. You can see your own name, some others you might recognize, and then... well, everyone else, whether they be from your own dimension or some other. You quickly look for your own match, and as soon as your eyes touch upon it, you're teleported again!

"ROUND 1

Ezgo vs. Mega-06 Ezgo wins! (but Mega lives)
Bloomblade vs. Uvall Bloomblade wins!
Trubbolsworth vs. Phonay Trubbolsworth wins!
Virmir vs. Kain Virmir wins!
Irae vs. Medik Irae wins!
Javed vs. Erwin Erwin... wins?
Atreus the Steeled vs. Farallax
Daren vs. Bint the Bloodied

<3, Kain"

More words appear after you finish your matches, written in a more flowing hand than what you suppose is Kain's, though it's not signed.

"ROUND 2

Irae vs. Bloomblade
Trubbol vs. Virmir
Erwin vs. Ezgo"

33
Role Play Theater / TO THE ARENA
« on: June 06, 2012, 07:28:22 PM »
SETTING THIS UP NOW BECAUSE I LAZY BUT WANT THIS TO START SO CONFLICTING VALUES SUCK THE END.

One moment, you were... there, just minding your own business, doing whatever you were doing, but then, you weren't. You blinked, felt some sort of tingling in your blood, and then you were in the middle of a bloodstained area, featuring no one in the wellkept stands. However, before you were a number of gargantuan figures who didn't seem to quite show any... color. Literally. Some looked like they had horns, tails, or other crazy bits to their body. Even though you might share some of those same bits, they just felt... wrong. One on the far right gave a devilish grin, handed you a flyer, and then once again, you were somewhere different; somewhere with other people your (relative) size, with color, and with the same flyer as you. You glance down at it and read. Come to think of it, the words are... really strange, but you somehow still understand them.

"Greetings, players!

You're now participating in the fight of the ages - the Arena of the Old Gods. Yes, yes, it's a typical name, but we are old, and we're Gods, what else do you expect? Now, each of you are to pick your players and pick them carefully; everything you do is going to be measured against you and lead up to 'the end' of the fighting; well, not really the end for you, but you do get one item of infinite power and wealth. One wish, redeemable to wish on anything.

As for your player, there are some rules. To begin with, you are expected to do whatever you want! Creativity is looked upon favorably by us Gods. HOWEVER, do not make a kill switch, a weapon of our caliber, an "I win" button, etc. You will face harsh punishment, the least painful of which being death.

Remember, we ARE the Gods. We see all and we know all. Don't hide something like this! Especially not against us.

Your first fight is within hours. It will be against someone... less fortunate than you, someone with less control.

Lastly, your room is a cage located in the back of the area you are now in. It even has your name on it.

Love, the Gods (namely Kain)"

What you do for fun or for survival is now in your hands.



AHEM, now that that is done, I can talk about plans and stuff! Again, it's a big arena obviously, and to begin with, you won't fight other players. It's some NPC I come up with I guess, and maybe only some people will have the first fight (because it's more interesting to get everyone involved instead of 1-1 battles). OTHER THAN THAT, magic is about as common as how large the diversity of the characters is - AKA a whole dang lot. Make things up, whatever you want to begin with! You can be from any time with any power so long as you keep IT IN CHECK PLEASE THANK YOU.

Following the beginning fight, everyone will begin fighting each other. PvP, whatever you wanna call it. How this ends for each person will be up to them; you can coordinate as little or as much as you like, I don't care! If it does happen, however, please mention this! It doesn't need to be readily obvious to other people, but to the Gods it must be! BECAUSE THEY MUST SEE IT.

Once all the fighting between each other has finished, the winners will team up and begin fighting some crazy, lower-ranking deities. You might have collected powers along the way for winning, and you can use these to your advantage and whatnot.

The losers who participate can choose to either leave in spectacular fashion, perish, or fight for their lives with the winning team as well, but they come in with penalties enacted upon them. They might end up as more of a liability than teammate. So, there you go! Fun!

And if anyone asks, the Gods love entertainment and watching mortal lives pass before their eyes! It's practically like a sped-up version of life to them - people fight for meaningless causes and then die for said causes. They even openly talk about how cruel it is, but they don't care! They're the Gods!

EDIT:
Also, Kenku has applied his services to the arena! Each player can find one strange, green paper slip with a picture of his face on it, redeemable for one customizable potion - limited as he pleases.

You have 3 days! Monday, this will begin and anyone who has not submitted is not in!

34
Random Insanity / I AM A PERSON
« on: May 04, 2012, 12:56:35 PM »
And I am here sorta so say things at me?

35
Writer's Guild / A story with FOXES!
« on: September 12, 2010, 11:04:09 PM »
Okay... after being DEMANDED multiple times... here is a story I made when I was even younger... That being said, I know that it could be much better, and that so, so, so very much is not possible, even by fantasy standards... And I also know that half of it is me just putting in "A" instead of "B" in Virmir's stories. >.>

Anyway! Have fun with reading it... I didn't want to fix any mildly annoying errors before I posted it, so you already know what I think!  |:P



Corpses were scattered about the cave, some fresh kills, while others had been there long enough for them to decay and rot away. All of them were placed in such a grueling pose, it was a wonder anyone would approach this cave, let alone bounty hunters like ourselves.

“You don’t think the bodies are a good enough sign to flee?” I asked them.

“I don’t appreciate having to fight an immortal mage anymore than you, but we need gold if we want to survive,” Evine responded.

“Get a grip, Drezin. Whoever’s beyond here, they can’t be any more dangerous than any other bounty we’ve tracked down before. Remember the naga?” Cyrus questioned.

That wasn’t something that we wanted to remember, but we constantly had to refer back. A small group of naga had been attacking Cyrus’ home village, and he demanded we go there immediately and save the villagers. Cyrus was a friend, and Evine and I followed him to the village to find all the villagers dead, and the naga still raiding their houses. Those mutants prided themselves on witchcraft, and changed half of Cyrus’ hand into one of their own scaly monstrosities. Of course, it only made Cyrus more angry and headstrong, so we dominated the naga but didn’t save anyone, nor receive a bounty.

“Yes, but this is an immortal mage! They live forever until someone finally kills them, and this one seems to enjoy the competition!” I yelled.

“We’ll take precautions,” comforted Evine, “and if bad comes to worse, I have a teleport ready.”

Mages varied everywhere you went. There was the occasional arcanist like Evine, helping some royal family exterminate whatever they wanted. There was the Shadow Mage, spending all their days in a rundown village or murky cave, killing anyone that trespassed and using their blood to incant their spells. Then there was the immortal mage, our bounty, who had figured out how to use the most dangerous of spells and extend their lifetime, devoting every second of every day to studying more spells. I seriously doubted that our precautions could dampen the blow of this mage.
“Let’s just keep moving and get this over with,” I muttered.

The three of us trudged on in silence together through the cave, past more skeletons and corpses. Evine was practicing his barrier of magic the whole way, but whether it would help or not would be discovered eventually. The only thing I could do to calm down was flip my dagger in the air, catching it straight on the hilt, or when I was feeling more confident, going for the tip of the cold steel.

   Bodies were becoming more and more clustered together, indicating that we were approaching whoever this bounty was. The passage became narrower, pushing us into a line formation instead of the more efficient wave we once had.

    “Wait!” yelled Evine. He threw a lightning bolt through the air, triggering several trap runes as it moved through the corridor. Cyrus gave a surprised clap, and Evine just kept moving. All serious business with him.

   The passage expanded again, revealing a gigantic room littered with bodies. Stalactites hung from the ceiling, none reaching even a quarter down to the floor. There was a bookcase filled with spell books, Evine himself gaping at the number of them. In the center sat a young girl at a wooden desk, not looking more than seven years old.

   “THIS is what you were worried about Drezin?! HA!” laughed Cyrus. He moved closer and closer to the girl, making me more and more worried.

   “Cyrus, get back!” yelled Evine. He pulled up his magic barrier around himself and I, Cyrus too far out of reach.

   “You really should listen to your friend,” said the little girl. She moved the chair back without any part of her body, then floated up about nine feet into the air, just tall enough for Cyrus’ sword to be out of reach. She used another spell and took his sword straight out of his scaly fingers, sticking it into the ceiling right above her. We all stared up at in awe.

   “When we kill this girl, Evine, I’ll get you that spell,” joked Cyrus.

   “I could teach him myself, thank you,” said the girl. “And my name is Eleanor!”

   I pulled out my bow, reached down into my sling of arrows, and shot it straight at the rock around the sword. The rock crumbled and the sword was falling to the ground, but Eleanor suspended it with a spell in the air, spun it around, and then brought it straight to herself. She took the sword and threw it into Cyrus’ armor, breaking right through it and stabbing through his chest.

   “CYRUS!” I yelled. He wouldn’t move, just lying there on the cold rock with a fountain of red spewing from his stomach. Eleanor retrieved the sword in his chest, more blood leaving the wound. “Where’s that teleport, Evine?!”

   “It’ll take time!” He started shooting fireballs straight at the girl, but none of them even touched her. “What are you waiting for? Shoot her!”

   I joined in with Evine, a volley of arrows with spells, none of them touching Eleanor. She began floating back down to the ground again, still being pelted with weapons. She slowly walked over to us, her barrier still holding up. We still fired, even when she was straight in front of us, but nothing would pierce through her defenses.

   I reached down into my sling, but nothing was there any longer. Evine was also looking exhausted, one last spark before he stopped.

   “I like you,” Eleanor said simply, pointing at me. “I think I have something for you.”

   She used yet another of her spells, breaking through our simplistic barrier, picking me straight up off the ground. She looked up at me, spinning me around in the air, making me sick. Then she threw me into the wall of the cave, shattering my right arm and leg.

   “Drezin!” yelled Evine, beginning to run over to me.

   “I think I like you too,” Eleanor said, repeating the process with Evine, throwing him into the opposite wall.

   Eleanor simply giggled, and I blacked out.

-----
   
   I woke groggily to find myself in a rusted iron cage, still in the same cave. The pain in my arm and leg was nonexistent now. I looked around and saw Cyrus’ corpse on the ground, his two-hand by his side. Evine was on the other side of the room in a cage the same as mine, glancing at me.

   “Drezin!” he yelled. “I still have my teleport, but I can only get one of us out of here!”

   “Go!” I responded. “You need to go tell the Council we have a problem!”

   “I can’t leave you here, though!” he argued.

   “We don’t have time for this!” I finished.

   “The sleepyheads are awake?” asked a high voice. Eleanor entered the room, staring at both of us. “Good, I was getting bored of waiting. Immortality can be so dull, which is why I’ve kept you. Which one of you is first for my show?”

   Evine began to incant his spell.

   “Ah, you want to go first!” giggled Eleanor. She walked over to him, looking him over as he was casting. She brought out several other iron cages filled with animals: horses, foxes, birds, wolves, the entire sort.

   “Which do you like the best?” asked Eleanor politely.

   Evine didn’t interrupt his casting for a second.

   “Fine then, I’ll choose for you.” She picked up the cages like feathers, and when there was an animal she didn’t want, she threw cage against the wall, shattering the sturdy iron and animal alike.

   “Ah, here’s one!” she yelled. Eleanor had selected a red fox, his tail ending in a white tip, ears pointed, and eyes darting around. “Now hold still,” she instructed Evine and the fox.

   Eleanor began to incant a spell of her own. She was almost singing the words, bringing the whole cave to a silence as it listened to her. Evine screamed out in pain, interrupting his own spell, and the fox was barking, yipping as Eleanor continued. I reached around in my pockets for my dagger, maybe to break up the spell, maybe to kill her, but it wasn’t anywhere I could see. I could hear bones snapping, I could see Evine’s muscles contorting, but there was still nothing I could do about it! Where was the dagger? Where was the dagger?!

   Then, all at once, it stopped. Eleanor was silent. The fox was non-existent, and Evine was lying against the cold bars of the cage, not moving.

   “Yay!” Eleanor blurted out. “Your turn!” she yelled as she pointed at me.

   If what had just happened to Evine was going to happen to me, I didn’t want it. I started looking for somewhere I could escape the cage, but my fist wouldn’t do anything against iron.

   “Do you want to choose, or should I choose for you?” Eleanor asked.

   There had to be some way out! Nothing can be foolproof!

   “I think you two would look better as a pair,” she said, and had a gray fox picked out, looking just as terrorized as the last one. It looked a bit bigger than the last one, white fur underneath his eyes and around his muzzle, his tail ending just like the red fox.

   This couldn’t happen. I didn’t want to die! I needed money to live, killing evil to earn it, and now I’m going to die from it?! And I’m going to take an animal with me? What was Eleanor doing?

   Eleanor began casting the spell in the same singsong voice, the process repeating. The gray fox was barking, growling in desperation, and I tried to find a way out of the cage again. Maybe I had found the way out, but then my body started twisting, breaking, tearing itself apart. The fox had disappeared, leaving me alone to face the pain. I screamed out once, clawing at the air to get me out of this excruciating pain, but there was no hope then. Eleanor had stopped casting. It all went dark again.

-----
                                                                                                                                                                 
   I woke up.

   But I’m not supposed to wake up! I’m dead!

   But I’m awake.

   I saw what happened! This isn’t what life is!

But I’m awake.

No, I’m not! There’s nothing to feel!

But I feel awake.

How is this here? I died! There was nothing else to it!

I’m thinking.

No! Dead people don’t think!

Aren’t I?

Am I really doomed to this? Arguing with myself?

-----

What was that smell? My eyes wouldn’t open, but my nose could smell something… musky. I could hear birds. I could feel wind hitting my eardrums. But my body wasn’t so sensitive before. Was this death? Or was I still alive?

I forced my eyes open and saw a canopy of trees and leaves, the blue sky behind it, with no clouds in the sky. I pushed myself onto my feet, taking a look around. It was the area right outside of Eleanor’s cave! I wasn’t dead, but why was I so sensitive? I placed my hands in front of my face, just to see that they weren’t the same hands I remembered.

They were paws!  Paws covered in gray fur, like the foxes’ in the cave! I could look down and just barely see a muzzle sticking out of my face, a few whiskers popping out! A tail was swaying back and forth behind me, tipped with a bit of white, just like the fox!

My leather armor slipped right off. My bow was too large for me. Everything wasn’t the correct size all of a sudden.

But I was still standing on two legs… And I could think like this. Was this Eleanor’s spell? And where was Evine? Ugggh… I was lost in a new body, and nobody was going to accept an anthro-fox anywhere I went.  I might as well go find somewhere for shelter, get some food and some water.

Smells were overwhelming. The birds flying overhead, the pollen picked up on the wind. I could hear rushing of water, and tried to follow it, but I was disoriented, looking around, my… tail getting caught in my footwork.

I smelled meat somewhere; must’ve been rabbit. I tried yet again to get something to fill my stomach, but I was just too big or too small to get anywhere without a problem. The rabbit had already heard me from several feet away, and escaped.

Just where could I go from here? Evine, the only mage I knew, was nowhere to be found so I was stuck like this for a while. Lyniel Hold despised magic, so if I could manage to get over there they might as well execute me. A village could trap me and tear me up, the biggest fox they ever saw, roasting on a pot before them. I’m never going to be able to kill an animal on my own, but at least I could follow the sound of water.

I found the creek’s clearing in a few minutes and looked down into the water. There was the new me, white fur underneath my eyes and around my muzzle. The eyes were strange; black everywhere except the iris, which was a dark hazel like my eyes used to be. Then there was my new height, not nearly as tall as I used to be. But I still wasn’t small enough to pass off as a fox! How was this working? How was I half-human and half-fox? I needed to find someone who could help!

I went back out into the forest, looking around for anybody to help. I would have even taken my chances with Eleanor, but I had lost my sense of direction again. What was I supposed to do? I might as well try to find a fresh kill and push the other animals out of the way.

Right when I was about to get this hunting thing right, a trap swallowed me up.

-----

 “It could be dangerous, though! How do we know that the humans are in control of the bodies, not the foxes? They could escape into the streets, stealing from stalls and swiftly vanishing!

“Do you really think that these three would be hard to find? Take a good look. They have tails two feet long, for God’s sake! Their faces stick out, and they have claws! Those ears would perk up the moment they heard something interesting! Would it be that difficult to find them?!”

 “That’s just it, though! Claws! On a mixture of a paw and hand! With tails, tripping anybody who follows them! And they would hear anybody getting anywhere close to them!”

“They’re chained up! They won’t escape! Let’s at least see what they really are.”

Were voices always so loud? Of course not. But there was no escaping that right now, my ears would pick up voices farther than fifty feet away.

I had to force my eyes open again, taking a look around where I was. Murky smell… again. Cobblestones with mold… Chained, hanging off the ground on a wall. For the third time, I was in Lyniel Castle’s dungeons. But now, I wasn’t human. Still, the chains fit, and there wasn’t any escaping these dungeons, I had already found.

I looked to my sides, and saw not one, but two other people staring at me, chained up just like me. Not only that, but they both were anthro-foxes. Both were naked, just like me, but one was female, the one to my right. We all stared at each other, wondering how it was we had other people like us. The female had a strange coloring, red, gray and black in patterns on her body. The eyes were strange, blue in the iris, the rest of the eye black. Her tail ended in a white tip, just like mine. The male, on the other hand, had his whole body enveloped in red fur, but his tail still ended in that white tip. The eyes were much same, just green in the iris.

“H-hello?” stammered the female. Her voice was higher pitched than most normal people, but then again, we were definitely not normal people.

“Hi,” I blurted out. I hadn’t used this new voice before, and it had certainly heightened in pitch.

“Do you know why we’re here?” she asked, desperate for an answer.

“No, sorry. What about you?” I directed at the other male.

He shook his head.

“What are your names?” I asked. “We might as well get to know each other if we’re the only half-human, half-fox people.”

“Brooke,” she answered.

“Evine,” the other said.

Wait, Evine? This happened to him, too? Did he not know how to get himself out of this? Were we all stuck as anthro-foxes?

“D-drezin,” I stuttered. Evine thought it over and realized what had happened.

“What’s wrong?” asked Brooke.

“We happen to know each other,” explained Evine. “Right before we became like this, that is.”

I could see how he matched up with the fox Eleanor picked, and he seemed to do the same with me. But why our tips ended in a white tip was still a mystery. Did it even matter?

“How?” Brooke asked.

“We were bounty hunters, killing people with money on their heads. Then we came across a particularly dangerous mage, and here we are now,” I told her.

“How’d you get to be like this?” Evine asked of her.

“Magic, just like you two,” Brooke said. “I was moving through the forest, and a cave caught my attention. There were a few trees around the entrance, almost guarding it. I took one step into the cave, my last footstep, and then I blacked out. I wound up right in front of the castle, and the guards threw me in the dungeon.”

“Trap rune, maybe?” Evine wondered. “Probably Eleanor’s cave.”

“So you don’t know how to change back, Evine?” I asked him.

“There is no way,” he said simply. “I already thought out everything that could possibly remove the reynards, or vixen for Brooke, and there is simply nothing to do.”

Nothing? Nothing. I might as well be stuck arguing with myself for the rest of eternity. Maybe there is something I can do to at least get used to this.

Brooke was absolutely terrified. I could hear her sharp breathing and could smell her sweat, being stuck like this until she died.

“On the semi-bright side,” Evine explained, “we’re now immortal…”

Well, now until she was killed by impossible magic. Brooke might as well have had a heart attack, killing her then and there, but no such luck.

“Why haven’t you gotten out of here yet, Evine?” I asked him.

He pointed down at the shackles restraining us, glowing a faint purple. “Magic shackles, too,” Evine said.

Voices crept down into our cell, a pair, perking our ears up.

“You’re going to talk to them?!” one was yelling.

“You’d rather we kill them?” the other replied.

“Yes! They could have a disease! They could spread this half-human, half-animal disease all over the castle! I think I would rather kill them!”

“They’re chained up, like I’ve already said! If you’re really afraid, cover your mouth and nose with a cloth or something; I’m going to talk to them.”

The two barged through the door, walking straight to our cell and entering it, shutting the door behind them. The shorter of the two was pudgy, not much taller than my new self, wearing some linen shirt and holding it over his face. The taller wore some leather, just like what I had used to wear. He was maybe a foot, foot and a half taller than me.

The taller one was glancing over us, following the ears, down through the fur to our paws, down to the tail, and then down to our feet. The shorter stood there in disgust, still keeping his face covered.

“Can you understand me?” the taller asked.

“Yes,” the three of us said in unison.

“Do you have a name, and if so, what is it?” he asked of us.

We all stated our names one at a time, their left to right.

“No last or middle names?” asked the shorter one.

“I… forgot…” I told him. The others had as well.

“See? Wolves in lambs clothing!” yelled the shorter.

“Just! Hold! On! You don’t use magic; would you like to explain what happened to them and why they can only remember a part of their name?” asked the taller.

The pudgy one sighed.

“Good. Now, do any of you have any family?”

I knew myself and Evine had none, killed by the outbreak of flu years ago. But Brooke wasn’t the same.

“A sister,” she said.

“Where is she?” he asked.

“On the Council,” Brooke said. “King’s advisor.”

I would have slapped myself if I hadn’t been shackled. First, Evine and I had tried to pull off shady deals for people. Then there was the fact that the Council banned magic in the hold. Only the arcanists’ library didn’t have anti-magic runes in place.

“Really? What’s her name?” asked the shorter again.

“Leena,” Brooke said.

The pudgy one stood there, frozen for a few seconds while he covered his mouth.

“Yes, that’s her name,” he said after he gathered himself.

“None of you were born like this?” asked the taller.

We all shook our heads.

“Magic, then. Alright. Guards, get these three some bread and water!” the taller yelled out of the cell.

“You can’t be serious! These three are hardly worth keeping in a cell, let alone giving them food and water!” yelled the short one.

“Unlock all the shackles; except for the right ankle,” the taller instructed. “Hurry up!”

The shorter stared at us in disgust as he unlocked our shackles, cursing and muttering under his breath. He still had the cloth around his face when he finished, and left with the taller. Guards entered with bread and water, just like my previous times here, exited and locked the doors behind them.

Funny, I heard no other inmates anywhere. We must have been “special cases”.

Three small bowls of water, and three sticks of bread. I hadn’t realized how hungry I was until the food was there. We were definitely special cases to deserve anything bigger than crumbs.

The three of us stepped over to the food, myself stumbling on my tail yet again. I was going to pick up the bowl and bring it to my lips, but before I had even touched it, I knew it was going to slip and deprive me of the only food for a while. So instead, I bent over and lapped it up, already feeling more comfortable than before. The water was cool and refreshing after being shackled. Brooke seemed to think that I had the right idea, and mimicked what I had done. Evine, on the other hand…

“What are you two doing?!” he yelled. We both looked up at him.

“Drinking,” I replied.

“Like dogs!” he added. His higher voice made his serious tone even funnier than before.

“Well, we kind of are, now,” Brooke said. I had already continued to lap up the water.

Evine was still staring at me. I looked up and told him, “You said it yourself: we’re stuck like this. We might as well get used to it!”

He was hesitant, but once he had started, he took a lot of the water in.

The bread was a bit easier. The pads on my paws were there, but miniature, and when I held the bread in both of them, it was stable. My teeth chewed differently, being half and half of human and fox, but it was natural, just different.

We had finished in a few minutes, and I started trying to walk around and not trip on my tail for a few steps. It obviously didn’t work; I simply couldn’t hold it up. Every time I fell over, Brooke would laugh at me (or something similar for anthro-foxes).

“You try it!” I told her.

She managed to walk for a whole minute without tripping, and didn’t trip when she finished, either. This tail was going to be a hassle, especially being immortal… Maybe I could find some sort of clothes to hold it up? If any fit me, that is.

I looked down at my feet and saw no pads on the bottom, but they were smaller and had claws on the ends of the toes. No shoes would allow those unless adjusted.

I felt around the top of my head and found triangular ears. They bugged me, perking up at the sound of anything different than silence, but they wouldn’t trip me like a tail.

My muzzle was annoying, changing my view like it did, but it still wasn’t a tail.

Then more voices crept down into our cell.

“This one inmate better be important,” a female complained.

“You’ll see just how important it is when we get there,” responded the taller of the two men from our last conversation.

Brooke’s ears perked up. “Leena!” she told us.

The two came to our cell and opened it. Leena recoiled in horror, screaming as well. She was a good foot and a half taller than me, just like the taller of the two previous men.

“What are these things?” she yelled. “They’re naked, magic monsters!”

“That,” said the man, pointing at Brooke, “is your sister!”

Leena was shocked at how he had told her how to view us. “That is not my sister! She was staying over by Spear Lake! She sent me a letter yesterday!”

“And you doubt that she could be here? Ask her yourself and see.”

“And why should I?!”

“Leena, it is me,” Brooke said.

“They speak?! And they impersonate my family?! Why aren’t they dead yet?!” Leena was screaming.

“Why don’t you believe me?” Brooke muttered.

“If you’re truly my sister, you would have to know something only we know!”

Brooke concentrated on something, standing around and swaying her tail. Then she stopped and spoke.

“You’re only King’s Advisor because our mom and dad were on the council. Our family solved what the king hated most: economic problems. You don’t even like your duty! You offered it to me!” Brooke finished.

Leena stood there, frozen just like the pudgy man from before. Then she ran into the cell and hugged Brooke, like a mother and a child embracing.

“Brooke… I’m so sorry…” Leena apologized through sobs. “Thank you, Richard.”

The taller man, Richard, nodded and handed Leena the key to our cell. Then he left the same way he had entered.

The two sisters finished and separated by a couple of feet.

“How, Brooke? Do you need an arcanist’s help?” offered Leena. “Do you need any clothes?”

 “If you could find any that fit, it would be nice. But he;” Brooke pointed at Evine; “said we’re stuck like this.”

“What?!” Leena cried out. “How would he know?”

“He’s an arcanist, and his name is Evine,” Brooke explained.

“I’m so sorry…” Leena said.

“We all got stuck like this from magic outside the castle. We think it originated from one person, but we’re not sure.”

“Where? I can go send a squad of guards immediately to remove the source!”

“I wouldn’t recommend that,” said Evine. “Do we really need any more of us?”

“But do we want her to hit the hold with a spell like this?” I asked. “I think you could send a squad to eliminate her, but you would need lots and lots of mages.”

Evine considered what I had said. “I agree with you now, Drezin, but let’s hold off until we really know that the arcanists are unbeatable,” said Evine.

Leena nodded. “I’ll get clothes for all of you. You two don’t seem like you should be locked up.”

She obviously hadn’t met us.

“If I could,” Leena whispered, “I’d let you out, but the most I can do is get you clothes.” She hugged Brooke again and left, locking the door behind her.

I lay down on the stone, my fur finally keeping me warm. The tail curved around to my head, creating a pillow.

“Already done for today, Drezin?” asked Brooke.

“Well, I woke up and found out I’m some freak human-fox mix. Then, I get questioned about something I hardly even remember now. I get fed. I get told that I’m a thing undeserving a cell in a dungeon. And then the very same person calling me a thing promises to get clothing for me, shrunken and using a tail for a pillow. I would have called it a day at the very first event.”

“Fine,” said Brooke.

It’s not too hard to fall asleep in a dungeon, especially when your own body can make a sort of bed. Maybe this could be worse. It could be better, but then again, Evine and I are the ones who decided to be bounty hunters.

-----

“Is he always like this?” Brooke asked me.

“He’s the only fourteen year old bounty hunter I know,” I told her.

“I can still hear you two!” Drezin yelled.

“Yes, he’s always like that.”

I should be used to this by now. I’m an arcanist! I practice magic for a living, but being the one affected by a spell was different. And a permanent one at that! But maybe this could help my spells, being half magic the whole time. I’d have to check once I could cast again.

I tried to sit down so I could concentrate, but that blasted tail kept getting in the way. No matter where it moved, it was somehow in the way. I might be stuck with this body, but maybe I could change that tail around.

Once I had found out how to sit down without crushing the tail, I sat there and thought. Eleanor was immortal at a young age; probably had mage parents. She had a collection of spells. Most seemed to be telekinesis, but there was that one melding-bodies spell, and her barrier stopped arrows and spells alike. There had to be some way to kill her, surprise her. Whatever way that we could go about it, there didn’t seem to be a way of accomplishing that. If there was a way to destroy that barrier, stop her from using it again, she could go down easy, maybe even contain her in a barrier of our own, retrieve her spells. No, too dangerous. But we could still remove her.

“Okay, Evine?” asked Brooke. I must’ve looked strange, thinking while a mixed species.

“Yes, just thinking. Drezin has the right idea; I think we should sleep.”

Drezin’s ears perked up, still strange to me. “Now you think I have the good idea…” he muttered. Of course, muttering didn’t have quite the same effect now.

“Do you really think we’re stuck like this?” asked Brooke as I moved back and leaned against the wall.

“I don’t think so. I know so. But we can try to make this normal. That’s the most we can do.”

It must have been getting dark, as the shift of guards was changing. Dungeons weren’t my favorite place to be, especially when I was there pulling Drezin out. For a fourteen year old, he had been bugging the castle’s guards all the time. He was a bit of a born thief, and he was probably only going to be quicker with these changes.

“You’re sure you’re okay?” Brooke asked again. Blasted muzzle!

“Yes.”

“Maybe I could get Leena to appeal to the council to do something about us being in the dungeons, maybe even letting us out on the streets again.”

“With what I’ve gathered from meeting her, I’d say she’s already done that.”

“Would you two be quiet?!” Drezin yelled.

Brooke took her tail and waved it straight over Drezin’s muzzle, making him sit up for once.

“What?!” he yelled again.

“Nothing,” Brooke said, smiling.

He crawled back up on the stone floor, using his tail again as a pillow. If I could just find some way my tail could be useful, this new form might not be so bad. But for now, nothing.

-----



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