Note: I forgot to give credit to the chapter, "Malbur The Grief Star" by an Anonymous writer for inspiring the version of the character, Malbur, in the chapter, "Innocence - Part 3 - The Consequences of Curiosity and Desire (Version 2)"
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Sera watched as Cradle held Nat up with nearly invisible strings. Almost like an puppeteer and Nat is the puppet. Cradle is an serpentine dragon not unlike an eastern dragon. As an result, Cradle has multiple arms lined along his serpentine body, each carrying a wooden cross with puppet strings attached to it. Sera noticed that one of the wooden crosses had puppet strings attached to the needle.
But what sparked Sera's interest was that Cradle somehow knew her name. She doesn't recall mentioning it before for the sake of seeing how long the cloud girl will go until she figures out that she isn't Ilivir. Did something informed Cradle of their arrival?
Cradle watched Sera with interest.
"Hmm. It appears you still have fight left. Alright. But I'm too tired to fight you right now. So if you're so eager to fight, then I'll just let you fight you're friend instead." With that said, Cradle plunged his magic needle into Nat. But not just once, but multiple times.
In a few short moments, Nat was a plush toy version of herself. Her purple dragon yes were replaced with purple buttons for eyes. Her arms became plush, and a lot more simple. Her sword fell to the ground. Without any fingers, Nat was unable to hold Excalibur anymore. Her feet also became round stubs of their former selves. Her dust bunny foot became a cut little paw. Her mouth turned into a permanent smile stitched on her face. Her white cloud hair was replaced with white yarn. Her white cloud robe was changed to cloth and was altered to matched Nat's rounder and softer body. The final insult to injury was that she now has and a doll string with an ring attached to her back that connects to her new voice box.
Cradle calmly pulled on Nat's new doll string. As the string retracted, Sera heard Nat's new mechanical voice from the stuffed doll's voice box. "I can't control my body! Turn me back!"
"Sorry Nat. But I'm your daddy now. Be a good girl and fight for daddy." Cradle said in a mocking voice.
Sera gritted her teeth in anger. Only she can mess with people with transformations! How dare this dragon mock her!
Sera thought hard on what she should do next. She has a lot of spells at her disposal. There are a lot of things she hasn't tried yet. But which one is best suited for this situation?
As Sera racked her brain for ideas, she felt something change inside her. Something must be happening with the captive souls. But Sera is a little too preoccupied to worry about that right now.