***
Entry 2 The Journal of Kai Aynsthil {Continued}
31st day of Midsomner, 166A.S.
...Everything was wrong; even now I can barely comprehend such a possibility existing within in our time of magic-industry. How does someone just -become- something else? How is that even remotely feasible? Well, at the time, I still had hope of becoming myself again, but that was before my new reality had caught up with me...
***
AllyaaAAH! Ooph!" You trip over your new, awkward legs. Everything seems to be in the wrong place as you try to get up again, the new joints in your legs being very difficult to get used to. You barely manage to keep your tail from tripping you up as well. Slowly, You pick yourself up again and half-walk, half-crawl, to your buddy. "Allyn? Arre you therre? Pleasse wake up!" You're still having difficulty with the tongue-thing, it always seems to get in the way when you speak. It's very unnatural and your voice has taken on a low, raspy quality, but there's something a bit refined about the sound that you just can't quite place.
"Ugh, my head..." Allyn groans aloud, moving his hand to his temple and massaging it. You let out a huge sigh of relief as you help him into a sitting position, "Ah, Thanks I- OHGODS!" Allyn practically jumps back from you, falling over on to his back again in surprise.
"Waitwaitwait! Allyn it's me! Kai!" You plead with your friend as he looks up at you with a mix of shock and fear. You can see him process this, but he is having a hard time piecing everything together. You're about to continue when your large, sensitive ears pick up something coming toward you.
"-Bloody, scavenging lizards! What have they taken? Where are the guards!" You hear an angry voice coming from somewhere within the trade house, "Sir, the guards have the situation well in hand, they are waiting for us to inspect the damages..." Another, calmer voice tries to assuage the first, "Damages! Fools, the lot of you! How could such a thing be allowed to happen! Have you caught all those involved, at least!?" The voices are getting closer to your position, "I believe-" the second starts, "I don't want to hear your beliefs! I want to hear what you know!" The first cuts off, "Very good, sir..."
You notice the statuesque house guards, that have been keeping you in this room, begin to move. The cat-like creatures were already tall and imposing to begin with, but now they tower over your four-foot frame as they push you and Allyn towards a back wall. They prod you with their pole-arms to make you comply and soon you're lined up opposite the entrance of the chamber, next to three unconscious Skalds whom you recognize from the break-in. Allyn is busying himself by bandaging his wounds, he's too tired to heal them right away.
You hear a couple of people walking toward the room, you look up to see the lord of the house and an assistant enter the chamber. The assistant looks disturbed by the scene of chaos he has found himself in, but Lord Sologuard was absolutely livid. Sologuard is an intimidating person on a good day, but not because he looks physically menacing - he is a round man with a bald head and a flushed face with piggy eyes that are too close together, but gleam with shrewd intelligence - it is the way he holds himself. He is a man who knows he holds all the power in the room, a man that - no matter how tall you are - always seems to be looking down on you. A man who commands respect and wields it like a weapon. You were never afraid of this man. But since your sudden change, he has become something monstrous and frightening to you. You feel like you're wrestling with new instincts as it takes all your powers of will to not run as fast and as far away as possible.
Sologuard picks his way through the room, turning to look at every piece of broken furniture and smashed container with a look of pure disgust as if he were wading through a trash heap. His tall and wiry assistant makes his way over to you and your friend, "Sir, I believe these are the ones who are responsible for the destruction..." Sologuard turns and looks your way, as if seeing you for the first time, the ire scrawled across his features makes your heart beat faster and your mind tells you to run. He screams bloody murder, "WHERE IS IT YOU FILTHY LIZARD BITCH!" Your eyes go wide as you see him charge over to you, like a bull-augor going in to gore its adversary. You step back and immediately trip over your tail.
"Waugh!" You fall back and scrabble towards Allyn, trying to find some protection behind your friend. The assistant moves between you and the rampaging lord of the house. You cover your eyes, waiting for the first blow to land.
"Please, sir, let's ask a few questions first before we administer punishment, may we?" You hear the lord's assistant appeal to Sologuard, the other begins to take deep breaths to calm down. You open your eyes a little and see the two of them staring down at you. It makes you feel smaller than you already are.
"Very well... Listen here, you scavenging -snake-, I'll be blunt..." He points at you, "There was a relic in here of great value and it was well guarded, what did you do with the guards and, more importantly, what did you do. With. My. ARTIFACT!" His face is beet red and you can only shake yours in confusion, you don't know what he's talking about.
Your confusion and fear start to turn into anger as you fight back your overdeveloped flight instincts in favor of a more familiar one. You stand your ground ready for a battle, "I have no godss-damned idea what you arre talking about, I have no interest in your trinkets, jussst the job I wass promissed." You start getting the hang of your new mouth and speech patterns, but it's still a little awkward and your voice is quite raspy. Sologuard doesn't look impressed and all the staring is making you conscious of your exposed body, at least Skaldrings have most of their equipment hidden on the inside... Thank the gods for small mercies, you suppose. "Thiss issn't what it lookss like! I'm not a Skald!"
"HA! You think I am some kind of fool? A group of witless lizards break in to the richest house in Arenndon for a piece of Starfall and you want me to believe that you have nothing to do with it? I'll tell you what -I- see..." You watch as Sologuard moves around you and Allyn to the group of Skaldrings that are still laying in a heap of unconsciousness. A piece of Starfall? You think to yourself, Is that what the blue thing was? How is that possible... Allyn looks just as confused as you, he offers you a weak shrug. It looks like he has gotten over your whole transformation-thing or at the very least wants to believe what has happened to you. It's comforting to know he's at your back again. "I see a feathered snake, a she-Skald, who thought she could steal herself a powerful artifact to increase her status and led a group of warrior-followers in an ill-conceived raid on my property. I commend you for getting this far, but it was a guileless effort."
Wait... what did he call you? A she-skald...? You look down at yourself, your heart dropping in your chest and your mind racing a million thoughts a second. How could this happen to you? You frown inwardly at this new revelation, shaken. Allyn finds his voice and speaks up, "You have to listen to us, we had nothing to do with the break-in! We tried to stop the real culprits when we saw them make off with your relic...!" The wiry assistant looks impassively at your companion and his lord turns toward Allyn.
"You saw them take the relic! WHERE!" He steps right up to your friend, clearly ready to hear the words of another human.
Allyn looks back at you, "When we got here, we had to fight off some skaldrings, but there was an explosion..." The assistant sidles up to your friend. You remember the explosion... and there was a fourth skaldring in the fight, was it thrown out the window?
"Who is 'We' if I may?" Asks the analytical man. Allyn nods in your direction, a smile creeps across the assistant's features, "And... can I assume that your friend here wasn't -always- like this?" Allyn nods again in the affirmative. Sologuard cuts in.
"This is all a load of augor shit! Who were you, then, if not some conniving, low-born snake-bitch with delusions of grandeur, like the rest of your ilk?" Demands the lord, you try to explain yourself.
"Look, yourr arrtifact iss gone, it wass desstrroyed in the exssplosion... I woke up and sstarted turrning into thiss... whatever I am!" You gesture at yourself, your ears lay flat against the feathers on your head and your tail has wrapped itself around your waist, protecting your modesty. You don't fully know how your body works yet, it seems like everything has a mind of its own. Your mind is still quite muddled from recent events.
Allyn confirms your story, "His name is Kai Aynsthil and I'm Allyn Burbridge, we came here to finalize a contract for a relic retrieval before we were interrupted by the robbery!" He tries to explain quickly and motions for one of the guards to pass him the shreds of your discarded wardrobe from the center of the room. You realize what he's looking for and a wave of relief passes over you when he produces a neatly folded piece of paper from your cloak's inner pocket.
Allyn passes the note to the assistant who glances over the document, "My lord, this does confirm their business with us and we do have records of Kai Aynsthil in our archives. We always keep records of those who would work for us..." He directs the last comment to you and your friend.
You can see Lord Sologuard thinking over his options, no doubt wanting to see how he can come out of this ahead and replace what he has lost. You wait for his answer as you attempt to quiet your perturbed mind. Don't lose yourself now, you think, just keep holding on until you're out of this mess. Sologuard looks up, eyes hard and face set with a decision...