Shanna peered back into the kitchen to check her friends and smiled as she saw them happily eating.
On her book shelf she had a particular old volume about transfiguration. Passed down through generations of her family, she was hoping for something to help her poor guests.
She carried the heavy book back to the dining table and began to look through the old drawings and strange text.
The wolf, having devoured her meat hungrily, walked over to Shanna and her book and peered up curiously.
“This is a very old and very powerful book about magic and shapeshifting.” She explained. “Some of it still doesn’t make any sense to me, but I’m hoping that I might be able to undo what’s been done to you.”
Curious, Erik wandered over and honked. Shanna giggled, picked the flamingo up in her hand, and helped him see.
“This is an old language that doesn’t exist anymore, you see. There’s only about 60 people left if the world who know it, and I’m one of them.” Shanna turned pages carefully in her free hand as the two hooved animals munched their salad happily.
“Here!” Shanna announced suddenly. “Here’s something to give an animal the gift of human speech! That sounds interesting.”
The wolf looked up excitedly as did Erik. The giraffe and camel visibly brightened as well.
“That’s right, guys, we can get you talking again! That’s a good start, right?” She carefully read the alien words and blinked. “Actually, it’s good that you’re all so small. Otherwise this might be... difficult.”
She finished reading and smiled. “Okay, this one isn’t so hard. Basically, what I have to do is put all of you into a chamber of sorts, and blow in this fog. It’ll make your vocal abilities, uh, grow back.”
The four stared at Shanna excitedly and Reham danced on her hooves.
“Yeah?” Shanna nodded. “Okay, let’s do this. You guys stay here.” She wandered to the fridge and poured out some water into a dish and set it down. “Relax, take a drink, I’ll go put together what we need.”
——
The master kicked his kitchen chair across the room and growled. Six trembling figures stood in their tiny glass prisons on the table as he raged.
“I can’t believe they escaped!” He roared. “How did they escape?”
He looked down to the ring angrily and snarled.
“I wish the giraffe, the camel, the flamingo, and the wolf to appear before me!”
There was a pause. Nothing happened.
“Fuck!” Master screamed. “Why isn’t it working?”
——
The animals had no idea. They never felt a thing as Shanna placed a 12” x 24” box on the table in front of them. She poured a strange purple concoction into a diffuser on top and smiled.
“All right, guys! Here we go! What I’m going to do is put you all inside, close the chamber, and then turn it on. You’ll get wrapped up in a nice sleepy fog, and after a good long rest, we’ll take you guys out and see if you can talk.”
The tiny flamingo stepped in first, giving Shanna and affectionate head wave, and was followed by his friends.
“Have a good sleep, guys. I hope you have nice pleasant dreams.”
They all nodded excitedly as Shanna shut the door on the box and sealed it with a latch. She could see the creatures through the glass, standing expectantly.
“Okay. Here we go.” She took a deep breath and picked the battery powered diffuser on. It hummed to life, sucking in her potion, and began to mist it onto the animals below. Each of them started to relax, getting comfortable, and soon the chamber was filled with a sweet lavender smelling concoction. The camel was the first to pass out, smiling as she fell into a deep rest, while the flamingo and the wolf joined her, each lying close to each other and falling into a super relaxing coma of sorts. The giraffe managed a look at Shanna and winked before she too curled up next to her friends and passed out.
Little did they know, there was something special that the witch had added to the mist.