"Considering that this game is magic," said Joy, "you had better choose carefully."
"I know," said Jerri through gritted teeth. "But these both sound fairly harmless. How could it hurt me if I could fly or fight? It's not as if this is going to hurt me."
"I wouldn't be so sure-" began Cyndi.
"Don't be ridiculous, Cyn!" said Diane. "The old man at the shop said that this game was not going to hurt us!"
"He did?" said Cyndi. "Why didn't you mention that before?"
Jerri clenched her fists and declared loudly, "I choose 'flight'!"
Everyone turned to look at the display in the centre of the board.
The player Jerri chose FLIGHT.
As a result of this:
Jerri is now able to avoid all obstacles on the ground.
Jerri can now move more quickly along the board by taking alternative 'air routes'.
Jerri is now unable to manipulate crude tools.
"So now you can fly through the air, I suppose?" said Joy.
"I suppose that's what the game meant," said Jerri. She tried willing herself to float in the air. Nothing happened. "Strange," she said. "It doesn't seem to be working."
"Look!" said Diane, pointing to Jerri's wooden game figure. "Your little person is glowing!"
Everyone now looked at the figure, which was producing many bright colours which hurt the eyes to look at.
"I feel weird," said Jerri to nobody in particular.
The figure was now invisible amidst all the light.
"My hands!" screamed Jerri, finally catching everyone's attention. They all saw that Jerri's fingers were shortening and shortening.
"What's happening to you?" said Cyndi.
"I'd like to know that myself!" said Jerri angrily, watching her arms stretch horizontally as her fingers disappeared completely.
At the end of Jerri's arms, small thick hairs grew which bloomed into feathers. It was at this point that Cyndi realised what was happening.
"Wings!" she said. "You're being given wings!"
"Brilliant," said Jerri, watching as the feathers covered her elongated arms. "How am I supposed to do anything with my hands gone?" She watched her three-day-old tank top rip at the sides as her wings began to cover more and more of her torso.
"I don't think you can do anything like that," said Diane. "The board said as much."
"Can't I be changed back somehow?" pleaded Jerri.
"I don't know," said Diane. "Maybe if we finish the game-"
"Oh, no," said Joy. "No, I'm not playing this game. If the rest of you want, you can go ahead and turn yourselfs into pigs for all I care, but I'm getting out of here. I don't want anything to do with this." She stood up and shoved her chair away. "I have no idea how you got mized up with this, Diane, but I don't want to have a part in it."
The game board glowed.
STOP.
It is against the rules to leave the game after turn order has been decided.
Joy suddenly found herself turning around again. "What's happening to me?" she shrieked.
Now, Joy must take the place of her figure.
"What?" said Joy. "No! I didn't mean to-"
Joy vanished.
"What happened to her?" said Cyndi.
"The game board said that she had to take the place of her figure," said Jerri, still struggling to sit comfortably with wings. "Maybe she's down there."
They all looked closely and saw that in place of Joy's wooden figure, a minature Joy was standing on the start square, waving at them. Listening carefully, they could make out her voice:
"Help me! Do something!"
"What are we supposed to do?" said Diane. "We can't change how the game works."
"Serves you right for trying to run," said Jerri to Joy. "You'll just have to play it out."
Joy was traumatized. The others all looked horrendously large to her. And worse still, she couldn't even walk closer to any of them to help them hear. Whenever she tried to step over the edge of the start space, she felt herself hitting a wall that she couldn't see.
"I forget," said Diane. "Whose turn is it next?"