It had all begun a year earlier when 15 year old tech whizz kid Seth had needed to fo to a school function with a girl.
Since Seth is rather a dull guy no girl had wanted to go to the
school function with Seth.
Which meant Seth would have lost the bet with the other geeks
in the schools Science Club,which would have cost Seth the chanc to pitch visitors for funding for a time machine idea bubbling in 15 year old Seth's head.
Seth had known that his older brother ,18 year old Harley was
a accomplished wizard ahead in his wizard career then where a
18 year old wizard normally should be.
So Seth knew that Harley had the skills and control and power
to temporarily turn himself (Harley) into a 15 year old girl
who could be Seth's date for the school function.
So that fateful night a year earlier Seth had stood on the sidelines
as his older brother explained what he was about to turn himself into as his yonger brothers 'girl'
Harley's problem had been that he had always been a perfectionist
which meant he didn't want to spell himself into a girl
with Harleys mind but a actual girl who thought she was
a girl and always had been a girl.Pretty dangerous stuff if the spell
went wrong.
However Harley the Wizard ,confident as ever,had explained to worried Seth that he'd found a 'booster' to strengthen the temporary component of the spell in order to retrieve Harley after
the school function.
Harley had recently picked up some barely used spell witch stationary from a yard sale some old witch had been having to
pay her rent.The old hag had babbled about how she'd once been rich and famous,had kidnapped a Princess,mortally wounded a
Prince ,destroyed a Kingdom and other ravings but
Harley had been more interested in haggling over the price
of the barely used spell witch stationary the old witch was
selling.It was quality magic stuff and Harley had been sure
it was going to preserve both Harleys own mind and soul afterwards and give his younger brother one bombshell of a
girl to take to that school function.
So there had stood Seth in Harleys wizards chamber and his older
brother had explained what was about to happen.
The old witch he'd bought the stationary from had been obsessed
with becoming beautiful in her later years and had written various beautification runes along the margins of the stationary
Harley was now using.
Harley himself had done a bit of research and told Seth he was
about to turn himself into a 15 year old early 9th century anglo
saxon highborn girl named Lady Harla,who being 15 had spent the
early 8th century worshipping firedrakes,female fertility goddesses
and slipping poisonous black adders into the beds of other
anglo saxon aunts,uncles and cousins she offed in order
to advance her dads quest for the throne.
Harley had explained to his uneasy brother Seth there was
also a rumour amongst scholars of the old English poem
BEOWULF
that Lady Harla was the author of that poem and that the firedrake
that killed the hero in the end was actually Lady Harla's
'Mary Sue' as there was a ancient drawing in the BEOWULF
manuscript showing a 15 year old girl,semi nude,with a black adder
clutched in each hand and with a necklace with a jewelled firedrake cameo resting on her bosom.
Clearly Harley planned to blow that school function away.
So with rising unease Seth sat on the sidelines as his brother
performed the conjuration and it didn't take long for things started changing and falling apart at the same time
Literally
There was of course the scream of pain,schock and disbelief from a transforming Harley himself,but there was also the mini earthquake and the wizards chamber itself that was sinking deeper into the Earth as the conjuration ripped it apart.
Seth just managed to get out of the wizards chamber and the final rumbles told him Harley,or more correctly the
female-creature-human he now was,as well as the old witches
spell witch stationary and other stuff that would have been useful
to restore Seth his brother now lay buried under rubble a mile below,totally beyond human reach.
There was dead silence.
Then when the loose brick in the basements ceiling fell down
and KONKED Seth his lights went out.Seth awoke hours later,
and realized that something cold and scaley and with blazing orange-red slitted reptilian eyes squeezing him powerfully in its
coils and was gazing coldly apon him,its prey.
It was a monstrously big and long black adder and it was what
Seth's former brother Harley had got himself turned into.
Lady Harla the shape shifty firedrake-serpent-medieval anglo
saxon poisoner princess,who had slithered and squeezed her way
out of her prison from a mile below.,,,,
*************
So a year later 16 year old Seth had figured out he could kiss goodbye to any thoughts he had of getting older brother Harley
back and had to get by with his slightly younger
supernatural serpent sister Lady Harla.
The reason Seth needed that sword in the stone largely had to due with that old English poem BEOWULF and the conjuration it
had interacted with a year earlier.
BEOWULF had plenty of monsters in it
Grendel
Grendels Mother
the Barrow Firedrake
and Earth now had plenty of awakened ancient classical monsters
for a boy with a magic sword to content with.
Since Seth's sister Lady Harla actually was a Monster herself
family was complicated for geeky Seth