Hiding in the woods was no problem for Christine. Her darkly colored skin blended her perfectly in the night, and her limber body allowed her to move easily into the trees.
Joe was a much bigger problem. Hiding a creature the size of a city bus wasn't easy, but they managed by the time it got dark. They decided to stay near a main trail from the town, hoping to spot anyone coming after them. It wasn't long before they got what they were looking for.
The trio of young men, armed only with short swords, really never stood a chance. Joe had heard them coming a mile away, and it was nothing to get the drop on them. Faced with a dragon, Christine had no trouble getting them disarmed and tied up.
"So, what brings you out into the woods so late?" she asked sweetly.
One of the men spit, "We were just out looking for highwaymen."
She laughed, "Three of you? I doubt it." She hefted the bag that one of them had been carrying. "And what's in here, I can positivly feel the magic coming off of it." She dumped the contants out onto the ground. "Spelled rope and halters," she said with amusment, "Someone was going centaur hunting, I see."
Joe let his tounge slide out of his mouth and taste one of the men, "Do I get to eat them now?" he asked.
Christine slapped his tounge like they had discussed, making the dragon look more like a pet than her freind, "No, not now. We need them for a little while. Perhaps when we're done with them, but not until then."
The youngest of the men spoke up, "What are you going to do?"
"Nothing strange. I'm just going to send you back to the town for me. After some alterations, of course."
**
Joe and Christine hid closer to the town this time, watching. The three men were men no longer, but a centaur woman, a drow and a red microdragon. They were also not much more than puppets. She didnt' have the ability to make them think they were anything other than the men they'd been born, but she could supress it, long enough to see what happened.
The trio appeared in the town square, strangly busy at this time of the night. "Kind sir," spoke the Christine through the drow, "we are looking for members of our traveling party, and we hope they might be in this town. Two centaurs, male and female, we got seperated while we looked for food in the evening."
The man they spoke to smiled, but had a glint of confusion, "Yes, they are here. We sent out three men to look for you to bring you to town, in fact. Did they not find you?"
Christine spoke this time though the centaur, "We were off the path for some time," she spoke, "Following the scent of a rare flower we prize, but we were unable to locate it before dark. Can you take us to our freinds so we can be reunited?"
The man nodded, appearing to buy the story, "Of course, but your freinds are alseep in the stables, the only place in town where we have the space for centaurs. We could take you to see them, if you would like." When they nodded in agreement, he pointed to the microdragon, "The only problem is him. There are regular horses in there, and they might be spooked by even a small dragon."
Christine nodded though the drow and handed the dragon over to one of the townspeople, "He's very intelligent, and will not bit unless provoked. He does not need to be fed this evening, either. He is also trained to stay in a large cupboard if that will be easier."
The dragon was taken away while the centaur and drow were led to the stables. "If you don't mind waiting, please stay in these stalls while we seek out your freinds. We don't wish to wake the whole stable, after all."
The two nodded, but it was already too late for the man turned female centaur. Christine could sense that her brain was being activly degraded in a hurry. In seconds, it would barely matter if she had a spell on her or not.
The drow, though, was different. The spell first made her very drowsy, and she quickly fell to the floor, asleep. As she slept, her body altered more profoundly, but definitly equine. It took only a short while for her to change, though not into a horse, but rather into a donkey. She didn't awake until the process was over, but by then her mind was gone.
Christine concentrated back to the dragon, and was shocked to see the townspeople had a much different fate for the tiny reptile. They simple killed it with swords once the drow was transformed!
She broke contact and looked at Joe. "If I go into that town, I may be no better off than Mike or Brian. You, on the other hand..."