"Your presence here obviously indicates that our defenses are insufficient. Even keeping the kingdom hidden has not kept us from the human menace," the queen complains. "Perhaps we could create a mighty beast to guard our kingdom. There used to be a lot more magical creatures in the mystical forests. Some of us older fairies would like a return to those days."
She whispered something into the ear of a well-dressed fairy to her right. This fairy nodded and said, "A wise choice, your majesty." This fairy said something to the others and then threw a glowing ball of light into Prince Damon's chest, causing him to stumble backward before regaining his balance. The human prince looked down at his hands, which grew larger and started breaking out with gold-colored scales. Damon gasped when enormous claws burst through his fingertips! There was no blood and no pain, but their was a full set of sharp, curved talons like a massive bird of prey might have. Damon held them up to his face and looked over them as best he could, trying to understand why the fairies would give him something like bird feet on his arms, and why they would have to be so large.
Then one of the younger court fairies flew up from behind Damon and grabbed his bottom, making Damon stiffen up and reach behind him. His own claws shredded the seat of his robes by accident and actually sliced into his human skin a little which hurt. Strangely, it felt like the fairy hands were somehow reaching into his bottom and grabbing onto his tailbone! Damon felt the fairy fly away with a tight grip on whatever-it-was, and could feel something getting yanked out from his body, bulking up and lengthening as it stretched. It didn't hurt, but it did make Damon widen his eyes in shock. Then another pair of fairy hands grabbed him back there as well, and he heard two fairies laughing as they started playing a sort of tug-of-war with this alien part of himself, sending some very unpleasant sensations up into his spine.
"Ow! Hey that hurts, let go of that!" He looked back and saw them rough-housing with the end of mighty lion's tail--HIS mighty lion's tail! He wrapped his scaly hands around it near the middle, mindful of his talons as he did so, and tried to tug it back from them. Those two playful fairies teamed up against him, but he was stronger than they were, so he eventually got them to let go, and they laughed even harder. He wrapped his tail around him and clutched it to his chest to shield it, careful not to hold it too tight. Then he cautiously held it out in front of him to try to examine it for himself, marveling over the golden-brown fur and gently reaching for the black hairy tassel. His mind raced, trying to make sense of what sort of chimeric monster would be part bird and part cat. A flash of recognition lit up his eyes as he gulped and looked back to the queen.
"Ah, yes, now you understand, don't you human. Your fate is to be mighty griffin, formidable in the skies and the earth. I should congratulate you, I suppose, seeing as you will soon be far more powerful than any human prince. But you must understand that your power is our power, for you belong to us!"
The two laughing fairies flew forward together to shove him right in his upper back, sending an electric tingle deep into his shoulders in both of the places they made impact. He could feel something forming there, creating two regions of enormous pressure within his bones and skin. Poor Prince Damon clutched his new tail for dear life, feeling the pressure, heat, and tingling starting to take shape upon his back. As intense as it felt, it didn't really hurt, but Damon knew the changes he was experiencing would make him more of a beast and less of a man. His royal tunic dissolved, leaving a bare human back with two pulsing lumps near the top. The pressure burst out far and wide beyond him, pushing him forward and knocking him down onto all fours. He found himself very dizzy and disoriented to feel not one but THREE extra limbs flexing high in the air while he was on all fours. He knew one of them was his long tail thrashing back and fourth, and he craned his neck around to confirm what he thought the other two probably were. Sure enough, an enormous pair of feathered eagle wings towered above him; their combined span must be far longer than he was from head to tail. He opened his mouth in awe and turned back toward the fairy queen.
"Well, aren't you going to try them out?" asked the queen. Part of Damon was insulted. She expected him to start flapping his wings like a lowly bird, or like the beastly griffin he was becoming? But then, who could resist? He might be able to FLY now! He swallowed hard, took a deep breath, and focused his attention. The wings responded. With a barely noticeable mental effort, he stretched them out as far to either side as they would go. He gazed left and right, in awe of his new wingspan. And then he moved them up and down. The wind generated from Damon's new wings felt good against his body, and he flapped the harder. His hands and feet left the ground of a second before touching back down. Soon Damon was flapping his wings over and over and managing to hover several meters off the ground.
"I, I can do it. I can really fly!" Damon couldn't help but be amazed at his new ability, but he isn't sure how he can ever go back to his kingdom and perform his royal duties a prince with a eagle claws, wings and a lion's tail. And if he stays in the fairy queen's court for much longer, he knows they will have turned him totally beast to use as their fairy equivalent of a guard dog.