I kind of wanted to follow those new fairies and see what they’d get up to, but at the same time, after spending so long in the Gilbert Center already, it’d be a shame to leave only one person here unchanged by my new power before I left.
“Hey Flynn,” I whispered to my hunky serpentine servant, “Do you know who that guy is?” I asked, gesturing toward the guy sitting in the corner drawing, doing his best to keep the view of his sketchpad hidden.
“Oh, yeah, I think that guy’s name is Antonio Ludin. We share an English Lit class together. Not much of a talker.”
Yeah, that name seemed familiar from the pre-calc roll call where I’d seen him before.
“Why do you ask, Mistress?”
“I just wanted to ask him something. Maybe help him open up and feel more comfortable.”
I smiled and walked toward him.
“Hello there… Antonio, was it?”
His green eyes looked up at me under his brown hair. “Uh, yeah, that’s me. Hi… You’re Katy, I think? From Pre-Calc?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” I nodded. “What are you drawing?”
I saw a brief hint of hesitation in his face (given my own secret fantasies, I can’t really blame him for not wanting to share with a stranger) before the enchantment on this place opened him up a little.
“It’s a comic of me turning into my fox character, then becoming gigantic,” he said, smiling brightly, as if he’d secretly been looking for SOMEONE to share this with. He turned his sketchpad around, showing a pencil sketch of what he’d just said. It was honestly pretty clean looking for something in the sketch stage. I wasn’t really into macro stuff, myself, but he did a good job on keeping things properly scaled, and the end result of a giant fox hugging the planet was kinda cute. Of course, maybe I was just saying that because of the enchantment on this place making me a little less judgemental.
“The art’s pretty good,” I nodded. “Always fun to meet another furry fan.”
“Oh, you’re a furry too? What’s your fursona?”
“Haven’t really picked one, yet,” I said. “But I’d want it to be some kind of mythical creature.” I realized I was getting side-tracked. “Do you ever wish that could really happen?”
“Yeah…” He blushed slightly. “I mean, who wouldn’t want to be basically untouchable, and above it all? Literally, in this case.”
“I get you,” I said, standing up. “But look at the time! I’d better get going. See you around!” I waved at him, and stepped outside, Flynn following after me.
As I opened the RealiTome, I felt unsure about going through with this. This one wasn’t one of my personal fantasies. I could just turn him into a unicorn or a gryphon, or something, or even just make him into a normal-sized fox man. I’d be turning this all back soon enough, so it’s not like it made a difference what change I made. Even if at this point I was mostly just changing him for the sake of “completion,”
Well… if I planned on resetting everything at the end of the day, anyway, what would be the harm in testing out the book’s ability to do another extreme?
I began writing again, as always, leaving space for a “not” in there.
“My acquaintance, Antonio Ludin, is a planet-sized anthro fox.”
As soon as I wrote those words, a dozen different ways this could go wrong suddenly played out in my head.
“What would be the harm?” A LOT, if I wasn’t careful here. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Sure, the book would probably make it so he could breathe in space and survive the square-cube law, the same way it seemed to make the fairies and anthros I’d made so far able to function, but what if he actually tried to hug the planet, and cracked it, or smothered cities, or something?
The book, so far, had been really good about filling in any gaps I didn’t specify in ways that didn’t mess with things too much, but there was no guarantee it would work out like that every time. Probably best to get a little more specific, here, and implement some potent safety measures.
“He transformed into this form on his eighteenth birthday after receiving a magic gem that embedded itself into his forehead. Its magic makes him immortal, able to survive in the vacuum of space, allows him to live comfortably without food or water, prevents his body from affecting the planet, or the moon’s orbit, or the ability of the sun’s light to reach us, and allows him to touch his homeworld without destroying or harming anything or anyone. It also allows him to speak to specific people, and hear them speaking back to him, without anyone else needing to hear, (or suffer hearing damage). He’s also a kind-hearted softie who wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
The book began to glow white-hot, and it felt like it, too! With a yelp, I dropped it.
Flynn was by my side in an instant. “Are you okay, Mistress? What happened? A bee sting?”
As I tried to come up with an excuse, I saw Antonio step outside, like he was in a trance, his body glowing under the book’s magic. Bright red fur grew over most of his body, with a patch of white down the front, and black “socks” and “gloves” around his hands and feet, as his clothing vanished. Like Brenda, I saw him grow a big, bushy tail, his feet reshaping into paws, and his head growing a narrow snout and fuzzy, triangular ears. Then, I saw a jewel appear in his forehead, before he just vanished.
Where did he go?
“Hi Katy!” I heard a booming voice above me. Looking up, I saw Antonio’s giant vulpine face up in the sky, glancing down at me.
“Whaaa! Antonio!” I screamed. “Uh, nice to see you…”
Antonio frowned “Oh, uh, did I spook you? Sorry. I just… I felt a huge burst of magic around where you are just now, but I don’t see anything weird going on. Did you notice anything that seemed off?”
Other than how creepy it is to have a giant fox staring down at you? “No, not really.”
“Right, well, keep your eyes peeled, but don’t mess around with it if you DO see something. That felt like the kind of magic that people shouldn’t be messing around with. See you!”
And with that, he just… floated across the sky at incredible speed, presumably to have his giant face haunt some other portion of the earth. As memories of the new state of the world came to me, I learned that some small religions had formed around him since his… ascent. He didn’t seem to want to encourage them, but at the same time, I can’t blame people for REALLY wanting to keep on a giant sky fox’s good side.
My thoughts were interrupted by Flynn handing me the Realitome.
“You dropped this, Mistress.”
“Oh, uh, thanks…” I mumbled, taking it.
“If you don’t mind my asking, Mistress,” he said, moving his arms behind his back, “are you writing in some kind of code in there? I know it’s not my business, but I couldn’t help seeing it after you dropped that book. It doesn’t look like any language I’ve seen before.”
Huh, now that I think about it, I hadn’t been able to recognize the writing that had originally been in the book before I wrote down my name. Maybe it was some safety feature so that only the owner would know anything changed? I wonder how much the previous owner must have changed the world, before.
“Y-yeah,” I nodded. “It’s a code. Please don’t read it again, Flynn.”
“Ah, apologies, Mistress! It won’t happen again.”
I closed the book with a sigh. I think this might be one effect I’ll be happy to undo when the time comes to get things back to normal.