Trying not to think about being responsible for the existence of the giant sky fox, I decided I’d give the RealiTome a break for a little bit and see what those two fairies were up to. Their pranks should be good fun to watch.
Unfortunately, chatting up and changing Antonio gave them a good head start, and it’s not exactly easy to spot two people who are maybe six inches tall, at most. Though on the plus side, being that small means they couldn’t have gotten that far, right?
“Hey Flynn,” I asked. “Do you have any idea where Richard and Gary might have gone?”
“Well, I wasn’t watching where they were going, but…” Flynn stuck out his forked tongue a few times, tilting his head at a few different angles to try and catch the direction the wind was blowing.
After a few seconds of this, he pointed in the direction of the football field. “That way.”
“Wow.” I gave a small nod, genuinely impressed. “I didn’t know you could track people by scent.”
Flynn rubbed the back of his head, grinning softly. “I’m no bloodhound, but I can follow a scent trail a little ways.” He slithered after me as I started toward the field. “Plus, the fairies always kind of smell weird. Really hard to lose their scent. Don’t tell them I said that, though! I’m not in the mood to wake up with my tail tied in a knot, or something.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at the image.
When we got to the field, the college’s football team, the West River Black Bears, and the cheerleaders were both busy practicing, but I couldn’t see a sign of the fairies anywhere.
“Can you get another whiff of them?” I asked Flynn.
Flynn frowned. “Well, probably, but…” He winced as he stuck his tongue out. “Eck! All the sweat… But for you, Mistress, I’ll try.”
He stuck out his tongue a few more times, looking like he was holding back the urge to gag, and eventually pointed toward the bleachers, where the coach was standing with his arms crossed. As Flynn and I got closer, we finally caught sight of Richard and Gary fluttering under the benches behind the coach, listening in on his mumbling. None of them noticed as we got close enough to hear them.
“Oh COME ON, Fred! My quarterback can NOT just trip over the lineman like that!” He shook his head. “Ugh! These freshmen just don’t have it in them! We’d have a better shot letting the cheerleaders play!” With a huff, he made his way toward his struggling players.
“Aw man, this is bad!” Richard groaned. “I was gonna bet enough to get a new set of rare cards on our team winning the next game.”
Gary shrugged. “Well, good thing you haven’t placed the bet.”
Richard said nothing.
“You… didn’t place a bet before you’d even seen the new team practicing, did you?”
“Well…”
Gary buried his head in his hands. “Why do I bother trying to give you good advice?” Then his head raised once again. “On second thought, I think I’ve got a better idea for a prank target now.”
“Oh, we’re not gonna turn the coach into an imp for a day to match his ‘training from hell’ regimen?”
“Maybe later.” Gary smiled. “I wanna see if the cheerleaders could actually do better.”
“Oh, now that sounds fun!” Richard said. “I got some dreamstate powder! A little of this scattered across the field, and nobody’ll be able to think of anything as being weird.”
“Good, I’ve built up enough extra magic over the last few days for a group transformation spell or two!”
I watched as the two fairies lifted off into the air above the field, sparkling powder drifting over the practicing cheerleaders and footballers alike, even catching the coach in the mix. Both team’s eyes looked hazy, going through the motions of their roles, while their bodies began to change.
The cheerleaders grew coarse, rough, black fur, starting on their heads, and spreading downward from there. Their noses turned black, while their ears became rounder, moving slightly up the sides of their heads. Their teeth sharpened as their jaws stretched out into boxy snouts.
When the fur spread down their necks and into their chests, their bodies slowly bulked up, their abs becoming more defined. Each of the cheerleaders gained at least six inches in height, as their arms and legs were covered in fur, before swelling up underneath with muscle. Little tails drifted down out the bottom of each skirt. Fingers and toes grew new claws, as the transformation into buff black bear anthros was complete.
The football team, meanwhile, were growing pale yellow fur, with spots of brown and black. Like the cheerleaders, their noses turned black, taking a rough triangular shape, their ears became rounder, moving up the sides of their heads, and their teeth sharpened, but unlike their counterparts, their new snouts were shorter and more rounded.
As the fur spread down their bodies, the contrasts grew sharper still. They lost muscle and fat alike, becoming thin and waifish, while their new tails grew out long and thin behind them. Retractable claws grew from their hands and feet, as both became a little more rounded and paw-like.
The fairies guided the new cheetahs and black bears toward each other, where they exchanged equipment, while discarding any parts of their uniforms that weren’t necessary. The guys took the pom-poms, while the ladies put on the helmets and other safety equipment.
At the signal from the fairies, both got into motion again, the feminine guys waving pom-poms and cheering, while the amazons practiced their formations.
I’m no football expert, but it looked like the ex-cheerleaders were actually doing a pretty good job. They weren’t tripping over each other, at least.
The fairies flew back into earshot to admire their handiwork.
“Fine job if I do say so myself,” Gary said, casually looking at his fingernails.
“Yeah, this is great!” Richard cheered. “We’ll win for sure with this team!”
Richard paused, and fished around in his leafy outfit for something.
“Uh, say, Gary… Do you have any extra dreamstate powder? I don’t think what I used is potent enough to last until the game this weekend.”
“Well, you should have thought about that before you used it, shouldn’t you?” Gary sighed. “I don’t recall asking you to use it. I was happy enough just reversing their builds.”
“Aw, come on, man! Don’t be a cheapskate!”
“Are you willing to gamble some on another round of Sorcery: The Collecting?”
“Against you? ...No…”
“Glad to see you can learn SOMETHING every once in a while.”
Well, feminine guys and amazons weren’t really my thing, but these guys made it work. I looked at my phone. I still had time to mess around with the RealiTome on campus for a bit. Or maybe stick around and see if these guys’ll do any other fun pranks.