“Alright, what do you have for me?” Glitz asked.
The black-furred hind tapped his golden hooves impatiently on the marble floor. Charlie sighed and placed the loot they’d scrounged from the many heists they’d been on the last two days on a long table. He sorted it by category. Jewlery, sculptures, magic items.
Hagerd stood next to Charlie, looking around the shop with wide eyes.
“How the hell did I never know about this place?” Hagerd asked.
“If you have to ask, you’ll never know,” Glitz said with a wink, before picking up a rather pretty necklace. “Ooo, that’s a nice piece!”
“I’m assuming you take the standard cut?” Charlie asked.
“Yep, 40%.”
“And I thought we were such good friends.”
Glitz just gave an indifferent shrug. Clearly the enthusiasm he’d shown in his prior dealings with the group was all for show, whatever Glitz actually thought of them, he wasn’t going to tell.
“Why 40%?” Hagerd asked.
“Because these are stolen,” Glitz said matter of factly, “I can’t sell them in this town. There are outposts like mine all over this world that I’ll be sending this stuff off to. When you want the Order to move goods for you, you pay the Order’s rate.”
“Ah.”
“It would be a different story if I asked for one of these items. The rules are different if I’m the only broker involved in the transaction, plus, there’s no saying I even have to stay within the Order to move the items in that case.” Glitz explained.
“Alrighty,” Hagerd rubbed his muzzle. “Since you’re so well connected, I’ve been looking for a new weapon. Do you know any where I could find a magical maul?”
“Magical maul? Well, not off the top of my head,” The hind scratched his ear. “Maybe…the ruins of Paranor?”
“Paranor?” Hagerd said excitedly, “That’s the one with the face on the mountain, right?”
Glitz sighed, “Paranor was an ancient city which once served as a capital for an empire that covered this entire continent. It lay at the foot of a mountain carved with the face of the First Emperor, The Griffin.”
“That’s an eagle-lion monster.”
”No. I mean, yes, but the original Griffin was an anthropomorphic version of that. He discovered the secret of immortality.”
“Then how did the empire fall?” Hagerd asked.
“Hubris. At the height of his power, while on the verge of his greatest achievement - creating literal life - the gods struck the empire down in one night.” Glitz shrugged, “Or so they say.”
“I can create life,” Hagerd rolled his eyes.
“I mean, from the dust, as the Gods were said to have done.” Glitz said.
“I see.”
“And now the ruins of his city lie at the base of the mountain filled with all manner of monsters and undead.” Glitz finished. “If you went there, you’d have tons of magical items. There are several requests for artifacts that can only be found in those ruins on our quest board. I can make copies of those files for you if you’d like.”
“Sure!” Hagerd nodded, “That sounds fun and dangerous!”
“Let’s just solve our current issues first.” Charlie laid a hand on the ram’s heavy shoulder. “How much for all this?”
“After my 40%…1400 for the lot.”
“Deal. Can I get Hagerd Trimmed as well?”
“One Coin.”
“I killed the hag,” Charlie reminded the hind.
“Of course…then call us even. Come along, Hagerd,” Glitz said, leading the ram back to the fitting room.
“I brought the soul essences we haven’t used.” Charlie said, chasing after them.
“Thank you,” Glitz said, taking the jars from Charlie’s hands before abruptly slamming the fitting room doors in his face.
Charlie waited outside and sighed.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
“Let’s see what we have to work with,” Glitz said, pacing around the room.
Hagerd stared at him, the middle-aged ram barbarian at a loss for what he was supposed to do.
“Um…”
“Right, right, stand on the little stool in front of the mirror and strip,” Glitz said, waving his hoof behind him while he was inspecting the glittery soul jars.
Hagerd walked up to the stool and disrobed. His vast expanse of a furry belly flopped out, a stark reminder of just how long he had lived in this world. Everything about the ram had started to sag, and even if he regained his former athleticism, Hagerd still had bad joints. What could Glitz possibly do to fix that?
“So,” Glitz clapped his hooves together for emphasis. “My job is to get you back to proper adventuring age. Early twenties. Now I know they say age is just a number, but that's really only true for immortal or ageless beings and not someone who needs to avoid getting stabbed in the kidney by a goblin.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” Hagerd snorted.
“We fix that number.”
“What?”
“Normally, this would involve very immoral stuff. Stealing someone’s soul is incredibly evil,” Glitz explained, “But…we have 9 guilt-free souls right here. If you’re going to set them free to pass on to the afterlife anyways, what does it matter if they look a bit older?”
“You’re gonna swap the stats from our… character sheets?” Hagerd sighed.
“Character sheet?” Glitz said in confusion, “I’m not familiar with that term but, yes, you can think of it as an asset swap of sorts.”
Glitz took a deep breath, “just so you know, I’ve never worked with raw essence like this before. I understand the basic theory behind it, but it can have effects we can’t predict. Do you still wish to continue?”
Hagerd nodded.
“Good,” Glitz pulled out a few instruments from his desk. He spread his arms wide and a grid glowed in the air above him. He carefully opened the jars and spread the glittery material around. “Okay, let’s try something like this.”
With a wave of his hands, he arranged the soul essence. Clucking his tongue, he whirled his hand, plucking and replacing essence in the air. It was quick, like the deer was looking for the right fit.
“Hmm, I like this one. Let me write the combination down,” Glitz muttered to himself, writing down something on a pad.
Then he continued arranging essences. Every once in a while he would make a note of a particularly good combination. Then he looked over at Hagerd and lined them up. Shaking his head, he swapped a few things out and finally came to one, last configuration.
“I think I have it,”
“Oh good, I hope it wasn’t much trouble, lad,” Hagerd smiled.
“No, no trouble. I find it rather exhilarating. Now, let’s get down to business,” Glitz smiled and began the Trimming.
The golden-antlered hind approached and began running his hooflets over the ram’s massive form.
Hagerd sighed happily at the stag’s gentle caresses. The aches and pains of running a business and adventuring slowly eased away under his touch. Like a massage, but one that literally worked, a deep-seated soothing relaxation that went beyond simple muscle fibers.
Glitz’ hooves rubbed Hagerd’s massive gut, pressing into it.
The ram moaned as the hind seemed to play with his soft, warm flab. His fat began to recede beneath the hooflets, pleasurable waves of warmth emanating from wherever the stag touched. Hagerd’s cock came to pounding attention, bobbing with each beat of the ram’s heart as more fat fell away from his massive form.
“There we go, nice and tight,” Glitz spoke, rubbing his hands over thick, cobblestone abs that were rising from the retreating flab. “How does it feel?”
“Oh…” Hagerd gasped, “more!”
Glitz smiled and ran his hooves over Hagerd’s moobs, his ass, his gunt. Fat retreated and soon the ram was huge and perfectly muscular, not a glob of flab on his svelte form. The stag continued to rub the ram’s muscles, kneading and massaging them. Deep-seated aches from years of hard work eased…and the muscles slowly deflated.
“Feels so good...” Hagerd moaned, his eyes closed in bliss, as his massive chest was gently massaged from huge pillowy shelves to small, well-contoured pecs more appropriate to a twunk than a hunk.
“I’m glad…” Glitz voice changed slightly, “…you know, all these technological changes you’ve made in the last twenty years, they’d be a pain to undo.”
“Mmmm…” Hagerd groaned, head lolling from side to side and the stag massaged his shoulders, the muscles there dwindling.
“Did you know someone is actually making a television?”
“Oh, really?” Hagerd smiled, eyes still closed, as the stag pressed down at the top of his head and he began to shrink.
“Oh yes, you really did just blab everything about your world to the Alchemists and Wizards of this country. Sure, they scoffed at first, but a few of them took note of your sewer system and began to take you seriously. And the more they experimented with your ideas, the more they realized everything you claimed was true.” Glitz’ voice continued to deepen, his hoofs traveling down Hagerd’s massive arms and massaging away the bowling-ball sized biceps.
“Yeah, it’s gonna be great here soon,” Hagerd nodded as he felt the Stag’s hands alight on his ass and thighs.
“I guess that’s a matter of perspective,” Glitz voice continued to shift, sounding more and more like Finn’s as he worked the muscles away, leaving a nice, bouncy bubble butt in place of the wide slabs of assmeat that had once held the sturdy ram up. “What do you think about Finn?”
“Finn?” Hagerd’s eyebrows lifted as his hooves were massaged, the heavy keratin receding and two soft paws replacing them. “He seems…lonely. And a bit upset at his dad.”
Glitz paused, “Come again?”
“Well, it just feels like he feels inadequate. I’m not a mind reader, but not being a huge football player like his dad had to create feelings of inferiority.”
“His dad loves him.”
“That doesn’t matter if he can’t love himself.” Hagerd murmured. “You can idealize someone, lust after someone, seduce someone, but your ability to actually love another person is directly proportional to how much you love yourself.”
“Big talk from a Barbarian.” Glitz voice was hard.
“I’ve kinda grown out of classes after being here twenty years and getting married, lad.” Hagerd shook his head.
“Finn is going to have to erase everything you’ve done, you know.” Glitz voice had fully shifted to Finn’s, now.
“Why?” Hagerd cocked his head and looked…up?
Where Hagerd had expected to see a stag, he instead saw a seven-foot tall dragon towering above him. The ram stared at Finn, heart pounding as he realized that his own body felt a lot different than it had a few minutes ago, and not just because he’d been getting younger.
Turning to look in the mirror, Hagerd saw he still looked mostly like his old self, just short, tightly muscular, and slender. But that was about to change as he watched Finn grasp his horns, tugging them off the sides of his head as though they’d never been connected to him to begin with. Where they had been was a patch of fluffy white fur.
“Finn! What are you doing?” Hagerd gasped.
“The things you’ve done to this world in less than twenty minutes have altered it significantly.” Finn hissed. “I literally can’t undo what you’ve done without restarting the group from square one. And while I might not be the biggest fan of Greg or Jeff’s choices, I’m quite proud of ‘Charlie’ and fully intend to leave him as is..”
“What choice did I have!” Hagerd shot back, “You left me in this hell. Bland food, no baths, and worse, I couldn’t even leave town unless I was adventuring!”
“That’s not the point!” Finn contested hotly, a spurt of flame issuing from his lips, “You’re a barbarian! You’re a brawny character, not a brainy one. I told you to stay in character, so…”
Hagerd waited. “So?”
“So I’m changing you into a character who would do something that cool.” Finn smiled. “You’ve really exceeded my expectations, bro!”
“Oh!” Hagerd shifted in place, “I thought you were punishing me.”
“No,” Finn laughed, “Oh goodness, no! And you were right, old Finn was totally selfish. Daddy issues. Lame-o!”
“Heh,” Hagerd wasn’t sure if the dragon was being genuine, “I think Finn was nice in spite of all that.”
“You did?”
“He was…cute and nerdy. I was glad he wasn’t his father.” Hagerd leaned in, “A little too gregarious in my opinion.”
“Yeah dad was…is a bit much.” Finn murmured, slitted eyes gazing into the distance. “Anyways, just relax, let me turn you into a wizard. The party sure needs one.”
“This isn’t going to change things too much… You’re not going to alter my memories… or my life here, right?” Hagerd asked nervously.
“Mmmm…it shouldn’t.” Finn smirked and continued rubbing the ram down. “I’m leaving all of your adventures intact, you’re just going to have done them as a very handsome twunky arctic fox. Color scheme and whatnot.”
“Okay,” Hagerd said, still a little unsure.
Hagerd sighed as the claws massaged his hide, pulling tufts of white fur out, brushing it smooth. It was nice and relaxing. The claws circled his huge cock and gentle rubbed it, reducing it to a respectable 7 inches of throbbing red fox meat complete with a small knot at the bottom.
When the claws encircled his head and began pressing it and rubbing his muzzle, he thought nothing of it. Ear stretched into points, muzzle slimmed and pointed, and the fox let his tongue loll out in pleasure as the claws tapped the top of his skull.
“Your new name is Veles. You’re from mythical Paranor. That’s where your strange ideas came from,” Finn said, massaging Veles’ scalp.
“Mmm…Veles…Paranor…” The little fox’s ears twitched.
“Fergus…” Finn’s tone shifted slightly.
“Fergus…” Veles’ cock twitched at the thought of his husband.
“...is your sugar daddy,” Finn finished.
“M-my…no, but I-!”
“Shhh…” Finn massaged deeper, claws folding those memories of Veles’ husband into that of a patron with benefits. “…There. Sugar daddy.”
“Mmm,” Veles squirmed, “Love…”
“Sure,” Finn rolled his eyes, “You really do love him. I’ll do some work to make him more acceptable.”
“Okay…” Veles mumbled.
“You will wake up refreshed and ready for the day.” Glitz slapped Veles’ ass and his voice returned to normal, “Awake!”
“Wow,” Veles stretched on his paws, floofy tail wagging behind him, “that felt super good!”
The little fox walked outside, past Charlie, who was waiting in the hall.