Charlie, Gregory, and Geoffrey followed the rotund Mayor, Rodrigo, into his mansion.
The sprawling ranch-style home was built of fine timber, with an interior that was adorned with lavish paintings and elaborate tapestries, the floors strewn with thick, lush rugs. Charlie wondered if they were legitimately bought or if Rodrigo had stolen them from passing caravans as contraband or whatever nonsense excuse the wolf made.
Rodrigo guided them to the dining room, where a veritable feast had been laid out.
Chicken, pheasant, turnkey, racks of ribs, all of it laid out just for the four of them. The smell alone was mouthwatering. The fat wolf must eat an awful lot… or waste a ton of food for lavish displays of wealth like this.
As Charlie sat down at the table, he couldn’t help but notice how strangely cold the room was. And from the sight of his breath puffing in the air in front of his muzzle, he knew that he wasn’t just imagining it. None of his companions had problems handling cold temperatures, but it was the room’s unlit fireplace stood out among the otherwise lavish display of wealth.
“So,” Gregory said, “What’s this job offer you have for us, lord mayor?”
“Yes, I’m very interested in what could possibly bother you.” Charlie asked seriously.
“Please, before we start in on the job I have for you, eat!” Rodrigo grinned, one claw twirling his mustache-like whiskers. “I know how hard the journey was for you all.”
And it had been hard. The party had spent the last week getting tossed around on a bumpy carriage and eating trail rations and the medieval equivalent of trail rations, and the prospect of a real meal was too hard for any of them to pass up. Without thinking, they dug in and enjoyed the feast.
The sauces and gravies were marvelous, and the wine was absolutely delightful. It was full bodied and had an aftertaste that reminded Charlie of a sun-heated rock and notes of a delightful sharp musk. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, but the vintage was excellent.
Charlie ate and drank until his belly was literally bloated with food and his head swam from the alcohol. He hadn’t meant to eat in such excess, but his body was ravenous. It was like his stomach was a bottomless pit. With a soft burp, he leaned back from the table, patting his belly and not noticing the dark scales growing under his paws.
The others were just as full, and just like Charlie, patches of their fur began falling out, revealing glossy scales beneath. Rodrigo was watching them closely, fingering a jeweled pendant on a chain that hung around his neck. As Charlie sat there, too tired from gorging himself to notice the changes working their way through his body, his eyes nonetheless caught a flash emanating from Rodrigos necklace every so often.
“Feel full, boys?” Rodrigo grinned.
“*Urp* Yep!” Prince Gregory said, covering a belch with a swollen paw.
In fact, everything about the mink was swelling, though that must have just been Charlie’s imagination. Charlie’s attention was drawn back to an irristable itchiness spreading through his own arm. As Charlie scratched a particularly itchy part of his pelt, he noticed fur sloughing off with each drag of his nails, revealing more scales as his hair fell to the ground. Charlie sighed in relief, his arm flexing as the muscles engorged with every movement he made.
“Good. I’ve had a problem brewing that I’d like to pick your brains over.” Rodrigo smiled.
“That’s what we’re here for,” Charlie replied, his voice going strangely raspy as the scales crept over his throat.
“Recently, our miners accidentally dug into a ruin. It was ancient, and the men reported that they could hear clanking and see movement far inside the corridors of that place. I ordered them to seal it.”
Rodrigo leaned forward, his paw reaching out and flicking stray fur from Charlie’s snout. “However, for the last few months, miners have heard things down in the lower levels of the mines. I dismissed the reports as ghost stories.”
“And?” Charlie leaned forward, focusing so intently on the wolf in front of him that he didn’t notice his furry tail fattening and extending from his backside.
“This is sounding interesting.” Charlie continued, the hiss of his voice drowning out the soft *whumpf* noise that came as his thick, reptilian tail lost the last of its fur and landed on the floor behind him.
“Oh, believe me, it is,” Rodrigo smiled, “Because not long after the sounds began, my miners started going missing. First it was only a few here and there. At first, I thought they were running away, skipping town. But then an entire work shift of miners went missing. I sent in a few of my guards to search for whatever was taking them. They never returned. So I had the mine sealed.”
“That sounds incredibly dangerous.” Charlie frowned, his clothes straining as his muscles continued to grow. “Clanking noises, eh?”
“Indeed. Before I sent in my guards, I thought it may have been Tommyknockers.”
“What are ‘Tommyknockers’?” Gregory asked, sipping his tea with thick, scale covered hands.
“Undead spirits of miners who die on the job, generally during a mining collapse,” Rodrigo shrugged, “We have a lot of workplace accidents, so I figured a quick exorcism might drive them out. But the priests disappeared too.”
“Can we do this?’ Gesesseks hissed quietly.
Chawsess nodded, “Clanking might mean constructs. It’s possible you’ve unearthed some kind of ancient forge.”
“Why take my men?” Rodrigo asked, looking genuinely curious.
“Golems,” Chawsess croaked oddly, his throat inflating and drooping into a brightly colored waddle, “You need a living soul to forge a decent golem. May I ask how many golems we might be dealing with now?”
“...A lot.” Rodrigo swirled his wine in his cup. “Golems eh? That’s a very disturbing theory. I’m glad I talked to you. I’ll have to tell Lord Baremy to pay for some high level adventurers.”
“You’d need an army,” Chawsess said, his back hunching.
“High level adventurers are worth more than a hundred men. But you know that, don’t you?”
“Sssorry?” Chawsess choked on his wine.
A strange tension gripped his genitals and Chawsess found himself squirming uncomfortable as some pressure began to build at the base of his cock. He just felt so weirdly tight down there!
“Sorry, I just love this part,” The fat, mustachio wolf leaned in, his paw rising to touch Chawsess’ rigid cock.
“Mmmph!” Chawsess grunted, “R-rodrigo!”
The changing wolf moaned and squirmed as the Mayor’s chubby paw pressed Chawsess’ throbbing boner back into his groin. With a grunt, his genitals popped into a vent. Chawsess formerly canine cock soon followed after. The Mayor's fingers followed, digging deep into the reptile's sensitive vent and rubbed Chawsess' churning innards.
“Don’t worry, it’s not gone,” Rodrigo with drew his fingers and licked them. “Reptiles have their genitals on their insides."
“R-reptiles?” Chawsess said slowly, staring at the fat wolf with a cold, unblinking stare as his eyelids disappeared.
“I suppose I should have been a bit more direct eh?” Rodrigo said with a laugh, “Reptiles meaning Lizardmen like you.”
“Ssslike me?” Chawsess said as his eyes went wide, shocked by the dry, hiss-like sound of his own voice.
“Yes. Like you. For how fast you dug into the food, I could have put it in anything and gotten the same result. Though you should be thankful I only mixed a bit into your drinks. If I’d put it into everything, well… the effect would be much more permanent.” Rodrigo stated matter-of-factly.
“...” Chawsess stared at Rodrigo, then glanced down at his wine glass. There was a swirl of some kind of effervescent liquid in it. He glared at the Mayor accusingly, “really? Poison? I jussst ssso happen to have become recently immune to poisonsss.”
Gesesseks and Hissorias went still.
“Have you bothered to look at yourself recently?” Rodrigo grinned wolfishly at the three reptilian ‘guards’. “Not poison. Transmutation potions.”
Chawsess was starting to have trouble understanding what the warm-blood was saying. His thoughts were growing sluggish, and not just from the squeeze of his thick skull. The huge meal and the chill in the air was making even his movements slower.
“You all look done enough. Stand and strip,” Rodrigo ordered, the pendant around his neck flashing.
Chawsess and his two other hatchmates rose and disrobed while Rodrigo circled the three nearly-identical, hulking lizardmen. Chawsess, the former wolf, wanted to check on his hatchmates but the swinging pendant around the Mayor’s thick neck consumed his attention.
“Hmm, good conformation…” The rotund wolf grinned toothily as he slid his paws over Chawsess’ scaled, heavily muscular body, “…coloration appears natural. You’re perfect. At some point I’m going to need you to replace the wolf guards you killed. But for now, you’ll be working as slaves in my lumbermill as punishment. Probably for a month or so until my nephew gets over his hatred of you. Then I’ll quietly transform you all into wolves and make sure you’ll be his perfect new companions.”
Chawsess just stared at the amulet with the flashing jewel inside of it, The more he looked at it, the colder his body seemed to grow, but despite the unpleasant chill that it was causing, Chawsess couldn’t bring himself to look away. Rodrigo noticed that all the party was staring mesmerized at his jeweled pendant and ginned.
“Yes, this amulet is like a charm spell. Normally, charming so many people would be difficult, especially strong-willed adventurers like yourself. That’s where my little amulet comes in. It doesn’t matter how much willpower you have, as long as you have one of my potions floating around inside of your veins, this amulet allows me to control your body. Rodrigo said.
“Soul… magic?” Chawsess managed to mumble, his tongue flicking out and tasting the air.
“Oh, goodness me, no!” Rodrigo chuckled. “I am an alchemist but I lack that… vital spark, shall we say, to become a soul magic user. No, my great-great-great-great grandfather was one. He passed his knowledge down through the generations to me.”
Rodrigo paused as he pondered how much to tell his new slaves, “Not that it matters to you anymore, but I can’t do anything spectacular. Not that I’m sure you don’t find your current predicament to be a spectacular failure for yourself. But it’s nothing compared to what my ancestors were able to do. Still, the basic formulas and a few variants are something anyone with a bit of magic can do. That’s how we maintain our order, here.”
Chawsess was too cold to argue, the flashing light all he could see now. His clutchmates appeared to be in the same fugue he was experiencing, eyes locked mostly on the pendant. The Mayor reached down and brought up three sets of clothes for the three burly lizardmen.
“Put these on and come with me.” Rodrigo ordered.
Their minds iced over by the cold, it was all the three lizardmen could do to stay aware of their surroundings, while Rodrigo’s words caused their bodies to move on their own, robotically obeying his orders.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The three lizardmen were marched down to a jail near the lumbermill.
Rodrigo guided them into a stall and locked it. He flicked on a switch and three sunstones glowed warm yellow light onto the stone in the middle of the cell. Chawsess and his clutchmates walked into the beam and were instantly warm.
Chawsess felt a surge of energy flow through him, but all that did was to remind him of the huge meal still sitting, undigested, in his belly. As if on cue, his stomach began rumbling as blood shunted from his brain to his digestive tract to absorb the nutrients sitting within. As his body geared itself to digest his recent meal, Chawsess found himself growing incredibly tired, despite all of the warm energy from the light.
“Go ahead and lie down.” Rodrigo said. “Lizardmen require warmth to do anything. If you misbehave, we shut off the stones. If you misbehave in the winter, that means you’ll likely be near death by morning.”
“Month?” Chawsess asked, trying to speak only to find that the words he wanted to say were too big.
“Maybe. Probably. But if I hear of any incidents, you can resign yourself to this hellish existence forever.” Rodrigo leered, “And I do mean hellish. There’s always room for more lizardmen.”
Chawsess’ heart pounded, but he couldn’t bring himself to worry. He was warm and full right now. And tired. Even if he’d wanted to look for a way to escape, it was all he could do to keep his eyes open. Resigning himself to the gentle caress of a good night’s sleep, the lizardman lay down on the warm stone under the lights with his brothers and found himself drifting off.
As the world blended into non-existence, the last thing Chawsess saw was a faint vision of Rodrigo turning around and leaving the jail, locking the door behind him.