Jeff stared out into the darkness, wondering when one of his body parts would be lifted up, giving him the briefest view of the floor below him before his face was pressed back down into it.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been a pair of boots. At first it had been torture. Wrapped around his former body’s feet, Jeff’s sensation of taste and smell had been merged into one, and his entire insides were one big sensory organ.
As the massive, furry paws wedged into fine cloth lining both of his parts, he could feel his insides wrapping around everything, from his former soles to the claws at the tips of his former toes. Then there was the taste – a foul mixture of bear sweat that had the all of the sensory properties of a stinky old cheese. Mixed into that was the ever-present smell of rank, musky BO – it was like taking a wet dog, smearing it with a wet cat, and then shoving the resultant mixture into the armpit of an man who ate far more than he bathed.
And to make matters worse, Geoffrey seemed to like the feel of the soul infused silk that made up the inner lining of Jeff’s bodies. He loved stretching his soles and wiggling his toes. He liked pressing Jeff’s body up against the side of a wall and then pushing down, squeezing all of Geoffrey’s sweat into Jeff’s absorbent inner lining. And most of all, he loved never taking Jeff off.
Day in and day out, Jeff never got a break. Geoffrey slept in him, ate in him, relaxed in him, adventured in him. Just about the only time that Jeff was ever free of his former body was on the rare occasion that Geoffrey had taken a bath and even then, that was only the briefest of respites.
Then, he’d heard Charlon talking to the party and bore silent, unseeing witness to the rangers be transformed into helpless fembois. He’d been forced to listen as Geoffrey’s feeble mind tried to briefly exist, before feeling himself get absorbed into the feet that had previously served as his unknowing torturer.
His steel exterior had inverted into thick sinew and dense bone, while course bear fur had grown out of his previously delicate liner, converting into a small part of the feral polar bear’s new pelt. Then his mind had addled, replaced more and more by the mind of an unfeeling foot and…
He had woken up, his cold steel exterior pressed against the stone floor, while his warm, velvety liner wrapped itself around Geoffrey’s damp, smelly feet. For a moment he had despaired. Trapped, again, unable to move, to talk, to do anything other than feel and smell. Had the party forgotten about him? It was possible.
He knew there were supposed to be more people showing up at this game – like Adam, for example. He might be a bit late, but he never missed a DnD night, so where was he? Transformed into a tree and forgotten? Was that to be Jeff’s fate too? And what about when the game ended? Would Finn transform him back? Or Geoffrey become the new Jeff, while he was stuck as a pair of shoes in the real world too?
This wasn’t the first time he’d had these thoughts of despair. Ordinarily the smell and taste were all he could focus on, but occasionally this melancholy would break through. And the worst part about it was that the longer he spent as a shoe, the more he realized he was coming to enjoy it.
He was starting to like it when Geoffrey wiggled his toes, he was starting to learn the intricacies of the taste of old, musky cheese. Like a fine wine, it was unpleasant at first, but he began to savor it. And then there was the smell, he’d never been averse to sticking his muzzle in Geoffrey’s armpit before, and he was starting to appreciate the ability to wrap his “nose” around the sole of Geoffrey’s foot 24/7.
As the unliving boots continued to fantasize about the state of its own existence, it heard the party begin to talk about how Charlon’s body was now a blank vessel that they could tailor him into. Then he heard Veles’ description of the curse, followed shortly thereafter by the idea to turn him into a golem. It was a wild rollercoaster of emotions that all came on so suddenly.
If what they were saying was true, he could be free of this inanimate prison that he called a body. Sure, he’d be some sort of taxidermy golem, whatever that was, but it couldn’t be worse than this.
He felt Geoffrey’s hand wrap around him, pulling both of his body parts off and then lifting him up. Jeff’s view was still pointed down towards the floor, but he at least got to see the comatose Charlie lying on the floor, before he was set down beside and his vision was once again limited to the lightless floor beneath him.
This was it! It was finally happening! He was finally going to have a body again!
The minutes couldn’t have passed slower as he waited in darkness. And after a literal eternity, he the sound of metal being dragged next to him – that must be the golem – followed shortly thereafter by the party huffing as they there was a dull thud nearby – that must be the taxidermy.
“Tailor!” Veles shouted.
Jeff felt something reach inside of him and then stop, almost as if it was waiting his turn. Nothing seemed to happen on his end, but he could hear the party talking how the taxidermy was quickly taking to Charlon’s body, followed by how they had been successful in making it a golem.
Then, that thing inside of him transformed from an ephemeral wisp into a firm hand. It grabbed him on a level far deeper than he could have previously imagined, reaching in and pulling on his very soul. With a quick ripping sensation, Jeff felt himself flung out of the boots and up into the air.
He found himself floating, bodyless, in the middle of his friends, all of whom were staring down at the fox below him. All, that is, except Veles, who was reaching out towards him, gripping an unseen force in his hands as he stared directly into Jeff’s point of view.
“In you go!” Veles said, and Jeff felt himself thrust into the fox below him.
He passed through the pelt and into the animated wood below. His soul spread out, soaking into the wood and fox pelt, permeating it with his essence until there was no longer a difference between the two of them.
She suddenly knew what she was – where a normal creature would have organs, muscles tendons and bones, she instead was solid mahogany. Carved with exquisite precision, the wood that made up the core of her new form had been sculpted from a single piece of exquisite Ironroot until it was an exact replica of the shape that the fox had in life.
Wrapped around that frame, and giving her body personality, was the perfectly tanned pelt of a dire red fox. In death, she had made a fine sculpture. In life, she had been the pinnacle of a vulpine existence.
Jeff tried to move her new body, only to find that the wood that her soul now animated had certain limitations that a truly living body did not. The first was the stiffness. While moving didn’t seem to tire her out, the act itself was difficult. Just raising her front paw or turning her head was an arduous task.
Something told her that movement would be easier if someone else told her to do it, but for now, it was definitely a challenge. Then there was the flexibility.
Her tail was stuck out straight behind her, and while she could wag it back and forth a bit, it always returned to that same default position. Then there were her legs, she could walk, but the movements were simple and graceless.
Next was her face. Her eyes were fixed in place, and she couldn’t close them. That meant that looking around the room required her to move her entire head – again, not an easy task when she hadn’t been ordered to do so.
Then came her mouth. The inside was bone dry, her tongue was fixed against the bottom of her jaw, and the entire muzzle itself was permanently stuck half agape, almost in mid-pant.
And finally was the fact that she was thinking of herself as…
“Is everything ok?” Veles asked.
Now that the command had been given, Jeff’s head jerked until she was staring straight into Veles’ eyes. She tried to say “no, you idiot, its not ok!” but the words didn’t come out. In fact, nothing came out, not even an animalistic grunt. And why would it? The back of her throat consisted of a piece of cloth that had been sown into her jaw, while her body itself was a solid hunk of wood. Even if she still had a throat, she had no lungs to inhale air or voicebox to make sound.
Completely mute, Jeff had no other choice but to shake her head as vigorously as she could.
“You’re not in pain are you?” Charlie inquired from behind her.
Again, she whipped around to look at Charlie and shook her head.
“So what…” Charlie began to ask, only to be cut off as Veles walked up next to him and whispered something in his ear.
“Oh,” he said, “I uh, I see. Well, Jeff… I mean, those were taxidermies of animals that were killed in the arena here. One way or another, you were going to have to deal with an extra hole.”
“And its only temporary!” Veles chimed in, “as soon as we get back to camp, we’ll have you back to your old body, nothing will carry over except your mind.”
Jeff jumped up and slammed her front paws into the ground in frustration. It was a very foxlike thing to do, she realized, but what else was there. She was stuck in this body, for the moment, and despite all of its shortcomings, it was still a hell of a lot better than being wrapped around Geoffrey’s feet.
Which made her wonder, where were his feet? If only she could go over and take a sniff…
Oh, she realized, she might have a nose, but it was sealed shut. Plus, there was the whole ‘no lungs’ thing. So as the party broke up to take care of their business around camp, Jeff found herself following behind Geoffrey, her eyes focused on his beautiful white feet.