Several hours passed as Sam and Eric slowly become more bestial in appearance, elsewhere however Luke and Matt where having a slightly less eventful time.
"Ok so we've already searched the lounge and the billiard room, whats next?" Matt says with a heavy sigh
"This mansion is reminding me too much of that old clue game, you know the one with that scarlet chick." Luke says
"Well heres the next room I got a good feeling about this room, lets hope its its a..." Matt says opening the door revealing a vast ballroom "small... one... crap"
"You had to open your fat mouth" Luke laughs "Well lets start checking at least its relatively empty." Luke continued "Oh my god!" he says running over to a table filled with dusty silverware "If this is real theres got to be a couple thousand dollars worth of trays on this table, were going to be so rich when we get out of here"
"We got to find that gold first" Matt says shuffling over to a wall full of paintings, "You think any of these pictures are of real people?" Matt asks
"No idea theres a lot of them though" Luke says walking down the large room carefully looking over every picture.
All of the sudden he heard a scream from a nearby hallway.
"What the hell was that" Matt says walking next to Luke
"I don't know kind of sounded like Alex, but I've never heard his voice go that high before" Luke says as they hear another scream "Come on they could be in trouble!" he says pulling Matt along with him as they run to the end of the ballroom.
As they reach the far wall they go to turn the corner when they collide with two small objects.
"Ow watch were your going were playing a game here" Mark says rubbing his bumped head
"Mark?!" Luke says astonished
"Ya?" he replies
"What the hell happened to you why are you... so... so..." Luke says trying to finish his sentence despite how freaked out he was
"Young?" Matt finishes his sentence for him
"Lets go these guys are freaking me out, we got to hide or the maiden is gonna find us" Alex says getting up to leave
"The maiden? Shes real? She did this to you!?" Luke says recomposing himself
"No shit shes real in fact thats her picture right there!" Mark says point to a large painting behind them before they both run off playing again.
"Shit were screwed!" Matt says
"Not yet, wow the maiden isn't that bad looking, she seems to happy in that picture. Hey whats the guy next to her holding? Looks kind of like a locket." Luke says
"Um, I just realized something Luke..." Matt says
"Mark and Alex were playing hide and go seek with the maiden... meaning shes following them... and they just ran right past us... Shes coming this way!" Matt continues pulling Luke away from the painting and running back to the other end of the hallway.
They rushed to the end of the hall and ducked behind some sheet covered furniture.
"Shh I think I heard footsteps be very quiet!" Matt whispers to Luke who was staring at a statue behind him. Reaching forward he started pulling the sheet off the statue.
"Shit! Run!" Luke says tumbling backwards as he realized the statue underneath the sheet wasn't a statue at all.
The maiden stepped forth from the tumbling white sheet as it delicately fell to the ground.
"Don't bother running, you wont be able to" she says softly as the white sheets wrap around Matt and Luke's ankles.
"answer this riddle correctly to proceed unchanged fail and join your friends... I am ancient and immortal, I have entertained entire civilizations, and have been held in the highest of ground, my body can be changed in a breath. What am I? the maiden says
Matt and Luke look off into space thinking hard about the answer.
"Um... Is it... god?" Luke says
"Sorry no, you've answered the best of your friends though the correct answer was a myth. So to reward your almost accurate answer I will give you a accurate punishment."
She walked over to Matt and ran her fingers though his hair turning it a bright red, then the swiftly grabbed at his ears and yanked and to Matt's horror they stretched becoming pointed. As he went to defend himself from further attacks he realized he was no longer eye level with the maiden, in fact he was quickly losing hight like water in a drain. The maiden then moved on to Luke who was straining to break free of the surprisingly taught white sheets. He moved her hand along his arm causing him to shiver and develop goosebumps all along his arm. She quickly moved her hand under his bicep and pulled on something sending a sharp pain into his arm. Looking at the object in between her fingers he saw what looked like a small feather then he realized he plucked that feather from him! Examining his arm he saw that feathers had started growing from the goosebumps. He started flapping his arms trying to get free as they became more and more winglike, and as he finally broke free of the sheets bound around his feet he soon realized they had warped into talons.
Luke attempted to run away, but only managed to flop onto the floor not used to his new feet. He started flapping his wings to try and get away from the maiden. As he stared becoming airborne the maiden grabbed his shirt an yanked him down to his knees. When he looked up he noticed the maiden was gone and something different about his clothing. It was no longer his modern clothing he was instead wearing a white tunic, a silver crown and some kind of leather armband.
"Great I look like a mix between legend of Zelda and a bird..." Luke says examining his new body.
"You think you got it bad... Look at me!" a voice comes from below. Matt was standing next to Luke's talon less then six inches tall and dressed in a green suit.
"You got to be shitting me... a leprechaun?" Luke said getting used to folding his wings.
"You don't look any better what are you some kind of man bird?" Matt said
"I think its called a harpy, but I think she just gave us the opportunity we needed... Your a leprechaun so that means you should have some kind of gold sense or even some kind of sway of luck." Luke said picking up his tiny friend from the floor thankful that he still had hands even if his arms were now awkward to use.
"I don't know I don't feel anything new... however I do smell something... Over there!" Matt said pointing to the large table of silver and gold trays.
Luke walked slowly over to the table trying to learn how to walk on his new feet. Matt hopped out of Lukes hand and landed on the table running between the dishes till he got to a gold tray.
"Ok gold now smells delicious to me... is that a good thing?" Matt said sniffing the tray.
"It might be I got a idea quick hop on my back, but first you have to say something for me..." Luke said suddenly excited
"What..." Matt said suddenly worried by the look in Luke's eyes.
"say 'there magically delicious'" Luke says suddenly bursting out laughing.
"Very funny no way in hell bird brain!" Matt said leaping off the table and climbing up Luke's tunic grabbing hold on the back of Luke's head. "Now what was your idea?"
"You can smell gold if I can get the hang of flying we can search the whole mansion quickly and find that gold and get the wish!" Luke said spreading his wings preparing to take flight
"You sure you can fly though... you haven't done it before..." Matt says hesitantly
"We'll see!" Luke says flapping his wings and flying into the air and down the corridor all the while Matt was screaming in terror...
Meanwhile outside the game the old man was watching his screen with interest.
"Hmmm the maiden is trying a few new tricks this time, but they are still miles away from knowing where the gold is" he says laughing as he lays down on the couch closing his eyes to take a nap