A moment before, the plains of this valley had been quite and calm with the suns early light creeping up over the mountains far in the distance. There was the scent of different fruits and vegetables on the air from the farms which spread far and wide over these lowlands. A carriage carrying a man and a woman smelled of peppers and horse manure as the two of them traveled slowly up this long and empty road. The quite, such as it was, would not last.
Very near to the carriage, a gust of wind and crackle of chaotic energies ripped forward into the Earth Realm, lighting up the sky and ripping a gash through the soil towards the couple. The white and red light spread wide from its starting place just above the ground revealing a view of a land red and black of stone with deep orange skies all its own just beyond. There was a horde of monsters yipping and yelling holding all manner of weapons. Most of them were black of form and with glowing eyes, but not the two that came the closet to the two humans and their horse.
For a moment, the two viewed the shape of a giant minotaur, easily ten foot tall, as it smashed into the portal and didn't break through. Though the woman screamed and the horses were startled, the creature itself was held in place by some invisible force for just a moment. In the next moment, though, his form crashed through and onto the dirt on the Earth's side, a tall and sleek succubus covered in jade scales and leather armour riding his back. The two slid in the dirt, the woman over the top of the man, for just a moment until she hopped off and hurried over towards the now open portal.
"This is a problem," she spoke as the married couple's carriage buckled with the startled reaction of the single horse at the front. The succubus pulled up her broadsword as the minotaur slowly got his hoofs under him and began to stand up. "Ready you weapon! You've opened the portal, but now those monsters can make their escape into this realm," she hissed at him as she stepped closer to the portal. Just as he managed to get up off one knee and pick up his axe did the flood of creatures come out from the glowing white energy of the gateway.
Within seconds all manner of tiny, twisted creatures were released onto Earth. Spiders the size of rats, rats the size of dogs, dogs the size of horses… all black furred with patchy scales and glowing eyes. A swarm of snakes surrounded the carriage, startling the mare but giving it no where to run to. The transportation began to rock, and one of the spiders sank its teeth into the leg of the horse at the front. Though it kicked and made frightened sounds, the horse was soon overcome by the poison which promptly knocked it out cold, falling to its side, and removing any chance the two humans had a quick escape.
"We must save them!" came Eodor's voice from behind Miggs as she ran from the portal, covering her head with her hands. "And soon I must get myself a weapon," she added to herself as she dodged between some of the smaller creatures. Stumbling a bit, she miss-stepped and crushed the skull of a mouse-like monstrosity beneath one of her heels. "Miggs, help them!" she called out to the succubus who nodded quickly, turning back towards the carriage.
A group of small, bipedal dog-like creatures shimmered into view of the two heroic monster's eyes and rushed towards the helpless humans. "Kobalds!" Miggs hissed, rushing towards the two figures hugging each other atop the carriage. "Never have I see one, but surely those are such!" she yelled out as she leapt onto the vehicle, swinging her broadsword into the back of one of the little creatures. They were only two or three foot tall, and hard to hit, but slashing one open made most of the others scatter. "Stop screaming!" Miggs chided the woman as she cut off the face of one that had jumped towards her, covering her in blood.
As Miggs turned her attention to the man, the woman fell backwards off the cart behind them and into the pile of snakes. On each of the man's arms were two of the furred creatures, each wearing what looked like the dead and leathered skin of other long gone kobalds. They wrestled him down until he fell through the wooden roof of the transportation and into the seats below. Hissing towards the creatures, she thrust her sword downward and into the back of one of them, cutting straight through its small body. Its blood gushed out over the man and Miggs reached down into the carriage with one leg and kicked a gash into the other's head, crushing in its tiny skull as it also fell over on the now yelling man.
The two kobald's dead, Miggs looked around at the battle all around her. Eodor was kicking and swatting at spiders rushing her and the horse at the front of the vehicle. Yaun was out ahead within the much larger creatures counting off each kill as he swung his axed around into each, one at a time, laughing to himself through all the carnage. Blinking at that image for just a moment, noting the minotaur's sizable erection gained from his new pastime, Miggs turned around on the top of the cart in enough time for her to be slammed into by a snake the size of an anaconda 'flying' through the air.
Slamming onto the ground, Miggs felt the slick and slithery movements of the black and red snakes all under her backside. She hadn't crushed a one, and now they all turned on her, biting into her scales and on her face she struggled to get to her feet. Already the poison could be felt seeping into her blood, and she thought that this could be the end of her. Pain and dizziness struck her quickly as the venom of these creatures from the World of Chaos worked quickly even on the succubus. A part of Miggs realized that if she'd had someone to feed off of, even for a moment, that she might be able to heal herself. That was how succubi worked… but only sexual energy powered them.
Getting to her feet, her broadsword somewhere under all the snakes, she looked through the windows of the carriage from one side and through the other to her companion Yaun. Limply reaching out to him from over all that distance, she saw snakes still hanging from her right arm. Feeling him, his energy, and the arousal of the situation that Yaun embraced, Miggs pulled her hand towards her, clenching her fist. She could feel the connection she had made almost like a rope of energy through the air itself, and pulled it towards her. Though the minotaur continued into combat, she could see his erection diminish as she took his energy. Healing came next, and she thought a simple new talent had been discovered.
But it was not to be… for her scales hardened up, and sealed tight and she was healed. Too much energy from Yaun was coming too her and she couldn't slow it down. Slowly her scales hardened and prevented further penetration as she cast herself a temporary armour spell from somewhere within instinct, and still it was too much! Her hand burning with the energy she it held! She unclenched her fist and tried with all she had to shake the connection away… to stop drawing all that energy.
A beginner's mistake.
You can't just throw magic away, Miggs realized all too late. Briefly she tried to reach out to the side to direct healing towards the horse of the carriage, but much like her own healing it was far too easy a task to be completed with how much she had drawn from Yaun. Staggering forward on her hoofs as the snakes tripped her, her hands slammed into the side of the cart. She lost her focus and her energy traveled into vehicle, over the human inside, and into the dead kobalds within. Feeling his body shift and twist through the effort, Miggs' eyes went wide, her hands ripping themselves away from the carriage as she thrust them down and away from her. Without realizing it, she had slammed all her effort into the snakes below even as they swarmed and bit into the woman who had fallen off the cart earlier.
Miggs roared as the last of the magic left her and she fell backwards onto her wings and tail on the ground. Her vision went dizzy and her head began to spin just as she realized the snakes were no longer there to break her fall. Coughing she tried to roll over to get back to her feet. Seeing the broadsword laying there on the earth now that all that slithered was gone. But where too? she wondered to herself in a worried pained thought as she looked to her right, her back to the cart.
There on the ground was partly the human woman who's screams had been muffled by the swarm of deadly snakes all over her body. The bites all over her still showed on the parts of her flesh that were still as skin and Miggs had considered that she could have pushed some healing onto this woman if only she'd had the power left. As it was, the woman was gasping for breath at the audible cracking and snapping of the bones in her legs filled the air all around the clearing. Her head jerking towards the woman's lower half, Miggs saw black and red scales populating over her legs as her lower body shifted and fused together, pulling out into a lengthy line of flesh out beyond her.
"No," Miggs said, her eyes going wide as she got up onto her hoofs again, drawing up the broadsword as Eodor rushed over into their direction from the front of the cart. Her jaw dropped as she watched the scales travel up under the woman's clothing towards her neck and arms. I did this, Miggs thought, and she could only watch. I have become the monster which turns others into monsters, she though, stepping over to the woman as her breath returned and she began to scream once more.
"Regina…! Get in the carriage and shut your trap!" came the voice of the male from inside of the cart. Wincing at his sharp bark of a voice, Miggs closed her eyes and turned her head towards the vehicle, afraid to look at what else she had done. "Quick-like! That demon is right beside you!" he said, and Miggs opened her eyes to look at the window of the carriage just in front of her.
Sure enough, there appeared a short canine muzzle, something like a dog crossed with a rat. It had black, brown, and gray fur all over, with thick whiskers and tuffs of white fur out over its eyebrows… but the eyes, for the moment, were unmistakably the eyes of the man Miggs had been trying to save. Even as she watched him, she could see his cloths becoming baggy as his height was more than reduced in half to where he had to stand on tip-toes to look out of the cart.
Thinking to cry at her awful mistake, Miggs looked back towards the woman on the ground in enough time to see Yaun stomping towards her, battle axe in hand. "No!" she screamed at him, lunging towards his arm to stop it from descending. Yaun stumbled back towards the carriage, bumping into it and shaking the once-man inside with his weight. "That use to be the woman," she hissed at him as she saw the one-track-mind in his eyes that lead to him being covered in gore and blood all over.
He shook his head as he stood back up, dropping his axe to his side as he watched the woman screaming on the ground. The scales had traveled up over the woman's head and face, flattening it out a bit, and pulling her hair backwards behind layers of gills at the side of her face. Regina's eyes shifted into a glowing green from their once human shade as she did her best to sit upright. Doing so, she found her arms had become thick with more muscles until the violently split down the middle. Her body thrashed onto its side as she howled like a banshee at the pain, dropping her head sideways onto the ground and relieving herself of her breakfast onto the dirt.
"Eew," Yaun shook her hands a bit as she grabbed her axe's hilt stiffly. "Almost makes you want to put her out of our misery," he tried to roar above the scream, his other hand covering his bovine ear on one side of his head. "And the man too?" Yaun asked, looking towards the creature insider the cart who, upon seeing the minotaur, promptly dropped back inside of the carriage. "I felt a power rush over me, like someone trying to draw out my life force," he commented, looking at Miggs. "It was you, wasn't it? That's how you got those new scales," he motioned with his free hand.
"New—" Miggs looked towards her hands as the best place to see herself, and there instead of jade-colored scales were much thicker blue and green scales that were quite tough to the touch. The armour spell, she finally realized. "I didn't hurt you, did I?" she asked, watching as the woman's arms finished each splitting into too, her head jerking back as she finally passed out from the pain and stopped screaming. "I've hurt them… changed them… just as that creature did too me such a short time ago," she looked down, then over at Eodor. "I've become a monster, my prince… just as we feared."
Eodor looked around the clearing. Her nice dress was covered in blood and ichor from all the creatures she'd either crushed or had sprayed on her by Yaun's efforts. Most everything else seemed to be dead or dying. Sighing, she saw the kobalt man stick his short muzzle up over the edge of the window to look out again. Looking over to Yaun, she asked, "Would you pick up Regina and put her with her companion? Miggs and I will tend to the horse and check the bodies," she said, patting Miggs on the shoulder. "None of us are quite what we use to be," she said. "Things could always be worse."
"Yeah… we could be ugly," Yaun said, slinging the new naga over his shoulder. Shaking his head, he turned towards the cart. Opening the door, he dropped the woman inside and took a moment to pull up all of her tail and fed it into the carriage too. "Where's your home?" he asked the man inside, "And what's your name? You'll not what to be going out like you are now. It would be best to come with us."
"And if I refuse!?" he demanded an answer.
"You can take your chances on this empty road as a little rodent-dog monster. I'm sure patrols would be more than happy to put you out of your misery," Yaun said with a bovine grin. "We are not supposed to be monsters, and neither are you.. We intend to fix our situation and save a kingdom or two," he said, his bass voice booming at the much smaller man. "Now, as I said… we are going to your home. Where is it?"