I had expected some sort of magical weirdness, like the sensation of falling or a tunnel of light. But my hoof simply trod onto a surface of cold,
sand and stretched out before me was a vast, rocky desert. The mist hung low and gave everything a tinted grey colour. There was light but no
apparent sun. I looked behind me, expecting to see the red curtain I'd just stepped through, but there was only more desert. There was no
going back now.
"Where are we?" I asked Runt as I set him down.
"Limbo," he explained.
"That's Purgatory, right?"
"That's what it became. In the beginnin' it was just a nowhere place. Then wayward souls started settin' up camps here. Now it's where refugees
go, waitin' to enter Heaven."
"Heaven?" I repeated, "Is that the next world up?"
Runt sniggered, "Hardly. Limbo's slap bang in the middle of the ladder."
"Oh," I said, "I kinda figured Earth was in the middle."
"Earth people always do."
I was distracted by the sound of hurried footsteps. I turned around and saw a shape emerging from the fog. It was headed straight for us, and
was holding a spear. My brain worked fast. My muscular fist collided with skull.
"Yowza!" cried Runt, "Good punch! He's out cold."
I massaged my wrist as I took my first good look at what attacked us. It looked a lot like one of Jabba the Hutt's guards from Return of the
Jedi, like a large, green pig man. It was like a horribly overweight, stumpy looking man, except with mottled green skin and a boar's head, with
a large snout and dangerous looking tusks. It wore sandal like shoes, a fur loin-cloth and a chain-mail vest.
"Your typical Limbo demon," Runt explained, "They act as the guards of this realm. He's probably out huntin'. Lucky we ran into him, really."
"Why?"
"'Cause you're gonna need a new disguise."
"Him?" I looked at the creature in disgust.
"We have to find another gate before the Angels figure out where we went. Our best bet of finding a gate is at one of the camps. Our best bet
of getting into a camp is disguised as one of the guards. You can get us inside with me as your prisoner."
"I dunno..." I said, "It sounds risky."
"You got a better idea?"
I sighed.
Runt knelt over the unconscious demon and began to undress him. He tossed the clothes, spear and various bits of jewelry toward me and had
a good look at his new model. It wasn't pretty. Then, casting every other glance back at his reference, he began to mould me.
First of all, he hung onto my shoulders and took my height down so I was only slightly taller than him. Then he took a fold of my belly and
pulled it out into a large, flabby gut. I held it in my paws, sloshing it about as I got used to the extra weight. I'd gotten so used to being
athletic and attractive this was kind of a sombre moment.
Runt continued onto my legs. My hooves were almost right, but he made them smaller and my legs fatter. It made my posture so terrible I
found it difficult to stay standing. He pulled my tail back and let go so that it whizzed back inside me like a rip-cord, becoming a short, curly
thing. Similarly, he pushed my cock back into my body until it was only half the size. It was a little shorter than my human cock, which wasn't
great. But, paying attention to the detail of the unconscious creature, he made it much broader. Short but fat, like the rest of me.
Then he got to my head. Deciding to start from scratch, he simply pushed my snout and horns back into my face. For a moment, though I
couldn't see it, my head was completely featureless apart from my mouth, eyes and ears. Then he took my top lip and pulled out a new snout.
Large but stumpy, though somewhat familiar to the snout he'd given me that first night. Then he pulled out my teeth into two, impressive
tusks. It made my mouth feel weird so I tried speaking.
"Thish ish a new feeling," I said, "Oh, I shound shtupid"
"Don't worry," Runt told me, "That's how they all sound."
Then he quickly massaged my entire body, shaving off my white fur and replacing it with dark, green skin. It felt thicker than my normal skin
though, which was strangely encouraging. While I'd felt much fitter as a minotaur, I felt certain that I could be stabbed with little effect in this
body.
Runt took a step back and compared me with my counterpoint. He spent a good twenty minutes retouching elements, adjusting proportions,
adding precise freckles or stray hairs.
"Ahre you done yet?"
"Nearly. I can never tell these guys apart. I need to make sure they recognise you," he said, "There. Get dressed."
I pulled up the loincloth and fastened the belt before pulling on the chain-mail vest and shuffling into his sandals.
"How do I look?" I asked.
Runt passed me the spear. "Pretty good, if I say so myself. And if Limbo demons could ever be considered good lookin'."
A groan emerged from the snout of the real demon. He was coming round.
"Whath do we do wish him?"
"Kill him."
"What?" I balked, "We can'th do that!"
"We can't let him free. What do we do if two of yer turn up at the camp?"
"Can'th you change him?"
Runt hesitated. "Demons are harder to do... but he is quite a weak one."
"We can'th kill him. It'sh noth hish fault."
"Ugh." Runt sighed, "Damn you... making me do nice things..."
He knelt over the creature and began to work. He took the thing's cock into his mouth and began to suck. The creature's weight and size began
to drain away, until it was little more than three feet tall and its skeleton was visible. He pushed in his snout and pulled into a beak. Then he
rolled it over and pulled out two, scrawny wings from its back.
All the while, his face was screwed up in concentration. And with every movement he let out a tiny grunt. This was clearly very exhausting for
him. He continued, rubbing out the creatures green skin and replacing it with a stony grey. Finally, he pulled out a long, thin tail. The demon
was now a weak-looking gargoyle. And he was fully conscious. It opened its mouth to yell but no sound came out.
"Listen," Runt told it, "I wanted to kill you, so be thankful my friend is not so mean as I am. We need to borrow your body, okay? I got rid of your
vocal cords, so you can't make trouble. But if you don't make things easy for us, you'll never get it back, understand?"
The gargoyle stared at Runt. Then he nodded.
"Good. Now lead us to the camp."