I was immediately forgotten as Joe and Alex dashed to help Lysander. Since my spell meant he'd only turn to stone when he was scared, they
desperately tried to calm him down. In their panic, this amounted to a lot of shouting and arm-waving. Lysander remained firmly concrete.
While they were occupied, I tried to stand on my hooves. My legs were still normal from the ankles up, so they weren't really designed for
standing as they were. I felt very unstable but managed to stay up. I tried a few tentative steps.
"Okay, okay, okay," Alex was saying, "Let's just sit down and try to stay calm. Lysander will just change back on his own if we stay calm."
I hobbled over to the sofa and sat. Alex sat beside me and I made a point of not looking at him. I looked at my feet instead, but couldn't help
looking at my hooves. So I looked at the ceiling.
Nobody spoke for some time. This was made all the more awkward since we were all in our underwear.
"This is all just a game," Alex said, "I mean, it's a proper, real life, magical game, which is a huge deal, but it's still just a game. So there must
be a way to stop playing. Then everyone goes back to normal."
He found the box and fished out the page of rules. "Ending the game," he read aloud, "The game ends when a player completes one hundred
quests. That player is declared the winner and is granted the grand prize: one unconditional wish, any desire immediately granted."
Even then, while we were all still freaked out and terrified, that got our attention. That was the first hint of the greed that would consume us
and the whole town with it. One unconditional wish, to do with whatever we wanted. I knew what I'd wish for. Lysander said, "We just have to
keep playing."
We all jumped, not realising he'd changed back. It seemed he hadn't realised right away either, as he was looking at his skin and massaging his
arms.
"Are you okay?" asked Joe.
He nodded. "It was cold and I couldn't move, but it's not uncomfortable. I just have to keep calm."
He flashed a look at me, suggesting he was annoyed at me for cursing him. I thought that was a bit rich, since he'd cursed me first and at least
he still looked normal.
"So I'm stuck this way until somebody does one hundred quests?" I asked.
"No," said Lysander, "Only until the end of this turn. Once somebody completes this task, our curses are lifted."
"What was the quest again?" asked Alex.
"There's a creature in the forest that must be slain," said Joe, word for word.
"The forest?" I asked, "Could that be the woodland by the cemetery?"
"How do we find the monster?" said Alex.
"I have a feeling it'll find us," said Lysander.
That sent a chill down my spine. We exchanged glances, realising we were candidly talking about slaying a monster to lift our curses as if it
were no big deal. But there was nothing else we could do.