The next day, I was watching Jake completely botch acting seductive through the mirror when Morgana came in.
She tossed me onto the bed, motioned for me to stay silent, and peeked out the window. She apparently saw
something interesting, because she backed away for a second and started jumping for joy. Then things got
strange. Well, stranger, as I suppose having a perverted witch prancing about in my room while I have to stay
silent is already fairly strange. Anyway, Morgana flicked her wrist and instantly changed. This time, she
looked like me. She was an exact copy of me, and all she had to do was flick her wrist? It was a horrifying
thought, and I tried to distract myself from it by watching what Morgana did with my form. She leaned between
the bars of my window and started waving.
"Princess, there you are! Are you alright?" A voice shouted.
"Yes fair prince! Are you here to rescue me?" Morgana yelled back. Once again, she had gotten the voice
disturbingly right.
"We are! Is the accursed witch in the castle?" The prince replied.
"No fair prince, she is in distant lands. I am all alone in this castle." Morgana said while making
hilariously over-dramatic hand motions.
"Excellent. Stay where you are, we'll be right there!" The prince yelled.
"No wait! The door is trapped! I know a better way!" Morgana said, a horribly evil grin appearing on her face.
"Thank you, how should we enter?" The prince asked.
"There is a hedge maze nearby. It is enchanted so that anyone who solves it is transported inside." Morgana
said.
"We're on our way. Fear not princess!" The prince said.
After a few minutes, Morgana pulled her head back in and started laughing. She dropped the spell that made her
look like me, and sat next to me.
"Oh goodness, can you believe him? Doesn't know if I'm here, starts yelling at me, didn't even try to climb
the wall. On top of that, why would you know about the hedge maze at all?" Morgana said, clutching her sides
in laughter.
"So there is a maze? Why do you have a maze?" I asked.
"It was left over from the last wizard who lived here. It's pretty small, but it's magic." Morgana said.
"You actually told them how to get in? And here I was thinking I had been captured by a competent witch." I
said.
"Oh, you still were. It doesn't actually get them in the castle, in fact they'll never leave the maze. The
maze changes so that no one can solve it. On top of that, I enchanted it personally so that anyone who's in
there for a long enough time... well, you'll see." Morgana said. Then she grabbed me by the arm and pulled me
downstairs. We ran outside just in time to see the entrance to the maze seal itself. Morgana summoned a mirror
that gave an aerial view of the maze. I could see my would-be rescuers now, and I recognized them. One was
Prince Timothy. He was rich, handsome, kind, and noble. The only thing wrong was that A, he spent all of his
time trying to save the elves' forest, and B, he only had eyes for those elves. Speaking of which, Prince
Timothy was accompanied by three elven rangers who were wearing so little, it would make even Morgana blush.
It appeared they were wearing nothing but leggings, corsets, and quivers. By now, the party had split up. Two
of the rangers were in the left side of the maze, actually making good progress if not for the ever-shifting
walls, and Timothy had led the remaining ranger into no less than twelve dead-ends. At least the pair of elves
were in constant motion, never hitting a stop. Timothy seemed to be actively looking for ends. It wasn't long
before his partner ran off without him and started trying to track the other two. They however, finally
stopped.
"Well, I didn't expect the rumors to be true." Morgana said with the biggest grin on her face I had ever seen.
"What rumors? I don't understand." I said.
"Sara honey, you see how those two elves are both leaning against the wall together?" Morgana said as she
pointed at the mirror.
"Well yes but... no, no that can't be. Are they? I mean they appear to be but..." I said, too shocked to
finish a sentence.
"They are. You see, official elven rangers are all, how can I put this delicately? Fruity. It supposedly makes
them less susceptible to being swayed from their mission, but these two appear to be swaying quite a bit."
Morgana said. As we watched, the elves began undressing each other as they... embraced. After a bit, Morgana
poofed up a bed and began to... let's just say that I couldn't look at anyone without seeing something I would
have preferred to avoid seeing. Then I realized that there was someone I could watch. Timothy was still in the
maze, and the other elf girl was searching as well. They were now on opposite sides of a wall, which had been
somewhere completely different moments ago, and the elf seemed to notice. She peered through the leaves for a
bit before reaching into the hedge. She immediately withdrew her arm and began cradling it. I thought of
asking Morgana what was going on, but she was too preoccupied to look at this particular elf. Instead, I
simply focused a bit. The mirror's magic seemed to be more powerful than I knew, as the image became more
clear. I could see exactly what was happening, but it still showed the whole maze. The elf girl's arm had
turned brown, and the brown color had spread. As it did, her skin seemed to get rougher. Before long, I
realized what was happening. She was turning into wood. In a matter of moments, the poor girl was completely
petrified. On the other side of the maze, the "fruity" pair had finished their "embracing" and had started to
transform as well. They however, were still fondling each other as they transformed. Morgana sat up in her
bed, apparently also done. She seemed very pleased, but also somewhat dazed. She shook it off and the image in
the mirror changed. Instead of showing the whole maze, it only showed Timothy. He was still running through
the maze. Now, he seemed very angry. After a few more dead-ends, he unsheathed his sword and started hacking
at the maze. This seemed to make the maze very angry, as it pulled the sword in. Timothy, apparently dumber
than I thought, started trying to dig into the hedge and pull it out. Within moments, a vaguely prince shaped
tree stood in the middle of the maze.
"Well, that went better than I expected." Morgana said as she stood up. "Come along Sara, we have to go see
what has become of our uninvited guests."
"What? Go into the maze? We'll be trapped!" I said.
"Sara, honey, you know I can teleport right? I do it all the time." Morgana said. With that, the maze entrance
reappeared and we went in.
After a few minutes of walking, we found the elf pair. They still mostly retained their shape, making it easy
to tell where one elf stopped and the other started.
"Quite a pair huh? I think I'll keep these two." Morgana said as she cast a spell on the trees. First, they
changed from rough, bark-y trees into wooden statues. Then, Morgana transported them away. Fortunately for us,
a wall opened up right next to us, revealing the third elf.
"This one is less interesting. However, I still need firewood, so" Morgana began to say.
"No! You can't just burn her! Please, make her a statue too, she doesn't deserve this." I pleaded. Morgana
looked shocked. She stayed silent for a while, clearly thinking it over. I was sure she would burn the poor
thing on the spot.
"You know what Sara, you've been very good lately. You've brought in a fair number of princes, you haven't
tried to run away, you even help me by staying hidden when I need you to. If you really care about this girl,
I'll let you keep her. In fact, I think I can do better." Morgana said. Then she turned around and started
casting on the elf girl. First, she repeated the spell that reverted the tree's appearance. Then she knelt
next to the statue and put her hand on it. She stayed like that for a long time, both of us completely silent.
Then something remarkable broke the silence.
"What... what is this?" Came a voice. I didn't know where it came from, but it sounded very feminine.
"This, young lady, is a statue. It appears that you were caught in the crossfire in my little war on princes.
However, Sara here has asked me to undo some of the damage that occurred." Morgana said, gesturing toward me.
"Wait, you mean you" I said, but this time it was Morgana's turn to cut me off.
"Yes, I brought back her soul. She's still a statue, but she's alive... technically." Morgana said.
Then I did something I never thought I would do. I ran over to the horrible, perverted, evil, villainous,
slutty witch who had kidnapped me, and I hugged her.
"Well, thank you Sara, but I think our friend would prefer if you explained what's going on. Why don't you two
go back to the castle while I look for the moron prince." Morgana suggested. I didn't have time to respond, as
she immediately teleported me back into my room, which now had a wooden statue in it.
"What just happened?" The elf asked. I wasn't sure how to answer her.