Mika slipped off his stool and backed away from the innkeeper, who made no effort to stop him. Reaching the stairs, he scrambled up to the guestrooms, and after much searching finally found Audrey's room.
Audrey was still wearing her armor and in the middle of practicing with her sword. She turned around as Mika barged in and frowned. "You must have got the wrong room."
"P-please Audrey. Ya gotta help me..." Mika pleaded.
Audrey's eyes narrowed and there was a hint of steel in her voice. "Look, kid. I don't know how you found out my name, and I don't know what you're up to. But if you know what's good for you, you better leave right now. Kids that prank with me never get the chance to grow up."
"But I'm Mika! Dun ya recognize me?"
"Yeah and I'm the Queen of Hearts. Are you going to leave by yourself, or shall I kick you out?"
Mika's mind raced desperately into overdrive. Audrey was his only hope, and he really needed to make this work. "Fine! If ya dun help, tomorrow ya gonna have to carry all da stuff yerself!" he blurted.
Audrey stiffened for a moment, and then slowly sheathed her sword. Stepping forward, she took a long hard look at the homely, loincloth-clad boy with a tangled mop of russet hair, and then nearly doubled over with laughter. "Mika is that really you?" she chortled. "You look like some dim-witted whelp! What on earth happened?"
"T'was da innkeep. He changed me. It ain't funny! Ya gotta find him and make him change me back!" Mika begged desperately.
"Looking for me?" the phrase lingered menacingly in the air as the innkeeper silently stepped into the room and shut the door behind him.
There was a flash of light as Audrey whipped out her sword, but before she could strike, a wave of dizziness overcame her. In the haze, she felt a series of weird sensations. It was as if her skin was getting tighter, her muscles contracting, and her bones collapsing in on themselves. It wasn't painful at all, just strange and surreal.
Mika gasped with dismay when it was over. Where the powerful warrior woman had been, there now stood a naked little boy slightly shorter than himself. His long flowing straw-blond hair had twisted into an unkempt birds nest matted with mud, his brown olive eyes looked dimmed and confused, and his bony aquiline nose now drooped sharply as if deliberately pointing to a pair of buck teeth that were not fully covered by his thin lips. His wiry shrunken body was skinny as a weed, rib cage protruding, and a generous endowment now dangled between his spindly legs. Once clear & fair skin had become tanned and streaked with dirt & grime, and there was a whiff of horse manure about him.
When her world finally stopped spinning, Audrey blinked and was shocked to find that she was now looking up at Mika. "My boobies!" she cried, as an unexpected empty feeling caused her to clasp her hands against her scrawny chest in panic. Running her eyes over her new body, she shrieked in horror like a crazed banshee.
"You turn me back right now you son-of-a-bitch!" she yelled as she charged at the innkeeper in a frenzied whirl of kicks and punches. But before she could even get close, she froze as a flood of new memories assaulted her mind. Her..his name was Aubrey, and he and his big brother Mika had been homeless street urchins in the village before Master took them in. The work was hard and Master was strict, but at least they had food scraps to eat every day and a roof over their heads. Dim memories of once being a mighty warrior receded into the deepest reaches of his mind, sharding into disjointed fragments, and then fading like the shadows of dreams he had while asleep at night, curled up naked on the stable floor.
"Hey boy! Don't you have work to do?" the innkeeper's words jolted Aubrey out of his trance. Glancing around, he wondered what he was doing in a guestroom since he knew he wasn't allowed upstairs. "I'm sorry Master. Will get ta muckin' out da stalls right away." he said in a small submissive voice. Sidling up close to Mika, he whispered "hey big bro, when ya done come help me out yah? Is awful hard work doin' it all me-self." He gave Mika a goofy grin, playfully tousled his russet hair, and then turned to leave the room.
Mika watched in despair as the warrior-turned-stableboy scurried out the door, down the stars and out towards the stables, completely unashamed of his nakedness and at ease with his new station in life.