The innkeeper chuckled ominously, and Mika shuddered. "Now that I got another mouth to feed around here, you better show your worth, boy," the inkeeper growled at Mika. "Otherwise I'll have to be rid of one of you, and I don't think your friend...sorry, brother, shares your talents. Now off with you!"
Mika scrambled down the stairs after Audrey...Aubrey, and headed for the stables. Instead of finding a way out of this mess, he had just made it worse. While it was true, he and Audrey weren't exactly the best of friends, he didn't want to see her hurt, much less stuck as a stable-boy for this creepy inkeeper. As Mika entered the stable, he heard Aubrey whistling and busily mucking out the stalls, and headed for the one Aubrey was in at the moment.
"Oof!" Mika exhaled, nearly getting the wind knocked out of him as Aubrey launched himself at Mika and squeezed him in a big hug. "Sorry, big bro, I dunna why I was in them rooms, I know ya say ne'er to go up theres. Did da Master scold ya somethin' awful?" Aubrey asked, looking sincerely worried for his big brother.
Somewhat taken aback, Mika replied, "Nah, twern't a problem."
"Thanks, big bro," Aubrey grinned widely, then went back to mucking out the stall.
Mika stood there for a while, considering what to do, but having no ideas, went to the next stall and began cleaning it out, his mind awhirl.
After completing their chores, the two boys curled up together for the night on some clean straw in a corner of the stable. Mika was still racking his brain for a way out when he noticed a sound. He realized the noise was the sound of Aubrey, sniffling softly. "Hey, what's wrong?" Mika asked, turning Aubrey towards him. Tears were forming streaks down the boy's grimy face.
"Ya won't leave me, right, big bro?" Aubrey asked, sobbing. "I didna mean ta get ya in trouble. Widout ma an' pa, alls I got is my big bro!" Aubrey threw his arms about Mika, holding tight.
Mika couldn't help but feel protective over the little boy who was relying on him, even if Audrey was still in there somewhere. Embracing Aubrey, he said soothingly, " 'Course I won't leave ya, little bro. I swear, I'll look after ya no matter what." With that, Aubrey began to quiet down, and soon the two boys fell asleep.
The next morning just before dawn, Aubrey went whistling about his chores, cleaning out the stalls. Mika, however, had had enough. Whether Aubrey or Audrey, he knew he had to get both of them out of there before the inkeeper did something worse. Entering the stall that Aubrey was working on at the moment, Mika stood resolutely in front of him.
"Audr...Aubrey, we have to leave here right now," Mika said stolidly. "Aw, big bro, dun make jokes like dat, ya know the Master'll hide ya somethin' awful," Aubrey said, glancing around, then returning to his work. Mika grabbed the rake from Aubrey and held it above his head. "Now listen, Aubrey, I'm serious!"
Aubrey went after the rake desperately, not wanting to get his big brother into any more trouble, but Mika was tall enough to keep the rake out of reach. Finally, exasperated, Aubrey raised a little bare foot and kicked Mika solidly in the stomach. Mika felt the impact, then something more as a flash of bright light lit up the stable. Mika went flying back against one wall, and Aubrey towards the other.
Opening his eyes, Mika looked at himself lying in the manure Aubrey had moved to one side of the stall, and woozily thought, "Aw, man, now I have to clean my clothes." He closed his eyes a second, then they flew open wide as he registered his thoughts. Clothes! No longer the runty stable boy, Mika was now back to his normal self, and with the change memories came flooding back.
"You know they'll go after the wizard first, becuase once we're incapacitated, all they gotta do is deal with your brute strength," he remembered telling Audrey some weeks ago when they'd first started out. "So instead, I'll put this sigil on you, somewhere where an enemy won't notice. It'll break any enchantments they put on me, and then I can undo anything they do to you. So quit complaining and take off your shoe..."
While Mika was reminicing, Aubrey was coming around. Looking around wildly, Aubrey began to panic. "Big bro? BIG BRO?!" he called out, terrified. Noticing Mika on the opposite side of the stall, Aubrey ran at him headlong, screeching, "What did you to do my big bro?!"
Now much bigger than the little stable boy, Mika easily grabbed the little foot which had blasted him in the stomach earlier and brushed off the caked-on dirt. Barely visible, but still there, was the sigil Mika had placed there weeks before. Grinning, Mika for a second debated leaving Audrey as Aubrey for a while, still rather fond of having a loving little brother rather than a obnoxious adventurer as a partner, but the wild panic in Aubrey's eyes decided the matter for him.
Grabbing Aubrey by the shoulders, Mika spoke a few unintelligible words, and watched the little boy grow before his eyes into the strapping young woman, armor and all. For a minute, Audrey's eyes glazed over, then flew open in shock, and lastly narrowed in fury.
"Oh, I'm gonna kill that bastard innkeeper!" she scowled, a bit to loudly. "SHHH!" Mika hushed her quickly, looking around. He didn't know what other enchantments the inkeeper had placed around the stable, but he was determined not to find out. "Forget him, we need to get out of here before he does something else to us!"
"Are you kidding?!" Audrey growled, "He didn't only change you, he turned me into a naked little BOY! "
Mika sighed, but then made up his mind.