Robin was not happy as he inspected the young noblemen-turned-stallion. The animal whickered as he gave him a pat on the rump. “Boy, you gotta follow directions and you gotta pay attention. This here’s a fine horse but if we wanted fine horses we’d get stallions and mares. Folks around here want a spark. A human spark. And seein’ all the trouble Du Brants’ have caused his Lordship, he wanted Henric as a little trophy.”
“But he was gonna smash me!” Mika protested indignantly. He tried this time. Very hard.
“I know, boy, but you gotta do as your told. Maybe you want panic next time if you learn your lesson,” he reached into his pocket and held out a smooth, many-hued stone. What could he possibly do to Mika after this? “Do good work and you’ll get your favorite toy back.”
The scrawny stablehand felt a tight sensation in his groin. Despite the living conditions, the former wizard was at least strong and well-hung as a stableboy. He saw his enormous cock shrinking into something embarrassingly small, even for the young teen he’d become. Now a dimunitive organ hung between his scrawny legs. The little muscle definition he had was now skin and bones. Was he shorter? Younger? Mika reddened and covered himself. It wasn’t his fault! “If you didn’t make me a dumb oaf like you I coulda done it right!”
He immediately wished he hadn’t said that. In a flash the burly innkeeper grabbed Mika, and his hand struck his bottom. “Apologize for that boy!”
“Ow! Shit!”
“I took you in! Gave you lodging! An easy life!”
Mika yelped in pain. “Stop! Ow! Ow!” The innkeeper didn’t relent until he finally broke down. “F-fine! I’m sorry!”
Rubbing his bottom and lamenting the loss of his oversized member, Mika ruefully returned to his duties. A secret, mischievous part of him took pleasure in getting a rise out of a grown-up… maybe he’d sneak horse piss into his ale? Mika smirked at the thought.
***
Days passed since the incident. There was no sign of Audrey. Mika figured she must’ve skipped out or followed up on some lie the innkeeper told. Or she was a cow somewhere. The stableboy tried his best to stay on Robin’s good side if only to be allowed into puberty again. He was run ragged keeping the stable and doing hores. He was loaned out briefly to weed an old woman’s garden and got a sweetroll in return.
The time came when a local farmer and his teenaged son, Samwell, came to buy the pair of mules. Mika was sad to see him go but they promised both would have a good life. The mules didn’t seem to object. Robin also gave Mika the afternoon off to go swimming with Samwell. He’d prefer to be a man again but fresh air was nice. The two went skinnydipping in a pond fifteen minutes into the wood.
“I see you’re not the man you used to be, wizard,” Samwell smirked, causing Mika to blush. “What’d you do to piss off old Robin?”
“I was supposed to make a noble a horse. I made him all animal and he didn’t like that,” Mika said in a guarded tone. He shifted self-conciously to cover himself. He might’ve matched up to the farmboy a few days ago, but no longer. “Why is Lavenguard so obsessed with making travelers and nobles and stuff into peasants and animals. Can’t you just breed animals and have kids? Why do I gotta be a stablehand?” He wanted to ask about Robin’s stone, too.
“A long time ago there was a barbarian called Traskol who stole from a dragon’s lair. He stopped at Lavenguard with the loot. Traskol and his party never killed it, so it came looking. Half the town got burnt down because of his meddling,” Samwell explained. “Our midwife, Adria, got mighty pissed. So she takes out this big, colorful stone, and puts a hex on them. It changed them so they’d fit right into the village. The curse lets us live as we like without strangers and wizards and adventurers stomping all over us.”
“I wasn’t doing nothing! Why’d I get changed?” Mika asked indignantly.
Samwell continued, “Adria was Robin’s mother. I reckon he inherited whatever she used to cast the curse. I suppose he’s trying to make some money off it. And what’s wrong with being a stableboy? Think you’re too good for it?”
First the first time in a while Mika’s head felt clear. The apprentice felt a rush of shame and turned beet red. “Well I was a wizard. I think I got better things to do than shovel shit all day.”
“Not anymore you don’t!” with a grin Samwell dunked Mika in the pond and the two wrestled in the water. Samwell had the upper hand through most of it. He pinned the stableboy and let him go, giving him a reassuring smile, “Relax, Mika, life’s fine here. You’ll see.
Mika grumbled. Maybe the problem really was that he hated that he liked this life? There wasn’t anyone to really be ashamedin front of, was there? And a thought came to him. “So what happened to Traskol?”
“Do you know the barmaid Jess?”
Mika remembered her. The buxom barmaid who flirted with every man in sight, whose advances he had to fight off twice that fateful night, and who went upstairs with Audrey after a long night of drinking. “SHE’S Traksol?”
“Yep. Favorite of every farmhand for about five miles.”