Tobi and Shari wound their way slowly thru Lady Atelia’s fortress. Nobody had even given them a second glance when they sneaked in thru the back door, and a passing steward had immediately put them to work in the kitchen. And now, they had been ordered to carry a large pile of strapless gowns and petticoats to the Lady’s new dance troupe. In the dancers’ chambers, they were greeted by an effeminate young man with luminous skin and silky long hair. As they put the clothes away into a cavernous closet, Tobi casually asked if he knew where Marge was.
“The Amazon? She’s probably up on the parapets with Lady Atelia.” the former guard captain replied without hesitation, then paused for a moment wondering why he would know that. Shaking his head in confusion, he giggled as he went back to smoothing out the petticoats.
After they were done with the clothes, the girls headed up towards the fortress battlements. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Shari asked worriedly. “You’ll be fine, remember we’ve still got the acolytes’ protective amulets.” Tobi replied confidently.
Racing to the top of a spiral staircase, they ran headlong into a pair of heavily armored soldiers. One of them let out a lewd whistle, nearly causing Shari to lose her balance. “Hey girls! Are you lost? Would you like me to show you the way?” he asked in a coarse, lecherous voice.
“We have an important message for Lady Atelia. Please stand aside.” Tobi ordered.
“Now you’re a perky one.” the other soldier leaned forward to take a closer look at Tobi. “I don’t remember you, and I thought I’ve done every girl in this god-forsaken place. How about you come play with me in my room? I'll be happy to show you my magic staff...” he leered.
Tobi’s eyes narrowed. “You’re both behaving like big babies.” she said flatly. The soldiers felt an unexpected breeze blow across their skin, and their feet made contact with the chilly stone floor below. Looking down, they gasped to find themselves stark naked except for a pair of oversized nappies. “Now step aside.” Tobi ordered again.
“But.. but we look ridiculous!” one of them stuttered. “The captain will have us court-martialed! Please don’t leave us looking like this…” the other soldier wailed.
“Fine, I’ll fix you.” Tobi said in a low voice and snapped her fingers. The soldiers stared at each other in panic as they started shrinking towards boyhood. “No, No, NO! That’s not what we meant!” they squealed in increasingly high pitched voices. “I’m sorry, I’ll do anything! Pwease stop dis, I big boi no bah be goo goo ga woo ga ga WAHHHH!”
“Aren’t they simply adorable?” Tobi remarked to Shari as she looked down at the two baby boys crawling on all fours and bawling helplessly. “Perfectly matched with their little nappies, don’t you think? Now come on, let’s go find that Amazon.”
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Outside the fortress, Mika and Ander watched with increasing concern as the fabric of reality started ripping from the overuse of transformation magic. “Do you have any dragon’s teeth?” Ander asked hurriedly. “Just a few.” Mika rummaged thru his pack and handed them over. “Why? Are you going to brew a potion?”
“Don’t be silly.” Ander replied as he cast a replicating spell, creating a large sack full of dragon’s teeth. “If we sow these in the ground, they’ll absorb some of that wild transformation magic and hopefully stabilize things around here.”
“But what happens to the teeth after they soak up all that stray magic?”
“It’s… kind of unpredictable…”
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Lady Atelia glared imperially at the acolytes in front of her fortress. “Maybe you need to give them a small demonstration of your power to convince them to surrender?” Marge whispered into Atelia’s ear. But before she could respond, an entire band of bear-skin clad berserkers burst out from the ground and charged at the fortress, howling and swinging their fearsome battle axes.