Shari screamed desperately for help as the transformation cloud engulfed her father the Duke. To her surprise, Amber swooped back down in her giant tree-lizard form, penetrated the cloud and reemerged with the Duke on her back. Leaping off the colossal tree, she unfurled the attached membranes on her limbs and glided to the ground. Still queasy from the effects of the demonic poison, the young animagus missed her target landing and slammed instead into Lyra and the surrounding acolytes, who frantically scattered to avoid the massive reptile.
“Dad!” Shari shouted as she dashed forward. Jak had carefully lowered the rest of the party to the ground, and Mika was busily restoring the giant ogre back to human size.
“Ook-ook!” the Duke responded, then clapped his hands over his mouth with shock. “Eeek?” he tried again, reconfirming his inability to vocalize human speech. He noticed that Shari was staring at him ashen-faced, and a few of the acolytes were twittering and pointing. Looking at himself, he realized that he had been transformed into a monkey from the waist down, complete with a prehensile tail that twisted energetically behind him. “OOK!” he yelped as he leapt up in panic, his hairy legs lifting him to a surprising height.
Lyra stumbled back unsteadily to her feet. Clasping at her transformation rock, she realized belatedly that it wasn’t there. Spinning around, she found that both Marge and her new squire were gone.