To Lose More Then Looks
You reply comes out loud and clear. Yet, Blurred seems to doubt it, and he frown at you, looking very unsatisfied. He places his hands on his hips and he sights.
“You know, last time taught me that treating you badly wasn’t the best option. And despite what you think of me… I am not a
evil person; you know? Five years of hardship puts a little brain in the skull. So do believe me when I say that I do not want to do this. But it’s not like I didn’t warn you…”
He suddenly strikes. His hand comes down on you, and a once familiar sensation descends on you at the same time: you are being transformed. Your scales fall off with little clangs on the road and fur grows in their place. You lose a little height, but nothing too bad at least. Your pointy ears get rounder and your horns vanish back into your skull, leaving no trace behind, and so does your tail. Your clothes grow slack around you thinner frame. You bring your hands in front of your eyes and it doesn’t take you a long time to figure out that you have changed into a shape that you are very familiar with: you are now an Murr. But your fur, instead of being the rich shade of brown you know, is white or pale yellow, it is too dark to be quite sure. You look, puzzled, at the magician. He had acted as if he had inflicted something terrible on you.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” he says with an enigmatic smile. “And when you’ll have enough of it, just know… I am not very far away. But do not linger too long: I have all the time in the world, but I might come up with another brilliant idea like this one, and no ones like it when I get some ideas.”
And just like that, he turned around and walked away in what seemed to be, to you, a random direction. Even without that, he looks pretty dramatic, especially after his cryptic words.
Well, at least he is not forcing you to follow him or anything. You have the impression that there is a trick to the whole thing, even if you notice right away that the fur makes it much warmer to stand in the cold, and you are now warm-blooded. You smile and you turn around to join with your friends once more.
You run to them. They got quite the head start, but you catch up with them as they wait for one of them to be done puking on the side of the road. The joys of alcohol, really.
You call out to them, and one of the soberer ones turn to you. However, when he sees you, his eyes widen and he grabs the arm of his neighbor, pointing at you. You figure that it’s the new appearance and you push forward fearlessly. You are about to explain when they all turn to you, and on each face is hate.
You stop in your tracks. You are starting to understand what that bastard magician meant. “Hey, don’t worry! It’s just me! I ran into a magician on the way, and he changed me, so–”
“Cursed whitch!” Spat one of them. “Don’t come near!”
“Wait, I am–”
“Crippled! Get away from us!” The menacing Murrs close in on you, and you get a pretty bad feeling about all this. Yet, you can’t believe that you are really in trouble. You know these people! They are all good guys. None of them would hurt a fly. You have been living with them for years. You start calling their names, showing them that it’s you.
Fear appear on their faces, soon replaced by rage. They advance on you with a cold determination in their eyes now, and you can’t help but take a step back.
“You’ve been spying on us, you witch!” Cried one of them. There are several nods around and some even hiss at you. The atmosphere is tensed and you wish that you were elsewhere. Is that because of your white fur? Don’t they recognize your voice?
You explain once more what happened to you, but before you can say anything, they rush to you. One tackles you to the ground and before you know it, there is an explosion of pain on your side. One of them kicked you! You gasp in pain and try to roll over, but more hands come down to hold you down and to prevent you from moving. Familiar faces descend on you, filled with hate. You don’t understand. You know that they are drunk, but how can they be capable of such blind rage?
Soon, you have no more room in your head to think. Fists descend on your face. You hear your nose break with a crack. Then other things break with other cracks, and everything sort of fade in a blur.
Finally, after what seems forever, you are being tossed over the edge of the road and it the ditch that lays there, with the vomit from before. They leave, but you don’t see that – you fainted.
Written by Clayem on 07 May 2016
