You are standing by a tree
There are 3 paths.
One appears to go to a jungle,
one appears to go to a cave,
one appears to go to a beach,
you could try and climb the tree,
there is a nearby shop you could go in,
or you could do something else.
So what's its going to be?
Written by catprog on 01 April 2003
In the shop
There is a table with a sign saying
<strong>Free Sample:</strong>
Take one
On the table there is a fridge with a range of liquids. Also on the table are various magical trinkets including costumes. What would you like to take, or would you like to buy something?
Written by catprog on 10 April 2003
Vials of Liquid
Stepping up to the table you spy an array of liquids all contained neatly in vials on the table. Despite not being heated, some bubble and give off faint trails of steam others churn and twist as if they were alive and seeking some escape. You look over the table with wonder, but keep returning to the vials.
However there is another one that catches your eye, but for some reason it is as if the vial itself can not decide on what color it wants to be. This second it is blue, the next pink. What a strange shop, you think to yourself as you pick up the vial. "Well I don't see a price tag on this. Maybe it is a free sample." The vial is neither hot nor cold, and the color shifting continues as you hold it up to your lips in the dim light of the shop.
You catch a faint aroma of bubble gum, no maybe it is wood chips and campfires. Your brain can't figure it out and you shrug as you down the vial. The liquid courses down your throat coating every inch. You cough at the taste, definitely bubblegum.
"What was in that," you say to yourself out loud. The words becoming softer towards the end and lifting musically in tone. "OH no, what's happening to my voice!?" Your hand grasps at your throat trying to will the liquid back up and out. Each word takes on a more feminine lilt as the vials contents now settle in your stomach.
You stumble back trying to catch a glimpse of yourself, a mirror hung on a sidewall reflects a picture you are not quite sure you're seeing. Your form starting from the middle shrinks in, you feel the world grow around you as you find yourself shrinking. You look down to see the floor rising up at you then stop. You reach out a hand to steady yourself on the table as your center of balance shifts. You feel your shirt expanding around your chest and look down to see two large mounds pushing outwards. Your hands fly to them to discover that they were exactly what you thought they were.
Your stomach churns as your insides boil. "Oh man I should have stayed outside." You say aloud in disbelief.
"Why yes deary you should have." Came a response from behind the counter. A wizened older man steps out from behind a curtain that had obscured the back store room. "If you wanted a sample I could have provided, now it looks like you've purchase the full ride."
"Full ride?" You say the gasp as your feet crunch and shift growing smaller, more feminine. Hair spills forth weighing your head down and threatening to leave you permanently looking at the ceiling as it stops thankfully above your expanding hips.
"Yes, the full ride. I hope you plan on paying for that."
"Pay for it?" The question not registering with you, you take a second to take in your new form in the mirror. Your clothes hang loosely in places on your new figure and are far too tight in others.
"Yes yes, pay for it. This is a shop. You've enjoyed the merchandise. Now how do you want to pay for it?"
"Oh!" You say the context finally catching up. The edges of your vision are cut off by the hair you have to keep sweeping back behind your ears. "I... I have money. I think." You say patting your pockets for your wallet.
The old man sighs. "Money... what would I want with money. You can't expect a practitioner of the arcane arts to want something as simple as money. You simply have no idea how easy it is to conjure piles of the stuff... Money.. Pwah."
"You don't... You don't want my soul do you?"
"Child I am not some sort of demon either. You really have no idea what sort of store you walked in to do you?" The man cackled. "The sign outside is perfectly clear."
"Sign..?" you stammer.
"UGH! YES THE SIGN. "SHOP OF THE DARK AND ARCANE MYSTICAL ARTS AS PRESENTED BY IVAN MAKNARAK." The man yells at you. Some sort of power ringing through voice sounding ominous yet mysterious, like a loud rumble in your ears.
"I... I don't know how I am going to pay... This is my first time... meeting a wizard." You say tentatively not wanting to anger the magic man.
"Wizard! You think I am but a lowly wizard!" The mans brows furrow in anger. "I my sweet dear am a Warlock!" He says emphasizing the title. His focus shifts for a second and then his countenance eases. "I suppose if this is your first time meeting a warlock, you would not know the particulars..."
"I'm sorry... Sir Warlock. But I don't know how to pay you. I don't I have anything you want." You say still unsure of the situation.
"Oh on the contrary sweetie...you have exactly what I want." He says a wicked smile forming on his lips.
Written by Crunchynachoes on 04 October 2018
Pay the Price
You brace yourself for what is to come and look at Ivan. "I have nothing to pay you with." You say the words tumbling out of your mouth. Ivan grins showing yellowing teeth.
"Nonsense, you have that beautiful body of yours. I have a spell I have been dying to try out on someone... Just like yourself. It is a simple spell really, one that most creatures would hardly notice." He says rapidly.
Unsure of what that means you nod looking at him. "Will it hurt?" You ask, your heart racing.
"No not at all." he replies and points a crooked finger at you.
"Haskvurnaturas Simplicanus." He mutters his eyes glazing over and rolling back. A red beam of light shoots out and strikes you in the chest. Warmth spreads through your body as the red light rolls over you. All of your hairs stand on their end waiting for the moment to come.
Ivan turns his words into a chant and continues this mantra. Your body lifts off the ground becoming weightless. Struggle as you might you simply can not gain purchase on anything and as you flail you notice that the chanting is intensifying and parts of you are changing, spreading out, extending. If someone had been watching you it would look to them as someone had copied your body, bent it at the waist and attached it to your posterior. You struggle to look behind you only seeing what looked like your new feminine back spread out before you from where you butt used to be. Feelings from the new appendages race to form connections in your brain, each one sparking off new sensations in a rolling prickly feeling as if this part of your body had simply been asleep for some time and was just now waking up.
Your mind raced to the centaur, a mythological creature of old, but you were still human. A humataur you wonder to yourself. "What kind of magic is this?!" You yell.
"It's the best kind!" Ivan laughs as the red light vanishes. Your clothing lay about you ripped and tattered. Ivan reached behind the counter and pulled out a large blanket.
"Here you are! I call that a success! Bend down for me if you would." Ivan said.
"How... How do I change back?" You ask hesitantly while bending, your new back half following your front still unused to taking new commands from your brain.
"Oh there is no changing back. That was the price, and you agreed to it. Simple, over and done." Ivan said matter of factly. "Here come get this blanket and get out of my store. Can't have you showing the world your bits with my moniker attached can we?"
Your mind is in a state of shock at the developments and you struggle to come to terms with it. You had entered the store as a man, and now leaving as a female humataur.
"Remember if you ever want to come back and purchase anything else I have loads more spells to try out. I have all sorts of odds and ends to fulfill any desire." Ivan said shoeing you out the door. Still uneasy on your four legs you stumble to the door, you notice something knocking into the backs of your old legs. Looking down you discover two breasts down there matching the ones on your torso. You toss the blanket over your new form and leave the shop.
Written by Crunchynachoes on 11 October 2018
The end (for now)