Galen Vesa

Tiny gravel whispered beneath my feet as we traversed a maze of trees. Trunks the size of skyscrapers climbed up towards the clouds. And I had no idea where we were.

Once I stopped near some ruins crumbling between the trees to admire a stone statue of a winged elf. Naked winged elf. The amount of details felt so overwhelming. If I had not touched it and felt cold granite with my own fingertips I would never consider her a statue. She looked alive. More so than I was.

That earned me a curious look from my guide but nothing else. She stopped several steps away, holding a lantern in her hand. Truth to be told, I’m not sure which one was more interesting. The stone beauty or this girl.

Her hairs were kind of green. Dark green. Not exactly black but not deeply green either. Just enough green tint to distinguish itself from black. A multitude of silver pins kept them pulled back, away from her forehead and her ears. That was done on purpose to expose her ears clipped to one third of their natural length and the sign on her forehead. It read: “not a person”. I had no idea how I knew what it said. I just knew.

Was I staring too much? She blinked at me with her unnatural, glowing blue eyes. Instead of dark pupil and colorful iris, her eyes were filled with glowing, electric blue smoke. Perhaps this was natural reaction for her since she said nothing and waited. Her left cheek bore a single word written in a flowery script. Moss.

No. I was sure staring too much. Her eyes darted away to avoid my gaze. With one final look I bid the statue good bye and we resumed our walk.

She wore an impressive black dress, a sort of crossbreed between a short kimono and a frilly French maid uniform, adorn with white and pink flowers.

Wide metal band tightly gripped her neck. For all I tried I could not find a seem in it, leaving magic the only means of putting it on or taking it off.

A slave.

About an hour into our walk, we came upon a bridge guarded buy two similarly dressed beauties. Dirt and Dust. Both dressed the same as Moss. Both marked in the same fashion. Each standing at one side of the bridge. Each holding a lantern. They ignored us and likewise, Moss paid them no attention. She guided me towards the tree towering over the rest on the other side of the bridge.

The tree in question had a row of stairs chiseled outside in its bark spiraling up into the sky. Each step inlaid with a slate of white stone guarding it against wear.

We stopped about the middle of the tree where Moss hanged her lantern on a hook right beside a set of doors going deep within the trunk of the tree. She slid her palm across the door as if petting a dog and waited. Some hidden mechanism unlatched itself with an audible click and the door swung open.

I made a step towards it but at the same time my body decided it had enough for the day and turned the lights off. It is quite inconvenient when it does that but, I had worse.

I came to staring at the familiar scene above me of wooden elves going on about their wooden day. With the exception being someone’s head pressed onto my bare chest. Listening.

“Forgive me, I did not wish to wake you.”

The stranger blurted out without opening her eyes.

“Strange. I could swear I’ve heard…”

She paused.

“Anyway, we will have to work on your control.”

Our eyes finally met just before she lift her head with a slight disappointment.

“My what?”

“Your mana is all over the place. It’s almost as if your body have no idea what to do with it. You need to release that pressure or it will kill you.”

“Actually we should start right away.”

She tore off my blanket and propped me up on all fours.

“Breath in! Chin to your chest! Push your back up! hold it! Hold it! Now head’s up! Lower your back! Breath out! Squeeze it all the way out…”

She run me through the motions correcting my poses with her hands when necessary.

“Now hold it! Wait for it!”

Suddenly her palms dug into my sides making my body howl with pleasure. The sound of my own voice came alien to me. As if a separate entity made it.

“Good very good! Feeling better already are we?”

I looked at her. What good could be in whatever she did to me? My whole body went limp like a wet noodle and white spots danced before my eyes. Although…

“I feel lighter.”

My arms, my legs, my entire body suddenly had this strange softness about it. She grinned broadly at me, content with her achievement.

“Well,”

A flash of odd blueish light spread outward from the center of her body just before she took me in her arms and carried back to bed.

“You should be. All that stale mana sure put a lot of weight on you. Perhaps not as much as the deadweight you carry on your chest but still, lighter you should be.”

“Now rest, your body needs it.”

Her finger poked my temple and my eyes closed while darkness swept me away. In all the years they put me under in all those different hospitals I had never had a restful night. Today, I slept well.

So well In fact that had I not know better, I would accuse myself of bubbliness. My body seemed more energetic and wakeful than ever. No amount of coffee could bring it to a state even remotely similar to this.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

It seems I will have to have a chit-chat with my personal lizard buddy about all this mana business.

Getting up turned out to be easier than I expected. My legs were steady and my world did not sway anymore. Even the odd presence lingering about me appeared more relaxed. That too was good. I think.

The bedroom had hardly any furniture. A bed and a tiny bed stand summed up all there was. A cozy minimalist design I couldn’t disagree with. The puffy white carpet covered the most immediate area of the bed and somebody went through the trouble of removing my bloodstains from it.

The rest of the floor shined with polished wood. Since I already had a look from the balcony, this time I approached the door number two.

They were unlocked and lead to a hallway outside. Possibly a good sign if I were to guess.

Several crystals mounted through out the hallway lit up and doused the space with warm light just as I passed through the door.

The hallway curved around the rim of the tree but I passed no visible windows. Bright and spacious common room welcomed me at the end of the hall. Here I could see what appeared to be the main entrance. At least that’s why somebody would put that mat there. Also the proximity of several pairs of slippers hinted at that. Further away the room had a large dining table hiding behind a window facing, leather sofa. Here and there bookshelves were carved out of the wall and packed full of expensive looking grimoires. Names etched with golden runes in the leather. Some of the names or even whole books glowing faintly.

The final corner of the room belong to what I would call an attached kitchen. It had a top cut from a single piece of black granite with a hole for a sink witch in turn was also made of the same stone. I traced my fingers around it but could not detect any seems. It appeared to be made from a single slab. A bit away from the sink a group of concentrated rings of golden metal eerily reminded me of an induction stove from back home. I almost expected to see some knobs but there were none. Just a single rune at the center of each group of the rings. Heat. So a magical stove huh? Makes sense. With all the wood around fire seemed like a big no-no.

I finished my trip at the top of a wooden staircase spiraling down below. Aside from that only a plain looking door remained nested between two bookshelves.

The stairs lead to some sort of workshop. Big enough to warrant a separate investigation so I left it and climbed back up. That left me with the mystery door number three. Since nobody bothered me so far, l marched in and found myself within the bowels of a walk in closet. Shoes, boots, sandals, dresses, skirts, pants, coats, capes and even something that looked like armor hanged in countless rows. Not to mention the drawers upon drawers of socks, tights and underwear. All what a woman would want. Although, some of the more curious items would feel at home on the cover of a fetish magazine.

No bra whatsoever. Not even an over bust corset. So this is how dying of thirst in the middle of an ocean might be like.

I grabbed a shirt, a pair of pants and the least frilly looking excuse of a thong that stipulated it may actually cover something and got dressed. Looks be damned my sanity had enough of boobs staring at my face and my shrink always said to cover my butt. Something about flashing strangers and getting arrested.

Unfortunately I had to give up on the pants since my butt would not fit and several buttons of my shirt went “ploink” the second I finished buttoning it up. Wherever they went flying off to I did not check. I wiggled myself into the thongs and found them stretchy enough for the task at hand. Perhaps later I would have time to comb through those drawers and with any luck I would find a pair of boxers. Alas, for now this had to suffice.

Getting dressed left me with nothing to do with myself so I did what I knew I could do. I plopped down on the couch and stared at the ceiling. Well, whoever carved this masterpiece either had a productive imagination or some very willing models. Makes me wonder whether they did that on the couch I’m using. There sure is enough space here for two more girls though I don’t think five would fit. And that pose doesn’t seem too comfortable.

But I digress.

So, to sum it up. Still stuck as boobs and no chance to get my banana back. Perhaps I could transform since mana no longer seems to be an issue but I cant do that without the help of my scaly roomie. Given the situation that’s probably all for the best. I may be socially awkward but when I see “people-designated-objects” strolling around the place it does raise some warning flags. Besides I can think of no logical reason why their long lost daughter would suddenly grow a sausage. Nope. So boobs it is.

Issue number two. I think this is my house. Or at least it was her house. There are pictures here and there of her and her family. Not photos. Real paintings.

There’s the priestess I met before and the girl that I saw when I woke up and one more girl, similar to the other. Were they twins? Allynna does seem older then the two. And she had her father’s amber eyes, now all but gone. If the man in the picture was her father that is. Well, he did not appear to be wearing a dress in that picture so perhaps that is a male? No idea. I suck at recognizing faces.

Five people in total. This flat is big but not five persons big. No. This was her house.

Issue number two and a half. Elves are flat. Period. One more button goes rogue and I will need a new shirt. As on command, another one went boing and flown away.

Moss was not entertained. Not in the least. She came in with a basket full of groceries and spreading scents of freshly baked bread when my shirt gave up. One of the buttons bounced off her petit nose. She put the basket away then went hunting for buttons.

At long last she emerged from the closet with a light green dress in one hand and a box of sewing utensils in the other. Under her scrutinizing eye I surrendered the shirt and allowed myself to be dressed properly.

The dress had long puffy sleeves and perhaps for the original owner it was loose fitting. On me the material stretched dangerously around my chest then hanged loose like a bedsheet. Moss remedied that with a wide brown leather belt buckled up front and laced on the back. She pulled on the laces until my ribs begun voicing their protest.

Not entirely satisfied with the result she sat me at the dining table and procured a bowl of salad with some toast. Reassured by the crunching of the toast in my teeth, she knelt in a corner and meticulously re-sew the buttons.

“See, you look more like a person already.”

The boob patting stranger let herself in and sat across me behind the table. She fished out a cocktail tomato or something of the kind in this world and tossed it in her mouth.

“How are you doing?”

Peachy. I've been ripped out of my world. Witnessed mass murder. Got used as a guinea pig by some mad witch. Soulboud a dragon. Run from zombies. Got everyone killed. Made some interdimensional friends. Been half-cooked by magic. Had a new voice appear in my head. And now I’m playing an amnesiac in an elven village. Had worse when my meds run out.

“Better. I think. Who are you?”

Her face went blank for a moment then her eyes darted towards my forehead.

“I am Lair. Mistress of teaching. It is my duty to ensure all young ones can cope with their mana. Although from time to time the elder ones also require my attention. I do hope you can forgive me my blunder. I am not used to making introductions. My pupils usually know who I am before they are introduced to me.”

I gave her a nod and stuffed my mouth with another toast. Whatever the world you just cant go wrong with garlic butter and toast.

“I you allow me, I shall show you some exercises that should benefit your body and perhaps…”

I may not be blessed with a gift of clairvoyance but I can hazard a guess this whole month or whatever will bring me a lot of awkward silence.

“Do not fret. I take no offense in your words for I myself have no idea what am I. Neither I am the person you may remember. If you think that whatever you offer can improve my health, I may as well take your word upon it and give it a try.”

Whatever she did yesterday, my body seemed rather content about it.

“Although I would like a bit more in depth explanation than the one you offered me yesterday.”

The salad had no filling effect. I ate one more serving but without any meat I might as well be putting grass in my mouth. If only grass would taste half as good.

“You truly do not remember me or any of my teachings?”

Lair leaned back in her chair.

“Very well. Let us start from the beginning.”