1

Emony

Afterwards, that same afternoon, Emony was lounging on a tree branch high above a small stream, watching Tiphaine gather ravenwood bark from the darkened trees, avoiding both her petrifying eyes and doing the work himself. She had put off her mask; she had been complaining that she wanted to feel the sun on her skin again.

“Don’t you know that I’m cold-blooded? How many times do I have to tell you? You keep forgetting and making me go to cold places!”

I didn’t ask you to come, he thought.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t say anything, for he knew perfectly well that if she turned him into a rock on that tree, she wouldn’t be capable or willing to climb up it and revive him. Still, his position high above her did have its perks. Specifically, it was fairly comfortable up on the branch, and its view let him avoid his companion’s eyes while peeping at her best assets from an alluringly revealing angle.

She really isn’t dressed for the cold, he thought to himself.

Anyway, as long as he could stare in peace, he could convince himself that she was a pretty good person to get teleported to another continent with to break the newest annoying curse Lenah accidentally put on him. Not to mention, after he murdered that witch, she would be the only friend he had left.

And she certainly was pretty… But nothing could last.

The vipers on top of her head noticed his gaze and began hissing in his direction. Quickly committing to memory what he saw, he looked straight ahead before he could get caught.

“You could help me, you know!” Tiphaine shouted in some random direction.

He considered it for a brief second before once again surveying the surrounding area instead. The ten soldiers secretly sent to follow them were hiding behind trees and bushes about fifty feet away.

He wondered what their orders were. Probably nothing dangerous to them just yet. They apparently harbored hope that the two of them would help them destroy the “men of the lake”, whatever those were, and hadn’t realized how easily Tiphaine and her legendary curse could be defeated.

Still, it’d be best if he watched out for her and warned her of any reflective surfaces. Speaking of which…

“Careful about the stream. The water’s pretty still, you might see your reflection.”

“Hm? Where are you? Ohhh. Haha, I thought dogs couldn’t climb trees. Maybe Lenah’s curse is actually an upgrade? But anyway, do you really think I’m that stupid? I’m not like you—“

Abrupt silence. That could only mean one thing.

Emony looked down. Sure enough, the idiot had petrified herself again. Sighing, he leisurely jumped off the tree and landed a few feet away from her on a bed of fallen leaves.

“You were saying?” he asked, poking her rock-solid forehead. He could look at her face safely when she was a rock without fear of becoming one himself, so he took advantage of the opportunity. It was a beautiful sight, even if she was all gray – he almost lost his train of thought.

“I must have misheard,” he continued, “did you call me a dog again? You stupid, unobservant, cold-blooded—“

At that moment, his senses detected something strange. His finger, still poking her stone forehead, was vibrating. Oh, no.

It was happening again. The vibration was spreading – just like it would before he’d transform into a wolf on a full moon, though Lenah’s curse had changed everything else. Though the sun had yet to go down, he was powerless and couldn’t resist what was coming. The vibration was darting towards his heart from the finger that had touched Tiphaine.

“You devious, irredeemable little snake…”

That was the last thought he had before he abruptly lost the fight to resist the change.

It happened instantaneously. Irritated as he was, he flopped down to the ground within the second, losing the balance he normally would have had on four legs. But that was because he didn’t have four legs. He didn’t even have two anymore. His aberrating mind only registered one, and it certainly wasn’t that of a wolf.

With only the slightest sliver of hope that it would be different this time, he tried lifting his torso off the ground.

The hope died. It was difficult – once again, he had those humanlike arms that were not his own. They were slim and frail, even more so than Tiphaine’s, barely more than soft skin and bone.

Grimacing, he rolled onto his side so that he was lying on his back. Seeing the rest, he was forced to accept what he’d become again.

Instead of the limbs and dark fur of a giant and menacing werewolf, he witnessed bare female breasts on a chest that didn’t look at all like his own, and that long, scaly, golden fish’s tail.

Emony’s pants had been ripped apart and were lying uselessly atop her widened hips… wait, what? Her? Her?! By the divines, she wasn’t just imagining it, there really was magic strangling her mind! That damned witch!

“Tiphaine, if you did that on purpose,” Emony hissed, before her embarrassment defeated her anger. Her voice had been changed, too. It was a high-pitched, girly squeak that perfectly matched her disgustingly cute new appearance. Sitting up straight, Emony saw that the fin at the end of her tail was touching the water of the stream. She’d have to dry herself off to change back, and that wouldn’t be so easy, given how weak her new body was. At least for the near future, she was stuck as a mermaid. And her mind was poisoned.

“Tiphaine, what kind of idiot petrifies herself to do this to me?” Emony asked herself.

She let her upper body drop back to the ground with a thud, hoping to escape reality for a moment, just lying on the fallen leaves and letting the dread envelop her.

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“So Lenah puts a horrible curse on me, and you delight in triggering it. I don’t have any real friends at all, do I?”

Emony’s emotions were spiraling in all directions. Eventually, after a long period of shock and contemplation, one emerged victorious. She turned her stare away from her newfound breasts and gazed at the sky.

“I’m going to murder you, Tiphaine,” she said with that cute tone. “Not just Lenah, but you too. And everyone else that was even remotely involved in making me like this. I’m going to slaughter you all.”

Suddenly, embracing the thought, Emony could hear a high-pitched, downright adorable giggle escape her small lips. She could feel tears in her own eyes, it was such a profoundly beautiful thing that she was imagining, Tiphaine squirming underneath her while she got her revenge.

It was enough even to make Emony forget for a moment that, years ago, she’d orphaned the both of them.

Wait, what? I didn’t—

…

A moment later, she lost the thought.

She heard leaves rustling behind her. Quickly, pushing herself with her tail, Emony rolled back onto her stomach and found herself facing one of the soldiers who had been following her and Tiphaine. Emony was being stared at in shock. At first, the human looked over her tail, then her eyes, but his gaze eventually settled on her altered chest. At that, an atypical, disturbing shyness overcame her.

“Back off, human,” Emony spat at the man. “Or I’ll feed you your own guts!”

A frown appeared on her face as soon as she heard her own words. She truly did hate how unthreatening, and in fact, endearing her voice had sounded while issuing the threat, but she quickly realized she had more to worry about than just the strings of magic messing with her brain. She couldn’t move, let alone fight, in this form, and Tiphaine was a statue. How had things gotten so bad so quickly?!

But the human obeyed her without question or delay, taking a step away from her. “What’s going on?” he asked, unnerved. “Why are my legs moving without my…”

Oh, yeah, that’s right.

“I’m a siren, according to the damned witch, so I can control your mind with my song. And I’m not even singing, my voice is just that damned pretty. Divines, I really want to kill something. But no, leave, and forget what you saw here,” Emony said grimly. “Go report to your commander or something.”

The man’s pupils dilated to an unnatural size, covering nearly his whole irises. “Yes,” he murmured, seemingly in a trance, and ran away.

Emony, shaking her head – oh no… she had to hurry. Rolling her eyes, Emony grabbed some of the ravenwood bark Tiphaine had gathered on the ground before realizing she couldn’t get up to feed it to her. After a moment of thought, Emony raised her hand and began the necessary deed.

She missed about twenty times before she succeeded in throwing the wood into Tiphaine’s mouth. Now, with a little luck, the damned snake could finally help her dry off.

When the bark touched Tiphaine’s lips, the color slowly began to return to them. The magic was absorbed. But, damn it, she needed more. Emony kept throwing.

For some reason, though, every time the color reached Tiphaine’s eyes, the stone enveloped her again. A whole minute had gone by before Emony realized she was an idiot too, and she understood why. Then she started to wonder how she could cover her eyes, which were stuck gazing into the water.

The idea that eventually came to her was glorious.

“Haha! This is your own fault, Tiphaine,” Emony laughed, smiling again despite being stuck as a mermaid, as she gathered some dirt in her hand and turned it to mud with the help of the stream. “Remember that!”

Then, with a rare spark of glee, she threw the mud.

2

“Emony!” Tiphaine shrieked a few minutes later. She hadn’t seen the color come back to her face, covered with mud as it was. At least it looked like her solution had worked.

“Emony, why in undeath did you do that?!” she shouted, wiping it from her eyes.

“Tiphaine, look away! I understand that you’re upset, but – I said look away! Before you wipe it off! You’re going to become a rock again!”

At least Tiphaine still listened to her.

“You stupid dog! Where are you?! You didn’t have to go that far! I was just having a little fun!” shouted Tiphaine.

“Don’t move, Tiphaine, you’re going to hit your head on a tree! Stop going forward! Thank you. Now, then… Are you dumb?! You petrified yourself and did this to me for fun?! Do you have any idea of the kind of crisis I am having in my mind right now?! Hey! Don’t look in that direction! Stupid snake, you deserved it and you know it! I said, don’t look in that direction! Don’t you dare petrify yourself again, or I’ll have to do it all over again!”

“Don’t you dare!” Tiphaine sobbed.

Slowly, Emony’s friend removed the mud from her eyes and flicked it away from her fingers before carefully peeking through them and looking at her.

“Come here,” Emony said, beckoning towards her whilst avoiding her gaze. “You missed a bit. But close your eyes, don’t make me a statue now.”

While Tiphaine slithered over and laid down next to her, Emony wet her hands in the stream and helped her clean up her face. It was difficult for Tiphaine to do it all herself, since she couldn’t risk looking at it. Once Emony was done, Tiphaine slithered away to grab her mask and put it back on.

“You’re pretty cute again, though. It was worth the trouble,” the damned snake said.

“Shut up.”

Again, the cuteness of her new voice disturbed Emony. Not to mention the magic she could acutely feel tying itself in knots in her mind.

“Oh, don’t worry, Emony, you still look really threatening! Yes, that’s the expression! You’re so adorable – I mean scary! Definitely scary! Here, fishy doggy!”

“By the divines, Tiphaine, as soon as this curse is lifted and I’m a werewolf again, I will eat your living hair-vipers while you watch. Shut up!”

Though Tiphaine was laughing, her mouth slammed shut in an instant. Emony noticed her pupils dilate for a moment, just like the soldier’s had.

She hadn’t meant to do that.

“I’m sorry! Divines, are you okay? You can speak again,” Emony said. “You didn’t bite off your tongue, did you?”

Tiphaine opened her mouth and started checking up on her jaw.

“Are you okay?” Emony asked again.

“Yeah. I’m fine. You’re pretty mean today, Emony.”

Emony looked away. “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry, I’ve had a stressful week. I’ll make it up to you.”

Tiphaine stared at her suspiciously from behind her mask for a moment before gazing to the side, lost in thought.

“I’ll help you dry off.”

A few minutes later, with immeasurable relief, Emony felt her body begin to vibrate again, and powerful legs once again replaced her golden-scaled tail. As soon as she dared risk it, she patted herself … himself down and looked down under his tunic. The breasts were gone. He was a man again.

With immense relief Emony noticed the strings of magic begin losing their grip on his mind. He was becoming himself again.

“Praise all that is divine,” he said, gazing up at the sky.

“Your pants are a little… gone,” Tiphaine said beside him, looking in another direction while the vipers on her head stared at him curiously. “It wasn’t me.”

“Technically it was, since you tricked me into transforming. But whatever. So much for Lenah’s magical unrippable clothing. I knew she was a useless, stupid little witch. Where’s my backpack?”

His companion slithered over to a nearby tree and threw the thing over to him. Luckily, he managed to find his pair of backup pants in it. He’d need to get a new backup, though.

“So, do you want to go check out the lake later? You think your friend is in there?” he asked.

“Well, I can smell a lot of magic in the air, so there’s definitely something,” Tiphaine responded. He missed his own empowered sense of smell. “But I don’t know if it’s her. She doesn’t do dark magic. And the most potent smell is… death. Look how many ravenwood trees there are around here.”

“You’re right, there are a lot of them. Lucky for the petrified villagers, I suppose, but something pretty bad must have happened here in the past. Perhaps those “men of the lake” the humans mentioned are connected to it. You know, I don’t remember Lenah saying anything about any black magic in the area. I thought we were just going to have a nice, friendly little chat with your mermaid friend.”

“Yeah, me too. But if Verena’s really in the lake with those undead and some king… Emony... I’m worried. Can we check up on her?”

Emony scratched his chin. “'I wonder... I can’t exactly fight off an army of the undead as a fish, so should we side with the humans? That’d leave a bad taste in my mouth – but at the very least, we need more information. For now, let’s play nice. Let’s get back to camp.”