The parks of East Lake City were countless and varied. These parks brought pieces of natural beauty throughout the city for all residents to enjoy. There was a central park and a few more critical surrounding parks. Each of these conformed to the same philosophy of design. They were wide open areas with well-cut grass and enough trees, bushes, and shrubs to make the area feel slightly more wild than the surrounding city. They were strategically designed to ensure unobstructed views, with features never too dense to block sight lines or provide excessive cover.

However, this rigid philosophy often gave way to reality the further someone got from the richer parts of the city. The 'parks' were often merely wooded areas with a path and parking area, labeled as such on city maps only due to bureaucratic requirements.

James hadn't been far from downtown when she started her mad dash but ranged away as she fled from the two monks. She had managed to evade detection despite being rather conspicuous. She had found a park some ways away.

It had slightly untended grass, a path, pavilions, and benches, but it also had sections covered in deep foliage. There wasn't even a stream going through it, making it unremarkable. It was nearing noon, but very few people were in and around the park. The light drizzle that had started a few minutes earlier likely contributed.

That suited James just fine. Her clothes had already started showing signs of the weather, and she found a secluded area within the dense foliage. She figured she should get a move on before the weather took a turn for the worse.

Arrayed in front of her on the ground were the two devices she had taken from thugs that day. It had been an accident, but things would have been much easier if she hadn't. The Knife Goose card she had used before to escape had left some kind of black residue on the device. She wasn't sure what the second card had been but saw no sign of it. The Shield had only suffered what she assumed was damage. Instead of pristine like before, it looked like the ink had faded and the cardboard had become more brittle.

She sighed and looked at the few cards she held in her hand. Rushing into things had gotten her into trouble the first time she had done this. Just because the cards said one thing didn't mean that's what they actually did outside of the card game.

First was the Heart Strike Fox. She could have played this card to evolve herself into a stronger monster. Still, she didn't know if that was needed to play the card in reality or if it would even work if she didn't use it on the same device she played the Illusionist Trainee. Too many questions.

James put the card back into the tote bag on the ground. She had no desire to be a busty fox woman with an impossible-to-hide pile of tails. She had enough problems with her current monster body.

Not that it was all problems. She had experienced the monster's magical powers firsthand in that alley to escape the monks, and while such abilities were attractive, caring for a fluffy tail or being a girl wasn't really high on her list of desires.

All of that was the reason she was glad she had gotten the specific card she did.

"Pyx's Rewind. Magic. Instant," James said out loud, reading the card. "Remove the target card from play and shuffle it and any attached cards back into the owner's deck. This card requires two pixies in play to activate."

She didn't have a deck. She barely had a hand. This was reality, not a game. How would that work?

She pulled out the Wandering Pixie cards and looked at them. They were tier three cards, the same as the Illusionist Trainee. The little creatures were considered as strong as she was in this body.

She shook her head and placed the two pixie cards down on the device, and the two monsters sprang into being with a swirl of golden magic. The pixies were Light creatures that glowed with little sparkles and floated in the air on gossamer wings. They looked a bit like humans but were only as tall as James' forearm.

James let out a sigh of relief. Like all monsters she had summoned before them, they simply remained there, doing nothing.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

She readied the final card and considered how to use it. How did it target a specific card anyway? She decided to use the obvious options first.

She thought hard about the Illusionist Trainee, pointed at herself with her free hand, and said, "Illusionist Trainee," as she placed Pyx's Rewind beside the two pixies on the device. The three cards filled the entire surface area of the tool, and the final one glowed softly.

James felt strange momentarily before she was no longer a fluffy-tailed monster.

An object fell from his grip and fell to the ground. James looked down and saw his hands. He was back. He was himself again.

"FUCK YES!" he shouted in celebration with a grin and even threw an arm into the air. He instantly felt a bit self-conscious about his behavior and took a few breaths to calm down.

He couldn't stop grinning, even though the world seemed strangely dim and muffled compared to before. He felt deaf, blind, and stuffed up. He had gotten used to having enhanced senses. His behind felt strangely light without the tail as well.

James shook his head and took a moment to compose himself. He took a few minutes to adjust back to his original everything. He was sure he would be stuck like that, but it had worked precisely as advertised.

Taking stock, he realized he was back in the clothing he had been wearing the day he first got the devices and decided to experiment. A glance around the area revealed a lack of something he was expecting.

The tote bag still held the torn robe of the Illusionist Trainee, and there wasn't a pile of cheap women's clothing under his feet.

He didn't see the two cards he had used anywhere, though the third device was at his feet.

"Uhm, hey," he said, looking up at the two pixies. "Can you keep an eye out?" But the two pixies didn't respond to his command. "Oh right, simple commands. Uhm. Defend?"

The pixies still didn't move. James was somewhat dubious about what that meant, but he removed the cards from the device he had used and put them away in the bag.

It took him a while, but he also found the puppeteer card among the cards within. He guessed it was considered his deck when he had used Pyx's Rewind. How did it know the cards were his, though?

"Maybe I shouldn't think too hard about how magic does anything," he said as he came across a uniquely strange card.

The card name only consisted of three question marks, and the art showed a very familiar fox girl hiding beside a dumpster wearing the same clothing he had put on before.

"What the...?" James questioned himself as he looked the card over. The card was in better condition than when he first used it, assuming it was even the same card. He pulled out the Heart Strike Fox and compared them. It was definitely in better shape.

The change forced him to discard a few theories he had developed about the cards and the devices.

James continued to examine the card in his hands and flipped it back and forth as he considered.

"Dare I?" he said as he held the card and glanced down at the slate. He had just escaped that body. Could he bear to see the form he had inhabited for so long? It had only been a day, but it had felt longer.

Finally, curiosity got the better of him. He knew it was a terrible failing, but he needed to know. He placed the '???' card down on the device, and a swirl of green fog and white light began to form in front of him. Then, it continued, and then it continued some more. He waited almost twenty seconds before he knew something was up.

"What? Is it stuck?" James asked as only a vague outline of his previous form stood before him. He hesitantly tried to touch the construct, ready for another lesson in pain, but it went right through the phantasmal form.

He glanced down at the device and the glowing card on it. A small trail of luminous green and white fog seemed to extend from it over to his bag.

"No way?" James said as he pulled the tote bag over and began to search through the cards once more before finally revealing the Puppeteer card.

The fog swirled gently around the card in his hands as he looked back at the slate. "No," he said firmly. "I'm not doing it again. I just got back."

He had a pretty good idea what the problem was now. He was the missing component of the '???' card, and it couldn't be summoned without him. He had no idea how that had happened in just a day, but he didn't know a lot about how the magic worked.

He pulled the card from the device and the form of '???' faded. He shook his head and placed everything into the tote bag. He carefully kept the cards and devices separated by the robe. He felt like he was carrying around a magical nuke. He was in way over his head, but now that he was back to normal he should be safe.

There were many things he wanted to do. Still, before everything else, he had a nice hotel room he could finally enjoy again. He could order room service and experiment with his own cards.