Then there were footsteps. Running. And then Amanda was in the room. She stopped, mouth ajar, taking in the room in front of her.

Meredith looked up at her, a lost look on her face. She scanned her once over, before speaking. “Your hands are empty,” she said, her voice flat and completely hopeless. “Why?”

“Cause I have a bag.” She stood still for a second longer, blinking. “Sorry... just not what I expected.” She knelt down next to Meredith, Carter, and Jake. “Suppose I should’ve guessed.” She opened the pouch on her belt and pulled out 2 small vials, one filled with red liquid, the other green. “Tend or major heal?”

Meredith took the red bottle labeled ‘major heal’ in trembling hands. Technically they didn’t know the strength of a major heal versus a tend but this definitely called for something powerful. She uncorked the bottle. “Jake? Can you hear me? Can you open your mouth for me? I have something that will make it go away, but you need to open your mouth.”

He barely responded. His breathing seemed to have stopped altogether. His jaw was already pretty slack, though, so it was easy enough to open, even with trembling hands and vision blurred by tears. She poured the liquid in and tipped his back and waited.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then he choked and coughed, sputtering. She did her best to keep him from spitting it out, covering his mouth. It caused him to choke more but she didn’t want to risk any more potion falling out.

“Come on, Jake! Swallow. I know you don’t want to, but just do it.”

It took a bit of coaxing but soon he got most of it down. After a few seconds, his breathing regularized. It became more even, with less desperate pants. The shaking calmed until it was a hardly detectable tremble. A few seconds more and his eyes flicked open. He stared at the room above him, at Carter and Meredith and Amanda, who were staring down, Carter’s face frozen, Meredith’s tearstained, Amanda’s perplexed.

Amanda sat down on her heels. “Is he going to be alright?” she asked, a bit dubious.

Meredith bit her lip. “I don’t know.” She looked down at Jake, who was slowly blinking, still in another world. “I mean, he should be alright for now but I don’t know if he can walk or whatever. But he’ll be fine. He will be. He’s going to be fine. He’s going to be just fine.” She nodded a few times, not quite believing it. Then she looked down at her gown, which was dark enough to hide the blood. The summer dress, however, didn’t cover past her shoulders, and her pale arms were streaked with blood. Her head spun. Adrenal glands could only suppress the vagus nerve so much and she could feel herself teeter towards dizziness. She kept her eyes ahead to keep them off the blood.

“What happened?” Jake’s face was still white but his eyes had a bit more focus. He reached a hand up to his forehead where he found his horns and he winced, snapping the hand away quickly.

“We’re not sure yet.” Meredith wiped her arms off on the loose fabric of her dress. “Some theories. I’m sure you’ve figured them out. You know. But we’re putting it together. You’re ok, so that’s good!” She stood up, staggering slightly. “I’m gonna get some air. Carter’s got you now.” Her voice was high and a bit unfocused and she needed some space.

As she pushed her way to the door, she heard the murmurings and questions of the people outside. At the door, she ran into someone she hadn’t yet encountered.

“Oh, Zack, good morning.”

He glared at her. He may have been a year younger than her, but he was plenty big enough to stop her from exiting.

“What the hell is going on? Shawn said you and Carter had some idea.”

“Please, I need…” She put her hands on him to push him out of the way, and when he saw the blood on them, he staggered back.

Finally, outside of the room, she let herself take a deep breath, air clear for about eight seconds before she found herself swarmed by people, asking what happened.

Fiona pushed her way to Meredith’s side. “Jesus guys, give her some space. Are you ok?”

Meredith nodded, weakly. “It’s Jake. Ember's a satyr, like Freya’s an elf. So.”

Fiona’s eyes grew huge as her hands clamped over her ears. “God. Is he ok?”

“We got a potion,” Meredith mumbled. She sank to the floor, focusing on her breathing. “I don’t feel good. I’m gonna rest a bit.”

---

Zack’s stomach was in knots. He’d woken up in an unfamiliar place, feeling crappy as all hell. Some mix of a hangover, nausea, and the distinct feeling that his face had been brushed with a brillo pad. A glance in his room’s mirror confirmed that there was something off with his face. It looked similar to how it had when his mom got him professionally photographed for middle school graduation and then photoshopped it to remove all his acne. Now his face was similarly smooth and just a little too sharp.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He didn’t seem alone in this, however, and upon stumbling outside, and being met with the aforementioned commotion and confusion, he noted that almost everyone in the castle had a similar look. They were taller, firmer, fitter, slimmer, cleaner. Complexions either paler or tanner, but all clearer. Facial hair was either completely gone or well filled in, in stark contrast to the host of scraggly, wispy, unkempt hair all the boys had sprouted during their month at summer camp.

Zack didn’t really believe in magic, but then he saw Fiona’s ears and ran into Meredith, covered in blood and raving about Jake having horns. So if someone was gonna make an argument for magic, this was pretty good evidence.

He sought out Morgan, who was hanging back, a hand pressed to her face as if staving off a headache.

“Your face all fucked up too?”

She pulled the hand down, quickly, grinning at his voice. He was a little relieved to see the dark skin was as marked as always, if not a bit more with the addition of a few scars.

“Yo Zack. Thank god, man.” She rolled her eyes in the direction of the party. “They’re taking this so seriously. Which,” she held up her hands, “I get. But they also didn’t have to spend all morning with Meredith’s whining, Amanda and Violet fighting, and Fiona mooning over her ears. Only Sam’s been tolerable.”

This seemed a bit unfair since Zack would definitely be whining right now if he’d had the time or space to really process what was going on. But he grinned nonetheless, put at ease by Morgan’s presence.

“So we’re definitely not, like, in Echoterra then.”

She grimaced. “Ahh, no one’s really said that. Or they have but they’re saying it less. Cause, ya know, Jake. And there are potions that straight up actually work.”

This, this is what he’d been hoping to hear, and he could feel a jumble of nausea-inducing excitement jumbling around in his stomach, the same kind that used to bubble around when he was little, on the first morning of summer camp, except this time on steroids. “No fucking way.”

From behind the door, they were standing next to, came an unfamiliar voice, moaning. “I’m not getting up today. I feel fucking awful.” This was followed by a pause, which was followed by. “Wait, what the fuck?”

Morgan and Zack exchanged quizzical glances.

“I know that voice-” Morgan started before a series of quick footsteps proceeded the door opening and the two leaped out of the way.

“Holy shit! Guys!” The man standing in the doorway was semi recognizable. If it weren’t for how short he was, Zack may have had a hard time identifying Patrick. He was more muscular, his jaw was more defined, and he was sporting quite the beard. “Oh my god, oh my god.” And of course, there was his voice. “Guys,” he said. “I’m a… guy? Like, physically, like, everything is actually… male?” He’d probably have looked a lot happier with his transformation if he wasn’t so doubled over in pain.

“Is that Patrick?” Shawn’s voice was its patented bewildered tone, which, to his credit, was perfectly in place, given everything.

“Oh shoot,” Fiona said. “Amanda! You need to go back to the lab.”

Amanda pushed her way over, before giving Patrick a once over. “Fat chance.” Then she smirked and pulled a vial out of her sack. “I came prepared.”

Fiona clearly had no time to be impressed and snatched it out of her hand. “Take this,” she said, handing it to him. “It should make the pain go away.”

Patrick grasped the potion, taking it down in a few sips. “Oh god,” he said, coughing. “That’s… that’s weird.”

Fiona laughed. “Tastes like fire, doesn’t it?”

He nodded, shaking his head, eyes watering. “That was…” he trailed off, blinking. “Woah, that works fast.” He straightened up to his full height of not-quite-taller-than-Meredith, a grin on his face. The grin slowly faded, then, as the reality of the situation dawned. “Wait, what was-”

Fiona shook her head. “It’s a long story. Well. Long story short: we’re in Echoterra and magic turned us into our main characters at camp.” She paused. “Well, I guess it’s a little different for you. But it’s the same,” she waved a hand, vaguely, “magic bit that did it.”

“Wow,” he looked down at his new body, the huge grin that he’d been fighting finally allowed to spread over his face. “Thanks, magic.”

Morgan laughed. “See, finally someone gets it.”

“He accepted it a lot faster than you did,” Amanda said.

“To be fair,” Fiona said, “I was pretty quickly in that boat. It’s easy when you’re the one who was physically changed. Anyone who wasn’t convinced by me is convinced by Jake.”

“Oh shit,” Patrick said.

“Yeah, it’s bad,” said Amanda.

“It’s still a little hard to accept.” Patrick was examining his hands, carefully, flexing them to make sure they still worked.

“You don’t have to accept it,” Aaron said, curtly. “You just need to keep your head.” Then he smiled, a bit begrudgingly. “But it is good to see you.”

Patrick frowned. “Aaron? Is everyone who’s ever been to camp here?”

Aaron shook his head. “I’m thinking just those who planned to visit for a significant period. So, Weston and I think he said William was joining him, so he may be around here too.”

“Oh, you haven’t found everyone?” Patrick glanced around, lips forming numbers as he counted. “Seems like everyone’s here?”

“There’s still four doors,” Morgan said.

“Two are empty,” Aaron said. “We’re still investigating-”

A shout from down the hallway of “I don’t recognize this guy!” had the whole group scrambling to see. Morgan shoved her way to the front and Zack slipped behind her, like a car tailgating a firetruck

Bastian stood in the doorway of another room, glaring at another boy, who was looking up from a sheet of papers on his desk, perturbed at being so rudely interrupted.

“Oh hey Navin,” Darren said.

“Hey.” He still looked annoyed at the person who had intruded on his room so loudly.

“That’s Bastian,” Violet said. “He’s new to this year, a friend of mine. He wasn’t ever a camper.”

Navid nodded then, a polite smile on his face. He climbed out of bed and held out a hand to Bastian. “Pleased to meet you. Navin Dara. Quentin Chahal in-game.”

Then, one of the final two doors, which had remained closed until now, opened. Out stepped a young man, tall and fit, with short buzzed hair, and a puzzled expression. He glanced around the hallway in front of him, at the sea of familiar faces.

“Alright,” William said, “what the fuck is going on?”