I smiled at the butler as he opened the door for me as I stepped out...banging my head on the way out. Thanks to my 5’11” height, Oftentimes I slammed my head against the roof, much to my irritation. As I got out of the limo, I pushed my prescription sunglasses up so the sun wouldn’t mess with my eyes. Thanks to my albinism of the eyes, I usually had to wear sunglasses (sometimes inside as well) so my eyes wouldn’t go all wonky. Luckily (in my eyes) I wasn’t a true albino, but had the natural tanned skin tone and nice dark hair of my mother. I pulled myself out of the limo...to go to the CVS down the road. I couldn’t help but rush into the store, feeling a little embarrassed for having to be driven to the store in a limo.
Alright, time for a quick explanation about me. My name’s Drachen Ritter Smith, and I’m 17 and three-quarters. I’m a senior in high school, and a pretty meh student. For the first fifteen years of my life I lived with just myself and my mother, went to public school, and was happy. We weren’t rich, but that didn’t matter. We had each other and all that mushy stuff.
Then my mom met a man named Brooke Smith. He was a multimillionaire and apparently my mom’s dream husband or something. They got married within a few months of dating and then proceeded to change my life. I was taken out of my public high school and stuck in a private one, tearing me from my friends and the life I had known for years. My grades began to drop because I had no idea what half the teachers were saying. My mom and stepdad then went off to god-knows-where while I was left with a ‘butler’ to take care of me.
Really, Karim wasn’t that bad. Really, he was more like the older brother that I never had, but still is really annoying moments. Like having me take the limo to the store down the street, but I think he really did that to annoy me more than anything.
Karim chuckled, wearing a Harvard hoodie and jeans over his muscled bulk. At least 6’3”, he was a monster of a man. Sometimes, I swear, he should have gone into football instead of becoming a butler. But whatever, people do what they please. He is a pretty kicking football player though: when we play in the backyard after school he always wins. Then again, he’s almost always better than me at everything. My homework, football, judo, the only thing I’m better at is art, interestingly enough.
But luckily it was almost break and I was going to go see my best friend Kari. She’s been my friend since kindergarden, having chased off some brats that were bullying me. We did everything together, from going to school to the movies to doing homework. But when my dad made me move schools we were separated by too much distance to see each other. We still kept in touch with each other with Skype. She asked me to come over during April break to go to her birthday party, so I couldn’t help but agree and get Karim to bring me.
Looking at the birthday cards, I couldn’t help but think that becoming rich wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. While he was really annoying sometimes, Karim wasn’t that bad of a guy and overall a kick-ass butler. The money did help me buy nice clothes and other things I could only dream of, as well as buy stuff for my friends, like food, presents, etc.
“Alright, what gift card should I get Kari?” I asked myself as I scanned the different gift cards. I mean, there were Amazon cards, Itunes cards, Adventure Quest Worlds cards….almost every type of gift card imaginable. I could probably buy one of each, but I didn’t want to get Kari something she didn’t want. Or worse, something she would have no use for. With a sigh I kept looking at them.
After about twenty minutes Karim walked back over, holding a plastic bag in one hand. He had a small smile as he looked at the time on his phone.
“Drachen, we should be going to the airport soon.” He told me, returning the phone to his pocket. “You might miss your flight. We can always buy a present when we get to Massachussets.”
“Just...give me five minutes. If I can’t decide on one, I’ll leave and buy her something else.” I responded, thinking about just buying the Amazon card.
“Alright. I’ll wait in the limo.” He smiled and walked out of the store to start up the vehicle.
With a small sigh I looked back at the cards and picked up the $25 Itunes and $50 Amazon ones. I juggled the cards in my hands, wondering if I should just buy both.
“I would go with the Amazon one if I were you.” came a deep voice from behind me.
I turned to find a massive man about two feet away from me. He looked to be about 6’7”, and built like the Terminator. He had a leather jacket over a blood red shirt, with red camo cargo pants and combat boots. He looked Middle Eastern, maybe Egyptian?
“Can I help you?” I asked, debating if I could flip him if he tried something or if I should run. His smile quickly made me think I should’ve took the latter.
“Yes, Drachen, there is something you could help me with.” He chuckled to himself.
“Wait, how do you know my name?” I asked, now feeling a little scared as I backed towards the exit of the store.
“I think I would know the name of what’s probably the only red-eyed person in my family.” He smiled coldly. “Besides, you didn’t ask what I needed your help for.”
“Ooookay. What do you need my help for?” I asked, adjusting my hoodie.
“You’re going to be...let’s say...my chess piece for a game.” He looked completely serious now, arms crossed and smile gone. His eyes radiated caged violence, like he could explode at any moment and kill me and anyone else he saw.
Chess piece? Like….a game of chess? But, I’m a human. Okay, this guy is definitely crazy. I dont know why he picked me out to mess with, but I need to get out of this place before something bad happened to me. For all I knew, that ‘chess’ was a code name for some type of gladiatorial thing.
“Well, that’s nice and all, but I have to decline the offer.” I was almost at the door, and as soon as I reached it I was going to run as fast I could back to the limo and get far, far away from this man and this store.
“Oh, I wouldn’t deny so quickly.” He sighed a little. “Your friend’s life hangs in your decision.”
“Wait, what are you talking about?” In my confusion, I slowed down on my backwards retreat.
“Oh, nothing, nothing.” The man laughed. “Only that I have the life of your friend Kari in my hands.”
I completely stopped and stared at the man. He continued grinning at me like he was telling a great joke.
“What did you do?” I whispered, barely able to breathe.
The man replied by pulling out his phone, typing something then throwing it at me. I caught it like a football and saw pictures of Kari tied up and gagged in a dark house. Her small 5’ frame was tied up like a prize hog while one of those rubber gag ball things was in her mouth. She looked unharmed, but she had tear stains on her cheeks, showing that she was crying. Her eyes were blindfolded and she was also tied up to a chair, which proved how bad of a predicament she was in.
“If you want her to be free, you do as I say, exactly as I say. Understood?” The man asked, his face completely serious.
Numb, I was unable to do anything other than nod my head in response. I knew I couldn’t escape now, most likely Kari’s life was in my hands. Oh god, why did something like this had to happen? I was going to go have fun with my friend for the first time in months, and now I was talking to some crazy guy who was holding her hostage. I guess I just had to listen to him and wait to hear how long until I heard a ransom or something.
“Alright then.” He smiled his cold smile. “Want to be my Piece in the game?”
“Y-yes.” I gulped. So much for a ransom, I guess. “I’ll be your Piece.”
“Good, good.” He smile got even wider. “Is there anything you’d prefer to be turned into?”
“Wait, what?” I blinked. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh, its one of the...rules.” The man pouted. “Any Piece added to the game must be turned into something other than human.” He shrugged. “I blame the stupid Wardens.”
“Uh...okay.” I thought for a minute. “So...I can be almost anything?”
The man nodded, which made me smile a little for once. See, I’ve always had a dream to be a Space Marine from Warhammer 40,000. I mean, they’re so big and powerful and awesome, destroying aliens and daemons and such, protecting humanity with their guns and swords and shields.
“I wish to be a Space Marine.” I decided with a little glee.
“No.” The man responded, crushing my dreams a little. “Too human.”
“Well...fine.” I thought again. Hmm...how about a naga? “How about….snake person?”
The man thought for a second before nodding. He stepped closer, smiling a little as he walked.
“That could work.” He chuckled. “I wish you luck, Drachen. Also, make up a name so people don’t recognize you. How about...Gilgamesh?”
“Gilgamesh?” I felt scared again. “Well...it sounds nice, I guess.”
“Well then, little Gilgamesh, I’ll see you there.”
The man snapped his fingers, and everything exploded into sand. I couldn't help but scream as the sand wrapped around me in a tornado and everything turned black.
I opened my eyes to see nothing but sand. It wasn’t like I was at the beach and there was sand everywhere, it was like I was trapped in the middle of a sand tornado. Torsando? Sandnado? I don’t know, but it felt...calm. I looked at my arms as I drifted through it, and felt a pang of fear as I saw my hoodie slowly crumbling to sand.
I took a look at the rest of my body and sucked in a sharp breath as I saw the rest of my clothes crumbling into sand at the same speed. It took about 30 seconds before my hoodie was crumbled enough that it slipped off me in chunks and floated off somewhere into the sandnado. My pants, my shoes, my shirt and everything else followed, even the two rubber band bracelets I got from my cousin, the friendship bracelet from my friend Kari , and the wooden band thing I got from a corner store showing pictures of what looked like Christian saints.
Next I saw my feet slowly crumble away, followed by my arms getting covered by more and more sand, like my body was shedding it away like dead skin. It was like that with the rest of my upper body, while my lower body became encrusted with sand. I could feel weights grow on my back and chest and begin to drag on my hair while I watched the sand collect on my arms. I could feel that under all the sand parts of myself were falling apart.
With a look down, I saw my entire lower half encased in sand, and when I tried to move my legs or feet and couldn’t move it. That’s when I felt fear. Why couldn’t I move my feet? What was going on!?
I saw sand climbing up my chest, encasing it as well while the sand on my arms got stiffer and stiffer. I couldn’t help but scream as the sand started climbing up my neck towards my head. My head started getting pulled back as something started yanking my hair. I screamed again as the sand reached my face and started to force my mouth shut. Before the sand reached my eyes, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel...and it was extinguished by my eyes closing.
---
When the Sun returned, I could feel the sting of it hitting my unprotected eyes like it usually does when I don’t wear my glasses. With a groggy groan, I reached up to my head to put my glasses back down from my hair to my eyes while I closed them. As soon as my hand hit my hair, something felt….different. I could feel the sand brushing my back and legs and….wait. My hand brushed my empty hair...which felt longer and softer than it did before. I could feel something hanging off my wrist and something pushing into my back and my legs definitely felt...different.
I reached my other hand down to my thighs to feel what was wrong and felt...scales. A jolt of fear raced through me as I opened my eyes in surprise to get an eyeful of pure Sun.
“FUCK!” I roared as I shut my eyes and covered them with my hands as they stung. My face itself felt...off as well. While I tried to mentally force away the glowing black spots from my vision I felt my hands around my face, feeling like a blind person did. “...uh-oh.”
My hands discovered what was definitely not my face. My skin was a lot softer and was unusually colder than usual. The big difference was, however, the fact that it was unusually feminine!
I tried opening my eyes again, this time blocking out at least some of the blinding light with a hand. While the light was still unusually bright, I wasn’t blinded again. I saw an forearm that looked way too girly for it to be mine, but moving it back and forth proved it was mine. I around and saw sand.
I wasn’t in the sandnado anymore, but I was certain I wasn’t in America anymore. It also didn’t look like any desert I knew of. I tried to pull myself into a sitting position, and felt something on my chest weighing me down while something on my back pulled me back to the sand. After a few dozen attempts I managed to pull myself to my butt. I put a hand over my eyes like shade so I could see before looking down and gasping.
Boobs. Instead of the pecs and toned stomach I worked so hard on over the year I saw a pair of massive boobs. But...I was a guy, so I shouldn’t have things like this! So I reached my free hand under my boobs and towards my crotch to find…
“...oh...fuck!” I cursed as I found something that wasn’t there before: A hole. My Federal Love Project was gone! My zipper-ripper! My family jewels! My...my...no…
I barely noticed the green tail covered in rainbow feathers and the wing on each wrist as my vision started to narrow as I could feel my mind starting to shut down.
I could hear two voices, one inside my head, the other outside, and I couldn’t understand what either was saying. I choked as I fell backwards into the sand as everything went black.
---
I slowly opened my eyes to the feeling that something new was off. As soon as I opened my eyes I saw a ceiling of metal bars, like a cage. I could feel a floor of cold metal bars under me, making my arms and...tail cold, but my back was oddly warm for some reason. I reached out an arm to grab the bars and pull myself up.
Getting to my ‘feet’ was harder than I thought it would be, so I settled for leaning against the barred wall. With a sigh I looked at my new body. I was definitely a girl now, I had all the...attributes of one. I checked out my tail again, to see what it really looked like. It was forest green with rainbow feathers running down the center like a feathery mohawk. I also had two small rainbow wings about halfway into the wings. The tail ended with a giant-ish rainbow feather plume thing, giving it a pretty cool look.
I reached an arm back to see what gave my back such a warm feeling, and wasn’t as surprised as I should that I found more feathers. After a couple dozen attempts I found the right muscles to open the wings and was pleasantly surprised to see two large wings and two smaller wings underneath them. I closed the wings before lying back onto the wall and wondering what to do next.
“Ah, its awake.” I could hear a voice say from a short distance away. Turning towards the voice showed a horse wearing what definitely looked like Arabian aesthetics and a unicorn stallion wearing oddly Egyptian armor. The Arabian horse had a pretty good poker face while the unicorn had a cruel grin.
“Yes, she has woken up.” The Arabian horse said in a very cultured voice, which made me decide the rough voice I heard earlier was the unicorn’s. “That definitely helps the process.”
“Process?” I asked, deciding that whatever was going to happen was probably not going to be good. The horse chuckled before walking closer to the bars as the unicorn dug through his saddle bags.
“Quetzali, do you have a name?” The horse asked, giving me what was definitely not a warm smile.
Well...what was that name that man suggested I use when I was still on Earth? Gretel? Giga? No...it was Gilgamesh!
“My name is Gilgamesh.” I said as confidently as I could while the horse raised an eyebrow.
“A very...manly name for a Quetzali.” He waved a hoof like he was dismissing something. “Regardless, what are you doing so far from the Southern Rainforest?”
Southern Rainforest….oh, maybe that’s where the ‘Quetzali’ live! Well...I might as well tell the truth.
“Some guy took me from my home, turned me into this and tossed me into this desert.” I said honestly. “He said something about a ‘game’.”
The horse’s look got a lot colder before he turned to the unicorn and nodded, which made the unicorn pull something out of his bag and walk towards me. I looked down at him to see what he was doing, which made him grin and float what was in his into the cage. It looked like a dog collar, and opened itself in front of my eyes and float towards me.
“Wh-what are you doing?” I asked as I pressed myself back against the bars in a futile attempt to get away from the collar. The collar wrapped itself around my neck pretty snuggly before the horse nodded to himself.
“What are we going to do with her?” The unicorn asked in his curiosity, looking up to the horse with a little awe. The horse chuckled lowly to himself.
I lay there, tail curled up against my body while the cart shook the cage during its trek through the desert. I couldn’t tell what was going on beyond that thanks to the grey sheet the unicorn had thrown over the cage. I rubbed one of the tail feathers idly, amazed at how soft it was. What was also surprising was the fact that my skin was actually cold to the touch. I mean, it was kinda warm because I was under a dark sheet in the desert, but my skin was a little cold like if I was under an air conditioner.
They’re talking about their leader, King Trotenhamen. A deep voice rang through my head, jolting me from the ‘happy place’ I had gone into.
“Who’s there?!” I yelled, uncurling myself enough to use the bars nearby to pull myself to my figurative feet. I looked around my cage for the source of the voice, but couldn’t find anything that could speak..because the only thing alive in the cage was myself. Perhaps it was that creepy unicorn...but I doubt it. I mean, he didn’t look that powerful, and it didn’t sound like his voice.
Perhaps it was that Arabian horse. I mean, he looked like he was in charge, and had a kind of royal air to him. If he could control a unicorn, then who knew what he could do? He could be like that horse from Percy Jackson, that one that can run at basically the speed of light and eats gold and stuff or something….
I’m not either of them, idiot. The voice groaned. I can’t believe you forgot about me so easily!
Oh...wait, what voices in my head did I forget about? I mean, there was my imaginary friend Chris Dan Buddha...but I don’t think he sounded like that. I mean, he had a much nicer tone to him...didn’t he? I mean, I did stop thinking about him back when I was ten, so I did have seven or eight years to forget about what he was like.
“Yeah, I forgot about you Chris Dan Buddha. But that happened seven years ago, so deal with it already.” I sat down and leaned against the bars again, staring at the sheeted roof.
Chris Dan what? No, I am Set. Also, you can talk in your head so-
“Keep it quiet back there!” I heard what was most likely the horse yell from the front of the cart. I guessed the unicorn was the one pulling the actual cart, because I really doubted that the horse would be the one that would do something like get his hooves dirty and pull a cart like this.
Yeah...so that wouldn’t happen.
Alright, first question Mr. ‘Set’, where am I? I asked sarcastically.
Fix your attitude. I shall not be spoken to like if I was lower than you.
Fine. Where am I, Lord?
Better. You’re in Saddle Arabia, in the small kingdom of Egyptia.
I said it with the same amount of sarcasm, but apparently the title ‘lord’ is a good thing to call this weird voice in my head. Plus, Saddle Arabia sounds really familiar...like...wait, wasn’t there a Saudi Arabia parody called ‘Saddle Arabia’ by bronies? If I was somewhere near or in Equestria, that would explain the colorful unicorn…
Is that far from Equestria? I asked hopefully, hoping I was in the version of My Little Pony that had friendly ponies, not Xenolestia and the Conversion Beruos.
As the hawk flies, you aren’t really that far from the Equestrian border. If you really needed to get there, it would be quite the journey, though.
Huh...so I was in Equestria...or near it, at least. There was hope in my being safe from this ‘Pharaoh’! Now I just needed to get out of this cage...take out the horse and unicorn...figure out how to move around...and get to the border! Easy peasy!
I silently lowered myself to the floor of the cage and stuck my arm out of the wall of bars. I lifted up the sheet to see...a bunch of sand fly up from the ground in time to hit my face.
“Gak!” I yelped as I dropped the sheet to roll back and try to wipe the sand out of my eyes. Sweet Jesus that stung like Hell!
...how did I end up with a spawn like you? The voice sighed in frustration.
I would’ve answered if it wasn’t for the giant bump in the road that made my fly up from the floor before slamming back down facefirst. With a small groan I pushed myself back to the wall to lean on before I noticed something...we stopped moving. I pushed the sheet up far enough to look through again to see the horse talking to what looked like a giant bipedal canine….that looked really familiar.
Is that a Diamond Dog? I asked myself. What is he doing with the horse?
I tried to listen in on their conversation, but it was in some language I couldn’t understand. Reminded me of Arabic, though. I remember what it sounds like whenever I went shopping with Karim and he started talking to some guy he recognized…
Don’t think about Karim. The voice told me. Focus on what’s going on.
I focused back on what was going on to see the horse and the Diamond Dog start walking towards the cart. A second Diamond Dog’s head popped up from the side, looking down at me with a small smile. With a yelp, I dropped the sheet and sat up in the darkness of the cage.
I had little time to do anything else as that second Diamond Dog yanked off the sheet, still grinning like a kid on Christmas Day morning. Without the sheet blocking my vision, I could see that the horse and the first Diamond Dog had reached the edge of the cart, while the unicorn stood on the other side of the cart. The horse motioned with his hoof, and the second D-dog jumped onto the cart behind me before starting to push it. I yelped a little as my cage was pushed towards the edge of the cart before getting held up by the first diamond dog. The second d-dog took hold of the other end and they started carrying me towards what looked like a large mansion. Several other horses were walking around the mansion and barely glanced at the odd group that was walking into their home.
After several layers of stairs, gilded corridors and doors, we ended up at twin gold doors that looked like they were at least eight or nine feet tall and five feet wide...each. Two other horses stood guard on each side, both wearing armor. Looking at both of them, they looked really similar. Almost like...twins? Okay, that’s cool.
“Halt.” Said the guard on the right.
The horse snorted but motioned to the group to halt. The two D-dogs stopped, with the unicorn standing behind the second one. The horse then walked up to the guard, still carrying his arrogant smirk.
“State your business with the Pharaoh.” the guard told the horse, his voice dead and his face carrying the best poker face I’ve ever seen.
“I can’t believe you forgot about who I was!” The horse laughed. “I have something my father should see, Khopesh.”
The guard - no, his name is Khopesh - narrowed his eyes a little before blinking, his eyes wide. He motioned for his twin to open the gates while he himself bowed to the horse. The horse rolled his eyes as the guard bowed low enough that his face was pushed against the stone floor.
“Please forgive me for mistaking you, my prince!” Khopesh trembled a little as he looked up at who was apparently a prince.
“Khopesh, stand up.” The horse prince said, nodding as the guard stood back up to his full height. “I forgive you. Now, open the gates so I may converse with my father.”
The guards quickly moved to open the gates, the prince walking into the room while the D-Dogs and myself stayed outside. After a long...long wait, the prince returned with a very unnerving smile on his face.