Chapter 1
Smoke started to rise inside the circle of glowing runes. It reached out, grasping to cover the entire floor, but was thwarted by an invisible wall and forced to stay in a perfect sphere just shy of a glowing circle spread across the floor.
Archaic runes written in a mix of gold dust glowed with a magical haze, giving the chamber a dim unearthly light. At the far end of the chamber, I stood behind a pedestal chanting in the spidery language of magic.
The words felt almost familiar from many years of using the same spell, even if they were forgotten as I finished chanting them. Rushing mystical power trickled through me, growing in strength as I continued the spell. The trickle turned into a stream, causing a familiar exertion to keep my magic under control.
What felt like hours I continued, the buildup of magical energy was grew from a stream to a flood. The air was full of power, almost cracking like thunder . It was then I noticed a disturbance from the floating sphere of smoke.
The change was subtle, a slight elongation at the poles that stretched out into a long cylinder shape. The top of the sphere expanded out like a bubble into the shape of a large triangle. The entire form began to twist and turn, the cylinder sprouting four separate segments like tree branches. Each ‘branch’ grew out becoming talons or claws. The top of the body sprouted hairs that resembled fur, the bottom section was armored in scales that sparkled with a grey sheen. The triangle at the top smoothed itself off, losing its sharp edges. A long, single tooth protruded from its mouth, long hairs sprouted from the head, and two large yellow and red eyes opened.
The floating grey creature stared at me, his mouth curved with a sinister smile.
“Oh! It’s the little magical ape again!” It cheered. “Now I normally love it when you call me to do whatever it is you want, but I’m in a bit of a hurry today.”
“And I have no time for your nonsense either, Chaos Demon,” I growled.
Summoning a demon of any sort was an extremely dangerous and strenuous task. During them,
I must always be alert and focused because a demon will always try and distract you. One moment of weakness can cause them to escape, which usually is quickly followed by the death of the mage who summoned them.
Luckily, I’m no ordinary mage. I am the greatest Demonic Warlock in the eight realms. My specialty is gathering information from the other world observers, and selling it to the highest bidder. Kings have come to me on their knees, begging for some piece of information to take out a rival or rebel. And I would gladly accept their task, for the right price.
I took in a breath to clear my mind from the stress of controlling the magic that powered the spell. “I have just one question today. Answer completely and honestly and I shall let you return to your hell with --”
“Can’t you make this circle a little bit bigger next time?” it interrupted. “I’m starting to feel claustrophobic.” It wrapped its arms around itself and shivered in an exaggerated manner.
A small twitch in my eye was the only obvious indication of the irritation I felt. Of all the creatures I summoned from the hells, this one held a special place to me. It always knew how much power I had, and always prolonged the spell until I was barely conscious.
I snapped my finger, sending a small jolt of electricity through the glyph. The creature roared in pain, shaking the foundations of my tower. Small bits of dust fell from the ceiling and the chamber groaned. The demon then turned and glared at me.
“Fine, since you apes still don’t know how to hold a ‘civil’ conversation, what do you want?”
I pulled an amulet out of my pocket and held it before the demon. “I need you to identify this. It was found by a group of adventurers on the body of a shaman of the Ze’korn tribe.” I gave it a small smile. “I remember you mentioning that you ‘visited’ this particular tribe a couple hundred years ago, and this amulet is at least two hundred years old.”
It stared at the artifact in my hand, examining every minute detail both physical and ethereal. It soon blinked then started pacing around the glyph, hand behind its back as if it was thinking. I gave it a single rotation around the protection zone before I lost my patience.
“Do you know or not, Demon?” I roared.
It jumped back as if I struck it, giving me the biggest hurt eyes I’ve ever seen. But like all demons, this creature feels nothing but hatred for all of humanity. I know that if it could, it would break out of the summon area and tear me limb by limb. All demons were the same.
“Now now, don’t be in such a hurry,” it spoke in a silky voice. Its eyes seemed to change, moving from hurt to extreme joy. “When you rush things too much, then you make... mistakes.”
It reached down to the edge of the circle and grabbed a pinch of dust that had fallen out of the lines by the slight shift of a stone on the floor.
Blood drained from my face when I realized that all the protections in my summoning chambers were now void, and the creature I just summoned was unbounded.
“Let’s play a game, shall we,” it purred as it stepped outside of the circle, changing from a smoky form into a full flesh and blood Draconequus.
x.X.x
Tired... I felt very tired for some reason. I must have been up all night on another research project again. This is a terrible habit that really needs corrected. I chuckled softly at the irony. The life of a wizard is entirely about discipline and dedication, and I cannot seem to get down setting up a proper curfew for myself.
I rolled over, feeling grass brush against my side. My robe appeared to be absent, and if the wind and grass are not deceiving me, then I am obviously outside my tower. With a groan I opened my eyes and proved my theory correct. I was lying in the middle of a grassy meadow.
I rolled onto my back and stretched out by body. Whatever spell I must have been working on must have been some sort of teleport spell, or maybe a trans-dimensional traveling spell. I have wanted to test out one of those two for a few years now. I must make note that using one of those spells causes a slight bit of amnesia.
“Good morning sleepyhead!” a cheerful voice laughed.
I whipped my head around at the voice. I gasped when I saw a Draconequus hovering a few feet away from me. I tried to jump onto my feet, but I felt a tug on my rear and fell back onto the grass. Knowing how vulnerable I was at the moment, I rolled away from the creature in search for a weapon. A tree came into my view with a number of broken branches around it. I reached out to grab one of them and closed my hand over nothing.
In fact, I didn’t feel my hand close at all. I glimpsed to the branches and froze in shock. What appeared before me was not my hand but a bright pink hoof. I quickly retracted the appendage and glanced down at my body, realizing why my robe was gone. I am now covered in a fine coat of pink fur, and at the end of all my limbs were hooves.
I’ve been transformed into a horse.
It was at that realization when I noticed another something missing. I stared at the area, my mind not able to fully register it being gone. Out of all the things on my body, it was the one thing I never thought I would ever be without.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I blurted in a high pitched voice.
I have been transformed into a female horse.
How dare this creature turn me, one of the most prominent wizards of the century, into a woman! Adventurers, nobleman, and even kings have come to me and groveled, asking for my services. It was even spoken amongst my peers that I may be the most competent wizard in my field for the past millennia.
And this creature thinks he can do this to me and get away with it!
“Oh, aren't you precious!” the Demon laughed. It tried to look innocent when I glared at it. “What? Can’t you take a joke? Oh, of course you can’t,” he returned my glare with one of his own. “You never did enjoy my jokes. Well guess what, little filly, the jokes on you!”
Once I get my wand back I’ll make sure this creature will beg me to have mercy on it. I’ll have it crawl on the ground, like the snake it is, and kiss my feet. I’ll break its demonic spirit until all is left is a husk of its former self. I will not tolerate the amount of arrogance it is showing.
The Demon flew up into the air, laughing hysterically, and disappeared in a bright flash. I growled and started to stand up. Before I was fully on my feet... hooves, I heard it speak again.
“Here is the game,” its disembodied voice spoke, “Young in body, old in mind, seven keys you must find. By seven weeks, if one is lost, a lifetime of grass will be your cost.”
The last word echoed for an extra minute before the meadow was silent again. I cursed and stood straight, only to lose my balance and fall onto my face.
“This is bloody brilliant.”
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The sound of the brook was close. I could practically smell the water, which is new. I never thought that fresh water had a smell. Then again, it has been years since I’ve had to go out on an adventure dirty my own hands. I’ve always lived by the philosophy that if I could hire a few buffoons to do the digging for me, then why break the sweat myself?
I’ve gotten too old to risk my life on dangerous missions to get some lost jewel or artifact. Especially since other young wannabes tend to bring their ‘precious artifacts’ to me to identify. Like that blasted amulet.
Now that I think about it, where did that amulet go? Not that it will help me here, but it will really hurt my image if I lost the item as I was identifying it... then again, having a demon escape the circle of protection and pull me into its realm hurts my image just as much. Maybe a little more.
I crawled on my stomach, attempting to stay in a low area so the Denizens of this level of hell won’t be able to find me. At least, that is what I’ll tell people once I’m free of this nightmare. Not that I was unable to walk on my two... four feet... hooves.
Bah, forget proper terminology. I am a human and I’ll talk like one!
I was not able to get onto my feet and walk properly with this new body. Its joints bent at strange angles, the center of balance of the body was off, and I kept tripping over that blasted tail! How creatures are able to adapt and live in this body is a miracle of nature by itself.
The brook came into view. With a burst of energy, I bounded to my feet and leapt to it. Unfortunately, this realm has a very sadistic sense of humor, and my jump was much further than I expected. I plopped into the stream, causing the fish to flee and water to fly everywhere. Luckily, it was only a few inches deep and had little to no current.
After some flailing to get my new limbs back under control, I crawled to the edge of the brook and pulled myself out of the water. Flopping on my back, I gasped for breath. Learning how to use an entire new body takes a lot more out of you than you would expect. If I knew polymorphing spells took so much effort to use, I would never had insulted the Shapeshifter’s guild about being too lazy to learn proper spells.
Note to self, write an apology letter to the Shapeshifters guild when you get home.
After getting my breath, I rolled back over to my stomach and got onto my feet. For the first time I was successful at standing up without falling. I smiled in triumph and looked around me to get an idea where I was.
A very dense group of trees were to my right. So thick in fact that it looked like the sun was unable to pierce through the canopy. Large wild looking plants were so clumped together that it looked as if it was overflowing out of the woods, but strangely all the vegetation stopped just short of the first row of trees.
I was standing a large field of disgustingly bright colored flowers. It looked like one of those traveling circuses that camp outside of large cities, hawking their overpriced slop and exhibiting unfortunate souls they call ‘freaks’. Not as bad as the slave markets that we see in the some of the southern port cities, but it makes me sick thinking about it just the same.
But I digress. The field was next to this stream, which flowed down the hill into a larger brook. That brook is looks like it is deep enough to swallow this new body of mine. I was lucky to have stumbled up here at this end of it.
In fact, I don’t even know exactly what I look like now. I look into the crystal clear stream and the first thing that I see is a bright pink eyesore. I close my eyes and shake my head to dispel the disgusting image, and opened them to look again. I am assaulted by the pink for a second time, but this time I at least got a glimpse of myself before I was forced to close my eyes.
My body is a bright, obnoxious pink. The kind that I’ve seen many noble ladies wear when they are trying to find another idiot nobleman to sleep with. Not even the commoners whorehouses use this disrespectful color, and that is saying something.
My hair is just a shade darker than my coat. It was at least tolerable to look at even if it was not a good color. Why didn’t the demon change me into my robes colors? What is wrong with a brown coat with a dark gray lining, or should I say hair. That would be so much better than this monstrosity I’ve become.
For the third time I open my eyes, and I'm finally able to stand the obnoxious coat and realized something that made me both excited and terrified.
I had a horn. He made me into a wizard’s dream.
I didn’t need my wand, I had a living one here. I just need to do some tweaks to it so it could channel magic proper-- And I realized how dumb that idea was. For a unicorn horn to cast magic, it needs runic runes carved into it, deep enough to touch the raw marrow so it can pull the power from wherever unicorns get their magic from.
And that process usually kills the unicorn. And even if it doesn’t, the horn is still useless since we can’t use it on a unicorn’s head.
Needless to say, mages and unicorns have not gotten along for a few millennia. It isn’t like we can’t make wands from only the horns. A phoenix feather works just as well too, or the fur of a werewolf (tooth is better, but harder to get). But a unicorn horn is the second best material to make the wand from. First is from the dust of a star, but the heavenly bodies fall so rarely we have to make the best of what we can.
But, nowadays, unicorns are virtually extinct. Blasted nobles think hunting them is a sport, just to show off the horns after the kill. A few even try and sell it to me so I can make them a wand. Idiots.
The horn needs to be fresh for the magic to flow properly. All I can do for them is give them a decorated bone. Why else do we carve the runes on a live unicorn.
This means that my horn is off limits if I want a new wand.
With a sigh I turn and look off to the brook. It was flowing from the dense forest, and moved through around the hills through the field and out of site. Took in a breath and decided I needed to follow it. Hopefully this realm has towns next to rivers. It is a common practice in the real world as it is perfect for food, trade, and growth. If I could find a town here I would have to study the creatures of this world.
Who knows, I might even find another demon and make a deal with it. I am not without treasures it would be interested in getting. A true mage is always prepared. I just wished I could make these deals in the protection of my tower and not in the demons home realm.
But those are wishes, and I don’t have the luxury of wishing at the moment. I need seven items of some sort, and only three weeks to gather them.
My first step causes me to lose my balance and fall into the stream.