The "Best" RPG Ever-21

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Zack raised his nose up and sniffed the air a few times, turning toward Nora's smell before opening his eyes and starting to walk. Are you sure you're right this time? said Katherine mentally.

I was right the first two times, but some people aren't wearing armor thick enough to walk through all those thorns and I'm trying to account for that.

Do you want me to try and get a look from above? asked Mika.

I don't—hold on. Zack stopped, putting a hand on his sword's hilt. Someone's coming toward us, right through the thick brush. Doesn't even sound like it's slowing them down.

Feeling the sense of caution from his mind, Katherine removed a couple of her own weapons from the nebulous inventory and held them in her hands, ready to release or throw them as necessary. Mika just looked around awkwardly, not exactly having a specific way to be ready for battle.

After a moment, the person in question walked out from behind a tree: A blonde girl with a combination of scales, horns, and wings that made her look part dragon. "Hi there!" she said, waving cheerfully. "You must be Nora's friends, right?"

"...Yes," said Zack after a second. He let go of the hilt of his sword but kept his hand close to it. "So you've met her, then?"

The stranger nodded. "Yeah, she's on her way here right now!"

Is she telling the truth? he asked the psion.

I don't know! There's like some kind of haze over her mind so I can't read surface thoughts, and—
I meant, do you sense Nora nearby.

Oh! ...Yes, actually. Seems she was following our friend here. Katherine quietly put away her weapons, she and the knight both taking on slightly less tense postures.

While they had that exchange, the dragon-girl was rambling awkwardly: "Well, uh, anyway I'm Rose, I kinda helped her out of a little jam, but she did most of the important work though, don't get me wrong...uh..."

The elf finally stepped into view, her legs having a few minor cuts from the plant life. "H-hello again," she said, picking some bits of plant matter out of the longer parts of her clothes and hair.

Rose turned to Nora. "Y-you didn't tell me all your friends were cute girls!" she blurted semi-conspiratorially.

"I d-don't really think of them that way," said the elf, looking a little confused.
"Also, I'm a guy," added Zack, crossing his arms.

Rose looked him up and down wide-eyed, for a moment, before grinning and taking a few slow steps closer. "R-really? Are you into girls, then?"
"I'm really not 'into' anyone right now," he said, his ears folding back against his head in irritation.

"Oh, uh." The draconian blinked awkwardly a couple of times before backing away, looking surprised. "Oh! Sorry. I just tend to say the first thing that comes to my mind without thinking what it'll sound like, I'm not used to anyone else actually hearing it!"

"Uh, sh-she helped capture the guys who kidnapped me," said Nora, trying to smooth over relations a bit.

"So you got away from them on your own?" said Mika eagerly.

"W-well, pretty much. Rose d-didn't show up until I was out of the ropes and standing up. Why?"

"Heehee, nothing. Anyway, nice to meet you," she said, skipping up to the tall dragon-girl and offering up a hand. "I'm Mika, I'm a witch."
"Oh, uh, yeah! Nice to meet you too!" She took the hand and shook carefully, trying not to scrape her claws against the smaller girl's skin.

"These two are Zack and Katherine," she added, waving at the others in turn. Katherine nodded; Zack was still busy frowning at her, but at least his ears were partway up.

"Well, thanks for helping with Nora anyway," said the psion. And to Nora: "You said you captured them?"

The weaver nodded. "Sh-she tied them up in some vines with plant magic. They're knocked out right n-now. It s-sounded like they were involved in some other crimes, s-so it might be a good idea to bring them b-back to town."

"Town?" said Rose. "There's a town?! How did I not notice a town showing up near my forest?!"

"Your forest?" said Zack.

"Uh-huh," she nodded. "I made most of it and I live here, so it's mine. Oh, welcome here by the way!"

"Is the town a problem?" asked Katherine.

"Problem? No, not unless they start cutting my trees, which they haven't. But I've hardly seen anyone in years!" she said excitedly. "Can you take me to your town? I'd love to visit!" Even though Rose remembered seeing plenty of people lately, as Rob, the sense that she hadn't seen anyone in forever was so strong. Just how much had this game messed with her mind, anyway?

"Uh.." Katherine looked at Zack.

"Sure," he said, "I guess we need some help carrying those criminals back anyway."

"Oh, yeah! I can do that, I'm really strong!" Rose flexed one of her arms, which didn't really show off much of anything, but she certainly felt strong enough to carry four people. Or at least drag them along the ground for a while.

"Um, w-will your forest be okay without you?" asked Nora. "It's a f-fairly long walk."
"Aww, it'll be fine for a little while," said Rose. "You and those bad guys are the first ones here in forever, so probably nobody even knows it's here! Anyway, it's not like the plants have no way to defend themselves. But, umm." She looked up at the sky as if needing to confirm it was still night. "It's really dark right now. Do you wanna, maybe, spend the night and go in the morning?"

"I guess we were gonna end up making camp somewhere anyway," said Zack. "We should probably keep an eye on the kidnappers, though."
"Oh, sure! I can lead you right to them." The dragon-girl started back toward the way she came.

"Uh, m-maybe you should lead us through a clearer route," said Nora, "s-since there's so many people."
Rose turned around slowly, putting a scaly hand behind her head nervously. "Oh, uh, r-right. Sorry 'bout that. There are actually some really clear ways through here, I forget not everyone has scales..." She moved over toward a clearer path, routing a way through some of the nicer groves and around the thornbushes and things in her mind before gesturing for everyone to follow and starting the walk.

---

Aria's dream was different.

It would be hard to quantify just how different, as she remembered very few of her dreams before coming to this world, but it certainly had a different quality to it. It felt very grounded and real, as if she had simply been physically transported somewhere else. That somewhere else was a cliff hanging out from a landmass of some sort, overlooking a deep black void.

There was a demon in the void, looming at least twice as tall as the cliff she stood on, far enough in the distance to make out its full form. It was vaguely humanoid, bright-red-skinned, with a network of giant horns from its forehead. It seemed to have six arms, but its entire body was wrapped up in equally gigantic chains, some seemingly made of ordinary metals while others were of various colors, some glowing dimly or brightly and giving off seemingly the only light out in the void.

She knew what this demon was without thinking about it or asking anyone. This was the inhabitant of her sword. Its eyes were closed, and it breathed slowly, as if asleep. But she knew this was what demanded blood during the day, so it couldn't be entirely unconscious. The sight of it was terrifying; it gave off a sense of all-encompassing power and at the very least made her feel it would be a very bad thing if this were to ever truly wake up. It seemed likely that the hunger she encountered was just its unconscious desires, the basic, animal-like hunger that demands to be satisfied to remain alive.

Aria turned around, curious what the landmass overlooking the void was. But as far back as a few feet from where she stood, everything turned blurry and indistinct. It all looked...familiar somehow, and yet she couldn't quite mentally grasp what she was seeing. She tried taking a step toward it, to get a better look, but it seemed to retreat away, and on closer inspection of the ground she stood upon, she hadn't actually moved at all from her position on the cliff.

She tried going back and forth on the cliff, moving a step toward the demon and a step back away from it. Space seemed to work normally for all of those movements. But she was stuck on this little island-like cliff; she couldn't get to the indistinct stuff behind her, and the very thought of jumping off the cliff into the void was enough to paralyze her with fear for several seconds.

It seemed like the dream should have ended once she had figured out the extent of what could be done here, but it went on. Bored, Aria tried to see if there was anything else. There was a sound, a dull, roar like distant waters rushing through something, pervading the entire area. It had been there from the beginning, but Aria didn't notice it until she concentrated on trying to hear. It smelled like fresh blood here. Blood smelled good.

Aria sat down, cross-legged, on the ground. It felt increasingly like she was trapped here. But..she had gotten here by falling asleep, right? Surely she would wake up soon...any time now...and be free again. She stared across at the demon, memorizing its features. The sense of boredom and monotony slowly mounted, the fear of being stuck here forever grew. She thought about getting up, turning around, and running full-tilt at whatever it was behind her, but she didn't do it. She just knew it wouldn't work anyway.

The idea of being free seemed so nice...why did they have to keep her tied up like this? It was uncomfortable. It hurt a little. Aria shook her head, trying to make sense of those thoughts. They weren't...quite her own. She wasn't physically tied up, right? The demon was. The demon was what liked the scent of blood, too; it was a little disgusting to her, to be honest. But it was hard to draw that distinction; the thoughts felt very much like her own.

She closed her eyes, and breathed slowly. She had never tried meditation before, but it seemed like it might be a good way to pass time here. The idea was to just think about nothing, right? That was good because it seemed like every train of thought she began here ended with something maddening. And time should pass easily if she wasn't thinking about it. It was difficult, but slowly she managed to focus on her breathing, and only that. She blocked out the increasingly panicked thoughts of being stuck here, the scent of blood, the sounds. Just breathe. In...out...in...out...

This would be over soon. Would it? Yes. Just a few more hours, tops...

---

On the way to the captured men, Rose tried to make some conversation. "Hey, uh, Zack was it?" she said.

"What?"
"I hope it's not too rude to ask, but if you are a guy—I mean, uh, since. Since you're a guy. Why do you look like, well, like that?"

"...It's a curse." He'd been expecting some NPC to ask about this eventually, and had thought up a perfect backstory for it that would make sense to people in this world, and still essentially describe his situation. "My body was changed from how it used to look."

"Ohhh. Did you try asking whoever cast it to change you back?"
"They're dead."
"Ah. Well, I guess I don't need to ask if you tried that, either. But if there's magic that can make you look like that, isn't there any magic that can make you look like a guy again?"
"Probably. I haven't found anything yet, though." Which he hadn't. But he hadn't exactly been looking all that hard, had he? Maybe it would be a good way to spend whatever time off they next had in town. Better than shopping for more clothes, at least. "...But if it's that rare, it's probably expensive, too," he thought aloud. "We aren't exactly rich."

"Well, I'm sure you'll make bank in no time," said the dragon-girl, trying to be encouraging. Although if she thought about it, she was sort of hoping Zack would just get used to the body and then think a little more about the idea of still liking girls. The body he was in was really pretty, and the ears and tail were so cute, too...!

But...that was mean and selfish, wasn't it? She shouldn't wish someone else's desires failed just for her own, what, amusement? Yeah. She needed to root for Zack to get his body back to normal, and maybe look for a way to help him herself, to make up for it!

Thinking like this was hard, and she distracted herself as quickly as possible by thinking about the other girls in the little party instead. Mika was adorable and had a voice to match, and Katherine's kitty ears were cute, too. She grinned, humming quietly to herself as she continued leading the way toward where she'd first met Nora.

Do you think we can trust this woman? Katherine thought at Nora.

Well, she's a little weird but she did help me out. I get a raised-by-wolves vibe more than a, uh, pretending to be friendly one. Can't you just read her intentions, though?

I can't, and that's why I'm worried. I'm not sure if the weird haze over her mind that's keeping me from reading it or even communicating with it in any way is something natural to her...kind, since we've never met anyone part-dragon like her before, or if it's a skill she's using on purpose.

I guess we could just insist that one of us four keeps watch tonight, and watch her as much as our captives. Nora paused for a moment. But I have to really hope she's on our side. She actually is really powerful, and she's got an enchantment on the plants here that make her effectively more powerful when using them. By the way, everyone— Katherine nodded, and Nora continued, her thought being broadcast to the other two as well. Rose really hates fire, so don't even mention it unless she does start acting hostile.

Okey-dokey, thought Mika. Zack nodded.

Before long they reached the former campsite, and the four men were still just as unconscious and wrapped in strong vines as before. "Here we are," said Rose. "I guess this is a pretty good campsite. I mean, I can sleep pretty much anywhere so I, uh, don't really know what a good campsite needs."

"We have some bedrolls," said the knight. "That should be enough unless it's gonna rain. We should probably make sure these guys don't wake up, though."

"Yeah, we'll take shifts," said Katherine.

"Well, you shouldn't really have to. My plants let me know if anything's going on, so if they started getting out of the vines I'd wake up."
"I th-think we'd feel a little better if we did anyway," said Nora. "R-right?"

"Yeah!" Mika agreed, catching on. "Just, psychologically and stuff."

"Okay. Well, if you need anything I'll be, uhm, curled up over there." Rose found a spot at the edge of the little clearing and curled up on the grass, mostly-closing her eyes and pretending to sleep but actually squinting and planning to watch the party for a bit. There was a mixture of curiosity and genuine interest in these people that made her want to know what they would do when they thought she was asleep and not paying attention.

That seemed kind of abrupt. I don't think she's actually asleep yet, said Katherine mentally. We probably shouldn't talk about player stuff tonight, at least not aloud.

"So, I'll take first watch," said Zack, getting the bedrolls out of their inventory and handing them out. "Who's taking second?"

"Um, I'll do it," said Nora.

"Can I have fourth? I'd rather just wake up and stay awake," said Mika.

The psion nodded. "That's fine."

Well, that was boring, thought Rose. But these four seemed to know each other pretty well, like they'd been through some stuff. Zack took a seat on the ground while the others got into their bedrolls fully clothed. The draconian made a little gesture and raised up a little platform of vines next to him he could sit on a little more comfortably. After a moment he noticed, glanced in her general direction and nodded before getting up and sitting on that instead, crossing his legs just as naturally as any girl.

His facing was so that he could see both Rose and their captives, she realized. Which meant...they probably didn't trust her all that much yet. Oh well, she'd just have to do a little more to earn their trust. Maybe starting with trying to actually sleep instead of watching herself be watched? She closed her eyes and, after a few minutes, drifted off easily enough.

Midas Journal 17

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Entry: May 2

I can't say for sure if I'm in love with Brie because, well, I don't really know for sure what that's like. But I'm definitely infatuated with her, or something like that. This morning I would be thinking about something else and suddenly I'd imagine her face in front of me or think about what that hug and kiss yesterday felt like, and I'd have to shake my head to snap myself out of it.

That doesn't really have anything to do with what this entry is about but it happened again when I was trying to think about where to start writing this. I guess it doesn't matter how coherent this is since nobody's supposed to be reading it anyway. I mean, other than the Kayla who wrote in here before, but we're both kind of the same person to some extent. Also, she hasn't said anything in forever and I'm starting to wonder whether we even still have the same file, or if something else got changed somehow? If you're there, edit something in maybe.

Anyway.

I walked over to the ice cream shop after lunch and waited out front for a few minutes, looking around and trying not to think about Brie again. After a while, someone walked up who I only sort of recognized. He looked like Aden, except he was blonde and a little shorter and had fox ears and a fox tail. “Hey!” he said, walking up to me, grinning and acting like I knew him. “Hiya Kael, been a couple days, right?”

I slowly realized who I was probably talking to. “..Adena? You, uh, found a way to turn back into a guy?”
“Well...I wouldn't say back exactly,” he said. “I mean look, I'm still a blond kitsune. Also this form is, like, really temporary. But this is what I wanted to show you!” He twirled around, showing off how definitely-like-a-guy he looked. “Isn't this cool?”
“Yeah. Uh. It's pretty cool.”

He frowned, putting his hands on his hips, and I realized that his stance and the way he was expressing himself was actually still really feminine. “Aww come on, this was really hard to figure out! You could at least pretend to be impressed.”

“Look,” I said, “The fact is that someone being to change into an almost unrecognizable other person is pretty cool, but my own recent experience has made it a lot harder for me to appreciate. It's cool, okay?”

“Okay, okay,” he said. His hair started to grow longer, and he pulled on one of the bangs with another frown. “Oh, dang it. Just stay for another minute..!” He closed his eyes, apparently concentrating fairly hard, and his hair stopped growing. “So I also have a slight problem. A really..ngh..interesting problem.” His body shape had started trying to change back slightly. “I'm sure you can tell this is kind of hard to keep up. I'm trying to practice with it, but I'm just not all that skilled or powerful with transformation. This is my first..mrngh,” He crossed his arms like he was attempting to physically hold his body's shape together. “Like, the first thing I've tried to turn into that isn't really basic stuff like disappearing my fuzzy bits.” His voice was higher in pitch now.

“So, that's a problem?” I asked. “Uh, you can just go on and change back if you want.”

“No, no, I want to explain this while I'm a guy,” he said. “So, yesterday I was practicing this form out in public, seeing how well I could act like a guy, and I noticed this cute neko girl. Well, like, actually I've seen her around school before. You know who Rhia is?”
“..Yes.” I wondered if I should tell him she'd been a guy at some point. “So you noticed her?”
“Well, I noticed that, because I was a guy at the time, I noticed she is really cute.” His body reshaped itself and his hair grew out a little more, and he paused to put his hands together, close his eyes, and make it stop again. “I mean, like, a ten. Right?” His voice and body were completely androgynous by now. “So, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I could act enough like a real guy to convincingly ask her out. And I went and did that. And she said..ugh, whatever.” He visibly let go of what he'd been splitting his concentration with besides the talking, and immediately changed all the way back to Adena in similar clothes.

“So, guess what she said?”
I remembered her speech earlier about answering 'guess what' questions. “Since you just told me it was a problem, I'm guessing she said yes.”
“Uh-huh! So now I really need to get good at this. But it's really tiring. You wanna get an ice cream?”
“I thought that was why you wanted to meet here in the first place,” I said, and led the way in.

Once we had the ice cream, we sat down in a booth to resume the conversation. “So, part of the problem is like I said I'm not used to doing this kind of magic yet,” she said, “so I have to use up a leaf every time I change forms.”
“Er..is it okay to talk about magic stuff in public like this?” I said quietly.

“Pssh, it's fine.” She leaned forward and spoke just as quietly, “everyone just assumes you're talking about some video game or comic book or show or whatever. It's so easy to get away with it in this day and age, it's not even funny. Anyway,” she leaned back again, “so I have a pocket full of leaves right now which would be a little hard to explain. And even after I use a leaf as a catalyst, I have to spend so much concentration to stay transformed I can barely even walk straight, let alone carry on a whole conversation. The leaf helps me stay in that form for like five minutes before my body starts wanting to go back. Plus concentrating that hard and using magic is exhausting and makes me really hungry after.”

Adena dug into her ice cream. “So,” I said, “do you want me to, help with this?” She looked about ready to spit some of it out, but opted to chew and swallow instead.

“No! No way. I know you have crazy powers and could probably do that, but that didn't even cross my mind 'till now. Nah, I want to earn this. If I can pull off having an entire date with this girl never finding out I'm really a girl too, it'd be a grand deception! It might be enough to earn me a third tail! And if I fail, the look on her face will be hilarious, too.”

“Back up, I thought you only had one tail,” I said.

“Nope, it's two. But most kitsune just leave one tail out at a time so nobody has a clue how powerful we really are. Each new tail multiplies the amount of power a kitsune has, I should mention, in addition to being a reward for being good at fooling people, using magic, or preferably both at once. They're like a status symbol and a power booster all in one.”

“So, uh, why did you want to talk to me specifically about this?” I said, curious.

“Well, I wanted to vent to somebody who probably wouldn't tell anyone else. I mean, you seem like you're pretty good at keeping your own secrets from people who don't already know about it, so I know you can keep mine, too. Anyway...we're friends, right? I mean, I didn't stop being your friend just because I grew boobs and a tail, did I? I feel like we haven't talked, like just the two of us, in forever.”

“Oh. Y-you're right,” I said, feeling a little ashamed of myself. “I guess I've just been busy lately, trying to figure my own stuff out. It..well, to be honest it doesn't help that after I specifically tried to get to know you better because you were someone I thought I wouldn't accidentally change, it happened anyway. I mean, I know you're happy about it, but I'm still, trying to figure out whether or not I'm hurting people.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, nodding. “I dunno what I'd do with a power like yours. Probably wouldn't be anywhere near as responsible with it. It's probably a good thing I won't have any really ridiculous powers for like a century, for the sake of a looot of people I've met or will meet in that time. So what exactly have you been doing to figure it out, huh?”

“Well, uh,” I tried to mentally skip over Adena implying that not only would she be alive for a century, but it would be a relatively small part of her lifespan. “I got in contact with a powerful witch, who gave me some advice on how to figure out what's going on. I've talked to Lue some about it. Um..I also talked to someone else about it, who volunteered to help me find out what's going by changing for a week and then going back.”

“Oh, who's this someone else?” said Adena, grinning mischievously. “Your heart skipped a beat when you started talking about them~.”

“W-well, I guess you'd know them as Brie now? A friend of Lue's I met as a guy named Brian. Uh..we're kinda, going on a date Monday night.”

“Ohh, Brie?” she said with a look of recognition. “She's a super cutie, congrats. Not that I know her personally, but yeah I've seen her around.”

“Wait, what are you congratulating me on? I mean, it was basically her idea after, um, changing,” I said.

“Hmm..I dunno. It seems like a natural thing to tell someone who's scored a date? Besides that, I guess I assumed you had something to do with her looks, or at least your power was responsible for them?”
“I'm not sure if I consider that to be something I did or not,” I said. “I mean, I kinda hope it isn't because it means I'm kinda imposing my idea of what looks good on other people..”

“Hmph. Well I like the way I look, and I bet she likes the way she looks too, right?”

“I...didn't...exactly ask, but it seems like it. But I'm not sure if I did that either. This is part of why I want to figure this stuff out.”

“Hmm.” Adena took a few more big bites of her ice cream. “It really sounds like you're overthinking it. If everybody's happy, is there really a problem?”

“Well...”

She leaned forward a bit. “The kitsune philosophy, Kael, is that all's well that ends well. So even if your deception makes a few people upset along the way, if there's a happy ending you can still feel good about it. I mean, y'know, as long as nobody gets killed or whatever. I think you'd really be a lot less stressed if you adopted something similar.”

“That's, fine, I guess,” I said, “but the problem is I'm not sure if I've 'or whatevered' people at this point. Like, caused people to stop existing and get replaced by other people, which feels a little to me like killing.”

“Pfft. If being made different is the same thing as killing, then I died every time I learned something new in school this past week. Heck, I died when I figured out how to change into a guy, because before that I didn't know that thing, and afterward I did.”

“But those aren't, those are like normal, small differences,” I said.

“Well, how different is different enough to worry about? What if I learned seventeen things at once? Or two thousand? What if I suddenly forgot how to brush my teeth tomorrow morning? That process is complex enough to count as tons of different individual things, right?”

“I..guess so.” I didn't really agree with her point, but I couldn't think of any way to deny what she was saying, either.

The rest of our conversation wasn't about magic stuff, so I don't feel like repeating it here. I've realized it's still nice to hang out with her, the same way it was with Aden before. We wished each other luck on the coming dates (hers is on Tuesday) and she made me promise to tell her how mine went before we left.

Heya! I'm still around. I've been really busy lately so I sorta just caught up. But hey, it looks to me like you're doing just fine! It's May 3 where I am so I guess you're not reading right now, but I'm A-OK around here! I thought I'd just put this in at the end so you can see it easier. Good luck on your date Kael, Brie sounds like a real keeper ;)

The "Best" RPG Ever-20

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

Mika walked up to the two animal-girls, whose run had lasted very briefly before turning back into a walk. "Hey. Hello? You two need to stop a minute."
"No...we...need to keep going," said Zack.

"Really? What're you gonna do when you get there? I bet you can't even pick up your ridiculously huge sword right now. You just ran and fought that armor for like ten minutes straight! You too, Kath!"

"Well, I use my mind to fight...so, I'll be fine."

The witch glared up at her. "No you won't! You were barely holding onto your knives earlier. Stooop!"

The two finally stopped, both still panting from their recent efforts. Mika looked between the two of them. "Did we buy any, like, potions of stamina or something in town?"
"..No, we don't have any kind of potions," said the knight after a moment.

"Then you two need to sit down and chill for a minute. Unless I'm wrong and your legs don't feel like they're about to curl up and die."

Katherine and Zack looked at each other for a second, and then both of them carefully sat down on the ground. "Just so we catch our breath," said the Psion.

"That's good enough. Sheesh." Mika sat with them. "What were you two thinking?"

"I was thinking...we need to save Nora," said Zack. "I didn't just...get through protecting everyone just to lose someone."
"Yeah, we need to get to her before they do something."

"Well, she's still leaving us breadcrumbs and there's no blood, so they haven't hurt her yet, so they're not going to for a little longer. Riiight?" said Mika. "Besides, Nora's a big girl. I bet she gets away from them or even beats them all up before we even get there."

"I dunno, she just seems so quiet and submissive all the time," said Katherine.

Zack nodded. "I think both of us forgot the part where she can literally raise up walls of ground at will," he said. "I'm still worried, though."

"Well, do you want to make real bet of it?" said Mika.

"Oh yeah, and wager what?" asked Zack. "We basically share all the same money."
"Yeah, but best kind of bet is one where the loser has to do something."

"What do you have in mind?" asked the Psion, curious by this point.

---

There was something strange about the plants in this forest. Nora was having trouble pulling apart the dirt from between the roots in clumps big enough to make obvious holes, and after a short while gave up trying. It was as if the plants were much stronger than usual somehow. Oh well, the others would know she went into this forest and hopefully Zack's nose or something would carry them the rest of the way. Besides that, it was getting very dark, so her captors were likely about to make camp. That would be a good time to make her own move.

The weaver was seated with her back against a tree, toward the campsite the, well it turned out to be four, men were making. They were smart enough to tie her wrists and ankles with a rope, but since she'd stopped talking a while ago they didn't bother covering her mouth. That was good; she could still yell for help, or just plain yell at them, at some point if things got too dicey. She saw them placing several rocks on the ground in a circle, and soon recognized that they were making a fire. That meant she could burn off her restraints if she was careful enough about it.

Indeed, soon they had a little fire going. Nora gently pulled at some of it and got it to wave around this way and that...no good. She needed to pull a little piece of it out and over to herself, and her control over fire just wasn't that well-tuned. Fine, she had a few unused skill points. She closed her eyes and gave herself some more power over the fire element, but only a bit since Mika could use fire too. The rest went to other elements: earth, which had proven quite useful overall, and water, which seemed like a generally good idea.

She opened her eyes and tried again. The men were eating, except that one of them was just holding onto his weapon and watching her. They had tied her hands behind her, though, so he didn't see her making little motions with her fingers to pull the fire around. Even the rather small investment in fire-based skill seemed like a big help here, and she got a small bit of flame to float up off of the campfire. And then it went up, well above the guy that was watching her. He was looking down, after all; predators rarely look up at all. It flew carefully around to behind the tree she was behind, and finally around that to her back.

She held it up against the end of the rope, pushing hopefully just enough of the fire into it to break it without just setting her own hands on fire. Eventually it worked, and the ropes fell off. The harder part was going to be getting her legs free without doing anything too obvious. She tried compressing the fire into a spark: The same amount of the element but in a less-noticeable package. After trying that, crossing fingers on the hand she wasn't using to guide it, Nora moved the spark around to her side, low to the ground. She could see the tiny speck of light moving along the grass, but it looked like it could just be a lightning bug or something.

Taking inspiration from that impression, she made it wander and meander a bit so it wouldn't look too unnatural. It went around, beneath her knees and finally to the backs of her ankles. Before long the ropes on her ankles were broken too, but thankfully they didn't shift too much, so to the kidnapper on watch it didn't look like anything had changed. That done, Nora finally let the flame go, and it left the world.

She was breathing a bit more heavily. Fire was a volatile element, and it had actually taken a lot more effort than she'd realized to maintain a small piece of it without fuel for so long. She'd been so concentrated on what she needed it to do that she hadn't really noticed the work it took. That was fine, she could rest as long as she needed.

While taking the time to rest, Nora negotiated the best way to make either her escape or attack, whichever it turned out to be. Preferably both; the attack would be a great distraction. The earth around here was still difficult to shift; it felt like she could do it with some effort, but...why was it like that in the first place? Some kind magic was probably to blame, and that might mean they were actually nearby some sort of plant monster maybe, or that someone had enchanted the plants for a reason. Either way, tossing up a large section of earth felt riskier the longer she thought of it.

Well, the campfire was still going. It was much harder to control fire than to let it go. Nora got a small grin, but quickly shifted her expression to a neutral one to not tip off the guard. Not that it mattered; by his still-blank expression he hadn't noticed it.

---

Rose had reached the intruders a little too late. They had already started a fire. She glared at it from the top of a tree she had just casually used her new claws to climb for a good few minutes, trying to think of what to do about it. All of her powers were based on plants, which the fire could destroy. She could be burned very easily. These were things she was confident about despite having only really been a dragon-girl for a few minutes, tops. The idea of being burned gave her an apprehensive feeling, a deep-seated fear. It was hard to contemplate getting anywhere near that fire.

But they were kidnappers! Four guys had clearly kidnapped that elf girl and tied her up. As if she didn't already have enough reasons to attack these jerks what with their campfire and all, she might get to rescue a cute damsel in distress in the process! She had to do something about this. Didn't she have any way to deal with a fire like that?

She closed her eyes, thinking, and suddenly realized she was looking at a menu. She could see her name, Rose, her species, Draconian, a bunch of RPG stats, and a wide range of skills. Skills that would let her command plants to grow and move around at her will, skills that would give a plant further receptiveness to her own powers by enchanting its seed (which she had apparently been using on the plants in her forest for quite some time, giving her a true homefield advantage here), a bunch of other things...nothing to deal with fire.

Was there something in the forest that could deal with fire? She brought up a little mental map of the area in her head; this wasn't part of the menu, but something she just seemed to know. There were several groves, a lot of trees, some places specifically with fruit trees to find food, the big lake...Oh. Duh.

Rose skittered back down the tree trunk as silently as she had gone up and started quietly toward the lake, which was actually pretty close to here. Come to think of it, those guys had probably picked this campsite for its easy access to water. But little did they know that would be their downfall! Once she got there, it was a simple matter of fashioning some of the nearby plants into something to hold a bunch of water in...

BOOM

The dragon-girl leapt into the air at the sound of what seemed to be a bit of an explosion. She jumped her entire height up into the air and landed claws-first on the nearest tree, clinging into it for dear life for a second or two before regaining herself and climbing up and around the tree a bit to see what had happened.

Well, two things had happened: One, her damsel in distress was free; two, her intruders were largely on fire. Some of the plants nearby were also burning, but the campfire seemed to have gone out. What was going on? The elf girl, now standing up and looking rather angry, made a waving motion, and suddenly the fire came up off of the plants and toward her hands. She was..controlling the fire?

She was controlling the fire! That was great! Rose began moving before completing the chain of thoughts as to why that was great and why she was moving, hopping down off the tree into a spot to one side of the clearing. The men, now mostly not on fire, had readied their weapons and were beginning to negotiate how best to attack the girl holding a ball of fire in their general direction.

Well, they weren't about to get the opportunity. With some gentle waves of her own hands, Rose brought up some of the nearby grass into a collection of long, thick vines, some wrapping themselves around the men's legs so the couldn't escape, some grabbing their weapons and pulling them away while their grip was still loose with surprise, and then more wrapping around the rest of their bodies to really make them uncomfortable.

Nora stepped back nervously, still holding the fire between her hands, uncertain whether whatever had just attacked her former captors was about to come after her. "Excuse me~," said a voice from over to her right. She turned slowly that way to find...soem kind of woman with scales, wings, horns, and a tail. And clothing almost as horribly revealing as her own. The stranger smiled in a way that showed off some rather sharp teeth, but it seemed unintentional. "Would you mind, uh, putting out the fire?"

The weaver looked at the guys bound up in a bunch of vines and back at the other woman, who she realized was actually holding up her right hand in a very 'magically controlling something' sort of way, and then released the fire from her grip, allowing it to dissipate into the wind. She still felt a little wary of the stranger, though, for the amount of power she'd just displayed as well as actually a resemblance to a dragon. Dragons tended to attack towns and kidnap people in fantasy stories, right?

Rose gave her best winning smile, walking a little closer to the elf girl. "Oh, thank you so much! I hate it when meanies bring fire into my forest. Are you okay?"

"..Y-yes. I'm unharmed."

"I really love your outfit, how it leaves so little to the imagination..." she said dreamily.

"Err.." Nora tilted her head a bit to the left.

"Oh gosh, did I say that aloud?!" The dragon-girl stepped back again, her face shocked and a bit red. "Uh, sorry. I'm Rose. I'm not..used to people." Something about that felt...true. Even though Rob had been pretty used to people.

"Oh, uh, okay. M-my name's Nora." She looked back at the men, who had started struggling to get out of the vines. "Do you, mind i-if I borrow a rock? I, uh, m-might uproot some grass doing it."

"Aww, a few blades won't hurt," said Rose.

Nora pulled up a mid-sized rock, carefully moving it up and over through the air, and then semi-gently tapped the head of each man in turn, hopefully enough to knock them out without too much permanent injury. A little permanent injury would be okay, she thought.

"Ohh, that's smart! Now I don't have to keep holding onto them all the time." The Draconian grew the ends of the vines wrapped around the four men together so they'd stay shut, and then set the men down.

"D-did you, uh, enchant these plants somehow?" said Nora.

"Mmhm!" she nodded cheerfully. "This is my forest, I protect them and they protect me--" Rose cut herself off to suddenly turn to one side. "Oh..more visitors? This is the busiest night I've had in a long time." She started to move away.

"W-wait! Those might be, m-my friends," said the elf girl. "Th-they're probably looking for me."

"Well then, I'll take you to them," said Rose. "Follow me." She started her way into the thicker woods, slipping between the trees easily. After a short while she looked back and realized Nora wasn't there. But the plants told her she was close, so she just stopped a moment to let her catch up. "Um..sorry," she said when the elf girl reappeared.

"I-it's fine. I just don't kn-know my way around here as well as you do."

"Yes. Right. I'll go more slowly."

---

Lynn walked back into the inn, hungry for supper and curious what her best friend and their new party member had gotten up to while she was away. Once she'd entered the door, she found Rayna waving at her from a booth over near the stairwell, and walked over, taking a seat across the table.

"Hey, you look good as new," said the fox-girl. "You feel okay?"
Lynn nodded. "Magic healing is really something. Or, I guess if this is a video game I should've expected to get healed fast."

"Well, not all video games. But I getcha."
"So, I.." The human paused, noticing something. Rayna's hair seemed a little damp, as did her...well, fur. "..did it, rain while I was getting healed?"
"Hmm?" The illusionist took a moment to figure out what Lynn was referring to. "Oh! That. No, not that I know of. I was starting to feel kind of gross, so I, uh, took a bath."

"I guess you're really used to being in a woman's body now, huh?"

"W-well, I mean, not really any more than I was before," said Rayna. "I've felt exactly as comfortable about it ever since it happened as I do now. But, uh, I guess I did see my 'new' self naked for the first time, yes. What were you gonna say?" she asked, eager to push past this somewhat awkward topic.

"Oh. Well. Rast showed up to let the healer know the guard was gonna pay my bill. Which is good, I don't get the impression that healing some bruised ribs is all that cheap in any universe." Lynn could feel her cheeks heating up a bit, her pulse accelerating a bit from nerves. "But uh, I also kinda..chased him down, and, asked him out?"

"Oh, wow! Good for you!" said Rayna, leaning her chin into her hands and giving a bright grin. "When's the date?"
"Y-you didn't even ask if he said yes," said Lynn.

"Your heart wouldn't be racing if he didn't," said the fox-girl with a wink.

"Well, I said maybe for supper tomorrow night. Maybe we can pick a mission for tomorrow that won't take all day or get me seriously injured again."
"Yeah," Rayna nodded, "especially since you're still on the mend, right? You still have some kind of wounded status effect lowering a couple of your stats."

Lynn was confused for a moment, but finally got a look of recognition. "Right. I forgot you could see that stuff. Actually, I kinda forgot I had stats." She looked around. "Where'd Aria go, anyway?"

"Well, once I showed her the tavern and said this was where we've been staying she said something about finding out what she was capable of and wandered off. I guess if she goes out killing NPCs and gets herself killed it's not really our fault."

"It would be nice if that didn't happen, though," said Lynn. "Even with the whole 'psycho' thing going on I like the idea of having an actual melee fighter in our party."

"Oh, well, good news then!" Rayna waved at the door, and Lynn turned around to see Aria on her way inside. Aria attempted to wave back, and immediately tripped over seemingly nothing, stumbling five or six steps before steadying herself, brushing off her skirt, and walking the rest of the way to them.

"Hi again!" She stopped in front of the table, looking between the other two party members. Rayna patted the seat next to her, and Aria shrugged and took that one.

"So, what have you been up to?" said Lynn.

"Oh, I found another member of my race after like an hour of searching. He told me some stuff about how my shapeshifty powers work."

"Why didn't you just look up your race in the library?" said Lynn.

"Why didn't you just take me with you?" said Rayna, at the same time. They stared each other down for several seconds before bursting into laughter, Aria blinking at them in some confusion.

"Sorry, did you hear either of those?" said Rayna after they had calmed down.

"Ssssort of. I didn't know how my race's name is actually spelled, and I don't know where the library is, and, uh...I didn't think of doing that. Why would you be helpful?"
"I can see people's stats by looking at them, remember? Weird illusionist piercing-the-veil stuff?"

"..Oh. Dang it, I wasted the whole afternoon!"

"Well, you found out what you were looking for anyway, didn't you?" said Lynn.
Aria sighed. "Yeah, but I could've spent that extra time exercising or something to manually improve my sucky base stat pool."

"Can you even do that?" asked Rayna.
"I mean, of all the things I'd think are possible in a game you literally live inside of, that's one of them," said Aria. "It wouldn't make any sense if I lifted a bunch of weights or ran all day and didn't improve myself somehow, and this game uses stats as a way of measuring a person's actual abilities. Oh well, at least I did get a comprehensive look at my skill tree at one point. It basically splits into things that make me better at using the sword, things that make me better all the time, even when I'm not using the sword, and things that make using the sword around people I don't want to hurt less risky. Sometime I need to buy some paper and pens and plot out my build so I can start using the points I got from that ogre thing."

"Why don't you just buy whatever skills look good?" said Lynn, with a bit of a headtilt.

Aria raised an eyebrow, and stared for a few seconds. "Oh, wow, you're serious. Look, I need to min-max, just in general, I'm the kind of person who can't go on knowing there's a way I could've been more powerful or efficient or skilled at something. But that's especially true since here I might actually die and/or go insane because of bloodthirsty sword if I don't pick the right skills. Have I mentioned it's started getting louder again? Are we gonna kill something tomorrow?"

"I, uh, guess we'd better," said Rayna. "We were thinking of looking for an easier quest since Lynn's still a bit hurt, but I'm sure there are easy 'kill-something' quests around. Right?"

"Hm?" Lynn looked like she'd been thinking about something else. "Oh, right." She turned more toward the shapeshifter. "Also. Whenever you do get some paper together and start making plans, we should probably look at all our skills together instead of you just looking at your own."
"I thought you didn't care all that much," said Aria.

"Well, usually I don't, but you're right. Our survival kinda depends on how well we play here. Besides that, it sounded like you were gonna pick the skills best for you as an individual, which is bad if you're supposed to be working with the two of us in a party."
"Oh yeah...I hadn't thought of that. I guess you're right. Rrgh, now I have to go back and re-think the whole general direction I was thinking of going in!"

"Why, were you only gonna take the skills that made you stronger instead of ones that made you saner with the sword out?" said Rayna.

"Uh..no. Of course not."

---

Commentary:

I hit a minor writer's block on Rose meeting the rest of party 1 which will hopefully resolve soon. But I also felt like party 2 was being neglected, so putting in that scene seemed like a good fit.

Sunrise

A while back I said there were still more fox images with captions in the works for the. This was one of those.

I imagine a lot of interesting posts show up in this universe's popular social media sites. In this case:

-"Okay I don't care about the dumb curse anymore, I'm gonna go see the sunrise for myself!"
-"I'm gonna do it!"
(an hour later)
-"So apparently there was a 'curse', but it sure doesn't feel like one! BTW this is what I look like now." (and a picture of her grinning at the camera.)
-"Annnd nothing fits. I guess I'm going shopping now"

The "Best" RPG Ever-19

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

"Uh..I think, somewhere around here?" Mika pointed at a spot next to the castle's outer wall.
Thankful for at least this one feature of the body he was stuck in, Zack knelt over in that spot, closed his eyes, and sniffed a few times. He stood up, eyes still closed, and took a few steps, following Nora's scent, which it seemed he'd managed to learn at some point without specifically trying to.

"...Well, she didn't go back to the castle," he said, starting with the good news. "I don't think she left willingly. There's a bunch of other scents. A lot of beer, whiskey, other things on someone's breath."

"So she's been kidnapped," said Katherine.

"Likely."
"Why? She doesn't even look like a rich person or anything," said Mika.

Zack continued following the trail of scents, opening his eyes so he wouldn't trip over something like an idiot. "I did mention the alcohol, right?"

Before long, they came upon a bunch of small holes in the ground. It looked as if someone had taken a small shovel to each individual spot in a very clumsy effort to form a line. "What do you make of it?" said Zack.

"Nora's smart," said the Psion. "We can follow this a lot faster than her scent."

Mika tilted her head slightly, thinking about it for a good long moment. "...Oooh, you think she's picking up the dirt with—hey wait up!" She got on her broom and followed the two animal girls who had decided to start trying to run at breakneck speed again not five minutes after escaping a murderous suit of armor. It looked like it might be up to her to actually fight the...whoever, if they did catch up this way.

---

The sun was setting by the time Aria found her quarry. She spotted a man growing animal ears, and chased him down as quickly as she could without clumsily falling over, which seemed to be a general problem for her 'unenhanced' self. "Hey! Hey, uh guy!"

Thankfully, the correct person responded to her yelling and waving and stopped, turning to fully face her. "...What do you want."

"Uh, you're a uh, shapeshifty person right?"
He replied with an unamused face and started to turn around.

"Wait wait, I'm one too! Look." She gave herself cat ears again.

He turned back toward her, crossing his arms. "Well, what do you want?" His tone wasn't any more pleased than the first time.

"Um, due to some..magic stuff recently, I lost a lot of my memory! Like, I can remember how to talk and walk (mostly) and stuff but I forgot some kinda basic important stuff I probably knew about since birth. Could you, uh, I mean would you mind answering a few questions for me?"
"...Fine. Don't take too long, I got a roast waiting."

"Okay, I'll be quick I promise! Um, first of all, how do you pronounce, what we're actually called? Like, I saw it written down somewhere, but I'm not really sure how you say it..?"
He made a sound that was not entirely comprehensible.

"Er..come again?"

He repeated the same sound. "We're the only ones who can pronounce it. It involves changing your tongue mid-word. So everyone calls us shifters or whatever their favorite synonym is."

"Oh.

"Uhm..so after losing my memories I found out the clothes I'm wearing kinda change shape with me? Is that uh, a power, or just enchanted clothes?"
"It's an enchantment. Very standard, any place that sells clothes can do it if you ask. For a price. Armor's more expensive."

"Okay, cool! Just, one other question I think. Can we, like, do anything that makes us better at anything by shapeshifting?"

"Well, we can sense things better by changing noses or ears. Balance is better with a tail if you're used to it, I'm not so great at that. Not really anything else major. I guess you can reach a top shelf easier by making yourself taller. We can grow wings but we're too heavy to actually fly."

"All right. Thank you!" she said, giving her best winning smile.

The stranger shrugged. "No big deal."

Aria had to credit this game for doing something many a DM had attempted and tried: Made roleplaying feel a little bit worth it, and reward her for doing it. Well, now she needed to go back to the inn...or whatever it was. The others were probably starting to wonder where she'd gone, right?

---

"I r-really, get the impression you haven't thought this through." Nora was being pushed along by one guy's sword while three or four others surrounded her. It was a little hard to count people in the rush of having something sharp up against her neck briefly and now at her back. "I'm not exactly, w-worth anything to anyone rich."

"Nonsense," said one of them, "yer the spittin' image of that elf priestess what went missin' a few months back. Anyway, I can think o' a few other uses for ya if they ain't interested."
"Shut up, Newt," said another.

That didn't sound good. The Weaver thought about letting on the fact that she wasn't exactly helpless, but it might make it harder to leave breadcrumbs without their knowing. "Y-you should know. The people who, d-do care about me are a whole lot be-better at tracking down and killing than th-they are at making money." It would be nice if she could turn off her stutter every once in a while, she thought. It made it hard to say anything intimidating.

"Har!" said a third one, who hadn't spoken before. "I don't buy it." Apparently whoever told 'Newt' to shut up was enough in charge for him to stay shut up.

The sun was well on its way down, and it looked like they were about to enter a forest. Probably they aimed to camp inside for the night, which would be a good time to escape. Hopefully the others were following her by now, and hopefully they didn't get lost in the woods. She didn't have any doubt that Zack and Katherine had made it out of the castle.

---

Rob wasn't totally sure what to make of an annonymous disk promising to be a good RPG. He wasn't even sure what kind of RPG it was! Was it a western or an eastern one, for starters—because there was only one of those he tended to actually like. Well, it raised his hopes a little when the file on the disk was called "Begin.exe". No self-respecting western RPG would give itself a weird and/or generic-sounding title like "Begin", right? So he had done what any other JRPG fan would do in his situation, and started up that unknown game to see if it could be some kind of buried gem...

Of course, he was not so confident about his decision after doing so resulted in him actually standing in a white room and clearly not in his house anymore.

"Helloo? Anybody there? Is this, like, a VR thing or..? Can I quit or what?" He yelled things like that for a minute or so, with only a slight echo for a response, before looking at the message box.

It had a spiderweb of cracks near the middle at the bottom, which was a little odd. But otherwise it seemed perfectly informative, suggesting he pick a class.

"Aw man, this ain't, like, an MMO, is it?" No one herad him whining, of course. To be perfectly honest, Rob was thinking of it like a regular game, pretending he could quit at any time, to keep himself from freaking out. And in the interest of doing that, he started swiping around, looking for a class to pick.

"Man..why are all these cool classes taken? I mean, like, a knight could totally get all the chicks..or an illusionist could, I dunno, look buff as heck all the time? Hmm.."

He flipped through a few more classes, some taken and some not, before stopping at this one:

"Draconian: A rarely-seen, supposedly reclusive race known for their impressive strength and toughness. Said to be the descendants of dragons, each one has a strong affinity for a particular element. This is both a blessing and a curse, granting a breath power and strong magic in that element in exchange for a severe weakness to its opposite."

"Hmm..strength and magic, huh? I wonder why none of whatever other dorks are playing took this one." Draconian was represented by a big wheel with wedges sliced out that seemingly represented various elements, such as a flame for fire, a droplet for water, and a bunch of other things. The instructions were to either pick a wedge or spin the wheel to confirm his choice of class, as well as to select an element.

Rob didn't feel like carefully weighing the advantages and disadvantages of any particular element, so he spun the wheel. It whizzed around and eventually stopped with a green wedge showing a stylized picture of a leaf on it. The selected wedge glowed faintly, and a small, pink rose came out of it as if being gently fed through a door, floating in front of the wheel.

"Are you sure? Yes I'm sure, yeesh." Rob grabbed the flower by its stem and pulled it close for one final confirmation. "Ow!" Its thorns dug into his palm, and he carefully pulled it off with his other hand, examining the cut to see how deep it was. But there was no cut. In fact, the spots where the thorns had been didn't hurt anymore, and had some kind of yellow scales on them.

He watched, blinking a couple of times, as the scales spread along his skin, covering the rest of his palm. He turned around his hand, watching it spread along to the back, up his fingers and down toward the wrist. His fingernails grew into sharp little black claws as the scales closed around his fingertips, and the scales continued to make their way down his arm.

"W-well, I guess, bein' part dragon means having scales?" he said, looking at his other hand to find that it was undergoing the same change now. "Hopefully not on all of me..though..." It was getting harder to concentrate somehow. He was starting to feel a little...hazy. It was a pleasant, floaty feeling; Rob had never done any drugs but he wondered if this was a taste of what some of them felt like.

"Uh..." He had the sense that he was getting a little smaller somehow; what little there was in this room to guage his size by seemed to be moving upward slowly. His arms, now both scaly nearly to the elbows, started to get slimmer, his clawed hands smaller, and he looked around to see his shoulders narrowing, his frame visibly slimming. "Wh...whaat is..?"

Rob's pants felt rather loose, and his shirt was starting to seem a little overlong in addition to being baggy. The scales on each arm stopped right at the forearms, and then there was a tingling sensation starting there and passing up to his face, and around his chest and slowly downward. "Uhh..ahmm.." He shifted his arms up and down a bit uncomfortably. His voice didn't sound exactly right..it was a little on the high side. This felt..kinda good, though? Somewhere in the back of his mind, he had started to suspect what was happening, but the haze made it hard to concentrate or get upset about it.

There was a push from a point on each side of his lower back, and heard parts of his shirt tear as something pushed its way out from each point and stretched, spreading out for the first time. Somehow Rob knew what they were without looking: My wings. They felt distinctly his, as if he'd had them for a long time. And then, in similar fashion, a push from his lower back signaled the beginning of the growth of a tail. It was much slower than the wings, but Rob turned around to see its yellow-scaled tip poking out from under his shirt.

Rob's pants fell off, advertising just how much slimmer he'd become, but his underwear hung on. In fact, it seemed to be holding a little closer to his hips and legs than before. The tingling sensation moved down to his hips and legs, and grew very strong between his legs. "Hmm..nn.." Rob's voice sounded like a young boy trying unsuccessfully to imitate his previous self. He pulled his legs together, trying to make sense of what he was feeling through the haze.

His blonde hair slid down along his cheeks, his bangs growing down along his forehead, and he started to feel a slight push from the top corners of his head. "Mmh..?" He reached a hand up and felt the thing growing there, finding a sharp tip pushing its way upward. The feeling through the scales was a little different from normal; he was aware how sharp it was but the pain that would normally be there from something that sharp poking him was muted almost out of existence.

His underwear pulled uncomfortably close between his legs, highlighting the tingling down there again. "Nnhh..ah..!" Rob's voice was decidedly a girl's now, and he was having a harder time thinking of himself as male somehow. The tingling had stopped everywhere else, and more scales had formed at his thighs and were slowly spreading downward, already at his knees.

His shirt suddenly shrank now, losing its sleeves entirely, part of the collar dipping down the front of his chest while the rest pulled close around his much smaller neck. A bit farther down, it pulled close against a flat stomach with a gentle inward curve toward the middle.

Soon the tingling between his legs subsided, and the underwear, now devoid of leggings and little more than a string on the sides of his hips, pulled close between Rob's legs one last time. But this time it didn't feel uncomfortable at all. "...Mmnh?" Rob became aware of the new feeling between her legs. Her hips gently pushed outward, complimenting the inward curve to her stomach, and she ran a scaly hand down her new curves, finding them very...pleasant. Despite herself, she found herself hoping she'd end up with a nice big pair of breasts to complete this lovely figure.

She looked down, and found that at some point her pants, and her socks and shoes, had disappeared, and now the scales were wrapping their way around her feet. She warpped her tail around a leg to get a better look at it; it was now very long, and very thick toward its top, tapering to a little point at the end. Like the wings, it felt somehow very...natural to her. And then her chest finally started to grow.

"Aahh...." She sighed happily at the feeling of two little bumps forming, pushing the material of what was now a short white dress clinging to her body out with them. She was starting to come out of the haze, but the sense of pleasure that had come with it only seemed to sharpen. In fact, her new equipment downstairs was starting to feel rather nice as her body completed itself.

"Mh..Mnh..W-wow, I.." she muttered incoherently, unable to think straight as the feeling started to overwhelm her. "Oooh..." Rose slowly and carefully sank to her knees, afraid she wouldn't be able to keep herself standing much longer. Her breasts, however, finally finished growing, settling at a nice, big size.

She closed her eyes, taking a couple of deep breaths and trying to calm down. Her hands found the rose she'd pulled out earlier and gently pulled it upward, causing it to grow into a longer, vine-like form, and bloom with a few new flowers and buds. The motion lead her arms to gently press against the sides of her new breasts, which felt nice.

Rose opened her eyes again, giggling in some mixture of relief from and enjoyment of the recent rush of feelings, her mind still not entirely sorted out from them. The main thing she was aware of was how good she felt right now, how strong and powerful and...beautiful she was? Yes, definitely, maybe even especially that.

She looked around, finding herself in a grove full of flowers, surrounded by thick trees. It was night, but this felt and smelled a lot like home. The dragon-girl stood up, and gently cupped one of her hands around her chest, trying to get used to the feeling of having them. "Heehee, wow..and I thought just getting to be with pretty girls would be good...Hnm?"

She closed her eyes, having become aware of something in the forest...her forest? Sure. This place definitely felt like hers. And her powers gave her a sense of what was happening to every plant in a rather wide radius, but most of it felt like regular noise that she could easily tune out. But this thing was not regular noise, it was the distinct stepping-on-and-through things that only a group of people could be doing.

Rose paused. Did she...dislike people? Well, no, not in general. She did dislike it..when they messed up her forest. When they brought...fire, for example. It made her at least a bit suspicious of visitors unless she knew who they were and that they were coming beforehand.

She began to walk in the direction of the people. After all, it would be unreasonable to assume everyone knew at a glance that this was her forest, and downright impolite not to let them know.

---

Commentary:

There were going to be more actual events in this part, but this change came out to be one of the longest in this story and I'm pleased with the way it flows if I put the between-parts split here. I've been thinking about how exactly this one should go for a long while, almost since finding the picture for it. Rose isn't planned to be another regular party member like the first seven. I have to be careful to use the word "planned" because I never really know exactly how a part of any of my stories is going to go until I've finished writing it.

Speaking of commentary, I noticed some of my recent posts don't have many comments? You don't have to, but if you can think of something to say I do appreciate them. Having opinions and thoughts come in the form of comments feels to me like a more real measure of who's reading what I write than a bunch of statistics and numbers.

A Magic Cat

This one's a bit silly. I'm rather glad I can still do silly.