Of course the statue is too heavy and the light faded even for their feline eyes, they turned and headed home.
Unnoticed by either of them was the shadow that followed them. It heard them telling Agatha about the statue before following Jon home. Waiting for her to sleep before entering her dreams.
Inside the shadow gains shape looking much like the sphinx it came from.
In the dream landscape it spotted Jon, as his old male self. Walking over it bowed to him "Hello Jon"
He turned around "Who are you and where am I, and more importantly why I am I my old self?"
The sphinx smiles "Dreaming. The reason you see yourself like that is that is how you think of yourself. I am a shadow of the sphinx statue you visited today, most of her knowledge and not a lot of her personality. It is the only way she can contact you and even then only once a month, it takes a lot out of her "
"A shadow?" he asked.
"A projection, it takes a lot of her magic and she will needs to sleep afterwards. She thanks the two of you for not damaging her to get the stone and asks for your protection as well"
He nods "I will try, what happened to her anyway"
"She tried to get your stone back to you despite knowing the curse would get her too. She almost got the stone back too you as well." the shadow says sighing.
"Curse?" he says gulping
"Well not really a curse. Just a wish made on the stone to keep you as a sphinx." she says " she also says that she is sorry that you are stuck like this."
He sighed "Yeah tell her thanks, not much good for me though. And do you know what the wish that was made was?"
The shadow closed her eyes thinking "I don't know the exact details, I do know she will be a statue until the wish is broken much like you are stuck as a sphinx."
"She is stuck like me? Does she know how to break wishes made on the stone?" he asks eyes lighting up at the prospect of reversing wishes "They can't be un-wished as far as I am aware. "
The shadow nods "They can't be un-wished. Some wishes though were made with an escape clause. You are not going to like this escape clause though."
"I am stuck as a sphinx. I can't hold things in my hands, my face is at everyone else's ass level. It can't get much worse can it?" he says sighing
"It can. You need to have a great grandchild who is a sphinx."
"What? I am... was male. I can't go though with that. Besides I am the only sphinx in the world, well unless their is another sphinx like you out their."
The shadow sighs "She thought you might be like that and she does not want to force you. In time you may change your mind. we do have plenty of time to work with. She was the last of the sphinxes, Alone for at least a millennium. The good news is we don't need a sphinx if and when you decide too. A lion or possibly a human would work, the children may turn out human or lion but at least some would be sphinxes. Anyway you won't have to worry about the other things once you have learnt how to be a sphinx. We sphinxes have magic of our own. We can change our forms at the very least. Human, bipedal winged lioness are the most common forms although their are other less common forms. "
He smiles before sighing remembering the wish "That wish would stop me though wouldn't it."
The shadow thinks before continuing "Possibly not, it would depend on the wording of the wish, if it was to keep you in this form yes, if it was to stop you not being a sphinx no. You would still be a sphinx, just in a different shape. And even then you may be a giant sphinx who has not yet fully grown, in which case you wouldn't need to change to look people in the eye. Judging from your chest you are not fully grown anyway."
"You can tell that from my chest?" he asks.
The shadow nods "Yes, most fully grown female sphinxes are at the very least bigger their then you are."
"Great more changes to get used too."
"Cheer up, The sphinx will be able to create more shadows like me to help you. So lesson one in being a sphinx. Your wings, have you flown with them yet?"
Jon shakes his head.
"Right that is where we will begin, Luckily we are dreaming so you won't get hurt. Of course though your human here and have no wings, can you imagine them appearing on yourself. We do not need anything more then that tonight."
