Jon felt the wind pick up as she sat in the grassy woods, her knees to her chest. A sharp breeze filtered through her wet feathers and hair. With the sun long set, the only source of light were those strange tall mushrooms. There was a feeling of warmth to them, as well as the welcoming light so she nestled her back close to the stalk, carefully bending her clawed talons on the soft earth. Her wings were instinctively made to rest by her side, helping her retain more of the heat and dried out. The rain eased within this shelter so she watched and heard the sound of the dripping water, taking in a sigh and moment of respite.
Thoughts of the last couple of days came and went in flashes with every crash of raindrop. Waking up in this body, flying, falling... and meeting centaurs. Her emotions numbed a little going somewhat defensive as she pursued what she was doing right now, maybe even slightly regretting leaving that nice farm. Were they thinking of her now? Did they see the storm? Would they try to come after her- no She had to focus on her plan. She could do this... but the doubtful thoughts refused to be dismissed so readily. There were things she had to confront. What if.. what if she was stuck like this? What if she had to live in this world forever... the people so far seemed nice enough even if some of them did walk on four legs.
She closed her eyes, basking in the scent of the mouldy woods and earthy rain. This gentle lights coalesced in the air, drifting into a strange misty hues that made her feel safe... welcome. This forest was safe. She was safe. She opened her eyes once more at that instinct. Jon's eyes were certainly a lot better in the dark now then they had ever been before. Perhaps she had gained a little bit of avian vision as well as their feathers? She wondered what else she had gained... she knew what had had lost. "Don't think about that right now," she reminded herself. She had to deal with her current situation. She was alone in the woods, but not lost.. she knew where she was going. This was just a temporary stop until the weather improved.
Those strange chimes... they seemed to be getting louder. She glanced around trying to hear for any potential footsteps. Still the chimes got louder and yet... not a crunch on the leaf, or even the sound of a hoof. She was starting to wonder what those odd bell sounds were. Maybe it was just her imagination..
"Hello there dear," spoke a voice.
Jon turned alarmed at the presence. She didn't expect -anyone- to be here. She stared, she couldn't help but stare at her. The person appeared to be a rather old woman, were it not for the strange stalks on her head that looked like thick antenna, starting on her forehead above her eyebrows. She had white shoulder length hair, giving her a fairly elderly appearance with some wrinkles on her skin. She wore a relatively simple black dress and had human hands... but below her waist appeared to be the body of a slug, oozing a mucus of some sort. A trail of it was left behind her on the grass. It was no wonder she didn't hear her steps. That wasn't the only strange thing; behind her back was a giant white shell, somehow attached to her slug body as it trailed under her. It had a swirl pattern on it, and a painted star on the center. There appeared to be a few bells on the top of an artificial structure at the top of her shell too that reminded Jon of the Eiffel Tower. The structure made her look larger then she was.
"... you're a.. a.. snail?" Jon asked whispering.
"Is that so strange child? I would prefer the term 'Mollusc' though." she smiled with some amusement and mirth in her voice. "Do you mind? I'm here to collect dawnshrooms if you could just hop aside," she said gesturing to the giant mushrooms. She placed a canteen of some kind down on the earth. It looked to be made of metal.
Jon shuffled away quickly and observed as the giant snail woman started to crawl... up the stalk. She was a little slow but soon she was climbing with quite a bit of speed, until she was upside down on the under-part of the fungus. That strange object she had on the top of her shell was now upside down affixed to her shell. Jon was taken aback as the sounds of those chimes continued, ringing lightly into the night. The light started to dwindle a little, as if the snail was siphoning away some of that light from the fungus, but only temporarily as the light started to concentrate into the canteen moving as drops. Each drop ran down her shell, collecting to that structure.
Jon got anxious as the light started to flicker. "Could- Could you not take all of the light away please?" Jon asked hopefully.
"Afraid of the dark dear?" asked the snail woman with another giggle. She continued to crawl along the giant mushroom. Again Jon felt that strange feeling as if she had actually shrunk. A giant snail was not helping her sense of perspective. "So, what brings a winged one in this neck of the woods?" she asked.
Jon wasn't sure how much to reveal. "I'm... going to see some friends."
"Oh? Sounds good," nodded the snail. "My name is Sylvia by the way. It's been.. quite some time since I have seen anyone like you... but then I suppose that's fate for you," she said with shining eyes, and yet still upside down. "What's your name?"
The harpy-girl looked a little startled. "Its Jon." She quickly spoke. She wondered... was this somehow a 'magic' snail? If so, she might have a clue to offer her.
"Jon... Jon... I'll remember that" she nodded. "It's a pleasure to meet you..."
"Um- are you... magic?" She asked hesitantly.
Sylvia glanced around a bit. "So, you meet a 'snail' and think she could be magic," she said chuckling. "I.. dabble in the arts. I can read your fortune... but there is always a price when I do... depending on the soul asking of course."
Jon grimaced. Her feathers were almost standing on edge. "What... kind of price?" Was this part of the game code? She wasn't sure.
Sylvia's antennas swivelled in a little dance. "... no matter how much you might want it, what ever I tell will be... in some form or another. Perhaps not in the way you might expect... but it will all come to pass. There are no... 'resets'.. and it is up to you to take the first step." Slowly she crawled back down the mushroom stalk. "Oh my, I am getting rather old for this. Just a moment I need to put this away." She picked up the canteen and carefully closed the lid. Jon looked in some amazement as the woman started to... retreat into her shell. The harpy-girl approached carefully wondering just how much space she had in there. There was just a void black hole where her body had once been. It was like she had disappeared completely.
"Uh.. hello are you still there?" she asked.
Darrin wasn't sure quite what had happened. He must have tripped a switch or blown one of the fuses. He was completely disorientated, lying flat on his front and hunched up. How did he even get in this situation?
He was also... outside? How did he get outside? It was so confusing! But yes there were sounds of people in conversation. He was inside some kind of circular tent with a white cloth but made of a much lighter material. He couldn't see anything beyond it yet, but he could hear what sounded like talking and the smell of food wafted around. There was also a weird feeling, as if he was wearing... different clothes? Something was covering his head, some kind of hood. What the heck was going on?
A scraping sound was heard then the curtain opened up slightly, as a pair of leg pressed itself inside and upon his field of vision. It must have been quite a tall person.. in fact this whole table was a bit larger then he would have expected.
"I'm told they have Excellent noodles here darling," said a man's voice from outside.
Soon Darrin saw another leg on the opposite side of this 'tent' .. a female wearing a red dress perhaps? This 'tent' as she was slowly realizing was actually a table. he was under a table of some kind of restaurant?!
"Hm, they have Ramen, soup noodles, fried rice.. but maybe just a coffee for me to start with." said the woman sounding quite happy.
Darrin's heart was racing. This did not look good! Had someone played a prank on him? How in the world did he end up under a table in a restaurant? He looked about in confusion again, but that confusion was gone as... something caught his eye. Some kind of cooked fish was beside him. He couldn't help it... as he just.. sniffed it then found himself biting into it, picking it up without using his hands at all. For a moment he forgot about anything else, he just had to nibble on that fish... but the spell was broken by the shrilling shout of someone.
"Where is that thief!" shouted a voice. "My fish was stolen again!"
Darrin felt something in his hood itch at the sound of that voice. He bolted out of the table. The two tall occupants jumped from their chairs themselves and screamed at the sudden intrusion.
Darrin stared up... he wanted to talk to them and apologise but- the fish was still in his mouth!
"There! Go! Shoo! If I ever catch you again I'll call the watch on you!" shouted the waiter waving his hands.
Darrin stared in shock. The man had to be Eight feet tall! In fact everyone was quite a bit taller here. Darting his eyes wildly he started to run away. Someone must have played a weird prank on him! He could explain it later but he had to go before they called the police on him or something. He dropped the fish quickly and ran onto the street leaving the outside seated cafe.
Once he was a few yards away he started to walk again... lost and dazed. He was wearing strange clothes that he had never seen before with soft leather-bound boots. This was certainly an elaborate prank... again that itching under his hood and even his pants now. What the heck was he wearing? There was a clasp under his neck, for the hood, which he now realised was also a cloak running behind his back. He ran his hands across his face, thinking this had to be some weird surreal dream. Rain started to fall from the night-sky and he wanted to get out of it.
The streets here were like nothing he had ever seen before, outside an old film or.. video game. There were candles lighting the way atop of lamp posts like what might have been in the 19th century. There was the occasional hiss of some kind of steam based contraption. The roads were not modern looking but made of cobblestones. The occasional person he saw was also notably bigger. They looked at him oddly... and instinctively Darrin pulled up his cloak over his face shying away from any strangers. "Why is everything so big-" he coughed startled. His voice! It sounded so.. high pitched. "Ah? Ahhh .. aaaaa?"
Darrin was slowly taking to realise that his body was somehow different. He.. he needed somewhere to go and look. These clothes were getting in the way of a good inspection. Why was he wearing stuff like this? He saw a small alleyway, with what looked like abandoned shop stuff. There were broken clocks and.. a broken mirror, though it was grimy and a bit dirty. He stepped into there carefully, hoping nobody unsavoury would be taking advantage of this out of place area. With some privacy obtained he started to take stock of his body, wrapped in clothes clearly designed to disguise himself. Again his head started to itch. It was an increasing irritation that he had to scratch. What was under there? He ran a hand underneath the hood and- oh the feeling of it! He wasn't sure why but it felt so good to touch. The whole sensation was so foreign and he didn't understand why it would feel so good. He rubbed at it some more, feeling some kind of bliss that made him run his body over the mirror. The act made his clothes take more of the dirt but showed more of the mirror and... his face.
He stopped and stared as he pulled back the hood, finding two black furred cat-ears reflected, atop black hair making his eyes widen into saucers. The hair seemed a bit long and rather soft. "What.. the... What! WHAT!" again that voice was very high pitch... like he had just breathed in helium. The mirror was still quite grimy so it was hard to take in a lot from it but.. he was also quite young, he couldn't have been more then ten or so. The face was very immature looking, and didn't look at all like what he used to be. "Ow ah-" again something itched under his cloak on his lower back. He had to take this off! He undid the clasp, the cloak fell off easily. This released a black furred tail, hidden under the loose pants, the feeling of it making him jump. Darrin was slowly getting worried at a peculiar.. absent feeling. As he placed a hand to his groin-
.. and found nothing there. "Son of a- what!" Well.. yes something but not what he was expecting. "Where- where is my- Oh crap! I'm a girl?!" He couldn't though! He poked and probed as much as he dared but he couldn't find any evidence he had been anything else to the contrary. She was almost afraid to peel any more layers of these clothes but she knew she had to. Something very strange had just happened to her and she needed to know what. Fortunately she looked very human everywhere else despite the weird ears and tail... and being young. There were a few other things in her pockets.. some kind of ring of a bunch of keys and some shiny stones. No mobile phone though which annoyed her.
Darrin felt an overwhelming feeling of fear... she... she started crying. She couldn't help it. She was scared, lost and alone. Her tail hanged limply down on the ground as she wailed. She didn't want to cry for too long though. She had to find some way to fix this! She had to get home first... but this place looked like a foreign country to her.
"Maybe I can ask for a phone from someone..." She had to first find out just where she was.
Fletcher had returned to inspect the transfer of wealth. "The insurers are willing to meet me at 60%... is there no sign of the gem?"
The young man nodded, sparing a side glance. With Sarah hidden away things should proceed quite well. "We're going to be a little short I suppose..."
"Hm, were there not some papers here?" Fletcher suddenly asked. "I did find a keen researcher willing to pay substantial for any of his notes..."
The young man gulped. "... I didn't see any papers here," he said.
Fletcher arched a slight eyebrow. "... and if I said I thought I had seen some here... what would your response be, Tom?"
Tom gave a cautious look. "... oh do you mean these papers?" The young boy said quickly. He showed a bunch of drawings that looked to be the work of utter madness. Perhaps quite apt as it was done in only an hour, with vague scrawls most of the time.
"Hm... I thought the notes looked better then this... but I suppose I will take them and see if they are worth anything..."
"Right you are sir," said the young man. "I'll take my leave now..."
Sarah looked aghast. "You can't expect to put me in that!"
Tom nodded. "Its the best way I can arrange to get you to safety."
"It's a coffin!"
Tom carefully pried open the lid. "You don't need to breathe so this will be quite easy. I'm expected to take these boxes now and then to where I go.. all part of the job. If you hide inside here, I can get you sent out of town quickly. Please hurry though, I think Fletcher is onto me."
Sarah reluctantly placed herself inside the coffin as Tom put the lid on her. She had to go in on her front due to the winding key. The ticking sound died away and for a moment Tom tapped onto the side of the coffin. "Okay, if I tap the box three times, its me... and it will be safe to come out. You understand? Tap three times back..."
Sarah tapped three times.
