Carl felt himself changing further as the bookmark clung to the book despite his efforts to pull it free. A strand of red hair fell across his face as he realized he was changing into the red-headed heroine from the swords and sorcery novel, Mirale, in the scene described on the page where the bookmark was clinging. The scene in question had Mirale dressed for a formal dance in the King's court as opposed to her usual adventuring gear and clothing.
"Stop, stop!" he shouted at the bookmark, then winced as his voice went an octave higher in pitch as the change neared completion, leaving him with the redhead's very attractive body, as mandated by the genre, stuck in a dark green gown with an embroidered bodice over top. Between the bodice and the low-cut gown, Carl found himself blinking at the rather attractive view of... his own cleavage. "Damn it!" He shook himself out of the distraction and yanked at the bookmark again -- this time it came off!
Carl immediately noticed that both the book and the bookmark had changed -- there were missing sentences, paragraphs, and even entire blank pages. Carl quickly noticed that all the missing text appeared to have dealt with Mirale. On the back of the bookmark, on part of the blank surface, there was a blurry red-topped green-dress clad figure. "The bookmark absorbed her...?" Carl momentarily forgot his situation and even his changed voice as he tried to puzzle out what was going on. The bizarrely animated image of the sands in the hourglass snapped him out of his thinking. "Great... what does this mean? I'm stuck like this until the hourglass runs out, that I only have that much time to do... something?"
Biting his lip, Carl tried to put the bookmark back in the book, hoping it would put Mirale back. The bookmark just fell back out again, not doing anything special except for the sands still flowing. "Darn it," he swore. He winced at the almost musical sound of his voice. "Okay, okay," she muttered. "I'm stuck in Mirale's body, no going to the men's room." She frowned at the bookmark, then grabbed another book from her collection. This one was a fantasy novel with a brave, strong, and handsome hero, who fought demons and monsters and in this case, had to save the damsel in distress from the evil witch who kept her in her tower(or so the back cover read.) The bookmark fairly lept from her hand into the book and clung to it.
"Alright!" Carl cheered, and waited to at least become male again. Being the handsome hero from the novel would not be a bad thing. After a moment, he realized she wasn't changing... or rather, the room was. In moments the room disassembled around him until he as Mirale stood in a sunny field with a saddled horse beside him. In the distance was a single tower in which he knew the dame resided. Next to her stood the large bookshelf from earlier.
Now there was some tiny text on the bookmark, too, which read, "Mirale and the dame Maelysse Le Guevel".
Carl looked at the text, then at herself and the lone tower in the distance. "Mad libs... it's like a mad lib!" she shouted suddenly in a burst of inspiration. "It's putting together a story..." She looked at the still running hourglass then at the bookshelf her options were becoming limited. "I... I guess I'm the main character," Carl murmured, studying the layout of the rough image on the back of the bookmark. "Is the dame a secondary character, or the antagonist? She can't be the antagonist. Am I supposed to save her? How do I get out of this?" She bit her lip and studied the bookmark with the sands quickly running out. "Can I get out of this?"
Carl looked down at the handful of paperbacks in the corner with her. "If it really is a mad lib, what is it going to add next?" she muttered.
Looking at the diminishing sands, then the distant tower, Carl realized she had to do something. She didn't want to be trapped in the wilds, left to die. With some trepidation, she chose another book and felt the bookmark lean towards it eagerly.
