Eva Garner looked around her room.
It was… a mess. It reflected her own life in many ways, given she had no paperwork or identity, just ‘barely living’ with whatever she could manage on the side. Living with the magical girl might… change things for the better.
What started as simply ‘collecting’ magical wares for her own use, became a need to ‘sell’ them on the side just to maintain a roof over her head. Her landlords didn’t know how she got the money and were not the kind to ask questions, if she paid up.
The short, barely three-feet-tall woman looked at the various broken relics of her house with a sombre, sad expression. No pictures of family… friends… anything. Just, pieces of magical items that might occasionally yield a useful effect… but most of the time were just cursed or abandoned for one reason or another She was little more than the equivalent of a magical scrapyard seller.
However, with enough items she could maybe cobble together some method... To remove… the curse.
Eva stared down at her small, tiny body clenching her fists as she found various ‘child style’ clothing in her wardrobe. She didn’t want to wear them, but it wasn’t as if she had much of a choice.
“How long… how long had it been?” she asked herself… since… that day.
Magic defied all that was natural in some ways despite her deeper understanding of its power. Given the nature of the curse Eva doubted she was immortal, but she expected to live for… a very long time- at least until ‘they’ decided she had been punished enough. An unlikely prospect as much as she might hope for it to end someday.
The magical tape was actually the ‘first’ item she had… though that was… a gift. A gift, from the only friend she ever had, who gave her the worst possible emotion for a cursed individual.
Hope.
Hope given to Eva in the moment of her greatest despair, at her darkest moment… that one flicker of light in the crippling sadness of her existence. Eva somehow managed to pull herself together and begin her search, to find a way to return… to be ‘normal’ again. Her life had not been easy. She was reduced to being just a puppet of those supernatural forces, and she had to give that tape to ‘someone’ in the end.
The new magical girl could… “No- I can’t…ask.”
She was too inexperienced anyway to undo the curse. It would end in tears. “Well, let’s see the new magical girl…” Eva stumbled to her closet pulling out various burnt magical books, broken wands, or other strange exotic magical implements eventually finding a cracked crystal ball. The small woman tapped it a few times as it started to spark into existence.
“Ahem… show me the magical girl.”
“Pfizzz.” The orb blew off a little smoke.
“Magical girls are protected from direct scrying… fine but I know her secret. Show me the guy turned into a girl.”
The image flickered briefly as she saw a rather cute dark haired girl with pigtails on each end. A pretty girl, barely a teenager. She pursed her lips a bit feeling rather sorry that she ended up in this state. She gave a faint smile seeing her trying to work and do her job as normal.
“Huh… she works at the post office eh?” She laughed a bit. “Well, I suppose I could post a letter.”
Yes, she would go see her at work. Eva wanted to know who the they picked for the next magical girl. “Magical girl of the stars eh… very cute.”
Terry worked at the counter of the post office, idly wondering who that weird girl in the camera feed was. He didn’t give it too much thought as work continued. He had put the weird writing in his pocket, hoping to ask around what it meant though he forgot about it.
Unfortunately, while he held it… the magic was working to provide a very ‘unusual’ aura.
There was an old lady at the other end so he followed the usual routine. “I just need your ID miss,” he said.
“Oh of course dear. Such an adorable young girl,” she smiled to him.
Terry gave an odd look to her. “Uh… what?”
“Are you here with your daddy or mommy? Getting some work experience?”
Terry gave a somewhat odd look to her. He was used to dealing with rather… eccentric types. He guessed the old lady was clearly crazy so didn’t make too much of it. He carried on to get her parcel, and handed it to her. “Uh.. here you go.”
“Aw so cute! Thanks.”
That was just the ‘start’ of Terry’s very strange day. What was going on? Everyone was acting so weird!
Eventually he caught his reflection in the Perspex glass. It wasn’t him! “What the-” He quickly ran to the bathroom to have a look in the mirror but… didn’t see his reflection. Not ‘him’ at all… “It’s… it’s that girl!”
That weird girl he had seen in the security camera! He moved his hand… and she did the same. The girl appeared to mimic everything she was doing… “This is… weird!” How was this even happening? For some reason everyone was now seeing him as this girl. Was she a ghost? Had she somehow possessed him? Examining down he was still the same, and was still wearing his normal clothes, fortunately the girl in the mirror wasn’t wearing a dress but some jeans and a blouse.
Nothing he did made the girl in the mirror go away. He panicked. What could he do? Where could he go to fix this issue? He rubbed his hands watching the girl give that same confused nervous look back. “Okay… this has to be a weird dream.”
Returning back to the office, Terry decided to close as quickly as possible. Fortunately, it was almost closing time but then one more customer appeared through the door. “Uh- sorry we’re closed-“ He tried to say knowing the woman was going to just see a young girl in his place.
It was a very small woman. Terry looked at her with surprise never seeing anyone quite like her.
Eva approached Terry… looking at ‘her’ expectantly. “Hm…” So… this was the girl… no doubt about it. She could sense the magic around her. “Actually I’m… here to talk to you. You know… for… uh… doing this to you.” She looked her up and down quietly if perhaps for the first time in a long time… excited.
Terry’s eyes widened. “Y-You?! You did this to me?!”
“Well, I thought it was obvious,” Eva said with confusion. “Anyway… there are certain rules about this but…”
“Are you some kind of Witch?!” He wasn’t sure of the threat she posed… but anything small and unassuming had to be dangerous right?
“… I take great offense to being called a ‘witch’…” Eva responded coldly. “Can we talk?”
Terry decided he had no choice. He closed the office door and locked it, so it was just the two of them. “Fine… just tell me what it is you want.” He said exasperated.
Eva waited patiently watching the girl lock the door. “I want a… lot of things I must admit It’s been such a long time since I have been able to talk freely. Magical girl training might be a little rough but I’m told its very rewarding in the end.”
There was a sudden, distant sound of thunder…
Terry tilted his head. “Magical… girl? What the heck is that?”
“What? You don’t even know what that is?! Did that transformation mess up your head?” Eva blinked. “Well, the magic must be desperate. Okay look, there’s a lot going on… but I guess you should know the whole story first... starting with my story. My name is Eva Garner... well not always but…” she took a deep breath.
…a soft burst of lightning flashed outside despite the lack of rain.
Terry stared down at the small woman wondering just… how this even happened. How did he end up cursed? Why was everyone looking at her as if she was a girl?
“…In a way it’s a relief I ‘finally’ get to tell someone about… what happened.” Eva bit her lip, almost tearful as she looked at Terry with a sad smile. She didn’t realise how long it had been to see her again. “You being a magical girl is my fault… because you see… your last incarnation tried to-“
The lightning struck close to the power cables, as all the machines and equipment in the post office suddenly shut down. Emergency lights though came on.
Terry glanced up. “Weird... the weather report never said anything about a storm.”
Eva looked confused. It was almost as if… “What… oh no… no!” The windows burst open. Strange electrical energy seemed to flow around the walls of the office, until they worked their way towards Eva and Terry. Eva started screaming. “I didn’t break the rules! I didn’t! You can’t take more from me! Please!”
Terry screamed as he found himself levitating. “What’s happening!”
Eva was so confused. Why was this happening! “I don’t understand! Are you not the magical girl! You were the guy at the Anime-con weren’t you?!”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t go to any convention!” Terry screamed back.
…and at that point, Eva knew she had just made a horrible… horrible mistake. She had just defied her curse in the worst way possible. She had just broken every single rule. She had revealed that magic was real, tried to talk about her old life… and the secrets of the magical girl from her previous life. Her curse… “I’m sorry!” She cried out suddenly. “It was an accident! Please- leave her alone! Just take me!” If nothing else could she beg for this girl to be left alone?
Eva glanced at Terry as a paper fell out from her pocket… sparks of magic flying out of it. Her form shimmered as the young man appeared in the girl’s stead. So… that was it. That was how… she got them mixed up.
A ball of light appeared that seemed to go around the two. Eva quickly tried to look away. “Don’t look at it! Don’t- Please! You need to forget you ever heard me say anything!” Would that even work? She screamed as the ball of energy rippled through her body, burning sensations running against her very soul. “What more can you take from me! You took my body, my life, my identity! My …. Friends… there’s nothing more for you to take! Please…. Please don’t-“ she begged.. she pleaded knowing it was futile It was always futile.
“What the hell is happening!” Terry demanded to know as he was also pulled into the vortex of energy.
Boom.
A burst of air… energy… magic… and it was as if reality went ‘pop’. Subtle changes across time and space that for most would be completely unnoticeable…
Eva’s curse reached its final stage.
Eva Garner looked perplexed. The small woman gently rose, having clearly tripped- or so she imagined. She wasn’t sure quite what was going on. She tried to remember… she had a … letter to send? Is that why she was here? Maybe…
Across her was a harpy girl.
Yes. A harpy.
Bird features mixed with human features. Nothing abnormal to see, of course.
The harpy had curious red and orange feathers that looked a bit like a robin pressed around her torso and in particular her legs as well as arms which were large wings. Pretty orange hair framed her face, with flecks of feathers on her head and slightly pointed ears. She seemed to be in her early twenties, with rather slim B-cup sized breasts, and stood about 5 feet tall. She didn’t wear any shoes, with her large talons scaly red lined talons that were quite large.
She seemed to be in a state of acute confusion, terror and distress, “Poor thing,” Eva thought.
Terry was trying to use her new wings to get up but failed as the delicate limbs didn’t quite work the way she expected with unexpected pain on her ‘arms’. Eventually she managed to roll on the side using her ‘elbow’ to rise on her talons, claws clicking against the floor. “Wha- what just happened!” She looked confused at her wings… she tried to stretch out her fingers, only managing to make her feathers radiate outward more. The harpy girl also had a feathery tail behind her that were quite long. She could feel the feathers slightly fan out at a thought similar to her wings. There were also feathers around her chest and body, almost looking like a bikini-styled clothing. Thankfully the girl had a loincloth granting some level of modesty on top of the feathers, no doubt because tighter clothes would be difficult with how fluffy she was.
Finally, it all hit the new harpy girl... she was no longer human, no longer a man… “What did you do!” She said- or at least ‘tried’ to say. For some reason she found she couldn’t quite say a single thing about it.
‘You will not speak of your previous life again…’ she heard a voice say. A stern cold voice…
“Who- what?” The harpy girl couldn’t see anyone say that. It seemed to echo around her, vibrating in the new hollowed out bones she was made of. She directed her attention to the small woman, the ‘witch’. “Eva?” The woman seemed to be just staring out into space. The way she stared was freaking her out more than the transformation. She was angry at her but… the girl was a complete blank expression. Whatever happened must have hit her much harder. “….are you… okay?” she eventually asked.
Eva stared up at the harpy. “Hello… Who… are you …are we friends?” She asked. “I don’t… remember… anything.”
