Chapter 32: Fleeing for Freedom

Hannah)

I can't remember the car ride back. After the strange near weddings and the cavern of massive headaches, my body was exhausted beyond belief. Rex drove, I remember that much. We sped through the forest and I found myself nodding off on Arisa's shoulder. I could remember Arisa and Rex's low voices murmuring as sleep claimed me but I couldn't for the life of me piece together their conversation.

It might've been hours by the time they woke me up. I looked up blearily, trying to focus on the vague shape waving a hand in front of my face.

"Hey sleepyhead, you still alive?" Rex's voice chirped.

"Unfortunately, it seems I am." I mumbled closing my eyes for a moment before opening my eyes and forcing myself to focus on our surroundings. We were pulled in a gas station? I didn't recognize the logo of the station but recognized words like Petrol and some of the ads for snack food.

Rex took my irritation in stride and a faint chiming made me realize the passenger side door was open. I sat up faster glancing around.

"'Risa-? "

"She went in to get some snacks. I think she was worried you were dehydrated… We've been driving for a few hours trying to get some distance between well...the kings."

I rubbed my eyes looking to my scratched up hands in confusion before remembering the mirror, "Tch... I must look like hell…"

"Nah," Rex humored me, "you're nowhere near that level of hotness… and I'm not just saying that for the family connection."

I winced looking to him. I wasn't sure what was more painful, the slight headache that was pushing on the back of my head or the tasteless joke he just tried to make. I blew out some air and licked my dried lips. Water sounded good right around now, my mouth had a weird ashy taste in it.

Rex turned his attention to the station and seemed to wrap up the transaction. He collected a receipt and stuck it absently into his left jean pocket. Arisa's familiar frame came into view as she circled around the station's pump, her arms were filled with a few water bottles and some snack bags I didn't recognize. She looked tired, the beginnings of more lines appearing under her eyes. She perked up her shoulders, formerly slumped, squaring up.

"Ah! Good you're awake." She came over to the open door and hovering in the doorway showed me her collection of goods. "I got some water for us. I wasn't sure if you were hungry or not so I grabbed some snacks too. They have something called monster munches here…"

She chattered on for a few more moments and it didn't take a high level of intelligence to realize that she was awkwardly trying to avoid talking about what had happened. She thrust one of the bottles into my hands, dumping the rest of an empty seat.

She tore open one of the snack bags that reminded me of Cheez Its. She threw a few of the crackers into her mouth before uncapping a bottle of water herself. She drained half of it in one gulp.

Her hair was frazzled, and it took me a moment to realize she was still in the robe we had exited in. The robe had seen better days but I suppose whoever owned this petrol station didn't question any oddities. Rex ducked past her swiping up a bag of Monster Munch and popped a few into his mouth.

There was a tense silence between them and I slowly took a sip of water trying to guess who would crack first. For a moment our little trio dwelt in silence with the exception of the sound of munching and sipping. The silence drove me up the wall as I tried to appraise our situation.

I had passed out and Rex had obviously decided we needed to get as far out of dodge as possible. He didn't know England any better than I did so I wondered if he had just picked a highway and stayed on it. Exactly where in the country were we now?

"So-" I began getting no further than a single word before Arisa broke.

"How much further are we going to go? What if they're still following us? If we run into them again-"

"Arisa, relax! Sweetie, I don't think either of those two are going to brave the public to try anything." Rex soothed although his eyes seemed to acknowledge the futility of his statement.

Arisa looked at me in desperation and I capped my bottle close taking a deep breath, "How far away have we driven from the Hollow Lake Area?"

Rex scratched the back of his head, "I don't have the kilometers if that's what you're asking… I haven't paid attention. I just sort of drove the rental till it ran out of gas."

Arisa pinched the bridge of her nose, pausing momentarily before going to resume snacking and finishing off the bag of cheese snacks. I shouldn't have been surprised at Rex's thoughtlessness but all I could think about was the last thing I remembered in that strange cave setting. That elf, the full one, he looked vaguely familiar. Where had I seen him before?

I took a sip of water annoyed at my own preoccupation with him, "Well that's instinct for you. Thanks for getting us out there but what is our next move?"

Rex's brow furrowed and he leaned against the car frame, "Our next move? I still plan on getting as far away as possible probably a few more gas stations away-"

"And go where exactly? You can't just stay on the road Rex…" I shook my head lightly trying to string a plan on my own.

Rex's voice pitched angrily, "Well we certainly can't just stay put around here. WE have no idea what those… men are capable of."

Arisa remained quiet watching both of us argue without giving any input. She was taking this whole situation remarkably well, it bothered me. I thought once more to how I was used to her stages of bottling things up and then blowing up again, ugh I didn't want to be around when that volcano erupted.

"True," I conceded, "but we can't run around the country like this. I don't know about you but I don't have an infinite source of money. The family agreed to pay me a monthly stipend for the summer of house watching so I have the rest of the month's payment but that can only stretch so far taking care of three people."

Rex let my jibe go without comment, "I guess you're right about that. What do you want to do?"

Arisa's voice was so soft for a moment I had to strain to hear it, "I want to go home."

Rex looked to Arisa and reached out smoothing her hair before stroking her cheek lovingly, "I know, sweetheart... but that's not exactly feasible right now."

"Why not?" Arisa asked her voice panicked and rising an octave, "We can just get a plane ticket and-"

"I promised." I said cutting her off, my tone was bland and I winced at how that must have come across. I looked at my cut up hands and tried to focus on those to keep my voice steady. "You and Rex could probably leave but I… I promised my relatives I would take care of their house for the summer and I can't break that promise."

I could feel the weight of her stare but didn't dare look up to address it. Rex gave a long-drawn sigh. I studied the label of the water bottle between my hands trying not to think about my father's relatives reacting to my sudden abandonment of the task.

"Did you-" Rex started, attempting to clarify the extent of my promise. His shadow fell over my being and the water in the bottle seemed to move slightly as if reacting to his presence.

"Yeah...It's blood bound…" I weakly said not proud of myself, "It didn't seem like a huge thing at the time and … Dad's side always wants absolutes… they don't do exceptions."

Rex swore under his breath and I glanced up seeing him tugging at his hair, "Dang it, Hannah. You realize how serious this is then?"

I nodded numbly, still not daring to see how Arisa was taking this all. I could imagine her confusion, anger, and even her panic but I really hoped she wouldn't cry. Arisa crying had always had an odd effect on me, maybe it was some deep motherly instinct or something but it made my blood boil.

Rex started to lightly bang his head against the top of the car frame, "I could take Arisa to the airport and get her back to the states but… I don't feel right about leaving you here. I don't think you could take them. Strike that. I KNOW you can't take them. As we were leaving I started to get a gauge of their magic levels and well.. you know."

"Yeah, " I nodded, "I was there…" I couldn't be annoyed. Numbness started to sweep through me, and the unfamiliarity of helplessness circled me. I had to go back. I had to go back to the house, the property at the very least- soon. I rubbed my hands together and crunched and uncrunched the plastic bottle between my hands.

"I'm not leaving without her." I looked up sharply to see Arisa studying the window past me with an unreadable expression.

"You can't stay here," I protested.

Arisa kept her eyes on the window behind me, her jaw tightening the only sign she'd heard me.

I looked at Rex, "She can't stay here." I repeated hoping that he of all people would back me up. Rex looked to his girlfriend than to me with a defeated expression. Arisa's hands clenched and unclenched at her sides and she kept herself focused on the window.

Rex looked exasperated and he took a deep breath carefully weighing his words, "Neither of us are going anywhere. If you're stuck you should know by now that means we're all stuck. We're kinda a package deal right? Three musketeers?"

My brow furrowed at his words but I knew he was right. If I wanted Arisa to head back to the states I'd have better luck hiring some local thugs to drug her and haul her then convincing her with my own words. Arisa was stubborn when she wanted to be, I guess I rubbed off on her.

"If that's the case, we all have to go back to the house. How are we supposed to protect ourselves when we're neighbors to those royals?" I half expected the question to be rhetorical but Rex got a thoughtful look on his face.

"Maybe, now hear me out, we should ask the family for their ideas." Rex said cautiously.

I cringed.

"They are unconventional, for sure, but given the circumstances, I'm sure they'll have some method to deal with the unwanted attention." He pursed his lips and his eyes were too hopeful for me to shoot him down properly.

Arisa slowly turned her attention to Rex. Her lips parted as if she wanted to ask something, although her gaze seemed conflicted. "Are you talking about your family, Rex? Or… your family connection?"

I startled remembering that even though Rex and Arisa had started dating perhaps a year or so ago, Rex had been a presence in our lives for longer than that thanks to some family reunions and chance circumstances. In those family reunions in particular she had not once been introduced to our more southern roots… so to speak.

Rex's mother had passed when he was very young and he had been raised by his mother's sister- an angel of a woman soft-spoken and easily startled. The only family Arisa had met from both of our "family's trees" had been my mother, Rex's adopted mother, and a handful of cousins on the human/elf sides. Rex's elvish roots hadn't been talked about till he was starting his young teenage years when his Aunt had pulled him aside and spoke of her longing to find others of their kind.

"- they are on our fathers' side of the family. Hannah's Dad and mine are brothers." I blinked not sure what Rex had prefaced those words with.

Arisa gave a small nod, "You never talked about your father before, Rex, what's he like?"

Rex got a hilarious expression on his face and I could tell he was trying to figure out a gentle way of painting his father. I have never met Rex's father, the few times I got to talk to mine he was briefly mentioned as an over adventurous tadpole. My father was the eldest as far as I could figure, Dad hadn't talked about his own family very much so there wasn't much to the family tree I could reveal.

I knew from Rex's magic that his father was a demon more tied to the water element but beyond that I wasn't super certain how our father belonged to the same gene pool. I suppose dark hair ran in our family and a few vague other facial features but beyond that who knew. Were our father's half siblings? There was no way to deny or confirm that. From my father's brief conversations regarding demon race it wasn't clear on how demon's developed their magic or specialized in this case.

"He's um… well… I take after him a lot…'cept my eyes… I've been told I have my mother's eyes." Rex floundered, "and well.. Um… He's super tall…And I don't know...I've only seen him a handful of times…"

"Do you have a picture of him?" Arisa asked, struggling to make sense of those few features. I could easily tell she was imagining a taller, perhaps more football build father figure. The build of Rex's father when described to me sounded more of a lithe elf like than muscular and macho.

Rex shook his head slowly and the weight of that absence seemed to finally settle on his shoulders. Rex hadn't had a lot of contact with his Dad. Raised by a sweet elf-woman and dealing with a very human mundane world had been hard. Rex had learned quickly how to blend in, his personality changing to suit those around him. It wasn't till his more recent years that I feel he had become comfortable with himself enough to solidify his personality. The woman who raised him had quietly been living as human a life as she could for Rex's sake...

"Arisa, are you uh taking this all okay?" I couldn't wipe the concern out of my voice even as I tried to be casual.

Arisa flicked her gaze towards me then to Rex, "What part of the taking are you referring to? If you mean the part where you and Rex are clearly supernatural beings- I had a hunch. I mean you guys were careful but there are some things you both have done that were uh less than normal..."

I blinked. Rex's shoulders rose then fell as if he was trying to suppress a snicker. I gave him a suspicious glance, what had this bonehead done to tip her off? I certainly couldn't think of anything I'd done that was super showy or...magical in nature. I hadn't used fire magic in front of her ever. Heck I hadn't used much fire magic in the past few years, I was glad the casting still came to me for being so rusty. Rex though… that idiot had probably casually chilled something super fast or moved water in some showy way.

Rex's magical prowess and nature seemed to push him more than mine, at times he expressed great discomfort if he hadn't used magic in a day's time. For Rex his dual nature seemed to goad him into using magic in a way I couldn't relate to. My fire magic didn't coax or cajole me into use, it stayed inside myself warm like an ember content to smolder.

"Ooh-kay," I drawled, "so then… uh let's get the basics out of the way. Your boyfriend and I are both part demon."

There was a beat of silence so I dared to continue, "Yes… Demon as in … um hell and stuff. Don't ask me more about the place, all I know is it is a location and most demons live there. I have never been there myself."

I glanced at Rex as if to gauge how I was doing. He gave me an encouraging nod. Arisa's face remained composed and even a flicker of curiosity seemed to light in her eyes. She gave a small nod urging me onward.

"All that magic back there on my part was courtesy of my father's side. He was a fire demon of sorts. His pact expired so he couldn't stay with my mom and I."

"Why didn't your mother just strike a deal with your dad so he could stay?" Arisa asked, interrupting my explanation as I paused to take a breath.

It was hard not to think about Dad and even bringing him up now gave me a pain of wistfulness, I hadn't seen him in what was it seven years now? Was he still alive? Was he trapped in a contract with some psycho? Had he been on the mortal plane lately? Did he miss us?

I smiled wryly, "Yeah I asked that too... Apparently all demon deals in one way or the other involve heavy prices… with most being collecting and consuming the soul of the bargainer. Dad didn't want to do that to Mom so…"

Arisa cringed, "That's uh fair…"

I absently brushed some crumbs off my lap and took another swig of water.

Rex shook his head interjecting, "Demon magic is uh a bit more hmmm savage? I guess you could say… Their magic is usually drawn through different primordial elements so to speak…They use a lot of um more cult-like things… blood.. bones..etc..."

"Alright," Arisa nodded taking that in stride although there seemed to be a note of uneasiness in her voice, "so then you two are human-demon hybrids?"

"She is. I'm not," Rex corrected, "my birth mother was an elf."

The silence that followed Rex's announcement was heavier than the others. I found myself sitting up straighter and looking between Arisa and Rex gauging their reactions. The word elf had rolled so easily off Rex's tongue that I could hardly guess how Arisa would respond. Arisa's parents were of elf blood and that identity was something she struggled with from the start.

Arisa to her credit simply stared at Rex in disbelief, a wave of emotions on her face. It was odd to see them all go through her quickly but she at first had disbelief, then anger, then fear, then curiosity and finally settled on stunned. He reached out to touch her shoulder giving it a squeeze.

Arisa's father had been the only elf she'd ever interacted with and the experience hadn't been pleasant. Her father had been nothing but bitter to the world, robbed of his beautiful wife and left to care for a child he didn't care for he had turned cruel quite quickly. The man if he could've been called that used his elvish abilities to torment his only daughter.

"I … I wanted to tell you earlier… I just-...there never seemed to be a good time," Rex fumbled. His face flushed slightly and I could tell his focus was on how Arisa was taking all this. He absently gestured into the empty air, trying to keep himself in motion and keep himself open and transparent.

Arisa closed her eyes for a moment, trying to collect herself. I glanced to Rex who looked as if he'd just accidentally stepped on his dog's tail. He hesitated then reached out to touch her but flinched when she opened her eyes looking directly into his eyes with unexpected anger.

"Answer me honestly, Rex. Are you dating me because I'm elvin too?" Arisa's voice was sharp and almost accusatory. Each word punctured like an illusionary knife pointed under Rex's throat.

There was a beat of silence and even I knew that wasn't good for my cousin. For the life of me I didn't know why he hesitated. I was no mind rider but this was the first moment I realized that very well might've been a reason she had first caught his attention now that I had time to examine the situation. I emptied my water bottle trying to appear busy and not get drawn into the surfacing argument.

"No...That isn't something that I thought about...Honest!" Rex stammered, waving his hands.

Arisa turned her gaze from him and it was hard to tell what she was thinking. She pursed her lips, a subtle tremble to them tipping me that she was trying very hard to not cry. The emotions that seemed certain one moment vanished the next. She turned to face Rex a composed neutral expression, a protective mask shielding her thoughts.

A car honked and I glanced outside to see that we had caused a backup line for our station.

"Guess we'll need to talk about this more later… We have to .. turn around and head back to the house if that's our plan?" I said trying to walk on eggshells. Arisa's anger was strange to behold, it lurked like a shark underwater with an ominous fin visible even as her features were composed, her eyes spoke otherwise.

"Right." Rex quickly agreed circling the car to hop back into the driver's side. Arisa moved slowly to claim the passenger seat and I could see from the mirrors that she was still deeply troubled by all this. I was too exhausted to try to fathom what the problem was. She had made it clear that she adored both Rex and I so I don't think the demon part was the problem…so it had to be the elvish part.

Arisa's eyes turned to the landscape and her face for a brief moment took on that sad haunted look that had clung to her for most of her early years with me. I pursed my lips trying to figure out a way to fix this situation. If Rex HAD been interested in her because of her elf blood how much of that was involuntary?

"Um, Confession….I have no idea how to get back to the house." Rex sheepishly confessed as he slowly pulled out of the station and back towards the main road. I instinctively went to reach for my phone in my pocket only to realize I was still in that weird wedding dress. The wispy strands of red handkerchiefs tickled my hand making me blanch.

I swore in my demon tongue. Brimstone!

Rex glanced to the rearview mirror understanding in his eyes, "You lost your phone didn't you."

"Do you think they'll mail it back for me?" I wryly asked, slumping in my seat.

"By the looks of their clothing I don't think they've discovered postal services yet… let alone the internet." Rex quipped fishing haphazardly in his own pocket before tossing his phone back towards me.

I eagerly flipped his phone open only to be greeted by a lower battery warning, "Great."

-o -o -o-o -o-o

"How do you plead?" The judge shrouded by shadows peered ominously over the pulpit, their gavel threatening to come down. Strange unsettling hisses seemed to linger on the edges of the room from the other occupants speculating on the defendant's fate.

Two wraith-like thin nervous women stood behind what might've been the defense attorney's desk. Both looked to the lone defendant standing shackled before the judge. Each woman was nearly identical with the exception of their eyes. The first women had mismatched eyes of blue and brown while the second had mismatches of green and grey.

Both women were dressed in tailored suits with collared shirts and neutral colors. The lighting in the courtroom made it impossible to get much details out of them beyond that. The desk that might've been the prosecutors stood unoccupied.

The defendant that stood in the lone pillar of glaring light was unusual to say the least. Long green hair dripped as if permanently wet past his shoulders. Gray horns poked out of the man's head spiraling back like ram's horns. His eyes were covered by bangs that hadn't seen scissors in some time.

The man's gaze was to the ground and he dare not look up to the judge. He studied his own shoes with feigned interest as if weighing the words nonchalantly. He too had dressed relatively formal for the hearing, although his choice of shoes were the only hint that he wasn't too invested in this trial. He flexed his toes in the beat-up flip flops on his feet.

"How do I plead? Well your deviousness, I would say that I plead not guilty… but you already have made up your mind haven't you, your horrid-ness." He said his voice rising and falling in an almost comical flippant manner. The room went dead silent, the speculative hissing coming to a choked stop.

The gavel slammed down, the others in the room jumped but the only man it applied to stayed perfectly unmoved. The shadowy form of the judge seemed to grow causing the light that enveloped the defendant to shrink into a smaller sphere. Spectral tendrils seemed to spout out of the judge's hulking form and slowly reached towards the defendant.

"Lazerus-" The judge's low voice ominous started to declare only to be cut off.

"Larry," He corrected calmly with only a momentary tremble, "I go by Larry, the family name given to me is too stiff." He rolled his shoulders.

There was a loud growl that made "Larry" ever so slightly lean back away from the Judge's stand. The women that had waited behind the table looked to each other with horror at their defendant's behavior. Someone in the spectator seats seemed to audibly gulp.

The spectral tendrils that surrounded the judge reached out, some reaching to flip up the hair that hung over the defendant's eyes. Dark blue orbs gazed up into the void blackness of the Judge's face, a mess of indecipherable shadows.

"There is irrefutable evidence that you have flaunted your presence to the mortal realm of humans. Under our laws you will be punished. Because of the … unique way that you have chosen to flaunt your presence to the humans… The jury has come up with a suitable punishment."

Larry gave a single side glance towards the formless figures that crowded just out of his view. He could've squinted hard and maybe identified a few of those cowards but what was done was done. He rubbed his ankles together trying to ignore the way the cold shackles weaved themselves tightly around his wrists. The tendrils holding up his hair sent unpleasant shivers down his frame.

"You are to be banished to the mortal realm for the next one hundred years. Furthermore-"

Eh, that wasn't super bad all things considered. One hundred years was nothing to sneeze at for sure and would set him back a bit but- He blinked realizing the judge was still talking and hurriedly tuned in only to hear the gavel hit once more the pulpit in a clear dismissal. His bangs unceremoniously flopped back into his eyes. The crowds observing the trial moved like water, a steady stream of shadowy figures each blending into the next.

The women behind the defendant's desk rushed to his side before the guards could move to collect him, "Oh Larry how could you?"

"Now now, girls, don't fret... It doesn't sound like I'm actually in that much trouble-" Larry chided even as he rubbed his eyes and tried half-heartedly to flick away some of his bangs.

The blue and brown-eyed one punched him hard on the head in an unabashed sibling manner cuffing his left horn, "Idiot! Didn't you hear the judge?"

In the glaring light of the defendant, she was more defined. She had long raven locks that flocked past her shoulders clipped back with a very realistic looking butterfly clip. The wings fluttered even as she jarred her brother.

"OW! Tizz what was that even for!?" He peered down at her through his bangs, dark blue eyes studying his sister.

Tizz pursed her lips and shook her head angrily, "For getting us into this mess in the first place. Do you have any idea how it felt to get that call?"

Larry winced rubbing the sore spot, "Were you hoping it was a death call?"

Tizz huffed looking to her sister as if to hand him off to her. The grey and green-eyed woman shook her head sagely. In the light of the circle the elder of the twins had dark locks mimicking her sisters although instead of flowing down past her shoulders, her hair was tied up in a professional tight bun pinned with two ornate chopsticks of sorts.

Tizz shoved him purposely one more time before retreating to retrieve a briefcase from the desk she had spent the last hour at. She gave her sister a meaningful look and pushed her lips out as if to push her subtly once more. You chew him out, maybe he'll listen to you.

Larry looked to his second sister, secretly dreading her verdict more than Tizz's. "Alright Kor'el … give it to me straight."

Kor'el raised her perfectly trimmed eyebrows at him with mild amusement, "Did you zone out again?...The judge has sentenced you to one hundred years on earth-" Kor'el's voice was a lower pitch than her counterpart's and it flowed steadily and lulled. Everything about her appearance spoke of discipline and propriety.

"Yeah I got that part-" He started reaching up to scratch the back of his head.

"- Don't interrupt… As a hamster." Kor'el explained her eyebrows once more inching upwards in amusement.

Larry blinked, "Uh could you repeat that?"

Kor'el shrugged elegantly, the eldest of her family's brood she was used to her siblings' mannerisms. "One hundred years as a hamster. You also are going to have to be supervised by family members. The system will of course cast the curse on you to transform you but the family has been shackled to be your caretaker for the next century since we didn't do enough to stop you.."

"Didn't you always want a pet," Larry asked half-heartedly, trying to smile even as her cold eyes studied him with clear disapproval. A hint of anger started forming in her eyes before they cleared in record time. Kor'el turned to see Tizz struggling to close the briefcase in her hands.

Tizz returned to their conversation and slammed the briefcase into his side making him cringe again as it gave a click, shutting resolutely, "Ugh I can't believe you're still joking around!"

"Well, a hundred years as a hamster can't be that bad… I mean you guys can just keep me on your desk or something-" Larry fished pushing his foot against the hard sable floor. Tizz's physical aggressions aside, at least neither of them was crying, he hated crying.

"You think we have time to babysit you?" The women chorused before looking to one another in surprise. Tizz absently swung the briefcase to her side.

Kor'el clicked her tongue, "Our business interests… are here in the hell realm for the next few months."

Larry's brow furrowed, "So… who is going to watch me? It has to be a bloodline member right?"

The trio was silent for a long moment, each one stewing over that statement.

"I don't think anyone has a contract on the surface currently," Tizz said carefully.

Kor'el massaged her brow, "That complicates things…"

The guards approached the trio coming to grab Larry more forcefully than necessary. The guards were more the typical depiction of demons with red stretched skin and a flickering red spade toned tail. The khaki uniform was almost comical on the over-muscled frame they had. Their eyes were yellowish and glaring, a light with malice. Two guards flanked Larry and dragged him out of the courtroom.

Kor'el and Tizz started to follow them out of the room. The guard to the left barked at them to stop, grinning to reveal a mouthful of sharp filed yellow teeth. His voice grated, sounding much like a razor on a piano wire, "No one allowed in the cursing room. Guilty party only. You ladies will have to go to the viewing room."

Goosebumps raised on their own on Larry's arms and he tried to ignore the mounting panic growing in him. Larry had been in trouble many times in his life but he had never in all his days been condemned to a cursed ruling. In theory he knew what every other demon knew about a curse ruling - you were forcefully transformed into something and had to serve a period of years out in that form.

Sometimes, the ruling would be kind and you'd keep your memories, other times you were a clean slate. Larry wondered a bit too late if they would warn him which camp he'd fall into this time. He had only heard of a handful of cases , mostly bogeyman stories you told your younglings to behave… like that canadian goose case of the famed Hellios von Sazira. A goose in retrospect sounded like a nice way to spend a century or two, at least you could fly around.

They had said his punishment was to be a hamster, who in the realm had decided that form would be a good punishment? His egregious act had been simply spooking a few humans. They had been teens performing a summoning in a garage…Frankly he was surprised he was getting this end of the stick considering how easy it would be to discredit those mortal teens.

The curse room was what he expected more or less. The doorway he was ushered through had a glowering gargoyle perched on it that watched their approach. The gargoyle's body had seen better days and it had chips all along from long forgotten battles. The creature's wings flared as the trio approached but it made no move to stop their entrance.

The curse room's floor was covered in glyphs and runes just like the walls, each one unique and hard to replicate. The room had been remarkably well preserved for the millenia it has been in service. There was the occasional discouraging claw mark of desperation on the ground where some fool had tried to exit the circle but other than that each rune glowed with a consistent eerie red light.

One of the guards elbowed him hard in the back causing him to stumble forward towards the center of the room. At the center of the room was a single piece of furnishing, a slim pulpit of sorts with a long silver chain that presumably hooked up to his shackles. He rolled his shoulders slightly wondering how short they would tether him to the pulpit.

The guards ushered him towards the pulpit soundless now in the room compared to their earlier grumbling and goading. They paused without warning a few paces from the pulpit and held Larry straight at attention. It was at that moment that Larry realized they were not alone.

A tall spindly figure perched almost as another piece of furnishing in the room. Their body was covered in a thin gray cloak that almost resembled a burial cloth. Their face was covered with a veil that betrayed none of its facial features. For a moment Larry felt a deep pit of dread in his stomach, the secrecy on this figure wasn't something he'd been warned about.

Larry took a deep breath as he was brought over to the center of the circle. This was just standard procedure… surely nothing extra was happening. He hadn't committed one of the top three atrocities against demonkind… all he had done was spook a few humans. He hadn't realized he had stopped in his tracks until a hard elbow to his back half made him jab his ribs into the pulpit.

The thin gray cloaked demon moved towards him, lifting bone like fingers out past its long sleeves to apply paint on his forehead in specific symbols. Larry winced as the paint seemed to burn like acid into his skin. The thin figure spoke no words and after its task was complete it exited the circle brushing past the guards and disappearing into another room.

The guards, once they had successfully shackled him to the pulpit, moved to quickly exit the circle as if they would be caught up in the spell themselves. The accused looked around for a moment wondering if he had failed to see the curse caster in his initial appraisal of the room. The room was empty save him as far as he could see.

"Um… Hello? Am I supposed to do something else or-"

Drums, ominous deep and primal thudded deeply filling the room and drowning out his voice. His heart leapt in his throat for a moment as the runes lit pulsing to the rhythm of the drums. A few runes he recognized from a lifetime ago study of the arcane. Transformation runes each one liquid in its curvature lit up brighter than the background runes that lazily pulsed always a beat off. The paint on his forehead burned. He fell to his knees not able to completely with the height of the pulpit he was tethered to.

A chanting voice, surprisingly light contrasting the deep tones of the drums, took over the tortuousness thudding of the drums. As the transition happened, Larry realized amongst the wall before him that there was a window. Carefully camouflaged and almost invisible against the runes, a small window allowed a being to look into the room. He struggled to focus against the pain on making out the person in the window but his eyes were starting to water.

A strange heat surrounded his body and it felt for a moment that his skin was being pricked by a thousand needles. He winced tugging futility at the chain before realizing slowly the pulpit was shrinking and lowering itself to the ground. It took him another moment to realize the pulpit was not the only thing shrinking. He gasped trying to focus on his hands that shrank before his eyes, the fingers rounding and sprouting black and brown fur.

Lazarus had never witnessed a cursed ruling, and now as he was experiencing the pains of it he began to reexamine the seriousness of his sentence. The pain of needles fell away as a new sensation grabbed his attention forcibly. He felt his body contort painfully and he screamed, his voice drowned out by the chanting.

His bones cracked painfully breaking, shrinking, and reforming to suit the new form he would be imprisoned to. The runes around him blurred against the tears welling in his eyes and for a moment he wished for death. The spell continued to seize his body, forcibly breaking and reshaping aspects of himself. Being painfully conscious for the transformation was an icing to the punishment, he was sure. The chanting, one of the constant things outside of the pain came to an abrupt halt.

He crouched, panting and hiding his face into the floor as if that would spare him. His breath came in shaky gasps and his whole body shook as if he had been suddenly thrust into a bed of ice. He daren't move for a single moment, each part of his body felt overly pulled and shoved.

"Transformation complete." An unfamiliar voice intoned through a hidden intercom.

He ever so slowly and with all the ginger care he could muster peeked up. His shrunken state only made the room seem larger than it was as he glanced around at the runes that now were glowing like a dying ember. Everything vision wise seemed off. He blinked a few times trying to make sense of it. His body shook once more and it took him another moment to realize his nose was twitching.

He glanced to the pulpit tracing the silver chain of the shackle down to now being firmly affixed around his middle. He cautiously moved his legs to make sure they hadn't been skewed in the transformation and gave his new tiny stub of a tail a small wiggle. Static seemed to cling to him as he slowly tested his new body's movements. Hamsters were much smaller than he had expected. He noted with a bit of disappointment that they had very stubby limbs. He reached up pawing at his face and felt his small hard nose and the faint tickle of what might've been whiskers.

"Prepare for final debriefing." There was an unceremonious screech of a microphone and he felt his ears ring from the high pitch halt of the thing. He walked in a little circle testing the boundaries of the shackle's hold. He tried to balance on his hind legs to walk and quickly realized that all fours would be the only way to move effectively.

Brimstone, he silently cursed.

~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~ o ~o ~o ~o ~O ~o ~ o ~ o~ o

Please leave a review~

-Mich002fox