Disclaimer: I own the unrecognized stuff. All things recognizable belong to someone who's creative mind powers are supreme.
Dedication: I dedicate this to all the people who have tried to keep me from doing this, but have obviously failed. These people are, of course, my teachers, assigning horrendously annoying homework, and giving me many headaches.
Chapter 3
In Which There is a Change
...I grew. The process of changing from one thing to another is very uncomfortable. My tail, which I had grown rather attached to in the last 500 years, shrank, disappearing into my newly modified back side. All the bones in my body shifted, grating against one another most painfully. Some bones evaporated, a few new ones emerged. Pretty soon, I was a five foot nine inch, dark blonde haired, blue eyed girl, laying curled up in a ball on the top step of a very old castle, wearing clothes that hadn't been stylish for centuries, moaning in pain.
"Oh, dear! Are you all right? I thought you were a cat! Was that very painful? I'm s--!"
"NO, I'm not all right, and YES, that was EXCRUCIATINGLY painful! You had better be sorry! I HATE pain! You little mumble grumbl muneht dhta dhaonwthbyicn tjas kertbais rtbalisdug asdg ajsdflktientyv visdfgnoi a sdogaoewrnliujghbn dkhaa! Amdfk ant vj agalhovhalet skldjf oktin c asdjgbtqgitie etbkdga!" I continued muttering curses in the Old Tongue, which hardly anyone had known in my day, let alone now. "Shrumvbndaweo asdtva rht avit; asjdghkbrtakdfa rtjkdfhahathuvbhbt udqbtlab ethahfa lt lhtiqt l ldjsfhiauh aaaaaaaaghenaiueorenoeooo goterreddifhob gho---."
"Excuse me for interrupting, but it isn't very polite to mutter when you know I won't understand. Though I did catch some of what you said, the dragons taught me a little Old Tongue."
I stretched myself out of my fetal position and slowly (to dramatize my enduring agony) sat up to face Cimorene. "Child, if you think I give a hoot for the rules of etiquette or politeness, you have another think coming. I have rarely conformed, which is why both you and I are here. If I had conformed, that wizard would never have gotten angry at Father, and he would never have cursed all the inhabitants of this stinky little stone building to live- in animal form, no less!- until some princess"- I said it with all the scorn a voice can carry- "found enough borrowed foolish bravery to come tottering in here and break a smelly spell that would have been otherwise avoided. Since all 5,464,451 people who were in this place at the time of the casting were still in here when you freed us, you now have enough people on your hands to start a small country. Unless you want a mass rebellion on your hands and the hands of every other human within 600 miles, you might want to figure out a way to carefully inject us into society. Which would be hard, seeing as most of them do not like changes and this is a major one indeed."
"But,... I ...how...where...5,464,451 people! That many fit in here? It's half the size of my castle, and we barely have 1,000,900 comfortably squished together! Uhhhhh...OH! How am I gonna explain this to Mendenbar? This'll just ruin everything! All our plans, all...OH, NO! What about..."
"What about what, Cimorene? And who's Meny-whaty-who-ha? You aren't making much sense at all, deary. Calm down, take a deep breath, and start over." I had no patience for panic. That is how I found out that Cimorene had gotten married almost a year ago, she was now queen of the Enchanted Forest, and her original country, the one that had been the largest in the world a few hundred years ago had shrunk to the size of a large state, over on the other side of the Mountains of Morning. And, the addition off five and a half million people would completely kill the economy, making it hard for future generations of kings and queens to rule prosperously.
Hey, hey, my happy readers! How's it going? I did a bit of bad foreshadowing, see if you can figure out what's gonna happen next.
PS: Longest chapter yet! A whole page! gasp
