EPISODE 3 – '' THE TIME I PLAYED A GAME OF CHANGELING''

I was walking back and forth, like a lion in a cage, trying to figure out what I can do to help princess Loo-nah and the other Formikans. Surprisingly, the smell of blood I was cover with, didn't bother me at all. In fact, I even started to like one moment, I stopped imitating a pendulum and once more looked at the monster I killed. I came closer and made some hand movements over its corpse. My magic worked exactly as I wanted. In the blink of an eye, a dead monstrous bear has turned into a small, plastic figure. A completely harmless plaything, perfect to become a part of my toy collection. picked i tup and smiled.

- Cool! – I said with satisfaction before I used my power to alter that figure's appearance the same was I did with my GIR plushie earlier. The bear haven't changed much – the same size, claws, black fur. The only difference was bare, white upper half of the skull instead of normal head. Now I had two ''demonic toys'' at my service. However, that still was far less than enough for me to begin realisation of my plan. What plan? The only reasonable thing I could think out. The plan to liberate planet Formika by murdering each and every local Irken. Back then I haven't had much knowledge of the IZ universe yet, but what I knew was that the Irkens were as numerous as they were cruel and vicious. That meant I needed suport of the rest of my ''little treasures''. The problem was I unwillingly left them in my dimension, in my parents' flat.

- ''I'm afraid I'll have to go back to that hell once more so I'd take all my things with me and finally say goodbye to my previous, miserable life. Once and for all'' – I thought.I turned around and saw princess Loo-nah lying down on the floor, with her head and arms placed on the lowest stair. She fell asleep without me noticing that. I picked her up very carefully and started walking upstairs. My ''monsters'' followed me, carrying my backpack and my bag. Due to lack of any other ideas, I decided to take her to the room my isekai adventure originated from. A dirty mattress of a very low quality is a little better place to sleep than cold and hard floor, isn't it? As soon as I entered the room, I reached out for my backpack to unzip it and take out my two plastic tableclothes and one blanket. I put the first ones directly on mattress and then laid a blanket on them. It was not very big, but still big enough to coil princess Loo-nah and keep her warm. She looked so cute, sleeping calmly on my blanket like this. The cutest alien child ever!

- ''She doesn't deserve to suffer such an awful fate at all''. – I thought. It's been a while since I last felt sorry for someone like I did for princess Loo-nah. There was no other way. Whether I liked it or not – I had to save Formika. Besides - my magical powers, my chance for a new, better life – I owed it all to them. Very indirectly, but nonetheless. I dove my hand in the smallest pocket of my backpack and fished out a small, circular mirror with a picture of Chibiusa's transformation brooch (you know, that character from ''Sailor Moon''). I wondered for a moment and said to the looking glass:

- Mirror, mirror in my hand, show me planet Formika, I command.

I quickly regreted my request. My reflection got replaced by thick, grey mist and then by view of hundreds of Formikans. They were pushing trucks full of fantasites, watched by their Irken slave drivers. Poor enslaved aliens were clearly exhausted and starving. Their ragged clothes were all dusty. I spotted something colorful sticking out of their I didn't know what that would be, but the frightening truth has come into my head soon enough. Those scruffy pieces were nothing more than…remains of their wings! Those Irken bastards had cut off their wings!

- Those motherf*ers… - I growled in wrath.

I could not only see but also hear everything my mirror was showing to me. What I specifically heard was a conversation between two Irken soldiers.

- Have they found her yet? – asked the first one.

- No, not yet. – answered the second one.

- That's weird. Thousands of us rushed into space when our Tallest offered reward for any Irken who gets the princess back to Formika. And she must be taken alive.

- Yeah, I heard about that. Our great leaders want the queen to witness execution of her offspring before she gets killed as well.

- Will the Tallest come to watch this spectacle in person?

- No, they won't. Not in person. They're gonna watch live transmission. They refused to come in contact with aliens as filthy and ugly as Formikans.

- '' Filthy and ugly!? Take a look in the mirror, you stink bugs!'' – I yelled in thoughts.

- I wish I could go too.

- Me too. I can't imagine a greater reward than a year's supply of snacks.

- Yeah. But an order is an order. We've been told by the Tallest to supervise Formikans' work and so we do.

- Not for long, bit*es. Not for long. – I said quietly.

I turned off the vision in my mirror and started doing what I had to do. To make my way back to my dimensionm I needed to have a proper magical item first. For that, I created a very special, kendama-shaped wand with a white bow and a little pink heart on. Its one and only purpose was opening and closing portals, including interdimensional ones. Before I used it for the first time, I sent my monster bear outside to bring me a piece of wood of the same size as princess Loo-nah's. Meanwhile, my monstrous GIR doggie was to stay inside and overwatch little alien girl's safety. I swang my arm backward and then forward. The red shining ball detached from kendama's needle, flew forward and dissipated, turning into a temporary spacetime the other side, there was my own room to be seen. Tiny, overcrowded with toys and many other things. I crossed the portal and found myself in the place I've been living in for most of my life. After a second or two I heard something I've been forced to listen to for my whole life – quarrel of my parents. Shouts, insults, curses… just like every other day before. I frowned in disapproval. I walked up to my small table on wheels and lifted my round clock with picture of a pink unicorn. I jabbed it with finger of my other hand few times. As a result, the entire world stood still like a monument. Now I could easily take all things that belonged to me – toys, various popculture merchandise, books, clothes, bicycle, even my herbal tea bags. When all my properties already left the flat, I glanced through the window one last time.

- Well… – I said – I think it's time to say goodbye.

I jabbed the clock again to undo my spell and came back to the IZ dimension. By closing this portal, I left all the bad things behind. Admittedly, I did have some good memories I shared with my old world, but – in general - that reality was left by me unregretted. As it was told in ''Fullmetal Alchemist'': '' Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost''. A world for a world – that was Equivalent Exchange of my own.

Soon after, my monster bear returned. He was holding a perfect piece of wood, crucial part of my plan. What did I need it for? Simple: To create a changeling. You know, that creature from European folklore stories. What I was going to do is to cast a spell on the wood to make it look just like princess Loo-nah. As soon as my new servant put the wood down, I came closer and made some hand movements. For the rest, you already know how my magic works, don't you? In a jiffy, a regular log assumed a shape of Formikan heir to the throne. It was also moving, blinking,pulling faces… In other words – these two were indistinguishable from each other. Like twin sisters. The only difference was that my changeling couldn't speak. Real princess Loo-nah was still asleep, so went on with my work. I walked down the stairs and went outside, in front of the abandoned mansion. I let out a pair of big, black bat wings and a long, black devil tail. I spread my wings to the atmost and started clapping them to get off the ground and fly high above trees. I looked around in order to spy the nearest town or city. I barely managed to spot some lights on the horizon.

- It is very far away from here. – I mumbled. – But I can't be sure if that is where I should go search for Zim and his base. Which object should I use? Oh, I know! My binoculars.

I was about to go and get the aforementioned thing, when the weird, stridulous sound hit my ears. It was getting closer and closer with every second. My sixth sense has told me I should not ignore that. I came back to the ground, hid my demonic attributes and came back to THAT room. I looked through the window to see something unexpected - an Irken Voot Cruiser landing nearby the mansion. And the Irken that went out of the spaceship was none other than… ZIM!

- Zim? What the hell is he doing here? – I whispered to not wake up the princess. The reason for Zim being in a place like this was obvious – he was hunting for the little Formikan, just like thousands of his fellow Irkens. He was heading to inner part of the building.

- Oh shit…

I hurried up to find my toy soldiers, Littlest Pet Shop figures and some other animal figures among tons of other toys. I gathered them together and put them inside the changeling, closed her flap very thoroughly and sent her down to confront the defective Irken in the hall. I closed the door and waited, staring on Zim's vehicle through the window. A while later, he was getting back to his Voot, dragging fake princess Loo-nah caught in a net. Soon after that, Zim left, taking his ''prey'' with him. I twirled around, sighed in relief and said to myself:

- Gee, that was close.

This situation was a bit stressful, but I was happy everything was going according to my plan. And this is the part where the real fun began…