Power is a strange thing. It can hurt a brother, a friend, and even yourself. Yet for all it's punch, it never does fill the soul. No matter how a man craves it. Funny.

  I watched Fisher change. I watched that same cloud that had wrapped around me turned around and went back for him. I saw him grow and the Abyssal he took from shrink. It was a surreal experience. Like watching art become physical. A sight that involved something like bones popping as the rearranged themselves, sinking in and out of sockets, or what I thought were sockets. But I wasn't sure. Fisher's anatomy was a complete mystery to me. He was, in truth, a total alien to me.

  But right now, as far as I knew, I considered him an ally, one who had risked his life for mine. And I wasn't going to let him die. So, when he started to scream, back bending in pain, I stepped forward to help him. A hand reaching out into the clouds to grab him. But I was met with a field of stinging sensation.

  It was a buzz that went through me. Attacking my nerves, and causing me to recoil back. Snatching my hand away as I retreated a step. All while the still assembled Abyssals watched from around, standing in a semi-circle with me in the center.

  And as I went to reach my hand back into the cloud, one of them stepped up and put a hand on my shoulder, stopping me. "Don't worry, he'll be fine." It said, voice like metal being crushed.

  Despite that, I believed him and slowly lowered my hand. "What's happening to him?" I asked.

  "Metamorphosis." They all said, the word passing through like a reverential whisper.

  They were right.

  The cloud began to peel back, and I could see it. Fisher stood taller now. His shoulders broader. The mass of writhing vines that made up his body thicker, more like chords of muscle strung together. His eyes were different too, all three of them now a deep green.

  After it was done, the cloud rolled off of him and away, vanishing into thin air, and left him standing there smelling like burning paper. He was also half naked. The little cloak he had worn now woefully inadequate to fully cover him, which left everything below his chest bare. Fortunately he was an Abyssal and his humanoid appearance extended no further than rough shape.

  Still, after a moment of stunned silence, I covered my eyes. Moreso out of common decency than any form of embarrassment felt on his behalf. But, modest or not, Fisher had changed.

  That change left a huge grin hanging on his face. The kind of happiness that seemed almost foreign on the grump I'd known for the st few days. But there it was. A beaming smile that he carried with him as he examined his body, hands roaming up and down every new aspect of him.

  After a few more moments of self examination, he came to a stop and turned towards me. "Thank you. Hahaha! Thank you! Thank you!"

  "Uh, no problem."

  "No." He said, face hardening into something serious. "I know you don't get it. But truly, thank you."

  And I didn't, I realized. What just happened, both to Fisher and to me, it was a complete mystery. Something that made sense to him, but not to me. A welcome reality that he embraced, and a strange new one I didn't know how to feel about.

  But I smiled anyway, and then pointed at his legs. "Maybe you can thank me by covering up then?"

  He looked down, confused. "Uh, I'll try." He said, and then proceeded to take his old cloak off, and put on the one his ex-tormentor wore.

  To my surprise, it was a good fit for him. It covered him from his bulky stringy shoulders down to his velvet colored knees. A real spiffy look that was somehow slightly better than what he wore beforehand. But I kept those thoughts to myself, as I walked around him. Mind moving into a new, much more important topic.

  How was I going to get out of here?

  I knew that it was probably near impossible. That it would be hard. Harder than anything I've ever done, probably, but I couldn't just not try. That wasn't right. It wasn't who I was. Wasn't who I wanted to be. Especially not after I finally gained the one thing I'd longer for all my life.

  Magic. Which, honestly, just might be the solution I was looking for. Just not alone.

  I needed help. So, for thoroughness sake, I turned towards Fisher and the other assembled abyssals and asked my question.

  "Is there a way out of here?"

  One of them, small and beetle like, answered. "The woods end. You must simply follow them till they stop."

  A number of them nodded in agreement, as if it was the most sagely advice in the world.

  I sighed. "No, that's not- I mean a way back to Me. A way for me to go back home."

  Fisher approached me. His increased height giving him a more pronounced stride, even if he was still only a little taller than a single meter. "... That depends on how you got here. And I'll be honest, I don't know many ways a light born like you could get down here, but..."

  I leaned forward, and pointed to the amulet around my neck. "This. When I put it on, it created a portal and dragged me straight down."

  "Really now." He said, leaning in close, head held a few inches over the sea of my cleavage. "Kinda makes me wish I could read runic. But, uh, have you tried taking it off?"

  I sighed. "That was the first thing I tried."

  "What about destroying it?"

  I hadn't. "No. That's kinda dangerous isn't it? Arcane energy suddenly released and all that."

  "I don't think so."

  "And why not?" I asked, staring down at him.

  "I've never heard of runes exploding before, so why start now?"

  Then he punched me.

  His fist moved like an arrow through the air. Fast and precise. Red knuckles meeting the amulet around my neck for what seemed like a split second before he pulled his fist back just as fast. The energy of it, the power behind it, all of it flowed into me. All coming through the amulet into my colrbone and then the rest of me, and it was a lot of energy.

  More than enough to send me flying backward. Which it did. Physics gripping me, making me spin and fly for a solid second - my body flipping mid air - before I hit a tree chest first. Breasts the size of torsos meeting dark wood in a spontaneous csh, and unfortunately for me, the tree was not moved.

  I was.

  That direction was down. A spot of pain blooming in my chest. Somewhere under the pounds and pounds of boob flesh. Maybe even a broken rib. Or just a sore one. Either way, I got up, eventually.

  When I did, Fisher approached. Mouth open wide as he reached out toward me, hands held like he meant to cradle me. Like a protective parent.

  "I'm sorry. I-I didn't realize that-"

  "It's alright." I cut him off. Trying and failing to ignore the slowly spreading pain in my neck. "I'm assuming you didn't mean to hit me that hard, and, uh, that you were trying to help. I hope?"

  "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I was trying to break the amulet. But I guess that did work, huh?" He gave an awkward ugh.

  For kindness sake, I ughed with him. Well, I chuckled. Actually ughing was a bit too painful for right now.

  But, as we engaged in awkward fraternization, one of the abyssals stepped up in between us. He was, like Fisher, short, had a body made of tentacles, and wore a bck cloak. The biggest difference being he was a head or two shorter still, and where Fisher had a body made of long thin string like limbs, this one had a body made of thick purple ones. Oh, and five eyes.

  This purple Abyssal - purple - quickly grabbed both of our attention.

  "Mayhaps a smith can help? Under the Amber moon." He said.

  Words that held no meaning to me, but apparently did to Fisher. As he put on a concerned and thoughtful face at the suggestion, falling silent for several moments. Though it was a short lived silence.

  "That might be worth a shot." He whispered.

  "What might be worth a shot?" I asked, lost in the dark as I was.

  And to my surprise, all six of the other Abyssals answered.

  "The city under the Amber moon. Ruled by the Amber king. Where smith's and mighty ones gather. Where they live under the king's decree and practice new might." They said in unison, voice becoming as music.

  "... And we might be able to find a smith who can undo the Amulet's effects on you." Fisher finished.

  "We?" I asked, in response.

  And he just nodded. "Yup. I'm coming with you."