~~~

  Veronica came to feeling very strange. The last thing she remembered was trying to rally Wyrmwood’s inner defenses against the encroaching magic that ridiculously dressed creature had showered everyone with. She vaguely recalled panicking when the collar around her maw proved overly effective in hampering her push back efforts and then succumbing.

  With a groan, she opened her… eyes? She had eyes?! Looking around was currently disorienting since she left that to Wyrmwood, (him being the one with eyes and all between the two of them), so she closed her new eyes for now and looked inwards instead.

  Veronica was quite shocked to discover that their form had gone under great change! Like Wyrmwood had seen with the others, she and Wyrmwood had been shrunken down and changed to look like young fey… kinda.

  There was a mass of strange magic clinging to her insides and slowly being used up. Looking closely, however, it was noticeably having a hard time keeping their form as it seemed to flicker and tremble occasionally. If she had to guess, she’d assume the strange spell’s instability was the result of her and Wyrmwood’s nature of sharing one body.

  Their form was that of a pixie, rather more rugged and animalistic looking than the kind she knew of from mother, but a pixie nonetheless. She had complete control over this new form, or well, she would once she figured out how limbs work. As for her brother… her new mouth opened in a horrific grin as many sharp pointy teeth were revealed. Wyrmwood had become a long, thin, prehensile tail, with a tiny version of his head on the end!

  He was currently still unconscious but would wake up soon. She opened her eyes again and looked at his little head just laying there. It was too funny, she laughed at how their roles were momentarily reversed like this. Her voice was squeaky and high pitched as she giggled like a malicious goblin. Her mosquito-esque wings buzzed on her back, pulling her off the ground. At least this part of her felt completely natural. She shook out and tested her limbs as she tried to get her bearings of what was actually happening around her.

  She and the other changed hatchlings had been grouped up in Gloriosa’s habitat, under her trees, with a few elves forming a protective perimeter around them. One of them, a male with a gentle looking face, was moving around between them all, checking on the “young fey” to make sure they were all okay.

  “Oh, you poor things.” He cooed to them, giving extra attention to the ones still just flopping around. Some of the hatchlings had similar enough anatomy to their temporary new forms to be able to crawl around, but those were the best cases. A few didn’t seem able to do more than wiggle helplessly in the dirt. “Don’t worry little ones. We’ll have this whole emergency sorted out and bring you all back home with us afterwards. Seriously, what were those beasts thinking, putting fey children in a living dungeon?!” He exclaimed in a huff as he gently flipped a baby gnome so that it hopefully stopped grinding its face against the ground.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  As she slowly buzzed her way over towards him, she noticed that she’d been laying just a bit away from all the other changed hatchlings. Still in the encirclement’s protection, but just enough to be considered separate from the others.

  Uuuugh, what happened? Wyrmwood groaned as he slowly came to.

  She ignored his groans for now, instead buzzing near the elf. He looked up with interest, yet as he locked eyes with her his interests immediately dimmed quite a bit. He instead showed the passive attentiveness of someone dealing with a disagreeable distant cousin. Veronica briefly wondered if she had distant cousins.

  “Hello young mixling, though you are half-blood and not welcome in our court we will still help you escape from this place.” The caretaker elf said tersely, completely different from the cooing and babying he’d just been lavishing upon the others.

  “Thhhat’s, fine.” Veronica hoarsely croaked out. Well, as hoarsely as a leaky bellow could get anyway. Either way, she was quite proud she’d been able to speak at all with this foreign mouth. Her voice seemed to send a shiver down the elf’s spine, yet he simply waved her off as he instead turned back to doting on the “young fey.”

  Whoa, why’s everything so big? Wyrmwood turned his tiny head towards Veronica’s pixie form. And who are you? He asked in her head, tilting his teeny head sideways in a way that made her heart make a “Squeee!” noise for some reason.

  “It's me, you dummy.” Veronica said with an unchangingly neutral expression. She tried to poke his little face, but he easily dodged her half-hearted attempt with just how thin and flexible he seemed to be as a tail.

  Sister? How are you bigger than me? Did the mana fuzz do this? He asked as he looped around her and took in their new temporary form.

  “Yes, I’m pretty sure that dress lady caused this. The other hatchlings are all like that too now.” She replied, gesturing to the others and their sorry dispositions.

  Where’s Gloriosa and Bixxy? Maybe we can escape together like this? He asked rather excitedly as he twirled and slithered through the air around her in almost hypnotizing movements.

  “Hmmm, I don’t know right now.”

  Veronica buzzed higher up slightly into the tree patch’s canopy and looked down on the transformed, trying to somehow spot the two while she meandered overhead as mosquitos tend to do.

  “How would we even know it's them anyways.”

  …Feel for intent?

  Veronica sighed. “This is gonna be one heck of a first meeting.”

  ? Wyrmwood sent a simple message of confusion.

  “Gloriosa never properly met me before, you know. I don’t exactly have any lungs for speech when I’m your tail you know.”

  ? Wyrmwood’s confusion didn’t go away. You talk to me similar to how Gloriosa does. Would you like to ask her to teach you to talk to others too?

  “I… Its not that… huh.” Veronica hummed with surprise as she thought it over. “That isn’t actually a bad idea. Though, we’ll still have to find them and convince them of who I am first.”

  Also, I do still have lungs like this. Wyrmwood said in her mind as his tiny head made the cutest squeak ever while looking at her with a dead serious expression. It nearly made her heart explode with whatever this new emotion was. She didn’t hate this new feeling though, for some reason.

  ~~~