~~~

  Veronica had thought it would be hard to find Gloriosa and Bixxy, yet it proved to be remarkably easy with how much talking a single gnome was doing.

  “Hey, hey! Mr. Elf-guy! Why won’t you tell me why I’m even shorter and stubbier? Why do my hands look weird? C-can I please go talk to my dad now?” Bixxy asked with a sniffling shake in her tone. She was clearly stressed about the sudden change and the elf trying to soothe her was mistakenly assuring her that they’d be taking all of them to a forest safe and very far away from here soon enough.

  So it was pretty unsurprising that those kinds of assurances were not actually helping her calm down at all.

  Nearby, two more elves were giving a resplendent pixie with luscious green hair and a delicate looking dress made of flower petals the princess treatment.

  “She must be a daughter of one of the court nobles.” One of them said to the other.

  “Assuredly,” agreed the other, “I haven’t seen such a strong nature affinity in well over two hundred years!”

  Said pixie they were doting on looked both confused and uncomfortable as she sat on top of a little bush. Though she still somehow looked almost regal while doing so.

  “Well, I guess this is going to be harder than we thought after all.” Veronica grumped.

  Hmm, should we try to calm Bixxy first? We might have to kidnap Gloriosa on the way out. Wyrmwood suggested, sounding surprisingly reasonable to Veronica for once.

  “I was about to do that!” She humphed anyway.

  Buzzing down to be near, yet slightly behind Bixxy, (to keep a distance from the elf), she cleared her throat before speaking, “You’re Bixxy, right?”

  Hearing her name, the gnome turned around, giving Veronica a better look at Bixxy’s new, temporary form.

  She was short and maybe a little chubby, with a pair of overalls on that were clearly expected to get dirty. Her pointy hat on her head was yellow and floppy past the half way point, her face that of a child, clearly looking worried. Overall, she gave the impression of a tomboyish young gnome that really didn’t know how to deal with her current situation… which was true.

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  “D-do you know me?” She sniffled.

  “Yes,” Veronica stated simply, she wanted to exude calmness to soothe her proxy friend. “You remember Wyrmwood, right? Big, stupidly long, not great with words?”

  Hey! Veronica’s tail shouted in her mind as his tiny head squeaked indignantly. The noise attracted Bixxy’s attention and she locked on to him when she recognized his minuscule face.

  She looked in surprise between his form and Veronica’s face a few times before questioning, “But I thought Wyrmwood was a boy?” With a very confused look on her face.

  The look on her face and her words were too much for Veronica as she burst out into a fit of giggles despite herself.

  “Gehehehe, he is, heh heh, I’m basically his sister, geheheh.” She finally managed to wheeze in response.

  “…So, is that really him?” Bixxy asked, pointing at Wyrmwood’s little, huffing-in-outrage, dragon face.

  “Yes, that’s him.”

  Bixxy fiddled with her overall straps, still behaving rather subdued because of the situation.

  “Hi, Wyrmwood.” She waved at him, “you, umm, look really cute like that.” She said with momentary shyness.

  With a tiny huff Wyrmwood moved close to Bixxy before booping her on the cheek with his snout, causing her to giggle and brighten up.

  With Bixxy’s mood restoring, Veronica’s mind went into momentary overdrive to think of how to get Bixxy’s help with their escape.

  “So, Bixxy,” she started with a conniving grin, unintentionally showcasing her unnatural needle teeth, “how about you help us grab Gloriosa and we all sneak out to… find your father?”

  Bixxy brightened once more at the mention of her dad.

  “Yeah! Dad will know what to do! And it can be an adventure with me and all my friends! I’ve always wanted to go on one of those!”

  “Yezzzz.” Veronica buzzed with a malicious grin that the naturally innocent Bixxy didn’t notice. “By the way, my name is Veronica.”

  ~~~

  Bixxy’s new(?) friend Veronica was very clever.

  After waking up as a little fleshy person without scales, Bixxy had been very confused. But every time she tried to go ask her dad, one of these tall fleshy people got in the way! Bixxy was starting to think she might be in trouble before the rough looking bug-girl showed up!

  She had little buzzy wings and said she was Wyrmwood’s sister! Which didn’t make sense because she’s a little bug-girl and Wyrmwood is a big dragon. But then she showed that he had become her tail, and he was really tiny now, and still a bit grumpy, and it was soooo cuuuute!!! Seeing Wyrmwood still kinda looking like and being himself had made Bixxy feel relieved somehow. It had been the first face she’d actually recognized since everything went crazy.

  And then Veronica had told Bixxy her name and suggested they go on a big adventure! She’d always wanted to go on one of those!

  Now the first plan was simple; Bixxy would cause a distaction… dissation?… distraction! She would get everyone’s attention and then Veronica would be sneaky and sneak away with Gloriosa and they would all meet up… somewhere. Bixxy had been distracted because a little fleshy person like her had started screaming unintelligibly at the little fleshy person that had been inchworming around all of a sudden. When the inchworming one had ignored the one screaming at it, it somehow got more angry!

  That’s when it suddenly burst into flames.

  There were shouts of surprise from all the tall people, most of which started running over to try and help somehow, and when Bixxy looked back at Veronica, she was already gone.

  ~~~

  any world is that events are actually always seemingly tripping over each other in an effort to happen all at once. Also, Veronica is pretty ruthless.