[Mkguild] Part 3 of Changing Fortunes

[Daniel Michalek]

Here is the third part of my story. Comments appreciated; enjoy!
KillerNarwhal

The next morning Kag and Cheep walked through Keeptowne, this time ignoring
most of the vendors, although stopping to get some breakfast at the bakery
run by the capybara whose name they learned was Gregor. They complimented
the tabby cat morph at the counter on the delicious pastries and headed off
to the castle.



Cheep gazed in wonder at the sheer scale of the structure; he had to look
almost straight up to see the top, even before he got near the doors. To
his disappointment, Kag led him inside almost immediately.



“What is in here that is more interesting than the outside?” Cheep asked as
they walked through the entry chamber and down a long hallway of grey and
singularly unimpressive stone.



“You’ll see.”



“Hrmph.”



They walked and walked until eventually, Cheep noticed that they had been
going down the same straight hallway for quite some time.



“How long is this hallway? It seems like we should be on the other side of
the castle by now, and there haven’t been any rooms or connecting hallways.
This is a weird building.”



“You’re right, this is a long and boring hallway. In fact, if it didn’t
move, we would have been outside the castle walls about ten minutes ago.”



“I’m sorry, did you just say move? And connect that word to a hallway in a
huge stone castle? Are you okay?”



“I’m completely serious. The passages move. There is no set way to get
anywhere except focus on the place and keep moving; the only reason we seem
to have been in a long hallway is that you were following me and I focused
on long, empty hallways. Now think of the library or something and see what
happens as we keep walking.”



“You are so joking. I am not falling for this. There is no way.”



“Have I ever lied to you or tried to trick you before?”



“I… no, I guess not. But that is just unbelievable!”



“Just try it. Focus on some place or some person and the Keep will take you
there. That is, if she likes you.”



“Likes me? The castle is alive now? And female?”



“No, but there is a nymph named Kyia who supposedly controls the whole
place. There are only a lucky few who have had the privilege of seeing her
and talking to her.”



“Okay, now I know you’ve lost it.”



“Just focus on something.”



“The Duke’s chambers.”



“All right then. Let’s see what happens.”



They only had to walk for another minute before they noticed a large
elaborate door ahead on the left with a pair of armed guards standing at
either side.



“No way.”



“Way.”



Cheep approached one of the guards. “Hey, can I go through this door?”



The guard, who was a wolf morph, gruffly responded, “The Duke is not
available for audience at the moment. You can only see him by appointment,
though if you have some pressing concern, you can send a message to the
Steward.”



“No freaking way.”



“Way.”



“I’m sorry, what?”



“I was just demonstrating the Keep’s variable geometry to my friend here.
He is new to Metamor,” explained Kag with a smirk.



“Ah. Carry on then, but no loitering around here or we’ll have to escort
you outside.”



“That won’t be a problem. Thank you for your time.”



With that he continued down the hallway, Cheep following with a look of
utter disbelief still hanging on his face.



“No freaking way.”



“How about you try finding something else? The mess hall, maybe. I’m
getting hungry.”



They continued walking, though now the passageway had occasional turns and
doors. Finally, they stopped in front of a large doorway from which was
emanating the smells of cooked meat and other foods. They paid the
bored-looking turtle morph standing at the door and entered. They saw a
large room with tables all over the floor, set largely into two groups,
soon recognizable as being for carnivores and herbivores, designated by the
large platters of meat on one group of tables and of fresh fruits and
vegetables on the other. They saw animal morphs classifiable as omnivores
and normal-looking humans at both sets of tables, displaying that the
segregation was out of dietary necessity and not prejudice. Cheep had
always enjoyed a good rabbit stew, but he was also partial to oranges. He
headed over to the herbivore tables, partially in the hopes of finding some
of a singularly odd fruit he had tasted only once but had enjoyed immensely
at an exotic fruit vendor’s stand a few years back. He never learned the
name, but the fruits were bright yellow and curved rather than round, and
had a thick peel that you removed before eating the soft, succulent inner
flesh. He spied a bunch of the unique fruit on one of the platters and
eagerly made his way to the table and snatched one up before even sitting
down, excitement radiating from his face.



“Somebody like bananas, it seems,” remarked a rabbit morph in leather armor
who was nibbling on a carrot.



“You’re one to talk, Mr. Carrot Breath!” countered a jovial cow morph, who
was chewing a mouthful of grass.



“Shut up!”



The cow just laughed and continued chewing.



“So these are called ‘bananas’?” asked Cheep, who had already peeled his
and was happily chewing his third bite.



“You didn’t know? Though I guess these aren’t common everywhere. Where are
you from, kid?”



“I don’t know, somewhere down south. Well, sort of. I grew up there.
Orphaned from someplace across a sea, but I don’t know where. I don’t
exactly have a happy past.”



“Sorry to hear that. I’m Padraic, by the way. Sorry about earlier, you just
had a look on your face that was highly amusing.”



“No worries.”



Cheep and his massive companion enjoyed various and sundry delectable
plants and plant-based foods before washing up at a nearby basin and
heading out again. Down the hallway they walked, this time thinking of
everything they could imagine and seeing it and more appear as they
continued traveling through the Keep. They stopped at several shops built
into the Keep, including a smithy operated by a huge white tiger morph.
They saw his weapons for sale and Cheep saw a particularly ornate set of
five-sided throwing stars. He practically drooled at their beauty, but he
held back, knowing they would only be worth his coin if they were of good
weapon quality.



“Are these balanced, or just wall decorations? I can feel that they are
sharp,” he said as he fingered the edge of one.



The tiger looked indignant, almost furious. “Are you questioning my honor?
I only make weapons of the highest quality. To question their merit is to
insult my honor.”



“Whoa, whoa, whoa! No, that’s not what I meant at all. I mean no dishonor
or insult. I just wanted to know if these are as useful as they are pretty.”



“I can assure you they are perfectly balanced and they will fly true and
retain their sharpness longer than any others you can find in this country.”



With that the tiger picked up a star and expertly threw it into the exact
middle of a wooden dummy’s head about thirty feet away.



“Can I try?” Cheep asked.



“I suppose you can, but be very careful.”



Cheep smiled and turned the small bladed weapon over in his hands to get a
feel for the weight. He flipped it back and forth between his hands a few
times, and threw it in much the same way as the tiger had with similar
results, only the star was embedded in the dummy’s throat.



“Very nice. I apologize for any offence I may have communicated, intended
or otherwise How much are these?”



“I can accept no less than seven gold suns for the set.”



Cheep took out his money pouch and counted the remains of his money. He had
enough for the set of shuriken and only a few coppers more. He breathed a
sigh of relief and passed the coins to the tiger, who had an amused look on
his face.



“I think he was expecting you to haggle,” Kag said.



“Oh.”



Cheep looked up hopefully at the tiger, who simply shrugged and deposited
the coins into a strongbox behind a counter.



“Whoops. I guess I know for next time.” Cheep said disappointedly as he
walked out. Kag smiled sympathetically.





As they made their way out of the Keep proper and back into town before the
market closed and they would depart with the caravan again, Cheep sighed,
and said, “I kind of wish I could stay here. Guarding may pay fairly well,
but it’s so boring. There is so much to do and see here. I don’t think I
would even mind being an animal, as long as I wasn’t a reptile or
something.”



“It’s more likely that you’d either become a woman or stay a child,” Kag
reminded him.



They heard a commotion on the street behind them, and as they turned, they
noticed that it followed a coyote morph sprinting past them toward the
gates. After he passed, Kag was able to make out the words of one of the
people who ran down the street gibbering, a look of wild terror in his
eyes. Kag’s curiosity turned to fear and he stiffened as the words sent a
chill down his spine.



“Plague! We’re all gonna die!” the donkey morph was now running on all
fours, his words becoming brays. “Baaaaa-HAW! HEE HAWW!”



Kag looked at Cheep, who didn’t know what to think or how to respond, and
said, “Well, my friend, it appears that you may get your wish.”



“What?”



“If there really is Plague here, they will have to quarantine the city.
It’s not worth the risk of spreading, even if it kills every last soul
here.”



Cheep looked horrified. “I heard of Plague once before, when my old slave
drivers told me what happened to my real parents. They apparently had heard
this secondhand and couldn’t tell me any more, unfortunately.”



They made their way through the still mostly oblivious crowd toward the
gates, which were, sure enough, oddly closed. There was a small but growing
crowd of caravans and other travelers trying to leave the city, but the
guards would let no one through. They tried to find Morty and his caravan,
but they had apparently just made it through the gates before they were
closed. The two exchanged worried looks. They heard a commotion behind them
and saw a yellow flag being raised on one of the towers of the castle.



“Okaaaay… so now what?” Cheep asked blank-faced after they had overcome
their initial shock of being quarantined and made their way back toward the
Keep.



“I guess we make arrangements for a long-term stay. That, and try to avoid
the Plague.”



“Ah.”





They entered the Keep again, this time focusing on the Steward in the hopes
that he would not be too busy to help them. They found his office after
only a few dozen steps. There was already a short line outside his door.
They joined it and waited. The line quickly grew behind them as they
noticed that the passage behind them now connected to several different
corridors from which streamed numerous people.



They waited for the Steward to finish with the person in front of them and
walked into his office. The alligator morph was obviously overwhelmed and a
bit irritable.



“Before you ask, no, you can’t leave. It doesn’t matter what you have to do
or how long you have been here or who is waiting outside the gates. They
will have to wait, and NO ONE is leaving. Now, how can I help you?”



“We weren’t actually going to ask to leave. We know the city is under
quarantine. We just wanted to know if you can help us find a place to stay.
I have a bit of money left, but my friend here doesn’t, and we can’t afford
to stay at inns for more than a couple of days. We need something more
long-term.”



“Ah, well, that’s a different issue. I apologize for being a bit rude, but
I have my claws full at the moment, as I’m sure you can imagine. I’m sure
we can find you something suitable. What can you do? To clarify, what trade
do you practice?”



“We were caravan guards, but my friend here is also an acrobat. What jobs
would be available to us?”



“Well, certainly the Watch, but you may prefer to be scouts. You will want
to report to George if the latter is true, the Watch office if the former.”



“Thank you. Where can we stay?”



“The Keep has been making a lot of new doors recently, but we can probably
arrange temporary housing until you find yours.”



“Making?” Cheep stared at the alligator incredulously.



“Oh, you must be new here. Yes, Kyia makes new doors and their accompanying
rooms appear sometimes, whenever she knows someone will be staying here
permanently. They are usually custom made to their designated occupant.”



“Thank you.”



“NEXT!”





Cheep felt like his head was spinning with all the crazy things he had seen
that week. First, talking animal-men. Then women who weren’t women, but
men, and children who were grandparents. Then, a castle with moving
corridors, haunted by a mysterious being who apparently had a mischievous
sense of humor. The prospect of a quiet room with a bed was growing more
and more appealing. As they walked down the shifting hallways once again,
Kag drew to a halt in front of a large wooden door.



“I’d say we have the favor of the Lady Kyia.”



“What makes you say that?”



“This door has our names on it.”



“Oh. Really?”



“You can’t read?”



“I can, but I’ve never actually seen my name written before.”



“Ah. Well, I guess that must be how you spell it. Shall we explore?”



Cheep nodded and Kag opened the large ironbound door. Through this they
found a wide room with a table and two chairs, one very large and
sturdy-looking, the other smaller, but both with a large unusual hole in
the back at the level of the seat. There was also a food cabinet as well as
a fireplace and cozy hearth, with a door on either side of the room that
led to their respective bedrooms. Kag assumed the one with the large arched
doorway was his, even though he couldn’t imagine why it would need to be so
wide even if it was custom-fit for him. Cheep’s door was smaller and
innocuous, but the room beyond was bizarre to say the least. The bed, if
you could call it that, was a sort of hammock with a mattress in it, and
the wooden closet was normal enough, but the first thing Cheep noticed was
that EVERYTHING was at least six feet off the ground! There were ladders
all over the walls, and wooden beams that stretched across the room from
each of the room’s features to the others, closer to the high ceiling than
the floor. He looked on in wonder, glad that he had long ago lost his fear
of heights since this was apparently to be his room. He would have to climb
to get to anything! He already felt tired at the notion.



Kag fared better, but everything seemed so much bigger and sturdier than
necessary. The bed was as wide as he was tall, although just a foot off the
floor, and seemed to have a solid wood base instead of legs like the beds
he was used to. There was another chair like the one in the main room that
was of average height, but looked as though it were designed to bear an
elephant instead of a man.



They reconvened in the living room, and Cheep asked “Weren’t these rooms
supposed to be custom designed for the person who was to live in them?”



“Yes.”



“Then why the heck is everything above my head??”



“I don’t know, but I expect it has something to do with the Curse. I think
I heard someone say that they thought their room was weird until they
changed. Maybe Kyia has designed them to fit our Cursed forms. They seem to
be animals.”



Cheep looked worried for a moment. “Do you think it will hurt?”



“I have no idea. It is different for different people. Some people change
quickly, some slowly. I heard of a beaver who took almost two months to
finish changing. Some report a painful change, while others say it feels
like breathing, only different.”



“I wonder what I will become.”



“Well, judging from your chambers, I would say something that is a good
climber. But I don’t know animals that well. I expect to become something
really big. Well, something bigger and heavier than I am now, I mean.
Everything in my room is heavy-duty.”



“Hmmm. I guess all we can do now is wait.”



“Yep, I agree. Although we should talk to this George in the morning, or
whatever the other place was.”



“Okay. Good night, I guess.”



“Good night.”



Kag yawned as he loped back to his room, and Cheep looked a bit annoyed at
the prospect of having to climb that high into bed. He decided to just make
the best of things, and climbed a ladder on the nearest wall. From this, he
had to walk across a narrow beam stretching across the room until it
intersected with another one at right angles, and balanced along this one
until he came to the hammock.



“One of these days, I’m going to seriously injure myself doing this!” he
remarked as he dropped into the comfortable bed.





They woke the next morning bright and early, the sun streaming in through
previously unnoticed windows. Cheep stretched as he rose, noting that he
felt more limber and flexible than normal. Kag rose from his gigantic bed
without noticing any difference. As he buckled on his massive claymore, he
noticed that the strap buckled in the next hole down from the one that
normally fit; there was a deep crease in the leather from wearing it the
same way for years. He concluded that the curse must have started setting
in already, and continued getting ready. Cheep met Kag in their shared
living room and they went to the mess hall to get breakfast before trying
to find George. Kag noticed that the beef shank he ate tasted less
flavorful than it normally would, but the fruit tasted better.


!DSPAM:4f96b3ef64762130720353!
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