<html> <head> <style></style> </head> <body class='hmmessage'> Kiba lay there, defeated… cursed… he’d become something furry and very small, though he was too busy crying to look, hidden under his shredded robes just in front of  Metamor’s gates, though he didn’t know it.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> Before he could even calm down, he found himself seized by two giant hands, giant even by his new small standards. Wait, hands? No… they were paws, not hands! And they were rough! Ow! They squeezed him into a thick leather bag, along with his robes! He couldn’t move!<o:p></o:p> “Ugh, why isn’t deh squad leader here dis tuh-mornin’…? I gottah deal wiff all dese mis-kreents muhself…” Someone poked at the bag with the flailing Kiba inside. “Now, uhh… y-you stay in there! Imma take you tuh mah squad leader’s temp-placement… she’ll know whudda do withya…” <o:p></o:p> “Let me out! Please let me out!!” Kiba cried, tears streaming as he kicked and flailed. The bag was too thick to claw his way out and his robes were taking more damage than the leather! Where was his staff!? He needed his staff! It wasn’t in the bag with him!<o:p></o:p>          The bear dragged Kiba a short ways further into the Keep, just inside the gates, where his squad leader’s temporary replacement sat. She sat on a supply crate, cross legged, looking quite bored when she heard the commotion coming from the bear and his bag.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p>          “Ugh, what’s that big lunk up to now? He’d better not have- oh great, he did.” She slapped her forehead in frustration at Modeo, her temporary charge. Her long, pointed ears folded backwards and her long tail with a brown tuft at the end swished around. She adjusted her giant goggles on her forehead to look more dignified, waiting for him to approach.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p>          The squad leader stood on the crate, drawing herself up to her full height of four feet and seven inches. She had shrunk during her transformation, which annoyed her because as a human she had been short already. She tugged on her clothes, getting the wrinkles out so she didn’t appear to have been slacking off… which she had been. Modeo was so dumb that he wouldn’t have noticed her slacking off if she brought a beach umbrella and a coconut drink with her. But she didn’t want to count on his intelligence, or lack thereof, to keep herself out of trouble.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p>          That’s why she was here… she was in trouble. She’d accidentally broken a statue of some old fart while showing off her arsenal and been placed on guard duty with this stupid bear who irritated her to no end! Gah, she just wanted to get away from this numbskull.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p>             She wore a long gray overcoat that went down to her knees, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. Underneath the coat was a pinkish purplish shirt and pants. Her left arm was adorned with a strange contraption of her own build, a gauntlet that was full of spring-loaded weapons. A perfect build for assassinating someone without being caught… Modeo was afraid of her for it. She loved ‘showing’ it to him every chance she got so she could scare him with it.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p>                 “Modeo!” She glowered at him, trying to look unintimidated by the large bear that stood twice her height. She wasn’t as afraid of him as he was of her. To prove this she raised her left arm, the one with the gauntlet, in his direction, making him cringe and put up his arms defensively, standing on one leg and leaning away from her. She wondered if she’d held it closer if he would fall over backwards. That would be hilarious.<o:p></o:p>             “Modeo, how many times have I told you?” She pointed accusingly at him. <o:p></o:p>             “Uhh… dat wouldah be… twice now, Miss Yasha?”<o:p></o:p>             “No. And my name is Iasha!” She narrowed her eyes. “That’s –thrice-. And THIS is the FOURTH time! Stop bagging people!” Her arm lowered toward the bag, pointing at it instead of him. “Who’s in there? Hmm? Who!? Go on, open it and apologize!”<o:p></o:p>             She watched as Modeo put the bag on the ground and began fumbling with the ties. She waited while he accidentally tied it tighter by pulling the wrong string, make that stupid ‘duhhh’ sound, and start all over again… Grr! She couldn’t take this! Iasha yanked on a wire in her gauntlet, a long blade springing outward and sliced the top of the bag off.<o:p></o:p>             “Aaaiieeee!” Modeo jumped backward, landing on the opposing wall behind him. “Duhh, you coulda cut mah hands off, Miss Yasha!” He sniffed, “You killed baggy.”<o:p></o:p>             “Oh shut up, you big baby. It’s what you get for being an idiot.” Her ears perked when she heard more crying below, coming from the bag. “What the… Modeo, you bagged some kina rac?” She sighed, agitated. “Great… now we gotta go report him. Good job.”<o:p></o:p>             Kiba sat up, breathing in the fresh air. He still had tears staining his fur. He immediately tried to make a run for it, but fell over as soon as he tried to take a step. What now?! Oh no, he was tangled up in his robes! He fought against them, pulling and struggling. He needed to find his staff! No matter if it was from the treacherous Master, he didn’t associate it with him anymore!<o:p></o:p>             Iasha sighed again. “Great, looks like I have to be nice.” She squatted in front of the panicking Kiba and forced a smile. “Umm, hey little guy. It’s gonna be okay. Come here…” She said in a soothing tone, holding her arms out to Kiba.<o:p></o:p>             “No… no, stay away!” He said, horrified at her vulpine visage. Itwas a monster! Some kind of demon fox! He had to get away!<o:p></o:p> Iasha’s arms drop to her sides and she squinted at him, annoyed, tail twitching behind her. “Alright you little punk, I tried being nice!” She seized him by the scruff of the back of his neck, wrenching him and his tangled robes off the ground and held the blade to his throat.<o:p></o:p> “Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is you cooperate and we take you in for a report, or the hard way which involves painting my shiny blade red. Capiche?”<o:p></o:p> It was all happening too fast… first he changed… twice! Then he was bagged and tossed around, then a monster fox had scared him and now he was being held in the air by his neck with a sword to his throat! It was too much… Kiba cried like a small child. He –felt- like a small child.<o:p></o:p> Iasha slapped her forehead in frustration again. Ugh! Today sucked! She stuffed the crying rac back into the bag and retied it. “Modeo, you take this.” She sheathed her blade again. “It’s too much for me to handle today!”<o:p></o:p> “Uhh, d’okay… err, hey, what’s this shiny thingy?” He asked, picking up the staff that Kiba had left on the ground. “Dis was where dah lil’ coon thingy was…”<o:p></o:p> “That, Modeo, is a mage’s staff. It’s probably his, then. Take it with us.” She saw the word burned into the side. “Kiba, eh? What an odd name.” She said to herself.<o:p></o:p> <DIV style="BORDER-BOTTOM: windowtext 1pt solid; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-element: para-border-div; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt"> <P style="BORDER-BOTTOM: medium none; BORDER-LEFT: medium none; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0in; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt; PADDING-LEFT: 0in; PADDING-RIGHT: 0in; BORDER-TOP: medium none; BORDER-RIGHT: medium none; PADDING-TOP: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in" class=MsoNormal>“Uhh, okay den.” He slipped it into one of his giant pockets. It could have been a toothpick to him. The most expensive toothpick he’d ever use.<o:p></o:p></DIV> <o:p> </o:p> Kiba didn’t know where he was any more. He curled up into as tight a ball as he could in the bag, sniffling and sobbing. He felt himself being carried through what seemed to him like endless miles of hallways. There were occasional voices outside. He could smell food at one point and there was a clattering of glasses before that faded away and he could hear someone laughing loudly elsewhere. That too left him and he heard a heavy oak door squeaking open on its hinges, then it was quiet  but for a quill scratching on parchment.<o:p></o:p> He heard someone clear their throat and the writing stopped. Kiba heard a small ‘plunk’ as the quill was placed back in an inkwell… he couldn’t believe he was hearing all this. Sounds that should have been too quiet for Kiba to ever hear were as audible as if someone were speaking clearly right next to him!<o:p></o:p> “Sir.” It was Iasha’s voice. “Modeo and I found a stranger outside the front gate.” Kiba felt himself being hoisted upward as Modeo waved the bag in the air. He stifled a scared yelp, not being a fan of jostled around much.<o:p></o:p> “Modeo, stop that! Anyway, he must have been here a while because he’s not human.” Kiba whimpered when she said this, not wanting to be reminded of his current plight.<o:p></o:p> “I’m not sure that he’s familiar with the Keep, because he freaked at seeing me and Modeo. Not the ‘Oh shit, it’s the police, run!’ kind of fear, but ‘Oh my god it’s a monster!’ kind. Err… if you get what I mean, sir. As much as I’d like to attribute it to my aura of menace, I’m not sure that’s the case.”<o:p></o:p> Kiba felt a jab to his side, making him yelp and startle. It came again and he whimpered as he tried to shift around to escape whatever it was hitting him.<o:p></o:p> “Modeo, will you knock it off!?” Iasha’s voice rang out. Modeo had been poking the bag, bored from standing and waiting for Iasha to rattle off every little detail about finding their new friend.<o:p></o:p> The next sound that befell Kiba’s ears shocked him…<o:p></o:p> “Yes, Mister Modeo, I agree with Miss Iasha. Would you be so kind as to leave the… convict here in our care? Return to guarding the front gates if you’d be so kind.”<o:p></o:p> The reason it shocked him was because it was a child speaking! The voice couldn’t have been any older than ten!<o:p></o:p> “D’aww, but I wanted tuh see dah lil’ ‘coon thing…”<o:p></o:p> “Modeo…”the voice got stern. “I said go. Don’t make me have to tell you again.”<o:p></o:p> “Aw, okay. Uhh, here. Dis is his, uhh… shiny staff thing…” Kiba felt himself lowered down before being held more closely by someone else. The door opened and he could hear more voices, then it closed again and they were gone.<o:p></o:p> “Anyway,” The young voice continued, “It’s rude to bag and tie people like Modeo did. He’ll be punished for it, Iasha, rest assured. Your assignment will only last for one more week and you can be rid of him. That bear annoys me as well, believe me. Anyway, you may leave now. I’ll ask our guest the rest of the questions myself. Thank you for reporting him.”<o:p></o:p> Kiba felt the bag be put down on something soft, and then the door was opened, letting the sounds outside spill inbefore being closed again with a thud and a click. Then silence. Kiba waited, not daring to speak. He could feel a pair of young eyes on him even through the bag.<o:p></o:p> He felt a slight tug on the bag, heard cloth sliding against leather, and then the bag fell away, leaving him curled up in a soft chair in a tangled mess of fur and robes. He sat up as best he could, eyes darting about the room.<o:p></o:p> Kiba saw a sophisticated office, a large polished oak desk sat before him, stacks of books on each side. There was an inkwell with a quill in it sitting atop a page of parchment with fresh writing. The floor was wooden with a large rug in the middle in front of the door, tall bookshelves lining each wall filled with more books.<o:p></o:p> The desk was what held his attention the most, for sitting on it was his staff. Behind the desk was a young child. He did indeed look ten years old. He wore clothing far too mature for him. Half moon spectacles sat on his short nose, threatening to fall off if he didn’t have a sudden growth spurt.  Indeed, he had to push them back up his nose every few seconds.<o:p></o:p> He leans forward in his chair, looking at Kiba over his glasses. He glances down to the staff with Kiba’s name on it.<o:p></o:p> “So, Kyebah?” He says, pronouncing it wrong. “What brings you into our Keep?”<o:p></o:p> Kiba couldn’t think. He just sat there, staring in wide eyed fear, shivering visibly as he clutched his ruined robes to his chest. He was cursed! It kept passing through his mind. His human form had been ripped from him by the one he thought he could trust, leaving him as some small, furry abomination!<o:p></o:p> He was a cursed person, sitting in a cursed Keep in front of another of the cursed… cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed! He had to find a wizard to change him back before it was too late! He had to get help!<o:p></o:p> “Err… it is Kyebah, is it not? Please correct me if I’m saying it wrong. I understand you must be, umm... Confused? Uhh… Mister Kyebah? Are you feeling ill?”<o:p></o:p> Kiba didn’t respond, his eyes not focusing on anything at all and yet everything at the same time, darting around the room in nervousness.<o:p></o:p> Okay, obviously he’s in shock. The child thought to himself. He’s definitely new here. This is odd. I wonder what kind of magic he’d been trifling with to get himself hit with two curses at once. I won’t be able to say a word to him until he calms down, but I can’t wait for that.<o:p></o:p> “Mister Kyebah, I’m going to perform a simple procedure on you.” said the youth, dismounting from his chair and walking around the desk so he was next to Kiba. “A little magical massage to calm you down so you can answer my questions. You don’t have any need to worry.”<o:p></o:p> Kiba still didn’t make any response. He glanced at the kid once and then retreated back inside his own head, which was currently violated with fear. He startled slightly when the child placed his hand on his head and began rubbing. Kiba could feel tendrils of magic flowing through his skull to his brain, probing at certain areas.<o:p></o:p> The technique soon began to work as it always did. The pinpointed pressure on certain parts of one’s brain would encourage the release of calming endorphins, a science well beyond the youth’s own time. But that was why he was here. SOMEONE had to be smart in this world.<o:p></o:p> Kiba shuddered and relaxed noticeably, sighing and closing his eyes. He leaned into the boy’s rubbing and an odd sound began to come from his throat. he was… churring? Kiba didn’t care if he was making weird sounds. This boy was making him feel good; he never thought he’d feel good again! He was grateful for it.<o:p></o:p> “I assume you feel better now. Are you ready to answer my questions now, Kyebah?” Asked the youth, adding a few scritches to Kiba’s ears for encouragement.<o:p></o:p> “I…” Kiba finally regained his composure, if slightly. “M-my name is Kiba… s-sir?” Why were they calling him ‘sir’? Maybe he’d better play along. There could have been a reason for the way Iasha and Modeo acted towards the youth.<o:p></o:p> “Ah, Kiba’s how it’s pronounced, is it? Very well, Kiba.” The child sat back into his chair, seeming taller than he should be when he does so. “Oh, would you like a tome? Or… two?”<o:p></o:p> “A… a t-tome…?” Kiba stuttered, trying to hold his nervousness at bay.<o:p></o:p> “A big book, child.” Says the child. “To sit on? So I don’t have to lean over my desk to see you?” He sighs.<o:p></o:p> “Uhh… o-okay…?”<o:p></o:p> “Very good.” The child grabs two of the largest books from his desk and hauls them around to Kiba. “Uff! These… are not my most… favorite volumes… anyway!” He huffs between words.  “Up please?”<o:p></o:p> “Uhh… what…? O-oh…” Kiba stands in the chair, to the side, and the child places the books where he’d been sitting previously with a loud thud.<o:p></o:p> “Guh! Whew… those are heavy. There you go. Sit on those if you don’t mind.”<o:p></o:p> Kiba sits on the large books, still clutching his robes like a security blanket. “I… I was told to stay there… sir… by my master.” He sniffs. “He tried to poison me…”<o:p></o:p> “Poison? If he tried to poison you, then why did you not flee?”<o:p></o:p> “I did! I ran as fast as I could… I was ch-changing… i-into th-this…” He sniffs, looking at his newly acquired paws. Tears begin streaming from his eyes again, soaking his fur.<o:p></o:p> “I mean when he tried to poison you, lad.”<o:p></o:p> “I do too…” He whines.<o:p></o:p> “He was outside the walls with you, then?”<o:p></o:p> “No! He… I...”<o:p></o:p> “Okay, okay, let’s slow down and take this one step at a time, Mister Kiba.”<o:p></o:p> Kiba stares at the floor, hiding his body under his robes so he didn’t have to stare at himself. His tail hung out, though, he had no idea how to hide it, so he closed his eyes.<o:p></o:p> “Let me explain your situation to you, Kiba, since you obviously don’t seem to understand it. You’ve been afflicted by two of the three transformation curses on Metamor Keep, the very curses that the residents here live with every day of our lives. It appears you’ve been transfigured into a raccoon morph, AND you’ve been age regressed as well. I’m not sure if you were hit by the third curse, unless of course you used to be female?”<o:p></o:p> “N-no…” Kiba shakes his head.<o:p></o:p> “Very well. Anyway, what surprises me is not that you were cursed, but that you were cursed twice. Usually residents only pick up one of them. Were you tampering with any magic? Any force that could influence the curse, or any other curses?”<o:p></o:p> “I… my amulet… those charms…” Kiba says, feeling more tears coming. “M-my anti-curse amulet broke r-right before I started ch-changing…” Kiba stutters.<o:p></o:p> “Ah, so you –did- know of the curse? That’s why you brought an anti-curse amulet with you, right?” He asks, having never heard of an ‘anti-curse amulet’. <o:p></o:p> “Y-yes… but I thought I could escape it… I thought Itmen would protect me.”<o:p></o:p> “Itmen? Who?”<o:p></o:p> “….Itmen’s not real.” Kiba admits for the first time in his life.<o:p></o:p> “I’m sorry; I’m not sure what you mean.” Says the boy.<o:p></o:p> “M-my god… Itmen… lord of the light… keeper of truth and solace… My whole village worshipped him… he was supposed to protect me from being cursed. I used his anti curse charm… I was wrong.” Kiba sighed sadly, hanging his head. A few tears fell into his lap.<o:p></o:p> “So let me get this straight. You were promised that this god… Itmen, was it? You were promised that this ‘Itmen’ would protect you from Metamor’s curse? My child, nothing can protect you from it. Not unless you stay well away.”<o:p></o:p> “Stop calling me child! I’m eighteen years old, kid!” Kiba yelled, suddenly losing his temper, pointing an accusing claw at the boy.<o:p></o:p> The boy just stared at him, a smirk on his face. “And I’m fifty three.”<o:p></o:p> “Wh-what…?” <o:p></o:p> He nods. “I’m Professor Harlan, Metamor Keep’s top scholar. Well I’m beyond a scholar now. I’m the know-all guy to come to if you have any questions. I’m just as cursed as you are.”<o:p></o:p> “S-so that’s why… those other two were answering to you like that.” Kiba’s eyes found their way back to his staff lying on the table.<o:p></o:p> “Yes. That’s why. Kiba, would you like to see a mirror?”<o:p></o:p> “A what?”<o:p></o:p> “A mirror, boy! A reflective surface made of polished silver with a layer of glass over it!”<o:p></o:p> “Silver is too expensive where I come from.” Kiba replied quietly, fidgeting in place. He was uncomfortable in this body. He wanted out!<o:p></o:p> “Oh, I see. Lonely village, then?”<o:p></o:p> “Trenador… sir.”<o:p></o:p> “Never heard of it.”<o:p></o:p> “….oh.”<o:p></o:p> “Anyway, my question stands. Would you like to see a mirror? Most new arrivals do. Some, however, cringe away from them, denying their fate.”<o:p></o:p> “F-fate? No. No, I have to change back. S-see I have to get b-back home! M-my whole family is waiting for me! My mom and dad!”<o:p></o:p> Harlan shakes his head. “I’m sorry, but this is who you are now. There’s no escaping the curse once you’re caught. For seven years now our best wizards have tried to lift it; all attempts have failed.”<o:p></o:p> “B-but…” Kiba once more broke down into tears, sobbing into his robes and getting them wet.<o:p></o:p> “You really are a child, aren’t you, crying like that? Suck it up, man, you’ll get over it! We all do!” Harlan chastised. “No really, stop crying… please? Kiba?” He sounded concerned, for Kiba hadn’t stopped sobbing in the slightest.<o:p></o:p> He was stuck this way forever!? He felt horrible… crushed! Master had tried to poison him, he couldn’t ever change back, and he was a furry abomination! Twice cursed!<o:p></o:p> “Kiba, Kiba, please!” Harlan once more approaches the side of his chair and places a hand on his furry head, once more working his magic. It wasn’t as effective this time against Kiba’s sorrow. The spell didn’t work on this level of pain! He proceeded to rub the racoon’s head anyway, scritching his ears too.<o:p></o:p> Kiba sniffs loudly, attempting to talk between sobs. “My… my parents… they’ll still love me…” He whimpers. “I can move back in with them…”<o:p></o:p> “I’m sorry, no. Transformations such as yourself… well they can’t leave the Keep. Kiba, you have to understand; your life is no longer what it once was. Your parents won’t accept you… it’s the sad truth. We’ve had cases where transformations insisted on leaving, only to return with near mortal injuries from the loved ones they were so in a hurry to get back to. Most of the injuries I speak of were done to the person’s soul. Crushed. You’ll find acceptance only here, Kiba.”<o:p></o:p> Kiba whimpered and clutched his robe to himself again, once more shivering. His sobbing subsided as he began to think about his life.<o:p></o:p> “I… I really can’t go back?” his voice was a high pitched whine.<o:p></o:p> “Not unless you’re willing to risk being burned at the stake. Didn’t you say your master tried to poison you?”<o:p></o:p> “I… I don’t… know…”<o:p></o:p> “What don’t you know, Kiba?”<o:p></o:p> “I just don’t!” He hid his head under his robes, his ears still sticking out. “I can’t go back  home… I don’t have anyone to turn to. I’m all alone!” He whined mournfully.<o:p></o:p> “You’ll make friends here, Kiba. Everyone does. We’re all in the same boat here; we sympathize with you. Now, about that mirror…”<o:p></o:p> Kiba’s life had definitely changed. So much for being a priest.<o:p></o:p> <hr />Chat with Messenger straight from your Hotmail inbox. <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowslive/hotmail_bl1/hotmail_bl1.aspx?ocid=PID23879::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-ww:WM_IMHM_4:092009' target='_new'>Check it out</a> !DSPAM:4b1ae572106231804284693! </body> </html>