Here is the third part of my story. Comments appreciated; enjoy!<div>KillerNarwhal <div> </div><div>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.</div></div> !DSPAM:4f96b3ef64762130720353!