Rini seemed to think I was spending all my time with Kyle. She was wrong on that account. Most of my time I spent in a room filled with things to burn. A few of the guards let me face them in a fight to train my reflexes. Whenever Rini entered my room was when Kyle was spending the little time we could together.
Seth was Rini’s creepy bodyguard. He followed her everywhere and, on one occasion, saw her chest. Lucifer wanted us to be maids for the King of the human world, to earn his trust and then kill him in public to throw them into a frenzy. Although it was a good plan, I didn’t like the thought of going back to the King dressed as a maid. Again!
My custom outfit arrived in my room while I was working on my explosions. Kyle entered the room and nearly had his right ear removed by a flying chair leg. I rushed off to my room to check it.
The outfit was perfectly made. The sleeves travelled just the right length past my hands, the jacket fit perfectly on my curves. It was perfect. I first slid on a white long sleeved shirt that came with it after stripping down. I had my back turned to Kyle who was sitting on the corner of my bed. The sleeves of the shirt were slightly baggy, but not excessive. I tied a black bodice on and worked on doing up my pants, which were skin tight, covered by black leather boots with a two inch heel, zipping up the side to my knees. There was a dagger slipped into a pouch on the inside of my right boot. The purple jacket was more of a fancy trench coat. The collar went up to my nose in length, but was undone to my neck to reveal my face. The sleeves were long with two black straps around my forearm to hold two more daggers. The coat zipped up the front, but was also held together by three black straps that were evenly spaced across my body.
The daggers were actually just handles strapped into the sheath with a small orb on each edge of the handle. The orbs had a small swirling fire inside. I pulled the two off my arms and held them in my hands. After a moment of thought, I had an idea. I rushed off to my training room and stood in front of a large wooden table. I focussed my anger on the daggers, and the fire was condensed into a long blade of pure fire. The more I put into the fire, the brighter the orbs would swirl. I grinned and sliced the table in half.
"This is freaking amazing!" I exclaimed, slashing more items. Kyle watched in amazement from the doorway.
"You should probably head off to bed now," Kyle said, cautiously walking up to me.
I paused and noted the sadness in his voice. "You aren’t coming, are you?" I asked, though I knew the answer.
He cast his eyes downward. "Unfortunately . . ." he said, "though I will see you soon."
I felt the pain I was feeling fill my eyes. "This won’t be as fun now . . ."
"Relax, I’ll stay with you tonight," he said, taking me to my room. I slid the daggers back into their sheaths and let him lead my by my arm. I took off my outfit slowly, biding my time for a while. When I pulled on my tee shirt, he hugged me.
"It won’t be forever, just a little while," he whispered, but I could tell he was chewing his lip.
"I know," I said with a smile. When he let me go I flopped onto my bed and curled up under the heavy covers. Kyle lowered himself beside me, though remaining above the covers. I had my back against his chest when he draped his arm across my side. I fell asleep to the sound of a soft rain.
The next morning I crawled out of bed at six. Kyle was sprawled on his back, only pretending to sleep. His left eye opened and watched me as I walked to my wardrobe. I pulled out my new outfit and threw it on then made my way to my vanity to do my hair and makeup. It was just a longer version of the cut I had gotten in the village before hand. I did my makeup to look almost like a butterfly around my eyes and adjusted each piercing so they wouldn’t heal funny and get infected. I then returned to Kyle and layed my head down on his chest. His eyes opened.
"Good morning," I said.
"Indeed," he replied, helping me up.
"Are you going to see me off?" I asked.
"I wish I could, but my efforts are ‘needed’ in the library," he told me, curling his fingers into quotation marks. I chuckled and leaned up to his face. When I pressed my lips to his, I felt his silver lip ring push into my lip as mine was doing to him.
"I’ll see you in a few weeks then," I said as he left. He turned to me with a smile and a wave then headed off down the hallway. Rini was in her room waiting when I entered.
"Morning," she said, looking out the window at the drying grounds.
"G’morning," I replied, joining her.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked.
"Yes," I said with my pack slung over my shoulder.
She turned to me with determination in her eyes. "Then let’s go," she said, grabbing her pack and leading us out the great front doors.
Our companion was late already. What felt like forever had passed when he showed up. "I’m Adelais," he said with a grin. I grimaced slightly.
Soon after we had started our journey I discovered that Adelais was insane. He ate the strangest mixtures of herbs and roots for meals, was passing gas quite often and bathed less than my Master back home. It turns out that the disgusting aroma was not gas, but his idea of cologne. I gagged each time I inhaled. That meal of roots and herbs was a salad, or so he said. I disagreed with him because I had eaten salad in the past. Once or twice I had caught him talking to himself. From what I could tell, Rini was trying to disguise her suffering just as I was.
Eventually he stopped wearing his ‘cologne’ when he realized that we stayed as far away from him as possible and never stood downwind. I had yet to discover what he really looked like.
Training began immediately. He gave Rini another charm for her bracelet but told me it was all in my mind. He told me to shut my eyes and to do whatever necessary to focus all my energy into a mental image of what I wanted to look like. I cried out from the sharp stinging in my temples, and he would slap the back of my neck to distract me.
I grumbled softly after his last slap, getting angrier and angrier with him. The next thing I knew, he was running in circles screaming. My eyes snapped open and he was covered in an orange fire. Rini jumped up and threw a wave of water at him, knocking him off his feet.
Adelais pushed his soaked hair off his face, his expression twisted between anger and amusement. "I see you dislike the slap I gave you to distract you from the sharper pain," he said, sticking his finger through the holes in his robe. "Bloody Hell you have some anger issues."
My fists clenched. "I was so close to getting a mental image created of what I wanted to look like, my skin even started to tingle until you slapped me!" I shouted. "Do you want to be on fire again?! I can arrange that for you!"
"Relax, relax. We’ll take a different approach. What can calm you?" He asked as he stood.
"Sitting under a waterfall," I replied. He waved his hand in front of my face and said a few things in Latin. The next thing I knew the roar of a waterfall was filling my ears.
I was standing in ankle deep water at the edge of a riverbed with Adelais next to me. I was wearing a faded pink strapless bra that looked more like a short tube top. My pants were the same colour that fell loosely around my knees. I was barefoot. Adelais nodded at the waterfall expectantly. I stood beneath it, letting the water wash away all my pain and problems as I lowered myself into waist deep water when I kneeled. I couldn’t tell if Adelais was saying anything, the spray of the water and the roar were too much. So I shut my eyes and began the transformation.
The pain had lessened now and the tingling began. My hair became plastered to my back as it lengthened to the backs of my knees, or so I estimated. I felt my limbs shorten and my body become lighter. When I stepped out, I had hair that actually fell to my ankles in length that was a golden brown colour. My fingers were long and slender with perfectly manicured nails. My broad shoulders had shrunken, along with my feet, to make me look more feminine than a warrior. My waist was petite and curved like an hourglass. I almost hated this body. When I flexed my arm muscle, it bulged.
"At least I still have my muscles," I said as I approached Adelais who was grinning widely. He said a few foreign things and I was hit with a gust of wind, but when It stopped, I was completely dry. I bundled up my hair to keep it from dragging as I stepped onto the grass.
"You’ve done it, how do you feel?" He asked.
"I feel tiny, I hate being more than a head shorter than someone . . ." I muttered in an oddly melodic voice.
"Now that you have completed one transformation, the pain will be minuscule. Rini is waiting, let’s go," he said after a chuckle. Another spell was recited and I was standing in the muddy grass back in our world. Rini looked shocked when she saw me.
"Wow, look at you!" She cried excitedly. "You don’t look so frightening anymore, no offence," she corrected quickly.
"Thanks . . ." I muttered. "Let’s see what you can do."
She grinned and touched her charm. Her change began instantly.
The journey continued all the way to the border once again where we tossed the gooey sand over our heads. It was bizarre to feel my hair brush against my legs whenever I moved. I had tied it into a very loose and very wide braid that fell halfway down my shins. My bangs had remained the same though, framing my face. Rini loaned me one of her simple dresses to wear so I could look more innocent than in a warrior’s outfit. I had a lavender coloured dress on that fell in uneven lengths around my knees. It was a halter dress with a thin zipper up the back, golden patterns embroidered around any edge on the dress. I wore a slightly darker purple pair of flat bottomed shoes to keep me small.
When we arrived at the palace days later we entered the room slowly. I kept my eyes down and wore a light blush to keep me looking timid, like I was constantly in a flush. The King looked us over with a smile.
"You are perfect, my dears!" He exclaimed, his voice echoing throughout the room. After a few more comments we were ushered off to get our maid outfits fitted. Though I had a timid smile on my face, I was angered on the inside.
Rini and I were put into simple black dresses with white frilly aprons. The dress fell to my knees and had layers of white lace and frills underneath that made it flare out. The neck of the dress was cut to follow my collarbone, the sleeves were puffy balls on the edges of my shoulders. The apron had a couple of large pockets with black bow’s on each to match the black bow I had tied around my neck. I had a simple black headband with a large bow on the left side of my head. We wore simple flat bottomed shoes and fishnet leggings. I put my foot down when it came to my hair, it wasn’t really mine but I didn’t want them to completely change me. The last thing they gave me was a pair of white gloves.
We both stepped out from behind a curtain and looked each other over. I glanced at myself in a mirror next. My grey eyes stared back at me with disgust. Soon, soon he will be dead and I will no longer have to look like this, to wear these clothes. I thought. My facial features were soft to give others the sense of strength over me, but my eyes were filled with anger, hate and disgust. Rini seemed to have that look in her eyes too, only ten times worse.
The king sent us off to do our jobs. I sat on the very same plush cushion as on Rini’s birthday next to him, fanning His Highness so he wouldn’t overheat in his excessive clothing.
"Soon," I whispered with my hands on my lap, waiting for him to finish eating his Ramen.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Spoon? I forgot to get you a spoon, Your Highness. My humble apologies, let me get you one," I told him quickly, standing with my fingers laced together, then I bowed and hurried to the kitchen.
He paused. "Strangely familiar, that girl," he muttered.
I continued to tend to his every whim, only seeing Rini when we were sent to bed or occasionally when I passed rooms she was dusting and polishing. We stayed in Rini’s old room which had all over personal items that weren’t furniture removed. We were told to share the huge bed, which we did.
"I pray that we get the go ahead soon, I can’t keep this up," Rini said as she exited the washroom in a towel.
"Me too, His Highness is frigging picky," I muttered back. I had already bathed and was now sitting on my side of the bed with my hair undone. We had been working with him for nearly a month now with little word from the other side. As Rini sat down, there was a tapping at the balcony door.
"What in the-" I asked as Rini opened the door. A barn owl flew through the door and landed on the back of a chair. It had a note tied to its leg. Rini untied it.
"‘Dear Amaya and Rini,’" she read, "‘it’s time for you to do your job. The good King will be throwing a grand ball welcome to the entire village and others. You two are to be his maids that will attend to his every need throughout the evening as our inside source tells us. He will be telling you tomorrow morning. Amaya, you shall store one of your daggers in your dress that evening, while Rini can use whatever she feels necessary. I am trusting Amaya to keep busy with the guards while Rini does her job. Good luck girls: Lucifer,’" she ended.
" Awesome, I see a head crushing spree in my near future," I said happily. Rini was grinning ear to ear as she wrote back. She turned to me when she finished.
"‘Lucifer," she began, "‘The job shall be done quickly, though giving us some time to have a little fun before a grand escape. Amaya intends on a ‘head crushing spree’ while I am leaning more along the lines of freezing his body from the shoulders down and choking him with some of his exotic plants. We shall return to the kingdom the moment we are done, our few things stored in a hidden cave not far from the village where we will begin our journey back. Rini and Amaya.’" she read to me.
"Perfect!" I exclaimed. "Let’s get some rest, we’ll be preparing all day tomorrow so we should be ready."
Rini agreed and climbed into her side of the bed. We drifted off with dreams of the wonderful evening we would have.
As promised, we were requested to be the Kings personal maids for the evening, though I usually was anyway. We wore our same maid outfits that evening, but were permitted to do our makeup if desired. The palace was cleaned from top to bottom that morning, the kitchens busy preparing dinner. At six o’clock we were released to prepare. I soaked myself briefly in the warm water in our bathtub, but got out quickly to get ready. My muscles were sore from cleaning and carrying boxes of vegetables to the kitchen.
I worked on pulling my long hair into a ponytail almost at the top of my head. My headband separated my bangs from the rest of it. With a shimmering orange eye paint I gave myself cat’s eyes lined with a blueish black.
My daggers I had hidden under the bed, though I strapped only one to my thigh underneath my dress. Since the sun was setting, the daggers would probably go unnoticed as I used telekinesis to deliver them to Adelais who would look after them until we fled.
We made our way down to the ball room with the King to wait for the arrivals of the guests. A small band played on a platform above the floor, a soft melody drifting throughout the room. Women in colourful dresses showed up and took seats at the tables on the left side of the room, from my point of view of the room anyway. People danced and mingles, and soon the party was in full swing. Rini and I both regretted leaving him to fetch his food, but we did so and returned as quickly as possible.
When he finished eating, he rose to speak to the crowd. Rini and I glanced at each other with a slight nod and prepared to attack. I slipped the handle of my dagger out from under my dress, with ease because I was hidden by the King’s robes. As it burst into flames, someone screamed, interrupting the King. I held the blade close enough to his throat for him to feel the flames lick his skin lightly.
"Anyone moves, and he dies," I said harshly, my eyes filled with anger. Rini rose and worked the water around his body and froze it. I released him but watched the crowd closely. A branch from an exotic tree wrapped around his neck and squeezed slightly.
An idiot guard rushed at us, and I jumped into the air. I cut him off in the middle of the dance floor in a widely cleared space and landed an explosion of fire on the ground. It sprayed in all directions and set the man’s hide boots on fire. I knocked him to the ground and crushed his head with my foot.
"Come on, who’s next?" I asked in a challenging tone. "And don’t even think of going for your king, I can hit you with whatever, where ever. Innocent people will be hurt if you interfere."
I crushed head after head of stupid guards, lighting some on fire. Rini slowly squeezed the life out of her previous father with a wide grin on her face.
"Nineteen," I yelled, stomping on another. I glanced back at the King who was going blue in the face, and realized that I had killed off all guards for the moment. I rushed up to the King and leaned just inches from his face. As he looked into my eyes, I flashed them back to their purple with a wide grin on my face and started to kick away the guards. Guests screamed but stayed put out of fear.
The water pooled around my feet as Rini released him. There was a thud when his heavy body hit the floor, and more screaming erupted through the room. Guards pushed their way through the flailing crowds to get to us, but were too slow. We took off into flight, well, I was on a psi ball, and exited the opened doors. The guards followed us but were too slow. While we flew, we pulled off our dresses and the rest of our outfits to reveal black tank tops and matching short shorts. Mine had metal studs for fun. We had lost the guards ages ago so we cast them to the ground to throw them off.
Rini looked at me with a grin. "We’ve done it," she said breathlessly, as though she had been holding it the whole time. "We killed the king."
"Too bad nobody knew it was us . . ." I replied.
"Fun, wasn’t it?" She asked.
"You know it! I got to bash in some heads! I quite enjoy the satisfying crunch of bone under my foot, though boots would have been better," I told her, pretending to crunch someone’s head between my hands.
She stared at me. "You’re a twisted little girl, you know that?"
"Yep!"
Adelais was waiting in the mouth of the cave with a huge smile. "Judging by the looks on your faces you succeeded?" he asked excitedly.
"Yes!" Rini screamed happily.
"Excellent," he beamed, "we can return to the kingdom immediately if desired."
"Yes!" I breathed happily.
"Well then, I’ll let you change and we can go."
He let us pass into the cave where our packs sat. To be safe, we headed into the murky darkness at the back to change. I walked out wearing my training kimono which I fancied greatly. We mounted our horses and galloped off into the dark hills ahead.
As I tossed the wet sand onto my head, I thought about the great celebration that would most likely be awaiting us at the palace. Our hippogriffs waited where they should have been for us to mount them and carried us as fast as they could to the eerie palace. Two days later we arrived to a welcoming party of vampires, guards and villagers. I enjoyed the welcome, though Rini looked rather uncomfortable. I could not find Kyle in the mass though, but Rini found Seth alright. We were escorted to the throne room where Lucifer sat casually like he had when we had arrived here the first time. He was missing his left arm, though.
"Welcome home, girls!" he yelled. "Rumours have spread, it sounded like a wonderful execution!"
"It was amazing! His face was blue for almost ten minutes before he died! I got to crush heads, it was awesome!" I exclaimed using hand gestures to accentuate it.
"I enjoyed taking him out," Rini said with an impish look in her eyes.
"What happened to your arm?" I asked without worry.
"A human from the other side watched you before when you first arrived and finally arrived here yesterday. He attacked, but had horrible aim and got my arm instead of my head. And I had his after," he caught Rini’s look. "I need to feed too, you know!"
"Yeah, yeah . . ." she muttered.
He watched her for a moment. "Well, you look tired. Have a good nights sleep, we celebrate tomorrow!"
Seth escorted Rini back to her room but left me alone the whole time. I was happy about that, though. I half expected Kyle to be waiting in my room, but he was nowhere to be seen. I changed out of my clothes, took a long hot shower and crawled into bed in a tank top and my panties.
I was deep in a strange dream. I stirred and looked at the door to see a tall figure walk through. He approached my bed and started to talk to me, but I couldn’t understand him. Confused, I rolled back over and fell asleep. The dream ended there.
When I awoke the next morning, Kyle was sprawled on his back beside me looking exhausted, but I didn’t know if it was possible for a vampire. When I touched his chest with my fingers, he didn’t stir. I felt something like a heartbeat in his chest briefly, but it faded away quickly. Thoroughly confused, I crawled out of bed and made my way to my wardrobe. I slipped on a robe and walked over to Rini’s bedroom. Seth, who was waiting out front, glanced at me briefly but paid me no attention otherwise. Rini sat on the edge of her bed, staring out the window.
"Good morning," I said.
"Morning," she replied, looking at me.
"I’m confused. When I woke up this morning, Kyle was beside me, looking asleep like normal. I placed my hand on his chest but he didn’t move, and strangely enough, I think I felt a heartbeat briefly."
She frowned. "That is weird, talk to him about that later. Did you see your new dress?"
"Dress?"
"In your wardrobe, I have one too. I think it’s for the party today."
"Oh."
"Are you going to wear it right now?"
"Maybe, are you?"
"Totally! You’d better wear yours or else," she joked. I laughed back and headed back to my room.
When I walked out, Seth caught my wrist. "You’d better watch out. You’re changing him," he said, then sat down again. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but I stayed quiet.
Kyle was still sprawled on his back when I entered. I shook his shoulder lightly and his eyelids fluttered open.
"Whoa, good morning," he said, sitting up.
I was frowning. "Seth said something that confused me . . . he told me I’m ‘changing you,’" I said, using my fingers as quotation marks.
"Don’t worry about it," he told me, kissing me softly. When he pulled back, I could have sworn I saw him blush.
Seth was Rini’s creepy bodyguard. He followed her everywhere and, on one occasion, saw her chest. Lucifer wanted us to be maids for the King of the human world, to earn his trust and then kill him in public to throw them into a frenzy. Although it was a good plan, I didn’t like the thought of going back to the King dressed as a maid. Again!
My custom outfit arrived in my room while I was working on my explosions. Kyle entered the room and nearly had his right ear removed by a flying chair leg. I rushed off to my room to check it.
The outfit was perfectly made. The sleeves travelled just the right length past my hands, the jacket fit perfectly on my curves. It was perfect. I first slid on a white long sleeved shirt that came with it after stripping down. I had my back turned to Kyle who was sitting on the corner of my bed. The sleeves of the shirt were slightly baggy, but not excessive. I tied a black bodice on and worked on doing up my pants, which were skin tight, covered by black leather boots with a two inch heel, zipping up the side to my knees. There was a dagger slipped into a pouch on the inside of my right boot. The purple jacket was more of a fancy trench coat. The collar went up to my nose in length, but was undone to my neck to reveal my face. The sleeves were long with two black straps around my forearm to hold two more daggers. The coat zipped up the front, but was also held together by three black straps that were evenly spaced across my body.
The daggers were actually just handles strapped into the sheath with a small orb on each edge of the handle. The orbs had a small swirling fire inside. I pulled the two off my arms and held them in my hands. After a moment of thought, I had an idea. I rushed off to my training room and stood in front of a large wooden table. I focussed my anger on the daggers, and the fire was condensed into a long blade of pure fire. The more I put into the fire, the brighter the orbs would swirl. I grinned and sliced the table in half.
"This is freaking amazing!" I exclaimed, slashing more items. Kyle watched in amazement from the doorway.
"You should probably head off to bed now," Kyle said, cautiously walking up to me.
I paused and noted the sadness in his voice. "You aren’t coming, are you?" I asked, though I knew the answer.
He cast his eyes downward. "Unfortunately . . ." he said, "though I will see you soon."
I felt the pain I was feeling fill my eyes. "This won’t be as fun now . . ."
"Relax, I’ll stay with you tonight," he said, taking me to my room. I slid the daggers back into their sheaths and let him lead my by my arm. I took off my outfit slowly, biding my time for a while. When I pulled on my tee shirt, he hugged me.
"It won’t be forever, just a little while," he whispered, but I could tell he was chewing his lip.
"I know," I said with a smile. When he let me go I flopped onto my bed and curled up under the heavy covers. Kyle lowered himself beside me, though remaining above the covers. I had my back against his chest when he draped his arm across my side. I fell asleep to the sound of a soft rain.
The next morning I crawled out of bed at six. Kyle was sprawled on his back, only pretending to sleep. His left eye opened and watched me as I walked to my wardrobe. I pulled out my new outfit and threw it on then made my way to my vanity to do my hair and makeup. It was just a longer version of the cut I had gotten in the village before hand. I did my makeup to look almost like a butterfly around my eyes and adjusted each piercing so they wouldn’t heal funny and get infected. I then returned to Kyle and layed my head down on his chest. His eyes opened.
"Good morning," I said.
"Indeed," he replied, helping me up.
"Are you going to see me off?" I asked.
"I wish I could, but my efforts are ‘needed’ in the library," he told me, curling his fingers into quotation marks. I chuckled and leaned up to his face. When I pressed my lips to his, I felt his silver lip ring push into my lip as mine was doing to him.
"I’ll see you in a few weeks then," I said as he left. He turned to me with a smile and a wave then headed off down the hallway. Rini was in her room waiting when I entered.
"Morning," she said, looking out the window at the drying grounds.
"G’morning," I replied, joining her.
"Are you ready to go?" She asked.
"Yes," I said with my pack slung over my shoulder.
She turned to me with determination in her eyes. "Then let’s go," she said, grabbing her pack and leading us out the great front doors.
Our companion was late already. What felt like forever had passed when he showed up. "I’m Adelais," he said with a grin. I grimaced slightly.
Soon after we had started our journey I discovered that Adelais was insane. He ate the strangest mixtures of herbs and roots for meals, was passing gas quite often and bathed less than my Master back home. It turns out that the disgusting aroma was not gas, but his idea of cologne. I gagged each time I inhaled. That meal of roots and herbs was a salad, or so he said. I disagreed with him because I had eaten salad in the past. Once or twice I had caught him talking to himself. From what I could tell, Rini was trying to disguise her suffering just as I was.
Eventually he stopped wearing his ‘cologne’ when he realized that we stayed as far away from him as possible and never stood downwind. I had yet to discover what he really looked like.
Training began immediately. He gave Rini another charm for her bracelet but told me it was all in my mind. He told me to shut my eyes and to do whatever necessary to focus all my energy into a mental image of what I wanted to look like. I cried out from the sharp stinging in my temples, and he would slap the back of my neck to distract me.
I grumbled softly after his last slap, getting angrier and angrier with him. The next thing I knew, he was running in circles screaming. My eyes snapped open and he was covered in an orange fire. Rini jumped up and threw a wave of water at him, knocking him off his feet.
Adelais pushed his soaked hair off his face, his expression twisted between anger and amusement. "I see you dislike the slap I gave you to distract you from the sharper pain," he said, sticking his finger through the holes in his robe. "Bloody Hell you have some anger issues."
My fists clenched. "I was so close to getting a mental image created of what I wanted to look like, my skin even started to tingle until you slapped me!" I shouted. "Do you want to be on fire again?! I can arrange that for you!"
"Relax, relax. We’ll take a different approach. What can calm you?" He asked as he stood.
"Sitting under a waterfall," I replied. He waved his hand in front of my face and said a few things in Latin. The next thing I knew the roar of a waterfall was filling my ears.
I was standing in ankle deep water at the edge of a riverbed with Adelais next to me. I was wearing a faded pink strapless bra that looked more like a short tube top. My pants were the same colour that fell loosely around my knees. I was barefoot. Adelais nodded at the waterfall expectantly. I stood beneath it, letting the water wash away all my pain and problems as I lowered myself into waist deep water when I kneeled. I couldn’t tell if Adelais was saying anything, the spray of the water and the roar were too much. So I shut my eyes and began the transformation.
The pain had lessened now and the tingling began. My hair became plastered to my back as it lengthened to the backs of my knees, or so I estimated. I felt my limbs shorten and my body become lighter. When I stepped out, I had hair that actually fell to my ankles in length that was a golden brown colour. My fingers were long and slender with perfectly manicured nails. My broad shoulders had shrunken, along with my feet, to make me look more feminine than a warrior. My waist was petite and curved like an hourglass. I almost hated this body. When I flexed my arm muscle, it bulged.
"At least I still have my muscles," I said as I approached Adelais who was grinning widely. He said a few foreign things and I was hit with a gust of wind, but when It stopped, I was completely dry. I bundled up my hair to keep it from dragging as I stepped onto the grass.
"You’ve done it, how do you feel?" He asked.
"I feel tiny, I hate being more than a head shorter than someone . . ." I muttered in an oddly melodic voice.
"Now that you have completed one transformation, the pain will be minuscule. Rini is waiting, let’s go," he said after a chuckle. Another spell was recited and I was standing in the muddy grass back in our world. Rini looked shocked when she saw me.
"Wow, look at you!" She cried excitedly. "You don’t look so frightening anymore, no offence," she corrected quickly.
"Thanks . . ." I muttered. "Let’s see what you can do."
She grinned and touched her charm. Her change began instantly.
The journey continued all the way to the border once again where we tossed the gooey sand over our heads. It was bizarre to feel my hair brush against my legs whenever I moved. I had tied it into a very loose and very wide braid that fell halfway down my shins. My bangs had remained the same though, framing my face. Rini loaned me one of her simple dresses to wear so I could look more innocent than in a warrior’s outfit. I had a lavender coloured dress on that fell in uneven lengths around my knees. It was a halter dress with a thin zipper up the back, golden patterns embroidered around any edge on the dress. I wore a slightly darker purple pair of flat bottomed shoes to keep me small.
When we arrived at the palace days later we entered the room slowly. I kept my eyes down and wore a light blush to keep me looking timid, like I was constantly in a flush. The King looked us over with a smile.
"You are perfect, my dears!" He exclaimed, his voice echoing throughout the room. After a few more comments we were ushered off to get our maid outfits fitted. Though I had a timid smile on my face, I was angered on the inside.
Rini and I were put into simple black dresses with white frilly aprons. The dress fell to my knees and had layers of white lace and frills underneath that made it flare out. The neck of the dress was cut to follow my collarbone, the sleeves were puffy balls on the edges of my shoulders. The apron had a couple of large pockets with black bow’s on each to match the black bow I had tied around my neck. I had a simple black headband with a large bow on the left side of my head. We wore simple flat bottomed shoes and fishnet leggings. I put my foot down when it came to my hair, it wasn’t really mine but I didn’t want them to completely change me. The last thing they gave me was a pair of white gloves.
We both stepped out from behind a curtain and looked each other over. I glanced at myself in a mirror next. My grey eyes stared back at me with disgust. Soon, soon he will be dead and I will no longer have to look like this, to wear these clothes. I thought. My facial features were soft to give others the sense of strength over me, but my eyes were filled with anger, hate and disgust. Rini seemed to have that look in her eyes too, only ten times worse.
The king sent us off to do our jobs. I sat on the very same plush cushion as on Rini’s birthday next to him, fanning His Highness so he wouldn’t overheat in his excessive clothing.
"Soon," I whispered with my hands on my lap, waiting for him to finish eating his Ramen.
"What was that?" he asked.
"Spoon? I forgot to get you a spoon, Your Highness. My humble apologies, let me get you one," I told him quickly, standing with my fingers laced together, then I bowed and hurried to the kitchen.
He paused. "Strangely familiar, that girl," he muttered.
I continued to tend to his every whim, only seeing Rini when we were sent to bed or occasionally when I passed rooms she was dusting and polishing. We stayed in Rini’s old room which had all over personal items that weren’t furniture removed. We were told to share the huge bed, which we did.
"I pray that we get the go ahead soon, I can’t keep this up," Rini said as she exited the washroom in a towel.
"Me too, His Highness is frigging picky," I muttered back. I had already bathed and was now sitting on my side of the bed with my hair undone. We had been working with him for nearly a month now with little word from the other side. As Rini sat down, there was a tapping at the balcony door.
"What in the-" I asked as Rini opened the door. A barn owl flew through the door and landed on the back of a chair. It had a note tied to its leg. Rini untied it.
"‘Dear Amaya and Rini,’" she read, "‘it’s time for you to do your job. The good King will be throwing a grand ball welcome to the entire village and others. You two are to be his maids that will attend to his every need throughout the evening as our inside source tells us. He will be telling you tomorrow morning. Amaya, you shall store one of your daggers in your dress that evening, while Rini can use whatever she feels necessary. I am trusting Amaya to keep busy with the guards while Rini does her job. Good luck girls: Lucifer,’" she ended.
" Awesome, I see a head crushing spree in my near future," I said happily. Rini was grinning ear to ear as she wrote back. She turned to me when she finished.
"‘Lucifer," she began, "‘The job shall be done quickly, though giving us some time to have a little fun before a grand escape. Amaya intends on a ‘head crushing spree’ while I am leaning more along the lines of freezing his body from the shoulders down and choking him with some of his exotic plants. We shall return to the kingdom the moment we are done, our few things stored in a hidden cave not far from the village where we will begin our journey back. Rini and Amaya.’" she read to me.
"Perfect!" I exclaimed. "Let’s get some rest, we’ll be preparing all day tomorrow so we should be ready."
Rini agreed and climbed into her side of the bed. We drifted off with dreams of the wonderful evening we would have.
As promised, we were requested to be the Kings personal maids for the evening, though I usually was anyway. We wore our same maid outfits that evening, but were permitted to do our makeup if desired. The palace was cleaned from top to bottom that morning, the kitchens busy preparing dinner. At six o’clock we were released to prepare. I soaked myself briefly in the warm water in our bathtub, but got out quickly to get ready. My muscles were sore from cleaning and carrying boxes of vegetables to the kitchen.
I worked on pulling my long hair into a ponytail almost at the top of my head. My headband separated my bangs from the rest of it. With a shimmering orange eye paint I gave myself cat’s eyes lined with a blueish black.
My daggers I had hidden under the bed, though I strapped only one to my thigh underneath my dress. Since the sun was setting, the daggers would probably go unnoticed as I used telekinesis to deliver them to Adelais who would look after them until we fled.
We made our way down to the ball room with the King to wait for the arrivals of the guests. A small band played on a platform above the floor, a soft melody drifting throughout the room. Women in colourful dresses showed up and took seats at the tables on the left side of the room, from my point of view of the room anyway. People danced and mingles, and soon the party was in full swing. Rini and I both regretted leaving him to fetch his food, but we did so and returned as quickly as possible.
When he finished eating, he rose to speak to the crowd. Rini and I glanced at each other with a slight nod and prepared to attack. I slipped the handle of my dagger out from under my dress, with ease because I was hidden by the King’s robes. As it burst into flames, someone screamed, interrupting the King. I held the blade close enough to his throat for him to feel the flames lick his skin lightly.
"Anyone moves, and he dies," I said harshly, my eyes filled with anger. Rini rose and worked the water around his body and froze it. I released him but watched the crowd closely. A branch from an exotic tree wrapped around his neck and squeezed slightly.
An idiot guard rushed at us, and I jumped into the air. I cut him off in the middle of the dance floor in a widely cleared space and landed an explosion of fire on the ground. It sprayed in all directions and set the man’s hide boots on fire. I knocked him to the ground and crushed his head with my foot.
"Come on, who’s next?" I asked in a challenging tone. "And don’t even think of going for your king, I can hit you with whatever, where ever. Innocent people will be hurt if you interfere."
I crushed head after head of stupid guards, lighting some on fire. Rini slowly squeezed the life out of her previous father with a wide grin on her face.
"Nineteen," I yelled, stomping on another. I glanced back at the King who was going blue in the face, and realized that I had killed off all guards for the moment. I rushed up to the King and leaned just inches from his face. As he looked into my eyes, I flashed them back to their purple with a wide grin on my face and started to kick away the guards. Guests screamed but stayed put out of fear.
The water pooled around my feet as Rini released him. There was a thud when his heavy body hit the floor, and more screaming erupted through the room. Guards pushed their way through the flailing crowds to get to us, but were too slow. We took off into flight, well, I was on a psi ball, and exited the opened doors. The guards followed us but were too slow. While we flew, we pulled off our dresses and the rest of our outfits to reveal black tank tops and matching short shorts. Mine had metal studs for fun. We had lost the guards ages ago so we cast them to the ground to throw them off.
Rini looked at me with a grin. "We’ve done it," she said breathlessly, as though she had been holding it the whole time. "We killed the king."
"Too bad nobody knew it was us . . ." I replied.
"Fun, wasn’t it?" She asked.
"You know it! I got to bash in some heads! I quite enjoy the satisfying crunch of bone under my foot, though boots would have been better," I told her, pretending to crunch someone’s head between my hands.
She stared at me. "You’re a twisted little girl, you know that?"
"Yep!"
Adelais was waiting in the mouth of the cave with a huge smile. "Judging by the looks on your faces you succeeded?" he asked excitedly.
"Yes!" Rini screamed happily.
"Excellent," he beamed, "we can return to the kingdom immediately if desired."
"Yes!" I breathed happily.
"Well then, I’ll let you change and we can go."
He let us pass into the cave where our packs sat. To be safe, we headed into the murky darkness at the back to change. I walked out wearing my training kimono which I fancied greatly. We mounted our horses and galloped off into the dark hills ahead.
As I tossed the wet sand onto my head, I thought about the great celebration that would most likely be awaiting us at the palace. Our hippogriffs waited where they should have been for us to mount them and carried us as fast as they could to the eerie palace. Two days later we arrived to a welcoming party of vampires, guards and villagers. I enjoyed the welcome, though Rini looked rather uncomfortable. I could not find Kyle in the mass though, but Rini found Seth alright. We were escorted to the throne room where Lucifer sat casually like he had when we had arrived here the first time. He was missing his left arm, though.
"Welcome home, girls!" he yelled. "Rumours have spread, it sounded like a wonderful execution!"
"It was amazing! His face was blue for almost ten minutes before he died! I got to crush heads, it was awesome!" I exclaimed using hand gestures to accentuate it.
"I enjoyed taking him out," Rini said with an impish look in her eyes.
"What happened to your arm?" I asked without worry.
"A human from the other side watched you before when you first arrived and finally arrived here yesterday. He attacked, but had horrible aim and got my arm instead of my head. And I had his after," he caught Rini’s look. "I need to feed too, you know!"
"Yeah, yeah . . ." she muttered.
He watched her for a moment. "Well, you look tired. Have a good nights sleep, we celebrate tomorrow!"
Seth escorted Rini back to her room but left me alone the whole time. I was happy about that, though. I half expected Kyle to be waiting in my room, but he was nowhere to be seen. I changed out of my clothes, took a long hot shower and crawled into bed in a tank top and my panties.
I was deep in a strange dream. I stirred and looked at the door to see a tall figure walk through. He approached my bed and started to talk to me, but I couldn’t understand him. Confused, I rolled back over and fell asleep. The dream ended there.
When I awoke the next morning, Kyle was sprawled on his back beside me looking exhausted, but I didn’t know if it was possible for a vampire. When I touched his chest with my fingers, he didn’t stir. I felt something like a heartbeat in his chest briefly, but it faded away quickly. Thoroughly confused, I crawled out of bed and made my way to my wardrobe. I slipped on a robe and walked over to Rini’s bedroom. Seth, who was waiting out front, glanced at me briefly but paid me no attention otherwise. Rini sat on the edge of her bed, staring out the window.
"Good morning," I said.
"Morning," she replied, looking at me.
"I’m confused. When I woke up this morning, Kyle was beside me, looking asleep like normal. I placed my hand on his chest but he didn’t move, and strangely enough, I think I felt a heartbeat briefly."
She frowned. "That is weird, talk to him about that later. Did you see your new dress?"
"Dress?"
"In your wardrobe, I have one too. I think it’s for the party today."
"Oh."
"Are you going to wear it right now?"
"Maybe, are you?"
"Totally! You’d better wear yours or else," she joked. I laughed back and headed back to my room.
When I walked out, Seth caught my wrist. "You’d better watch out. You’re changing him," he said, then sat down again. I wanted to ask him what he meant, but I stayed quiet.
Kyle was still sprawled on his back when I entered. I shook his shoulder lightly and his eyelids fluttered open.
"Whoa, good morning," he said, sitting up.
I was frowning. "Seth said something that confused me . . . he told me I’m ‘changing you,’" I said, using my fingers as quotation marks.
"Don’t worry about it," he told me, kissing me softly. When he pulled back, I could have sworn I saw him blush.
