Part 1
"Come on!" urged Colin, as he and his brothers ran from yet another mob of angry townspeople.
There were three of them, identical triplets, Colin, Drake and Myeshia. Drake had started yet another fire completely by accident, and Myeshia had tried to put it out, but only succeeded in creating a small blizzard. Colin groaned, it always happened like this, he thought to himself, they come to a new town, they start to get settled in, and *wham!* something happens so that Drake starts to randomly shoot fire. Then Myeshia tries to put it out and makes a mess, then Colin has to grab those two and run out of town as quickly as they can.
When they were far away enough from the town, they all three stopped to catch their breaths. "Why?!?" Colin cried, "Why is it every time we come to a new town, you guys mess everything up?!?"
Drake frowned, "I can't help it, Colin, it just happens." "Yeah," said Myeshia, "It's not like we have control over these things!" "And don't forget, " added Drake, "the time your mental powers overloaded and fried a few brains! Myeshia and I aren't the only ones who have powers that we can't control."
"You're right," replied Colin, after a brief silence, "I guess I'm just tired of running, that's all." "Who isn't?" queried Myeshia, "I am and I'm sure Drake is too. But we just have to keep on going, and hope that we'll find someone or somewhere that will help us get these powers under control." The other two nodded, and all three started walking to the next town.
As they approached the next town, it seemed that their reputation had preceded them, as they were met by the village wizard, who really wasn't powerful enough to be called a wizard, but he was called one anyway. He asked them to please just go through to the next village. Suddenly, the wizard gasped, and said, "All three of you show powerful auras, but from what I've been told, you need training. I only know of one wizard who might be able to help you. His name is Ross, but I don't know where he is besides the fact that he is up north of here somewhere."
The man then handed them some food and a few waterskins and then escorted them through the village. "Here's where I leave you," he said when they reached the other end of the village. "Good luck and try not to get into any more trouble." All three nodded and started walking down the road to the next village.
As they walked, they discussed what the wizard had said. "Maybe this guy Ross can help us, " said Colin. "Yes, but we have no idea where he is," interjected Drake. "Well, he said that this Ross guy was up north somewhere, so let's just keep going north and asking about him. Maybe someone will know where he went," said Myeshia. The other two nodded, and they continued walking.
They continued traveling north, stopping in each village on the way to ask about Ross. They kept hearing the same thing, that he was up north somewhere. Then they came to a village where someone finally knew where Ross was.
"Yes, I've heard of him, and I know where he is, but you really don't want to go there," the man said. "Why not?" Colin inquired. "Because," the man replied, "there's a curse on the place, actually 3 different curses, and if you stay to long, you are affected by one of them." All three blinked and then Drake said, "um...what sort of curses?"
The man continued, "One makes you younger, like a little kid or a baby, one changes your sex, and one turns you into a half-animal." Myeshia looked at the man and said, "You're kidding, right?" "I wish I was," replied the man. All three groaned, how were they ever going to get any training if the guy to teach them lived in a cursed castle? "Oh, and one more thing," the man added, "Ross' name isn't Ross anymore, it's Rois, and he is now a she."
All three stared at the man, who sighed and said, "That's what I said, he is now a she. Ross was in the battle where the curses got set. He was caught
in the sex change spell. He was a little shocked about the change, but was able to accept it, eventually, and so changed his name Ross to her name Rois."
After the brothers had taken leave of the man, they discussed what he had said. "Do we have any choice?" asked Colin, "We definitely need training, and Ross, or Rois, is the only one who can do it." "Yes," said Drake, "but what about the three curses, we need to consider those as well. Do we really want to end up as babies, women, or half animals?" "Well, we definitely need to decide soon," added Myeshia, "because we either get training from this guy, and risk the curses, or we keep on running from town to town when the powers of one or more of us go out of control."
All three sighed, and Colin said, "Myeshia's right, if we don't get the proper training, we're just going to keep causing problems and getting run out of every village we come to." Drake nodded and said, "Yes, that's true. . . I guess we'll just have to chance it and hope none of us gets caught by those curses, or at least not the half-animal one." Colin and Myeshia nodded and all three headed north towards Metamor keep.
The brothers were able to hitch a ride on a cart headed for the keep, so they made good time, arriving just as the sun was setting. They asked one of the guards at the gate, who happened to be a woman, where they could find Rois. "Why do you want to know?" asked the guard. "We were told that Rois could help us get our innate magic powers under control. We've been chased out of every village we've been in, because we couldn't control our magic," answered Colin. "I see," said the guard and called for her superior.
The officer, who looked like he wasn't old enough to be one, came and asked what the problem was. "These three would like to see Rois, to apprentice with her," the guard said and then told what the brothers had said to him about being chased out of every village. The officer then turned to the brothers, "Ah, yes, your reputation precedes you. I've heard about what happened in the last town as well as in several others. Rois has also been following your exploits, and hoping that you would come here. If you will just wait here, I will send for her."
Rois was sent for and soon arrived, and the brothers were all three surprised to see a centauress. "Hi!" she said, "I'm Rois. And you must be Colin, Drake, and Myeshia, though I'm not sure who's who." All they could do was stare, as the tube top she was wearing was stretched very tightly against her large breasts, and her long red hair was in a braid that reached to her knees.
Finally, Myeshia managed to ekk out, "Pleased to meet you. I'm Myeshia, and," pointing to each one as he said his name, "that's Drake and that's Colin."
Rois grinned and said, "Shall we go inside? I'll take you to my quarters, as there are already apprentice quarters for the three of you set up there, ok?" All three nodded and followed Rois into the keep.
Part 2
As they walked through the keep to reach Rois' quarters, the brothers gawked at the people they passed in the halls. Amazons were conversing with bipedal dogs, and soldiers were being ordered around by what appeared to be little kids. Myeshia piped up, "Quite a...umm...menagerie here," and laughed nervously.
Rois looked back at him and grinned, "Yes, this probably seems a bit weird to you. However, once you get to know these people, you find that they are quite nice, and most are very sociable."
She continued, "It might take a bit of adjusting to, but you'll find that the people here are not so different from those elsewhere. Sure, they may look different, but it's what's on the inside that counts." All three nodded and they continued to Rois' quarters in silence, contemplating what she had said.
"Here we are," Rois said when they reached her quarters, and she opened the door. She grinned, "Welcome to my humble abode." Rois then pointed to a set of three doors on one of the walls, "There are your quarters," she said, and, pointing to one of them, continued, "That one is yours Drake." She then pointed to another one, "That one is yours Colin." She pointed to the remaining one, "And that one is yours Myeshia. Please take your things and put them in your rooms then return here. I'll be waiting for you."
After they had settled in, Drake, Colin and Myeshia returned to the main room so Rois could tell them what to do next. "Ah, good, you're back," she said, standing up, "we can start your training immediately." "Immediately?" queried Drake, "As in right now?" Rois grinned, "Yep! The sooner we get started, the sooner we can finish."
Rois started the lesson, "Now, when you use magic, you have threads of the elements, which you weave together to form spells. Each person can handle certain types of threads better than other types. You can tell what type of magic a person is best at by his or her aura. Red for fire, blue for water, green for ice, black for earth, white for air, brown for tech, and purple for life. All spells require at least one thread of life, along with the rest of the threads for the spell."
"Now, let me show you how to see the magic," she grasped each head in turn and mentally showed each of them how to switch to their "second sight" to see magic and auras. "Now," she continued, "we'll start with a basic candle lighting exercise, we take a small thread of fire and gently apply it to the wick," she demonstrated the technique. "Now you three try it," she said.
Myeshia switched to her second sight and reached for the threads like Rois had showed them. He applied a small fire thread to the candle wick and was so startled when it lighted that she dropped the thread, and reflexively grabbed for a bundle of ice threads, so the candle got frozen. Rois raised an eyebrow and said, "We'll have to work on controlling that. Next!"
Colin tried next. He reached for a fire thread and applied it to the candle wick, it took a little longer for him because he had to thaw out the wick before it could be lit, but he succeeded in lighting it. ::Wow!:: he thought, ::I did it!:: He then looked around and saw that Rois and his brothers were holding their heads as if they were in pain. "What's wrong?" he asked. Rois gave him a lopsided grin and said, "You broadcast your thoughts very powerfully then, it hurt! Good thing this room is shielded, otherwise you would have broadcast to everyone in the keep. We need to work on mental shielding together."
Colin gave a sheepish grin and said, "Uh...oops...I guess so."
It was finally Drake's turn. He tried to grab just a small thread of fire, but ended up grabbing a rope instead, which instantly vaporized the candle and blinded everyone for a few seconds. "Whoa," Rois said when she had recovered, "we definitely need to work on control with you. Can't have you burning down the keep now, can we?" she smirked.
It was Drake's turn to grin sheepishly and say, "No, ma'am."
As their training progressed, it was very apparent that each of them had strengths with different elements. Drake worked best with fire and earth, Myeshia with tech and ice, and Colin with water and air. Each one also learned to control their power and discipline it. Controlled, their powers weren't as strong as uncontrolled, but that was a small price to pay to not have to worry about them getting out of hand.
One day, while they were practicing, Drake kept scratching his arms, and it was getting distracting to not only him but his brothers as well. Rois examined his arms and found that the skin was peeling. "Brace yourself," she said, and ripped off a strip. Drake and his brothers gasped at what they saw. Where Rois had pulled off that strip of skin, there were blood red scales growing.
Rois sighed, "It looks like Drake has caught one of the curses, the one that changes people into half-animals."
All Drake could do was stare at the patch of scales, whimper, "oh man!"
During one lesson, Myeshia kept squirming and grimacing. Rois stopped and asked him why he couldn't sit still. "It's my pants," he said, "they're too tight."
"Too tight?" Rois queried.
"Yes, and it's getting very uncomfortable."
"Hmmm...Pull up your shirt for me," Rois told him. Myeshia complied and was shocked with what he saw.
"Hey! Where'd my chest hair go? It's almost all gone!" Colin's eyes widened as he noticed something else wrong with Myeshia's chest.
"Um...Myeshia...," he said, "your nipples are swollen."
Myeshia looked to where Colin was pointing and screamed at what he saw, only his scream was that of a woman instead of a man. "What's happening to me?" he cried.
"It seems," Rois interjected, "that Myeshia has been affected by the gender-changing curse, and is turning into a woman."
"What?!?" said Myeshia, and started bawling.
"Aw, come on Myeshia, it's not that bad, is it?" said Drake, "Take a look at me....at least you can go outside the area of the keep without being called a monster and people trying to kill you."
Colin noticed something was wrong when he couldn't reach as high as he used to be able to. His clothes also seemed especially baggy, when he pointed this out to Rois, she said, "Oh, you've caught the third curse, the age-change one."
Colin oogled and said, "um...will I keep getting younger until I'm a baby again?"
Rois laughed, "No, you'll just get younger until you reach about 14 years old."
Colin pondered this, "well, I think I'll need some new clothes then," he said matter-of-factly.
Rois grinned, "We'll have to get all three of you some new clothes," she said, "I'll tell the tailor." Colin nodded, and Rois continued with the lesson.
Part 3
As the days progressed, each one changed more and more. Drake's scales grew to cover his entire body; his hands, feet, legs and other parts of his body were changing shape; and he was growing a tail. In addition, he had started putting out little jets of flame every once in a while when he sneezed.
Myeshia's small breasts continued to grow in to large ones passing many of the females he'd seen quite quickly, finally stopping at a medium large size. He lost his male organs and grew the female ones to replace them, and so was now a she. Her hair grew at an accelerated rate, and so was waist length in just a few days. Her skeletal structure also reshaped, as her hips widened, her rear grew, her waist thinned, as did various other parts of her body, and her face became extremely feminine. She didn't lose any height, though, and still was just as muscular, and as such looked like an Amazon.
Colin continued to get younger and younger, until he stopped at about 14 years old. His room had to be rearranged, as he was shorter than before, and as such could not reach certain things.
"Come on Drake, time to get up!", Colin yelled while pounding on Drake's door. A bolt could be heard moving on the other side of the door, then the door opened and Colin stared. Before him stood a seven foot tall morphic dragon. Quite a size difference, considering that Colin had lost about two of his six feet of height when he regressed to 14.
"Whoa," was all Colin could manage to say to his transformed brother.
"I am quite a sight, aren't I?" Drake grinned.
"That you are," Colin agreed. Colin looked past Drake into his room and noticed that it seemed to be much larger that when he saw it before. "What happened to your room?" he asked.
"Oh, that," Drake said, "well, um...I'm not exactly sure what happened, all I know was that I woke up in the middle of the night last night and I was this /huge/ dragon, much too large to fit in my room, but somehow, my room had gotten bigger. I was very surprised at this development, and decided to go back to sleep and maybe I would return to a bit more 'normal' size. When I woke up just now, I was this size and in this form you see here."
"How did it get so big, though?" Colin queried.
"I have no idea, it was like this when I woke up," Drake replied.
"Oh," said Colin.
Colin and Drake then went to wake up Myeshia, "Hey Myeshia," said Colin, "Time for breakfast. Come on, you've gotta come out sometime!" A sigh could be heard from the other side of the door, "I finished my change into a woman last night, and I'm really feeling uncomfortable about coming out."
"Aww, come on Myeshia, we're your brothers, we love you as our sibling, no matter what sex you are," continued Colin.
Then Drake piped up, "Besides, Rois went through the same thing you're going through, and she can help you adjust,"
"But, but, I'm a /woman/, for crying out loud, and not just any woman, oh no, I'm an /extremely/ attractive one," the voice continued.
"Hey," replied Drake, "at least you're still human, I'm a half dragon now."
A sigh could be heard from the other side of the door, "Ok, I'm coming out, but try not to stare too hard, ok?" "Ok, we'll try," said Drake and Colin together.
The door was unlocked from the inside and opened slowly. Despite their promises otherwise, Drake and Colin couldn't help staring at the shapely Amazon that stood before them. Her waist-length red hair set off a quite beautiful face with full red lips. Her clothing, tailored for a male, was stretched to close to the breaking point by her /quite/ feminine attributes. Her shirt was stretched taut by two large breasts, leaving her midriff quite bare, and her pants looked quite tight in some places but loose in others.
"Whoa," said Drake and Colin together, and Myeshia blushed a crimson red.
Colin was finally able to regain his senses and said, "Sorry about that Myeshia, but you are...umm...quite a sight." He coughed nervously and poked Drake, who snapped out of the trance he had been in with a sheepish grin (which looks quite interesting on a draconic face).
Just then, Rois came up, "Ahh, you're awake Myeshia, and it looks like you could use these new clothes I got for you." Rois then handed the new feminine clothes to Myeshia and went into her room with her to show her how to put on various garments.
Each of the three had someone help him/her with thier changes, someone who had also gone through those same changes. Drake had Saroth, Colin had Father Hough, and Myeshia got help from Rois.
::You have to be careful to not shift to full dragon form in most places in the keep:: Saroth mindsent to Drake as they sat up on the watch tower. He continued, ::Watch me as I shift and then try it yourself:: Drake nodded, and watched as Saroth shifted to full dragon form. Drake then scrunched up his face in effort as he tried to shift (which looks pretty funny on an anthro dragon). ::No, no, no.:: Saroth mindsent, ::You're trying too hard. Relax and just let it flow:: Drake did so, and shifted to full dragon form so suddenly that he left char marks on the stones when he shot out a jet of flame in suprise. ::Whoa, whoa!:: Saroth mindsent, ::Careful there, you might hurt someone with that::
Drake shifted back, gave a sheepish grin and said, "Sorry."
Saroth grinned, ::No harm done, just be more careful next time, ok?:: Drake nodded and they just sat there for a while, basking in the sun.
"The first thing you need to know about being an AR, is how to shift your age," Father Hough told Colin.
Colin nodded, "Right, so how do I do that?" "Well it's different for each person, but one that works for some is you imagine a dial, that goes from baby to 14 years, and you mentally turn that dial to change your age."
Colin nodded, and tried that technique, and regressed to a 4-year-old. Colin opened his eyes and looked at himself. Grinning happily, he closed his eyes again and progressed back up to 14. When he opened his eyes once again, he grinned and said, "It works, thanks!"
Father Hough nodded, "You're welcome. Now, AR's are used alot for diplomatic missions, because they can get into places larger people can't and they are constantly underestimated because they look like kids."
Colin nodded, "Good strategy." "Yes it helps us get out of scrapes sometimes," said Father Hough.
"You've just got to jump in there and do what feels comfortable for you," Rois told Myeshia, "if you feel like you need to flaunt your body, flaunt it, if you're uncomfortable about that, then you can dress more conservatively."
Myeshia nodded, "But it feels so funny to have these," pointing to her breasts, "hanging off of my chest, and to feel attracted to guys."
"I know," said Rois and grinned, "My breasts were a distraction to me at first, but I got used to them eventually. What really got me was being attracted to all the stallions, and especially my first heat. I couln't keep my mind off of them, and could hardly control myself around them during it."
Myeshia stared at Rois, "You won't have that particular problem, since you won't go through an estrus cycle, just a menstrual cycle." Myeshia nodded, and Rois continued with the lessons on how to be a woman.
Myeshia decided to follow Rois' advice, and took the middle ground with regards to clothing. She wore pants that weren't too snug, but not loose either, and a shirt that showed off her curves, but weren't too tight either. It took a while for Myeshia to get used to men's stares, but eventually she did, and she even started being attracted to some of the guys at the keep.
Drake and Colin, on the other hand, were getting to know others in their groups. Drake introduced himself to the other dragons, and Colin got to know more of the age regressed people.
"You know what?" said Myeshia one day, "I think I'll change my name, now that I'm a woman."
"What?!?" said her brothers.
"Yep," she said, "Myeshia is a guy's name, I need a woman's name. Hmmmm...Ah, I've got it! From now on I'm Aisha." She grinned, and looked to see her brother's reactions.
"Well," said Colin, "it's your name. Ok I'll call you Aisha from now on."
"Me too," said Drake.
"Thanks guys," replied Myeshia, now Aisha.
"I've been practicing," she said, "and I've got something to show you." Drake and Colin looked on with interest as Aisha began weaving a spell. As Aisha pulled in a couple threads each of water and tech, she added one fire as well, plus the requisite life thread, and a small cloud began to form in her hands. She tied off the weave, and the cloud drifted towards Colin and Drake, then stopped when it was midway between all three of them. Little bolts of lightning shot out of the small cloud, hitting the floor, and a couple also hit Drake and Colin, giving them a mild shock, but nothing severe. The cloud then began to rain. "Oops, sorry," Aisha said after she saw the cloud shock her brothers. "I won't put as much fire into it next time," she promised and released the weave, making the small cloud dissipate.
"Nice trick, Aisha," said Colin. "I've been working on one myself," he said and started to weave a spell. He took a couple of threads of wind, plus a couple of ice threads, and a life thread, and started to weave them together. As he did so, a puppy appeared. Colin tied off the weave and then grinned. Myeshia ooohed and aaaahed, then reached out to pet the puppy, but her hand went right through. "It's an illusion," Colin stated, "but it's a cute one." He grinned and released the weave, and the illusion faded away.
Drake then interjected, "watch this!" He grabbed some wind and stone threads, along with a thread of life, and applied them to a hand-sized rock he picked up from the ground. As Colin and Aisha watched, he sculpted the rock into a statuette of Rois. He then released the threads and showed his work to the others.
"Cool!" said Colin.
"Neat!" said Aisha.
"I quite agree," said a voice. All three turned around and there was Rois
standing there. "Is that a statuette of me? How nice!" Rois said, and
grinned. "And those other tricks are good too," she continued. "You've
been practicing, but now it's time to start your physical training. I know
you won't be very good fighters, but you must learn to defend yourself
without the use of magic, as there are places where you cannot reach the
threads." All three groaned and headed inside to change into clothes more
appropriate for physical training.