After their excursion yesterday, the girls eventually were allowed to return to the hotel. Unfortunately, none of them were able to get anything done, as they all waited anxiously for Dawn and Julia to return from their court hearing.
Obviously, when they did, the two girls were absolutely bombarded with questions along the lines of, “How did it go?”, “Are you going to be competing again?”, “Did the judges seem upset?” Between the two girls, Dawn fielded the questions, Julia seeming to do her best to hide behind her taller, African American partner, basically explaining that the issue was being deferred to the WMO, and that they would probably have a decision sometime tomorrow.
With the news slightly abated, Dawn politely asked if her and Julia could have some alone time in their room, both clearly exhausted from their long day on trial.
~~~
Hippodrome of Domitian
The next morning, the four girls were awoken by Andrea, who had came around to make sure they were all up bright and early for their punishment today.
The girls were lead out of the forest to the south, through a doorway in a tree that was shaped like a boot, finding themselves in the middle of a lovely, grass covered courtyard.
The courtyard was slightly oval shaped, with stones sticking out of the ground approximating the remains of a fence. The ruins of large, aged marble walls surrounded them on all sides, the occasional archway embedded in the stone. Directly in front of them was the remains of a stone semi-circle in the ground, and further beyond was a circle formed out of various rocks stuck in the ground.
It was in this further away circle of stones that Phian waved at them, their appearance once again of the outwardly more male appearing variety. They stood by a rather large construction that seemed to clash with the aesthetic of the ruins around them, resembling a set of modern horse stables.
“Good morning, girls,” Phian smiled, taking a bow, “and might I say, you are all looking wonderful this morning.”
“Thanks, Phian,” Andrea responded walking over to him and standing in front of the stables.
“Ladies, welcome to the Hippodrome of Domitian,” she gestured at the ruins around her, “During the era of the Roman Empire, Hippodromes used to be the spot for chariot racing. Of course, since this hippodrome is much smaller than others, historians believe that it was more likely used as either a garden, or a private riding school, which will be perfect for our transformation,” Andrea grinned.
“If you’d all be so kind to step up to the starting gate,” Phian gestured to the open stables.
Each of the contestants and Andrea stepped into the starting gate, their bodies taking up only a small portion of the total space, as Phian went about closing each of the gates, the doors having been modified to more closely resemble a big box illusion, completely obscuring everything except for hole for their faces.
From their pocket, Phian produced several impressively large carrots, about a foot long each, which they proceeded to hold up in front of each of the occupants, telling them, “Just eat as much as you’d like.”
Natalie and Paxton were rather conservative, each eating about half of their carrot. Meanwhile, Andrea and Olive ate about three fourths of the carrot, and Kacie finished her carrot completely.
Phian smiled, as the magic in the carrots began to take hold. From the girls’ foreheads, a small bump began to form, slowly stretching outwards and causing many of them to go cross-eyed as they tried to watch the effect. The new growth was rather hard, looking as though it were made of a spiral like, bone pattern composed of four ridges. Each of the horns was pure white, except for Kacie, who had opposite ridges of her horn colored the same bright blue as her tattoos. Each of the horns continued to grow upwards like a stalagmite, eventually reaching the same height as the length of carrot they had consumed. To the girls, it appeared that no matter how long it had grown, the horn weighed almost nothing.
“Alright girls,” Phian grinned, as they held onto the release lever of the stable, clearly aware that their transformations had completed, “Last one around the hippodrome is a rotten egg! On your marks… Get set… Go!” Phian pulled the lever, the eager assistants rushing out.
From the waist up, besides their new horns, the girls appeared exactly the same, still wearing their various t-shirts. However, from the waist down was a completely different story.
Ten sets of horse hooves clopped against the grassy hippodrome, as their centaur bodies propelled forwards in a playful race, each of the girls making minor adjustments as they went to get used to their new biology. The hair on their horse bodies matched up for the most part with the hair on their head, save for Kacie and Olive, who had a black and gray coat respectively.
As they rounded around the semi-circle at the other end of the courtyard, Phian smiled at the camera, commenting, “Well… When in Rome~” Phian walked into one of the open stalls, closing the door behind them for a brief moment, before stepping out, having taking an equine appearance of their own.
Phian had morphed their upper half once more into their more feminine appearance, their yellow hair having grown out and their breasts becoming more pronounced. Atop their head sat a full-length unicorn horn with rainbow stripes, and their horse half had white hair as pure as snow. Their more stuffy magician’s outfit had been replaced with a yellow and pink tank top.
For most of the morning, the girls had a blast getting used to their new anatomy, as they walked around the gorgeous location, occasionally challenging each other to some quick races.
~~~
Jozef Oak Inn (Dahlia’s Room)
Dawn and Julia were snuggling in their bed when they heard a knock on their door, Julia instinctively grabbing Dawn tightly, a fearful look growing on her face. Dawn gave her a little squeeze in return, the fearful girl’s grip lessening slightly, allowing Dawn to slip out of the bed. She walked over to the door, adjusting her red pajama t-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms.
She opened the door, surprised to see the smiling face of Martin. “Good afternoon you two, are you ready to rehearse?”
Julia looked confused, sitting up in the bed, wrapping her fingers in her red hair, “R-rehearse?”
Martin smiled back at her, “Of course rehearse! After all, you two are the only ones of my assistants who are normal right now. Would be a shame to let it go to waste.”
Julia brightened up a little bit, “So, we’re back in the competition.”
Martin looked mischievous, “The WMO’s still debating… but there’s nothing in the rules that says I can’t have some good, old, magical fun with two wonderful women and call it a rehearsal.”
Dawn looked at Martin skeptically, speaking in her french accent “But I thought we couldn’t make use of ANGA facilities unless we’re on the show.”
“Who said anything about using ANGA facilities?” Martin grinned, “Now get dressed you two. We have a busy day ahead of us!”
~~~
Oak Holm Market
Natalie and Paxton were walking through the market square together, their horse halves sashaying through the crowd, their tails flicking back and forth. As they continued to scan the crowd for some inspiration, Paxton brought up a question as some small talk.
“So Natalie…” she began, “I’m assuming that you probably know a ton about Phian.”
“Oh yeah!” Natalie smiled, “They’re pretty famous online. Probably one of the most prolific non-human magicians out there.”
“Wait! Phian’s non-human?” Paxton sounded surprised.
“Yeah, you didn’t know that?” Natalie asked.
“No! They seem pretty human to me!”
“Well. Yeah, Phian’s a tsukumogami,” Natalie explained. Based on the confused look that Paxton was giving her she continued, “Okay… So do you know what a golem is?”
“I-I think so?” Paxton said, “If I remember right… They’re like, puppets imbued with magic to serve the person who created them?”
Natalie nodded, “Yep. Usually a golem is bound to its creator, and only last as long as their creator keeps up their enchantment. A tsukumogami is sort of like them in the sense that they’re typically a base puppet imbued with magic, except that they have complete independence.”
“So… Does that mean that Phian was created by someone then?” Paxton asked.
“Well… No-one’s really sure,” Natalie shrugged, “Tsukumogami’s are pretty rare, and most of them don’t have much recollection from when they were first created. From what’s been documented, Phian just sort of showed up one day at an open stage venue and started performing and hasn’t really stopped since.”
“Wow,” Paxton nodded along, “That does sound pretty impressive. And I’m assuming the fact that Phian’s imbued with magic is why they’re able to perform it?”
“Yep,” Natalie smiled, the two continuing to trot through the market place.
~~~
Miklós Varázsstúdiója
Martin had snuck the two girls eastwards through the forest, leading them through the forest to a large tree with a uniquely shaped door on the front of it. Opening the door up, the girls were shocked to now find themselves in Budapest, Hungary.
Martin walked them around the modest city, the girls enjoying the almost yellow and white brick architecture of the multi-story buildings that seemed to wall them in on nearly all sides. Thankfully, the oppressiveness of these buildings seemed to die down slightly as they walked further and further away from the capital building.
After about twenty minutes of walking, they turned into a side road, walking along a particularly run-down looking building, before entering a door on the side of the building, a sign that read ‘Miklós Varázsstúdiója’ above it.
After checking in and a climbing a set of stairs, the trio found themselves in a slightly lower end, but still nicely furnished practice studio. There was a large mirror (a must have for any good practice studio) and several common practice instruments attached via chains to the wall to make sure that nobody would leave with them.
“Wow~” Julia said, examining the space with wonder, before her hand shot up and started twirling her hair, doing her best to avoid eye contact with Martin, “A-are you really okay with paying out of pocket for all this?”
“Of course,” Martin beamed, “After all, it would hardly be fair to you two if you only got two days to prepare something.”
Dawn smiled, bowing a little as she said, “You truly do not know how much Juila and I appreciate this,”
Martin smiled back at her, “Well, you can thank me after everything gets sorted out. But in any case,” Martin clapped his hands, “How would you like to do this? You two seem to have weaker reserves than Dahlia, which if I remember correctly is why you two merged in the first place?”
Julia nodded nervously, “Dawn’s got about two years experience… I-I’ve only got one.”
“Well, again, it’s totally up to you two,” Martin smiled, “I’m sure we can come up with something for either case.”
“Well,” Dawn said, biting her lip slightly at Julia, “It has been a couple of days now since we last became Dahlia~…”
Julia blushed, nodding along.
“Great,” Martin smiled, “In that case, why don’t you two bring her out?”
Julia nodded, walking over to Dawn and embracing her in a hug. As they embraced, Dawn’s skin and clothes appeared to bubble slightly, as Julia was gradually absorbed into her body.
Dawn’s features began to shift as the smaller girl continued to be absorbed, her features softening out as her hair grew some red streaks and became more contained. Her height similarly diminished slightly, becoming an aggregate of their two heights, as her bust size slightly increased.
Soon enough, Dahlia was standing once more where Dawn had stood, a warm smile on her face, as she wrapped her arms around herself, moaning slightly in her slight french accent. “Mmm~… I love it when we do that~”
“It’s nice to finally see you again, Dahlia,” Martin smiled, “I hope you had a good rest.”
Dahlia jumped slightly at hearing Martin’s voice, looking over, her face blushing, “Oh! Hello Martin! Uh… H-How long have you been?”
“The whole time,” Martin grinned, “I know that merged personalities do not retain all of the memories from their component parts, so how much do you know has been going on the past couple of days?”
“Well, we know that Dawn and Julia’s secret got out,” Dahlia did not seem to think on her words, her facade in order to protect her word choice having been dropped completely, “and that a decision’s being made on whether we’ll be allowed to compete.”
“Great,” Martin smiled, “So I guess you’re all caught up then.”
“It seems so,” Dahlia smiled.
“Well, do you have any plans for what you’d like to do if you’re allowed to compete?” Martin asked.
“We think so,” Dahlia grinned as she walked over to the wall of props, picking up a large wicker basket.
~~~
Faire Square
The day was dying down, and Paxton, Kacie, and Olive were out in Faire Square, enjoying the twilight feel of the Enchanted Forest. Olive was helping entertain some kids by offering free rides on her back, two rather polite, green goblins children currently having a great time being walked around in a small circle around the square. While Kacie and Paxton rested nearby, their legs folded up underneath their horse halves.
“You know, with how much of a mom Olive is, I find it incredibly hard to believe that she was ever an assistant before,” Kacie commented, watching the scene.
“Yeah,” Paxton laughs, “I keep trying to picture my own mom being a magician’s assistant. I really can’t see it.”
“Oh yeah,” Kacie agreed, laughing, “My mom’s claustrophobic in anything smaller than a walk in closet.”
The two laughed for a bit longer, as Olive stopped at the line of kids that had formed, helping the two goblin children off before helping a tiny harpie girl up, instructing her to wrap her wings around her waist, and using her own arms to make sure the small girl didn’t fall off.
“But still, it’s pretty cool that she’s still chasing her dream so many years later,” Kacie smiled.
“Yeah,” Paxton agreed, getting distracted by the sound of thumping music coming from somewhere causing her horn to vibrate.
She unfolded her horse legs to stand up, Kacie looking over at her, “What’s up?”
“I just wanna check something out quickly,” Paxton said. Kacie stood up behind her, as she used her horn as a sort of metal detector, continuing to follow it until she found the source.
Attached to one of the nearby homes was a set of four rather ornate bird cages. Inside, various colored lights the size of fireflies flittered about, entering into large fake structures of various shapes and sizes. Attached to the top of each of the birdcage was a little placard that read ‘Fairy Village’.
“Wow!” Kacie said, as she listened into the tiny music, “This Wellspring really just continues to get cooler and cooler.”
“Yeah,” Paxton says, enamored by the shiny lights, “I wonder what it would be like to be that small…”
“Maybe tomorrow?” Kacie said, patting her hand on the small of Paxton’s horse back. Paxton nodded in response, still watching the lights slightly, as they trotted back to Faire Square.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
& Question Corner &
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To everyone: “That was a great challenge and a good lesson on altering your forms, I had to learn that too. Howard, Annette, Rocky, Sable, and Rachel say hi, we just concluded an airshow, and Howard's about to start his magic show. They've been having a lot of fun. I'll get Rachel back in time for the afterparty. You are all invited to come as your schedules allow. Anyways, have fun Girls. Oh Paxton, James wanted me tell you hi, he's been too busy to review the episode, but I did, it was a good try, and you almost won.” -Jacob Schutter and the Schutter Family. (@@James-MacCloude)
Kacie: “Wow! It sounds like your party must be really crazy if it has both an airshow and a performance from Howard Weiss! Maybe next year if I’m not busy being an assistant, I could DJ the event,” Kacie grins.
Natalie: “Ooh! Say hi back to Rachel for me! And also tell her that I’m still really sorry she got kicked out on Sunday… I know there’s not really anything I could have done, but I still feel partially responsible since I was her teammate.”
Olive: “Oh that’s absolutely lovely dear, and I’m so sorry that we couldn’t all make it. Just the sad reality of the way this show works I guess.”
Paxton: Paxton blushes, “You can tell James I said hi back Jake… And thanks for the kind words.”
To Paxton: “Absolutely I plan on being there! At least if Colin agrees to it. DC is only a three hour’s drive from here, what could go wrong?” -Shannon (@@FlagsOtherSide)
Paxton: “Oh wow! I hope you have a good time! Is Colin all caught up on the season? I know you mentioned last time he’s not the biggest fan of reality TV. I imagine it’d be a little weird to go see the live show if he wasn’t at least a little interested in the show. Of course, the live shows are usually pretty different from everything else, so maybe he’ll like it?”
To Olive: “Twas a noble sacrifice you made. I respect your choice.” -Shannon (@@FlagsOtherSide)
Olive: Olive blushes, “Oh, no need to flowery dear. What I did wasn’t all that special… I am a little embarrassed I admitted it on National TV, and it’s probably not going to help my job offers after the show, but I think I’d still make the same choice anyways.”