(Girls to Monsters)


Lyra almost wet herself as she looked to the massive creature. Its three heads growled, slavering. The drool from them alone was equal in volume to one of her castle’s showers. Its three heads slavered as it looked to Lyra, and she realized she was going to die.

Funnily enough, in her last moments, her thoughts went to Noly. Lyra had always been so mean to her little sister, never really showing her that she loved her. Even if Lyra’s current predicament was entirely the girl’s fault-Noly had told her to come to the castle catacombs for a ‘surprise’-Lyra wished she could apologize.

“Noly…” Breathed the blonde, a tear streaking down her cheek.

The Cerberus vanished, and in its place, a familiar brunette pouted. Noly held a collar in her hands, a sour look on her face. “How did you know it was me? That’s no fair, I wanted to scare you!” The girl exclaimed, stomping a foot on the ground.

To her credit, Lyra didn’t hit the girl-though she considered throttling her.

 

“Okay, so…” Lyra began, her brow furrowing. It had taken nearly ten minutes to explain it all, and she was still having trouble wrapping her head around the concept. “You found this cellar, full of cursed objects, and you decided to try using one.

“Yah huh.” Noly nodded, her curls bouncing.

Lyra bit back the jibe that came to mind, instead mentally counting to fou-

“Hey, you’re being really quiet what’s up sis why are you quiet?”

-mentally counting to TEN. She settled for telling the truth, rather than trying to come up with insincere praise for the girl. “I’m just trying not to yell at you for doing something so dangerous. I mean, you could have been hurt.”

“Nuh-uh! I read the instruck-sions! There’s tons of them, and I read them all!” Noly scampered over to a cabinet, opening it and revealing neatly stacked scrolls. To her credit, they looked less dusty than most of the things in the catacombs, so Lyra gave her the benefit of the doubt.

“Okay, so I’m impressed.” Lyra began. “But that really begs the question: why?”

Noly laughed, rolling her eyes as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. For the second time that day, Lyra dreamed of wringing the girl’s neck. “To get back at Dustin and Reynard, of course! The big bullies keep talking about how nothin’s gonna scare them, right?”

Lyra was impressed-and concerned. It looked like Noly took more after their mother than Lyra would have liked. “So… you want us to change into these creatures to scare them somehow?” It was, in a way, brilliant. Of course it went without saying that the idea was stupid. But it was so hugely, phenomenally stupid that it had gone full circle all the way to brilliance.

Lyra paused for a moment, astounded that she was even thinking of agreeing to this. Thousands of possibilities roamed through her mind, including the fact that these changes might very well be permanent. Then she remembered the terror she’d felt, and pictured Dustin and Reynard’s idiot faces. “I’m in.”

To Noly’s credit, it didn’t take the girl long to find a monster. In fact, it looked like she had already chosen one for the two of them. The girl only took a few moments before pulling out a scepter with a creature emblazoned on an inlaid gem. The beast looked rather impressive, with a gaping mouth that seemed to take up most of its body.

“Great! So we’ll both hold this and turn into a huuuge Mawbeast!” Noly chirped, tilting her head happily to the side.

“First question: What’s a Mawbeast?” Lyra decided to humor her.

“Uh, duh. It’s a beast with a maw.”

“I don’t know what I expected. Next: Why do we both need to change into this.”

“I said it was huge, didn’t I? I even used three u’s!”

“Right.” Lyra began to think that this plan wasn’t as brilliant as she’d first surmised, feeling it orbit right back around to stupid. She looked around the room, then settled on the form Noly had taken earlier. Now that she looked closer at the collar, she could make out a three=headed dog on the tag.

“Uh… I think I’ll just take the Cerberus.” Said the princess, grabbing the leather band. The metal tag jingled softly, and Lyra shook it louder for effect.

“But that’s not as scary!”

“I know, but…” Lyra paused, thinking of how to convince the girl. “But you showed me how well it works, and I want to try!”

Noly didn’t take long to bounce back, holding up what looked like a tower shield. On closer inspection, it was made up of ridged plates, like an insect’s carapace. “Okay, fine… Then I’ll take the chitterlegs thingy!”

“Chitterlegs?” Lyra dreaded the answer.

“I dunno the name for it. It’s this big bug with a thousand legs!”

“You mean a centipede?”

“Yeah! A centimapede! It’s as big as a house too, really cool!”

Lyra pictured how large it was, then thought of how large the Mawbeast must have been in order for Noly to have considered it ‘huuuge’. A shiver ran down her spine, and she lifted her hands in an attempt to forestall the girl.

“How about something… Smaller?”

“Aw… Well… I could do the scorpion claws. It’ll only make me the size of a pony!”

“A pony…” Lyra realized that this was as good as it was going to get, and she finally acquiesced. “You know what? I can deal with that.”

Before she could say another word, Noly had stuffed her hand into the scorpion claw, and with a flash of magic, was no more. In her stead, a large and chitinous beast stood. It was a massive thing, roughly the height of three of the realm’s finest nights standing atop one another.

Lyra looked to the giant scorpion, her pupils contracting and her legs shaking. Too late, she realized that Noly liked to play with the Marigold Order’s warhorses, massive chargers that would trample their foes as though they were men crushing bugs. ‘Ponies’, indeed.

Speaking of bugs, this one was swaying from side to side eagerly. It was plainly apparent that the scorpion was still Noly, which helped ease the mind-crushing terror. Now it was just mind-numbing terror, which was a good deal more bearable.

It was hard to believe this giant scorpion was her little sister, even with the eager swaying of its limbs. Lyra swallowed hard, flinching as the beast clacked its claws expectantly. The sound reminded her of the clatter of armor on armor she’d heard so often when passing the castle’s dueling grounds.

There was no way Noly could know of course, since her body was deaf, but the clack of claw on claw was as loud as cannon fire. When the ringing in Lyra’s ears cleared, she could hear the scorpion’s every move. Even the slightest shift in Noly’s form was enough to make her clack as though she was clad in well-fit armor.

Lyra knew what the giant scorpion, what her little sister, wanted. In hopes of easing the terror, she gave in. Lyra slipped the collar over her neck, and was a woman no more.

Her vision swam, and three heads blinked with confusion. Lyra growled from her left head in bewilderment as her right head idly panted to cool herself. The scorpion was mercifully smaller now by comparison, now her equal in height instead of thrice her size.

The arthropod clacked the bulb of its stinger against its claws, and it took Lyra a moment to realize that the bug was clapping. The Cerberus dipped her middle head towards the giant scorpion, giving it a lick to show that she wasn’t afraid.

This turned out to be a mistake, as Noly responded in kind. The scorpion brushed its writhing mouth-parts against Lyra’s lupine face, the hard chitin brushing against her fur. It tickled, in a nightmarish sort of way.

Lyra pulled all three heads back in surprise, marveling at how easy it was. She hadn’t noticed until now, but it was so easy to move her body this naturally, this instinctively!

Of course, the second she focused on it, everything went to hell. It was like remembering she needed to breathe, or realizing that her tongue didn’t sit flat in her mouth… Mouths. She whimpered through all three heads, the reverb effect only adding to her headache.

Noly didn’t seem to be affected in the slightest. Maybe it was that her childlike mind was better suited for such changes. Maybe it was because she had little mind to begin with. Lyra huffed with amusement at the thought, her leftmost head beginning to pant idly with mirth.

In that moment, the Cerberus realized the secret to her changes: she had only to abandon her thoughts. By acting instinctively, her form would move of essentially its own accord. She didn’t need to will it to do anything, because the body was her own-it would naturally move without her intending to control it.

In her pride, the giant canine nearly missed the fact that her sister was no longer in the room. All three of her heads blinked, and she let out a distressed whimper. There was a faint draft from deeper in the catacombs, and she could smell the retreating insect’s carapace.

Of course, what had she expected? Of course Noly would run off ahead, it’s what she did best. Lyra grit her three sets of teeth, and set out after the girl at a rapid pace.

She marveled at how nimble the Cerberus was, in spite of its large size. Her massive paws slapped against the tile, propelling her forward with a practiced ease that left her heart racing with adrenaline. Though she hated to admit it, being in this body was fun.

Of course, all fun came at a cost, and hers was the fact that she somehow had to babysit a monstrous scorpion. The Cerberus rolled its middle set of eyes, letting her left and right heads take over her sense of sight. She then closed her middle eyes, latching onto Noly’s scent and steering her body towards it.

Again, she had no idea how she was doing this. She just thought of what she wanted and it happened, much like how she never thought about moving her individual fingers when opening and closing her hand. All of it was an innate reflex, sparked by her mind but driven by her monstrous form.

In her musings, she’d nearly caught up to Noly. The scorpion was in the middle of a clearing, and it looked rather afraid. Apparently it had forgotten that Dustin and Reynard were out hunting... and that their longbows literally couldn’t pierce the scorpion’s carapace.

This wasn’t for lack of trying. To the brothers’ credit, they were launching volley after volley at the scorpion, smoothly driving it back. Rather than fear, Lyra could smell the pride and arrogance on the two, at fending off one of the kingdom’s foulest creatures.

Well… She’d need to remind the meaning of terror.

Lyra deviated from her course momentarily, darting to the right and catching the scent of a stag. It was an impressive beast and doubtless was the brothers’ quarry before Lyra had attempted to frighten them.

Against Lyra’s new form, it lasted for a dozen seconds, if not less. The Cerberus lunged towards it, snapping its neck with a swipe of her paw, then taking the body in her massive jaws. She returned to the fray moments later, finding that the brothers had depleted their quivers, and had taken to using rocks and harsh language.

Much to Lyra’s dismay, this seemed to be equally effective against Noly, who hid its face beneath its large, scything claws.

Lyra growled under her breath, then darted to an outcropping above the twins, waiting until they were beneath her shadow. Then, she flicked her middle head upwards, tossing the stag into the air. Her left and right heads caught it, and in a swelter of gore, they tore the magnificent creature in half.

Dustin and Reynard felt the spatter of blood on their foreheads before the stag’s entrails made a mess of their hair and vestments alike. The two looked up, pupils dilating as they saw a bloody-toothed monster above them, silhouetted by the waning evening sun.

Lyra bit into each half of the stag with her corresponding jaws, then lifted her middle head, howling loudly and ferociously. The sound was instinctive, and she reveled in its primal power-and in the fact that the sound made her brothers immediately about face, scurrying towards the castle with what she hoped were added weight to their britches.

The Cerberus then hopped down from her position, padding towards Noly and licking the creature’s face affectionately. It seemed that Noly had enough of being a monster, because after the first lick, she removed her claw and hugged Lyra’s massive head tightly with both hands.

“I was soooo scared, thank you thank you thank you thank you” Noly continued to babbly, and Lyra huffed with amusement, idly snacking on the venison without realizing she was doing so.

 

The two returned to the castle an hour later, in time for a late supper and what sounded like the dozenth rendition of their brother’s story of the ‘nightmarish creatures’.

“…as a house!” Dustin spread his arms wide, clearly aggravated by the fact that their father was uninterested in his story.

“Father, you must listen to me! As king of this realm, it is your duty to protect the peasants!” Reynard chimed in.

“Protect the peasants.” The King Lyon replied, smiling quietly.

“Yes!”

“From beasts that were found on the royal hunting grounds, off-limits to commoners?” The king continued, before breaking into raucous laughter. “There’s no such thing as monsters in this realm, lads! All of them have been vanquished long, long ago.”

Across the table, Lyra smiled quietly and winked at Noly. Not only had she scared her brothers, but she’d made them look insane as well. It was a triumph above any other she’d had in recent memory, and better yet, was a secret the sisters had all to

“There are too monsters! Lyra and I turned into them just a bit ago to scare you two dunderheads and it worked!” Noly beat her fists on the table, and all eyes turned to the little princess. “Ask Lyra! She’ll tell you! There’s all sorts of forbidden magic we used and it was awesome!”

Lyra felt a chill run down her spine as her family then turned to her, and the girl demurely rose from her seat. “Thank you for that, Noly. Really. Great job. Top marks. Great at keeping secrets, that’s what you are.” She mumbled darkly.

“Lyra?” Her father asked from across the table, clearly ready to go on one of his legendary reprimands.

“Unfortunately…”  Lyra reached into her dress, hand clasping around a familiar leather band. “I think you’ll need to save the scolding for Noly. I’ll be busy finishing my dinner outside.” She smiled widely, winking at her brothers and snapping the collar around her neck.