With a wide smile, Chloe strode onto the 'stage' after her father had announced her 'act'. The family meeting and coming of age ritual was conducted on one of her relative's farm. Since magic folk rather tended to avoid contact with normal humans (her parents being one of the rare exceptions), becoming farmers in remote locations of the country was their preferred living styles. Although lighthouse keeper enjoyed a certain popularity as well. Anyway, the 'stage' was actually a large, graveled surface which had housed a major silo complex next to a barn once. Now it was used as a private 'fairground' for magical gatherings and events. Like today. Thankfully, the weather was perfect, with 72° F and only occasional clouds. Only a third of the playground was filled with seats, all in all there were not more than fifty people waiting for her, all of them wizards or witches. 

She had looked forward to this for weeks now and she knew that Gabrielle, Svenja, Crystal and Piper had as well. Although it had taken her some efforts at persuasion for them to become as excited as her after she'd showed them her plan for the 'show'. Well, if I'd never been transformed before, I'd have had second thoughts for some of the changes I've planned, too! she thought while she took her position in front of the audience. There was nothing else on the stage, she would perform all acts only with her assistants and her own body. Speaking of which...

Chloe bowed towards the audience and harvested encouraging clapping, especially from the male relatives close to her age. Well, she had opted for this, of course. She was dressed in a form fitting red gown which exhibited a hypnotizing sparkle while simultaneously highlighting every curve of her body. It was a magical garb, one that would change with her body when she would transform, but it was the only magical item she was wearing. The other... 

The young witch grinned at the thought and then slipped out of her matching red heels she had worn with her dress. A speculating murmur erupted from the audience which became slightly louder as Chloe snipped with both of her fingers. This was purely decorative, of course. The actual work she did in her head, channeling magic energy at both shoes. They started to change form, becoming larger and more... fleshy. In less than twenty seconds, both shoes had morphed into two barefooted girls with identical silvery dresses and identical facial features, only that one of them had unnaturally golden hair and the other one equally unnatural silver hair. 

Gold and Silver smiled and bowed to the audience, and Chloe had to suppress an excited giggle. So far, everything was going well. Gold was Gabrielle and Silver was Svenja and the two of them didn't show any discomfort at the fact that they had been her shoes only a minute ago. In fact, it had taken Chloe a lot of time to convince her friends to let her change them into objects. The entire thought had been alien to them. But finally, they'd carved in for a little demonstration after Chloe had assured them that it wasn't harmful, and the fact that they still could think and feel while they were objects and that it actually felt good being worn, thanks to several magical tweaks she had worked, had persuaded them to go with the plan. Still, there were two more to go... 

Chloe extended her arms, and her two assistants walked towards her, each of them carefully removing one of the red satin gloves she was wearing to her dress. As soon as the gloves came off, she nudged her magic forwards into the fabric in her assistant's hands and it started to change as well. A few seconds later, Silver and Gold were holding hands with two other smiling assistants, looking identical as well. Except for the hair, of course. Gold's partner had hair like platinum, making her Piper. And Silver now faced a girl with translucent, crystalline gleaming hair, Crystal of course. The four assistants lined up to Chloe's left and right, and all five of them bowed towards the audience, which applauded the performance. 

So far, so god... Chloe thought and pointed at a spot on the expanse. Without hesitation, the four assistants walked to it and arranged themselves in a circle, interlocking their arms and looking at each other's faces. Chloe inspected the form and nodded in satisfaction. She put a hand on Gold's back and in the next moment, a golden glimmer shot outwards from her hand in all directions and enveloped Gold. It took only a few seconds and the living girl was transformed into an inanimate, golden statue. Chloe stroked her friend's hard back, knowing that Gabrielle could feel this touch. But she didn't dwell long at her friend's golden body. There were still the others waiting, and she moved on to repeat the process. Shortly thereafter, her four assistants had become a quadruplet of statues - one golden statue, one silver statue, one platinum statue and one crystal statue. 

The audience started clapping, but Chloe raised her hand. I'm not finished yet! she thought and concentrated again, this time focusing her magical energy on herself. She immediately felt the familiar feelings of change, of bones, flesh and skin growing and changing shape. Her body became larger, with green scales forming all over. She went down on all four limbs, her arms becoming legs, all four of them sporting large, vicious looking talons. At her shoulders, new muscles formed and two leathery, green wings pushed out, simultaneously a with large tail behind her. Last came her head, the neck elongating and her mouth pushing out into a muzzle. Her lips disappeared as scales appeared on her head as well, with wicked, interlocking dagger-sized teeth erupting along her jawline. 

As the change finished, Chloe looked into the audience, snorting small flames through her nostrils, opening her impressive maw which would have no problems biting a full-grown cow in two and emitting a terrifying roar. She had transformed herself into a large dragon of at least 30 feet length. With one flap of her powerful wings, she propelled her massive body in the air, flying a couple of circles around the audience. Then she landed again an all fours and walked towards her statuefied friends. Flying is always fun- she thought, but time to show the real reason why I transformed myself in a dragon!

She inhaled deeply and then, with a loud roar, she breathed a massive streak of fire directly at the four statues. It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but as the statues reappeared out of the inferno, they were already glowing in a hot red. Dragon fire was the hottest fire in the world, and Chloe made rigorous use of this fact. She breathed fire again, and this time, the statues seemed to slump, the by heat softened materials deforming. She breathed again and again and after the fifth breath of fire, the four statues had been reduced to glowing lumps of their respective materials. Chloe didn't fear for her friend's lives. The process didn't hurt them in the slightest, they were purely gold, silver, platinum and crystal now. Being molten was simply another aggregate state for their forms, it was actually quite pleasant, thanks to her tweaks. Once more. she thought therefore and put all her power in the sixth breath. This one lasted for six seconds, and as the wall of fire disappeared, all four statues were gone. Instead there was a large, blubbering puddle of mixed metals and crystal on the floor. All the four elements had mixed into one hot, molten mass. 

This was what Chloe had wanted to achieve, and once again, she nudged her magic energy at her friends. The hot liquid started to pour together and with delight she heard the audience gasp as a shimmering head appeared out of it. It rose higher and higher, with a thorax and arms following, and finally legs. The puddle on the bottom was gone, instead there was a liquid, gleaming figure standing where it had been. But now it seemed to change shape, and the metallic look vanished as the figure's surface became fleshy. It didn't take long until there was a single assistant standing. From the chin down the girl looked just like the other four assistants before, with a silvery dress. But her hair... it was a mixture of all four previous assistants' hairs, with golden, silvery, platinum and crystal streaks in turns. Chloe lowered her massive dragon's head and grinning, the girl met both of her slit, reptilian eyes' stare, stroking her large snout.

As the audience erupted into loud applause, Chloe had to grin inwardly. This had been her friend's favorite part during the rehearsals. She had really combined all four of them into one new being with one mind. She herself had tried it out a couple of times with a distant cousin, and it had been mind-blowing, suddenly being a fusion of two different personalities. She'd never tried it with three others, though. But apparently, it was awesome, because afterwards the four girls had always rhapsodized about the feeling of being an entirely new person. Chloe had even taken the new girl, they'd decided to call her Mandy (not first name which had come to their mind but it did sound better than 'Merge'), out for a night of clubbing, and Mandy had loved it. Moreover, Mandy had proven herself to be Chloe's ideal best friend since she combined the personas of her four original best friends. 

Chloe pushed the random thoughts to the side. I can't let myself be distracted. she thought, I have a show to run, after all. By now, the applause had subsided and the audience was anxiously waiting for more. They would not be disappointed. Mandy's body started changing again, with fur appearing all over it. The girl went down on all fours graciously as her arms shifted to become legs and cloven hoofs formed at the end. She became larger, her face forming a snout and bony things appeared on top of her head. It didn't take long, and Mandy had been transformed into a majestic stag, wielding impressive antlers on his head. Chloe had to giggle inwardly. Merged, species and sex changed, I guess I've pulled out all the stops... well, nearly all. There's one thing left. 

Swiftly, the witch changed back into her human appearance and patted Mandy on his snout. The stag pranced around in his deer body until Chloe motioned him to come back. Obediently, Mandy obeyed and lined himself up next to her. Then she channeled her magic again and Mandy's body became stiff and translucent. In a matter of seconds, the impressive live stag had become an incomparably more impressive diamond stag statue. Chloe contemplated her work. Mandy in his frozen deer body looked simply magnificent. The sun's beams were breaking in Mandy's millions of facets, making his frozen figure look as if it was glowing from inside. 

Merged, species and sex changed AND transformed into an inanimate object... now that's what I consider a combo. But Chloe wasn't finished yet. Smiling, she focused her energy on her body again and less then half a minute later, she was a female deer standing next to Mandy. She trotted around her assistant on cloven hooves a couple of times and then took place next to him. And in the next moment, she let her body stiffen into diamond as well. Suddenly, sight and sound were gone as she became a diamond statue just like her merged friends. She wasn't breathing anymore, wasn't even 'alive' in the biological definition of the word. But she could feel the sun shining through her translucent body. She couldn't observe what was going 'outsides', but she knew that her father would announce a short break for the audience now. When the break would be over, he would 'awake' her with a short peck of his own magical energy. Until then... she would relax. 

As usually when one was an inanimate object, it was utter peace. She felt curious hands touching her diamond body, caressing her hard snout. It felt good being touched and so she was a little bit disappointed when her father nudged her to change back. She channeled the energy for the transformation into flesh and blood and a couple of seconds later she was a living deer again, Mandy, as the majestic stag, standing next to her. Both deer scanned the crowd with intelligent eyes, and Chloe couldn't help but feeling a little aroused... after all, she was a female deer and next to her was standing the Brad Pitt equivalent of her current species. Do not let yourself be distracted... she chided herself and changed both of them back into human shapes. 

The two girl grabbed hands and bowed, which was answered by thundering applause. Oh, you haven't seen anything! Chloe thought happily. After all, we're only at half time! Chloe waited until the applause had subsided and then motioned Mandy to step back a couple of yards. The merged girl obeyed and Chloe concentrated. The next change would be... tricky. She channeled her magical energy and focused it on her assistant. 

Mandy's skin started to become brown. Her whole body seemed to disintegrate into small, vibrating pieces and the audience's startled mumbles perished in a loud buzzing which emanated from her. By now, she was only a crawling shape of vaguely human proportions, and then, even this shape simply dissolved as hundreds, thousands of bees buzzed outwards. 

For a moment, Chloe and most of the stage was encased by a cloud of chaotically buzzing bees, then the tiny insects started to gather in one place and after a minute, a large, flying swarm of bees hung in the air. Smiling, Chloe looked on as a small stream of bees separated from the hive and landed on her belly. She waited patiently while the insects arranged themselves on her body, finally forming a giant smiley. 

Now the audience roared with applause and Chloe bowed, the large, buzzing swarm mirroring her gesture in a short dip of height. Transforming one person into multiple beings wasn't that easy and usually created headaches. There were exceptions, though. Hive-based creatures, such as bees or ants, regarded themselves as 'we' instead of 'me' anyway. The trick was in changing the transformed person not into one thousand tiny beings, but rather into one hive which, coincidentally, consisted of one thousand single beings. Her magic teacher had let her change into an ant colony for a day to drive the point home and the experience had been interesting, to say the least. 

So now her four best friends were one beehive. But not for long. As the cheer ceased, the bees on Chloe's dress flew back into the swarm and Chloe concentrated for phase two of the change. It was subtle, and almost impossible to spot. One moment, there was only Mandy as one beehive in one swarm. The next moment, there were Gabrielle, Svenja, Crystal and Piper again, each of them being a differently sized beehive, but all four of them in the same swarm.

Now the swarm parted, splitting up in four distinct groups. The first group, the by far largest, flew behind Chloe and seemed to thicken. Within seconds, the buzzing swarm took a golden, hard shape and formed into an impressive throne on which Chloe took a seat. She extended her hand and the two smallest swarms buzzed close. The first landed on her hand, massing together in a bulbous shape. As the bees finished reforming, Chloe was holding a beautiful wine-glass in her hand, adorned by silvery ornaments. Chloe raised the hand and the third swarm flew into the glass, charging it with a buzzing mass. But only for a short moment, then the bees liquefied and filled the glass with tasty looking white wine. The last swarm lowered itself in front of Chloe's crossed feet and changed into a platinum-furred cat. 

While Piper brushed her purring feline body against Chloe's legs, the witch took a demonstratively relaxed seat on Gabrielle while taking an appreciative sip of Crystal out of Svenja. She hoped that most of her audience would realize which assistant was in which shape, she'd made sure to give each of them their respective colors - Gold/Gabrielle as the golden throne, Silver/Svenja as a silvery ornamented wine-glass, Crystal as a clear, white wine and Platinum/Piper as a platinum-furred cat. 

Speaking of cat... Chloe grinned and snipped with her free hand. In the next moment, the cat morphed into an impressive tiger, its purr now a deep, resonant rumbling. She nudged her friend slightly with a foot and the tiger walked towards the audience, showing her relatives its impressive ivories. Then Chloe took another sip of Svenja and snipped again. This time, the tiger morphed into a looming elephant, hooting loudly through its trunk. 

They continued this way. Snip. A Zebra. Snip. A Rhino. Snip. A Bear. Snip. A Giraffe. 

Piper was in the body of a large crocodile, presenting her massive, teeth-spiked snout to the audience as Chloe took the final sip of the wine which was Svenja. She swallowed her friend and made herself ready for the next step. Another snip, and the crocodile became a black panther. Simultaneously, Chloe looked at her empty glass in feigned disappointment and threw it into the air. But instead of shattering on the ground, the glass morphed in mid-flight and became a dove which spread its wings just before it hit the bottom and raised itself in the air. 

Chloe watched as Svenja flapped through the air and drew circles around the stage, the black panther meanwhile snapped for the flying bird and tried to catch it. With a disdainful scowl, Chloe snipped and Piper's hind paws suddenly took root in the bottom. The panther's upper body reared up, its fur becoming bark and wood and the whole audience watched breathlessly as the large cat changed into a blooming Japanese cherry tree - with platinum blossoms. 

The dove cooed happily and landed on one of the cherry's branches. In the next moment, its shape shifted into that of a bird of prey, replacing the dove by a fiery looking hawk. Chloe seemed to think, then put her hand in front of her mouth. As she retracted it, there was suddenly the head of a snake in her palm, with the snake's body apparently coming out of her mouth! 

This was actually the hardest change of all. She had to do multiple changes at one - first getting the wine which was Crystal back in her mouth and then slowly changing it, bit for bit, into a snake, doing some sort of layered change. If she changed all of Crystal at once, the snake would appear in her stomach which would be unpleasant to say the least. But it worked and soon Crystal was out of her mouth, a silvery snake of two yards length, coiling itself around Chloe's body. 

She let Crystal roam her body for a minute and then stretched her right hand out. The snake obeyed and moved to the outstretched limb, coiling itself tightly around her lower arm. Then the snake started to change, flowing into the shape of a large, leathery gauntlet. As soon as the change finished, the hawk launched itself from its perch and glided over to Chloe, landing on her falconry gauntlet. She nuzzled the creature's fiery beak with her finger and once more the audience erupted into thundering applause. 

This is awesome! Chloe thought while she petted Svenja's feathery shape. Everything is going way better than I hoped! Too bad I'm nearly finished...

Smiling, she raised up and stepped down from her throne. With her free hand she snipped and the golden throne started to change shape. Within half a minute, it had reformed into a majestic, snow-white horse with a golden mane. Chloe stroked Golden's/Gabrielle's fur and then prompted her to move to the cherry tree. Serenely, the horse clacked over to the cherry on its hooves and sniffed the tree's blossoms. Grinning, Chloe snipped again and within seconds, the tree seemed to simultaneously shrink and grow towards the horse's muzzle. The tree's branches wrapped themselves around the patient horse's head and formed leathery ropes.

The whole tree seemed to disappear onto the horse's head and after some more seconds, it was entirely gone, now forming the horse's bridle. Next, Chloe threw the hawk in the air and walked over to the waiting horse. She laid her gloved hand on its back and the gauntlet changed shape as well, flowing down from her arm and becoming a riding blanket on the horse's back. Then she thrilled and pointed onto the blanket. The circling hawk cried out once, flew another lap and landed on the blanket.

A final snap of Chloe's fingers and the hawk became a saddle. Now the horse went down on its knees to let Chloe climb on its back easily. Firmly perched on the saddle, Chloe took the bridle in her hands and grinned widely. She prompted her horse to go forwards and galloped on Gold/Gabrielle around the audience three times. Then, with a final bow which was answered by roaring applause, she thundered off towards the barn which doubled as her backstage today. 

"That-" Piper exclaimed enthusiastically, "-was the single most awesome thing I've ever done in my life! And the strangest to boot! We did impress the audience, didn't we?" 

Chloe grinned at her friend whom, just like the others, she had transformed back into a human - although into her 'Platinum'-persona. "What do you think?" she asked, pointing towards the exit which led to the 'stage', "Simply listen." 

The audience was still applauding and it had been over a minute since she'd disappeared in the barn. 

"Cooool!" Svenja said long-drawn-out. "Shouldn't we then, I don't know, get back on stage and thank our audience?" 

Gabrielle nodded vigorously and Crystal was of the same opinion. "You bet!" 

Five minutes later, the friends stood on the stage together, with Crystal and Svenja on the right, Chloe in the middle and Gabrielle and Piper on the left. The five girls held their hands and had to bow multiple times until the cheers subsided. Then Chloe thanked the audience and introduced her four assistants, each of them earning thundering applause as well. 

After Chloe had introduced the last of them, she wanted to turn and leave the stage as suddenly someone started demanding an encore. It took only moments until the whole audience joined in. Nervously, Svenja glanced towards Chloe. 

"Uhh..." she whispered, "What do we do now? It's great that our show was that well received, but we didn't plan for an encore!" 

Chloe thought furiously. "Don't worry, I have an idea. Ladies, let's lock hands again." 

The girls followed her lead and the crowd stopped chanting as all five girls started to change again. Their bodies connected, flowing together in a large, scaly shape similar to Chloe's dragon body from before. But each girl kept her head, only that it pushed out on a long flexible tail and became more reptilian. Way more reptilian.

After 30 seconds, a large, five-headed Hydra stood in the place of the five girls, all five, viciously looking heads writhing curiously. 

Wow... that is... Svenja's mental voice said surprised and Chloe had to suppress a growling chuckle. 

Do you like it, girls? she asked back and immediately got the acknowledging emotions of her friend. 

If I like it? Gabrielle responded, It's frigging awesome! We're one body, but each one of us got his own head! And we know what all of us are thinking! That's different to the merging thingy... but at least as good! 

Chloe chuckled. I knew you would like it. she thought. So what do you think of the rest of my encore? You know what goes on in my mind now, don't you?

The answer was unanimous. Brilliant!

Still grinning inwardly, Chloe concentrated on the second change and was rewarded by a freezing sensation. Within moments, their Hydra's body became stiff, changing into a giant ice-statue of itself. 

Fantastic! Crystal's voice cut through their frozen shape, accompanied by four acknowledging emotions. I just love being a statue. But I'm also curious how the third stage will feel. So... you wanna start?

You bet! Chloe sent back and concentrated again. A warm fire seemed to spread in their stiff belly and she knew what the audience must be seeing now - inside the Hydra ice-statue, a bright fire came to life, consuming the frozen water. 

The burning heat flowed outwards, melting the ice. Chloe and her friends felt how their shared body started to deform under the heat, losing its hard shape and becoming soft water, the water vaporizing into hot steam. After two minutes, the giant Hydra was gone, instead there was only a cloud of steam left which slowly dispersed in the bright sun, leaving the delighted audience alone. 

Hm... that feels nice... being only steam... Gabrielle thought blissfully. I wish we didn't have to change back. 

Well, Chloe put in, Unfortunately, we have to. At least I have to, it's my coming of age ritual after all. Therefore I need to attend as my human self, not a cloud of vaporized vapor. On the other hand... purely out of habit she put in a completely pointless dramatic pause, after all her changed friends could read her mind at the moment, I don't need to change back right now. 

Several hours later, the four friends sat together, letting the exciting day fade away with a beer. 

"I'm happy for you." Crystal exclaimed smiling. "Your folks apparently loved the show." 

Chloe blushed. "Well, yeah." she mumbled uncomfortably. "You know that I've been a honors student at school, right? And at studying magic, it's the same. In fact, some of the transformations I've done today are way into what is normally considered grand-master of magic territory. So they were fairly blown away from the fact that I was able to do them." 

Svenja laughed. "I've thought so. Some of your changes seemed so totally over the top... I couldn't quite imagine why your ancestors couldn't stop the Inquisition from nearly wiping them out when they possessed such powers." 

Again, Chloe blushed. Talking about her being a prodigy always embarrassed her, now matter how true it was. "I hope it's been fun for you as well?" she asked her friends instead. 

All four of them grinned widely. "Of course!" they cooed as one.

"In fact..." Piper proceeded, "I'm sure we'd like to try a certain change again." she looked at her friends mysteriously. "I'm sure you agree. After all, we had been one person during the change I'm talking about." understanding flashed over their faces, mixed with embarrassment. 

"Um..." Chloe said, blushing again, but this time not because of praise. "I'm pretty sure I know which change you mean... are you sure?" 

All four of her friends looked at each other and nodded. "Yeah." grinned Gabrielle crookedly. "Don't you want to... try it out as well? I... We could tell that you were aroused as well." 

Chloe sighed. Actually... she thought, They are right. So why the hell not? And I guess I owe them. 

"Okay, girls." she said and swiftly looked around if anyone was to be seen. But despite them, there was nobody left. "Why don't you disrobe then and hug each other?" 

"Yay!" the girls exclaimed and obeyed. Smiling, Chloe worked her magic and watched as her friends' bodies flowed into each other changing into a single large animal shape. 

Happily, Mandy bellowed and eyed his stag's body, then looked expectantly at her out of his cervine eyes. 

"Yeah, yeah, all right!" Chloe grinned and started to shed her clothes as well. One minute later, she was a doe again, flexing her new muscles. Mandy apparently didn't want to waste any time, he was already sniffing her rump which aroused Chloe a bit. 

Oh, no, Mister! she thought amused, I'm not that easy a conquest! Come and get me first!

And with that notion, she sprinted off towards the forest, with Mandy the stag following her eagerly.