Moontouched 22

Most of the women in the green room gasped at Donna’s disappearance.  “What happened?”  demanded Rowan.  “Gwen, can you bring her back?”

Gwen waved a hand through the spot where Donna’s crystalline body had been a moment before.  “I could, I think.  But... no.  She’ll be OK.”

“But...” protested Rowan, only to be cut off by a gesture from Gwen.

“Wait for it.”  Gwen closed her eyes, and raised her face to where the Moon was riding in the sky.

A faint glow started to build around Gwen, then grew to suffuse the room with brilliant moonlight.  All the others in the room exclaimed in wonder at the sight.  

Then Tawny yelped, “My ears!”

Everyone turned to look at her.  Her ears were changing, elongating and acquiring a light dusting of white fur.  Before long it was obvious that they were becoming rabbit ears.  Examining them in the mirror, touching them with her hands, Tawny grinned.  “Ooh, I was just thinking how cute I’d look as a bunnygirl.”

The others were starting to notice changes as well.  Carmen was grinning and showing off her sharpening teeth and her talon-like nails.  Scales were growing unnoticed over her back, and a tail was stretching from her rump.  Neysa seemed to be stretching taller, but not otherwise changing.  Beth had deer fur running down her legs, a flagging white tail, and the beginnings of cloven hooves.

With a murmur of surprise, Zoey hopped down from the table.  She was still glistening and pink, but becoming more human by the moment.  Rowan was studying herself in the mirror, checking her face.  It looked older, but only subtly.  Late twenties, perhaps, rather than the twenty-ish body and face Donna had given her earlier in the evening.

When the changes had finally settled, they all looked at each other, comparing the results.  Everyone was grinning at what they’d become.  Tawny was bouncing up and down on elongated feet and shaking her cute little bunny tail.  Other than those, the ears, and some cute whiskers next to her button nose, she looked much the same.  Rowan was looking slightly less busty than before, but it looked good on her.  Her face was a touch more regal, making her look the queen of the green room that she was.  The golden tiara that had formed on her head just emphasized it.

Beth was giggling with Carmen, as the dinosaur-girl mock-threatened her.  Beth’s deer-like ears were swivelling madly, and her tail was wagging instead of flagging.  Carmen had become quite vicious looking between a slightly protruding mouth full of pointed teeth, long claws for fingernails, and talons for her feet.  From the front she otherwise looked human, but when she turned around her back was plated with bright red scales, and a spiky crest ran down her back to the tip of her muscular tail.

Neysa had ended up about seven feet tall, with all the length coming from her long, sinuous belly.  She wiggled and twirled, laughing with joy at just how amazingly flexible her torso had become.

Zoey looked around a bit confused.  She was human, and entirely normal looking.  She opened and closed her hands, staring at them in puzzlement but with a small grin growing on her face.  “I can use the remote again!”

Gwen chuckled at that.  Of all of them, she had remained entirely unchanged.  She looked at the air in front of her, and commented mildly, “I think that will do, Donna.  Time to come back to me.”

Donna blinked back into existence, momentarily naked before Gwen imagined her some clothes as well.  Donna looked stunned for a moment, then smiled hugely at Gwen.  “Thanks.  I needed that.”

“What exactly did you do, anyway?”  Gwen asked, looking around at the others.  They were all either staring in the mirrors admiring their forms, or exclaiming over each other’s forms.  Every single one seemed quite pleased with her change.

Donna’s smile widened.  “I just provided the power to anyone in the room. I bet I could have...”  She vanished again.

Gwen reached out to Donna, and her eyes widened as she could feel how large she had become.  She tugged on Donna, imagining her human again... well, mostly.

Donna reappeared in an eyeblink.  “Aww.”  Then she giggled.  “That was so easy!”

“You... the whole place?”  Gwen asked, amazed.  “Did... did you change anyone?”

Donna shook her scaly head.  “You pulled me back before I could.  It would have been so easy...”  Her form flickered again, before G steaded in full snake-girl form.  “Spoilsport.  I bet I could do a whole mall if you let me.”

Rowan approached them then, gushing with thanks for her new body.  “This is so much more me than that young too-busty body.”  She drew herself up regally.  “This body makes me want to dance Swan Lake.”

“You’re welcome... and uh, sorry about the wings,” Donna added with a wince.

“What wings?” asked Rowan, then her eyes widened as she felt something growing at her shoulders.  She turned to the mirror and watched, amused, as swan wings grew from her back.  When they finished growing in, she fanned them wide, their wingspan just slightly larger than her outstretched arms.  “Well.  Not quite what I had in mind but... I think I’ll keep them for a bit.  Thank you.”

Gwen’s eyes narrowed.  “That’s the more usual reaction when you change someone.”  She gestured to the rest of the room.  “But all those changes... they’re exactly what they wanted.  How?”

Donna spread her arms wide in a gesture of benediction.  “I gave them the gift of transformation.  They changed themselves.”

“But what of my gift?” asked Gwen.

“You already can change yourself with the power I transfer to you.  What more could I give you?” Donna asked, seriously.

Gwen pointed at the box where Brunhilde was trapped as a broken crystal heart.  Donna crumpled at the accusation in Gwen’s gaze.  She tried to vanish into the moonbeams once more, but Gwen’s regard pinned her in her current form.

Donna’s long snaky tail writhed in agitation and she wrapped her arms tightly about her chest.  “I can’t...  I can’t let her out.  She’s far too dangerous.”

“You left her broken and in anguish.”  Gwen’s accusing words hit Donna like stones, making her flinch at each one.  “Keep her as long as you must,” sighed Gwen.  “But not like that.”

Donna couldn’t find her voice, but she managed a nod.  Gwen opened the box and lifted away the chains without flinching at the touch of silver.  She promptly set them aside.

As soon as the chains were removed the crystal’s weeping was audible again.  Donna reached out, not quite touching it.  The crystal melted and flowed, refusing in moments into a whole and flawless heart once more.

The weeping slowed, then stopped.  “Why?” asked the pure fluting voice.

Donna’s gaze found Gwen’s.  “Because the one you captured and tortured as bait for me asked for mercy on your behalf.”

“There is enough suffering in this world,” said Gwen earnestly, more to Donna than to the crystal.  “And no sin so great as to justify... that.”  Her gaze carried a challenge, but no longer an accusation.

Donna bowed her head.  Abruptly she was human again, without a scale in sight.  She knelt before Gwen.  “There are monsters enough in this world.  I could so easily become another, and I don’t want that.  I need you, Gwen.  I need you to be my light when my soul is dark, when anger would take what little humanity I have left.”

Gwen’s eyes were wide.  “What are you saying?” she whispered.

“I don’t know what I’ve become.  I have only the barest inklings of what I’m truly capable of.”  Donna’s voice quavered.  “And it’s terrifying.  I need someone to be my anchor to reality.  To morality.  I need you to be that person, because there’s nobody else who can do it, nobody that I trust like I trust you.”

Gwen took Donna’s hands, and drew her up to standing again.  “You would subjugate your power to me?”

“Not just my power.  Everything.  Gwen, I don’t actually exist as a real person any more.  I gave up every my remaining hold on reality to win that fight.  As far as I can tell, I’m made out of raw magic now.  I have no idea what will happen when the Moon sets, but if you are not at my side when it does, I...”  Donna looked away.  “Best case, a moment’s inattention at the wrong time and... poof.”

“Worst case?” asked Gwen, gently.

“Poof, whether or not you’re there.  I’m pretty sure I’d come back next full Moon, but that’s no way to live.”

“Ah.  I accept... provisionally.”

“Provisionally?”

“For tonight.  I will keep you safe, tonight.  Tomorrow... we shall see what that brings, tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” whispered Donna, glowing brightly.  She hugged Gwen tight, then slowly faded away.

Gwen sighed, and shook her head.  “How come I have to be the serious one now?”  A thought spun Donna back into existence, this time as a tiger-striped woman.

“Who says you have to be serious?” asked Donna with a toothy grin.  “Silly is good.  As long as no long-term harm comes of it, being silly is wonderful.”

“An it harm none, do what thou wilt?” asked Gwen, lips quirked into half a smile.  “It’s an old code, but a good one.”

Donna pondered that for a time.  “Not... quite.  Be as silly as you like, as long as everyone gets to go home in a form they’re happy with.”

“I’m not happy being stuck as a crystal,” piped up Brunhilde.  When Donna and Gwen’s glares turned on her, she added, “But it’s a far sight better than how I was.  Not even counting the last half hour... it’s much, much better than what I’d become.”

Donna tilted her head, studying the crystal curiously.  “What had you become, anyway?  That crystalline thing, was that... deliberate?”

“It was... what was left,” said the crystal, softly.  “I held on to humanity as long as I could, but... without the power to keep myself young, I degenerated.  First physically, then...  I won’t say I understand it, but crystal is... stable.”

“I know what you mean,” murmured Donna.  “I can feel it.”  She held up a hand, and it shimmered into a solid mass of crystal.

“So you’d rather be a crystal?” asked Gwen with a grin.  “Maybe a star at my brow, lending all your power to me.”

“Yes,” said Donna. “After a night like this... letting someone else make the decisions sounds like a huge improvement.”

Gwen stepped back and watched as Donna’s body turned to crystal, then shrunk to a glowing crystalline star.  It floated up in front of her, then fused itself to her forehead.  She wobbled for a moment, dizzied by the rush of power the crystal carried with it.  “Oh... Oh wow, you weren’t kidding.”

“I guess we’re more alike than she thought,” mused Brunhilde.

Gwen glared at the crystal, then scooped up the chains and set them on top of it.  As she closed the box she muttered, “That’s quite enough out of you for tonight.”

Gwen turned to the others, who were staring at her in awe.  “So.  Who wants to be changed into what?”

They all shook their heads, claiming that they were happy with their forms and wanting to explore them first.  Neysa went so far as to head up to the stage to show off her elongated torso.  On the way she wormed past Rachel’s enormous breasts.

Rachel sidled into the room, one breast at a time, and sighed.  “Ugh, these are fun, but waaaay too big.”  At the silence from the room, she looked around.  “Wow.  Looks like someone had fun here.  What’d I miss?”

Gwen’s face broke into a huge Cheshire Cat grin.  “Ooh, lots of stuff.  But today is your lucky day.  What do you want to be?”

“I... um...”  She squirmed nervously at Gwen’s grin, but couldn’t resist the offer  “Breasts... Smaller?”

Gwen nodded, and watched as Rachel started to dwindle under her gaze.  The other woman shrunk smaller and smaller, and after a moment realized that her breasts weren’t getting smaller as fast as the rest of her.

“Hey, what are you doing to me?” squeaked the diminishing Rachel.

“Making you into smaller breasts, of course.  Have fun!”

Rachel started to protest, but the feeling of melting into her breasts was just too good, and she moaned happily as her body vanished.  Her head was the last to go, and it was still smiling as it was slurped away by her breasts.

Everyone was staring at Gwen.  “What?”  She asked.  “She’s having fun, see?”  She picked up the breasts, and the nipples were hard as rocks.  “Oh come on, I’m not going to leave her stuck like this.  I’ll change her back.  Later.”  At Rowan’s look, Gwen sighed.  “Later tonight, even.  Happy?”

Gwen gave the breasts another squeeze, then looked at them curiously.  “How odd.  There’s someone else in here.  What have you been up to, Donna?  Oh!  Well, turnabout is fair play...”

A body started appearing from the breasts, instead of Rachel growing back into the light, her boyfriend emerged instead.  Before long he was full height, but still attached to the modest sized breasts.  He looked down at them and chuckled.  “Well.  This is somewhat familiar.  Where’s Rachel?”