If You Trust Me - An Onward Fan-Novel

◊ Chapter 14 ◊

Previously on Onward...

As Sadalia, Althea, and Ms. Traven race through the school halls—intent on warning Ian about Mr. Vance's true nature—Ian hands the S.S. Medallion over to the impostor. But once the talisman is in his grasp, the bespectacled elf reveals that it gives its user the power to shapeshift and that he is actually a gremlin rogue wizard named Gedeon the Grotesque!

◊◊◊

◊ Gedeon's Story ◊

I hail from a distant land of mischievous gremlin rogues where trickery is the greatest strength of all. Getting weak-minded fools to do as we please to obtain what we most greatly desire—whether that's money, treasures, food, a good laugh, a better living situation, you name it...

A few of us—like me, for instance—had discovered over the years that we'd inherited the magic gift required to handle any kind of magic. Compared to the typical rogue, tricking others is much more fun for us thanks to our wizardry! And going through each spell in the book, I found personally that using the Disguise Spell for swindles was the most genius! It's such a great spell—quite useful. But its main weakness? Lies.

If any of us told a lie, our disguises would get exposed bit by bit—and in certain cases, that meant our tricks on others would fail. Admittedly though, I was able to master the spell after some self-taught practice in speaking the truth. But you already know that, don't you? Heh heh heh... 

Yet even now, it's still such a tall order! So exhausting! I really wasn't sure how much longer I could keep up the act...

But then one day, I went for a walk outside my village, when I happened upon something giving off a shine in the ground. I did some digging and there it was—the S.S. Medallion. Unlike you, I knew exactly what it was and what its power held. Which reminds me...the "S.S." stands for shapeshifting. So in other words, the Shape Shifting Medallion. Isn't it obvious?

My village knew of it too and thought it was only a legend—but NO, I proved them wrong by finding it! And it was MINE! ALL MINE! So I had the advantage... 

With this medallion, I was able to become whoever and whatever I wanted to be and steal, cheat, and pickpocket as much as I wanted without the pressure of telling the truth all the time! Which I gotta say made my schemes all the more crafty...

But because magic was thought of as useless and dangerous sorcery, my medallion was eventually taken away from me by snooty museum curators who happened to catch me during one of my out-of-town ploys and put it behind a glass! Oh, wait...didn't I tell you this part already? I did, didn't I? But anyway...now that the realm has decided, "hey, magic isn't so bad," I felt I should have back what rightfully belongs to me!

I searched and searched from one museum to the next all over the United Realms and eventually found where my precious medallion was being kept—here, in New Mushroomton. Gotta say, not the first place I would've expected it to end up—and especially not in a building where all the items on display were anything but magic. And yet, walking into that jewel museum and seeing it again after so many years...oh Zadar...I hadn't felt more relieved in all my life! I just wanted to touch it, and feel its power flowing through my veins! But when I was denied ownership...well...that's when I took matters into my own hands...

And so...I broke in—and by broke in, I mean, I broke the glass window, the glass case, everything—and took it! It didn't take long for the alarms to sound and the cops to come after me. But those fools...they couldn't get to me! Not with my skills and reinforcements...