Petibone (Fantasmical 2024)

7. This wasted wish_ Highfantasy

Prompt: The main character of your story wakes up one day with powerful druidic magic...and with a set of claws and fluffy ears. Your family has some explaining to do.

**

For days now, I had been feeling unwell and didn't feel like doing anything. The king hadn't summoned me either, as he was ill, and his two sons were at war, so I had no critical assignments. The wizard hadn't been seen since I delivered that cursed message to him, and thinking about it only made me more melancholic. Finally, I pulled myself together, realizing that sitting idle was even worse, and visited Folwell, who usually provided tasks. Luther was there, worried about the same thing as me: the lack of messages, especially now that war was raging in the kingdom. This was not logical, as one would expect the most secret messages to be exchanged during such times.

The absence of a person orchestrating the conspiracies was due to the wizard's disappearance, but I kept quiet about any possible involvement in his disappearance. My fellow messenger had just refused a task, but I was willing to take anything just to avoid sitting at home, dwelling on things. The task was to deliver a message to a regular resident of a brothel. It was simple; instead, the location deterred Luther. I had to go to Aden, the city of sin, where I had been a few times before and had no issue, so I accepted.

Since the task wasn't urgent, I planned to leave the following day, seeing no need to rush, especially since I felt weak and couldn't understand why.

The following day, after a strange dream in which I was a cat licking my fur, I woke up feeling very peculiar. Everything in my room seemed to have shrunk. When I sat up, I noticed my legs hanging off the bed. Perhaps it wasn't that my room had shrunk but that I had grown. As I looked down, I saw that my shins were covered in soft fur, and my toes had claws instead of neat little nails. Not only my legs but also my forearms had the same soft fur and claws.

I rubbed my eyes, trying to erase what I thought was a bad dream, and walked to the mirror. The first thing that caught my eye was my ears. They were not as long and had lost their green color; they were still slightly pointed but now furry. A small, kind face with red hair and tiny freckles on the nose looked back at me from the mirror.

What on earth is this? I wondered. What curse is upon me? Is this why I had been feeling so strange for days? If it wasn't a curse, then what could it be?

As I pondered these questions, I decided to visit my mother and ask if there had ever been such transformations in our family, then head to Aden.

I didn't expect much from my mother, as she never told me anything about my father whenever I asked. Seeing things from a higher vantage point on the street was strange, and having men nod at me as they passed was weird. It was as if I was no longer the little ugly goblin, which I wasn't, at least in appearance. This was a certainty, as I had even considered in my room that maybe it was just my imagination playing tricks on me.

My mother was sweeping the yard of her miserable little shack when she saw me. It seemed she recognized me because she exclaimed, "Oh, just what we needed!" She even clapped her hands together, and the broom fell from her grasp. She hurried inside, and I followed.

"What is this? Do you know anything about it? Is it related to my father?" I babbled, looking at her angrily.

"Your father? Oh, please!" She waved her hand dismissively and stared at me in fright.

"Then what is it? I look like some sort of druid."

"Do you have magical powers?" she asked, sitting at the table.

"I don't know, I have no idea. But tell me, what is this? If it isn't my father's legacy, then what? Has someone cursed me?" I pleaded.

"It's not your father's legacy; mine," she blurted out. "A very rare bloodline. In my youth, I always transformed during the full moon, but after you were born, it stopped. Strangely, it's appeared in you."