Forgotten Magic

Chapter 48

Raps starts to laugh, apparently taking the two's words for a joke. When the odd couple don't join in on the joke, the princess comes to a realization. "Oh...Oh, you're serious..."

Cass quickly drank all her tea before scooting away from the table. "Ooookay, now we're outta here! Ann, finish your tea so we can get back to the caravan."

For a long moment, I stared at her like "Are you serious???" before sighing and gulping down the tea.

"Alright, great, let's go." She grabbed Raps and me by the arms and started leading us away, bef"ore something whizzed behind my ear.

Rapunzel gasped, turning on the spot to find that the man had turned into...a....a bird....

"Please, don't be alarmed!" he assures us, like, 'Ah yes, this is normal. Turning into a bird is completely and utterly normal."

"I-It can't be!" Raps insists, which I found strange considering she's a princess with 70 feet of magical, indestructible hair.

"Oh, but it is! And it is most wonderfully sublime!' The guy flies up into the air, as if to prove his point. "For, lest you forget, birds are the very embodiment of the term 'freedom'! You owe it to yourselves to enjoy this! Isn't that right, Mother?"

"Unequivocally. Seize this opportunity," Mother agrees.

"Look, I-I-I'm usually up for anything, but this is um-"

"INSANE?!" Cassandra offers.

"I mean, even if we wanted to, how? How would we even...do that?"

"Well, that's the beauty, dears," the lady answers. "You already have. You've drunk the tea..."

So...we were birds. I had the urge to roll my eyes like, 'Why does weird stuff always happen to us?' but suppressed the urge as I watched the old lady crack an egg over the man's head and he turned back into a human(?).

"Our only caveat: You must return within one hour so as to avoid the affliction we call 'avarian totalis'."

"Wwwwhat does that mean?" Raps inquires.

"It means you'd become, well, a birdbrain! You'd not only look like a bird, you'd think like a bird! Your desire to be the person you once were would dissolve and you'd remain a bird...forever."

Suddenly, I was reminded of the rumors of people going missing in forests near Koto.

"Oh, oh hohoho....well since you put it that way," Cass says mockingly sweetly, "GIVE US THOSE EGGS NOW."

I fully expected the strange toadstool people to pull a 180 on us and refuse, but the lady simply placed three of the blue eggs in front of us. However, just as she did so, Rapunzel....Rapunzel flew.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa, Cass! Cass! Did you see that?! I-I just flew!" She landed on the table again before soaring up into the air.

"Looks like the bird-ification has already started," I mumble.

"Indeed!" The man smiles, watching Raps soar through the sky. "We only meant to share our wonderful elixir with you."

"Come now," the lady coaxes. "Let us return you to your original, beautiful state."

Raps landed back down between me and Cass. "Ah, just as second!" she told the couple, pulling Cassandra and I into a huddle.

"Guys, I...know this is weird," Raps starts. "But-"

"Nononononono," the lady in waiting interrupts, "having 70 feet of magical hair is weird. This?! This is fullblown wacko!"

"Okay, yes, it's wacko," the princess agrees, "But when are we gonna get this chance again? They can turn us back whenever we want. And Cass," as if she hadn't clearly won her over already, "we can fly!"

Cassandra sighed, rolling her eyes. "I am so going to regret this..."

I hated to admit it, but I have never wished for that pain in the butt guard more than I did then.

"Yes!!" Rapunzel squealed. I wanted to mention that she hadn't gotten my approval yet, but I guessed she was past that.  "Thank you! Okay, we will be back in one hour. Come on, you two!" And she zipped off, leaving Cass and I to follow.

Under her breath, I heard the old lady mutter "We're counting on it."

. . .

So, as it turns out,  Raps and Cass are terrible at keeping time. As we flew back to the cottage, we were all squawking and chirping more frequently as time ran by.

"That was amazing!" Rapunzel said graciously to the couple. "Thank you so much but now, chirp, we'd like to be changed back."

"I'm suuure you would, dear," the lady said thoughtfully as the man slammed a metal cage over us. Alarmed, I flew into the bars in an attempt to escape. "But it pains me to say...we have different desires." She carefully placed the eggs back into the basket.

"We need those to change back!" Cass demanded, flying up to the top of the cage.

"I'm afraid we shant oblige, my little chicadees, for you see, we don't want you to change back!"

"We want you to become the newest editions to aviary menagerie," the man adds, gesturing to the tree with the strange birds. "Think of all this as an...avian art collection to which we're always adding new pieces." In horror, we realized that the birds were all tied down....people...

. . .

So just to play catchup here. The man put us into a cage, we we hoped the guys would come to save us, but it turns out they're about as smart as we were.

"You're all birds?!" Rapunzel explains, horror spreading across her feathered features.

"Well I'm the strongest bird!" bird Lance boasts, flexing his wing.

"Not the time, Lance," Eugene  shushes.

I looked around the golden cage. Lance...Hookfoot, and Eugene. "Where's Nickolas?" My question surprised me as well, since I should be the last person caring for that guard.

"I dunno, back at the caravan I guess," the ex-thief shrugs . "Who cares, anyways? He's not coming to save us. Once he thinks we've all been eaten by bears or something, he'll just take the horses and ride back to Corona."

I sighed dejectedly, realizing he was right. The last person that jerk cared about was us...

The memories get a bit fuzzy here, I suppose that's where the bird-ification comes into play, but of what I can remember, we got out of the cage and started freeing everyone. Eugene, Lance, and Hookfoot were turned back and started untying the other birds while I passed them eggs. The reason why they didn't think to turn me back didn't come to me, I was a convict after all. While on a hunt for the last egg, I returned to find that Cassandra had been turned back. Without hesitation, I cracked the final egg over Rapunzel and felt the world space out.