The master spy or Puss in the boot adventures

Lyra, the Goddess of Dreams , book 6, The curse of ...magic, part 1, Part 129

Ragnar and his companions staggered back from the pillar, their faces ashen with exhaustion but alight with triumph. They had done it - the realms of darkness were sealed off once more, Solaris' vile plan thwarted. Aurelia let out a roar of victory that set the heavens trembling, her scales shimmering with all the colors of the dawn.

But their elation was short-lived. Even as they turned to congratulate each other, the world around them began to shimmer and warp like a mirage in the desert heat. The ruins of the palace seemed to fold in on themselves, stone and metal twisting into impossible shapes as reality itself bent and buckled.

"What's happening?" Shadow-cat cried out, her fur standing on end as she pressed close to Mer-mer.

"The magic!" Aurelia shouted over the rising wind. "It's too much - the fabric of space-time can't handle this much raw energy all at once! We have to-"

But her words were lost as the maelstrom of light and sound reached a fever pitch. The heroes felt themselves lifted off their feet, their bodies stretching and contorting as they were pulled inexorably into the heart of the arcane tempest. Flashes of impossible colors danced before their eyes, and the roar of the storm filled their ears until they thought their very skulls would burst.

Then, with a final, sickening lurch, everything went black. Silence pressed in on them from all sides, thick and suffocating as a funeral shroud. They hung suspended in a void beyond time and space, beyond thought and dream and memory...

An eternity passed, or perhaps only a heartbeat. Then, with a jolt that set every nerve afire, awareness came flooding back. Ragnar opened his eyes and immediately regretted it as searing light stabbed into his twisted body...

Ragnar groaned softly "We are alive! We did it! The realms are sealed once more!"

But even as the words left his mouth, he felt a strange tingling sensation wash over him. His skin began to prickle and itch, as if a thousand ants were crawling just beneath the surface. Gasping, he looked down at his hands and let out a yelp of shock.

His flesh was...changing. Patches of scales in iridescent hues of blue and green were spreading across his skin like living tattoos. He could feel his bones shifting and elongating beneath his armor, his spine lengthening into a sinuous tail. Horns sprouted from his brow as leathery wings unfurled from his back with an audible snap.

"What's happening to me?" he cried out in alarm, his voice deepening into a rumbling growl.

Around him, the others were undergoing similar transformations. Mer-mer yowled as his form blurred and shifted, fur sprouting along his limbs as his face pushed out into a feline muzzle. Shadow-cat hissed in surprise as her body elongated and coiled, black scales replacing skin and clothes alike. Even Princess Aurelia was not immune, her draconic features becoming even more pronounced as her scales brightened to a blinding gold.

In the space of a few harrowing moments, the band of heroes had transformed into an assortment of fantastical beasts straight out of myth and legend. They stared at each other in awe and disbelief, struggling to process this new reality.

Aurelia was the first to find her voice. "The wild magic from the portals," she said slowly. "It must have infused us during the ritual, rewriting our very essences."

Mer-mer flexed his new claws experimentally. "So instead of just sealing the realms, we...absorbed them?"

The implications settled over the group like a lead weight. If they had been so dramatically altered, what effects might the rogue magic be having on the rest of the world?

...

But even as the portals dwindled, the magical backlash from their unmaking unleashed chaos upon the land. Shimmering auroras danced across the sky in a mesmerizing display, their colors shifting and blending in ways that defied description. Floating islands of earth tore free from the ground and took flight, bobbing gently through the air like drifting leaves.

The winds whispered with eerie voices, snippets of conversations from long ago and far away. Ghostly figures flickered in and out of existence, mere afterimages of lives once lived. Animals began to change, fur and scale replaced by bark and leaf, wings of gossamer sprouting from the backs of startled deer.

Lakes froze solid despite the warm sun, their waters glittering with flecks of gold and silver. Flowers the size of houses bloomed in an instant, their heady perfumes permeating the air and lulling the unwary into a dreamless slumber.

In villages and towns, people stared in wonderment and fear as their world turned upside down. A blacksmith's hammer began to tap out prophecies on glowing anvils, each strike ringing with portentous import. Loaves of bread baked themselves and took flight from ovens, soaring over rooftops to land in the hands of the hungry.

Pictures came to life and floated in the air, dispensing cryptic wisdom to all who would listen. Mirrors showed not reflections, but glimpses of distant lands and possible futures, each one more bizarre than the last. Laughter became visible as shimmering bubbles of mirth, while tears of sorrow crystallized into gems of breathtaking beauty.

This is was only the beginning...