Ichabod Crowley - series 1 Life and Legacy

Chapter 15

There was an itch on her cheek and Lissandra rubbed her face against the pillow to take care of it, not wanting to wake up and assuming that her father had simply forgotten to shave properly, again. Yet, when her eyes finally did open, she found herself staring at a long slender arm stretched out beside her.

"Ah," she nodded, thinking it to be Margaret's, wrapped around and holding her in a post coital embrace, "So it's going to be one of those days."

Not wanting to wake her, Lissandra tried to slowly roll herself free only to be shocked, nearly to the point of a heart attack, to see the arm on the pillow begin to move as well. 'I am dreaming' her mind insisted, not wanting to believe what she was seeing, but, the more awake she became, the more aware she became of her body, and there was no denying her senses. She couldn't feel Margaret's weight against her back, nor, as she rolled over, the offsetting mass of her father's swollen gut. Tentatively, she raised these strange slender arms and flexed their fingers, baffled and amazed, she had just been getting used to her father's canned ham sized fists, but now these bony things, they weren't right by a long shot, just something new to accommodate herself to.

After examining them for a while she noticed her skin was almost uncommonly smooth, but with tiny, almost imperceptible runs spacing over it every few centimeters. Suddenly she was reminded of a box she had found in her father's medicine cabinet, and couldn't help but chuckle.

"Ribbed for her pleasure," she repeated the advertisement, her face going downcast almost immediately afterwards as another thought occurred to her, and, for several agonizing seconds, she clutched the hem of her blanket before taking and holding a deep breath, "Okay, moment of truth," she lifted the sheet and looked down, into that makeshift tent, to examine herself, letting it drop down an instant later, to the sound of a relieved sigh, "Good, at least going to the bathroom won't be awkward anymore."

She lay there for a minute more, just staring at the ceiling before sitting up and looking herself over properly, everything seemed to be in place, the way she remembered it anyway, and she was certainly a girl again. The only problem she came across was when her new fingers touched her bare and smooth shaven scalp. Spying the bathroom door hanging open, she carefully slid off of the bed and almost immediately fell down.

"My Lady!" Faldecto swelled up over her, cast all in darkness with the fading rays of the day streaming through the window at his back.

Lissandra let out a blood curdling scream and made to cover herself while the suit of armor jumped away from her, its back slamming against the far wall. It seemed confused, but that quickly passed.

"Forgive me," it begged her with a weak almost whimpering voice, falling into a kneeling position, with its eyes aimed pointedly at the floor.

Hardly the picture of grace under fire, Lissandra quickly grabbed the hotel bed sheets and pulled them off of the mattress to even as she scrambled away, her own shoulders pressing back, hard against the wall opposite. Holding the blankets over herself like a shield and gasping in stark terror, she waited for him to make a move, to say, to do anything. After a while, she began to realize that he was shaking, and it was her turn to be confused. After all, a creature that size could easily kill her if it so wanted, so, what right did it have to be afraid of her?

This revelation was cut off when someone's fist came banging upon the door to their room, and both Faldecto and Lissandra stared at it, uncertain of what to do.

"Are you...are you gonna answer that?" she finally asked.

The banging stopped and the pair of them could hear an argument beginning just outside.