[FIC] Transform
Alfred sat in his little makeshift hut, savoring every bite of his delicious beef-and-cheese sandwich for the Big Fight that was to come tomorrow. Looking into the warm, crackling fire, he mentally prepared himself with every strategy he could think of that would conquer the sea monster, but ultimately grew tired of using his brain so much and decided to just wing the battle, like he always had done. He was the hero, after all. The hero would always win against pesky little monsters that had nothing better to do than frighten local civilians.
He lied down on the bed of dried grass, sleeping sideways so he could watch the way firelight danced across the blade of his sword. Right before he killed his first monster-a gigantic, mutated rat that had been terrorizing his hometown-a strange old man he later suspected to be an oracle had given him the weapon. Now it stood proudly against the hut’s wall, naked steel gleaming in the dark, poised for use.
Smiling at nothing in particular, Alfred closed his eyes and urged himself to sleep. A small, scared part of his mind-a part he did not want to admit existed-knew that if the fight tomorrow went wrongly, he could very well be living his last hours.
However, as soon as he arrived at dreamland, he was attacked.
Loud bangs and crashes were the first time Alfred registered. Then there was a loud crunch from his right, and he had a very good feeling that his boat was gone. All drowsiness gone, he grabbed his sword immediately and he rushed out the hut.
The wind was strong, rousing the sea and spraying water in the air, making it doubly hard for Alfred to see. Out of the darkness, a ball of green fire sailed through the air, heading straight for him. He ducked, and it swished harmlessly past his ear.
Whoa! Those villagers did not mention this!
A fire-breathing sea serpent? This called for a whole new plan!
Oh wait.
He never had one to start with.
“You get away from me!” he then heard a high-pitched voice scream. “I’ve had enough! I am not your servant! I am not a child! We have no more relations after this. I am done with your-your nonsense!”
Alfred raised his sword in front of him. This was . . . bizarre. The locals never told him that the monster could breathe fire and talk. In a female’s voice, even. Not that it mattered though-he had always been resistant toward monsters that had tendencies to take the form of a human maid, something he had heard lured many men to their deaths.
Something in the distance lit up in the dark. This time, Alfred allowed himself to dodge more fancily, making a triple backflip before landing perfectly on the sand.
“Hey, sea monster!” he yelled, his sword held in front of his chest. “Why don’t you come and get me? Come meet the hero who’s about to kill you!”
For a second, all was silent, save for the howling wind and crashing waves. Alfred decided to take the chance and slowly followed the source of the voice.
Then a voice-this time in a distinctively male tone-spoke:
“Michelle, if you think that conjuring that would seduce me into distraction, you are very wrong.”
Two voices? What the-
“What are you talking about?” the monster said, as the human female this time. “Seduce? Wha-I-I didn’t try to summon anything! I thought you had-Oh, god . . . There’s a civilian here, isn’t there?”
“Hmph, fool. You never truly excelled in the art of magical speech. There are better ways of diverting my attention.”
“My god . . . I’m not lying, Arthur! We need to take this fighting somewhere else. Someone can get hurt-”
“Take this fighting somewhere else? Oh, you would like that, wouldn’t you? Blimey, I was wondering why you deliberately slowed down-”
“Deliberately slowed d . . . What-”
“-and I should’ve known that you would try to intentionally expose my weakness!”
Alfred was beginning to find this fake argument extremely interesting. This monster had extraordinary improvisation skills. He was almost ready to believe that there were two people on the beach, arguing.
“I,” the male continued, apparently breathing harshly, “adopted you all those years ago from that horrifying island-”
“It was a perfectly fine island!”
“-and this is how you repay me? By throwing me into the water?”
“Arthur, this isn’t about you or you stupid aquaphobia! I told you, we-can’t-fight-here!”
“You are rebelling against me? Dear Lord, I’ve heard of teenagers rebelling against their parents after puberty, but this is much, much worse . . . There is only one way this can turn out. I’m sorry, Michelle, but you are forcing me into this!”
“Ack! Fine! I-I’ve made a mistake! I’ll go back with you, I changed my mind! We can talk this through. Let’s just . . . get out of here before we accidentally hurt a civilian!”
“Don’t worry. This is only a binding spell. The energy released may blast the rest of this beach apart, but the captured and capturer will remain unharmed.”
The monster was near, Alfred could tell. He crouched down and crept his way around a boulder, sliding his beloved sword along the sand.
“That’s not the-Good Lord . . . Arthur, don’t-”
Instead of a terrifying, ten-foot-tall sea monster with ash-colored scales and gigantic curved fans, Alfred had crawled to the foot of a man.
No, his mind whispered, taking in the man’s cloak, star-tipped wand, and pointy black hat. A mage.
The mage looked down, and Alfred found himself looking into the most beautiful emerald eyes he had seen in the nineteen years of his life.
A crackling noise, like fire, met Alfred’s ears and he turned his head away from this mysterious mage. A girl was standing twenty feet away, chanting something with her eyes closed. Green lighting surrounded her figure like a spinning vortex. The color was the exact same shade as the fireball Alfred had dodged earlier.
The mage was watching the girl too, his face now full of terror as he registered what she was attempting to do.
“Shit, no-Michelle! STOP-”
“. . . TRANSFORM JATAL UN POISSON!”
An explosion knocked Alfred off his feet, his head hitting the rock behind him.
The last thing he thought before his black out was: Man, that guy has fuzzy eyebrows.