A Six Part Series

Astra also wanted to get away from Robert for a while. She needed a few minutes to think. Astra felt sick at the thought of being stuck alone on this island with Robert. She could see a long slog of having to endure his ego and lechery, with the monkeys to back him up. She wondered what deity she may have offended. She probably could kill Robert now. Fred and Alexis were no longer considerations. Maybe she could find the goblet. But she might not survive the wrath of the monkeys. What to do?

As she wandered into what she thought was the kitchen, a thought dawned on her. As a princess, she had never been in a kitchen. Someone else had always served her meals. But she did know how manors operated. They had a lot of farmland, and many servants just to make things run. Unless the genie left a generous provision of supplies, or a lot of magic, the palace would deteriorate and fall into ruin within a few years. And as she had noticed that the palace occupied most of the island, there was little land left for bananas or other types of food.

Astra looked around. Finding water turned out to be easy. There was a pot used for making soup that had plenty of warm water in it, and she filled a bowl with it. Then she saw a closet. "Ah, there is something that looks like it may be a pantry." She indeed walked into a deep pantry that had shelves mounted in the walls. There was even a ladder so that she could climb to one of the top shelves, if she so desired. She could see that they would not starve right away. She could not find any bread, but she did see a bag of crackers, and she grabbed them.

On an impulse, and not in a hurry to go back to Robert, she lay the bowl and the bag at the base of the ladder and climbed up. On the top shelf was something interesting. It was a number of books, with one theme, and two large jars of something. She grabbed one of the jars and a book. She descended the ladder and headed toward some light where she could see better.

The jar was full of hard candy, with a label "Transform back." She blew some dust off the book. It was volume one of a six part series. According to the table of contents, the series dealt with a class of animal. According to the table of contents, volume one contained basic information on the anatomy of the animal, and volume two dealt with how the animals hunted, mated, courted, and reared their young. Interesting, but not helpful to the present situation. But Astra's eyes widened at the contents of volume three. This dealt with domestication and training. And this was not all conventional domestication and training either. These were instructions on how to use magic to achieve one's aim.

Even more interesting, she read that part of the domestication technique was to transform ones self to that animal, so that one could earn its trust and influence it.

Oh, yes, one other detail the reader should know before Robert starts calling for her. The class of animal that the books dealt with was

1. raptors. (Maybe she could fly away?)
2. marine invertebrates, such as octopii and squid. (Or swim?)
3. monkeys. (Maybe she can turn Robert's army on him?)
4. squirrels. (OK, not promising, but they are resourceful creatures.)

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