The Call of the Quest....

Jarlath and the others look at each other, wondering exactly what had happened here themselves.  Jarlath then turns and looks down at the small figure that had been human only a few moments before.

"I am not exactly sure, myself, but it appears.....that the curse that we'd been trying to cure in another is somehow responsible for.....what has happened to you.  Somehow, we believe that you're an analogous version of one of the people we're looking for"

Jarlath then, quickly, tells who they were looking for and why.  As he does, Dragon Synizn quietly conjures up some clothing for the fairy's modesty.  He goes on to tell how all this came about, as far as he knows. 

"No......it may be in part that this Unseelie curse why I am like this now," Fred says uncomfortably, glancing at his wings briefly before continuing, "To be honest.....it's a bit of my fault as well.  Should have thought before trying to break the curse...."

Fred then tells them about how he'd bungled the process (spouting magical theories and such that make all of the magic users in the group grow goggled eyed in surprise).  These strangers had been straight with him (as insane as some of it sounded), so he'd be honest with them.  Straight goods for straight goods.  As a fairy, he had an instinctive knack, now, to when others are lying to him....and these folks weren't lying....as fantastic as some of it seemed.  He also had a sense of telling when a person is sane or not (also gifted to him by his new body), and while Jarlath strikes him as..... er..... eccentric, he's not mad.  Nor are the others of his group.

"And if I am to return to my form I'd been born to then needs be must that I will aid you in your quest in finding the one turning Unseelie, for I doubt that the one who'd transformed me into a woman can be found here.....and even if found would reverse the process," Fred sighed, looking at himself briefly in a small mirror he'd asked for earlier, "There change wrought upon myself is complete..... but hasn't been ‘locked' as it were.  If I take a new name for myself and call upon the spells and magic I feel dancing upon my tongue......."

The deal was that he felt down in his bones, however, he'd needed to be with the other victims somehow touched by the Unseelie curse in one way or another in order to be returned to humanity.  His own mother wouldn't recognize him.  Nothing of the old "Fred" was there.....though he was comely enough now.  Lithe and handsome, actually.  Before he'd been able to get the occasional woman's head to turn.  Once, he had been a hulking grey eyed young man, well over six feet tall, with a short brown hair, a trim beard, broad shoulders and powerful muscles.  He still was muscular, but in a dancer sort of way....with a face that would cause many a girl to swoon for him.....

He shakes his head to clear it.  Time was ticking and it would be only a matter of time before the siren call became to great and he'd soon succumb to the allure of his new body.  He knew somehow that the other possible outcome, insanity, wasn't "in the cards" as it were for him, according to the alien tongue that he'd been gifted with upon becoming a woman; a tongue similar to the one, according to Jarlath, as those from the Pyramid were given upon their abduction (seems that the idea had been, according to Jarlath, that this Book had needed couples with strong feelings towards each other, and in case the original abductees failed to develop something, then perhaps something else would develop between those from different realities, much more likely when you can speak to the person who strikes your fancy).

Thoughts of how to possibly return to his home reality are pushed to the side.  Right now there is something motivating Fred besides a simple desire to return to human (if such was possible....the mages he'd studied under while becoming a Dragonslayer had mentioned how rigid and concrete a faire folks matrix could be compared to a mortal's matrix).  It was the thrill of being on a quest to right wrongs.  Putting down the villain yet one more time.  It was the quirk that many Freds (and Astras) had in their character.  That and there was something... special.... about these folks that struck a positive chord within Fred's being.... especially with the one named Joan.  It was almost like finding lost kin, in a way....

Besides, all had agreed something was off with this Unseelie curse.  Something told them all that the time limit for these unfortunate was much shorter than the originally proposed week.  At least with Fred here, they had a general vague lead on the direction of the first of the victims is on  this strange world!

And so, with appropriate magical disguises to blend in with the populous, they are off.  And the royalty from two brands of good fairies (the king of the Seelie Court and the queen of the Light Elves) watch them go.  They'd been magically shielded from view even Jarlath's group's view, and had witnessed the entirety of the exchange.  There was much to discuss on how to proceed.....  These non-faire folk were....strange.....

1. Meanwhile, Thessamar ix'latl is seeking out a place to hold up in the forest well away from humanity.  She feared what could happen if she actually met a human being, with herself as she was.....

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