Transformation!

She shrugged in response to his question, to indicate that she did not know. Meanwhile she noted that Checkers, who had been fleeing with them until recently, seemed to have vanished. She must have taken a side fork at some point.

Suddenly Fred's and Astra's clothes vanished into thin air. The look of mingled embarrassment and alarm on Fred's face might have amused Astra in different circumstances. "What is Belboz up to now?" she muttered. It was only when she saw Fred's surprise that she realised that she had spoken out loud.

"Princess! You can talk!" Fred said.

"So it seems," she said with a smile. But her happiness lasted no more than a few seconds.

It was the sight of Checkers that had reminded Belboz of a creature that he had once heard rumours of, though had never actually seen. To use the Crystallic to effect the changes required would be a good test of its powers.

Once the transformations in Fred and Astra that he decided on had begun, they were very swift. From beginning to end they took less than a minute to complete.

The first warning that they had was a tingling in their toes, which quickly turned into agonising pain that spread all over their bodies. That was when they started screaming. Their feet changed into bird's feet, as feathers sprouted all over their bodies except for their faces and Astra's breasts. Their arms transformed into wings. Finally, and this was when the screams took on a non-human quality, their mouths and noses merged, and became beaks.

The changes stopped and the pain rapidly faded away. The two tengus[*] stopped screaming.

* Tengu: They are winged creatures with large noses or beaks, known to be part human and part bird. They are known as mischievous rather than evil, and enjoy playing tricks on humans. However, if the tables are turned and tricks are played on them, they become extremely angry.

1. Their minds were unaffected.

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