The Village

Mid afternoon Annabel returned from the tailors, since I’d shrunk she’d had to have my clothes adjusted a bit, she’d also picked me up some already made outfits that seemed my size. We had a meeting with her father today, so Annabel made sure to dress me in a slim black dress paired with some simple sandals, she took a broach decorated with her family emblem and clipped it onto my cloak that I was wearing over my dress.

“Just so you don’t forget who you belong to.” Annabel said with a wink as she gave me a quick kiss.

She herself wore a beautiful silk red dress, paired with a dark red cloak as well as some boots that I couldn’t quite remember the name of, all I knew was they made her taller.

She applied some simple makeup to my face, a bit of dark eyeliner and dark red eyeshadow to match my blood red eyes.

“There, all done. Let’s go.” Annabel said as she grabbed my hand and led me out the door.

It was still a bit early to go to the meeting so the two of us stopped by the inn and sat at the bar. We bought a simple breakfast that they often served to travelers.

I wasn’t particularly hungry and the less than appetizing looking meal wasn’t exactly helping. Everyone in town loved the innkeeper and his daughter but both of them were terrible cooks. I suppose it’s lucky they had rooms to rent and ale to serve because if food was the only item on the menu I don’t think they’d have much business.

As we were getting up to leave, to my surprise Cynthia walked in the Inn, she smiled at me and I shyly smiled back, Annabel glared at her and when she noticed my grin as I looked at Cynthia she glared at me too. 

With a rough pull on my wrist she yanked me towards the door causing me to wince.

“Come on you brainless bitch.” Annabel half whispered as she practically dragged me out the door.

Once we were outside, Annabel led us around the Inn and into a small wooded grove that led to one of the forest hunting paths. 

Once she was sure we couldn’t be seen and no one was around she pulled back her hand and slapped me as hard as she possibly could across the face.

She shoved me and I stumbled and fell to the ground.

“What the hell!” I yelled at her, rubbing the stinging spot on my face as I fought back tears.

Annabel looked furious as she grabbed me by my cloak and yanked me up from the ground, she leaned down slightly until she was inches away from my face.

“You little fucking whore!” She seethed.

I narrowed my eyes and gave her a sharp glare.

“I just smiled at her.. fucking jealous cunt!” I shouted letting my anger control my judgement and reason.

“Excuse me?” Annabel said icily.

She grabbed my face with her hand and gripped my cheeks tightly to the point where her nails were painfully digging in my skin.

I let out a small whimper from the pain and stared at her with hate in my eyes.

“If we weren’t going to see father today I wouldn’t worry about leaving marks on that pretty face of yours.” She threatened.

“You weren’t just smiling, you were both ogling each other, that poverty stricken bitch has corrupted you..”

“But Anna I swear I was just-“

“Shut the fuck up!” She screamed, interrupting me.

“If I ever catch you looking at her like that again I’m going to beat you so badly you’ll wish you’d never been born. I own you, we’re married, that makes you mine and I do what I want with things I own.” She dug her nails deeper into my face where she was grabbing me.

“Understand, bitch?”

I glared at her, I wanted to scream, shout and say so many awful albeit true things about my wife but I held my tongue and simply nodded. She seemed satisfied and let go of my face. I felt a few tears run down my face as I angrily brushed past her and ran out of the grove.

“Danielle! Come back here!” She shouted as she ran after me. Thanks to my new shorter height she caught up rather quickly and put a hand on my shoulder.

I was visibly shaking just trying to hold my emotions together.

“Look, let's just forget about this, okay? We need to go see father soon so cheer up.” She said as she gently rubbed my shoulder.

I pulled away from her and gave her a sharp glare.

“You can forget all you want Anna.. but I won’t. Even if we do find some way to turn me back into a man I won’t ever forgive you for treating me like this.” I spat on the ground as Annabel looked rather  sullenly at me.

“Fine. Have it your way.” She mumbled.

I walked past her and headed towards the chief's hall, Annabel quickly followed and we spent the short walk in silence.

When we walked up the steps to the great hall two guards opened the heavy oak doors for us, we were rushed into the hall by a few servant girls and Annabel’s father stood from his wooden polished throne. A strange man I’d never seen before was standing beside him, he wore a bright yellow cloak, green silk trousers and thick, polished leather boots, expensive looking rings adorned all ten of his fingers and he had his long dark beard neatly tied into a knot with a silver band bearing the mark of the mages guild.

“Ah my beautiful daughter and my soon to be successor! Welcome home you two, I only wish this visit was under better circumstances.” The chief bellowed with his deep baritone voice. His long silver mane of hair resembled a feral wolf’s coat, matted and growing in every direction, his long unkempt beard was of a similar condition, he looked old yet strong at the same time, an aura of authority and power surrounded the man despite his age.

“Come, come let us sit, Fauci here is going to solve this little problem in no time my young son in law, no need to worry any longer, he is a professional.” The chief gestured towards the man in the yellow cloak who bowed in return. 

“This village is a favorite trading spot of the high king, it would be my honor to remedy the future chief's situation although I will still have to charge the usual rate for my services.” Fauci said as he walked over to me. I withdrew my hood and took off the cloak so the alchemist could examine me as instructed.

“Hmm.” Fauci said as he pressed his palm to my forehead, his eyes glowed a faint blue as he cast some sort of spell.

“Ahh I see, well this makes things easy.” 

“Young David here has ingested a gender change potion, a fairly simple potion to make although the ingredients are hard to find, why would you do such a thing young man?” Fauci asked as he gave me a pondering look.

“I..I didn’t?” I said as I gave everyone in the room a bewildered look.

“The night after the wedding I woke up like this.. then the day after I changed more.” I explained.

“Odd.. tell me, has the town done any trading with any alchemist’s? You might have been sold one of these potions by mistake, it’s surprisingly a common problem, many new alchemists forget to label their potion bottles and most potions of all kinds look very similar.” Fauci turned and asked the chief who suddenly narrowed his eyes.

“We have our own alchemist actually, now that you mention the oddity of all this, Dary was very reluctant to help, in fact he outright refused to help as he presumably doesn’t like my son in law.” The chief said.

“Dary actually gave me some wine the night of the wedding..” I spoke up which in turn caused the chief to take on a look of rage.

“He did, did he?” He said as he stood up from the chair he was sitting on.

“GUARDS BRING ME DARY IMMEDIATELY!!” the chief boomed, his voice echoing throughout the hall.

Four men standing near the entrance in leather armor, bearing spears, jumped at the chief's command and bowed as they ran out the door.

“There is no need to worry, this is a very easy fix, in fact I have a reversal potion with me, I often carry an array of potion’s when I travel, you never know what ailments may need curing.” Fauci spoke matter of factly. He reached under his cloak and procured a leather satchel, after digging through the bag for several moments he retrieved a small glass bottle  labeled ‘male transfiguration’ and dangled it in front of me with a smile on his face. Annabel who’d been mostly silent the entire time had a look of complete and utter disappointment on her face. 

“That’ll be twenty silver pieces for this, chief.” Fauci said as he held the potion in his hand.

“Twenty!? That’s outrageous!” The chief exclaimed as he reluctantly threw a leather bag of coins at the alchemist who caught it in his free hand effortlessly.

“Yes well as I said before the ingredients to make transfiguration potions are very difficult to find and I have to grow my own in my lab, it’s very costly and unlike young Dary’s potion, if he is indeed the culprit behind this, my potions work instantly.” 

Fauci handed me the little bottle and I hesitantly popped off the cork, I didn’t understand why I was dreading this so much but I was.. I put the bottle to my lips, squeezed my eyes shut and drained it.

‘At least I won’t be pushed around anymore when I’m back to being a man..’ I thought to myself.

Several moments passed as everyone in the room watched, I waited and waited and continued waiting, minutes passed still nothing happening.

The chief gave the alchemist an angry look.

“I thought you said your potions work instantly?” He said.

“I.. I don’t understand. It should have worked by now..” Fauci muttered.

We continued to wait until several hours had passed and nothing had happened.

In the end the alchemist gave the chief his silver back and left saying he’d come back with several colleagues and a solution. 

Annabel had a look of delight smeared on her face, I gulped as I saw that glint in her eyes that I hated so much.

“Well fuck..” I muttered. I was disappointed that I couldn’t defend myself against my larger wife but inside I was happily cheering that the potion hadn’t changed me back into plain, boring old David.