By the time Nicora makes it back to the castle, it's already late afternoon, but no so late that Rose is free of her work. When she arrives at the suites, she finds them empty – except for Snow, who is sprawled out asleep on Rose's bed. It doesn't help that all of her best biting points are presented, as Nicora's stomach rumbles, reminding her that she has to feed more often than usual during this point in her reproductive cycle.

Nicora eyes Snow and feels … odd. She can admire Snow's body and shape, but it just isn't as attractive as it was before. Well, in the same ways, at least. That only serves to make her feel odder about what happened a few hours ago. She rubs her forehead as she mutters, "Don't think about it. Just … don't. You were under weird influences."

Snow shifts slightly, and makes a soft noise. There's a lot of motion going on behind her closed eyelids, so she must be deep into a dream.

Nicora slinks over to the bed and sits down on the edge. "Snow?" she asks as she reaches over and gently shakes the human.

"Mmrphg," the girl complains and rolls onto her side, unwilling to wake up easily. But at least her neck is exposed.

Nicora shakes Snow again gently, not exactly wanting to bite someone who is unconscious.

FIX: Nicora shakes…

"Whu?" Snow asks, half-waking without opening her eyes. "Hmmm?"

"It's just me. Mind if I nibble? I'm hungry again," Nicora says quietly.

"Mmm… s'okay, Countess… " Snow mutters.

"It's Nicora," Nicora says, then shrugs. "I guess I can't blame her," she thinks, "I do sound like the Countess now." and so … Nicora leans down and very gently bites onto Snow's neck down near her shoulder.

The girl barely stirs… in fact, she's probably already asleep again. Somehow, this makes her blood taste… smoother. There are other differences as well, as Nicora gets flashes of imagery – apparently from Snow's dream! The human is dreaming of… a dark elf. Alptraum's dark elf form, in fact! She's taking a bath with him in the dream.

Nicora lightly grins at this as she drinks. "Snow really liked that form. I can see why, it was really attractive," she thinks as she drinks. "No, stop thinking like that. Geez. Don't forget you're really a guy in disguise, already."

The Eeee's tail wags and wiggles, but isn't being overly annoying. Maybe it's actually tired! Still, the dream adds a pleasant flavor to Nicora's feeding, almost like drinking memory-wine.

Nicora dares not take too much and soon she has released the human and placed her hand over the wound to encourage it to heal over.

The wound heals, and Nicora's stomach stops rumbling.

"Mmm… strawberries… " Snow mutters in her sleep.

"Speaking of elves, perhaps I should check in with Kaira and let her know how things are … going," Nicora mutters as she slides herself onto the bed, then reaches down to pull out her dagger. She peers at it, turning it in the lamp light. Snow's commentary does give Nicora pause to laugh, at least a little. "Too bad you're not male," she remarks to Snow, "You would be a safe outlet for this body's desires."

The lamplight casts red highlights along the dagger, giving the impression of being deeper than its actual thickness.

"Though, Tora wasn't too bad … " Nicora starts to say, then frowns and adds, "Stop it." Deciding that dealing with Kaira will be enough of a frustrating experience to push out her wandering thoughts, the Eee pricks her fingertip on the tip of the blade.

The room goes dark, and Nicora… feels wet. She finds herself in a dim, but familiar cavern, hip-deep in steamy spring water and surrounded by a half dozen dark elf men. There are a few surprises though – she's not an Eeee. A glance down shows bare skin so pale that it seems to glow. The elf men seem to glow too, but not visibly – it's as if there's a flame in each of their chests, connecting to a turning dial like on a gas stove. She also senses one inside of herself!

Nicora blinks, repeatedly. "What the … " she says as she nearly stumbles and falls. Quickly, Nicora feels over herself, trying to determine what she is … and more to the point, what gender? "How did I end up here? Why did I end up here?" she thinks in a panic.

Gender is easy to determine, as she is quite obviously female, and the body is very familiar as well: it's Snow's. The elves are starting to approach now, and she can sense their 'flames' getting brighter and redder. "A gift?" one asks. "A prize!" says another.

"No, no, not a prize," Nicora-Snow says quickly and waves her hands rapidly. "Just calm down," she adds while backing up. Her brow scrunches up and the human tries to imagine those flames dimming, cooling as if sprinkled with water. She has no idea how Snow's powers work, but she can try a guess!

It isn't difficult, apparently, to turn the metaphysical dials on those flames. But a lighter touch might be needed, as the flames dim and go out… then flare up with a 'blue' energy. The men stop in their tracks, then immediately pair off in passionate embraces as if the intruder wasn't even there.

"Well, not the intended effect … but better than them grabbing me," Nicora-Snow says as she uses the time to get out of the pool. Still, once she's on the shore, she looks back and tries to return them to normal … because … well … it's just creepy watching them kiss each other.

The 'shore' is rocky, made of broken bits of lava. Returning the men to normal, however, does not calm them down. "Witch!" one of them calls, and they all begin to converge towards the woman again, looking angry! There's only one tunnel leading out of the chamber, and luckily Nicora-Snow exited near it, her pink eyes able to see well enough in the dim light.

Nicora-Snow tries to run as quickly as she can up that passage. This isn't easy being naked, not with having to hold her own chest with her arms to keep it from bouncing too much. "Clothing and shoes! Why can't I dream about those?" she thinks, then groans a bit, realizing as Snow, she couldn't wear any, anyway!

The pain in her feet triggers a change: thick, soft fur sprouts, and her feet and legs change shape with each step. A heart-shaped cotton-tail pops out of her lower back, her ears stretch out and she grows a muzzle with whiskers. The tunnel gets darker, but that doesn't seem like a problem now. Tara's Lapi body has very strong legs – it actually takes an effort on Nicora's part to not break into a run!

"Still female!" Nicora-Tara thinks in absolute exasperation, though some dim understanding comes. She's taking on kenned forms. She jogs lightly up the tunnel, then slows when she thinks she doesn't hear the elves behind her anymore.

With those ears though, she knows they haven't given up pursuit. The tunnel forks ahead – sensed with nose and whiskers more than eyes – and she can tell that the left fork leads to fresher air.

Nicora-Tara resumes jogging, then goes into more of a run when she hears the elves still coming. She darks up the left tunnel now, each bound covering many feet. "I like this body! Nicora-Tara decides, "Fast and hearing almost as good as an Eeee!"

There's light up ahead, although only a small pool. She comes upon an airshaft in the roof of the rough tunnel. It's narrow, but she's pretty sure her Lapi legs can jump high enough for her to reach it.

Nicora-Tara releases her chest and crouches down. Muscles tense up and then the Lapi leaps upward, arms extended to grip the lip of the airshaft!

She grabs hold, dangling below, and realizes that her upper-body strength doesn't quite match her lower. She hears the elves gaining, and being caught dangling out of the ceiling isn't exactly dignified… but then her hands start shedding their fur, the fingers growing longer and stronger with more serious claws. The white patch on her chest expands, covering her completely below the shoulders, as her skull and ears reshape and elongate. The puffball tail becomes long and naked, and the muscles of her arms and back have no trouble pulling her all the way up into the tube and making speed along it with her shorter limbs and feet like a second set of hands. Nicora never realized just how strong Igorina really is!

"Now I'm a rat/?" Nicora-Igorina realizes as she scurry-climbs her way like lightning up the tube, "/I'm changing to what best fits the situation, it seems. Instinctively using each body's abilities. I hope I find safety before I run out of bodies!/" If she weren't in danger/ she would be scared to death. Well, she /is/ scared, but the body-shifting isn't horrifying as much as it is helpful and she is glad of it! "I hope I come out someplace safe," she thinks.

The ventilation tube goes on quite a distance, and then pops out on the slope of a mountain… although from the dark lava rock all around, it's more likely a volcano. The sky outside is blue, with fluffy clouds, while the land towards the base of the mountain is obscured by yellow-stained clouds of mist. Even from here she can smell the sulfur.

Nicora-Igorina takes a moment to rest on the side of the volcano, collecting her breath. As she looks around the landscape, she idly wonders if she can return to Tara's body, the Lapi's legs may prove the most useful in traversing everything quickly. "Where am I? she asks herself and the surrounding land, "I don't remember being here before."

Her answer is a loud, roaring-squawk sort of noise. Something pokes up from a hidden cave or tube a hundred yards away. It looks a bit like a cross between a vulture and a dragon, and it has the large eyes of a bird of prey. It spots Nicora, and starts pulling itself out onto the side of the volcano. It is also very very big, with a beak full of sharp teeth and a smell like carrion.

"Crap! Time to run!" Nicora things as she scrabbles to her feet and runs down towards the stinky cloud! "Better to smell dead than be dead!" she decides.

The sound of wing-beats follows Nicora. Hand-like feet that are great for climbing aren't as effective at running, but when the change comes again the results aren't Lapi feet, but feline ones. Black fur spreads, the tail thickens, legs and spine grow long and face shortens. By the time the white feathered wings sprout, Nicora has already picked up a lot of speed. And what's more, there is power. Lungs seem bottomless as they suck in oxygen, and her heart is like a piston. There is nothing delicate about a Sphynx – no hollow bones or other compromises, just pure Vartan strength. Enough to launch into the sky and soar over that mist… and maybe even to outrun the wyvern.

Nicora actually roar-howls with excitement as she leaps into the air and beats those feathered wings hard! Flying, that is something she knows, even if the body is feline … and still female! That doesn't matter right now, though. Those wings beat hard as eac breath seems to draw in near endless air. Part of her suddenly feels envious; it's as if becoming Tulani has made Nicora aware of all her limitations as an Eeee, all the weaknesses in the body.

The monster bird-dragon-thing does seem to fall back, or decides that it's just to expensive to chase the morsel. Up ahead, something catches Nicora-lani's eye… and immediately it seems to come into sharp focus. Or rather, blurred focus: it's a distortion in the sky itself, where light seems to twist.

"What is that?" Nicora-lani mutters to herself. Her wing-beats slow as she approaches it, hoping to determine if it is friend or foe before getting too close. She misses her Eeee hearing, but Tulani's eyesight is a fair compromise.

Once she gets within a hundred feet of the distortion… a blue, scaled head pokes out of it. "Okay, just who are you?" Kaira asks.

"Alptraum!" Nicora-lani blurts out, "I seem to be cycling through all the bodies of the people I've kenned! Can't you tell who I am?"

"No, you're… incomplete," the dragon claims, then pokes out her arm and makes a 'follow-me' gesture before vanishing back through the distortion.

"What do you mean incomplete?" Nicora-lani asks after Kaira. Her brow furrows once more into worry as the sphynx darts into the distortion.

Things turn upside down and inside out, and the distortion spits Nicora out into the pocket-world of Kaira's garden. Things shift again, physically, even as she tries to land! What actually sets foot on the grass is white and Eeee-shaped, but without giving up the curves of the Sphynx. Nicora has turned into Mave! But with this comes a certain sense of self-confidence.

Kaira is already waiting at the picnic area beneath the apple tree, watching Alptraum curiously. "Just what did you let Melusine do to you?" she asks.

"Oh for the love of everything," Nicora-Mave complains as she lands. She does wave her arms in a rather undignified way as she adds, "I keep changing. This is both frustrating and crazy." She then gives Kaira an odd look and cocks her head. "You know exactly what she was going to do," Nicroa-Mave reminds Kaira, "She imprinted Rosalind's body on me as a disguise for my trip. Of course that has meant my physical body is now female and I'm dealing with a horrid menstruation cycle, but otherwise it's been awful." The Eeee sighs, shakes her head, and heads down to the picnic area.

"Hmmm, I think there's more to it than that," Kaira notes, peering closely at the bat's face. "Tell me exactly what she did."

"She covered me, then reshaped my body to match Rosalind's. Then in an act of torment that you predicted, she 'appended' my, ah, male parts onto me in the form of a serpent-like tail," Nicora-Mave explains and then shrugs. "Which has been an effort to deal with, too. I shouldn't have let her do anything; this is maddening."

"Hmmm," the dragon goes, and then asks, "How feminine do you feel? Still have the urge to ravish women?" As if to test this, she actually changes into her elfin form, which means she and Nicora 'match' in color a bit more closely.

"I find women attractive, but not as much as I did," Nicora-Mave admits, "And I am finding males attractive. That part is … worrying me a lot. I think I'm becoming more feminine over time."

"Ah, that's it!" Kaira says, coming up and tapping Nicora on the nose. "That's why I didn't recognize you! The male part of your spirit is still outside, in your 'tail' or whatever. Melusine must have split it off so it wouldn't be corrupted."

"That … wait, that makes sense," Nicora-Mave says and snaps her fingers, "It's how the Barsunala can remain bound to me even though I'm physically female, I retain a male aspect." There the Eee has to pause and look cross-eyed at Kaira's finger. "Next you're going to tell me that what sie did is ultimately unhealthy for me, aren't you?" she asks.

"Oh… no… just that… ah… it will make certain things problematical later, but not really problematical," the elf-dragon says, flicking her hair back and forcing a smile.

"Like what? I will be male again," Nicora-Mave insists and even crosses her arms over her chest. "This is all just temporary."

"Well… see, here's the thing," Kaira says, putting an arm around Nicora as she stands next to her, to seem more chummy. "You know how at some point you need me to change you back, temporarily, into your original form while you're in Babel? I can still do that, technically… but I can't fuse your spirit back together. So… you'll still sorta be female, but in a male body."

Nicora-Mave's ears splay wide. "And what does that mean? What are the implications of it? Will it just be odd desires? Or will it be worse?" she asks the dragon as she gives her a sidelong glance. "Should I just ask Melusine to return me to full male before I go? That this really was a huge mistake?"

"Let's see!" Kaira says, and turns to stand in front of Nicora-Mave, placing both hands on her shoulders. "Hold still," she warns, and then… starts to change Nicora. Fur turns black, curves and bumps flatten out, chest broadens, and center of mass changes. Then there's a 'pop' as the last bit appears, and Nicora is Alptraum again! Everything is familiar and where it it's supposed to be!

And it feels completely wrong.

Alptraum stays there. At first he's grinning and hugging himself, grateful to be fully male again! Then it hits him and his ears twitch. Once, then twice. "This," he says, "This doesn't feel right. None of it." He pats his chest, noting, "I feel like there should be something here. That my hips should be wider. That I shouldn't have something … dangling where it is dangling. I feel like it should be behind, a tail." The Eeee covers his eyes with his hands and then slowly runs them back through his hair and over his ears. "How can my real body feel wrong?" he asks. "I am male. I'm just in disguise … right?"

Kaira presses up against Alptraum's front and kisses him! "So… was that nice or icky?" she then asks.

"That was … it felt odd," Alptraum admits, ears splaying again. "It wasn't arousing like it used to be."

The elf tries rubbing against the Eeee some more. "Still nothing?" she asks, sounding a little… hurt. As if Alptraum should find her attractive no matter what.

"It's nice. I like it," Alptraum admits, "But it isn't as exciting as it should be." The Eeee steps back, looks upward, and screams. And when an Eeee screams, it can be very unpleasant across the entire hearing range. When he clams down, he grumbles, "I bet if you kissed me as a male elf I would feel it."

"Hmmm, that would be tricky… " Kaira notes. "My male aspect is Vorgulremik! Even as an elf… it'd be a nasty elf."

"Want to try and see?" Alptraum actually suggests. "At least it might reassure me I don't find Vorgulremik attractive."

"First, you need to be in a more comfortable form," Kaira notes, then reaches down and grabs the dangly part, stretches it out and lets go! It shoots back in, and Alptraum could swear there is a sound like… balls rolling and things bouncing around and chirping and beeping. There's a buzzer sound, and she finds herself… still looking like Alptraum, if Alptraum had been born female. A little smaller, slightly curvier and with more delicate features, but still a black Eeee with white hair and silver eyes and a star-shaped scar, along with a 'disguised' shadow-arm.

And the worst of it all, is that Alptraum feels right now. That, combined with the really disturbing noises that just occurred, causes her fur to stick out, wings to splay, and ears to dance about. "Don't do that again!" she squeaks and grabs her unmentionable area; which now being without dangling bits feels right. So, her ears twitch again. "My voice sounds funny," she then admits, "I sound like a girl."

"Well… you are. I mean, you're younger than the Countess, so your natural female voice would seem younger too. And to be honest, it's only because I've spent so much time with you that I can tell the difference," Kaira points out.

"You're crazy, I sound completely different when I'm male," Alptraum insists and crosses her arms.

"Well, if it's any consolation, I think that your natural breasts are bigger than Rose's," Kaira offers. "Now, do you really want me to try and become male? I could just summon up an elf… "

Alptraum reaches down and feels the chest she would have had, had she been born female. "I think you're right. They've very perky," she admits. "As for a male elf, well … your choice, I guess. If you're uncomfortable with turning into a male elf, just summon one."

"I think I can manage this… hold on… " Kaira says, and walks away. She first changes back into a humanoid dragon, then into a full dragon. From there… she goes dark, her scales loosing their color and turning metallic, spikes replacing the hair of her mane, wings loosing feathers. Before long, the familiar (if less huge) form of Vorgulremik squats on the grass and looks at Alptraum, licking his lips…

"Ah, that isn't an elf," Alptraum notes as she starts taking steps back from the spitting image of Vorgulremik. She realizes she probably reeks of fear … and perhaps a little excitement? There is certainly a flutter feeling in her stomach. "And don't look at me like that, it's like you want to eat me," she adds and waves a finger at Kaira, trying to sound stern, "So don't get any ideas!"

The dragon doesn't pursue, but shrinks. It's humanoid form is also familiar – Alptraum saw it in a dream, after Mave had lured that demon from a well in the wilds of Sylvania. "Hmmmm," Kaira-Vorg rumbles, checking his claws. "I could stop here… " he says suggestively.

Alptraum isn't sure what is worse; the monster before her … or the fact she does find it attractive on some level. "It's … not bad," she grudgingly admits as she stops backing up and instead walks forward to get a better look. "Is it uncomfortable?"

"Ugh, itches," the dragon complains, scratching it's butt with taloned fingers. "Going further," he says, until the scales melt into skin. The elf is certainly dark, and burly. It looks a bit old, with scarred skin and rough hands. It looks at Alptraum… and its reaction is pretty masculine. "Get the ropes," he says in a deep but raspy voice. "It's your turn to be tied to the tree… "

"Excuse me?" Alptraum practically squeaks and her ears fold back. "I … I … " she tries to refuse, and yet she finds herself actually getting some ropes from the magical picnic-basket-of-everything that lives here in Kaira's garden. "This is wrong. I shouldn't be attracted. I shouldn't, I shouldn't," the Eeee tells herself over and over in her mind while she is handing the ropes over to the elf. The pit of her stomach drops, though, when she finally forces herself to admit, "Melusine did make me female. Completely female. Will I even be able to change back after all this? Will I ever be me again?" That question will have to wait, unfortunately, because being tied to a tree is rather distracting. And so are the next few very rough hours under the 'care' of an older dark elf…