Change your appearance

Closing your eyes, you focus on the surging, churning energy inside you, warm as molten lead in your core. Drawing out a thin filament, like spinning a lump of wool into a fine thread, you direct the thread of energy, shaping it toward your goal. Your horns disappear first, followed by your wings. Your purple skin fades to a bland light brown and your hair darkens to black.

"Well?" you ask, opening your eyes. "Do I look human enough for you?"

"You forgot your tail," Harold says and you glance over your shoulder at the twitching, fleshy appendage. You close your eyes again, and after a moment, the tail disappears, too.

"All right, but don't think I'm going to stay this way once we get where we're going," you tell him.

Your master looks at you for a moment, then shakes his head. "No, I wouldn't want that, either. You look too...ordinary like this. But, ordinary is what we need if we don't want to draw attention." Suddenly, he frowns. "Speaking of drawing attention, I don't suppose you can conjure up some clothes?"

"Sorry," you say. You probably could, but you've wasted enough energy already. "Too bad we sent the hiker home already; I could have taken his clothes."

"Wear this, I guess," Harold says, shaking out the cloak and swirling it around your shoulders. It falls nearly to your ankles and covers everything but your head and feet. "Make sure to keep it closed when we're around people. The last thing we want is to be arrested for indecent exposure."

"I'm the only illegal thing you've ever done, aren't I?" you ask.

"No," he says, picking up the heavy old spellbook and tucking it under his arm. "I just try to avoid trouble when I can. Going to jail would make it a bit hard for you to keep fucking me."

"Oh, I don't know," you say. "Prison gang-**** could be fun." He grimaces and shakes his head, then leads you out of the woods.

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