Caged

Holly woke from a deep and peaceful sleep to find herself looking through bars, like a prisoner. Strangely she still felt quite serene, though she knew that would be down to the magic of the mysterious cloaked figure who had **** and now seemingly trapped her. It was almost like being ****, though she was completely lucid and aware of the seriousness of the situation she was in, just perfectly calm about it. The room beyond the bars was basic, dark and eerily quiet. At first it felt like she was alone, but then someone spoke.

"I do apologise Holly, i realise this must be quite disorienting for you"

It was the same voice as before, but this time it wasn't coming from within her head but the room outside her cage. The cloaked figure emerged from the shadows and walked towards her. They were huge now as they loomed over her like a giant. Or maybe that wasn't it. Holly was beginning to realise she wasn't herself at present. But what was she exactly?

Holly squawked and flapped her wings, still not in any kind of panic, more to establish her current form. She couldn't see herself, but was obviously a caged bird.

"I promise you this transformation won't be for any longer than it needs to be" the hooded figure assured her "And the cage is purely for your own safety. It would be perfectly natural for you to try and flee, and a delicate little blackbird could get itself into all kinds of trouble in this place. Once I am confident that whoever brought you here has stopped searching for you, there will be no need for you to be disguised any longer. And then, you and I will be bound"

---

"Alby, I lost her!" Rosa panicked as she emerged from the portal back into the back room of her friends bookstore. However, it wasn't the warlock waiting there to greet her but a grinning young woman who she was sure she had seen working in the shop the previous day "Wait, who are you exactly?"

"I'm Danielle" the store assistant smiled back cheerily "But people call me Dani. I work here"

"Okay Dani, where is Albiston please, because I have something of an emergency to deal with and I'm going to need his help"

"He's out of town today, he had a kind of emergency of his own. But he left me here to assist you on your return if there were any complications"

"What, are you a witch?"

"No, I wish!" Dani laughed "Just a regular mortal, sadly. But I'm fascinated by magic and Albiston has been very generous in bringing me into his world as much as he can. Did you say your girlfriend was missing?"

"Yes, someone took her I think, but I have no idea who or what they were planning to do with her"

"Albiston did plan for that eventuality. He placed a tracking spell on your girlfriend before she left, but you'll need me to go with you to make any sense of it. He put a charm on me before he left which will allow me to read the signals, or whatever you magic folk would call them. He also placed a tracker on me, so if we take too long he can come and find us"

"You do know it can be dangerous for mortals in there, especially pretty ones like you?" Rosa warned Dani "I seriously regret taking Holly now. And whoever kidnapped her probably won't appreciate us going after them to bring her back"

"I'm okay with that. If we get into any trouble I'm sure Albiston will come and sort it out. He thinks of everything"

"Thank you Dani, I really do appreciate this and promise I will find a way to make it up to you once my girlfriend is back here and safe" Rosa told her new friend warmly, before looking a little awkward "Um, you do realise you will have to go there naked, right?"

"I know" Dani nodded breezily, like it was nothing "That's a small price to pay to visit another reality, I'd say. I'll get undressed now. We had better head through the portal before it closes again"