The Game of Transformation

(This story was posted previously on CYOC, writers are encouraged to submit their own chapters)

(Cover image drawn by BlackSheepsTFs ❤️)

A box, rectangular in shape, with a flat surface and thin. The box is made of wood, carved from mahogany trees, old varnish keeping a sheen despite how old the box seems. Along the top of the box is an intricate mural of an ancient ritual, men; women; and beasts dance about the box’s face, their bodies locked in strange contortions. In the center of the box’s face, along a crease that goes up the middle, is a tree, engraved into the wood. The tree bears fruit, which the figures in the mural eat from. Along with the figures, whisps of spirits are carved into the sky of the mural, gliding along, born from the fruit.

In the center of the tree, in the center of the box, is a latch. Closed tight, sealed. If you open this latch, so too does the box open, to reveal a carefully crafted mural. More scenes of men and women with unsettling disfigurations dancing about, careless of their odd features. Along the mural, is carved intricate, winding path. Each segment of the path is a carefully measured square, every one having an equal perimeter, even if distorted to facilitate a turn in the path. In the sides of the box, the folds that were once the door, there are two six-sided dice, carved from what you can presume to be the same tree the box was carved from. Alongside the dice, are four cylindrical idols. One bears the visage of a wolf, one the face of a fish, one the image of a woman, and the final idol bears the resemblance of a cat.

In the side of the box where the pieces rest, is a written passage, it is in a foreign language, but if you let your mind open, it is legible to your native tongue. The words read “Each who takes the dice unto themself, must roll along the given path, moving their idol forth along, and take the card assigned to them. Read aloud what the card holds, and embrace the changes given thus. Appease the game and claim victor, reach the center first, grant yourself one wish.”

In the other side of the box, on the inside of the other door, is a stack of neatly stacked cards. What is written on the cards? You’ll have to play and see.

Closing the box back up, there are no names along the box’s sides, no indication who carved this box or when. You found it in a dusty old shop, and the only words the shopkeeper gave of it were the grim words, “It will change you.” The only words of any identification or warning along the box, are the engraved words along the top of the carved mural. Ten carefully engraved letters, carved by hand.

Emûpassu.