Synopsis: A sorcerer hatches a clever plan to make a little profit and bring some excitement to his life.

Bending down, Mason made one last adjustment to the summoning circle. He flipped through his documents one last time, then he adjusted his sorcerer’s robes and took a deep breath.

“Kurzadakathan! Accursed Destroyer, Twisted Fiend, Being of Nightmare and Deceit! From the Otherworldly Plane, I thus invoke thee!”

Called by Mason’s words, something unnatural took form in the middle of his summoning circle. Strange many-sided geometric shapes appeared in the ground, and the distinct smell of lightning filled the air as a monstrous abomination burrowed out of the dirt, pulling itself up using eight long limbs with too many joints. Once fully summoned, Kurzadakathan resembled a horrible cross between spider and slimy octopus, with a huge gaping mouth right in the middle of its body filled countless worm-like tentacles that wiggled and squirmed.

“WHO DARES SUMMON ME?! DIE!” Kurzadakathan leapt forward but was stopped by the invisible barrier at the edge of the summoning circle. It reached out its legs and pounded the circle in all directions, but it was confined entirely within the small dome of magic. Realizing that it could not escape, the demon screamed with rage and madness. “GRRAAAAAEEEEAAAAA!”

The deafening sound would have driven a lesser man to soil his pants, but Mason had come prepared. The sorcerer had already placed down a nullifying spell to dampen noise and protect his ears. This spell would also keep the sound from travelling too far, not that there would even be many other people this far from the nearest town. They were in the middle of the forest, so none but wild beasts would be here.

Kurzadakathan was still screaming—its jaws opened wider and wider as the sound got louder and louder. Eventually its maw was spread so wide that it had turned inside out and resembled a ball of wriggling pink tentacles pointing in all directions, but still it continued to scream. “AAAAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAEAA!”

Mason walked back to his chair and sat down. He had set up a small folding table next to the summoning circle. “Are you done?”

“AAAA—” The demon suddenly halted its scream. It an abrupt twist of motion, it reverted back to spider form and turned all eight eyes towards Mason. “Oh, it’s you. You should have said something earlier.” There was another twist of motion and then inside the circle there was a tall man with jet-black hair and a clipped goatee, dressed in a well-tailored suit. He would not have looked out of place in a gathering of human aristocrats and nobles.

With one further twist of motion, Kurzadakathan created a chair (made from black wood) inside his circle and sat down on it. “Mason! You’re the only master sorcerer who uses my full name—it’s usually only the apprentices who bother. If I’d known it was you, I wouldn’t have bothered with the smoke and the tentacles and all that. So…how have you been?”

Mason didn’t answer the demon’s question. One of the most basic rules of sorcery was to never give anything for free—especially not the most valuable currency of all, information. It took a lot of strength for a demon to turn itself into something so closely resembling a human, and only the most powerful of demons could act with intelligence and rational thought. Kurzadakathan might have been acting friendly, but it would be a fatal mistake to treat a summoning as a casual event.

However despite the dangers, Mason was a master sorcerer and this wasn’t the first time he was treating with this particular demon. He slid the paper across the table, just far enough that the edge of the sheet extended into the summoning circle. “This is the contract.”

Kurzadakathan used the tips of his slim fingers to pull the paper closer. His eyes darted across the sheet quickly, then he flipped it over and read the other side. “My, my, my. What curious games are you playing, I wonder? Why do you want something like this?” he mused, stroking his goatee with his other hand.

Mason stuck strictly to business. “I will charge the circle with four morts of energy, in exchange for you creating the exact item I have specified. That is the contract. Take it or leave it.”

Kurzadakathan chuckled softly; a hissing, almost sensual sound. “Hehe. No bargaining? But I so love bargaining. What about if we set the price at…say…three and a half morts of energy? Does that sound good to you? The only catch is you have to tell me what you want this artefact for. What a great deal. Hmm?”

Mason shook his head firmly. “No. No bargaining. Take the deal or I will banish you and try another demon.”

“So direct! Haha… But I accept.” Kurzadakathan snapped his fingers and a pen made from gold suddenly appeared in his hand. He turned the paper over to sign, but then he paused. “Oh, Mason! You were so thorough with your contract that you forgot the most important part—the end! There is no space for either of us to sign.”

For the first time, Mason smiled. To most normal people, his grin would have looked equally menacing as anything the demon had done so far. “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not the contract, that’s just the executive summary.” Reaching down to the briefcase beside him, Mason took out a stack of papers that was as thick as three of his fingers put together. The whole table shuddered as he dropped the documentation on it. “This is the contract. I recommend you read through the terms and conditions to ensure you fully understand them before you sign. Failure to read documentation is not considered a valid excuse for errors in contract execution, and is considered an adequate reason for immediate termination of contract to your full disadvantage.”

Kurzadakathan took the thick stack of papers and hesitantly flipped through them. “Oh my gods, I’ve forgotten how good you were at this…”

Working with demons was all about being detail orientated and focused on the tiny things. Rushed contracts and vague terminology were a quick trip towards having your soul stolen, or worse, releasing a demon into the natural world, so good sorcery required the ability to read dense and highly technical documents all day. Mason was one of the best for one simple reason—he loved technicalities and tedium.

Three hours later, Kurzadakathan was softly muttering to himself as he read through the contract. “Henceforth…shall be valid for a limited-time period as defined in section 7 subsection 9a, limitations of validity…notwithstanding Majestic Force limitations such as divine intervention by class 5 entities including but not limited to old gods… Failure to meet design specifications shall lead to immediate reversal of contract, unequivocally and absolutely resulting in…”

Meanwhile, Mason was calmly working a different document, editing the contractual framework for another sorcerer who had paid him to help check his work. Most of Mason’s work was helping out other sorcerers who weren’t as good with avoiding loopholes or closing technicalities. But for the few demonic contracts which he was planning to personally sign—putting his own soul or worse, his professional standards at risk—Mason made sure he covered every single possibility. He had specified exactly what he was paying Kurzadakathan and exactly how the artefact he was receiving would work in every imaginable use case.

Demons could not break contracts, but they could bend them if the terminology was ambiguous or the specifications were incomplete. Ask for a gold coin, for example, and you might get a gold coin the size of a single atom. Or if you said that you wanted a big gold coin, the demon might create a huge slab of gold which fell on your head and killed you. But if you asked for a gold coin that was the exact size, shape, and material composition of a standard unit of gold currency currently in use by the Imperial Treasury of the Marlander Empire which was indistinguishable from a genuine coin in any and all ways and which was to appear motionless on the ground in the summoning circle within no more than 5 seconds after the signing of the contract, then perhaps you might get what you wanted. Not that Mason was asking for anything so simple—the artefact he required would be powerful indeed.

Finally Kurzadakathan sighed and slapped the thick sheaf of papers against his face. “Alright, I’m done. I’ll sign it! Let’s get this over with. The summoning circle is growing stuffy.” The demon took his pen and scribbled Kurzadakathan on the last page of the contract. He slid the contract out of the summoning circle and onto the table, but Mason pushed it back in.

“You also need to sign on pages 19, 37, 61, and 142.”

Kurzadakathan did as he was asked, but not without complaining. “Damn you to the accursed realm, Mason! Why did you have to be a sorcerer? You take the fun out of being summoned.”

When Kurzadakathan was done, Mason took the paperwork and checked that the demon had signed everything correctly. He flipped through the papers to check that nothing was missing or misplaced, and then finally he put his own signature on the paper.

“It is done!” Kurzadakathan got to his feet and took a deep breath, raising his arms as he pulled energy from the summoning circle. His body glowed faintly as he absorbed the power, revealing lines and shadows under his skin with moved like snakes. “I received your payment, Mason Tolovius, and in return I grant you this artefact as specified! Our transaction is closed, master sorcerer.”

As Mason watched, the demon grew brighter and brighter until the entire summoning circle was a blazing sphere of light that was too brilliant to gaze at, and then there was an echoing thunderclap which brought darkness.

When Mason opened his eyes again he was alone in the forest. Kurzadakathan had returned to the otherworldly plane, leaving the summoning circle empty and inert, but remaining in the middle of the circle was a large white crystal the size of Mason’s palm.

After tidying up his paperwork and otherwise preparing himself, Mason sat on his chair again and used a special triggering spell to activate the crystal. “Morphus!” Instantly he could feel arcane power begin to flow from the gemstone, making his hand clench down as his muscles tightened involuntarily. His body suddenly felt like it was burning, but not from the baking heat of a summer afternoon.

All as planned, all as expected, all part of Mason’s grand plan. The sorcerer showed no signs of surprise as his flesh started to distort, his bones and muscles stretching and altering. He had even specified how long this process would take, and added caveats regarding pain (specified using units of pain as defined in appendix 5).

His arms shortened and pulled back towards his chest, while his fingers grew stubbier and less dextrous. His nails lengthened and extended into claws, while his hair melted into his head. Smooth plates exploded out all over his body, covering his skin with hard scales which felt surprisingly sensitive to the touch of air. His legs shortened but grew thicker, stretching out his clothing.

Mason stumbled to his feet, falling out of his chair and collapsing onto the forest floor. This was one part he had forgotten to plan for. He hurriedly kicked off his boots and tugged off his pants and tunic, moving as fast as he could, but still there was a ripping sound from his undergarments as a long, slender tail grew from his rear. His neck lengthened, as did his face, extending forwards into a pointed snout. A pair of smooth horns shot up from his head pointing backwards. The transformation seemed to briefly pause here, but then the most important part occurred—there was an intense itching pressure on his back, and then Mason felt a new pair of limbs burst from his shoulder blades.  He now had wings.

As the transformation drew to a finish, the crystal tumbled from his paw (which had formally been a hand) and landed on the forest floor. Mason took deep breaths as he slowly got used to his new body. Everything felt different and unexpected, but it didn’t take too much for him to get used to his new form. This was also another thing he had specified—the crystal was to transform him, but he needed to use his transformed body right away without having to spend days or weeks learning motor control.

He had once been a human sorcerer, but Mason was now a dragon with scales of pale grey.

“Wow, I’m a dragon. Whoa… Okay? Okay. I can still talk. Follow the plan. I just stick with the plan…” Surprisingly enough, Mason’s voice sounded most the same as it had before, albeit with a subtle resonance that he could feel in his chest. Although his nose-to-tail length was much longer than his human height, and his wingspan was far greater than his arms could have reached, his dragon body was overall slightly thinner and far more slender than his human body had been. 

At first he awkwardly tried to walk on his two hindlegs, before quickly realizing that it was far easier if he used all four legs. The drake slowly trotted around the clearing, and then when he felt ready he spread his wings and leapt into the air to test out his new form.

The sudden sensation was breathtaking. Mason was above the forest, flying low and fast and seeing everything. The air rushed past his scales and it was so easy to just flap his wings and fly. Mason wondered what he looked like from afar, and suddenly he felt naked and exposed without his clothes. But of course a real dragon would never wear clothes, and on such a warm summer’s day there was no chance he’d feel even the slightest chill from his lack of clothing. Looking over to the west, Mason could see a distant mountain range which marked the border between the Marlander Empire and the neighbouring country of Akosta.

Mason was a Marlander citizen, but he had never been particularly patriotic. In his educated opinion, the empire was a tyrannical regime seeking to conquer and subjugate nearby countries to grow its territory. The only consolation was that the emperor was openly transparent about his intentions to dominate the world and bring it all under his glorious heel, and the Marlander population seemed mostly content with this vicious expansionism as long as they remained prosperous and safe.

Until just recently, the much smaller neighbouring state of Akosta had chosen to ignore Marlander conquests and their campaigns of dominion. The two countries had strong trade and similar cultures, so there was little to argue about.

But then suddenly, just a few weeks ago, Akostan leadership had announced that their spies had discovered messages from the Marlander high emperor to his counsellors, discussing preparations for an eventual invasion of Akosta to add it to the lands of the empire. Whether these accusations were true or not (and the educated guess was that they obviously were), the emperor had pointed out that this announcement proved that Akosta had spies within the Marlander Empire, which therefore necessitated aggressive countermeasures. An embargo had been declared on many goods, cutting off trade between both nations.

This was when Mason had come up with his plan—he would smuggle contraband across the border using a technique no one would suspect, one which would allow him to bypass border security and all their checkpoints. Embargoes hurt the populations on both sides, but they were very profitable for smugglers.

His plan would go something like this:

Step one—summon a demon and obtain a transformation crystal.

Step two—transform into a dragon.

Step three—fly across the border and deliver Marlander goods as to the embargoed Akostans, for which they would pay good coin.

Step four—fly back to the Marlander Empire, bringing back Akostan luxuries which were also in high demand due to the embargo.

Step five—transform back into a human and sell all the smuggled goods, making lots of money.

Plan complete!

Dragons were intelligent beasts, but they were rare and cared little for the affairs of humans. No one would be suspicious of a drake who just happened to cross between the borders, because no one would suspect that this dragon had the mind and cunning of a human.

Mason flapped his wings as he came in for landing back at the forest clearing. In his normal human body he was a master sorcerer, but he doubted this draconic form was so skilled with magic. So as part of his contract with Kurzadakathan, Mason had specified that the crystal could be used twice—the first use would turn him into a dragon, and once he touched it the second time it would automatically turn him back into his previous human form.

Mason carefully walked over to the equipment he had left in the forest clearing. He took a small leather pouch and used it to pick up the crystal, then he left this pouch below his folding table. Part of him felt uneasy at the idea of leaving this crucial artefact behind, but he really had no choice. The embargo was enforced by more than words and threats; it was defended by an immensely powerful area spell which detected all enchanted artefacts passing out of the Marlander Empire and into Akosta. His smuggling itinerary specifically avoided enchanted objects which could trigger this spell, but this also meant he had to leave behind the transformation crystal—that special artefact which would return his humanity.

To mitigate this risk, Mason had already placed down a repulsive spell in the clearing to dissuade anyone from investigating his belongings while he was away. Furthermore, he was already so far into the wilderness that there would almost certainly be no one here besides him.

Mason put this worry out of his mind so he could continue with his plan. He walked over to where he had stashed a large backpack filled with various items, including refined telanium ingots, Greengrass salt, and other valuable but lightweight things which the Marlander Empire now denied to Akosta. Though his backpack had been made for a human to use, not a dragon, he had no problems with wearing the pouch in front of his chest. Dragons weren’t really very big creatures, all things considered.

The dragon soared through the open air on wings spread wide. The late afternoon sun was warming the mountains she was flying lazily over, creating strong thermals which pushed her up into the sky with nary a wing beat.

Izagor was her name, and her flight had neither destination nor aim. As she flew, she simply rode the wind to see where it would take her. It was a good day to fly, and the simple pleasure of air sweeping under her wings was sufficient justification for her to take to the skies.

The summer sun caused rushing winds to blow from high in the mountains down towards the forested plains of the valleys below. Izagor was vaguely aware that the mountainous terrain was the territory of a human nation, while the forested plains were the territory of another different nation, but she cared little for the arbitrary borders drawn by the humans. She knew these facts in the same manner she knew that plants were green so they could absorb sunlight, or there were deep sea creatures under the ocean, or there were stars in space—she had the information, but it didn’t affect her at all. There was nothing stopping her from flying wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She was above it all.

As she was enjoying her flight, a flicker of motion in the distance suddenly caught her attention. It was not on the ground, but in the air—could it be? It was!

Another dragon!

What a pleasant surprise. Izagor changed her heading and started beating her wings to match her course with this new dragon who was flying from the plains and heading towards the mountains.

Her race was not as social as the humans were, so living a solitary life was especially common amongst younger dragons who had yet to take a mate. Izagor had no plans to settle down anytime soon—travelling and roaming was just too much fun, and there was so much of the world she had yet to see and explore. Nevertheless it had been many weeks since she had last seen one of her own kind, so she curiously flew over to say hello.

As she got within intercept distance, Izagor saw that the other dragon was a male, and he had scales of pale grey with an underbelly of white. The drake appeared to be about the same age as her, and he seemed healthy enough; his wingbeats were steady and smooth as he flew to wherever he was headed. Some sort of leather harness was wrapped around his chest, which might have been the craftsmanship of humans—how interesting!

This, Mason decided, is not according to plan.

The afternoon sky was free of turbulence and his flight to Akosta had been largely uneventful for the first hour, right until the very moment a wild dragon had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started heading towards him.

Mason had not anticipated such a scenario. Dragons were rare creatures, so he hadn’t thought about what he would do if he somehow encountered an actual wild dragon. This wild dragon had scales of a reddish-brown like the colour of oak wood, with pale splotches on its side which looked like spots. Now it was flying along beside him and making squawking noises.

Izagor felt her neck crest drooping sadly as the grey-scaled drake refused to acknowledge her presence. They were flying too fast to talk—their high airspeed meant the wind would drown out more subtle conversation, so all she could do was try to draw his attention with squawks, chirps, and repeated waving her wings by rocking her flight pattern left and right.

She never got any response. In her travels Izagor had encountered grumpy elder dragons who roared at her to leave their territory and tried to snap at her tail, but this was even further than that—it was like she was invisible to this drake! Even if he was in a rush to go somewhere, he could at least just let out a quick squawk in reply. It was beyond rude to ignore someone like this.

Mason breathed a sigh of relief as the reddish-brown dragon finally gave up and stopped harassing him. He watched the wild dragon as they turned away and headed in the opposite direction, much to his delight. Mason continued to glance back over the next ten minutes or so, but the wild dragon continued on their course away from him.

“Good riddance!” Mason muttered, but his words were snatched away by the wind. He continued flying towards the Akostan border, heading for the mountain cave where he would stash his Marlander contraband and swap out his pack for a different pack of smuggled goods to bring back home.

Izagor was feeling more and more dejected as kept flying. It must have been at least five weeks since she had last seen another dragon, but now this grey-scaled drake had completely shunned her for no apparent reason. Had she offended him in some way? Did he find her presence repulsive? Or was her appearance so objectionable that he did not even want to even look at her?

Izagor growled and snapped her jaws as her sadness flashed over into anger. “Jerk!” she exclaimed, yelling the words into the wind. What sort of rude person couldn’t even take the effort to rock their wings and respond to someone?

It didn’t matter. She couldn’t care less about some idiot drake. Izagor kept flying, but now it felt like her pleasant afternoon flight had been soured by this confusing encounter. Soaring on thermals and taking in the scenery just didn’t seem to bring the same joy as before—Izagor felt a sudden stab of loneliness, and she wished she were many leagues away, back in her clan’s home territory surrounded by friends and family.

Sliding her wings into a dive position, she spiralled down through the air, only straightening out her flight at the last moment to avoid hitting the trees. She had left the mountains now, and was clearly flying over forested terrain. Perhaps she could find a lake and take a swim.

Something down in a forest clearing caught her eye briefly. Izagor looped around to retrace her flightpath, and sure enough there was a strange marking on the forest floor, looking like a series of geometric shapes and patterns drawn in a burnt and blackened circle. This was mildly interesting, so she descended into the clearing and landed to take a closer look.

Once she had dropped out of the air and furled her wings up, Izagor realized that there were several other things in this forest clearing—human belongings? Was this a campsite? Trotting over, she went to take a looksee. There was what appeared to be a portable table and chair placed right next to the circle burnt into the ground. A set of human clothes was on the table, as well as an empty document briefcase.

Izagor nosed at the clothing—it must have been placed here very recently, since there was no evidence of exposure to the elements. Inspecting the burnt circular mark revealed it to be summoning circle, for consorting with demons. All dragons were naturally able to use magic even without training, but as a rule they did not dabble in the otherworldly plane—humans, on the other paw, had no such common sense.

Izagor idly speculated that a sorcerer had come out here to summon a demon, but maybe they had done something wrong which allowed the demon to attack and drag them back to the otherworldly plane. That would explain why there were all these things out here but no trace of the person who much have so recently brought them. This hypothesis also explained why there was clothing on the table—perhaps the sorcerer had tried to summon a demon to fulfil some perverse sexual desire.

There was also some sort of weak spell gently poking her scales. From what she could sense of the magic, Izagor suspected that the spell would cause humans to feel an instinctive desire to avoid this place, but as a dragon her magical blood rendered her immune. She didn’t feel a need to be cautious—there were very few spells which could affect magical creatures such as dragons.

As she walked around the clearing, Izagor spotted something else lying on the ground—a leather satchel was leaning against one of the table legs. The satchel was now lying open on the ground, and a large white crystal was resting on the forest floor.

That’s pretty. The gemstone was glinting in the late afternoon sunlight, almost like it was calling to her. Izagor crouched down and sniffed at the crystal. The moment it touched her nose, everything changed.

Lightning exploded out from the point of contact, running towards the ends of her wings and the tip of her tail. Izagor collapsed to the ground with a scream as her whole body began to convulse and twitch. Everything felt wrong as immensely powerful magic started to ravage her flesh, stretching out her forelegs into arms, while her hindlegs extended and grew closer together as her tail got shorter and shorter.

There was no place on her body left untouched by the transformation. Her scales shrank down until they had disappeared, leaving behind raw pink skin which seemed utterly inadequate to protect her from the elements. Her muzzle was pressed backwards and into her face, and her teeth shifted around and jostled as they too were changed. Her tail kept shrinking further and further until it had disappeared entirely. Her crest dropped against her neck and merged with it, and in its place came long brown fur which sprouted from the top of her head.

Izagor had no idea what was happening to her. She could see changes occurring on the outside of her body, and she could only guess at what terrible things were going on to her insides. The worst part of all was when her wings started to shrink. She had always been proud of her wings, proud of how graceful they looked and how they could draw the attention of drakes when she chose to show them off, but now her flight muscles were cramping horribly, compressing her wings impossibly tight against her back. Not her wings—anything but her wings!

Mason was on the lookout as he flew back to the forest clearing. His journey across the border and back had gone mostly as planned, with the one exception of that reddish-brown wild dragon that had harassed him earlier. Now the sorcerer carefully watched the skies around him in case the wild dragon showed up again, but he made it back to the clearing without seeing any trace of the creature.

Feeling pleased with himself, Mason used a forepaw to pat the pouch strapped to his chest—he would be making good coin from this endeavour! There were few pleasures in the world like a careful plan perfectly executed. But just as he came in for landing, his heart turned to ice. There was someone else in the clearing!

It looked like…a woman? The stranger had long brown hair that covered the upper part of her back. She was lying right next to his table, on her front with her legs and arms awkwardly sprawled out, and head twisted to the side.

Mason was so shocked that he stumbled as he landed. Although he manged to skip forwards and avoid falling, he froze in position, not knowing what to do. They were so far from the nearest town! What was this woman doing all the way out here? He hesitantly approached to get a better look.

It was definitely a woman. She appeared to be unconscious—but why? And how has this woman even gotten here? The repulsive spells he had put on the place ought to have created a strong, dreading sensation that this was a place to avoid. Mason felt his tail swishing from left to right in nervousness. Perhaps this woman had somehow ignored his spells and walked closer until the magic had overwhelmed her and caused her to faint? This would conveniently explain why she was asleep.

However, it would not explain why she was naked.

Mason let out a soft mewling whimper as he tried to come to grips with the situation. He could still come up with a plan if he could just understand what had happened here. Maybe this woman was a nudist on a summer hike in the forest (did people actually do that?), and she had come across his summoning circle then fainted after exposure to his repulsive spells? Did that make sense?

No, that didn’t make sense. But then again, nothing made sense about this scenario.

Mason slowly approached the unconscious woman, moving as quietly as he could. He could at least confirm that the woman was alive and not a corpse—her chest was moving slowly as she breathed in and out, but her eyes were closed. Yes, it was definitely a woman; and yes, she was definitely naked. Mason felt a surge of embarrassment and he averted his eyes from the woman’s exposed form, but he could not avoid noticing that she was pretty. Her limbs were lean but muscled, and her hair was like a curtain of reddish-brown.

After another minute spent anxiously doing nothing, Mason had come up with a new plan. He needed to turn himself back into a human, hide away his pouch full of contraband, and then he could wake this strange naked woman and ask her what she was doing here. There was nothing inherently illegal about summoning—Mason was an accredited sorcerer registered with the Guild of Magicians—and the belongings left in the clearing did not give any indication that this was a smuggling operation. So this woman, whoever she was, would have no reason to suspect him of any wrongdoing.

Mason unbuckled the pack of smuggled goods from his chest and slid it under the table, and then he picked up his satchel. When he saw that it was empty, he frantically turned over the bag and searched through it for a few panicked seconds before he realized that the crystal was lying on the ground, almost in reach of the mysterious naked woman.

Mason bent down and grabbed the crystal with a forepaw, breathing another deep (but silent) sigh of relief. For a moment he had been terrified by the thought of forever remaining a dragon, but there was nothing to worry about! His contract with the demon had even included protections against such a rare event as someone else touching his artefact. Mason had specified that after the crystal had been activated the first time to turn him into a dragon, it would not have any effect when picked up by another human. The only thing it could do was if he touched it again—it would change him from a dragon into a human being.

Then Mason realized that nothing was happening, and all his calm shattered. He grasped the crystal more firmly with both forepaws, and even tried rubbing it against his chest and muzzle, but all to no avail.

“No, no, no! NO!”  It wasn’t changing him back! How could a magical artefact created by demonic power not work?! His contract had been perfect! Yet the crystal had somehow gone inert as if its power had already been used. Was it something to do with this mystery woman? Well obviously she must be the cause of it—these two events could not be coincidences! But how? Was she a powerful magician who had somehow interfered with the crystal? Or a rival sorcerer intent on blackmailing him?

Izagor slowly blinked her eyes open. She had been in a strange nightmare, but now she came back to reality where things were…wrong. Reality was the nightmare. She couldn’t feel her wings or her tail, and all four of her limbs felt strangely proportioned. Her neck was far too short, so raising her head was a challenge. At first her vision was blurry and indistinct, but as things cleared she realized she was lying on the forest floor. The sight of her body was immensely disorientating.

Her forelegs had turned into lanky arms, and her forepaws had become hands with five dextrous fingers. Izagor ran her hands over her body, taking in the shocking sensation of smooth sensitive flesh where there should been scales. Her muzzle was completely gone, as was the crest fin that usually ran down her neck from the top of her head. The fur sprouting from her head kept irritatingly getting in the way of her face, and she had to brush it aside. Her long slender tail had been replaced by a curvy pair of buttocks which looked ridiculous, and there was fat in the most abnormal of locations—forming two strange lumps on her chest that felt even more sensitive than anywhere else. It was so…so different. She was in a body that got everything wrong.

Then she glanced upwards, and sitting right in front of her was that same grey-scaled drake who had rudely ignored her before. Seeing him again made Izagor so angry she forgot to be scared or worried. “You!” she spat. Her voice sounded crisper than usual, lacking the rumbly harmonics of a dragon’s voice.

The drake stumbled backwards, apparently taken by surprise from her sudden intensity. He tripped over a tree root and landed on his side with wings half open.

Mason scrambled to his four feet and hurriedly backed away from the mysterious naked woman who was now proving to also be angry and crazy. Something about how she looked clicked in his head, and a horrible realization dawned on him. There was an alternate explanation for this scenario—one which seemed unlikely, yet far more probable than an insane masochistic nudist just happening to stumble upon his summoning circle. This woman’s reddish-brown hair was of a colour he had seen before—the exact same shade as the scales of that wild dragon he had encountered just a few hours ago. Oh no, she couldn’t actually be…?

His contract with Kurzadakathan had been almost flawless, but Mason realized now that all his dense specifications might still have had one tiny ambiguity. The mistake seemed so obscure that Kurzadakathan probably hadn’t deliberately tried to bend the contract; who could have known this might happen?

After being triggered the first time, Mason’s transformation crystal was required to immediately transform him from dragon back into his normal human body when he touched it a second time, but nowhere had he specified that this transformation must apply only to him. It had to transform the dragon who touched it into a human—but he failed to specify that this dragon must be him, and him alone.

END

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