~~~ A Peculiar End to a Peculiar Girl ~~~

 

~|~

 

First a little background:

 

Back in the days of the wizard “Rook”, several curses were placed on the entire town. These curses caused the people to turn into a wide range of things. Some were affected mentally while others only physically. A few very unlucky people suffered both.

 

During the second curse, Sarah Kellei was lucky enough to only be afflicted with a physical change though, as it would turn out, she wasn’t ‘lucky’ at all. Her affliction was to become super-malleable. She, indeed, became very similar to clay, though it was often mislabeled as “dough”.

 

This marked the beginning of a new and very strange change in her life. She went through many, many, many changes during the curse, as Vayri’nee Zyranustaia insisted on testing the limits of it. Truly anything you could imagine doing with clay could be done to Sarah, and likely was.

 

The second curse ended with a massive chess game, pitting Rook’s demonic pieces against citizens of Treegum (as pieces themselves). In an exciting, magnificent battle, Seralin Deslen, acting as the queen piece for Treegum, defeated Rook’s Lich King and the game was over. With a snap of his fingers, Rook’s curse was released.

 

Every one was so happy to finally be “normal” again. Much to Sarah’s dismay, however, her curse did not go away and it would take quite a long time for her to figure out why. Eventually, she learned that golden avariel were more susceptible to curses, due to the nature of their creation. That if they were not cured of their ailment in a timely manner, it could very well become permanent.

 

It took awhile, but Sarah finally accepted it and adapted to her new lifestyle (which was quite different from anything she’d ever seen or experienced before). At the sake of Vayri’nee’s immense curiosity and the combined insanity of Tananda Benson and Kasak Li’der, Sarah went through numerous changes and experiences, some quite disturbing.

 

It was discovered (just don’t ask how) that if she were to be consumed by a creature, Sarah would absorb it from the inside out. A part of that creature’s psyche would be added to her subconscious, often showing in the form of cravings for things said creature might desire. Tananda’s doppelganger (known as Myst), found this to be fascinating and, much to Sarah’s dismay, fed Sarah to as many things as she possibly could. From squirrels to cows to cougars… *exhales* If anyone ever thought Sarah not quite right in the head, I think this serves as the reason why

 

Anyway, during one of these moments Sarah loathed, Myst decided to feed a liquefied Sarah to the butterflies in her bath room. Sarah absorbed, literally hundreds of butterflies which overwhelmed her subconscious. Much to Sarah’s surprise, she came out of it having sprouted antennae and her wings changed to be golden butterfly wings!

 

Confused and rather embarrassed, she frantically sought an answer to her new problem. It was then that she discovered that her form was constantly being held by her subconscious. What her subconscious was convinced she was is what she would physically represent. The presence of the butterflies in her mind was so great that her psyche actually shifted to thinking she was part butterfly and this was expressed through her physical changes. From this revelation, Vayri’nee formed an idea. She told Sarah she could help her through hypnosis. Sarah, tired of the “giant pixie” jokes, naturally consented.

 

So it was done. Vayri’nee hypnotized Sarah and was able to remove the butterfly presence within her mind. Unfortunately for Sarah, Vayri’nee’s mischievous curiosity got the best of her again and she implanted certain “hypnotic keywords” into Sarah. These words, when triggered (by being spoken aloud), would instantly trick Sarah’s subconscious into thinking she was something else. Since her form was held by this, it would change to match whatever her mind thought she was supposed to be. This resulted in an instant physical change of poor Sarah whenever someone would speak a certain word.

 

Eventually, Sarah would catch on to what was happening and go to Vayri’nee for help. Vayri would just “erase” the old words, “insert” new ones and have Sarah “forget” about it all. Hypnosis was the ultimate control over the poor girl and, sadly, she continued to think it was a good helpful thing for her.

 

When Tananda learned how to hypnotize her, it signaled the beginning of the end. The process repeated itself many, many times, though the changes Tanda induced (often at the prompting of Kasak), were often worse as her moral compass did not bind her to that which was good, like Vayri.

 

The final set of hypnotic instructions assigned to Sarah contained a myriad of random changes, most designed to humiliate her. One was the word “cherry”. Sarah would instantly become whatever word followed “cherry”, so long as she knew what it was.

 

And this brings us to the present…

 

~|~

 

Sarah returned to Treegum after about a month of fruitless searching. She had been off seeking the home of her kind: the golden avariel. Despite her failures, she was in good spirits, happy to see her friends again. As she sat perched atop the home of Nathell Colt, she spotted Kali Kenethor strolling down the road. With a playful smirk, she disappeared, fading into the light.

 

Kali took a few more steps before she stopped abruptly as something slammed into her rump. With a loud gasp, she spun around, searching about… but no one was there. At that time, the same sensation hit her again. Only this time Sarah made herself visible as she ducked behind a nearby house, giggling.

 

“Hey! I saw you that time, Sarah!” Kali called after her as she stepped into the alley in pursuit.

 

“Oh did you now?” the playful grin Sarah wore was evident in her voice as she dropped down off the roof behind Kali.

“There you are!” Kali grinned as she spun around, “I’ll have to think of an appropriate way to get you back.” She continued, rubbing her bum.

 

Sarah just smiled back. She and Kali sat down by the well and talked for awhile. Kasak and Gheden walked by saying something about desecrating the Buddy Roderick, but she didn’t pay it much mind. The two men (men? *ahem*)… the two boys came back awhile later whilst Kali was catching Sarah up on things she had missed. A bit of playful banter ensued as Sarah tackled Kasak in greeting and Gheden repeatedly banged his head against a tree.

 

Not long after, Roderick showed up, as well as Tananda. It seemed like several people who hadn’t been seen in some time were suddenly showing up all at once and it made Sarah smile. It was things like this that she really missed while she was gone.

 

As the day went on, it almost seemed like a dream. There were no problems, everything just seemed ‘right’ as they conversed with people in the town square, many Sarah had never seen before. Eventually, though, things seemed to wind down and Kasak, Tanda, Kali and Sarah ended up in a heap next to the Black Orchid with Roderick nearby. It was then that things started to change… literally.

 

While they all just kinda sat there talking about nothing in particular, Tanda whispered in Sarah’s ear.

 

“Cherry…” she said, barely audible. It was enough to send Sarah into the daze-like state though and the next word said was ‘oil’.

 

Sarah didn’t even have time to protest as her body suddenly lost all structure and basically liquefied; coating the three people she had been laying on. Now one would think that this would give an onlooker pause… but not in Treegum, I guess. The four of them just kinda stood/sat there, the only surprise coming from Roderick who thought these hypnotic words were fixed.

 

As Sarah lay there as a puddle of golden goo, she listened to them carry on in their conversation as if nothing had happened. Before long, however, Tanda whispered the word “Cherry” again. Unfortunately for Sarah, Tanda said it a bit too loud this time and Kasak immediately seized the opportunity, crying out loudly, “Poo!”

 

”Noooooo!!” Sarah screamed in her head as her liquefied body soaked into itself, reforming until she was a golden pile of… yeah.

 

Well this continued for hours on end, changing her from this to that and that to this… and then that again. Sarah lost track of how many times she had changed and what exactly she had been changed into. She did recall, however, becoming a golden cherry, a golden leaf, Raele (which just turned her into a female dog), Daxen, Priest (the import shop guy) and Kasak’s boner. Fortuantely, the only “Kasak’s boner” she had ever seen was the box he carried around with that word scribed on the side of it.

 

When they finally seemed to have enough, Kasak got a brilliant idea.

 

“Cherry Sarah!” he cried and Sarah returned to her normal form.

 

”Now’s my chance…” she thought to herself as she dashed off around the black orchid. Before she could get outside of earshot, however, Kasak cried out again…

 

“Cherry baby!”

 

Sarah’s eyes widened just before she tumbled to the ground as her body shrank. When all was finished, she was left as a tiny golden avariel baby who’s gut reaction was to break into tears and cry (as if she didn’t have reason to).

 

“Aww!” Kasak walked around the corner, followed by Tananda.

 

“She is so cute!” Tanda said, scooping up the crying baby avariel, “Let’s keep her.”

 

“Good idea! She never got an avariel childhood.” Kasak reasoned. Wait… is that an oxymoron? “This way we can give her one!”

 

“Yeah!” Tanda agreed, and with that they were off. Kali followed closely, trying to get them to release Sarah.

 

When they reached Sarah’s house, Kali snatched the baby from Tandas arms, threw her high in the air and called out after her.

 

“Cherry Sarah!!” she yelled. She had hoped to give Sarah the chance to fly outside of earshot before they could capture her again.

 

“Cherry anvil!” the words came so quickly it made Kali blink. Tanda must have seen it coming. At any rate, Sarah crashed to the ground as a solid, heavy golden anvil.

 

“Stop that, Kali.” Tananda scolded, “We’re trying to help her”.

 

Sarah pleaded in her head. Maybe if she cried loud enough they could hear her somehow.

 

“We should give her the full experience.” Tanda continued, “She should start as an egg like real avariel.”

 

“Oh, good idea.” Kasak chimed in. Without time for protest from Kali or Sarah (not like she could anyway), it was done.

 

“Cherry egg.” Tanda said as the golden anvil shrunk down to a large oblong egg.

 

Kali fought for a bit more trying to rescue the poor girl, but in the end, she was no match for the combined insanity of Kasak and Tananda.

 

“Well, I’ll come back and fix you later, Sarah. Maybe they’ll leave you alone then.” With that, she said goodnight and left Sarah to her fate.

 

“So now what?” Kasak asked.

 

“We gotta hatch her…” Tanda replied, carefully placing the golden egg into a pouch, “and be really careful about it.”

 

They dashed inside the house and set the Sarah-egg on a desk in the kitchen.

 

“You make some food, I gotta go kill the chaos lady so her curse will end” Tanda directed.

 

“Alright, I’ll have some stagquitos ready when you get back.” Kasak replied and headed over to start making some food. Tanda bolted out the door.

 

Within minutes, Sarah felt a very strange sensation. Comfortably warm in the egg, she suddenly felt her entire body become more firm and less malleable. She didn’t have much time to dwell on the sensation as she suddenly lost all consciousness and sense of self. It was as if she completely ceased to exist.

 

~|~

 

It was dark, warm and very comfortable. The girl didn’t know where she was and, despite the overwhelming sense of comfort, she knew she had to break free. Forcing her body outwards, she pressed on the hard surfaced that enveloped her.

 

Suddenly there was light. It started above her head and crept its way down in front of her. Many more cracks of light started to shine through as well. Suddenly the black sky exploded and light flooded everything.

 

Looking up, there were two strange objects peering down. One was ivory-blue with two black stripes and the other was purple. Somehow they were comforting beyond description. They made noises… strange noises, completely unrecognizable, yet comforting in that same way.

 

-~-~-

 

Author's Note:  My first attempt at ending Sarah.  It didn't last.  That's probably for the best...