Chapter #5Group One - The Elf, the Brawler, and the Mage by: swapped4u   Main Characters
Orokos - Male elf, archer. Hardened from the bitter climate of the Northern Straights of the Mallow Kingdom, Orokos relied on his archery skills to defend his city against great snowbeasts and eagles as big as a man. Like all elves he's of flawless skin and fine features. Though his height marks him as having some human blood in his lineage somewhere. He has silver eyes and keeps his prescious blonde hair elaborately tied up and threaded with traditional charms.
Kieran - Male human, brawler. Kieran spent most of his life training to become a soldier in the Mallow Guard. Unfortunately the Guard frowned upon his rough and underhanded fighting style and denied him. Hurt, the brawler vowed to one day reenlist. He's tall and broad shouldered, relying on brute strength and quick swordsmanship. He has unremarkable dark brown eyes and hair, which he still maintains as a very short Guard-regulation buzz cut.
Dyana - Female human, mage. A member of the High Maternal Mages of the Divine Goddess, Dyana aspires to be then best defensive mage in history! Unfortunately what she makes up for in ambition, she lacks in hand-eye coordination. Her defensive barriers are still more of a suggestion but they're better than nothing! She swears! She's thin, but stronger than she looks. The runes on her arms prove that. She has red hair in a practical braid and bright violet eyes that occasionally glow while she's using magic.
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Orokos felt like he'd been run over by a cart. A whole caravan of carts carrying stones and iron driven by great oxen. All he wanted to do was continue to lay on his bed of crunchy autumnal leaves atop the damp forest floor. The air was crisp, carrying the scent of far away wood smoke and fermenting mountain apples. Why was he here again? The answer escaped him. Orokos tried to slip back into the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.
Except Dyana wouldn't stop yelling and someone else was doing a really bad job of shaking him awake. Ugh his arms felt swollen.
"What...?" Orokos grumbled. Why was his voice so deep? His eyes fluttered open and he was immediately face-to-face with himself. "Ahhh!!"
"Shut up!" Dyana yelled, her usually calm face twisted into a grimace. Her chest was hammering and her braid had come undone in the battle. "Just shut up!"
"Orokos it's okay! It's okay!" Orokos' own voice pleaded, which was not helping his confusion. His eyes darted from face to face.
"Okay? Okay!? Dyana this is not okay!" Dyana gesticulated wildly with Kieran's sword. "This is anything but okay!"
"Orokos," The being that wore his face said gently. "It's Dyana. That beast wasn't what we expected at all. It swapped our bodies in the fight. You're in Kieran's body. And he's in mine."
"We....I'm...." Orokos sat up, the world spinning, and looked down at himself. Supple leather armor and breaches clothed a body that had doubled in size. An empty scabbard on his hip. Calloused hands, scarred forearms, and the hint of a sizeable bicep. Out of a lifetime of habit Orokos reached up to flick his hair from his eyes to find all he had was the soft stubble of a fresh buzz cut. He felt like he was going to be sick. "Where's my....!?....How did this happen??"
Dyana looked at him sympathetically. Kieran groaned from somewhere to the side.
"It was that stupid monster," She said, cautioning a smile. "I know it's disorienting. I felt the same way when I woke up. I've never even heard of anything like this! Just take a few breaths. You'll get used to being in his body in a minute."
"Great, everyone is awake. Everyone is in the wrong body. And everyone hates this," Kieran said in a slightly more measured voice. "Now can we please go after this thing so we can get back in our own bodies!?"
"We're in no condition to fight!" Dyana exclaimed, incredulous. "It'd kill us!"
As if proving her point she leapt to her feet, misjudged her new height, and knocked her head into a pine branch. Dead, sappy, needles showered Orokos.
"So, what, you're suggesting we stay like this?" Kieran said. He almost sounded scared at the thought.
"No one is saying that. It's just how are we supposed to get it to swap us back, Kieran?" Orokos struggled to his feet, then swayed as the new tallest member of the group. Kieran quickly glanced away, disturbed by the sight of his body ambling about without him inside. "We didn't even know it could do this in the first place. Like Dyana said I've never even heard of this kind of thing happening!"
"And it only did....this when we cornered it," Dyana added. "So we'd have to do that all over again. Which was your plan, Kieran, by the way."
"Oh so this is suddenly my fault?!" Kieran spat. "You think I wanted to swap bodies with you?"
"No! I'm just saying we wouldn't be in this mess if we'd just done what I wanted." Dyana said.
"Magic wouldn't have helped," Orokos said, eyeing the two of them. "The monster was too powerful. If I'd managed to shoot it, injure it, then maybe -"
"Then maybe it would have still done this to us and bled out!" Kieran yelled, angrily kicking at the dirt. "Then we'd really be stuck!"
"Which is exactly why we can't just go charging after it!" Dyana yelled right back. A charm came loose from her hair and smacked her in the cheek.
"She's right, Kieran," Orokos huffed and shifted his weight. He awkwardly ran a hand over his shorn scalp. He was never going to get used to the feeling. "I don't like this any more than you do but we have to be smart about this. And that means not going into a battle blind. We tried that and look what happened."
The fight started to drain out of Kieran's feminine shoulders.
"Easy for you to say, Orokos," He said under his breath. "You're not a girl...."
Dyana, dealing with her own gender problem, pretended not to hear.
"C'mon, it's nearly sunset," Orokos sighed, glancing up through the trees at the light that was growing golden by the second. A chilly breeze rained more leaves down on them. "Let's just get our stuff and head back. We can't exactly afford to lose any of it." | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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