Chapter Text
Today’s quest had yet to be announced, so Gangle was spending her morning in the castle’s library. The room was stocked floor to ceiling with books of wildly varying quality. Many were mere lore books written directly by Caine that, frankly, no one actually read. They took up the space of a whole book, but his writings were merely a handful of pages at most.
However, other materials managed to find their way here. Old literature from the real world, and even non-fiction reference books, which is precisely what the wizard was searching for.
She’d been struggling to come up with a design for one of her OCs, but some weeks ago she’d stumbled upon an encyclopedia dedicated solely to documenting historical fashion, and she had to find it again. There was an image in there of a dress with this intricately structured bodice and meticulous embroidery that would look outstanding on her character, it would be a crime not to use that reference!
Gangle had become absorbed in skimming through the titles on the shelf, until she heard a faint snickering from the floor below. If she had blood flowing through her ribbons, it would have run cold.
She turned around, running to the railing of the mezzanine and peered down to find that accursed purple rabbit had picked her grimoire up off the table she set it on, and was flipping through the pages chuckling to himself.
Her ribbons slapped her face, “Jax, no! Put that down!”
Jax looked up at her, his stupid grin growing wider, “What? Scared I’m gonna see your personal hentai collection?”
Gangle yelped, and immediately ran down the spiral staircase to the ground floor. She rushed up to Jax, reaching to yank the spellbook out of his hands, but at his height he kept it out of her reach with ease.
“Jax, give it back! I need that!” She cried out, hopping in a futile effort to reach the book, “Please just give it back!”
“It’s your fault for using your spellbook as a personal sketchbook. I mean really, what would you do if you put a levitate spell on the same page as your anime cringe? Have fun explaining that to Ragatha,” his laugh felt like the stab of tiny needles at her heart.
Jax kept flipping through the grimoire. He opened to a page with a spell sigil, and on the page opposite to it was an intricate drawing of two anime-styled men with their lips almost touching. He gasped dramatically, his hand over his heart, “Gangle, you’ve been putting yaoi next to your spells? How unbecoming of the royal wizard!”
“DON’T LOOK AT IT!” Gangle screamed, and in an impulsive act, she pulled her neck back and headbutted her mask hard against Jax’s gut. He grunted in surprise, his arms lowering just enough for Gangle to reach the grimoire. But as her ribbons touched the book, the ink of the spell sigil illuminated as her magic flowed into it.
The next thing she knew, she was surrounded by a fog of sparkling smoke. She coughed, waving away the smoke, and to her shock, Jax wasn’t there anymore. Instead, on the spot where he had been standing, were his clothes in a frumpled pile.
Had she accidentally triggered a teleportation spell? No, no, if she had, then it would have taken his clothes with him. Gangle looked to the open page of her grimoire, and let out a high-pitched whine as she recognized the exact sigil she’d cast. This was going to be bad.
Something was moving under Jax’s tunic. It was small, and Gangle slowly knelt down to get a closer look. It shuffled through the fabric, and escaped through the neck hole to reveal itself. Before her was a tiny, fluffy purple bunny rabbit with Jax’s yellow eyes. He stared up at her. She stared back. He stood up on his hind legs, and looked down to his shaky little paws.
“Gangle,” despite his size, his voice remained the same pitch, “What did you do?”
The wizard snickered, then let out a howling cackle. She was laughing so hard she fell forwards and held her stomach. Jax involuntarily thumped his foot on the floor, “Did you transform me?! Change me back, right now!”
Gangle was still laughing her heart out as she pulled herself back to her feet. She closed the grimoire and clutched it tight to her chest, “I… pfft- heh, I’m not sure if I want to. You’re kind of adorable like this.”
Then she heard a growl. A tiny growl, to be fair, but she’d never expected such a little animal to be capable of such a noise.
“If you don’t change me back, I’m not just gonna tell Ragatha about the figurine thing. I’m gonna tell the whole court. And Caine. And Bubble. And every NPC we meet, and every new sucker who’ll show up in the future. I’ll make sure that no one will ever look at you without thinking about-”
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!” Gangle quickly apologized, but kept her spellbook tightly in her ribbons, “There’s um… a problem with that, though. I kind of… can’t?”
“What.”
“The Transform spell can’t be dispelled, remember? It’ll wear off after a few hours, though,” she explained.
Jax thumped his foot again, “Then cast it again! Change me into literally anything else!”
“I can’t control what you change into, the spell is randomized! It might turn you into a worm, o-or a starfish, or a gloink!” Gangle’s voice cracked a little bit.
Jax examined his temporary body with a disgusted grimace. Small, mostly quadrupedal, covered in dense fluff. He didn’t even have thumbs anymore, how was he meant to do anything without thumbs?! If anyone saw him like this-
“Hello? Is everything okay in here?”
That was Pomni’s voice, coming from the library’s entrance. Neither of them had spotted her behind the rows of shelves, but Jax could hear her bells growing louder as she approached. He gave a harsh whisper to Gangle, “Hide me! Do not let anyone see me like this, especially not her!”
The wizard’s eyes darted around the room, until it landed on the table she was planning to use before Jax’s intrusion, “Go under there!”
The rabbit dashed under the table on all fours, keeping his body low to the ground and his ears flat against his head. Now without him right in front of her, Gangle had a moment to question how he worded that demand. Why was he so worried to be seen by Pomni in particular?
Before she could ponder the answer to that question, the aforementioned jester came into view, “Oh, Gangle! I heard a kind of… explosion, I think? And some yelling. Are you alright?”
Gangle straightened her posture, her shoulders tensed up to her neck, “I’m all good! Never been better! That sound was just a- uh… umm…”
Oh god, she hadn’t thought of an excuse. She briefly glanced down to the floor under the table, and saw those wide yellow eyes staring back at her. She snapped her gaze back to Pomni, but the jester wasn’t looking at her. She was looking at the pile of clothing that was still laying out on the floor.
“Why are Jax’s clothes here?”
Gangle squeaked, the awkwardness and pressure alone threatening to crack her comedy mask, “I… I-I…”
She took a deep breath, bracing for impact, “I accidentally transformed Jax into a little bunny rabbit!”
“GANGLE!” A shout blurted from under the table, followed by a pained groan and a whimper of humiliation. Pomni knelt down, peeking under the table, and that’s when he knew the jig was up.
Carefully, he hopped out on all fours, back into the light. His body was trembling, whether it be from fear or fury was unclear. He stood up on his haunches, and glared at the jester, a heavy sigh escaped his chest, “Go ahead, laugh it up. Have a good, long laugh at how stupid I look.”
Pomni’s face remained still. Her mouth kept closed, her big eyes just looked him up and down in silence. He kept waiting for her to do something, anything, even just a giggle, but nothing went past those lips. She raised an eyebrow, “Huh. Are you… is he gonna be stuck like that?”
Gangle shook her head, “It’ll wear off after a while, but yeah, he’s stuck like that until then. It’s how Caine programmed the spell.”
“So… what do we do until then?” She questioned. Jax was still staring at her with wide eyes like he was expecting something, and whatever it was, she wasn’t giving it to him, “Can we get Caine to fix it?”
“He won’t. Last time we asked him to fix a transformation spell, he just laid back and said something like ‘don’t sweat it, my insert pet-names here! It’ll sort itself out soon!’” Jax tried to make air quotes with his fingers, but since he now had paws, he just ended up twitching his toes.
Pomni tilted her head at him, “Then we’ll just have to wait it out. Do you want help with anything…?”
Jax grumbled, and hopped over to his scattered garments. He attempted to bundle his braies up in his paws to no avail, but he kept trying anyway, “I’m gonna make sure neither of you blab about this to the others. So long as no one runs into a quest trigger, I think we’re good.”
There wasn’t even a full ten seconds of silence before a booming voice echoed throughout the entire castle, startling the three.
“A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE CRYSTAL.”
Text appeared at the top of their visions.
TODAY’S QUEST IS: NIGHT OF THE NEFARIOUS NECROMANCER!
“Are you kidding me?!” Jax shouted at the top of his tiny lungs in frustration.
In a similarly loud voice, though nowhere near as booming as the one before, Caine could be heard all throughout the castle as if he were speaking through an intercom, “Zooble has found the Crystal of Solarian’s Light! Everyone has thirty minutes to prepare for the journey. I hope to see you all in the throne room soon, my voracious vampire hunters!”
And with that, the sudden announcements stopped.
The three of them looked between each other. Gangle was the first one to step away, clutching her spellbook even tighter, “U-Um, I’m gonna… prep for the quest. Bye!”
She ran out of the library before Jax could yell at her to stop. He rubbed his paws down his face, groaning in exasperation. Now he was alone with Pomni, who seemed to be bracing for more surprises. When a moment went by with nothing happening, she exhaled the breath she was holding.
“Okay…” she thought aloud, “Perhaps you can skip the quest today? Zooble skips all the time.”
Jax sat down on the floor, his hind legs starting to wear out from standing on them for so long, “Absolutely not! Maybe you won’t be a gossip, but Gangle? There’s no way she won’t tell the others! I’ve gotta make sure she keeps her mouth shut!”
Pomni put up her hands as if to soothe him, “But if you go before the spell wears off, then everyone will see you themselves.”
The little rabbit grumbled to himself, rubbing his front paws together uncomfortably. What he said next came out as if it were physically painful to speak, “… Fine. Can I ask you a favor?”
Pomni nodded.
“Take me and my clothes to my room. There’s a satchel I can probably fit in, so put me in there and take it with you for the quest. If anyone asks where I am, just tell them I wasn’t feeling up to it and that I let you borrow the bag.”
“You think they’ll buy that?” She questioned.
He sighed, “Maybe not, but what other option do we have?”
Pomni could have argued with that. She could have argued that Gangle wasn’t so callous, or that she herself would keep an eye on the wizard, but she knew that Jax wouldn’t believe her. So instead, she laid her hands down on the ground at his level, “Alright, come on then.”
With some reluctance, Jax hopped into her hands. She slowly lifted him up, and held him close to her chest. His fur was incredibly soft, and his body surprisingly warm. It took all her restraint to not start instinctively petting him. She began to pick his clothes off the ground, draping the fabric over his body.
“Here, this will hide you in case anyone spots us,” she reassured him, but he shifted in her grasp.
“And how are you gonna explain why you’re carrying my clothes?”
Pomni pressed her lips into a thin line, “You know what? I’m just gonna move really fast and hope no one sees me.”
She did exactly that, and left the library speed-walking as fast as her short legs could go. She had a vague idea of where the spymaster’s quarters were, but only now did it occur to her that she’d never actually seen it with her own eyes. She kept an eye out for anyone in the halls, and lowered her voice to a whisper, “Jax, where’s your room?”
He shifted in her arms again, his snout nuzzling out of the fabric of his tunic, “It’s like right across from your room. It’s not marked.”
“Not marked…?” She mumbled. He didn’t answer the query, so she pressed forward. Although Pomni never spent much time in her room, she at least remembered where it was. The jester made the trek to the bard quarters with ease, lucky to not run into anyone along the way.
Ignoring her own room, she turned to face the door directly across from hers. True to his word, there was no signage, it was just a simple wooden door. Regardless, she grasped the iron handle and pulled it open, only to be met with a tiny closet cluttered with brooms and buckets. Pomni just stared with her mouth slightly open.
“Jax, this looks like a janitor’s closet. You sleep in a janitor’s closet?” She looked incredulously at the bundle in her arms. She almost swore she could hear him rolling his eyes.
“Oh yeah, because my bed is a broomstick and my sheets are cleaning rags. No, I don’t sleep in the janitor’s closet!” He whispered harshly, “Go in and press the brick that’s darker than the others on the back wall.”
Pomni had no idea what he was getting at, but it was his room, not hers, so she did as she was told. Maneuvering carefully around the cleaning supplies, she quickly hit the furthest wall from the door, scanning it up and down. At around her shoulder height, she spotted a particular brick in the stone wall several shades darker than its neighbors. Adjusting her hold so as not to drop Jax or his clothing, she raised a free hand and pushed it back.
The brick sunk into the wall, and the sound of stone scraping against stone reverberated throughout the closet. The wall before her began to shift, parting away to reveal another wooden door just behind it. Mounted upon that door was a round sign bearing a symbol of a dagger with a purple blade and a pink grip, matching the colors of the rabbit she held in her arms.
Her mouth was hanging open again, “You get a secret entrance to your room?! How is that fair?”
“It’s not about being fair, it’s about playing the role. What kind of spymaster would have their quarters so obviously marked-” Jax stopped himself, gritting his teeth, “Nevermind, just go in already!”
Pomni rolled her eyes and opened the new, secret door. It swung inwards to reveal a dimly lit room, forcing her to squint to see where she was going. She stepped in, and was able to make out a bed with a quilt laid on top, as well as a table with three chairs around it. Her eyes brushed over the minor details and settled on a desk pressed up against the wall opposite to the bed. Upon it was a mess of different locks, keys, and picking tools. Just below it, leaning against a leg of the desk, was a vague lumpy shape.
She approached the shape, and knelt down to touch it. The smooth feeling of leather was on her fingertips, and as she moved her hands she felt the buckle and the straps of the satchel, “Alright, got it.”
Jax wriggled out of her arms, and landed softly onto the floor. He nosed the satchel’s flap, “Finally. Put my clothes in here first, I’m not in the mood for streaking if I change back mid-adventure.”
“Would it kill you to say please?” Pomni grumbled a bit, but complied with his instructions anyway. She pulled back the bag’s flap and stuffed his tunic, braies, and vest inside. Jax put his forepaws over the edge of the bag, and scrambled a bit to get in.
Once he was settled, he peeked his head out of the bag, “Take a dagger with you, they’re on the wall. Make sure you grab the silver one.”
Pomni looked up to the wall in front of the desk, and now that her eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness, she saw rows of different daggers lined up and mounted on the wall. At her height, she had to crawl onto the table to reach any of them, but she nevertheless pulled out a handful of different daggers from their sheathes to show to him.
“Which one’s the silver one?” She asked, “I can’t tell when you keep your room this dark.”
He rolled his eyes again, “Just take the one with the red handle.”
Pomni grasped her hand around a simple baselard with a red grip, and shoved it back into its sheath. With her small size, it felt more like she held a shortsword. She packed it into the satchel as well, “May I ask why silver specifically?”
“Weren’t you listening to the announcement? Necromancers? Vampires?” He said, “We’re definitely going up against some undead NPCs for this quest. Silver’s got a huge damage boost on them.”
“So it’s another horror theme. Of course it’s horror again…” she sighed. Pomni took the strap of the satchel and slung it around her shoulders. Now certain she had all she would need, including the temporarily transformed Jax, she began to leave the room.
“The last horror quest wasn’t even scary, you’ll be fine,” Jax piped up from inside the bag, peeking his head out from the edge.
“That’s because you took the family friendly route! Kinger and I were literally sent to hell!”
“It wasn’t fun for me either, Rags and Gangle tied me up!”
And so the pair continued bickering as Pomni left. The secret door closed itself behind her, once again disguised as a dingy janitor’s closet. She took them through the halls, past the courtyard, and up to the towering doors that opened to the throne room. Jax had finally shut his mouth by then, and buried himself back into the satchel as Pomni walked in.
The rest of the royal court was already gathered together, chatting amongst themselves. Ragatha and Gangle both wore protective silver amulets, Zooble wielded a silver longsword fastened to their hip, and Kinger… well, nothing was different about Kinger. As she approached, she caught the tail-end of the conversation.
“I swear to god Caine planted this crystal in my armory box. I barely even touched it before it nearly ruptured my [accursed] ear drums,” Zooble was glaring harshly at a white, reflective crystal they held in their hand.
Ragatha tried her best to soothe the frustrated knight, “Don’t beat yourself up about it, that’s just what Caine does sometimes.”
“I’m not beating myself up about it-”
“AH! Oh, hi Pomni!” Kinger interrupted to give the jester a friendly wave, which turned everyone’s attention onto her. She waved back in a stilted manner, put off by all the eyes looking at her.
Gangle shifted uncomfortably on her feet, the ribbon-brim of her cap partially covering her face, “H-Hi, is… um, is Jax still upset?”
“What did that [coxcomb] do this time?” Zooble asked.
Pomni felt a shift of movement from the satchel, and with that she recalled his instructions for a halfway decent cover story to excuse the nonsense she’d gotten herself into, “He’s fine. Jax is actually staying behind today; said he wasn’t feeling up to it.”
That made Ragatha raise an eyebrow, “Really? I can’t remember the last time he skipped out on a quest, that’s not like him at all.”
“Maybe it’s just an off day for him,” Pomni answered quickly, hoping her smile came off as reassuring instead of fake, “He let me borrow some of his stuff for the quest, like one of his daggers.”
That was when the atmosphere in the throne room went from mild confusion to outright astonishment in the span of a single sentence. The rest of the court looked between each other, and Pomni felt like she said something she shouldn’t have. She didn’t feel any movement from the satchel, so Jax was no help there in trying to glean context.
“Jax never lets anyone borrow his daggers, especially after Caine started revoking his other weapon privileges,” Ragatha spoke up, her hand rubbing her chin.
Pomni blinked, “… He doesn’t? But he told me I was allowed to use them if he wasn’t around.”
Now she felt him shifting in the bag again, but just subtly enough that it wouldn’t have been seen by anyone else. She knew he could hear everything, but he couldn’t do much to express whatever he was thinking without the risk of exposing himself.
Kinger smiled the best that someone could without a mouth, “He must be quite fond of you!”
That was when Pomni felt a swift, tiny kick to her thigh through the bag. It didn’t hurt, but it grabbed her attention. This was clearly something Jax didn’t want to listen to, and if this topic continued any further, he might go ballistic in that little bunny body of his.
“O-Oh, I’m sure it’s nothing like that,” she quickly denied, and before anyone could press further, she changed the subject, “We’re all ready, so where’s Caine?”
“I’m glad you asked my jumping jingly jester!”
Pomni yelped at the priestly pair of dentures that had appeared right beside her with zero fanfare. Caine patted her head, much to her chagrin, and floated up above the royal court, with Bubble at his side as usual.
“As you have seen in your quest logs, today’s quest is Night of the Nefarious Necromancer!”
The words appeared in a gothic script above his head, accented by a tinge of red in the lettering, “The duchy of Malvania has been overrun with an army of the undead, and it’s your job to defeat the necromancer who summoned them!”
“You can bash his skull in with the crystal!” Bubble piped up. Caine promptly popped him.
“No, you cannot. The Crystal of Solarian’s Light is what you’ll need to guarantee the necromancer does not rise again-”
Bubble returned to existence immediately, “By bashing his skull with it!”
“Stop,” Caine popped Bubble once more, “Return the crystal to its rightful place at the Solarian temple and it will – MAGICALLY, mind you – prevent the necromancer from returning to the land of the living!”
Caine snapped his fingers, and a glowing portal appeared before the court. Ragatha went first, followed shortly by Kinger. Zooble, surprisingly, sauntered along into the portal as well. Caine’s teeth nearly began chattering with excitement at that.
That left only Pomni and Gangle behind, and technically Jax. The wizard lowered her voice to a whisper, sidling up close to the jester, “B-But seriously, is he still upset? He sounded really, really mad…”
Pomni felt another weak kick at her thigh, and that time, Gangle noticed. She looked down to the satchel, and squeaked pathetically when she saw a pair of yellow eyes scowling back at her. The jester rubbed her forehead, “He insisted on coming along, actually. Just… don’t bring it up with the others, please?”
Gangle nodded slowly, backing away from her and, more importantly, the fellow hiding in the leather satchel. She turned, walking in through the portal without another word.
Pomni exhaled a deep, heavy breath, “… This is gonna suck, isn’t it?”
She went through the portal.