Circling his new prize Vikris couldn’t help but smile, showing off a mouth full of sharp fangs. As usual Touye’s work was exemplary, she had clearly given it her all in creating this marvelous work of stone and magic. 

The statue was tall, at least five feet of smooth blue granite shaped into the form of a semi-feral, partially anthropomorphic dinosaur. The surface of the stone was pebbled to create the illusion that the statue was covered in scales from head to toe. They glittered softly in two shades, light cornflower blue coating his slim, muscular chest, stomach and navel. A rich royal blue covered the rest of his body.


Except where sparkling hints of purple crystal, amethyst Vikris thought made stripes along the dinosaurs sides. His muzzle was partly open, fangs and tongue just visible, expression eternally locked in a moment of startlement. His head was crowned by a beautiful array of onyx feathers, a fantastic crest that spilled down the length of his spine and along the tip of his tail.


His legs were bent at the knees, giving his posture a slight feral slant to it, especially with his thick, ridged feet spread so wide to support his weight. His arms where at his side, hands curled slightly, claws ready to attack. He was a beautiful dinosaur and he was all Vikris’ now.

“I like,” Vikris hissed in delight, turning to face Touye, “I can feel the imagination in him, why did you pick dinosaur?”

“I didn’t” the copper kobold replied, “This was the image burning brightest in his mind,” she regarded the dinosaur and smiled, “I want what is left when you finish with him.”

“I’ll send him back to you,” Vikris promised, running a clawed, scaled kobold hand up the statues thigh, admiring him “Can he feel us?”

“Not yet, but I’ve given you the keys,” she gestured, “He’s all yours now have fun.”


Laughing softly Vikris saw the priestess to the door then turned back to look at the statue, amber eyes glowing, “Oh I will, we both will… come on Kyrio, time to wake you up!”


-0-


Opening his eyes, dazzled by the light in the room Kyrio tried to groan and to raise a hand to shade his eyes. He found he couldn’t do either, his arm felt like lead and no sound issued from his mouth. In fact he couldn’t move his jaw and as his eyes adjusted to the dazzling light he found himself looking along the length of scaled, blue marble muzzle.


The sight of his new muzzle brought it all back. The kobold girl, the transformation then his subsequent petrification. He tried to shout, to call out but his muzzle wouldn’t move, he wasn’t breathing either, all he could do was stand there and stare. His eyes moved, he could glance left, right, up down… into the red scaled face and mischievous smirk of another kobold. He was sitting on the edge of a stone slab or table that filled the centre of the tiled room they were in.


“Hello Kyrio,” the kobold yapped, “My High Priestess tells me she promised you a new and exciting adventure,” hopping off the table the kobold reached out and pressed his scaled, clawed hand against Kyrio’s stomach and traced his fingers back and forth, slowly, sensually.


Kyrio whined inside the silence of his mind, he could feel the kobold’s fingers, the touch of his hand against the soft, smooth marble of his body. His touch was sensitive, gentle caress. If he had been able to move Kyrio would have been trembling from how nice it felt.


“I am Vikris, Chief of the Shadowflame and I am here to help you find a new purpose in life,” he grinned wider, showing off more sharp fangs, his teasing, stroking fingers circling Kyrio’s waist then moving up his chest to brush along one arm, “So let’s get started.”


Kyrio watched as the kobold held the ruby pendant around his neck. It glowed at his touch and a soft red light reached out and seemed to surround his immobile body. For a moment the dinosaur heard words, a soft sibilant chanting voice whispering inside his head and then his body wavered.


He stared in shock at the table as a flesh and blood copy of his body materialised before his very eyes. It was so strange, he could feel himself standing there, stone and immobile but at the same time feel the table against his beck, the kobold’s claws running over his scales, examining every inch of his body. Kyrio wanted to talk, to demand answers, to shout but he couldn’t speak and the touch of their fingers over his flesh was very distracting.


Opening a second set of eyes Kyrio’s vision blurred, for a moment he was seeing quadruple. Overlapping images of himself and then his mind caught up with what he was really seeing and the world swam back into focus. He was lying on a bench, immobile, staring up at the grinning, red scaled shape of Vikris. Beyond the kobold was the tall, rather handsome looking dinosaur statue with the black feathered crest. What was really confusing was at the exact same time Kyrio could see himself, lying on the table, staring down from his lofty marble prison.


Struggling against the mystical bonds holding his organic body in place Kyrio managed to tilt his head back a fraction. His toes wiggled but there was an unseen force holding him down. It was as if the weight of being made of marble still clung to this second copy of his body, even though it was flesh and blood and a rapidly beating heart!


Whining inside the shelter of his mind Kyrio watched in mounting dread, from two viewpoints as Vikris started to weave symbols and sigil in the air above his body. Each rune settled into his scales as he finished drawing it. The dinosaur could feel the heat of the magic against his flesh, burning insistently. At least part of him could, the body lying on the table was feeling everything. His viewpoint inside the marble statue that was his original body didn’t feel a thing. Vikris hummed softly as he worked, guiding his power and then he lifted his hands and the network of glowing runes covering Kyrio’s legs, navel and waist blinked out.


For a moment everything was still then Kyrio screamed inside the silence of his mind as the legs of the flesh and blood copy of himself on the table fell away. They detached from his torso , his feet seemed to shrivel and vanish as his legs opened outward. What was worse he could feel it happening, his body on the table could no longer feel his legs.


It was as if they were dissolving, one moment he could feel his legs resting against the stone the next the pressure and weight of his body was fading away. There was no way for him to look away either, his marble body couldn’t close its eyes though his organic self was having a right old hyperventilating panic attack. The calm quiet thoughts of his statue body where being infected by the simultaneous light headed feeling of panic, he was himself split across two bodies. It was damn confusing and what was even worse Kyrio could see what had happened.


His legs and waist where now a pair of hollow scaled tubes, a tough wearing pair of trousers in fact. Vikris picked them up and shook them out, letting Kyrio see the soft leather cloth interior, the tough scaled, armoured exterior. The trousers were held together at the waist by metal buttons that seemed to have been created out of the minerals in his bones. 


Disturbingly Kyrio could still vaguely feel the trousers that had been his legs. Vikris’ claws manipulating the fabric, popping the button through the buttonhole, securing them on the mannequin. He could feel the hollow fabric of his legs, the firm, unmoving wood of the mannequin pressing against and holding them in place.


Kyrio could also feel the touch of the table against his dismembered torso on the table. As well as the air against the statue that was his body. It was a lot of sensations to take in, Kyrio’s mind was not built to exist in three places at once. He couldn’t process the feelings properly so everything was accosting his senses at once.


Whimpering softly Kyrio watched as Vikris got back to work on his body. More runes, more magic, arms and hands and head vanished from his body. 


Struggling against the spell Kyrio heaved one arm up, for a moment he felt a surge of hope. He grabbed Vikris’ arm and tried to pull the small lizard off balance. He was weak however all he did was cause Vikris to stop chanting and turn to look at him.


“Spirited aren’t you?” Vikris hissed with a chuckle as he reached down to start prying Kyrio’s fingers off his wrist, “I can see why Touye picked you.”


Working his jaws, trying to speak Kyrio struggled. He could see the tendons standing out beneath his scaled hide as he struggled to fight against the kobold’s enchantments. He felt so helpless, the statue that held the core of his being was immobile, unable to come to his aid. But at the same time, as Vikris forced his arm back down Kyrio could see himself standing there, marble patterned surface smooth and beautifully sculpted. He looked powerful, more than a match for the kobold and yet… all he could do was look.


With the distraction of Kyrio’s arm removed Vikris resumed his spell and pressed the woven net of his power into fabric of Kyrio’s body. Fabric… yes that was what he was doing, the kobold was transmuting scales and organic flesh into a soft, blue leather. The dinosaur watched, his eyes widening as his torso and arms collapsed, scraps of fabric falling away to the floor that had been his arms. Then the spell engulfed his head and Kyrio’s vision wavered and went blurry. His eyes ceased to work and again his mind had to re-adjusted to being returned back to one set of eyes.


Whilst he was blind Kyrio could feel soft, smooth scaled clawed paws running across his body. Vikris’ paws had picked up whatever was left, the scrap of fabric that he had crafted out of Kyrio’s organic torso. The scraps of fabric that had been his arms he could no longer feel but the single piece that had been the focus of the kobold’s spell he could still feel. 


Looking through bleary statue eyes Kyrio focussed on what Vikris was holding, watching as he pulled the sleek, blue leather vest over the mannequin. It had been designed to go over a kobold’s head, a stretchy material built into the collar, hem and arm holes that would allow someone to stretch and fit horns and ear frills through with ease. Vikris pulled the vest down the length of the mannequins torso then stepped back to admire his work. 


Kyrio wasn’t sure what to make of it all, he could still feel part of himself in those clothes but something was wrong with his thoughts. His alarm, his panic and worry was starting to fade, he could literally feel emotions leaching out of his mind.


Ever since his head, the head he had possessed on the table had been subsumed by the spell Kyrio had felt as if someone had turned a flame thrower onto the ice of his thoughts. He could literally feel the melted emotions running away. He was desperate to talk to Vikris, to ask him what was happening to him. But he could not think, he couldn’t focus. What he could do however was feel the trousers and vest over there, part of him, separate and yet somehow not. 


It was disorientating, but in a different way to when he had possessed a second body. This was new, and unique his mind wasn’t designed to be in two places at once but the sensation of the cold mannequin beneath his new fabric body felt… comforting. 


Those clothes where him, a large part of his essence, his being had been wrapped up and impressed into the fabric. His body had been woven into a complex enchantment and part of himself had been pressed into those new clothes. It was oddly calming but at the same time a tiny spark of alarm remained. 


Watching, with confused, befuddled thoughts and an immobilised body of stone Kyrio watched and waited to see what Vikris would do next. But the kobold just walked over and placed a clawed paw on his stone stomach and grinned up at him. Then he walked off, leaving Kyrio alone with his new, strange thoughts, the feeling of those clothes… it was unique and new but somehow not disturbing.