The Genderbent Warrior by Imouto Kitten Chapter 1: The Curse A lone figure sits at a corner table in the dimly lit but otherwise well kept tavern, her back to the wall as she stares into her half-empty goblet of wine as if comtemplating the deep red liquid within. Her bright red robes, well maintained but clearly travel worn, mark her as a red mage and one that has clearly journeyed many miles, and her matching hair, held in a braid, drapes over one shoulder to rest upon her breast while her staff, shaft of polished redwood banded with sigil rings of rose gold and topped with a large ruby of a pointed cut that gives the impression of a spear head leans against the wall for easy access if she needs to defend herself in a hurry. As she continues to stare into her drink, a scowl and a quite surly aura detract from what would be considered a pretty face by most standards. As she brings her cup to her lips to take a sip, her self-imposed solitude is interrupted for what isn't the first, or even dozenth time this evening as an overlly cheerful voice asks, "Maiden in Red, but may I ask thee thine name?" Keeping her temper in check, she replies tersely, "Thou may, though I might not answer thee." As she lowers her drink to glance up at the source of the voice, her radiant ruby orbsmeeting earthy brown ones in a face framed by messy brown hair and belonging to a tall, broad shouldered man the red mage silently admits is fairly handsome in a rugged sort of wayand whose armor is polished to an almost mirror finish. Hanging off either of the knight's arms are two girls about the same age as the red mage, the pair looking tiny next to the man's imposing, at least the redhead assumes he'd be imposing to someone lacking in arcane might, stature. On one arm is a blonde with eyes of shimmering sapphire draped in the white robes of a healer and on the other a raven-haired girl with eyes an elegant emerald and clad in the black robes of one specializing in the destructive side of the arcane arts. Strapped to their backs, nearly as long as the girls are tall are a pair of matching staves, the white mage's carved from ivory and topped with an opal and the black mage's carved from ebony and topped with an Onyx. Reaching out with her magic sense, the redhead can tell her fellow mages have quite a bit of untapped potential and that their slightly depleted mana reserves are replenished on a regular basis. Coupled with her magically enhanced nose picking up that the trio's scents are thoroughly intermingled, she concludes that both girls are using the warrior as apower source but that he lacks one or more of the virtues a man needs to bring out a female mage's full arcane might. Regardless, she decides the group of adventurers pose no threat as even if the Black and White mages can achieve resonance, it would be insufficient to match her own power. Ignoring the implied dismissal of her non-answer, the warrior sits down at the small table opposite the redhead and introduces himself, "I am known as Alexander, though thou may call me Alex!" and the red mage wonders if the man is fearless or merely foolish. Following the knight's example, the two girls take the remaining seats, flanking the redhead in the process. Leaning into the redhead's personal space and looking as adorable as a kitten and as excited as a puppy, the blonde introduces herself, "My name is Roxana, but everyone calls me Roxie!" and given little choice but to take a closer look, the red mage notices Roxie's golden locks are also braided, but instead of a single braid just long enough to drape in front of the shoulder, the blonnde has twin tails that nearly drag the floor with her seated. In much more reserved tones than her companions, the raven-haired girl adds, "I am Ravenna. Call me Raven." and the red mage immediately decides Raven is the most tolerable of the group and suspects that while the pair of mages let the warrior play party leader, the black mage is the real brains of the operation, an impression only reinforced by her choice of a practical boyish haircut opposed to letting her hair grow long. "If you insist," Starts the redhead, forcing herself to remain calm despite having her evening interrupted by strangers, two of which have far too much pep for her liking, "my name is Anastasia." Raising her goblet once more, she adds, "Now if you don't mind-" "My dear Anna," the warrior cuts her off, irritating her both with that act itself and with the unoffered use of a diminutive of her name even if its the one used by the few she grants the privilege too. "Thou are clearly a fellow adventurer, but surely thou knowst how dangerous it is for a lovely maiden such as thyself to travel alone in these parts." Anastasia slams her goblet on the table, but Alex is seemingly oblivious to her reaction, "Why don't thou join me and my lovely, little ladies, and-" The rest of his proposal is cut off as without reaching for her staff or uttering a single word of power, the red mage casts a silencing spell on him, and before his companions can grab their own staves to defend him, a second pulse of magic paralyzes them. "I came here for a quiet evening of enjoying wine from the local vineyards, but that's been ruined by countless attempts from men like thee to recruit me into thine harems under pretense of joining thine adventuring party." Cries the redhead, her anger barely contained as her magic flares into a fiery aura visible to even those with no aptitude for the arcane arts. "Just because nearly every wild beast and magical plant on the continent would take advantage of a young woman without hesitation and a sacrificial offering of a man's seed is one of the easiest ways for a female mage to keep her mana reserves plentiful doesn't mean any halfway decent looking hack of a swordsman can waltz in, make a token offer of protection, and then bed me at his leisure! I swear men like thee are no better than orcs given human flesh!" Standing up and grabbing her staff in one hand, Anastasia continues, "Clearly, a lack of respect for women as equals is among the shortcomings causing thou to hold these fine young ladies back from unleashing their full arcane potential." Entering a trance like state, she starts to incant, the Ruby glowing in reaction: Ancient Arcana I invoke thee, hear my plea Turn man to woman! By the time she's done uttering the last syllable, the Ruby is almost painful to look at in its brightness, and gripping her staff with a reverse grip just below the gem and with a motion that Roxie and Raven's magically enhanced sight can barely keep up with, the sigil ring at the bottom of the first segment of the redwood staff splits as Anastasia draws a concealed blade, slashes Alex without leaving a mark and resheathes her weapon in a blink of an eye. Downing the rest of her drink in a single gulp, Anastasia tells her fellow mages, "If he learns his lesson, thou are most welcome, if not, I wish thee luck in finding a better man to keep thine mana plentiful." With that, the red mage walks away, heading for the stairs leading to the Inn's guest rooms, and it is only when she has vanished from even magical sight that the knight regains use of his voice and his companions regain use of their muscles. Before any of the trio can properly react to what just happen, Alex's suit of armor topples to the floor, a girlish squeak emitting from the now empty collar of the chestplate. Rushing to check on their team mate, the two mages glance within the armor to find that the tall, ruggedly handsome swordsman they've journeyed with for the last few years and who they've slept with more or less nightly for even longer to keep their mana pools full has turned into a petite, unkempt swordswoman who now finds herself pinned beneath the weight of her now oversized armor and tangled in her now extremely baggy tunic and trousers. Even after Roxie casts multiple spells to buff Raven and Alex's strength, it is a challenge to get the transformed warrior up to the room they are sharing without letting the too large garments expose anything modesty insists a girl conceals from anyone not her lover, especially since Alex herself seems to be in shock at her loss of stature, loss of manhood, and her newly acquired feminine curves. Once in their room, Roxie helps Raven undo the straps holding Alex's armor together before the two mages strip the now female warrior and lay her out on the floor, neither girl blushing at the sight of a naked female, both being quite familiar not only with Alex's male nudity but with each other's own female nudity. Making herself comfortable in a cross-legged position on the floor, Roxie holds her ivory and opal staff parallel to the transformed fighter and announces, "I'm going to see if I can heal whatever Anna did to him." Not even considering that the red mage would be upset by the shortening of her name before starting to chant a series of diagnostic spells. Not wanting to feel useless, Raven sets aside Alex's armor and clothing before grabbing her ebony and onyx staff and announcing, "While thou does that, I'm going to go track down the red bitch and kick her arse until she agrees to reverse her spell." Roxie wants to chastise her partner for her crude language, but the risk that interrupting her chanting would bring further harm to the man she loves makes her hold her tongue as the black mage exits the room. Unfortunately for Raven, Anastasia is apparently nowhere to be found despite her using a battering ram spell on every guest room in the inn, and when she speaks to the innkeeper, he claims to have never seen anyone matching the description the emerald-eyed girl provides. Wanting to kick someone's arse and without any acceptable arses to kick, Raven returns to the room she's sharing with Alex and Roxie hoping her fellow mage had better luck. "That red bitch got away clean as if she had never been here," grumbles Raven bitterly, "So, can thou restore Alexander, or are we stuck with Alexandra?" Asks the offensive spellcaster trying to inject some humor into the situation. Looking unusually somber as the white light surrounding her and her patient fades, Roxie shakes her head as she lets her staff roll from limp fingers to land on the floor, nearly in tears as she replies, "My curse breaking skills are nowhere near enough to handle this! I don't think Anna was bluffing about invoking the Ancient Arcana." "Damn that red bitch to the deepest pits of tartarous!" cries Raven at the healer's prognosis. Speaking for the first time since being turned into a woman, Alex asks, "What about that resonance thing thou two do when thee need to do big magic?" "Won't help," Roxie starts gloomily. "Raven and I barely qualify as greater mages. This is clearly the work of at least a high-level grand mage, perhaps even an arch mage. It would take both of us resonating with at least a third mage of our level to have any chance of making up the power difference, and unless we could like-wise invoke the Ancient Arcana, trying to brute force a counterspell to a curse this powerful is as likely to kill the castor or target as heal them." "So I'm stuck like this?" cries the former man, nearly bawling at the blonde's words. "Well," starts the white mage, "We could hire an Archmage specializing in removing unusual curses, but such services might require months of sobriety on thine part to cover the cost given how much gold we usually earn and how much of it thou typically spend on drink. We could also try to convince Anna to lift the curse herself, but if she's as strong as I think she is, we haven't much chance of surviving an all out confrontation, never mind besting her, and as quickly as she managed to vanish, I doubt my scrying would be up to the task of tracking her, and she could probably send us on a wild goose chase if I tried. . My diagnostic spells did reveal that the curse she struck you with has criteria for it to be dispelled on its own, but I couldn't tell what any of them are." As Alex listens to Roxie's explanations, her expression grows ever more distraught, and once the blonde is done, all the brunette can manage to utter is a quiet, "I need a fucking drink." "That's no way for a proper, young lady to speak." Scolds Roxie, nearly forgetting that the girl on the verge of despair before her was a man less than a hour earlier. Several minutes later find the trio back in the Inn's dining room, Alex now wearing a spare tunic borrowed from Roxie and spare trousers and boots borrowed from Raven and exchanging gold for the strongest mead the barkeep has on tap at a pace that would have most men blacking out or puking their guts out, not seeming to care in the least that she's now a foot shorter, seven stone lighter, and no longer being able to restore Roxie's mana with a quick fuck, without an effectively free source of hangover cures. Eventually, Alex's binge drinking catches up with her now more petite body and Roxie and Raven are left with the task of putting her to bed. After the two mages have put their effectively castrated mana source to bed and Roxie has cast the cheapest spell she can to ensure Alex doesn't choke on her own vomit while she sleeps off the alcohol, Raven asks the question that has been plaguing both girls since Roxie announced she couldn't cure this unusual affliction, "What are we going to do now?" "I don't know," replies Roxie. "I know Alex can come accross as a jerk who is just feigning politeness at times and can be a bit selfish in the bedroom on occasion, but he's a lot better than the men some mages end up with and this is a really inconvenient way for Anna to try and teach Alex a lesson." "Yeah," answers Raven. "Sure, we could insist on using some of Alex's booze gold on mana potions, but those can have rather nasty side-effects, and besides, even if we were to conserve our mana reserves as much as possible, given how often thou would jump his bones even when thine mana was full, thou would probably be offering thyself as a sex slave to a battalion of orcs within a week." Blushing at the accusation, Roxie stutters out, "Bi-big words from s-someone who won't fireball the vines tentacle raping her when we both know that spell can't burn the castor." The pair continue teasing each other about who will be the first to break down from being unable to get cock from their long time lover as they head down to try and overhear some gossip that might help their situation.