Adult Changeling (Chapters)

Roan rose from the odd-smelling bed and stretched her arms to work the soreness of shapeshifting out. Lord Ehadenther and Wunk were already gone, she could hear their steeds’ hoofbeats receding from the human house.

They could have stayed a moment to make certain there were no ill effects from the magic. Roan thought, curling her lips into a snarl.

The snarl that came out was barely a whisper. She reached for her face and missed it. She had no snout, no muzzle! Everything was strangely flat. She had no fangs to speak of. Her face was bald.

Roan sniffed herself and recoiled. Human flesh. It wasn’t a bad smell, but it wasn’t her smell. She smelled like the bed, like the human baby that had been sleeping there a moment ago. She was bigger than she’d expected too. That was nice. Spending years as a tiny creature was not something she’d been looking forward to. It had been bad enough, being shrunk down by the Queen for transport.

The house was quiet, at least in terms of noises made by living things. Roan realized she had no idea when the humans would rouse from whatever the Master of Hunts had done to them. She had to be ready to play her part, or she’d be outed as a faerie creature. The stories of what humans did to changelings they discovered were not kind ones.

Roan touched the amulet around her neck. Magic trickled into her fingers, connecting Roan to the human baby’s essence. Memories came flooding into her mind, too fast, too chaotic. Emotions, experiences, even desires came at her like a firework spell, tangled in the memories.

Groaning, Roan fell back on the bed. She tried again, activating the amulet as gingerly as possible. She had no skill at memory magic, but she tried to ask the amulet one question.

What is a human baby like?

More memories whirled against her mind’s eye like sleet in a winter storm. This time she could manage a few details. They cried quite a bit. They were more or less helpless, needing to be fed, washed, played with, and so on. They were – incontinent?

Roan wrinkled her nose. That was disgusting and unexpected. She wasn’t going to be able to do that, was she?

To distract herself, Roan reached for the rings that had been left on the bedside table. The first was silver, but crudely cast. Goblin workmanship, no doubt. The next – Roan cried out and flung the ring across the room. It was almost pure iron! She looked down at her fingers, expecting a ruin of burns and withered flesh.

Her fingers, her shapeshifted fingers, were undamaged. They had a bit of swelling and redness to them, but no worse than a faerie would get from carrying a hot coal in their hand. She was protected from iron, almost.

Looking around the room slowly, Roan realized she was surrounded by iron. The house was swimming in it. She shivered, her belly going cold and lumpy.

I have to do whatever it takes to impersonate the baby they took. Roan realized.

It was no wonder they hadn’t feared the Princess. She must have been switched for a baby in a family of human smiths. There was enough iron in her bedroom alone to end Roan’s immortal life, if the humans suspected her.

With a sigh Roan burrowed back into the covers. The bulk and fine texture of the blankets was comforting. Another search of the memories in the amulet didn’t offer much hope on the issues of helplessness and incontinence. Over time human babies improved in those areas, but it wasn’t a fast process.

Grumpily, Roan chewed on the blankets. It wasn’t as satisfying as gnawing on a bone or a branch, but given how pathetic her teeth had become, it might be the best she could do. She badly wanted to wait to do anything gross and infantile until her adopted family woke up, to minimize the time until they cleaned her up. At the same time, the terror that they’d notice something strange was growing ever stronger.

With a laugh, Roan realized she didn’t even know how humans dealt with their – excretions. Things were not nearly so visceral in faerie. To the locket she went again. This time it was easy. She needed instincts only.

In a moment Roan identified the odd feeling of pressure that had been growing between her hips. All she had to do was relax that area  and – Roan whimpered and barked in distress. Her legs and nice comfortable blankets were sopping wet.

She wrinkled her nose against the smell, reminding herself not to bark. Humans didn’t bark, she was fairly certain. They made other noises. Roan wasn’t keen to go back to the tangle of memories in the amulet to educate herself on human vocalization. She knew that babies cried, that should be enough for now.

After an hour, when the wet had gotten cold and itchy, Roan realized why babies cried so much. It was no effort to cry, trapped in the filthy bed. That was a relief in its own way. At least one thing about her new role would be easy.

—–

It was hours before anyone came to check on Roan. Though the town seemed quite lively and full of strange noises before sunrise, her family didn’t rouse until the sun was well up. If that was the magic that had been laid on them, or their normal routine, Roan had no way of knowing. She resolved not to say anything about it, unless they did.

“Mariah, are you alright?” It was a man’s voice. Her new father?

Roan responded with another sob and forced herself to cry out. She’d never been much of an actress, but it seemed to work. The man rushed in, looking concerned. His name was – Forest. Yes, he was well known to the human baby. She felt safe around him, associated him with caring.

“Mariah, are you okay? Something weird happened last night. The glass door is just – gone! There are weird dirt footprints on the floor.” Forest said.

Idiot! Roan cursed Lord Ehadenther. He hadn’t bothered to clean up after himself. Why not just throw her directly onto a barrel of iron nails and be done with it?

“I – I’m wet.” Roan blubbered, suddenly embarrassed. The humiliation burned. Admitting to a human that I soiled herself like an animal!

“Huh?” Forest blinked in surprise. His gaze wandered down to the blankets and his eyes grew wide. “Oh shit. You wet the bed? What happened? You didn’t get attacked last night, did you?”

“I don’t know!” Roan wailed. The fear was real, but it was fear of being discovered. Her best plan so far was to pretend to know as little as possible. That seemed to track with Mariah’s baby lore.

“Hey, you’re going to be alright, understand?” Forrest knelt by the bed and stroked her hair. She wished she had her own big ears for him to scratch behind – but it was nice all the same. “We’ll figure out what happened last night and I’ll help you clean up.”

Roan sniffled and nuzzled Forest’s hand. He looked surprised, but pleased. Perhaps the human baby hadn’t been very affectionate. It would be dangerous to deviate from Mariah’s behavior. On the other paw, maybe Forest would overlook her inevitable slips if he was pleased with her.

“I’m calling the cops!” It was a woman’s voice from another room. She was called – Bless? Was that even a human name? It was the name the locket whispered from Mariah’s memories of Bless’ voice, at any rate.

“Good idea.” Forrest called back. “Something happened to Mariah. I’m going to stay with her until they get here.”

“What’s going on with Mariah?” A woman poked her head into the room. Yet another family member. This one was – Hannah. That was a more usual name. Had this one married in?

Forest looked expectantly at Roan. She had no idea what he wanted. She tried crying again, since she was scared enough for it.

“Oh shit, hey Mariah, it’s okay.” Forrest said, stroking her shoulder through the blankets.

“She’s really out of it. She also um – wet the bed.” Forrest said to Hannah.

“What the frick?” Hannah asked. “Did somebody really break in? Did they drug her?”

“You know as much about it as I do.” Forrest said. “Don’t scare her, okay? She’s having a really rough morning.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m sorry.” Hanna smiled sympathetically at Roan. “It’s going to be okay. We got you, girl.”

Roan nodded and sniffled. That must be the mother? She thought that mothers had more of the childcare responsibilities among humans, but this tribe seemed to do things differently.

After a while, Forrest helped Roan out of bed. She made herself as helpless as she could stand to be, leaning on him and letting him take the lead. He put her in some kind of room of unnatural stone and left.

There was a sink and a bath, both magical. It took Roan a while, but she eventually discovered nobs that controlled the flow of water and its temperature. As hot water flowed into the bath, she was desperate to get out of her soiled clothes and get clean. Would that be too much? Human babies didn’t bathe themselves, she didn’t think.

There was a knock at the door.

“Hey Mariah, how’s it going. You need any help?” Forrest asked through the door.

There it was! He was testing her. Thanks to Lord Ehadenther’s carelessness, the humans knew they’d been attacked by the fae. She’d been acting strangely enough to fall under suspicion. Even turning on the water might have been too much, though at least she’d been clumsy and slow at it.

“Yes, please.” Roan whimpered. “I – I don’t know what to do.”

There was silence on the other side of the door. Roan’s heart skipped a beat. She was found out, trapped in a windowless room. It was a bathroom for prisoners, of course. The door opened slowly. Roan braced herself for the strike of an iron bar, or worse, a sword.

“You’re really not okay, huh?” Forrest said. He stepped into the room. “You’re not even undressed yet. Do you need me to – is it okay if I undress you?”

Another test. Roan felt she could do this. The rules of the tests were becoming clear. He was her father, so of course he had the right to take care of her and her clothing. She had to answer the way Mariah would, as his daughter.

“Yes please.” Roan said, hoping good manners were appropriate. These humans spoke like they had education, Roan guessed that they would insist on their children being polite.

“I’ll be a gentleman about it, I promise.” Forest said. “Unless you want one of the girls to do it? I could call Hannah.”

That was an easy test. Hannah had already shown she wasn’t the primary parent. “No, you please.” Roan said.

“Okay, I’ve got you. Let’s get this nightshirt off.” Forrest helped Roan out of her shirt.

He looked embarrassed or uncomfortable. It had to be a hard thing to suspect one’s own child of being an infiltrator. Even if he was right in this case, Roan sympathized with him. He seemed like a good father, trying to do the right thing.

My father had tried to do the right thing, defending me against the Princess’ cruel games. It had gotten him glassed by the Queen, and Roan banished.

I should spare this human any pain I can. Roan thought.

“Thank you…” What was it that children called their parents? A single word came much more easily from Mariah’s memories than a whole category of knowledge. “Daddy.”

“Daddy?” Forrest asked in confusion.

Was that wrong? No, that was the word Mariah remembered! Why was Forrest confused? Mariah felt her heart beat as if she was in battle. This was an impossible game to play, especially since the Master of Hunts had alerted the humans to his presence. They were too suspicious…

It was another test! Roan gasped in relief. She leaned against Forrest from her seat on the odd stone chair and nuzzled his shoulder.

“Of course.” Roan said softly. “You’re helping me.”

“I – uh – Mariah…” Forest hesitated before putting his arms around Roan. “Yeah okay. I don’t know what happened last night, but it really got you. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you.”

Roan nodded and rested passively in the hug. It seemed to be the right move. Forrest got her up and stripped her wet pants off. It was such a relief to finally have them off. He wasn’t bad looking, for a human. Rough and sweaty, like all humans, but it suited him. If she hadn’t been banished and shape changed, Roan would have liked to chase him across a faerie forest for a while. It’d end with her catching him, and giving him a good tumble in the grass.

Once Forrest had Roan in the tub and was washing her, the tension between them seemed to ease. He was affectionate and gentle. She repaid him in kind with nuzzles and obedience to his directions.

Forrest dried Roan off at the end of the bath, put her in brightly colored clothes, and directed her to sit on a couch. She did it all obediently. The other members of the family were discussing the previous night in worried tones.

Roan took note of another family member, a man named Corey. He and Bless seemed to be taking charge of the discussion, though they did not always agree. Perhaps they were the leaders of the household, or even the local tribe.

A rumble in Roan’s stomach, followed by a minor ache reminded her of another way her human form was like an animal. She had to eat and drink out of necessity, not just for pleasure. Too bad babies didn’t feed themselves. Mortal hunger was very unpleasant, now that she’d felt it.

“You need something to eat?” Forrest asked.

“Is she still messed up from last night?” Hannah asked.

Hannah was still suspicious. Roan whimpered and tried to summon tears. The best she could do was to put on a miserable expression.

“Go easy on her. I don’t know what happened last night, but it really affected her.” Forrest said.

“No kidding. You bathed her.” Bless said. “Those cops better get here soon. I want to know what happened, and I’m not paying the landlord for that glass door.”

“I heard she wet her bed.” Corey said. “Are you sure she’s okay sitting on the couch like that?”

“Guys, don’t talk over her like that.” Forrest said.

He was upset. Defending Roan, or Mariah rather, as he saw her. She smiled at him. The others might not be convinced yet, but she’d won her new father over.

“Mariah’s not talking to us. You’re the one who jumped in to help her, and thank you for that.” Bless said.

“It’s just a question.” Corey said. “I don’t want to have to clean the couch cushions on top of everything else if we can avoid it.”

“You guys are assholes. Mariah got assaulted, okay? We don’t know what happened yet, but just cut her some slack.”

The other members of the family grumbled and nodded. Hanna looked genuinely guilty. That was good. Forrest had some authority after all. Roan’s belly rumbled again. She was even feeling a little light headed. Mortal hunger was horrible!

“Sorry Mariah, I got distracted.” Forrest said. “Wait here, I’ll get you some breakfast.”

Roan nodded and nuzzled Forrest’s arm. He headed happily to the kitchen, but the others looked somewhat uncomfortable. She’d have to be vigilant to make sure she continued to fool them.

Breakfast was surprisingly plain, given the opulence of the house. Toasted bread with butter and fruit jam, with nothing but water to drink. Perhaps Lord Ehadenther had killed all the family’s servants.

What a mess he made of my exile!

As she munched on the food, Roan realized that her father’s liege might have created the morning’s chaos on purpose. The more she thought about it, the more sense it made. She and her father were an embarrassment to him now. A black mark against him in the Queen’s eyes. It’d be convenient for him if she died. He could take revenge for the court on the mortal family, wiping out all the rest of the evidence.

Roan shuddered. If that was the case, and she was convinced now that it was, he would have someone watching her. In the back of her mind she’d been toying with the idea of simply escaping. Even her meager magical talents should be able to earn her an easy life in a place where no one knew Mariah.

Escape was off the table now, at least until she could identify her watcher. That wouldn’t be easy to do while pretending to be a baby. Roan sighed and drank her odd-tasting water. She was in for a long haul of infancy.

Shortly after the food was gone, the police that Bless had mentioned arrived. Roan knew their sort immediately. They were redcaps, hounds of the local lord. They stank of iron, authority, and violence.

Terrified of the police and their needling questions, Roan resorted to crying every time they pressed her. It worked, at least for a while. Each time she cried, the police backed off and questioned another member of the house. Roan was revising the family’s status sharply downward. They were either NOT nobility, or they were at odds with the local lord. But if the second were true, why would they have called that lord’s men at arms?

Finally, the police had concluded their investigation. Concluded all of it except their questions about the ‘drug’ that had supposedly been administered to Mariah. Roan had no way to know what magics or alchemies humans used on each other. Answering anything on that subject threatened to expose her completely. Worse, she could tell that the police already had an answer in mind. Their questions were leading ones, inviting Roan to answer in a certain way.

Desperate to escape the situation, Roan looked to Forrest for help. He seemed sympathetic, but wasn’t doing anything to keep the police away from her. Maybe he couldn’t, she reasoned. Perhaps they really were lowborn, despite all the beautiful things in their home.

Those must be the product of their smithing skills, Roan realized.

As a final resort, Roan devolved into the most extreme depiction of a baby that Mariah’s memories had given her. Wailing and crying, she released her bladder. The shame of feeling hot liquid soak her pants and her seat made the tears very real. She’d soiled herself once again, this time while her adopted family and the cruel hounds of the law watched.

Though it anguished her to do it, her trick worked. The police backed off in disgust. Her adopted family fluttered around her in a mix of concern, upset, and gentle care. Forrest cleaned her up again and put her in her bed, which he’d also cleaned.

Along with the lunch that Hannah brought Roan, there was some clothing wrapped in a strange package.

“I got you something to help deal with your accidents.” Hannah said.

With Roan making no move to open the package, Hannah did the honors, producing an odd pair of mortal underwear that rustled like dry leaves.

“You just slip these on instead of panties.” Hannah said. “Okay?”

Mindful of Bless and Corey’s suspicions, of Lord Ehadenther’s servant who was surely watching, Roan swallowed her pride and pretended to incompetency.

“I don’t know how.” She whimpered. “Help?”

“I hope they find whoever did this to you.” Hannah said fiercely. “Of course I’ll help you.”

Roan felt the tension slowly leave her as Hannah took her thin bed-trousers down and put the padded garment on her. It was a clever thing, like wearing a small towel. The outside seemed like it would hold liquid as well. Roan would still be sitting in her own mess, but at least her blankets and bed wouldn’t be soiled as well.

Even better, Hannah tucked Roan back into bed with a gentle smile. She even helped Roan eat her meat and lettuce stuffed bread. That was another family member won over.

I can do this. Roan thought. I’m a page of The Hunt, in the court of the Queen of Glass.

“I’ll come check on you later.” Hannah said, then chuckled. “You look like a sweet little baby like that.”

Roan nuzzled Hanna’s hand. A genuine smile blossomed on her lips. The deception was holding! “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Mariah. Don’t worry, we’ve got you.”