A Thief and a Failure

Unending BE - episode 3106

"Well," Deanna began, "I personally would like to see if someone lives here who can break the curse."
"Not likely," Cabron mused, stroking his gray-streaked beard, "Dekalamon is very powerful. The only way to break his curse on your town is to confront him."
"What about just me, then?" Deanna pressed. "Could someone be powerful enough to remove the curse from just me?"
"You want it very badly, don't you?" Jim asked, eyeing her.
"Yes, yes I do." Deanna answered simply.
"Well, if anyone can, they would be found here. The Imperial City is the largest center for commerce and travel in the entire world," Cabron offered.
"I know a place," said a voice behind them. They all turned around to see who was speaking, and were greeted by the sight of a poorly dressed ragamuffin, no more than 12 winters old, "I can take you to a man I know in exchange for some bread."
"Who?" Jim asked.
"A wizard, he can help," the boy said.
"A charlatan, more likely," Deanna countered, giving the boy an evil eye.
"No, honest, a wizard, real powerful," the boy said nearly pleadingly. "Take us to the place, and I will pay you with bread. If he succeeds in helping us, I will pay you with gold," Cabron told him.
"Ah, well. Very shrewd of you, sir, to play off my greed," the boy said, now using very polished speech. "Very well, I will take you to Absalom. He's the real thing, he'll fix whatever you got wrong."
"Yes, take us to Absalom," Cabron instructed him.
"This way, sirs, and lady," the boy added, bowing to Deanna, "this way."
As they spent the next half hour wandering through the back alleys and scummy districts of the Imperial City, Jim learned some things about the boy. His name was Joab, for one thing, and he did more things than just begging to make a living, "Like what I'm doing now, it's called steering. I look for newcomers to the city, who don't know where to find what they need, and I offer to show them where for a fee. Usually I take them to my freind Luke's place, he's been so many things for so many people. But you were smarter. You actually made it worth my while to help you out. That's why I'm taking you to see Absalom instead of Luke."
"Are you a member of the Thieves Guild yet, Joab?" Cabron asked him.
"Not yet. The jobs I pull are small enough to go unnoticed by the Guildmasters. They don't know what they're missing out on, if you ask me. Underestimated from day one, I am. I may be small time, independent, but I'm pretty good, I think. May be one of the best one day. That's why I stay by myself. I see how much I can get away with before the Guild notices. When I let them notice me, it'll be a bang."
"How much further to Absalom's place?" Jim asked.
"Absalom doesn't have a place, per se," Joab began, "he wanders around the docks."
"How much further to the docks, then?" Deanna pressed.
"A left turn at the apple cart, then another five minutes to the wharf, he'll be around there." Joab said. "Would you like an apple...silly question, of course you would, I'll be back, continue on to the wharf," and with that he jumped two storeys straight up to land on a rooftop, and took off running into the city."
"Hey wait!" Jim shouted, but Cabron raised a hand to quiet him.
"He's not going anywhere. He wants the gold. No, he's just demonstrating his skill, most likely to impress the lady, I imagine," he added, bowing to Deanna.
Deanna blushed furiously.
After the described five minutes, they found themselves in the wharf.
"Now what?" Jim asked no one in particular.
"Now," said the old beggar sitting in front of them, "Absalom see 'bout fixin' up what you got wrong."
"I told you he'd be here," said Joab's voice, coming from a rooftop above them.
"Where were you?" Jim asked, rather harshly.
"I went looking for Absalom, I told him I'd give him a cut of the gold if he let you find him quickly."
"How do we know this is Absalom, and not your friend Luke?" Jim asked.
"He's legitimate," Cabron stated, "the only way Joab would cheat us would be if he had already stolen our gold. He hasn't."
"How are you so sure, old man?" Joab asked.
"Because we don't have any gold on us for you to take, young one," Cabron answered him.
"Then why did I help you?" Joab asked again.
Cabron raised his hand, and pulled a bag of gold seemingly out of the air, "Because I can get some when I need it."
"I help quickly," Absalom said, eyeing the gold, "what got you wrong?"
"We need a curse broken, sir," Cabron answered him.
"Ah, ver' good. I break curse, who cursed?"
"I'm the one," Deanna said.
"Beautiful girl, who curse you?"
"Dekalamon has cursed her with a curse of unsexuality." Jim answered him.
"Dekalamon, I hear of him earlier. Ver' powerful. Curse must be ver' powerful. Not sure even Earth Man able to break it."
"Try, please try. I beg you to try," Deanna begged.
"Girl," Absalom started, "I try. We see." He, much like Cabron, started pulling things out of the air, "Chicken foot, lizard tail, toad scab, alright, we ready. You ready, girl?"
"Yes, sir," she said determinedly.
"OK, here we go. Earth man call Earth, deep call to deep. Girl be cursed, power be great. All creation more powerful than evil, prove it now."
Slowly, softly at first, but gaining power, a light began to envelop Deanna. "It working, girl!" Absalom shouted, "Enjoy!"
The power of Earth fought with the curse, and won. Deanna's breasts grew, slowly, naturally, not much, just from board flat to b-cup, her waist cinched down and her hips flared out, giving her a shapely, if small, butt. She looked like a woman, not a tall girl.
Deanna was smiling from ear to ear, "Thank you, thank you Absa..uugh..."
"What's wrong?!" Joab asked. "No tellin'," Absalom said. "We got to wait an' see."
Deanna was hunched over double, writhing, but then stopped, stood up straight, and looked at Absalom with confusion in her eyes, "Who dares try to break Dekalamon's curse?" she said. Her voice was speaking, but the confusion and fear in her eyes showed that it was not her speaking, "Why do you try to toy with my power? My power is supreme. Now the state of this woman is worse than before."
The fear in Deanna's eyes showed clearly as the light around her turned dark and the recent changes were undone. Her breasts and rear fell back into the nothingness that they were before, her fiery red hair lost its fire, then it's redness altogether, and her new dun colored brown hair shortened to where it was just brushing her shoulders. Her vibrant, tanned skin lost its life, became clammy, sickly white, her nose got bigger, her cheek bones fell, she looked weaker and more androgynous than before.
"Dammit." Jim said simply.
"Son of a bitch!" Joab said with much more venom.
"Such power, to fight with Earth," Absalom whispered with wonder.
"Now Dekalamon will answer even more dearly for his crimes," Cabron said.
Deanna looked at her new self with deep sadness, "Now, matters are worse."
"We will make him pay all the more, Deanna," Jim assured her.
"I know," she said, smiling at him.
"I'm coming, too," Joab said from his rooftop perch, "now this is personal."
"I too will come," Absalom said, "I teach the black man not to ridicule Earth power."
"Well, Jim," Cabron started, "I told you we could find help here. It's just unfortunate that a price was required." He looked over at Deanna, who was silently crying. "Now, where to next? Do we look for more help, or do we go on?"
Jim thought for a moment, "Let's...

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Somewhere Around 5000 over par

Sun Jul 26 12:09:35 1998