Smoking Hot E-Book

Amy Mah

• Herausgeber: Reardon Publishing
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 374

Beschreibung

Swapping bodies with a young female demon had not been part of the planned vacation.
Nor was having to attend a demonic high school for the magically gifted.
When the most magical thing you could do was set your own underwear on fire.
Life was not going to be easy, even less so with a painful tail that everyone trod on.
Owning a magic sword that always tried to look up your skirt when fighting, was not helpful.
But then nor was having a telepathic diary that corrected your thinking instead of your spelling.

Leseprobe

Smoking Hot:The Diary of a Fire DemonbyAmy Mah

Published by

REARDON PUBLISHING

PO Box 919, Cheltenham, Glos, GL50 9AN.

Copyright © 2014 Reardon Publishing

Written by © Amy Mah

Layout and Design by Nicholas Reardon

Even with a name like Alyce, a girl can quickly come to realize that not all large, magic-mirror doorways lead to a land of white rabbits who carry pocket watches and attend tea parties.

The nice, friendly girl in the mirror offered Alyce an adventure, a personal guided tour of her world, if only she would do the same for her in return.

As she stood in an alien land, Alyce quickly understood that this personal guided tour included swapping bodies with the other girl.

There was one other thing that the girl in the mirror forgot to mention; she was also a Demon. True, Alyce could not complain about the smoking hot body she now possessed, and perhaps in time she could get used to having horns and a tail, but she did wish she could stop setting her underwear on fire.

The Diary of a Fire Demon Smoking Hot: (1)

Alyce stood very still and stared hard at her image in the mirror. It had all sounded like such fun the way Fiametta had explained it to her; it would be an adventure, yet perfectly safe.

Here she was standing in front of a curio or, rather, a very large, very heavy ornate mirror set in what looked to be a bronze frame that stood on four legs that ended in clawed feet. Perhaps Fiametta was late, or perhaps she had changed her mind. At times Alyce herself thought that maybe she should have left the mirror in the junk shop. She had only gone into the place to get out of the rain, and if she had just taken an umbrella with her that day two years ago, then she would not now be standing covered in a very smelly organic, non-drying, all-over-body mud pack, which apart from the smell also wanted to made her want to scratch. Looking at her image, she saw that the gunk was also soaking into the top and shorts she had on in a way that looked kind of permanent, and she hoped it was not going to do the same to her skin. Green was so not her color in clothing, let alone skin tone.

The bad-smelling greenish gunk had taken weeks of internet searching to find the ingredients to make. Alyce had ruined several pots with the boiling of strange herbs, but that was what Fiametta said had to be done.

Why she listened to the girl she did not know; perhaps it was the firm way she was able to take control of the situation or maybe because she was talking to her from what turned out to be a magic mirror.

Her mind tried to get a grip on anything that was normal, and in the mirror she saw that over her left shoulder was an old backpack containing her cell phone along with a camera, three bars of chocolate, an 8-inch kitchen knife, a bottle of water, and a change of underwear. Perhaps it was not the most thought-out packing, but all she could find on the internet when she searched for magic mirrors was types of furniture polish.

Alyce gazed at herself in the mirror and gave a smile; she saw her image smile back at her. She looked at the reflection of her apartment; it was small and not very tidy, as she could see that she had left a bra hanging on a chair and could not remember if it was on its way to the laundry basket or on its way back.

Fiametta, as that was what the girl said her name was, had just appeared in the mirror one day as Alyce was polishing the frame, and yes, it had been a shock at the time and was also one heck of a way to discover you owned a magic mirror.

The girl looked to be in her mid teens, slim with long black hair. In fact, Fiametta looked just like Alyce had when she was about 16 and was just as surprised to see a her in her mirror peering back, Fiametta had chatted to her most days, first telling her of the wonderful, magical world she lived in and asking so many questions of Earth that Alyce had to spend a lot of time googling to find the answers; in the end she just left the TV tuned into the news channel.

Despite being an alien, Fiametta looked and acted far more human than most other teenage girls Alyce had known. During their talks she was always bubbly and happy, and at the time it had sounded like a good idea to accept her offer to visit her world. It was to be simple and safe; all Alyce had to do was mix up and cover her body with the gunk, and the mirror, which was really a window, would then turn into a door. Fiametta would show her around her world, and then they would head back home where she would show her what Earth was like.

So far, nothing had happened. She could not see Fiametta or the girl’s room in the mirror, so she said, more to herself than anyone in particular, “Okay, I’m ready! What next?”

As shocks go on a scale from 1 to 10, what happened next would rate a 12. Alyce froze open mouthed as her image in the mirror said back to her, “Well, I am going to check out your bathroom thingy. I can’t wait to see what a water shower looks like!” She then turned and walked away.

Alyce now slowly turned around. The room behind her was not her room, and more than that, the eyes she was using to look at the room were not her eyes. The room had smooth stone walls and very little furniture except for the large, ornate mirror, which was currently now a window into her own world. Her own room through the mirror looked perfectly normal, except that she was not in it. She could hear the shower being used in the bathroom. The room in which she now stood had no chairs or tables but did have lots of cave-like holes about three feet up in one of the walls that were just the right size to crawl in and stretch out. It also had a mat in it, so she guessed it was a place for sleeping. Seeing nowhere else to sit, she sat down heavily on the edge of one.

“Ouch!” Alyce said in shock.

Pain shot up from her butt area, causing her to leap off the edge, rub then grasp behind her at what was causing the pain. She had a tail! A long tail, which reached the floor and started where her spine ended. It was hairless and ended in an arrowhead-type point, and it did not like being sat on! Nor did it like being stepped on, which she did as she stood up. She did not know that Fiametta had a tail, let alone a very painful one that currently tingled and throbbed, but that was a minor point compared with not telling her that to visit meant they would have to swap bodies.

Alyce hoped that her other self would bring her body out of the shower soon, before anyone walked in and asked her anything like why she was covered in goo and staring into a mirror with a tail in her hands.

After a few minutes, her own body walked back to the other side of the mirror and called out, “Oh, that was sooooooo good! I got rid of all that sticky goo with a wonderful pouring of wet stuff from your shower thingy… so nice, and it makes one gasp when it hits the skin.”

“Don’t use all the hot water; it is expensive to heat!” Alyce didn’t think she should have to pay for someone else’s indulgences.

“What?! It comes in hot as well? Oh, wow! I must try that! Er, I’m off to get all mega clean again with the hot so I can get dirty again. Dustcrabs will not stand a chance here with this magic spring thing. Look, umm, you will not have much time to get used to my life, so I have written down a few notes.”

Alyce suddenly felt a cold chill as the meaning of Fiametta’s words sunk in. “I think we had better swap back before anyone notices you walking about wet and naked with the blinds wide open, and please stop looking out the window! My boyfriend may be around later, so I will need to be back and dressed for him.”

“Now, don’t worry; I have studied your world for, like, forever. Trust me; I will not mess up anything, and I will really look after my new body. I can’t wait to meet a real male! I have watched you both, and it has looked great fun what you do with him. I don’t know what you do together, but you both look like you are enjoying it. Just think! It is so easy to control him by sucking on his lips. We may swap bodies back in the future if I get bored with hot water, but not yet. Is it possible to suck on a male’s lips and shower together with hot water? Oooh, this body tingles just thinking about it!”

Alyce reached through the mirror to grab her own soaking wet body that was still looking out of the window. Her hand slipped through the glass without a problem, but she then found it also slipped through her body standing on the other side when she tried to grab it.

The naked and dripping Alyce on the other side turned and smiled at her attempt and wagged her finger from side to side in a gesture that meant no before staring back out of the window in full view of anyone looking in her direction, which was likely to cause a traffic accident or maybe a police raid.

“Heheheheh, your water spray has removed all the magic goo from this body, so that will not work. And there is no point in having this portal switched on anymore. I’m off to play with the magic fountain again, and I really do think you should read my notes before my sisters arrive and send you off to the Academy, but that’s up to you. Hey, stop looking at me like that! I did promise you a visit to my world along with lots of adventure.”

Alyce was lining up a range of X-rated words to go with her killer look but could not use a single one as she was filled with horror watching parts of her body bounce a little as the interloper jumped up and down and frantically waved at something out the window.

“Oh, look! There are a few good-looking males across the road waving at me. They do look nice and cute… Perhaps I should call them over for some lip sucking? What do you think? Call them over, or wait for our boyfriend? Anyway, do have fun in my world. I am sure I will in yours. Bye!”

Smoking Hot: (2)

She may not have been able to touch her now clean self, but she could step through back into her own world and force the bitch to swap back in person. As she started to step through she watched her other self take a step back.

The right hand on her real body on the other side of the mirror made a strange finger movement towards her, which Alyce first thought was intended to be rude until she found herself facing just her own very new horned and tailed teenage girl reflection in the mirror and felt very alone.

She could now see what she looked like, and the image showed she was almost the same in this world as her own, apart from appearing to be about 10 years younger. She had on what could be called pajamas. The top revealed small but firm boobs underneath, and as for the bottom part of the set, it had a neat hole in the butt area to let her tail out.

To prove it was hers, the tail flicked about as she thought of it; a slight, easy movement of her bottom caused it to appear in front of her face like a snake ready to attack. And like a snake, it was certainly not in her control and produced a strange feeling in her posterior when it moved, which for all its strangeness also felt normal.

Looking hard into the mirror, Alyce decided that this body looked mostly the same as the one she had left behind in the mirror except for the tail. She had shoulder-length black hair with a few red dyed color streaks in it. She used her fingers to brush hair away from her eyes and then brought her fingers to her lips to suck on, mentally adding having a pair of small but very sharp horns to the list to go with the tail. She decided not to look under the clothing, as she guessed she would have normal parts, and if she did not then she really did not want to find out at the moment.

What looked like a leather-bound book was on the floor near the mirror, so she picked it up and opened it to discover a single page made of leather. It was covered in runes and funny shapes.

As she looked at the page, she said aloud, “That’s great! Very helpful, seeing as how I can’t read stupid runes!”

Just as the words were leaving her lips, the page changed, and in her head she could hear the words in English:

“You do not need to read us, as we can read you; we are the top-of-the-line personal recording device with full telepathic communication software for ease of use. Would you like to start?”

Alyce often thought that modern technology was mostly designed to make her feel stupid, and so it came as no surprise that in a world of horns and tails, a talking book would have the same opinion of her.

“Er… yes”

Start:

Hi, Earth female; take a look around because if everything has worked, then this is your new home.

You can ask the book anything, but it can only answer what I have written in it. Take your time, and read it on the trip to the Academy, ‘cause that will be a mega-boring trip.

“Look, what is going on? What trip, and what Academy?”

Prologue:

Well, let’s see. Now that you are me, I had better tell you who you are. You are mega clever with a fantastically developed body, and you just had your 4th birthday, so happy birthday to me, happy birthday to you, and happy birthday to us.

I am a fit and healthy 4-year-old birthday female and, I am sorry to say, testers from the Academy discovered just how clever I am and made me the pride of the clutch. I don’t know why, as I crap at magic fire, but they say I’m rare as I’m some sort of super Battery. And they don’t like me because I bit one of them. Anyway, I’ve been chosen to represent the family at the Academy, which is normally a death sentence.

I have been picked, so congratulations! And if you are lucky, you could be one of the 10% that will survive to serve our glorious Queen: death, or a lifetime of servitude to the Queen… did I say 10%? Well, some years there is only a 1% survival rate, but don’t worry about that. Even if you do survive, I expect you will die in the next Demonic War. The testers were right; I am mega smart, but my magic is crap so I would get killed pretty quickly at the Academy. Therefore, I have thought my way out using my advantage to avoid my fate by becoming you. See? I said I was smart.

End

Smoking Hot: (3)

Alyce watched the words blur back into strange-looking shapes, and the voice faded away. She now heard a noise behind her and turned to see three girls who had entered the room and were standing and looking at her. All three looked to be the same age as the body she now occupied, and the middle one spoke.

“Well, Sis, reading at a time like this? No wonder you were so dumb to get picked; it’s your own fault! We always said you came from a cracked egg.”

She then leaned forward and touched her face.

“Ick, and you are still sticky from the yolk. What, by the loving Sun, is that slime all over you? If this is your plan to hold up leaving, you are mistaken. Get her, sisters!”

Alyce was suddenly grabbed by all three of them and thrown to the ground, where she sat hard down so hard on her bottom that she crushed her tail again. She let out a yelp and rolled over as one of her sisters tugged at her PJ pants and another pulled off her top. Within seconds she found herself naked and being rolled into an indentation in the floor. Alyce screamed as a miniature tornado appeared from nowhere and wrapped itself about her body, pulling at her flesh and sand blasting her at the same time, which was so painful. Without thinking, she tucked her tail between her legs and tried to scramble out.

“Oh, no, you are not finished yet, Sis! Now tail up and head down; we can’t have our birthday girl letting the family down by trying to get back into her shell now that she is the pride of the clutch…”

Alyce now had her tail painfully yanked back through her legs and pulled up vertically with such force that her head had to travel down into the whirling winds or have the tailed pulled out by its roots. She held her breath and shut her eyes as tight as she could, covering them with her hands to stop the wind and blasting sand from blinding her.

After what felt like a lifetime of pain, it stopped as suddenly as it had started, and Alyce lay on her front panting, tucking her tail back down through her legs where she now felt very sore. In fact, her whole body felt sore, and without thinking she blurted out,

“Stop it! You are going to kill me! I am not your sister; she swapped bodies with me just before you came in and is now on the other side of that mirror, walking about naked and waving to strangers! The mirror is a dimension portal; look, I will show you!”

Dragging her aching body up from the floor, Alyce went over to the mirror and pushed her hand though it, which would have been very dramatic if it had still worked and hadn’t bent her fingers back so far that she had to cradle the hand in her armpit until it stopped throbbing. Slipping back down to the floor, she winced as the weight of her body attempted to put a permanent kink in her tail.

She looked up and felt the urge to burst into tears as she used her other hand to rub life back into her now tingling tail.

The sister that had done all the talking was standing with her arms folded and glaring at Alyce. She stepped forward and threw down some clothes, which hit Alyce and tumbled down to her side.

“Another silly outburst like that and we will tie you up, gag you, and throw you out as you are! Now get dressed!!” With that she moved to the doorway, leaned against the doorframe facing out, and sighed.

Alyce picked up the clothing, which turned out to be just a top and shorts. The items looked similar in design and color to those the other three wore. Quickly dressing, she did not comment on the fact that the clothing still made her feel half naked. The top only just fit as it ended right below her breasts in such a way that if she raised her arms, she would give everyone a good flash of boob. As for the shorts, well, they were cut very, very low at the front: so low that she expected they couldn’t be sold without a waxing kit. They were even lower at the back, giving her more butt cleavage than she cared for. She didn’t even own underwear so revealing.

For the first time one of the other girls leaned forward and spoke.

“Wow, that was a great performance, Fiametta, but just a little farfetched. Perhaps if you sounded more like an alien, it would have been more convincing. Now cheer up; we have packed you a lovely lunch.”

The other one elbowed the first in the ribs and told her to get the luggage.

“Yes, we were expecting you to try something clever, Little Flame, but covering yourself in slime and pretending to be from outer space was really original! Oh, and we have also got you a present: your own personal, un-hatched Sylph. He will be company for you and a lot better than having to take the horrid communal sand baths they must have.”

She then did something nearly normal, at least as far as Alyce could still think as normal; she kissed her cheek.

“Don’t forget us, Sis.”

Alyce said she wouldn’t forget them, and she meant it. What she did not say was that she worried that the memory of them would always be linked to dreams of being stripped naked and then skinned alive by a small but very painful sand tornado.

As they walked along an endless stone corridor, she noticed that they tried to keep her between them to prevent her from running off, which was not an easy task when there were four people and one large suitcase in a corridor only wide enough for two. One of her sisters went in front, and another fell behind with the luggage, so she was sandwiched in between.

As they walked they filled in the gap of normal conversation by taking it in turns to offer helpful advice, which if she was back home would have been on the lines of always wear clean underwear in case you get run over, and don’t talk to foreigners, as they are all rapists and murderers. Here it was not too different.

“Try and join a similar race group as soon as you develop; puberatum can be dangerous if you are on your own, and there may not be that many Heat-based races at the Academy.”

“Eat only fresh food and nothing ever more than a day old; you know how it can affect your tummy.”

“Stick with your own race; look for the most powerful in the group, and stay behind her.”

“If anyone attacks you, try and kick their ankles, as that will slow them down while you run away.”

“I have put a bottle each of Tailglow and Tailbright in your case; I find it keeps a tail looking good in any weather condition.”

“Make sure you crack fresh bones before swallowing them, as they are for the marrow, too, and not just the calcium.”

“The Sylph will need to be trained but will be wonderful against dustcrabs.”

“Only clean with the Sylph; don’t use public sandbaths. You never know who has used them before you, and they never use clean sand in them.”

“Don’t play with other girls’ tails, or you will get yourself a bad reputation.”

“Stay far away from Snowflakes, as they are all nasty and eat their young.”

Smoking Hot: (4)

The large luggage case was secured on top of the transport, and Alyce was duly placed inside, with the door firmly shut in case she wanted to change her mind about going. The transport was just as crazy as the rest of what had happened to her; she would have said it looked like a box on wheels, but, like the luggage, the box did not have wheels: just long bristles that simply needed a light push. It would keep going as the bristles sort of rippled underneath, creating a forward motion that must defy a whole range of laws of physics.

The transport was pulled by something that reminded her of a hornless rhino if they came in a six-legged variety, but it looked like it knew what it was doing and hopefully where it was going.

The seating arrangement in the box was odd as it looked like a broom handle. The best she could guess was that she was supposed to ride it like a witch, but after several tries she gave up and stayed on the floor flat on her tummy to stop any weight from pressing down on her tail area.

She got bored as the hours passed, so she opened the book again.

You can ask the book anything, but it can only answer what I have written in it. Take your time, and read it on the trip to the Academy.

“You already said that, and yes, I am now on my way reluctantly to the Academy, thank you very much!”

You can ask the book anything, but it can only answer what I have written in it. Take your time, and read it on the trip to the Academy.

“Okay, okay! Tell me who I am now, and why am I going to an Academy? An Academy of what?”

Prologue:

Well, let’s see. Now that you are me, I had better tell you who you are. You are mega clever with a fantastically developed body, and you just had your 4th birthday, so happy birthday to me, happy birthday to you, and happy birthday to us.

I am a fit and healthy 4-year-old birthday female, and, I am sorry to say, testers from the Academy discovered just how clever I am and made me the pride of the clutch. I don’t know why, as I crap at magic fire, but they say I’m rare as I’m some sort of super Battery. And they don’t like me because I bit one of them. Anyway, I’ve been chosen to represent the family at the Academy, which is normally a death sentence.

I have been picked, so congratulations! And if you are lucky, you could be one of the 10% that will survive to serve our glorious queen: death, or a lifetime of servitude to the queen… did I say 10%? Well, some years there is only a 1% survival rate, but don’t worry about that. Even if you do survive, I expect you will die in the next Demonic war. The testers were right; I am mega smart, but my magic is crap so I would get killed pretty quickly at the Academy. Therefore, I have thought my way out using my advantage to avoid my fate by becoming you. See? I said I was smart.

End

“You have said all that before! Just tell me new stuff. What am I to do at this Academy, and when can we swap back?”

Multi Question:

Academy: You are one of the chosen to serve the Queen, and the Academy trains you to do that. Only the very best make it, and they normally then die in one of the Queen’s wars. At the moment, the Queen likes Colds, so why they would want me is just crazy.

End

Swap Back: How should I know? Do you know what dimension number you are from, as I sure don’t!

“You found me! How did you do that?”

Magic Mirror:

I hit the dial codes at random until the image of your room appeared in the glass, like yonks ago. I just had to wait till you activated the one in your dimension, and you were so slow! I almost gave up. I watched you for so long and grew to love your crazy world. It helped the magic that you also wanted to swap.

End

“How did I get here?”

Potion:

Well, it lets you slip between dimensions, but you have to be so horrid and sticky, and the goo stains, so it should only be used with old clothing.

End

“Where is here?”

Home:

I, and now you, live in one of the nicest parts of the world: not too hot and not too cold, and no nasty Snowflakes.

End

“How come we speak the same language?”

Communication:

We can communicate in the same language, yes. How, I don’t know, but then I am only 4. I expect it is magic; it normally is.

End

“What about eating and drinking?”

Food:

The Academy should feed you; they have lots of other ways to kill you without using starvation. Just remember, fresh food is always best. Stay away from the non-meat meats, as they will give you gas or an upset tummy. And if you find they ever serve Ke’gar, kill for it as it is just divine. I can’t explain the taste, so in your mind just think of chocolate.

End

“Tell me of this world. What is its name? Who runs it? What do you call yourselves?”

Multi Question:Home:

I, and now you, live in one of the nicest parts of the world.

Your Life’s Purpose:

To serve our glorious Queen

Our Race:

You humans would think of us as Demons: horns and tails and magic, but not like what I see on your magic box or your odd pictures on the walls that show Demons who play musical instruments. No, that is all wrong; you would not defeat us. Your species must have met us in the past to have our image in your culture, and I expect you would have worshipped us as gods, which would have been correct as we Demons are, of course, superior creatures to you. I expect we went away, and your memory got it wrong. The Queen may look to your dimension again, and then we will be gods for you once more.

End

“Demons!!! Satan and Hell?”

Our Race:

You humans would think of us as Demons: horns and tails and magic, but not like what I see on your magic box or your odd pictures on the walls that show Demons who play musical instruments. No, that is all wrong; you would not defeat us. Your species must have met us in the past to have our image in your culture, and I expect you would have worshipped us as gods, which would have been correct as we Demons are, of course, superior creatures to you. I expect we went away, and your memory got it wrong. The Queen may look to your dimension again, and then we will be gods for you once more.

End

“You said that. Stop repeating! Only tell me new stuff, and delete the rest. Now, tell me; am I in Hell?”

Mythology:

Your world has many odd and strange ideas about us, like the Queen letting some male Demon rule her, which is so funny. As to our world being some kind of horrid punishment place for you to travel to, now that is even more ridiculous. Our world is one of the nicest you could wish for, apart from the darktime when most people sleep. The Sun always shines her blessings upon us with warmth and light. I expect we started the rumor to stop your kind wanting to come here; we have enough migrants as it is: mostly leftover remnants from some war we won or lost in the past.

End

All data deleted as requested.

START:

WELCOME to the Mark 12 notebook, diary, and the thinking female’s companion. You have in your hands/claws/tentacles a top-of-the-range recording device.

Just speak a heading or keywords for ease of data recall.

End

Smoking Hot: (5)

Alyce dropped the book back on the floor when it started talking about costs for requesting an extended warrantee and service agreements.

Her transport had reached a rest stop, which she worked out due to her observation that the creature who was pulling the box had relieved itself against a wall and then lay down and started snoring.

At least a pit stop gave her a welcome break to get out, stretch her legs, take a pee, and maybe not feel so travel sick. She also could take a closer look at what this world she was currently stuck on looked like.

She gave up on the idea of needing to take a pee as she really did not have to go, which was lucky as she could not find a washroom and had not seen one since she stepped through the mirror: nor had she drank anything, for that matter.

Alyce let her toes dig into the soft sand she was standing on. It felt like sand, and sand normally came with seagulls and ice cream, but this stuff was covering the floor of a desert that spread out for as far as she could see.

This was not how she had planned for today to be; adventure had been on her list, not walking around in a pair of shorts cut so low at the back that she mooned any passersby, let alone having a stupid tail, which, when she was not stepping on it, just followed behind her making snake patterns in the sand.

The sun was still high in the sky and very bright but not too hot, so at least sunburn was not in the cards. She collected the pack that the three girls had described as her lunch and set off for some shade provided by an outcropping of stone in case she was wrong about the sunburn. Alyce laid the food out on a rock.

Around the rest area, which was as flat as it could possibly be without being concrete, were small groups of people mostly in the distance, so she could not see if everyone was cursed with having a tail. Everything just reminded her of a boring highway service stop, and she half expected to see a McDonald’s. Instead, what she did see was some guy break away from a group of about eight others and walk towards her. He had on a long hooded, body-covering garment that could have gone well with carrying a burning cross and very strong views on African people if it had been white instead of black.

“Oh crap, not here as well!”

It must have been a male under the hood based upon the swagger he was trying to perfect more for show than any forward motion, and here she was dressed in what her mother would have described as a girl asking for it: a top that barely covered her boobs and was just missing an “I’m Easy” logo stenciled on the front, and painted-on shorts with so much butt cleavage she would have felt less naked in a string bikini. With any luck, all he wanted was her phone number and to show off how cool he was in talking to a girl. A girl did not survive in any world without being able to read the signs; this was not so much a bad boy as it was someone trying to look like one.

Alyce had seen some real bad boys in her time, and compared to them, this one was a joke. As for acting tough, she had five brothers who all treated her as if she were also a boy, and she still had the scars and mended broken bones to prove it. She had had to grow up strong or die; the only time they had noticed she was different was when at 14 she demanded a dress and underwear that did not fall under the heading of unisex and would not get so mixed up in the wash that her brothers would get more wear out of her undies than she ever would. She still shuddered at that thought.

What she was watching was a macho act as before her, this overgrown hoodie was weaving about and showing off by passing from hand to hand a long and probably very sharp blade that ran off batteries as it glowed and made a humming sound as it cut through the air, which gave the impression it wanted to be a light saber when it grew up. Alyce also blamed her brothers for her knowledge of what a light saber should sound like!

Instead of trying to impress or scare her, he was more likely to make her feel sick as he circled around. Perhaps she should have felt frightened, but of all the possible emotions this new body came with, that one must have been missing. Then it happened: pain, excruciating pain that ended with her staring down at the unconscious hoodie lying at her feet. She cuddled her poor throbbing tail close to her chest and felt a headache coming on. The idiot had stamped down on her tail! Hard! What moron treads on a girl’s tail on purpose!

She now realized the headache must be due to the act her brothers called “nutting,” which is what she had done to the hoodie as she slammed the top of her forehead into his face with as much force as a bent tail owner could deliver. She had, of course, done it to her brothers in the past, and it made up for being weaker than they were. She had never knocked any of them out, but then that was before she owned a pair of head horns, which also seamed to cushion the pain from the blow for her but had quite the opposite effect for the person on the receiving end.

Now one of the larger hoodies swaggered over and was probably staring with disbelief (she could not see his face) at the large and very prone body. He then looked back at her, trying to work out how she had flattened the other boy.

“What happened? What did YOU do to him?”

“He trod on my tail! It hurt a lot, so I hit him, I’m sorry. I only hit him the once. He did tread on my tail, and it was already very sore to start with. I hope he will be okay; I did not mean to hurt him. Sorry.”

Alyce wondered why he was staring at her so much and not showing more concern for his friend. She could feel his eyes burning into her from inside his hood. He must have made up his mind over something as he shrugged his shoulders, bent down, and picked up the long blade that had given up humming and must have needed recharging as the glowing had also stopped. He handed it to her.

“Here; take this, and don’t tell anyone how you got it. We have our reputation to think about.”

She agreed that she would not tell anyone, quickly packed up her lunch, and made her way back to her broomstick carriage where she discovered that Mr. Rhino had not been able to find a bathroom, either, and from the smell had made use of the area nearby instead. He was somehow all hooked up and ready to go again. She wondered if this sort of strange event was normal in this world. If anyone should have been here, then it should have been one of her brothers, as it was more like the games they played. Perhaps she was scoring points, and someone somewhere was writing down, “Alyce, level-0 girl with sore tail encounters level-1 thug and collects musical glow-in-the-dark knife.”

As the sun continued to shine into the carriage, she tried to sleep again as boring hours turned into more boring hours. At one point she had stuck her head out of the window and shouted in a whiny voice, “Are we there yet?” but the rhino just ignored her.

Letting out a very bored sigh, she picked up the book, opened it, and said heading “boredom,” then said start text “Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored, Bored,” end text then she shut the book and sighed again.

Alyce decided to check out her new body, but without a mirror it did not take long: two legs and two arms, etc., so apart from the tail, nothing felt different. Okay, so she also had horns, but they were not that big, and she did not even remember she had them most of the time. What she did feel, if anything, was extremely bored, and if anything else, then it was a feeling of normality.

In the end she gave up thinking and gently started to doze in the warm sun with her still-throbbing tail hanging out of the window, but the cool air on it was nice, a somewhat odd sort of feeling but a nice feeling nonetheless.

Smoking Hot: (6)

Alyce awoke with the feeling that something was wrong, and it took a little while to work out that they had stopped. As she stepped out she stretched and tried to get some life back into her legs. So she was here, wherever here was. She was standing outside some very large gates made of what looked like black marble and that must weigh tons. Luckily they stood open; the walls to either side of them went up to some great unknown height that gave her the idea that a tower with a large eye could lay inside waiting for some Hobbit to bring it a ring.

As Alyce looked up at the gates of Doom, another rhino carriage arrived, and she watched the occupant push her luggage off the roof and start dragging it towards the gates. Alyce only realized she was staring when the girl with the standard horns and tail, which had a bow of what looked like pink ribbon tied at the end, gave her a cheerful wave and carried on through the gates, or, rather, she skipped her way through the gates. She gave her a half wave back and kept watching. Here she was thinking about Demons, devils and Hell’s gates when a girl skips in dressed all in pink with pink hair held in place with a large pink ribbon and pulling a large pink case.

Alyce collected her things from inside the carriage then pulled her own luggage off the roof, and as soon as it hit the ground, the rhino transport trotted off in the same direction from which they had come. She gave her luggage a little push and followed it through the gates. What faced her was not a large eye but a sign saying, “New students this way,” not that she could read the runes. When she got close, it spoke the words to her, “New students this way.” It was a little odd, perhaps, but at least she now knew that she was going in the right direction. What was not so helpful was as she passed, it added “And you’re late.”

The outside of the building was flat and very stony looking, and the inside was more like a big square room with glowing walls and corridors leading off in different directions. With a lack of staff to ask for help, it was just like a normal academy back on Earth. She didn’t find any more helpful or rude signs around, so she picked a direction and started walking,

As she walked along she could hear what sounded like an argument as a group of girls looked like they were picking on someone. When she saw a large pink travel box similar to her own luggage lying on its side, she could guess whom they were picking on.

Alyce left her own things near the pink box and moved closer to see what was happening, and she soon saw that her suspicions were correct. Eight girls were all wearing what could be a two-piece uniform a consisting of a grey top and skirt, Though her mind pounded the words: “Don’t interfere! It is not your problem; heck, it is not even your world. If you dress like a marshmallow, then someone will soon want to put a stick up your butt, put you over a fire, and toast you. Ignore it, and just walk on.” But she had not been brought up to watch bullying without comment.

“Hey, do you call this fair? All eight of you picking on one girl just because she is making a fashion statement!”