Todd has arrived.

I wave as a greeting, but he doesn't answer it. From the looks of it, my new form has taken him by surprise. He takes a few steps towards me, leaning over as he does to get a better look until we are face-to-face, just a little bit too close.

"-Don't look too, uh, faerie-like for a faerie," he mutters, but since he's so close to my face I can hear it clear as day. I try to shrug, but what with having an exoskeleton and all, it mostly just comes out as a strange movement. But, he does raise a good point. I'd love to ask him why he went away and only popped back in now, and how the hell that works, but to do that I need to speak.

So, I guess this is as good of a time as any to try my new shapeshifting skill. Not exactly sure how, but... here we go!

Lesser shapeshift! Man, this better turn me into something human or I'll burn something-,,

The first thing that happened was that I got a violent headache. The kind that stabs and prods and slices inside your head, not fearing to make its presence known. I buckled over, and I can tell Todd got worried, but I don't know how or why. It felt like there was something inside my head, like Athena trying to get out of Zeus' head, battering at me with an axe or something.

That was not a parable, by the way, my head is actually really splitting open. I can feel it, the soft insides parting and the hard exoskeleton cracking and creaking, before fully parting, allowing that soft inside to pop out, and then...

I was the thing that popped out. My perspective shifted, and I was now higher than I was before. I felt like a newborn chick hatching from an egg, but... When I looked down, I could see that I was human. I had a human waist, and a human chest, and human arms, and-,,

I was me again. How could I not be? This body, this half-human body ending just below the waist, a slight pudge hiding a robust musculature, broad and made for lifting and carrying, it was mine alright.

"-Holy shit," I said, touching my face. My skin was sleek and soft like that of a baby. As weird as it felt to say, I would not miss the calluses on my hands. I feel like a newborn, but it is ten times better than an insect. I looked up, and a small wave of disappointment came over me. I was still small.

"-Duuuuude, you're like a tiny centaur!" Todd said with a smile and a chuckle, poking at my human body. My face grew flushed within an instant. Could I say I had ever been more humiliated in my life? Well, yes, but this was still pretty bad.

"Todd, stop that!" I said, pushing away his finger. If I compared my own size to him, I could still sit pretty comfortably on his shoulder, small but not any shorter than a foot. It was still a far ways from my former glory days, but I have certainly been smaller.

"Hmmm, you're not quite just a little in-centaur, you do actually have little pixie ears! Wow, they're long, too!" he said, grabbing one of my (apparently) really long ears. How-, how had I not noticed that before? These ears were easily as long as one of my arms each! The only thing rivalling them in size would be the antennae stuck to my forehead. Gotta have those I guess.

Before I could object to any more roughhousing, I was unceremoniously lifted from my rock and held in front of Todd. He looked me up and down, turned me around, and made a final statement of the case.

"Kind of a scam, really, you haven't got any wings on your back!"

"Am I supposed to?"

"Well, yeah! A true pixie would be either totally feminine or kind of ambiguous, have wings on their back and long elf-ears, and, well..." he poked my lower half, the one that is pretty much just an insect, "-not insect. You, my dear sir, have been cheated."

I frown, and dislodge myself from his grip by taking to flight. He stares at me in awe, but I just sort of land on his shoulder.

"So, uh, where did you disappear to?" I ask, crossing my arms. He smiles awkwardly and scratches his cheek.

"Yeah, sorry about that, I was called to dinner, and, y'know, can't exactly say no, right?" Todd says, and maybe I would have been a little bit more upset if it didn't remind me of something.

"What date is it?" I ask, genuinely curious to know how long I've been in here. Todd looks at me oddly before closing his eyes on thought.

"Humm, not sure, like, maybe the 28th or something? I can't really remember, y'know? The days are starting to blend together, heh."

"28th of March? So I've been gone less than a week..."

"Uh, no, not March, dude, July."

"...July?... As-, as in, I've been gone four months?..." I stutter, dumbfounded by what he's trying to tell me. That... that isn't possible-? Sure, I couldn't know when the sun rose or set or anything like that when I was in that damn cave, but it can't have been that long!

"Hey, dude, cool down! Time passes weirdly when you're in weird places, right?" Todd says, trying to reassure me.

"When... when you have to leave again, can you try to find me? My name is-, is John Paul Fowl. Search for it, and-, and add Fowl Swine Farm, as well. That was the name of, of our farm. Can you do that? Can you find it?"

"Well, yeah," Todd smiles weirdly, "-I'd do it dude, so just, y'know, take it easy. Deep breaths and all that, yeah? In and out, dude, in and out."

I try to do as he recommends taking deep breaths, but... It's hard. I don't want my mother to worry. Or Chuck or Buddy or even the damn pig! I... I was all she had left. Her only son. She, she better be alright. Todd will make sure, he'll find her, and make sure that everything is going alright.

"-Doing better, man?" Todd asks, and I nod slowly. I don't feel alright, not at all, but I don't want him to worry. And if I pretend to be calm, maybe it'll come true. "Good, glad to hear it. Now, whadduya say we lure us a wizard?"

Okay, yeah. Let's do that.