There you go, all caught up. I’ve woken up again, in the same room as before. Tiki and Ashley are still in front of me, and yet in different positions. Ashley looks nervous, although I can’t understand why.

‘What’s happening Tiki, have you found my assistant? Hope they’re not as ugly as you.’ I grin.

Chuckling, Tiki said.

“Good to see you’ve recovered your sense of humour. Yes, we’ve found some potential candidates. Four to be specific.

I’m guessing you would like to meet them. Remember though, not all is as it seems, especially not in the In Between.” And with those ominous words, four figures stepped in.

One was a demon, one an angel, one a mermaid, and one a fairy.

The demon was quite big, 9 foot at least. He looked like the classic biblical demon. Goat legs, a tail ending in a spaded tip, reptilian eyes and rams horns coming out the top of his head. His midnight fur was matted and his long, muscular arms ended in clawed fingers. He had large, black, leathery wings curled up behind his shoulders. A fearsome creature indeed.

The angel was the demons exact opposite. A six foot female of exquisite beauty. She had pure, white bird wings attached to the area between her shoulder blades. Her silvery hair sparkled in the glow of her halo. She had blue tattoos shooting down her arms and legs and a glowing sword at her hip.

The mermaid was tiny, as big as my hand. She was could have been human had it not been for her tail and her crown of water.

The last, and to me, most interesting, was a tiny fairy. She was even smaller then the mermaid, perhaps as big as my thumb. Among these other creatures she was very... plain. She had little see-through wings coming out her back, shaped like a birds. Her hair was a emerald green, matching her eyes.

“Choose me my lord.” Sung the demon in it’s honeyed voice.

“I am the most powerful and knowledgeable. I can destroy your enemies and help you build the most beautiful and deadly of dungeons.”

With a grin the angel butted in and said,

“Unlikely, sir. For when we bond, we lose our current forms, and revert back to the basics. He will become an imp, a pesky little demon, and while annoying, won’t kill anything bigger then a rat. I will become a cherub, and with my bow, I will smite your enemies in holy light!” It was quite a heated opinion, but useful information all the same. A manipulative demon and an over zealous angel.

As she finished that mermaid said.

“A bit rich, coming from her. You see your lord, while cherubs are armed with a bow, they still have to relearn all magic, and judging by the weapon on her hip, she’ll be useless with a bow, as any angel that has a weapon other then ranged, or magic was so horrid with the bow that they were forced to evolve out of it. And judging by her tattoos, she can’t do magic either, she had to evolve so that she could get her body magic. She will be more useless then the imp.

But I will be better then both, you see lord, my base evolution is that of a water fairy, and my current is a mermaid empress, an incredibly rare evolution.

My magic, even in my base form will be more powerful then them for there first 2 evolutions.” I thought magic had to be relearned. So add a lying mermaid to the mix.

Honestly it sounded like the start of a bad joke. A lying mermaid, a manipulative demon and an over zealous angel try to convince a dungeon which is better to have as a servant. Hahaha, sarcastic laughter.

Those 3 continued to argue, not realising I’d shut them all out. I let them argue until they were finished but not once did the fairy say anything.

“Are you done?”I asked when they were quiet.

Before they could say anything I continued.

“Because from what I’ve seen we have an over confident angel, who thinks she’s worth more then she actually is, a manipulative demon who I wouldn’t trust as far as I could throw, and considering I have no arms...”

I heard a light giggle at this, and the demon shot a glare at the fairy.

“Add major dick to that list, and a wonderful, amazing, lying, hypocritical mermaid. Now the only one of you who hasn’t said anything, and I am actually curious to what she has to say, is the fairy. So little one, what do you have to say.”

The fairy’s mouth was agape, she couldn’t believe this. What crazy person would choose a little fairy over a demon, an angel, or a mermaid empress.

“Sir?!!” Screamed the trio in shock.

“Shut up!” Yelled Ashley, the first time she had gotten involved since the beginning.

“Let her speak.” They very quickly kept quiet.

“Um, well, I.” Stuttered the fairy.

“Don’t worry, take a breath, follow me.

In, out.

In, out.”

Taking deep breaths she calmed down before speaking.

“Um, well,” another deep breath,” I’m a nature fairy, and I’m good with plants. This is my base evolution, and I don’t really no much about evolving myself. I do know a bit about dungeons though.”

She was shy but honest, and that’s really all I want.

“But sir,” oh boy, this was going to be good,” how can you want this fairy, she’s useless...” before the demon could continue, I screamed out. I literally screamed.

“SHUT YOUR DIRTY MOUTH!!! I HAVEN’T EVEN SAID WHO I’D CHOOSE AND YOU DARE THINK YOU KNOW BETTER!!! EVEN IF I WASN’T GOING TO CHOOSE HER I SURE AS HELL WOULDN’T CHOOSE YOU!!! OR YOU YOU BLOODY MERMAID!!! I WOULD HAVE RATHER GONE ON WITHOUT A BODY THEN CHOOSE EITHER OF YOU THREE! THIS HERE FAIRY IS BETTER THEN ANY OF YOU MANIPULATIVE BASTARDS.” Huffing and puffing I took a deep breath. I may have gone a bit far, but it reminded me to much of my school. Bullied because other people thought they were better. It makes me so angry to think that they thought they were better.

“Fuck me sideways, you lot are a bunch of work. Tiki, I choose the fairy.” Nodding, he smiled and got the others to leave.

“Thank you for choosing my daughter, Dungeon.” Daughter??.

“Yes, she is my daughter. Unfortunately my wife was killed by a team of adventurers. But she managed to get me and my daughter out.” With a sad smile he continued.

“Let us start the bonding ceremony. I have already set up the magical sequence, and Ashley will power it. All you to have to do, is name each other.”

“Sounds simple.” I say.

“Hahaha.” Laughed Tiki. “If only it was that easy. No. You have to find your mana, and with it sculpt the base of your body. After that, you will name each other. It will then be done. I will guide you to your mana. My daughter already knows where hers is, and will link it with yours, giving you one less thing to do, though you will need to help her make her new body.

This new body will be so that she can also use your mana. Now let’s start. To find it, different people do different things. Some people imagine gardens, with a large tree at the centre, some imagine large volcanoes with the lake of lava as the source. Personally, I imagine a giant pond, with a whirlpool over the mana source. Be careful, because whatever you imagine will be your element, like mine is water. Now, let’s start shall we.” I nod.

Ashley started to feed the runes, and I delved into myself.

What should I do. If it’s unique to every person, I should think of something for me. I’ve always loved crystals and gemstones. From quarts to opal to diamond to ruby. It’s always been my thing, so why not do this.

I imagined a cave as vast as the ocean, and filled to the brim with crystals and gems and ores and stones. Every type could be found here. And at the centre was a pillars of bismuth, holding a small, polished piece of grandidierite, one of the rarest crystals on earth, but I don’t know about Alesia. I knew that this was my mana source, and I floated towards it. I heard tiki’s voice, it sounded distant.

“Great, you have found your mana source in record time, only 10 minutes. Now you need to sculpt your body.” 10 minutes?! It felt like 10 seconds. Well, I guess I should shape my body. Let’s think again.

“It has to be humanoid, so I can control myself.”

As I thought this, multiple chunks of crystal and gem shot to the space in front of me, forming a human body. It’s interactive, I can handle this

“Mmmm, Good, but it should be taller than my last body, maybe 7 foot.”

The body was recreated taller.

“No, to tall, let’s go back to my original height.”

They formed back into their previous 6 foot 5.

“I want some hair,” some long flowing hair formed,”nah, not that. Mor like hedgehog spikes on the side, and porcupine spikes on the top.” And they formed.

“Now, I’ve always wanted a tail.”

A tail was created, but it was far to long, sensing my thoughts it became smaller until it was roughly 4 feet long.

“Hmm, again, what’s the point of a tail, it should be a weapon, like a scorpion, but more, prehensile.”

It grew a 1 foot long needle on the end. It looked like a nasty thing to have in you. It also had flat edges, so it could be used to slash, but it was clearly meant more for piercing.

“That’s quite nasty, I think I should have another.”

And another formed.

“Those horns Ashley had were quite cool,” they formed, but they were to thin, so they thickened, and they were to, pulled back, so they straightened out, I had them twist in on themselves, I continued to play with them until I was left with elken horns.

“Now, let’s add retractable claws, so I can craft and kill,” but when they formed, 1 cm long talons, I wasn’t happy,” I already have the tails for weapons, let’s make these for climbing.” The ends curved inwards, like a cats. They could still be used to rare a throat out, but were more for climbing.

“And having spines on my back would be cool, like an iguana.” And sure enough, there they formed along my spine, each about 15cm big, getting smaller towards my tails and head. With a mental nudge I pushed them to either side of my spine, forming twin lines of spines in my back, separating into single lines along my tails.

All that was left was the colouring.

I decided to make my general skin tone out of malachite, a green gemstone filled with ripples of different shades of green. I added small, wisp like streaks azurite, looking like the malachite is cracked to show a sliver of dark blue azurite.

My left eye I made from fire opal, It looked as if it held a sunset within its depths. My other i was made from Oregon butte opal, looking like a glimpse into the ocean, an opposite to the sunset of my left eye.

The hair was made from ametrine, a natural occurring gem formed from a combination of amethyst and citrine, making my hair shift from purple to yellow, no matter where you look.

My nails, claws, the needle tips of my tails, my horns and my spines were made from larimar, a gemstone filled with different shades of blue, from baby blue to dark blue, a sharp contrast to the deep green malchite and dark blue azurite.

Between my spines I had a long strand of sugilite, a cloudy purple crystal.

My body was a master piece, but it wasn’t done yet. I could feel a strong force propelling me to create a core of gem. One type. This one type would be that from which I was born. Should my body be damaged, I would retreat into this gem to recover. It would be my weapon. It would be my name, and I knew that no matter what, the fairy would call me this, I could feel it, as though the universe itself was telling me to do it. And so I did, I took a piece of bismuth, and I carved it out, when I finished it took on a, weird shape. It looked like a pyramid, by with squares at the four corners that rise up and scatter back into the main body. And this was what I pushed into my forehead, between my horns. When this happened, I felt my soul merge with this new body.

With this my body was done. Again I heard tiki’s voice.

“I see that you are done boy. Well done. Now accept my daughters mana tendril. You will see her in her mana source, help he make her changes and bond.” I nodded. Then I felt an tentacles of mana touching the border of my mana source. I reach out with my source and touch hers, we connect. This feeling, it’s incredibly intimate. It’s like I knew her, from her mana alone. When she joined my source it opened, and I could see a small grove of trees and flowers, and little beasts roaming around. It was beautiful, and filled with the soft colours of flowers and sounds of rabbits and birds and many more, a sharp contrast to my sharp coloured and noiseless gems.

“It’s amazing!” She breathed out while looking over my source. And I felt pride. This little world was mine. Then she took on a firm look and said.

“Let’s start, to form my body you will have to feed your mana through me, and let me take control of it, I will make my body, but you can make a few little changes.” Nodding that I understood, started to send a little stream of mana towards her. I trusted my instincts and brought over a small pebble, crushed it into dust, and had it flow towards her in a steady stream.

After awhile she started to change, but something was wrong. Her entire body was made of stone. Looking down she said with an embarrassed voice.

“Umm, please help. Mana’s based off of imagination and understanding. I don’t understand any of this, so I carry on becoming stone.” Nodding, I took control of my mana and sent a pulse out.

I gave her a skin of aquamarine, a light blue, transparent crystal, so when you look at her, you can see through her slightly.

I made her wings a very thin amethyst, before strengthening it with mana, giving it a light purple colour, but making them incredibly strong.

Her eyes became galaxy opals, and her hair became long strands of jade, with rose quartz highlights. Rose quartz is a red tinted crystal.

Her nails became alexandrite, a crystal that changes colour with the light. Throughout her aquamarine body, I sent small patches of emerald.

Finally I took a few bundles of her hair and fused them together, forming green vines. I carved little creatures into the insides of the galaxy opals, so that when you looked into her eyes, you could see little gardens, just like hers. I forced the emerald into different shapes, from leaves to flowers.

Now the final part, I forced a piece of diamond into a teardrop shape, pushing it into the base of her neck, where her neck and chest meet.

“Do you like it?” I asked with a tentative voice. She looked herself over, felt her hair and realised that actually, nothing had changed except for the colours and the diamond, her body still looked the same.

“I love it.” She said with tears in her eyes.

“I name you diamond.” I said, and saw her eyes widen. Stuttering she managed to get out.

“And I name you bismuth.”

And after this we fell asleep.

“Looks like it’s done.” Said a sweaty Ashley. “They took their sweet time, didn’t they.”

“Well you can’t blame them, can you. Look at they’re bodies. Not only did he have to make one from scratch, but my daughters has been completely remade.” Tiki said with a slightly awed look. Looking over at the pair of exquisite body, she could only shake her head. Shortly after doing so, Ashley also collapsed, unconscious. Tiki sighed.

“I guess I’ll have to get her home. And get these two to a temporary one.”