Countdown: Four days

Twenty-six woke up naked and on the floor of the cabin instead of in the bed that she had been growing used to. There was a painful stiffness as she tried to stand up and all at once she remembered the day before.

Stretching out all of her limbs, Twenty-six did her best to look at her body from every angle. Despite this, she only saw her body as it had been when she woke up the day before instead of how it had been the night before. Without a single hint remaining of what had happened, she let out a scream of frustration while getting dressed.

Her thoughts were stuck on the previous day. How the locket finally opened up and how it looked when she tried to use a tool on it. The darkness that absorbed and seemed to dissolve the materials of the tool into itself before snapping shut. Of course, she was mostly concerned with how her body seemed to go through a metamorphosis that made her into something made of wood and metal instead of flesh and blood.

Taking the necklace in hand, Twenty-six started to examine it, hoping to discover something that would explain what happened the day before.

There was some part of her that wanted to make the assumption that it was all a dream, but since she had been stripped of her clothes and the tool she had used was missing she couldn’t rely on that line of thought. She had to assume this was some sort of magical tool. While she had never heard of one of them being able to morph a person's body, she also knew that she had spent about half of her life imprisoned by these people.

Putting all of her strength into opening the locket it only budged a little bit like it did before. Each moment that passed without it opening up anymore caused Twenty-six to get more aggressive until she started to become violent with it.

“What is wrong with this thing? It opened just fine and now it won’t even start.”

Taking some of the tools that she had been provided, as well as some of the kitchen supplies, she started to use more than just her brute strength on it. Despite this, every one of Twenty-six’s attempts only ended in failure.

Many of the tools she had used on it were damaged worse or, like in one case, broken beyond repair. Despite this the only harm that was brought upon anything was herself.

A couple of slashes and some stab marks were visible along with one bruise where she slammed her arm against the table hard enough to break off a piece of the corner. The locket and necklace, however, were just as pristine as before, unless you counted a few droplets of blood that speckled the outside of it.

With an overwhelming feeling of frustration enveloping her, Twenty-six finally got dressed and took the necklace with her. She didn’t care that her clothes were being stained to a degree with the blood as she lobbed the necklace as far as she could. Hearing the slight rustle of the underbrush that it landed in, she turned and thought she would head back to the cabin. Before she could even get halfway back the necklace found itself back in her hand.

Her hand shook just a bit as she glared at the it.

“Why won’t you leave me alone. I don’t want you and if you keep messing with me you’ll be nothing but a burden.”

Skipping breakfast, just as she had skipped dinner the prior day, Twenty-six just kept trying to rid herself of the locket that made her something she couldn’t recognize. No matter how many times she tried to distance herself from it it always found its way back to her. Sometimes at her side or in her hand, but there were many times it would just appear around her neck as if she placed it on herself.

Eventually, she was exhausted enough that she fell on the grass and stared up at the clouds as they moved across the sky.

She thought to herself that she wouldn’t mind if it started to rain on her after all this. Having not felt it for so long she wondered if it would help her sore muscles or her mental fatigue, but mostly she just wanted to see if it felt how she remembered it or if what happened would alter how she felt.

With each cloud that lazily went across the sky, she found herself trying to think of what they might be if they weren’t just a cloud. Tools, animals, plants, materials, she would find something to compare them to no matter how wrong she was about the visual similarities.

It wasn’t long before the warmth of the sun, mixed with the soreness she felt throughout her body, brought sleep upon her like a blanket fitted over a bed.

As the sun rose to the highest height in the sky, the two people came as usual but were accompanied by three additional people. All three of them were human, but they didn’t match in any other way.

The one who was carrying supplies walked up to the cabin as the rest went up to the unconscious Twenty-six.

Kneeling at her side the woman who would always examine her every day smiled as she noted all the wounds on her hands and arms, as well as the blood and how it stained her clothing.

“Looks like it’s going as expected. The first real injury just took longer. She is probably a bit more durable than the others who we used to hold it since she is a dwarf. If that’s the case we might want to see if we have any non dwarves who still have a bit of dwarven blood in them.”

While Twenty-six slept, the woman took the necklace off of her. The chain that held the locket seemed to expand in order to accommodate her head.

“Based on what we learned from the first two people to connect with one of these it’s fairly obvious if it accepts you. You will feel something pleasing in some form and at the same time, the host will die. Luckily we’re only using trash right now. If it goes on too long we might have to buy some proper slaves so everyone takes a turn with it. If it doesn’t work offer it to the next person.”

The first of the trio to take the necklace and locket winced before he dropped it on the grass, shaking his hand.

“I thought you said it did something good if it liked you. Why did it stab me?”

He quickly looked at his hand, “Or at least why did it feel like it stabbed me?”

Leaning down to pick up the necklace and locket, the woman who usually did a quick examination of Twenty-six picked it up and held it tightly.

“I don’t feel anything. Does your mana have some natural aversion to silver? If so this does look like it is made of silver. Or maybe it just doesn’t like you so much it hurts you. That would be worth noting.”

“Regardless,” She said as she handed it off to the only woman of the trio, “Nobody else has been hurt by…”

The woman stopped as the person she handed it to let out a small yelp of pain when she took it.

“Alright nobody except you two. I would like to think I would notice if it hurt everyone that it…..”

While speaking two things happened at once.

Korzem came out of the cabin with a box full of broken items just as Twenty-six started to stir from her nap.

Grabbing the locket she forced it into the last man's hands despite the fact that he was backing away from her during the mild confrontation.

Seeing that it didn’t cause the last person pain to feel it against his flesh, she quickly checked and verified that the dwarf was still waking up before launching it as far away as she could manage. In the time it took her head to turn it reappeared and was resting between Twenty-six’s breasts.

When Twenty-six opened her eyes enough she saw the woman smiling and heard her speak to her.

“I know that the grass is soft, but it’s better if you sleep inside where you won’t get sick if it rains.”

Raising herself to a more sitting position Twenty-six yawned and stretched, “Sorry I had a hard night and morning.”

The woman went to her bag and got some cloth, “I’ll bet. It looks like you got cut up pretty badly. Did something come and attack you? The security measures shouldn’t allow anything bigger than a small bird to get in without setting off the security.”

Twenty-six looked down at her arms and hands as the woman began to wrap them tightly after applying some herbal salve to it.

“I think I was a bit…. Out of it, I think might be how to put it. I was going to make dinner and… no wait I was thinking of what to make for dinner and I just sort of ...”

Twenty-six was silent for a bit before she finally took a deep breath, “I don’t know what happened, I think I just slipped and fell and stuff happened after that.”

Packing up what she had with her, the woman smiled down at the dwarf, “That’s fine dear. Just try to relax. We want you to stay safe here. Just trust that we will bring something to help with the injuries later.”

Without another word, but with a lot of backward looks from the people who had come with the usual duo, everyone left Twenty-six alone again. The looks caused her to walk back into the cabin and shiver as she wondered about her future.

Countdown: Three days

While making breakfast, Twenty-six noticed that the food wasn’t quite as plentiful as it had been the first couple of days. She shrugged it off as a punishment for the mess she made of the cabin. She had broken some of the tableware, but nothing that she considered worth to harsh of a punishment considering what she had seen at the camps before coming here.

When mid-day came, as it tended to do, the duo appeared again. The medical examinations were getting more intense as the days went by. Occasionally there would even be a comment about how she seemed healthier than expected.

At Twenty-six’s inquiry as to what she meant the woman just said that the injuries from the other day were healing faster than expected.

Waiting until she was alone again, Twenty-six finished cleaning up her mess from the previous day and organized what she could as best as she could. She had found that while she had made quite the mess it wasn’t as terrible as it looked like in terms of what was destroyed. It was only minor things like some chips against the walls.

While doing her examinations she noticed that there were a fair amount of places that had some dried blood but only in certain nooks and crannies. This was especially true where she had noticed scratch marks that, unless she was mistaken, had been polished to reduce the chance of the grooves from being noticed.

Stepping away from the thoughts that the small bits of blood brought to her mind, Twenty-six alternated between cooking and working on some figures. She only stopped between the two in order to work on opening the locket again.

As before she found herself unable to open it completely, but it was opened most of the way. She felt it and the smoothness was almost intoxicating as she forced herself to move past the sensation and work on some stone carvings instead.

By the time that she went to bed Twenty-six had managed to completely many figures, but only one that turned out acceptable and unbroken. It was a stone figure that looked like a generic soldier. The armor and shield held no markings on them to indicate who the figure worked with and his sword was to big to be used by most people when compared to the size.

Still, regardless of the flaws on it, she set it aside on the windowsill next to the stove while the rest were tossed outside as unusable.

Countdown: Two days

In the morning Twenty-six looked through the stones she had and started to decide what she would try to make while preparing breakfast. With the food she had it wasn’t much of a choice, but she still liked to pretend there was one as she cooked the meat and sliced the fruit, cursing a bit as she dropped a stone in her breakfast at one point and tried to grab it before it did too much damage to her meal.

When the middle of the day came the medic looked at her again and noted that she seemed to have a small burn on her finger. Twenty-six wasn't sure, but she thought she noted a hint of disappointment in the womans tone.

She couldn’t imagine why anyone would be upset considering she was doing the job as expected.

While she hadn't tried to leave the area, Twenty-six kept peeking in the corner of the plot of land as instructed and she even kept a thought on how to get to the bell quickly just in case something happened.

With all this on her mind, she didn’t notice at first when the woman asked her a question directly. Only when she was yelled at did she turn her attention.

“Oh sorry, what was that?”

The woman glared just a bit as sighed.

“I said to hand over the necklace I want to examine it.”

Twenty-six held it tightly in her hands for a moment.

“Why?”

The woman spoke with an obviously irate tone, “Because I want to see if it is doing anything now that the one who owned it is dead. Consider it a safety check.”

A bit hesitant Twenty-six handed it over, but only after giving it a squeeze to make sure it was shut.

Once in her hand, the woman looked it over and tries to open it, but without any of the success that Twenty-six had had.

Handing it to the man who would bring the food proved to have the same result before it was returned to the dwarf.

When the pair were out of view Twenty-six sighed and worked to open the locket, which opened up in its entirety this time without any resistance pushing back against her efforts. She was able to open and close it all she desired at this point.

The rest of the day passed without much fanfare as she worked on some rocks and made her meal before going to bed, not daring to let anything touch the darkness that was held within the lockets pristine walls.

Countdown: One day

Morning came a bit early as Twenty-six thought she heard something and snapped awake. Going to the window a large part of her worried that it was something about the remains of the dead body, but upon seeing nothing out of the ordinary tried to go back to sleep.

Despite her best efforts however she found herself unable to go to sleep and made herself breakfast and quickly went outside once it was finished. Eating on the swing she peered around and noticed at the edge of the fence there were the remains of some sort of creature next to a section of the fence that had been broken.

While she wasn’t an expert of magic, having only had her mana mature years ago and no chance to learn more than the simplest of spells to keep herself warm in the night, Twenty-six couldn’t see how it could have been killed by magic.

Only once her meal was finished did she go over to look at the mildly gory sight. She couldn’t tell what the beast used to be, but by her best estimate, it was something about the size of her cooking pot.

It didn’t seem to have fur or feathers in the remains, but there were some claws and sharp teeth visible.

Picking up some of the sharpened claws something nagged at her about them and the situation. Because of this she decided to the largest of the claws and walked just beyond the territory marked as her cozy prison and, despite the warnings given to her, nothing happened.

Taking a few more steps she sprinted for several yards before turning back and going into the house. She knew this meant something, but she wasn’t sure what so she needed to let everything process as she worked on more stones without any further successes.

Only when the gate opened later at midday did Twenty-six lose her thoughts.

Peeking from the window she saw the same two people who had been in charge of her this whole time but noticed two irregularities.

The man who brought her daily supplies seemed to have nothing with him this time except a bag that was less than half as big as what he would normally bring.

In addition to that, there were three more people, all men by the look of them. It was harder to tell because they were all in full armor and had a weapon attached to their back. Each one had a different at their side or on their back.

She was able to note some sort of a spear, ax, and what looked to be a mace large enough to require both hands to wield properly.

A flame of worry started to burn in her, but with only one door she told herself that she had to trust that there was a reason besides the one that she thought of as she walked outside. While it started to weaken as she saw nobody grabbing for a weapon it didn’t completely extinguish as she went over to them.

“Ah, Twenty-six. I brought a few more men who want to look at your necklace. They came from combat with a foul pack of horned wolves so forgive them for their attire. Men, you can take off your helmets if it will put her at ease.

One by one the men did as they were told revealing they were all indeed men and the youngest one looked to be in his thirties while the oldest had grayed hair and wrinkles to show off his age. She wasn’t the best at guessing humans ages once they got past a certain point, but she was assuming he was at least sixty.

By her peoples' standards he would still be a young adult, but she knew that with humans it meant he was closer to his death than he was his birth.

“Is there a reason they came here miss? Is it because of the fact that something broke the fence down?”

The womans eyes went a bit wide, but only for a fraction of a second. While it was quick Twenty-six was able to notice it. She had been surprised.

Thinking on what she had been told Twenty-six began to wonder what it might mean. She had been warned that the fence was a barrier that was only so she knew where the limits were. While it was possible that only some sections were weakened the facial reaction made her think that perhaps there was something more.

“You three look at her necklace for a moment. Korzem will stay here in case something happens. When I get back I’ll examine the girl.”

Twenty-six wanted to watch the medic look at the beast and broken fence but soon found herself needing to give each of the soldiers the necklace. Like the previous time, the first two let out words of pain as they took it while the third one didn’t.

The first two had gladly taken it and the second one even tried to move past the pain to put it on. The one who felt no pain only picked it up and handed it back to Twenty-six almost instantly.

Upon her return, the medic did a quick look at Twenty-six but without nearly as much devotion as she had shown previously.

After that, she talked to the man who always brought the supplies. It was soft-spoken and Twenty-six could only make out a few of the words.

“__ don’t _____. There ______ trying _______ attuned _______ past ___ fence __________ . ____ attuned __ it ____ kill ___. _________. ___ should ______ don’t___________ necklace can ___.”

When the pair finished talking the man tossed the bag at Twenty-six.

“Our supply cart is being slow. Make do with that and we’ll see you tomorrow.

Taking the pouch, Twenty-six watched everyone leave. She went inside and looked at what she had been provided. It was much less than the days before, but she didn’t trust it. Rather than eating it she went to a section of fence that nobody had really gone to and threw it all into the woods.

She had heard the word kill spoken between the pair. The soldiers had tried to distract her some but that was something he had heard. As well as something about the fence and necklace. She didn’t know what it meant, but she didn’t feel she could trust the food they brought her and instead salvaged what meat she could from the animal's body and made a small snack instead of a proper meal before going to the bedroom.

Despite the comfort and the many nights she had slept here, she was unable to get to sleep as she didn’t notice the locket had opened itself up without her input as she watched the moon in the sky. Thinking she might run she put the animals claw and the stone soldier into her small pouch as she contemplated which way to run.

Countdown: Finished

The moon rose high in the sky and Twenty-six was staring at the stars in the sky. She found herself unable to sleep with the thoughts circling her head.

Eventually, she pulled herself away from the window and went into the main living area before she started to look at what was available that she could take with her now that it was late and the likelihood of her being noticed, even if someone was watching the cabin, was smaller.

She started with small things like a couple of candles and cutlery, but before she could look any deeper she noticed a bit of light outside and cautiously went over to it to see what was going on.

When she peered out the windows she was greeted with the sight of over a dozen figures lit with only the flame of a few torches. She squinted her eyes to try to observe them a bit better but was only able to make out that some had weapons and some had shields. One of them even seemed to have some sort of magic glowing over his hands that she couldn’t recognize.

Once she realized it was growing in size and the other figures were giving that one room, Twenty-six began to panic.

“Ah wait, wait no no no what do I do? What do I do?”

Her words sped up as she tried to think about what she could do in this situation.

“One door. They’ll see me and attack me. If I break wood support on the windows they hear me and kill me. If I wait they charge in and kill me.”

Peering out the windows she notices that the magic had started forming a solid shape that was wrapping around the figure and sparked with some sort of energy that reminded her of lightning. It was green and slightly glowing instead of what she recognized but that wasn’t what concerned her.

The fear was that the figure started to form into the shape of a serpent with large fangs and, once its form was actualized, it began to crawl to the cabin.

Seeing the impending doom and feeling it deep in her stomach Twenty-six, without active thought, clutched the necklace. She felt that it was opened and remembered the other night as she reached into her pack and shoved whatever it wrapped around against the openness that the darkness called home as she backed away from the door just before it burst apart to the cheers of those outside.

The next moment was a blur to Twenty-six. She was engulfed in the magical serpent but felt no pain. Magic flared off of it as it broke and burned the furniture and walls before it vanished away into nothingness.

Looking down at her hands she saw that she was naked as the magical creation had burned her clothing down to nothing. Because of this, she saw that her entire being was stone, but there was something wrong with the shape. It was more beastial, but not in the same way that a beastkin was.

Her limbs were stretched out some and her hands looked more like an animal paw complete with a set of claws. The joints of her legs were bent backward but still seemed to work, causing her to get onto all fours in a more comfortable manner and her eyes and ears seemed to work better than before as she realized she could see perfectly, and hear everything the figures were saying.

The conversation was a lot of the same. Praise for the spell caster, one of them stating they should see if the necklace is still there as she hears them argue over if the magical beast has been gone long enough for it to be safe to enter.

With them distracted Twenty-six peeked out at them, her body working differently, but not so much that she is unable to work with it. She sniffed at the air and she swore she could smell the magical energy from the one who cast it. The one she thought would be best to take out first before snuffing out the flames.

She felt an inkling of excitement as she charged at the group, letting out a primal roar that seemed to shake the ground to an extent under the peoples' feet.

Many of them lost their footing, but more than half kept on their feet as they watched her charging.

“What sort of abomina….”

The spell users cry never finished as she pinned him to the ground and ripped out his throat with her teeth before turning to the others.

“It killed Rafmang.”

The voice cried out and Twenty-six heard blades being drawn. Instead of attacking them she went into the woods and watched. She didn’t want them to flee and waited. Something else seemed to take charge within her as eventually one was separated from the rest and was lunged at it, killing it before it could even scream in pain. Only its body falling to the ground told the rest of what happened.

One by one she did this. If one fled she would kill it. If she could pick one off she would kill it. Only when there were two left who refused to move from the back to back position did she move forward.

The torches lit her body up and if not for the fact she was moving and breathing it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think she was a statue that someone had spilled red paint on.

The taller of the two figures held out his blade at her and said something. It was a threat that she didn’t care for as she lunged at him and slammed into his chest. The armor bent, dented and broke deep enough that many of his ribs were left broken and shattered. This would have been bad enough to eventually end his life, but the impact also broke the mans neck as he fell to the ground.

“You,” the last man whimpered as he dropped his shield and weapon, “Please what do you want? I surrender. Tie me up and bring me to some prison or something just don't kill me.”

Twenty-six looked at the man a bit curious. She swore she caught the scent of urine on him as she circled him slowly.

“You asssk for mercccy? You tried to kill me yessss?”

The man can’t do anything as he shivered, “It was just my orders. We couldn’t let an unknown have that necklace. If you had just been asleep it would have been painless.”

Twenty-six smirked a bit, an awkward feat as her face was half dwarf and half beast, “Oh sssso that’ssss how you planned it. If I am sssssleeping it’sssss fine? Then lay down and go to sssssleeep. I’ll kill you in the way you ssssay is fine.”

The man was about to say something. Would it be a threat? Would he beg for his life? Perhaps he would try to make a bargain.

Regardless of what he was about to say he never got the chance as Twenty-six lunged at him and, with the force and speed that her stone animal body provided, knocked off his head with one swipe of her paw.

Now that she had the time she looked over the carnage she caused and the body she was in. There were cracks in a few places and what looked like some burns that didn’t penetrate into her body except as soot, but she was whole. Everyone else was dead or nearly so.

With her animal side no longer overpowering her with its natural instincts, Twenty-six walked around and, as best as she could gathered anything she thought might be useful to her and sprinted away as fast as she could. She began to wonder how she would use this blessing, if she might find her family again, and most importantly what name she should use.

After all, Twenty-six was supposed to die in the cabin and who was she to argue.