Slowly waking up Bungle groaned and gripped his pounding head with his big paws. His tongue felt dry and his lips were parched and his vision was blurry and confused. Peering around, panting lightly the brown bear tried to make sense of what he was seeing. He appeared to be in some sort of stone room, the floor was a mesh of iron and the large bench he was lying on were strewn with ratty old blankets.

The air was hot, the humidity was ridiculous, and every breath felt like he was breathing in water. Puffs of steam occasionally rose through the floor, it was nearly as bad as a sauna or steam room and he really needed a drink. Blinking his eyes Bungle tried to remember what had happened, he’d been on his way home… it had been raining and then… his eyes alighted on a large bucket sat just inside the bars of his cell and he rolled off the bed and gratefully stuck his head in it.

The water was blessedly cool and he gulped down several large mouthfuls of it before pulling his head back out. He was naked, alone and slowly sweating himself to death but he felt a bit more alive thanks to the water.

“You know, you look quite natural down on all fours, bearskunk.”

Lifting his head from the bucket Bungle blinked water clear of his eyes and looked up through the bars of the cage at the creature standing outside. In the dim light from the glowing crystal sphere embedded in the ceiling outside the cage the bear could just make out glowing amber eyes and the gentle gleam of polished scales.

“Who… who are you? Where am I?” standing up Bungle curled his thick black and white skunk tail around in front of his groin and peered at the little creature outside, “Who the hell do you think you … what on earth are you?”

The creature had moved into the light, they were some sort of lizard creature. His body was covered in bright red scales with the exception of a series of larger maroon plates running down the length of their chest and stomach. He had two huge horns sprouting from the top of head and a smaller crest of ridges running along the centre of his head as well as a pair of fin-like protrusions on either side of his head instead of ears.

“I am Vikris, Chieftain of Clan Shadowflame a kobold to answer your question,” he shook his head and tipped back his hat, “You have been selected to help me with a project bear-skunk,” he shook his head and grinned, showing off all his teeth, “I was trying to summon a regular old bear but you’ll do.”

“Do! Do!” Bungle shouted thumping the bars, stretching one arm out between them to try and grab the lizard, “Listen you little runt I am not doing anything for you. You let me go at onfecs…. Onfce… wot… why ith my tonguef…. I can’t talf, wot is appeffing to myf.”

Sliding down the bars Bungle wound up in a sprawled heap at the reptiles feet. He was still awake, he could see and hear he just couldn’t move… he slumped over onto his side as the bars of his cell melted away and flopped listlessly onto his back as the kobold used one clawed foot to push him over.

“You have such lovely fur bear-skunk, we are going to have such fun,” he stepped back out of sight and Bungle heard him make some strange, yipping noises before a large beige kobold lumbered into view and hefted Bungle off the ground. He was carried through winding, underground tunnels, down a flight of stairs and across a peculiar, underground garden filled with massive mushrooms and glowing fungus.

It looked like it was pretty nice but he didn’t get to see much of it as he was carried into a small terracotta tiled room and laid on his back on a large workbench. The big, silent kobold wandered off and Vikris leant over him and smiled that toothy grin of his and placed a paw on the bear’s chest.

“So bear-skunk, I’m afraid you have been selected for the singular honour of me demonstrating my skills to my daughter. She’ll be watching today so I really can’t have you talking and upsetting her so… I’ll say goodbye now..”

Bungle strained to speak, to cry out, to move his body, but whatever had been laced into the water rendered him incapable of movement. There was something about the table as well and all Bungle could do was lay there as the kobold turned away to talk to another of his kind. They yapped for several minutes and then Vikris lifted a black and white kobold up and sat her on a work-table nearby. She clambered to her feet and stood there watching with interest, tugging her long black tunic straight and giggling quietly as Bungle rolled his eyes in her direction.

Then without warning Bungle’s world changed, Vikris stood at the end of the table and started to chant, raising his hands up above his head as strange purple lights flickered and coiled and curled about his fingers. His word were meaningless but somehow Bungle could feel them sliding into his mind, streamers of purple light coiled down through the air like thick mist and settled into his fur. Squeaking in alarm Bungle twitched, his body felt odd… peculiar… pressure was building up inside… he was swelling slightly, his skin stretching, his nose bulging out as he seemed to fill with air.

It was an incredibly uncomfortable sensation; it felt like he was going to burst. His skin was straining, his body felt taught, tight and over-stuffed yet strangely empty. Something very odd was happening to him, this wasn’t right; he shouldn’t be swelling like this. For a minute longer Bungle lay there, stretched, creaking, threatening to burst as Vikris continued chanting. Then without warning the kobold brought his claws down, the purple light winked out and a jolt of energy rocked through Bungle’s body. The bear’s muzzle was forced open and he expelled a massive amount of gas from both ends! There was a long roar, a drawn out hiss of air and the little kobold started giggling. She had covered her face with both paws and was dancing back and forth on the table. Bungle meanwhile could feel his body settling, his fur settled against his back, he was flat, featureless. He had no bones or organs or anything, with no air in him keeping his shape he was just a shapeless mass. The last thing he heard as the darkness crept up on him was Vikris talking to the little kobold.

“And that is one way to get some fabric out of someone; now then we have all this lovely bear pelt. Why don’t we make something nice together?”

“Yes, yes what shall we make?”

“Oh something barbaric and enchanted I think we’ve got all this lovely fur to use…” and then nothing. Darkness claimed Bungle, he couldn’t think, couldn’t talk, only float in a dark void of nothing.

Sometimes there were snippets of the outside world, flashes of light, of voices half heard. It was odd Bungle couldn’t really think straight but he could feel himself being held in place, strange, powerful forces were wrapped all about what he was. He was being twisted; shunted, controlled… flowing through the darkness until suddenly, with a startling jerk the world came back into focus.

The kobold Vikris was standing before a mirror adjusting his new kilt. It was a massive, pleated affair made from heavy brown bear fur. A short black and white representation of his tail lay over the kobolds behind but that wasn’t all. He was wearing a leather harness across his chest made from dark bear leather that appeared to hold a set of fuzzy pauldrons to his shoulders. Bands of fur wrapped about his ankles and his wrists and he was holding a large headband that sported a cute, fuzzy pair of bear ears.

It was him, somehow Bungle was aware and inside the outfit… he was also vaguely aware of the little one, Xur standing nearby. She was dressed in a similar outfit of bear and skunk fur and bouncing up and down excitedly. Bungle could look, could see and listen but had no way of reaching out. He tried, screaming obscenities at the kobolds, pleading with them to turn him back but they ignored him or couldn’t hear him. He vaguely heard Vikris explaining to Xur about how he had enchanted their outfits to give them greater speed and dexterity and used the bears own soul to power the enchantments. It was wrong, this couldn’t be, mustn’t be! Bungle redoubled his efforts to somehow talk to them but they couldn’t hear him… he was… clothing… nothing but an outfit… how could this have happened!

-0-

Today's victim was Bunglebear
Art is by Myoti