We walked northwards for hours. I was missing my overabundance of mana almost immediately, even if it did mean I might explode, without it I quickly started to feel fatigue setting back in. It wasn’t as bad as it had been before. But the soreness was there, and it was building. I was used to walking all day in a small room with smooth floors, not over grassy hills, around trees, and through bushes. Besides my feet were absolutely killing me.

I glanced at the man next to me, “Devin… Carry me…” I complained.

“Are you joking?” He asked from my side.

“My legs are sore, and my feet feel like they are turning into soup.” I pouted up at him.

He gave me a stare in response, his brown scraggly hair still looked just as messy as when he had been in what had basically been a closet for who knows how long. “So are mine, and my chest is still bruised to hell from our run-in with that guard.” Devin dodged my request, even as my eyes drifted down to his tone arms and legs.

I deflated and I pulled my eyes off of his body and back to his eyes. I could only sigh and admit defeat, “Fine… I’ll walk. I’m just so soft and vulnerable… And my feet really do hurt.” More than anything the real problem was my feet. I glanced down at the shoes I’d fashioned for myself with my ability shortly after starting our trip northward. “Maybe we can take a quick break?”

Scout chimed in, “She worse.”

“I don’t want to hear that from you…” I groaned, “I’ve been stuck in various prisons for weeks. Cut me some slack.”

Scout chuckled, and his fellow goblins all joined him, all thinking the whole thing was quite amusing. I didn’t begrudge them their fun. It was just that I expected I would have built muscle over the last week or so. Instead, as Scout had said, it was like I’d gotten worse. Then again I really hadn’t been eating that well.

Our group slowed down and I spoke up, trying to be productive, “Do we have anything to eat, or drink? Might as well since we are stopped…”

Scout thrust the water skin at me without much preamble, his little goblin smirk practically daring me to say, or do something. I took it and took a drink as Scout added, “No food.”

“We definitely need to put the distance in, the elves are no joke. We ran into one of their scouts on the way down to save your ass if I didn’t have the goblins as back up I’d be dead.” Devin stated.

I found myself frowning at Devin. They hadn’t told me about that. Then again we’d mostly just been focused on walking. This wasn’t a casual hike after all.

I passed the water skin back to Scout as I sat down and tried to pull off my shoes. They didn’t come off, rather I quite simply realized they were somewhat to my dismay part of my foot. This led me to look at the bottoms. It was only then I realized they were stained red with blood, worn, bruised, and scrapped. It only occurred to me now that my ability was shape-shifting, not foot protection. That explained why my feet hurt so much at least.

I decided to try and do something about it, “Does anyone have anything I can wrap my feet in? Some leather or cloth? Oh! Where did I put my loincloth?” I asked realizing that might work.

“What’s wrong with those?” Devin said, pointing at my feet, which were presently shaped like shoes.

“They aren't shoes… they are my feet.” I said as the bulk of the tissue shrunk back into my feet, the bruised tissue was far slower to do so, but as continued to speak it made progress, “I thought it didn’t matter, but it does.” I tried to explain.

Devin stared at the sight, “That…” Then he shook his head and tried again, “You really need to explain you're weird magic to me so I can understand it.” Devin noted.

I held my hand out and focusing on it, I tried to produce a horn from it. It was slower to form than something like skin, or even something like leather. After some ten seconds, I had a small horn in my hand, roughly as long as my pointer finger. I held it up so he could see it, “Looks nice and hard right?” I asked.

Devin nodded, though he was obviously confused, having no idea what point I was trying to make.

I pressed my pointer finger of my other hand to the tip of the previously stated horn, then with a little pressure, the whole thing bent to the side slightly. “It’s a lot softer than it looks.”

Devin frowned leaning in and doing the same, then he gripped the tip of it and pulled hard to one direction causing me to screech and try to move my hand so he didn’t snap it off, “Owww! Hey!” He stopped immediately looking at me with wide eyes.

“What the hell did you do that for?” I asked.

“I… I didn’t expect that to hurt you…” He stammered out, obviously pale in shock.

“Well, it did… Geez…” I said focusing on reabsorbing the horn. I tried to explain, “The same thing happens when I try to make fingernails. They break easily and it hurts. It's not like they aren't stiff, it's just that it isn’t as durable as you would expect considering how they look.”

“What about bones?” Naan suddenly asked interjecting itself into the conversation.

“What about them?” I asked back mentally.

“Can you make yourself look like Devin? He’s quite a bit taller than you are, thus your bones must lengthen.”

I considered, “Not sure... I was a bit taller when I became that priestess, but it wasn’t like I was as tall as him. Only one way to know huh…” I said as the last of my foot pain faded. I was really glad that we’d stopped, if nothing else I appeared to heal pretty quickly, which I suppose made sense, my flesh could change shape now, wounds should be able to close themselves in the same way.

I stood up and took a breath. My body easily ballooned out assuming his shape quite quickly, even his simple tunic and simple shorts, the leather boots came last. I stood next to him, feeling far taller than I’d ever been. But at the same time… I kind of felt… bloated.

“What… what in the world are you doing?” Devin asked, staring at me in confusion.

“What?” I asked feeling awkward and shifting back and forth, I didn’t feel strong, rather I felt… bad. I felt heavy and unbalanced. Even just trying to bend and move around felt restrictive. Was this what it was like to put on a hundred pounds or something? Not that I had any idea what that might actually be like.

“Please change back…” Devin said as I continued leaning back and forth trying to get a feel for what was different inside of me. After a few moments, Devin groaned out, “Obviously…” I wasn’t sure what that was about, rather it must have been a reply to something I didn’t hear.

“What's wrong?” I asked with his voice. I was a little surprised at how it sounded in my own head now that I was considering it.

“Can you not think about this from my perspective for a moment?” He asked.

I considered him but I had to admit, I wasn't following, “What?”

“Your heights are the same, I imagine your perspectives are very much similar.” Naan pointed out, this time clearly speaking to both of us.

“You are both messing with me, right? The last thing I want is my woman to be a man!” He said with growing anger.

Oh, that's what he was going on about. I couldn’t help but bite my lip. Or his lip? I had completely forgotten how strange that would likely be for him.

“Curious…” Naan noted as if it was somewhat amused by the whole thing.

I decided I’d at least ask an important question before I moved on, “Naan, what do you think about the bones? You were the one who was curious right? You can… dungeon vision them or something?”

“That's an interesting way to refer to my observation ability...”

“Either way...what do you see?” I asked.

“Your bones are the same size, rather it looks like you’ve created end caps for them out of… firm tissue, not unlike the growth you produced earlier.”

“So, no bones.” I noted and quickly began shrinking back down into the form I’d accepted as “Anna.” I still had the orange and black striped hair that Meryl’s body came with, though I’d extended the hair down my back in a braid I’d stolen from a certain malicious elf priestess. I’d remained the same height as Meryl but changed my proportions to what felt more natural to me. This left me with a bigger bosom, and slightly wider hips and thighs while not being too outrageous. I was pretty sure my face had altered some as well, to be honest, it was more like I was just relaxing into a more natural form where my face and body were concerned. I suppose I could have done the same with my hair and ears, even my tail. But honestly, they had really started to grow on me, and they felt quite at home where they were.

More than anything I was glad to be back in my comparatively dainty frame once more. I felt so much better and I realized that even breathing and standing had been harder before.

“Thank goodness… Please don’t do that to me… it's going to ruin yourself for me permanently.” Devin sighed.

I stepped over to him and cupped his groin rubbing him a little and feeling him start to stiffen, “Seems like your manhood is fine to me.”

Devin brushed my hand away, “Cut that out…We don’t have time to waste on that.”

I giggled at my own naughtiness, “True… But with you talking like that I had to check?” Then I recalled what I was doing before the distraction, “Did anyone remember where-”

A goblin held out my loincloth at that.

I took it and patted his head, “Thanks!”

He practically blushed as I patted his mostly bald head. Male goblins didn’t really have hair on their heads. It was more akin to a human’s arm hair. What they did have was ear hair, Scout in particular stood out with his gray thick ear hair in and around his long ears that hung out on either side of his head.

I smiled at the goblin who’d found what I was looking for. Was this one of the goblins that were newer? Or one that had spent days fucking me from behind? I looked over the group trying to figure it out, but after a few moments, I decided that I couldn’t tell. I could clearly recognize Scout among the group, but the others had mostly blurred together in my mind. It didn’t help since I’d only ever considered them, “The goblins.” I really should fix that at some point.

I decide to stop wasting time and sat back down, I wrapped the once groin protector’s pelt around each foot but with the cords only coming off on the one end I couldn’t secure it very well. I tried a few ways before realizing I had an ace up my sleeve for this.

With a few more minutes I was able to wrap the leather tightly and secure it using my own shape-shifting tissue. It was alright as long as the leather was on the bottom, that was really all that mattered. It looked like a weird sneaker when I was done.

“Alright.” I said standing up and prancing this way and that way. “That should help the foot pain.”

“You really need some boots…” Devin pointed out.

“True. But for now, we need to work with what we’ve got. Maybe after we start fucking Naan can make me some shit!” I said, hopeful.

“That… makes no sense.” Devin insisted.

“I can’t ‘make shit’” Naan pointed out.

“Then transmogrify it or something?” I offered.

“You quite overestimate my capabilities. Most of the things I can manifest will disperse outside of my dungeon body as well.” Naan pointed out.

“Oh… Wait, so monsters?” I asked.

“If I create them using my abilities yes. You however a flesh and blood creature, as are the goblins. I’ve never had the resources to craft monsters from raw mana alone.” Naan pointed out.

“But that is a thing…” I queried.

“It is, but only with a proper quantity of mana, and a dungeon body to house them and sustain them.” Naan affirmed.

“Fair… Well, let's go. I can’t wait to finally eat some meat…” I said as I started down the hill.

Devin chuckled to himself as the rest of them followed after me.

There was a long way to go, and we were still just getting started.