Chapter Text
For once Fern’s master was able to make a point out of her insistence to open every single chest they had come across in the dungeons, to her dismay she could hear the elf humming in delight, making an effort to make sure Fern could hear her tune.
"I told you there would be a Grimoire inside of that chest~" Frieren teased feeling proud of herself, nevermind it was one of the few times throughout her centuries worth of dungeon travel she hadn’t ended up as mimc food. "First time you’ve left a dungeon without being covered in slobber…" Fern responded, feeling annoyed that her master’s luck had done her good just this once even if it meant she didn’t have to go through the trouble of getting her out of it again.
Continuing her blissful humming, Frieren decided to flick through the pages of the dusty old book, curious as to what spells it contained. It didn’t take long for her singing to come to a halt, turning into a stern murr. The switch in attitude certainly caught Fern’s attention at that, "What is it miss Frieren?"
"Appears to be some sort of obscure dialect, I’m having trouble deciphering a lot of these words…" she cautioned, before beginning to smile smugly to Fern’s dismay. "Seems to have a lot of spells, we could have some fun with this…"
"Miss Frieren… If you’re implying that we recklessly cast some unknown spells we just discovered that we don’t know the effects of then I’m afraid I’m gonna have to sit out for your little experiments…"
-
"BLEGGHHHH"
Frieren had been bathroom bound for about 10 minutes already. Neither Fern or Stark were quite sure exactly what was going on in there, however it didn’t sound very pleasant, lots of throwup from what they could tell.
"What happened out there..?" Stark questioned about their trip dungeon hopping, he was probably assuming it was some sort of monster or plant down there that got her sick however Fern knew better.
"Frieren found a grimoire with some spells she was unfamiliar with, she thought it would be fun to do some experimentation" Fern huffed, making sure her wording made it clear none of this was her idea. She didn’t want anything to do with her mistake.
"Sounds eventful, shame I had to miss out." Stark chuckled slightly. He was recovering from a leg injury acquired in a recent battle, the town they were staying in wasn't big enough to have any priests so he was instructed to just recover on his own. The current condition of Stark’s leg was the whole reason why the two girls had decided to visit the local dungeons anyways, it was a dungeon rich area and they needed to pass the time and get resources as he recovered.
The restroom door finally opened, with a bent out half asleep Frieren stepping outside before the two humans. Stark went to get a word in, but before he could she had already stumbled her way over to her bed and flopped onto the sheets.
Frieren was already dead asleep.
That was fine, it was getting late anyways they might as well have called it a night already. Best not disturb Frieren, she probably needs that rest after everything she just put herself through.
-
By dead of night or very early morning, a time in which Fern was unsure of given outside was nothing but a darkened black she was awoken by the sound of wood snapping and crashing down to a thud, soon to only be followed by an irritating whine.
"Miss Frieren?!" Fern swiftly stood from her bed, taking a moment to try and comprehend what she was seeing. Rubbing her eyes to refresh her sight, she could feel the man rested beside her use her as support to lift himself up into a seated position.
The bed was completely broken, the frame cracked in half and rested against the ground and underneath a still fast asleep Frieren. "MISS FRIEREN?!" Fern got out of bed and ran over to her in a panic, leaving Stark to fall back into the bedding of the two’s shared bed.
"Uhh that’s a horse in that bed." Stark pointed out bluntly, gesturing to the hooves peaking out and causing Fern some confusion before deciding to pull off the blankets to check her.
On full display in front of them was a sprawled out Centaur, some weird amalgamation of a horse with their very own mentor. Her hooves were shiny and her fur a snow white with a silvery tail that matched her pigtails in colour and style, more of a show horse than anything else.
"Frieren?! Frieren wake up!!!!" Fern shook her more violently than she had ever done previously in their entire time Traveling together. "Just ten more minutes, Fern…" the now Elf-Centaur softly mumbled in a desperate attempt to get some more 'bed'time
"Oh to hell with that!" Fern stood up, running to the bathroom to fill a cup with the cold tap water, pouring it over her head to force her to her senses.
After a bit of effort they had finally gotten Frieren out of bed and onto her feet- er- hooves. Frieren looking over her new body with calm curiousity, Stark watching as well with amazement "She really is a centaur…"
"Are you proud of yourself?" Fern asked judgmentally, her hands on her hips as Frieren inspected herself. "Well it’s certainly… new…" she took a small step to test her new appendages, trying to figure out how to walk.
After a bit of struggle and relearning how to move, Frieren had made it over to the wall, only about a metre away. She reached for her staff, missing as she was not used to being on such a different level of height to the thing, she managed to grab it just fine upon her second attempt.
Fern was just relieved that the floor was stone rather than wooden, planks would definitely collapse under her new added weight just as the bed frame did. She had spells to clear up any scratches on stone that solid hooves could cause, however she had no such enchantments to mend broken wood.
Fern started to bring a bit more harshness to her tone "Miss Frieren, I can’t help but think you’re not taking this seriously enough…". Frieren paused to think of a response, beginning to search around after a hum of acknowledgment.
After finding the grimoire she was searching for she bent down to grab it off of the flooring, soon realising that she couldn’t quite figure out how to bend down that low. Stark got to his hands and knees to pick up the book for her in his own injured state "here Frieren-" he offered.
"Hey! Don’t encourage this!" She took the book before Fern could tell Stark off. Frieren flicked through the pages before finally beginning to speak properly like a fully awake person, despite her usual low monotone.
"It’s a valuable grimoire; as it’s surely proven. Full of powerful transformation spells, could prove of great use to us…" she explained, turning the book around to show the kids the diagrams inside of it.
"Well that’s certainly impressive magic, but I don’t exactly think that’s something we should be messing with- given your current state and all…" Fern replied, beginning to trail off slightly remembering their initial unsureness of what it even was on "did you manage to translate much?"
"Not much, but I understand now that this magic is of great rarity including a lot of spells relegated to small communities that may have previously been completely lost to time." A smile creeps over her face, this may have been her proudest discovery of the century. She seemed excited in her own weird way, an emotion on Frieren that only ever meant trouble for Fern.
"If it helps ease your worries I believe there should be some sort of way to reverse the changes within the pages of this grimoire" Frieren continued, "I had started attempting to translate the spell I used last night, however I was cut short by the effects which had caused me to hurl. Very unfortunate side effect…"
"You casted the spell before you knew what it did, didn’t you..?" Fern scepticised, with all of centuries of experience Frieren had with magic Fern found it astounding how reckless she tended to be with it at times.
"I did, however I think I’ll have this fully translated in only a year or so, until then I’m completely fine spending some time with an extra pair of legs." She smirked, the absurdity of it all seemed amusing to her, and maybe it would be an interesting way to shake things up for a little while.
"A YEAR?!" Fern and Stark both called out in unison, Fern growling as she once again took the moment to look up and down her master’s new modified body. She was going to be stuck with Centaur Frieren for a year?!
"Yep! and I say we’ve done all the exploring we need around here, we should get moving again." Frieren suggested, her newly acquired tail flicking slightly as if to gesture for them to come along with her.
Stark raised his hand, "uh- my leg is still broken?" He explained, Fern leaning into him, clinging desperately onto his excuse to not let them continue on with their journey with Frieren leading in her current state.
"I could carry you," Frieren points to her back. "I see no reason why you can’t ride me until you recover."
And with that Fern and Stark had no choice but to pack up their things and carry on with their adventure.