Page 10 of Champion of Cards

Now she chuckled. “He can be that too. But damn, that man is fine…”

Eh.

The smile stayed on her lips. “I wonder what you’ll look like as a human.”

I don’t know…hopefully ferocioussss.

“You’ll intimidate the other players at the table.”

I’d probably intimidate them more as a sssnake.

“True.”

Kingsnake emerged, leaving the little house on the hill then crossing the cobblestone road. There was no indication that anything had happened, no blood in the corner of his mouth. There was only a flush of color to his skin now that his belly was full. “You alright?”

Larisa got to her feet. “We were just talking about what he’ll look like as a human. He hopes he’ll be ferocious.”

Very ferociousss.

The witch appeared at the bottom of the hill, her cloak billowing about her in the breeze. Her eyes were on me before she slowly raised her hand in the air and beckoned me to join her in her cabin.

Wisssh me luck. I slithered away, covering the cobblestone street then reaching the soft grass. I slid through the blades and approached the entrance to her little cottage, the fireflies dancing just above my head.

She opened the door for me, and then we entered the humble abode. A fire burned in the stone hearth, and there were two chairs facing each other on the rug. There was a kettle pot there, the fragrance unusual. Her dusty shelves were full of glasses that contained flowers and plants in blue liquid.

I moved onto the chair opposite her, my head raised so we were eye level with each other.

She regarded me for several long seconds, two bloody dots on her neck, the blood already caked against her skin. “So.”

Ssssooooo.

She smiled. “Any requests before I turn you?”

You can underssstand me?

“Of course I can.”

But you aren’t a vampire…

“I’m a little bit of everything.” There were secrets behind those mischievous eyes, secrets I would never know. “And just as immortal.”

Interesssting.

“So, describe how you want to look.”

Ferociousss. Powerful. Terrifying. Anyone who looks upon me will run in fear…

“Alright. So you want to be tall, strong, and muscular.”

Yesss.

“And what about your appearance? Hair color? Eye color?”

Whatever is the scariessst.

“You want to be a human, not an orc,” she said. “You want to be attractive?”

I don’t care.

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