I thought this would be longer. Perhaps there are only five or six chapter left in the story: Dawn

Chapter 67 -- Attack

The entire camp broke up at news that the centaurs were on the move. Doug and Stone moved to the left of the camp, and Jason and Pinky followed. Rayla and Wrk moved to the right, with Rayla pulling her bow. She pulled on the bowstring and discovered that she no longer had the strength and magic she had as a Dolly. She sent Wrk to notify Stone, and the fairie flew off. Seconds after, Rayla felt some magic flow into her from her husband. Wrk stayed with him for a second, outlining the paths that centaurs were taking. The animals were walking rather than charging: they still thought this would be a surprise attack.

Stone told Wrk to alert the girls and had them move into a safe position behind Stone and Jason. Then Wrk flew back to Rayla, who had now found she had even more power than she had before. Wrk pointed out three large centaurs standing on a hill. They were over 300 yards away, out of range for Rayla in the old days. Suddenly there was a noise down at the camp. The centaurs had broken through and were attacking the tents with their spears, thinking they were killing the people within. But Stone and Jason had followed them, and were attacking from the rear, the best way to harm the horse parts. Soon Stone could feel the pops of Kithrens de-transforming.

Rayla reacted to the sounds by taking three quick shots at the centaurs on the hill, and then turning to the battle without even looking to see if her aim resulted in hits. She got another five shots off at the attackers, who were only 100 yards from her. Then suddenly the centaurs all froze, and were quickly hacked in the horse parts at by Stone, Jason and Pinky, who carried a small spear. In seconds all the centaurs had been transformed into Kithrens, and Emily and Sissy came out to help them into the camp, which was a shambles. Last two arrive were three Kithren males from the hilltop. All three of Rayla’s long shots had hit, and apparently these three were leaders of the attack. Once they were transformed back, the centaurs still fighting in the camp were leaderless, and had frozen.

In the camp Rayla started a huge fire and made oatmeal in the three largest pots. The Kithren were famished and looked at the food hungrily as it cooked. Soon it was ready and was doled out with people taking turns with the bowls and plates from the small food wagon. Those waiting were fed fruit that had been gathered up in the last garden the family had passed a day before. While they were eating Stone told them about the location of that camp, and the location of the village beyond at the river. The Kithrens would have to leave in the morning: the expedition could not be delayed by the new 100 people.

After another breakfast in the morning the people started to move away. Stone was pleased. He had gained the magic the wizard had used to create the centaurs, weakening the man in the tower by at least the same amount.

It took another day to get to the tower, which was on a small hill. There were centaurs around, but none attacked. In fact, they tended to run away, or hide. Clearly the wizard did not want to lose any more power. The magic link to the tower told Stone that his name was Porthanalos. The group tied up the donkey team and the supplies, and then walked an hour to the tower together, finally crossing a drawbridge. When they were all on the bridge, halfway across, the bridge disappeared. But they didn’t fall. Stone used his magic to replace the bridge. You couldn’t see it, but you could feel it. It was quite odd crossing an invisible bridge and being able to look down and see a moat. There were mermaids in the moat, human from head-to-waist and fish-like below. But the faces were terrifying, not pretty, with huge teeth and vicious fangs and snake-like tongues flickering in and out.

As they reached the end of the invisible bridge, a steel portcullis dropped, blocking the way. Stone merely waved Pate, and the inch-thick steel bars were split, and then the entire thing disappeared as the magic creating it was cut.

The next barrier was an oaken door and again when Pate touched it the door disappeared, and Stone felt another small amount of magic flow into the sword.

They walked along a corridor and finally spotted the magician, sitting atop an ornate looking throne.

“Who comes to me with bared steel?” the man called out.

“We seek knowledge,” Stone said. “We want to find out why we were brought here.”

“I am Porthanalos, the source of all knowledge. Sheathe your sword and we will speak.”

Stone put Pate away and dismounted. “Do you know who brought us here, or why?”

“I brought you here, with some magical help from the lesser wizards,” the man said. “All of you were about to die from one reason or another. I saved you. You were supposed to become the wizard of the north, but you started freeing slaves instead of creating them. You failed.”

Just then the wizard waved his arms in a flamboyant gesture and Stone felt an attack of magic. Pate was sheathed, so Stone tried to combat the magic with his own personal magic. For a moment it worked, and held back the wizard’s attack, but suddenly his magic crumpled, and Stone felt very odd.

The magician then turned his attention to Rayla, who had been firing arrows at the wizard, only to have them fall short against some kind of magic force field. “You, my sweet,” the man said. “You look different from the body I created. Your boobs are too small by half. But don’t worry, I can fix that. Many Dollys need to be able to create milk for masters who are into that. I’ll just tweak that, and in a few minutes, you will be able to feed your baby-master.

Rayla looked in horror at Stone. The giant was gone, and in his place was a baby. Oddly, the baby still was muscle bound, but only looked to be a year old.

“The barrier around,” Wrk said from her nest tucked inside Rayla’s cleavage, “Perhaps there is no top to it.”

Rayla quickly got the point and started firing arrows straight up. She still had the magic Stone had given her in the last battle and was able to fire off 100 arrows within a minute. Then she turned her attention back to the wizard, who was sending magic at her to no effect.

“It’s not working,” the wizard sputtered. “I should be able to transform any dolly I created. And I remember creating you.”

“Perhaps I am not a Dolly anymore,” Rayla said tugging up her top from the waist, revealing her new navel.

The wizard gasped at that. “That is impossible,” he said and then had to look up at the arrows raining down at him, each one targeted to his head.

While he was distracted Sissy darted over to baby Stone, freeing him from his oversized clothes. She also pulled Pate from the scabbard. At first it was nearly too heavy for her to lift, but soon she felt it feed her some power and she was able to move it around to the front of the baby. She clasped the tiny hands around the hilt, and pointed the sword at the magician, who was just clearing the last few arrows.

“You, girl!” he shouted at her. “What are you doing?” He shot magic out towards her. But Pate now started to absorb the magic, and none hit the girl. For the next few minutes, Stone slowly started to grow as he held onto Pate with his chubby hands. Soon he looked like a four-year-old and stood up. When he looked 10, he was able to lift Pate off the floor, and the sword started sucking more magic out of the wizard.

Now a teen-aged Stone was drawing more and more magic, and the wizard’s face screwed up with rage when he realized that he was not attacking with magic, but it was being drawn from him. You could see him trying to stop the outflow of magic, but Pate just drew more and more.

Now full-sized again, although completely naked with his clothes around his feet, Stone drew more and more power. Now it was the wizard who was shrinking, although not into childhood. His body grew smaller and thinner and older. Finally, it was a completely ancient looking old man who finally turned to dust with a large pop of magic.

Stone felt the popping sound that told of centaurs in the surrounding area reverting into humans, and then a pop as large as a bang. The tower itself was disintegrating. Stone went to put up a force shield over his family, until he realized that the tower was not breaking apart into bricks and stones but was now just the dust that was pouring down upon them.

Stone reached down and pulled up his shorts and then his pants, not worrying about his shirt at the time.

Jason was off to the side, sitting atop Pinky when the popping had started. He was pretty sure that the lack of magic from the wizard would affect the filly, so he wrapped his arms around her human waist, closing his eyes and waiting.

Soon it happened. He heard a large pop right beneath him, and his feet slowly dropped to the ground. He wondered what Pinky would look like as a Kithren. He vowed that he would still love her, even if her looks were merely plain. She felt normal though. He opened his eyes.

All he could see at first was her hair. It was slightly darker than before, nearer to red than pink. And it was thick and luscious. On her head, the mane on her back, and her tail. Yes, she still had a tail.

Pinky turned to look at him. The profile showed the same face, although her pink skin was paler now, nearly normal with just a tint of pink.

“Hold me,” she gasped in fear. “How do people walk with only two feet?”

He looked down and saw that her forelegs were human-looking, and quite curvy, ending in small feet rather than hooves. They were also a foot shorter than they had been before, leaving the girl only a few inches taller than Jason, perhaps 6’2” instead of 7’3”. She was also teetering as she got used to standing on two feet again.

“You’re still beautiful,” Jason said, and Pinky blushed, something she hadn’t been able to do with her centaur form. Emily came over and took Pinky’s hand for balance, allowing Jason to view his girl from a few feet away. Sissy stood further back, wondering how she could alter Pinky’s clothes. The mini skirt had turned into a midi with her loss of height, and the top was much smaller. Her breasts had shrunk, although they were still large for a human. Her shoulders were narrower, and her arms thinner and more feminine. Something Sissy saw immediately was that her butt was naked now there was no horse parts. And it was pink skin, not fur.

Jason moved to the side, and then the back. From the rear her butt looked much like a horse, especially considering her tail. Her hips were very wide, and there seemed to be an awful lot of padding back there, compared to Sissy and Emily.

Sissy took the girl’s hand and led her away, taking small, delicate steps. Sissy wanted to get started on clothes immediately so that she was not continually mooning the others.

The others in the party were standing in a heap of dust that had once been the tower. Stone had dressed again, and Kithrens were slowly coming towards them, confused and disorientated from their recent transformation. Stone was almost impossible to look at, with so much wild magic flowing from Pate and his body causing him to glow like a burning torch. He raised the sword and started sending magic blasts into the air. There were no fireworks at all this time, but where the blasts landed the barren land transformed into gardens and groves. It took an hour for him to transform the land around him into a lush green land for the Kithren’s to live in.

He directed the transformed to a nearby garden where there was fruit and vegetables for them to feed on.