Encounter With a Human, pt 3
Aspis has made it to new Coventry Village, the place where his goal resides. Having stolen a ring from his father's hoard, he uses it to change from a dragon to a human. However, the ring doesn't guarantee that it comes with a change of wardrobe. He then meets Maeg, but will he ever attain his goal of knowledge?
Check out a medieval village: http://www.camlann.org/
The cart continued through forest until the forest cleared into fields. Many of the fields were being worked by humans in similar clothes to the human that was driving the cart. Leopold dragged the cart along, with his master, Kerry; driving him. The Clydesdale was more than strong enough to pull the cart, he was only going slow out of protest. He had hoped that Kerry, his master, would realize that they had a stray in the back.
"Keep a move on, Leopold," Kerry said. "We are almost there."
The horse protested, but kept a steady pace.
However, Kerry didn't notice the green eyes in the back. The green eyes looked with an excited fire behind them. Aspis was watching the cart pull into Coventry Village. The village looked like any other medieval village. Houses built over barns, sometimes with houses jutting out. The roofs were all shingled and the houses themselves had stained wood built diagonally. The glass was all small panes in a tic-tac-toe pattern. And people wore woven plant fibers again. The styles women wore included dresses with whimples and hoods; and the men wore tunics and hose. Both sexes wore shoes. Then Aspis had a glimpse of his desire. A man who wore white robes that seemed to flow around him as he walked. He didn't wear hose, but he wore trousers. His robe was open to reveal a shirt. And his appearance matched the man in his vivid memory.
"Whoa, boy, we made it!" said Kerry. "Lets get ready this hay for market, shall we?"
That was Aspis' cue to slip out. The green forest dragon slipped out as Kerry got off the wagon and looked to his horse. He was too occupied with Leopold to notice that a dragon slipped out of his hay and started to creep around.
Unfortunately, Aspis stuck out like a sore thumb. And he knew it too, but the people around were too busy to even worry about the dragon. Aspis found a place he could hide and put on a ring on his claw he found in his father's study. And Aspis was wracked with pain. He blacked out from the pain as he felt his whole body change: his bones had started to pop out of their joints and his muscles started to ripple. It was painful, terribly painful!
"Hey, wake up boy!" said a woman's voice. "No good staying out here completely naked, you know!"
Aspis was being prodded with something wooden. He woke up to see a woman who was about middle aged. "Huh? Ah, what?" he asked.
"You're naked, boy, and sleeping behind my house," said the woman. "And by Heaven where did you get such strangely colored hair?"
Aspis asked, "Hair?" He lifted his paw, no hand, to his head and ran his hand through his hair. He felt it, hair. On top of his head. He also found that his head was round. He touched his face, it was no longer trianglular. He had a nose, cheeks, and a human jaw. Aspis looked down, and found he had the chest, arms, hands, torso, loins, and legs of a human. His body hair, however, was forest green, especially his pubic hair. His skin was pale, except for a tinge of forest green. On his left ring finger was the ring that transformed him into a human, the Ring of Human Form.
Aspis leaped up and laughed out loud, "It worked!" exclaimed Aspis.
"What do you mean it worked?" asked the woman. "Here, let me lead you inside."
"Okay, but I'm here looking for someone," said Aspis.
The woman scowled, making her even more scary even with a whimple around her face. "Not until you are properly dressed, young man!" she said. "What is your name anyhow?"
"A--Amos," said Aspis. He'll go by Amos here in Conventry Village.
"Well, Amos, this way," said the woman. She opened the door to her house and shoved the naked Amos in. No one saw Amos being shoved into the house. Or if they did, they figured that it was the old woman's last boy, being punished for something he did. They never did see the boy's nudity. Their minds have been so conditioned to see something on a human being that they assumed that he was just in his small clothes. And so life continued in Coventry as normal.
******
"Now boy, lets see about getting you dressed," said the woman. She started looking through her other boys' old clothes. "I know I have a pair of clean small clothes here."
"Why do I have to wear clothes?" Amos innocently asked.
The woman said, "It's indecent and irreligious to go about naked."
"But?"
"No buts, you have to get dressed, Amos," said the woman. "And call me Maeg."
"Okay, Maeg," said Amos. He was amazed that he thought dragon speech, and it came out as human speech. Must be part of the ring's magic, he reasoned. Maeg had gone upstairs and in a little bit of time, came back downstairs with a load of clothes.
"Here, Amos, go through these and see what fits you," said Maeg. In no time at all she began rifling through the clothes and picked out a shirt and shorts, or braies. "Here, these should fit you."
However Amos picked out some leather underthings. "What about these?" he asked.
What he held up was a leather thong. Cut in a specific way to look like a modern jockstrap.
"You don't want to wear those, lad," said Maeg. "That's for attraction and titalation."
Still, Amos was already trying them on. He pulled it up to his waist and it seemed to feel comfortable. It was made of brown leather from an ox, and had three brazen studs in a triangle in the crotch. It had two straps that supported his buttocks quite nicely, and it supported his package very well.
"I kind of like them," he said.
Maeg threw up her arms. And then gave him a shirt. "Here, cover yourself with this," she said. Amos did as he was told and put on the shirt. The shirt was lavender colored, but had a nice V-cut. The arms of the shirt were long and hid his arms quite nicely. The shirt was made of fine linen, and it hung about nicely pleated. It also fit him very well.
Amos said, "I like it!"
"Right, now you need some hose," she said. Maeg pulled out some hose and threw it to him. Interestingly enough, it was a dull red color. But Amos put them on just the same. They fit nicely over his thong. Amos was pleased. He looked positively dashing, and the hose fitted snugly about him. At least he thought, but . . . he was still used to going about naked. He did find the underwear he picked to be confining; but at least his package wasn't going anywhere.
"Well, aren't you very eager to put on some clothes?" Maeg observed.
Amos explained, "I haven't worn clothes at all. These are new sensations for me."
"You mean to tell me you've gone naked all your life?"
"Well, yes."
"Unbelieveable."
Maeg handed him some shoes, which didn't fit well. Well, they were old, so Maeg went looking for some more. She found some other shoes that are still in good condition. "Try these," she said.
Amos then put them on. They were made of the same cow leather, but stained red. "They sort of fit, but what are these?"
"They are threads, these are old until I can go to the cobbler and have new ones made for you," she said.
"Well, as long as I can get around," he said. "By the way, who is the man wearing the robes around here?"
Maeg looked at him. "That young eccentric?"
"Yes."
"That's the local wierdo," she said. "Hardly anyone talks to him."
"Why?"
"He goes on about matter, energy, and vibrations. He makes everyone's brains hurt."