Seasonal Task - Trick or Treat

After a fitful night of sleep, Eachna woke with a tuft of fur in her face. She sneezed and eyed it. Recognizing it as the tuft of fur that decorated her tail as Sailorequuleus, she groaned, wondering if she had somehow transformed in her sleep. She started to get up to try and return to her civilian self but her arms and legs wouldn't cooperate.

Great, just what I need.

She stretched to try and get them to work better and noticed that her hands weren't there. Her arms were the wrong shape and ended in three toed paws. Her arms had tufts of fur growing out of the back. She turned her head to look at her legs. They looked similar to her Equuleus legs, but with tufts of fur and paws like the front legs she had now. She was dressed as Sailorequuleus, although parts were missing.

Eachna shook her head. This can't be happening, I've got to be having some sort of weird dream still. It happens, right? People dream about waking up only to go into another dream, and then wake up for real all the time. Right? RIGHT?

She scrambled her way out of bed, trying to be as quiet as possible so the rest of the house wouldn't know she was up and crept over to her vanity mirror to see what else had changed. Everything was different. What am I? How did this happen? Is it permanent? She shook her head. I have to get to the cloaked world. No one can see me like this until I've gotten back to normal.

A quick glance at the clock on her bedside table told her that it was still very early in the morning. She wouldn't need to be up for school for another hour and a half at least. Here's hoping that's enough time to get this sorted out.

Using her broach, she made her way to the cloaked world. Once there, she headed off to talk to the Lady of the Stars, to see if she knew what had happened. From her, she learned that the Rifters had been placing curses on the Constellation senshi, which did a lot to explain why she looked the way she did. So, armed with the knowledge of what was wrong with her, she went to the shrine where the statues of the first Constellation Senshi were. She sat down in front of the original Equuleus, looking up at the proud warrior's stone face. Can you help me? I don't know what's happening to me.

There was no answer and after a while, Eachna started to feel really foolish. "Who'm I kidding? I don't know why I was expecting to get answers from a statue."

"The statue can't help you, but I can," a voice from behind her said.

Eachna turned around to see a creature that looked a lot like her, only it wore no clothing. Its fur was a similar colour to the yellow of her fuku with a darker patch. It had green tufts of fur, long green eyebrows, and a long, fluffy brown tail. Its deep green eyes regarded her calmly. There was something about it that wasn't quite real.

"Who are you?" Eachna asked.

"My name is Esharia," it replied pleasantly. "I'm a bit disappointed that you don't remember me."

"Should I know you?"

Esharia nodded up at the statue of the first Equuleus. "When you were her, when your name was Celeris, I was your friend, your closest companion."

"So...what you are is related to what I look like when I transform?" Esharia nodded. "I always wondered why I look different as a senshi."

"Equuleus senshi come from a planet called Siulia. You're human in this life, but your senshi self is an Equashil and always will be. As for me--and what you look like now--I'm a Viellar. We share the same home world."

"No offense, but how does this help me? These Rifters, they've been cursing us." Eachna danced in place in agitation. "I need to get back to my proper self. My family's gonna worry."

"Yes, I know. You shouldn't look like this." Esharia tilted her head. "As I said, I can help."

"How?"

"You are the current incarnation of my dear friend, but you don't seem to remember much about your past lives. Knowledge of your past and of your old home may help you gain the strength to shake this curse free and allow your proper shapes to reassert themselves."

Eachna tried to shrug but it didn't work very well given her current form. "I'm willing to try anything at this point."

Esharia nodded and told her a great many things about Celeris and the world of Siulia--including the Viellar and the Equashil. Esharia, it turned out, was female, not that Eachna could tell by looking at her. As she listened, Eachna was fascinated. The world Equuleus came from was so interesting in its similarities and differences from the one she'd grown up on. The words created vivid images in her mind.

Finally, Esharia stopped talking. "I think that will solve the problem."

"What?" Eachna asked, confused.

"You seem to have found something in yourself that fixed the problem."

Eachna looked down at herself and saw that she had changed from the Viellar shape to Sailorequuleus. With a happy sigh, she concentrated and changed from that back to her civilian form, noting that she was still in her pajamas.

"Thanks, Esharia," Eachan said happily.

"I'm happy to have been helpful once more."

"What're you going to do now?"

"Now? Don't you worry about me. You just get yourself back home before you're missed."

Esharia watched as Eachna left and faded from sight.