Oneshot The Alchemist's Familiar (Yuri Garden 2019 Contest Entry)

Here's my entry for this year's contest!
Cutting out two thirds of the story was a nightmare, but it finally fits in the contest's requirements! Hope you guys enjoy it!

Title: The Alchemist's Familiar (Yuri Garden 2019 Contest Entry)
Synopsis: One girl's prank on the one she loves has consequences far and away beyond what she could imagine.

Spoiler: Click to read story

I woke up buried in a thick blanket. The night before, I was with Dianne, the court alchemist. We were dating, technically, but only in name. We didn't do anything like couples, and anyone I told only gave me a warm smile like they were talking to a child. It was a given, as two women dating each other wouldn't be recognized by anyone in this world.

But last night, I snuck in a sweet tart filled with spicy peppers in my gift to her. Somehow it all went wrong, and I ended up eating it. I hated spicy things and in my panic, I made a mess of her lab. I found her water jug on the ground and emptied it.

In the end, I spent the night in her lab, wanting to stay near her, but unable to come up with an apology for messing her things up.

Worried what the day might bring, I pushed aside the blanket and got up.

At least I tried to, but the blanket refused to budge. No, it wasn't that, no matter how much I pushed it, more of it kept coming!

(Was it Dianne? Was she so angry that she did something?!)

I started to panic, but worrying about such a thing wouldn't help me. She was the only one who would be around.

"Diann! Help! I'm stuck!"

Suddenly light peeked between the covers. Dianne was looking down at me, but she looked confused. No, not just that, she looked big. Like, huge.

"Kat?"

"Who else would I look like?"

"Umm, yea...but...this is worse than I thought..."

"What's worse?"

I got up, but for some reason it was harder than expected. My balance was strangely off and I struggled to avoid falling onto my butt.

No, even weirder, Dianne was still looking down at me as if I was still lying on the cot. That was impossible, as I was taller than her.

"No, umm...come here, I need to do some tests."

Dianne lowered her hand, and put it down beside me. But somehow, her hand was enormous. Like that of a giant.

I was feeling more dazed than usual after waking up, and my mind had problems wrapping around what I was looking at. Somehow, there was a hand beside me that was big enough for me to get on.

Looking back and forth between her giant hand and her huge face, the pieces slowly clicked together. When they did...

"Eh?"

Everything went black again.



It was a while before I woke up again, and even longer while before I calmed down and heard Dianne's explanation.

Apparently that thing in the pitcher I drank from wasn't water, or some weird wine or anything. It was one of her experiments that she put into her water jug because she had ran out of clean flasks to put it in.

I've never seen her look so remorseful before. Her usual stiff, unemotional face was so full of expression on the rare time it wasn't her talking excitedly about her work. The one time she made a different expression just for me, and it was remorse.

Not only that, she looked so tired. She probably hadn't sleep for a while as she holed herself up with her experiments, but whatever she was doing last night, it had taken it's toll on her.

"It's okay Dianne. It was my fault for planting that spicy tart."

"But..."

"And your stuff never works right the first time anyways. I bet it'll wear off soon. And also..."

I wagged this huge, fluffy squirrel tail I now had behind me, as well as the soft pointy ears on top of my head.

"These are so cute that I kinda hope that they'll stay even after I return to normal size!"

I gave her the best smile I could. I couldn't let her know how terrified I was. How close I was to breaking down and cry.

"I don't know. But I'll find a way to return you to normal. I promise!"

We nodded together. No matter what, we'll get through this together. I didn't really have a choice on the matter but to rely on Dianne for it, but the fact that she would promise me this helped put me at ease.

"But for now, maybe some clothes would be nice. It's pretty cold being too small for my usual stuff"

I shivered as I wrapped my body with my tail to ward off the chill.



(...?)

I rubbed my sore eyes and pushed myself up to a sitting position. I wasn't sure when, but it looked like I fell asleep at some point.

Against her suggestions, I refused to sleep while Dianne worked tirelessly for my sake.

Despite that, there I was, waking up after trying so hard to keep up with her for three days straight.

I felt so pathetic. Dianne hadn't slept in over a week now, yet when I looked up, she was still working at it.

A handkerchief lay by my side which she had probably covered me with while I slept.

I really was pathetic. Dianne was working so hard for my sake, yet I couldn't do anything for her. She was a court alchemist, the top court alchemist, and I wad little more than a glorified errand girl, one of many.

The only thing I could do, to justify being near her, things like bringing her food and cleaning up her lab. They were impossible for the current me. I was useless to her as I was, yet at the rate things were going, her body was going to break down before she found a cure. I was nothing but a liability to her now.

As I looked up at her, my eyes shot open like saucers and blew my exhaustion away.

Dianne's bloodshot eyes from way too many days without sleep was staring intently at her shaking hands. One was held in front of her and the other grasping a knife, with it's blade inching towards the others wrist.

"Stop!"

I jumped up and grabbed her free hand, wrapping my body around her wrist to shield it the only way I could with my current size.

"I know how responsible you feel about me, but don't kill yourself over it! What would I do if you were g...gone?! I, I...I wouldn't be able to take it if, if, you...leave me! I swear! If you, if you kill yourself, I'll crawl down your throat and drown myself in your stomach!"

I glared at her as tears ran down my face, voice choked up with emotions as I openly and shamelessly cried my lungs out.

The thought, even the thought of her gone tore a hole out of my chest, but seeing her attempt it, and it being my fault?

"Waaaahhhh! You dummy! Stupid stupid dummy! Waaahhh! I don't, I don't wanna be alone! Don't leave me! Waaaahhhh!!!"

There was a clatter and I felt my entire body move before something big and soft rubbed against me.

"I'm sorry Kat. I'm sorry. I was, I didn't mean to scare you."

Dianne rubbed her cheek against my body as I cried, her words just barely registering in my mind, but I was so full of emotions that I couldn't stop crying, and we stayed like that until I managed to calm down.



"Would that really work?"

I asked while still sniffling. I had wiped my face on her handkerchief as I sat on her palm while hugging her thumb. I was still vigilant of her doing something weird, so I refused to get off.

"I don't know. I've tried everything that had even the remotest chances, but nothing came close. So I thought, if I created the same potion, but using human blood instead of squirrel blood, then it might work."

"...but you said the potion wasn't complete. Do you really think that just making the same mixture together but with your blood then going through the same process would actually reverse it?"

"Probably? Maybe? It'll probably...it probably won't. No, in fact, it'll probably make things worse."

(As I thought. She's gone so far over that she isn't making sense even to herself anymore.)

"Dianne, you need to eat and get some sleep."

"But..."

"Now."

"No but..."

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty lightheaded from not eating. I don't think I can keep going without some food and drink."

(Or rather, I'm amazed I'm not lying on the table unable to move at this point. Or her. Dianne should be on the verge of a complete crash.)

"You can go get something for yourself. I'll stay here and keep working."

"Like this? I doubt I can eve open a door, much less get food."

"...*sigh* Fine. I'll get you something."

"And get something for yourself! No, wait!"

"What are you...?"

I hopped up and climbed up Dianne's sleeve before climbing up to her shoulder.

"If you put on your robes, I can hide in your hood!"

"Wait! Does that mean you're coming with me?"

"If I don't, you'll probably forget to get food for yourself, won't you?"

"..."

Rather, she probably didn't even have plans on getting food for herself in the first place. Her sense of responsibility was making her punish herself in whatever way she could until she made things right.

(But I's against it! It wasn't her fault in the first place, but even if it was, I didn't want her to suffer for her mistakes like that!)

Weakly, Dianne put her usual robes on, careful to make sure I wasn't caught underneath it. Once it was secure, I climbed into her hood and hid in her long hair. Both the robes and her hair smelled. I needed to make sure she took a bath later on and had her clothes washed. I couldn't do it for her anymore after all.



It's been two weeks since the incident.

We hadn't been able to find a cure for my condition, and had to make it public. Dianne refused to disclose any information on how this had happened, only letting out that she had no way to reproduce it as it happened on accident.

Due to my new size, I was pretty dependent on Dianne for almost everything. I couldn't do my old job anymore, and was reassigned to hers assistant, though it was more just a title than anything, as I wasn't even given any pay. Not like I could use it with my condition.

That said, I did actually do work like an assistant. I helped sort her things, doled out measurements according to her instructions and stirred concoctions as she did other things. I even scribbled notes for her as she worked. My knowledge of her work exploded as I was forced to concentrate on all the things she did during her experiments. The more I learned, the more I understood how hopeless my situation was.

What had happened to me was the essence of squirrels had merged with my body due to the combination of things I had drunk and eaten. At first it was like two liquids that were swirling together in a flask, but the longer it took, the more the two essences were mixed and became inseparable. By the third day, it was virtually impossible to separate, and returning to how I was before was unrealistic. At best, I could add new essences to my body, but the results would be unpredictable, and instead could easily backfire entirely.

"Kat? I thought, maybe, until, until we figure out how to fix your body..."

"Don't try to get my hopes up on that. We both know it's impossible. I'm far too gone to reverse this."

"Yes but...!"

"No buts! You need to stop pretending! I won't get better! There is no cure! I'll be like this forever! I'll never be able to live a normal life again!"

It took everything I had to keep back the tears. The reality of my situation had been shoved in my face constantly for the last few weeks, but I've been averting my eyes. Dianne's been averting her eyes as well.

"You're right. But I realized something these last few days. You know how I never had an assistant before?"

"Yea, they always freak out because they can't keep up with you or your experiments."

"But you didn't. You've stayed by my side and did everything I asked for. Even more than that!"

"That's because I can't do anything else. Like this, I can't do any normal jobs. Doing something, anything, at least lets me forget that."

"No! It's not just something! It's, it's really important to me. My experiments had become so much easier to do. Despite taking time to eat and sleep like you keep telling me, I've been having more progress on them than ever!"

"That's..."

(Was that true? She wasn't just saying that to make me feel better?)

"So, I was thinking...how about we go through the familiar ritual?"

"...that's the thing where you make an animal or magical creature a servant?"

"Familiars don't have to be servants. It magically connects two beings with a contract. Traditionally it's a master servant contract, but the contents can be anything. And..."

"What?"

I was still skeptical, but even a master servant contract wasn't sounding that bad. I was a tiny thing that could barely drag filled beakers around the table.

"The contract...would be equal partners that share everything together for life."

"Huh?"

That...that awfully sounds a lot like marriage. But...marriage isn't possible because we're both women. The kingdom wouldn't have allowed it. People wouldn't allow it. It just wasn't done. I was constantly reminded of it, as I was one of those rare aberrations that wanted such a thing. But Dianne...?

"Do you...do you really mean that?"

I had nothing to give anymore. Such a contract would be entirely one-sided.

But Dianne nodded.

"I do."

"But! All this time! You were just humouring me because of my weird joke! Us going out? It wasn't like it was even possible! It wasn't like we even did anything remotely like a couple! Yet you want a familiar contract that's the same as a marriage?!"

Tears ran down my cheeks as emotions tore up my chest. I had no idea what she was trying to say.

"It wasn't a joke. Not to me it wasn't."

"Huh?"

"When you asked to go out with me, it made me pretty confused at first. But as we spent time together, I grew to really like it. I can't imagine my life without you anymore, and this is the only way I can think of to keep it that way."

"Then...?"

"I want you as my partner. To share in all my joys and sorrows. To be together until death does us part. Will you share with me your all and take in my all?"

"...I do."

Word Count: 2495

 

This will be acceptable~! Thank you for entering.

 

This is officially accepted~!

 

... Furball... you are pissing me off with not allowing MC to turn back to normal... Sure it makes it unique and is related to title but damn i don't like it.

 

Your de facto editor here: (although too late to edit for the competition)
I doubt I can eve open a door --> I doubt I can even open a door
But I's against it --> But I'm against it
reassigned to hers assistant --> reassigned to her assistant

Also, I also agree that cutting down the story to the word limit is indeed painful. At least you did it a lot smoother than my attempts at removing words. Nice story overall; would vote for, except I don't have time to read all the stories.

 

Thanks @binarysoap . Regardless of the results, I plan on releasing it on SH, so pointing out my mistakes are appreciated.

Thankfully, the reason why I was able to cut down the word length so much was because I simply removed the entire beginning. I lost a lot due to that, but it got rid of over 2k in one go.

 

If only being a familiar could come with the additional benefit of becoming human every now and then... But I really like how unconditional their love proved to be in the end