Picture by 渡里laboratory

"You've been had, Zach Shadowthorn, the best rogue in the world," Zach laughed to himself as he grabbed the giant jewel from its strand within the vault. Months had led up to this moment, and after all that, he finally had the Queen's Stone. He had disarmed and defanged dozens of traps to get through the vault, but with his ego so big, he didn't even think to check for a simple alarm attached to the jewel's stand directly under a more complicated one that served as a distraction and red herring.

Klaxons blared, almost causing Zach to jump out of his skin, but he didn't get this far by not being a fast thinker. The sounds of plate armor filled the halls as dozens of guards started to enter the vault, giving Zach mere minutes to escape or hide. He glanced around at the ornate room, the hall lined with statues which gave him a clever idea. He ran a pillar that had the shape of a woman between it, quickly pushing the sculpture out and piling the subsequent debris into his bag of holding along with all of his clothing and equipment.

Zach produced a potion from his bag, holding up the shimmering liquid as the sound of the guards grew closer. He kicked the sack onto a pile of similar ones, no doubt containing the kingdom's gold, and climbed between the now empty pillars, downing the potion in a single quaff before tossing the bottle away. Trying to remember the pose of the statue, he reached up and felt the changes begin. He imagined the sculpture in his mind, feeling as his body started to takes it shape.

He had changed form before, but the familiar sensation of being a human yet alien feeling of becoming a woman was not something he was used to. Breasts emerged on his once chiseled chest, swinging freely without any clothes to govern them. His hips grew wide, flesh and fat packing onto them to give him a perfect rear to emphasize his silhouette. He felt his groin become smooth like the statues as his face reshaped itself like clay until he was certain he had it right.

Satisfied with his pose, he felt the creeping of stone emerge from within his core. The tide of gray stone crawled along his newly feminine body, turning it to inorganic, cold material. He held his breath as it climbed closer and closer until it reached his head. With a final shift in pose, his arms and legs sank into the pillar, just as his head was converted into rock. In only a minute, he had become a statue of a beautiful woman, cut from a large slab.

Zach watched in glee as the guards ran by him, completely missing him as well as his disguised bag. They saw the empty jewel stand and panicked, sending one of the soldiers to tell of their findings. The commander barked orders, and the entire platoon left in a hurry, no doubt trying to cut the thief off, all the while Zach stood and laughed at them, mere feet away. The halls grew empty as the sounds of the armor retreated, leaving Zach alone in the room.

His boastful thoughts were replaced by a single one as he stood there: "How do I turn back?"