After I explained the mistake, she laughed uproariously.
āYouāre damn lucky Iām not a swan!ā she said, wiping tears from her eyes. āThey get by on their reputation for being pretty and graceful, but buddy, a swan aināt nothing but a bigger, meaner goose. What do you all want swan wives for anyway?ā
I opened my mouth and then shut it again. Honestly, I hadnāt actually stopped to think about that much. It had become a mark of status, having a demure, graceful woman following on your arm, always dressed in white and gazing soulfully about.
āThey all seem very nice,ā I said finally.
She pursed her lips thoughtfully as she finished pulling on the robes Iād brought with me. āThen thereās something else going on,ā she said. āIāve met my share of swans and not a one of them would put up with that shit. Are you sure they were swans to begin with?ā
āWell, no, now that you mention it. I mean, everyone says thatās what they are, but Iāve never actually seen anyone else do it.ā
āDo they talk? Act like humans? Do they seem intelligent?ā
āWell, they are humans, so I suppose they must be, right?ā This conversation was not going the way I had expected it to.
āHah! Fat chance. Transmutation is just changing the shape of a thing. You turn a swan into a human and all youāve done is put a swan mind in a human-shaped box. Wouldnāt do a wizard much good to be able to turn into a wolf or whatever if they suddenly only had a wolfās brain to work with, would it?ā
āSo, youāre saying that if those women were swans originally, theyād still act like swans?ā
āHoo boy yeah,ā she said. āAbsolutely. Hissing, biting people, trying to build nests, shitting everywhere. The works.ā
āWait, but what about you?ā I asked, desperately trying to get the conversation back on track. āYou seem like a human, but you were a goose ten minutes ago.ā
She grinned wickedly at me.
āI was shaped like a goose ten minutes ago,ā she said. āAnd I appreciate the makeover. But I wasnāt a goose to begin with. Now come on. Thereās something hella creepy going on around here, and weāre gonna figure out what.ā
She started walking back up the path towards town.
āWait!ā I shouted, hurrying after her, āIf you werenāt a goose, then what are you? And whatās your name?ā
āYou can call me Gwydd,ā she said. āAnd as for what I am, itās a long story. Iāll tell you some day. But first, youāre going to tell me everything you know about these swan ladies.ā
