Outside the old temple stood two explorers with their gear and outfit on. One was a middle age man with a bit of stubble on his face, the other was a woman with brown hair tied up into a ponytail. Both of them have worked together for a long while discovering and uncovering what lies hidden away from human society. This is one such famous temples that caught many attention, but those who have explored it never came back out again.

“Are you certain about this Ruth? I don’t think those that have disappeared were just random explorers. See? There’s even some leftover equipment that looks like it’s been here for months now.” The woman asked.

“We don’t know that for sure. For all we know there could be a trap in there that scared them all away. Whatever it is, it’s really effective if it caused all of them to run away. But we’re not gonna falter from whatever it is for a discovery of a lifetime, Oleane.” Ruth said.

“I don’t know. I wonder if the trap is different for all of them to scare them off.” Oleane said with uncertainty.

“Then let’s not make waste and make some haste to discover what secrets this temple is hiding.” Ruth replied as he entered through the entrance first. Oleane following behind but not before looking at the weird scratch marks and prints on the equipment.

The inside of the temple is what you expect to see of an ancient building, dust and dirt littered the floor, empty halls filled with traps, and sometimes the occasional snakes or bats living inside. Temples like this usually have traps to fend off against those who trespass their territory, usually spikes or pits. Strangely though, this temple lacks of any other traps, Ruth and Oleane were confused and even more cautious than they were before.

“No other traps, no critters making home in here, and as gruesome as it sounds, no signs of skeletons in here either. Normally I welcome the lack of security after all of the other temples we’ve been through, but this is different than the others. It only makes this temple even more ominous than before.” Oleane says.

“Let’s keep our minds clear, Oleane. The trap could pop up any moment now and we’ll suffer the same fate if we’re not careful. Just stay close to me and take deep breaths if you’re getting anxious.” Ruth replied as he took out his flashlight.

They went in deeper into the temple, still finding no traps anywhere, but what they did find was new to them. Along the walls are carvings and symbols similar to the hieroglyphics of Egypt, but these ones are different enough to be its own language. Ruth pulled out a book and searched around, but nothing that says anything about these symbols.

“They seem to be a mixture of a different language and hieroglyphics. If we figure out the method, we can decide what it says here.”

While Ruth was busy trying to decipher it, Oleane walked and feel around the walls. Looking ahead, she saw a deposition of people seemingly praying to some sort of deity that looked like a lizard, but it wasn’t just a regular lizard. The lizard was standing upright like a human, yet he had a monkey’s hand and some sort of bird’s tail.

“It’s weird, Ruth. It looks like this deity they’re worshipping is a combination of different animals for each body part.” She said as she felt the carving on it.

“Careful, Oleana! This could set off the trap that we’ve been anticipating.”

However, it was too late as the carving glowed a bit before the sliding off to the side like a door. Both Ruth and Oleana fell down through the hidden trap as the door closed behind them. It was completely dark and they couldn’t see much outside, which didn’t last long before they crashed onto hard land. Their bodies were sore, recovering from the harsh landing until they got some sort of bearing, the room is dimly lit.

“Oof. I guess that’s the trap they were talking about. We’ll figure out how to get out of here, right Oleana?” Ruth said as he turned and find no one.

“Oleana?” Ruth searched around but couldn’t find any sight of her anywhere. The only thing of interest in this room is what’s up ahead.

In front of him is some sort of mural on the wall with a bunch of large puzzle pieces all over it. However when he tried to mentally put them together, none of the pieces have anything to match with. Just a bunch of random parts of the animal.

“This trap wants me to solve this if I want to get out. There has to be another way out of here. If not, might as well do nothing than satisfy whatever trap this will activate.” Ruth said as he started looking around the room.

Meanwhile Oleana just landed hard on the ground as she rubbed her butt. She groaned before lifting herself up, the room is also dimly lit just enough for her to see. Up ahead she could see another mural, this time in a shape of a human rubix, except each square had some sort of animal part instead.

“Ruth! Are you seeing this? It looks like we’ll have to figure out what animal they were truly worshipping from earlier.” She said as she turned only to see she was by herself.

“Oh. Guess we got separated during the fall.” Oleana looked around the room, but didn’t find anything out of notice from what she could tell. She looked back at the mural as she walked up to it.

“I guess I’ll have to figure this out myself, not like ai have a choice. Now, how does this thing work and what the answer is?”

She looked for something to turn the head piece, but she saw no sign of anything to move it. Curiously, she swiped it to the right like an IPhone and surprisingly, the head piece moved and changed to a bird’s head.

“Hmmm. A mural that acts like an IPhone. Wonder if we first got the idea from them or they were much more advance than we thought.”

Oleana kept sliding each piece, changing it to another animal’s part until the left arm glowed and stopped at an wolf arm. She tried swiping it, but the left arm piece just stayed in place and glowing, not responding to her movements anymore.

“Interesting. I guess the figure is similar to the one we found earlier. The pieces will glow and stay in their place once I hit a certain animal part. Wonder what creature hybrid I’m gonna get?”

Meanwhile with Ruth, he just stood there with his arms crossed.

“Nope! I don’t care if it’s the only way, I am NOT solving that stupid puzzle!” Ruth said to himself.

He stayed that way for what feels like hours when his left arm suddenly started to feel warmer. Looking down, he saw dark gray hair started to grow on his arm. Thinking he needed to shave it after they get back, however that fell apart when he felt his fingernails growing out longer into black dull claws. Not only that, his arm lost some muscle in them and shrinking, give him a petite wolf arm.

“W-What the hell is this!? Why’s my arm part wolf? Is this the temple’s REAL trap!?”

Ruth tried to pry the fur off, but all he felt was himself pulling off the fur and it hurts a lot. He quickly looked at the mural and then his arm before looking back at it. He rushed towards the mural with all of the puzzle pieces.

“I don’t have a choice here! It’s either I become a full werewolf or a feral wolf! I’ve gotta fix this before it’s too late!” He said as he started pushing the puzzle pieces in the spots.

Oleana was having a simpler time than Ruth is. She kept rotating the pieces until the head stopped at a dragon’s head. As Ruth kept moving the pieces around, he stopped when he felt his head shifted around.

His neck slowly stretched upwards as sky blue scales covered all over his face. Light blue scales went from his neck down to the end of his neck, his voice raised a couple pitches to give him a feminine voice. Both of his ears shrank until they’re just tiny holes and his hair became a dark blue that went down to the end of her neck. His mouth and nose push out together until he had a snout with slits at the end for his nostrils. Not only that, his eyelashes became plentiful and his eyes became a shade of blue as well.

“A dragon head?! That doesn’t make any sense!? Am I becoming some sort of Frankenstein’s monster situation? I need to hurry before it gets worse!” Ruth said, not really caring if his voice is now feminine. He frantically slide the puzzle pieces around until one puzzle piece finally stopped and glowed in place.

While Oleana was continuing her work, she felt her whole body felt off as she backed up a little. She lifted her shirt off and saw brown fur growing down on her belly and torso. However that wasn’t all as her belly suddenly grow in size and girth, she grabbed her gut in shock as her gender flipped to a male’s. His belly kept growing until his had a large gut, but not with fat but muscle. Oleana could only lift his large gut with heft, noting how hard and strong it felt to his delicate hands.

“O-Oh dear! I guess I’m taking a bit longer than I should have with those murals. I am having fun, but looks like I can’t waste anymore time before I’m changed into whatever creatures I’ll have.”

With that, Oleana continued sliding the pieces over while Ruth is still putting whatever pieces that glowed and stayed in place. More changes were made as each of them were able to have their pieces glowed and placed.

Ruth had to refrain himself when he felt his chest ballooned out into a modest pair of breasts as light brown fur with a cream underside goes all the way down near the end of his smooth belly. A short tail ripped from the back just above his butt as he felt his gender flipped to a female’s, giving her a reindeer torso. On her left leg, gray scales covered her whole leg as it became thin, her feet becoming webbed as it finished turning into a shark leg.

Though Oleana had a head start, the changes were catching up to him as his head started growing rough skin and gray hides. His ears shrunk and moved to the top of his head as it became oval shaped, giving him short ears. The most painful is when his nose and mouth pushed out while a huge horn formed just above his newly formed snout, his head now a rhino. His right arm would grow dark blue fur all over with the exception of his hand, which became bigger as muscles formed underneath, finishing its changes to a gorilla arm.

“This doesn’t look good.” Oleana said, his voice sounding low and rough. “Better pick up the pace.”

“None of this makes sense!? Just what kind of creature am I even creating anyway?” Ruth complained.

As they were getting closer to finishing their puzzle pieces, Oleana’s right leg would harden with his toes fusing together into three toes and one at the back. The nails would become sharp and gray scales covered it, now a bird talon on his left leg. He would be slowed down for a bit as his left arm would grow orange and white fur with black stripes on them. His fingers would have paw pads underneath them as sharp nails grow on the end of his new tiger paw.

While that was happening, Ruth’s right leg would grow orange fur all over, with brown fur covering the end as she took on a digitigrade stance. Her thighs would widen as her feet become paws, now becoming a fox leg, or in this case a vixen leg.

Unaware that they were affecting each other, they were down to their last remaining limb. Ruth struggled around to find an animal part for the right leg while Oleana kept swiping on the right arm. Eventually they found the final puzzle piece and place it simultaneously.

Oleana’s left leg would grow gay skin, toughening and widening into a stump like leg. His toes would regress back in as his toenails became larger, becoming an elephant’s left leg. Ruth’s right arm would grow brown fur with the end having yellow scales and losing a finger. The claws became sharp as it finished turning into a gryphon claw.

After the murals were completed, the walls they were stuck in moved away and led to a blinding door of bright light. With haste, they both charge through the light and kept running until the light started to fade into view. The scenery is a plain meadow with flowers and butterflies fluttering about. As soon as they got their view back, they saw each other as a mix match of animal parts and pointed at them.

“Who are you!?” They yelled at each other.

“What are you even supposed to be? None of your parts even fit with the theme.” Ruth said.

“I guess I’m supposed to resemble something similar to the carving me and another explorer I was with found earlier. I hope he’s safe and made it out.” Oleana replied back. Ruth stared at him before realization hit her.

“Oleana?” She asked.

“Ruth!?” Oleana asked.

“How did this even happen? Look at us! Were some sort of hybrid abomination of Frankenstein.” Ruth explained.

“Come to think of it, you look exactly like the picture I just finished earlier. This temple is quite advanced to be able to mimic touchscreens. I was solving a rotating puzzle until the pieces stayed and glowed on each part like yourself.”

“You too? I also had to solve a puzzle earlier and each part look exactly like you have right now.”

“So did we unintentionally changed each other into the creature we made? I couldn’t find another way out from my side.”

“I haven’t had any luck either. Speaking of out, where are we exactly?”

“You’re within our realm now, travelers.” Said a new male voice.

They both turned and saw a figure walking up to them. The figure had a large bird head covered in a large robe, but his right hand is a dog’s paw holding a walking stick. The figure bowed his head in gesture before lifting his head back up.

“It’s been a while since we last have visitors. My name’s Laeal, and welcome to our world.” He greeted them.

“Your world? Does that mean we’re not on Earth anymore?” Oleana asked.

“Not for long, let’s just head back and hopefully we turn back to normal.” Ruth said as she turned around.

“I’m afraid that won’t work. The way you have entered has now been closed off. As far as I’m aware, once you have been changed and enter there’s no turning back. Sorry to say this, but this is your new normal now, some have also tried to find a way to return with no luck.”

They both were processing the info before Ruth just ran ahead. Oleana just stood there with a shock expression on his face.

“You mean we’re stuck like this? And when you meant others, are you talking about the other explorers?” Laeal nodded his head.

“Many who are either curious knowledge seekers or greedy treasure hunters have fallen here. Some take it well more than others, and some tried the quick way to get out by suicide or self harm. Our realm doesn’t allow that, we have our ways to deal with that behavior in our humble home.”

As he finished explaining that, Ruth came back looking a bit more exhausted.

“The doors have *huff* been blocked. *huff* I couldn’t find *huff* any cracks or oddities nearby.” Ruth explained in between her breaths.

“I’m sure you both have a lot of questions that needed answers. I’ll answer them as best as I could, but first let’s head back to my home to get some rest first. The changes can be quite tiring, plus both of you could use a new set of clothes with your new bodies. Follow me.”

Laeal turned and headed back to his home. Oleana and Ruth didn’t have much of a choice, so once Ruth regained her breath they followed Laeal to hopefully find a way to change back and return to their realm.

---

Perhaps you should went for flight instead of fight. Those who wished to discover what’s best left hidden will know why they’re kept a secret for a reason.