Tristan opened his eyes warily. He'd closed them anxiously the moment he'd seen Ava move to touch the stone. Since he was still breathing and thinking, he assumed that he still lived at least. His eyes danced over the sturdy roof beams above.
'Roof beams?' he thought. 'How did I come to be indoors? Didst the stone force leave of my senses?'
He glanced about and realized that he was in a cozy sleeping chamber. It was well furnished. Even the throw over his body was somewhat lavishly adorned with embroidery. He froze.
'What be that upon mine chest?' he mused as he lifted the sheets to peer down.
Indeed, his chest did seem to have something upon it. He let a hand find one of the soft mounds and give it a tentative squeeze. There was no denying that he knew that feeling.
'Breasts? When did I acquire breasts? I am not yet sufficiently old or languid to acquire such a thing...' he mused irritably as he sat up.
That was when he realized that nothing was as it should be. He was not fat – quite the contrary. His stomach still appeared to be flat, but then so did his downstairs – a little too flat! He started pulling at the blankets anxiously, trying to dig out the truth as his heart jumped into his throat.
"Noooo!" he shrieked with horror. "My beard splitter! My beloved shaft of delight!"
'Seriously? I woke up to a dancing, one-eyed snake with a mind of its own, and I got over that pretty quickly,' Ava commented, 'and I'm sure we'll find a way to return you to your precious friend again. Just be patient for a little bit.'
'Ava?' Tristan ventured, completely confused.
'Yeah, it's me,' she replied.
'What... what be happening?' Tristan begged to know, still hyperventilating.
'I'm not entirely sure,' she told him honestly, 'but I do know that this is my body.'
'Wha...' words failed him.
'I think touching the stone made us both jump into my body this time,' Ava replied.
Tristan was silent a while, so Ava ventured out of the bed. Her body felt sore and weak, like it had been lying there forever. Tristan noticed her skin dance lightly over very shapely thigh muscles as she moved – thighs that made his mouth a little moist. Ava pulled her chemise down to cover them. Tristan's eyes shifted back up to her breasts in response. Ava rolled her eyes with frustration and forced her eyes to look up.
"Oh, my lady you have awoken!" a little voice noted to her right.
Ava turned and glanced at the owner. It was a neatly turned out young lady that Ava had never seen before. It looked like she'd just entered the room.
'She be a lady's maid,' Tristan told Ava. 'She must have been assigned to watch over thee.'
"I have," Ava replied to the maid with a soft smile. "Have I been asleep long?" she ventured.
"Little more than a week, milady," the maid told her dutifully. "I have been nursing you all this time, afeard that you might not wake at all. The physician could not discern a reason for your slumber."
'I don't doubt it!' thought Ava with an inward scoff.
Her stomach gurgled loudly.
"Are you hungry, milady?" the maid asked.
"Famished!" Tristan replied eagerly.
It was true. They were both ravenous, now that they were fully aware.
"Then I shall fetch food most hastily," the maid promised with a little curtsy.
The girl sped away, and Tristava got a moment to take stock of their new situation. Tristan's hands ventured back up to Ava's breasts.
'Tristan...' Ava grumbled with an unamused tone.
Tristan fought her off long enough to give them another exploratory squeeze.
He grinned to himself.
'Thy own a delightful bosom,' he told her honestly. 'Not flaccid or down-turned at all.'
'Yeah, well, I told you I'm not an old bat,' Ava growled as she fought his hands away.
'What am I wearing?' she mused as she looked down at herself.
''Tis nothing more than a chemise,' Tristan mused. 'What a delightfully fine weave this is...' he remarked as his eyes traced the contours of her nipples through the high quality, delicate fabric.
Ava fought his eyes and hands off of her person again.
'I wonder what the hell they did with my clothes,' she grumbled as she started glancing around.
There was a table and chair against one wall, a wardrobe on another and a massive chest not far from the door. Ava headed for the wardrobe.
'Nay, try the chest,' Tristan suggested.
Ava redirected their course and they headed for the chest. Tristan had guessed right. Her clothes were neatly washed and folded inside on top of a multitude of clothes she'd never seen in her life.
'What peculiar garments,' Tristan noted as she pulled out her clothes and started looking them over for damage.
She'd been wearing stretch cargo pants, lace up boots, a vest and a hoodie the day she'd vanished from the modern world. Everything seemed to be intact. Tristan's eyes veered to the flimsier slithers of fabric that she'd purposefully ignored. He picked them up curiously.
The bulk of the undies were made from a skin-tone stretch fabric covered in a black lacy print that made it look like she was wearing nothing but skimpy, see-through lace. The front opened wide into a plunging V that was laced over to keep everything in place. The sports bra and boy-leg panties hardly looked like they belonged in a gym, but they were comfortable and feminine. Besides, she would have never worn them in public without clothes to cover them up with.
'What be these delicious looking raiment?' he asked curiously, though he was getting a pretty good idea just from staring at them.
'It's underwear,' Ava told him dryly, fully aware that he was teasing her.
He held up her bra curiously. She had to be honest that something with that much strapping on it probably did look a little confusing to someone who'd never seen anything of the sort before.
'That is a bra. It holds up the breasts and keeps them from jiggling too much,' she told him.
Tristan looked incredulous.
'There be no such thing as too much jiggling,' he told her quite seriously. 'Besides, all that a lady needs to hold up thy bosom is these,' he told her as he dropped the garment and cupped her breasts with his hands again.
Ava fought his hands off for a third time.
'I can hardly run around all over the place clutching at my breasts, now can I?' she asked as she started fighting her panties on.
'I shall volunteer most readily to assist you with that task,' Tristan offered with affected gallantry as his eyes veered down to her attractive legs once more.
He briefly noted the comfortable fit of the little garment over her rump. It was almost as a second skin. His fingers lingered on her rump curiously.
'Dream on,' Ava shot back dryly as she started to wrestled herself out of the chemise.
There was a knock at the door, and it opened to let the maid re-enter. Ava stopped midway and quickly pulled the chemise back down to her calves.
"Milady's breakfast," the maid told her as with a little doff of the head.
She took the wooden board filled with a variety of foods over to the small table for her mistress.
"You really don't have to be so formal with me," Ava told her with some awkwardness. "I'm not even a lady," she admitted. "I'm just Ava Berkley – amateur treasure hunter and adventurer."
"But your seal," the maid hinted.
"Huh?" Ava replied with utter confusion.
The young woman went over to the wardrobe and pulled a much smaller little chest out from the bottom of it. She opened it and took out a pendant on a chain that looked vaguely familiar to Ava.
"We found it on your person, milady, a sure sign that you are from a noble household," the maid explained.
Ava took the pendant in her hands and stared at it long and hard. It was a delicate filigree piece depicting a gryphon clutching onto a gemstone. As she traced her fingers gently over it, a memory of trying to decipher the pattern under the light of her cellular phone torch in the early hours of the morning came back to her.
"This is my pendant?" Ava mused, startled.
It was beautiful! She could never have guessed that she'd actually found something so delightful that night!
"It is, milady. I hid it in the box to keep it safe for you," the maid told her.
Ava stared at her blankly. She was still trying to understand what was going on.
"I am Olivia, milady," the maid informed her with another little curtsy.
Apparently her silent stare of confusion had prompted an introduction. Ava was glad for it.
"Nice to meet you, Olivia," Ava replied cordially with a smile.
Olivia smiled back with pleasure.