Hannah was glancing back and forth between Scott and the other newly-transformed women.  “Can you move?” she asked Scott.

“I think I can walk, but I’m still kinda wobbly,” Scott said, still trying to get used to now having a woman’s voice.  “I doubt I can do more than that.”

“That’s more than the others can do,” Hannah said.  “Come on.  The women who’ve been women are going to pursue this as quickly as they can.  I can explain while we move.  It’ll at least give you a head start on the other … what’s the term now?  Newbies.”

Once they walked around the house, Scott said, “I don’t understand.  What happened and why?”

“Elric happened,” Hannah said.  “This scavenger hunt is his source of power -- magical power.  He gains it by tricking people into playing the game and being transformed.  And his scavenger hunts always follow the same rules.”

“Rules?” Scott said.

Hannah nodded.  “He always invited people who speak English, and the clues always somehow add up to the letters in ‘play’ in some way.  P is for pussy; L is for lungs, an old slang term for boobs;  A is for ass; and Y is for youth.  And there’s always a theme to the puzzle, to what the items are, but it’s usually trickier to decipher than it seems at first.”

“How long has he been doing this?” Scott asked.

“Decades, at least,” Hannah said.  “He got me in the 1930s, when my parents immigrated to the U.S. fleeing Hitler.  Every few years since then, he’s held another hunt.  I almost always find the Y, so I’ve stayed young, but only the first one to get all four letters wins.  And he almost always sets it up so P is the first letter found, which plays into his trap.”

“So that’s why all the women here are so curvy,” Scott said.  “They keep getting the L and A.”

Hannah nodded.  “There are three kinds of women who’ve been touched by the game, other than the winners.  One kind likes the way they are.  They’ll either leave and set up new lives or become like Avril, working around Elric.  The second kind plays to try to get the L, A and/ or Y in each game, to give themselves a particular look they like.  The third is like me, and now you, trying to win.”

“What’s the prize?” Scott asked.

“The winner gets a wish -- any wish, no strings attached,” Hannah said.  “You do need to be careful in wording it, because you only get one shot at it, but Elric isn’t like a genie, trying to trick you or trap you; he’s already done that in the game, and he gladly lets the winners go.  In fact, it’s rumored that he needs to do so to maintain his power.”

“I think I’m getting the feel for this new body,” Scott said.  “But it’s weird.  I didn’t realize how different my center of gravity would be if I were a woman.”

“You’re moving better,” Hannah said.  “Get used to the changes.  Your center of gravity will shift again any time you find the L or the A, and could happen with the Y, too.”

“Right,” Scott said. “So, do we need to find the letters in order?”

Hannah shook her head.  “You just need all four to win.”

Scott turned her head at an angle.  “You’re helping me, even though it’s not in your own best interests.  Why?”

Hannah shrugged.  “I … like you,” she said.  “Besides, I’m hoping we can help each other, at least through the next two levels.”

“If you like me, why didn’t you warn me earlier?” Scott asked.

“I couldn’t,” Hannah said.  “None of us can talk about the spell with anyone unaffected by it.  That’s a condition of the spell.”

Scott looked down at her own cleavage.  “And I used to think magic wasn’t real,” she said, hefting her breasts.  They had to be at least D cups, she realized.  “Well, these things are real.”

Hannah was standing at the entrance of the house.  “Any ideas of where to look?”

Scott thought for a second.  “Is there any kind of media room or space with a stereo of some sort in the house?” she asked.

Hannah grabbed Scott’s hand.  “There’s a room with an old-style record player on the lower level, below the ground floor,” she said.  “Follow me.”

Hannah led Scott through the entryway and living room into a small hallway under the stairs.  From there they went down a different flight of stairs and came out in a room with an antique record player that looked like it had been there since Hannah’s youth.

Scott made a dive for a large container of record albums on the floor.  She started flipping through them, then was enveloped  by a yellow light as he touched one of the albums.  When  it was done, Scott was down to 18 years old.

“You found the Y!” Hannha said in an excited whisper.  “What is it?”

Scott, still holding the album, handed it to Hannah.  “This one,” the 18-year-old said.  “’Yellow Submarine’ by the Beatles.”

Hannah touched the album and became 18 herself.  Scott replaced it, burying it in the bin.

“We’d best move, and quickly,” Hannah said.  “If we stay here, it’s a clue to the others about where that letter is.”

“Right,” Scott said.

Once they cut out a former servant’s exit onto a path to a carriage house, Hannah asked, “What was in common between those two clues?”

“The fountain water looked like purple rain, the way the light was hitting it,” Scott said.  “’Purple Rain’ is the name of a record album and movie by Prince.”

“Prince who?” Hannah asked.  “Charles?”

“No, the recording artist and movie star’s professional name is Prince.  That’s his real first name,” Scott said.

“Oh,” said Hannah.  “I hate the popular culture themes.  I tend to listen to music from the ‘30s and ‘40s, and watch older movies.”

“Well, neither of these two is too recent,” Scott said.  “The Beatles were ‘60s and ‘70s, and ‘Purple Rain’ came out in the ‘80s.”

“So, what’s the commonality?”  Hannah asked.

Scott shook her head.  “It could be any number of things,” she said.  “Movies, record albums, song titles, something to do with colors …”

Hannah frowned.  “Typical Elric,” she said.

The next couple of hours went by with no one finding any clues other than  the same album Scott had found.

While searching along the hedges, Hannah looked at Scott.  “Are you getting hungry?” she asked.

Scott nodded.

“Let’s go to the kitchen,” Hannah said, gesturing with her thumb.  “We’re allowed to raid the fridge as long as the game goes on, and we could use the break.”

Scott nodded, and they made their way inside.  Once there, they got into the fridge, covered with pictures attached by magnets, and pulled out some lunchmeat, cheese, condiments and bread and set about making sandwiches.  Once the sandwiches were complete, they sat down at the table to eat.

“So, you’ve been playing the game since the 1930s?” Scott said.

“Ja,” Hannah said.  “I was born in 1921 in Dusseldorf.  My parents actually came here with the Bund, seeking to bring Nazi-ism here.  I had turned against them when I found the game.  The result was that I was so transformed no one knew me, not even my own parents.  Of course, they’re long dead now. …” Her voice trailed off.

“That must have been hard for you,” Scott said.  “So, if you were born a guy, you weren’t called Hannah, were you?”

“Nein,” Hannah said.  “My name was Hans.”

Scott nodded.  “You want your manhood back?”

“More than anything,” Hannah said.  “Don’t you?”

“Y’know, it’s funny,” Scott said.  “I guess I’m supposed to want to be male again more than anything, but I’ve always kind of seen everyone as a mix of male and female, so I’m kind of OK with this.  And I actually kind of like having boobs.  I wouldn’t mind bigger ones, like yours.”

Hannah chuckled.  “Well, maybe we’ll find the L and you’ll get them,” she said.  “I have to admit, I’ve always liked a curvaceous woman, with large breast and … what’s the current expression?  ‘Lots of junk in her trunk?’”

Scott laughed, and realized that it sounded lyrical, like a bird’s song, now.  “You know, there are other advantages to being a woman,” she said.  “Like, colors are so much clearer and subtler now.  Most men are slightly colorblind, and I guess I was one of them.  Now I can see all the shadings, all the gradations of all the colors.  It’s so amazing!  The red of the sofa cover is subtly different than the red of, say, the curtains in the upstairs bedrooms.  And there’s the odd colors like -- like on that picture there.”

Scott pointed to the fridge.  There, in the midst of various childlike drawings, was a large drawing of an eye with a question mark after it.

“The iris of that eye has such an interesting shade,” Scott said.  “What would you call that?  Aqua?  Teal?  I mean, it’s blue, but it’s not, and it’s green, but it’s not.”

Hannah’s eyes widened.  “Scott!  Touch the eye picture!” she whispered.

“You sure?”  Scott said.

Hannah nodded.  “I know this one.  Trust me.”

Scott touched the picture and felt her pants tightening.  They strained until the seams began to rip.  She now had a hip measurement somewhere in the 44-inch range.

She looked over to see Hannah’s ass expanding, becoming even more huge.  It had to be about 55 inches around now, and grew a bit more before stopping.

“It was a song title from my childhood, in code,” Hannah said.  “The song was, ‘Am I Blue?’”

“So the theme is something to do with colors and song titles,” Scott said.  “Great!  Let’s find that last clue!”

Hannah stood up.  “Sorry, Scott.  This is where we split up.  You’re on your own.”