"Kwoooo!
I was shocked, but at the same time happily surprised. I wasn't human, sure, but being an armadillo seemed pretty cool. I could curl up into a ball and roll around right? Maybe not that extreme but I looked adorable that was for sure.
'No wonder that Kyra girl wanted to save me.' Despite not having fluffy fur and big round eyes, I had my own sort of charm.
The obvious reason as to why I rolled around was the giant shell that sat on my back. It only had 3 segments which seemed too few but when I scrunched my body up, the segments slid apart revealing more shell underneath.
My shell was a slick bronze color while the rest of my leathery skin was a light brownish tan. The armored segments also traveled up the sides of my arms a bit, that was probably what was restricting my movement so much other than the giant shell.
I had the claws and fuzzy belly that slightly peeked out of my shell while I was able to get a better look at my tail to see the spikes led all the way down, forming spikes at the end. My head was a bit tiny, but my perked ears and beady black eyes on top of my small stature made you just want to squeeze me tight.
My cheeks and forehead also had thick shell armor on it and when I stuck my tongue out, a thin but long pink thing jutted out.
I probably wasn't any taller than two dozen inches and getting a better look at myself in the mirror, I realized I seemed more like a cross between an Armadillo and a Pangolin. I had the thick, segmented shell of an armadillo with the scales of the Pangolin on the rest of my body.
While both animals seemed similar to each other, they weren't actually related. Even so, they both were armored mammals and capable of curling up into balls to protect themselves. That tail of mine seemed like it could do some damage as I swished it around a bit.
It might have been just as long as the rest of my body, maybe 4 to 5 feet long from head to tail, heavily weighing me down and making me slow to move. I couldn't help but continue to check myself out, I knew I was born to be a lady killer. I watched myself as I made another cute 'Kwoo!' and couldn't help but make a smug smile.
I was still capable of making more human like gestures with my mouth and eyes but it definitely wasn't as defined with all the armor in the way. As I messed around with my body, I also noticed that my two middle claws on my front paws were much longer and stronger than the others, probably used for attacking.
I was also capable of standing just on my hind legs, using my heavy tail as a crutch to move, but it was still way slower than walking on all fours and dragging my tail behind. I got lost in my admiration for myself that I didn't notice the door flying open until it hit me in the side.
On instinct, I instantly curled up, reducing the shock as I was flung into the wall. The person who opened the door screamed but I wasn't about to uncurl myself as I felt the impact of my body hitting against the wall and floor.
I bounced a couple times on the hardwood floor before I carefully unfurled myself, just allowing my head to peek out as I saw a woman in a Victorian maid outfit minus the bonnet shaking in fear. She covered her mouth in horror like she just killed me, but seeing me peek my head out she sighed in relief.
Standing in the doorway, she bowed deeply.
"I'm so sorry little one, I didn't know you were there." She apologized.
I found it weird that she was apologizing to an animal, since I technically was one now. Although I didn't know exactly what I was, I was some sort of Armadillo-Pangolin hybrid that could still understand human speech.
There were a lot of plot holes going on but I ignored them and continued to listen to her long apology. At the end of it, she raised her upper half and smiled.
"I'm very glad you are alright, little one. Lady Kyra was terribly worried about you and refused to let you stay anywhere else but her room so she could keep an eye on you. She's been quite drowsy these last few days, most likely too worried about your health that she isn't sleeping properly.
"Now then, I hope you will be okay with me picking you up? I would like to bring you to the Lady now."
She closed the door gently as she entered, and slowly approached me. In her eyes, I was probably still a wild animal which made sense, so I acted the part and sunk into the floor a bit with concern. She carefully reached her hands out to pick me up and I let her, just as another loud bang rang through the house and making me jump.
"Eek!!" She screamed as I popped into a ball and I could feel her juggle me in the air.
She was able to secure me in her grasp without dropping me, resulting in a very relieving sigh as she clung to me tightly.
"I'm sorry about that, it seems Lady Kyra's training spooked us both." Hearing her sweet voice gave me the all clear to poke my head out from my defensive position.
Seeing her up close, she was quite beautiful, even for what seemed to be a maid. While she and all the other people could have just been cosplaying, I got the feeling this was real to life. Perhaps this Lady Kyra was some sort of noble child and that was why this maid came to fetch me.
She smiled brightly and I soon felt her finger gently boop my nose.
"You are so cute! No wonder the Lady took such good care of you."
"Kwoo!
She squished me against her generous chest but I felt next to nothing. I had little nerves it seemed in my shell, for good reason, while at the same time I had no desire for a woman with such beauty. It was odd since what seemed to be my human mind found her quite attractive, yet I felt nothing besides that.
I only recognized her beauty and that was the end. Did that mean I would only find other arma-golin things worthy of my glorious little brother? (Yes I checked and its quite long hehe)
Banishing those unholy thoughts to the underworld, I noticed that the maid went over to the window and looked out into the courtyard below. I was able to see a grand garden that sprawled out for several tens of yards in the distance with a variety of flowers, some I recognized and others I didn't.
There was a giant, pure white fountain of some figure on top of it that spewed out water back into it with a paved stone path circling it that ran through the middle of the garden and out some gates I could just barely make out in the distance.
At those gates were walls 2-3 meters high made of thick stone and painted a clean gray. The walls seemed to wrap around the entire garden and building, and even the unobstructed patch of grass and dirt off to the right side where a child and two adults stood around.
The dirt seemed like a simple training pit where a few straw dummies were sticking out of as what I assumed was Kyra, standing at the edge of the grass with her arms aimed at the training dummies.
We watched for a while, with nothing happening before my eyes went wide in surprise. Just in front of Kyra's hands formed a small ball of water that swirled around itself like a bubble. I had no idea how she was doing that but just as it was getting to about the same size as the dummies head, it burst in place.
Kyra squealed and fell on her butt as she and the surrounding area were splashed with water. I was a bit worried for her but the adults with her seemed unconcerned while the maid just commented with:
"Oh my, seems the Lady is still having trouble firing off her magic."
"Kwoo?!
She smiled at me again before turning around and leaving for the door.
"Why don't we go and see her? I'm sure seeing you awake after two weeks with motivate her!" the maid had a slight skip in her step as she went down sets of stairs and made her way to the training area.
I couldn't even admire the estate house as my mind was still reeling from the shock. 'Two weeks asleep? Holy cow! But more importantly, magic! That should have only existed in fiction and folklore. There was no basis in reality for it since it didn't follow the laws of physics.
Did physics not apply here? How was that possible? But more importantly...
I wanna use magic!'