Power Potion
By
Limescale
Mimic Kairatta
Pre-readers: Rinji Pantera, Silos Magmas, and fellow patrons members.
*****
“Okay,” Gabby said with confidence, holding a stopwatch in one claw and a potion in the other. “Test number 39. Using ‘Buffout’ with ‘Atlas’ as a chaser.”
Time had passed since the opening of her potion shop; time since she got the artifact. Gabby had worked hard to get her elixirs and medicines made properly, as well as distribute it with the local griffons in Griffonstone. This allowed her to expand her shop’s inventory and use the profits to improve the building’s appearance with better furniture and a new coat of paint.
As well as sporting a fresh plume of feathers. (Daily moisturizer potion!)
“Here goes.” Gabby drank down the flask. In moments, her body increased in size. Then her muscles tensed, hardening as the influx of the potion’s power flowed through her. She clicked on the stopwatch.
She had been testing out certain potions on herself to see if they’d help or would be good enough for public use. Gabby never gave out something which would cause problems. She used what was locally available to make it easy and cheap for everyone to use. For something like her Zap Root elixir, she makes it in one large batch; storing the majority of it away until needed.
“So far, so good. Next is the chaser.” Gabby reached for the smaller bottle which held the ‘Atlas’ potion and drank it down as well. There was no reaction. This left a frown on the griffon’s face.
What was she doing? One thing she wanted to cross off her bucket list, both out of dedication to her race...and as a personal challenge, was getting The Idol of Boreas: possibly the most important treasure in Griffonstone and in griffon history, an object that united the griffons in years passed. The idol was stolen by the monster Arimaspi, both of which plummeted into the Abysmal Abyss nearby, leaving the once glorious city in shambles.
After 2 minutes, the effects of the potion wore off and her figure shrunk back down to normal. Gabby sagged her shoulders and pouted. “Oh darn. That didn’t work either...”
The winds within the Abyss prevented all forms of flying. Thus the only possible way to get to it was by rock climbing; Something no griffon was very adept in. Without a monetary incentive, no modern griffon drove to do so. Last Gabby heard, the idol sat down at the bottom; which required the griffon to go down to the bottom and climb back up. It was said the bottom was at least a mile deep.
Normal methods were out of the question.
Gabby sighed. “Well, that was a bust.” She went to the scroll containing her notes and wrote down the results of the latest test. She then flew to the rack, which held the various potions she was testing, and picked them up.
Gabby thought drinking a potion to improve her arms for climbing would be a good solution. In theory, it was; Wind can’t blow someone away if they were attached to the wall. However, things were not as cut and dry as she was lead to believe. Especially after testing said potion, which lasted less than 5 minutes.
She needed to boost the time limit, else the strength she gained would be counter-productive.
Gabby placed the glass flasks onto the wooden table. “Alright, these should be enough to test with.”
There were two glaring issues she had to deal with: The time limit and weak ingredients. Unless she used very strong and rare magical ingredients, the potions that would boost her body would wear off after a certain period of time. So why not get rare ingredients? She couldn’t leave her business alone for more than days at a time as she was the only one able to restock it with such quality items. Sure, she could order some of them by mail, as she had in the past. However, that required money. Money which she had been using to help improve the state of her hometown. Her kindness working for her and against her.
“Okay so...we know one measure of ‘Buffout’, followed by a chaser of ‘Might’ and then a shot of custom potion #91, name pending, makes me strong enough to bench press my house.” Gabby hummed to herself. “Least that’s what I think. Wished it didn’t just wear off after a few minutes...”
Luckily, she found a workaround. While she couldn’t get longer lasting potions or better ingredients for a better potion, she could boost the effects of her elixirs by drinking them in succession, stacking the effects and having them piggyback off one another. Which, in theory, would allow her to get the results she needed. The only thing she had to be mindful about was the effects of certain ingredients with other ones.
Gabby hummed to herself, studying a stopwatch propped against one of the flasks. “But the effects only last for about ten minutes...and nothing I’ve tried so far seems to further enhance things.”
Thus came the present moment: On her table were the vials and flasks of the drinks that would give her what she needed without causing untold side-effects such as molting or turning into a giant mushroom.
Gabby tapped her pen against the scroll she’d been recording her latest findings on.
“What am I missing? What else can I do for a better mix...”
The tapping grew restless as Gabby’s eyes flitted from one flask of liquid to another.
“The ‘Bulk Biceps’ potion only works if drunk on its own. The ‘Atlas’ mixture only works if I don’t drink the ‘Buffout’. Even if they both could be combined together they wouldn’t last long enough for me to climb more than a few feet. Damn...this is not as easy as I thought it’d be.”
Gabby sighed and propped her face on her free claw. So far, each mixture could only be drunk singularly, or as a double via a chaser. She got three in one go due to making a potion to compliment the after effects. It certainly boosted the results, but it was only a quarter of what she needed. She could tell the answer was right in front of her and yet she doesn’t know what. It was maddening!
She groaned, leaning back in her chair. “Why is this so haaaaaaard? Why can’t I think of anything?” She looked down at the various flasks, then she felt her stomach protest. “Doesn’t help to think on an empty stomach..”
She checked the time and put down her pen.
“I need food. Hmm...pizza would go down nicely.”
Gabby grabbed for her coin purse and checked what had been accrued from the day’s sales of her potions.
“Yeah... a triple layer of cheese, sliced cockatrice meat, pepperoni, some birdseed, and seared chimera is sounding REAL good right now.” She said, idly wiping the drool from her beak as she flew out her front door.
***
Sometime later, Gabby returned to her work. The smells of freshly cooked meat layered high atop melted cheese and tomato sauce still filled the air as she tore into another slice of pizza, her eyes focused on her scroll.
“Alright sooo...” She said, musing while re-reading her notes. “Just mixing stuff together doesn’t work; even if it does, it only works for a very limited time. Yet WHY doesn’t that work?”
Gabby stewed over the problem, downing slice of pizza and grabbing another.
“Is mixing them together even possible? If they’re like oil and water, that might explain a few things.” She tapped the glass. “They work for a moment when you shake them up together but after that, they separate and it all falls apart.”
Gabby began scribbling on the scroll.
“So what can I do to counter that? Just keep trying different mixtures? Try something from scratch? What if I...”
Gabby reached for another slice, still fixated on her notes.
“What if I could trigger some sort of reaction between the potions? Something that forces them to bond together?” Gabby hmmed as she continued devouring her pizza. “Course then I have the problem of needing a catalyst that could act as the trigger.”
She stopped eating and glanced at her pizza slice.
“Hmm...this needs something.” She mused, taking the slice out of her mouth. “I wonder if I have any red pepper left over?”
The griffon broke from her studies and flew to her kitchen, searching through the cupboards till she located the faithful shaker full of rusty red pepper flakes.
“Ah ha!” She flew back and proceed to liberally sprinkle the pepper all over the remaining pizza slices. She grabbed the one she’d been eating and tasted it again.
“Ahhh, there we go! Just the kick it needed...wait...” Gabby’s voice died as she felt her brain be struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration. She looked at the pizza slice, then to the shaker of red pepper.
“Wait...Waaaaaaiiiiit...” She said as her mind churned with sudden new insight. Gabby dropped the pizza slice and grabbed her notes, reading what she’d written, then looking to the enormous ceiling-to-floor storage box where all her ingredients were kept.
“Where’s the zap apple root??” She demanded, rushing over to start yanking drawers open.
“Here it is!” She said, nerves hitting her as she lifted the well-boiled tree root up. It was starting to lose its color from repeated use to make energy drinks and potions which gave one a needed spring in their step.
Gabby flew back to her table and picked up the scroll.
“A catalyst...if I tried layering the potions, one on top of the other...then added the raw juice of the zap apple root.....that might be strong enough to combine everything together into one effective strength potion!” She said. Excitement mingled with worry as she looked at the root. “The only problem is I’d have to chop this up and juice it...so I’d only get one chance...”
Indecision filled the silence as Gabby sat back and warred with herself over her findings.
“Well...the Idol isn’t going to just come to me. If it doesn’t work then...” Gabby shook her head. “No. No. Courage, Gabby! You can do this! Just gotta plan it out properly!”
The root was traded for the pen, and Gabby was back to furiously scribbling her new findings.
***
Night fell upon Griffonstone. Many of the inhabitants finished their daily activities and retired to bed for some needed rest. Gabby, by contrast, was still lost in her work. By the light of the moon, on a new canvas sized sheet of parchment, she was adding the final finishing touches to a very detailed set of chemical formulae.
“Okay...that hopefully will do it.” She said while puffing away on the Pipe of Inspiration. It provided her a clear understanding of the potions and what the meaning of these equations would mean with higher clarity.
While she has a general idea of what the ingredients do, she hasn’t worked out the results yet. In theory, it was solid. Shifting the pipe in her mouth, the smoke wrapped around the formula in front of her. It whirled around and absorbed itself into the cloud, the artifact glowed. She added a new “entry” into the pipe, with the complex formula in place.
The formula complete and imprinted into her mind, Gabby took a deep breath.
“Whew... ” Smoke billowing from her mouth. “Who knew this thing had such a calming effect? Hope it’s not bad for my lungs.” She said, converting the pipe back to a ball. Setting the artifact down, she turned to the zap root still sitting on her table. Gabby picked it up and grabbed a knife, holding the blade in the air.
“Well, the moment of truth.” She started to slice the root. It felt soft, spongey, limp. No doubt a result of the repeat boilings she’d subjected it to. Gabby hoped the root’s effects had not been diluted. She finished cutting it up, pieces neatly placed in a small pile. Gathering the slices in her claws, she turned and dumped it into a juice press she’d bought for when a potion required fruit juices or the crushed version of a herb or plant.
“Come on, just give me about 5 milliliters or so.” She begged while she crushed the root. Juice began dribbling down from the press, dripping at an agonizingly slow rate into the measuring cup she’d placed underneath.
Drip after drip plopped into the glass. The amount of liquid gradually crept up the increments stamped on the side. 1 ml was gathered, then 2, then 3....
Gabby clenched her beak together as she managed to get to 4. The liquid gathered over the glass at the same rate a snail might achieve if loaded down with an anvil. Each drip seemed to take forever to grow heavy enough to fall.
Finally, Gabby had to concede she’d squeezed all she could out of the root. She picked up the glass, holding it up in the rays of the moon to study the number of its contents.
“Alright...just about 5 milliliters. Just.” She said with a sigh. “I hope it’s enough.”
She set the glass down and grabbed for several of the other options on the table.
Gabby walked over to the larger flask which the potions would be placed in. All she needed to do was layer them; pouring in each mixture in the right amount, just enough for the mixtures to react to the juice.
“Too little,” she said to herself, “and it goes flat. Too much, and it could explode...” She poured the first vial in: Buffout. “Just right, and it’ll give me the strength and time needed to go down the Abyss and back out.” She poured in the Atlas potion. “Easy peasy...” Next in was Might, followed by Bulk Biceps... then potion #91. The mixture looked like a swirl of bright colors, bubbles forming and popping within.
She wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Okay... so far so good.” She looked at the final piece of the puzzle: the zap root juice. She gulped as she took hold of the glass. “This is it... the last of the root juice.”
Closing her eyes, Gabby slowly turned the glass and let gravity draw its contents into the flask.
She bolted back from the table as the flask began shaking violently, the potions reacting with understandable rage as the root juice did its job in aggravating them.
Gabby clenched her claws, watching the flask sway to and fro as its contents bubbled aggressively. She shielded her face as a geyser of rainbow-toned steam suddenly erupted from the top of the flask, spraying its technicolor mass over her ceiling before finally dying down.
Gabby held her claws in front of her face till she dared to peek. The flask was still bubbling but doing nothing else. She cautiously eyed it through her fingers, seeing a great amount of steam was still flowing from the flask’s mouth, yet it remained intact and showed no signs of unleashing another nasty surprise.
“Did...Did it work?” She asked, lowering her claws and approaching the table. She hesitantly touched the flask, finding it felt hot to the touch.
“Okay, so it didn’t explode and didn’t go flat. These are good signs.”
Using the ice staff, Gabby cooled it down until it was safe to touch. She picked the flask up.
“Definitely got a reaction, and everything seems to have blended together...”
Gabby studied the bubbling mixture, checking it from all angles. It smelled of spiced apples, ginseng, and a strong odor similar to a strong alcoholic beverage. She set the flask back down and hastily wrote down her observations and the steps for what she just did.
“Alright so...now either this will make me stronger...or it’s going to kill me.” The griffon exhaled in unease. “Let’s just assume the former. Keep focusing on the former. Pleeeease be the former.”
Gabby winced as she put the flask to her beak and took a sip. The taste was similar to lemonade and sour apple cough syrup.
“Mmm...huh. Well, that was actually kinda tasty!” Gabby mentioned while licking her beak. “Could use a bit more sugar...” She moved her claws. “Still alive so far. No burning or instant death. Great!”
Gabby moved the flask to her beak again but hesitated her claw.
“Mmm...no...no...let’s see what one sip does first.” She stated, grabbing her arm and forcing the flask back down onto the table. “Okay, initial few seconds...no real changes.”
Gabby looked down at herself, shifting on her seat. Still no results.
“Well that’s kinda disappointing,” Gabby said to herself. She rubbed her stomach. “My belly feels warmer. Should probably note that down.”
She moved to grab her pen, only to accidentally knock it off the table. It hit the floor and promptly began rolled away.
“No, wait!” Gabby let go of the flask and dove to grab her writing implement, but by that point, it had rolled under the tiny gap between the nearby sofa and the floor.
“Awwww, darn!” She cursed, trying to reach under, and finding her fingers were too big to fit under the sofa. “Sugar honey iced tea!...mmm...”
Gabby stood up, looking between the sofa and the wall it stood flush against.
“Ugh,” she said, rubbing her face, “Why do pens always fall under furniture.” She looked over the sofa. “Well, I helped move this in when I first bought the shop. Wasn’t too heavy...” She grabbed the sofa. “I just gotta pull it up and-”
Gabby felt a burning jolt erupt through her arms, and the sofa hanging in the air at a sharp angle, held aloft by the griffon’s own two claws. The unexpected lift unbalanced the griffon, causing her to step back. She felt the sofa slipping from her grip, and her claws quickly readjusted to hold it from underneath. She was now lifting the entire sofa over her head.
“What the...” Gabby gasped as she beheld her arms, looking a lot thicker than they had a moment ago. There was some definite swelling in her biceps and triceps, enough to manage the weight of the furniture.
Gabby’s eyes trailed down, noticing her pen lying pretty on the floor. She kicked it out from under the sofa with her foot, then very carefully set the sofa back down.
“Stopwatch...where’s my stopwatch??” She demanded, running over to a cupboard full of various alchemy tools. The griffon gripped the handle and pulled. She tore open the doors, squawking as the sturdy wooden panels came off their hinges from the force of her claws.
“EEep! Mmm...well I can replace those later.” She dropped the doors and began pulling open drawers, hunting amidst their contents. She saw it glittering in the top drawer.
“Here it is!” She declared, pulling out the silver plated stopwatch. She turned it on then bolted over to the table, snapping up her pen on the way.
“Okay...first observation...” She glanced over to the flask. “Elixir tasted similar to sour apple and lemonade without the sugar. Felt the warm sensation in the stomach after the initial sip. One sip of the elixir has produced definite muscle growth after 30 seconds, enough to handle some pretty heavy duty furniture.” Gabby narrated as she wrote her findings down. “So far, immediate muscle mass isolated around the arms. Results so far have lasted...two minutes...”
Gabby looked to the stopwatch ticking away on the table. Three minutes passed, then four. Gabby clenched her fists, watching her arms swell with fresh might as the stopwatch approached the five-minute mark...then passed it.
The griffon let out a sigh of relief as six minutes were counted off, yet her arms remained thick and firm with muscle.
“Potion lasted beyond previous times. Still going. I...I think I may have done it!” She exclaimed, writing with haste on the scroll. Already finished writing her results, it had reached past the 10 minute mark; passed the highest time so far. Her eyes trekked to the slowly bubbling flask next to her.
“I’m going for two. Gotta be sure!” She said, grabbing the flask and taking a second sip of its contents. This time the effects manifested with greater intensity. Gabby felt her feathers ruffle as a light prickling assaulted all across her body, like when she was molting and needed to groom herself.
“Ngh..” She glanced at her body once more. Once again, no initial results. Perhaps she needed some kind of stimuli? “I need something to test. What else around here is big and heavy?” She quickly scanned her surroundings.
While the sofa was pretty heavy, it was only made of wood and fluff. Something made of metal would have more density and weight. There was only one thing she had that was just that. She saw the cauldron, sitting in the fireplace; fires whittled down to mere embers.
“Perfect!” She flew over to it. She remembered how heavy the cauldron was when she first carried it. It was, for this reason, Gabby took a moment to do a few stretches, just so she didn’t pull a muscle.
As she grabbed the cast iron vessel, however, Gabby discovered she shouldn’t have worried. The cauldron still felt heavy, true, but as she lifted it up off the ground... she felt her arms burn again. The muscles on them tensed and expanded. She took a step back, hefting the cauldron slowly over her head. A giggle escaped her beak as she comfortably held it while barely breaking a sweat.
“Heh, check me out!” Gabby said, “Gabby the Potion Maker is now Gabby the Powerful!”
She held up the metal object with one hand, flexing the bicep with the other. She imagined herself posing for a camera. She blushed in embarrassment at the thought before settling down and gripping the cauldron with both claws.
“Okay...so if I can do that much...what if I try...”
Gabby slowly dropped into a squat. Her feline legs began to burn along with her arms as they took the lead in working with the weight of the cauldron.
“Oooh that’s...that feels kinda nice...” The griffon grinned as she felt her quads begin to expand, along with her calves, and it felt like her glutes were joining in on the show as well.
Gabby counted off 20 squats, then put the cauldron down to examine her progress. Yep, there was some definition showing through her leg fur. Nothing extreme, just enough to prove the potion worked. Her body now held a more muscular figure.
“Alright!” She shouted. She ran back to the table, adding more to her notes. “The second sip is definitely showing additional progress. As such, moving on to the next round.”
With the notes updated, Gabby grabbed a drinking glass along with the flask.
“Should be okay if I up the dosage a bit.” She commented while pouring the equivalent of a double shot. Setting down the flask, she picked up the glass. “Well... bottoms up.” She drank it down and set the glassware on the table. Her body received a stronger reaction, the tingling intensified and her muscles tightened.
She shook her body and relaxed. “Okay. Course now I need something even heavier...hmmm.”
Another scan of the room was conducted. Then her eyes rested on the artifact.
“I wonder...”
***
“Thirty-nine...ngh...forty...”
An hour had passed, Gabby flat on the table. The artifact, converted to an ice staff, was gripped tightly in her gloved claws. A bucket full of ice hung from either end of the staff.
“Forty-two...forty-three...”
Gabby had turned the staff into a makeshift barbell, using it to work her body. Doing various training methods such as squats, lifts, and deadlifts to improve her body. Each time, her muscles continue to grow at an incredible rate. She had already reached the body of an athlete 30 minutes ago.
“Forty-four...forty-five...”
Gabby growled, her swollen arms straightening. Ice continued to form on the staff and fall off, adding to the weight she was benching. With each rep, the frozen artifact also made for a steamy encounter with the griffon’s burning pectorals, the contrast of temperature fuelling the griffon’s determination.
“Forty-six...forty-seven...”
Gabby felt her chest swell with power. Already, she had to adjust the descent for each rep due to her pecs being too big. She didn’t need to worry as she was closing in on the 50 mark.
“Forty-eight...forty-nine...FIFTY!”
Gabby hefted the staff over her head and let it rest along with its loads on the table. She sat up, taking the moment to wipe the sweat from her forehead.
“Phew! I need to look into joining a gym,” she chuckled, “Or buying some actual exercise weights. That was starting to feel a little light.” She looked down at the burning slabs of her very well-defined chest for the first time. “Jeez Louise... an hour in and I’m huge... .”
Gabby cooed as she gently squeezed her pecs. They were tender from having just been worked, and just a little sore.
“I wonder how big I got... I need a mirror.” She asked herself. Next to a nearby wall was a full-length mirror, she walked over to see the new changes. Her eyes widen and her jaw dropped. “Whoa...”
In the span of one hour, she had nearly tripled her muscle mass. Her upper body matched that of the more burly griffons she saw in town. Her legs and calves were nearly big enough to match some of the Earth ponies she met. Muscles were showing definition through her feathers, even veins could be seen traced around areas like her bicep.
Her cheeks flush that a few small measures of the elixir were not only producing these kinds of results but also allowing them to last. Already over an hour and they’re still going strong. She wondered if this was permanent...
However, Gabby can’t get distracted. She still had a goal in front of her.
“Alright so, I finally have something that can make me strong enough, long enough, to climb down and grab the Idol...at least...I think it will.” Gabby got up off the table as a thought struck her. “I should double check how many miles exactly I need to climb both down and up.”
A book was snatched from the table and flipped open.
“Okay,” she looked over the recorded details of the Abysmal Abyss, “the Abysmal Abyss is located near Griffonstone.... Where idol dropped within... duh duh duh... while no accurate measurement could be used for the depths, it’s indicated that it’s possibly over two miles deep?!”
Gabby set the book down, eyes widening. “Two miles? If I were flying, sure. No problem. But climbing 2 miles down and back up? That’s four miles! There’s no way I can do that climb like this... the potions don’t strengthen my wings either, so I can’t glide down.”
Gabby looked to the flask. Gingerly, she picked it up again and checked how much was left in it. Almost three-fourths of the bottle was still full.
“Well it’s been over an hour, and the effects show no sign of wearing off.” She mused, then flexed her arm; her bicep expanded to the size of her head. “I don’t feel sick or dizzy.” She swirled the liquid around. “I guess if I’m going to do it, I gotta go all the way!”
With a quick inhale, Gabby brought the flask to her beak and drank the rest of the elixir. She felt the last drop leave the glass and into her mouth. She coughed as the potion’s strong taste burned her throat and set the flask down.
“Just hope that was a good idea.” Her body trembled, a hot flash road across her body. She didn’t feel like she was burning up, more like she was suddenly bursting with energy. Like a bonfire being fueled with more wood.
“Now I need to ready myself. How can I do that...”
At the moment, her options for weights were limited and she didn’t know how long this potion would last her. It might be a day, a week, or just three hours. Gabby didn’t have the proper equipment for heavy lifting, let alone training. Limited by time, knowledge, and preparation, she had few options. It was now or never.
‘Maybe I should have waited...’ Gabby thought. She shook her head and slapped her face with both claws. “No! Keep it together, Gabby! You’re not licked yet!” She paused, rubbing her sore cheeks. “Ow...”
After nursing her sore cheeks, Gabby grabbed a satchel sitting near her chair and wrapped it around her shoulder. Her larger frame making it seem like a single-sling backpack.
“I’m gonna have to use whatever gains I got for climbing down. Each minute I’m here means less time I can use.” She walked to the front door, stopping in front of it as she hesitantly looked over the frame and small door handle. Then looked at her own larger body.
“Perhaps I should... go out the back.”
* * *
The Abysmal Abyss. Well within reach of Griffonstone, down the Hyperborean Mountains and past Griffon Gorge. No one knew how such a place existed. Some say it was an ancient race of titans that made it, others say it was caused by powerful magic, others say it was just there because of nature. Regardless of origin, the deep chasm held one of the most important treasures of griffon kind. In this clear night sky, it looked like a hole that plunged into the very planet itself.
A hole that Gabby dove into head first.
She glanced around. “Never been here at night before...”
Gabby gripped the walls with sharp claws, wearing a head lantern for light. The winds howling, the very thing that prevented flight in the hole. She stretched her claws out and moved further down. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. Yet with the potion flowing through her veins and the newly enhanced body, she had fewer doubts to hold her back.
“This is it... time to go where no griffon has gone before.” She went over the plan in her head. First, descend and take small stops on ledges. Then, find the bottom, look for the idol, then climb back up. A simple plan. However, time was not on her side. She had to hurry, the potion might wear off and she didn’t want to risk it wearing off sooner rather than later.
“Alright, just take it fast but steady.” She said, lowering one foot down till she felt a large enough ridge on the rock wall to hold her weight, then doing the same with the other. “It’s just like when you were a chick, climbing up and down the branches from your home to your friends’ homes.”
Gabby dug her talons into the crevices of the rock wall as another powerful wind momentarily upset her balance. She felt the ridge under one of her feet wobble, then crumble in the strength of the gust, leaving her foot to frantically claw for fresh purchase yet finding nothing but air.
She gulped. “Except you could use your wings if you fell off the branches...and they didn’t go down as far as this.”
She anchored her foot as best she could against the rock. With a quick inhale, she extended her other foot down, finding a thin outcrop of rocks hanging loosely off the wall. Begging them to hold, Gabby lowered her weight down onto them. Her talons quickly grabbed for new handholds and her muscles swelled in preparation as the wind picked up again.
The rocks under her foot collapsed, leaving her hanging only by her upper body. Even though she knew she’d regret it, Gabby looked below her, trying to see if there were any more visible areas she could lower herself onto.
“Ngh...come on, Gabby. You can do this.” She told herself upon spying another outcrop that she might be able to reach...if she was willing to do something extremely risky.
“You made it this far. Just gotta...” Gabby closed her eyes and clenched her beak shut as she dug her talons into the rock, then let her weight slowly drag her down as she carved deep, desperate tracks into the wall. Her feet presently alighted upon the outcrop, and Gabby permitted herself to breathe.
“Okay...see. Still alive.” She gasped. “And only....”
She looked down again, seeing naught but the darkness of the Abyss below.
“A long, loooong ways left to go...damn.” She choked out. “Isn’t there a faster way?”
Gabby went another outcrop, only to hear the sound of a loud crack. Next thing she knew, she saw the wall moving upwards and the wind quickly hitting her backside.
“Wha-nononononononono!” She yelled. Gabby quickly dug her talons onto the front of the wall for dear life. Her arms burned as the rock was being scrapped in her very fast and dangerous decent. She didn’t know if she screamed the whole way, but she was pushing as hard as she could to slow herself down.
Thankfully, the potion had done its work on every inch of her being as her talons still managed to exert enough force to cut sufficiently deep into the rock to slow her fall. Even as her lungs burned for air, Gabby became aware she wasn’t plummeting to her doom, finally coming to a stop when several of her talons snagged on parts of the rock wall that was apparently too hard for her to slice through.
“Ahhhh!” She squawked upon feeling herself jerking to a halt. “Oh! Oh....oh thank goodness....”
The griffon hung by her talons for several seconds as she got her breathing under control again. She looked below herself, spying a tiny space that looked like it could hold one of her feet. She lowered her left foot onto it, taking some of the strain off her fingers and allowing her to then anchor the claws on her other foot onto the rock wall.
“Yikes!” She said, pulling one claw free and seeing the damage done to her talons. They were chipped, but not completely broken. It was a wonder they survived the grinding she put them through. “Definitely gonna need a manicure after this.”
Gabby could not rest, unfortunately, as she heard the sounds of the walls cracking. She looked up to see the rocky cliff breaking apart from the emergency slide. Thinking quickly, she jumped away and onto a flat rocky surface on the other side. From there, she saw the entire area fall to pieces and plunge into the depths of the abyss.
“That... was dangerous,” Gabby said. She was starting to have second thoughts about this. Two times in a row she nearly got killed now, and not even halfway there. “I can see why no one wanted to get the idol. Can this night get any more difficult?”
Gabby heard the sound of more rock cracking apart. Specifically, the rock she was currently standing on.
“Did I have to aAAAAAASSSSSK????” She screeched as again gravity took her for a ride down into the Abyss. The ridge under her feet managed to remain solid, but that was of little comfort to the griffon as she scrambled to grab the wall, only for her talons to just clip uselessly against the rock.
There was no salvation this time. No outcrop or niche to halt her fall. Gabby hit the bottom of the Abyss hard and fast, with only the rock under her body to absorb the blow. The loud bang could be heard echoing throughout the bottom. Dust and debris clouded the air.
Gabby slowly opened her eyes. She was frozen stiff, her body still standing, tensed and her feet buried in rock. Granted, her legs felt sore and were a little numb from the recoil of such a landing, but otherwise, she was unharmed.
“... I’m alive?” She asked, patting herself to check to see if she was not a ghost. She raised her fists in the air. “I’m alive!”
“Alive!”
“Alive!”
“Alive!”
Overhead the griffon’s voice bounced around the Abyss much like the sound of her impact had, prompting the encore of more rocks breaking loose and descending upon the griffon at speed.
“Wha...EEEP!” Gabby screamed as she dove out of the way. The avalanche piled on top of the landing area, leaving Gabby to cough in the mist of dust that was left behind.
“Ack! Okay, I still need to keep my voice down. Damn echoes.” She cursed while pushing herself back to her feet. “At any rate, I’m at the bottom.”
Gabby rubbed her eyes and looked around.
“Now where’s the idol?”
She looked around, seeing nothing but darkness surrounding her.
“Oh right.” She sighed while reaching for her head lantern. “Please work...”
She clicked it on and sighed in relief as light flooded her surroundings.
“Okay...now then. If I were a lost ancient relic, where would I be?”
Gabby scanned the area around her. However, instead of rocks, like she originally thought, her head lantern revealed the white gleam of massive bones. The light trailed upward, illuminating the ribs, spines, and other skeletal remains of beasts great in size, and long dead in stature.
“Oooh.” She said, turning her head to reveal more skeletons littering the bottom of the Abysmal Abyss. “Well, this puts a twist on things. Certainly lives up to the name now.”
Gabby slowly crept forward, shining her light along the length of the skeletons. They appeared to lack any sign of the sockets and bony extensions on their spines that would suggest wings had once been part of their anatomy. That ruled out these being some manner of ancient griffon remains or even roks. Gabby furrowed her brow as she tried to fathom what manner of beasts these skeletons could have once been.
“Very strange. Were these creatures that lived here before Griffonstone was founded? Or maybe they were...hmmm.” Gabby paused as her light caught the skull of one of the beasts. She noticed it bore the right sort of structure for an avian, particularly with how the shape of the eye-sockets and the nasal cavity matched the diagrams she remembered from her school textbooks. The problem is there was no beak at the end of the skull. Just an empty cavity under the eyes that could’ve been a nose, or a muzzle, or heck it could’ve been where a trunk once hung for all she knew.
“I should’ve brought a camera. There’s a mystery here that’s begging to be solved.” She sighed. “If only I had someone with more knowledge of paleontology that could...huh?”
Gabby paused again as something twinkled in the light of her head lantern. She stiffened her neck, focusing on the strange sparkle dancing away deep inside the mouth of a massive skull of one of the skeletons. The skull was much larger than she was. Cautiously, Gabby approached it, aiming her light in between the gleaming white skull...to reveal something that made her heart skip a beat.
“Whoah!” She declared as the light fell on a golden wing, sticking out of a small pile of rocks. “No way!”
Gabby raised a talon. She made to reach through the ribs...then stopped herself. It couldn’t be this easy. There had to be something she’d failed to notice that was primed to rob her of her prize.
Gingerly, Gabby slid her fingers through the skull’s eye sockets, tapping at them then feeling about for...something. Sensing nothing amiss, the griffon hesitantly let her talon fall upon the rock pile. She very lightly prodded at it, feeling for anything that would suggest there was some manner of trap waiting to be sprung. Again, she failed to find any indication of foul play.
“This...this is it?” She asked.“This is the real deal?”
Even with all her research beforehand, Gabby only had pictures and written accounts of how the idol was supposed to look. However, the longer she stared at it, the less she felt a need to question its authenticity. She could feel it. The idol held a thrum of power; one that spoke to her, telling her of great things. It basically told her that this very thing was the very idol she was seeking.
It also helped that the orb within the idol was giving off a light glow.
“It IS the real deal! Uh...wow, that was easier than expected.” Gabby could only exclaim. “But, how the heck did it end up underneath this massive skull?”
Gabby swiveled her head about, throwing her light across her surroundings. Naught but the lifeless masses of bones greeted her. She shrugged. “At least it’s there. Now to..”
She stared at the large skull. She took in just how big it was, likely how heavy it was.
“...can I lift this?”
Gabby looked to her arms. Flexing the left one, she felt the hard and firm texture of her bicep. The potion was still working, it seems.
“Well, if I don’t try now, I’m never going to get an answer.” She said. Spitting on her talons, she rubbed them together. She crouched down and grabbed the skull by the top of its nasal cavity, “Here goes, all or nothing.”
Gabby began to lift. She felt the familiar burn in her arms. The weight of the skull keeping her at bay, yet as the seconds ticked by, the skull slowly raised up off the ground.
Gabby took a deep breath, then forced her legs to straighten. The skull lifted a little higher, over a lot of strain. It was damn heavy, that was for sure! It felt easily like a few hundred pounds...maybe even a thousand.
Still, Gabby kept managing to lift it, inch by precious inch. Her muscles groaning in protest.
“That’s it....grrrrrrghhhh....that’s it....” She gasped. Her legs wobbled as she almost got to a standing position. With a pained screech, Gabby forced her knees to lock, giving her enough leverage to get herself straight and stable.
“Okay, now....” Gabby choked as she reached for one side of the skull. Her talons closed tight around the bone, digging her claws in for purchase.
“If I can just...flip this...” She whispered, focused on lifting one side of the skull higher than the other. Inch by inch, second by second, the griffon fought with her immense load. Sweat matted her feathers and dripped off her beak as she got the massive bone up onto one side.
“That’s it....that’s...IIIIIT!” She screamed as she felt gravity finally tip things in her favor. The skull was overbalancing, falling off to the side...
THUD!
Gabby promptly fell with it as it, at last, toppled over completely, sending echoes of thunder reverberating around the Abyss as it crashed over into an upside down position.
“Haaaaaahhhhh....I....I did it.” Gabby panted. She let herself lie on the ground, her muscles screaming in pain. She let them protest, then slowly fall silent as they recovered.
Mopping her brow, Gabby sat up, smiling weakly as she beheld the idol sitting pretty without the barrier of bone around it.
“Okay...that wasn’t so bad.” She chuckled while plucking the enchanted object out of the rock. Her talons brushed some dust off the polished gold, and the idol positively sparkled in the light of her head lantern. She stowed the idol in her backpack and strapped it tightly to her shoulder. She noticed how tight the strap was on her bag.
“Was it always this tight?” She asked herself. She glanced at her arm. “Hang on, was my arm that large before?”
Gabby looked at herself with as much as the light allowed. Her heavy lifting has caused her body to gain even more mass! By the looks of it, she had added more muscle in the past few minutes than she had in the past hour. She looked back at her calves, tightening them and watching as they nearly doubled in size.
“Oh,” she said, “that’s...” She squatted a few times to feel the new change. She even did a small hop, nearly reached a foot in the air. “Whoa!” She hopped a few more times. She giggled as she did. “This is kinda awesome!”
She stopped hopping and took a deep breath. Gabby wasn’t sure how far these effects are going, but she had no time to worry about that.
“Alright. Now to get out of here!” She said. The griffon planned to escape. She looked up at the towering rock walls and listened to the thunderous sounds of the brutal winds overhead.
“Oh...right. I need to climb out of here.” Gabby said. If there was any measure to prevent one from taking the idol, it was the simplest measure of making the trip out of the Abyss as hazardous as the trip into the Abyss.
Gabby sighed as the wind battered the rocks all around her. “Alright, well.. I knew this was coming.”
“If only I could get a flying start.” She looked at her legs. They were strong, but hardly had the push needed to launch her at the speeds she needed to cruise back up. “If I could...”
Gabby glanced back over to the skull, still sitting on it’s side. Something was coming together. The gears in her head turning, setting speed until it clicked in place.
“Wait... maybe I can!” She said. Rushing over to the skull, Gabby hatched an idea. “The potion is still in my body. So...” She got underneath the skull and pulled it back in place. The large skull rolled over with another thud. Flat on her back, she placed both legs in front of her and onto the skull.
“If I just do a few reps with this, I could get strong enough to do it!”
Gabby took a deep breath and pushed. She felt the weight of the skull on her legs. They shook as they lifted the skull into the air. Then she brought it back, repeating the process over. Each one becoming easier than the last. Her legs were burning, yet felt amazing! Her quads, calves, and other leg muscles were bulking up at a fast rate. Much faster than she realized.
“This is incredible!” Gabby felt sweat pouring down her legs. “If this keeps up, I could practically jump out!”
After the 40th rep, she stopped. Her legs locked into the air, veins throbbing through her feathers. Then, with a heave, she kicked off the skull with the power of her legs alone. Said skull ended up flying across and landing 50 feet away. Gabby hopped back up to her feet.
“Oh yeah!” She said, fist-pumping. “I am ready!”
Gabby squatted down, gathering strength in her lower body. She felt each fiber tighten and throb as her legs nearly swelled to twice their size.
“Time to see what these muscles can do!”
Once she felt enough power, she shot up. Fast. In moments, ten feet passed her by. She didn’t stop there. As she was slowing down, she was reaching for a hold. When it came, she latched onto it and pulled down with all her might.
She then shot up once more. Then she did this again... and again... and again.
She was far enough off the ground for falling to be a considerable health hazard. The wind was blowing against her. Gravity fought to keep her down. Yet despite all the risks, all she could feel was the rush of joy as she pulled her way up.
“Yeah!” She shouted. “Flying without any wings! NO one is gonna believe this!”
Running on adrenaline and excitement, she pushed herself faster and farther. The rocks rushing past her, wind howling in her ears, and the only light she had was on her head. She didn’t have to wait long as she could, in a short period of time, see the other end; the night sky shining through.
“Almost... there!”
She kept pulling and pulling, climbing feet by feet. Sweat blew off her body and muscle strained once more. Then, with one final pull, she launched herself out the hole and into the air.
“YAAAAAHOOO!” She said, dipping back towards the earth as her inertia ran out. Not even the hard stop as she crashed onto the ground was able to completely dash the griffon’s glee.
“I DID IT! I DID IT!” She cheered, scrambling to get the idol out of her bag. “Griffons! Hear me now! The idol is ours once again!”
Gabby’s voice echoed all across the land. She waited for a response, for the celebratory outcry from all her neighbors. Yet all sound she heard was silence.
It took a minute to remember how far she was from Griffonstone, and thus how unlikely anyone was to hear her.
“Yeah uh...well....I can make a formal announcement tomorrow.” She said, tucking the idol back in her bag. “Right now, I should probably get home...I don’t know how much longer I’ve got before the serum wears off....(yawn)...and I’ll likely be...”
Gabby yawned again as she felt herself coming off her adrenaline high. The compiled results of all her actions and efforts descended upon her like an anchor, suddenly making her feel so incredibly tired that she could barely stand.
“Oh...never mind...I guess it’s wearing off now...(yawn)...that’s going to...” Gabby shook her head as she began feeling very woozy. “Yeah, maybe I’ll just grab a quick nap here before I...get home and...”
Gabby let herself topple over onto the ground, flat on her back.
“Ooogh...goodnight...everyone.” Her eyes slipped closed in exhaustion. The sounds of her snoring filled the night air.
* * * *
The morning came to the town of Griffonstone. All griffons going about their day as per usual. Arguments and rough relationships prominent within the community, though lessened with time and effort from recent events. One major change, however, was within Gabby’s house.
Gabby was sitting in her chair, writing up the final parts of how the potion worked within her notes. She glanced over at the Idol of Boreas.
Right there, the idol sat. Waiting to be used. For Gabby, she would like nothing better than to use it and announce it to the town. What kept her at bay was a simple yet odd reason: How would she do that?
*Heh, never really thought I’d actually get the idol. Now that I have it, I don’t know how to tell others about it. Not like I can just up and say...*
“Hey! I got the idol! Check it out! Hm...” She rubbed her chin. “Perhaps something more formal?” She sat straight, hand on chest. “Greetings, one and all! I would like to announce the return of the Idol of Boreas!”
She leaned back in her chair. *Nah, too cheesy... maybe I should get a podium?* She stood up.
“Hm... I could ask Grampa Gruff for advice. Never really did announcements before.” She said, walking to the mirror nearby.
As she looked into the mirror, Gabby couldn’t help but feel disappointed. Her body had returned to normal. The moment she woke up, she found all her muscles had disappeared and were painfully sore all over. She felt better after a few stretches, but nothing really changed. Least there were no injuries, to which she returned home, keeping the idol safe in her bag. This moment was to be a big surprise! To let everyone know at once, to gaze upon the idol once more and make Griffonstone great again. If she was going to do this, she was going to do it right.
*Heh, at least the potion did its job. Thanks to Applebloom and her gift, I was able to get this far. Though without the perseverance, I would have just given up.*
“How’d that proverb go? “The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor individual perfected without trials.”” She smiled. “Sounds about right. I can’t wait to tell Applebloom and the others what happened! Not just opening a potion shop, but being an adventurer too?” Gabby imagined herself going through the jungles and ruins of some ancient civilization.
“Climbing down and up Abysmal Abyss all alone, only a backpack and these arms for support.” She grinned, doing a muscular pose, playfully putting tension into her arms. “Grrrrr!” She could see her body swell-
Wait. Swell?
“Huh?” She looked at her arms. Her small, normal body had suddenly puffed up in size by sheer effort! She relaxed and saw them recede back to normal. *What the...* Squinting, she flexed her arm again, watching it enlarge.
"No way! What happened to me? Is this cause of the elixir?" She slowly started to let go of her flexing and watched as her chest and the rest of her muscles continued to recede until she was back to her normal body. She flexed her calves, watching them enlarge and shrink as well finding that when she pushed harder, they grew bigger and took longer to return to normal.
*The potion was supposed to wear off by now. Was this some kind of after effect? What if I...*
Gabby got into a stance, legs spread apart. With a deep breath, she started tensing her muscles. The first signs of her figure flowed out and flushed her face. She pushed them harder. It felt like diving into the deep end of the pool, power washing over her in waves. The muscles in her back widen with extra girth, growing with each breath. Her pecs pumped bigger and bigger till her chin was pressing against them. The abs underneath popped one by one until she gained a full 6-pack.
“Whoa!” She felt her heart pulsing against her chest. “Feels like I took the potion all over again.”
Gabby kept pushing forward. She lowered herself, focusing the power into her legs. Her thighs were thickened enough to crush coconuts between them, the quads becoming very visible; veins even starts to spread along the surface almost visibly, pumping power into them. The back of her calves were, coincidently, the size of coconuts. It was apparent how she jumped so high and fast back in the abyss.
“Just a little more...”
She stood straight up and flexed both arms as hard as she could. Branch-like arms becoming tree trunks. Gabby watched as her biceps grew in size, bigger and bigger till the peak passed her head and pushed her forearms back. Veins pulsating visibly through her feathery coat. Even her triceps were growing, followed by her forearms swelling, not as big as her biceps or triceps but defiantly a good hefty size at which their volume would make it difficult to wear her bag as anything more than a handbag.
Gabby mused as she turned her arm to study the splendor of her muscles from every angle. “Sweet! The potion must have let me keep all the work I did to myself!”
She practiced in front of the mirror for a few more minutes, testing out her new muscle control. She could shrink and grow them at will, even isolate them in certain areas. It was a turn of events she had not expected but certainly welcomed it. All her hard worked paid off, not only gaining back history but also a new ability.
For now, she settled on looking lean yet toned. With extra volume in her arms, of course.
The Idol of Boreas was snatched up and Gabby lightly tapped the glowing orb atop it.
“Hmm...maybe I’m overthinking this. I could just drop into the center of town, all superhero-like, hold the idol up and let everyone know!” She smiled. “Yeah, that’s it! Actions speak louder than words, after all!”
Gabby peeked out her window, gauging how far a fall it was from her house to the morning crowds below. She stretched out one of her legs and felt how capable her steely like quads and calves were of absorbing the shock of hitting the ground at high speed.
“Yeah, I can do this. I survived falling halfway down the length of the Abyss last night!” She said. Now filled with fresh determination, the griffon climbed out of her window and spread her wings. “I just hope I don’t accidentally land on anyone.”
Rather than flap them, however, she just let herself descend into the pull of gravity, her arm holding the idol high for her moment of triumph.
“Lookout below!!”
