Cursed Object: Serving Tray (New Version)

(Remake of an old story: I was making a character card and realized it was quite short and not well made, so I wrote a new version. If there's any of my old stories you'd like to see remade, let me know below!!)

About a year ago an incident happened at the lord's manor. A fire broke out in the kitchen and quickly spread throughout the house, burning a large portion of the building. The lord of the manor and most of his staff managed to get to safety.

However, a younger maid named Katlin who worked there hasn’t been seen since. No one knows what happened to her; she was working the day of the fire, but no one saw her after the fire was put out. They couldn’t even find her remains.

She was the lord’s favorite maid, so it wasn’t much of a surprise that he held a funeral for her in town a week after the fire. The whole town was there, including me. I vaguely remember what she looked like from the painting the lord had of her.

She had long pink hair that she kept in twin tails. Her face was cute, and I think her eyes were also pink. She was wearing a maid's uniform, which I suspect was all she ever wore, and the most notable feature of hers was her chest; it was rather large.

After the funeral, the lord and his staff relocated farther away to another mansion, and life has been quiet ever since then, at least until my friend Conner heard a rumor. Apparently the basement in the manor was untouched by the fire.

The basement was where the vault was, which should still be full, since the entrance to the basement was blocked by debris, and the lord hasn’t had people come out to remove it and collect his things yet.

He said we could unblock it and look in the vault. It sounded like a lot of work, but I have to admit, it could have a ton of valuable things, meaning we could both be rich, which would be a lot better than being poor farmhands.

I agreed to join him, and that night we gathered some tools from the farm and tossed them in a wagon. Once we had everything, I got up to the reins, and we went off towards the ruined manor. We dropped the stuff off and looked around to make sure there was no one around.

We knew no one really came here, but better safe than sorry. Once we were in the clear, we slowly walked around the inside of the manor, doing our best not to disturb anything we didn’t need to, as it could cause the rest of the manor to collapse.

We find the door to the basement and find it has several thick support pillars blocking it. So Conner and I grabbed our saws and started to hack away. It took a couple hours to cut through each pillar and then to move it out of the way, but we managed to get enough out of the way.

We opened the door and walked down the stairs, and to our delight, the basement had remained untouched by the fires and looters. The wine cellar was still completely full, and the vault was still closed.

I grab some other tools and start working on busting through the vault, while Conner collects the stuff around, things like the expensive wines, silver cutlery, and so on. He hauls them up the stairs and brings them to the wagon.

Picking the vault door was a bit harder than I was used to, and using cheap farm tools didn’t make it easier, but I’ve always been great at breaking into things that try to keep me out, so it was only a matter of time until I cracked it.

Conner was outside when I did, and I was too excited to see what was inside to wait for him. So I opened the door and walked inside. I was hoping to see piles of gold inside, but instead the inside of the vault was almost completely empty.

The only thing inside was a serving tray, which was displayed on a stand in the middle of the vault. Looking around, it seems like it was the only thing that was ever in here, but why? It looked just like a normal silver serving tray, the same type I saw Conner bringing up before.

I walk over to it and pick it up and inspect it, and again, I couldn’t figure out what was so special about it. As I played around with it, I heard Conner come back down and start cheering; he then ran into the vault and joined me in disappointment.

He looked around, then looked at the serving tray in my hand, then at my face to see how disappointed I was, then he grabbed his hair and made a mess of it in frustration. He then sighs and sits down in defeat.

He told me he was hoping for piles of gold, which made me laugh a bit, and I told him I was hoping for the same. He shrugged his shoulders and said that we should be able to at least make a decent amount on the stuff he hauled to the wagon.

That was still good to hear. I then asked him if he wanted to sell the serving tray in my hands, or should we go outside and toss it around. Conner laughed and said he’d love to, and the two of us started to make our way out.

However, before I even got to the stairs, my entire body started to feel uncomfortable. I dropped the serving tray and fell to my knees. Conner stopped and asked me if I was okay before getting silent and looking at me horrified.

I told him something was wrong; it felt as though my body was changing. I then fell to the ground and started yelling as my body started to feel painful, almost like it was burning. I begged Conner to help me, but he looked terrified.

He then turned around and ran off. I continued to roll around on the ground, feeling as parts of my body moved, sweating like crazy, and wondering if I’d somehow fallen into an oven. Then after nearly ten minutes of this, it stopped.

There was no more pain or heat; I was just normal again. I stood up and looked around, and as I did, my pants fell down. I look down confused, and I’m met with many shocking things. The first being that I now had a very large chest.

The second was that my hair was super long and very pink, and lastly that I was so much smaller that my clothes no longer fit. I had completely changed, and it seems I changed into a woman. I pick up the serving tray and use it to look at myself since it’s reflective.

I gasp as I see a familiar face instead of my own. This woman's face, or should I say my new face, looked just like the portrait of Katlin from the funeral. Why I look like this, or even how it was possible I look like this, was beyond me, but I knew I couldn’t reverse it here.

So I decided to get out of there, serving tray in hand. I try to go up the stairs again but stop. My clothes didn’t fit; I couldn’t just leave like this. I needed something else, new shoes, new pants, or whatever I could find.

I look around and see some clothes hanging up in the corner. I walk over to them and sigh when I realize they're maids uniforms. I was just going to leave in my loose shirt, but the uniforms covered more, and a couple happened to be my size.

So I put on the main part of the uniform, the socks, and the shoes, and I was going to leave the other accessories, like the headdress, but I don’t know, for some reason I put it on and then put my hair into twin tails.

Something about it felt right and more comfortable. Once I was properly in my uniform, I needed to leave and find my master... I mean Conner. I head up the stairs and make my way out of the manor, and once I’m outside, I see a wagon sitting there.

However, it wasn’t the one I came here on with Conner; instead, this one was much fancier, and the person who came stepping out of it was incredibly handsome. Just seeing him made my heart start beating like crazy.

Once he was out, he looked over at me and looked surprised; he then yelled out my name, and then he ran toward me, saying Katlin over and over again, as if I didn’t know my own name. Once he got to me, he wrapped his arms around me and started crying.

He was saying all kinds of things, like how he’d thought I’d died, or how depressed he was thinking he’d never see me again, and how he never stopped loving me. All of that made me feel warm inside; my master missed me, and he still cared for me.

That made me happy, as he was the only person I’ve ever loved and ever will love, though I am a bit sad that I caused him such pain. Once he let go, I offered my apron for him in order to wipe his face off.

He thanked me and used it, then he asked me where I’ve been. I put my finger on my chin and say I had no idea. One moment I was in the manor cleaning the library, and the next I was in the basement wearing some strange clothes.

My master looked a bit confused and said there was a chance I was hit by some powerful magic that caused me to warp through time, but he had no real way of knowing, but it didn’t matter; he had me back, and that’s all he cared about.

I smiled and told him I agreed. I was happy to finally be back by his side, to serve and care for him like I used to. My master then took my hand, and he led me to the carriage while telling me all about the new manor that I’ll soon be working in.