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A Seventieth To Remember (Part I)
🕑 Added 2022-02-23 17:00:07 +0000 UTCThis is the first part on an ongoing story that was requested by Watt tier patron celticsouthern, who wanted an old fat man transforming into an elven ranger. Please note that I've tagged "age regression" but that's not entirely accurate given the circumstances of how elves age differently to humans...
For the past several weeks, Clark had struggled with the knowledge that he was approaching his seventieth birthday. He had a serious love-hate relationship with the concept of aging, because while he loved the various positives that his long life had afforded him such as his family, he was terrified of the concept of dying. It didn’t help that he’d various health scares throughout his fifties and sixties and so was more frail and fragile than your average seventy year old. Clark felt like there was still so much in life that he wanted to experience but he couldn’t escape the terrifying feeling that he was running out of time.
Perhaps the only person who could keep the elderly man grounded was his teenage grandson, Ben. The boy was Clark’s only grandchild and he was actually much closer to Ben than he was to Ben’s father, as his relationship with Trevor, his son, had been strained for the better part of twenty years. That strain was due to the dissolving of Clark’s marriage to Ben’s grandmother, as their split had been anything but amicable and Ben’s father had been caught in the middle. Eventually Trevor had come to blame Clark for the destruction of the family and that was a responsibility that the old man reluctantly accepted. After all, it had been his late in life realization that he was actually homosexual that had brought about the end of his marriage. He had spent almost half a century living a lie and it was simply too difficult for him to do so anymore. Unfortunately being honest about his sexuality had required sacrifice and the damage it had caused to his relationship with his son was something he continued to regret to that day.
Clark’s relationship with Ben didn’t have any of that baggage though, as the boy had never known his grandfather when he had been buried deep in the iron closet. It helped that unlike Trevor, Clark actually celebrated Ben’s love for fantasy fiction and continually stressed to him that he didn’t need to enjoy sports or other typically macho hobbies to be a real man. Trevor never dared say anything but Clark knew that his son (who lived a much more traditionally masculine lifestyle and held far more conservative views than Clark himself) disapproved of the closeness between grandfather and grandson. That didn’t stop Ben from visiting his grandfather every Sunday morning though, and it was during one of those weekly visits when he announced that he had started to run a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for some of his friends in high school.
Although he had never actually played the game himself, Clark had always been fascinated by the concept of Dungeons & Dragons and particularly the roleplaying aspects of it. Escaping into the life of somebody else was something Clark could easily relate to after his history of hiding behind a false pretense, and the fantasy setting of the game only furthered his interest in it. Sure, the lore wasn’t on the same level as Tolkien’s marvelous Middle Earth works, but Clark soon came to appreciate the sheer variety of mythical races, fantastical settings and expansive religions that he discovered in the rulebook that Ben had shared with him.
A few weeks after Ben had first brought the game up to him, he made a suggestion that instantly filled Clark with delight: Ben wanted to run a private solo game for just the two of them. He would be the Dungeon Master and Clark could create his own character to play as. Clark was so touched by his grandson’s offer that he was actually brought to tears and it took him several minutes to compose himself. For the rest of that morning, Ben helped the family patriarch create his character sheet and roll for his stats, explaining each and every thing in meticulous detail as they went along. After a few hours Ben declared that they had finally finished and that he would return the next weekend to run the first game session.
Over the next week Clark spent a great amount of time thinking about the character that he had created with his grandson and even writing down notes that would help him craft the character’s backstory. Although there were multiple fantasy races that were fascinating to Clark, he had quickly decided that he wanted to play an Elf, as he had always admired their graceful portrayals through various different mediums, and also how they could live for thousands of years without ever seeming to age. Given that, Clark thought it would be a fun idea to have his character be the exact same age as him - seventy years old - only he would look far younger than Clark did, with his wrinkled face and weak limbs. No, his Elf would have perfectly smooth skin and a youthful glow; seventy was still a young age for an Elf, after all!
It only seemed natural that Clark’s Elf character should be of the ranger class, although to avoid completely copying the character of Legolas from his favorite series of books, Clark decided that his Elf had short brown hair and a goatee rather than the more traditional long blond locks that were featured in most depictions of the fantasy race. The final thing for him to decide upon was the name and Clark had great difficulty with that until Ben introduced him to a website that would randomly generate a list of Elven-style names. After a few spins of the list, Clark settled on Cedhrion as the name for his Elven Ranger, and he eagerly awaited the following weekend when he would finally bring the character to life.
Their first game session actually coincided with Clark’s seventieth birthday, so Ben had been accompanied by his father when he arrived that morning. Trevor didn’t stay long, simply dropping off his gift of a bottle of brandy and wishing his father well before taking off to go and do something he probably found more rewarding. Ben had gone the extra mile for Clark’s birthday gift, purchasing him several sets of gaming dice, a map of the fictional setting they would be playing in, and a book dedicated entirely to the full history and lore of Dungeons & Dragons’ Elvish race. Once again the old man was brought to near tears and he hugged his grandson with the tightest embrace he could manage.
Before they started the game, Ben made them both cups of tea and Clark was surprised to discover that his drink actually had something of a minty taste to it. Ben explained that he had used teabags that he had brought with him and nervously asked if Clark was okay with that. After assuring his grandson that he had absolutely no issue and actually rather enjoyed the added flavor, they finally got started. Clark listened attentively as Ben set the scene, taking occasional sips from his cup of tea and nodding in understanding as Ben referenced parts of the backstory they had agreed on for Cedhrion. The opening monolog continued for almost ten minutes, during which time Clark had finished his cup of tea and suddenly found himself feeling drowsy. Ben’s voice seemed to move further and further away and the old man’s eyelids became much heavier until finally he slumped down in his chair and dropped into a deep slumber.
Across from him, Ben smiled fondly as his grandfather’s physical form dissolved out of existence, and quietly wished him well on his journey. “Until we meet again, Cedhrion…”
***
Snow fell eternal upon the kingdom of Serenth, one of the numerous regions that the Elves of the world called home. It was in a heavily wooded area deep within Serenth that Clark’s body reappeared, laying down on his back in the snow and still deep in his mystically induced slumber. The seventy year old human man was still dressed in the clothes he had dressed in that morning - a plaid shirt and gray slacks that were paired with blue slippers - and as such looked rather out of place and unprepared for the weather of his surroundings.
The elderly man didn’t immediately stir, remaining in his slumber for several more minutes in order to allow for the ensuing transformation to take place. After all, it wouldn’t do for a fat elderly human to appear deep in the homeland of the Elves, so he would have to be rewritten in order to better fit in with his new world!
Clark’s transformation started with his aged and wrinkled skin smoothing out and becoming taut, with the clock appearing to turn back until he had the youthful glow of a man just a third of his age. The dark circles under his eyes faded away and behind his closed eyelids, Clark’s eyesight became sharper and further reaching than he could ever imagine. This image of a younger man being created by his rejuvenated flesh continued to develop as the wispy gray hair upon the man’s head became thick and full for the first time in over thirty years. Once it had been restored to its full volume, the gray was overtaken by a rich brown color and his full head of hair naturally transitioned into a slick upright style. Not only that but his chin was even adorned with a small goatee that helped highlight the strong jawline that had been created through the process of his transformation.
The next most prominent change to Clark’s body was definitely around his midsection. It was fair to say that the old man was a long way from the trim physique he’d had in his youth, and throughout his fifties and sixties he had continued to store weight around his hips and belly. Clark’s son had made his disappointment crystal clear, even joking that the old man had become as round and as big as a planet. Such comments definitely hurt, but they were unfortunately the type of things Clark had come to expect of Trevor. His son definitely would have struggled to believe his eyes if he saw what was happening to Clark at that moment then, as those pounds were being siphoned right out of the man’s body. His rotund belly deflated like a balloon having the air carefully released from it, and after several seconds Clark had a perfectly flat torso. His general width had decreased too, with his waistline becoming tight and slender. In a matter of seconds he had dropped almost twenty pant sizes, although given the circumstances, Clark wouldn’t actually be doing any traditional clothes shopping for his new body any time soon!
To better match his flat stomach and reduced waistline, the extra weight that Clark carried on his arms and legs began to drop away as if it had never even existed. The muscles of his forearms, biceps and triceps all firmed up, while his quads and calves were packed full of the strength required of somebody who spent a good amount of time traversing difficult terrain, as the Wood Elves of the kingdom of Serenth often did.
The final changes to Clark’s physical form were the slight reshaping of his ears, with the tops of them forming tall peaks to match the conventional appearance of a Wood Elf. While the surface level changes were complete, it was a different matter internally, as the human’s genetic code was being completely rewritten and he was given the physiology of the fantasy race that he now appeared to be on the surface. He was still seventy years old, but an Elf wore that age very different from a human, and so he was still considered to be a child among his new people.
Although his physical changes were over, there were further adjustments to his wardrobe as Clark - now better described as Cedhrion - looked quite odd in garments that were not of Elvish fashion, nor expected for a woodland ranger like himself. The soft cotton material of his shirt warped to become a chainmail base layer, with a brown leather tunic appearing above that. His slacks were modified into pants that allowed for a much freer range of motion and his comfortable slippers were completely redesigned into a pair of leather boots with steady grip to allow him to navigate the landscape with ease and stability. As he now had the physiology of a Serenthian Wood Elf, Clark was practically immune to the cold, so his transformed garments were instead worn with the purpose of protecting him from threats he might encounter on his travels.
With the transformation of Clark into Cedhrion now complete, the sleeping Wood Elf finally began to stir. As he opened his eyes and stared up at the bright sky and snow falling down around him, the confused individual was left to wonder how he had gotten there and what had happened to his beloved grandson…
