Julius stopped, dead in his tracks. It was mid-day in the Castle-Town square but something felt... Off. Strange. Almost... Lethargic. Time stopped in place, and began to rewind all around him. Then it began to fast forward, like someone searching for a more enjoyable scene. He knew what this was about. He looked at the fountain, finding none else but the Twister in all his mischievous glory. Julius knew that, if he so desired it, he could simply walk away... But he had a better bargain for the man this time. He looked at the faceless face of the all-consuming terror, but it was a terror Julius knew well. "Hello," he said politely, looking at how the Twister's entire ensemble sat atop only a drop of water. One of his many tricks, Julius was sure. "It has been some time, but not nearly as long as the three other times we've had this meeting." He looked upon his desk, noticing that instead of his usual dice or roulette reel, sat a stack of cards. The tricky thing in dealing with the Twister is that you could never tell what exactly was real-- but Julius decided to not question much of it. "The usual sacrifice, right?" He set down his four gems. It would total thirteen rupees, but Julius knew the Twister took... something more than that. It was an odd sensation, almost like losing a part of yourself... a part of your potential, each and every time you made this wager. "And, for my wager..." He thought to himself, before deciding upon something that the Twister himself might find rather amusing. "Ah, an ability you yourself have granted me... Not to say it hasn't come in handy. You likely already know of how useful it's been to me." A Keese manifested into the air, roosting on the Twister's side of the desk. "Now... What would you have me do?"
The Twister spoke briefly, spreading the cards upon the desk in an arc. As the cards would spread off its edges, though, so too did his desk stretch to compensate. There looked to be thousands, the desk magically extending, blocking the street. The numerous pedestrians of the road calmly walked around it, as if not even noticing the visage or its perplexing furniture. "Pick a card," the faceless face spoke, calmly, yet growing a grin most mischievous. "Any card." When the man drew, he looked upon its face. The emblem he saw was not a King nor any number of spades, but instead a large eye was staring back at him from the card's printed surface. The Ace of Eyes, it would seem. It abruptly blinked, causing Julius to startle and blink. Yet, when his own eyes opened, the child behind the desk had vanished. On his desk, a second card had been turned up--that which seemed to resemble a Joker casting an enchantment spell. Finally, the loyal Keese, was nibbling on a third card--not a four of diamonds, but a four of Rupees, it seemed. Abruptly, the three drawn cards begin to float up from the desk, capturing the attention of the Keese--its beady red eyes marveling upon it. The cards merged into a triangle, glowing a dim green color. A rupee? No, perhaps, it was a Force Gem... it seemed to beg for Julius to reach for it. ... The decision is yours. A child's voice burrowed into the back of the man's mind--not spoken, not heard, but somehow simply known. Take the gem, or your Keese--whichever you value more. One will capture the other, and the chosen one will grow to be something new. Though the voiceless voice said nothing more, Julius realized he had a third option: to take neither, and back out of the deal.
Take the gem, or his Keese, he thought to himself, reflecting upon the Twister's words. He examined his options carefully. If he took the gem... it would capture the Keese? It worked the other way around as well; taking the gem would capture the Keese... The Twister was always full of such vague analogies, using guile and double-meanings to confound his purveyors. But, Julius at least somewhat enjoyed not entirely understanding what he getting from the Twister's deals. His hand reached out for the Keese -- not the Twister's but his own. Let he himself see what should become of the gem.
As Julius' hand reached towards the tiny beast, it abruptly fluttered across the desk, and seemed to completely unhinge its jaw, devouring the Force Gem and swallowing it in a sudden process that seemed inherently painful. As the keese seemed to digest and absorb the gem and its power, its body visibly morphed, changing color and shape... With a grotesque CRACK, two more wings replaced its legs, forcing it to fly into the air. Its entire body turned a sickly shade of green. Finally, its clenched eyes abruptly opened wide--into one, large, disturbingly human-looking eye which glared right into Julius' gaze. The eye overtook the entirety of the monster's face, voiding it of a mouth as well. Julius blinked instinctively in shock, and as he did so, he saw himself. ... The man already knew what had transpired. Although he could still always summon his keese, whenever he did so, it would take on this bizarre new shape--entrapped in such a way that it could never stop flying with its four wings, even if the poor creature wanted to rest. Its lack of a mouth or even a hooked tail made it virtually impossible for the Keese to attack anything in this state. So long as the Four-Winged keese was summoned, whenever Julius closed his left eye, it would see not from his own vision, but that of the keese itself. He assumed if he other acquired the ability to spawn a second keese, he could do the same with his right eye... but couldn't extend beyond that unless he somehow obtained a third eye. He knew, in a way he could not describe, that all aspects of his eyes and his vision were extended by this keese. As Julius himself could already see the truth, so could the keese, even without having the Lens of Truth on its body. He supposed an item like the Hawkeye, or a spell such as Eyebeam, could extend to the keese as well.
