75: New and Improved

After the bath came the problem of clothing. They’d had clothing ready for me in Esra’s place… except it was way too big for me now, because they were expecting Kit the guy to come out of the fruit. We briefly tried one of my old shirts on, but it was practically a dress now. Ryn said we could use them to make cute clothes for me later.

Esra rushed off into the real world where she was near a town large enough to sell clothing while Ryn and I sat in the sun and talked. Wrapped in a towel, I listened to her recount all that had happened while I was inside the fruit. When she got to the part about Fennimore’s men attacking I got worried, then impressed when she told me of her strategy and how she’d essentially ended the battle early.

She seemed very upset about the fact she’d had to kill anyone at all, but in a deep, below the surface sort of way. God I wished we were close enough that I could help. Then again, she had Grace, who was also amazing and probably helping Ryn all she could. I sighed. I just felt so useless again. As always.

“It’s kind of exciting to not be the only mage in the group,” Ryn said, staring out into Esra’s grove and playing with a lock of her hair. “I mean, apart from Esra… but she doesn’t totally count.”

“Oh… yeah,” I nodded, slowly reaching up to pull a lock of my own hair down. Oh wow, it was like a spring! I uncoiled and uncoiled it until it was straight out. My hair was like twice as long as it looked! I wonder what it would look like if I used a hair straightener on it?

Ryn was oblivious to my thoughts, which was expected because she couldn’t read minds. Instead, she continued talking, turning to me excitedly, “Oh! I forgot to tell you! I made a joke about mage battles being super anime at the start of the battle, but no one got it. We need more geeks in the order, I swear. You would have totally gotten the joke if you were there.”

I smiled, the joke wasn’t quite funny enough to laugh at, given that it was so many days after the fact, but it was still good. “Yeah… it takes a special type of nerd to get jokes like that, huh?”

Ryn nodded emphatically, her wavy hair bouncing all over the place. “Exactly. I mean Grace gets my sci-fi jokes and references, but she’s cis, so she didn’t really watch too much anime.”

“Cis girls don’t watch anime?” I asked, frowning as I thought about it. Surely they did, I mean, all that shoujo-ai stuff had to be aimed at lesbian girls right?

“I guess they probably do… I don’t know. I’m talking out of my ass,” she shrugged, sending me a goofy grin.

I smiled back, then looked down at the grass under me, another train of thought already whisking me away. Was I a lesbian girl now? I mean… Mer was cute. I liked her, she was fun and kinda silly sometimes, but she had this serious side that was a little intimidating. Like all obrec, she was a bit alien with her emotions. It was hard to describe, but all of us humans had picked up on it.

She was tall too, with a warrior woman’s body, gentle but toned feminine muscle, along with her short, soft fur and horns and stuff. Goodness, her horns… I don’t know why but I really liked them, the way they swept forward slightly, then up and back over her head.

Okay so I had no idea if I was into anyone other than girls… but I definitely liked girls. Especially Mer. Not that she would be interested in me anymore. I was a girl now, and she had been chasing after Kit the man, not Kit the tiny girl.

I sighed and rubbed at the tears that sprung up again. Stupid tears, stupid eyes. Stupid face. Some things had carried over I guess. I still cried at the drop of a hat, I still blushed instantly and I still hated myself. Yay.

“There you are!” Esra said, coming up behind us. “Honestly, you had to choose the most obscure patch of grass to loiter in didn’t you?”

“Keeping you on your toes,” Ryn said with a grin, getting up and taking the large package from Esra. “These are her clothes?”

“Indeed. I was not able to find a full wardrobe, not with my current funds anyway, so this will have to do until we can find somewhere to get more made,” Esra agreed, staring down at me with a sort of confused expression. Then her eyes softened and she directed a question at me, “How are you holding up, dear?”

“Oh… um, okay… I guess,” I mumbled. I had no idea how to talk to Esra normally, but especially not when she was being… nice?

She raised an eyebrow and did that whole, old person looking over glasses thing. Except she didn’t wear glasses. “A non-answer, I see. So you are not coping then? Your eyesight is still compromised?”

Damn it, people who were socially intelligent were the worst. I couldn’t just mumble and stay silent around them. “Um… no, I’m doing… well, this body isn’t so bad. I kinda like it, actually. Apart from the height and the eyes thing. So yeah, my eyes are still screwy.”

“We’ll have to obtain some spectacles for you at some point in the future then. Unfortunately, it is a very expensive and time consuming process, so we may have to wait—“ Esra said, before Ryn cleared her throat. “What is it, you pesky young woman?”

“Whoa,” Ryn laughed, fanning herself. “I’ve upgraded to pesky young woman! It was girl the other day! Should I go get a frilly skirt and bat my eyes coquettishly at all the pretty knight women now?”

I snorted, trying not to laugh. God, Ryn was such a brat, it was hilarious. My cheeks were probably going red as I tried to hold in my amusement. Laughing would probably cause Esra to grumble at me too, and I wanted to stay firmly in the ‘mommy’s little angel’ list. At least for now.

“Get to the point, Rynadria,” the older woman sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Right,” Ryn grinned, then turned to me. “We can find an optometrist back in Avonside pretty easily I think. Provided the whole place hasn’t burned to the ground and gone all Mad Max on us or something.”

Oh shit, that was totally right. I’d get a really good one too, since a lot of the Avonside people were experts in their field. I breathed a sigh of relief and smiled appreciation at my new older sister. Where the hell would I be without her taking care of this stuff? Apart from semi-blind, that is.

“Mad Max? Optometrist?” Esra asked, rolling her eyes in annoyance. “Who is Max and why is he mad? What is an Optometrist? How is any of this relevant?”

“Um, Mad Max is… a story from Earth. About the breakdown of society… and a whole lot of other stuff,” I explained quietly, my eyes downcast as I picked at the grass absently. “An Optometrist is a specialist in the health of the human eye. They are generally responsible for measuring the problems in someone’s eye so they can have glasses made. Spectacles, rather.”

“Thank you,” she said, giving me a pleased nod. Then she turned to Ryn and scowled. “There, was that so hard?”

“Suck up,” Ryn said, poking an accusatory tongue out at me. I felt my stomach drop, had I upset Ryn? But no, then she winked and smiled at me. I let out a breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.

Offering me her hand again, she said, “Let’s get you dressed, then we can take you back to my grove and introduce you to everyone.”

Nevermind, stomach was plummeting again as anxiety took its rightful place on the throne of my mind.

****

Esra wasn’t going to join us over in Ryn’s grove, mumbling something about needing to investigate my fruit. She was probably just as confused as I was about why I’d come out with a girl’s body.

Which meant that I only had Ryn beside me as we walked through the lower fields of her grove wearing the simple linen shirt and breeches that Esra had found. Goodness her grove was big now. And pretty, with the waterfalls streaming over the high cliffs, the afternoon light generating tiny rainbows in the mists that surrounded them. The stairs up that cliff were less than pretty however. My tiny new legs were not keen, not keen at all.

Ryn solved the problem by taking my hand and teleporting us up, one short hop through the fabric of space at a time. It still took a while, but at least my legs weren’t on fire by the end of it. 

That led me to a realisation. I wouldn’t have to do any of Troy’s training anymore! There’s no way he’d make a girl of my height try and wrestle Adam or whatever. I couldn’t be a hair over five feet, if that. Adam could just sit on me and I’d be immobilised.

Then Ryn scared the crap out of me by using her voice amplifying spell to call everyone to the ramp, and I felt my anxiety skyrocket to new levels.

“Sorry,” she apologised, giving me a sheepish look. “This will be easier if we tell everyone at once.”

“Okay,” I nodded, my heart still pounding at a million miles and hour. God I hated being so anxious all the time.

It took us a few minutes to get through the forest, the winding paths adding to the time it took. Ryn’s forest paths were almost fae, the way they twisted and messed with your sense of direction. She loved them though, so I guess it was okay.

When we exited the forest, we could see everyone standing around at the bottom of the ramp as Ryn’s megaphone announcement had asked. My eyes went straight for Mer, who was casually laughing at something Adam had said. I stepped behind Ryn almost subconsciously as a mix of jealousy and anxiety spiked through my heart. Had she already moved on?

We continued like that across the field of grass, until finally joining them at the base of the ramp. I couldn’t really see them from behind Ryn, I was just that small, but I heard them turn to greet her.

“Hey all! Kit came out of the fruit, finally!” Ryn said happily, motioning to where I had been next to her before I’d hidden.

“Great… uh, but where is he?” Adam asked, confused.

“Huh?” Ryn turned quickly and found me. Her expression turned sympathetic, and she moved to stand next to me, an arm going around my shoulder. “This is her. Meet the new and improved Kit, everyone.”

Improved? Maybe...

“No fucking way,” Grace blurted, her eyes almost falling out of her head. In fact, everyone was staring at me like that. Oh god.

I looked to Mer as fast as I could, finding her staring at me with the same shock. Hugging myself, I wrenched my eyes away, finding solace in the grass at my feet. Anywhere to avoid the awful expressions on everyone’s faces.

Ryn gave me a comforting squeeze as she told them, “Before you ask, no this isn’t a joke. Esra and I were just as surprised as you all, trust me. Still, this is what’s happened… please be kind to her.”

“She’s cute as heck,” Grace said, speaking first again, her shocked expression switching to a huge grin. “Do you have another name you want to use, Kit?”

“Um… no, Kit is fine for now,” I said, but my voice was so quiet that even Ryn didn’t hear me. I had to clear my throat and  try again, shaking my head, “No… Kit is fine for now, thanks.”

“Seconding the cute thing,” Adam said, squatting down to get into my field of view, he was so much taller than me now. “How you doing in there, friend?”

I shrugged. “I’m okay.”

Adam’s response was a wordless sound of doubt. Ugh, even Adam was seeing through me. Mer’s expression had felt like a lance to the heart, and it was all I could do not to cry.

I was about to lose that battle when someone unexpected hopped up to me and I found a fluffy snout up in my face, sniffing away. My heart melted as Sprinkles nudged at me affectionately, a happy little growl coming out of the bunny that was now only a foot and a half shorter than me.

“Hey Sprinkles!” I giggled, kneeling down to cuddle her. Then all of a sudden I was crying, burying my face in the bun’s fur as I clung to the rabbit who so clearly still recognised me. I was so confused about everything, so scared about Mer’s new perception of me, but Sprinkles was still here, still cared about me.

A squeak of fright burst out of me when I felt a pair of strong arms go around both myself and Sprinkles, and when I looked up I found myself looking directly into Mer’s big brown eyes. She smiled, her gaze roaming all over my face as though devouring every photon of light that bounced off it.

"When I said you would turn out to be even more good looking than you already were, I didn't think it would be in the opposite direction," she told me quietly, gentle wonder written all over her expression.

"What do you mean?" I gulped, unable to believe that she might still think of me that way.

"You are gorgeous, so full of delicate beauty, like the snow flowers that bloom on the highest peaks of my home," she told me in a whisper, her hand rising for the briefest of moments to brush at a lock of my curly hair. I felt a blush flame up across my cheeks and I dropped my gaze back to Sprinkles as something fluttered wildly within me. I think it was my heart. My heated cheeks brought a laugh out of her and in the same quiet, gentle tone she said, "And you have the colour of those flowers too, vibrant and pure… and pink."

A grin blossomed across my new face and relief slammed into me like a thing that’s going fast, even as embarrassment drove my face into the bunny’s fur again. She was being very poetic and mushy… and she still liked me! Now I just had to work up the courage to accept her advances...