Lilly was in school, and she could tell something was different. It was a little odd, but kids knew when other kids were saying 'something' about someone, and whatever it was it had to be one heck of a rumour to make everyone giggle as they did, especially the girls in her class.
She felt a little paranoid. Was something being said about her? Maybe about the 'under clothes' she was wearing? But no, the body language indicated it was definitely not about her...
Still the fact that she wasn't being included in knowing what it was about, troubled her a little. Then again, she was starting to get a reputation to be more into study and always doing extra work as she tried to get ahead... were kids already thinking she was just a nerd? Did that... apply to girls? Even girls of her age? She didn't really know and couldn't remember- Nor did she know what kind of things happened from her big brother in terms of social norms.
Hannah then rushed past her looking quite upset. Lilly followed after her concerned.
"Hannah?" she asked.
"Um.. uh huh.. hi Lilly," she said sadly.
"What's goin' on?"
"It's the other girls. They are sayin' that I used to be a boy!"
Lilly tensed a bit at that. "Uh..."
"I know! I think its 'cause they are jealous I can fly now an' made this up! An' now they are all gangin' up on me an' askin' me!" The young harpy threw her wings up in the air in frustration.
Lilly wasn't sure what to say. "Who's started all this? Maybe I can talk to em?" she asked hopefully.
"Joanna started it," said Hannah.
The squirrel girl thought a bit. "I dunno anyone called Joanna," she said thinking about the class.
"She's an angel-girl, but she's mean! She's always thinkin' she's the best and greatest an for a while she was the only flyin' in the class before me. Now that I can fly too she's actin' all weird with me."
Lilly frowned. What was a girl supposed to do? If she were a boy, she would confront the person of course! Still being an angel-changed, this girl probably had a lot of friends...
The squirrel girl looked around for Joanna, after Hannah left for the bathroom. It didn't take long to find a beautiful angel-girl, about her own age. She had the loveliest feathered wings, and a curious halo. wore a green topped traditional uniform just as she did... Lilly thought she looked a lot like Lucas really, but was clearly nothing like that strange older woman. (what would Lucas do in this situation?)
The angel girl appraised Lilly a bit condescendingly. "Whatcha lookin' at?"
"Stop teasin' Hannah," Said Lilly. "She ain't used to be a boy!"
One of the other girls, snickered. "I bet she's defendin' her cause she used to be a boy! That's why she's hannah's friend!"
Lilly took a step back indignantly, her twin tails twirling to the side. "A- even- even if that was true it ain't no reason to make fun of anyone!" Uh oh... Why did she have to say it like that?!
But it was too late.. they were already chanting. "Lilly was a boy! Lilly was a boy! Lilly was boy!"
"Shut up!" said the squirrel girl. "No I wasn't!" Then she tensed again at the full face of her lie as it escaped her mouth. It just came out. She said it on automatic, at being teased like this.
"I'm gonna tell Bruce he was holding hands with a boy!"
"Shut up! Don't you dare!" Lilly felt mortified at the very idea that these girls would- would- urgh!
Joanna giggled. "Show us a picture then of before you was changed! An' it's gotta say your name on it too."
"I ain't doin' anythin'!" Lilly stormed off even as the other girls giggled once more in howls of laughter. Okay that really didn't go as planned... now they were going to make fun of Bruce too! She thought about telling a teacher, but... she wanted to be able to stand up for herself, as well as stand up for her friends. Besides if she did tell, the teachers did know she used to be a boy, and then it would come out and- everyone could make fun of her! (Not to mention Bruce too!)
No, she was going to ignore this angel girl for now, and tell Hannah to ignore her too- at least for now.
Maybe Jon will have a nice new magic trick they could play on her.
Jeff looked around in the house after she had crawled down on her knees to reach it. She pressed forward when she realised her hips were slightly wedged into the frame. With a careful push, she managed to bring herself all the way into the building, scraping her clothes harshly on the ground around her knees.
She stood up to her full height, looking a little bewildered to being indoors. There wasn't a lot of room for her but... it wasn't too bad. The roof was quite high, and there was a window she could look through on each level.
She placed her key down by the hallway of the upper-rooms. There seemed to be a.. stereo there? For a moment Jeff smiled. She used to like these old things... she remembered that. She had to be careful to try and press the 'play' button on it, and suddenly she heard the most wonderful music.
Her key, 'vibrated' to the electric guitar sounds playing, and she felt an over powering urge to... dance. She felt her body move in a joyous circle, as she enjoyed the memory of playing this song often in her house. Her father also liked this kind of music...
"Jeff?" called her mother.
Jeff stopped suddenly. "Uh.. sorry Mum. I jus' couldn't help it." Even now she could feel every beat of the song still stinging her key, the vibrations urging her to dance. She picked up the key to protect it.
Her mother smiled a little. "That's okay. It's a nice song. I'm glad you are able to move about so much in here. But be careful, you don't want to break anything."
Jeff sat down against the wall, her winging key touching against the brick. "You.. won't leave me right mom?"
"Of course not!" She said sternly. "Look... Actually... I have to say I am sorry too. I didn't expect things to be like this with your father."
Jeff looked distantly. What could she say back? "It's okay," she said in the end. But it wasn't... was it? Or.. could it be? Maybe it will be?
"On the plus side," smiled her mother. "You're a very big girl. There's probably going to be a lot of things you can do now."
"I don't want to grow up any more," said Jeff strongly. "I hate bein' this big an I hate the idea of growin' up at all!"
"Jeff don't say that! Everyone grows up eventually." Her mother wanted her to grow up!
"Not me. I'm stuck. I ain't even a real person no more mom! I'm jus' a doll! A .. a toy. That's why dad left."
Olivia carefully took out something from her bag. "Did you feel that way about your friends?" She said showing the sketch. The giant young girl had to learn down to see that it was her own work. There was even a picture of the mermaid. It was a crude drawing, but... it wasn't a bad one. The face was all wrong, but it conveyed a lot of emotion in each line. Mainly of a curiosity that she just didn't know how to express.
Jeff stared at it for a while. She drew that when she was... was... and is still... the teenage boy. "They ain't my friends mom... Belle an Ricky... they... got each other now. I got nobody. All the other kids jus' used me for pickin' em up and carryin' em!"
"Maybe they will visit you. Until then though, we'll just have to make do with what we have." explained Olivia. "I am going to try and find a better job."
"Jus' put a sign up the house an' offer money for them to see me."
"Oh stop. Young lady you will not wallow in self pity!"
Jeff gasped. Her mother was looking really angry now, and it looked like she may have hit a button.
"I blame myself for everything Jeff, but we have a second chance at getting this right. I'm going to be the mother you need me to be, and believe me... you will not be some 'object' to me, nor a way to make money like your father was to you... you are my daughter, as much as you were my son!"
Jeff could feel tears in her eyes. "Y-yes mom..." she said in the end. "But... how am I gonna make any friends now?"
"Trust me. You'll make them in time. Be patient. We'll... also need to sort out some new clothes. Those rags don't look like they will last much longer."
Jeff could only nod as her winding ran down. As she gazed straight ahead, and that odd ticking sound on her back went in reverse... she had to wonder, just what became of her father?
Aurelius didn't really have time to think. She didn't even know how she was flying, but at the moment she was glad that she knew how. That red robin was persisting in trying to eat her! There were so few trees here, everything was tree stump and so little cover. In the end she saw a small hole in the ground that looked like it might have been a warren.
She dived down, going as deep as she could, and praying that it didn't have any other animal inside. The naked dragon fairy was glad to see that it was indeed empty. The robin's beak poked into the entrance, with its beak scratching the soil and barely brushing before the dragon fairy's body. Aurelius had never been so scared in her life, as she pressed against the soil at the back end of the small hole.
Eventually the robin gave up and flew away.
Aurelius sighed. "It's... gone," she said still not feeling brave enough to try and move anywhere, glad for the relative safety of the hole. Out of habit she tried to make a motion as if she was straightening her suit- only to touch upon the pert breasts her form carried. The changed being found it.. odd- but she was a relatively calm minded person in a crisis. "Oh.. so that's what its like," she said to herself, thinking no more of it.
She felt the loss of her manhood with a... clinical indifference. Aware of it, but not thinking about it overly. She wasn't sure what she looked like, and- tensed as she felt a strange feeling on the small of her back.
It turned out dragon fairies had tails...
The green tail was quite lizard like, as it curled around her bare legs, the forefront of which had those strange scales almost as if she was wearing elbow gloves and boots. It moved with a bit of a mind of its own. She had to adjust her weight slightly, but winced as she felt the sensations of the tail touch the bare ground. An alien appendage that she had no prior experience of. It... it was rather ticklish.
Aurelius at this point was going to collapse from the sheer shock of the last couple of minutes. Why did her transformation bring her here? Was she really stuck in the past? Or did she simply move somewhere else? It was possible that the strange witch-girl was lying to her. Right? She couldn't really be stuck two centuries in history! Alone and... with nobody here?
Carefully she moved out of the hole, the wind catching her long blond hair. She glanced around with her green eyes, wary of catching the attention of any other forest animals. Fortunately, the forest was quite dead. So hopefully most of the animals were scattered away, aside from the occasional adventurous bird. Her two sets of wings buzzed into life with the flicker of a thought, and she was suddenly at a tree stump, not dissimilar to the one she was on before. But being only 6 inches tall, she was wary of the fact that she was at the mercy of any creature that might make her a meal.
She was alone, with not even the company of another fairy to at least tell her what to do.
Aurelius was a strong willed- 'person', however. She just needed to find some clothes first. Surviving it in the wilds was not a skill-set she had- though this body didn't seem to suffer the elements in the same way. She did know how to work towards profitable scenarios however. Her effort vs profitable gains chart appeared in her head and she reluctantly decided that she could accept the indignity of no clothes, until she worked out how best to rough it in this forest until rescue.
She would need the basics. Shelter and food were the priority, then something to wear. She would wait it out until rescue. The fact that there were loggers in the area meant that people Were in the forest...
Eventually she found a little fox hole, that was as big as a cave to her stature. It appeared long abandoned. Since this body didn't need warmth, she didn't feel pressure to make a fire. She managed to find a few discarded berries, and fruits from small bushes.. not a lot... but she had no idea if they were poisonous or not. Though to be honest, being in a new body, how could she know what would and wouldn't kill her?
Knowing she had to try and eat 'something', she gave it a taste... and found it actually, not too bad. She was left with the seed of the berry and felt a curious instinct- she had to... plant it? Yes. Just- just plant it somewhere. Quickly she placed the seed on the soft soil, then went back to her fox-hole.
