"Whyyyyy?!?" I cried in total confusion.
Karyn gazed at me sheepishly, lips pursed. She reached out a hand to my shoulder, then stopped, and let her hand drop.
"This so so stupid!" My bright voice sang out, despite the gruff tones I was trying to force out of my throat. "That wish was so innocuous."
"I mean..." Karyn began. "I can see exactly how..."
"YES Karyn." I snapped. "I can see too." I adopted a snarky tone. "The only way to see things as the stone does is to share in the nature of the stone." I voiced the explanation with an intuitive sort of understanding, the song of the great spirit still fresh in my memory. "How were we supposed to know that though?"
"I mean, we weren't until we made the wish." Karyn's eyes seemed to track something else, and she took on a nervous posture.
"OK, well they could have just, I don't know, told us or something, or sent us a text, or dropped of a nice book!"
"They could have, but I... I wished that we'd see it as the stone does." She confessed guiltily. "I thought that would just make sure we understood how the stone worked better, I didn't think it'd do all of this!" She pleaded.
Slowly, I realized that Karyn had been taking my complaints personally. I should try to reign things in. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. To my frustration, closing my eyes didn't stop the insistent ethereal essence of the world that now dripped into my mind so freely. Rather then revelatory it was insistent, and distracting, and annoying. It filled my mind with all kinds of impressions and sensations that only served to confuse me more. Still, freaking out wouldn't do anything...
"RRAahghghghghg." I started to swing and punch in to the air in frustration, then started to rub my forehead ferociously trying to block out all these new visions. My hand did nothing to cover my third eye, and only added the magic coursing through my fingers to my vision
Karyn bit her bottom lip. "Yeah, I know. It's really kind of distracting." She gently rubbed the large red bump on her own forehead curiously.
I picked at the stone in my own head nervously, it was almost like picking at my cuticle and nail. the skin was seamlessly bound to the shard of stone. I took another deep breath, and sighed. I wanted to tell Karyn that it was fine, that she couldn't have known, that I forgave her because there was nothing to forgive, but bitterness choked out the words. Instead I sang. "How bad is it?" and looked down at my body.
"I mean... You're pretty." Karyn said with a shrug.
I growled, but again the noise warbled like delightfully like a bubbling brook. "Not what I wanted to hear."
"Sorry."
It was true though, at least as best as I could tell from my perspective. My vision was framed by long flowy black hair, and I had to part the silky strands with my slender indigo fingers to get a proper look. My now baggy T swaddled my lithesome form, and while the legs of my jeans were baggy my hips were snug. I could tell there was an attractive swell on my chest, and I pressed my hand beneath my boobs to see my shirt follow my curves with a secret perverse curiosity. My now oversized neckline gave me the faintest hint of blue cleavage. I must have stared for a little too long, because Karyn grabbed my hand.
"Jon, we should probably get out of here." She gestured to the side
It took a moment to break my attention away, and realize that people were beginning to stare at the two blue girls sitting at the abandoned park. Dammit. God Dammit. "Two" blue girls. Why'd that spirit have to turn me into a girl?
With frustration, I nodded, rose to my feet, and immediately tripped as I slipped out of my shoes, and stumbled on my pants legs. Cussing under my breath, I cuffed my jeans, picked up my shoes, and started to run after Karyn as she guided us deeper into the park. With delicate bounds from toe to toe, we darted behind an old fence overtaken by brambles, and came to a rest by a drainage channel.
"Ok, This isn't fun anymore." I insisted. "We need to find a way to reinterpret this wish NOW."
Karyn nodded. "Yeah, I totally agree... Only..." She touched her bindi. "I... don't think..."
We both had a sort of intuition of things Her shard of the stone was so intertwined with the essence of her own mind that I couldn't see where she ended and the stone began. Maybe there wasn't even a difference anymore. With dread I realized I was probably the same. This wasn't like her last wish. The thread that manifested her hair and boobs was a single loose thread, easily redirected. This wish, however, was inextricably woven into our new reality.
We shared that wordless revelation, before she declared. "Well, we can at least try to improve things." She smiled nervously. "And we can probably have a bigger influence on how the wishes are granted too."
I nodded in agreement. Before Karyn could continue, I shouted. "I wish I could transform to look like my old self." The wish, I knew by instinct, would not violate the previous wish. It wouldn't change my new nature, my essence would still be whatever blue spirit I'd become, but it would give me some influence over how I looked. I waited, but to my dismay, nothing happened. I put my finger on the shard of stone in my forehead, and wished again. "I wish I could transform to look like my old self!" Gritting my teeth, I turned my attention to Karyn, and walked up to her. I realized, for the first time since our change, that we were eye level. She was always tall for a girl, but only ever came up to my chin, but now she had a few inches on me. Reaching up to her forehead, I touched her half of the stone as well as mine and practically pleaded. "I wish I could transform to look like my old self."
"I... don't know why it's not working." Karyn stated.
"Me neither" I spat with frustration.
"No, I mean... even with this... new sense, I can't figure out why this isn't working..." She rubbed the stone in her forehead, as if polishing a lens. I scowled, as I literally felt her supernatural gaze on me. She continued. "It's like... the sources of the power make sense, but the medium changed with our wish."
"Your wish." I snapped with annoyance, shifting the blame back onto her. I could tell the sharp word hurt Karyn, but was festering in a frustration greater than I'd ever known. I turned my own 6th sense to the stone in her forehead, and quickly realized Karyn was right. The power had always been the song and dance of the spirit and her choir, but it was bound and activated by the seal of fire.
"I thought we'd understand this better." She stated in confusion.
"No... Not better" I realized. "We understand and see it the same as the stone itself. The same as the goddess and her choir, and they don't understand how the fire seal binds them, otherwise they'd have broken free."
"But why should that make it so we can't make wishes then?"
"I don't know." I sighed. "That's my point. Maybe the fiery seal doesn't respond to whatever we are now, Or maybe some harmony in the stone was broken when we split it. Or maybe we understood something about reality as humans that we don't now... ." I could only speculate, but that last thought bothered me deeply. The idea that I might have lost something intrinsic to being human, in addition to everything else, lodged itself deep in my psyche.
We stood there in silence for a few moments while the shock slowly dawned on our senses. She abruptly reached out and touched my forehead, I drew back instinctively, then relented. I could feel her delicate finger on the stone in my head as if she'd touched sensitive skin.
"I wish... that branch was red..." She declared pointing at a branch in the drainage ditch. Nothing happened, and she snapped. "This doesn't make sense!" An edge of irritation grew in her voice, "I can see the hues in my mind. I know how to change them, to pluck and twist them and make it red, but I can't do it!"
"I wish..." She started, as her voice became crestfallen. "I wish... I wish I'd never made that wish." Her hand dropped from my stone.
I crossed my arms, and looked away, anticipating what was coming next, but too engulfed in my own bitterness to accept it.
"I'm so sorry Jon." She sighed. "I had no idea. I never would have done any of this if I thought anything like this would happen."
I scowled as I wrestled with myself, then bit back, "You just had to include me in that wish, didn't you?"
Tears began to well up in her eyes. I knew I was being an ass, I knew this was cruel to my friend, but this was her fault! I'd only just started to reconcile what this new body was to me. At least she was still the same person, just blue. Did I even look like myself anymore?!
She bit the inside of her cheeks, crossed her arms, and looked up and away to fight back the tears... I'd seen this routine in the past. It was how she dealt with something cruel from the "mean girl" bullies in middle school. Being unusually tall, flat, and athletic had made her a target. She'd learned to never show weakness and instead dig in and fight back, but she'd never had to do this with me. I knew I was fucking up even as kept my back turned.
"Of course I had to include you." She retorted pathetically, then snapped with ignited fury. "You got me. It's not like we're friends or anything, I just wanted to turn you into a blue slut all along."
"Congratulations, you got your wish, Literally." I snapped.
Feeding into the anger she double downed. "I might have turned you into a girl, but you turned into a pussy all on your own."
I sputtered in rage and turned to face her. Karyn's tears were gone but her eyes were still swollen and dark blue. That didn't slow me down though, "OH NO. You took care of that too." I roared gesturing crassly at my groin. "Turning your best friend into a girl? Maybe you really are a dyke!"
She scowled, "If I was, then why would I date you? No other girls give you the time of day."
"Keep talking, maybe you'll convince yourself, you're right!"
"Oh, I am right, I'm just waiting for you to get over your pity party so we can move on."
"What a great idea! Let's move on from being blue. And a girl. And from losing a supernatural wishing stone! You ruined everything!" I shouted. "Thanks for proving you never really cared!"
"Keep it up, and you'll be blue, a bitch, and alone." She snapped.
"That'd be better than waiting for you to make things even worse!" I stamped my foot, and a ripple coursed through the essence of the hideaway. Like a drum beat, it was felt more than heard. The air was filled with a silent pause, and a moment later, water started to swell, then rush, then race through the storm gutter carrying the dirt and trash away until only pure water and frothy white foam flowed.
Karyn, arms crossed and a deep scowl on her face, walked up next to me to look into the ditch.
We both stood side by side, watching the flowing stream, and the chords of power that had summoned it. The rushing water and gentle lapping of the waves cooled the mood, but didn't carry away the bitterness.
As the water began to settle back to its prior levels, Karyn stamped her food, and made an awkward outstretched gesture with one arm. Somehow, the clumsy performance called to the water, as if she had made a wish made with gesture and form, rather than words. I couldn't quite tell if what I heard was the gurgle of water, or the chime of bells as she stamped, but once again the drainage ditch swelled and rushed with clear waters.
"That's neat." She finally said.
"Yeah..." I sighed in agreement. "I wonder if that's all we can do..."
We looked at one another, and for the moment, silently agreed to a truce.
I wanted a fight to create some tension, but not sure if I took it too far.
