The light was brilliant and blinding. By the time it finally faded away I still had my eyes closed, and relied only on my other senses. I only needed a moment to recognize the uncomfortable weight of something poking into my belly. I wasn’t sure what it was, but obviously I just needed to fly up and blow the obstacle away. I tried, before my wings met with something hard, like a wall. 

Why was I a dragon inside of a building? That didn’t make any sense to my still recovering mind. I needed to see what was going on, so I slowly opened one eye, and then the other, as they adjusted to the different lighting before me.

The sun filtered in through the curtains of a closed window. A Christmas tree was knocked to its side, covered in blinking lights. A ceiling light shone down from above. It was hard to get used to, but it took me only a moment to realize something profoundly different about myself:

My scales weren’t red.

There was no fire dancing around my body, threatening to burn me from the inside out. My wings were now a soft violet instead of a deep red. I whipped my tail around to get a look at it, and found that it had changed in not just color, but also size. It was ever so slightly thinner and longer. In fact, I felt like I was taking up far less space than I had before. Instead of a massive titan of muscle, I felt lithe. There was still plenty of strength within me, but this body felt like it was built to be graceful instead of overpowering.

In my excitement I felt a new energy begin to build up inside of me. It was hot, incredibly so, but it felt controlled. It felt more like me than anything else in the world. I let out a small touch of this energy, and watched as a wave of sparks expanded from my mouth before reaching the wall and instantly blackening it.

My eyes widened as soon as I realized what I did, and I sheepishly looked away from the damage I did.

…And right into the eyes of the only other person in the room.

“Ollie? I think it’s time you turn back, okay?” he spoke softly, but I could tell he was at least a little worried. 

“Understood,” I bellowed, and paused. My voice still had that great power behind it that one attributed to dragons, but I knew it was unmistakably feminine. It was beautiful. I preened for just a second, before I let myself shift into my other form. I tried not to let the excitement of seeing what I’d look like get to me.

Magic slowly overtook me as I felt my body quickly shrink into myself. The tingling sensation felt actually enjoyable when I knew I had a body to look forward to as I transformed.

And oh, did I. When the magic finally left me I felt radiant. There was so much energy radiating behind and around and within me, it was almost overwhelming. 

After a moment to really revel in this, I let myself really experience my body in a way I hadn’t before. My skin felt so soft, and the transition between skin and scales finally felt normal instead of like a chafing in the back of mind. My hair was long, longer now than it ever had been before, as it gently curled all the way to my upper back. 

I also noticed several other major changes, but I could tell from where Ian’s eyes were looking that he noticed some of them, too. Blush quickly filled my face as I realized several other new aspects of my transformation were making themselves quite known under my shirt. “Ian! My eyes are up here.” 

I almost stopped to listen to how my new voice sounded. It was obviously much higher than the voice of my dragon form, but I loved it. I sounded cute, almost. 

“Sorry!” Ian said before closing his eyes entirely. “Maybe you should run to your room and grab something to, uh, cover up more?”

I looked at him and was distracted by relief that my height had barely changed, if at all. We were still almost the same height, give or take an inch. I didn’t let myself be distracted for long, as my sense of modesty took over. “Yeah, on it. Be right back!” 

The trip to my room wasn’t the worst, but I absolutely needed pants that fit differently and something to go over my shirt. Even once I found what I needed, it took a surprisingly long time to get myself in new clothes and ready. Not because I couldn’t find any that fit, I was lucky to have a simple solution to that problem. No, the problem was that I caught my reflection in a mirror and couldn’t stop staring.

The girl looking back at me was beautiful. Lightning arced in her gray eyes and across the violet scales that shined across her body. Her hair looked just as curly as it had felt, and even as messy as those curls were, they were perfect. Even better, what was once a darker red hue that colored her hair, now it was a brilliant purple that almost matched her scales. She loved it.

I loved it.

I was her. I was really, truly her, after almost thirty years of blind ignorance. Mom gave me clarity, Ian gave me a path forward. I don’t know what I would have done otherwise.

After taking just another minute to admire myself, I stepped back towards the living room and Ian, now safely covered with pajama bottoms and a pullover to help hide anything noticeable. My hair kept getting in my face, but I could ask my mom how to make a ponytail later.

“How do I look?” I asked Ian as I plopped down beside him. The couch was absolutely not happy with my earlier transformation, but it seemed investing in magically sturdy furniture helped a lot in keeping it relatively undamaged.

Ian planted a kiss on my cheek and leaned up against me. I tried not to stammer and blush as he did, but as soon as he spoke I knew it was a losing battle. “You’re absolutely gorgeous,” he said, sounding like every word of it was genuine.

I responded to him with something I once thought could never happen between us: I planted a kiss on his lips. Lightning and fire arced between us for the seconds we were together, and I knew I wanted more. A single look in his eyes told me he felt the same.

Time stopped mattering for a while after that. I wasn’t sure how long we spent entangled together, but every second of it was perfect. We were, of course, awkward and messy as we came to understand one another, but we were each quick and enthusiastic learners.

All good things had to end eventually. After I wasn’t sure how long Ian pulled away, and so did I, and he wrapped an arm around me.

I leaned against him in turn, and let the two of us do nothing but sit in silence together, for a time. The distant sounds of others celebrating filled the air, and it was the perfect noises to have on in the background. 

“My name is Olishara,” I said, breaking the silence after a few minutes. “Still Ollie. Still me, just better.”

Ian didn’t even need a second to respond. “It’s an amazing name, Olishara. Ollie. I can’t wait to say it in frustration when your lightning blows up a wall.”

As annoying as his teasing was, the smile on my face could have competed with the sun for brightness. “I… I look forward to it,” I said, my voice quiet. 

Once again, we let ourselves dwell in silence together. This time Ian had a Christmas music playlist up, one we’d put together in the weeks leading up to last year’s Christmas. It was full of songs both good and bad, and with this new voice I couldn’t help but gently mumble the lyrics to some of the songs I’d memorized.

It was in this last silent moment that I looked under my partner’s chin, and at the bright reversed scale that grew in almost proud opposition to all of his other scales. “Hey Ian?” I asked, distracting him from Megadeth’s rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

“Yeah, Ollie?” I swore I’d never get tired of him saying my name like that.

“Something I’ve always been curious about is, well, how does that scale respond to someone’s touch?”

The grin on his face said all I needed to know. “Would you like to experiment about it? Together?”

I hesitated. I trusted Ian, and he obviously trusted me, but he lacked the childhood lessons of just how important that piece of us was. It was true that I wanted this, of course, but with the actual question on the table I hesitated. Did I trust Ian that much? To share with him that which made me most vulnerable?

My conclusion barely took a second to reach. “Yes, I think I would.”

That Christmas was the best day of my life up to that point. Nothing in the world could have compared to how much hope, light, and joy came into my life that day.

But eventually this early phase had to end. My transformation, my coming into myself and realizing who I was, felt beautiful. Expressing my feelings for Ian and getting to begin living the fantasy I’d built up in my head was amazing. But this was just the first day of the rest of my life.

There was, of course, so much more to do. I needed to replace my wardrobe from top to bottom. All of my legal paperwork had to be updated. I still had to come out to both of my other parents, which unnerved me even if I knew they’d accept me. Ian and I had to actually talk about and set boundaries in our newfound relationship.

Life wasn’t suddenly going to be sunshine and rainbows just because I had a wonderful path forward. There would be pitfalls I’d stumble into. Ian and I would undoubtedly have our spats, as any couple did. Maybe we stuck together through thick and thin, or maybe we just weren’t meant for one another. I didn’t know, life didn’t come with a guide for the future.

But I was hopeful. Life finally had color to it, there was something for me to look forward to at the start of every day. On that day I realized I’d finally found something like the happiness my own parents had cherished so much. I was going to protect it with every fiber of my being, 

First, though, before any of that talk of an idealistic future, came a conversation from two exhausted young dragons at the end of an extremely long day. Ian had just finished lugging in the gift I gave him, and was beginning to set up the many Star Wars films at his disposal.

But when he got to the VHS copies, Ian paused. He tilted his head and turned to me with a question written on his face. “Hey, Ollie?” He asked, causing me to perk up.

“What’s up?” 

His brow was furrowed in the cutest of ways. I almost didn’t want to solve his question, if it meant seeing more of his adorable side. “I was just wondering, not that I’m not grateful, why you bought two copies of the first three movies.

“Oh!” I knew the answer immediately, and I was sure he would love it. “I knew the original trilogy was your favorite, so I figured I’d get you two copies of each, one VHS and one DVD. I thought it’d be a sweet gesture.”

I expected him to accept my answer with a smile, and go on his merry way. Instead, my boyfriend began to laugh like a madman for almost a full minute. I almost moved forward when he began wheezing, but Ian held a hand up to stop me as he slowly gained control. 

“What?” I asked, more confused than ever. “Did I do something wrong?”

Laughter still infected his speech here and there, but Ian at least had the self control to communicate again. “Ollie. Dear. Darling. Sweetheart. You’re so genuine, but we have to fix your lack of sci-fi knowledge eventually.”

“And why is that? I’ll have you know I enjoy my ignorance.” It meant he spent more time watching shows and movies with me, to help me understand what I was watching.

“It’s just that, Ollie, the Original Trilogy are movies 4, 5, and 6.” He explained, as though it made any sense at all.

But that only bewildered me more. I was almost yelling when I, after a moment of trying to wrap my head around everything, gave my outburst. “And whose stupid idea was that?!?” 

Ian’s new round of laughter was all the answer I needed, as I made a pout and sat beside him, not yet ready to watch the greatest night of my life fade away.