My heart and mind were both racing as I stared up at the angry young man in a mix of shock and confusion.

He looked a little older than me, like a second or third year college student maybe, but he stood a full head taller. He had long wavy light-brown hair that hung down past his shoulders, and intense blue eyes. And even though he seemed angry, he also looked kind of pretty. Which was not a word I'd have ever used for a guy before. He was smooth-shaved and his skin looked fair and soft. There was a lot of that skin on display too, considering how he was dressed.

Seriously, the guy looked like he'd tied a long red curtain around his waist, then tossed one end of it up and over his right shoulder. That left his smooth muscular chest on full display, and the way his body was sculpted he had to be seriously into athletics. Apart from the curtain the only other thing he had on was a pair of gold-coloured sandals.

After another second or two I started to notice other details beyond the attractive angry athlete in front of me. Like the fact that the parking lot and all the cars were gone. So was the convention centre, and the airport. In fact the whole city was missing.

My eyes widened and my mouth dropped open as I realized the two of us were standing in a smallish clearing on the side of a large hill somewhere. There was short dry scrubby grass and weeds underfoot, and beyond that were lots of strange trees to one side and gnarly old grape vines on the other side. The biggest shock was off to my right, where the warm summer sun sparkled over a bright blue sea that stretched off into the distance.

Then the last shock finally hit me. Did that big angry guy just call me a girl?!

I stole a quick glance down at myself and my heart skipped a beat. It was exactly like one of those web novels. Instead of my usual tall lanky body in the navy-blue hoodie and dark jeans, I found myself looking at a slender feminine figure. I was wearing an ankle length sleeveless white linen dress, that barely hid the two prominent mounds on my chest. And I had a pair of brown leather sandals on my delicate feet, the kind with straps that wrapped around my slim ankles.

"What -" I started to ask, but immediately cut myself off. My voice was as unfamiliar as my body, all light and airy and musical.

/run/

The whole thing was unbelievable. Impossible. It was exactly like those gender bender stories, and that meant it had to be a dream. I didn't remember going back to Bruce and Mary's place, but I had to be asleep in their guest room. Now I was dreaming about being a protag in one of those GB fics. And the strange clothes and setting were obviously related to all that ancient coin stuff my uncle was talking about before.

/Run!/

The only other explanation was maybe I got hit by a car or something. Considering the last thing I could remember was standing in a parking lot, that actually made a lot of sense. I probably got run over, now I was in some hospital having a weird coma-induced dream -

/Stupid girl why won't you run!?/

Ok that didn't make any sense. I had no idea where those thoughts of running were coming from, or why they kept popping into my head. And anyways I knew running never helped in these dreams. I wasn't sure why I was thinking of myself as a girl either. Even though I looked like a girl in this dream I knew I was really just a guy. A dull boring guy.

"Not even going to try and beg for mercy?" the angry athlete growled, and suddenly all my attention was on him again.

"What?" I asked in confusion. "I don't know -"

/RUN!/

The thought was too loud and too strong to ignore, and suddenly I found myself dashing for the woods. Except the sensations from my dream-body were overwhelming, and anyways I'd never tried to run in sandals before. Or a dress. So I only made it a few paces before I stumbled.

It didn't matter anyways, because like it always happened in these kinds of dreams the big angry guy was somehow already in front of me again. And of course he looked even more ticked off at me for trying to escape.

"Foolish mortal," he glared. "You think you can outrun me, little rabbit? I, who outpaced Hermes at the very first Olympic games? Not a chance. Now feel the wrath of Apollo!"

"What -" I started to ask again, but this time I was cut off by another wave of dizziness.

It only lasted a second, then I found myself looking up at the guy in even more confusion. He'd somehow gone from a head taller than me to suddenly towering over me like a giant. My eyes were basically level with his firm abs. Then I noticed how my dress was hanging off me like a tent and it finally struck me. The athlete guy didn't get bigger, I'd gotten even smaller.

"Now all who look upon you shall know your folly little rabbit," he stated with a look of grim satisfaction. "And perhaps you'll think twice next time you're tempted to invoke the name of a God, only to insult him in the very same breath."

I gulped as I stared wide-eyed up at him, with my heart pounding in my chest. I began to ask, "What..."

My voice trailed off as he vanished before my eyes, leaving me alone in the little clearing on the side of a hill overlooking a strange sea. I had no idea where I was or how I'd got there. I didn't know what just happened to me, or why. About the only thing I knew for sure was this had to be a dream. A very detailed and realistic dream.

"Holy shit," I mumbled as I sank down to my knees, then slumped over backwards onto the ground.

I let out a little squeak as something pinched the base of my spine, so I quickly shifted up into a cross-legged position. My oversized dress was still hanging loose around me, and I slipped my right hand inside the linen folds so I could reach back and figure out what was going on.

A second later I froze as I felt something short and stubby and very fluffy. A little tail, surrounded by more than a handful of fur. My eyes widened and my heart started racing again as I nervously reached up with my left hand, to check the top of my head. Sure enough I felt something strange up there too.

"Oh no," I sighed as I gently pulled one of the tall fuzzy ears down so I could see it.

Sure enough it was long and narrow, and covered in soft fuzzy beige fur. I sighed, "Bunny ears. And a bunny tail. What the hell did I do that guy, why'd he make me a bunny girl?!"

/I insulted his virility./

The thought sprang into my mind on its own, leaving me even more confused. I'd never seen the dude before in my life, how could I possibly insult him?

/I publicly swore I'd never lie with a man, not even one as fair and comely as Apollo himself./

"This doesn't make any sense," I groaned as I finally let go of my left ear.

It sprang back up into place above my head, while I rubbed my hand over my forehead and face. Which distracted me again, as I realized how smooth and soft my face felt. Not to mention how small and delicate my hand was. That got my heart racing again, and for a moment I was sorely tempted to strip off the dress and get a proper look at this new body.

I pushed the urge aside though, it was way too cliché. Anyways I knew this had to be a dream. I was asleep in my aunt and uncle's guest room, or I was unconscious in a hospital bed someplace. Those were the only possible answers. No matter how real this dream looked, or sounded, or felt or...

My gut lurched once more as I realized I could smell the olive trees around me. I could also detect the salt in the air from the nearby sea. And none of that made any sense because I'd never been to the ocean before, and had no idea what olive trees even looked like, let alone what they smelled like.

/I can never return home again./

"Not until I wake up anyways," I sighed to myself. "Although I usually wake up the instant I realize I'm dreaming. So maybe I'm in a coma after all."

/Would that this were a dream. I'd take it as a warning and choose my words more carefully once awake. But prophesy is Apollo's domain, and I doubt he'd grant me a vision in which I insulted him./

I frowned, "Hold on. That angry athletic dude was Apollo? As in, the ancient Greek god Apollo?"

/Of course. Who else would be so insulted by my ill-advised oath? But why am I asking myself such foolish questions?/

By that point my heart was racing yet again, and a cold feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. Now that I wasn't dealing with a big angry dude in my face it finally dawned on me that those strange thoughts were actually answering my questions. And asking some of their own, which didn't make any sense to me. Like I barely knew anything about Apollo, and as far as I could remember Uncle Bruce hadn't mentioned him at all at the coin show.

That's when I realized that silver coin wasn't in my hand anymore. I looked around in a panic, then sighed in relief when I spotted it on the ground a meter or so away. I must have dropped it when I stumbled during my failed attempt to flee.

After picking it up I stared at it in my hand once more and asked, "Do you know anything about this coin?"

/More strange questions. It's a distater, my father ordered a hundred of them struck to commemorate my betrothal to that pig of an Achaemenid general./

At that last point I felt a sense of both anger and disgust come over me, and if I'd been talking out loud I could almost imagine the bitterness in my new soft delicate voice.

/Not that I'd wed any man, let alone an Achaemenid. Especially not that one. I'd sooner die./

"Ok this is too freaky," I mumbled to myself. "I don't know what those words mean, I've never heard them before. How can I be thinking them? What the hell is an Achaemenid?"

/This makes no sense. Why do I ask questions of myself when I know the answers all too well? Much as I might wish I'd never heard of the Achaemenids, they've ruled most of the world since long before I was born./

By that point my heart was racing yet again. I still wasn't ready to believe any of this was real, but I'd read enough web novels to know what it meant to get isekai'd. And sometimes when the protag got transmigrated, their new body wasn't exactly vacant before they moved in.

I took a deep breath and asked softly, "What's my name?"

/I'm Melite. It means honey. According to my father I was named for the colour of my hair and the sweetness of my smile./

"Holy shit," I gulped. "What year is this? And where are we? Like uh, where are you from?"

/I still don't understand why I'm asking myself such questions. Or why I'm even talking to myself at all. I am from Methymna, but I just fled there. And this is my nineteenth summer./

"Ok but where and what is Methymna? Or what other places are there around here?" I explained. "And what year, like um... crap. I don't even know how calendars worked back then. Uh, like who's the ruler? King or emperor or whatever? Or uh, any big wars recently?"

/Methymna is the northern-most city on this island. The next nearest city is Pyrrha, to the south. Our island is off the coast of Aeolia. All these lands were conquered by the Achaemenids many years before I was born. Most of the world is ruled by Darius the Great, King of Kings./

/As for wars, people are always fighting one another someplace. Our island was swept up in a revolt that lasted a half-dozen years, but that ended in defeat two summers ago. The most recent conflict to reach my ears was last summer, when the Achaemenids reconquered Thrace and subjugated Macedonia./

All that left my head spinning yet again. I'd come across the name Pyrrha before, but not in history class. It was the name of a character in another really good web novel I'd read recently. I'd also heard of Macedonia, but I couldn't remember any details, so it was probably something Bruce said that I tuned out. The best I could do was assume I'd ended up somewhere in ancient Greece.

"I really wish I paid more attention to Uncle Bruce and his boring history lectures," I sighed.

/I didn't know I had an uncle. I take it he's a learned man?/

"I don't know about learned," I replied with a wry smile. "He's a high-school history teacher. I'm pretty sure he'd know what you were talking about though. He'd probably know all about that Darius guy."

/I imagine everyone living under Achaemenid rule knows who Darius is. But my uncle must be well-educated if he teaches in one of the higher schools./

"Right," I grimaced. Then I added, "Actually Bruce isn't your uncle, he's mine. I uh, don't know how to explain this, but I'm not you. I'm from... Ok assuming this is still Earth then I'm from the future. I come from a place very far away from here, and a couple thousand years in the future."

I paused for a moment as I looked down at that silver coin again then sighed, "I had this coin of yours in my hand when it happened. I don't know how or why, but I think it somehow brought me here?"

We were both quiet for the next few moments, until another thought appeared in my head.

/I think Apollo must have cursed my mind, along with my body. That explains why I'm talking to myself, why I ask myself such strange questions, and tell myself such impossible things. I am going mad./

"Yeah that crossed my mind too," I admitted with another sigh. "Maybe I'm crazy and all this is some weird hallucination."

That led to another minute or so where I seemed to be alone with my own thoughts. And after staring at the pretty face on that coin for another minute or two I found myself getting curious again about my new body. Although I knew at least some of it would be new to Melite as well, thanks to our run-in with Apollo.

I still had trouble believing that, but I only had to reach up and feel my tall fuzzy bunny ears to remind myself just how real it was.

/Assuming I'm not mad and you really are a stranger from some distant future land, what is your name?/

"It's uh," I started to respond, before cutting myself off just as fast.

For some reason I didn't want to admit I was a guy, but she'd know for sure if I told her my name. Not that I ever liked that name anyways, and this was as good as an excuse as any to forget about it. At least until I got back home again. For now I decided to go with a name I used a lot in video games, whenever I got to play a girl character.

"I'm Chloe," I announced, and for some reason I felt little tingle of joy from saying it out loud.

/You were named after Lady Demeter then? That is one of her epithets./

I frowned, "Uh, no? I honestly didn't know that. I mean, I know who Demeter is but I didn't know the name Chloe had anything to do with her."

"Anyways as long as I'm in your body people are probably going to assume I'm you," I added. "Like your family and friends are all going to recognize me as you, won't they? So I'll probably have to use your name when we go back to your home."

/I cannot go home! If I return I'll either be forced into marriage to that Achaemenid pig, or more likely I'll be imprisoned or executed for refusing him. Or exiled for embarrassing my father and incurring a god's wrath./

"So where else can we go?" I asked. "Do you have friends we could say with? Or someplace else we'd be safe?"

That led to another long pause. Then with a sense of resignation another line of thought appeared in my mind.

/There's a large temple at Messa that's known as a place of sanctuary, but it's more than halfway to Pyrrha. That's too far to walk in a day. I know of another temple that's closer. It's smaller, but they might give me sanctuary. Particularly if I can convince them I'm a nymph and the bunny ears and tail are natural, rather than the result of Apollo's anger./

"Alright then," I said as I got to my feet. "Let's go find this temple."