“P-please forgive my insolence. I am here to serve you, my Queen.”

I stared blankly at the red-headed girl who was kneeling in front of me as if she were a knight serving a feudal king, the hem of her red dress draping slightly on the floor.

 

“...q-queen?”

“Yes.” She perked her head up at my timid question. “I’m sorry for being late. But, I’m here now, ready for you.”

Everyone else looked vacantly at the scene that unfolded in front of them. After a few moments, Melissa spoke up.

 

“I’ll go get the princess outfit.”

I don’t need it!

 

“Um, forgive me for asking,” Zoey piped up, crawling her way over towards the mystery girl, “but what exactly are you?”

“I’m a spirit! Shouldn’t you know that, though?” She tapped her finger against her chin.

“Why would I know that?”

“But… fairies and spirits have always been together. Don’t the Queens go way back?” Turning around, she looked at me with an expectant expression.

“I- don’t know.” I said, causing the spirit girl to lean forward and stare closely at my face, concern evident in her eyes.

“Did you lose your memory? You look a little different from before, so were you reborn? But, the Queens always retain their memories after rebirth…” She held the sides of her head with both hands, looking back and forth worriedly at everyone in the room.

“What do I do… how am I supposed to tell everyone that the Queen lost her memory…”

 

As the red-headed spirit panicked, Zoey attempted to make her way towards Emily, who was sitting on her bed. She tried to lift herself upright, before wobbling and falling forwards onto the mattress, clearly not used to her new physiology. Groaning, she resolved herself and crawled over towards Emily’s feet.

“Emily, lemme sit on your shoulder.”

“Huh? Uh, sure.”

Lowering her hand to the floor, Emily lifted up Zoey to her shoulder, where she hopped on and sat, dangling her legs forward.

“Thanks,” she giggled, shifting herself into a more secure position and holding on to Emily’s clothes, “this must be what it’s like to be a cat.”

 

While I was watching the spirit panic in the middle of the room, my phone suddenly vibrated, startling me. Flipping the screen open, I read the message that I had just received from my sister.

 

‘Hey, where are you? You never came home last night. We’ve got some crazy stuff to talk about.’

 

“Um, guys? Grace is asking after me. Should I head home?”

“You can’t leave!” The spirit shouted, grabbing on to my clothes like a small child. “I only just found you!”

“Uhh…” A little help? I’m no good with children…

 

“Why not bring her here?” Emily suggested, “She’s probably more likely to believe you if she sees all of us.”

I guess. Although, I’d be worried about it backfiring, and just making her more shocked.

“And you can wear that, too.” Emily pointed at the door. Following her gaze, I saw Melissa in the doorway, holding up the frilly dress I had worn yesterday.

 

“...no thanks.” I said flatly.

“Aww, come on, just for a bit? ” Melissa protested, holding it out towards me.

“I said no! You already made me wear it yesterday, and it was super embarrassing! I don’t wanna… what?”

Everyone’s eyes had gone wide, staring blankly at me. The spirit stepped back slightly, looking at me with a mix of fear and respect.

“What’s going on? Why’s everyone staring…”

Emily hopped up off the bed, causing Zoey to lean backwards, almost falling off her shoulder. As she attempted to stabilize herself, Emily picked the small mirror up off the floor, holding it out in front of me. Looking into my reflection, I saw what had startled everyone.

 

My irises were glowing a piercing icy blue, and my hair, which had changed to the same light blue colour as my eyes, was floating behind me, faintly shining.

 

Holding up a camera, Emily snapped a photo of me in my luminescent state. The sound of the shutter didn’t register to my ears, as I stared at my reflection.

My whole body feels weird, like there’s… electricity, or something, flowing through it.

I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate on the feeling. It moved all throughout my body, from the depths of my torso to the ends of my fingers. I attempted to gather it all into one place, balling it up as best I could. The feeling left my hands, becoming more intense in my chest…

Suddenly, my concentration was broken by the sound of the doorbell.

“Who could that be?” Draping the dress she was holding on the back of the chair, Melissa wandered off towards the front door.

There’s still a weird feeling, but it’s different… Oh.

Looking in the mirror, I saw that my pyjamas were drenched with freezing cold water.

“What was that? You just like, exploded with water!” Zoey exclaimed while flailing her arms, almost causing her to topple over. Clinging to Emily’s clothes to stop herself from falling, she shifted back on top of Emily’s shoulder.

“I don’t know, but I’m really cold! Did I get it on the mattress?”

“Don’t worry about it, it’s just water.” Emily said, while I shivered and hugged myself, trying to warm up.

 

“Let me help, Queen.” The spirit spoke up, holding her finger out towards me. Suddenly, I was enveloped in warm air, which flowed around my body and throughout my clothes. Within a few moments, I was completely dry. I stared wide eyed at the spirit.

 

“Aww…”

“What?”

“I wanted to make you wear the princess dress again…” Emily’s voice trailed off as I glared at her.

I’ve had just about enough of that dress!

 

While I was trying my best to point a menacing stare at both Emily and the frilly dress hanging on the back of the chair, Melissa knocked on the open door of the bedroom, causing all of us to turn to look at her. She promptly walked in, accompanied by the two visitors.

“...Grace?”

Trailing just behind her was Grace, followed by a girl who was a little shorter than me, with bright blue hair. The young girl wore a simple blue dress, whereas Grace was nearly completely covered up, wearing dark blue jeans, a large grey hoodie with the hood pulled up, and black fingerless gloves. Noting the significant bulge towards the back of her hoodie, I glanced back towards Emily who, while her ears and tail were on full display right now, was wearing similar clothes just yesterday.

 

Did something happen to Grace, too? She did say that we had ‘crazy stuff’ to talk about…

 

“Aeriel!”

The spirit called out to the blue-haired girl, running towards her.

“Mira? What are you doing here?” The blue-haired girl held out her hands, receiving the red-headed spirit’s flying hug.

“I found the Queen!”

“The Queen of Spirits?” She lifted her head up, staring around the room. Her gaze eventually settled on me, where she stared for a few moments, before unravelling herself from the hug and flying towards me.

“You? You’re who she says is the Queen?” She floated around me, carefully inspecting my body with her eyes.

“Your body is clearly… but your soul is human… no? Maybe not… a half-breed?” After a while of muttering, she held up both her hands, palms facing me.

 

“Hya!” I involuntarily screamed as a weird feeling pierced my chest.

What was THAT?! It felt like something was sucked out of me…

 

“Ah, I see. It’s nice to meet you, Miss Queen.” She took a step back, pulling the red-headed spirit next to her and bowing.

“I am Aeriel, a water spirit, and this is Mira, a fire spirit.”

“Um, nice to meet you too… I’m Flora…” I replied, though my voice had no power behind it.

 

“Aeriel?” Grace finally spoke up from the corner of the room, “You said that you were gonna help me find my brother. Where is he?”

“Ah, yes, I did say that I’d help you meet your sibling. She’s right here.” She pointed directly at me, causing Grace to stare intensely towards me. I shrunk back a little under her gaze.

“Um… hi Grace…” I mumbled. She glanced around at everyone in the room, before returning to looking fixedly at me. After an agonizing few moments, she finally spoke.

 

“A fox girl, a fairy, and spirits. I was ready for something to have happened, but my brother turning into a girl was not what I expected…”

 

Well, yeah, of course! Who would expect to go on a trip and come back to find that their brother has suddenly transformed into a girl?!

 

“Seeing you next to each other, you really do look alike.” Emily commented. “You’re sisters, alright.”

“So you really are Felix?”

“Yup.” I sighed, resigned to my fate of explaining the entire situation to someone yet again.

 

“How long have you been… like this?”

“Since Monday morning. I had a weird dream, and woke up in the morning looking like this.”

“Wait, you had a dream too? On Sunday night?” Grace leaned forward, her expression brightening up as if she found something interesting.

 

Did her eyes change colour? I don’t remember them being this… bright. Wait, her pupils are slit, too! Like Emily’s eyes!

 

“Yeah, I dreamt that I was in a fantasy world, and a weird portal opened up.”

“I think I saw the same portal!” She exclaimed, grabbing my hands and shaking them up and down.

“Sunday night, I dreamt that I was back home, and a portal opened up in our backyard. A bunch of these… spirit people flowed out, leaving behind really sparkly trails. Just after them, I saw your body come out of it, and you started floating in the air. All those sparkly things shot into you, and you started glowing.”

Oh. I leaned back a little, closing my eyes and imagining the scene that she described.

So that’s how it happened…

 

“Wait,” I snapped upright, “did you go through some kind of change? All of us transformed after having a weird dream.”

“...yeah.’ Her eyes were downcast as she spoke.

 

Grace pulled her gloves off and placed them on the desk. Stepping back a little, she gradually slipped her hoodie over her head.

Scales?

As she pulled her hoodie off, a round lizard-like tail dropped down behind her, reaching just below her knees. A line of grey, metallic scales made a path from the back of her hand all the way up her arms. As she pulled her hair back, I saw how the scales spread across her shoulders, reaching up her neck and ending on her cheeks. Her hair had turned a beautiful silver colour, and two grey horns protruded out of the back of her head, gently curving down.

 

“A dragon…” Mira whispered, staring in awe at Grace.

 

*****

 

“So you’re a… dragon?” I asked, staring in wonder at Grace’s new features.

“Yup. Apparently I’m a- what was it you said, Aeriel? Dragonkin?”

“Yes,” Aeriel hopped forward, “a dragonkin.”

 

“So, uhh… what is a dragonkin?”

“What do you mean?” Aeriel tilted her head slightly in response to Grace’s question.

“Like, you said I was a dragonkin, but you never told me what a dragonkin is.”

“Huh?”

“I told you that I only turned into a dragonkin a few days ago, didn’t I? I was a human until last Monday.”

“Oh! Right…”

 

“Hang on,” Zoey spoke up, leaning forward as much as she could without falling off. “If we’re getting explanations, can I call Elena?”

“Oh, yeah, sure. We should introduce her to these two.” I replied.

“Alright, give me a minute…” Zoey began gradually lowering her way down Emily’s clothes.

 

“...should I just lift you onto the floor?”

“I-can-do-this-just-gimme-a-minute!”

“Can’t you just fly down?”

“How? I’ve only had wings for like an hour!”

 

Eventually, she made it down to the edge of the bed that Emily was sitting on. Bracing herself, she leaped off the side, gracefully landing on the mattresses placed on the floor.

 

“Can you pass me my phone? It should be on the table.”

“...this one?” Glancing around the desk, I picked up the phone sitting near the middle and crouched down to hold it out to Zoey.

“Yeah.” She grabbed it with both hands, grunting slightly as she carried it towards the middle of the mattress. Emily and I both giggled at the sight of her leaning over her phone, swiping her palms around on the touchscreen.

 

After a few moments, the sounds of a dial tone quietly played from the middle of the room.

“I need to use speaker, don’t I…”

“Zoey?”

“Elena!” She shouted, “We have things to talk about!”

“Oh? What’s going on?”

“Hang on, I’m switching to a video call.” Zoey lifted her phone up, leaning it at an angle against her pillow. Emily and I hopped forward to sit behind her as Elena’s face appeared upon the screen.

 

“...wings?”

“Yeah… so you know how yesterday you grew crow wings? This morning, I woke up like this.”

“So you grew wings too, huh… wait, did you dye your hair?”

“Nope, it turned green this morning. And that’s not all…” Turning away from the phone, she leaped towards Emily who was sitting cross-legged, and clambered up onto her knees.

“Oh, Emily. Hello… hang on. What’s going on?”

“I’m really small!”

“Wow… that, um…” Elena sputtered, unable to form a proper response to the spectacle she saw through the camera.

“So, do you wanna come over? We’re at Emily’s place right now.”

“Yes! Um, is that alright? I know your address, so I can drive straight there.”

“Yup!” Emily grinned, glancing towards Melissa, who promptly gave a thumbs up.

 

“Alright, I’ll be there in about 10 minutes.”

 

Zoey sighed as Elena hung up, falling backwards onto the mattress.

“...everything okay?” Emily asked.

“Yeah, it’s just…” Rolling over, Zoey weakly crawled over towards Emily.

 

“Lemme bury myself in your tail for a bit.”

“Huh?!”

Emily flicked her tail away from Zoey, placing a hand protectively on it.

“Why do you want to… bury yourself in my tail?”

“It seems like it’d be really comfy! And being small sucks! I can’t do anything anymore… I have wings, and I can’t even fly!” She wailed, causing Emily to falter.

 

“I can’t go to school anymore, I can’t see my doctor like this, and I can’t even use my phone properly, let alone a computer! I wanna be normal size again!”

Suddenly, Zoey was surrounded by a blinding light. Her silhouette within the light slowly grew in size, eventually reaching her original height. Then, just as suddenly as it started, the light disappeared.

 

Zoey was standing in the middle of the mattress, tears still streaming down her face from her sobbing fit just before. She was wearing a simple set of pyjamas, rather than her elegant green dress, but her hair was still the same faintly glowing green. Her wings had increased in size along with her, but were now nearly completely transparent, and phased through her clothes.

 

“Huh? I’m big again…”