“Oh, there you are, Felix.”

Huh? Who is… My mother waved as she walked in, sitting down in front of me at the table. She set about buttering her toast in her usual morning routine, umming and ahhing over the array of spreads laid out in front of her.

“...Morning,” I replied, my voice sounding strangely deep. Wait, that’s not what my voice sounds like. Isn’t it meant to be like… higher?

She bit down on her toast, taking a moment to chew it before speaking again. “I am definitely glad you’re back to normal, though,” she said, wiping crumbs from around her mouth.

Wait, back to… I quickly looked around at myself. No long hair, no… chest, and my voice is deep again. Did I… change back to how I was?

“Maybe now our lives will have some shred of decency,” my mother continued, as my heart started to sink. “No weird magic, no freaky costumes… you have no idea how worried I was when that weird girl showed up, claiming to be you.”

That was me! I choked down my thoughts, keeping quiet as I tried to figure out why I felt so uncomfortable. Is it that I… I was getting used to being a girl?

“It’s bad enough that Grace turned out to be one of those… Why did she have to bring her home?”

I thought it was weird at first, but I had fun, being a girl.I met Zoey, and Elena, I got to know Emily better than I ever have before… It felt like life was fun again.

“If you turned out like that too, I don’t know what I’d do.”

I don’t… I don’t want to be a guy again. I was happy, I was enjoying myself. I…

“Huh?” My mother suddenly stood up, her seat clattering to the floor behind her. “Who are you?”

“M-me?” I stammered. My voice… it’s back to normal! Relief flooded through me as I heard the almost melodic higher voice I had gotten so used to these past few days. “I-I’m Flora.”

“You’re not… Felix?” She slowly began to step around the table, walking towards me with a fierce glare. “Give Felix back to me.”

I can’t! That’s not… who I am anymore.

“I don’t care. Give him back.”

I… I don’t want to!

“Give him—”

 

*****

 

My eyes shot wide open as I snapped bolt upright in bed, gasping for breath. Sweat soaked all the way through my pyjamas, and it dripped onto the mattress as I panted heavily.

I-It was just a dream… 

Grabbing my pillow, I wrapped my arms around it, squeezing it tightly in an attempt to comfort myself.

 

I didn’t remember much of what happened yesterday, after we left my house. Dinner was something light, and easy to eat, but I barely touched it. Emily had to drag me off the couch, just so that I could shower and go to bed. I didn’t even have the energy to be embarrassed at seeing my reflection.

 

The sound of the door quietly squeaking open grabbed my attention, and I looked up to see two fox ears poke their way inside.

“Are you okay?” Emily asked. Her eyes were shining slightly, reflecting what little moonlight shone in through the window.

“I-I’m okay,” I choked out. “I just had a nightmare, that’s all. Did I wake you up?”

“No, I was already awake. Can I come in?”

“Y-yeah…” Honestly, I could use the company, right now.

 

Pushing the door open just enough for her to squeeze through, she padded into my room. After carefully closing the door, so that it made as little noise as possible, she made her way over to my bed, sitting down just to my side.

“It’s weird,” she began, “my eyesight is so much better than before.”

“Really? Your eyes are like, glowing slightly.” I responded, trying to make casual conversation.

“Wait, is that true?” She leapt up, quietly dashing over to the desk in the room and grabbing the mirror.

“You’re right.” She gasped. “They really are glowing…”

Placing the mirror on the desk, she sat back down on the bed.

“It took me a while to notice, too, but my pupils are a weird shape.”

“They’re slit, like a cat’s eye.” I commented.

“Yeah, like that. I think foxes have eyes like that, too. Makes sense then, since I’m a…” Her voice trailed off as she looked over at her tail, resting next to her on the bed.

 

Glancing around the room, I tried to get accustomed to it. Yesterday, I was so upset that I couldn’t pay any attention to my surroundings, so I was a little startled by how uncomfortable I felt, waking up in an unfamiliar room.

I feel like my night vision has improved somewhat, as well, but probably not to the same extent as hers.

 

“You okay? You’re glowing slightly.” Emily turned to face me with an expression full of worry.

“Huh?” Hurriedly, I grabbed a clump of hair, pulling it in front of my eyes.

It’s… white? A slightly glowing white… Aeriel said that the colours correspond to elements, so is this maybe Light?

Closing my eyes so that I could concentrate, I pulled a little bit of energy out of my core, shaping it into a small ball in my hand.

“So pretty…”

A small glowing orb of light rested in my palm, faint colours swirling around inside it. The room was bathed in a gentle glow. Emily leaned towards it, staring closely.

“I know that… you don’t know how to control it very well, but… your magic is really pretty,” she whispered. I stared wide eyed at her.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s… mesmerising.” 

Looking back at the glowing mass of light, I had an idea.

 

Can I… control it, while it’s outside of my body? I can clearly form it outside, and when Melissa poked it, it still felt like it was a part of me. If I try and push it… just in mid-air, rather than through my body… 

The orb of light slowly rose out of my palm.

“Wow…” Emily gasped.

Lifting it up, I tried moving it around the room. It was shaky at first, but eventually it started smoothly gliding around.

Can I do it with two of them?

Leaving the orb sitting in the middle of the air, I created a second orb of light, trying to match the size of the first one. Lifting it up, I moved them both around the room.

“It’s beautiful…” Emily marvelled at the light show in front of her. Looking over, I saw her trying to track the movement of the light orbs, their shimmering colours reflecting slightly in her amber eyes. Her tail slowly waved back and forth as the orbs circled around the room.

I added a few more balls of light into the mix, and we leant back, watching them dance around the room.

 

After a few minutes, Emily fell backwards onto the bed.

“D-dizzy…” She mumbled, her tail and ears twitching slightly.

Oops!

I quickly moved the orbs of light to my palm, pulling them back inside my body.

“Um… are you okay?” I asked, concerned.

“I’m okay!” Emily levered herself back upright on the bed. She shook her head vigorously back and forth, before taking a deep breath and readjusting her messy hair.

 

“Are you feeling any better?” She asked, laying back down on the bed.

“A bit, yeah. Umm… did you hear me, before?”

“Yes, just a little. I was already awake, though.” Lifting her tail up, she batted me with it.

“Someone drove a loud car up the street, and it woke me up,” she continued. “I need to soundproof my room, or something, because of how sensitive my hearing is now.”

“You have problems of your own you need to deal with…” Lifting my knees up, I leant forward, resting my face on them.
“I kinda feel bad that I’m just… sitting here moping about my situation, when everyone else probably has it just as bad.”

“Pffft.” Emily giggled at my comment.

“...What?”

“No, it’s just… I thought the same thing. Grace, Elena, and especially you and Zoey, you’re all going through so much, and here I am worried about my own situation.”

“Huh?!” I quickly looked up at her, my eyes wide-open as she stared off into space...

That’s stupid!

“You suddenly grew fox ears and a tail, you weigh some… indeterminate definitely-not-human amount, and you have weird powers that you have no idea how to use. Of course you’re allowed to be worried about yourself.”

“...See?”

Oh.

She turned to look at me, her amber eyes catching the reflection of the moonlight.

“You’re the same. You were turned into a girl, kicked out of home, and have weird powers of your own that you can’t properly control yet. Out of all of us, you probably got the worst deal.”

“Yeah, but-”

“Are you not allowed to worry about yourself?”

I couldn’t respond to her.

 

“Okay, tomorrow,” she gently placed her hands on my shoulders as she spoke, “we’re having a strategy meeting. I’m gonna get everyone together, and we’ll work out what you’re going to do. Okay?”

“O-okay.” I weakly nodded my head.

“Good, now get some rest.” Lifting herself off the bed, she softly walked towards the door, her footsteps making no noise.

 

It took me quite a while to get back to sleep.

 

*****

 

“Mrgh…”

Heavy…

I woke up to the sound of people walking up and down the hallway just outside my room, and the feeling of being pressed down into the mattress. 

It’s bright, and… windy? Did someone open the window?

Looking down at the bed, I was greeted by the sight of a mass of blue and red hair filling my vision.

“Wah- Mira? Aeriel?” I quickly sat upright, causing Mira to slowly roll sideways off the bed.

When did they… how long have they been here?

I rapidly clambered out of bed, being careful not to step on Mira, still sleeping soundly on the floor. Looking around the room, I tried to remember where I had left my phone.

This room… really doesn’t have much in it. There’s the bed, a desk, and that’s it. My phone’s not there, though… where did I leave it?

I jumped slightly as a few knocks resounded on the door.

“Flora, you awake?” Emily’s voice floated through from outside the room. Memories of last night’s events resurfaced in my mind, causing me to blush slightly.

She... said my magic was pretty...

I shook my head vigorously, trying to shake off my embarrassment.

“...What are you doing?”

Having slightly opened the door, Emily poked her head into the room. Her gaze moved between Aeriel, lying asleep on the bed, Mira, sprawled out snoozing on the floor, and me, standing in the middle of the room looking a little flustered.

“...or, better question, what are they doing?”

“I-I don’t know, they were there when I woke up,” I replied.

Emily narrowed her eyes, regarding me with suspicion. After a few moments, however, she smirked.

“I was gonna ask, ‘did you do anything to them’, but in all honesty, they’re more likely to have done something to you.”

How am I supposed to respond to that?!

 

“Anyway, everyone else is up and having breakfast. We’re just waiting on you.”

“I… I’ll be there in a bit.” Can I kick Aeriel and Mira out so I can get changed?

“Cool,” Emily waved her hand, before closing the door. I stood still for a moment, listening to her footsteps disappearing down the hall.

Aeriel and Mira are asleep, so it’s fine for me to get changed here… right? Emily’s always going on about how we’re ‘both girls’, after all, and the spirits look like girls, so… They are girls, right? Do spirits have the same concept of gender as humans?

… 

I probably shouldn’t think about it too much.

 

*****

 

It took me longer than I was hoping to get dressed. Apparently, last night I had dispelled the clothes made of spirit energy, so that I could take a shower, but I was so out of it that I couldn’t make any more. Emily ended up giving me the same pink dress that I had worn last time I slept over, so I had to remake my clothes from scratch.

It’s… fine to use these clothes, isn’t it? Mum didn’t react weirdly to them, so presumably they look normal, and not like, glowing or anything.

I needed a few attempts before I could actually make my clothes for the day. The first time I tried, I ended up using the same energy I had used last night, resulting in a blindingly bright shirt. I shook Aeriel awake, so that I could ask her how to change the element I was using, but she was no help, since she could only control water.

Through sheer dumb luck, and a lot of trial-and-error, I somehow managed to change back to using the ‘energy specific to the Queen’. I had barely shaped it into my everyday clothes, when Emily knocked on the door, asking if I was doing alright.

 

“You gonna be ready soon? Mum needs to leave for work,” she called out.

“Yeah, I’m coming,” I responded, heading over to the door.

 

As I opened the door to the room, I glanced back towards the two spirits. Mira was still asleep on the floor, and Aeriel had gone back to dozing on the bed.

Should I just leave them there?

 

“Are you feeling any better?” Melissa asked, looking up from where she was sitting as I walked into the kitchen.

“Yes. Thanks for… letting me stay here,” I replied.

“Don’t worry about it. Feel free to call this place home, if you want.”

“...Yeah.” I averted eye contact.

Is it really alright for me to just… live here?

 

“Anyway,” Melissa began, grabbing my attention, “there’s bread and a toaster on the bench, and spreads on the table. Feel free to help yourself.”

“Um, thanks.”

As I busied myself making breakfast, I listened to Emily tapping her fingers against the table.

“Where is Zoey? I told her to be here for the strategy meeting…” she grumbled.

Her ears briefly twitched as my toast popped out of the toaster.

She said her hearing was more sensitive… does that mean even the sound of the toaster is unpleasantly loud?

Emily immediately perked up as the doorbell rang out from the front room.

“Coming!” She said loudly, leaping out of her chair and quickly walking to the door.

 

As I sat down at the table, poring over the spreads laid out in front of me, I strained my ears to listen to Emily.

“Elena? What are you doing here?”

“Um, hi. Sorry for dropping in unannounced. I wanted to talk to Melissa about a few things.”

“Ah, okay. Cool, come on in. You’re just in time.”

Turning my attention back to my food, I had barely taken a bite of my toast when another, quieter voice echoed out from the same direction.

“Wait! Don’t close that door!”

Zoey?

 

“Hey Flora. You feeling any better today?” Elena waved to me as she walked in.

“Yeah, a bit.” I replied between bites.

Emily followed just behind Elena, carrying a very annoyed and fairly small Zoey.

“I had to… walk… the whole way here…” Zoey said, panting heavily. She had returned to the same size as yesterday morning, and was wearing the same green dress. She yelped as Emily deposited her on the table without warning, glaring grumpily at her.

 

“Right, everyone’s here. It’s time to start the strategy meeting,” Emily declared.

“Strategy meeting?” Elena asked, confused.

“Yes! Actually, it’s great that you’re here, because you’re probably the best resource we have for this.”

“Um, okay.”

 

“The first item on the agenda is Flora’s current living situation.”

“I said she could live here, though,” Melissa said, as she walked in.

“Wait, like, permanently?” I stared wide-eyed at her.

“That… was the intention, yes. If you want to, you can move here.”

Is it… okay for me to just… move here?

“Alright, then that’s settled.”

Hey, don’t just decide for me!

 

“In that case,” Emily continued, “we need to move all of her belongings here.”

She leaned forward, staring directly at me.

“Hey Flora, how do you feel about becoming a thief?"

Huh?!