When I felt myself return to the real world, something felt very wrong. Rather, things stayed the same, and changed. I could already sense what was different, but I need the helmet off to check. I reached up carefully and grasped the helmet. It felt bigger. I undid the strap and lifted it off my head.

Before I could get a view of anything, gorgeous black hair spilled out around me and over my face, little faint sparkles dancing in the strands. Oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck. Shit. I sat up in a rush, panic surging through me like a hundred stallions all trying to get a head start on a race. My slender hands brushed my beautiful hair out of my face and I stared at them in shock.

The dainty digits ended in adorable nails. The skin on my hands looked smooth, only the faintest pattern of lines differentiating it from some man made material. Looking down I saw my now far too large tshirt, and through the sagging, collar I caught sight of my small perky breasts. The sight of them did something strange to my body, and suddenly I felt a bit warm. My nipples were slowly hardening, the areola converging to push the tips out.

My panic was already subsiding again, but I was still shaking like a leaf. I carefully placed my VR helmet on the nightstand and got up off the bed. I almost tripped on the hem of my pajama pants as they were now much too long.

My closet had a mirror on the inside of the door. I never used it, but it was there. I made it across my room, careful not to trip on any clothes and stood staring at my closed closet door. It was funny, normally people joke about coming out of the closet at times like these, but now I was afraid to open it? Gathering my emotional strength, I pulled the door open. Except I didn't because the door caught on a jersey. Closing the door I kicked the jersey away and tried again, grumpy that my rebellious clothing had ruined my moment.

That was me. In the mirror. When I’d made my character, I hadn't actually been able to see myself in the body. Seeing the body I had created with all the small movements and such of a living being I was struck by how utterly adorable she was. Or should I say I am? It was like I had been looking at a photograph of someone when I made her, and now I had actually met her. I leaned in a little bit and watched as my eyes widened at the movement. My eyes were huge too. The colour seemed unnatural. Wait. That’s because they were different now. I leaned in further to look. Most of it was the same as I had made them. Subtly alien in their size and angle, the lashes a tad too long, the whites a bit too white. What was different was that they were no longer blue-green swirls.

The majority of the iris was a shining yellow gold colour, while the outside edge was a burning blue. It was like my eyes were an eclipse done in my goddesses colours. My goddess. She must have done this! My mind lit up in understanding. That’s why I had felt different ingame. Why I had suddenly been able to feel everything properly! My body had been changed. My real one. She had the power to influence reality... that was a terrifying thought. How could I talk to her again? I needed to ask what the hell was going on! Wait, gods and goddesses can hear prayers right? Aha! I quickly dropped to my knees and prayed, asking her for clarity most of all. Why? How? I needed to stay on her good side though that was for sure.

Standing up again, I inspected myself in the mirror for a while, marvelling at this new, real, body I was in. Again I felt like I should be feeling some sort of relentless panic or loss, but instead I felt whole and comfortable. The past 24 hours and the experiences I had gone through planted a seed of understanding in my mind. I wasn't ready to admit what that seed would become, but deep down I knew.

Everything about my character had followed me over to the real world that I could see. My long graceful ears still arched out, down and behind me, my hips were still wider than previously. My vagina was still present between my legs, smooth and very much not getting in the way.

Hooking a thumb through the elastic, I let my pajama pants fall to the floor, then the Tshirt came off over my head. In a cascade of dark hair I dropped it to the ground. I was naked now. I noticed with satisfaction that I had a gap between my thighs. I was cute. Also hot. I hadn't intended to make myself hot, but I could see I had a strange mix of adorable and sexual elements. Enough of that you narcissistic weirdo. Put your clothes back on Syl! Syl? I guess I was kinda Syl now. Made more sense that Sam or Samuel, god I hated those names. Always had. I liked Sylanna though, I chose that one after all!

Getting my pajamas back on, reality came grinding back into my life like the world's quietest bunker buster missile. The sound of the warhead going off was the sound of water running through pipes on its way to my parent’s en suite bathroom upstairs. Ohhhh dear this was not good. How on earth was I going to explain this to my parents? Whenever a character faced this problem in a story or whatever, they proved their identity by retelling some piece of information that only they would know. Sadly, this was the real world, and I needed more proof than that. I needed help.

In this day and age, help meant random people on the internet. I booted up my PC and hopped into my nice comfy chair. Then I raised the chair because everything was bigger now. Then I pulled my mouse and keyboard closer because they were at an uncomfortable distance. Shit. If I stayed like this I was going to need a new mouse because it was huge and ungainly in my hand now. At the new required height of my chair, my feet couldn't quite lay flat on the ground. Sigh. I pulled them up and tucked them under myself. Wouldn't have been able to do that 24 hours ago either, hadn’t been flexible enough.

Finally comfortable, I ran a search on my problem through the Pellan Rise forums, but mostly it was people talking about the fact you couldn't feel an ingame body properly if it was too dissimilar from your real one. There was one guy who got turned into a tree for a bit by an angry dryad, that was a funny read.

I actually got lost reading about other people's experiences in the game for almost an hour. During that time I heard my parents get ready for work and then leave the house. At least I didn't have to deal with that for a bit. I certainly wasn't going to school like I was now, so telling my friends that I was playing a healer instead would be thankfully delayed.

As I read about other people's adventures, I giggled at their jokes and the funny things that happened to them. I liked giggling, It felt good. Something I quickly learned however was that spawning way far out from any civilisation like I had was not normal. I also found out that the area I had spawned in was meant to be level 8 and crawling with evil tree things. I have no idea how I walked through it naked and cold. More mysteries, great.

Before long I got a text from Dana asking where I was and if I was okay. Looking at the clock I realised at this point in time I should have been 20 minutes into first period painting. Oh well. I replied to her saying I had some not-so-good experiences in Pellan last night, and I was also sick, so I would be skipping school today. Half of it was the truth. She asked what had happened ingame but I was unsure what to say from there and didn't reply.

It was about this time that the group chat between my friends and myself lit up. All three of them too eager to talk about their experiences last night to wait til later.

Jeremy: Last night was so awesome! The game is so fucking cool.

Greg: Ikr? Turns out my bow skills totally translate ingame! I started off with rank 4 archery.

Jeremy: Dude nice. So you're like an archer chick then?

Dana: Yeah he is. Looks like

Greg: Yeah I am

Dana: Super hot too. We found each other btw. We’re in some town called Feleith in uh.. Greg what was the kingdom called?

Greg: The kingdom of...Adreinth?

Dana: Yeah that's it!

Jeremy: Niiice haha Greg the supermodel! We’re in Adreinth too.

Dana: You and Sam? He said something bad happened to him last night, was he okay?

Jeremy: Nah I haven't heard from Sam since school yesterday? Sam are you all good?

I stared at the screen for a while, trying to figure out if I should reply and what to say.

Greg: Sam dude we can see you reading this. What’s up bro?

For some reason being called ‘Dude’ and ‘Bro’ sent little slivers of pain into my heart.

Sam: I’m sick. Pellan was okay. Getting hit really hurts.

Jeremy: Oh yeah man, I had this creepy tree thing slash me down my chest, hurt so much! Oh guys! That reminds me!

Slashed down the chest? My eyes widened. Oh you have got to be kidding me. Surely not.

Jeremy: I met this like, ultra cute chick last night. A healer. She's like fuckin 4 feet tall lmfao.

Dana: *Facepalm*

Greg: Niiiiice! Was she like a halfling or something?

Jeremy: Nah like a Fae or something. Her eyes didn't look human but she looked kinda normal otherwise. Like a person who got shrink rayed.

Dana: Was she a good healer? We need one after all.

Jeremy: Don't know about healing on its own, but she was real good in a fight. She was kinda smart too, like how Sam is. Not much talking but you know something’s going on upstairs.

Dana: Cool did you ask her if she wanted a group?

Jeremy: Yeah and she said she might be keen. Her name is Sylanna.

Greg: She sounds cool as! Wew got healer already!

This was too much. I put my phone under my mattress to get it away from me and went back to my chair. Jeremy was Colourless? No fuckin way. No wonder he thinks Syl and Sam are similar, we’re the same bloody person. Fuck this was going to get really complicated. I sat there for a long while with my head on my desk. Ugh. This was gonna suck.

Eventually I sat up. When I did, I felt my new tight rounded butt shift with the movement where it rested on my heel and I was again reminded of this body. I had been noticing little things about it as the morning went on, and every time I did a little jolt of happiness shot through me.

I decided to do some research about the different skills and abilities. I found out that there was a passive skill for almost everything. As I searched, I found several skills that I wanted. Three of the big ones being Multicasting, Unarmed Casting and Spell Dancer. After Col’s, no Jeremy’s comment about how I looked like I was dancing during that fight, I wanted to look into it. I really wanted to dance in general. Always had. Now I had this gorgeous, slender and graceful body, I felt comfortable pursuing that dream.

I found more spells I wanted to get a hold of, but unlike the passive proficiency skills where you had to just do the action once or twice to gain access to the basic level, spells and active skills needed you to find someone to teach you, or you could pick from the small list that was presented to you on a level up.

As it got nearer to midday, I was engrossed in learning about the vast array of spells I could potentially got my hands on, when my bedroom door opened. Staring at me with confusion from the doorway was my stepmum. My heart stopped in my chest.

“Who are you?” she asked with suspicion, glancing around my room, “Where is sam? He’s skipping school and he won't answer his phone.”

“Mum..” I managed to squeak out.

Her head snapped to me. “Who are you young lady? And where is Sam?” She asked the last question with a rising level of worry in her voice.

“I’m Sam! Mum it's me!” I said with an edge of desperation.

“Don't be ridiculous, you-” I cut her off.

“I was playing my new game and I met a goddess and I was, and she, she turned my real body into my character from the game!” I blurted all of this out as fast as I could.

“Whoever you are, get out of this house now before I call the police. In fact I will call them now because MY SON IS MISSING AND THERE IS A STRANGE GIRL IN MY HOUSE,” she bellowed the last part with almost the same level of worry as was colouring my own voice.

Suddenly, my desperate mind gave me a solution. It was a long shot, and was running off a series of wild assumptions, but I had to take the chance.

“Wait! Mum I can prove it! I can prove it!” I pleaded.

She froze mid dial and stared at me for moment.

“Go on then, prove it,” she said, crossing her arms. Her phone was still held in her hand.

“I… not here I can’t. I need the kitchen,” I said, and as I spoke I moved tentatively towards the doorway.

She narrowed her eyes but still let me go past her. Navigating my house with my new stature was a strange experience, but I shoved in from my mind. With her following me we entered the combined kitchen-dining room-living room area. I made a beeline for the knife rack, and I saw my mum’s eyes widen in fear.

Before she could call anyone or do anything, I ran to the sink and viscously slashed my left wrist. The pain was awful. If I’d thought pain inside the game was bad, this was a whole other level. Now before you go calling me a wimp, let me just say that I have always had a very low tolerance for pain. Either way, it hurt and I cried out in pain, the knife clattering to the sink as I fell to the floor, my wrist clutched in my other hand. My mum stared in shock at the small young woman before her who had just badly harmed herself.

“Mum. The character I made, this one, was a healer,” I choked out around my tears, “just last night in the game I healed a big slash on my friends chest.”

She still had not said anything. I lifted my hand from the wound to let her get a good look at it, see it was real. Free from constraints, it began pumping blood out of my body with gusto. I didn’t have much blood to lose, if this didn't work I was in trouble. With a shaking hand, I placed my uninjured hand on my forearm above the slash and willed, prayed with all my heart to activate my touch healing ability. A pulse of warm azure-gold light raced down my arm just under the skin. Exiting my hand in a rush, it poured and crackled into my injured arm, travelling along it to the wound. We both watched in amazement as the wound closed rapidly, and three or four seconds later it was gone.

We stared at the wound, and then at each other in silence for a long while. I could see her thinking through the implications and making the leaps of logic I needed her to make.

She broke the silence, “Sam?” her voice sounded strangled. Showing her the impossible had broken her disbelief. She was considering what I’d said.

“Hi...” I said slowly, realising maybe I still needed to prove it was still my mind in here, “Mum, you're not my real mum, you're my stepmum, but I wish you were my real mum. You're so much better than my real mum.”

Her face crumpled and she sank to the floor and opened her arms, “Oh sweetie, oh Sam, come to your mum. Come here.”

Careful to avoid the pool of blood on the ground, I scurried across the floor and into her waiting arms. She wrapped my tiny frame in a hug and pulled my face to her chest. With careful strokes she began running her hand over my hair. I clutched at her desperately, the emotion of the moment, of finally connecting with the woman who was my female role model was overwhelming and tears burst from me in sobs.

We stayed in that embrace for a while, until her hand went a bit further down my head and encountered my very long ears. She leaned back and looked at them with wide eyes that had a few tears of their own in them.

“Those are real,” she said in wonder.

I nodded slowly, “They're really hard to keep warm too.”

She smiled and wrapped one hand around each ear.

“How’s this?” she said with a watery eyed smile.

I giggled, “It feels warm, but really strange.”

She laughed.

“Um, I don't know if you noticed, but I’m not just a weird little elf now, I’m also a girl…” I told her.

“I can see that. It’s okay sweetie, we’ll file a lawsuit, get them to figure out what went wrong and fix you, magic you back to normal or whatever,” she said with kindness and determination.

My mind reeled in sudden horror. The seed realisation from before finally sprouting. I didn’t want to go back. I didn’t want to be a boy again. I was a girl! I would rather die than be in that Sam body again.

She saw my horror on my face as I whimpered, “No, please no mum, I don't want to be a boy. Please. I want to be a girl. I don’t want to go back.”

Her face as she realised what I was saying, the definition I still didn't want to name, even though it was clear what I was, hit her.

“Oh Sam. Oh my little Sam. It’s okay. You don't have to go back. We’ll figure it out,” she said as she pulled me back into her arms.

We spent a while like that, just holding each other. It was amazing. I had a mum who cared. I was a girl. I felt so happy. I realised something though, and pulled back from the hug, removing my arms from around her.

I sheepishly looked at her suit jacket. “Mum… I’m sorry I think I ruined your jacket with my blood.”

My left side, the side I’d slashed, was covered in it, and so was my right hand.

She gave me an amused smile, “I know dear, It was a willing sacrifice. I can try and remove the stain later. Right now you need to go and change your clothes and take a shower.”

I got up out of her lap with a wobble and stood up. My mum was average height for a woman in our country, and so coincidentally we used to be the same height. This was not so anymore. As she stood up, I was hit by yet another reminder of my new stature.

She noticed as well, “You are absolutely tiny. What kind of fantasy creature are you meant to be?”

“I’m an Eilion, kind of Fae-Elf hybrid thing,” I shrugged and grinned at her, “I get bonuses to magic and stuff. Also I’m super cute.”

She laughed, “Yes you are dear, now go take a shower.”

“Oh,” she continued her face breaking out in a lopsided grin, “Next time I help you clean up your blood, it’ll probably be coming from a different place.”

“Mum!” I cried out in embarrassment.