I held Isabelle for a long while as I let let her cry out her emotions. I knew she still felt her real body while in Pellan, but all I could feel was a thin waifish girl my own age with luxuriously soft hair. She was a bit larger than me in most dimensions, but that’s to be expected because I’m some sort of tiny midget person.

When her tears finally abated, I stepped back a bit to get a look at her, “You look cute. What race did you pick? You have lots of little green tinged areas.”

“Oh, uh, I’m a Dryad. I picked it because I like plants, gardening and growing stuff in real life, so I… yeah,” she said with the tiniest little smile.

“Well, I like the look! It suits a druid too,” I said with a grin.

“Oh, um, thanks!,” she said, her little smile growing wider.

“We totally have some space for you to grow stuff as well, let me show you!,” I said, pointing back towards the hill.

“Okay. Thank you,” she said with a wide look in her eyes.

She followed me up to the construction site, where my friends waited.

“Hey guys, this is Isabelle!” I said, showing everyone my new friend.

My friends gave a chorus of greetings and smiles, and I looked back at Isabelle.

“Hi,” she squeaked from behind me.

“So, left to right we have… Amra, Colourless, Karen, Liam and Dana,” I told her, pointing to each one of my friends.

“Nice to meet you Isabelle, is there a shortened version you want us to call you by? Liam asked gently.

“O-oh uh, I hadn’t... um, I hadn’t thought about it,” she stammered.

“How about Izzy? That’s the normal short version,” Amra piped up.

“Yeah, I like the Zzz sound you know? It’s fun to say, and I think it suits her,” Liam nodded at Amra.

We all turned to Isabelle, looking for her opinion.

“Oh u-uhh, I mean if you think it sounds okay then Izzy is nice,” Izzy said shyly, her eyes getting wider as she looked over at my friends.

I love my friends. They did that whole thing really damn well.

“Great! Hey so Izzy is into gardening, where was that patch that looked good for gardening?” I asked.

“Pretty sure it was Liam who found it, why don’t you take her to see it?” Col said casually.

“What? I didn-” Liam started, but Col cut him off.

“Yeah you did, that way remember? Just show her the damn patch,” Col said making a shooing motion with his hands.

“I… Okay then,” Liam said in confusion, “If you want to follow I guess, I’ll show you to the patch of soil.”

“Oh! Okay thank you!” Izzy said, her head swivelling between Col and Liam.

We all watched as the two went off in the direction Col had indicated.

I was the first to comment on Col’s weirdness, “Wasn’t it you that found the patch?”

Dana nodded, looking at Col with an amused smirk on her face, “Yes it was…”

Col just shrugged, turning back to his work carving notches in the logs. He wasn’t fast enough to hide the small self satisfied grin on his face though.

What was that all about?

****

Finishing the last of the log walls took longer than we thought, and it was getting late when we did. It took longer because Liam didn’t come back from helping Izzy find her garden. We struggled with getting the logs into position without our strongest member, and Karen had to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Watching her lift things, her shirt hiking up and showing off her abs was almost hypnotic. She caught me staring at one point and I flushed bright red with embarrassment.

“What are you looking at there Sylanna?” she teased.

“You know what I’m looking at!” I grumbled.

She and Amra heaved the log into place for Dana and Col to hammer into place, then she sauntered over to me.

“So you were looking at these?” she asked, cheekily lifting her shirt up again.

“Oh my god, yes Karen I was checking you out! Where is this confident and smirky lesbian coming from anyway?” I asked with a fake pout.

“I guess you just bring it out of me,” she said with a grin, leaning down to give me a slow, languid kiss.

I whimpered and wobbled when she broke it.

“Time to keep working!” she said brightly.

“You’re evil!” I shouted.

She just laughed.

“Are you two done? We got work to do!” Amra said with an eye roll.

“Like you can talk Amra! You and Dana are way worse! Those two don’t even seem like a couple sometimes,” Col said with a shit eating grin.

We didn’t seem like a couple? Why not? I feel like making out in front of everyone is a pretty big indicator. Whatever, I was probably just making this out to be way bigger than it was. Stop it silly anxious brain! It was just a joking comment.

When we finished the walls and Liam and Izzy came back, looking slightly less awkward about being in each others company, we all agreed to log out and feed our real bodies. It would be dinner time in our world, and then we were back in to let our game bodies sleep.

The next day it was time to make the roof. The roof would be an angled thatch one, and so half the group went off with knives and rope to cut a whole shitload of grass. The other half of the group stayed to put up the supporting beams. Izzy went off to keep sorting out her garden. Before she left, she took me aside to speak to me.

“Hey Syl, thank you so much for helping me find some people to play with and everything, I feel so happy here with you guys!” she quietly exclaimed.

“I think that was the longest sentence I’ve ever heard you say, so you must be happy,” I said with a giggle.

I watched her face go red and she looked down at her feet with a smile.

“By the way, did you get that spell brand?” I asked.

She looked up with a question in her eyes and asked, “Yeah I did. The guy explained what it’s for but like why do I need it?”

“It’s a long story,” I said with a grin, then turned a little more serious, “So I want to meet up with you tomorrow, in our world, and I’ll tell you some things okay?”

“I don’t really want to hang out in real life, it doesn’t feel great,” she said with a frown.

“Trust me, you’ll want to. I need to fill you in on some stuff about this game and it won’t really work when we’re inside it okay?” I said with a little plea in my tone.

“I guess, do you want to get like, Maccas or something in town?” she asked.

“Sure thing, that works,” I nodded.

“Okay… I guess we should get to work then?” she asked with a sigh.

“Definitely! I’m so excited seeing this place take shape!” I said happily.

“Yeah… about that… there’s only six bedrooms,” she said with a sad look.

“Oh… yeah I… I don’t think that will be a problem,” I said cryptically.

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I think Karen and I are going to be sharing a room, and Dana and Amra will definitely be sharing a room,” I said with a cough.

“Oh!” she exclaimed with a surprised smile, “You and karen? I thought that was like just a dumb rumour?”

“It was!” I rushed to explain, my face heating,” ...But then it wasn’t.”

“Cute!” she laughed.

“Agh, shut up!” I exclaimed, “Go mess with your garden!”

We split ways to work on our respective jobs with laughter and giggles.

The frame for the roof went up quickly, the logs being split by me with my laser knife hands and trimmed so we could use them as supporting struts for the thatch. Being able to basically walk on air made the whole process of putting the roof together way too easy.

The first of the thatch bundles arrived after lunch, and we began layering it up the roof supports. It was actually so quick to put together, and I was very happy when it was completed just before night time. This night we would be logging out to go hang out with our families and I would be meeting Izzy in our own world.

“So before we log out,” Liam said, “What’s the plan next?”

“Izzy and I won’t be online until later because we’re meeting up to discuss some… things around the game,” I told the group.

“Ohhhh, do you need me along too?” asked Karen.

“We should be fine, and I think what we have to talk about will be more comfortable with just the two of us,” I said with a sidelong glance at Izzy. She looked back at me in suspicion.

“Okay, so what do we need to do next with the cabin, are we done?” asked Liam.

I shrugged, “Just fill in the cracks with clay. Oh and then we need furniture!”

“I guess we’ll get started on all of that then,” Liam said with a nod.

With our planning concluded, I logged out.

****

I had a shower and got dressed in some casual clothing to meet with Izzy. The way she had reacted in Pellan had me absolutely certain she was a closeted trans girl like I had been. I was going to help her.

I had a light breakfast so that I would have room to eat with her in a few hours. I spent the time waiting to leave hanging out with my parents, going over life and everything. It was a very lazy sunday and I could see them already gearing up to do whatever it is they did to relax. Mum wasn’t even out of her pajamas yet.

I grabbed my purse when it was time, and headed out the door to find the bus. Being in our world was annoying, I couldn’t just lightskate everywhere. The bus took for ever to get to the stop. It was like, ten minutes overdue. That might be an exaggeration but whatever, it was annoying.

We were planning to meet in the Maccas outside the movie theatre, and I knew a park near that where we could get some privacy for me to show her the truth of things. I would probably drag her there first so I could show her and then we could talk about it over food.

When I hopped off the bus I looked around for Izzy, but couldn’t see her. Maybe she was over at the Maccas. I hurried in that direction.

She was indeed waiting for me in front of the Maccas, and I waved to her, “Izzy!”

Her head whipped around and her eyes went wide. She rushed over and urgently whispered, “Don’t call me that here!”

“Why not?” I asked, gauging her reaction.

Her face went stony and she looked at her feet, “Because I’m not… a girl here and I can never be one.”

Yup. Definitely a trans girl on my hands.

“Alright,” I said, “Well either way I need to show you something, but I can’t do it here in front of other people.”

“What is it?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

“You won’t believe me if I tell you without showing you. I’ve been nice so far right? I promise this will only be good,” I said placatingly.

“Alright… fine,” she sighed.

We made our way to the nearby park, giving the skatepark that was attached a wide berth, with all it’s scary looking guys and loud music. We found a secluded place amongst the tall dry grasses that were used as decoration in the majority of the park and sat down on a bench.

“So what is it?” Izzy asked straight away.

“Bear with me here, do you remember the guy called Sam who was in one of our classes??” I asked.

“Yeah, he like left or something,” she said cautiously.

“Well, I was Sam... Pellan isn’t just a game,” I said.

“What are you-” she started, and then jumped back a bit when I summoned a crackling blade of energy from my hand.

She stared at it with wide eyes, and then looked over at me fearfully, edging away. I quickly dispelled it, and hurried to calm her down. I should have chosen a different spell.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to scare you! I just needed to show you! I was turned into my character from Pellan by my goddess, and I’m like you, I wanted to be a girl, or I am a girl. I want to give you the same thing!” I rushed to explain, “Here look, my ears.”

I extended my ears to their natural length and she watched them grow in surprise. Her face went through a huge range of emotion as she processed what I was telling her.

“Wait…” she said, trying to work through everything, “You were Sam, that nerdy guy… like, really him?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah… and I hated it Iz- Zach. It was so shit, and being in this amazing girl body is the best thing that ever happened to me,” I said with an open heart.

“You can do that for me too, like turn me into my game character? Druid abilities and everything?” she asked in the smallest voice in the world.

“Yeah, I can. So long as you promise not to go hurting people or giving away that we have our magic in the real world too. We’ll need to make a shrine to Feslia, my goddess, for it to work. She’ll do the rest,” I nodded.

“That’s… this is crazy,” she said looking down into her hands.

“I know,” I said gently.

“How will we tell my parents? And… how did you do it all?” she asked in a small voice.

“Well, it happened to me by accident. When I logged out and found myself still as a girl, I hid in my room and tried to skip school, but my mum got a call that I hadn’t turned up. She came home and found me. I had to cut myself and then heal it to show her that magic was real, and I was who I said I was,” I explained, “uh also do you want to go and eat now? We can chat about it as we eat!”

“Uh, yeah sure let’s go,” Izzy said with a shaky nod.

We had our food in a quiet booth at the back of the restaurant, away from listening ears. She asked me all about what had happened, and I explained my story and my feelings along the way. It was adorable seeing the light of hope filling her, gently brushing away the clinging depression that holding in her real gender had caused. I explained how it had felt to suddenly feel my body properly, how the dissonance between one body and another had suddenly vanished.

I also explained the rough plan I had for her, that she would have to fill out with her own details and the like. She’d also have to tell her parents. She was unsure how they would react to her coming out of the closet, but we both reasoned that if her body was changed already then it might smooth things over. People still had the ghoulish perception that transgender people would be some caricature of blatant masculinity wrapped in girls clothing. It was never true and it’s not true now. Maybe I would try and introduce magic to our world, figure out a way to give trans people the bodies they desired.

“Thank you,” Izzy told me when we were done talking, her voice choked with emotion, “Thank you for chasing me down and giving me this. I was so close to just… I was so close to becoming a statistic.”

“Hey, don’t ever think you’re alone alright? I’m going to help you and be your friend as we get you through this and after it okay?” I said, my tone one of gentle reassurance.

“Yeah, I know… Thank you,” She said with tears forming in her eyes.

“Should I call you Izzy from now on?” I asked.

“Yes please,” she nodded with a teary smile.