I’m always a bit anxious when planning to meet someone I’ve never met in person before. One time I was going to join a school club and I joined online, but before the first IRL meeting I almost flaked because I was so anxious to actually meet everyone. Expectations can be a lot, both for yourself and for others. That is to say as we stopped outside the somewhat crowded bar area (people sure seem to drink early in this world, it’s still the afternoon!), I was trying really hard not to act as stressed as I was. 

But dad seemed to notice anyway as he looked at me and said, “Aria, are you all right?”

“Yeah dad, why?”

“You’re shaking,” He replied, and sure enough, looking down at my small hands, he was right. 

“It’s nothing, I’m just a little anxious. Meeting people is stressful. I mean what if they don’t like me, what if I don’t like them, what if I hurt someone’s feelings because I don’t know them very well?”

“Calm down little song, Juniper is a friend, and they don’t take shit from anyone. You’ll get right along,” He said, and then under his breath whispered, “Goddess she is a normal kid sometimes after all.”

“Hey! I heard that!”

“Heard what? I didn’t hear anything!”

I pout at him jokingly and he laughs.

“Well I’d know that hearty laugh from anywhere!” A tall looking person says from behind dad, with a handle of a mace and shield peeking out from their back and long blondish hair with orange highlights tied up in a thick bun, with little bits of their colorful hair loose in the wind and framing their somewhat pale face and pointed ears. 

Dad turns and hugs the person, “Juniper! It’s good to see you buddy!”

“You too man, you too. How you doing Euty?”

“Well! The harvests have been good this year and Aria’s grown up fast.”

“Is that her I see?” Juniper peeks out over dad’s shoulder and meets my tiny body to eye

“Hello there! You’re Juniper, right?”

“The one and only, at your service young lady.”

“Why thank you very much.” I say in a funny British accent.

“Have you ever spoken to a high elf before? That accent kinda sounded like them.”

“Um, no you see I just do these funny voices sometimes, don’t know where I get them from, haha…” 

“Alright then?” They looked pretty confused, but I have a feeling telling people I’m an otherworlder willy nilly is probably a bad idea. Who knows how much information from another world is worth. Could be enough to kidnap, even kill for, even though Juniper is probably safe, it’s a crowded area. Who else could be listening at any time? Information is power, and as someone living her second life, I have a lot of it. 

“Speaking of elves, you are one right? I’ve never actually met an elf before, I just know the uh…” I point to my ears, “pointy ears.”

“I am indeed, though it’s not so rare to meet an elf with human ears or a human with elf ears. Just how it is when humans and elves have kids. Genetics can appear in all kinds of ways.”

You know, you’d think more fantasy authors would actually talk about stuff like that. I mean sure, there’s always the argument of trying not to make things “too” realistic but I mean what is fantasy if not enhanced reality, right? “Got it! Well anyway, I’m Aria. I may be young but don’t feel the need to treat me like a little kid.”

“Wasn’t planning to. Your dad has always said in his letters that you’re a sharp one for an age, and your grasp of Common is excellent!”

“You two seem to be getting along well already,” dad says. “Mind if I head out on my errands and meet back in a couple hours?”

“No problem Euty, we won’t cause too much trouble.”

Juniper and I give each other a smug look and I say, “Only respectable amounts of trouble!”

Dad starts to walk off and says to himself, loud enough that we can both hear, “I’ve brought together two monsters…”

We laugh and decide on some ideas for what to do for the next few hours. Despite our antics with dad we weren’t really trying to cause trouble, just hang around for awhile. Juniper had been through the town a few times in the past, so I followed their lead as they took me around town. The views were amazing in this place, the town being in a hilly area so that you can just see the shops go down for what feels like miles. I wasn’t kidding when I said it reminded me of a state fair. Without cars around all the bustling pedestrians and horses and carriages made the whole place just breathe with life. 

As the sunset began Juniper and I grabbed some ice cream, me a strawberry cone and them a vanilla cup with chocolate sauce. We sat on top of a wall that separated a shop from the rest of the street and watched the crowds start to thin a little before the evening bustle began. Dad was probably already done with his errands by now, but we weren’t that far away from the bar so we both agreed he’d probably find us soon enough, and if not we’d head back after not too much time. 

“How’s the ice cream Aria?”

“It’s delicious! I don’t get sweets like this too often at home, just because it’s hard to keep things cool at home.”

“Electricity was an amazing invention the otherworlders brought here. Freezers are still expensive though. A real investment that only really merchants can afford.”

Part of me really wants to tell them. They seem trustworthy, and it’s not like anyone would hear up here, especially if I’m quiet. Maybe I’ll just do it. “Hey Juniper?”

“What’s up?”

“Can you keep a secret?”

“That you’re an otherworlder? I know already.”

I gave them a look of dumbfounded shock, “Wait you knew? How?”

“No way someone that well spoken at your age exists unless they come from another world.”

“Hey! It’s possible!”

“Possible isn’t plausible Aria.”

“You… have a point.”

“Besides, your dad told me in a letter. He told me you were trans in your past life too. That’s actually part of the reason I’m here today besides catching up with your father. Sorry for the sudden reveal.”

“I may technically be a cis girl here, but I still consider myself trans. I still have those memories of that past life.”

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume. I know what you mean though. Running away from your past isn’t as easy as some people make it sound. Trust me, I tried.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Just a shitty family. Couldn’t take their “daughter” not being a girl or a boy. I wasn’t anything of what they wanted me to be in the end. What’s your story?”

“About the same. My dad, my old dad I mean, he was about as shitty as they come. No mom in the picture by the time I died. I wasn’t the son he wanted me to be, even in the end. I went off to school and learned that I was really a girl and as soon as I was able to actually start to make changes to reflect that, snap and my life was over. Just like that. I was 19.” 

“That can’t be easy sister.”

“It wasn’t. But it was those experiences that make me the girl you see today. This life was the one I was meant to live, but that life was still mine too.”

“The life you were supposed to live?”

“Dad didn’t tell you? I was sent here by the Goddess of Humanity. The God of Demons sent me to Earth in the body of a man. When I died she fixed that injustice. I was always supposed to be Aria.”

“That must be validating as hell, to hear you were always meant to be the girl you are now.”

I look at the sunset sky, and smile. “Yeah. Yeah it is.”

“Hey you two shitheads! You really made me find you?” Dad’s voice calls from below.

“Sorry dad! We got distracted by ice cream!”

“And you didn’t get me any?”

“Sorry Euty! May still be open though if you wanna grab a cone?”

“Nah, it’s fine. What do you say we all grab dinner before heading back?”

“Won’t mom get mad that we’ll get back late?”

“It’s not a problem. I wanna catch up with my old pal too after all.”

Juniper hops down the wall. “Glad to see you still love me old man!”

“I. Am. Not. Old. How many times do I have to tell you? I hear enough of it in your letters.”

“You have a kid, that makes you an old man, I don’t make the rules.”

I giggle. “Come on you two, let’s eat so we get back early enough for mom not to murder us.”