Chapter 2 

Calamity

 

 

The City of San Venus. 

If the place were a glass of milk, my village would be a splatter of milk on a countertop in comparison. I’d never been outside my home village let alone a city but yet here I was. Walking along dressed like I’d never dressed before after an awkward change in a phone booth. There was a strange freedom to the way walking in a skirt felt, the motion and the way the air constantly moved around my legs made me feel..exactly as I had when I’d done this years ago in the privacy of my bedroom when I’d stolen this exact skirt while no one was paying attention. 

I walked quietly down the sidewalks keeping my head hidden underneath the hat, cape pulled in a bit. I still don't have the first idea how no one looked at me funny, but I suppose that might just be how the place is cultured 

Even with the feeling of determination in my gut I still couldn’t brush off the imagined picture in my head of what my parents must be feeling; Terrified that their oldest child ran off, humiliated that something must have been wrong and he…she didn’t tell them. Infuriated I’d made off with an absurd amount of their hard-earned winks, the coins and paper currency now kept securely in the messenger bag I’d also stolen. 

And then the wave of guilt that I had done multiple thefts of varying magnitudes in only a matter of two days. 

My legs carried me as fast as I could to the nearest public shop with a restroom, holding the hat in a death grip as I dropped to my knees and–

I gasped and panted, groggily looking at the remains of the egg salad sandwich from earlier. 

This was a bad idea

This was a bad idea

This was a bad idea 

Where was I even going to stay the night?! The thought screamed into my head

I was in a new town, with no one I knew living here. Wearing clothes that aren’t mine! 

The walls closed in hard on me as I tried to pull myself together. Why now?! Why after finally getting off the train was all this guilt in my head suddenly screaming at me? I curled up on the bathroom floor, painfully self-conscious of the way the cold tiling felt against my bare thighs.

…Which bathroom was I in?

I stumbled out of the store, nearly tripping on the cape and staff hoping to whatever god was listening no one had seen me. 

A continued chorus of “what am I doing’s” echoed in my head as my feet pounded the pavement as I hastily walked with my head down, trying not to make eye contact with anyone for fear they’d instantly be able to tell as if the awkward gait and tallness didn’t give it away already. I was a train wreck on legs and every single person who looked at me could probably tell- SHIT

I pulled myself into an alleyway and pressed against a wall, holding the staff to my forehead.

“What am I doing?” I spoke out loud, my voice making me feel a pang of self-disgust. 

With a shaking hand, I held up the staff again, looking at the peridot gem. Focusing on centering myself…just got to remember who’s inspiring me to do all this. 

I’d want to make her proud if she could see me. 

The light suddenly glinted in a way catching me off guard. 

It took me a second before I gasped in shock. It wasn’t the sun. 

I stared more in surprise witnessing the magic staff reacting…reacting to me!  I was…making magic…

I shivered while holding the staff, pointing the gem tip outward, the shadowed alleyway illuminated in its pale green glowing energy. 

It was magic! 

My heart was beating so hard at that moment as I forgot the absolute dread. It was like a sign from the goddesses, as I stood up a bit more straight. 

I gently placed my thumb on the gem feeling the gentle warmth of the radiating magic, that urge to hold the staff outward and proudly came again. I had this…I absolutely had this in the bag. 

but what was I supposed to do with this?!  

 

I jabbed the staff forward, letting it slide up in my hand in the air and tightening it letting out a loud “Hyah!”

…nothing. I furrowed my brow, lips pressing into a diagonal line as I watched the light slowly fade. Sighing I lowered the staff, at the very least I had been the only one in the alley way, I’d look even weirder otherwise. 

Magic! 

I let out a giddy squeak as I walked forward…i had to get to the school and I had to enroll; Worry about where I’d be staying later. 

 

****

 

It was further and further into the city, eventually shifting its way more suburban-esque areas, stuff that reminded me of home but with a lot fewer farms. The School building was *huge* as it loomed off in the distance. 

I could feel the anxiety building up again. 

I steeled myself to keep pushing, by my judgment I’d be there within the hour. I ran my hands through my hair, feeling the fingers get caught in the way it tangled. I’m gonna need to get this cut…or not..probably not..or at the least trimmed. 

That same hand went down to the messenger bag I’d been carrying my stuff in as I looked up. The sky was clear blue…

I was distracting myself. 

“This isn’t funny, give it back!” the voice couldn’t have been older than maybe 9 or 10. I snapped back to attention, looking in the direction to see a kid being harassed by a couple of girls who looked way older than he did.. Maybe about my age possibly, the leader had some sort of toy held above her head, while the kid was trying to get at it, the lead bullies friends keeping him from getting too close to reaching it. 

“C’mon Briar give it back!” The kid pleaded with…Briar I suppose is her name

“As I said, you know how dangerous it is to be playing with your toys so close to the road,” she said with a mocking tone of authority “Trust me, I think you’ll learn if I keep this”

The School could wait.

Straightening out the hat as I walked I gripped the staff tightly and stomped my way forward walking behind the three bullies, and spun the tip up at the toy, knocking it hard out of her clutches as she held it above her head, the thing flew out across the ground.

Briar spun and turned at me, her look of shock for a second. That shock was echoed on her two henchwomen, their grips having weakened just enough for the kid to suddenly break free, dashing forward and grabbing the toy, sprinting off down the road. A loud “Thank you!” being shouted back as he disappeared around the nearest corner. 

“Just what in the heck was that?” She scowled

“I…” oh no…what do I say? “Figured it wasn’t really fair for you to be picking on such a small kid”

“Oh fucking really?” I tried not to flinch at hearing the strong language. She took a step toward me, as I noticed her reaching for this large disc strapped to her belt “You looked like someone who walked out of a laundry bin, and you just think you can tell me what I can do?” 

The other two walked up behind her on either side, glaring at me, both brandishing rings on their hand that glowed brightly with the light of arcane intent channeling harmful intent. 

“Well…you shouldn’t be bullying people!” I said, feeling my voice echo awkwardly out of my mouth, the deepness cracking for all of a second that threatened to make me cringe and ruin the entire attempt at being the bold heroic witch. 

“And you shouldn’t be sticking your nose in other people's business, freak” The girl to the right of Briar mocked me. 

Briar hefted her disk at me, three fingers lodged inside holes within it, the edge sharpened and pointed at me. “I genuinely don’t know who you are, but I’m gonna give you a five-second headstart before we shred that second-hand shop hat of your gawky los-” 

When I was growing up in the village I’d never had to deal with any kind of malicious bullying; everyone knew each other and by that intent, every parent in the village knew each other or being able to talk to one another in a day meant all us kids had grown up with enough incentive to be nice to one another no matter what the issue.

So I imagine it made that I’d never had to suppress my rage before, which is what I choose to lay the blame on for my impulsive leaning in past the sharpened disc, with my fist making contact with the left side of Briar's chin. 

 

The three of them stood there in silence, Briar stumbling backward as the disc fell to the ground with a clatter. 

 

My gut was a tight knot again. My fist drew into a ball before I realized what I’d done. All four of us just seemed to be completely struck with silence as we registered what had just happened. 

 

“He just..” I didn’t register which of the two hench-girls said it, I barely registered the ‘he’ thanks to the adrenaline 

 

“Kill him!” Briar shouted in rage, lunging at me with fury as the disk lifted from the ground before being swung at me, flying from her grasp.

 

Time seemed to stretch out as I pulled to the side, feeling the sharp edge slice some of my hair, uncomfortably close to my ear. 

The three of them began trying to grab at my, my arms instinctively swinging the staff, keeping them at arm's length, Their glowing magic suddenly pinning my legs down as I tried to hold dodge backward. 

I’d never been in a fight before let alone against three girls before! 

Then suddenly a green flash kicked by, the three girls getting bowled to the side at the impact, a warped pane of magic energy separating the me from the three of them…well..me and the person who’d stepped in. 

She stood in a three-point stance, the magic energy in front of her echoing what I presumed to be the arc she’d moved her arm in to cast the magic creating this shield. 

The bright golden mane and the ears immediately made her stand out as I recognized her. A beastkin. A bold lion girl in a black vest and denim pants slowly pulled herself up “Someone trying to start a fight without me then? Damn, I thought what you and I had was special Briar”

“Get the hell out of my way Calamity” the girl hissed at..well I guess her name is Calamity. Briar bounced her disc off the shield, as it warped, a slight crack appearing in the energy 

“I don't think so. Would be a real shame if you got into trouble this close to the dorms” 

“Screw this!” briar suddenly lashed out her disc entirely sheathed in red energy slashing the shield, the whole thing seeming to shatter like a pane of glass, the fragments vanishing before they could hit the ground. 

 

Briar took a few mad swiped at my would-be rescuer with her leaning back and dodging, a few yelps being let out as she stumbled back and turned 

 

“Run!” she yelled at me. I did not need to be coerced. Before I’d realized my legs had pulled me in a circle and I was following after Calamity, the angriest witches ever chasing us. My legs burned but I didn’t dare slow down, the work farming helped mitigate the exhaustion. 

 

The way time stretched out suddenly snapped back taught pulling in and contracting as we ran down the road back toward town, my head just nearly missing Briar's disc again as it whizzed back, I clumsily stumbled as my hands swung the staff up making contact with the disk as it spun back at me flipping in the air. 

We dodged past the carts and bikes in the streets, and eventually, Calamity turned a corner just past as I saw her pull herself over the edge of a dumpster, my body thoughtlessly doing the same.

The both of us sat there, hiding in the empty dumpster as we heard the clapping of shoes on the ground, running past. 

The lion girl eventually lifted her head up slowly to peek out into the alleyway as we both sat there in complete silence. 

THE CAPE. 

I tried to hold in the noise as I pulled in the cape and twisted it around me to look at it, panicking. It had grime on it! No!  I tried wiping the gunk off and away, while also feeling deep revulsing at the contact of the moldy gunk on my fingers. 

“Well, I think they’re gone.” She stated, pushing up and climbing out of the dumpster “C’mon. Get up, I wanna get a look at the person whose ass I saved”. With that request I hefted myself over the rim of the dumpster, putting my feet down on the ground once more, suddenly acutely aware of the material inside my shoe after having run so much. 

“So…” She looked over me “the cape is weird, and I don't think the skirts working for you, but it’s nice” she started off “but… I’m Calamity. What’s your name?” 

There’s a moment's hesitation, a slight discomfort at the cape being criticized. “I’m...Roxanne.” 

“How long have you had it?” 

“I’m sorry?” 

I watch her jaw move without her lips opening, her eyes shifting around, I know she’s thinking..of what? “Well I’m trying to be sensitive ''cause…like...Are you transgender?” 

“What?” 

“Transgender?” a long pregnant pause between us “Like..or just crossdress?”

I feel the words slip showing my ignorance to Calamity “I’m…not sure what that word is?” 

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaimed, “okay..uhm, where do you come from?” 

“It’s a village…Olmsteady..small place the way the heck out..” I point distantly toward the train station, and hopefully implying beyond it “There?” 

“Well…so, homeschooled?” 

“Barely” I look at the ground for a second, feeling weird about making eye contact with them.

She motioned for her to follow “Well…okay. So, Roxanne” as we started walking “I want to ask some leading questions, and some personal ones…are you cool with a complete stranger prying into that” 

“You’re kind of the first person I’ve had any sort of an extended conversation with since I got here earlier this morning.” I tried to keep with her pace “So…I guess?” 

“You were..born male?” She asked the volume of her voice shifting a bit as we moved past people, still hearable but muted a bit to keep from being overheard. 

I felt my gut tighten. “Yeah” I admit unhappily…I’d never been happy about it but having the question asked to me directly had me realizing how unhappy the thought made me  

“But…” she motions with her paw towards my outfit, the long sleeve shirt, the skirt, the cape, all of it baggy “Your name is Roxanne. Yeah?”  

“Not..originally no” 

Moments of walking “Yeah I think I got you figured… at least a little bit” We both walked around a corner, where were we going? I didn’t know. Somehow we’d gotten closer to the school, but this looked nothing like anything remotely academic. “So…Transgender means you were born one gender, but you don’t identify as it” she explained, turning to face me as she said it. 

The word in my head clicked weirdly as it registered in my head “That…feeling has a word?” 

Without my paying attention she’d lead me into a building, a long hallway leading to who knows where. “Yeah, I had a feeling you didn’t know. So, Roxanne, I think you and I are going to get along pretty well” 

“Why’s that?” 

We got to a door, with the metal number 618 screwed into the wood of it. 

“Well, I’m trans also” 

Transgender. Trans. 

Those words. Those words. The definition; is born one way…but don’t like it. Transgender. Transgender. Transgender. 

What? 

I felt a buzzing in my head. I’d felt it before when I was younger and–

“Then maybe I’m not meant to be a boy!” the echo of myself from ten years ago boldly and proudly declaring herself to her friends i remember that buzzing in my fingers, the thoughts just…flowing free for the longest time. 

I’d never had the word in my head for that moment, and now I did. 

I’m transgender. Holy Crap. 

That's who I am?! 

“Yeah….yeah” my words felt weird “I’m transgender too” I confess awkwardly. 

“Come on in, I don't have a roommate assigned yet so I should be fine. I hope anyway” 

“I…yeah”. 

The next few steps blurred and I found myself suddenly laying back in a bed, staring at the ceiling. Observing the pepper look of the black specks all over the tiles above me. My eyes fixated on a single oblong speck that stood out amongst the mostly dot-like ones. 

“Yeah, I..you’re alright?” 

“I don't know” 

“Yep, that's what I thought; okay so like..how many days have you been..trying to be a girl” 

“Literally started today” 

“Oh!” I didn’t see her face but heard the concern “okay..so definitely, I..shit, I’m sorry for kinda going at the throat like I did with those questions” 

I sprang up “no no no! that..I mean…I didn’t even know the words! So like…the fact I found someone who’s..who’s” 

“Like you?” 

“Holy shit yes!” I’d never talked like that before but I felt momentarily liberated as that buzzing tingle in my skin kept going and going “I’m like…like I said I didn’t know it was a word, I came from this little farming village I thought I was going to die with this weird unpleasant feeling in my gut the whole time, and I just..” 

She broke into my delay “felt incomplete?” 

“Yes!” 

“So what inspired this…all of this?” she gestured at the hat, the cape, my..all of me.” 

“I…well.. that's a bit of a story” I pulled my legs up crossing one over the other as I started telling her about everything