Kyros kept looking at me for a few moments, his eyes narrowing slightly as he studied me carefully. “…Adrian, is that you?” he asked, finally.

“Wh– Of course it’s me!” I snapped. “Who else would I be?”

“I… Well, I’m sorry, but you look…” Kyros said.

I grit my teeth. “I’m quite aware of how I look, thank you,” I bit out. And I must have been quite a sight: I was still wearing my male clothes, of course, but my shirt had been ripped open – probably by Kyros in an attempt to heal my wound, I realised, since my chest was covered in dark, dried blood – and I was holding it up with one arm, held tight over my breasts – gods, I had breasts! – which were heaving as I took deep breaths to calm myself. I looked down at myself, and in doing so my long hair fell down into my field of vision, and I flinched at the unexpected sight, the tip of my sword wavering around a bit in front of Kyros’ face.

“Adrian,” Kyros said, and there was a tinge of panic in his voice. “Adrian, please put down the sword.”

I shook my head wildly, trying to get rid of the hair that was partly obscuring my sight. “I’ll put down the sword once you explain why I’m a woman,” I said.

Kyros bit his lip. “I don’t know,” he said.

“You don’t know?” I replied. “Why you… this was clearly done by magic, and the only one who can do magic around here is you, Kyros, so it was you who did this! And I demand you turn me back into a man right now!”

Kyros looked at me for a long time, and I could almost see the wheels turning over in his mind, carefully considering the wording of the reply he would give me, so that the crazy woman standing in front of him wouldn’t skewer him with her sword. “I don’t know how to do that,” he said in the end.

“Why–” I began, but he held up a hand.

“Yes, it was probably me who did… this, Adrian,” he said, gesturing at me. “But I don’t know how I did it. I was just trying to heal you, and I had no idea the magic would do this to you. I’m sorry.”

His words gave me pause: yes, he had healed me, hadn’t he? Kyros had saved my life. And judging by the dried blood on my chest and my lips, and by the bandage that was wrapped tight around his wrist, he’d put a significant effort into it – he must’ve given me plenty of his blood.

I gulped and licked my lips, savouring the metallic taste.

And he likely hadn’t expected the healing magic in his blood to do this to me: while it could alter someone’s appearance – the Eternal Emperor was living proof of that – Kyros couldn’t have known it would turn me into a woman.

Why had it done that, exactly? It was only supposed to heal me, after all. Why would healing me mean turning me into a woman?

In any case, I was blaming Kyros unfairly: I sighed, and lowered my sword.

“You’re right,” I said. “I’m sorry, I just… I kinda panicked.”

Kyros nodded, as he stood up, took the sword from my trembling hand, and set it gently down on the ground. “I don’t blame you,” he said, putting an arm around me and drawing me in a hug. “You must have been surprised when you woke up like that.”

“Especially because I hadn’t expected to wake up at all,” I said in return. “Thank you, Kyros.”

“You’re welcome,” he said, tightening the embrace; gods, he was a really good friend, wasn’t he? And it was comforting, being so close to–

I was suddenly entirely too aware of just how close Kyros and I were: parts of our bodies were touching skin-to-skin, even, and he felt…

“Um. You can let go now,” I said.

“Oh, right, sorry,” he replied, letting me go; I smiled at him as I stepped back, and he responded with a wide, warm smile of his own, that made me feel an emotion I couldn’t quite identify. Then, after a moment, he continued, “How do you feel?”

I considered his question as I started slowly pacing back and forth beside the campfire, moving my limbs, feeling how my body responded. “I feel… fine, actually?” I answered. “Nothing hurts, or aches, even. Your magic blood did a small miracle on me. Besides the whole turned-into-a-woman bit, I mean.”

I reached upwards with my hand and touched my cheek, and I was surprised to find it completely bereft of any trace of hair; I paused, and rubbed my chin, almost expecting to find a rough spot, but there were none. “Huh,” I mused out loud.

“Huh what?” Kyros asked.

“Nothing, it’s just…” I replied, shaking my head. “If nothing else, I don’t have to shave any longer. I hated having to do that.” I paused. “I hated having a beard, period. So, small blessings.”

“I like that you’re trying to find the bright side in this,” Kyros said, and I could hear the smile in his voice. “That’s the Adrian I know. And maybe the blessings are bigger than you think.”

I stopped pacing, turned back to him, and saw that the smile he had on his face was impressively cheeky; I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is that supposed to be a comment on my breasts?” I asked pointedly. “Because if it is, swear upon the gods–”

“No! No, it isn’t,” he said quickly. Then, after a moment, he added, “Well, not only on your breasts.”

My eyes narrowed even more. “Kyros…” I began.

“No, Adrian, hear me out,” he cut me off, shaking his head. “What I mean to say is… Well, maybe I’m not the best person to judge this, since I’m not human, so I could have different standards than you, but you were already attractive as a man–”

“I was attractive as a man?!” I interjected, but he went on undeterred.

“–but as a woman? Wyrm above, Adrian, you look amazing. I’m actually stunned at how beautiful you are.”

I blinked in surprise; my eyes widened, and I felt my mouth fall open. I just stood there looking at him, at a loss for words.

Wait, hold on, what in the seven hells and thirteen heavens had Kyros said? That I was beautiful?!

I felt my face start burning. I was not one to blush often – I tried to keep a certain demeanour, to present myself to the world as a proper knight, and proper knights do not blush – but right at that moment I was sure the entire surface of my skin was as red as that time I’d been forced by the Boar Knight to do drills the whole day under the summer sun, as punishment for covering for Robert when he’d shirked his training to go off with one of his many girlfriends.

“I…” I began, trying to gather my wits, which had been scattered to the four winds by Kyros’ words. “I…” I said again.

“Yes, Adrian?” Kyros asked, giving me one of his infuriatingly endearing smiles. “What is it?”

I looked at him for a moment longer, then turned away, and loudly cleared my throat. “I… I’m not beautiful.”

There was a moment of silence, then Kyros replied, “I’m sorry. I… I can see this is making you uncomfortable, Adrian. I shouldn’t have said it.”

I shook my head. “No, don’t apologise. You were just speaking your truth.” And I knew he was: I’d known Kyros only for a short time, but I knew he wasn’t the type to play such a cruel prank on anyone – he wasn’t the type to tell someone they were beautiful if he didn’t honestly think so.

Which meant…

…I honestly didn’t want to think what that meant right at that moment. And I especially didn’t want to think about how him speaking those words had made me feel.

I shook my head again, still not looking at him; instead, I looked around the small clearing we were in. “Where are we anyway?” I asked, changing the subject as best I could. “How far away are we from Ziegental?”

“Only about a half fourteen of miles,” Kyros replied, and I smiled: I would have to figure out exactly how far that was, since he’d only learned how long a mile was very recently, from me, and still hadn’t quite gotten it down. “This was as far as I could carry you.”

I nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. After all, you had to treat my wound as soon as…”

I stopped talking, as my brain caught up with his words – and with the memories of the previous day’s events.

“Hold on,” I said, turning back towards him. “Since when can you fly?”

Kyros blinked. “Uh. Um.”

“Because, as I remember, your wing was broken. But apparently it’s healed now?” I continued.

“…It is,” he said, not meeting my eyes.

“Since when?” I demanded.

There was a long, uncomfortable moment of silence. “Since a few days ago,” he said. “Since the day before we met the outlaws.”

I stared right at him, piercing him with a glare. “So you could fly this whole time?” I said pointedly. “You could have just… taken off and gone away at any point?”

“Um. Yes. Yes, I could have,” Kyros admitted, and he gulped nervously.

I was completely stunned. “Then… why didn’t you?” I asked. “Why didn’t you just leave?”

“Because…” he began; then he sighed deeply. “Because I wanted to make sure you would be okay, Adrian.”

I stared at him in surprise. “You wanted to…”

He nodded, turned his head, and looked me in the eyes. “I mean, if I left you there, in the middle of the forest, how would I know you were safe? That you’d made it back to your people? You could’ve run into trouble at any point before Ziegental. And I was right, in fact: remember the outlaws?”

“I remember, yes,” I nodded. “But after that? After I told you about the Emperor? Why didn’t you leave then?”

“We were still in the middle of the forest,” Kyros said. “I still wanted to make sure you were safe. And besides, I wanted to spend more time with you,” he added, so quietly I almost missed it. Then, in a normal tone of voice, he went on: “I was planning to tell you about my wing and leave the morning after we’d reached the town, but then…”

“…Yeah,” I murmured. “Yeah, I get it.”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “If I’d just left, this wouldn’t have happened. This,” he repeated, gesturing towards me, “wouldn’t have happened.”

I sighed deeply. “No, don’t be sorry, Kyros,” I replied. “I don’t blame you. It’s true that if you’d done things differently… But I can see the merit in your reasoning; hells, if I were in your place, I would probably have done the same.”

Kyros didn’t say anything in reply; he just nodded gravely at my words.

We looked at each other for a long moment, then I shook myself. “In any case, where were we?”

He thought about it for a moment, then said, “You were asking me how far we were from the town.”

“Right, I did,” I nodded. “Half fourteen miles. That’s not much. I doubt the other Knights will have tried to come after us right away, they wouldn’t dare venture into the forest at night, but now it’s morning, so we need to make plans.” I looked around at the makeshift campsite: my personal belongings, the things I usually kept on me, were scattered near the fire, but there was nothing else. “We’re not doing that well on resources, even,” I commented, and held up a hand to stave off Kyros’ apology: “Don’t say you’re sorry. It was an emergency situation, you grabbed me without thinking about getting our packs, and that was the right call. But it puts us in a difficult situation.”

Kyros nodded in turn. “No clothes, no food, and no way to get some,” he said. “There’s no way we can survive out here for long.”

“Right,” I agreed. “So we’re leaving by air.”

“By air?” he said, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

“Yes. You’re going to fly away, carrying me with you. I’m sure that way we can leave the Knights behind with no trouble. Flying is much faster than walking through a dense forest, after all.”

“I’m sorry, but that plan won’t work,” Kyros replied, shaking his head.

“…Why not?” I asked.

“While I wouldn’t mind you riding me, Adrian, I simply can’t fly for long carrying that much weight.”

“Hey, I’m not that heavy!” I protested. “And I’m pretty sure I’m lighter now.”

“Your weight doesn’t matter,” Kyros said. “My wing still hasn’t healed completely; while I could very likely fly on my own, carrying anything is very difficult, and causes me pain. I told you this was as far as I could carry you, remember? This was what I meant by that.”

I looked at him for a moment, then sighed. “Alright then, new plan. You,” I pointed at him, “are going to fly away, on your own, while I am going back to Ziegental.”

Kyros blinked. “You can’t be serious,” he said.

“I am, Kyros,” I said. “I’m not joking. This is where we part ways.” I extended a hand towards him. “It’s been a pleasure and an honour meeting you.”

He looked at the hand for a moment, then back up at me, and shook his head. “No. No, I won’t do it,” he said.

It was my turn to blink. “Why not?”

“You think I can just go on, knowing that you’re probably dead? Because that’s what the Knights will do to you, Adrian. They’ll kill you.”

“You can’t know that,” I said. “Maybe they won’t. And besides, it’s not like they’re going to recognise me anyway.” I hope they won’t, anyway, I mentally added.

“Still,” Kyros said. “I won’t leave you until I’m sure you’re going to be completely safe. And that’s final.”

“Kyros–”

“That’s final, Adrian.”

I looked deep in his eyes, and saw he was serious; I hesitated a few seconds, then threw up my arms. “Fine!” I exclaimed. “Fine. Be that way. You enormous idiot. Seriously, why do you care so much about me anyway?”

He seemed taken aback; “I… Uh…” he began.

“But that means we need to move on to plan C: we’re going to Ziegental together.”

“What, do you think they’re going to just let us walk into town?” Kyros asked.

“They wouldn’t, if we were who they’re looking for,” I explained. “But they’re looking for Adrian, the Egg Knight, who is a man. Do I look like a man to you?”

I gestured down at myself, and Kyros looked at me up and down. “No, you don’t,” he said. “But what about me? They know what I look like.”

“Hm,” I said, putting my hand to my chin and looking at him critically. “Well, about that. Remember when we talked about your magic? How you can shapechange into different forms?”

“Yeah, I remember,” Kyros said. “What about it?”

-----

“This is remarkably uncomfortable,” Kyros complained yet again.

I stopped walking, and turned around to pierce him with a glare. “Will you shut up for one second? If you keep it up, we risk someone overhearing us. And we don’t want that, do we? Especially since your voice doesn’t match your current appearance.”

He hmpf-ed. “Well, you try turning into a woman after being a man all your life, Adrian,” he said; then he paused, and blinked. “Uh, I mean…”

I smirked. “Been there, done that,” I said. “Besides the initial shock, it’s not that bad. I don’t get why you’re so uncomfortable.”

“And I don’t get why you’re so comfortable,” he rebutted. “I mean, I’ve been a woman for all of two hours, and I feel like clawing my skin off; I can’t help but take notice, continuously, of just how alien this body is to me. How can you stand it?”

“I, uh…” I began; then I stopped, and thought about it. “I don’t know?” I replied honestly. “I mean, this body feels perfectly fine. Better than my old one, even; I have no idea why that is.” I shrugged. “Maybe I’m just different.”

Kyros just grunted in response.

“But you look nice,” I said. Not as good as you did as a man, but nice.

Kyros’ body was a bit slimmer than it used to be, but not by much: he had longer hair, but the most significant change was the shape, more curvy rather than straight, and the fact that he had breasts. Also, he had concentrated on his ears and teeth, and after several attempts he’d managed to turn them into a shape which looked human enough even under the closest inspection. All in all, he could easily pass for a human woman, except for two details: the only things he hadn’t managed to change were his voice and, he’d told me in an embarrassed whisper, his genitals, because he had no idea what a woman’s genitals even looked like, so there was no way he could reproduce the shape. (And I wasn’t about to show him mine, of course.)

But I could see that having to wear a woman’s skin was causing him significant distress: I was determined to resolve the situation as soon as possible, so he could change back into his usual self. We only had to hope we wouldn’t run into too much trouble, and that our plan would work.

Speaking of which…

“Quiet now,” I whispered. “I can hear them coming.”

Kyros nodded, and we resumed walking forward: we kept going for a few minutes, then stopped.

“Is someone there?” I called out in my new, bright voice. “Please! If someone’s out there…”

I heard a rustling of leaves, and Robert stepped into sight about a dozen metres in front of us. I was momentarily taken aback: while I’d expected to encounter a Knight out on patrol before we reached town, I didn’t think it would be my old friend. He was probably accompanied by another Knight, who was somewhere out of sight but within earshot, as we usually did when we went out searching for something… or someone.

This would be difficult: Robert was the one who knew me best out of all the Knights – out of everyone, probably. But on the other hand, if I could deceive him…

“Who are you?” I said, putting a tinge of fear into my voice.

Robert looked at us for a moment, then straightened up and raised his hands. “I’m sorry for startling you. I mean you no harm. My name is Robert, the Griffin Knight.”

I let my eyes go wide, and turned to Kyros. “Did you hear that, Maryam? A Knight! Thank the gods, we’re saved!”

“What do you mean?” Robert asked. “And, for that matter, who are you? what are you doing out here, dressed like…”

Our clothes were certainly giving him reason to comment: Kyros and I had ripped what items of clothing we had left after our precipitous escape, and they were barely more than rags right at that moment. And we’d taken care to cake our faces and bodies with dirt, and scratch ourselves with leaves and branches, to give the impression we’d been through an ordeal.

“I apologise for our current appearance, Sir Robert,” I said, giving a small bow. “My name is Constance, I am the daughter of a merchant family from the neighbouring country; this is my lady-in-waiting, Maryam. A few weeks ago we were making our way back to the border after conducting business here, but we were beset by bandits: they killed our escorts – oh, it was horrible! – and dragged us into the forest, and kept us captive so that they could ransom me to my family.”

Robert nodded. “Yes, we have been told that there are outlaws prowling these woods.”

“It was terrible!” I exclaimed. “We were given no clothes, and barely any food. They were brutes! Maryam even lost her speech after witnessing so many horrible things. A few days ago about half of them went out on patrol and didn’t come back, so we took that as our chance to make an attempt to escape. We were just about to drop from exhaustion, when we met you.”

Please buy this. Please, I thought.

My old friend kept looking at us for a while longer, then nodded yet again. “Fear not, my ladies. I will bring you to safety.”

I smiled widely, and embraced Kyros. “Oh, thank you, Sir Robert! Thank you!”

“Come. There is a town not far from here,” Robert continued. “We should reach it in an hour or so.” He put his fingers to his lips and whistled, and as expected, another Knight stepped out of the woods; with him following us, and Robert walking by our side, we silently made our way through the forest and out of it, and into town.

“We are lodged at the inn, my ladies,” Robert said. “I will gladly give up my room to you; and I will tell the innkeeper to draw a bath before dinner. You look like you need it.”

“Thank you, Sir Robert,” I replied with a curtsy; I certainly wouldn’t say no to that – I’d been dreaming about basking in hot water ever since I’d set out on my godsforsaken quest.

In short order we’d reached the inn, and Kyros and I had made our way into Robert’s room, which had been cleared out quite quickly. “Well,” I whispered, once we were alone. “I think that went fine.”

Kyros nodded. “It did,” he replied, also in a whisper. “I’m actually surprised we didn’t run into more trouble.”

“Let’s hope our good luck holds,” I said. “Meanwhile, I’m going to take that bath; you can have one too, later.”

Kyros nodded once again, and I was off: the inn, surprisingly, had a whole room reserved for washing, with a copper tub set beside the wall opposite the door. When I arrived it had been freshly filled with hot water, and I quickly shed my clothes before pausing.

I realised I had yet to see myself naked; I’d never liked to do that back when I was a man, but when I needed to, I just grit my teeth. Might as well see what I looked like now, right?

I looked down at myself, taking stock of my body: I was certain my height hadn’t changed, but I was probably slimmer; and I was relieved to see that all my muscles were still in place – prominent biceps and well-defined abs among them. I honestly thought I looked great, if a bit odd for a woman: there aren’t many ladies who are as fit and muscled as I was.

My curiosity satisfied, I climbed into the tub and lowered myself into the water; I basked in the warmth, relaxing my muscles, and trying to forget everything.

I was just about to fall asleep from the tiredness of the day when there was a knock at the door.

“It’s Robert,” my old friend’s voice said through the door. “Just checking on you, my lady. Don’t worry, I won’t come in. How’s the water?”

I smiled. Same old Robert, always good with women: I remembered how he was back when we’d squired together, constantly trying to put his charms onto any skirt-wearing thing within sight. He’d only toned it down (but not stopped completely) once he’d gotten married.

“It’s fine,” I replied. “Just the right temperature. Thank you, Sir Robert.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. Then I heard some shuffling, as if he had sat down on the floor on the other side of the door.

He sighed deeply.

“What in the seven hells are you doing, Adrian?”