As the sunlight filtered through the deep trees, and through several windows of the house built into  the sprawling roots of a towering mangrove, a few beams found their way through the sloppily tacked up sheet and played on Melody’s sleeping face. 

 

She let out a groan, turning over and moving her arm over her eyes. Rolling over she tried to fumble on her desk, her hand missing and rolling her off of her bed, startling her awake. A pile of blankets followed her, trapping her in a warm soft pile. 

 

Briefly she contemplated staying under there for the entire day, just closing her eyes again and sleeping through whatever mess the day would bring; it would be a mess, she thought as her memories of the previous day flooded back. 

 

What was wrong with a bit of floor time anyway? She had just wound up in another world, surely that deserved a bit of sleeping in?

 

Her body seemed to disagree with her, her stomach grumbling loudly. Melody sighed, slowly sitting up and wrapping the blankets around her shoulders. A chirp from the bed made her turn, her eyes only picking out fuzzy shapes as she fumbled on her face, trying to find her glasses. 

 

The blob in front of her moved to her shoulder, startling her before pushing something against her neck. She clumsily reached up, feeling soft feathers before Bis nudged her glasses against her fingers. 

 

“Thanks little guy.” Bis gave a happy trill as she put on her glasses, a sense of satisfaction running through her that felt strange. Bis chirped, another strange shudder of feeling sounding off in the back of her head - this time giving her a sense of curiosity. 

 

Turning her head she tried to get a good look at the bird, placing her palm right next to her shoulder. Somehow her intent went across, because Bis instantly hopped onto her hand; fluffing up feathers nd settling down. 

 

“Was that you?” Melody whispered, confusion making her blink hard, opening her eyes like it would clear whatever sleep deprived scene she had just seen. Bis responded by burrowing further down into her hands, an acknowledgment sent back to her as she started to literally feel it, a string beneath her skin, small little sparks coming from her arm, a trail that ran right down her palm and ended at Bis. 

 

Bis pecked at her hand, Melody giggling as she felt another shiver of feeling. With a small spark a blue window opened in front of her, causing her to jump slightly, the surprise echoed down what ever the connection was. 

 

“Familiar.” Melody muttered, a small smile pulling at the corner of her lips. The smile slowly devolved into a giggle, Melody tapping her fingers against the side of her legs. “Of course magic exists here. Why wouldn’t it?”

 

She held out her hand, Bis hopping onto it as she brought him up to her face. “And you are magic too aren’t you buddy?” 

 

Bis shook his good wing, the bright effect like strobe lights right in front of her glasses. Melody shut her eyes, wincing as the sports continued to dance against her eyelids. “Okay yep, yep,” she shook her head,  “I was asking for that one.” 

 

Amusement went up the new connection, Bis letting out several raspy chirps in an approximation of a chuckle. The situation sunk in, a laugh pulling the corners of her lips up. 

 

“Alright you prankster.” she mumbled, the smile still on her face, “A new morning.” She let out a long breath, the continuing sense of amusement and happiness that she was receiving settling into a comfortable background noise. 

 

Pushing herself up she readjusted the blankets around her shoulders. She was never a morning person, often dragging her several layers of blankets around the dorm room until they were all eventually cast off. 

 

There wasn’t a chill in the air here in the house, and if she thought about it - with the limited brainpower she had upon just waking - the entire time that she was here it felt roughly the same mild temperature. 

 

She stumbled through the fabric hanging that separated the little sleeping area from the rest of the house? hut? She really needed to figure out what to call this place. 

 

In the morning light the place looked much more dusty than the quick look from yesterday, motes floating in the air and dust hanging off of any surface that it could cling to. She wandered over to one of the benches, running a finger along it. 

 

Dust came up with her finger, but even more stuck to the small ridges in the wood, her small swipe making a barely visible dent in the layers of dust. 

 

“How long has this place been abandoned?” she walked along the bench, her fingers pulling back from several glass vials. Some were still upright in their holders, others had rolled across the desk, leaving trails of solidified liquid, burns, and different colors that marred the surface. There were crates under the bench, all of them filled with supplies or collections of full vials. 

 

Scooting one of them out with her foot she was greeted with the sight of jumbled glassware, vials and cups and beakers all mixed together; some of them were full, various colored liquids sloshing around with the movement, stopped by crudely cut cork stoppers. 

 

Bis awkwardly fluttered to the crude window, fluffing up his feathers and chirping happily. Melody moved over, putting aside the mess and looking outside. The branches from the tree above dipped low, some almost scraping the ground. The leaves were a bright jade green, in fact the entire outside view seemed to be much brighter; the saturation of the colors just highlighting how different it was from the bleak colors she was used to seeing outside of her dorm window. 

 

The direction she came from was a wall of thick hedges and tangled together vines, forming a wall that started to curve away out of sight. Next to that was a worn dirt path, slightly overgrown as red grass started to creep its way onto the dirt. More swamp stretched out from there, the mangrove trees even larger than the first spot she had arrived, branches dragging on the ground - quite alike the tree hut she found herself in. 

 

Tearing herself away from the sight she continued her slow search of the house. It only took a couple of minutes of slow investigation for her to circle back to the small sleeping alcove. With the light streaming into the room the small area looked much barer. 

 

Outside of the large bed and a few stacks of books there was nothing else in the room; the walls were blank, the floor was coated in a thin layer of dust, and the small indent that Melody assumed was a closet was empty. 

 

She flopped back onto the bed, burying herself back into soft warmth. 

 

“What am I going to do?” She groaned into her blankets, feeling a mounting pressure build before her eyes. As she tried to breath, focusing in on her body, she felt a familiar headache pulse against the front of her head. 

 

The headache was apparently enough for the rest of her body to immediately make itself known, her stomach gave a loud grumble as she rolled over onto her back.  

 

“Right, food and water. Basic necessities.” 

 

Eventually pulling herself up, Melody cleared her throat, thinking about her purse and the blue inventory screen from the day before. “Uh, inventory?” The words came out more like a question as the blue screen flickered to light in front of her. She let out a sigh of relief at its appearance, taking it in once again.

 

 

Hesitantly tapping the screen she watched as her purse materialized in her lap, bright yellow sparks falling off of it. Rifling through it she pulled out the last of the snacks that she had bought and an energy drink, throwing them off to the side for later. 

 

There wasn’t much left in the bag, just a few bottles of her prescriptions (also pulled out and put off to the side), a few loose charging wires, pens, and some loose bills. 

 

“Okay,” she muttered, spreading everything out on the bed. “Enough food for a meal, and we can fix the water, we’re in a swamp.” Her words attracted Bis, the little bird perching on her shoulder. She absentmindedly reached up to scratch his chin, the sensation helping to ground her. 

 

“I have enough hormones for three months, six if I ration.” She immediately tried to wipe the last idea from her mind, the thought of slowing down her meds causing her headache to get even worse. Mechanically she took her blockers, turning around the box for her injections in her hands. She sighed, made a small mark on the box and tossed it back onto the bed. 

 

She breathed evenly, trying to remember all of the different anxiety advice that she had read on-line. “Find a problem that you can fix.” She mumbled to herself. 

 

Food was out, water was solved, medicine was a future Melody problem. She could sort through the mess of stuff left behind by the previous occupant, that could help distract her for at least a little bit. There were plenty of scattered glass bottles that she could try to sort through, a whole bed to scavenge comfy blankets from, no one around for who knows how far…

 

A slight metallic ping distracted her from her thoughts, her eyes pulled to Bis, the small bird pecking at the energy drink. “I don’t think that is safe for you buddy.” She chuckled, some of the stress dissipating from her shoulders. The chuckles grew to into a fit of giggles as she thought of what caffeine would do to the tiny bird. 

 

Bis for his part looked as affronted as a bird could be, puffing up his feathers as he hopped indignantly on the bed. Melody could only smile, cracking open one of the snacks crumbling a pop-tart in front of him. 

 

Immediately his feathers deflated as he tore into the crumbs, a faint sense of satisfaction leaking through the connection that they had. 

 

“I’ll just get rid of this.” Melody vaguely gestured with the energy drink, scrunching up her face in concentration. “Inventory.” A blue screen popped up, Melody squinting before trying to put the can through the screen. Sparks gently tingled against her skin but her hand passed right through. 

 

“Uh,” She shook the can around, “Put away? Store?” The last order took, the can and the blue screen melting into more sparks. Grinning she cracked her knuckles, only slightly wincing at the sound, as she turned back to the mess of blankets and strewn pages in the small room. 

 

Melody turned her head to look into the bigger main room, her eyes picking out several more of the crates alike the one she had scooted out. “One step at a time.” Melody muttered to herself as she grabbed a few papers off of the ground. 

 

She could at least learn a bit more about the houses owner; did they plan on coming back? Was this place abandoned? Was the surrounding area dangerous for some reason?

 

The first couple pages seemed to just be a long list of scribbles, but the longer that she looked  at them the more they started to blend together into legible sentences. She grabbed more of the pages, the words this time easy to read, even though if she squinted she could barely see the original scrawling writings.

 

“The translator skill.” she whispered, putting together the strange double writing with the skill she had seen the day before. Grabbing more pages she spread them out, the words easily coming to her as she scanned the pages. 

 

They were recipes, directions for creating a variety of potions. Her head turned towards the crate of vials and bottles, the pieces clicking together. Reaching for another piece of the paper she grabbed a corner of one of the buried blankets, upsetting the entire pile as it unraveled on top of her. 

 

Burrowing her way out of the new pile she pushed aside blankets and papers, her hands running into something with a rougher texture - almost corduroy-ish. Pulling the last blanket from over her face she freed the object and almost rolled her eyes. 

 

It was a large, comically floppy, blue witch hat. “Someone liked their tropes.” Melody let out a chuckle, “Potions, wood hut in a swamp, classic floppy hat,” She put on the hat, adjusting it slightly so it didn’t come down over her eyes, “We have a witch on our hands.” 

 

A soft buzzing came from in front of her as words started to scroll across the floating blue screen.

 

 

“Holy shit.” Melody scrambled up, starting to pace across the floor as the screen followed her. “Of course there would be classes. It was on the screen yesterday, this is a world with magic. I apparently have a bird that decided to hang out with me, and that lets me be magical.” 

 

Her eyes turned to Bis, the small shimmering bird cocking his head at her. “Okay that is kinda validating, very princessy, befriend woodland animals…” Melody’s voice trailed off into mumbles, turning the rest of the conditions around in her mind. 

 

Obviously there was something to do with cliches - the last two almost confirmed that. A part of her was relieved - some of her knowledge could actually find use here. But that left the potions. 

 

The papers could count, obviously they were instructions and she would bet anything that if she went through the boxes she could match them up fairly easily. Could anything else count?

 

Something at the back of her mind told her that she was onto something. “Potions cause effects,” Melody flopped back on the bed, Bis hopping up to sit on her shoulder with a small encouraging chirp. 

“Like healing, or mana, or,” She waved her hands around vaguely, “Just medicine. We can do that, we do that all of the time.” 

 

She started snapping, the rhythmic noise helping her clear her thoughts. Potions as medicine. Her stranded state. The medicine burning a metaphorical hole in her purse. 

 

“I really do hope that gender change potions are a thing here.” She said, mentally selecting yes. The screen disappeared, prompting a splitting pain that crawled down her spine. She choked on air as the sensation wormed through her body, sitting up suddenly. 

 

Looking down at her hands she watched as light shone through her skin, branching off and seeming to follow her veins. Trying to block out the ache she grabbed a handful of papers, rapidly scanning through them and tossing some aside. 

 

She threw the rest away as she found one that mentioned healing, staggering to her feet as the description swam before her eyes. “Bright green, bright green potion.” She muttered, only able to take a few steps before falling sideways into the door way. 

 

Fluttering past her Bis dove into one of the crates, Melody smiling through the pain. Bis returned quickly, a vial clutched in his claws. dropping the vial into her hands he pushed his head against her fingers, curling them around the glass. 

 

“Thanks bud.” She fumbled the cork off, lifting the vial to her lips. “Let’s hope there is no expiration date.” Melody tipped it down her throat, bracing herself for any reactions. 

 

Surprisingly the potion had no taste. As soon as it hit the back of her throat a wave of numbness passed through her body, the sense of pain quickly receding. Staggering back to the bed she collapsed in relief, trying to even out her breathing. 

 

It felt like hours had passed before the numbness receded, leaving only light tingling as she started flexing her fingers again. 

 

 

Melody waved her hand through the message, dismissing it with a huff. “That better have been worth it.” She scooted back, resting her back against the wall and pulling a blanket over her legs. 

 

Bis chattered happily, spreading out his good wing. A thin opaque barrier formed in front of it, winking out after a second. He was clearly excited, immediately hopping around the bed and casting the thin shield over and over again. 

 

Melody had to strain to hold back a grin, the urge to immediately start practicing magic welling up inside of her. Already she could feel the new veins - she had no real other word for them - pulsing as the potion wore off. It was pleasant, a sort of warmth that made her feel like she was wrapped up in a weighted blanket. 

 

Looking around she could see a slight brightness coming from the crates visible from the bed, a similar brightness leaking out from the cracks of her purse. “Alright,” she pulled her purse and some papers closer to her, tapping her fingers on the top of the purse, “Time to figure out how this works.”