As Danu held her shattered child Andrew, a small bed of vines and flowers was growing out of the forest floor.   She laid him on the bed, and looked at his wounds - they were bad, but not fatal.  He would live - but his body needed massive help to stand up to the rigors of what would come.   Oh, son... you’ve let yourself go for too long.  What will I do with you?  Danu asked herself.   She sat next to her son, and delved into his mind, trying to see within.   She wanted her gift to be perfect, but there was so much pain and confusion it was hard to tell anything.  She had to look deeper, to see what Andrew truly wanted.   He palm touched her injured son’s brow, and she began to concentrate.

 

*              *              *

 

Meanwhile, Andrew was lost in a fog of blackness - images from his memory flitted before him - memories of what he always called before - before he was Andrew.   He didn’t talk about it much, but Andrew had always believed he had existed as a spirit, before he was incarnated as Andrew.  He knew it weirded some people out, talking about it - which is why it didn’t come up often in conversations.  For most of his life, he felt trapped in his shell - his body - and for a large part of his life simply wanted to go home, which for most people meant die.   Now, after meeting and falling in love with Stephanie, he knew that was wrong - but he still knew his shell was broken, not meant for him.   He had given up.

 

Now, on the cusp of surviving his quest, hovering on the brink of life and death, on the brink of going home, Andrew realized he didn’t want to die...  Life was good, and getting better.  There’s hope, dammit.  I’ve got the sprites!  I’ve got Stephanie!  And I’ll be damned if I leave her alone with just Billy for company!   I mean, I’ve made mistakes - lots of them - but most of them can be fixed, if I try hard enough.  Andrew stood up - he hadn’t realized he was prone - and looked about.  

 

It was grey and misty in an area around him - with darker grey mist the further away from him you went.  He was dressed in what clothes he had when the wolf Greyfang attacked him, and looked much like he did during the fight as well.   He didn’t have any wounds - and he didn’t feel any pain.   “Am I dead?”  Andrew wondered out loud.  “Or am I just dreaming?”

 

“You’re dreaming.”  A female voice called out. 

 

What?!  Andrew thought.  “Who are you?”  He asked.  “I must be dreaming.  I must.”

 

A short but attractive woman emerged from the mists.  She was about 5ft 4 inches, with long black hair and blue eyes.  She was young - about twenty - and was lithe and fast, seductive, sexy and pretty... everything Andrew wished he could be.  Maybe that’s why she’d been the model for his favorite characters in videogames and RPGs for years.  Alley.  A few small costume changes and she’d be the spitting image of Catwoman, at least how he imagined her.

 

The woman laughed, and confirmed his guess.  “As if you didn’t know.  I’m Alley, silly.”   Alley walked up to him, and around him, as if surveying the damage he’d done to his shell.   “You could have taken better care of yourself, you know.”

 

Andrew looked ashamed for a few moments.  “Yeah, I could’ve.”  He admitted.   “How are we talking – aren’t you in my head?”

 

“Don’t you mean aren’t we in your head?   I’m part of you stupid - the part that wants to cut loose and have fun.  The part you wished you could be - if you weren’t sick, fat, hurt, scared, and wrong.  I mean, it wasn’t an accident you were so understanding when Keith told you he wanted to transition - you just didn’t have the guts to admit it too, and it made you ashamed that you didn’t have the guts.  Admittedly, you’re not as unhappy as a male as he was - like you always say our body is a shell...  But if you could have any shell, what kind of shell would you prefer - yours... or mine?”

 

“I’m not sure I’d want to be a girl.”  Andrew said.   “It’s not like I’ve got the option anyway.”

 

“Maybe not - but that might change - after all, you survived.  Aren’t you supposed to get powers now, according to our awesome little tree-sprites?   Maybe you can change.”  Alley said.  “And after all, it’s not like you want to be a guy either.  You don’t care about that - what you care about is how people treat you and how you can act with them.”

 

Andrew nodded sadly.  Alley - or his dream - was right.  He wanted to be flirty, and funny, to be thought attractive and special - and to have the courage to not give a single damn about what people thought of him - or her - and to live life to the fullest every day instead of climbing into himself and trying to hide.   Everything else didn’t matter - except Stephanie.   I know one thing, Andrew thought.  No matter what happens, if I don’t have Stephanie in my life, then my life won’t be worth living.   It wouldn’t matter who I was – she’s part of my heart and soul. 

 

Alley smiled at her male doppleganger, Andrew.  “You know you don’t have to be me to be those things silly?  You can be all that and be yourself, as long as you lose weight and get your wounds healed, right?   Why associate that stuff with me?”

 

“I don’t know - I just do.  Maybe it’s more like I associate everything I hate about myself with me, Andrew - and you’re my ideal.   I know it’s silly - and I know I could be all that you are or have, I guess, if I tried - I just have this mental block.  I’ve spent so long without hope, stuck like this, that I can’t see how I ever could be those things - so the only way to get them is to stop being me, right?”

 

Alley sighed.  “You’ll still be you, though.  Your problems won’t magically disappear.”

 

“I know.”  Andrew said.  “And I’d have a host of totally new problems too.   But now that I think of it, I’m kinda tired of Andrews’s problems...  I tried them and they really, really sucked.  It might be nice to try Alleys problems for a while, if it was an option.”

 

“What about Stephanie?  Do you think she would understand?’  Alley asked.

 

“I... I don’t know.  I’d like to think so.  I like to think if anyone could understand, she would.  I don’t know.”   Andrew looked tired.  “I don’t feel well, Alley.”

 

Alley came over, and held Andrew up.  “You’ve lost a lot of blood - were probably about to pass out completely.  Maybe you should sit down?”   Andrew nodded and Alley helped sit him down.

 

“Hey Alley, can I ask you something?”  Andrew said, as the fatigue washing over him began to overtake him.

 

“Sure, Roo.  What?”  Alley said, smirking.

 

“What did you think of that fight with Grayfang?  I did it, didn’t I?  I did - not you.”

 

“You sure as hell did, Roo. That was all you.  I think I could have done it too - but you’re the one that did it first.  Frankly, you should remember that Roo.  You might want to make a list one day of all the things Andrew did or could do that I couldn’t.  You might be surprised.  You put yourself down way too much.”

 

“Thanks, Alley.  You were always smarter and braver than I was.”  Andrew said, drifting off.  “I’ll try and remember your advice, when I wake up.”  And like that, Andrew drifted off to blackness and unconsciousness.

 

*              *              *

 

Danu released her sons brow, and smiled. My son is so confused, she thought.  Perhaps granting him his wish would be a good lesson for him?  Maybe it will teach him something about himself, so he can see he has worth, no matter which skin he wears?    She stood, and conjured a flask of the purest of waters, and sprinkled one...two...three drops onto Andrews sleeping body, which began to heal - and change.  As her spell began to work its magic, Danu turned back to Andrew’s friends - Stephanie and Billy.  When Danu left Andrew behind, his sprites took up a defensive ring around him, and although they watched his transformation with awe, they watched in silence.

 

Even as the torn and bleeding flesh of Andrews body began to knit together as Danu’s magic vial began to work upon it, it wrought other changes as well.   His flesh was sublimating in parts to a fine, colored mist - and what was left was reshaping slowly but surely to another appearance.   His bulk slowly diminished, shrinking from a heavy 5'9" to a light 5'4", and his hair started to both grow and darken in hue.  His doughy facial features smoothed and became more and more sleek, and the ragged stubble he seemed to prefer withered away and was gone, leaving smooth, flawless skin.

 

The rest of Andrew didn’t escape without alteration, either.  His body rippled much like the water droplets that were changing him, and with each crossing and recrossing, his grosser features were smoothed out, made finer and softer.   His legs and arms became long and slender, and his torso began to develop curves, and what could only be described as a woman’s breasts.   At last, the spells purpose seemed to be spent - where once had laid Andrew Kincaid, a heavyset man in his mid thirties, was a young woman of about twenty years or so in age.   She looked sultry, attractive - maybe even beautiful - with deep blue eyes that seemed to smoulder.   The newly made woman had lost about two thirds of her mass - and was surrounded by a mist of colored smoke - all that remained of the physicality of the person she had once been.  The smoke that had once been Andrew blew away on the evening breeze, leaving her alone with the sprites... 

 

 

Meanwhile, Danu smiled sadly at the slain Einherjar, and his mistress.   He is beyond my help - but she is not.  She thought.  She raised her enchanted flask, and poured one drop of liquid onto the unconscious woman at her feet.   I could help her with her wish, but it’s not my place.  She thought.  She will survive relatively unscathed - that will have to be enough.  

 

Now that Stephanie had been dealt with, the Tuathan Goddess turned back to her son.   Andrews’ transformation had continued, and now he was the spitting image of Alley from his mind’s eye.  Danu could tell Andrew - no, Alexandra’s ichor was fully activated too, and she would wake momentarily.   She began to arrange the gifts she had brought her child, taking acorns out of her pouch one by one, and planting them.   Moments later, the gifts she had desired burst forth - a ring, a necklace, and a jacket.

 

These should do well by her, no matter how she ends up.  Danu thought.  They will be enough.  She turned to Alley and whispered “Wake up, my daughter.”

 

Andrew slowly came back to consciousness.   He didn’t feel quite right - there was something in his face - long black hair - and he felt off balance... something heavy was on his chest.   He didn’t feel hurt either - like his wounds had been washed away.  “Wow. What happened?”  He said - and immediately knew something was wrong!  His voice was way too high, too feminine.  My voice!  He thought.  What happened to my voice?   He sat up with a hurry, long black hair cascading over his eyes, blinding him.  “What the hell is going on?!”

 

“Alexandra.”  Her mother said, quietly - yet with such force that the entire forest seemed to pause, waiting for what Danu had to say next.   “I have made you into Alexandra - as a present, and as a lesson - so that you realize one day that Andrew was not without his own triumphs and victories - even if they were different and perhaps somewhat less than Alleys.”

 

“Wha... you did what?”   Even now, Andrews’ brain was racing to catch up with what had happened.  She turned me into Alley?  How does she even know about that?   Duh!  She’s a freaking goddess - she can probably read my mind.   Then it dawned on him what Danu had done.   She’d made the impossible, true.   Andrew was gone forever - she was free to be whatever she wanted, finally.   Alley/Andrew just brushed the hair out of her face, and smiled so wide the sprites thought she’d split her face in half.   “Thanks mom.”  She said.   “I’m not sure if I’m ready for this - but I’ll do my best.”

 

“I know you will, daughter.   But you will be facing many trials in the future.  I trust your guides have taught you about the war against the titans and their spawn?”

 

“Yes, ma’am.  They have more to teach, but I know the basics.”  Alley/Andrew answered.

 

“Good.  What it means is that you and Stephanie will be in near constant danger - so I have some gifts for you to make your trials easier.  Your pouch, with which you control and summon your beloved tree-sprites now has the power to control and shape the world of plants and vegetation.  They can teach you how to use it to cast all manner of nature magics.”

 

Alley/Andrew nodded, and Danu continued, showing Alley the ring she had conjured.  The ring looked like it was made of woven thorns if the thorns were made of purest silver.   It was smooth on the inside and out and comfortable to wear, but gave the illusion of being prickly and perhaps painful to touch in haste.  “This ring will allow you to summon a weapon - a dagger or a spear of iron-hard wood, which will strike as a weapon would - and then rot into mulch.   Mulch your little tree-sprites and other plants might find rather tasty and nutritious, I don’t mind saying.”

 

Danu then proffered a Celtic knotwork directional pendant - a Celtic knot with beautiful sapphire in the center - and a light pastel blue windbreaker - one of the higher end ones of sturdy construction.  “And the last gifts I have for you are these - my pendant, Danu’s Eye, which like the bag of seeds will allow you to channel the power of earth and water magics - and allow me to keep my eye on you when I can spare the time.  I also have for you a jacket, which I hope will keep you safe.  It protects you from damage, like one of those vests the policemen wear, and it can become any garment, even while you wear it.”

 

“Ummm... Wow!”  Was all Alley/Andrew could say.  My mom the goddess is giving me magical treasures and all I can say is wow?  What the hell is wrong with me? She thought.

 

Danu smiled.  It was obvious to her that Alley was still processing everything that happened.  “You have done me and yourself proud, child.  You are my child - whether you be a son or daughter - and I am proud of you, but I expect you to take better care of yourself this time.   No more going back to what you were.   The sprites can teach you how to use your powers, daughter - so heed their advice well.  Go forth, and do as you wish - be a heroine and remember to help others when you can - but have fun too.  Be happy.”

 

Danu stood, and nodded to the sprites.  “You have done well, little ones.  Teach her well, and you will be rewarded.   Keep her alive for me, if you can.  She holds much promise.”

 

Thorn knelt and answered gravely “Yes, Milady, we will.  Thank you.”

 

“One more thing, my daughter.”  Danu said, smirking.   “You might need some new clothes.”  With that, Danu turned and walked over to a large tree, and touched its trunk.  She shimmered, and was gone.

 

Alley/Andrew looked down at herself, and laughed.  The clothes she had come to the woods with as Andrew hung off her like giant sacks... if she stood up, her pants would have fallen around her ankles - she could now fit two, maybe three of her within its large waistband - and the shirt she wore was like a gigantic baggy dress covered in blood.   “Ick. Gross!  I’m going to need new stuff.   I have no idea what I need - and weirdly, that’s totally fine with me.   I guess I’ll get used to it soon enough.”

 

“Mistress?”  A shy tiny voice asked.  It was Thistle.

 

“Um... yes, Thistle?”  Alley/Andrew answered.

 

“You need to change, mistress, and you need to collect your relics, now.  Never leave them lying around - nor let them far from you if you have a choice.  They are your birthrights, and your connection to your mother.  They are part of you, which means they can be used against you, if you lose them or they’re stolen.”

 

Alley/Andrew... no...  there was no Andrew.  Just Alley.  Alley realized that Thistle was right - the gifts her mother had left were too valuable to be left lying in the dirt.  She gathered them up, and put on the ring and pendant - and could immediately feel the energy pouring into her from them.  She stripped out of her bloody shirt, and put on the magical windbreaker, willing it to be comfy clothes - and moments later she was wearing a pastel blue track suit.  She gathered up her fallen pants, and took the belt on which the pouch of seeds, and her hunting knife hung and looped it over her shoulder.   There was nothing she could do about Andrews old shoes not fitting, however - so it would be a cold hard walk home in sock feet when they left the forest.  

 

“Is Stephanie okay?”  Alley asked, looking at Billy’s dead body.  Billy was pale, and all life had left his dead, staring eyes.  It made her feel ill and queasy, and she looked away.   He didn’t deserve that, she thought.

 

“Yes, Mistress.”  Rose said, hovering near Stephanie.  “Your mother, Danu, healed her with a vial of magical water.”

 

Alley sighed in relief, and came over to see for herself.  Stephanie was breathing, and her leg was fine, even though her jeans were bloody and torn.  She knelt and held her lovers hand.  I hope she doesn’t freak out when she wakes up.  Alley thought.  I’ll have a hell of a lot of explaining to do, wont I?  

 

The sprites came, and hovered around their new mistress.  “I for one,” said Thorn, “Am glad to see you alive, Mistress Alexandra.”  The other sprites chimed in with aye all around.

 

“I think you’re pretty, too, ma’am.”  Petal said, shyly.  “Are you okay like that?”

 

Alley thought a bit.  “Yeah, I am guys. I guess I am.  Call me Alley for now, okay?”

 

“Sure thing, mistress!”  The sprites answered as a group.  “Mistress Alley it is!”

 

Alley turned back to Stephanie - she could feel her shifting and moving, like she was about to wake up.  “She’s waking up.  Help me explain what happened to her, okay?”

 

Alley held Stephanie for several minutes before she woke in her arms...