As Cody was casting the spell, he concentrated on the space they should be teleported to. In this case, the soft bed in his room.

Once again, he couldn’t help being impressed at how much bang for his buck he got out of the short incantation. Not only did it transform the person, it also transported both the caster and the target to a safe space for the aftermath to take place. All that in just four short words.

And so the firm ground he was standing on was soon replaced by the softness of his bed in a bright flash of light. Of course, that was the goal, but the sensation of the ground suddenly giving out under him and his feet sinking into the mattress was very disorienting.

So disorienting, in fact, that he quickly lost his balance and went tumbling backwards off the bed. Thankfully, it wasn’t very painful, but that moment of helplessness wasn’t something he’d ever want to revisit.

Rubbing the back of his head, he slowly lifted himself back up. His friend was already sitting when they got transported, so it was no surprise to see him peacefully lying on the bed.

Except the person lying on the bed wasn’t his friend. Well, no, that wasn’t right. It had to be him, no doubt about that. And yet he looked so different. He’d anticipated some changes, but this was a lot more than just some minor adjustments.

Cody took a deep breath, trying to comprehend what he was seeing. He decided to start with the similarities, since there were so few of them. The hair looked to be about the same length as before, still being about neck-length, though he could tell that wasn’t exactly accurate. Where before it’d been brown and straight, now it was white and incredibly curly. If it were to be straightened out, it’d probably be about twice as long.

And, well, aside from the obviously unchanged clothes, those were all the familiarities he could see at the moment. It was like a whole new person was lying in front of him, and he was once again blown away by how quickly this had all happened.

His friend now had white, curly hair, and the eyebrows were the same color. The face itself was, well, softer, for lack of a better word. He could still recognize some features, like the shape of the nose and the thick eyebrows (although they were now very much white, a fact he was still getting used to).

But so many of the sharper edges were gone now. The lips looked a little bit fuller, the cheeks a little bit softer. And he hated himself for noticing that, for picking out these details. He felt like a creep. Even so, he couldn’t take his eyes off his friend. He was enamored by all these little changes, the fact that the magic so perfectly shaped the face.

And he knew he’d been beating around the bush. Looking further down the body, there were two things that became apparent. For one, the sheep parts. From the forehead, two small horns were growing, bending outwards. Additionally, from what he could see, the arms and lower legs were covered in fluffy wool—that was all he could see, every other part of the body was obscured by the T-shirt and shorts his friend was wearing. But well, that was to be expected, to some extent.

The other part was that his friend now looked undeniably feminine. From the smooth face to the smaller stature to the curves and hips evident even under the now very loose clothing.

Of course, Cody knew what this meant. After the spell deconstructs the bodies, a new body is constructed subconsciously by one’s mind. Basically, it was reconstructed to be the most comfortable form, the body melding itself to fit the person inhabiting it. And for most people, not much would change. The only way major changes would happen was if your body was misaligned with who you were.

And, well, major changes did happen in this way. And said changes involved the gender this body was presenting as. Will was likely… well, using that name felt bad now. Was that her deadname? Was “her” even accurate here? Maybe his friend was nonbinary, or maybe they were just an effeminate guy.

It was impossible to tell without asking them, and at the moment they were fast asleep.

Cody tried his best to get some rest on the mattress, attempting to pass the time somehow. This whole thing was so innately fascinating to him. The fact that such a blessing had been bestowed upon his friend. Seeing the effects of the spell, he wished he could’ve tried it out on himself.

Occasionally, raw exhaustion would cause him to pass out for a while, only for him to dart awake a short while later.

It wasn’t a great cycle to be in. The dreams were short and awkward, picturing him in his friend’s position. And being awake wasn’t much better; he kept racking his mind over why he was so interested in all this. He continually stole glances at his sleeping friend, and he felt like the biggest pervert ever, ogling someone like that. He just wanted to act like a normal person for once.

* * *

Considering that Fionna had practically passed out with her back to a wall and sitting on dirt, the soft sensation of a bed as she drifted awake was incredibly surprising in a pleasant way. She should’ve expected that, of course; Cody had explained how the spell would teleport both the user and the familiar to a spot of the user’s choosing.

Slowly coming to her senses, feeling the sensation of her body, she noticed something. Or rather, she didn’t notice something. That “something” being the constant wrongness she’d always felt. The misaligned proportions, the wide shoulders, the flat chest, all those things that shouldn’t be there weren’t there.

Except, well, they also should’ve been there. After all, that’s how she’d fallen  asleep. Masculine body and all. And yet, even by merely existing, by being aware of her body, she could tell that those aspects were all gone. She swore she could even feel the lack of testosterone, though that was probably only her imagination.

After the initial wave of euphoria, Fionna began noticing other aspects, too. Feeling something reminiscent of her former hairy arms, she was initially about to panic before she noticed it was a nice layer of wool covering her limbs. Body hair had always disgusted her, but this felt different. It was like constantly wearing a sweater, it was soft and good.

Sitting up straight, she noticed how ill-fitting her T-shirt now was, too loose in most spaces but too tight around the chest. Her chest.

Immediately, she hugged herself and the wool was the softest thing she’d felt in her life and it was so good. She didn’t know how, but this spell had given her all she’d ever wanted.

Trying to check out her hair that now felt quite a bit heavier, she noticed horns getting in her way. Her horns.

They grew out of her forehead, growing to each side for a little bit, and it felt really weird to touch them. She knew they were hers, but when touching them, she felt nothing. Which made sense, of course, but it was so odd having such a large part of her body she couldn’t feel.

Fionna took a deep breath, being pretty sure she’d taken inventory of all that had changed. She was certain there were more subtle changes, too—she definitely felt shorter, for instance—but when everything suddenly felt right it was difficult to remember how things used to be when they’d been wrong.

On the mattress to her side she heard some movements. That was when she remembered that Cody had been involved in all that, too. She looked down at his obviously shallow sleep. She didn’t really want to wake him up, but she also wanted to know how this all had happened. Not that she minded, of course.

In the end, her desire for knowledge won out. She justified it to herself by arguing that he didn’t seem to be having a good time while sleeping, if all the groans were any indication.

With that, Fionna hopped off the bed, finally getting a taste of what it was like to stand on her new, fluffy legs. In short, it felt great. Like an imbalance she had always felt had finally been lifted, and now she could finally be fully herself.

Fionna went over to the mattress and carefully shook Cody awake. She’d expected some resistance, but her friend was fully awake after just a second.

“Wh—wha—whuh—” After some reorienting himself, he stared her in the eyes, fully awake. “Ah, Will. Er, wait, should I call you something else?”

A lot of built-up tension was released in that single moment. She’d been prepared to have to prove her identity—both that of being Cody’s friend and being, well, her. She gently smiled at him. “Ah, yeah, I’m Fionna. Hi.”

Her friend seemed taken aback by the quick answer. “Huh, I wouldn’t have expected that you’d have a name picked out for that, too.”

Fionna looked at him quizzically. “Erm, yeah, duh, I’m trans. Sorry I never told you, I was just… afraid of my parents’ control over me.” She sat down on the bed and sighed. “Though I guess there’s no hiding it now. Do you have any idea how this happened?”

Now Cody looked very confused. “Erm, yeah, well, you get, like, your most comfortable body after this. So if you’re trans, it makes sense that this happened.”

That was a lot to take in. So they just had this optimal transition package ready to go and never bothered to release it publically or something? This could be useful to so many people!

Before she could ask away, Cody interrupted her. “But like, you know, I think it’s pretty cool that this, like, happened to you.”

She let herself fall back on the bed, staring at the ceiling, looking at her hands. They felt so much more like hers now, like something she always should’ve had. “Yeah. Like, I expected you to have some kind of HRT. Why isn’t this just used on everybody? Or at least, like, people willing to go through those changes?”

Cody sighed. “Well, I can only speak for myself, but literally the only spell I know of that does such a thing is the familiar spell. And that one’s strictly one-use as you might know.” He felt a little sting as he said that. Why was he so sad about the one charge being used up now?

Not satisfied with that answer, Fionna continued. “But that’s just stupid gatekeeping! Even just changing one’s body to the ‘ideal form’ would be such a huge boon to so many people!” She grew frustrated at Cody, even though she knew he wasn’t to blame. She sat back up and looked at her friend. “I’m sorry, this is just something really upsetting to me. I shouldn’t be blowing up at you like this.”

And thus, the two sat in awkward silence, Fionna still blaming herself for jeopardizing the conversation. Especially since her friend had been a good ally throughout the conversation.

Eventually, Cody broke the ice. “So… how’d it feel? Like… y’know. The transformation.”

Fionna started absentmindedly playing with her curls. “Well, it was mostly just me passing out and then waking up like this.” She looked at him intently. “Why’d you ask?”

Cody awkwardly looked aside and began stumbling out an answer. “I-I’d just like to… Ever since I saw you like this I was just… wondering… no, just, c-considering, I-I mean wishing that, like, something like this happened to me? Like, I’d just wake up being… different. Not me.” He let out a long groan. “No, well, still me, but, like what happened to you, y’know? I know you’re still W—I mean, the same person as before.”

In response, Fionna raised an eyebrow, wondering if this meant what she thought it did. “When you say ‘different’, what exactly do you have in mind?”

Cody tried his best to hide his face in his hoodie. “I mean, I dunno, just… something different. This is probably super weird, but just, what happened to you seems cool? Like, just becoming a girl.” He quickly covered his mouth. “Not that I think you weren’t a girl before! It’s just, I think that’d be fun? Though I don’t have dysphoria, so it's not like a girl would be my most comfortable form, hehe.”

Fionna tried her best to comprehend the mess that she’d just heard. That definitely sounded like something she would’ve said before she hatched. As such, she asked him just one question to confirm her suspicions. “Do you wanna be a girl?”