The door to our old room had been decorated since we’d left, the nas of everyone painted onto it with different colours to create a rainbow. My na was there too, along with the words “Rest in peace, we miss you Eli.” I felt my heart clench at the sight, and suddenly tears were collecting at the corners of my eyes.
“Fuck,” I squeaked, coming to a halt as I stared at it — trying desperately to control myself.
“That’s… new,” Grace murmured, pulling against her side.
I felt Adam’s hand co down on my shoulder and give it a squeeze, “Yeah. Wasn’t there when we left. We got your back though Ryn, it’ll be fine.”
“Thanks,” I sniffled, playing with the lapels of my coat as I took so deep breaths in an attempt to steady myself. I don’t know why that had hit as hard as it did. Maybe it was the way they had obviously cared about , despite thinking I was gone.
“We ready to go in?” Grace asked, giving a gentle, loving look. Her eyes were so green — a vibrant grey green with flecks of brown and blue within. I loved her eyes.
Grabbing her by the back of the head, I pulled her in and kissed her. It was a hard kiss, fierce and passionate as I attempted to drown out the roiling anxiety filling gut.
Parting from her with a gasp, I gave her a grin I definitely didn’t feel and nodded, “Yeah.”
With that, Adam went first, opening the door and stepping through to hold it for us. Kit hovered behind us, the only one here who wasn’t part of our original group. She was going to get included whether she liked it or not, though.
“Hello?” Adam called. “Anyone ho?”
“Adam!” A flying bundle of dark erald hair flew at the tall dude, wrapping shorter arms around him with a giddy laugh. lody grinned up at him, her chin probably painfully sticking into his chest. She looked the sa as ever, plus a few inches of brown at the roots of her hair. I guess dark green hair dye was in short supply now.
“I can’t believe you’re here, that you’re even alive!” she exclaid, then growled. “And what the hell took you all so long, you were ant to be out for like, a few months, not half a year! We were so worried, I swear—” she blinked, her eyes finally landing on Kit and . I guess we were the two shortest mbers of the group. She smiled and let Adam go, a blush filling out her cheeks. “New people, hey… I swear I’m normal.”
I laughed, the happiness at seeing her alive and thriving outweighing my anxiety for a mont. “Hey lody,” I said with a tentative smile.
“Wow— I an… Hello, nice to et you…” she said, her eyes roaming all over my face, then they dove bashfully to the floor before moving on to Kit. “You too. Nice to et both of you.”p
Grace and I exchanged a look, but didn’t otherwise comnt. We could get to my identity later. For now, we moved into the room and found the other three. Kelsey sat on a worn sofa, legs crossed and long blonde hair up in a bun on the top of her head. She gave Grace and Adam a huge smile, waving to both of them and offering greetings.
Duncan went straight to Adam and pulled him into a bro hug that looked almost painful in its intensity. I did not miss that type of thing at all.
Then there was Bray. Short, stocky Bray with his curly brown hair and big stupid grin. I felt a pang of heartache shoot through my chest. God I’d missed him. He stood up from where he’d been sitting in a pile of my pillows and bead happily at Grace and Adam. “You really are back! I was ready to uh… add your nas to the door.”
“Morbid,” Adam said with an awkward smile, very obviously trying not to look at .
Bray just shrugged, then his eyes narrowed. “Grace, did sothing happen? You look different?”
“Ah. Yeah,” she nodded, her hand trailing awkwardly down her other arm. “Magic… literally.”
“No… I think it’s just the different coloured hair,” Kelsey said as all eyes turned to my girlfriend. “The red is gone, there’s green in there now.”
“Oh my god, did you find hair dye out there? Please tell you got so green for !” lody chirped, flopping back down on the sofa with her girlfriend, who imdiately put an arm around her.
“Ah… no,” Grace shook her head again. “I’m not joking, it really was magic… look.”
Her skin went rigid and rough in places, or soft and velvety in others. Shifting and changing, it beca the bark of her plant form. I smiled as I saw the little cracks between the plates of bark that protected her outward facing surfaces, where she glowed gently from within — swirling green and blue light changing places from one mont to the next.
“Holy shit!” Duncan blurted, stepping quickly backwards, only for his foot to catch on a pillow. His huge fra crashed down to the floor.
“Wow!” lody blurted at the sa ti that Kelsey choked and began to sputter — smacking herself on the chest with a fist as she began to cough.
Bray froze, staring at her with utter shock, face going white. “You said that a tree person killed Eli… now you are one?”
“Uh, actually no… it was the fruit,” I said into the quiet that followed. Slowly, I raised my hand to show them the ring. “And… it didn’t kill .”
The silence before I spoke morphed into sothing that was truly the absence of sound. It was like everyone had stopped breathing. Nobody moved, nobody spoke. All of them were staring at either , or the ring on my finger.
“No way,” lody breathed, breaking the tense silence, eyes wide and staring. “Really?”
“Yes… I—“ I started, but I was interrupted.
Bray hissed with rage. “What the fuck is this? Is this soone’s idea of a joke?”
No no no, Bray had to believe . Gulping to keep rising bile down, I shook my head emphatically, “No! The fruit was a… a teleportation device. It was magic though, and it teleported sowhere, and then it changed … into this. Into a woman.”
“No!” he shouted, taking a step towards , tears filling his eyes. “No! You’re not Eli! You’re not my friend! You’re all— you’re all…”
I could feel it slipping, the mont. He was sliding into anger, fear and disbelief. He needed to believe ! I felt tears of my own threaten to cloud my vision — my breathing quickening with dismay. His fists were clenched so tight, white at the knuckles and shaking. Was he really… was he really going to try and hit ? Would revealing my illusion of my old self even work here, or would it solidify the supposed trickery in his mind?
“You’re gay!” I yelled — blurted really, as my desperation-addled mind clutched at straws. “You’re gay and your favourite type of porn is watching a short twink guy get spit roasted by two huge muscled dudes! You like it even more if they have tattoos and stuff!”
I was breathing heavily as I finished, my expression morphing into one of horror at the embarrassing secret I’d just blurted to everyone in the room. I watched my best friend go bone white, jaw dropping open as he stared at . Really, properly stared.
Wait, was he starting to believe ?
Before I could help myself, I said one more thing — sothing silly and completely irrelevant. “You have a big problem with farting when you’re running.”
“He does,” a feminine voice mumbled into the room, and I turned to see Kelsey nodding. “I try to stay upwind when we’re on our morning run, but I can still hear it sotis.”
“It’s when he’s had beans the night before,” I said, feeling my face heating rapidly. Oh god what was happening? What the fuck was I saying?
I turned back to look at Bray, willing him to believe . Please for the love of big throbbing cocks or whatever you’re into Bray, believe . I watched him blink, once, twice, then he closed his eyes and let out a long, sharp whistling exhale.
“Dude…” Bray said in the gentlest of whispers. “You said you’d never tell anyone…”
“Yeah well, that’s what happens when you act like a fuckwit,” I pouted, struggling with a wave of hope that crashed into like a bun that wasn’t watching where it was binkying.
“How?” he demanded, hitting with an intense stare like he was trying to delve into my eyes to find my soul within.
“I’m trans…” I said gently, anxiously pulling at my hair for comfort. “I knew I was trans since forever, but I was too scared to do anything about it. I probably would have never done anything. Then the fruit happened. It pulled into… another place, where it held , changed into sothing else — but it also gave the body I needed at the sa ti.”
“It’s true,” Grace said, stepping up beside again like the absolutely fucking angelic girlfriend that she was. “When we found her, she cracked a joke at that had only been between us. She’s proven who she was over and over again as we travelled the ring outside these mountains.”
Bray lunged for , almost without warning. His arms went around , tight even as I felt his body shaking with emotion. "I can't believe it," he said in a choked voice. "I an, I can… but I can't. Oh god."
We were the sa height now, but when I brought my arms up to desperately return the hug, I found him so much bigger anyway. He was stronger now, a lot stronger — I could feel it in the muscles of his back and arms.
Still, this was undeniably him — my friend Bray. We might both be a little different now, but I still felt that connection to him. The bond of a friendship that could be picked right back up as though nothing had happened.
We both had tears in our eyes when we parted, and holding for a second at arm's length, he gave a watery smile. "You were hotter before. Sorry."
"No… pretty sure this is an improvent," Grace chuckled from behind .
“You look like a magical girl with that hair,” lody offered, eyeing it with an odd kind of hunger.
“Yeah, my eyes are magenta too, if you didn’t notice,” I said with a little smile in her direction.
She snorted. “Oh I noticed. You’re as hot as one too.” Kelsey pinched her, earning a squeal and teeth sinking into her shoulder. They glared at each other for a few monts before Kelsey cracked a grin, saying in a stage whisper, “Isn’t she though? Holy fuck! Do you think we can get her na?”
“Her na is Ryn,” Grace frowned, stepping up to put a protective arm around . “Back off you two…”
“Fourso?” lody asked innocently.
“Oh my god,” a tiny voice coughed from behind us all, and we turned to see Kit staring at the lot of us like we were a few terrifying giggles away from being thrown into an asylum.
“Sorry, sorry,” lody laughed, a huge grin taking over her face. “Sorry— just kinda giddy. High on happiness. That’s really you in there uh… deadna?” she asked, actually saying the word deadna.
I nodded, returning her smile. “New and improved. I can even do magic now.”
“Real?” Kelsey asked, excitent exploding out of her. “You gotta show us!”
“Stand up then,” I told them both with an overly casual wave of my hand.
The two girls squinted at suspiciously, but otherwise did as I’d asked. Bray was busy staring between Grace and I, his expression unreadable. I hoped that I could distract him from my relationship with her by wowing him with magic instead. Best to tackle that issue later. Plus the buns, I had a feeling that he’d love the buns.
Carefully, I twisted my magic around everyone in the room, and with a burst of magical might, took us over into my grove. There was another pause, silence whispering through the eight of us like my telekinesis had just done, before lody scread, “Coooooool! Oh my god, this is so fucking cool!”
She knelt on the ground with a wide smile, raising her hands to the happy little tree like she was praising god. “That… is so cool,” she said finally, regaining a tiny mote of her composure. Not that she really had any to begin with. If she were a car, her pedal would be welded to the floor, and if she ever slowed down it would be as loud and fiery as a car crash.
The other three had much different reactions, from profuse swearing on Bray's part to a sort of strangled squeak-groan from Duncan. Kelsey stood frozen, eyes blown wide as they tracked slowly across the scene.
"What is this place?" she finally asked, turning to sowhat fearfully.
"This is my grove, my sort of… pocket dinsion and seat of power. Many of the plants around us are actually the instructions for spells I can cast. That tree over there, with the crazy twisted trunk, that one and all the others like it let summon a shield of energy," I explained, trying to be as calm and gentle as possible.
"And the big fuck-off tree?" Bray asked, staring up into its canopy with awe.
"That's our ho," I grinned. "It's like my wizard's tower or whatever."
“It has baths, and showers,” Grace offered helpfully. "And private rooms for everyone with big comfy beds."
“Wait, really?” Bray asked, a slight smile touching his lips. “Oh man, I— what is that? Is that a giant bunny?”
I followed his gaze, finding Cream and a bun I didn't recognize. They watched us curiously, standing up on their hind legs and their little noses twitching. Goodness, they were cute.
“Uh, yeah… they’re kinda like my familiars,” I smiled, feeling my soul relax as everyone finally seed to believe . Well, Duncan hadn’t said anything, but he only had eyes for his bromantic partner in cri.
“Let’s go have a bath,” Grace suggested, making shooing motions towards the tree. “And a tour, but I really need a wash after all that walking and debriefing.”
"I'd like to de-brief you," I muttered, just loud enough for only her to hear. Her blush was adorable.
There was a round of agreent on the bath thing, and then we were moving — the four newcors to my grove openly gawking around at the beauty that I had created with magic, a whole lot of study, and a boat load of hard work.
“Oh, by the way,” I said casually, sidling up to Bray. “We brought you, like, literal tons of tal.”
He stared at for half a second, then shook his head ruefully. “Why the hell didn’t you lead with that? If there’s anything more Eli-like than forgetting about the importance of beautiful, shiny tal, then I haven’t seen it.”
“It’s Ryn now, actually,” I said with a grin. “Rynadria Belrose.”
“Oh, sorry… Ryn-like,” he said, giving a hesitant, apologetic smile.
“I got so alien pillows too.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”
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