Chapter 3: Chapter 2: Sweet Dreams

Sophia

“A challenge?”

The woman, Artemis, smirked.

“You both sought out a goddess, not out of a desire to serve, but to satisfy your own needs. You’re quite lucky I’m feeling generous, otherwise you’d both be dead.”

Her grin grew wider, and she started to feel a lot more threatening. An aura of dread so thick I could practically taste it was radiating out from the goddess. She could kill me easier than I could swat a fly.

She laughed.

“I’m kidding! Seriously, we olympians have mellowed out quite a bit over the millenia! You should’ve seen your face though. To think I’d kill one of my last mortal worshippers!”

With one last giggle, she stepped forwards and placed her hand on my shoulder, her face growing serious.

“Honestly though, you shouldn’t expect gifts from a Goddess without a price. You want to be my companion? Then you’ll need to prove you can keep up, both you and C-” She paused and scowled for a moment, “your friend.”

What was that about? Did she have something against Chris? That couldn’t be it though, Chris had apparently been looking for Artemis just like I had, and it looked like Artemis was willing to grant whatever Chris was after too.

“So what’s this challenge then?”

“It’s simple. I drop you both in the woods, and you have to make your way back to the river where you found me. Make it back alive, and you can join me. Die or otherwise fail to return, and you can’t.”

“I- Wait, we could die!?!”

She just nodded.

“Wha- Fucking- I’ve never done the whole wilderness survival thing before! I’ve got so many questions! What does Chris even want from you? Where are we right now? How-”

She raised her hand and I shut up. Even as freaked out as I was, nobody talks over a Goddess. Something about her just radiated authority.

“As for your first question, that’s not for me to tell you. As for the second, you’re dreaming. With regards to your other concerns, I’m certain you’ll figure it out. Besides, I'm very aware of how much time you spent researching and practicing survival techniques before you came here. I wouldn’t have offered you this challenge if I didn’t think you had potential. It was my deliberate choice to appear before you both tonight, you can do this. I promise.”

She kissed me again, her lips a whisper across mine. Fuuuuuuuuuuuck. My mind went blank at the pure bliss of it. Barely a touch and my every nerve was on fire. I could get used to this.

“Do you accept?”

“Yes…”

“Good girl.”

I melted.

Chloe

She was really pretty. This short, thin girl, with slightly pointed ears. She was pale, with green eyes, and there was a subtle strength within her frame. Soft skin barely concealing a toned physique. The water behind her was full of similarly beautiful young women, all of them watching me carefully and whispering among themselves.

“I’m glad my story spoke to you, Chloe.”

The nymph closest to me, the one who’d placed her hand on my shoulder. Then she was-?

“You may call me Sipriotes. I’ve no particular distaste for my old name. Would you like to join us?”

I nodded dumbly, and I heard a few of them laugh. Sipriotes just smiled at me and gently cupped my cheek in her hand, slowly running her thumb across my cheekbone.

“Then you can, but our lady has a challenge for you first. Do you think you can do it?”

I nodded again.

“Yes… whatever it is, I’ll do it!”

Sophia

I was warm, comfy, and safe. I could feel the summer sun tickling my skin as I lay in the grass. This was nice, and it was a nice dream I had last night. I’d have to tell Chris about it, but for now, more sleep sounded great. I curled onto my side, taking some care to make sure I wasn’t in any danger of rolling onto my spear while I slept.

Wait.

I didn’t own a spear…

And it was spring, wasn’t it?

I opened my eyes and took stock of my surroundings. I had some vague impression of where I was, but I had to be sure.

I was in the middle of a grassy field, either near the equator or definitely in the middle of summer, there was a bronze spear to my left along with a small coin pouch containing some kind of silver coins with an owl motif, I seemed to be wearing a light green chiton (a kind of greek tunic) with my pack and clothes nowhere to be seen, and to my right was a young woman with her hair in a long braid. She was also wearing a chiton, though hers was red, and where I had a spear, she was clinging to a bow as she slept. She looked vaguely familiar.

Chloe

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Someone was speaking Greek. Not modern Greek either, it was the ancient kind. I didn’t know Greek, or at least I was far from fluent in it, but somehow I understood perfectly anyways.

“Um… Excuse me miss. Are you ok?”

I groaned. Couldn’t this Greek lady let me sleep? I was having such a good dream too, Sipriotes was so cool and nice. Still half asleep, I set my bow aside so I could roll over.

Wait.

Sophia

Her eyes finally fluttered open, and she stared up at me in surprise.

“Sophie?”

That voice! Could it be?

“Chris?”

Looking closer, I could tell it was him. His hair was longer, and the cut of his chiton lent him a more feminine silhouette, but his voice was completely unchanged, his eyes were still the same vibrant blue, and his lips were…

Wow! The weather was so pretty, wasn’t it? We just had to figure out where the hell we were, and then we could go home and forget about weird dreams and weird feelings and how he looked in that chiton and wait a second where did we get these clothes?

“Sophie. That was real, wasn’t it? The river and the nymphs and stuff were all real, right?”

Shit. Ok, I guess they were. I mean, of course they were, we just got teleported to gods know where, in fancy new outfits, with some kind of ancient greek coins and weapons. Of course that stuff was real.

“Looks like it.”

Chris was sitting upright now, and had grabbed the elegant bow he’d been sleeping with. He was plucking the string nervously.

“I was really worried about you, Chris. Goddesses are no joke, and Artemis is probably the worst one a guy could possibly seek out.”

“I-”

“I mean she said you were looking for her. What the fuck could possibly be worth that risk? You could’ve been killed!”

I was rambling now. How could he do that? How could he take that risk? DIdn’t he realize he has people who care about him? It wouldn’t have been painless either. It’s a damn good thing the Artemis we had now was more chill than in the stories, because if we met that Artemis, Chris would be a bloody puddle right now! And then I never would’ve forgiven my-!

“I wanted her to make me a woman!”

Chloe

Oh gods I said it.

I actually said it!

If the dream was real, then the challenge was real, and if the challenge was real, then maybe transition wasn’t so far off after all! Somehow, knowing that, knowing it was even a possibility had filled me with a confidence and drive that I’d never felt before. I wanted Sophia to accept me, to see me for who I truly was and accept me because I couldn’t bear to hide anymore.

“My name is Chloe, and I’ve known that for a long time. I never mentioned it because I could never afford HRT or surgery, and without either of those, I guess I figured what’s the point? I was hoping we’d find Artemis out on this trip so I could finally be a woman. I thought that through her, I could be the woman I always wanted to be. According to Sipriotes, if I complete Artemis’ challenge, I get that.”

Sophia was staring at me, slack jawed. She was probably angry, she probably thought I was gross, she was probably trying to find the gentlest way to get me to leave.

Sophia

“Well that explains a lot!”

“I- uh… what does that explain?”

Shit, um, it explained why I had a crush on her, but I couldn’t just say that, could I?

“Oh, it’s just that some part of me always saw you as a woman. I can’t explain why, but you just had this vibe that I guess I picked up on or something.”

Sure, yeah, that makes enough sense, right? It was technically true as well, which is the best kind of true. I just couldn’t tell her that the part of me that saw her that way was the hopelessly romantic disaster lesbian part. She really was beautiful too, not just in her looks, but in how she carried herself. She’d always had this kind of grace to her, with this kind of spaced out personality and major attention issues, but when she was talking about her passions, or listening to someone talk about theirs, she got this kind of laser focus that was simultaneously really adorable and really cool.

Yep, I was definitely crushing hard on this beautiful woman. Speaking of which,

“Don’t say you’re not a woman, Chloe. No matter what happens, even if we don’t succeed, even if it’s impossible, you’ll always be Chloe to me, from here on. We’ll definitely succeed though. We’ll succeed, and then we’ll run off together with a goddess and a bunch of eternally youthful maidens.”

Chloe stood up and threw her arm around my shoulder, leaning her head on mine.

“Thanks Sophia, I really needed that…” She giggled quietly as she squeezed my shoulder. “Guess we won’t be maidenless for much longer, huh?”

“I will literally stab you with my spear.”

“Heh.”