Chapter 22: 22: Invitation

School the next day was very hard to get through. It was hard to get through because I KISSED KAREN. NO WAIT. SHE KISSED ME. THEN WE KISSED EACH OTHER. LOTS. Ahhhhhh. I have no idea how this works. I’ve never actually been in a relationship before! Gosh my mind will not stop spinning. Oh, and then I like met Feslia the Goddess-Ball, and then dropped into the middle of a planet. That was by far the most wild gaming session I’ve ever experienced. Well, it wasn’t really gaming was it?

Getting ready for school was still a novel experience. I’d heard so many of the girls at school moaning about how terrible the uniform was, but I just loved the way I looked cute and utterly feminine in it. I was also one of those girls with hips wide enough to show curves even through the sack-like dress we were forced to wear.

I turned to the mirror to inspect myself before I left the room. Something I hadn’t really noticed was how curvy my spine was now, like someone had put me in one of those machines that make suspension springs and just turned the crank once. I might be small and adorable, but I also had a nice body. One that was definitely turning me on, and I didn’t need that right now. I turned away from the mirror.

The problem with having your body change so fast is that your subconscious mind doesn’t have time to realise that the cute girl you just saw in the mirror is actually you, and it leads to some interesting feelings. I wonder if Karen likes how I look? I mean obviously she does, because she kissed me… !!!!!!!!!! But still like how much does she like it, what parts does she like? I like her perfectly proportioned shoulders, not broad enough to be masculine, but still broad enough to seem reliable, among many other things.

Anyway, right. Um, school. What’s next? Breakfast! I rushed to eat breakfast. Breakfast was toast, it was toasty. Onwards to the car, thanks dad. On the way to school I remembered to do something, I sent a message to the group chat.

Sam: Guys is it okay if I invite Zach Smith to join us out here? He’s in Dailsil and having a really hard time achieving anything with that guild war that’s going on.

Oops, better change that.

Jeremy: Definitely fine with me, poor guy could use some friends.

Dana: Um, sure I guess. What type of character do they play?

Sylanna: Druid, beyond that I have no idea, but I figure we could use the help building our house.

Greg: Yeah fine with me.

Sylanna: Alright can someone ask Karen and Liam? I don’t want to message Karen in case her mum checks her phone.

****

I got to school with like, barely a few minutes to spare, and rushed into English class. Mrs Elliston gave me the stink eye when I rushed in literally the moment she opened her mouth to address the class, but I ignored the look. Who I didn’t ignore... was Juliet. She glared at me with a kind of seething anger that I felt should have burned my face off. Luckily it didn’t and I sat down. The class was normal, but I could feel her glaring at me the entire time, though thankfully she didn’t start with whispering awful things again..

When class ended, I rushed out as fast as I could and went to Social Studies. Along the way I got a text from the group saying Karen and Liam were cool with Zach joining us in Pellan. Now, I’d glossed over this class before, but I’ll give you the rundown of what it is. The class is this mess of random subjects, from how to apply for a driver's license, through to how you spot your own negative biases towards minorities. That last topic spent a good deal of time on the Māori people and how even though we had made great strides in combating racism, we still had a long way to go. What they did not cover in nearly enough detail was spotting negative biases towards LGBT groups, which right now was a real big issue for me.

When the class was over, I aimlessly walked in the direction of my friends. Lost in thought over various things, I was rudely jolted from my reverie by a shout.

“Hey Syl! If you and your girlfriend ever need a guy to help out, let me know! I know you girls haven’t got everything you need to really fill it out,” I heard a loud male voice yell.

I turned to see Kegan and his friends walking behind me, laughing at the apparently hilarious joke that he had just thrown my way. Anxiety level one hundred, like instantly. I rushed onwards away from the four or so burly guys behind me and hoped they wouldn’t follow me.

“Hey come back! I was just joking dude!” he called, to further laughter from his friends.

The funny thing is, out of that whole encounter, the word “dude” was the one that hurt. A lot of people say, “Oh nah, I use it as a gender neutral term!”. Take your bullshit gender neutral term and shove it up your ass. You don’t go, oh I met this cool dude, and mean you met a girl. It stung, I hated it. I was a girl, not a dude.

I slowly cooled down as I hurried along, but I was in a bad mood when I arrived at the hangout spot. It was just my old friends there, which didn’t surprise me. I had no idea how things were going to work between Karen and I in the real world. Really I just hoped her mum didn’t freak out even more. I hoped she was okay.

I slumped onto the bench next to Dana and Greg and gave them a weak, “Hey.”

“Hey Syl, what’s up?” asked Dana in the tone of voice that really said are you okay, do you want to talk about it?

“Nothing, just Kegan McGregor being a dick. I think he was going for me before the whole being a lesbian got around. Now he’s being a dick because I turned him down,” I grumped.

“Ah, what a cock head,” she said sympathetically.

“Ew, if he could parade his dick around on his head he probably would,” Jeremy groaned.

“Flop flop flop,” Greg laughed, wiggling his head around and using his hand to demonstrate his elegant onomatopoeia.

Dana made gagging sounds and I squealed in grossed out laughter, “Ewwww fuck! No stop Greg that’s nasty!”

As usual, the double team act of Jeremy’s wit and Greg’s crass humour brought me back into a good mood, and when it came time to trot off to Physics I was once again in a happy mood. Which I would probably need, like armour, to face Zach. I really wanted to help him but it was very hard to stay positive around the constant depressive energy that he reflexively exuded. I know that he couldn’t help it, but that didn’t change the fact it was there.

When we sat down in class I looked over at him. He looked even more worn down than usual.

“Everything okay?” I asked quietly.

“No. That Blackfeather cunt killed me personally last night,” he said sadly.

“Oh. He’s really not a nice person. Sorry, slightly changing the subject but um, I asked my friends if they would let you join us out in the wilderness and they said yes. If you want to come that is?” I asked tentatively.

He made eye contact with me then, and it crushed my heart to see what was in them. I saw a spark of hope swimming in a sea of fear and sadness.

“Really?” he asked so quietly I almost didn’t catch it.

“Yeah really.”

Then he started crying, right there in class. It wasn’t loud crying or anything, and no one but me noticed when he hunched forward and shielded his face. I watched through a gap in his shield as silent tears ran down his face. He angled his head slightly towards me and gave a series of vigorous nods.

“Awesome. There is something I’d like you to pick up from town though. It’ll help you most of all and I think you’ll need it. Can you go to a certain store,” I said describing the magical store in enough detail that he could find it, “When you get there, I want you to go in and describe me, then ask for the spell brand I had him make. Give him your best puppy dog eyes and he should give it to you cheap.”

“Why?” he asked in wary confusion.

“I can’t really explain it until I see you ingame alright?” I said with a smile, “But trust me you will really like it.”

“Uh, okay I guess,” he mumbled.

“Tomorrow is saturday, so unless you have stuff to do in the real world, we should see you by like tomorrow afternoon? I’ll send you a link to my game map hold on,” I said, messing with my phone, “What’s your number?”

He told me, and I gave him a screenshot of my map showing our journey to where we currently were.

“We’re going to build a cabin or a lodge or whatever there! What trade skills do you know?” I asked.

“I know herbalism, cooking and leatherworking.”

“Okay sweet! The herbalism will be useful! Welcome to the team… Isabelle,” I said with a grin.

I got a wobbly smile in return.

When class ended, I went out to an uneventful and silly lunch with my friends. I tried to invite Zach to join us but he gave me a sad no and walked away. The thing I enjoyed the most during lunch was when Karen walked past with some of her friends. I made brief eye contact with her and gave a cheeky wink. She looks really cute when she blushes. I want to make her blush more.

Next was painting, which went well. I got more of my Karen drawing done, and my newly found skills had not diminished since yesterday. My new body was just so much more nimble and easy to handle. I loved it.

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All too soon though, it was time for chemistry. At least I didn’t have math today... not having math on a friday was a godsend. I really hoped I didn’t have to deal with Kegan in class. My hopes were for nothing though, because when I sat down, he chose the seat next to me.

“Please just leave me alone,” I said quietly.

“Why? We’re friends aren’t we?” he said with a cocky grin.

I didn’t reply.

“You two fucking yet?” he asked with a lecherous tone.

I didn’t reply.

“Is she good? I bet all those mommy issues I hear she has make her wild,” he said with a laugh.

“KEGAN! That is entirely inappropriate! I want you staying behind after class, we’ll chat further about your behavior then. If I see you bothering poor Sylanna again I will get litigious!” Ms Eviet exclaimed, having snuck up on us and growled out her admonishment with such menace that even Kegan was cowed.

The class was uneventful after she intervened, and I was so relieved to get out of the awkward classroom and go home. Dad picked me up outside the front gate and we drove through the illogically twisting streets of the city.

“Dad…” I started slowly.

“Yes Syl?” he asked with the tone of voice fathers use when they know their daughter is going to bring up a subject they might not like.

“I think I have a girlfriend now…” I said, trying to sound casual and failing utterly.

“You think?” he sighed, raising an eyebrow.

“I know… but it’s complicated. Her parents are kinda the opposite of supportive,” I grimaced.

“I see, is she a good person? Will she treat you okay?” he asked with fatherly concern.

“Oh yes! She has this knack for saving me from my panic attacks and stuff,” I told him happily.

“That’s good to hear,” he said with a smile.

We didn’t really go into too much detail after that, and I arrived home excited to get into Pellan, where I knew Karen would meet me.

I was the first one to arrive in Pellan today, and I began making a list of things we would need for the building of the cabin. I took a look at my construction ability and scrolled through all the options. I finding the foundations tab, I meandered my way down the list looking for what I wanted. At my current rank I didn’t have many options, and the one I wanted wasn’t there.

It wasn’t a big deal, I knew what I needed. I wanted to make a simple stone foundation, using a bunch of low stone walls mortared together. We’d need a lot of lose granite from around here, but there was so much of it that I doubted there would be a problem. The biggest problem with the foundation would be finding a source of lime for the mortar. I guess I could send the others out looking. Limestone was fairly easy to find in most countries around the earth, so I hoped that Pellan was the same. I’d also need to get logs cut. I wasn’t sure we could deal well with the huge redwoods, but the pine and conifer would be perfect.

We had a lot of work ahead of us, and I idly wondered if our abilities as adventurers would be of use. I looked through my own abilities. The only one I saw that would be of use was the Sunlight Shard ability, but it was a pretty blunt instrument as far as abilities went. I was just about to close my user interface when I saw the skill tree I had gotten earlier. I opened the full description and read through it.

This skill tree is bestowed upon a priestess of Feslia by the goddess herself, and is unique. The skill tree allows the bearer to gain a portion of Feslia’s abilities, such as the ability to walk on light, or create blades out of the sun’s rays. There is much more that awaits the bearer of this skill tree, but that is for them to find out.

Currently you only have access to the base ability, LightSkimmer, but there are more available. You have unspent ability points, would you like to view your options?

Wow, that was cool. I definitely wanted to see what else it had to offer, so I sent a confirming thought to the message.

Your options for advancement are:

Blades of light. 3pts
You extend a blade of light from one or both hands, giving you a weapon at your disposal wherever you may be.

Cloud Pulse. 5 pts
Send a jet of air in any direction that will propel you. Caution is advised when using this ability, any fall damage incurred will be felt to full effect.

Aura of the High Winds. 3pts
Extend an aura of speed to all those you consider friendly, allowing them to move with greater haste, both overland and in their actions.

Refraction Ray. 2 pts
Send out a pulse of light that heals your target before going on to randomly bounce between friendlies up to three times, healing them for a decreasing amount each time.

Wow, there was a lot to unpack there. The healing ability sounded really fun. Well they all sounded really fun. I went for the blades first though, because I thought I might need them for the construction of the cabin. The purchase used up all my saved ability points... so I hoped it was worth it.

I tested the ability carefully, willing the blades to manifest an inch away from my outstretched fingers. The result was a blade of golden transparent energy that had a translucent edge of blue that crackled and spat faintly. I tested it carefully on the branch of a nearby bush. The blade bit in easily for a centimeter or so before it became harder to push it through, but it was still much easier than a normal steel tool. I had chosen well.

I began to move rocks over to the construction site while I wanted for my friends, but the going was slow. I was small and weak now, and I wasn’t altogether unpleased with that fact. I ended up just holding the stones and activating my light skimming ability to get me to the pile I was building. Wow, the drain on my mana while I was using that ability was more intense than I thought, how had I made it out of the core without dropping out of the sky?

I was resting after having placed another stone in the pile when I heard a shuffle of feet behind me. I turned around in surprise to find Karen standing there looking adorably bashful. I walked over without saying anything, and she didn’t initiate conversation either. I think she expected me to stop in front of her or something but I was already being magnetically pulled to her, my heart to hers, I couldn’t stop even if I’d wanted to. She shifted in surprise when I wrapped my arms around her waist and nestled against her body.

“Hey,” I said in a dreamy voice, my mind half lost in the euphoric feeling that contact with her provided.

“Hey,” she said in a hoarse voice while her arms reached up to hold me against her.

We stayed like that for a long while, holding each other as long as we needed to relieve the stress of being apart. I hadn’t cared for anyone like this before, it was like my body was being subtly pulled in her direction at all times. Breathing in and out, the feelings I had for her surging slightly with each breath.

I shifted my arms to reach up around her neck, and I think she thought I was breaking the embrace because she lightened her hold on me a moment. I didn’t let her get away though, clasping my hands up behind her neck and standing on tiptoes to kiss her. It was a long unhurried kiss, the kind where you don’t fully commit to passionately making out, but there’s still more than enough going on that there’s sparks flying. Our lips moved together in a soft and chaotic rhythm, both of us trying to sync with the other.

When we had our fill we separated slightly and I got a look at her face. She was so cute, her face flushed with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. I leaned back in and gave her another quick kiss.

“How are you? Did your mum cause you trouble again? Was school okay? Did anyone say anything mean?” I asked, shooting question after question at her.

“Yeah mostly fine, no one at school bothered me too much, they know Liam and his cousins will jump them after school if they talk shit. Mum was less okay. She told dad and he grounded me. I’m not even allowed to go to practice,” she said sadly.

“What, that’s awful! How come your parents are like this?” I asked with concern.

“My grandparents were all really religious I think. The religion didn’t stick but the prejudices did. If they knew… you know, who you were before… they would lock me away,” she told me.

“But they let you come and play Pellan with me?” I asked a little confused.

“They don’t even understand what it is, so I think we’re fine,” she said with a long suffering sigh.

“That’s good… I um… Yeah. Uh. I’ve been collecting rocks. Pretty cool huh?” I said, realising it might be weird to talk about how much I like her this early in the relationship.

“You… what?” she asked, confused by my segue.

“For the foundation. I was wondering if you could help me out? We also need to find a source of lime,” I told her.

“I.. yeah sure. That’s fine,” she said with a smile down at me.

We reluctantly let the warm embrace go, and got to work on collecting more rocks.

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