Nathan Poole is ready to become Sarah's Warden, but a long lost family heirloom changes his life and future.     Trial and Heiress Chapter 3 By Amethyst

Thanks as usual to Eof for a great universe to play in and to Eof, Maggie F and Donjo for their input.

I was on my knees, examining the mint before me. It was just mature enough for picking, the leaves a healthy green with no dryness or browning. A sound behind me caught my attention and I turned to see what it was. A handsome young man stood, leaning against a tree as he watched me. Though the war was well over for years now he was dressed as a soldier and held a rifle. Upon examining the rifle in his hands the hands themselves caught my attention; both were stained blood red.

I froze as his other hand rose to cup my other cheek as he continued his monologue, “At least she’ll be easy to find. You though my dear are useless to us, alive anyway. “ He now held both sides of my face in his red hands, “Let’s hope the next host is more agreeable.” I tried to break free but he held me fast and even the kick I delivered to his shin had little effect. The last thing I heard was the snapping of my neck.

I woke up from my nightmare gasping for air and shaking. I had never had a dream feel quite that real. It was like I could feel, see, smell, taste and hear everything clearly while it was happening and it had felt as real to me as the shivering and quickened heartbeat I felt now in the silence of my room. I made an effort to put the dream and the events of the last few days out of my mind, but it was a while before I was calm enough for sleep to claim me once more.

I awoke to the alarm and realized two things immediately. First it was way too early to be awake. The clock only said three thirty and I didn’t need to get up for school for hours yet. The second thing I realized was that I had an urgent need to empty my bladder. I sleepily rolled onto my side, accidentally squishing my breast beneath me. That woke me up pretty damn quick, as the events of yesterday, the long night before that, and my nightmare came rushing back to me.

I absently rubbed my breast as I padded my way to the bathroom grumbling, “Stupid boobs, stupid body, stupid Glove.” I had changed into one of Rick’s old t-shirts before going to sleep the night before and the hem was just below my thighs. It covered everything it needed to and there was no way I was wearing the clothes Sarah loaned me to sleep. I needed them for today and that sports bra squished my breasts uncomfortably. I stepped into the bathroom and stared at the toilet fighting my need to get some relief.

After a long moment of silence for my manhood I stepped up to meet destiny, made sure the seat was down, turned around and pulled down my briefs to sit down. Soon I was getting relief while at the same time shuddering in revulsion at the situation. The feeling of relieving myself was different and yet the same, but at least it still got the job done. I almost stood up again before I remembered that girls have to wipe afterwards. With another shudder I reluctantly wiped myself clean, realizing as I did so that it was official; I really was a girl now. “This is too much hassle, damn being a girl sucks,” I muttered as I washed my hands.

With my business done I made my way back to my bedroom and searched around the mess on the floor for the clothes Sarah and I had picked out last night. A shower would have been nice but I wasn’t going to have time for one since Mom wanted to leave the house by four o’clock and I didn’t think I was ready to get that intimate with all my new bits and pieces yet, just going to the bathroom had been hard enough. Finding the clothes in a pile by the bed I got out of Rick’s shirt and into the evil sports bra and soon the rest of my clothes followed.

It was almost ten minutes to four by the time I got down to the kitchen. Rick and Mom were eating some cold cereal with milk, so I shuffled over to the table and poured myself a similar meal. I was pouring a glass of juice when Dandelion, who was far more cheerful than should be legal this time of the morning, greeted me. “Good morning!”

In my surprise the juice container nearly flew out of my hand and some spilled on the table, “What’s so good about it?” I grumbled. Rick looked at me strangely and I guessed that he couldn’t see Dani. I shrugged and dug into my cereal. Dani proceeded to dip a Cheerio in my milk and nibble at it.

Mom shook her head at me, “I guess it’s no surprise that Natalie isn’t any more of a morning person than Nathan was.”

I swallowed my mouthful of cereal and grumbled, “This isn’t morning it’s hell, and I’m still Nathan on the inside no matter what you all think I should be called now.” The rest of breakfast, all five minutes of it, was spent in silence.

The drive through town was uneventful and we didn’t see anyone, not that I would expect to at this time of the morning. Dani had insisted on coming with me, saying that I needed cheering up, and I think she was hoping her own cheerfulness would be infectious. I was less optimistic. Finally we arrived at the dock and made our way to the plane under cover of darkness. Soon we were seated in the plane while Rick went over his flight checklist and radioed in our flight path to NAV Canada. Minutes later we were in the air and headed to Vancouver.

Since we weren’t catching a commercial flight at Vancouver Airport, rather than landing there we landed at the float plane docks. The float plane docks were better for our type of plane, we didn’t have to wait long to land, and we wouldn’t have to go through airport security where the Glove could pose a problem when they inevitably asked me to remove it. Best of all though, the docking point was by Harbour Park which is conveniently located by the Convention Center, Canada Place, and all the comforts of downtown Vancouver including several good hotels. Since it was still early Mom and I checked into one of those hotels to catch a few hours more sleep while Rick got the plane prepped for his flight back. He would come back and pick us up in a few days after the fictional funeral.

Mom woke me at nine o’clock claiming we had a lot to do today. I rubbed my eyes sleepily and looked over to find Dandelion sleeping and half tangled in my hair, this long hair was going to take some getting used to. After gently waking her and helping to extract her from my tangled mop I sat up and yawned, looking over at my mother who seemed all ready for a day on the town. “What could we possibly have to do today Mom? I thought we were just staying here while people think you’re at a funeral?”

My mother rolled her eyes at me and ushered me toward the suite’s bathroom. “We have two days to get you proper clothes and to teach you to act like a girl who’s had her whole life to learn what I have to cram into your head in two days. Now shower, just a quick one though. We’ll wait to show you how to shave until we get some of the supplies you’ll need.”

I was about to argue that I did know how to shave until I realized she wasn’t talking about my face. “Oh.” I said soberly, and made my way into the bathroom for the dreaded shower. I was really glad she had specified a quick shower as it didn’t give me too much time for thinking about just what body parts I was and wasn’t washing. In fact I think I spent more time on my hair than my body, long hair is such a chore to take care of. Then while drying I found that rubbing myself with the towel was irritating so instead I patted myself dry, which seemed to work a lot better. I thought to myself that being a girl is so much more work than being a guy.

I was still toweling my hair dry as I left the bathroom, “Grrrr, this is taking so long to dry. Mom have I mentioned how much being a girl sucks?”

“Only about fifty times Natalie,” my mother said, sighing. “There’s a hairdryer in there, use that, it will make things easier.”

“I’ve almost got it now Mom, but I’ll remember that for next time, maybe I’ll waste less time.” I finished toweling my hair and started to get dressed again. I frowned at the sports bra, “Do I really need to wear this mom?”

“You can go without it,” she began and I almost felt some pleasure over a small victory over all things feminine until she finished, “But the boys will notice and you’ll get a lot of attention.” At that I quickly put on the bra grumbling as I squished myself into it. Mom chuckled, “We’ll get you something a bit more comfortable while we’re out shopping today.”

“Is shopping all we’re going to do while we’re here?” I complained.

“Of course not,” she replied, “Once we’re done shopping we’ll spend tonight teaching you everything I would have taught you if you’d been born a girl. Then tomorrow we’ll go around town and start getting you used to being seen as a girl and put your lessons into practice.”

“Oh joy.” I grumbled, “You really know how to show a guy a good time.”

“Yes I do,” she said, grinning at me, “But you seem to have forgotten that you’re a girl.”

I glared down at my chest, “No Mom I haven’t and if I ever do I have two huge reminders.” Well maybe they weren’t huge, but when you’re not used to having breasts at all any size would be huge. Then her first comment sunk in, “TMI Mom!” As I finished dressing I noticed that Dani was staring raptly out the window at the city. I walked over beside her, “It’s pretty impressive isn’t it?”

She nodded excitedly as she fluttered over to sit on my shoulder, “It’s so big! There must be lots of people here.”

I actually cracked a smile at her excitement. “Yeah there are millions of people in this city. I wouldn’t want to live here myself but it is nice to visit once in a while. I guess you’ve never been off the Island before. You said you never had much interaction with humans?”

“No, that’s why I volunteered to help find you and show you to the Glove. I had never been out of the forest before but I was curious about where you humans lived,” she responded as she continued to stare out at the city.

“Well we’re going out there today, Mom is taking me shopping as a girl so I guess today we’ll both be getting a whole new world of experiences. “ I said, thinking that Dani was probably getting the better part of the deal. “If you’re interested in coming with us that is,” I quickly added.

“Can I?!” her eyes became huge in her tiny face.

“Sure,” I said, shrugging. The movement jostled her a bit but she didn’t seem to mind. “Just make sure the Norms don’t see you and try to stay with us.”

“Oh don’t worry, they can only see me if I want them to.” Well I guess that explained Rick’s strange look at breakfast.

Mom chose that moment to join us, her purse in her hand, “Okay girls, let’s get going, we’re going to head to Metropolis Mall and we have a lot of work ahead of us.”

It was a lot of work, well for me anyway. Mom and Dani just mostly watched while for the next several hours we migrated from store to store in the massive mall and I tried on more clothes than I had in my sixteen years previous. Okay maybe it wasn’t that many but it sure felt like it. Mom insisted we start on the inside and work our way out, so the first store we went to was called Suki’s, which seemed to be wall-to wall intimate apparel.

I was quickly measured once we had hailed a salesgirl. It turned out my band size, whatever that meant, was a 28 and I was a C cup. The salesgirl gushed about what a nice figure I had and started inspecting the racks for various colors and styles of panty and bra sets in my size. I wanted something as plain and non girly as possible but it seemed like I would be out of luck here since everything was lacy and seemed to range from cute to sexy.

I automatically vetoed anything in pink, plum, lilac or any other girly colors and we settled on three sets in black and another three in white. Mom had me use their change room to change immediately into one of the white sets. The panties were actually comfortable and after the sports bra anything else would be a godsend up top, in fact I felt much better now that my breasts were properly supported without being squished. I still hated having them on my body but they could be bearable if I could at least be somewhat comfortable.

Next we trolled various stores in the mall which catered to clothes for teenage girls. Mom and Dani tried to talk me into some feminine clothes but I settled mostly on t-shirts and jeans, though I made sure I got some long-sleeved sweaters and hoodies that I could use to hide the Glove. By this point I was getting sick of salesgirls commenting on my lovely ‘slave bracelet’ as they called it, and asking where I had gotten it. Next we bought me a warm jacket and gloves, then it was off to the shoe store where I managed to escape with only a pair of sneakers, then finally we broke for lunch.

So far I had spent the whole shopping trip grumbling and saying things like, ‘I will absolutely not wear that.’ When I wasn’t doing either of those I was quiet, which had not gone unnoticed by my mother. As we sat down at a table in the food court with some Chinese food she spoke. “Natalie, I know this is hard for you and you do not want to jump in to all the girly stuff and I understand that, I’d probably feel the same in your place. In fact I think the only reason I’m not freaking out with you is because I need to help you adjust and learn what you need to. Really it’s not all that bad being female though.”

I sighed, putting my fork down as I looked up at my mother, “Mom, it’s not the girl stuff. I mean it’s not only the girl stuff. Yeah I’m depressed, scared and a little intimidated by my change but I have a couple other things on my mind too. Like what happens between Sarah and I? I can’t exactly be her Warden now can I?”

Mom covered my hand in hers, “No, probably not. Now that the Glove has bonded to you you’ll be learning to be a Witch yourself, you’ll both need Wardens someday. A Warden can just be a protector, a close friend though, not all Witches marry their Wardens. You and Sarah may not have the Witch/Warden relationship anymore and you may both be girls now but your futures, and whether you want to share them together, are up to the two of you to decide.”

“But what do we do to carry on our family lines? You’ve always said it’s important that we do that.” I looked up at her sadly.

Mom chuckled at that, “There’s always other ways for you and Sarah to have children, In fact now you can both have babies and carry on the Taylor and Poole names.”

At that I started to cough as I choked on my forkful of chow mein, “Mooooom. I just became a girl two days ago and now you want me thinking about having babies?”

She shook her head and squeezed my hand, “I was just answering your question sweetie. There is still hope for you and Sarah if you both still want it and who knows, maybe someday you’ll be comfortable enough with the new you that you might start thinking about children. All I am saying is don’t think about all the opportunities you think you’ve lost, think about what opportunities you still have and what new ones may opening up to you. If you think of this as a curse it will be one, so take your time and get used to things with an open mind and see if you can make it a gift instead.”

I thought about what she was trying to say. I may hate being a girl and I may be really uncomfortable with my body right now, but should I actually give it a chance and try to see the good in it? “But I don’t know how to be a girl,” I whined. It sounded lame even to me.

“That’s why I’m going to teach you,” she said. “Sarah will too if you ask, and it might even bring you both closer together. But really being a girl isn’t much different than being a boy when you set aside the body parts. You said it yourself at breakfast, you’re still the same Nathan inside. Being female doesn’t define you, you still decide who and what you will be it’s just that you have a few different possibilities now.”

“Yeah apparently I can have babies now.” I muttered, though I was beginning to see her point.

Mom chuckled, “Yes you can if it’s your choice to. Other than being female though there’s only one other thing you don’t have a choice in. You’ll have to start studying magic with me. The Glove is too dangerous for you to remain untrained even without the Glove, magic is too dangerous without the proper knowledge.”

I nodded, “Yeah I kinda figured that one out. But I guess I can see this as bonding time with my awesome mom. Thanks Mom, I may still not like this but I think if I can be a girl my own way then it might be easier to get used to. It’s not like I have a choice now but to give it my best shot.”

“That’s all I ask sweetie.” She looked me over but apparently wasn’t satisfied about my state of mind so she pressed, “You said there were a couple things bothering you. What else is on your mind?”

I blushed, taking a deep breath before speaking, “I had a bit of a nightmare last night. It shook me up a little,” I admitted. Then at her insistence I related my nightmare to her in as good a detail as I could remember, which was far more clearly than I would have liked. Finally I finished with a shudder as I remembered the sound of my neck snapping.

She frowned as she considered this. “You said that when you were in the cave it looked like great grandmother broker her neck when she fell?” At my nod she sighed, “Do you think that knowing that may have influenced your dreams?”

“No.” I shook my head to emphasize that as I stared at the Glove peeking out from beneath my sleeve. “I don’t think so, I hardly even remembered that until you reminded me just now. I don’t think it was enough to let my imagination run with it. Besides it felt so real, too real actually.”

Her frown deepened at that, “We’ll need to let the Coven know about this. I don’t think it was just a simple nightmare. I hate to ask this of you sweetie but do you think you and Jason can find that cave again? Grandmother deserves a decent burial and there may be some clues there.”

I nodded, though I was a bit uneasy about returning there with everything that happened there, especially since my nightmare. “I think we can Mom.”

Dandelion looked up from her seat on the edge of the table. “I’ll go with you and when we reach the cave I’ll go and talk to her Majesty, that dream could be important. I hope I can remember it all.”

“I could always write it down if that would help.” I offered.

The Pixie nodded her head quickly as she beamed at me. “That’s a good idea.”

Mom nodded, “I think your father and I will go with you back to the cave, Rick and Gwen as well if we can manage it. Until further notice I don’t want you going into the woods without some sort of protection.”

I made a face at that, “I can take care of myself Mom, I was training to be a Warden.”

She shook her head, giving me a look that made it clear she would not be argued with, “You’re still getting used to your new body and you’re an untrained Witch with a powerful Artifact. You are NOT going out into the woods without protection, especially after that dream of yours.” That was the end of the discussion and we quickly finished our lunch so we could resume my torture.

Following lunch we used the restrooms just off the food court, where my mother had to gently remind me to use the ladies room rather than the men’s. The two really aren’t all that different aside from the ladies room having more stalls and no urinals. Then she dragged me into Icing, a store by the food court which had a lot of girly accessories. There we bought make-up suitable for my coloring, a purse to keep my things in and lastly a pair of earrings. I of course told her I didn’t need any of this stuff but she insisted this was stuff a normal teenage girl would have. When I pointed out that I didn’t even have pierced ears she just smiled and told me that was the whole reason were there. When we left the store I had a purse, make-up, and two more holes I didn’t want in my body.

Our next stop after that was one of the large chain drug stores where the torture took on a more psychological flavor. There we bought all the lotions, potions and self-care products that a modern teenage girl required. Instead of paying for everything herself this time, mom handed me her credit card and had me pay while she waited on a bench outside. I hadn’t even noticed she had put the tampons and sanitary napkins in the basket until I was unloading it at the checkout.

Moments later as I emerged from the store carrying the bags with my face beet red I handed my mom her credit card as I glared at her. “Mom that was just cruel. I know you’re trying to help make sure I adjust to this all, but that was just a little much.”

She raised an eyebrow at me as she accepted her card. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, you’re a young woman and it’s completely normal for women to buy those products. You need to get used to that and you might as well do it now rather than when you absolutely need to.”

“I’d rather have waited ‘til I needed them, or better yet not have to do it at all,” I muttered. “And you could have at least taken Dani with you, she kept asking what things were for and it was distracting enough without you throwing those into the mix. Not to mention embarrassing.”

“I guess you’re right,” she admitted, “I should have asked her to come with me.”

I sighed as I sat down beside her. “All these bags are getting heavy Mom, so are there any other stops on the torture tour or can we head back to the hotel?”

She chuckled at that, “There’s nothing else we need to do, no.” She looked away as she said it and there was a bit of sadness in her voice.

“There’s something you’d like to do though, isn’t there?” I asked, looking at her and feeling a little bad for my constant attitude today when she was just doing her best to help me adapt. I tried giving her a smile, “Mom I know I’ve been a bit of a jerk today, it’s nothing to do with you though. You’ve been great and I appreciate you doing this with me even if I don’t like ll the girly stuff and I have no idea how we’re going to afford…”

She stopped me there with a raised hand, “Don’t worry about how we’re going to afford this. Helen knew you were going to need a new wardrobe and such so she sent over a fairly generous donation to get you set up in your new life. There’s plenty there for more clothes when we get home too. Right now we’re just buying enough so we can say we got you some things while we were here to replace some of what you lost in the fire and give you something for school.”

I thought about that for a moment, “That’s a bit of a relief; I thought we were draining your retirement fund or something. Its bad enough you had to close the store while we’re here. But like I was saying, you’ve been great through this and if there’s something you want to do, please tell me. The worst I can do is say I’d rather not.”

Mom leaned over and kissed me on the cheek, “Thank you sweetie. When I turned sixteen and came into my magic, your grandmother and I spent a day out on the town shopping and having fun, much like you and I are even though it’s not much fun for you. Afterwards we got dressed up nice and had our picture taken together and then went out for dinner.” She sighed as she turned away, “I always wanted to have a day like that with my own daughter once she came into her abilities. After you were born and we found out I couldn’t have any more children I gave up on that.”

I bit my lip as I considered this, “So that’s the picture of you and grandma above the fireplace?” She nodded and I thought for a moment before asking, “Do you think there’s room for another one beside it?”

“I think that could be arranged,” she replied, carefully looking away.

I leaned against her, “Let’s go get something nice to wear then, just please no dresses or skirts.”

Something nice to wear turned out to be a pair of loose black dress pants for girls and a white chemise with a charcoal grey cardigan over top. The pants were a bit billowy and looked a bit like a long skirt when I was sitting but they were comfortable and not a skirt so I was okay with that. The chemise and cardigan weren’t that different from a guy’s dress shirt and sweater so overall the outfit was bearable. The only thing I really complained about was the black ballet flats, but since they were comfortable and didn’t have a heel I let Mom talk me into them.

So with me dressed in my new, only slightly girly, finery and my mom wearing a nice dark blue sweater dress we went to a portrait studio in the mall and got our picture taken together. I even smiled for the picture, though that was mostly due to Dani trying to encourage me from behind the photographer. The sight of the twelve inch pixie imitating my frowning, and then using her fingers to force a smile out if it, just seemed funny to me for some reason.

Since we would have to wait an hour before the photo studio would have our photos ready we left the studio to find a nice restaurant for dinner. The mall was staring to fill up with teenagers looking to do some after school mall trolling at this point and I was getting more appreciative looks from guys than I was comfortable with. Mom seemed to notice my discomfort and took my hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “You’ll get used to it in time sweetie.”

We managed to find a fairly nice restaurant after window shopping our way halfway across the mall. The Silver Spoon was a fairly upscale fine dining restaurant, well as upscale as any restaurant inside a mall can be. It was a nice place anyway and out of most teenagers’ price range so I was able to eat without being ogled too much. Mom and I chatted over dinner, a delicious fettuccine Alfredo, and she gave me my first pointers in acting more ladylike. I tried not to complain too much and let her have her moment, she deserved. it.

Once dinner was done we made our way back to the photo studio to pick up our pictures. They turned out pretty well and there was an eight by ten for above the fireplace and a sheet of wallet sizes so we could both have one to keep in our purses as well as some to give to Rick, Dad and anyone else we might want to give one to. With our shopping done and the photos claimed we called a cab to head back to the hotel since we had so many bags and we had almost lost Dani once already on the sky train.

Once we were back at the hotel room Mom began her girl boot camp. I was coached on how to sit properly, style my hair in different ways, shave my legs and under arms, take proper care of my skin nails, and hair, and various other things most girls take for granted. There were also lessons on make-up and the use of those feminine hygiene products we had bought. I didn’t think I would ever use the former, and I dreaded the day I’d have to use the latter, but Mom insisted I needed to know these things.

When we finally got into bed for some rest I was exhausted and my head was spinning from all the stuff Mom was trying to cram into my head. Despite how tired I was I had troubles falling asleep. Even once I did I was plagued with dreams of Pixies chasing me with bras and skirts, boys staring at me as I stood helplessly in all my naked glory, and worst of all a certain red-handed fellow with pointed ears and dressed like a soldier chasing me through the woods. At the last I woke up screaming.

Mom and Dani were at my side in moments. “Are you okay?” the Pixie asked, her little face filled with concern.

Mom was sitting beside me, “You were tossing and turning for a while there sweetie, did you have a bad dream?

I nodded, staring down at the blankets as I sat there shivering. “Yeah I had some weird ones, and then I dreamt Ly Erg was chasing me through the woods.”

Mom sat closer, putting her arms around me, “It’s okay sweetie, it wasn’t real. Was it like the first dream with him?”

I shook my head. “No, it didn’t feel real like last time, I think it was just a normal nightmare. That last one must have scared me even more than I thought.” Mom held me until I finally fell back to sleep.

The next day was spent going around the city and playing tourist so I could get used to being seen as a girl in public. I had been to Vancouver several times in the past so the only real tourist amongst us was Dandelion. She was eager to know all that she could though and her enthusiasm helped me to relax and almost forget about my gender as Mom and I described various landmarks and areas of the city to her and took in the sights.

It became a bit harder to not think about my new gender after the schools let out for the day and I started to get more looks from interested teenage boys. I was really glad I was with my mom since I figured that was what was keeping them from hitting on me. As it was I was seriously considering getting a t-shirt with the word ‘Lesbian’ written across the chest, but I figured that might just make some boys take even more of an interest in me.

Eventually we returned to our hotel, had a quiet dinner in our room, and found a movie to watch on television. While we watched Mom called home and let Rick know to pick us up the following afternoon. I don’t remember falling asleep but the next thing I knew I was waking up cuddled next to my mom with Dani once again tangled in my hair. Seeing that the alarm clock in the room signaled it was four in the morning I said the hell with it and went back to sleep without disturbing either of them.

After another morning of playing at being tourists we had a nice lunch in a café in gas town before going to Harbour Park to relax while we waited for Rick to arrive with the plane. Dani enjoyed watching some small children play while Mom and I went over my story in case anyone at school pressed me for details about Natalie’s non-existent past. It seems Natalie was a good kid, got good grades, and since she was a bit of a tomboy and studied pretty hard she never had any relationships.

Rick arrived at our designated meeting spot just after three thirty and was immediately put to work helping to carry most of my new things back to the plane. I didn’t make him carry it all since, girl or not, I still had two perfectly useful arms. It was not long after that we were in the air and on our way home where my life as Natalie would soon begin.