The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 7 (of 11), Gabrielle deals with some unfinished business regarding her friend, while the friend has some unfinished business of her own. The odd pair are like two peas in a pod in so many ways. *sigh*

Chapter 7

The first order of business in Roggzer was to deal with the basics. There was something Gabrielle had put off until they reached civilization but now she felt it was important, if awkward. She taught Targ about feminine hygiene.

The new woman blushed furiously but took her lessons well. She knew it was necessary. She just wished she didn't have to consider so many things. Being a woman was more complicated than being a man.

The next thing on the list was a name change.

"Targ?" Gabrielle asked.

"Yes?"

"Are any women called Targ?"

"No."

"You need a new name."

Targ thought she couldn't be surprised again after her hygiene lessons but she was wrong. She surprised herself that she hadn't realized her name was no longer appropriate. It might be odd and even a little dangerous if anyone she knew recognized any of her possessions and heard her being called Targ. How would she explain that?

Her friend's speech was still crude but the point was made. Targ did need a new name. The only problem was, she couldn't think of one. She spent several minutes trying to think of one and came up empty. Luckily, Gabrielle had given the idea some thought.

"May I call you Marie?"

Marie was one of the queen's favorite names, and it held no emotional baggage. She'd never known anyone else by that name. She just thought it was pretty and that it suited her new friend. The tall woman gave her friend a hopeful look and Targ could only nod.

Gabrielle squealed with joy, but then it was her turn to be surprised.

"May I call you another name?" her friend asked. "A short name?"

The queen had heard of several nicknames for Gabrielle but she'd always preferred to be called by her full name. It sounded more professional to her ear and more appropriate for a queen. Here in Agrin, she wasn't a queen so there was no reason not to consider the request for a name change. Besides, she always thought one nickname was particularly cute.

"Call me Gabi," she said.

So it was, that on that early morning in Roggzer, two women named Gabi and Marie started their day in the big city.

* * *

The first stop was at Marie's modest one-storied house about half a league from the inn. She hadn't made a lot of money in the city militia but she worked hard enough to get that house and she was proud of it.

It was difficult for the new woman to enter and would be even more difficult to leave. She had a lot of fond memories of living in that house and this would likely be the last time she'd ever see it.

With more than a few embarrassing tears, the small brunette rummaged around, looking for something useful. She first broke into her hidden stash of coins. She didn't have much but every little bit helped. They'd still have to buy some things for their journey.

There were few clothes to be salvaged as most were far too large to fit. She kept her formerly small leather jacket. It could serve as a trench coat to shed the heavy rains. The only other useful articles were socks and a leather belt that she tried on. The belt nearly wrapped around her twice but it could be secured.

Marie looked at her meager wardrobe and groaned, realizing that at least some of the shopping she'd be doing would be to buy clothes for herself. She cheered up though when she saw that some of her clothes would be a fairly good fit for Gabi, and she had fun dressing Gabi up in some of her more colorful tunics. The tall woman wouldn't remove her leather armor but that just made the tunics fit better.

Some of her knickknacks and other decorative items had sentimental value but most of them were breakable or too cumbersome to carry out into the wilderness. There was only one thing she'd let herself keep. It was a stuffed toy rabbit named Ribbles. Her mother had given it to her as a boy and she kept it all these years in spite of being teased about it. She kept the ragged toy because it meant a great deal to her. It would always remind her of her loving mother.

The weapons and armor were saved for last since she thought they'd be a lost cause, but when she went through them, she had to suppress a squeal of happiness. She'd almost forgotten about her long dagger. The dagger was nearly the length of a short sword and it would certainly come in handy since she could handle it easily enough. She slid it back in its sheath and tucked it into her belt. How interesting that yesterday's castoffs could become today's hand-me-downs.

After going through everything in the house, she started pulling items out of their bag of goodies to do a final inventory. She wanted to see what they had and what they still needed to buy. When Gabi's possessions were added to the pile, she saw there were several duplicate items, things they didn't need to carry all the way from their camp site. That was unfortunate but at least they could leave the extras now. She set them aside until she got to the two large swords. She had to do something about her family sword.

As the two of them packed up again, she stopped Gabi from taking her sword, The tall woman gave her a concerned look but she held firm. She didn't know exactly how to communicate the reasons so she just tried one word that Gabi knew: Family. Gabi sadly nodded and didn't question her again.

A lot would be left in the house but she was still pleasantly surprised at all the things the two of them would be able to keep and use. She gave a last quick look around and with a heavy sigh, attended to one more task she had to perform. She had a good-bye note to write.

A note would have to be left for her brother, Marcus, to find, and in it, she'd explain that she had to leave on a mysterious mission and might never return. Marcus could take the family sword and he'd be welcome to take anything else that was left. He was also instructed to sell the house since he couldn't afford to keep it, and he was encouraged to gently break the news to their mother. Writing that note was the hardest thing she'd ever done.

She'd miss her family. Even if she could get them to believe it, she didn't think they could handle her gender change so she sadly let them go along with her house. She locked the door and walked away without a backwards glance, leaving her little house to start a new life with Gabi.

* * *

Being with Marie was never dull, especially in that small house. The small brunette could easily make Gabi laugh one minute and cry the next, and when Gabi watched her friend go through the house, the mood swings were plentiful. Trying on Marie's male clothing had been fun and got a few laughs out of both of them. The dagger was a good find too. The rest of the time wasn't so happy though, and the note was the worst of it.

The tearstained letter was obviously a good-bye note of some sort, though Gabi couldn't read a word of it. She wanted to ask about it but thought it would be better to do so at a much later date when the emotional wound was well-healed. For now, she would see about distracting her friend with some shopping, something she was anxious to get started. They still had a lot to do before they'd be ready to leave the city.

Before they could start shopping, they had a quick detour to a large building with dozens of doors, each with a unique identifying symbol on it. Her small friend went to one of the doors and slipped the house key under it. Gabrielle wanted to ask who lived there but stopped when her friend suddenly hugged her tightly. That subject would have to be put off along with the good-bye note. The two things were obviously related.

* * *

The two young women soon found themselves in one of the many shopping districts of the city. An endless row of small shops lined the narrow cobblestone streets, with inventory that overflowed outside. Gabi had never seen anything like it. The sight was much different from shopping days in the public square back home.

The tall woman didn't need any clothes. She wore one of Marie's tunics over her leathers and was good to go. She also kept a couple of spare tunics as they were a convenient style and the size. The colors were nice too. She favored the solid blues, greens and purples that seemed to be popular with Marie and the majority of the citizens.

Clothes shopping went well and Marie was mostly happy. She had mixed feelings when they purchased a feminine undergarment to restrain her average-sized breasts, but she liked the long-sleeved white blouse, leather pants and soft leather boots. She was a lot more comfortable wearing clothes that fit her well and happy not to have her breasts bouncing all over the place. The curvy brunette apparently looked a lot better too. She got more attention than ever, including many furtive glances from her tall friend. The blatant staring continued to bother her but she found herself liking the attention when it was Gabi doing the looking.

Backpacks were another necessity. As Targ, she never bothered with one, but a pack was much better for carrying a large load than a bag slung over her shoulder. Her days of being a big, strong man were over.

The backpacks were handy but the small woman still fussed over how much they had to carry. She didn't want Gabi to have to shoulder most of the burden so she loaded herself up. Though her body was greatly weakened, her resolve wasn't. She was determined to get back into fighting shape and pull her own weight.

At least her purse was lighter, she noted while hefting the small bag of coins. They'd spent well over half of the money and it wasn't even midday yet. She planned to buy some provisions for their journey and hopefully have a little left over for emergencies. Unfortunately, the items they'd be buying would more than outweigh the spent coins. Her leg muscles would be getting a lot of exercise over the coming days.

Gabi thought about buying food but she was happy to leave it for last. Their load was heavy enough without it while they stayed in the city. She figured they'd need something extra to eat before they got clear of the suburbs and could forage in the wilderness.

She wasn't sure what, if anything, that Marie was looking for at the moment so she just followed her friend around while trying to keep an eye out for books. The distracted queen hoped to see a book so she could point it out. She hadn't learned enough words to be sure about how to communicate the idea of a book.

The streets were too full of people and carts to walk side-by-side so Gabi had to follow behind, and as she did so, she almost missed a book shop because she was mesmerized by her friend's swaying rear. It must have been her lucky charm saving her once again because she caught a glimpse of the shop's front window display out of the corner of her eye.

"Marie! Please stop."

Her friend turned around and gave her a questioning look. Gabi simply pointed at the book shop and motioned for her to follow her inside.

New and old books of all shapes and sizes filled all available space in the musty old shop. They were stood up or stacked on wooden shelves and narrow tables that were spaced very closely together, making the most of the limited amount of room. Off to one side, almost hidden by several stacks of books, sat a tired looking old man in drab clothes, cautiously eyeing his two potential customers. He didn't get nearly as much business as he'd like since only about half the city was literate, but he loved books so he stubbornly kept the shop. Guessing that the two women weren't likely to buy anything, he went back to his reading.

As the tall woman excitedly looked around her, she soon remembered a serious problem. She couldn't read the language of the land. She'd have to depend on Marie.

"Magic? Here?" Gabi asked with a hopeful smile, pointing around at different books.

Marie shrugged and had a look around. The shop wasn't well organized. There were no signs that listed subjects or authors. The only help was that books on similar subjects were generally stacked or placed on the shelves together. The small woman wasn't happy about the use of time but she trusted her friend and began scanning the shelves.

The tall woman looked around for books with drawings while Marie did the reading, and it was a good thing she was tall enough to see the top books on all the stacks. Her good luck continued when she found a very old looking book with a diagram of something on the cover. The diagram consisted of several little objects all connected by lines. It looked like it might be a map of some kind so she took it over to show her friend.

"Circuit schematics," Marie said, reading the title of the book out loud.

The puzzled woman skimmed through the paper-thin plastic pages of the book and found several more diagrams that looked somewhat like the one on the cover. She simply shrugged and took it over to ask the shop owner about it. He shrugged as well and said, "Magic."

The two women perked up when she heard him say that, and Marie hurried back to the stack where Gabi got the book. The small woman handed the circuit book to Gabi and read through the titles on the spines of the other books in the stack.

The anxious queen held her breath as she watched her friend read, finally exhaling when she saw it would take more than a couple minutes. She absently thumbed through the book she held while she waited and was surprised by the durable plastic pages. She'd never seen such a thing. The books of her world all had rather fragile paper pages. Plastic itself was magical to her and she found herself drawn to other books in the shop.

The plastic books were actually an attempt to salvage the knowledge of the ancients and save it for a greatly extended period of time. The makers of the books knew any form of electronic book would be worthless in a society with no electricity so they used the longest-lasting materials they could think of to create old-fashioned books. It was too bad much of their effort was in vain.

Many of the people of Agrin could still read in the current age, but the knowledge in the technical books was far beyond them. They had no hope of saving the practical application of such knowledge after the great economic upheaval two centuries ago. Millions died during that dark time and there was no way to save the learning institutions. People spent too much of their time and energy on survival.

Scholars sadly watched society crumble as their peers died one by one and took their knowledge with them. It was a dark time indeed, and from it, rose the current, fairly primitive civilization that was pretty much limited to using some of the advanced materials and items people found in the rubble of history.

While looking through a book with drawings of animals, Gabi felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Marie looking very pleased as she held up a book. The book was opened to a page with two maps of the area south of Roggzer. One map was large scale and the other zoomed in to a small area within the larger scale map. It looked interesting but again, the well-educated queen still couldn't read the writing that went along with the maps.

"Find magic?" Gabi asked after scanning the pages.

Marie nodded vigorously and impulsively grabbed her friend for a quick hug while still holding the book.

For the first time since she arrived on Agrin, Gabi was optimistic about her chances for getting home, but she still was taking no chances. She wanted to continue learning as much as she could about the alien world while she was here. In the book she'd been looking at, she pointed out the picture of the large animal that attacked her on her first night and asked what it was called.

"Mogron," her friend said.

Gabi learned several other words, including the word for book. Then they spent most of the remaining money on the book with the maps and left to go to the great market.

* * *

The market was an immense circular arrangement of tents and carts that were mostly crammed with fresh food and drink of every kind. It was set up once every seven days in an open area that was reserved for it, and it was one of four markets that circled the city, each one about halfway between the center and the suburbs.

The two women wound their way through the crooked streets to the southern market -- since they were to travel to the south in search of magic when they finished shopping -- and Gabi found herself increasing her pace as they got closer. Before the tops of the nearest tents came into view, she had passed her friend and practically panted with anticipation. She tried not to get her hopes up but she was excited about the possibility of finding cocoa. Thoughts of her favorite hot drink had plagued her for far too long and she sought relief.

The hopeful queen wanted to believe her good luck could continue. She planned to scour the market for cocoa. She couldn't describe the exotic item so she was on her own, and she still had no idea whether it even existed on Agrin, but she had to try.

When they finally arrived, the queen wasn't impressed with either the quality or the variety of the merchandise. Occasionally, the pair would stumble across in interesting item though. One merchant actually had several longswords in his cart and Gabi's eyes lit up. They didn't have nearly enough money to buy one but she thought she might have a way.

"Marie?" Gabi asked as she pointed to the mogron claw necklace she wore. "Give it for sword?" She was trying to ask about the trade value of the necklace.

Marie understood and laughed her delightful little laugh again. The small brunette shook her head. "Many mogrons. No coins." Telling her disappointed friend that the necklace was worthless. Then she blushed.

"What is it?" Gabi asked.

"Please throw away necklace. It is not pretty."

It was the tall woman's turn to blush after being told she was wearing ugly jewelry. She wished she would've realized it earlier. The necklace was soon left hanging from a cart for some lucky young boy to find and the mogron teeth were scattered on the ground when no one was looking.

After nearly two hours of walking, the tall woman came up empty-handed. She couldn't find any of her beloved cocoa and she looked so dejected.

Marie felt very bad about whatever it was her friend couldn't find but she frowned and shook her head when Gabi asked about the possibility of going to the other markets. They didn't have time. She wanted to leave within the hour.

Hunger began to gnaw at the pair so they bought some cheap but filling snacks to eat on the road and drank their fill of water from one of the many community wells. That's when something caught Marie's eye.

The small woman couldn't help notice that Gabi frequently fussed with her hair and always seemed unhappy with the results. So when Marie saw a woman selling hair care products, she couldn't resist. She wanted to cheer her friend up with something so she used the last of the money to buy a hair brush and turtle shell comb. It would've been nice to have a little left over money for emergencies but her friend's current state of mind meant more to her.

The sniffling queen sniffled even more in her attempt to hold back the tears when she saw the gifts. She almost considered refusing the brush and comb, feeling that she didn't deserve such a luxury, but then realized the irony. She'd been searching a long time for just such a luxury item so she accepted them after all. They'd help to make up for not finding any cocoa.

With a last check of their supplies, the two women filled some containers with as much water as they dared carry. The land to the south was dry for more than a dozen leagues so they'd definitely need it. Then they set off on their journey with a good six hours of daylight left.

The road that led from the market out of the city was fairly straight and wide. The city planners built it that way to accommodate market traffic, making it very convenient for the odd pair. Most everyone was still very busy at the market so the two women walked side-by-side out of the city with almost no traffic to impede them.

As they walked, Gabi wished she had an excuse to follow behind her friend again, and found herself daydreaming about Marie's seductive rear end swaying back and forth. She wanted to see more. The temptation to lag behind was almost too great until she shook her head to snap herself out of it. Why did Marie have to be so attractive?!

She had to remind herself that it was her own fault. The more emotional she became when she used her magic, the more feminine her male targets became. She tried to kill Marie's male self out of anger and desperation so it was no wonder that the small brunette was so beautiful. All Gabi could do was laugh at herself after that. She'd maintain focus when she had to and would stop to appreciate beauty when the opportunity arose. Looking at it that way, a beautiful traveling companion wasn't such a bad thing.