Jane's first week as a girl passed in something of a Blur. Her mother delighted in having a daughter. She filled Jane's days with lessons in cooking, sewing and the other skills of hearth and home. By week's end they had sewed an entire set of everyday clothes including a shift, dress and kirtle. They were plain for the moment but her mum was already talking of embroidery, just as soon as she had a second set sewn.

Jane pricked her fingers dozens of times, and would have packed it in entirely if not for Becca. The old gang would never go back to what it was. Paul had avoided her all week, no small feat in a village the size of Lambford. And George still couldn't exchange two sentences with her without getting tongue tied. But she had a new kinship with Becca.

The morning sun didn't reach Jane's loft. But the heat did. It soaked through the shingles, many of which John had repaired the previous summer. The loft would grow hot soon, and Jane was already feeling queer. a lump of pain sat in her stomach and her skin felt clammy.

Jane cast off her light sheet. Underneath, her shift was dark red from the waist down. She looked at the mess; her hands pawing at the sticky fabric then she screamed.

Mom's head poked up at the top of the ladder. "Jane, dear whatever is the matter?"

"I'm bleeding," Jane squeaked. Pointing at her bloodied shift.

Mum sighed, "I was hoping we would have a little more time."

"this can't be normal, I need, druid Starskie, but he hates me, and there's no other doctor."she said in one breath, then gulped air.

"No dear, you are not dying." Her mum said, her voice calm. "It would seem you have reached your flowering time, and that means we need to talk. Now, I'll warm some water, and get you a clean shift, you come down when you're ready."

By the time Jane descended on shaky legs the Hip bath was out again, and the giant copper kettle was hanging over the heather.

"shift off."

"Mum!"

Her mum sighed and moved to pull the bloodied shift up. "you've got nothing I haven't seen before, and your father won't be back till lunch."

Jane allowed her mum to undress her and stepped into the still empty bath. The blood coated her thighs, and even as she watched more oozed from her girl part. "what's a flowering time?"

"When a girl becomes a woman her body follows a cycle. Once every moon she bleeds. Don't worry it should stop in a couple of days. "

Jane gulped and stared at her mother. "This happens every moon! But why?"

Mother poured a bucketful of steaming water. "No one knows exactly, but it has something to do with having children. Once the cycle stops a woman can no longer have any."

Jane wiped herself off with a clean damp rag, which until a few days ago, had been one of John's shirts. She sighed as the dried blood dissolved off her skin.

There was a knock on the door. "Hello, Its only me." Becca called from outside.

"Come in dear," Jane's Mum said.

Becca waddled across the room. her blonde hair was already escaping its braids and her face was red and puffy looking, just from walking across the village. Even at her new reduced height Jane was still taller than her friend. At five feet tall and ready to give birth any day now, Becca looked alarmingly large. She only glanced at Jane before sitting down beside the kitchen table, "It will be a hot day."

"Hello, I'm naked over here, could you?" Jane said, gesturing for Becca to turn around.

"Honestly Jane, we used to swim together in the creek every summer." she said, slipping her feet out of her clogs and resting them on a second chair. She looked down at her belly "I hope these two come out soon, Its getting hard to carry them, and I can't go a glass without needing the chamber pot."

"Jane's flowering." her mother said as she set a smaller kettle over the fire for tea.

Jane turned her back on the room and finished cleaning herself up, then grabbed the clean shift and pulled it over her head. "What am I supposed to do for the rest of the day? I promised Mr Brewster I'd help with the caravan coming through this evening."

"So you do it." Her mum said.

"But I'm bleeding from places I didn't even have a week ago."

"That's why we need to finish a few more shifts, You'll want a fresh one this evening I expect. Anyway why don't you finish dressing, we'll have some breakfast then you and Becca can head on over to the tavern."

Dressed and feeling clean Jane sat at the table, eating bread and cheese. Beside her Becca grinned over her steaming cup of ginger tea. "You know there is a way to make your flowering go away for most of a year."

"How?"

Becca's grin grew even wider, and she patted her belly, then lent in to whisper in Jane's ear, "all you have to do is find a boy and."

'Ew!" Jane said and shuddered. She had wondered about her own romantic interests. Before the trip down the well she'd sort of maybe had a thing for Sam Skinner. But Sam hadn't been interested even before she became a girl. In any case she had been interested in girls. In her head Jane was still a boy, well mostly, and the idea of doing that with another boy. Jane shuddered again and glared at Becca.

Besides which there weren't any choices in Lambford even if she had been interested. Paul was out, for obvious reasons, and Becca had already claimed George. That left Darren Miller as the only boy around her age. The boy was dull as a plank, always had been and always would be.

"I'm never having children." Jane said, then bit into her bread.

Her mother patted her head in passing, "We'll see dear, after all you're still adjusting to your changes, not that I'm in a rush to become a grandmother. I'd have to get a cane and complain about the weather."

"Mum, you do complain about the weather, every wash day." Jane said with her mouth full.

After breakfast Jane chased Becca away from the dirty dishes and took them outside herself. The messy chore was best done in the garden, in a bucket, rather than inside where splashes would go on the floorboards.

She grabbed her satchel from the back of the door and slung it over her shoulder. The satchel was new. Made of oiled linen and spelled to keep water out it was a sturdy thing with thick leather straps and brass buckles. She bought it from a caravan heading up to Hillfort just four days ago.

"You're bringing supplies to do the dishes?" Becca said.

Jane hadn't left the cottage without it ever since she bought it. Inside she had her tiara, a skin of water, a vile of strength potion and three vials of healing lotion. She'd bought the vials from Agness Miller and taken over the kitchen to brew up her Sorrel and Mudcaps. "You never know when a rampaging wererat will attack."

"Is there even such a thing as a wererat?" Becca said.

Jane scanned the area as they emerged from the cottage, looking up and down the creek for any signs of trouble, there was no sign of wererats. They set on the step, and Jane washed the dishes, soaping them up in one bucket , then rinsing them in a second, half filled with clean water. In the wood shop across the yard her father was explaining the proper way to hold a broad axe when squaring timber. The familiar sound of the axe splitting divots off a log followed.

Jane washed the breakfast dishes. It was a familiar chore which had been her's for years and didn't take much thinking. Becca settled beside her, with her legs stretched out straight. "I'm going to need help getting up when you're done."

"That's not bad." Jane's father said in the wood shop, his voice loud enough to be heard over the chopping. Who was he instructing so calmly? It hadn't been like that when John was learning. His time in the wood shop was always tense.

Jane had tried to pick up her old life after her trip down the well. It had not worked out well. The first morning, still dressed in her mum's good clothes she'd gone into the workshop. They were making a simple set of shelves, which required blind dado joints. Then they would slide the shelves in from the back and wedge them in place.

After hours of struggling with the chisel and giving herself multiple cuts, she cracked the stop. Hours of work wasted with one tap of the mallet. Her transformation had cost her not only the wood crafting skill but valuable upper body strength.

Father had had enough and after berating her for the best part of a glass he declared that the wood shop was no place for a girl. This left him with no apprentice, and Jane with not much to do. Mum had solved Jane's idleness, and now her father had a new apprentice.

"OK Darren, why don't you take a break." Her father said. Moments later Darren emerged from behind the cherry tree. On seeing Jane and Becca his ears turned bright red, "Hi Jane. I'm sort of working for your Dad now, I hope you don't mind."

"No, it's fine. Dad and I didn't work well together. Especially after," she said waving a hand at the plain brown kirtle she was wearing over her dress.

"You, look real pretty." Darren said, then turned even redder. He stood there, opening and closing his mouth like a confused carp.

Jane's muscles locked. It was hard to breathe as she stared at Darren. It was the first time a boy had called her pretty. She should say something she supposed as she stared at the boy. He was growing an alarming shade of red.

Becca poked her in the side, and leaned in towards her, "Say something before he bursts."

"Thanks, Darren, I've got to go." She said, grabbing Becca's hand and dragging her up away from the cottage, so fast the pregnant girl had to jog to keep up.

"Jane, slow down. you know you left the dishes outside right?" Becca puffed, "and why is your broom following us?"

Jane looked over her shoulder at the broom, which was floating with its bristles a few inches off the ground, and drifting along a few yards behind them. With a sigh she let go of Becca and stomped back to it.

The moment her fingers touched it the magic holding it up dissipated. Broom in hand Jane resumed walking towards the village green, at a more leasurly pace this time. "This thing has a mind of its own I swear, If it wants to tag along, I best let it. You should have seen Dad try to go after it with the axe."

"Why did he do that?"

"Well, your granddad, said sorcery's evil, and Dad thought if he could get rid of the broom, all this would go away." Jane said, twirling the broom. She walked backwards for a moment, then spun around doing a fancy twirl and thrust. "He gave up after a glass, now he glares at it whenever he gets home. What was that about with Darren?"

"Think about it Jane, he's your father's apprentice."

"So what?"

"That's practically family, and when a man with unmarried daughters takes on an apprentice, you know what that means?"

"Gods? You think that Darren thinks? No way, I mean he's been mooning over Sam for years." she said as they ambled towards the village green, where several women where gathered round the fountain, buckets, ready for filling about their feet.

Jane drifted towards the group, her eyes on the fountain. The key stone on still bothered her. Why would someone bother to put dead runes on a magic stone? Worse yet there was something familiar about this magic, like Jane had seen it before.

"What have we here," Sam said, her tone frosty, "Is that John Greenway wearing a dress! How pathetic."

"Um, hi Sam." Jane said, looking at the younger girl. Sam had been on Jane's side, pretty well since that first day, so her sudden hostility was unexpected.

She had her nose wrinkled as if she smelt something foul, and made a gesture against black magic in Jane's direction. "Keep away from me you cross dressing freak."

"I'm not cross dressing, I really am a girl." Jane said, shifting and crossing her legs as she felt blood oozing down her inner thigh. Gods this would be an uncomfortable day.

Sam poked her shoulder with her finger, pushing forward with each poke.

"So you say, but how are we to know that. How are we to know you changed all the way? What if the curse was old and left you half and half?"

"Ew gross and no I'm all girl." Jane said. the sound of someone clearing their throat made her turn around.

While they were talking to Sam, a stranger had arrived. It was a woman, who looked a couple of years older, and at least a foot taller, than Jane. Copper hair tied in dozens of thin braids framed her rounded face. It wasn't that she was fat, far from it. It was just that her cheeks where full and dusted with freckles. Most strikingly she was wearing boys clothes, a tight fitting leather tunic that didn't even reach her knees and leather leggings. At her waist was a slender dagger in a leather scarab that matched her tunic in design.

"Oh, Hi Miss Hilldale." Becca said, "Were you looking for something?"

The woman smiled, making her cheeks dimple prettily. She circled the fountain, kicking the stones."I heard tell of a fountain, and I see I have found it. A neat bit of stonework, and it's magic they say."

"Yes Miss," Becca said bobbing a curtsy. "The water is always cool in summer and it never freezes in winter."

"Well, I've seen the sights of Lambford. Could one of you direct me to the druid's grove?"

Becca curtsied again, then pointed left. "if you follow that street back to the Mill road Miss, you'll come out right across from the grove."

"Thank's Becca, and I thought I told you to call me Hanna."

"Mr Brewster doesn't like me getting too familiar with guests Miss."

Hanna Hilldale, nodded at that. Jane wasn't sure if it was just her imagination but the adventurer seemed to frown when their eyes met. Then she was off. She looked shapely from behind too, with the way the hem of the tunic flicked from side to side as she walked.

Becca, tugged on her arm. When Jane bent towards her, Becca whispered into her ear, "The way you're staring Jane, people would think you're still a boy."

"You don't think?"

Becca giggled and dragged her towards the right-hand path that lead to the Brewster's. "I saw you in the hip bath just this morning, so no I don't think that. But you are drooling like a boy, now come on, the caravan could be here soon."

"I was not drooling, " Jane said as she stomped after her friend. "What's got into Samantha all of a sudden?"

"It's probably because of Darren, I mean he was flirting with you this morning."

Jane groaned. "Oh gods, does everybody think I will marry Darren, Its not happening!"

Becca just giggled and tugged her onward towards the Mill Road. They found Mrs Brewster at the outdoor kitchen where a row of freshly baked loaves cooled beside the earth oven. Mrs Brewster was a slender as her husband was large framed, leaving Paul somewhere in between. She wiped her hands on her apron and smiled up at them as they approached. "Well the bread is done, now it's just the lamb. Becca go sit down and rest your feet."

"But, I'm here to work."

"No buts, you'll work enough when the caravan arrives, now go rest. Now you Jane, see if that husband of mine needs help with his cakes. He's inside."

The Brewster's cottage was oversized, being almost twice as long as most. One half of it was a public room, with enough narrow tables and stools to seat half the village, though no one used it in the summer months. It was far more pleasant to sit out under the awnings.

Jane passed through the empty public room and rapped on the door in the back. "Mr Brewster it's me Jane."

He looked up from a concoction of ginger bread and cream he was layering together. Mr Brewster had accepted Jane's change of gender as a done deal. He treated her just the same now as he had treated John, and didn't even blink to see her in a dress, "Ah, perfect timing, Go see if there are any more preserved Cherries left in the root cellar."

A notification opened in front of Jane:

YOU HAVE BEEN OFFERED A QUEST. RETRIEVE THE PRESERVED CHERRIES. ACCEPT?