Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 17: Tour

“WHAT DO YOU want to wear today?” Hannah asked as she picked me up in just my diaper and walked to the wardrobe.

“That!” I said, pointing to the Sofia dress, unable to help myself!

“That is adorable!!!!!!” she cooed. It came with a ruffled diaper cover that I know Sofia didn’t have in the show, but it was cute. Once I was dressed, I decided it was a tiara day and used magic to put mine on.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Hannah set me on the floor on my own two feet, and we greeted Esmie again at the door.

“Hi,” Esmie said, “Umm, may we come in?”

“Sure,” Hannah said.

I watched the three girls’ eyes practically pop out of their heads a moment later. “Whoa!”

“Pretty!!!!” Esmie said.

“Sugar overload!” the third one said. “Esmie, this is like your room would be if we let you!”

“Pretty much! Except for the crib...?” Esmie mused.

“Hi, I’m Hannah,” she said to the other two we hadn’t met yet.

“I’m Camille,” a girl that was very beautiful and regal said, “I go by my codename Sora a lot, though.”

‘Oh, my Goddess, no way?’ Caireen spluttered in my head.

‘What?’

‘I’ll tell you later; just keep in mind she’s no one to be messed with.’

“I’m Sofia,” I added down on the lower level.

“And I’m Hailey,” the oldest girl with dark brown skin said, “codename Sinopa.” She looked similar to the Pueblo Indians near my home.

“Well, welcome to our room,” I said.

“Umm… you promised me the story?” Esmie asked. “Oh, and in case you care, my codename is Zing.”

“We can tell you the story over breakfast?” Hannah suggested. As I looked at her, I could tell she looked like I felt; somehow, we had fallen into the twilight zone!

I wasn’t really that hungry, but I’d already had a meal fit for a baby already. “Sure, we need to go that way anyway.” Hailey said, “Umm, in case you hadn’t figured it out, we’re your tour guides for the morning or day or whatever you need.”

“Oh, okay,” Hannah said. She looked at me, and I debated in my head before putting my arms up in the traditional ‘pick me up’ pose. She held me on her right hip and grabbed the diaper bag to put over her other shoulder. I swore I saw the girl’s eyes bulge even more.

Esmie couldn’t help it, “Sofia… umm… how old are you, were you... “

“It’s complicated,” I said. “I was born eighteen years ago. If you ask a doctor, they’ll say between twenty-four and thirty months.”

Esmie and the others waited until we reached a place they called Friar Hall before speaking much more. “Let’s get something to eat for you guys, and we’ll talk more?”

“Sure,” I said.

The building itself was beautiful. As we walked into the building, our guides walked us past some weird artwork and statues donors had insisted were placed on campus. Several were odd abstract works, and one was apparently the idealized version of the villain, one of the wealthiest of all time. I just shrugged when they explained it all. I had seen so many weird things in the past week since I emerged that it didn’t even rate a one on my weird scale! “I’m going to put you down,” Hannah told me as we approached the buffet lines.

“I can hold my own tray and everything,” I reminded her.

“We must get you through the line first,” Hailey muttered.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Don’t mind her… she and a few others have occasionally just had a bad first day here,” Esmie said and elbowed her older friend.

Hannah handed me a tray, and I began having her place food onto my plates and tray. I was getting plenty of odd looks as the mound of food kept growing. Of course, I had no problems carrying it, but it looked weird to everyone else. At least I could drop the baby act for a few moments with this, though!

I could feel Caireen not necessarily agree with that, though.’ Please?’ I asked. ‘This is hard enough!’

‘Alright, I’ll agree to similar terms as Hannah. No embarrassing you in front of your classmates if we can help it.’

‘Thanks,’ I told her.

“These two just arrived last night,” Camille told the cashier when we got up to the front, “I was given this to give to you for today for them,” she added.

The cashier looked closely at the cards, swiped them, and motioned for us to move on. “We’ll sit over here,” Esmie told me with a smile. “Umm… do you need like a booster seat or a high chair?” she asked nervously.

‘I’ll take care of it,’ Caireen said before I could even think to argue. Fortunately for me, she simply took one of the chairs and made it taller. Since there was no tray, it looked like a bar stool or something.

‘Thank you!’ I told her, truly gratified.

‘You’re welcome. I’m going to demand extra baby time though sometime...’ she grumbled.

I smirked internally. ‘You would want that anyway.’

I decided to just climb up into the chair. I placed the food tray in front of me with no major issues. I began eating as the others stared at me in disbelief.

“You just emerged last week?” Esmie asked.

“Umm… yeah?”

“How can you already do magic like that?” she asked.

“I didn’t do that one,” I told her.

“Huh?”

I sighed, “I think I probably have a lot in common with Hailey and Camille too.”

“Okay… so how about starting from the beginning?” Hailey asked a little tersely.

“Well, about a week-and-a-half-ago now, I woke up with a fever and felt sick. I ran to the bathroom but didn’t get there before I started to burn up. My baby sister came out of her room and stared at me… I guess I thought something about how nice it would be to be able to be held by Mom again…?” I grimaced, “Next thing I know, I’m in the hospital looking like this!”

“Ouch,” Camille said.

“So, what about the presence I feel?” Hailey asked, then hesitated. I watched her suddenly say some incantation and wave her arms to perform a spell. Finally, she said, “Don’t worry about being overheard.”

I sighed, “I’m an Avatar. A…” I felt a warning from Caireen not to say too much, “being… decided I wasn’t going to survive on my own through the burnout. She decided to help me but unintentionally bonded with me due to my avatar trait.”

I was about to answer another question when I heard behind me, “OH MY GOD!!! Whose baby sister? She’s soooooo adorable!!!!!”

Suddenly without warning, I was picked up in the air by a beautiful blonde girl. I had no control over it and zapped her with magic out of fear; it was too much like yesterday!!! I instinctively leaped from her and onto the table to face my attacker, preparing to pull at ley lines to strike her.

I was momentarily distracted as I suddenly realized how strong the lines ran through the area! I quickly looked back as the blonde bombshell said, “Ouch!!!!” and shocked me by standing right back up like I’d done nothing to her.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, realizing she was probably harmless.

“Not a baby?” She said, surprisingly not even that phased from the shock.

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. “It’s complicated…?”

“Lizi, meet Sofia, Sofia, Lizi, or Knag.” Camille introduced us while laughing hysterically.

I eventually began laughing too, and she joined our table, and I was back in the chair.

“Is the privacy ward still up?” Hannah asked.

Camille nodded, and I did as well since I could feel it. “That’s part of why Lizi was able to surprise Sofia,” she added.

I looked embarrassed.

“So… where were we?” Hailey asked. “Oh, entity?”

I wondered how much I should say with Caireen’s warning, but I decided something about these girls meant I could trust them. “Her name is Caireen; she’s a Celtic goddess.”

“So, did she cause this…?” Hailey asked suspiciously.

“No, she probably saved my life by helping me keep from killing myself during the change. It was a bad burnout – I finished emerging in about ten minutes, I would guess.”

“Can’t do anything about the size, though?” Lizi asked.

“No… Of course, I think she would if she could… but there’s no doubt she enjoys my being a baby.”

“So how much of a… baby… are you?” Lizi asked gently. I could tell she felt terrible about attacking me as a toy doll or something.

I sighed and looked over at Hannah before saying, “I’m no longer potty trained… And let’s just say if I get nervous, I really crave having a pacifier in my mouth.”

“Not to mention sleeping in the cutest nursery eeeevvvver!” Esmie squeaked.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Where did that come from anyway?” Camille asked.

“Caireen is apparently the world’s best decorator,” I said simply.

“So, what can you do?” Lizi asked, “Usually only really powerful Mergents change THIS much.”

I smirked, “Well, according to my tests last Monday - I’m a Level 5 Avatar, a Level 3 Esens, a Level 3 Regen, a Level 4+ Magic, and, as you probably guessed, a Level 4 Paradigm.”

“Holy shit!” Camille said.

The others looked at me widely, too, except Hailey.

“I can’t be that unusual?” I asked uncertainly.

“Well, the Avatar and Magic traits are. I’m not surprised by it, though,” Hailey added.

The others nodded. Esmie said, “You know you would make the world’s prettiest baby model. The Toddlers and Tiara’s kids would have nothing on you!” She said with a smile.

“I would love to see that,” Lizi said with a big smile.

I grimaced, “Somehow, I suspect it’ll happen eventually.”

“What about you, Hannah?” Esmie asked. “You two obviously are connected and arrived together?”

“I was one of Sofia’s best friends before she changed,” Hannah said. “When the change happened, her parents called me to babysit her little sister Lily while she and her dad were at the hospital with her. They were really worried she wouldn’t make it...”

Hannah shuddered then and chose that moment to pick me up from my chair. I wasn’t done eating my bacon, though, and audibly whined. She moved my plate in front of her and sat me on her lap with a quick hug. I knew if I wanted to eat, I had better do it while she told her part!

“Anyway, because I was already sort of in on it, I was the first person outside her family who knew about what happened. So I came and hung out with her family and sort of became the big sister helping out. Especially as Sofia could no longer change Lily’s diapers, let alone her own, her mom appreciated a little help when I came over!”

“Why can’t you change your own? Couldn’t you use your magic?” Lizi asked skeptically.

I sighed and finished the piece of bacon in my mouth. “Caireen won’t let me do some things yet. She wants me to learn to be a ‘normal’ baby and depend on others for that.”

She smirked at that. “What else?”

“If I’m in my crib, I can’t get out by myself… I think that’s mainly it…?” I wasn’t about to tell her about my feeding sessions.

“Anyway,” Hannah continued, helping me out, “I was invited to go shopping with her mom and sister in Albuquerque yesterday. I was happy to be able to shop, and her mom was happy to have changing duties shared. We went yesterday morning and had some new family pictures done of her and her sister and then saw her grandmother. Later we returned to pick them up at the mall. Apparently, the photo studio must have a Sanguis Primum staff member because they had planned to kidnap Sofia when we returned. I was watching Sofia and her sister when suddenly I watched a creep pick her up and run away with Sofia...” Hannah told the rest of the story with occasional input from me here and there. “So anyway,” she said as I put the last piece of bacon in my mouth, “they decided it would be a good idea for us to get out of town last night.”

“Wow,” Lizi said.

“I’m glad you made it here, though,” Camille said with a smile. “Well, are you ready to continue the tour?”

“Is there a restroom we can stop at first?” Hannah asked.

“Sure,” Esmie said, “it even has a changing table if Sofia needs changed.” Her eyes sparkled, and I guessed she would love to play with me like a little doll…

“Umm…” I started to say.

“I’m guessing she needs to be changed,” Hannah said quietly. “But, I agreed to avoid her being too embarrassed by shouting out her diaper changes to the world.”

I nodded and instinctively found myself leaning back into her protective arms.

“Sorry if I embarrassed you,” Esmie said. She looked genuinely embarrassed.

I sighed, “It’s okay; I’m not sure how this will all work. I don’t think there’s any way we can realistically have the same classes. Especially since they want to make me go back several grades…?”

“I think we can help find some others you can trust,” Esmie said with a smile.

With that, Hannah stood up and put me on her hip. Esmie picked up the diaper bag for her, and we walked out of the dining hall and took a couple quick turns to the restrooms. Surprisingly they did have a changing table in there. “I need to go first; can you wait to be changed?” Hannah asked me quietly.

I nodded, “I didn’t even realize I was wet.”

Hannah took me into the stall with her like you would do with a real baby, and I turned to not watch the sight of her using the glorious porcelain throne I would kill to be able to use. Without realizing it, I had stuck my thumb in my mouth while she was going. “Does your thumb taste good?” she asked with a smile as she stood up.

I pulled it out, grimaced at the slobber, and shook my head. “Ugh! I didn’t even notice!”

She opened the stall door, and I followed her to the changing table. Hannah wiped it with a baby wipe before setting me on top of it. I lay there patiently as she pulled the diaper cover down, lifted my dress, and then proceeded to quickly change my diaper. Amazingly the only girls who were in there at all were the four new friends we had made. I turned red when I realized Esmie was watching my change, but so did she when she realized she was watching, so I knew it wasn’t intentional.

Hannah washed her hands and held me up to wash mine before I said, “So where to next?”

“The tour!” Esmie said.

We left and were properly shown the campus. First, we toured a campus museum that displayed the ‘hall of fame’ heroes and villains from the school. Apparently, each year a villain and a hero equally get nominated for the honor! From there, we walked to the areas we would have classes. “There are so many stairs!” I whined.

“What’s the big deal about stairs?” Hailey asked.

“When you’re tiny, they’re a pain… and kind of scary,” I told her honestly.

Esmie giggled, “We can find someone to carry you if Hannah isn’t there.”

I just groaned. We were done with the tour by eleven and back at Trident. “We’re going to head to our room for a bit and settle in,” Hannah said to them downstairs.

“No problem,” Camille said, “Lunch starts in an hour, and then you have your meeting with Mrs. Hensley.”

“Okay,” I said for the both of us.

Hannah carried me upstairs, unlocked our room, and closed it behind us. She held me and sat directly into the rocking chair. “Umm…” I looked at her face and noticed she was a bit red, “Do you think…?”

“It’s time for lunch?” I smiled at her, “You’re already feeling full?” I asked.

“You have no idea,” Hannah complained. “This is the weirdest feeling ever!”

“Well, get your clothes out of the way,” I jokingly grabbed at the top of her top.

“You really don’t mind?” She asked hesitantly.

“We’ve been over this, Hannah. Yes, it’s extremely weird for me to see the breasts of my best friend... And it’s even weirder to start sucking on them and then lose complete track of myself… but we both know you need it…” I squirmed, “and I can’t say it’s unpleasant.”

She hugged me and kissed my forehead, “Thank you!”

Hannah fumbled for a minute to pull down her top and the cup of her bra. When she was done, I just leaned in and began suckling again. She patted my back and played a little with my hair as I nursed. I realized that her first breast was empty only when she stroked my chin and got me to release that nipple. My nursing of her other breast was just as natural, and before I knew it, she was burping me like an infant. Embarrassingly I felt myself spit up some milk onto the towel she had thoughtfully placed on her shoulder!

“Full?” She asked me.

I shrugged, “It’s weird… Yes and no?”

She hugged me and carried me over to the changing table, quickly changing me again. Only when she said, “What a stinky baby!” did I realize I had pooped and not even realized it.

I just started crying.

 
 

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