Jade’s replacement, Oak, was a male Pixie with an athletic build, lightly tanned skin, short black hair, green eyes, and a no-nonsense attitude. He had mottled black and green moth-like wings and was easily twice my height. It was sobering that a person who was only a foot tall was still so huge compared to my current size, not to mention intimidating.

He wasn’t a telepath like Jade either, so communicating was somewhat more difficult, consisting of mostly head shakes and nods in answer to his questions until I could get my tongue working properly. That was frustrating at first, and whenever I tried to talk, the sounds coming from my mouth were nonsensical and nothing close to what I had intended. He tried to get me to take it slow as he exercised my limbs for me, reminding me that this was a newborn body with very little strength and no muscle memory.

As he was starting my physical therapy to get me used to this new body though, I did learn some things. First, I had Sprouted in the early hours of the morning, during the night shift. The second thing I learned was that I wasn’t the only patient currently in the Fairy Ward.

While I might be the only one who had Sprouted recently, there were several other cocoons from other, more recent, Incursions waiting to birth a new Fairy-class Altered. None of those were due to Sprout for months yet though. There were also two other patients, who had been sleeping in doll houses when I arrived and while Jade cleaned me up.

One of those was Nightshade, a Pixie who had been dealing with depression and extreme anxiety issues ever since Sprouting six months ago. Not that I could blame her after going through the whole thing myself. I mean, after surviving an attack from aliens only to end up in a blood cocoon and burst out of your own chest years later to find that you’re an extremely tiny mythical creature, who wouldn’t have some kind of issues?

Nightshade was apparently a special case though since Oak told me that it didn’t help matters that her special ability was to be a sort of empathic sponge, sucking up the negative emotions of people around her. It made the people around her happier but only made her feel worse, and she didn’t seem to have any conscious control over the ability. For the moment, until they could find some way to help her, she was being kept isolated in one of the larger Pixie houses.

The other current patient of the Fairy Ward was named Poppy. Oak said that she Sprouted a few weeks before I did and that she would probably join us for breakfast. I would be on a liquid diet until I had enough control over my jaw muscles that I could chew and swallow properly though. Luckily, my brain knew how to do all of this stuff, so it was mostly just issues with strength, flexibility, and muscle memory thing, something that Jade had earlier told me usually went fairly quickly for newly Sprouted Sprites.

Unfortunately, Oak wasn’t much of a talker other than what related to my therapy or how things were run in the Fairy Ward, not that we could have had a proper conversation anyway in my current state. Moonlight’s presence had returned to my mind during an unbearably quiet lull before breakfast though and she helped to keep my mind occupied as my body rested from Oak’s earlier manipulation of it for rehabilitation purposes. Without Jade around to possibly sense her mental presence, my faithful filly (well, I guess she was probably a mare now) was able to tell me a bit more about why she was here and how the wild magic had affected her.

One thing that was obvious was that she was now a lot smarter than a normal horse, and she claimed to be faster and stronger as well. She didn’t tell me what she was now exactly, but I didn’t think that she knew either since a lot of what she did know she had learned through instinct, or by observing the people caring for my cocoon. She had instinctively hidden herself from sight when the Vanguard found me and when they had decided to bring my cocoon here, she snuck aboard their transport, unwilling to leave me out of her sight.

“You watched over me for three years?” I asked, moved by her loyalty and affection for me. There was a doubt in my mind that I really needed to address though. “Nobody can see you? Are you sure I’m not just going crazy and you’re just a voice in my head?”

-I am certain, my Maiden,- she replied affectionately. -I have merely made myself ethereal, I am here, just obscured from the senses and immaterial in the body. We are connected though, and as I can only speak with you this way, you should be able to sense me. Relax your mind and focus on our bond.-

I attempted to do as she asked while Oak flew over to greet the human-looking nurse who had entered the room with a small plate and an announcement that it was breakfast time. I kept my eyes closed for a moment as I relaxed my breathing and focused my mind on Moonlight, and the bond that I could sense we shared. I turned my head toward that sense, but it was more like my head kind of lolled to the side.

I could sense something. It was faint at first, just a bright blurring of my eyes until her form began to take shape. Moonlight was a majestic-looking mare, and her coat, mane, and tail were all a bright and pristine white. From her forehead sprouted a golden horn. In hindsight, I should have probably realized what she was earlier, from some of the things she had said, but I was still new at dealing with mythical creatures being a reality.

My jaw dropped, not that that was saying much since I couldn’t really control the muscles in it too well yet. “Holy crap, Moonlight! You’re a Unicorn!”

“I… yeah... Are you absolutely sure this isn’t all in my head? The scenario, I mean, not the conversation. Because that’s pretty obvious by this point.” I reiterated as I gaped at her in wonder.

-I am certain, my Maiden- she insisted. -Or would you prefer that I call you Lily? I have noticed that you seemed happy when the Pixie addressed you by that name earlier.-

“Yeah, I guess… if you don’t mind.” I thought back at her awkwardly as my cheeks flushed with warmth. The name did make me happy, but I wasn’t sure why. It just felt like a better fit than Elliot or Eli and I wasn’t sure why. As she had pointed out earlier today, I did have a girl’s body now, but wasn’t I still the same person in my head? Shouldn’t I, as a guy, feel weird using a girl’s name?

I didn’t though. For some reason, I felt happy and comfortable, like there was a weight I had been carrying all my life that was gone now. It wasn’t just the name either. This body, even with its small size and feminine presentation, felt… right somehow, or at least it lacked the strange discomfort that always seemed to plague me before the Incursion. Shouldn’t this tiny, inhuman body feel wrong for someone who was born and raised as a boy?

I was still trying to figure out why this name and body felt so much better, when a red-orange blur entered my field of vision, quickly resolving itself into a Sprite around the same height and build as I had seen in my reflection earlier. She was very pretty with a nice figure, shoulder-length ginger hair, and eyes that were dark orange. There was an orangey gold tint to her wings, and from what Jade had told me earlier, that probably meant that she was a Fire Sprite, whereas I was a Water Sprite and Jade was an Earth Sprite.

“Eeee! Another Sprite!” a cute and slightly high-pitched voice squealed excitedly. Before I knew what was happening, the other Sprite had my hands in hers as she shook them enthusiastically enough to cause my weakened body to bob and sway with the motion. “It’s about time one of you Sprouted!”

“Poppy, this is Lily,” Oak informed the ginger Sprite who was still excitedly shaking my hands.

“Hi, I’m Poppy!” she offered unnecessarily. “I’m a Fire Sprite, but you probably figured that out. Gosh, you’re pretty! You’re a Water Sprite, right? Maybe when you learn to use your magic, you can train with me because I’m immune to fire but my clothes aren’t and that makes things kinda awkward when I really let loose since I’m still learning to control my fire magic and it would be such a relief to have a Water Sprite around to get me wet when I get too hot and start getting naked.”

Poppy should have been reborn as a Wind Sprite because she was a whirlwind. I almost didn’t catch half of what she said because most of it was spoken without coming up for air. Then her brain seemed to catch up with her mouth and she quickly let go of my hands as her cheeks went as red as her hair for some reason and she sputtered, “Oh gosh! I’m so sorry! I swear that didn’t sound so thirsty in my head!”

Wonderful. Now I was picturing her naked and was almost as red as she was. Was the mention of being naked making her self-conscious? I wasn’t sure what she meant by thirsty either. Did fire magic make her dehydrated or something? I think that Oak got whatever it was because he was shaking his head as he put together some breakfast to take to Nightshade.

The plate the nurse had brought in was table-sized to us but surprisingly, there were tiny doll-sized plates and cups for us to use, and one of those cups was filled with an unappetizing-looking greyish-brown liquid. Other stuff on the table included what looked like some blueberries, cups of what looked like milk, a bowl of golden liquid, and a pile of o-shaped cereal that was large enough compared to our size that one piece could make a meal, much like the berries. Oak put a little bit of everything on a plate for Nightshade and Poppy followed suit for her own plate.

The moment that Oak was gone to deliver Nightshade’s breakfast and check up on her, Poppy leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, “Would you like a taste of my nectar?” I just looked in confusion at her extended fingertip, glistening with fluid, since I couldn’t reply, at least not with something that would make sense. “Oh, right, you can’t talk properly yet. Don’t worry, I can help you learn to use your tongue properly… No! I didn’t mean it like that! Bloody Hell! Stupid Poppy!” she verbally blundered as she slapped her forehead.

Poppy’s face was again bright red as she attempted to correct whatever verbal slip-up she thought she had made. “I… uhh… meant that you might want something sweet before Oak makes you drink that horrible nutrient fluid, and this is flower nectar. It’s not from my flower, I swear! It’s really sweet and we Fairy types love sweet things, and it's liquid so it shouldn’t be a problem just to put a little on your tongue to give you a taste of something sweet. And the… ummm… using your tongue thing… I was gonna suggest trying to make alphabet sounds until you can get them right. That’s what I did at first.”

-This girl seems very excitable,- Moonlight commented, earning a mental nod in agreement. Poppy did seem excitable, and a bit awkward, for some reason. She seemed nice though, and the alphabet suggestion was a good one. She didn’t seem to be like that with Oak, so maybe she just got nervous when meeting new people. I opened my mouth and let her dab a bit of the liquid on my tongue before Oak got back, just to show I wasn’t upset with her. She was right, that nectar stuff was very sweet, and I found myself liking it and wanting more.

Unfortunately, that was when Oak showed back up and started pouring that gross nutrient liquid into my mouth, sip by sip. I guess it was the Fairy equivalent of a protein shake, with all the protein, vitamins, and nutrients that a newly Sprouted Sprite needed. Too bad it tasted like toxic waste.

After breakfast, Poppy went off to practice her flying and fire magic in what I originally thought might be this hospital room’s bathroom. It wasn’t though, it actually turned out to be a massive Fairy-sized training area for beginner magic, flight, and trying to figure out whatever special abilities the patients of the Fairy Ward might have in a safe environment. While she was off doing her thing, I practiced my ABCs and managed to get all the way to L before lunch, when I had to force down more of that awful nutrient fluid.

During lunch, Poppy seemed to be making more of an effort to think before speaking, though occasionally something still slipped out that embarrassed her. Our conversation was slow since I still didn’t have enough vocal control to do much more than weakly nod or shake my head in answer to her questions. She seemed okay with doing the majority of the talking though.

She seemed to really enjoy magic and flying and was eager to have another recovering patient to share those with until she started school in the fall. She also told me about the terrible timing of her Sprouting. She had burned her way out of her cocoon the day before all the adult Sprites started going into bloom, including herself.

She said it was like she didn’t have the energy to move for two days, and it was like she was horny the whole time, except different, because she had no idea what it was that she was desiring at first, only that the burning desire was focused in the area of her belly, where the flower had bloomed. The worst part was that she couldn’t even do anything about it, and she had no energy to go through her rehab either. Thankfully, she had been indoors, and the hospital staff took precautions to isolate her so she couldn’t get accidentally pollinated.

Then she told me a bit about herself before the Incursion that caused her to be in this situation. She grew up in Leeds, a city in West Yorkshire, England. I was a bit surprised by that since she had no accent, but I guess that made sense since she had to learn to speak again in a new body, just like I was now, so she sounded a lot like the people who were helping her with that. She was in her last year of high school when the Incursion hit so she was going to be taking some equivalence tests and starting at Vanguard University in September.

After hearing her talk about it, I was interested in doing the same, if I could manage it. Despite being only sixteen when the Incursion drastically changed my life, I was nineteen now and I had been taking the same home-learning classes as my sister, and we both would have had enough credits to graduate at the end of the school year. It sounded like any Altered who attended V.U. got a pretty good deal out of it too.

The students there can focus on Trades or various Arts or Science degrees, and their room, board, and education are all paid for, provided that they serve one year for every year of education they receive in the Vanguard. They’re also required to take some combat classes, and classes to help them learn to control their new abilities, taught by some of the first Altered. I could get a good education out of it, but more importantly, if I joined the Vanguard then maybe I could find out what happened to my sister and mother and rescue them. I wanted, no I needed, to be able to do that.

The mere thought of it galvanized me, and I was determined to find them, even if I had to step through a Breach and into whatever waited beyond. I needed to save them, even though I knew they would never recognize me as I was now. They were my mother and my sister, and I would find them, no matter what it took.