Over the next few days, I was put through rehab exercises several times a day to pave my path to being able to use my new body properly. Jade was the night shift nurse for weekdays, so since I Sprouted on a Friday, I didn’t get to see her again until Monday night. Even during the weekdays, I would only see her before bed or when waking up early, something that Moonlight seemed happy about.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like the green-haired Sprite, but there was the risk that she might sense the Unicorn telepathically, and Moonlight seemed set on not revealing her existence to anyone but me unless absolutely necessary. To my mind, that brought up two possibilities about my unseen companion. The first was that there was a very good reason that Unicorns are elusive and hard to find in myths and legends. As for the second, I didn’t like to think about that one much since it involved me likely being crazy and all of this being in my head.

Yeah, that was not a thought that I liked to linger for long on. Anyway, most of my rehab would be with Oak and the evening shift nurse for weekdays, Violet, who was a female Pixie. There were two of the nurses on weekends who were Sprites like me Poppy though, in case we had any questions about the quirks of our new biology, using elemental magic, or anything else. Willow was an Earth Sprite, like Jade, and Breeze was an aptly named Wind Sprite.

While I thought that this might be troublesome for me and Poppy since we had nobody of the same element to teach us, I was told that elemental magic for Sprites is largely instinctual. In fact, we usually use it for the first time while in a panic to get out of our cocoons. Apparently, that was why my cocoon kind of exploded around me. In my panic, I manipulated the water in my old body and pushed it all violently outward. Once I could move properly someone would be able to teach me the basics, but mastering my water magic was largely a journey that I would need to take on my own.

By the end of the second day, I was able to eat solids and talk again, and by the fourth, I could move around under my own power. It was all tiring at first, would take me a while to build up my stamina, and I was stuck on the ground for the moment, but part of my exercises now was starting to work my wings to get used to them in preparation to fly. I was pushing myself to improve whenever I had the energy, even when the nurses suggested I rest.

I needed to get stronger. I needed to get out of this hospital ward so I could go to Vanguard University when the new term started in September. Being involved with the Vanguard was the only way that I could find Mom and Kelly, and I was not going to let the opportunity slip through my fingers.

For most of that first week in the Fairy Ward, I worked myself steadily toward that goal. Honestly, it wasn’t like there was much to do anyway. I no longer had my implant so I couldn’t go online, study, or play games like I normally would when bored and the only company was the various nurses and Poppy. I was starting to see why Poppy was so eager to talk with me at first since she was alone for a couple of weeks before I showed up, except for Nightshade, and Nightshade couldn’t exactly come out and socialize with her special ability causing her such depression.

The only thing I could do was talk to Poppy, Moonlight, and the various nurses to fill the time when I wasn’t working on my rehabilitation. That time was mostly spent talking with Moonlight though since I didn’t want to bother the nurses with anything unrelated to my recovery and Poppy had her own things to focus on. The Fire Sprite was still working on developing her fire magic and she was starting to wonder if she would ever show signs of having a special ability like most other Altered seemed to once they were physically mature.

Saturday, July thirteenth marked my eighth day in the Fairy Ward, and I was starting to build up some stamina. I even managed to use my wings properly on Thursday and got a flying lesson from Jade before bed. I couldn’t stay up there for long, but it was a start and Poppy figured that in another two weeks, I would have the strength and stamina to fly as fast and as much as Jade and other long-term Sprites and do daily activities normally.

Poppy was quiet this morning, she had been longing for real clothes, anything other than the hospital gowns that we were wearing. Jade had told us last night about a shop in Amethyst Harbour where one of the local Sprites had set herself up as a weaver and tailor to make clothes for those of us of the smaller persuasion, and the excitable Fire Sprite had been very disappointed that we couldn’t go out that very minute to get proper clothes. She was still brooding about it during breakfast.

It was strange seeing the usually upbeat Fire Sprite looking so down and being so quiet as we ate breakfast. She didn’t even stumble over her words once while talking to me, though I suppose that would have required her to say more than three words for the entire meal. She was still staring gloomily at her plate and had barely sipped at her nectar when Breeze, the white-haired Wind Sprite, returned from checking up on Nightshade and taking her something to eat.

Breeze was very pretty, as most Sprites seemed to be, with short-cropped, spiky white hair and sky-blue eyes, though they preferred to use they/them pronouns. I had learned earlier in the week that all that was needed to do to tell what type of Sprite someone was, was to look at their coloring. Our hair, eye, and wing colors were a reflection of our elements.

Wind Sprites have cloud-white hair, sky-blue eyes, and nearly completely transparent wings, while Earth Sprites have hair in shades of green, emerald eyes, and green-tinted wings. Fire Sprites, Like Poppy, had hair in shades of red or orange, orange or amber eyes, and an orangey gold tint to their wings. Then there were Water Sprites like me, whose hair and eyes come in various shades of blue or aquamarine, and whose wings come in various translucent blues to as transparent as a Wind Sprite’s like mine were.

Breeze was one of the first students to graduate from Vanguard University, where they had gotten their nursing degree before doing their service in the Vanguard as a medic and then coming to work here at the hospital. They seemed nice, but like Jade and the other Fairy-type Altered I had met, they didn’t look much older than I was. I guess that wasn’t just a Fairy thing though since I was told that other Fae types and a few other types of Altered don’t seem to age at all after Waking.

As soon as Breeze returned to the table from their brief visit with Nightshade, they focused their attention on me. “Lily, if you’re done eating, I was wondering if I could speak with you privately for a moment.”

I was indeed done eating and was torn between trying to somehow cheer up Poppy and doing my rehab exercise and working my wings some more. With one last look at my usually fiery fellow patient, I nodded and replied, “Sure, Breeze.”

“Follow me then,” they replied before flying off to one of the empty Sprite-sized houses that were mounted high up on the wall.

I quickly started to work my wings to take to the air and fly carefully toward the house that the older Sprite had just zipped into. I couldn’t wait to be able to fly that fast. Once I was inside the little house with a cool, blue-themed interior living room with comfy-looking Sprite-sized furniture, Breeze took a seat in one of the armchairs and gestured for me to sit on the couch.

That couch was so soft and cozy that I almost wanted to take a nap on it, but I wanted even more to know what this was about. “Is this about, Poppy?” I wondered aloud. “She’s not acting like her normally cheerful self.”

Breeze shook their head but gave me a gentle smile. “No, Lily, though it’s nice to see that you’re concerned for her. Given what Jade told me this morning, I think that Poppy is just starting to realize that things are different now, and it’s not all just magic and superpowers.”

“You mean like the clothes thing?” I queried. “I kind of figured out that things were going to be hard when I realized I didn’t have my implant anymore.”

“There are a lot of things that we took for granted while we were still human that just aren’t true for people who are five inches tall,” they explained with a sad sigh. “That was particularly true in the early days for people like us. Now we have people our size who are trying to make our lives more comfortable by creating proper homes, furniture, and other things, and we’ve managed magical alternatives for some things like toilets and other necessities, but our reality is very different now than that of the big people. That is part of what I want to talk to you about, your new reality. So, first, how are you adjusting to your new body?”

I considered their question for a long moment before giving my reply. “Well, my stamina could still use some work, and being this small kinda sucks in a lot of ways, but flying is cool, and I can’t wait to learn to use water magic and find out what my special ability is.”

“Yes, those are common enough thoughts to have, I had them myself when I was in your shoes. I was talking more about how you’re adjusting to this,” they said as they just sort of ran their hands down their body to gesture to all of them. “Sprites only have one gender, and that gender is, for all intents and purposes, female. I know from your file that you were male before the Incursion that changed you, and I know from experience how hard an adjustment this can be to make.”

“I thought that it should have bothered me at first,” I admitted, “but this body is so much nicer than my old one. It feels good, like, really good. Instead of being big, hairy, and clumsy, I’m soft, pretty, and so much more comfortable like this. Except for being worried about my mom and my sister, and the nightmares of seeing Dad killed in front of my eyes, I’ve been kinda happy about this.”

Breeze’s jaw dropped as they stared at me in surprise. “You’re happy to be a girl?”

“Well, yeah,” I said with a shrug. “I mean, nobody really wants to be born a guy, right? It’s uncomfortable, the body sucks, the clothes are so drab, and don’t even get me started about that gross thing that was between my legs, it just always felt so…wrong. We all just sort of… put up with being a guy because that’s what’s expected of us. I wish I really was a girl. I dreamed about it a lot, but I’m sure all guys do.”

“Lily, speaking as someone else who grew up as a guy, I can assure you that all guys do not think that way,” they said, their expression darkening for a moment. “In fact, the way that you just described living as a male is what I feel like since I went through my change, but in reverse. Do you think that you might have been transgender?”

I shook my head and sighed. “I’ve heard about them, but no. Trans girls know that they’re girls inside from an early age and they’re brave enough to do something about it. I kind of wish I was trans because it would have been better than the alternative of being a guy. I could have been a real sister to Kelly too, and not so uncomfortable all the time.”

“So, let me get this straight… you’re more comfortable in your new body, wanted to be a girl, and wish you were trans?”

“Yeah, I guess so. Why? Do you think there might be something wrong with me?” I asked in sudden concern at the very annoyed aura the Wind Sprite was now projecting.

“I think your shell is made of tungsten,” they muttered. Then they sighed, looked up at the ceiling, and muttered again, “Fuck it, time to scramble an egg.”

What were they talking about scrambled eggs for? We just finished breakfast. I was more concerned about that almost scary aura emanating from them though. “Are you okay, Breeze? You seem annoyed about something.”

Breeze took a long and deep breath, probably to calm themself, before answering. “Lily, as someone who now identifies as transgender, let me assure you that not everyone feels like they should have been the opposite of their birth gender from an early age.”

“But haven’t you been feeling that way since you Sprouted?” I asked, going on what little information they had revealed about themself in this conversation and not quite certain what they were trying to say. “That’s technically when you were born, so you’ve felt that way since birth.”

They actually smacked their forehead at that. It sounded like it might have hurt and might explain the wince. “Lily, some trans people don’t know why they’re uncomfortable with their bodies at first, they just know that it feels wrong, and take it from me, cisgender guys do not feel like that or wish to be girls. Gender dysphoria is literally discomfort caused because your assigned birth sex feels wrong. If you felt that way, then there is a very good chance that you’re trans.”

My eyes went wide with realization. “Wait, so you’re saying…” Holy shit. Breeze might be onto something here. “Hey, Moonlight? We’re, like, bonded, and you keep calling me your Maiden. I thought it was just because I’m a girl now, but do you think I could really be a girl? Like… on the inside?”

The Unicorn’s mental laughter filled my mind for a moment before she could reply. -You are just realizing this now, my Maiden? Lily, I did not know what your new physical body would look like when I made the bond, you were still in your cocoon then. I could not have made the bond if you were not a maiden in every sense of the word; pure of heart, virginal, and with the heart and soul of a young woman.-

“Whoa. Okay, well, that’s a lot to mentally unload. I hope Mom and Kelly are okay with it when I find them… well, I guess the Sprite thing might be a bit harder to handle. Wait… Breeze, if I was trans before and I was reborn as a girl, does that make me cisgender now? And I still like girls, Poppy is really hot if you’ll excuse the fire pun, so am I a lesbian now? Wait, Sprites only have one gender, so how does that work?”

Breeze groaned audibly and I was a little worried that they might think I was stupid now. “Sure, let’s just go with that. Identify however you want, so long as you’re happy like this. Now, let’s get on to the real reason I brought you here for a talk.”

What followed was a long and more detailed lecture on the birds and bees than Jade had given me on my first day, but in our case, birds and bees were actually involved in the process instead of just a metaphor, what with the whole flower and pollination thing. Also, safe sex had a completely different meaning for Sprites as well. For us, it involved not being anywhere you can be pollinated if you don’t want to get pregnant and making sure you are in a safe place and have a non-Sprite standing guard somewhere nearby while you’re in bloom so no predators come across you and think you might make a tasty snack. The world is a far more dangerous place when you’re bite-sized.

They also explained that while we might get pollinated instead of impregnated like Humans do, once the seed has retracted into our womb, the whole process afterward is basically the same as a human pregnancy. The only difference is that we give birth to Sprite children, who are born with their wings and everything. People studying us now know that Sprite children, like other children who are born from Altered species, can use their racial abilities (elemental magic in our case) from an early age. What was less certain so far was whether they would later develop special abilities when they fully mature, like the first generation of Altered do.

After the whole sex and parenthood talk, Breeze went on to tell me that the little house we were now in would be mine for the remainder of my stay in the hospital, now that I could reliably fly for short distances. They were also going to take me to the Fairy training room to give me a primer on elemental magic. I was relieved at that since it, and flying practice would give me something to do besides my exercises now that I was more mobile.

We had just left my new little temporary home, Breeze flying at a sedate pace so I could keep up with them when Poppy zipped over to us and began to excitedly babble as she hovered before us. “Guess what! I think I found my special ability! Check it out!” The Fire Sprite couldn’t stop grinning as she gestured to what she was wearing.

That was when I noticed that her Sprite-sized hospital gown was changing before my eyes, splitting apart at the midriff and turning into what looked like a short, pleated skirt and halter top. The material and color seemed to still be the same, but the style was completely different. She looked good in it too, very good, and I had to avert my gaze at first to hide my blush. Wait, no, you’re supposed to be averting, you stupid gaze! Don’t just keep staring and drooling like some perv! Damn, she looked hot.

Poppy beamed at me as she noticed my eyes roaming over her body and completely ignoring my mental commands. “Pretty sexy, huh? Maybe I can sex you up too, Lily.” We both went beet red as we realized what she had said, and I could have sworn I heard Breeze snickering as Poppy verbally bumbled, “No! I didn’t mean it like that! Not that I wouldn’t want to, because you’re totally hot, but I wasn’t… I didn’t… I mean, I can make your clothes into something more stylish too!”

I barely heard Breeze mutter something about a disaster before finally sighing. “Okay, girls, let’s go discuss this ability, and how we should test it, in the training room. Lily still can’t stay in the air for long and it’s time she learned how to consciously use her magic.”