Alex had a terminal Cancer diagnosis and thought she would die before she got to be the girl she always was inside. That all changes when she's in the wrong place at the right time and gets transported to another world and into the body of a girl. So what if she's not human, she's alive and a girl. Now if only she had her sister with her to navigate this new world and her new responsibilities. Wait, she's here too? The passage of their souls between worlds may have doomed the Earth to apocalypse, but Alex and Michelle won't be there to see it and they have enough problems on their hands.
 

 

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Author's Note: Here's chapter 2 of the rewrite of Alex in Wonderland. Thanks to my readers and to BCTS for giving their support of Transgendered authors and fiction. ~Amethyst.
 

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Chapter 2: Knocking at the Back Door

I stared at Patar in confusion for a long moment before not so cleverly responding, “I'm the one you're looking for?”

Meanwhile, Patar got on one knee and bowed his head, giving me a sinking feeling in my stomach as he started to speak. “Your Highness, how did you manage to get this far out into the Frozen Wastes? What were you thinking, leaving the protection of the palace? What if assassins from the Lharusian Empire had found you? You know that you are too important to risk, you could have been killed out here. You must stay where it is safe until your Giftsun. If their Majesties had not sent out search riders to find you on the off chance you had gotten this far then I would not have been here to save you just now.”

There were so many questions, and I didn't know the answers to any of them. In fact, everything he said just brought up more questions of my own. In my confusion, I asked what I felt was the most important of these questions. “Excuse me, but you know who I am?”

It was his turn to stare at me, and he did so for several long seconds before recovering enough to ask hesitantly, “You… do not know who you are, Your Highness?”

I shook my head, frowning at the headache that I felt coming on. I was confused enough about my situation before he showed up. If I was Isekai’d then this was the worst Isekai experience ever. Two thumbs down, would not do it again. I had no idea where I was, only a vague idea of how I had probably died, and I didn’t even get any cool abilities, cheats, or a System. Believe me, I tried everything I could think of over the past few days, so I didn’t get desperate enough to talk to Chrissy and the other ferret-like critters to pass the time, but there was nothing.

I couldn’t even get a status screen, so after three days of nothing useful, I was beginning to think this Isekai thing might be a pipe dream. That could only mean that this was more of a standard Alice in Wonderland shwooped off to another world situation, except I was Alex, not Alice, and I apparently went down the fishing hole instead of the rabbit hole. Well, the weirdness of the situation certainly fit.

I could count three good things about this situation, and even those were weirding me out or worrying me in some way or another. The first was of course that I was a girl now, I totally confirmed that when I had to pee that first night. I wasn’t a human girl, but while getting used to being some sort of real-life catgirl was taking some getting used to, at least my dysphoria seemed to be gone, and I was pretty sure I could handle it in time.

I couldn’t even really enjoy the euphoria of being a girl and dysphoria-free right now, though, except maybe when I was snuggled with Chrissy and her kin at night. The rest of the time I was freezing my new furry ass off and trying to survive until I found help or it found me. Hopefully, that phase of my new life was over now, I might even let Patar drag me off to that palace he mentioned, so long as it was warm there.

Then there was Chrissy. It was nice to have company, I liked the little critter, she was adorable, and I probably would have frozen to death without her and her family, but I was a little worried about her growing up to be as big and nasty as her now dead cousin. It didn’t make sense, even to me, but I had no idea what natural or unnatural laws governed this new world I was in.

And then there was Patar and Runne showing up to save my ass, which I was very grateful for, but Patar recognizing me and calling me ‘Your Highness’ could not be a good thing. He had mentioned some sort of assassins too, which only worried me further. Ah well, if he truly did know who I was, then maybe I could leverage that into some information on the person I was now and the world I was probably stuck in.

“No. I know who I am, or at least who I was,” I finally replied after gathering my thoughts. “I just don't know who I seem to be now. One minute I was in a snowstorm in Minnesota, then I blacked out, and the next thing I knew I was waking up here in a strange place and an unfamiliar body. That was four days ago. I don’t mind getting Isekai’d, but could this at least make some sense?”

Patar gave me a look of utter confusion. “You use some strange words, Highness. You left the castle five suns ago. We found the machul you took but there was no sign of you in the city, so we decided to extend our search in case you somehow slipped out unnoticed by enchantment or some other means or were taken by spies of the empire.”

Runne's gravelly voice spoke from behind his Chosen. “There is one way to be sure that she is telling the truth, Patar.”

“I cannot do that, Runne,” Patar growled, his brow furrowing. “You know that I do not like using my Gift like that. And she is the Princess; it would not be right.”

“Perhaps we should let Princess Visanee decide,” the Drakan proposed reasonably.

I was very confused at this point. “Decide what exactly?” I was getting nervous and started absently petting Chrissy, who remained a comforting presence around my neck. She began to hum softly at the gentle stroking, comforting me further.

Patar sighed and forced himself to look me straight in the eyes as he said, “I am a Diviner, Your Highness. Part of my Gift is the ability to read minds. I do not like doing it without permission. Some things should remain private, and reading the mind of someone of your position would be wrong.”

I looked from Patar to Runne and then back to Patar again. “I'm the princess, right?”

“Yes, even if my senses did not confirm that it is so, my Gift tells me that you are by blood Visanee Misalet, Princess of Azure,” Patar offered, not a bit of doubt in his tone or on his bearlike face. “No matter who your mind belongs to, your body is that of the princess and that makes you Princess Visanee.”

I shook my head as I tried to wrap my mind around that theory. “Huh, I guess possession really is nine-tenths of the law,” I mused aloud before taking a deep breath. “Okay, then as the princess, I order you to read my mind to see if I'm telling the truth.”

Patar scowled, while his Drakan companion issued what sounded like a throaty laugh. “Fine,” he muttered, “but I am doing this against my better judgment.”

Visanee awoke in a strange bed in a white room with many odd tubes and objects connected to her new body. It wasn't the beeps and other strange sounds that caused her to awaken, but rather the powerful coughing fit that wracked her weary body. Long rasping coughs left her breathless and her lungs burning. “Drek!” she cursed as she tried to move and failed. She felt so tired and weak, unable to even summon the energy to sit up, and just the effort left her feeling weaker and light-headed.

The coughing fit and her curse brought someone straight to her bedside, and Visanee looked up into the green eyes of the auburn-haired Human who had been at her side when she was last awake. The eyes were bloodshot, either from crying or lack of sleep, possibly both. “How long...” she managed to get out before another coughing fit took her. Something about her voice sounded wrong, even aside from the raspy quality of it.

“They brought you in four days ago, Alex. It's nine o'clock in the morning on the twenty-eighth,” the woman answered in a voice that was choked with emotion. “They've been keeping you sedated, hoping it might help you recover. You got a mild case of frostbite, but it's the pneumonia that has us worried. They told me you may not last the day. Dr. Ryans said you'd be able to fight it better if it weren't for the...”

The woman sniffled as tears streamed down her cheeks, and she began to sob. Once she was sufficiently recovered, she looked into Visanee's eyes. “Alex, why didn't you tell me you have Cancer? I'm your twin sister! I had a right to know! I could have been there for you...”

Visanee watched the woman lose herself to tears again, uncertain how to react. She wanted to comfort this person, the twin to her current body. The news that she was dying weighed heavily upon her, though. This had not been her plan. She had planned to let someone else be the heir to Azure, and to return to help her replacement learn about her world and what would be expected of her before leaving to enjoy her hard-won freedom. It would seem that Pallo, the Goddess of Death, meant to claim her in this strange world. She had no idea how long before the kida from the enchantment could no longer be harnessed, even if she could live that long. “When... is... the... full moon?” she managed to get out between coughing.

The woman wiped her eyes before looking at her like she was one of the befuddled. “Alex! You're laying here dying and you ask me when the full moon is?!” She looked at Visanee in concern and moved to stand up. “I think that the drugs are making you loopy, maybe I should let them sedate you again.”

Visanee took the Human's hand. “I am not your sister; I have changed places with her. She is in my world, in my body, and she needs our help. She needs someone to stand beside her.”

“No, I'm Michelle and you're Alex, my brother, I know you wanted to be a girl but you're not.”

Visanee shook her head. “No, I am… was Visanee, heir to the throne of Azure. This body may be male, but Alex is your sister. The spell I used to travel between our worlds required that there must be an equal exchange. Female essence could only be exchanged for female essence. The kida that makes up male and female essences are too different.” Another coughing fit took her, and her hand gripped her twin's tightly as she recovered, “Now, when is the full moon?”

Michelle sighed but finally said, “The full moon is tonight.”

“Drek! It must be done tonight,” the former Zenin said with a sigh. Visanee could feel her strength waning with each breath. She would not make it back to the place of the exchange and, even if she could, the chances were slim that she could hold out long enough for the back door to open and a compatible body to be found. She had to prepare Michelle, but first, the Human needed to know everything. “Michelle, let me tell you the story of a spoiled princess who wanted freedom more than anything else.”

“This may be a little uncomfortable. There is a reason I do not like doing this,” Patar said as he placed two of his four hands on my head. “I will try not to look into anything too deeply, and to avoid anything personal. Please keep in mind that whatever I see, Runne will see as well. Our minds are linked.”

I took a deep breath and then nodded. “Okay, I'm ready when you are, let's get this mind meld over with.”

“Mind meld?” Patar asked, looking a bit confused.

“Sorry, I think I watched too much Star Trek on television as a kid,” I replied, probably blushing under my fur.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Patar muttered, shaking his head.

“Just read my mind please, it would take too long to explain,” I told him, stifling a groan. I just wanted this little mind-reading session over with. I may have asked for it, but that didn't mean I wasn't nervous as hell about it.

Patar nodded grimly and closed his eyes. Suddenly, I felt a presence in my mind, and then it was as if my life was being played through my brain in fast forward. It was too quick to make out much detail, but it was enough to get a sense of who I was. I opened my eyes, only realizing when I did that I had closed them. Runne and Patar were both giving me a strange look and the latter shook his head. “You were telling the truth. You come from a strange and frightening world, but if you are to survive here in the Greylands, and one day take your place as Queen of Azure, you will have much to learn.”

I held up my hands in front of me. “Whoa! Wait just a minute, Patar! I am in no way qualified to rule a country, I can't even balance my checkbook!”

Runne snorted at that. “You have time to learn; you are young yet. Their Majesties both still have a lot of life in them. You will learn all that you need to about the Greylands with help, and your parents will teach you about Azure, your people, and your future role.”

“Ummm… about that, how young am I exactly?” I asked as I absently petted Chrissy. Only being able to see my reflection in the blade of a knife or the surface of the lake didn’t exactly give me a very good look at myself, and I had no idea how catgirls aged. I could be anywhere between my mid-teens and mid-twenties by my best guess.

Patar smiled and replied, “In three suns you will be eighteen passes. This is a very important time for you.”

Chrissy nuzzled against my cheek, causing me to smile as I posed the question, “Why is it important?” Back home that was the age of majority, but I wouldn’t even be able to buy alcohol until I was twenty-one.

“For many reasons,” Patar responded. “The eighteenth birthsun is called the Giftsun. It is when your parents will take you to a Diviner, who will test you for Gifts and trigger any Gifts you may have. Triggering can result in mental or physical changes in you, sometimes both. The Giftsun is when you put aside your childhood name and take on the name that you will use in adulthood.” He paused a few seconds before continuing, “And for you, it is also the day you will be brought before your people and recognized as the heir to the throne of Azure.”

I sighed as I rolled my eyes. “So, no pressure, right?”

“There is much pressure for Patar and me, Princess,” Runne ventured. “We must get you home safely as soon as possible and present you to your parents. They are worried that you may have been killed or captured by Lharusian spies.”

“Patar mentioned these Lharusians before,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. “I take it they aren't people who I want to meet?”

Patar grunted with an expression that showed he held nothing but contempt for these Lharusians, whoever they were, before agreeing, “No, they are not. The Lharusian Empire covers most of the continent of Gaje. It is ruled by Krius Myttar and they believe that Humans are superior to all other races. Other races are enslaved and treated cruelly there. Drakans have been almost completely eradicated by the empire's armies. Twelve passes ago, Azure was offered as a safe haven for Drakans and other non-human races. The empire's armies can not reach us easily as to the west there is the Ujard Ocean, the Brey Mountains to the east, and the Great Sand to the south and southwest. They are natural barriers an army cannot easily cross.”

“What's to the north?” I wondered aloud.

A chuckle escaped Patar's lips. “To the north is the Frozen Wastes, where we are now. It is not exactly the most hospitable land. Beyond this is Syrnia, a country much like Azure but isolated on the tip of Gaje.”

“If this empire can't get an army to us, then why bother with us at all? I mean, why would they try to assassinate or kidnap me?” I asked.

“Azure is everything that they hate,” Runne offered with a disgusted snort. “It welcomed the Drakans they have tried to exterminate, all races are seen as equal, and the ruling family is Zenin. They would hope to kill your family to cause unrest and put a Human puppet on the throne. We have seen your mind, so we are certain that you are not a spy, I suspect that you are here in the princess' body due to some enchantment. Maybe it was something that she herself arranged, or it could just be a Lharusian Gifted trying to destabilize Azure's ruling family. Either way, until we know, we must not let on that anything has happened other than the princess wanting a few days of freedom before her Giftsun. When we return, you must begin your lessons immediately. Patar and I will help you however we can, so just try to act like a spoiled princess.”

Patar shook himself and stretched as he got to his feet. “That is enough talk for now, I think. We must get you back home, Your Highness. The flight back will take a few candlemarks.”

I removed Chrissy from around my neck with a sigh. “I guess this is goodbye then.” She chirruped sadly in response.

“Bring the kihr along if you wish, Your Highness. You would hardly be the first of noble blood to have an exotic pet, and kihr are harmless enough and quite clever. In fact, we could use your search for a kihr to have as a pet as your reason for leaving the castle and ending up out here,” Patar pensively pondered as he approached Runne. He clambered up the Drakan's back to where large straps were wrapped around his great white chest and underneath his wings at his back, then held out a hand to help me up to join him. “I have a secure pouch that she can ride in.”

“Thank you, Patar,” I replied with a smile. I had grown attached to my small companion and I really didn’t want to leave her behind. I felt more secure with that impulsive feeling now that Patar confirmed that she was relatively harmless.

“My pleasure, Princess.” He opened up a leather pouch secured to one of the straps and after a bit of coaxing on my part, he had Chrissy safely stashed away. “Now for you.” He gestured to what looked like a sturdy-looking leather belt with large buckles securely fastened to the larger straps. “Sit there and fasten the belt firmly about your waist. You do not want to fall off, so make sure that it is secure. Hold on to the main strap in front of you while in flight to keep yourself steady.”

I nodded and did as he had instructed, and he quickly checked my work before fastening his own belt ahead of me. Then Runne flapped his large wings several times as if testing the air and then, taking a few steps forward, he launched himself into the air, and then we were flying. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. I had flown in planes before, but this was nothing like flying inside what amounted to a metal box.

No, this was flying. I could feel the muscles of the Drakan flexing between my legs, the air rushing past me, caressing my face and whipping my hair behind me. This was exhilarating, almost as heady as the gender euphoria I sometimes felt since waking in this body, but with an added adrenaline rush as the icing on the cake. Being in a body that I didn’t hate was wonderful and it made me want to embrace everything this new life threw at me, but while flying I felt, perhaps for the first time, truly alive.

Michelle watched Visanee become progressively weaker from the telling of her strange tale and the coughing fits which wracked Alex's body. The tale really was strange but somehow, she knew it was the truth, even as her common sense tried to insist it was some drug-induced delusion of her twin. There were little things that told her this was not her twin, the way she held herself and the way she spoke were too different as well. When the tale was done Visanee looked to be hanging on by a thread, but she insisted that there was information that Michelle needed to know.

“Michelle, I won't live long enough to… help your sister as I had planned. You must go in my place. She is in an unfamiliar world, surrounded by unfamiliar things. If I can not guide her as I had intended, then she needs something… familiar and close to help her through. She needs the love and support of her twin sister.”

“Whoa! Wait a minute! It was one thing when you were talking about having switched bodies with Alex and her being in a different world, but you want me to go after her?! I have a life here! I have a job and a boyfriend!”

“What is more important to you, your twin or your life here? You can find a new life in the Greylands, possibly a better one… Can you find a new sister here?” Visanee got out before another coughing fit took her.

Michelle thought a moment before sighing and answering, “Well my job does suck, damn I hate working retail. I guess my boyfriend and I aren't that serious either, but I know nothing about your world besides what you mentioned in your story. How would I even find Alex?”

Visanee spoke again, her voice raspy from the coughing. “Once you have opened the back door, all the kida will be released and your… essence will be placed in a body near the original focus of the enchantment.”

“The dagger?” Michelle asked uncertainly.

Visanee shook her head. “No, the dagger was the medium used to activate the enchantment, the focus of the enchantment was my body. You should find yourself near your sister. Look for a white Zenin with black stripes and black hair. You are twins, so your essences are similar, you should be drawn to one another.”

Michelle nodded, though she still had her doubts. “So, once this back door is open, I'll switch places with the first person to come along, like you did with Alex?”

“No,” was Visanee's reply before she started coughing again. Once she recovered from the fit, she elaborated. “The Enchanter made the original enchantment work that way to save time. He said that normally an enchantment like this would seek out the most compatible essence to yours in the area of the focus… Unless there is already an empty shell. The enchantment seeks out the path of least resistance. The back door is supposed to work that way.”

“What do you mean by an empty shell?” Michelle asked, her brows furrowing in concern.

Visanee thought briefly about how to explain it before her raspy voice offered, “I mean a body whose essence is fading or has left the body altogether while the body itself still lives. Like someone who has lost the will to live or whose essence just was not strong enough to endure. If the body is an empty shell, then the compatibility of the essence is not important since there is no essence to switch with.”

“How is something like this even possible?” Michelle asked. “How can people travel from one world to another? For that matter, how can you even speak my language?”

“It is not truly travel since there is nothing physically moving from one world to another,” the former princess wearily explained. “It is just one form of energy being exchanged for a similar one. Even that was difficult to manage though, it took me a while to find an Enchanter powerful enough and with enough knowledge to do it. Language is learned and stored in the mind; this is… a ghost of your sister’s memories. It would fade in time if… I did not try to learn the language myself. If I had… time.”

“But how did you even know it was possible?” Michelle pressed in fascination.

Visanee coughed hard and was a few minutes recovering before replying, her voice barely audible. “One of my tutors told me how our world was once connected to others. There used to be gates linking our worlds and then people could… go physically from one to another. That is how Humans came to live in the Greylands… and why we have some of the same plants and animals. A few hundred passes ago… the last gate stopped working and nobody knows why.”

Michelle nodded thoughtfully. “That could explain a lot of our myths and legends. I wonder why the gate stopped working.”

“I have no idea, but our worlds are still loosely connected,” she replied. “But without the gate, travel between is impossible, only energy can get through, and it takes powerful use of kida to do even that.”

Michelle then spent the next half hour listening as Visanee explained what she needed to do. She needed to go as close to the spot where she had found Visanee in Alex's body as she could manage and then speak a specific phrase. Michelle tried to commit it to memory but ended up writing it down on a piece of paper, just in case. Visanee was getting weaker with every breath and it broke Michelle's heart to see her brother's body that way. Visanee didn't deserve it either.

Finally, Visanee could hold out no longer, and she breathed her last as Michelle held her hand tightly, trying to reassure her that it would be alright, though in her own heart, she didn't believe it. She was sobbing as she left the room and made her way down the hallway, where her parents were walking in the opposite direction. She leveled a hateful glare at them as she passed and said coldly, “You needn't bother, she's already dead.” Then she left the stunned pair behind and left the hospital. She had a sister to find.

Flying didn't get old, not even after a couple of hours of it. We flew over countless miles of icy wasteland before the land began getting rocky and then gave way to the more hospitable-looking green of forest and farmlands. They were mostly crops, though there looked to be some that were devoted to the raising of some forms of livestock. The passing of the land beneath us and the wind in my face was a constant rush that was over all too soon in the late afternoon as we approached a large city and began to lower our altitude.

To the north of the city, on an island in the center of a lake, was a huge castle. A black wooden drawbridge was lowered and connected to an amazing stonework bridge that spanned the lake from the island to the city and bore a wide cobblestone road. It looked like we were headed to the castle, but Runne suddenly banked to the right and crossed the rest of the lake to land us just outside the city on the lakeshore. As we settled onto the ground I asked, “What's up? I thought that you were taking me to meet my parents.”

Patar turned to face me. “I am. I was speaking with another Diviner, and he said that there is a nest-breaking.”

I shook my head, not quite understanding. “How were you talking to someone from way up there? And what is a nest-breaking?”

Patar chuckled and pointed at his head. “I may not like using my gift to read minds but using it to speak mind to mind with others can be very useful. My range is not very far, maybe half the city, but it is better than some whose range is less or who can only use it with physical contact.” He paused to give me a hand with my belt and lower me to the ground. As he handed me Chrissy, who was very happy to be out in the open again, he continued speaking. “As for your second question, a nest-breaking is when Drakan eggs hatch. Your parents will be here to witness the breaking and see who gets Chosen.”

I settled Chrissy back on my shoulder, where she wrapped herself once more around my neck, humming happily. “So, is this a big event then?” I inquired.

Runne's gravelly voice responded, “When your family offered our kind sanctuary twelve passes ago there were barely more than a dozen of us left. We now number close to two hundred. We reach breeding age at five passes and have a breeding cycle every three passes. Each cycle produces, on average, three to ten eggs. Our kind imprints on the first sentient being they see after hatching. Usually, that is their mother, but since coming here we have been letting Diviners find the perfect match for the Draklings amongst the various races living here. The Chosen become lifelong partners to their Drakans, and the Diviners have not made an incompatible match yet. Given how few of us there still are, and how many wish to become Chosen, nest-breakings are always well attended.”

“So, what?” I asked. “They just randomly select people from a crowd and match them to a Drakling?”

“No,” Patar insisted with a shake of his head. “Diviners with precognitive abilities look to see who is destined to be the best match for a Drakan and place them in front of the proper egg, there is nothing random about it. Most chosen are Gifted, and often the type of Drakan they are matched to compliment either their Gifts or their personalities in some way.”

“Okay, so it's only partly random,” I conceded with a shrug. Then I caught on to what he said. “There are different kinds of Drakans? Runne isn't the only kind?”

Patar began leading me to a large crowd gathered by the lakeshore as he explained, “Runne is a Frost Drakan, there are also Radiant, Shadow, Storm, Flame, Water, Earth, and Stone Drakans. They all are attuned to a force of nature and have abilities that reflect that. The mother to this nest is a Water Drakan, but all the eggs have the potential to be any of the eight types. This is a good-sized nest too, there are nine eggs.”

I nodded as I took in all that information. “What happens to the Draklings and their Chosen after the breaking?”

Patar smiled, seeming pleased that I was trying to learn more. “After the breaking, each new Drakan and Chosen pair will be matched to an older pair, who will teach them what they need to know and help take care of the Drakling. Draklings are smart and can communicate well enough with their Chosen mind-to-mind, but they are still physically infants and need a lot of care. Their bodies take a while to catch up to their minds and it will take an entire pass before they reach their full growth.”

I tried to process all this information as we began to make our way through the crowd. I kept my cowl covering my face in shadow to avoid anyone who might know the princess from recognizing me. People could still see that I was a white Zenin with black stripes, but I was hoping that wasn't too uncommon. Patar seemed unconcerned as he held my hand in one of his huge ones and led me toward the front of the crowd.

Then, as we managed to make our way through, I saw the nest. Dirt, sand, and branches of trees had been piled up in a rough circle about two feet high. Inside the nest were nine huge eggs, each of them easily bigger than me and lavender in color. Watching the eggs intently was a blue Drakan easily as large as Runne with a similar wingspan. I later learned that Drakans may look reptilian, but they are actually warm-blooded, and the parents take turns sitting on the eggs to incubate them.

One of the eggs began to shake and the mother took it from the nest and placed it on the beach, then a blonde Human woman dressed all in red began to stare intently at the shaking egg. The woman then turned to face the crowd and looked around for something before walking confidently into the crowd and taking the hand of a small woman, maybe four feet tall at most. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties and had pointed ears and long brown hair, but the most fascinating thing about her was the leathery green wings sprouting from between her shoulders and rapidly flapping to hold her aloft three feet in the air.

I tried not to stare as Patar whispered to me, “She is a Cinole, we do not see many of them get Chosen.”

The woman in red asked the tiny woman, “Do you consent?”

The Cinole nodded before speaking out, barely loud enough to be heard. “I consent.”

“The consent is really just a formality,” Patar once again whispered to me. “The Drakans offer us their children, and it would be unspeakably rude to the Drakans not to accept that gift. Once the Drakling hatches and imprints on her, she will give it a name, and the Diviner will choose an older pair to take on the new pair as their wards and lead them to where the Drakling can be fed.”

I nodded in agreement to his first statement and acknowledgment to the last. Meanwhile, the hushed crowd watched as she was led to the shivering egg. She stood before it, waiting nervously, and almost rose three feet higher into the air when the first crack appeared on the egg's glossy surface. More cracks appeared and then, with a collective gasp from the crowd, the shell shattered to reveal a wingless green Drakling. It locked eyes on her and a moment later the crowd cheered as she said, “Grayle.”

The woman in red led the Cinole girl and Drakling off to the side, where a large wingless grey Drakan and his Chosen waited. “The one that hatched is an Earth Drakan, and it looks like yon Stone Drakan and his Chosen will be taking them on,” Patar said in an aside, as he started to pull me along once again. “Let us go find their Majesties.”

“Lead on,” I agreed. I was vaguely aware as Patar led me along the front of the crowd by the hand that the mother Drakan had removed another egg from the nest and placed it on the beach. I was nervous about meeting the King and Queen and was focusing mostly on walking wherever Patar was leading me when I felt someone take me firmly by my free hand, stopping me in place. I turned to see a tawny-colored cat-person with reddish hair who I assumed was a Zenin, like Patar said I was. He was taller than me, dressed all in red, and he was holding my hand. “Do you consent?” he asked.

Michelle arrived back at the cabin in the late afternoon, wondering what exactly she was doing there. Now that she was no longer in the room talking to Visanee, it seemed more and more likely that it was all just some drug-induced fantasy. Alex was dead now; she no longer needed to humor her. “But still,” came that nagging thought, “what if it's true? What if my sister is alone in a strange world and needs my help? Can I really give up even the remote chance that I can go help her and see this fantasy world for myself?”

Curiosity, and the need to do something, won out. She made her way through the snow drifts down to the lake. The snow crunched under her feet as she walked, and she shivered at the cold. Alex's hand had been cold too when she had left him. “No,” she told herself. “That wasn't Alex. I'm going to find Alex and help hi... her.” She needed to believe that her twin was still out there somewhere, she needed to believe that this would work.

She trudged across the snow-covered lake ice until she reached the spot where she was pretty sure she had found Alex. “No, that wasn't Alex,” she told herself again sternly. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she pulled out the piece of paper with those all-important words on it. Fold by fold she opened it to reveal those words and then she spoke. “Kida gather, hear my plea. Take my essence, all of me. Selune, come and take my hands. Lead me into the Greylands.”

Nothing happened at first, ten minutes that seemed an eternity, and then there was a flash of light, and she felt weightless. She was in a dark void, endless nothingness. Then, with a sudden lurching feeling, she could sense that she had weight and form once more. Something was wrong, it was hard to move, as if she was confined.

Why was it still so dark? Such utter blackness... no, wait. There were two small slivers of light. She needed that light and threw herself toward it with reckless abandon. There! Another crack of light in this dark abyss. She threw herself forward again and was rewarded with more light as the crack grew larger. One last time, she gathered all her strength and launched herself at the crack. The darkness around her shattered as light filled her world, and then she saw her.

I stared at the Zenin in red, unsure of what to do. I turned to look at Patar, who had squeezed my other hand, and saw him give me a nod. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I turned back to the Zenin and croaked nervously, “I... ummm.... consent.” I reluctantly let go of Patar's hand, removed Chrissy from around my neck, and handed her off to him. Then, summoning all my courage, I let the Zenin Diviner holding my hand lead me to the egg.

He placed me in front of the massive quivering egg. There was a small jolt, and a tiny sliver of a crack appeared on the shell. Then there was nothing for a few minutes before a second jolt, much weaker and barely noticeable caused a second sliver. Then there was nothing. Four other eggs were paired off around me and their Draklings burst forth to be named by their Chosen and led away, but the egg in front of me remained quiet and still.

It had been well over ten minutes if I could count on my internal clock, and still, nothing had happened. I began to despair that this might be some cruel joke that fate was playing on me. And then it happened, the egg wobbled. Then it rocked as a new crack appeared along the shell's surface.

Another powerful tremor ripped through the egg, causing the crack to grow wider. Finally, the egg was shaken so hard from inside that the shell all but exploded, revealing a Drakling with silver scales and iridescent wings that practically gleamed in the late afternoon light and summoned a collective gasp from those watching in the crowd. Our eyes met, and it was then that I heard a very familiar voice inside my head. ~Alex?~

My jaw dropped as I recognized the voice of my twin sister. “Michelle?” The moment her name left my lips, the crowd roared.