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Mike and Jill kept themselves busy cleaning Sean's apartment while he read. "This place is never as dirty as I expect it to be." Jill noted.

"Yeah, Sean doesn't like a mess." Mike agreed.

Sean's apartment was spotless by the time he called out that he'd found a good place in the book. "We should have plenty of time." Sean said, pointing out the place in the story where he wanted to go.

"Let's go then!" Mike said. Jill nodded, so Sean opened the portal and they stepped through.

They found themselves in a room filled with all kinds of odd objects, many of which were obviously very old. In one corner a very old man with an extremely long beard was reading from a large tome. "Um, excuse me, sir, could you help us?" Mike asked anxiously. The man turned surprisingly quickly, a ball of fire appearing in his hand.

"Who are you? How did you get in here?" he demanded. He didn't seem panicked, just weary.

"Um, I'm Mike, this is Jill and Sean. Sean opened a portal here. We were hoping you could help him by removing a curse placed on him by Venus." Mike replied uncertainly. He felt overawed by the old man's presence.

"Hmph! Used to be a boy, eh? Let me see." He said, turning to Sean. He gazed at him silently for several minutes. Sean was having a hard time staying still under his gaze. "I think I see what your problem is. Unfortunately, I can't help you." He finally said.

"Are…are you sure?" Sean asked weakly.

The old man looked kindly at Sean and replied, "Yes, I'm sure. You may want to consider that this might not be a curse at all. I once spent some time as a woman. It was very educational."

"I do not want to stay this way!" Sean declared hotly.

The old mage sighed. "As you say. Is there anything else I can help you with?" he asked.

"Um, there is one thing. I seem to be able to change people's gender now. It doesn't work on me, though." Sean added sadly.

The mage nodded. "I'm not surprised. It's a side effect of your…condition. It's probably triggered by anger. If your friends will let you practice on them, you may be able to exert conscious control over it."

"What about his ability to open portals to other worlds?" Mike asked.

The old mage took another long look at Sean before replying, "Ah, I see, I think. That is most unique. This ability will only get stronger in time. You mustn't ignore or deny it, or it could destroy you. Using it, as you are, will help you greatly. Just be careful where you go!"

They all thanked the mage for his help and Sean opened the portal. Before they could step through the mage called out to them. "One more thing before you go. Traveling between worlds can have unexpected consequences for the traveler. Your friends may find themselves changed by the experience, as will you." He wouldn't say anything else on that, so they left.

"What do you think he meant?" Mike asked once they'd returned to Sean's apartment.

"I don't know, maybe it has something to do with that portrait I painted?" Jill wondered.

"You think traveling with Sean allowed you to see the future or something?" asked Mike.

Jill shrugged. "Maybe."

Sean flopped down on the couch while they were talking. "If he can't help me, who can?" he wondered aloud.

"I don't know, but from what he said using your abilities will help you. If we keep looking I'm sure we'll find something." Jill replied thoughtfully.

"I wonder how this is going to change all of us." Mike wondered. Sean glared at him and he hastily added, "Besides what it's already done to you, Sean."

"Maybe we should stop." Sean said after a long pause in the conversation. "This is too dangerous for you two. If we ever got separated you'd be stuck. I can always escape with a portal, but you can't. Maybe I should just live with it." He finished morosely.

"What about Erica?" Jill asked in shock.

Sean shrugged. "She would have left me eventually, anyway. At least she'll have a good excuse."

"Sean, there's no way you mean that!" Jill exclaimed. "You love her, I know you do!"

"Of course I do!" Sean yelled back. "But she's straight; she won't want to be with me like this!"

"Hey, don't give up so quick Sean! Erica really loves you, I'm sure that she can deal if she has to. But that's almost six months away; we still have lots of time to fix this." Mike said with a hand on Sean's shoulder.

"That's right, and we're helping you whether you like it or not!" Jill added, taking his hand in hers. "We're your friends, we're not going to abandon you. We're going to get through this together."

Tears came to Sean's eyes as he looked at his two friends. "I don't deserve you guys." He said before he started sobbing. Mike and Jill held onto him while he weeped. Eventually he stopped and they pulled back and looked at him.

"You deserve way more than us Sean!" Mike said fervently. Jill nodded emphatically. "Maybe we should take a break for lunch?" Mike suggested. Sean and Jill agreed and Sean retreated to the kitchen to make sandwiches. He insisted on making them himself, he said it would give him something else to think about.

Mike and Jill let him go and sat down on the couch together. "This is going to be really tough." Mike said. "I've never seen Sean lose it like that. He never cried in school, no matter how cruel people were to him."

Jill nodded, she'd never seen Sean cry before this, and she'd seen him treated horribly in the past. "Maybe it's the hormones?" she suggested, knowing that wasn’t the case even as she said it.

"No way. They may make it harder to keep it in, but there's no way that explains everything. He's really hurting." Mike replied.

"Yeah, I know. I think the worry over Erica is hurting him more than the gender change." Jill said.

"Could be. He's so in love with her, I could believe it." Mike replied.

Sean returned with a plate piled high with sandwiches. The three friends had a quiet lunch with no mention of Sean's problems.

"Sean, why don't we go to another world, but just for fun." Jill suggested while they were cleaning up.

"Fun?! What is fun about it?" Sean asked in astonishment.

"Well, aren't there stories you've read that you'd really like to visit? One of your favorites, maybe?" Jill suggested.

Sean thought about that as they walked back to the living room. "I would kind of like to see the Shire. I've always thought that would be interesting." He said.

"Let's do it!" Jill exclaimed, running over to the bookshelf to pull out the relevant book. "Here you go!" she said, handing it to Sean.

"What's this?" Mike asked.

"We're going to go to a world Sean wants to see, just for fun. I thought it would be good to do something fun and it would give Sean more experience at the same time." Jill replied.

Mike looked dubiously at Jill then shrugged. "Okay, I'm in." he said resignedly. Sean flipped through the book for a while before finding what he was looking for.

"Here we are!" he exclaimed. "You guys ready?"

Mike finally got a good look at the book. "We're not going to the dragon's lair, are we?" he asked worriedly.

"Of course not!" Sean scoffed. "I just want to see the Shire!" With that Sean opened the portal and immediately stepped through. Mike and Jill hurriedly followed so they wouldn't be left behind. Once they were through Sean closed the portal.

As they took stock of their surroundings Mike said, "Uh, Sean, I think you missed." They were standing just outside a small town overshadowed by a mountain. As they looked around they saw something falling from the mountain. In a moment they realized it wasn't falling, it was flying, and it was as big as a house!

"Damn, my mind must have wandered after you mentioned the dragon's lair! We've got to get out of here!" Sean exclaimed. He was just about to open the portal when he was distracted by a crowd of people fleeing the town, screaming in fear. They were headed right for Sean and his friends. Sean tore his attention away and opened a portal, but he was bowled over by the crowd before anyone could go through and it closed. Sean had been knocked out when he fell.

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 To Be Continued…