---

Mike and Jill managed to drag Sean away before he was trampled. They tried to wake him, but he was out like a light. "Now what?" Mike asked.

"We've got to wait until he wakes up, I guess." Jill replied worriedly. They were still quite close to the town, and the flying object they'd seen was approaching it rapidly. "Is that what I think it is?"

Mike looked back at it and frowned. "I think so. We'd better move Sean farther from the town or we'll be barbecued!"

They dragged Sean as far from the town as they could and watched as the dragon attacked. They were so enthralled by this that they didn't even see the goblins approaching until almost too late.

Jill spied them first. "Mike!" she screamed, pointing out the ugly creatures. They were armed with a motley assortment of weapons.

"Shit!" Mike muttered under his breath. He left Sean with Jill and turned to face the creatures. "I wish I'd brought that sword!"

They seemed hesitant to attack, but one of them was braver than the others and tried to clobber Mike with a club. Mike caught it and kicked the goblin in the face. The goblin dropped the club and fell back. The others backed off for a moment, then charged en masse!

Mike felt despair, he knew he had no chance against so many armed opponents, no matter how unskilled they might be. Then he felt pain throughout his entire body. He blacked out for a moment, and when he came to he saw the goblins were running away in terror. Their weapons lay scattered on the ground.

"Uh, Mike, is that you?" Jill called out hesitantly. Mike turned to look at her and was surprised to see she was tiny!

"Jill? Why are you so small?" he growled. Why am I growling? he thought, confused.

"It's not me that's small, you're huge! You're a dragon!" Jill exclaimed. Mike looked down at himself and saw she was right. His scales were golden in color and he had long claws on all four feet. How he hadn't noticed his changed body before this, he didn't know.

"How?" Mike growled in wonder.

Jill shrugged. "I don't know. You were attacked by those goblins, and then you doubled over like you were in a lot of pain, and you suddenly expanded and changed to become that dragon!"

"Weird!" Mike exclaimed, feeling wings on his back flex. They were huge wings, he could see, but they didn't feel strange to him. It was like he'd always been a dragon. "Well, at least we're safe from the goblins!"

"Uh oh!" Jill said and pointed in the direction of the town. "They've just finished killing a dragon that looked an awful lot like you. I think we'd better get out of here before they think you're him!"

Mike nodded, but was unsure how they'd move Sean. Jill started dragging him, but he woke up quickly. "What's going on?" he asked groggily.

"You got knocked out by people fleeing that town. Then some goblins attacked us, and Mike somehow transformed into a dragon." Jill told him, carefully positioning herself between Sean and Mike so he wouldn't see Mike before getting the explanation.

"A dragon?! How'd that happen?" he asked in shock.

Jill shrugged. "We don't know. But he looks a lot like the dragon that was attacking the town, so I'm worried they'll think he's one and the same." Jill explained.

"Oh. Let's get out of here then." Sean said. Once he'd stood up with Jill's help he saw Mike. "Mike?! Is that really you?" he exclaimed.

Mike nodded, "Yep. Don't ask me how, though!"

Now that Sean was awake, he and Jill were able to climb onto Mike's back and they fled. Mike was able to cover a lot of territory very quickly. Soon the town was out of sight so he stopped and let his passengers off. "You two okay?" he asked.

"We're fine, Mike!" Jill replied.

"Uh, guys, I think we've got another problem." Sean said.

"What?" Jill asked.

"How is Mike going to fit through the portal?" Sean replied.

"Maybe you can make it bigger?" Mike suggested hopefully.

Sean shook his head. "Even if I can, I can't make my apartment bigger!"

"Oh!" Mike exclaimed, catching on.

"Maybe you can change back, Mike?" Jill suggested.

Mike snorted, columns of smoke jetting out of his nostrils. "I don't even know how I changed the first time!" he grumbled.

Sean got a thoughtful expression on his face and then stepped forward and slapped Mike's nose. Suddenly Mike was human again, but female! "How's that?" Sean asked smugly.

Mike rubbed his nose like it hurt. "Did you have to hit so hard?" he grumbled with a grin.

"Wimp!" Sean retorted and stuck his tongue out at him.

Jill laughed at their antics. "The question is, will he turn back to a dragon when you change him back to male?" she said.

"One way to find out!" Sean said and slapped him on the arm. Suddenly Mike was back to his old self, human and male.

"Whew, thanks Sean, I was getting worried for a while there." Mike said in relief.

"I think we should leave a visit to the Shire for another day." Jill suggested.

Sean nodded. "Yeah, I think it would be a good idea to get home now." He agreed, opening the portal. They stepped through into Sean's apartment with relief.

They all flopped down in chair or couch. "That was…interesting." Sean remarked.

"Yeah, you could say that. The weirdest part, for me anyway, was that it felt completely natural to be a dragon." Mike replied.

Jill snapped her fingers. "Hey, remember the mage said that traveling through the portals would change us. Maybe that's why you transformed, Mike!" she said excitedly.

"So, what, I'm going to become a dragon?" Mike asked worriedly.

"I don't think so. After all, you only changed when you were fighting the goblins. Why then, and not earlier? And why not here?" Jill replied.

"Another question is, why didn't I just become a female dragon when Sean slapped me?" Mike wondered aloud.

"Oh, that's easy!" Sean replied. "My ability must only work on your base form, rather than on whatever other form you're in at the time. So it made you a female human instead of a dragon."

"If that's true, it means you aren't becoming a dragon." Jill pointed out.

"That's encouraging." Mike agreed. Just then his stomach growled, loudly.

"Maybe we should go out for dinner." Jill suggested.

"No way!" Sean practically screamed. "I'm not going out like this!"

Jill sighed, "Okay. Mike, why don't you go get us something and bring it back here?" she suggested.

"Any preferences?" he asked. There weren't, so he left to get dinner.

"Why didn't you go with him?" Sean asked worriedly.

"I wanted to talk to you about something. I've been thinking about it, and even though we've got plenty of time to find a solution for you before Erica gets back, we don't have much time before you've got to be back at work. Not to mention your classes which are tomorrow!" Jill said.

Sean seemed to deflate at that. "Oh, yeah." He said morosely.

"I think you should go to your classes tomorrow as you are." Jill stated worriedly. She knew Sean wouldn't take her idea well.

"WHAT?!" Sean screamed.

"Here me out." Jill said, wincing at Sean's volume. "You can tell the college, and your boss, that you're transgendered. I've looked this up online, and there's something called the Real Life Test. Before a transgendered person can have surgery they have to live in their chosen gender for a year or more. You can say that's what you're doing, to find out if being a girl is right for you. That way, when you finally change back, you can say it wasn't right for you after all and everything can go back to the way it was."

"I'd never be able to live that down!" Sean replied angrily. "If you think the way they treat me at work now is bad, just wait to see what it would be like if I did that!"

"I know it'd be tough, Sean, but how else are you going to live? You have to work to pay your bills. Mike and I could take you in, but we couldn't pay your car payments and other bills. And you'd still want to have your apartment for when Erica gets back, I assume." Jill said.

That stopped Sean for a bit. "You're right, I guess, but it won't work! Even if things went okay with my classes, and I doubt that, work would be torture!"

"Not if you stand up for yourself. There are laws against discrimination or harassment based on gender and gender expression. They can't keep treating you like that without getting into all kinds of trouble. Besides, if you had reported them they would have gotten in trouble before!" Jill replied.

"I guess." Sean mumbled. He seemed deep in thought so Jill was hopeful that he would at least consider it.

A short while later Mike returned carrying a bag of Chinese takeout. "Hey guys, dinner's ready!" He called out. Then he saw the worried expression on Sean's and Jill's faces. "What's up?"

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 To Be Continued…