It took me a whole two weeks to settle on what I wanted to study. As a kid, I had never really thought much about what I wanted to do when I grew up, and even since Sprouting, I hadn’t been seriously considering the future. To me, the future consisted of getting used to being a Sprite, getting out of the hospital, joining the Vanguard, and finding Kelly and Mom. Until I had to make a serious decision about what I wanted to study, the future beyond those goals seemed like a nebulous thing, almost impossible, and the only thing that had altered my plans for it was finding out that Kelly was alive and here in the hospital too.

Now I had to actually think about the future beyond when we rescued Mom and brought her home, and it was a little bit intimidating. Thankfully, now that I had a comm ring (or crown in my case), I could at least browse the outernet and the university website to see what my options were. There were a lot of options, but a lot of those were quickly discarded as things I had no interest in or that were completely impractical. I mean, could you see a slightly less than five-inch-tall Water Sprite as an electrical engineer? No, I didn’t think so, as adorable as it would be.

The choice that I finally settled on was a program called New World Synergy, which focused on studies of the Altered forms of humanity, as well as new Altered flora and fauna that and been appearing in and around Incursion Zones, magic in general, and the effects they had on our changing world. Mostly the courses were drawn from other programs such as the various courses from environmental sciences, ecology, biology, history, social sciences, and magic studies programs. There were courses unique to the program as well though, such as magical conservation, Altered herbalism, and magical mixtures.

To be fair, I wasn’t very focused on trying to decide my tenuous future during the past two weeks though. I was still training constantly to get my new body into the best shape possible, strengthen my wings, and increase both my power and control with my magic. My determination and focus on physical stuff was really paying off though since by the time I decided on what university program to take, I was as physically fit and mobile as any other Sprite and could stay up in the air for a long time. As for my Water magic, I was making steady progress there too, but I had a bit of help with that.

I guess that we Fairy-type Altered usually don’t have much of an upside when we join the Vanguard since we’re so small and fragile unless we luck out with our special ability like I did. The one benefit of all Fairies was that we had natural magical abilities and, with practice and training, could get pretty powerful with them. With that in mind, the Vanguard usually tries to help any Fairy-type recruit/students to get a solid grip on those skills before classes and training start taking up the lion's share of our time.

Since ninety-nine percent of Fairies Sprout in the Amethyst Harbour Hospital for Altered Care and then spend our time acclimating to our new forms and doing rehab in the hospital, we’re pretty easy for them to contact and make arrangements with once they know we’re joining up. I guess there isn’t a lot to do except paperwork, public outreach, and training whenever the Vanguard isn’t responding to an Incursion, so they can arrange training for any new signups in need. That was why Poppy and I both had visitors from Vanguard Tower every day since we officially signed on.

Captain Monroe came for two hours every afternoon to drill me in Water magic while her colleague, Lt. Daisy Williams trained Poppy with her Fire magic. The Water and Fire Sprite officers worked me and Poppy like we were a pair of fresh-faced recruits, which I guess we were. They had no mercy as they pressed us relentlessly to push our limits and become more powerful and adept with the magic of our respective elements.

The Huli Jing that they had come in to teach my sister the basics of her species abilities had been visiting Kelly the past couple of days as well, to help her refine her skills since she had her power testing and signed on to attend Vanguard University as well. She had been showing marked improvement in her mental state over the last two weeks, mostly due to spending time with me and Moonlight. She hadn’t been able to ride the Unicorn yet or do much more than give her a good brushing, but just spending time with us and having goals seemed to help her a lot. She had even met Poppy a couple of days ago.

Moonlight was another problem entirely. While she was getting used to spending more time in her physical form again to interact with my sister and other people, she was still wary of people and preferred to keep a low profile, which isn’t easy when you’re the only known Unicorn in existence. This was also complicated by the number of doctors and nurses who had seen her since her first appearance, and it only got worse after she consented to heal a little Centaur girl who was on life support following an accident last week.

Not only was the little girl enraptured with Moonlight now, but her mother wanted to do something to pay her back for saving her daughter’s life. People were starting to put two and two together and connecting her with the mystery ‘miracle recoveries’ in the hospital over the past couple of years as well. Now we were both getting a lot more attention than either of us was comfortable with, which was exactly what she had tried to warn me about before I decided to reveal her to Poppy, the power testers, and my sister.

Now gifts of thanks were showing up for us at the Fairy Ward and I couldn’t even refuse or give most of them back since a lot of them were showing up anonymously. The only good thing about this was that at least most people were putting thought into these gifts. The baskets of apples were thoughtful and not too expensive, so I was willing to take those, but some of this stuff was ridiculous.

Don’t get me wrong, for the most part, it was only small stuff. There were a couple of digital gift cards to stores in town that I’d never heard of, flowers, and drawings from little kids of them with a Unicorn and Sprite. I had to admit that there was useful stuff from Moonlight’s new fan club too, but I just didn’t want to think about people spending a lot of money on this stuff when Moonlight didn’t heal those people for material gain. And some people had obviously put both money and thought into their gifts.

There was a very nice horse care and grooming kit for Moonlight as well as some warm, good-quality blankets for her, but the worst of the stuff was directed toward me since when the nurses asked for people, Moonlight insisted she had no desire for material things, she only wanted me happy and healthy. If they hadn’t been delivered anonymously, I would have thought these things were bribes or something. The worst offender was the house. Yes, someone had left a literal house for me.

Sure, it was only the size of a large dollhouse, and clearly meant for Sprites, but it was a lot bigger and fancier than any of the basic and cozy little houses that Poppy and I were using while in the Fairy Ward. The outside was painted powder blue with white trim, and it had actual glass windows. According to Jade, there was a business in town that built regular dollhouses, furniture, and clothes for dolls, as well as making custom stuff for Fairy-type Altered, and she thought that this house looked like one of their higher-end models. It had three bedrooms, a den, a living room, a bathroom, and a kitchen, though the latter had only counter space, a pantry, space for a table, and little cupboards since Sprites don’t need to cook most of our meals due to being mostly vegetarian.

Other than the lack of a fridge and stove, this place had the works; electricity, lights, heating, a fireplace, and even running water for the bathroom. That water came from an indoor, heated reservoir and was filtered through a water purification system before being recycled, and the bathroom also boasted one of the new magical equivalents of a toilet for our size that disintegrates waste. The internal walls of the house were painstakingly painted, every room had doors that could open and close, and the floors were covered in plush carpet.

The reason that it had proper windows, and a fireplace and stuff, was because this house wasn’t just some dollhouse, it had a weatherproof roof and walls and could be placed anywhere outdoors if I wanted to so long as I had permission from the property owner or the city itself. And since a regular-sized person could carry it with only a little difficulty, it was truly a mobile home. The whole thing also ran on one of those new little magitech batteries that had been developed recently to draw mana from around them for power, meaning that the residents would never have to worry about power outages.

If this was one of that store’s higher-end models, like Jade thought, the house alone could be worth upward of ten grand, and that was without the furniture. The fact that the place was fully furnished with temptingly comfortable Sprite-sized furniture only made me feel worse about not knowing who had left it so I could ask them to take it back. I guess that one of the gift cards we had received was for the same store and Jade suggested that I use it to get some clothes since the store had clothes geared toward Water Sprites that were made from water-resistant or waterproof materials. Poppy could probably use something from their Fire Sprite line as well, so she wouldn’t keep destroying all her clothes.

The gifts were only half of the problem though since people who had heard about Moonlight wanted her to try to heal their loved ones too. Neither of us wanted to hear about every broken arm or case of the flu that people had come to the hospital for. If it was something life-threatening and the doctors couldn’t do anything, like with the little Centaur girl, Moonlight and I could probably be convinced to help if asked nicely, but the doctors here were good and a lot of stuff could be handled just fine with everyday medical care and a bit of patience.

With all that on my mind, I was so glad that I had finally come to a decision about my studies, had registered for my classes, and that we were getting out of the hospital for a bit today. It was Saturday, August 3rd, marking almost an entire month in the hospital for me since I had Sprouted, and apparently, I was now healthy and fit enough that I could get out of the Fairy Ward whenever I was ready. Poppy, Kelly, and I wouldn’t be having magic training sessions with our coaches today since one of the Vanguard’s Seers had sensed that a Breach would be appearing somewhere in South America today. They were already in the air and on their way south to be closer so they could mobilize as soon as the Electromagnetic Breach Analysis Satellite System determined a more precise location.

With no magic training and my exercises now reduced to a morning workout, my day was mostly free when a brief tour of the city and a shopping trip were suggested by a certain Centaur lady who had come to visit first thing this morning, and who was still trying to find some way to thank me and Moonlight for saving her daughter’s life. Annika seemed like a nice enough lady and her daughter, Lyra, was a little sweetheart so I had accepted her offer of the tour, so long as I could bring Poppy and my sister along. Moonlight agreed to come along as well, even if only to keep an eye on me, but she would remain out of sight unless needed for something specific.

Poppy, Moonlight, and I learned quite a bit about Annika and Lyra while waiting for my sister to meet us in the hospital lobby. Annika was originally from a small town in Greece which had been mostly destroyed during an Incursion. She was three months pregnant at the time, lost her husband in the attack, and then started changing into a Centaur. The rapid changes were hard on both her and the unborn child and there were a few scares where she was worried that she was going to lose the baby, so she was brought here, where they knew more about Altered health care than anyone else on the planet.

In the end, Lyra was born… as healthy as a horse, you might say. She was born a Centaur and apparently, baby Centaurs are a little awkward to care for so there was a bit of a learning curve for Annika until a Centaur couple with an older child were brought in to show her the ropes. Despite the difficulties involved, or perhaps because of them, she adored her daughter. That girl meant more to her than anything in the world, and it was obvious to anyone who saw them together.

She also greatly resembled her mother. Both had deep brown eyes and freckles set in pretty faces, and auburn hair with lightly tanned skin on their human half. Below their human waists, they had the body of chestnut horses with reddish-brown coats and tails and they both looked like they were healthy and took good care of themselves. They wore simple T-shirts for modesty and Annika was shapely up top and looked to be in her mid to late twenties, with a generous chest that strained the material of her shirt. Lyra looked like she could be as old as seven, but I knew for a fact that she was only five. I guess that Centaurs mature slightly faster than humans do.

We had been waiting and talking for over half an hour and it was almost ten o’clock when my sister finally showed up. Kelly seemed stable enough now, both mentally and physically, that she was due to be released soon as well, and Captain Monroe was telling me that they were considering letting us move into the dorms early so we could all get out of the hospital on Monday. If that happened, they would put Kelly in a room overlooking the stables and we could do our future magic training sessions at the university training area. Poppy and I could use my new house, placing it in Kelly’s dorm room, somewhere on the roof of the Rainbow Dorm, or even above the stable itself.

“Hey, Sis, what took you so long?” I asked as my sister approached and absently tugged at the clothes she was wearing, which consisted of a long, flowing black skirt that bulged and swayed at the back from her nine tails being stuffed underneath, a too-large navy-blue t-shirt, and a pair of worn sneakers over ankle socks.

Kelly sighed but quickly shrugged off whatever had her down to give me a weary smile. “I had to look through the clothing donations to find something that fit since I was naked when they found me. It’s nice not having to wear a hospital gown, but it took forever to find something that could work for my tails. I still can’t hold my human form for long and we’ll likely be gone most of the day.”

“Yeah, I guess that has to suck, I have enough problems with my size and wings, but Poppy has been a huge help with our clothing situation so far. I can’t imagine how awkward a tail would be, let alone nine of them,” I said as I glanced down at my own clothes.

My outfit was a pretty, baby blue dress and boots that Poppy had made from some of the material and thread she had gotten to practice with her special ability. The dress had a backless and sleeveless white halter top and panties that served as an underlayer and were almost a match in color for my pale skin. Over the white halter top that served as the base, and kept me modest without interfering with my wings, there were panels of sheer and shimmery translucent blue material covering from the chest down to the waist, but leaving my midriff and navel exposed as they draped off to the sides. There was a skirt of matching panels that resembled flower petals, covering me from hips to mid-thigh. The boots looked like something a pirate would wear but were more like boot-shaped slippers, reaching up to my knees, made from powder blue cloth, and laced up with navy blue thread.

“Hopefully, we have time to get some shopping done today,” my sister replied to my comment. “I heard that there are places in town for people with tails or other odd body features to get clothes, so maybe I can find stuff that works. That start-up grant we got should hopefully cover new clothes and the essentials.”

The grant Kelly was talking about was something that the city, in conjunction with the Vanguard, offered to all Altered who were displaced from their homes due to their changes, or other reasons, and brought to Amethyst Harbour. It was meant for exactly what my sister was talking about, getting clothes and other things needed to start over when you had lost everything. With our release from the hospital now looming, Poppy, Kelly, and I had gotten our grants deposited into new bank accounts that had been created for us yesterday and that were linked to Kelly’s implant and the comm crowns that Poppy and I had been given.

I led my sister to where Poppy was waiting with Annika and Lyra and quickly made the introductions. “This is my sister, Kelly. Kelly, this is Annika and her daughter Lyra, they’ve offered to show us around and take us to the best places to shop for whatever we need.”

“It’s nice to meet you both,” Kelly offered, directing a smile toward the pair of female Centaurs.

Annika looked a bit stunned for a moment but quickly recovered enough to say, “It’s nice to meet you as well, Kelly. Your sister and her Unicorn saved Lyras’s life, so showing you all around is the least I can do. I must admit though, I was expecting another Sprite.”

She was probably thinking that since when more than one member of a family becomes Altered, which is fairly rare, they usually lean toward the same species, what with similar genetics and all. “We were both adopted,” I quickly explained.

The Centaur nodded and smiled as she replied, “That explains it. Let’s get going then, I have a pretty big day planned for us. It’s going to be fun, right Lyra?”

“Yeah, Mom! We’re going to the park too, right?! I wanna race Moonlight!” the girl excitedly answered.

“Of course, Honey, we’ll show them the park on the tour,” she said, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “Come on, ladies, we’re burning daylight, and we have a lot to do today!” She said as she turned to lead us to the lobby doors and what would be the first trip outside the hospital for me, Poppy, and Kelly. Poppy and I found a perch atop my sister’s head, right between her big fluffy ears as she followed the Centaurs outside and into the unknown.