Lee's adventures continue. His old life is careening out of his control, his new one coming at him head-on. Can he survive the clash of old and new and still keep his sanity. Will his mother's attempts at helping make matters better or worse. It's anyone's guess. For sure, Lee doesn't know.

I want to thank Maggie Finson and all the other authors for creating the Whateley Universe. This story is Fan-fiction and may not conform to Canon rules or timelines. I am only playing in their sandbox. I also want to thank Connected and my wife for all the editing work put in to turn my scratchings into a readable story.

Please note that all of the categories checked do not apply to all chapters.

I appreciate all the encouraging comments and Kudos, and I apologize for the delay in posting.

Monday
November 3rd

Lee came running in through the kitchen door after school. He slung his backpack into the corner as he ran up the back stairs slamming the door to his room behind him. Katherine began to hear loud crashing noises of things being thrown around and breaking in his room. This was followed by the sound of splintering wood and breaking glass. Kathleen groaned softly as she wiped her hands on her apron and took it off. She hurried upstairs to his door and knocked loudly.

“Lee! Stop that and let me in.” She shouted through the door. The sounds settled down, and after a few minutes, the door open tentatively a couple of inches. Lee peeped at his mother kinda timidly, anger warring with chagrin on his face.

“Can I come in? she said softly.

“Yeah, I guess, your house,” he replied sarcastically as he swung the door open.

Kathleen gasped at the devastation in his room. His dresser was in small pieces and scattered over the room. One of the 5” thick posts on the corner of his bed had been snapped off and crushed. There were at least three holes in the wall and his desk chair was a pile of kindling with one leg stuck through the window.

“Lee! What’s got into you?” She had a pretty good idea what was wrong, but that wasn’t an excuse for this kind of outburst. She knew she had to impress on Lee that as strong as he was he had to maintain control.

“It was that damn costume you made me wear. Everyone was making fun today over that stupid costume, and some of the guys are starting to notice the changes in my body thanks to it looking so good! They taunted me all day.” He said angrily.

“Everyone?” She queried skeptically.

“Weeeelll, no, not everyone, but Randy and his friends, some of the guys I thought were my friends on the football team, and a couple of the fuckin’ cheerleaders made my life hell all day! Why did I ever agree to go through it. I’ll never be able to show my face in this town again!” Lee’s tone was belligerent as if daring her to disagree with him. “They all think I’m a pansy or worse.” He slammed his hand through the top of his desk.

“Liam Ephraim Cook! I will not have my child cursing while they are living in my house and I won’t tolerate wanton destruction! So you calm yourself down, right now!” He’d seldom heard Mom sound so furious. He stood raking the toe of his shoe through a pile of debris, unable to look her in the eye.

“You will clean up this mess as spotless as possible, before you come down to dinner. Do you hear me?” He nodded staring at the floor. “Look at me when I’m talking to you.” He looked into her irate face. “Then you will repair as much of this damage as possible - out of your allowance, _and_ you are grounded for two weeks or until the damage is repaired whichever comes first.”

“But I don’t know how to fix this.” He whined, sweeping his hand around the room.

“You should have thought of that before you went on a rampage in my house.” Kathleen was really angry, but she was even more scared by the violence of his actions. “I know you’ve had a bad day, and I even know that it may have been at least partially my fault. That is still no excuse for this. We talk about things in this house — not destroy things. Do I make myself clear.”

Lee muttered something under his breath, still not looking at her.

“Liam Ephram Cook! You look at me when I’m talking to you! Do. You. Understand?” He sullenly looked into her eyes.

“Yes, Ma’am.” He was realizing just how much trouble he was in.

“Seeing the dismay on his face, she relented a little. “If you ask nicely and are sufficiently contrite, you _might_ get your father to help you a little.”

Lee’s face blanched at the thought of telling his Dad about this.

“You should have thought of that, too,” she said sternly, reading his face like a book. “I’ll send you some garbage bags and a couple of boxes, but I don’t want you to stir out of this room until you are called. I expect to see the worst of this cleared away by then. Do you understand me, young man?”

Lee still had enough spirit to mutter under his breath, “Don’t you mean, young lady?”

“What was that?” She had heard him clearly, but was cutting him no slack. She was afraid to.

“Nothing. Yes, ma’am, I’ll get right on it. Now that Lee’s fury had passed he felt contrite, but he was still mad and frustrated, too.

————

She went down and sent several heavy duty garbage bags in two large boxes up by Eve as she came in from school. Eve stared at the devastation in Lee’s room.

“What did you do?” She said incredulously.

“I got mad at school today and came home and took it out on my room. That darned Randy and the rest of those narrow minded jackasses were calling me names, and even Ms. Long got into it.”

“What’s she got to do with anything?” Eve was sympathetic but also a little frightened by what Lee had done. She knew he was strong, but this was just scary.

She’s decided I’m some kind of Nancy-boy or tranny and am going to infect the rest of the students. She was trying to get me kicked out last week for something I didn’t even do, and she drug Mr. Keesling and the Principal into it.”

“Have you told Mom and Dad about her?”

“No, what are they going to do? Especially, now after this.”

“Lee, sometimes you can be so dumb. They are not going to stand for a teacher abusing one of us even if we were in the wrong. You need to go down and tell them about this.”

“I can’t, I’m not supposed to leave my room until Mom says I can.”

Alright, but you’re going to tell them about this at dinner. Meanwhile, give me a bag and I’ll help.

——————

Katherine picked up the phone, at first intending to call Dr. Bennett, but at the last second dialed Coach instead. After she finished explaining the situation, he asked if he could come over. She readily agreed.

Once he arrived, Katherine told him of her fears.

“I knew Lee’s day was an especially rough one.” Coach said as he sat in Kathleen’s kitchen sipping coffee.

She crooked an eyebrow at him in question.

“What? You didn’t think I was just going to ignore him at school, did you? I have my spies. He took another sip of coffee. “Good coffee this,” lifting his cup.

“Did he tell you about the incident last week with Ms. Long and Mr. Keesling?”

She shook her head.

He proceeded to tell her of the trumped up charges against Lee, and it’s resolution. “Mr. Garcia’s a fair minded individual, and I understand both teachers got raked over the coals, with a note in their personnel files. Randy Jenkins in doing detention for the next two weeks. He should have been suspended and/or arrested. But I’m more worried about his dad though, besides being in H-1, his wrecker company has the county contract with the Sheriffs’ office. He and the Sheriff are good old buddies and you better watch yourselves or risk getting hauled in on some trumped up charge and that could be very bad if Lee was with you. I’m going to call Doc and see when we can get that MID issued final. We can worry about changing it later, if necessary.”

He took another long sip of coffee and sat there staring at the wall. Then he changed the subject back to Lee.

“I’m not really surprised that he came home and threw a tantrum. I know you’re not happy about it, but honestly, think about it — better here than there. I was afraid he would go ballistic on that jerk Randy today. Bad seed that one, I had to kick him off the team even though he had real potential. He was too vicious and violent.

“He and his cronies were really giving Lee a really hard time, and I thought once he was going to turn on them. That would have been — bad. We could have had broken pieces of boys to pick up instead of furniture given what with his strength now. He showed real restraint, and you should be proud of him for that.”

“Maybe, but I can’t let him get away with this here, either.” She responded.

“No, and I’m not just suggesting you should. Lee’s going to have to learn to exercise restraint all the time. As bad as Randy and his crew were, the evangelicals were in a way worse, preaching at him all day. The final straw I suspect was the cheerleaders. You know how cruel teenagers can be, especially teenage girls. You may have done too good a job on him the other night, from what I hear. He looked prettier than some of the cheerleaders there, and that’s an insult they couldn’t ignore … a “boy” outshining them.”

“Well, maybe we did get carried away,” She said kind of deflating. “But I wanted to show Lee what he could be, as well as getting him used to the concept of being a girl. Would you like to see some pictures?”

“Yeah. I’ve heard all about it today, but it’s really hard to visualize Lee as a pretty girl.”

“Oh, he was most certainly that! Let me get my camera.”

Once Coach had paged through the pictures, he sat back heavily staring at the last picture on the microchip. “Oh, crap! Sorry. It’s no wonder he was getting ragged about that. How did you do it? She’s, I mean, he’s beautiful. It’s a wonder those cheerleaders weren’t trying to claw his eyes out. How did you make him look like that?”

“It really wasn’t hard, Coach, that’s mostly Lee. Oh, he has on a corset, some hair extensions, a fancy dress, jewelry and a little _light_ makeup, but that’s mostly just Lee. I don’t think we could have made him into a boyish-looking girl, if we’d tried and we did kinda try.”

Coach leaned back in his chair and took another long sip of coffee, looking at her thoughtful for a long moment. “Kathleen, I know that you may not want to hear this, but I think that you should consider sending Lee to Whateley sooner rather than later.”

“How soon?”

“By Spring term at the latest, maybe winter, although that’s an odd term to start, I understand. Spring term usually starts around the end of February, but they will take students at any time if they are in danger. If you decide on Winter, I think that starts about the 4th of January.”

“So, you’re not talking next week, then.” Relief colored her voice.

“No, but I would if I thought I could, but it’s going to take time to get his application in, and to see if you can get some financial aid. I wasn’t kidding when I said it was expensive, and yes, sooner or later he’s going to be in danger; probably more sooner than later. The rest of you aren’t safe while he’s here either. The kids are starting to talk, and they’ll be talking to their parents, if they’re not already.”

Coach looked thoughtfully at the now empty coffee cup in his hand, and didn’t answer her directly. “We haven’t really had a chance to discuss Lee’s last powers testing session, have we?”

Kathleen got up, grabbed the coffee carafe and refilled both her own and Coach’s cups. “No, Lee didn’t really say much about it and to tell the truth I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.”

“I’ve been meaning to call you and come over to discuss it. You should know. The results were —— impressive.” Coach said after searching for the right word for a moment. “You know he was lifting between 4 and 8 hundred pounds at his first test, well, in his last test he lifted almost 4 and a half tons.”

Kathleen gasped and threw her hand to her mouth.

“And I expect he’ll get stronger for at least a while yet. His skin is tougher than boiled leather, even though it feels soft. It would difficult to cut him with a regular knife, we had to use a devisor-made vibro-scalpel to make a small cut to test his regeneration time.

“Then there’s Cantrip, who says she’s never seen anyone learn magic like Lee. She says he can already do most everything she could do after two years of training. The only thing holding him back magically is whatever is blocking his ability to gather and store essence.

“Scholastically and physically, he’s much smarter, quicker, and was more coordinated than most people, although this last growth spurt seems to screwed up his coordination, but he’s already showing signs of getting over that. He seems to have almost total recall of anything he sees, reads or hears. He’s getting straight A’s in all his school subjects, and less face it, he was an average student at best before this. He’s learning magic faster than you or I could read a novel, and he’s learning runic magic, something most people take a lifetime to learn, almost as fast as if it were in English. Granted it will probably take years of practice for him to be able to use it efficiently.

“What all this adds up to is sooner or later, especially with the way he’s starting to look, pretty soon, someone is going to put two and two together and realize he is a mutant. Up ’til now, he’s done an excellent job of being a chameleon; but all it takes is one slip, one time losing his temper in public, or an accident in front of others resulting in an injury, coupled with his physical changes and you’re going to have a mob, or worse, the MCO at your door. Then yes, he will be in danger, maybe great danger.

“I know you’re not happy about the damage he did to his room, but just think what might have happened, if he wasn’t as good at controlling his temper as he is. What if he’d done something like this at school? I’m actually quite proud of him; he managed to wait until he got home to cut loose. It’s so much better than the alternative. If he was my child, I’d go ahead with the punishments assigned, they are not onerous, but talk to him about it rather than giving more punishment or yelling at him. I’d also let Kuroda Sensei know about it, so he can concentrate on helping Lee find his center and gain a measure of peace. People laugh at that aspect of the martial arts, but it is better than psycho-babble at helping people learn to know themselves.”

Coach leaned back and reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of plastic. “Here’s is his new temporary MID; I was bringing by.” Coach pushed a small orange laminated card across the table. “The bad news is, if he gets into any public trouble, that card being temporary, won’t stop the MCO from trying to take him. You _mustn’t_ let them do that no matter what they say. I’d get a good lawyer on speed dial too, just in case. That’s why I’m going to bring MID that says final on it ASAP.”

“Are they really that bad? I mean as powerful a Lee’s becoming maybe….”

“No!” Coach said sharply slamming his coffee cup down. Then more softly said, “No, I know that not all MCO agents are that bad, but do you really want to take a chance on getting a bad one; to take a chance with your child’s life?”

Kathleen’s hand trembled slightly as she picked the MID up. The numbers didn’t really mean much to her, but she knew that Coach was ?impressed? by them. She stared at the card.

Coach sipped at his coffee and looked thoughtful, “I think that maybe I can get Doc to call up his contact at the DPA and get an official observer back there to certify the final results. That might slow the MCO down when they try to say they need to take him for more evaluation.”

“But can we trust the — what did you call them, the DPA? Won’t it be the same thing as with the MCO.”

Coach chuckled. “No, the MCO is an international organization, a lot of whom seem to think that mutants shouldn’t have any rights. The Goodkinds have heavily funded them, and used that leverage to turn the organization into a force for bigotry.

“The DPA on the other hand is chartered as a branch of the Justice Department under the Executive Branch of the Federal Government. They are bound to protect the rights of any mutant who is a US citizen or legal alien just like anybody else. That’s why I took Lee to Barry in the first place, he’s chartered for testing by the DPA.”

“Now don’t get me wrong, if Lee was to really break the law or do something really dangerous to others, the DPA would treat him just like any baseline criminal. The big difference is he would get a public trial, just like anyone else. The MCO might just spirit him away to some secret holding facility, or worse, and the way their charter is written you wouldn’t have any easy recourse.

“He’s a good kid, but all kinds of bad things can happen to good kids. Let me call Barry and I’ll see when I can set up a final evaluation.”

“What’s this here,” she asked pointing to the line for Weak vs.

“Well, I told you, I think, when we went through this the last time about his strong reaction to iron. Anyway, the last time he was there, we noticed he was itching and even sometimes getting a slight rash when he touched certain things made of plastic, or containing synthetic fibers. It was not very strong reaction, not like the Fae, but he was supposed to tell you about it.”

“Oh well, he knows I don’t buy clothes, or furniture unless it’s made of all natural materials. Better for the environment, you know. What’s with these plus marks after some of the numbers?”

“Well, magic ability is really hard to quantify especially for a non-magic user like Doc. Cantrip says Lee has a good chance to be a really powerful wizard, but she doesn’t know how to classify him since Lee’s abilities are already stronger than hers in some ways. Lee just doesn’t have the training and practice that Cantrip has. So we classified Lee the best we could. When he gets to Whateley, they have much better qualified people to better rank him, the same goes for his regenerator power. Short of cutting off a limb to see if it regrows and how quickly, we just can’t quantify it. But even if he is only a 3, he’ll never have to worry about getting sick or even fairly major wounds. Does this make any sense?”

“Yeah, I guess. Heavens! I just don’t know what to think of all of this. I guess from what you say he or she does need to go to this school, although I can’t say I like the idea of him going to a boarding school so far from home. I’m still trying to get used to the idea of referring to Lee with feminine pronouns. Can you get me the application papers to Whateley so we can start filling them out?”

“You can download them from the internet. You should know that there are some very unusual and very personal questions on it about Lee and his changes. You should answer them as fully and candidly as you can. The information on the application is confidential and they need to know all the details so they can place Lee in the safest way possible, both in his living situation and his classes. You really need to get the process started so if the current situation starts to go south, we can get him in there with the least possible delay.”

————

It had taken his parents three days to fill out the paperwork with input from the coach. When it was done, she let Lee go over it.

"Mom," Lee was wondering why he’d let Mom fill out his application to Whateley. "Why did you put 'other' for sexual orientation on my application?”

Mom smiled. “Saw that, did you? To be honest, I didn’t know how to answer it,” she said. "They didn't have a spot for 'not sure’ or “uncertain’.”

“But I’m not uncertain, I like girls! I always have.”

“Do you? Are you still going to like them when you are one or will be soon?”

Lee opened his mouth to say yes, then closed it. He’d always been taught in church that homosexuality was wrong, but was it homosexuality after Lee changed to a girl to like girls. It felt right to like girls, but nestling on Jim’s shoulder the other day had felt kinda good too. He was soooo baffled by all this. He decided to figure it out later.

"And for effects of transformation, you put that I've changed from a male into a female? Are you trying to get me killed or something?” Lee was right in his sense of foreboding.

Mom patted him on the hand. “Don’t worry about it. Your father and I worked on the application packet over the past few days. According to the instructions for the forms, that information is very private and won't be disseminated. It's supposed to be there to help you with your cottage and room assignment to minimize conflicts. They use it to make sure you have roommates and dorm mates who won’t have a problem with you because of these things.”

“Great,” he muttered under his breath, “I get to live in a dorm full of weirdos.”

————

On Saturday, Grandpa and Mamaw Cook came to town. They lived in Cincinnati, so they didn’t get down as much as either family would have liked. Grandpa had recently retired from running his own very successful small chain of high tech electronics stores. When he retired, he had sold the business for a small fortune.

Mom had already told them what was going on with him. Mamaw tried to be comforting, with some success, he guessed. Mamaw had always been a little more hands-on luvy-duvy than Lee was totally happy with, but now for some reason he didn’t seem to mind as much as he once had.

Grandpa was Grandpa, quiet and a little brusk, but there was never any doubt he loved Lee just like he was his genetic grandchild. Neither of them had ever treated him any different than his sisters. When Mamaw had finished her fussing over him, he had called Lee over.

“I understand I’m getting a new granddaughter,” he said in his deep gravelly voice. His voice always sounded like he had swallowed a mouthful of pebbles which were grinding together as he talked. This was due to an injury to his throat he’d sustained in fighting during the Invasion of Granada. Dad was born on that same night in 1984.

Lee looked at his feet, then remembering what Grandpa had always said about facing your problems, Lee looked into his eyes and answered. “Yep, that’s what they tell me, too.”

“How soon?” He rumbled.

“The doctors tell me I’m mostly a girl now. It just doesn’t show much yet, but I guess that’s not going to be true much longer.” Lee shrugged in resignation.

“Oh, yeah?” He grumbled.

“Yeah, I’m already starting to grow, you know,” pointing at my chest, and blushing brightly.

“Oh, that’s tough, boy; and I understand that this is because you’re a mutant.”

“Yep,” He answered, half afraid he wouldn’t want anything to do with a dirty mutant as some of Lee’s friends called them.

“Well, that’s tough, too, but you remember that no matter what you’ve got family who will always love you. You might also want to remember that your Aunt Charlotte is a mutant, too. I’m sure she would help you anytime you need it, and she lives in upstate New York now. I don’t think that’s very far from this new school your mom’s been telling me about. You call her if you need something. She’ll help you. After all, you’re family, — Girl!” He said with a grin.

Lee was startled for a moment, then grinned in spite of himself. Within moments they were both laughing.

“Family, that’s what matters.” Grandpa rumbled. “Now come here, boy and give your old Grandpa one more hug as my grandson, because the next time might be as my granddaughter though that’ll be alright too.” He grumbled as he wrapped his still strong arms around him.

Lee didn’t think he’d ever been happier before or since. He had to be very careful because he didn’t want to squeeze Grandpa too hard, but he put every ounce of his love into that hug and got that love back a dozen times over.

They stayed most of the afternoon. It was a great afternoon for both Lee and his sisters. Mom even showed his grandparents the scrapbook she had been making chronicling his changes, much to his embarrassment. Some of the pictures made at the doctor's office were practically nude. She even showed them the ones she had taken of him in his Halloween costume, much to his mortification. Mamaw went on and on about what a beautiful girl he was becoming. It was even more upsetting when everyone agreed with her.

After they left, Lee wandered out into the backyard, more bored that anything else. He didn’t really want to go where he might run into any of his friends, or enemies; and as usual, there was nothing on TV. Besides which, He was still grounded for his little outburst on Monday. He sat down at the picnic table. Ever since Grandpa said what did about hugging his granddaughter, all he was able to think about was how much he’d already changed and how fast he was still changing. He needed to find something to keep his mind occupied. He sat there for a long time paying attention with his augmented senses to all the noises, and smells, he’d never noticed before.

Soon he wandered into the small barn that had been a carriage house in the 1880’s. He could still faintly smell the horses and horse manure, something he had never noticed before.

Dad had turned it into a small woodworking shop several years before, then lost interest in it. Now it collected junk, broken gardening tools, old electric motors, a broken electric drill, two leaf blowers, a weed eater, and three broken lawnmowers, along with other such odds and ends, as usually collected when people had a place for them. There was also his
Dad’s tools. Besides the usual small hand tools such as a drill, hammer, etc.; there was a small table saw, a drill press and a belt sander.

As Lee stood there looking at this stuff, he started thinking about the damage to his room and furniture. Maybe he could use some of this stuff fix them, or at least some of them. He’d need some of the right kind of wood and some more tools, but maybe he could do it.

Lee suddenly was looking at all the broken tools and equipment in terms of their parts. Getting out his dad’s toolbox, he began dismantling the broken tools and sorting their components into piles by function or type of material.

Lee only realized how long he’d been working when he looked up and realized it was dark out. He was surrounded by piles of parts, and even though he had never taken a shop class Lee knew what most of the pieces were at least by function, and knew that he either had most of what he would needed to make the tools to fix his bedroom, even broken bedpost.

Lee began tidying up and getting ready to go to the house, when the door creaked open and his dad stood there. Tom’s mouth fell open as he looked a the neat piles of parts, pieces of metal and plastic arranged around the small shop area. On the workbench, were two paper grocery bags that Lee’d cut open to draw on. He had drawn exploded views of the tools he thought he needed to make to repair or rebuild the furniture that he’d destroyed, carefully labeling each part that he already had by the pile it was in, ones he would have to make, or as a last resort buy.

“So, what are you up to?” Tom asked.

“Well, I was bored so I wandered out here and was looking around when I realized I could use some of this broken stuff to start repairing Monday’s damage.”

Dad stood there dumbfounded. “Since when have you been mechanically inclined? I had to help you put together a pre-cut kite.”

“Well, they did say I was a gadgeteer and a devisor, after all.” Lee explained. “The more I looked at all this junk, the more ways I could see to use it to help fix things.

“Okay, but how did you figure out how to do all this? I thought I’d at least have to help you.” Lee realized his dad was a little disappointed that he didn’t need his help.

“Well, it just sort of came to me, but I’m going to need a lot of help to go to some junkyards for the rest of the material and parts, and probably help putting it together.” He didn’t really, but his dad seemed so disappointed.

“Okay, I guess I can do that.” Tom grinned. “You make a list of what you need and we’ll go after I get in from work tomorrow.” He sounding a little mollified that Lee at least needed him for something.

————

Lee’s dad had ended up being more help than either of them initial thought, since he had more practical experience with machine tools. Side by side they had worked whenever his dad was home until two weeks later with his shop up and running, Lee had not only repaired his bedroom, but had made a number of things for the house. When they went to the junkyard, he had not only picked up the planned items, but they found a pallet of junked electronics including computers, printers, and a couple of devices that contained fairly high powered lasers, that they were fixing to ship off for disposal in a RCRA landfill, since they contained parts with lead and mercury in them. With his dad’s help, he negotiated a cheap price for the whole pallet.

Now _LEE’s_ workshop was outfitted with a complete set of computer controlled tools including one full sized router, a microrouter, a drill press, a lathe with a precision laser cutting head, an ultrahigh pressure plasma cutting table, two 3D printers that used recyclable common plastics and a laser welder that could weld either metal or plastic. Two mobile robotic arms salvaged from another junkyard fed raw materials to the tools, and they executed the designs on his laptop computer.

His dad, who sold industrial manufacturing equipment installations for the company he worked for, said that Lee’s shop was more efficient than the ones his boss charged hundreds of thousands of dollars for. He took pictures of the equipment and sent them to a lawyer friend of his who specialized in patent law. The lawyer was researching it, but thought that he could see at least three patentable improvements in the equipment Lee and his dad built. If they worked out, Whateley might not end up costing his family as much as they had feared.

Of course, since he was a devisor as well as a gadgeteer, it remained to be seen if these would work for anyone else. Lee didn’t know for sure but he thought that this was all gadgeteering. He couldn’t see anything that seemed to violate any laws of physics or other natural laws.

————

Tuesday
November 18th
Cantrip’s workshop back of her house

Cantrip brought in a variety of objects, an unlit candle, a glass of water, a sharp flinty chunk of stone, one of those children’s pinwheel toys, a small plastic toy, a block of wood, and a few other things. She had placed them all on her workbench and gestured to the stool in front of it. Lee sat down in front of them. She explained that she had noticed a trend in which spells he seemed to pick up the easiest and which worked best for him, so she wanted to try an experiment to confirm her supposition.

“I want you to concentrate on each of these things and try to reach out with your magic and affect them.”

“How? I don’t understand. We’ve never done that kind of thing. Is there a spell I’m supposed to know?”

“No, it’s not that kind of magic. This should be more instinctual, if it works at all. At your level of Wizardry and if I’m right, you should be able to close your eyes, reach out with your magic and at least be able to feel some of the materials without physically touching them.

“At least, I think you will be able to. If you can feel them, I want you to try to think about changing them in some way, be it shape, form, or energy level.”

Lee thought this was nuts. How was he supposed to see and manipulate something without seeing it or touching it? Still, it was no crazier than any other magic — or turning into a girl, for that matter. She walked behind him and slipped a blindfold over my eyes. It was one of those blindfolds for people who have to sleep during the day, so he couldn’t even see anything around the edges of the mask. Lee could hear her shuffling the items around, so he wouldn’t know which was which by memory.

“Okay, now extend your senses. Can you feel anything?” Cantrip asked a little anxiously.

He tried to sense the objects, but he was getting nothing. After several minutes, Lee said exasperatedly, “just what am I——?” He was swinging his arms when suddenly he felt something odd a few inches beneath his outstretched hand. It felt hard? A sense of perception that he didn’t know he had, and couldn’t explain began to explore the ?rock? It must be, all hard with sharp edges. Lee let his new sense explore the object. It was hard, but he could feel the sharp edges, but he could also feel tiny cracks in it, and a feeling that he could reshape it. He slowly felt gathered energy from something or somewhere around him and funneled that energy into the object he was now sure was the rock. Slowly, he could feel the sharp edges began to smooth out, getting smoother and smoother, and the small cracks healed. Finally, he couldn’t make it feel any smoother.

“Very good!” Cantrip exclaimed beside him, looking at the perfect polished pool-ball sized sphere of stone. “Now can you feel any of the other objects?”

“I’m not sure.” Lee murmured as he moved his hands from side to side, until suddenly he could feel something that felt liquid. Lee could feel it’s fluid shape being constrained by sides of the glass. Gathering more of the energy he slowly lifted the water free of the glass still holding the shape at first. Then he reshaped it until it felt like a dolphin in his mind, then not knowing what else to do, he pulled heat/energy out of the water until it hardened and froze. He gently lowered it back to the table. He thought he was getting the hang of this.

He moved his hands again, feeling for the other objects. This time he felt something that felt like it had a lot of potential energy in it, but not how to use it. He let his instincts take over, and with a quick snap of energy, Lee knew he had lit the candle. He could feel the heat from the tiny flame.

Lee was becoming more confident with every moment. He couldn’t exactly feel the pinwheel, but he realized he could feel the air around it. He made the air move, spinning the pinwheel. He could hear it spin.

That only left the block of wood which confounded him at first. It felt different. It could be many things, and had a lot of potential. It could burn or be reshaped —— or Lee realized it had another potential as well. It was a different potential from the other objects. Taking a little of the ice from the dolphin, melting it and spreading it over the surface of the wood, Lee then tried to pull a different kind of energy, but while he could sense what he needed, he couldn’t seem to find it around him. Then he realizing where a well of this energy existed, reaching inside himself he pulled some essence that felt different and pushed it into the wet wood. He could feel the little cells in the wood begin to soak up the essence he was directing toward it. They almost seemed to glow in his mind as they rehydrated, then they began to divide, taking nutrients and materials from the rest of the block, as they began to grow. He pulled more and more of the essence from his body and fed it into the rejuvenated cells. Suddenly the drain of essence made him feel weak, as he realized he had nearly drained this pool of essence. Lee stumbled against the table.

“Stop!” Cantrip all but screamed.

Lee sank to his knees, as she grabbed him holding me upright. She stripped the blindfold from his head. There on the table, Lee saw a small 2 foot tall leafy sapling growing from the block of wood, just before he passed out.

————

Avalon

He saw the Lady when he arrived at the Henge. The same fantastically beautiful woman creature who had spoken to him when he came here before.

She didn’t seem as tall this time, perhaps because he was quite a bit taller now, nearly 5’ 11”, but she was still incredibly beautiful. She sat on the same altar stone surrounded by a veritable menagerie of animals. A snow leopard lay across her lap enjoying being stroked and scratched like a little house cat. A strange feathered lizard standing on his powerful looking hind legs, at least 5’ tall stood behind her. It yawning as only a cat or a reptile can, it opened it’s mouth, it was full of truly frightening teeth. It’s short arms ended in fearsome claws, but she obviously had no fear or need of fear of it. An assortment of small creatures cavorted at her feet, predators and prey playing together. Most Lee recognized, but there were a few that were unknown. The whole grotto was as before abounded with life and sound.

She beckoned for him to come closer from where Lee stood outside the circle of stones. He noticed more detail this time as he walked through the rings of the henge. There was a ring of great trees surrounding the stone circles. Trees, the likes of which there are few remaining in the world Lee knew, most having been cut for their wood or to simply clear the land for planting. The trunk of a giant chestnut nearest him must have been fifteen feet thick and the others in the circle while being of many different types were of similar size. Bears, wild hogs, and others foraged among the leaf litter, crunching the bounty provided there.

Other details were more obvious to him this time. The stones in the henge were finely cut and highly polished. Intricate patterns were deeply inscribed into the gleaming stone and filled with bright silvery and golden metals. There were rows of glyphs and runes in an almost unknown language. He saw a few that were known to him from his magic studies with Cantrip, though he knew little of their meaning. If he hadn’t already known it, that alone would have told him this was a place of great power and magic.

Lee felt strange energies wash over him as he stepped through the various rings, and was filled with essence as never before, replenishing the pool within him that he had depleted so severely. Maybe they was here when he visited before but not being attuned to the magic then, they went unnoticed. Switching to his mage sight, Lee noticed for the first time torrents of energy flowing from between the stones. There the veritable flood began splitting again and again into ever smaller streams dispersing in all directions. It dawned on him that here was the source of the lines of magical essence that wrapped the world in their embrace.

“It is good to see you again, my child. Indeed, you are always welcome here.” Her golden voice rang with power, and as before all the creatures and birds fell silent when she spoke as though hanging on the sound of her voice, as indeed was he. “You have grown in power and knowledge. That is good. You will need power and knowledge to guide you through times ahead.”

Lee felt something brush against his legs and looked down. He immediately observed that was clothed in a short tunic that reached to mid thigh and there were distinct two mounds on his chest. These changes were almost enough to distract him? — her? from the magnificent large spotted golden cat which was now stropping against her bare legs, it’s shoulders reaching above his knees. It felt almost obscenely good. It’s coat was soft and silky. Absently she reached down to scratch behind its ear as she would have the family cat, completely unafraid of the powerful beast. She knew it would cause her no harm. Peace filled her with this knowledge as she looked up and into the Lady’s face. Even the fact that in this place Lee was Leah could not disturb the peace in her heart.

“Yes, my child, here you are as you will be.” The Lady said softly to her.

‘I guess I will have to get used to being Leah,’ she thought.

“She seems to have taken quite a liking to you.” The Lady’s warm dulcet tones filled his head, indicating the cat, still loving on her.

“Who are you?” Lee asked simply and reverently.

“I have been known by many names in many cultures. I am Danu, the Mother of all, to the Celts. I was also known as Neith, the First and Last to the Egyptians, and Ninhursag to Sumerians. More commonly I was known as Gaea to the Greeks, Atlantians, and their spiritual descendents, Tellus or Terra to the Romans, and simply by The Goddess to my followers in your society. I was also known by many other names in many other cultures that rose and fell long before man walked this world. By names you could not pronounce and indeed whose very sound would rip reason from the minds of most men. Some called me sister to Chuthlu, though that is a relation that neither of us would claim.

“I am one who men, elves and many other species worshiped as one of the elder gods. I was born out of the primordial cloud that became this world and am forever bound to it, to watch over it and its creatures. Out of me, all life was shaped on this world.

“My children, such as yourself, were once worshiped as Gods, as well. You have studied the Pantheons of the Greeks, Romans and Norse. They were but a few of my children and the children of my children.”

“Then, are you God?” She said trembling expecting to blasted to Hell for looking upon the face of God.

“No, child.” She said softly. “I am not the Divine One, who first created order out of chaos. It was that One who caused me to be born with the planet to be a steward to it and its creatures, and a poor job I have done of it. Five times has life nearly been wiped from the face of the planet, by those who seek Chaos above all else. Only through great sacrifice by myself, by those descended from me, and those who would ally themselves with us out of love of this world, have they failed.”

A silence fell over the glen, as Leah contemplated her words. This was beyond her meager knowledge, and yet somehow, if she accepted what Danu had to say then she was somehow her heir?

“The last time I saw you, you said I was your child. What does that mean?” Danu rose from her stone and walked to her. Reaching out her slender hand, she stroked her hair. Leah didn’t notice that with each stroke, her hair lengthened, grew thicker and more lush.

“It means that a time is coming when the Earth will again be assaulted by the Great Old Ones between now and then Chaos will try to creep back into the world to prepare the way for them. Into a world that is already weakened by events of the past and by the foolishness of men. You, Leah, as my daughter will be called upon one day to do battle with the forces of Chaos in my stead, if you accept your true heritage.”

“But I know next to nothing, and am so confused. How can I do anything to stop such forces. I don’t even know how to be a girl, yet. Can’t you protect us.” It suddenly dawned on Leah, Danu had used her new name.

“Leah? You know what my mom called me?”

She smiled, and nodded. “It is appropriate, especially here and now. No, child, I can do little this time beyond guiding you and seeing that you are trained.”

“Why not?” Leah knew she sounded whiny but this was a lot to lay on a perplexed thirteen year old boy who was also becoming a girl. How was she to handle this?

“During their last assault on this world, the tools of the Great Old Ones came close to destroying all. Those were the last days of Pangea and the city of Atlantis. I stood with my daughters as the center of the Five Fold Court that sought to hold Chaos at bay, and hold we did, but alas, at such a cost. It was the end of the great alliance of the courts. The Courts failed, Atlantis fell, and the entire world was nearly torn asunder. Only by binding myself and my power to the fabric of the world was anything saved. That binding though was not only a working of great power, it was permanent, and I have little power left to influence events. Only on this tiny fragment of the magical courts can I manifest in physical form.

“I have tried to raise other of my children to stand in my stead, the gods of Sumeria and Egypt stood for many millennia protecting both the world and men before they wearied of the battle and passed from this plane of existence. The gods of Olympus both Greek and Roman were born and raised up to have the strength to protect the world, but after millennia of strife with the forces of chaos and shamefully with each other, they, too, fell from power. They ceased coming to me for guidance and without that guidance they, as you say in your world, began to believe their own press. The gods of Olympus became vain and self-serving, and lost all respect for the races of men and the planet whom they were born to protect.

“After a long period of strife both external and internal, they were bound to Mt. Olympus, by powerful mages and others of my children, lest they destroy the civilizations they were born to nurture. The similar things happened to other Pantheons you are less familiar with such as those associated with the Mayans, Aztecs, Norse and Celts. Those few that remain in the world are reduced in power and wisdom, and seldom make themselves felt in the world.”

“But how can I hope to stand where gods could not?”

“Oh, child, you are and will be much more than you can now comprehend. You will also meet others of power, who will stand with you, some at the school where you _must_ go to learn of your powers. I have blessed you with many of the powers of my children who went before, and in the fullness of time you will discover and come into these powers. I have blessed you with the strength and fecundity of Arianrhod that you might nurture those lesser creatures that man has driven to the brink or those who just need your help. You have some of skill of Hephestus, the wisdom of Athena, the agility and senses of Bast, the affinity of Pan for the wild things and the magic of Thoth. Yet this will not be enough, unless you yourself discover the strength within you, that even I know naught of.

Leah’s face must have shown her despair. How could she possibly do what the very gods of old could not. Her knees became weak and she settled to the ground, wrapping her fingers in the thick pelt of the golden leopard, and hugging it to her. It’s deep purr resonated in her own chest. She sat here legs tucked under her for a long time as her mind tried to wrap itself around her new knowledge.

Gaea stroked her head once more in a kind of sad embrace. “I am cursed with the foresight and can see many things. While you will face many trials in the near future, as you learn who and what you are. I can tell you that you will not be called upon to stand against the true might of chaos until you have sufficient time to grow into your powers.

“But you must go to this school that your coach has been advocating, both to learn to control not just your powers but your body as well. There you will meet others of power to stand by your side.

“I suggest though that before you go, you will also need a more appropriate codename than Mushroom,” she smiled wryly at this. “I will not have my daughter carry such a name. Instead, I will give you one of my own names to use. Would you like that?” When Leah nodded, not trusting her voice. Danu continued. “It is a name of power. A name to conjure by. You will be, henceforth, known as Terra.”

“Will we win?” Lee asked simply.

“Alas, that is not given me to see, but I can tell you that you will not lose.”

“Isn’t that the same thing as winning?”

Danu sat quietly for several long minutes, until Leah wasn’t sure she had heard the question, then Danu answered in a soft voice filled with sorrow beyond measure. “No, Leah, it is not the same as winning.” A darkness descended upon the grove.

She reached out and with a single finger touched Leah’s forehead. Images began swirled through her head; first was a great gleaming city built upon a perfect conical — hill? — mountain? It was difficult to judge scale. An image took form of a city more beautiful than any city mere man had ever built, with slender graceful towers piercing the clouds. Constructs blended with nature to create edifices that must surely rival what the cities of heaven must look like.

This city of infinite delight was surrounded by magnificent landscapes where marvelous creatures roamed, flew and swam, most of which, their likes which no man had seen today. Great mountains surrounded the verdant plain from which the city-mountain rose. Broad cataracts of water carrying millions of gallons of water plunged over their edge falling thousands of feet before disintegrating into rainbow colored mists. The whole land had the feel of a garden sculpted by a master gardener.

Then as Leah watched a dark cloud rose on the horizon, and great armies of elves, dwarves, dragons and a few men marched forth out of the great city to clash with creatures so foul and distorted, that she felt dirtied and ill just looking at them. Great and terrible battles were fought that rent the very land itself. Darkness fell across the land.

Then Leah saw a different image. The city was no more. A few broken stubs marked where it had been. The landscapes were rent and desolate with hardly a blade of grass left standing. The land was littered with bodies both beautiful and foul. Few if any still lived, from either side.

A final image shown from high above revealed a land broken. Great rifts in the earth poured forth great fountains of lava as the continent was broken into many pieces. For a brief time, it looked as if the planet would break into pieces in orbit, then a mighty wave of magic swelled out from near the center of Pangea binding the fragments together and Leah realized that she had just witnessed Gaea/Danu binding herself to the world to prevent all from being lost. She could feel her pour forth her essence in torrents into the planet, and becoming both less and more than she had been.

“That is what it can look like not to lose, — may you and yours fair better than we.” Her face was now creased with wrinkles. Her hair was thin and grey. Scars on top of scars marred her infinite beauty. Then the darkness receded and her immeasurable beauty returned.

“It is time for you to go. Back to your world lest your spirit become lost from your body. I am more sorry than you can imagine to call you forth into the world to face such as this, but a great power for the forces of Order has been lost; lost before you could even meet her. It has come to pass, as I saw all those many eons ago, that Aunghadhail, Daughter of the Burning Oak, Paramount Queen of the West in the Five Fold Courts, Chatelaine of Tyr-na-Baine and my friend for many long ages has passed finally from the world. Nikki Reilly, who was her avatar, may be a great force to rival her power one day, but without Aunghadhail to guide her, it may take her as long or longer as it does you to grow into the fullness of her power.” There was a look of immeasurable sadness on her face, and for the first time, Leah felt something other than peace in this place.

“Can’t you teach us?” Leah tried not to whine, but this was a lot to ask of a thirteen year old.

“I may call you here from time to time to instruct and guide you, as you are my child, but to do so, takes a tiny fraction of my attention and power away from the world, and in that brief time, much damage may be done.”

“One more question, please? What does Tuath de Dannan mean?”

She laughed again like the ringing of many small bells dispelling the seriousness of the previous conversation. “Oh, Leah, it means — ‘Child of Danu’. It means that you are my child and are to be my paladin in the world, if you will accept that charge. It won’t all be fighting chaos, much of what you may do will simply be to limit the damage man is doing in his ignorance and greed. You will also make friends, and there will be much time for fun and even love. Now go and return from whence you came, knowing my blessing goes with you, Leah.”

————