Shannon O'Reilly was bullied and everything his older sister wasn't. When his sister Sarah gives him a chance to change things through a single wish things don't go as planned.     I Wish: Book 4 Chapter 12 Troupe By Amethyst

When I awoke I felt lighter than I had in days. I still got upset and squeamish when I thought directly about the night at the sorority house, but it wasn’t weighing me down and I could think clearly again without it dominating my thoughts and feelings like it had been before my session with Jaenara. It was movement nearby that had awoken me and as I sat up in my sleeping bag and blearily rubbed at my eyes I saw Sarah kneeling beside me with a large leaf in her hands loaded up with berries, nuts, some kind of cooked vegetables, and roasted poultry.

“Sorry to wake you Shannon, but Yanisse thought that you might be hungry and we didn’t want you oversleeping so you can sleep properly tonight,” my sister offered apologetically as she offered me my water bottle as well.

I had to admit that I was a bit hungry, but I was so thirsty that I gratefully took the bottle first and gulped down nearly half of it before my dry throat and cottonmouth faded. “How long was I out this time?”

“Only about an hour and a half, our hosts are having their midday meal and Yanisse suggested that I bring some to share with you. Annie just got through with her session with Jaenara and she’s sleeping it off in the guest hut that Yanisse and some of the others grew for us to use while we’re here. How are you feeling, Sis?” She was still worried about me, I could hear it in her voice and see it in her eyes.

“I’m much better, my visit with Jaenara helped a lot I think. I feel a lot more like my usual self,” I admitted before asking, “How are the others?”

Sarah shrugged as she took a few berries from the leaf-plate and popped them in her mouth. “They’re awake and seem to be doing well, though Ziralin and her mom were both in for a bit of a shock when they woke up. Meredith pinched one of her new wings under her and screamed and that woke up Ziralin who didn’t recognize her. It was kind of funny actually, half the village came running.”

“New wings?” I asked, still a bit sleep confused.

“They were able to awaken her Faery blood, and they didn’t even need to make her somebody’s familiar to do it,” my sister said with a wry grin.

“Very funny,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “It wasn’t like I intended to do any of that.”

“I know,” Sarah replied as she reached out and hugged me tightly. “I’m glad that you’re feeling better Shannon, we were worried about you girls. We’re going to stay tonight and tomorrow night so we can all get some downtime and so Meredith can get some basic lessons in casting a glamour, flying, and her other Faery abilities. Talisha can help her refine her abilities later, but we’d like to make sure she has the basics down before we go home.”

“So she’s a full Faery now?” I asked. At Sarah’s nod, I bit my lip as I thought about how that might go over. “She’ll need to use a glamour whenever she goes out on our Plane. How’s she taking it?” I was a little worried that she might freak out, as Ziralin had at first.

“She‘s pretty happy about it, it’s something she’s wanted for most of her life, but she never thought it was possible,” Sarah responded with a smile. “She knows that there are going to be things she’ll need to learn, but this is big for her and the Faery of this troupe. It means that her grandmother and Ziralin’s brother could both get awakened too if they want it, and right now any population growth among the Faery would be a good thing. Ziralin’s brother could be very popular if he goes through with it and decides to spend some time here with the troupe. There are only two males right now and given the fertility issues that they already have, the Faery could very well be an endangered species unless we can find a way to get some population growth going.”

I nodded sadly. Maybe someday we could figure out a way to help with that, some sort of fertility spell or something. I thought about it as Sarah and I ate, but I was no closer to an answer by the time that we finished our meal and left Yanisse’s hut to join the others. We found them still in the central eating area, where Ziralin, Ellie, and Jennifer were all talking enthusiastically with some of the members of the troupe. It was a relief to see Ziralin and Ellie smiling again since I had thought it would be a long time before any of us were able to get over what had happened. I made a mental note to try and think of something nice that we could do for Jaenara to thank her for giving us our lives back.

Talisha was engaged in a conversation with some of the other Faery from the troupe and a Faery that I didn’t recognize who had a look of concentration on her face. She was obviously an adult because she had iridescent and slightly translucent dragonfly-like wings on her back. Age-wise she didn’t look much older than Sarah and she was very attractive with bright golden eyes and long hair that seemed strawberry blonde or lilac-colored depending on how the light hit it.

There was only one person that it could be since I’d already known all of the members of the troupe. “Wow, Ziralin’s mom is hot.” The words had escaped my mouth before I had even realized what I was saying and my cheeks flushed in embarrassment. She had been attractive and youthful before for a woman with two kids in their mid to late teens but now, like my girlfriend, she looked very little like her former human self.

Sarah laughed. “Yeah, her husband is pretty lucky. He’ll probably realize that if he ever gets over the shock. Annie reacted almost the same way, she called her a FMILF.” I just nodded but Sarah wasn’t exactly looking at me so when I didn’t say anything she added, “You know, a Faery Mom I’d Like to…”

“I got it!” I quickly sputtered to put an end to that sentence and line of thought. I did not need that in my head. She was my girlfriend’s mom. That was like, all sorts of wrong. “How’s Ziralin handling that?” I looked toward my girlfriend, who smiled and waved me over. From our link, I could sense that she felt calmer, more relaxed, and almost content, though I thought that I could sense an undercurrent of lingering embarrassment as well that seemed to be slowly fading.

“She didn’t really know who she was waking up next to at first and her reaction was a bit awkward for them both once she did figure it out. Her mind was a bit fuzzy and only realized who she was when her mind cleared because of the clothes Meredith was wearing,” Sarah explained.

I nodded in understanding, I was having trouble shaking off my own case of fuzzy-head. It wasn’t really surprising given that Xuriel had messed around in there to teach me a new language at the very least and then the memory work with Jaenara. A break from school for a few days was a welcome relief given the state that my brain was in at the moment.

Sarah and I walked over to join the others and I gave Ziralin a loving kiss in greeting before holding her close for a moment and just breathing her in as I felt her love and affection wash over my mind. This was how it should be, me and her content and wrapped up in one another’s arms. She tilted my chin up to stare into my eyes and as I was captured in her emerald gaze she drew me in close for another kiss. This one was tender, languid, and full of the promise of more to come. For the rest of our lives, even should we live an eternity.

When we finally pulled apart my breath caught in my throat and my heart was beating so fast that it was practically humming in my chest. I was light-headed and giggled a bit from the rush. This wasn’t about lust or desire for one another like some people might think. Sure, there was some of that. My nipples were like, diamond-hard and I could feel that now-familiar warmth building up in waves that seemed to spread from my damp panties to the very center of my being. But that was just one instrument in an entire orchestra of everything that I felt for her. It was like our love was tangible, like I was swimming in it, and I didn’t want to come back to dry land.

“I love you.” We both half-whispered it at the same instant, causing those gathered around us to echo my giggle or smile knowingly, some did both. The night at the sorority house hadn’t even scratched the feelings that we had for one another and now that it was behind us and put in perspective it made those feelings even stronger. It wasn’t just love that we had for one another, it was truth, and we weren’t going to ever let anyone try to take that away from either of us again.

Most of us spent the rest of that afternoon helping the troupe with hunting and gathering, doing homework, and checking on the village’s defenses. There were no Demons in the area at the moment and the Demon alarm that Yanisse and I had created in combination with silver weapons and the enchanted arrows and stones that I had made for them had helped them to hold their own against any Demons who had attacked in our absence. They had lost two people in that time, but we all knew that the losses could have been far worse.

That night, each of us was officially inducted into the troupe in the same way that the first Cailleach dearg had been, with an exchange of blood and the promise to be family; to lean on one another in the dark times, care for one another, and defend one another whatever may come. After that we celebrated as a troupe and those of us not familiar with Faery customs and traditions were given a crash course. Jennifer seemed especially pleased and she thought that, aside from getting her Celestial mark, it was the coolest thing ever.

It was as the four of us non-adults headed to the guest hut for a good long sleep that Jennifer gathered Ziralin, Elsaishe, and me all up in a big hug. She even changed to her Celestial form so she could wrap her wings protectively around us. “I’m sorry. You’re my best friends and I should have been there for you. I should have figured out a way to contact you and make sure that you were all safe. I don’t know what happened, and I’m not going to ever ask you about it again, but I’m never going to let anything else happen to any of you again if I can prevent it.”

“We all made a stupid mistake,” Ellie said as we hugged her back. “There was nothing that you could have done and we’ve learned from it. If there’s one thing that it taught me, it is that we may not always be able to be there to protect one another. We’ll do our best, but we also need to start training ourselves to fight on our own if necessary, because whether we’re alone or together I am never letting a Demon get the upper hand on me again.” Ziralin and I both nodded in agreement as we all held one another tight. From now on we were going to train to be prepared for anything that might come our way.

The next day we reveled in the company of our troupe, helping them with day-to-day activities that we would normally take for granted on Earth. Sarah and I spent some of that time replenishing their supply of holy magick charged arrows and stones in case of Demon attacks and Annie put us through an extra intensive martial arts class during the afternoon. Many of the Faery of the troupe joined us, eager to learn new ways to defend themselves. Mostly though, it was just a day of relaxing with no worrying about fighting Demons, school, or work. It was a day that all of us sorely needed with how hectic things had been lately. When the day was done I had the best sleep that I had had in ages, dreaming pleasant but indistinct dreams of my time with the Faery rather than the usual mixed bag of odd dreams and nightmares that I had been having off and on since becoming a girl.

It was four-thirty on Wednesday morning when we arrived back to our own plane of existence. This whole time difference between Planes was a bitch to get used to, it felt like it should be Friday but in the two days that we had spent in Tír na nÓg from our perspective, less than twelve hours had passed on Earth. It has been nice to have those days away to rest and recover and break up the school week though.

Since Jennifer, Ellie, Beth, and I all needed to get ready for school and we only had two bathrooms with showers we decided to start getting prepared right away. We had had a full night’s sleep before getting up to come home so we were already alert, awake, and ready to take on whatever the day may bring. Beth’s Mom headed home clad in her glamour and even though her husband likely wouldn’t have headed to work yet she was going to wait to reveal her new self until she and Ziralin could break it to both him and Ziralin’s brother together after my girlfriend got home from volleyball practice that evening.

School passed mercifully quickly that day and our friends were all glad to see me, Ellie, and Beth in a better mood than the day before. We explained to them at lunch that we had all had a bit of a scare on Monday night while we were out and that it had rattled us a bit. Then once we had assured them that we were fine now and had managed to put the whole incident in perspective they seemed relieved and they didn’t press us for any more details than we had already given.

Our teachers seemed pleased that we were back to our usual attentive selves in class and that we had gotten over whatever had been bothering us the previous day enough to get all of our homework done as well. It seemed that they hadn’t expected that and had been prepared to give us a little leeway on the assignments since we were all normally good students and I was actually a bit moved by their concern. By the time that the end of the school day and volleyball practice came around, it felt like another normal day at St. Catherine’s.

Volleyball practice was great. It was nice to let loose and have some fun on the court and Ellie got involved for part of the practice as well before we got a practice game going and she helped Coach Dawson to officiate. She had the rules down pretty well by now and some of the other girls were trying to encourage her to work on her skills with us during practices more, and to try out for a team spot next year instead of just the equipment manager.

It was such a good day that I should have been waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I wasn’t the only one caught unawares. We had left the front entrance of the school with our backpacks and gym bags in hand and crossed the parking lot when I noticed someone standing beside my car, seemingly waiting for us. She was bundled up for the cold so I didn’t recognize her until we were nearly upon her. My Fae companions recognized her a split-second before I did and both of them stopped in their tracks as Beth tightly gripped my hand in hers and hissed under her breath, “Lisa.”