Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

CHAPTER 52
It was Dad who started the healing process, pulling out a whole collection of anecdotes and references.

“People do silly things, love. They do them everywhere; it’s just that when it’s in the hills, it can get serious. That’s the thing about it: something happens, no warning, and, well. I… Before your Mam and me got together, I used to spend a lot of time in Scotland, with your uncle Mike. We were called out…”

He shook his head.

“So what’s your story?” Poppy asked. “Trans, lesbian, or both?”

 

I gaped at her. “How did you know?”

-2-
A Fork in the Road

Oliver and I walked about another league before we reached a fork in the road. Most of our fellow travelers to the left fork, that was the path I guess would take us toward the Sand Hills. A old wooden sign that had been driven in the middle of the two forks said as much. It also said that the right fork would take you toward a village that was called Thorn. The village of thorn was around two leagues distance down the path or six miles. According to my sources the soothsayer lived near the village Thorn. 

A group of friends streams their gaming on Wednesday nights. But not all the action is on the dining room table.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.

The Light Between (Part 2 of 8)

by Erisian

Book 5

Chapter 5 - Exams

“Shit!”

First things first. Feed the starving and pathetically meowing kitty: open can, scoop into bowl, give reassuring pets.

Skip shower, curse the hair for being short again and not fitting in a scrunchie all while struggling with a hairbrush to tame strands of wild fire.

Give up. Clothes next.

Strip off pajamas (were they lavender when I went to bed?), grab the folded martial arts uniform from the top of the clean laundry pile. Hop into the leggings, pull on a hopefully-clean sports bra, wrap the top of the gi around the torso before fiddling with the strings that hold it in place, slap the equally white belt around the waist and take three attempts to get the proper knot.

Good enough. Prep complete.

With one last (okay, a few last) scritches to the kitty I ran out the door before bounding down the stairs because the elevator always took forever. Sprinting across the wet and frost-covered campus lawn I realized I hadn’t put on any shoes.

Oops. Oh well.

I've wanted to be a girl my life, since my earliest memories. By the time I was in my late teens I had a collection of my own girl clothes and accessories. Around 13 i started shaving my legs, painting my toes, anything I could do to feel feminine. Even if I was stuck as a boy and had to hide all of that from my outward appearance. The second I got home and was in private, the sneakers came off and the flats went on. I started letting my hair grow out in 9th grade and the next time I got it cut was right before my senior year.

Randy didn't know what to do. He'd lost his family and his house. He didn't have any immediate relatives he could live with, and as far as friends went...there was Jesse Pindle. He was Randy's best friend, and his family had always been very hospitable to Randy. But the Pindles were off on a cruise, and they wouldn't be home for another couple weeks. Randy wished very badly that he could stay with them, but they wouldn't be an option. All he could do was find a secluded alleyway and sleep in there for the night.

Diego and Pablo were grateful to have finally made it to the hot springs. Too used to the warmer climate of their tropical home country, their bodies were ill-suited to the average temperatures of a place this far north. In fact, neither had felt properly warm all vacation long, not since they first got off the plane a week ago, only adding insult to injury after such a long flight. Not even cranking the heat in their shared hotel room seemed to fully eliminate the chill that had seemed to settle into their bones.

Eighteen-year-old Nicholas Hammerstein is at the cusp of finishing high school in his hometown of Los Alamos, NM. He has a seemingly ideal life and is blessed with loving parents, a cute baby sister, and great friends. Nicholas is a gifted student and martial artist who has dreams of leaving for college at the end of his senior year. But, living in a world of Emergent humans, he will soon find his life turned upside down as his life and the fate of a kingdom hang in the balance. His future and theirs will be determined by how he navigates the drastic changes in his body and the magical and superpowered Mergent population he joins.