The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

Author's note: This story starts slowly. It takes several chapters to create the setting and background. The romance just barely begins in chapter 4 and doesn't start to blossom until chapter 6. Please be patient. Please? :)

Chapter 1

A small, ugly man by the name of Farrott glared down at the hated enemy from his magically camouflaged blind. Just a little closer and he'd rid the land of that bitch queen, the one with a magic talent that sent men running for their lives.

His sole talent was feared well enough too, but for different reasons. He didn't really harm people. Instead, his victims just disappeared. Without moving from where they stood, they looked like they were falling down a hole, getting smaller and smaller until they were too far away to see. No one knew where they went but it must be far away because as of yet, none have ever returned.

The little man's power was quite disconcerting, and fear eventually led to his banishment. Now he hoped to get back on his kingdom's good side by using his magic to eliminate the menace below him. She just needed to get within his range.

It took him several weeks to scout out the area and find some pattern to the queen's movement. She didn't come out to the forest often, but when she did, she nearly always settled very near the tree where he perched, and more importantly, she came alone, making his escape a certainty.

It was a dull waiting game, made all the more unpleasant by the frequent whining of his recently acquired companion, the one responsible for the camouflaged blind in which he crouched. It wouldn't really be right to call the lad a companion though. Young Bradley was more like a hostage. After discovering the boy's talent, Farrott threatened to use his magic on the boy's family so they sadly let their son go. They had to be satisfied by the promise that Bradley would be returned when the task at hand was finished.

Too bad it wasn't that easy. The headstrong boy resisted all efforts to control him. He didn't respect threats. He only understood action, like a hard swat to his bottom. Unfortunately, physical punishment had limited success, and often led to loud temper tantrums that would make the man's task impossible.

So it was that after several rotations of the sky, the determined man finally discovered a way to control the boy. He got lucky really. Bradley insisted on bringing his filthy toy dog, Mr. Pooper, crying rivers until Farrott gave in. As the odd pair traveled together, the ugly man gradually came to hate the toy. He'd think of various ways to destroy it to pass the time, and after enduring the boy's behavior for far too long, he eventually blurted out one particularly gruesome method of doing away with it.

Slapping a hand over his mouth, the man expected the boy to be horrified, but instead, the boy surprised him. Threatening the toy dog turned into a silly game that greatly amused Bradley. He was only 6 cycles old after all. He'd pout and speak soothingly to the toy, promising he'd protect it. Then the annoying little runt would giggle, sounding very much like a scolding tree rat. It sent shivers down the man's spine, but at least it softened the boy enough so he'd do what was asked of him for awhile. Hopefully, the brat would behave long enough to accomplish the mission.

'I must be insane', Farrott moaned to himself. 'Depending on a young boy with the manners of a goblin has got to be the most idiotic thing I've ever done. Am I really that desperate?' After months of struggling for a living, the answer was all too obvious so he quickly focused on other things.

The boy had done his part, making the wooden structure blend in perfectly with the trunk and lower branches of a large tree. His power didn't work on people or animals but it worked well enough on objects, even those as large as the blind. As long as he kept quiet, there was no chance of detection.

The blind was needed to give Farrott enough time to use his magic talent. It took a significant amount of time to bring up enough power to send someone away, more time than he figured it'd take the queen to use her power on him if she saw him. There were additional constraints as well. He needed an unobstructed view and had to keep the target in range for the duration of his power up, so using his magic in the forest would've been pure folly without camouflage.

The desperate man turned his attention back to the queen, willing her to come closer, but still she stayed well out of range. It appeared as though she was looking for a flower or herb. She'd occasionally bend down and slowly brush her hand along the ground, pouting and moving on when she came up empty-handed.

Farrott sweat profusely, his nerves shot. The longer they played this game, the more likely he'd lose everything he held dear. He could tell that the boy wouldn't keep quiet much longer. The brat held Mr. Pooper in both hands and bounced the disgusting thing up and down on his lap. That activity wasn't a good sign. It was almost always followed by incessant yelping that was supposed to imitate a barking dog.

"Ruff!" Bradley suddenly yelped. "Ruff! Ruff!"

The ugly little man nearly wet himself.

"Hush, Child!" he hissed, but it did no good. Instead of stopping, the boy let loose with a long series of loud yelping barks, treating the man's command as yet another game.

Farrott turned and looked down at the queen. He expected the worst but was amazed when he saw she wore a curious expression. She wasn't a fool. She knew it couldn't be a real dog she heard, but she must have recognized the source to be a young child, someone who wouldn't pose a threat.

He rubbed his hands together in wicked glee as the queen stepped into range. He silently prepared his magic and directed it at her, scoring a direct hit. She yelped herself then, and slowly disappeared into whatever realm he sent his victims. His work was done. The land was free of her at last!

"Come on, Boy," he said, smiling for the first time in weeks. "It's time to get you home."

The man wanted people to think he kept his promises, but it was only pure selfishness that drove him to take Bradley home. If he kept this promise, he believed himself to be even more likely to be accepted back into his kingdom.

With a light step and horribly garbled whistling, the man made his way back to the boy's family, and the first step on his road to fame. Not only would he be taken back, he'd be a hero. That is, he would if anyone believed him. He didn't realize it could take a long time to confirm the queen's absence and his role in it. It also didn't occur to him that keeping his promise to bring back the boy didn't mean much since he'd kidnapped Bradley in the first place. Farrott wasn't all that bright, but that's another story.

* * *

Early morning light filtered into Queen Gabrielle's modest bedchambers, slowly waking her. She moaned a few times and began the laborious process of getting up. It took forever just to find the energy to roll out of bed, and everyone knew enough to leave her be until she had her hot cocoa.

The tall woman stretched in her standard size bed, still able to reach out over the headboard, while at the same time, her toes peeked out from under the short covers near the foot of the bed. Her two handmaidens were horrified when they first saw the spectacle. They begged her to be allowed to have a larger bed made, but she declined. She liked reaching out beyond normal limits. It made a nice metaphor for her style of governing.

While the queen was the final authority on matters in her queendom, she delegated most of the work. Appointed officers analyzed situations and provided her with options. Ambassadors negotiated with neighboring lands. The queen just managed it all and used her free time thinking of creative solutions to problems that had yet to happen. Her system had worked well so far.

The visionary work was possible thanks to Muriel, an old woman with the far-sight magical talent. Glimpses of the future turned out hazy more often than not but enough information came through to be useful. Some visions concerned events that would happen within a single rotation of the sky, while others could only be many cycles away. It was tricky work but satisfying, and rewarding.

Gabrielle had dressed in a simple robe and moved to the sitting room. She sat in her favorite padded leather chair, sipping her second cup of cocoa when Muriel arrived.

"Greetings," the old woman said. "How are you this morning?"

"You know very well how I am," grumbled the queen.

"Yes, I see it's at least a two cup day," Muriel said, seeing an empty cup on the small table next to the chair. "Are there plans for a third?"

"Not as long as you cover for me while I sneak out for a walk," Gabrielle said with a pleading look.

"I wish you wouldn't go out alone," Muriel frowned. "It's not safe, even with your magic and skill with the sword."

"I'll be fine, but I'll wear my battle leathers just in case. Okay?"

"Like I could stop you anyway," Muriel sighed.

Gabrielle jumped up to give her friend a hug and trotted off to change.

The thin and supple leather outfit she wore to battle was perfect in all respects, even appearance. The top had a forest green bodice with long brown sleeves, and the trousers matched the sleeves in color. It complemented the queen's long brown hair and green eyes as well as providing camouflage in the forest when stealth was required. Thanks to yet another magic talent, the thin material was enhanced to resist all but the sharpest blades and strongest arms. Magic leathers simply offered the best protection in the queendom.

With her great size and strength, skill with a sword and leather armor, Gabrielle made a great warrior. Her battle skill also made her a popular choice for queen, since queens were selected rather than born to the role. But it was her unusual and unique magic talent that was the deciding factor in her becoming queen. She could do the unthinkable. She could change men into women.

Her talent was the ultimate weapon in battle. She changed men into women who suddenly found they could no longer fit in their armor or wield their heavy swords. It effectively ended any melee and demoralized those men who remained outside of her range. She made a perfect warrior queen.

In spite of her suitability though, the responsibility of her position could be taxing. That's where her coping mechanism came in. She released stress by getting away from it all. She escaped to the forest. All she had to do was get by her handmaidens, and that was never an easy task.

"Hello, my Queen," said the voice of Heloise from behind, startling the tall woman. "Going to the forest again?"

"I'm just going out to get some sword practice," the queen said, keeping her back to her blonde handmaiden.

"Lying doesn't suit you, my Queen," smirked the blonde.

"No more than questioning your queen suits you."

It was a common type of exchange between the two. Heloise often spoke her mind, and Gabrielle normally appreciated it. Today was a different matter, and the blonde realized she went too far. She knew the queen had been drinking much more hot cocoa than usual. Something was obviously bothering her.

"I'm sorry your Majesty. Here ...," the handmaiden said as she turned the tall woman around to face her. "Let me fix your gloves. They look a bit worn."

Heloise's talent allowed her to repair or renew most fabrics. She couldn't affect the magically enhanced leather, which didn't need help anyway, but she could help with the normal leather gloves that Gabrielle preferred. Magic gloves tended to be stiff, making it more difficult to grip a sword.

"Thank you," said the queen. "Now why don't you and Beth go out and do some shopping while I'm gone. I could use more cocoa."

"As you wish, my Queen," said the blonde, leaving Gabrielle to exit the castle through a secret passage.

The warrior woman sighed as she thought about her handmaidens. Not only were their personalities well-suited to hers, their magic talents were nice too. Heloise kept the royal wardrobe in good shape and Beth, the quiet one, could heat water for baths in a very short period of time.

Magic talents came in handy for the most part, with nearly everyone having a single talent that was specialized and limited. Some bakers could create hot fires within the confines of a small space, or could magically grind wheat into flour. Many tailors could cut cloth or thread by touching it with a finger, while most blacksmiths could create iron of unusual strength or easily bend it into any shape they could imagine. The queendom, and world, ran smoothly, all thanks to magic.

Then came the dark time.

A series of recent predictions disturbed those few who were privy to them. Thanks to the queen's strange magic talent of changing men into women, she and her peaceful little queendom had made a lot of enemies, especially male enemies. Now her past usage of her power threatened to come back to haunt her. She knew it was only a matter of time before there'd be trouble, and trouble there would be if the visions came true. Muriel predicted that the queendom would soon be without its queen. That would be disastrous.

As long as Queen Gabrielle lived, men would live in fear of her and her queendom. It was silly. She'd never used her power except in self-defense. That's how it always was, but you couldn't tell that to most men. Nearly all the men she'd met were unthinking, aggressive brutes who were obsessed with sex, so it was obvious they'd have trouble handling a gender change.

Some of the new women committed suicide. It was unfortunate but it happened. Gabrielle mourned for every one of them too, and gave them decent burials. Others went insane. That was awkward but they were well cared for because it was the right thing to do.

The majority of the queen's victims remained sane, and after a little speech telling them they were very likely to have unpleasant futures among men, they understandably gravitated towards the safety of the queendom. It made sense. Nearly all of the victims resented what had happened but what could they do? They continued honing their fighting skills -- since warriors and brawlers were virtually the only target for the queen -- and fought to protect their new home. Their gender changed but their lives weren't so different.

Not surprisingly, most citizens of the queendom were female. There were too few well-behaved men who felt secure enough to live near the queen, and that created more problems. The new women weren't much of a problem after they learned to care for themselves. The majority of them were attracted to women when they were men and their sexual preference didn't change, but a large percentage of the population were attracted to men. Those poor heterosexuals had to either try to compete with dozens of others for the attention of a man or go out and do some recruiting. They wouldn't move away permanently from the relative safety of the queendom. They just had to scratch a certain itch, possibly gain a child or two, and try to come back with a husband. It could be an awkward situation but at least population growth wasn't a problem. Sex and love would always persevere.

As the tall warrior woman made her way to the nearby forest, she thought of her two handmaidens and couldn't help but envy them. They made a cute couple. Then she sadly reflected on her own love life. It was nonexistent. She'd been too occupied by affairs of state to have an affair with another woman. Besides, she knew brief encounters in the night wouldn't satisfy her. She wanted someone to love.

Meeting people was never difficult as she went about her duties. The hard part was getting to know them personally. How could she find her perfect mate when she had so much work to do? It was all so vexing.

She'd just have to make time for more casual meetings if she had any hope of finding someone. If making time for Muriel and her crazy visions was possible, then so was finding a mate. The queen made a conscious decision then and there to be open to a relationship, dark visions or no dark visions. Then she looked up and laughed since it would be a little difficult meeting someone in her current location.

Her wandering usually brought her to a favorite large tree, but today, she deviated slightly and began looking for a four-leaf clover, hoping it'd bring her good luck. She felt like she could use a little luck.

The pensive woman moved from one clover patch to another, bending down to brush her hand along the ground and separate the clover stems a little. After a reasonable span of time, she found what she searched for and picked it. It was large and appeared to be perfectly symmetrical. It was a thing of beauty.

Just as she picked her lucky charm, she cocked her head. She heard what sounded like a child who pretended to be yelping like a dog. After determining the direction of the source, she moved to investigate, and that's when everything went horribly wrong.

The unmistakable chill of magic hit her as soon as she took a dozen steps in the direction of the yelping child. She cried out from the shock but it was too late to do anything except close her eyes and accept her fate. It seemed that the lucky charm wasn't so lucky, but she maintained a firm grip on it nonetheless.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

This story updates Monday, Wednesday and Friday until finished. Chapters 1 through 6 are complete, the plot is sketched out and the last page is written. All that's left to do is connect the dots. :)

Chapter 2

A warm breeze replaced the cold darkness and new sounds and smells flooded the queen's senses, even before she opened her eyes. She was in a new land now, and as her eyes adjusted to the light, what she saw confirmed it.

Her familiar yellow-white Sister Sun was gone and Mother Moon was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a new star shone with a soft orange light and two small moons hung low on the horizon.

That was enough for her. She didn't need any more evidence to know she was royally screwed. Falling to her knees, she allowed herself a brief cry for her loss. Then she got up and got on with her life. She never had trouble making the best of a bad situation and now was certainly not the time to change her ways.

The first order of business was to take care of the four-leaf clover in her hand. She'd picked the little lucky charm just before being transported. It didn't seem to offer good luck up to now but perhaps it would help from this point on. If nothing else, it was a link back to the forest that she held so dear.

The tall woman sighed and began searching her wide leather belt for a container in which to keep the clover. The belt had several pockets and a few pouches hanging from it but she wanted something sturdy that would offer more protection. When nothing presented itself, she pulled out a knife and went hunting for a piece of wood. Always resourceful, if she couldn't find what she needed, she'd try to make it.

Looking around, she saw nothing but hilly terrain with numerous boulders, small cliffs and rocky soil. Plant life consisted mostly of various grasses with a few stands of trees that grew along the bank of a nearby stream. As she headed over to bank of the large stream, she briefly noted that she wouldn't have to worry about thirst and began examining the trees.

So far, the flora of her prison -- because it was a prison to her, a very large prison -- didn't appear to be all that different from her beloved forest. She tested the strength of several different types of trees and shrubs and found a suitable source of wood for her project in no time.

Grabbing and snapping a sturdy branch provided the rough material she needed. All that was left to do was to carve it into a shallow box with a tightly fitting lid. Gabrielle found woodcarving to be very relaxing, and it was just what she needed to give her time to think.

Finding food, water and shelter was obviously a high priority activity when lost in the wilderness. She felt she could handle that much. It was the next step that concerned her. She needed a plan to find her way home. All the normal rules of following streams and looking for familiar landmarks no longer applied. Magic got her here and only magic could get her home.

Whittling away the time had her finishing her woodcraft project far too quickly. With her precious symbol of home safely tucked away, she still had to decide where to go. There was no clear direction as there were no signs of civilization anywhere. She couldn't even find an animal trail to follow.

Knowing general geography, she remembered that moving in the direction of Sister Sun at mid rotation led to warmer climates, and moving in the opposite direction led to colder climates. The current temperature felt comfortable so moving towards sunset or sunrise seemed like a good course of action. That only left two choices, but so far she hadn't paid attention to the path of the alien star in the sky. Her path was still unclear.

Then her astronomy lessons came to mind, making her grateful for her education. She broke off a stick, jabbed it vertically into the ground and marked the current position of the top of the stick's shadow to make a simple sundial. Now all she had to do was wait.

Since food would become an issue soon enough, the stranded queen thought it prudent to hunt and forage a little while she waited for the sundial's shadow to move. The stream looked like a promising source of protein so she started there.

Poison was always a possibility so she made sure to be wary of everything, starting by making a few new tools. Taking a knife to a few branches, she fashioned a crude forked spear and small club and moved to the bank of the stream to look for her next meal.

A short span of time later, the queen had speared several small fish and then carved a couple of pointed sticks to skewer the fish for cooking. It looked like both the flora and fauna weren't so different from that of her land. That should make survival easier and hopefully give her more time for hunting magic rather than food.

After using flint and iron along with the wood chips from her carving to start a little fire, she cooked and sampled her first meal, and sighed. The fish was tasty but the company was lacking. It would be the first time in nearly a cycle since she'd eaten alone and she was not happy.

If she was the vindictive type, she'd imagine torturing the person responsible for her predicament, but she'd rather not waste her time. As it was, she wasn't sure who had done the foul deed. She'd heard of a man who had the power to send people away. He'd been banished from his kingdom, partly because of his power and partly because of his readiness to use it. It had to be him. If she ever saw him again, she'd know what she'd like to do, and imagining his reaction gave her a much needed smile.

* * *

Back in the Queendom of Prizzaria, during the same rotation that saw the loss of its queen, all was calm, save for a few worried souls. Muriel sat in the Gabrielle's favorite chair, muttering profanity while the queen's two trusted handmaidens frantically paced back and forth on the beautiful hardwood floor.

"Where is she?" The two young women whined in unison. "She should be back by now."

Muriel ignored them and continued muttering. What she feared most had come to pass. The queen was gone.

The mystic woman searched through her memories of her dark visions, looking for some small clue that she might have missed that would lead to finding Gabrielle. If she'd learned one thing in her long life, every problem had a solution, no matter how stupid, how expensive or how long it took. Nothing was impossible.

Unfortunately, another phrase came to mind: There's a first time for everything. That sudden thought bothered her enough that she roused herself up from the chair to take action. She had to start doing something to keep herself from dwelling on the problem and falling into despair.

The two handmaidens stopped their pacing and looked towards the frowning old woman, waiting for her to speak.

"Right. Feeling sorry for ourselves isn't going to help, and this queendom isn't going to run itself."

The two young women nodded in agreement.

"Heloise?"

"Yes, my Lady?"

"First of all, stop the formality. We don't have time for such nonsense. I want you to go to the royal healer and ask him to begin making a healing potion. Tell him it's for the queen."

"But ...," the young blonde began, only to be cut off.

"I know!" Muriel blurted out. "She's not here. I want to stall. We'll say the queen has taken ill and is not to be disturbed. That'll buy us some time to think of a long-term solution. Now go!"

Beth, the other handmaiden, couldn't help crying when she heard the plan. The dark-skinned brunette was a very intelligent but sensitive young woman. She thought through the plan to its logical conclusion and imagined ahead to the announcement of the death of the queen. That's exactly why Heloise was chosen to go to the healer.

Muriel stayed behind to comfort Beth and yet also hoped for reassurance from the intelligent handmaiden. Together, they ran through several other possibilities, but nothing else worked as well as illness and death to cover for the queen's absence. A missing body wasn't a problem since magic could be used to explain virtually anything.

Of course they could come out right away and admit that Queen Gabrielle is missing, but that might be too disruptive. There would be inquiries into the disappearance and fighting over who would be the next queen. Telling the truth could throw the queendom into chaos and embolden the enemies of Prizzaria. No, their best hope would be to stall as long as possible. They needed more time if they were to have a chance at making the transition go more smoothly.

* * *

Progress seemed slow in spite of setting a quick pace towards the setting sun. Every turn of the stream, every boulder looked just like the last. Gabrielle had decided to move towards sunset since that was also the direction in which the stream flowed. The water would lead to larger sources of water, which would be a more likely environment for some sort of civilization and magic.

Pleased with her decision, she'd started off optimistically enough, but darkness was coming all too quickly. It was time to find shelter for the night. The tall woman found a reasonable approximation of a cave between three large boulders. It was defensible and small enough to block or at least hamper any large nocturnal predators. The list of potential dangers was far too long in such a strange, unknown place.

As she sat by her campfire, she wondered about the other victims of the man who sent her away. Do they all come to the exact same spot? That wasn't likely since she didn't see any signs of others when she arrived. So they must either be spread throughout this land or possibly scattered among other equally distant lands. The second option would be unfortunate because it would be nice to find other people from her land, people who should be able to describe the man who sent them here so she could do something about him when she got home. They might even team up to find a way home. That was an exciting thought.

After an all too short span of time, fatigue interrupted her musing so she put out the fire and spared a quick look up. The moons had set leaving a clear sky filled with bright stars, and the unrecognizable patterns of stars again confirmed the alien location. She was definitely a long, long way from home.

With a last heavy sigh, she crawled into her shelter and quickly fell asleep.

* * *

Thankfully, Queen Gabrielle was well organized. For the most part, the queendom truly could run on its own. Only the odd dispute required her attention. It was the love of her subjects that would cause the most trouble. They wouldn't accept just anyone to take her place.

Gabrielle's intimidating but calming presence and her magic talent brought security to the queendom. Her youth also made her popular. At 25 cycles, she was by far the youngest woman to ever ascend the throne. The queendom would've been stable for decades as long as nothing happened to her.

Muriel cursed again as she sorted through the list of possible replacements. Was there no one suitable to take the queen's place?

"What about Ingrid?" asked Heloise, who stood behind where Muriel sat and looked over the old woman's shoulder.

"Ingrid?! Are you mad? That woman is a terror. Her battle lust would have us at war ... forever. How did she even get on the list? Who put her on it?"

"I did," confessed Beth, who sat across from Muriel. "She has such a commanding presence," continued the handmaiden with a dreamy look in her big brown eyes.

Heloise just shook her head at her mate. She knew it was Ingrid's blonde hair that got Beth's attention. Her passionate mate had an excessive fondness for blondes.

Muriel sighed and scratched out Ingrid's name. Then she looked at the next name.

"Okay," Muriel frowned. "Who put Sarah on the list?"

"That would be me," said Heloise. "I thought we could use a little more femininity. We have so many warriors, and they're all so messy and ... violent."

'Why me?' thought Muriel. She saw the pattern. Both handmaidens meant well but they were far too easily swayed by superficial features. They hadn't a clue what it took to run a queendom.

"I hope you understand," said Muriel. "If Sarah ran the queendom, we'd be overrun with men, both good and bad."

"Not necessarily," pouted Heloise.

"Oh come on! She's man-crazy! She'd welcome them all with open arms." Then she almost added, "and open legs," but somehow restrained herself.

Heloise continued to pout and moved over to sit next to Beth.

"Look," said the frustrated mystic. "I know you two mean well, but we need to consider all angles."

"Then why don't you ask some of the officers?" asked Beth. "They're far wiser than us when it comes to such matters."

"Good question. For one thing, a lot of the officers are on the list. They'd be biased. I'm also not sure who to trust to keep the queen's disappearance a secret. So far, it's just us three who know."

The handmaidens sighed. Muriel was right, but it was just so much responsibility.

"I still need your opinions though, whatever you two might think. I can pick someone who will do a good job, but I might not pick someone who'd be popular. We really need a queen with both style and substance."

"Like Gabrielle," both handmaidens said in unison.

"Like Gabrielle," Muriel muttered, as she went back to looking over the list.

Just thinking about their beloved queen brought up so many emotions. The two young women loved her deeply and missed her terribly. They were also bored. They had no one to wait on. They only had each other.

The loving couple reached over to hold hands and stare longingly at each other while they waited to critique the next candidate for queen. They each knew what the other was thinking, but they dared not act on their impulses for the moment. They took their responsibility seriously.

Eventually, after most of the candles had sputtered and gone out, only one name was left on the list. It was briefly considered and then scratched out like all the rest. Finding a replacement for Gabrielle seemed hopeless.

The tired old woman rubbed her eyes and looked up to see the two young woman fast asleep, with the shorter Beth leaning her head on Heloise's shoulder. Even a cynical mystic couldn't help but smile at the sight. It made her think of happier times, long before her dark visions. 'If only Gabrielle were here,' she thought, and sadly shook her head.

The ever practical and determined Muriel refused to give up though. She started to get up to look for more candles but was knocked back in her seat by a very surprising vision. She thought it was a vision anyway. It was an impossible sight so it had to be a vision, didn't it?

"Ladies!" hissed Muriel. "Wake up! Please ... wake up!"

Two groggy young women opened their eyes and gasped. There, standing between themselves and the older woman seated across from them, was Gabrielle, dressed in her battle leathers.

"Gabrielle?" both handmaidens asked in a small voice before shouting. "Gabrielle!"

The vision had been facing Muriel but now it turned to address the two women, who sprang off the couch to hug it. Imagine their suprise when they went flying through it and landed in Muriel's lap.

The vision turned and smiled at the three women all tangled up in the same large padded chair. Apparently, the vision had a sense of humor.

"Is it truly you, Gabrielle?" Muriel asked when she'd gotten free of the handmaidens and stood up.

The vision sadly nodded.

"How? What? Where?" the old woman began, but couldn't seem to decide between the half dozen questions popping up in her mind.

The vision leaned to the side to look around Muriel and see the handmaidens squeezed tightly together in the chair. They were crying a mixture of happy and sad tears. It should've been a happy reunion but something was definitely wrong and they knew it.

Muriel knew it too, and guessed what was going on. It was magic. It had to be.

Once in a blue moon, someone would be blessed -- or cursed -- with a second magic talent. It didn't always manifest right away but when it did, the results were nearly always strange. Apparently, the queen's stressful event triggered a second talent, lying dormant within her, that allowed her to create a ghostly duplicate of herself. She'd never needed it before but she did now.

The old mystic knew what this meant. The queendom needed its queen and Gabrielle answered the call a second time. The tall warrior woman was truly a perfect queen.

"Can you speak?" Muriel finally asked.

The vision shook its head.

"Well it's obvious you can hear us. That's something at least."

The old woman circled the vision, giving it a very good look.

"You appear solid ... not like a ghost. That's a relief. It just might work."

The vision raised an eyebrow, not understanding what was going on, but the handmaidens knew.

"Yeah!" they both shouted. "No more names!"

"No more names," agreed Muriel.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 3, Gabrielle fights for her breakfast, has a bad hair day and seems to have bad taste in jewelry. In spite of it all, she still manages to make a couple discoveries and learn a couple new useful tricks.

Chapter 3

After explaining the need to keep her as queen, Muriel and the handmaidens chatted away and ideas swirled around inside Gabrielle's mind like a whirlwind, leaving her slightly dizzy.

Her ghostly form hadn't moved from where she stood since arriving and she felt like she could use a change of scenery as well as some peace and quiet. She took a few hesitant steps towards her balcony and stopped. So far, so good. She quickly marched the rest of the way and saw it was just getting dark outside. Then she looked down and found herself looking into the faces of dozens of surprised well-wishers.

The wide balcony overlooked a public square where her subjects often met to trade goods. She used the balcony to address her subjects for special occasions. From it, she gave speeches and made announcements about the state of the queendom. Normally, the public square would be mostly empty by sunset, but such wasn't the case.

Gabrielle stared a short time before she regained her composure and gave a friendly little wave.

Her loyal subjects cheered.

Muriel couldn't help but notice the noise. She came running out and almost ran through Gabrielle.

"Your Majesty!" the old mystic huffed, making sure she was loud enough for the crowd to hear. "Please get back into bed!"

A puzzled Gabrielle turned and walked back inside, leaving Muriel to mentally kick herself and attend to damage control. The old woman had neglected to tell the queen the part of the plan about feigning illness.

"Loyal subjects!" Muriel shouted. "The queen is still not well, but she insisted on seeing you and letting you know that she'll be okay. She thanks your for your concern and asks that you please go home to your families. They need you more than she does."

The crowd cheered again and began to disperse, leaving the old woman to breathe a sigh of relief. She waited for her heart rate to slow and went inside to make sure her queen was fully informed.

* * *

Another few candlemarks later and everything was settled, just in time. Muriel was about to go over the plan again when Gabrielle's leg started twitching violently. The ghostly queen looked down at herself, frowning briefly before her eyes widened. Something was seriously wrong.

The vision of Gabrielle waved frantically and faded out, leaving three concerned women.

"What was that about?" Heloise asked.

"I'm not sure," replied Muriel. "I think something was happening to her body and she had to go back to wherever it was."

"Her body?" Beth asked.

"I'm talking about her physical body. That wasn't her physical body we were seeing."

The old mystic was in her element now. She knew quite a lot about magic. Studying other people's talents helped her better understand her own. She also found magic very interesting in its own right. It was a hobby as well as a calling.

No one knew exactly how magic worked, and it didn't help that it seemed to work differently for different people. For some, the power came from within and flowed out through the hands or some other body part. For others, the power came from the land, with some locations providing more power than others. In still others, it was a combination of internal and external forces. More than a few people had better results when they held certain objects like gold or a large quartz crystal. Some only worked their magic when they were asleep, like Gabrielle did with her new found talent. It was hard to make sense of it but there were patterns if you looked long and hard enough.

Muriel had heard of at least two other people who could do what Gabrielle did just moments ago, and like Gabrielle, both of them had a primary talent. The old woman wondered if the ghostly form truly was magic. Given the pattern, it wouldn't surprise her if everyone had the potential to leave their body in the same manner.

"Astral body," muttered the woman.

"What's that?" Beth asked.

"I was just thinking. Our queen was doing what I've heard called astral projection. We were seeing her astral body. Interesting ...."

Beth just shrugged and walked off to join Heloise to see about supper. In all the excitement, hunger had placed a distant second.

* * *

Gabrielle woke up and gasped. Something pawed at her right leg.

Through the gloomy twilight, the woman could see a huge furry paw with large claws trying to pull her out. She was lucky her armor protected her so well, and even luckier that the creature was too large to squeeze into her small shelter. She'd very likely be dead if she'd slept in the open.

She patted the wooden box with her lucky charm and pulled out her knife, quickly sinking it into the paw.

Whatever controlled that paw let out a ghastly squeal and pulled back for a moment, but the danger wasn't over. The angry beast soon jammed its head forward into the small hole to try its luck using its large, long snout full of sharp teeth.

The queen was impressed ... for a few quick heart beats anyway. Then she pulled her sword and thrust it down the animal's throat and through the back of its neck, dealing a fatal blow.

The large animal was too large and strong to be killed so quickly though. It thrashed about wildly, slamming its head on the rocks before it pulled out and immediately collapsed, gurgling blood and slowly bleeding to death. Just as the sun's first rays brushed its back, the animal took its last breath.

"Breakfast is served," joked the queen before shaking her head and struggling out past the beast to start her morning.

In the light of the strange orange sun, the animal that attacked her wasn't as large as it first appeared. It was more the size and shape of a small bear back home. The concerned woman wondered if it wouldn't be better to take shelter high in the rocks or in a large tree rather than on the ground. She might not be lucky enough to find another convenient arrangement of boulders to sleep under.

No birds or flying creatures of any kind had been seen, so for the next dark rotation, she decided to try sleeping on the ledge of one of the many cliffs that lined the valley. She feared the bear-like animals might be able to climb trees.

With her next evening already planned, she began to skin her kill in preparation for breakfast. She'd cook enough to last her through the sun's rotation and leave the rest. It was waste but she didn't want to attract any scavengers by dragging along extra meat. Sometimes scavengers could be worse than a large cat or bear, as they often traveled in packs. Fighting off a pack of ravenous beasts would not be fun.

One good thing about struggling for survival in the wilderness, it gave one plenty of time to think. While cooking, she thought through the strange dream of her last sleep period. Was she really back in Prizzaria? Everything seemed so real but it had to be a dream, didn't it? There was really no way to tell for sure until she got back home and talked to Muriel and her handmaidens. In the meantime, she just shrugged it off.

After breakfast, Gabrielle didn't break camp right away. She wouldn't normally take a trophy from a kill but she made an exception. She figured the claws and teeth of the animal might come in handy for trading. At the very least they should have some intimidation value.

Being so far from home, she wondered if magic worked differently in the alien land. She had no idea if her magic would work so she figured she could use all the help she could get. Using a small metal pick from her belt, she bored a hole through the thick end of each claw. Next, she strung the claws on a length of twine that she took from the drawstring of one of her pouches and tied the two ends behind her neck.

The tall woman laughed, and wished she had a mirror to see herself. She imagined she looked like a fierce barbarian, with wild hair, dirty face and a bear claw necklace. Then she realized she did have a mirror of sorts, and went to look at her reflection in the stream. There, she saw that her imagination wasn't too far from reality, and her pride had her washing her face and running her fingers through her hair before tying it back into a practical pony tail. She left the necklace alone though.

When her work was done, she renewed her quick pace downstream and hopefully on to civilization. Life in the wilderness held little appeal for someone used to royal treatment.

As before, progress was slow but by the time sunset was near, Gabrielle thought she saw a faint trace of white smoke. It was too far off to get to before dark so she scouted around for a ledge to sleep on instead. The valley had gotten deeper and narrower with many cliffs and rocky outcroppings so it didn't take long to make sleeping arrangements.

Soon enough, the resourceful queen had climbed up to a wide ledge and placed large rocks around its edge to keep her from rolling off while she slept. She also made a bed of grasses, taking care not to include any insects. Then she sat to chew her remaining strips of meat and appreciate her handiwork in the light of the setting sun.

Clearing the mind worked wonders to relax the body, and nearly a full sunlit rotation of marching worked wonders to stave off insomnia. Gabrielle had only a last brief thought before sleep claimed her. If anyone else had been transported to this area, she hoped they'd survived.

* * *

Once again, Gabrielle found herself back in her castle, with Sister Sun about a dozen candlemarks from setting. It was near the same time she'd arrived last time.

The ghostly form looked around her royal bedchamber seeing no one. She walked towards the closed door and reached for the handle to open it and saw her hand pass through it. She couldn't open the door but soon realized that she didn't have to. She could pass through it. That was a new and odd sensation.

She roamed the halls for a short span of time, listening to the sounds of activity on the lower floors and outside. In spite of being in the castle, walking around the top floor left her feeling lonelier than ever. She still didn't believe this could be anything but a dream. It was too good to be true.

When she got to the sitting room, there was faithful Muriel, asleep in Gabrielle's favorite chair.

The ghostly queen momentarily forgot her current state and reached out to gently nudge the old woman awake. Of course her hand passed through the woman. What now? How could she wake her if she couldn't touch her?

She went looking for her handmaidens, ending up just outside their door but stopping short of passing through it. Inside, she could hear the sounds of passion, so she left them alone.

Going back to Muriel was really the only option. Queen Gabrielle was supposed to be ill so she didn't want anyone else to see her. It might seem silly but she figured she may as well play along in her dream.

When she got back to the sitting room, the old mystic was still asleep in the chair, snoring softly. Gabrielle tried touching her again to no effect. She also tried blowing on her and even tried to kiss the old woman's cheek. Nothing worked.

Standing in the middle of the room and watching the candles burn down got old fast. On impulse, the bored queen walked over to a candle stand and tried blowing on a flame to make it flicker. She concentrated with all her might and thought she saw a small effect. It was hard to tell though. It could've been a draft. Castles were known to be drafty.

"You need to transfer more energy to your astral body," Muriel's voice suddenly said behind her.

Gabrielle quickly turned around and smiled. She finally had some company!

The mystic repeated what she said and tried to explain what she meant. It was a slow learning process but after several candlemarks, the ghostly queen finally blew out her first candle.

Muriel celebrated by collapsing in Gabrielle's chair and halfheartedly clapping. The old woman stopped abruptly though when she saw her queen's familiar pout.

"What? Is it because I'm in your chair?" Muriel guessed.

Gabrielle nodded.

"Sorry," the old woman said as she moved to the couch.

The queen moved to her favorite chair and, forgetting she was incorporeal, passed through it to the floor as she tried to sit down.

Muriel laughed. "You've got the floor figured out at least."

Gabrielle stood up and scowled back.

"I'm sorry. Look, you've got to feel for the energy of the chair and hover your body over it, just as you're subconsciously hovering over the floor now. Go on. Give it a try."

The tall figure ever so slowly and carefully, lowered herself into her favorite chair. With a little trial and error, she managed quite well, even managing to squirm and snuggle in it like she was so fond of doing.

"Very nice. Keep practicing and eventually you might be able to transfer enough energy to your astral body that you can solidify it. That would be ideal if our plan is to work."

Gabrielle gave her friend a doubtful look.

"Don't look at me like that. I've studied astral projection. Some of those who do it claim they can solidify their astral bodies. I don't know if you could speak when solid but I wouldn't be surprised if you could. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to speak?"

The queen nodded eagerly.

"Then you could tell me all about what happened to you. This yes or no guessing game is mentally exhausting."

That last comment gave the well-educated queen an idea, one she wished she'd thought of earlier. She got up, quickly walked over to Muriel, and began to trace letters in the air with a fingertip, making Muriel upset with herself too for not thinking of it. Both women had been taught to read and write after all.

Gabrielle slowly spelled out the words, "orange sun" and "two moons", following up with "alien land" when the old woman gave her a puzzled look.

"How did you get there? What happened?"

The words, "man" and "magic", were quickly spelled out as both women began to get the hang of the new form of communication.

"Of course!" Muriel hissed. "Farrott had to be responsible. That little weasel."

Gabrielle shrugged and spelled out, "You know him?" She'd never heard that name before, but then she got excited when she realized it was a way to prove she wasn't dreaming. If another victim could be found who knew Farrott, they could confirm his name.

"Yes, I know the little man. He's a menace who got banished from Ansolia last cycle. He sent too many people away and pissed somebody off. I'm gonna nail that little lump of excrement to the wall when I find him."

"No!" Gabrielle quickly spelled out. "Not U 2."

Muriel knew what she meant and smiled.

"Thanks, but he won't see what hit him. He won't be sending me your way."

Somehow that didn't make the queen feel any better and she shook her head in disbelief. If this was a dream, it certainly was an interesting and emotional one.

"So, my Queen. It must be getting close to sunrise back in that other land. You should think about getting back to your body. Perhaps you could scout around before you get up too. All you have to do is will yourself to go somewhere and you can send your astral body there very, very quickly if not instantly."

Gabrielle tried something new and slowly mouthed the words, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Muriel smiled. "Now go ... and be careful. I've got lots of plans for you."

The thankful queen waved good-bye and gave her old friend an affectionate smile before fading out.

Once back near her body, she looked around but didn't see much since it was still very dark. On a lark, she willed herself to fly straight up in the air so she could get a better look in the direction of the smoke she saw earlier.

There, far in the distance, the light of hundreds of campfires could be seen, along with dozens of large, dimly lit structures. So it was a civilized land after all. That gave her hope as well as a way to verify she wasn't dreaming. She'd continue marching in that direction and see if there really was a city in this strange new land.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 4, Gabrielle finally meets her match ... and it's a man! Will she submit to a dominant male for the first time in her life or will she use her magic to gain the upper hand? What do you think?! ;)

Chapter 4

Come morning, Gabrielle awoke slowly and grudgingly, until a chilly breeze stirred her to get up and get her circulation going. Her little ledge had kept her safe but she still felt exposed. She hoped there really was a city not too far downstream. It would be good to sleep in a warm, soft bed again and enjoy a more easily obtained meal.

'I really miss my hot cocoa,' she whined to herself as she climbed down from the ledge.

Her wooden tools waited for her at the bottom of the cliff and her rumbling stomach told her which one to use. She grabbed her forked spear and went looking for a nice spot in the stream to catch breakfast.

Soon enough, with her hunger abated, she turned to other pressing matters, like how she might find cocoa in a strange, alien city. She really depended on cocoa to improve her mood. As it was, she felt grouchy enough to slice a bear up like a loaf of sweet bread.

The orange sun climbed high enough to create some amount of anxiety. The warrior queen could imagine feeling the lure of a nearby city and desperately wanted to find out if her strange dreams really weren't dreams after all. It was time to move on.

* * *

Gabrielle was satisfied with her progress. The surrounding hills grew larger while the stream collected runoff from smaller connecting streams to become a river, and she could tell she was close to some sort of civilized area. The smell of smoke and cooked fish hung heavy in the air, making her mouth water. She'd only caught enough fish to last her through the morning.

Finally, she rounded a large bend in the river and saw her first alien, who actually appeared to be a normal man. She cautiously approached him, purposely not pulling her sword to try to prevent any conflict, though she did keep one hand near her knife. It didn't matter that she was in another distant land. She just didn't trust men.

The man squatted in front of a campfire, half facing the queen's direction. He was very muscular, with short, dark hair and dark eyes, and was heavily armored and well-armed. He had a large two-handed sword strapped to his back in much the same way Gabrielle did. She was sure he'd make a formidable opponent and greatly hoped she didn't have to see if she was right.

Sure enough, before she got within a stone's throw of him, he noticed her, and smiled as he stood up. Though when he realized how tall Gabrielle was and saw her sword, his smile slowly turned into a frown.

In spite of his reaction, she continued forward. She tried to smile but ended up looking more worried than anything else. Then her worst fears came true when she reached the campfire. The man pulled his sword and pointed it at her, speaking some strange gibberish.

"I don't understand," she told him.

She dropped her wooden tools and turned her hands palm side up, showing she held no weapon. She really wasn't in the mood to fight in spite of not having had any hot cocoa. The long march had long since replaced her grumpiness with travel weariness, and the smell of cooking fish had her stomach gurgling.

The soldier, as she came to see him, cocked his head at her speech. He didn't say anything more for several heartbeats, but when the awkward silence was interrupted with the sounds of Gabrielle's stomach, the man surprised her with a laugh.

She pointed to the fish and then her mouth, trying her best to politely ask for some. The man just shook his head and pointed to the river.

'How rude,' she thought. 'Is there no hospitality in this land?'

Unfortunately, the man wasn't finished. Gabrielle bent down to retrieve her forked spear and he playfully swatted her on the butt with the flat of his sword, laughing when she nearly fell forward.

"Okay," she growled. "That was uncalled-for. I was hoping to find civilization but I wonder now if I'll be disappointed."

The man wasn't fazed at all. He just stood there with one hand on his hip and the other on the handle of his sword, keeping it vertically balanced on the ground.

The warrior woman didn't appreciate his playful quirks and wanted nothing more than to wipe the smirk from his face, but she turned the other cheek so to speak. Unfortunately, she left herself wide open again. As she passed to go spear fishing, the man surprised her with yet another swat to the rear and that was it. Gabrielle lost all restraint.

She dropped her spear while pulling out her two-handed sword, and in one swift motion, knocked the man's sword out of his hand. The sword went clattering over some rocks, leaving the man with a shocked look on his face, and a smile on hers.

The soldier recovered, then growled and dove for his sword, rolling and coming up with it in both hands, ready to do battle. She couldn't know it but that sword was extremely important to the man, and doing what she did to it was a great offense.

Gabrielle swore under her breath. This was the last thing she wanted, but since she had to start it, she'd make sure to finish it. She stood her ground and gestured to the man to attack. The fight was on.

Blade met blade, neither yielding nor damaging the other. Both were actually fine steel, though Gabrielle didn't know the material as such. The magic talent of her blacksmith mixed carbon in with the iron to produce an excellent sword.

The skill of both warriors was evenly matched, though the queen noted that the soldier was probably a little stronger than she was, and easily more well-rested. Her only advantage was that she was taller and her reach was a little longer. So it was plain that the longer the fight wore on, the more likely she'd lose. She couldn't let that happen. Her queendom depended on her.

Anger tinged with desperation slowly built up in the woman, along with the power of her magic. She didn't consciously use her talent in battle. It normally just happened naturally. When she'd had enough or things looked bad for her, the magic would explode in self-defense, and that's exactly what happened. In a flash, the fight was over.

Where once stood a tall, broad man, now stood a much shorter and very slender young woman with the same hair style and same brown eyes. The armor she wore looked ridiculously large on her and she'd lost so much strength she couldn't lift the tip of her sword from the ground, though she kept trying.

After grunting in vain for a dozen quick heartbeats, the new woman finally stopped and realized something very strange had just happened to her. She gasped and her eyes went wide before she let go of the sword handle and fell to her knees in shock.

The queen had seen the same reaction countless times before on the battlefield. She'd let her opponent's new reality slowly sink in before going to try to comfort her. It would be difficult with the language barrier between them, but she had to try. Her honor demanded nothing less.

The soldier woman scowled and tried to speak in her native tongue, but she didn't say much before she clutched at her throat, obviously wondering what happened to her voice. After another short period of awkward silence, she suddenly began to tear at her armor, removing it piece by piece until she wore only a large green tunic, baggy leather pants and a pair of floppy leather boots. With her body free of the armor, her hands immediately went to her breasts and her eyes went wild.

"Grobnya!" she hissed, and then she fainted.

Gabrielle lunged forward and caught her just in time. She looked down on her with pity as she laid the woman gently on the ground, resolving to stay and watch over her. There was no telling what could happen if she didn't. The strange land was full of too many potential dangers.

She thought about how to handle the situation. Not being able to communicate with the soldier complicated things, but she was determined to try. She managed to talk with Muriel in astral form and so far her education had helped her survive in the strange land. She was confident she could figure out a way to communicate.

* * *

After several candlemarks, the soldier woke up and immediately found that her clothes seemed to fit a lot better. Gabrielle had used her knife to slash vertical slits in the side of the tunic and pant legs. She used some of the extra fabric for a belt to keep the pants from falling down and yet more to make ties to close the slits and give the clothes a better fit. She even made a vertical cut all the way down each boot and wrapped them tightly to hold them on the soldiers feet. It wasn't the best tailoring job but it would do.

The new woman rubbed her eyes and shook her head, as if trying to wake up from a dream. She finally looked up at Gabrielle and started to whimper.

"There there, Little One," the queen soothed. "You'll be okay. I'll watch over you." Then she bent down and started scratching lines in the dirt with a stick. It was the only way she could think of to communicate.

She first drew a tall stick figure of herself, giving it long hair and two circles to represent breasts. Then she drew a second shorter stick figure with short hair and breasts. She pointed to her figure, then pointed to herself and said her name.

The soldier, being more intelligent than most, understood and repeated the process with her own stick figure, finally pointing to herself and saying, "Targ."

"Targ," Gabrielle said with a some distaste, thinking it didn't fit her new look very well. "I wish we could've met under better circumstances."

The queen then drew another stick figure between Targ's and her own. She gave the new figure an inverted triangle for an upper body and added a phallic symbol between its legs. Then she drew lines from her figure to the obviously male figure and more lines radiating out from the male figure. Finally, she drew an arrow that pointed from the male figure to the new woman's figure to indicate the effects of her magic talent.

It was a complicated pictograph but it conveyed the message. The slender young woman immediately knew what it meant and quickly added an arrow pointing back from her female figure to the male figure, looking at the taller woman with pleading eyes.

Gabrielle sadly shook her head and then shrugged as she crossed out the second arrow.

Targ's shoulders sagged and her face fell. She'd suspected as much and took the news rather well. As a man, she wasn't really as sexist and stupid as she first appeared. She just wasn't very social. She'd tried to fit in when she had to but avoided everyone most of the time. Her social skills were especially lacking when it came to interactions with women. She'd tried to treat Gabrielle much as a sister, having no clue she was dealing with royalty. Then she lost her temper when Gabrielle abused her sword. That sword had been in the family for generations so she took it as a great insult. Unfortunately, misunderstandings are far too common between two people without a common language.

The shorter woman sighed and reached around herself to gather up all the pieces of her armor. Most of it was a combination of soft leather and chain mail and she separated the leather and rolled it up, tying it in a bundle. She planned to make pouches and various other useful items from it. The chain mail parts were buried in a shallow bit as a symbolic gesture. She was cutting ties with her past as a soldier. She'd never be accepted as she was. The city militia only accepted men.

When it came to her sword, she chewed her lower lip, trying to decide what to do with it. It would kill her to leave it. It meant too much to her. She tentatively tried to lift it and nearly hurt herself. Then she tried dragging it around to see how well that would work. It didn't take long before she gave up on that idea too. She stood over it and thought for awhile, trying to come up with something she could use to carry it in but soon gave up. All she could think to do was slump to the ground next to it and fondly stroke the blade.

Gabrielle watched Targ with great curiosity. She had no idea why the small woman was trying so hard to keep the sword but the woman's futile attempts tore at her heart. If only they both spoke the same language, things would be so much easier, but for now, there was one thing she thought she could do to help. She walked over and easily hefted the sword, slipping it in with her own and smiling to show that she would carry it for the much weaker woman.

The small young woman gasped, obviously thinking her former opponent had meant to keep her sword. Her masculine instincts urged her to fight for it but those instincts were rapidly fading, replaced by sad resignation. She was powerless to do anything about it and a profound sadness overtook her. Then she did something she hadn't done since she was a very little boy. She cried.

The queen guessed what was wrong. She quickly pulled Targ's sword, placed it by the small woman and took her forked spear over to the river to get a much needed meal. When she came back later with three large fish, Targ was asleep next to the sword, but at least the former soldier slept with a smile on her face.

* * *

After a short nap, Targ awoke to see the tall woman cooking three large fish and was surprised to see her own fish, set aside near the campfire to keep them warm. She slowly dragged her sword a little closer to the fire and cautiously started eating, keeping a close eye on the strange woman seated across from her. She found it hard to trust anyone who could do what that woman could do.

As the awkward silence wore on, the new woman was given no reason to fear Gabrielle. In fact, the taller woman's grace and good manners seemed in stark contrast to what Targ expected from a warrior. The woman no longer seemed all that strange, only different.

The small woman found her eyes irresistibly drawn to the tall, graceful woman and continued to wonder about her. Was it possible to start over? Could the two of them actually be friends? Perhaps all that was needed was a gesture of goodwill to patch things up between them. She'd like that because she realized she'd need a friend. No one would believe who she was since magic sex changes were impossible in this world. Most magic was impossible.

She also thought about her stubborn desire to keep her family sword, even though she could no longer use it for defense. A lighter sword would be a must if she was to protect herself from all manner of beast, including some of the members of the militia. She shuddered when she thought about what the men in the city might try to do to her. It might be a good idea to stay close to the warrior woman for protection as well as friendship, at least until she could get a light longsword and train with it.

As she thought about her sword, she began to wonder if she misunderstood Gabrielle's earlier intention. Gabrielle did return the sword when she didn't have to do so, and it was obvious that the tall, strong warrior woman meant her no harm. So what was she afraid of?

The small woman slowly nibbled at her fish and still filled up long before her hungry companion, but it disappointed her when she noticed she still had two fish left. She was used to eating a lot more as a man. It was a shame to have food go to waste so she offered her remaining fish to Gabrielle, who gladly accepted the gift since the woman had an appetite that matched her size.

Gabrielle smiled at Targ in thanks but the gesture wasn't returned. Instead, the shorter woman shyly looked at her feet. The frustrated queen thought she was beginning to know how Muriel felt before they figured out a way to communicate. It didn't matter though. The new woman needed help. They needed to learn to communicate better and she wouldn't take no for an answer, especially since she didn't know how to say "no" in Targ's language.

Deciding she was the more educated one, Gabrielle took it upon herself to learn the local language. She'd most likely need to learn it anyway if she was to get anywhere in the city. Using pictographs and lots of pointing, the language lessons began in earnest and lasted the full rest of the sun's rotation and beyond.

* * *

The need for sleep finally put an end to the queen's lessons, and Gabrielle soon found herself back in her castle where Muriel waited for her.

"Where have you been? You're late."

"Sorry!" Gabrielle mouthed. Then she spelled out the words, "fight" and "man", followed by "magic" to show she'd used her magic talent.

"Are you okay?" her friend quickly asked.

The astral queen nodded and smiled.

"That's a relief," Muriel said and paused before continuing. "Yes, it is a relief but I don't have time to hear any more about it. I'm sorry but we've got a problem."

The queen nodded sagely, urging her friend to tell her more.

"The royal healer is insisting on seeing you. He's very concerned that you're still sick. The silly man's been working feverishly on all manner of healing potion but he thinks the only way to treat you is to check on your symptoms himself. I don't know what to do."

Gabrielle frowned. The man truly did fuss over his patients. He was desperate to maintain his reputation so it made sense that he should check on her condition to get a proper diagnosis. She wasn't quite sure what to do about it either, but she started to get an idea.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 5, the queen makes good progress learning to control her new magic ability. She also gives the reader a glimpse into her troubled past and finally deals with the royal healer, a man who can be a royal pain.

Chapter 5

The queen took her time, completely spelling out her plan to Muriel and the handmaidens, and they all had a good laugh over it. The royal healer was very good at his job but sometimes he could be an annoying know-it-all. Failing to cure the queen of her astral condition should be a humbling experience for him.

Gabrielle would let the healer examine her and help him come to the intended conclusion -- that she had a magic illness of incorporeity. She wanted him to think that parts of her were fading out and back in. It would help cover for the real problem and explain why they were hesitant to let him see her. Her condition was serious enough that it threatened the security of the queendom. The fewer that knew about it, the better.

The only problem was that she needed to be able to solidify at least part of her astral body, something she hadn't practiced nearly enough. The healer was well-read in magic lore and might guess she was in astral form if she was completely incorporeal. It wasn't likely he'd tell anyone but it would rob the arrogant man of a chance to improve his character, not to mention ruin their fun. They needed some fun after all the stress they'd endured lately.

Eventually, the giggling subsided and talk turned to a more serious nature. Gabrielle hadn't had much practice solidifying her astral body. Her only success was blowing out a candle. She had to solidify her lungs, throat and mouth for that. While Beth and Heloise distracted the healer and Muriel went to collect some books she'd found after combing the royal library, the queen threw herself into practicing.

"Start with a fingertip," Muriel told her before leaving. "And work your way up to your whole hand. Remember to concentrate on transferring more energy to your astral form."

Gabrielle wanted to ask where she was supposed to get the energy but the old mystic turned her back too quickly. She'd never thought about where she was getting energy before. It might help if she knew the source.

Muriel quickly returned with two large books and set them on a reading table and the frustrated queen immediately spelled out "energy source?" No progress had been made other than briefly pushing a sheet of paper across the table with a fingertip.

"Oh yeah. I haven't told you what I've learned so far."

The queen shook her head.

"Let's start with the silver cord."

The mystic went into lecture mode, something the queen usually dreaded, but the subject was too important so Gabrielle listened with rapt attention.

Apparently, there was a silver cord that attached the astral body to the physical body. The energy that the queen needed was in her physical body, and she had to transfer that energy through the silver cord to her astral body.

Muriel started looking for the cord and got a little puzzled when she couldn't immediately find it. According to the books, it could be attached anywhere but usually connected either to the navel or somewhere around the head. Finally, in exasperation, she looked up to ask Mother Moon for strength and saw its shiny reflection in the dim candle light. It looked like a thin strand of spider silk, rising vertically from the top of Gabrielle's astral head. With it being so thin, it would naturally be very difficult to spot.

Seeing the direction in which the cord was stretched made Muriel stare for several moments before slumping down in her chair and losing herself deep in thought. She suddenly found herself having an epiphany.

Throughout its recorded history, the world of Kispri had never considered other worlds hanging over them in the sky. When Gabrielle talked of an alien land, everyone really only thought of it as another place somewhere on Kispri. The different sun and moons could always be explained away by magic and ignorance.

It just dawned on the old mystic that the cord was stretching to a completely new world, high in the sky. All of those little lights they called stars were actually other sister suns, each with their own worlds. The universe was full of life, or to put it another way, they weren't alone.

A single tear rolled down the old woman's cheek and settled on the broad smile she wore. It confused and concerned Gabrielle to no end but she patiently waited for her friend to tell her what was going on.

* * *

It took a good amount of time to recover from Muriel's amazing revelation, but they didn't have time for theorizing. They had a healer to take care of.

Gabrielle resumed her practice and made good progress using her new knowledge. She soon solidified her whole body and wasted no time hugging her friend to show what she could do. It should've been cause for celebration but the old mystic was often hard to please.

Muriel cleared her throat and had to bring up the subject of clothing. So far, every one of Gabrielle's visits had her wearing her battle leathers. It's what she wore on the other world so it was easiest to leave it be for astral travel, but it wouldn't be appropriate for a healer's visit.

The books on astral projection mentioned that it was possible to change clothing and even appearance so that's what the old woman requested.

For the good of the queen's modesty, it was lucky no one was around except for her mystic. The most likely alternative to her physical body's outfit was not wearing the outfit, and without a mirror to show her au naturale, the queen stood in ignorant bliss for far too long.

"Well?" Gabrielle mouthed.

Muriel slapped a hand on her forehead.

"You're not wearing anything, my Queen. Please keep trying."

The mystic was surprised to learn that astral bodies blush, and her surprise doubled when she saw her friend suddenly wearing a simple but beautiful gown. It wasn't often the queen wore anything so feminine. The surprise quickly turned to sadness though when Muriel recognized the gown. It was what Gabrielle's mother wore in the portrait behind her, the same portrait that the queen stared at with teary eyes.

"You still miss her very much, don't you."

Gabrielle nodded and turned away to hide the pain on her face, her gown swirling about her and then morphing into a comfortable looking nightgown.

She'd lost her parents to two thieves when she was only 5 cycles old. That's when she'd discovered her talent. The two men that killed her parents were the first to be changed into women, and the first to commit suicide because of it. That was a very sad time, and almost too much to bear for a little girl.

Luckily, she was found and taken in by a neighboring farmer, but good luck turned to bad before things got better. Little Gabrielle lived in fear for over a cycle. She was scared of the farmer -- scared of all men after seeing two men murder her parents -- and early one evening, just before her seventh cycle, the man drank too much cider and began cursing at her, calling her a stupid and silly little girl. It scared her so much that it triggered her power, changing him into a woman.

The farmer and his wife didn't understand what had happened on the day that Gabrielle's parents were killed. They didn't know the thieves had been magically turned into women so they didn't know about the girl's talent. It caught the farmer's wife completely by surprise as she watched it happen, shocking her speechless for a record length of time until she recovered and shrieked with outrage.

As soon as the farmer's wife shrieked, Gabrielle bolted for the door and ran away. She ran to the stream at the edge of the farm and waded through it. She continued on the trail that led through the woods to a nearby town and didn't stop until she was exhausted. Even then, she walked through the streets of the town in a daze, her shoes squishing with water and mud.

The sad and frightened little girl left a trail of changed men that spanned the countryside. Women would sympathize and care for Gabrielle until the men in their lives were suddenly changed into women, forcing the girl to run away yet again. It wasn't until she reached a small village at the outskirts of the queendom of Prizzaria that she found a home.

By the time she reached the village of Skart, rumors of her magic talent had finally preceded her. A few enterprising but kindly older women discovered her and realized that a very rare magic talent like hers could be very valuable given the right training. They vowed to care for the girl until she could take care of herself in all respects.

The girl's new guardians educated her and even trained her for combat. One of the women who cared for the girl had a magic talent that came in handy too. Ordinarily, Helga wouldn't use her talent on small girls but for Gabrielle she made an exception. Helga helped the young girl to grow much taller and stronger than normal, and succeeded far beyond wildest expectations. By her eighteenth cycle, the girl had grown taller and stronger than any of the men in the village.

It might have seemed excessive but Helga felt it was crucial to give the initially small girl the potential to be a formidable warrior so she could protect herself. The other women in the group disapproved but kept quiet when they saw that the girl at least kept her feminine curves. In the end, they had to agree with Helga. The warrior woman's build suited her, giving her both grace and beauty as well as strength.

The only mistake the women made was to keep Gabrielle well away from men. They thought it best to hide her away to make sure her talent wasn't triggered, and that was unfortunate. The girl wasn't able to see that many men had a good side so she carried her distrust of men with her to adulthood. Her attitude led to many more gender changes than were warranted. Most men would call that a bad thing but of course it only endeared her to the majority of the population in the woman-centric queendom.

The future queen's magic talent eventually became common knowledge but by then, she could easily protect herself with her battle skill as well as her magic. With her sword and her ability to change men into women, the queendom became a much safer place for women and her place as queen was assured.

The queen tried to return from her musing with a single astral tear that she wiped from her cheek. Then she turned to take another look at her mother's portrait and sighed. Her past was so full of wrong turns.

She'd commissioned the portrait from a middle-aged man with a wonderful magic talent. He could paint scenes and portraits from another person's memory, and no matter how old and faint the memory, the painting would perfectly capture it. The portrait did turn out beautifully too, but then disaster struck. The memory of it shamed her and yet she still forced herself to relive it now and then.

The man had gotten greedy and doubled the price for the painting when he saw how much Gabrielle liked it. In her anger, she changed the man into a woman, forever erasing his unique talent and sending him to the insane asylum. She mourned the loss of his talent and the loss of his sanity more than she appreciated his last great work of art. Some things just weren't worth the cost.

She had to compose herself yet again before she showed Muriel that she was ready for the healer. She gave her friend a nod and climbed onto her bed, lying on her back on top of the covers to make things simpler. It was time to begin the charade.

* * *

Bartholomew the healer really was an arrogant bastard. His magic talent was top notch and he saved countless lives, but he offended even more than he saved, and he couldn't care less.

It didn't help that the man was secure in his position. Healers were extremely rare, and since the queen's magic talent changed the talent of her victims as well as their gender, he knew she wouldn't dare change him. Sometimes that knowledge made him insufferable as he took full advantage of it.

The arrogant man arrived in the sitting room and fended off Muriel right away.

"I know where the queen's bedchamber is," he huffed and opened the bedroom door without knocking.

The two handmaidens stifled a giggle and quickly followed the healer with the old mystic slowly bringing up the rear.

Keeping to the plan, Gabrielle kept her eyes closed and waited for subtle directions from Muriel. It was a good thing she was in astral form or she'd have given everything away by sweating and breathing heavily from nerves.

"Well, she looks okay," Bartholomew said. "Her color is good. I don't see what the problem is."

"We didn't want this known for fear of the queen's enemies finding out ...," Muriel began and then paused for effect. "She's got a strange magical condition."

"Oh?" the healer said, raising his right eyebrow. "Do tell."

"First, I want to tell you that your potions have helped her a great deal."

"Of course," he sniffed.

"But parts of her still fade in and out. It's the strangest thing, but other than that, she's fine."

"Curious," he said as he moved towards her right side.

Bartholomew sat on the bed and reached for her wrist. It was solid but he noted to himself that it felt cold. Then he did something the others didn't expect. He checked for her heart rate.

With a gasp, he erupted from the bed and shot from the room in fright.

"She doesn't have a pulse!" he blurted out as he left.

"Oh dear," muttered the mystic. "We didn't think of that, did we."

She turned to Gabrielle and quickly told her to try simulating a pulse in her wrist while she collected the healer.

Out in the hall, Bartholomew leaned back against the closed double entry doors, pale and trembling. He'd already been shorting himself on sleep trying to concoct numerous potions for the queen so he didn't look well himself when he first arrived, but somehow he managed to look worse.

"Please," Muriel soothed and bluffed at the same time. "She's not dead. Come back in and we'll prove it to you. It's probably just the magic interfering. If you try again and press harder, you'll probably be able to feel a pulse."

"Are you sure?" the healer said, feeling somewhat uncertain for the first time since his youth.

"Positive," she lied as she took his arm and led him back to the patient.

Muriel looked over to Beth for some positive sign and got a sly wink. She let out the breath she was holding and encouraged Bartholomew to examine the queen.

He held her wrist a moment and frowned, but he didn't run. The plan was back in action.

"Her pulse is a little weak and slow but it's there," he said, more to himself than anyone else. "Good."

"Now check her left arm," Muriel directed. "But be prepared for a shock. It fades out quite frequently."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean about fading out," he said. "But I guess I'll find out, won't I."

He switched sides and reached out for Gabrielle's left wrist only to find that his hand passed through and grasped the bedcovers instead. That got him to gasp for the second time since he arrived. He wanted to run again but luckily his professional pride prevented him from doing so.

"Unbelievable," he mumbled. "I don't understand this at all."

Gabrielle loved every minute. She made her left arm fade out and fought to keep from smiling at the poor man's discomfort. As soon as he left to go back to his laboratory to work on more potions, the plan would be complete, but she couldn't resist improvising one last part.

The mischievous queen opened her eyes, sat up and tried to speak. She'd been working on her vocal cords, hoping to at least whisper but instead all she managed was something that sounded more like a raspy cough than anything else. She quickly changed tack and instead pantomimed using a writing quill and paper.

Beth knew what was being asked for and brought the requested items to the queen's bedside. When the queen was finished, the handmaiden handed it to Muriel who read it aloud.

It was a prescription for a very strong sleeping potion. Bartholomew was to mix one up as soon as possible.

That made sense to the healer and he nodded approval. He thought it prudent for the queen to get as much rest as possible. It was only the last part that disturbed him.

Muriel gave directions for the healer to then drink the potion himself as soon as he'd finished mixing it. The queen believed him to be under too great a strain and ordered him to sleep to make up for all of his hard work.

"Let me see that!" Bartholomew shouted, but his face fell when he saw it was true.

"Your Majesty, please ...," he began.

Gabrielle waved him off and feigned fatigue. She laid back down and closed her eyes, pretending to fall asleep.

The healer's shoulders sagged and he turned to leave. He was defeated, though he had no intention of actually carrying out the queen's orders. It was only when Muriel asked the two faithful handmaidens to follow him that he truly gave in. He sighed and led the two young women back to his laboratory to begin preparations for a long rest.

Once he left the room and was well beyond the hall beyond, Muriel closed the doors to the bedchambers and let out a cackling laugh that shook the thick lead glass of the bedroom window. It was too bad Gabrielle couldn't stay longer to join in the coming celebration. She felt herself being drawn back to her body. It was time to wake up once again on the alien world.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 6 (of 11), Gabrielle continues on her quest to get home with the help of a new friend, a woman she finds increasingly attractive. Will she resist temptation and focus on her quest?

Chapter 6

The tall woman flailed, forgetting that she'd been sleeping in a rope hammock, high up between two trees. The odd sleeping arrangement was safe and offered much more comfort than sleeping on a stone ledge, but it briefly upset the queen. It would take some getting used to.

She finally got her bearings and carefully stretched out, but unfortunately, that familiar action always led to thoughts of hot cocoa. She missed her favorite warm drink terribly. It helped wake her up and yet still cooled her warrior passions. Chocolate was truly a wondrous thing and she sighed, thinking fond memories.

Once more trying to come to grips with her new reality, she flailed again, trying to escape her clingy bed. Every movement threatened to spin her upside down and fling her to the ground far below. That wouldn't improve her already foul mood.

Just when she considered hanging and dropping down, she suddenly stopped when she heard a curious sound. Gabrielle looked over to her new friend's hammock and saw the small woman trying to stifle a laugh.

"Go ahead," the queen snarled. "Laugh all you want."

Though Targ didn't understand a word of what was said, the look on Gabrielle's face finally did it. The new woman laughed.

The sound of Targ's laughter struck the queen as one of the most beautiful sounds she'd ever heard. It momentarily brushed aside the darkness that gripped her and she actually smiled. Only when her stomach rumbled did she snap out of it. She remembered she was trying to escape her bed and felt more than a little embarrassment at having so much trouble. With a slight blush, she flashed an obscene hand gesture at her friend and continued flailing.

"Ahem." Targ cleared her throat to get the queen's attention. Then the small, graceful woman proceeded to demonstrate the correct procedure for getting out of bed. She rolled out to one side while grabbing a loose rope that had one end tied to a branch. As she hung from the rope, she loosely wrapped it around one thigh and pinched it between her feet to slowly slide down to the ground.

Gabrielle mentally kicked herself. She'd forgotten about the rope. It was certainly needed to help her get into the hammock and it came in handy for getting out as well. She soon slid down to stand next to Targ and they went off to the river together to catch something for breakfast.

The small woman used a net on a long pole. It worked much better than the forked spear in the deep water where most of the fish swam so Gabrielle got rid of her spear and stayed out of the way. She just whiled away the time by watching and mentally reviewing the list of new words she'd learned.

The language lessons had gone fairly well and continued whenever one of the two didn't need to concentrate on a task. Targ still needed to use pictographs in the dirt to show objects that weren't available or to convey abstract concepts.

Gabrielle liked how the alien world kept track of time. She learned the word, "day", for a sun rotation. That was a much easier way to say the same thing. She also learned about a mechanical device that kept track of shorter periods of time called seconds, minutes and hours. They were used to divide up the day into fixed intervals, making them much better than her world's inconsistent candlemarks and heartbeats.

After building a small vocabulary, the queen began trying to put a few words together to form sentences. She often got funny looks from her teacher, but Targ was patient and always pleased with the results.

Not long after they'd finished eating their fish, while Gabrielle practiced some new words, Targ began wrinkling up her nose and sniffing. It seemed she was looking for the source of a bad odor, and she didn't stop until she realized it was coming from Gabrielle.

"You smell ...," her teacher said. "You smell bad."

Once again, the tall woman was embarrassed as she sniffed herself to confirm it. It was well past bath time.

Then Targ embarrassed her even more when she insisted on coming.

"I clean your armor," she said simply so she'd be easily understood.

"No," was all Gabrielle knew to say to try to stop her. "Please. No."

The small woman shook her head and kept following. "I go and I clean armor. Clean armor good. Dirty armor bad."

The queen considered tying Targ to a tree but she relented. It'd go much faster if Targ cleaned her armor while she bathed. Her modesty would just have to suffer.

When they got to the river bank, Gabrielle pulled her sword and set it on the ground but Targ stopped her when she started taking off her armor.

The short brunette carried a small bag and pulled out a bar of soap. That was a pleasant surprise, and it triggered matching smiles, just before Targ pushed her friend into the deep, slow moving river, armor and all.

The indignant queen surfaced and sputtered a few obscenities in her native language before trying to chastise her playful friend. "Cold water! Bad Targ! Bad!" she shrieked.

Targ laughed and answered back as she placed the bar of soap on the edge of the river bank. "Undress in river. Give armor to me. I clean armor. You wash. Use soap!"

Gabrielle did as her friend requested, noting that it saved her modesty at least.

The cold motivated her to finish quickly but Targ still had her armor ready and waiting for her when she got out. The small woman was nowhere to be seen too. That was a relief. After putting on her damp leathers and tying her long, wet hair back in a pony tail, she went to dry and warm herself by the fire.

Her friend was still missing but soon showed up with their two rope hammocks.

"We go west one day," Targ pointed in the direction that the sun would set late in the day, the same direction Gabrielle had been traveling since she arrived on the alien world. "We go to place with many people called Roggzer."

That confirmed it. There really was a city and astral projection was a reality. The queen couldn't help herself. She squealed with delight.

"Why sound?" Targ asked, again keeping her speech simple to be easily understood.

The concept of astral projection was far too advanced to explain with a few simple words so Gabrielle simply shrugged. "I talk and you not understand. Sorry."

The small woman smiled and nodded, suddenly melting the queen's heart. Targ took everything, even her gender change, extremely well. She'd been a fairly sensitive and upbeat man before and saw no reason to change her ways. Her philosophy was simple. If you can't change something, don't worry about it. If you can make a change for the better, than simply do so.

The tall woman took a good look at Targ and finally noticed how truly beautiful her friend was, both inside and out. She'd always favored small, slender women with dark hair and brown eyes, and now she was alone with someone who matched her ideals perfectly. If only Targ hadn't been a man before. If only they weren't on an alien world so far from her home. Only then would she allow herself to fall in love.

Gabrielle had to shake herself to change her train of thought. If she kept thinking like she was, she was afraid she'd give in to temptation.

Muttering to herself, the tall woman stood up and started helping her friend break camp. They had a long way to travel before the day ended, and they still had some packing to do, though it broke Gabrielle's heart to watch Targ pack.

The small woman continuously added things to a large bag and cautiously tried to lift it after each item was added. She couldn't carry nearly as much as she could as a man so she thought she had to leave some things behind. It didn't occur to her to ask her new friend for help.

The pole net could be broken down into two parts. The net rolled up and the pole made a nice walking stick so it was easy enough to take. The rope hammocks and small bag of soap were necessities so they were packed. They needed the hammocks to sleep in the relative safety of the trees and Targ's delicate sense of smell was too easily offended without the soap. That just left a dozen or so other items to prioritize, something the small brunette couldn't easily do.

Finally, after getting close to tears, the tall, strong woman couldn't stand to watch Targ suffer any longer. She walked over, dumped everything but the pole in the bag and threw the bag over her shoulder, giving her small friend a wink.

"We go west," Gabrielle said. "Now!"

The concept of immediacy took her some time to learn but she thought she had it. Targ hesitated but that was only out of surprise. Then the small brunette smiled and nodded her head vigorously.

"Thank you!" she cried. "Yes. We go west now."

Targ hesitated again though. She looked back by the extinguished campfire and sighed.

Gabrielle followed her friend's gaze and noticed the large sword lying on the ground. She'd forgotten all about it. "Sword?" she asked.

Targ sadly shook her head and turned to leave her prized possession behind, but again, the tall warrior woman refused to let her friend suffer. She stalked over to the sword and slid it in with her own.

The small woman turned back to witness the act of kindness. Her eyes actually teared up and she rushed over to the tall woman to give her a fierce hug. She actually did it as much to hide her emotional state as to show gratitude.

Gabrielle dropped the bag and slowly moved her arms around her friend to hug her back. It was a tender moment that she'd always cherish.

* * *

Though the queen was very strong, the weight of her burden surprised her. Targ must have been stronger than she thought. She began to shift the bag from shoulder to shoulder but fatigue was beginning to slow her down. She helplessly watched as her friend, with only a walking stick, got farther and farther ahead.

She wanted to take a break but she didn't know how to say it in Targ's language. Instead, she ended up just shouting her friend's name and collapsed.

Targ trotted back and finally noticed the problem. She rested her right elbow on her left arm and held her chin up with her right fist. Then she looked up at the sky, lost in thought.

Gabrielle had never seen such a pose. She found it very endearing and had to look away when she remembered her promise to herself. If only her brunette friend wasn't so enchanting!

After only a couple minutes, Targ had a solution. While the queen rested, the smaller woman pulled out two of the larger pieces of her leather armor and began to fashion a crude sling. The edges of the leather pieces already had holes and ties that could be use to attach them to each other in a loop. When the creative young woman finished the sling, she hung it around her neck and filled it with several items from her bag.

One of the items was a small container that she went to fill with water from the river. She brought it back and handed it to the tired queen who drank it all without stopping. That was all it took. After resting and quenching her thirst, Gabrielle was ready to move again.

With the weight better distributed between the two of them, their pace was better matched as well. They stayed together and as they continued to walk, Targ resumed the language lessons. She also added valuable information about edible plants, picking berries and eating as they went.

* * *

It was near sunset when they arrived at the outskirts of the city. The hills had spread farther apart and weren't nearly as tall as they'd been where the pair had first met. Most of the nearby hills were covered with large houses, and farther to the west, the land flattened enough to allow a view of the taller buildings in the city.

Roggzer was huge, surrounded by many small suburbs that stretched out several leagues from its center, and it was in one of the suburbs that they'd found a reasonably priced inn.

Targ had a small bag of coins that she'd almost considered leaving behind because of its weight. That made the queen all the more glad that she'd carried everything for such a long distance. After lugging her heavy burden so far, she wouldn't settle for anything less than sleeping in a nice, soft bed.

"Stay one night and go," Targ warned. "Need many coins for bed."

Gabrielle nodded. She didn't care about tomorrow. Only the present evening and two things concerned her. Her stomach came first and then sleep.

The pair entered the inn and caught a fair number of men staring at them. Targ's strange outfit and Gabrielle's unusual size didn't deter them as they only saw two beautiful young women.

The staring made both women uncomfortable, though for different reasons. Targ didn't like the lustful looks in the men's eyes. She knew exactly what they wanted and knew some would most likely get it if it wasn't for her large friend's protection. She was ashamed to admit to herself that she'd stared at more than a few women in the same way when she was male.

Gabrielle had similar thoughts. She recognized the lust, though she wasn't afraid of it. It simply disgusted her. It was the potential for violence that bothered her the most. She knew she could defend herself well enough with her sword but she didn't want to have to resort to violence. She was too tired. She'd prefer to just change them all into women and be done with it.

Luckily, the two of them walked through the dining area to the reception room without incident. Targ did all the talking to the innkeeper as they agreed before entering and they were soon safely in a small room with two beds, a table and two plain wooden chairs.

They had their dinner delivered to the room and ate at the table. The hot stew was most welcome and went down well along with the fresh bread and bitter ale. Actually, almost anything would've tasted good after the long hard day.

Before sleep overcame them, Gabrielle had one thing she wanted to ask Targ about. It concerned magic. They'd discussed magic after she learned the word for it in the native language. She knew it was rare on this world and she just wanted to know if the city contained any powerful sources of magic that could possibly send her home. If there wasn't any, she didn't plan on staying long.

Trying to frame her question was difficult with her limited vocabulary but she thought about a way to do it earlier in the day. With no dirt for pictographs, she used a fingertip to leave the faint outline of a large circle on the cream-colored bedcovers. She meant the circle to represent Agrin, which she found out was the name of Targ's world. Then she drew a smaller circle that represented Roggzer.

"Magic here?" she asked Targ as she pointed to Roggzer.

Targ shook her head.

"Magic here?" she then asked while moving her finger within the circle of Agrin but outside Roggzer.

Targ nodded and pointed to three points near the city.

"We go to place of magic tomorrow?" Gabrielle asked hopefully.

The small brunette shrugged. She wasn't sure exactly where to find magic. Then she frowned when she saw the resulting sad look on her friend's face, and found herself fighting an urge to hug the tall, sad woman. Such blatant shows of affection were still so very foreign to her. Was this what it meant to be a woman? Was she to be so emotional for the rest of her days? If so, she hoped she'd get used to it soon.

The pair sat and looked at each other for several minutes until Gabrielle finally yawned to break the spell, allowing them to turn away. They extinguished the candles, shed their clothes and quickly fell asleep in their beds.

* * *

The astral queen soon found herself back in Prizzaria with Muriel and her loyal handmaidens waiting for her. They were anxious to hear more about their queen's adventures now that the royal healer was neutralized for awhile. So after some very satisfying hugs, the storytelling began.

Gabrielle worked hard to make her astral form speak but still couldn't manage more than a rasping sound. It didn't matter though. She grabbed a quill and paper and wrote out a long description.

She confessed that she first thought she was dreaming about her castle visits. It wasn't until she arrived in the city of Roggzer that she confirmed her astral ability. She also told them about the inn where she was sleeping and how her new friend was teaching her the local language.

The queen wasn't the best of writers and wasn't happy with the quality of her tale. It was a little disjointed and mostly in reverse chronological order but Muriel and the young women were fascinated. They encouraged and very nearly demanded that she continue, so she did.

The astral queen ended with her brief battle with Targ, and she had to pause several times when the guilt became too much to bear. She still felt so badly about changing Targ into a woman. The whole incident was based on a bunch of silly misunderstandings. It might have been easier if Targ had been more difficult but the new woman had been nothing but gracious and helpful. Gabrielle couldn't get enough of her.

Muriel moved to offer a comforting hug but was prevented from doing so when her young friend lost concentration and was no longer solid. The old mystic had to settle for words.

"Gabrielle, you can't change what happened. All you can do is make the best of things and move on."

The sad queen looked down, her lower lip quivering.

"From what you've told us, it sounds like Targ has moved on. Why can't you?"

Muriel's advice was slow to sink in but it eventually helped. Gabrielle looked up and mouthed the words, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," the old mystic replied. Then she had a sudden thought. The rarity of magic in Targ's world had been mentioned and nearly forgotten. She wondered if there might be more information about the subject somewhere in Roggzer.

"Check for a library," Muriel advised. "A large city like you've described should have a library."

The queen nodded.

"And please consider giving your companion a new name. Targ just doesn't seem to fit the woman you've described."

Gabrielle laughed at that as she faded from view. It was time to go back to Roggzer. She and her new friend had a lot to do and she hoped to get an early start.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 7 (of 11), Gabrielle deals with some unfinished business regarding her friend, while the friend has some unfinished business of her own. The odd pair are like two peas in a pod in so many ways. *sigh*

Chapter 7

The first order of business in Roggzer was to deal with the basics. There was something Gabrielle had put off until they reached civilization but now she felt it was important, if awkward. She taught Targ about feminine hygiene.

The new woman blushed furiously but took her lessons well. She knew it was necessary. She just wished she didn't have to consider so many things. Being a woman was more complicated than being a man.

The next thing on the list was a name change.

"Targ?" Gabrielle asked.

"Yes?"

"Are any women called Targ?"

"No."

"You need a new name."

Targ thought she couldn't be surprised again after her hygiene lessons but she was wrong. She surprised herself that she hadn't realized her name was no longer appropriate. It might be odd and even a little dangerous if anyone she knew recognized any of her possessions and heard her being called Targ. How would she explain that?

Her friend's speech was still crude but the point was made. Targ did need a new name. The only problem was, she couldn't think of one. She spent several minutes trying to think of one and came up empty. Luckily, Gabrielle had given the idea some thought.

"May I call you Marie?"

Marie was one of the queen's favorite names, and it held no emotional baggage. She'd never known anyone else by that name. She just thought it was pretty and that it suited her new friend. The tall woman gave her friend a hopeful look and Targ could only nod.

Gabrielle squealed with joy, but then it was her turn to be surprised.

"May I call you another name?" her friend asked. "A short name?"

The queen had heard of several nicknames for Gabrielle but she'd always preferred to be called by her full name. It sounded more professional to her ear and more appropriate for a queen. Here in Agrin, she wasn't a queen so there was no reason not to consider the request for a name change. Besides, she always thought one nickname was particularly cute.

"Call me Gabi," she said.

So it was, that on that early morning in Roggzer, two women named Gabi and Marie started their day in the big city.

* * *

The first stop was at Marie's modest one-storied house about half a league from the inn. She hadn't made a lot of money in the city militia but she worked hard enough to get that house and she was proud of it.

It was difficult for the new woman to enter and would be even more difficult to leave. She had a lot of fond memories of living in that house and this would likely be the last time she'd ever see it.

With more than a few embarrassing tears, the small brunette rummaged around, looking for something useful. She first broke into her hidden stash of coins. She didn't have much but every little bit helped. They'd still have to buy some things for their journey.

There were few clothes to be salvaged as most were far too large to fit. She kept her formerly small leather jacket. It could serve as a trench coat to shed the heavy rains. The only other useful articles were socks and a leather belt that she tried on. The belt nearly wrapped around her twice but it could be secured.

Marie looked at her meager wardrobe and groaned, realizing that at least some of the shopping she'd be doing would be to buy clothes for herself. She cheered up though when she saw that some of her clothes would be a fairly good fit for Gabi, and she had fun dressing Gabi up in some of her more colorful tunics. The tall woman wouldn't remove her leather armor but that just made the tunics fit better.

Some of her knickknacks and other decorative items had sentimental value but most of them were breakable or too cumbersome to carry out into the wilderness. There was only one thing she'd let herself keep. It was a stuffed toy rabbit named Ribbles. Her mother had given it to her as a boy and she kept it all these years in spite of being teased about it. She kept the ragged toy because it meant a great deal to her. It would always remind her of her loving mother.

The weapons and armor were saved for last since she thought they'd be a lost cause, but when she went through them, she had to suppress a squeal of happiness. She'd almost forgotten about her long dagger. The dagger was nearly the length of a short sword and it would certainly come in handy since she could handle it easily enough. She slid it back in its sheath and tucked it into her belt. How interesting that yesterday's castoffs could become today's hand-me-downs.

After going through everything in the house, she started pulling items out of their bag of goodies to do a final inventory. She wanted to see what they had and what they still needed to buy. When Gabi's possessions were added to the pile, she saw there were several duplicate items, things they didn't need to carry all the way from their camp site. That was unfortunate but at least they could leave the extras now. She set them aside until she got to the two large swords. She had to do something about her family sword.

As the two of them packed up again, she stopped Gabi from taking her sword, The tall woman gave her a concerned look but she held firm. She didn't know exactly how to communicate the reasons so she just tried one word that Gabi knew: Family. Gabi sadly nodded and didn't question her again.

A lot would be left in the house but she was still pleasantly surprised at all the things the two of them would be able to keep and use. She gave a last quick look around and with a heavy sigh, attended to one more task she had to perform. She had a good-bye note to write.

A note would have to be left for her brother, Marcus, to find, and in it, she'd explain that she had to leave on a mysterious mission and might never return. Marcus could take the family sword and he'd be welcome to take anything else that was left. He was also instructed to sell the house since he couldn't afford to keep it, and he was encouraged to gently break the news to their mother. Writing that note was the hardest thing she'd ever done.

She'd miss her family. Even if she could get them to believe it, she didn't think they could handle her gender change so she sadly let them go along with her house. She locked the door and walked away without a backwards glance, leaving her little house to start a new life with Gabi.

* * *

Being with Marie was never dull, especially in that small house. The small brunette could easily make Gabi laugh one minute and cry the next, and when Gabi watched her friend go through the house, the mood swings were plentiful. Trying on Marie's male clothing had been fun and got a few laughs out of both of them. The dagger was a good find too. The rest of the time wasn't so happy though, and the note was the worst of it.

The tearstained letter was obviously a good-bye note of some sort, though Gabi couldn't read a word of it. She wanted to ask about it but thought it would be better to do so at a much later date when the emotional wound was well-healed. For now, she would see about distracting her friend with some shopping, something she was anxious to get started. They still had a lot to do before they'd be ready to leave the city.

Before they could start shopping, they had a quick detour to a large building with dozens of doors, each with a unique identifying symbol on it. Her small friend went to one of the doors and slipped the house key under it. Gabrielle wanted to ask who lived there but stopped when her friend suddenly hugged her tightly. That subject would have to be put off along with the good-bye note. The two things were obviously related.

* * *

The two young women soon found themselves in one of the many shopping districts of the city. An endless row of small shops lined the narrow cobblestone streets, with inventory that overflowed outside. Gabi had never seen anything like it. The sight was much different from shopping days in the public square back home.

The tall woman didn't need any clothes. She wore one of Marie's tunics over her leathers and was good to go. She also kept a couple of spare tunics as they were a convenient style and the size. The colors were nice too. She favored the solid blues, greens and purples that seemed to be popular with Marie and the majority of the citizens.

Clothes shopping went well and Marie was mostly happy. She had mixed feelings when they purchased a feminine undergarment to restrain her average-sized breasts, but she liked the long-sleeved white blouse, leather pants and soft leather boots. She was a lot more comfortable wearing clothes that fit her well and happy not to have her breasts bouncing all over the place. The curvy brunette apparently looked a lot better too. She got more attention than ever, including many furtive glances from her tall friend. The blatant staring continued to bother her but she found herself liking the attention when it was Gabi doing the looking.

Backpacks were another necessity. As Targ, she never bothered with one, but a pack was much better for carrying a large load than a bag slung over her shoulder. Her days of being a big, strong man were over.

The backpacks were handy but the small woman still fussed over how much they had to carry. She didn't want Gabi to have to shoulder most of the burden so she loaded herself up. Though her body was greatly weakened, her resolve wasn't. She was determined to get back into fighting shape and pull her own weight.

At least her purse was lighter, she noted while hefting the small bag of coins. They'd spent well over half of the money and it wasn't even midday yet. She planned to buy some provisions for their journey and hopefully have a little left over for emergencies. Unfortunately, the items they'd be buying would more than outweigh the spent coins. Her leg muscles would be getting a lot of exercise over the coming days.

Gabi thought about buying food but she was happy to leave it for last. Their load was heavy enough without it while they stayed in the city. She figured they'd need something extra to eat before they got clear of the suburbs and could forage in the wilderness.

She wasn't sure what, if anything, that Marie was looking for at the moment so she just followed her friend around while trying to keep an eye out for books. The distracted queen hoped to see a book so she could point it out. She hadn't learned enough words to be sure about how to communicate the idea of a book.

The streets were too full of people and carts to walk side-by-side so Gabi had to follow behind, and as she did so, she almost missed a book shop because she was mesmerized by her friend's swaying rear. It must have been her lucky charm saving her once again because she caught a glimpse of the shop's front window display out of the corner of her eye.

"Marie! Please stop."

Her friend turned around and gave her a questioning look. Gabi simply pointed at the book shop and motioned for her to follow her inside.

New and old books of all shapes and sizes filled all available space in the musty old shop. They were stood up or stacked on wooden shelves and narrow tables that were spaced very closely together, making the most of the limited amount of room. Off to one side, almost hidden by several stacks of books, sat a tired looking old man in drab clothes, cautiously eyeing his two potential customers. He didn't get nearly as much business as he'd like since only about half the city was literate, but he loved books so he stubbornly kept the shop. Guessing that the two women weren't likely to buy anything, he went back to his reading.

As the tall woman excitedly looked around her, she soon remembered a serious problem. She couldn't read the language of the land. She'd have to depend on Marie.

"Magic? Here?" Gabi asked with a hopeful smile, pointing around at different books.

Marie shrugged and had a look around. The shop wasn't well organized. There were no signs that listed subjects or authors. The only help was that books on similar subjects were generally stacked or placed on the shelves together. The small woman wasn't happy about the use of time but she trusted her friend and began scanning the shelves.

The tall woman looked around for books with drawings while Marie did the reading, and it was a good thing she was tall enough to see the top books on all the stacks. Her good luck continued when she found a very old looking book with a diagram of something on the cover. The diagram consisted of several little objects all connected by lines. It looked like it might be a map of some kind so she took it over to show her friend.

"Circuit schematics," Marie said, reading the title of the book out loud.

The puzzled woman skimmed through the paper-thin plastic pages of the book and found several more diagrams that looked somewhat like the one on the cover. She simply shrugged and took it over to ask the shop owner about it. He shrugged as well and said, "Magic."

The two women perked up when she heard him say that, and Marie hurried back to the stack where Gabi got the book. The small woman handed the circuit book to Gabi and read through the titles on the spines of the other books in the stack.

The anxious queen held her breath as she watched her friend read, finally exhaling when she saw it would take more than a couple minutes. She absently thumbed through the book she held while she waited and was surprised by the durable plastic pages. She'd never seen such a thing. The books of her world all had rather fragile paper pages. Plastic itself was magical to her and she found herself drawn to other books in the shop.

The plastic books were actually an attempt to salvage the knowledge of the ancients and save it for a greatly extended period of time. The makers of the books knew any form of electronic book would be worthless in a society with no electricity so they used the longest-lasting materials they could think of to create old-fashioned books. It was too bad much of their effort was in vain.

Many of the people of Agrin could still read in the current age, but the knowledge in the technical books was far beyond them. They had no hope of saving the practical application of such knowledge after the great economic upheaval two centuries ago. Millions died during that dark time and there was no way to save the learning institutions. People spent too much of their time and energy on survival.

Scholars sadly watched society crumble as their peers died one by one and took their knowledge with them. It was a dark time indeed, and from it, rose the current, fairly primitive civilization that was pretty much limited to using some of the advanced materials and items people found in the rubble of history.

While looking through a book with drawings of animals, Gabi felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned to see Marie looking very pleased as she held up a book. The book was opened to a page with two maps of the area south of Roggzer. One map was large scale and the other zoomed in to a small area within the larger scale map. It looked interesting but again, the well-educated queen still couldn't read the writing that went along with the maps.

"Find magic?" Gabi asked after scanning the pages.

Marie nodded vigorously and impulsively grabbed her friend for a quick hug while still holding the book.

For the first time since she arrived on Agrin, Gabi was optimistic about her chances for getting home, but she still was taking no chances. She wanted to continue learning as much as she could about the alien world while she was here. In the book she'd been looking at, she pointed out the picture of the large animal that attacked her on her first night and asked what it was called.

"Mogron," her friend said.

Gabi learned several other words, including the word for book. Then they spent most of the remaining money on the book with the maps and left to go to the great market.

* * *

The market was an immense circular arrangement of tents and carts that were mostly crammed with fresh food and drink of every kind. It was set up once every seven days in an open area that was reserved for it, and it was one of four markets that circled the city, each one about halfway between the center and the suburbs.

The two women wound their way through the crooked streets to the southern market -- since they were to travel to the south in search of magic when they finished shopping -- and Gabi found herself increasing her pace as they got closer. Before the tops of the nearest tents came into view, she had passed her friend and practically panted with anticipation. She tried not to get her hopes up but she was excited about the possibility of finding cocoa. Thoughts of her favorite hot drink had plagued her for far too long and she sought relief.

The hopeful queen wanted to believe her good luck could continue. She planned to scour the market for cocoa. She couldn't describe the exotic item so she was on her own, and she still had no idea whether it even existed on Agrin, but she had to try.

When they finally arrived, the queen wasn't impressed with either the quality or the variety of the merchandise. Occasionally, the pair would stumble across in interesting item though. One merchant actually had several longswords in his cart and Gabi's eyes lit up. They didn't have nearly enough money to buy one but she thought she might have a way.

"Marie?" Gabi asked as she pointed to the mogron claw necklace she wore. "Give it for sword?" She was trying to ask about the trade value of the necklace.

Marie understood and laughed her delightful little laugh again. The small brunette shook her head. "Many mogrons. No coins." Telling her disappointed friend that the necklace was worthless. Then she blushed.

"What is it?" Gabi asked.

"Please throw away necklace. It is not pretty."

It was the tall woman's turn to blush after being told she was wearing ugly jewelry. She wished she would've realized it earlier. The necklace was soon left hanging from a cart for some lucky young boy to find and the mogron teeth were scattered on the ground when no one was looking.

After nearly two hours of walking, the tall woman came up empty-handed. She couldn't find any of her beloved cocoa and she looked so dejected.

Marie felt very bad about whatever it was her friend couldn't find but she frowned and shook her head when Gabi asked about the possibility of going to the other markets. They didn't have time. She wanted to leave within the hour.

Hunger began to gnaw at the pair so they bought some cheap but filling snacks to eat on the road and drank their fill of water from one of the many community wells. That's when something caught Marie's eye.

The small woman couldn't help notice that Gabi frequently fussed with her hair and always seemed unhappy with the results. So when Marie saw a woman selling hair care products, she couldn't resist. She wanted to cheer her friend up with something so she used the last of the money to buy a hair brush and turtle shell comb. It would've been nice to have a little left over money for emergencies but her friend's current state of mind meant more to her.

The sniffling queen sniffled even more in her attempt to hold back the tears when she saw the gifts. She almost considered refusing the brush and comb, feeling that she didn't deserve such a luxury, but then realized the irony. She'd been searching a long time for just such a luxury item so she accepted them after all. They'd help to make up for not finding any cocoa.

With a last check of their supplies, the two women filled some containers with as much water as they dared carry. The land to the south was dry for more than a dozen leagues so they'd definitely need it. Then they set off on their journey with a good six hours of daylight left.

The road that led from the market out of the city was fairly straight and wide. The city planners built it that way to accommodate market traffic, making it very convenient for the odd pair. Most everyone was still very busy at the market so the two women walked side-by-side out of the city with almost no traffic to impede them.

As they walked, Gabi wished she had an excuse to follow behind her friend again, and found herself daydreaming about Marie's seductive rear end swaying back and forth. She wanted to see more. The temptation to lag behind was almost too great until she shook her head to snap herself out of it. Why did Marie have to be so attractive?!

She had to remind herself that it was her own fault. The more emotional she became when she used her magic, the more feminine her male targets became. She tried to kill Marie's male self out of anger and desperation so it was no wonder that the small brunette was so beautiful. All Gabi could do was laugh at herself after that. She'd maintain focus when she had to and would stop to appreciate beauty when the opportunity arose. Looking at it that way, a beautiful traveling companion wasn't such a bad thing.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 8 (of 11), the two women are off to a rocky start. Gabrielle runs into serious trouble and Marie tries to deal with a serious issue that she's had to put off for far too long.

Chapter 8

It took a good hour to reach the edge of the city, and another three hours to make it past a patchwork of farms and ranches before they could begin to enjoy the scenes that nature had to offer in the southern hills. The two women stopped for a short rest at the top of a couple different hills to look at the view, though for Marie, it was a more serious activity. As trees became less and less common, she looked ahead for rock formations where they could sleep in safety.

The day was fairly hot and the women took advantage of every small stream they came across. They drank from their containers and refilled them in the streams. Marie even threw caution to the wind at one point and splashed Gabi. The small woman pretended it was accidental but her giggling gave it away. It was a good thing she had a relatively light load and could escape her tall friend's halfhearted attempts at revenge.

The language lessons continued. There wasn't much else to do anyway. They reviewed the various features and objects in the city to reinforce the words. Then Marie tested Gabi's memory of her wilderness vocabulary. Satisfied with the results, they finally moved on to casual conversation.

They resumed their talk about magic and their current destination. Earlier, before they reached the city, Gabi had managed to convey that it was magic that brought her to this world over a vast distance so she was sure only magic could get her home. Marie kept that in mind when she searched through the books at the book shop, and everything she'd heard so far only confirmed that she'd selected the right book.

The book mentioned a device called a portal that could send people across the vastness of space and included maps to locate the portal. The small woman was relatively ignorant when it came to astronomy but intelligent enough to see that the book held potential. The only problem concerned the disturbing matter of security at the magic site.

She didn't understand much of what was written about the security measures. All she could go on were the few diagrams, some of which displayed a great magic warrior who literally crushed every attempt to use the portal. The giant warrior only allowed authorized personnel access to the site, and if the warrior still lived, it would be difficult if not impossible to get past it. Being magical, Marie believed the warrior would still be alive and she chewed her lower lip with worry.

Gabi wasn't too concerned until she looked at the pictures in the book. The giant warrior was drawn to be as tall as a small tree, and it was shown to have the power to hurl large boulders across a wide river. It would be suicidal to fight something that large and strong. She couldn't tell the gender of the warrior from the drawings but even if it was male, her magic would be useless against it. The large female version would likely be just as overpowering.

"We plan when we see the place," the queen suggested, still struggling with the foreign language. "Our fears are worthless if huge warrior is gone."

Marie understood and nodded agreement. "I am still concerned," she said, carefully using a word her friend had only recently learned.

"I am concerned also," Gabi said. "I don't want to kill or be dead."

* * *

The first night of their journey, they camped on a rocky outcropping high on the side of a hill where Marie found a horizontal crevice. The crevice opened into a small cave that was large enough for the pair to sleep in. The short brunette assured her nervous friend that they'd be safe from mogrons and other large predators.

They collected dry sticks and made a campfire farther down the hill on level ground to cook dinner. Since fish were hard to come by in the dry southern hills, Marie resorted to another method to catch a meal. She called for one.

As Targ, she loved exploring far from the city when she was off duty, and several years ago, she met a nice old man who shared a secret. The old man had carved a small hollow wooden object that would make an odd noise when blown into, and the noise would call a certain type of burrowing animal -- a very stupid animal called a niggler.

It wasn't clear why the noise attracted the animal, but it worked very well. All Marie needed to do was find a burrow just after sunset, when the animal would most likely be inside, and call it. The niggler call would work just before dawn too but Marie wasn't an early riser. She rarely got up early enough to use it in the morning.

The first burrow they came across appeared to be empty but shortly after trying a second burrow, a fat waddling animal with a small head, gray fur and a long bushy tail poked its head out. Marie promptly clubbed it and dinner was served. It was that easy. The resourceful native also dug up some plentiful root nuts to go with the meat, which was ironic because root nuts were the favorite food of the niggler.

After finishing their meal, Gabi got a chance to use her brush and comb. It took nearly an hour to work out all the tangles in her long hair but when she'd finished, Marie was awestruck. The tall woman's wavy hair shimmered a golden brown in the firelight. The small brunette had never seen such a beautiful sight, especially in the dim light of a campfire.

That night, Marie dreamed of Gabi, and Gabi ... well, her astral form went back to her queendom of course.

* * *

"Welcome back, my Queen," Muriel said from Gabrielle's favorite chair.

"Welcome back!" Heloise and Beth chimed in.

Gabrielle concentrated and once more tried to speak. She worked on it a little before arriving and managed to croak out a couple words, so she tried again.

"Thanks," she said. It was barely a whisper but it was audible.

The handmaidens squeaked in surprise but Muriel simply nodded. The old mystic had patiently waited for the new development.

"Right," Muriel said as she stood up to address the group. "There won't be any speeches any time soon but we can spread word that our queen is nearly recovered." Then she moved closer to Gabrielle and spoke so that only the tall woman could hear. "It's about time," and she followed more loudly with, "I knew you could do it."

The queen improved her speech slowly but steadily. She first tried one word at a time until her voice was loud and clear enough to be easily heard across the hall. Short sentences came easily soon after and, with constant practice, it wasn't long before she could speak normally.

"So how has our royal healer, the good Bartholomew, fared?" Gabrielle asked. It was her longest sentence up to that point and Heloise had to suppress the urge to clap.

"He woke up with a headache and a foul disposition not too long ago," Muriel chuckled. "We've kept him informed but he's shown no desire to examine you again."

"His mood should improve after he hears me speak," the queen said. "Beth?"

"Yes, my Queen?"

"Please summon him. I'd like to thank him for working so hard on my cure."

"Yes, my Queen," Beth said, turning to go before Gabrielle had finished speaking. The brunette handmaiden had an annoying habit of not waiting for someone to finish speaking before she acted. It was hard to be angry with her enthusiasm though.

Muriel muttered something about catering to the ego of the small-minded man but she changed her mind when the queen shot her a disapproving glance.

"Always the diplomat," the old woman said.

"Always," the queen said with a graceful nod.

With Bartholomew's ego back in perfect health, there wasn't much else for Gabrielle to do for the moment. Her loyal little group scurried away to work on plans to help her get back to running the queendom, leaving her alone for a little rest.

The solid astral queen plopped down in her favorite chair, squirmed a little and sighed. It was good to be home, even for the limited time that her body slept back on Agrin.

* * *

The next morning, the odd pair finished off the remaining niggler meat and root nuts from the night before and got an early start. Gabi was anxious to make progress.

The portal appeared close to the city on the large scale map, but after comparing the landmarks that appeared along the way to the landmarks on the map and gauging their progress, the pair ascertained a more accurate distance. At the rate they traveled, it would likely take at least two weeks to reach their destination.

Gabi wasn't pleased about that. Marie took it all in stride though. The small brunette wasn't anxious to leave her world and yet she realized that her only reasonable option was to stay with her friend. That meant she'd welcome a long journey. It would give her a chance to enjoy her world that much longer before she left.

* * *

The next several days were much the same. Gabi ran her queendom by night and marched ever closer to the place of magic by day. Marie continued the language lessons and the conversation flowed like the large stream they suddenly came upon early one morning.

The long line of trees should've alerted the small brunette to the possibility of the stream but she was too busy talking to her friend to notice. She should've paid more attention.

Marie knew that it was usually early in the morning when mogrons had a last drink of water before they retired to their dens for the day. So it was on that day. The two women interrupted a mogron having a drink.

The large animal didn't notice them until they were almost upon it. It couldn't hear them over the sound of the burbling water and its own slurping. It only heard them when Marie shrieked and practically flew up a nearby tree.

Gabi was amazed by her friend's quick thinking and fast climb up the tree. She'd seen Marie climb trees before but it was only fear of the mogron that inspired such a fast climb. Unfortunately, the distraction gave the mogron more than enough time to act.

The large cranky animal lunged at Gabi, surprising her and knocking her on her back. Then it crawled on top of the tall woman, pawing at her and moving up to head level for the kill.

The strong woman managed to push back on the mogron's neck to keep it from biting her face, and her magic leathers kept the pawing from doing little more than cause some slight bruising, but she couldn't keep the animal at bay forever. She couldn't pull her sword since she was lying on it, and there was no way she could spare a hand to grab her knife. She was in some serious trouble.

"Marie!" Gabi cried. "Do something!"

"What?!"

"Anything!"

The tall woman was nearly spent and soon found screaming too difficult. She gasped for breath and conserved what little energy she had left, waiting for help.

Marie clung to a thick branch directly above her friend, but she couldn't think, and her friend's cries only served to rattle her all the more.

"Hey! Up here!" the small, desperate woman shouted, trying to distract the mogron. "Up here you stupid beast!"

The mogron ignored her and Marie started getting angry. It wouldn't ignore her if she threw things at it or dropped something heavy on it. Then she thought, why not me?

As the small warrior woman remembered her training, she positioned herself better for dropping on the savage animal and finally remembered one more important fact. She had a very long dagger in her belt.

With a fancy but quick flourish, she pulled her dagger out and screamed as she left the security of the tree and dropped on the mogron. The dagger embedded up to the hilt just to the left side of the spine, where she knew the animal's heart was located, and the blade was just long enough to do the job. The mogron slumped and died, leaving a strange sandwich of bodies.

"Get ... off," Gabi croaked, reminding her friend the task wasn't quite finished yet.

Marie rolled off the pile and helped her friend crawl out from under the heavy mogron. It was over, or at least she thought it was over, but with the adrenaline rush fading, the small woman started trembling and sat down hard on the ground. Then she found herself desperately trying to keep from crying. She had a very strong urge to cry. Why? Why was she so upset? She'd killed several mogrons before and didn't react like this. What was so different this time?

Everything was different. Her gender was wrong. Climbing up the tree in fear was wrong. Taking so long to save Gabi was so very wrong. Gabi could've died!

That didn't make sense though. She'd lost friends before, and she'd lost family. She even lost her father several years ago, but she never cried. She was a man, damn it. Men didn't cry!

Gabi watched the play of emotions across her friend's face and knew what to do. She squatted on the ground near where her friend sat in the dirt and hugged the distraught woman. That's all it took.

Marie cried for several minutes, stopping only briefly to chastise herself for crying before starting again. She couldn't stop herself until she got it out of her system.

When she finally did stop, her anger returned with a vengeance. She unfastened her belt and wrapped it around her chest to bind her breasts. Next, she grabbed a sock from her pack and stuffed it down the front of her pants. She even rubbed dirt on her face, all to look more manly.

Her little act fooled no one, not even herself, but she kept at it. She kicked at the dirt, and she kicked the mogron several times, screaming obscenities at it, blaming it for her current state of mind. Then she did a shocking thing. She walked over to where Gabi quietly sat and she tried to kiss her friend, roughly as she thought a man should.

Gabi pushed her away.

"No," the tall, strong woman told her confused friend. "Not like this." But that last part only served to confuse herself. Why did she say that? What did she mean by it? She couldn't accept Marie's love -- not when she was so close to getting home. She had to get home, and nothing would get in the way of that goal.

The small woman's eyes got teary again. She was about to lose it one more time. The gender confusion, the rejection, the pain of her bound breasts, her whole life conspired against her, making her weak in spirit as well as body. She couldn't trust herself anymore. She didn't even know who she was!

Gabi saw it coming and got up on her knees, grabbing the woman in a strong hug. She figured it would be better in that position. Her friend would be less embarrassed if Gabi couldn't see the tears rolling down dirty cheeks to leave little streaks of mud.

When there were finally no more tears to squeeze out, it was Marie's turn to push away. She quickly returned her belt and extra sock to their proper places and went down to the stream to clean her face. She'd be okay now, she told herself. She had to be okay because her friend needed her.

Marie came back to sit and watch the tall woman, cutting and wrapping lean sections of mogron meat to take with them. She could do the job herself but she enjoyed sharing the chores, and she was fascinated by slight differences in technique. It was a welcome distraction too.

"Here," Gabi said, pulling the dagger from the beast's back and holding it out to Marie. "Take your dagger."

The distracted small woman took it and started to slip it in her sheath when her friend spoke up again.

"Clean dagger first?"

"Right," the embarrassed brunette muttered. "I knew that."

When the meat was packed, Gabi cleaned her knife and then her hands and face before turning to her small friend.

"Ready to go?"

Marie gave her friend a faint smile and they resumed their journey.

* * *

With an estimated five days left to reach the portal, Gabi thought it was time to bring up a subject that she'd postponed after the mogron incident. She needed to get her friend in fighting shape.

Marie had proven herself with her first show of battle skill since becoming a woman, but that was only a very brief test. The warrior queen needed to know she could count on the small woman to defend herself in a prolonged battle.

"You killed the mogron well," Gabi started. "Can you fight with a dagger?"

The small woman shrugged and looked at the ground. The memories of her meltdown still left a bad taste in her mouth. She didn't care to relive the pain.

"Please," the warrior woman persisted. "Battle skill is important."

Marie looked up to stare into Gabi's eyes and the evident pain was almost too much for the queen to bear.

The small brunette mercifully looked down again suddenly. "I know how to fight," she muttered.

"Show me," the tall warrior challenged.

Marie shrugged again but she got up and pulled her dagger from its sheath. She looked at the steel blade, briefly admiring its simplicity and deadly functionality before dropping into a fighting stance. It was time to spar.

Gabi tried to keep the fight fair by using her knife, but with her greater reach and superior strength, the chance of dominating the sparring match was still greatly in her favor.

They started with simple slashes and parries. That worked well enough so they moved to double combinations and slowly advanced to nonstop action. Both women held their weapons such that the blade pointed back towards their elbow and both used the same fighting style. Unfortunately, the style favored a stronger combatant.

Gabi tested Marie by leaving her midsection open to a punch or kick and Marie took the bait. The smaller woman parried a slashing attack and punched her partner as hard as she could.

The strong, tall woman stopped and looked down with disgust, first at her stomach and then at her opponent.

"Was that supposed to hurt me?"

Marie didn't respond. She knew it didn't faze Gabi but the punch was like an automatic reflex. It was the way she was trained to fight.

"You fight like a man," Gabi spat.

"I fight well," the small brunette retorted.

"You are not strong enough to fight like a man."

"What do you suggest? What do you want? I don't know what you want."

"I want you to defend yourself ... if you are attacked ... and I can't help you." Gabi tried to make herself clear but the different language still slowed her down.

Marie understood what her friend was trying to tell her, but she didn't know what to do about it. As a man, she'd been trained to use her great strength to enhance her battle skill, and now, without her strength, her technique was no longer effective.

The warrior queen had trained enough weaker women in her queendom to know what to do. She just needed a willing pupil, something Marie wasn't quite ready to be just yet. The fight training would have to come another day, but it would come. The seed had been planted.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

Chapter 9 (of 11) has more temptation and excitement than you can shake a stick at -- and there are still two chapters left!

WARNING: Extreme cliffhanger. Readers who are sensitive to cliffhangers should wait until chapter 10 is posted on Monday.

Chapter 9

With less than two days to go to reach their goal, the two women stumbled across a much appreciated and much needed treat near midday. They found a natural hot spring. At least they thought it was natural. It didn't matter though. The water was hot and clean and they needed a good soak. They made it to the Weeping River several days ago and got a proper bath then but they hadn't done much since then. Wiping themselves with wet rags and splashing water on their faces was a poor substitute for a bath.

The only problem was getting into the water. With the obvious physical attraction they shared, nudity was still awkward for the two women. They were afraid of starting something. Marie was shamed by her manly behavior during the mogron incident and Gabi desperately tried to remain focused on her mission to get home. It was only the lure of the hot water and decent size of the pool that finally overcame their hesitation.

The long and narrow pool appeared to be carved out of solid red granite by a small waterfall at one end and the depth gradually decreased towards the opposite end where the water ran out. If the two hadn't been so travel weary, they might have noticed the perfect contours and straight edges, but it didn't matter. They'd take a bath anyway.

The waterfall was scalding hot so they migrated a little past the middle section where the depth was perfect for sitting and tested the water temperature with their bare feet. It seemed tolerable.

They both dropped their packs together near the edge of the pool and Marie began to slowly undress while Gabi turned and walked towards the shallow end. The tall woman waded across to the other side of the pool and undressed directly across from her friend. Both women faced away from the pool, and both slowly backed into the water. With their modesty intact, they sunk down to sit on the bottom and had a good soak.

Being much shorter, Marie had to sit farther up the slope in the shallower water, but the two women were within a couple arm lengths away, close enough to be very aware of each other. They had to distract themselves by turning to watch the waterfall, mesmerizing themselves with the sound and spray of the flowing water.

The hot water did wonders to relax the two women, though it didn't help relieve the stiffness and soreness of Gabi's shoulders. Her pack hadn't lost any weight during the journey. When it came time for washing, it was all the tall, strong woman could do to keep from complaining like a baby. She'd always had her handmaidens to help her whenever she'd pushed her body too far.

Marie reached over to her pack for two bars of soap and gingerly handed one to her friend, and the two of them slowly began to wash themselves. Gabi washed her arms, legs and front easily enough, but she couldn't reach behind herself to properly wash her back. With the sweat and grime of several days of marching still on her back, she really wanted a proper scrub.

The small brunette remained oblivious to her friend's problem for a short time. She wasn't sore at all and she amazed herself with her flexibility, easily reaching behind her back to give herself a thorough cleaning. By chance though, she caught a brief glimpse of Gabi. She saw her friend struggling and chewed her lower lip. Once she looked, Marie couldn't pull her eyes away, and she couldn't stop herself. She slid down the slope of the pool and brushed the tall woman's arm out of the way.

"What?!" Gabi yelped. "What are you doing?"

"I'm washing your back. It's a dirty job but someone has to do it. You obviously can't."

"But ...," the tall woman stopped when she felt Marie's hands on her back.

The short brunette scrubbed hard and then began rubbing when she felt the tension in the muscles. She not only washed Gabi's back, she massaged it as well, and her friend didn't complain. The sore woman went back to watching the waterfall.

When the massage ended and the small woman moved on to wash the clothes, Gabi breathed a sigh of relief. The danger had passed. Nothing more happened between them.

As had become habit, Marie washed Gabi's clothes as well as her own. She felt it was the least she could do to make up for what she felt was an unfair distribution of pack weight. She'd built up a lot of leg muscle but would never have nearly as much strength as her tall friend. The small woman sighed and left the clothes to dry on the hot stone while she crawled in for another soak.

Before getting out for the last time, they washed their hair. Then they rolled out on opposite sides and drip dried before dressing. It was two much cleaner and much happier women who resumed their journey that day.

* * *

It seemed that the more Gabi learned of the language, the more Marie spoke to take advantage of her friend's larger vocabulary. The small woman really seemed to like talking, which was fine really since Gabi loved to listen to her. They talked about more and more subjects and the language barrier melted away.

"Have you always been so talkative?" Gabi teased.

That shut the small woman up. She looked up at her friend and stuck out her tongue, not saying another word for an unbelievable five minutes or so.

That's when it finally hit Gabi. The warrior queen was in love. For the first time in her life, she was in love, and it hurt.

Other than the awkward but brief meltdown a little over a week ago, Marie could do no wrong. The woman was so beautiful and so feminine, she took Gabrielle's breath away. They were both obviously attracted to each other, and under different circumstances their love would flourish, but here on Agrin there was a problem.

The mission to get home suddenly took a distant second in priority, but it brought up an important point. If or when she finds a way home, would Marie come with her? She'd been working so hard to get home, it didn't seem fair to expect her friend to voluntarily leave. So far, the subject of coming with her hadn't been mentioned. It was only natural that she assumed the worse.

Gabi decided that she'd do everything she could to prepare the small woman for life without her, just in case. If Marie wanted to stay, she needed to be able to defend herself.

* * *

They made better progress than they thought they would so they decided to camp early. If they pushed it, they might make it to the portal by sunset but neither of them thought it a good idea. The prospect of meeting a giant warrior in the dark sent shivers down their spines. If it was magical, it might be able to see in the dark, giving it an even bigger advantage than it already had.

Gabi took advantage of the daylight they had left and followed through on the promise to herself, giving Marie some fighting lessons. She taught the small warrior woman how to use a smaller, weaker body to its full advantage.

"Look for and strike at the specific weak points of your opponent with your dagger. Go for the hands, feet and any exposed skin."

Marie thought the timing of the lessons was odd and detected a strange sense of urgency. Tomorrow would be an important day, and a potentially deadly one, but just how much could she learn in the few hours of daylight they had left? She respected Gabi's determination and skill so she focused entirely on technique, even though she'd much rather just talk and stare into her friend's beautiful green eyes.

The warrior queen crammed so much information into the training. It was almost too much. She taught how to get in close to take away an opponent's greater reach and strength. She taught pressure points and vulnerable spots like the eyes and hollow of the throat. She threw everything she knew at the small woman, and when they finally finished, the last rays of the sun were nearly gone from the tops of the highest hills.

Marie called up two nigglers and cooked them over a small camp fire, while Gabi dug for root nuts. The two women were very hungry after training so hard for so long.

As they sat and ate, the small woman mentally reviewed her lessons, trying to ignore Gabi's intense eyes boring their way into her soul. She felt confident she could adjust her fighting style well enough to handle most battles. She was still very coordinated and knew all of the advantages and disadvantages of various other styles so she could counter them. She just needed practice.

When it got dark enough that the fire was the only significant source of light, their thoughts turned to all of the issues that had yet to be resolved. Tomorrow loomed large over them so they began to talk, starting with a question from Marie.

"Why did you turn me into a woman?"

That was a fair question, but it never had an easy answer. Gabi just shrugged and said it just happened in the heat of the battle. She didn't actually force it, though she could've if she wanted.

Marie seemed to be satisfied by the answer so she went back to eating. Then it was Gabi's turn.

"What was in your note?"

That question had an easy answer, but it wasn't easy to say. The small woman took her time, going over the sequence of events of leaving her house to her brother. The memories were still raw emotional wounds and Gabi kicked herself for inadvertently reopening those wounds, but the tall woman thought she might at least be able to offer some comfort now that she spoke the same language.

When Marie had finished, she felt better. Talking about it helped lighten her mood for some odd reason. She even felt a little playful, joking about getting in a little hand-to-hand combat practice before bedtime. She said she wanted a rematch to make up for their first sword fight.

Gabi didn't take the bait at first, but her attitude changed when her small friend persisted.

"Come on. I bet you only changed me into a woman because you were losing the sword fight."

It was true. They both knew it to be true, thought it might have been better to have left it unspoken.

The warrior queen couldn't help feeling challenged, and she never backed down from a challenge. With a brief display of mock anger, she dragged Marie away from the camp fire and had her pinned on her back in seconds. She sat lightly on Marie's stomach and held the woman's wrists as she smiled down at her.

The small woman squirmed and kicked, giving it her best but she couldn't free herself.

"You win," she finally said, a little short of breath. Then, with a sparkle in her eye, she added. "Now take your prize."

Gabrielle didn't have to be told twice. She scooped up Marie and carried the small woman over to their bed rolls. Taking care to stack all the padding for maximum comfort, she set her companion down and proceeded to show her some of the benefits of being a woman.

* * *

Two hours later, by the light of both moons that had since risen, two very satisfied women snuggled together to share body heat in the cool evening air. After all the right strokes, both women had screamed with passion and declared their love for each other several times.

Gabi never did get up the nerve to ask if Marie would come home with her. For now, she settled for enjoying the moment and hoping that their evening of bliss meant as much to her loving companion as it did to her. She drifted off to sleep, satisfied that Marie would be dreaming of this night for a long time.

* * *

"You're very late," Muriel remarked when her queen finally appeared.

Gabrielle blushed and muttered something about having a lot to do and not enough time to do it all, but said no more on the subject. She preferred not to tell her old friend anything about her relationship until it was clear where Marie would end up.

"Yes, I'm sure you've been busy. How close are you to the portal?"

"We're about half a sun rotation away."

"That bodes well," the mystic said. "You realize that the queendom conference is only three full rotations away, right?"

Gabrielle nodded. She'd kept up on everything she needed to know. She took her job as queen very seriously. If everything went well tomorrow, she'd be back both in body and spirit for the conference, and she'd be bringing a surprise.

The queen smiled when she thought of Marie, but still said nothing to Muriel.

"Okay then," the old woman added. "There's nothing much to do at the moment. Beth and Heloise have exhausted themselves by now and are likely fast asleep."

The status of her handmaidens caused Gabrielle's smile to broaden, confirming what the wise old woman suspected. Wisdom was one benefit to growing older.

"We've got time. Would you like to tell me about your relationship now?"

The tall woman blushed yet again but nodded. She'd told her old friend a lot about Marie, including the incident with the mogron, but she hadn't said anything about being attracted to the small, beautiful woman. She'd had trouble confessing it to herself, let alone anyone else. It didn't matter though. Muriel figured it out anyway. Her friend's wise ways never ceased to amaze her.

They sat in the familiar hall, with the queen in her favorite chair as usual, and after talking for over a dozen candlemarks, it was time for the queen to return. She felt the familiar pull of her waking body.

"I'm happy for you," Muriel told her. "Take care of Marie, and take care of yourself."

"I will," Gabrielle smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow, hopefully in the flesh." Then she faded out.

* * *

"Morning, Lover," Marie purred, using a term of endearment that she'd taught Gabi the night before.

The two women had slept together and were covered by Gabi's extra tunics to hold off the chill night air -- thanks to Marie. They shared a long, loving kiss and cuddled a little until Gabi could shake off her grogginess.

Though the temptation was great to resume their lovemaking, the pair got up to attend to more pressing needs and got ready to leave. They had a portal to get to.

* * *

They knew they were close when they came upon the ruins of dozens of buildings. The complex of buildings housed the people and machines needed to maintain the portal, and also included a large underground power source that still hummed with power.

Just as the map promised, the portal came into view at the summit of a large hill. The portal was a small white cubic building with an open archway on each side. An instrument panel and view screen stood adjacent to one corner and on the opposite corner stood the guardian warrior.

The silver colored guardian was just as large as the diagrams showed, and just as fearsome. It was also still alive. They knew it because it turned its head to look down at them with its two large blue eyes.

The two women had to suppress the urge to flee for their lives. They only just managed to hold their ground when it was clear that the guardian warrior wasn't going to move towards them.

"Got a plan?" Marie asked.

Gabi hushed her friend. With all the magic she'd experienced, it wouldn't surprise her if the guardian could hear everything they said, even from so far away. She silently took her lover's hand and they walked back the way they came.

When they'd found a secluded spot near a noisy stream, the tall woman finally spoke.

"I was afraid of this. Magic isn't usually very powerful back on my world. Here, it looks like it's rarer but much more concentrated."

Marie wasn't sure what to say to that, not having had much experience with magic. She contented herself to use her eyes to encourage her mate to continue.

"I'm very sure we're not authorized to use the portal so we're going to have to be a little sneaky about it."

The queen was well acquainted with the art of stealth. She could sneak up on even the most alert animals in her queendom. That guardian still might pose too great a challenge though. She'd need a distraction, and she hated herself for suggesting it but she'd have to depend on Marie for the distraction.

They made up some code phrases and silent signals to communicate with each other. Then they left their packs by the stream and put their plan into action. It wasn't a perfect plan but they came up with a few alternatives. They felt ready for anything.

Marie started the show by fashioning a sling and using rocks to attract the guardian's attention. She didn't try to hit the guardian. She just tried to make noise and lure it away. She ducked down behind a low wall to keep from being seen and slung one rock after another at some debris at the base of the hill where the portal stood.

Step one of the plan worked. The guardian took the bait and moved to investigate the noise, allowing Gabi to move closer to her goal.

There was only one flaw in the plan. The guardian heard the whipping sound of the sling as the ancient weapon released its payload. It heard both the rock and the sling and stopped to try to resolve the confusion.

The guardian warrior was actually a giant robot with limited artificial intelligence. It didn't normally have to solve such dilemmas as there used to be human guards to help with security. Now it was alone and it had to make a decision.

So far, it followed the sound of the rocks, but it was able to finally realize that the sling was the source of the rocks. That led it to begin formulating a dangerous path change -- dangerous for Marie that is.

* * *

While Marie continued her part of the plan with reckless abandon, Gabi quickly made her way up the back of the large hill with the portal. Once near the summit, she slowly edged her way towards the instrument panel. She knew the panel was the key to operating the portal.

Marie had read portions of the magic book to her friend over the past two weeks, and it turned out there was a section on how to operate the portal. The whole book covered everything about the device. A traveler used the instrument panel and the view screen to select a world and walked into the portal. When they exited the portal again, they'd be on the selected world. The only hard part was selecting the world.

From what the two of them could figure out from the text and diagrams, potential worlds are selected first by distance and then by star color. The remaining criteria were breathable air, water and life forms. Water and life forms made sense, but apparently some worlds had air that people couldn't breathe. Neither of the two women knew enough about air to understand that statement but they'd be careful about it.

Gabi memorized the symbols for water, breathable air and various types of life forms. The rest was easy. Considering that Farrott -- the man who sent her to Agrin -- was a weakling scum, her Sister Sun had to be one of the closest stars, and she knew the color. She only had to check the symbols for air, water and signs of life to make sure she had the right world.

Taking one last look around, she didn't see the guardian anywhere. That left her free to approach the panel.

Selecting the closest stars, she then looked for yellow ones. There was only one so she selected it and checked the view screen. The screen showed two worlds, one with water, breathable air and abundant life. The second world was dead. It had water but no breathable air or life. The choice was clear. She'd found Kispri!

She almost swooned when she thought about going back. Everything seemed too easy, too good to be true. All she had to do was hit a big blue button and walk into the portal. She was going home! Then a loud scream for help interrupted her daydreaming. In her desperation to get home, she'd almost forgotten one very important thing: Marie.

Gabi immediately ran down the hill in the direction of the scream to face the guardian warrior. She had to find it before it hurt her true love. She just had to because she was afraid of what she might do if she wasn't in time.

* * *

Marie heard the guardian before she saw it. Then she felt the vibration of its foot steps, and she ran. She ran blindly down the hill and hid behind some rocks by the stream, hoping her gasps for breath weren't as loud as they sounded. The vibration continued to get stronger.

The frightened woman willed herself to breathe more slowly, and she became a statue, refusing to give herself away. She refused to die, refused to lose the love of her life. Then the vibration stopped.

She knew better than to peek. She could practically feel its eyes scanning the area, though it wasn't making any sound at the moment. Closing her eyes helped her focus on her breathing, and she became one with the rock. She was a rock. She was a stone statue.

* * *

The robot used all of its sensors but couldn't find the source of the flying rocks. It computed a 97 percent chance that the two humans it had detected earlier were the source of the flying rocks so it scanned for any evidence of humans, and it found something.

There were many indentations in the ground that matched human footwear, but that didn't help much. It didn't have any tracking software. That only left it one alternative.

The huge machine began to lift some of the larger boulders that lined the nearby stream. As it lifted each one, it looked under it for humans, and when it didn't find any, it easily tossed the boulder across the stream. After it finished clearing the stream of boulders, if it didn't find any humans, it would return to the portal. If it did find humans, it would check them for authorization and only allow them entry to the portal if they were authorized. That's how it was programmed: Look for humans and check for authorization.

A second set of instructions were added later and went as follows: If any humans weren't authorized, it would throw them as far away as it could to show that they weren't welcome. The instructions were generated from its own limited understanding and were actually just as buggy as its first set. It had been too long since the robot had any maintenance.

After more than half of the targeted boulders had been tossed over the stream, the robot was almost surprised to find a human. It had computed only a 7 percent chance of finding a human after tossing the previous boulder. It looked down and saw a human female. She looked asleep but it queried her for authorization anyway.

As soon as Marie heard the mechanical monstrosity ask for authorization, she lost all rational thought and screamed for help. Then she launched herself into the stream and swam for her life. On some subconscious level, she must have known she couldn't outrun the guardian, so instead, she swam underwater. It didn't really make sense but it was a good thing she did.

The robot couldn't track the woman in the stream. To it, she simply disappeared, so it went back to searching under boulders. It figured that the disappearing woman must be authorized to use the portal and had somehow done so from a distance. That was the best explanation its artificial intelligence software could come up with.

* * *

When Gabi arrived near where she heard the scream, she saw the guardian casually throwing boulders, but she refused to believe Marie had been killed. She didn't see a body anyway. The distraught woman hadn't planned for this latest development so she scrapped her plan and did what came naturally. She screamed and threw a rock at the guardian. Her aim was true and the rock bounced off the top of its head, giving her the desired result. She had its attention. The stupid thing stood up straight, asked for authorization and waited but Gabi was already running away.

It was lucky that they hadn't traveled far that day to get to the portal. The tall woman had plenty of energy. She led the portal guardian on a merry chase, but she couldn't run forever. She grew tired and actually considered stopping to try her sword when she saw Marie.

Her beautiful mate was full of surprises that day. The small brunette was over by the portal, dripping wet.

"Blue two!" Gabi screamed as she ran, giving the secret code phrase to activate the portal and enter it. She used a code phrase in case the robot understood and went back to the portal instead of continuing its chase.

"No!" Marie screamed back. "Not without you!"

The warrior queen cringed. Her true love had just given herself away.

Sure enough, the robot abruptly changed direction and headed back towards the portal. It detected unauthorized access.

"Go!" Gabi screamed frantically. "Go now! I'll be right behind you!" She lied, knowing she was too tired to outpace the guardian.

Marie squeaked when she saw the guardian warrior charging up the hill. She hit the blue button and the portal began to glow and hum with power. The humming could be felt more than heard and it made the small woman's skin crawl. Still, she took one more look at the rapidly approaching guardian and lunged for the portal, entering it just in time.

Unfortunately, Marie took too long, allowing the guardian to get too close. It couldn't stop itself in time and it crashed into the portal building, setting off a stupendous explosion. The explosion ripped the top off the hill and hit Gabi with tremendous force. The warrior queen flew backwards several body lengths, landing hard on the soft dirt. Thanks to her magic armor, she'd live, but she'd be very sore for a long time.

The guardian robot was destroyed along with the portal. Marie had escaped the world of Agrin but Gabi was still its prisoner, and would continue to be one for a long, long time.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 10 (of 11), Gabi mopes around wondering what happened to Marie. Did Marie die? Is she trapped in Limbo? Read on to find out! :)

Chapter 10

Gabi stirred after being unconscious for nearly an hour. Every muscle ached. Her ears rang and her head pounded. She moaned and her breath kicked up dust, causing her to cough. She was definitely having a bad day.

The aching woman slowly raised herself to her hands and knees and turned to look up at the portal. It was gone, and with it, her true love. Did Marie make it to Kispri? Hopefully, she'd find out tonight during her astral travels. For now, she had herself to worry about, so she stood up and went back to where the two women left their packs, near the stream.

After combining all the items she felt necessary for survival into her pack, she splashed some water on her dusty face and sighed. Washing her face wouldn't be good enough to satisfy her. What she needed was a good soak in the hot spring.

The spring wasn't that far but even a day and a half of marching seemed an impossible task for someone who'd lost so much. The love of her life was gone after far too short a time. The world, any world, could be so cruel, so unfair.

The normally strong queen mercifully allowed herself a moment of weakness, and she wept. She sobbed bitterly and screamed at the sky. "Mother Moon! Give me strength!" Suicide was never an option but she felt so lost and alone. She didn't want to do anything. In the end, it was only her strong sense of responsibility to her queendom that motivated her to start walking towards the hot spring.

* * *

When the alien sun retired for the night, Gabrielle found herself camping under the stars once again. She looked up at the sky and wondered which star was her Sister Sun. She wondered about a lot of things, and hoped Muriel and her queendom could do without her for awhile because she had other plans.

"Goodnight my Love," she murmured, just before falling asleep. "I'll find you ... wherever you are."

The lovesick queen shirked her duties, not even bothering to tell Muriel. Her wise old friend would understand, she thought. Love was more important than duty. So she spent the night in her astral form, searching for Marie.

She pictured her mate in her mind and willed herself to go to her, but nothing happened. In every other case, she could will herself to any familiar person or place she wanted. Why not now?

In her frustration, she ended up wandering, letting her mind send her astral body to the random places in her thoughts. It was understandable that she'd find her way back to Prizzaria and Muriel.

The old woman took one look at her astral queen and held out her arms. No words were said as sometimes only a hug would do.

Gabrielle wanted to cry. She felt the emotion but the tears wouldn't come. Her astral body didn't work that way. She had to be content with the comfort of her friend's embrace. They held each other for several moments until Muriel's legs began to tremble. The tired, old mystic had to separate from her friend and sit down.

"Come," the old woman said, patting the adjacent cushion on the couch. "Tell me all about it."

So the queen poured her heart out, telling everything, even her worst fears. She thought that the only thing that could prevent her astral body from finding someone would be the death of that someone. Could it be true? Was Marie dead?

"I don't know if she's dead," Muriel said carefully. "All I can do is promise you that I'll search for answers in those dusty old books of mine ... and I'll search for Marie. If she's anywhere on Kispri, I'll find her."

* * *

Over the next several days, Gabrielle spent her time soaking in the hot springs during the day and preparing for the upcoming queendom conference by night. There was still very little else for the queen to do back in Prizzaria but plan for the conference. She continued to delegate responsibility and make a few decisions until it was time.

The queendom conference was held once a cycle and lasted five full rotations, during which, all of the officers of the queendom gathered together with the queen to review the current personnel and procedures. If anything needed changing, they'd try to come to a consensus, and on those frequent occasions when they couldn't reach consensus, the queen would make a command decision. That made her attendance mandatory.

Normally, conferences were tedious affairs but everything ran smoothly enough. The upcoming conference presented a problem however, because of Queen Gabrielle's limited availability. She had to schedule early morning meetings and late afternoon meetings that ran into the night. That was the only way it would work because she had trouble using her astral form during the day back on Agrin. She couldn't sleep long after sunrise.

During the first couple days of the conference, everyone adjusted well enough to the odd schedule. The only thing they wondered about was why their queen would end their meetings so suddenly. She'd jump up, apologize and run off, leaving the current matter unfinished.

It was near the end of the fourth day and the conference had been going well except for one thing. It moved at a snail's pace. In what seemed like almost no time at all, Queen Gabrielle started feeling a gentle tug. Her physical body was stirring.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to disappoint you once again," she said to the assembled officers. "But I grow tired and must take leave."

"Again?!" Cedric wheezed. "I grow tired of your excuses to interrupt important business, and I grow tired of these early morning meetings."

"And I grow tired of your complaints!" Gabrielle snapped as she quickly stood up.

"Your Majesty!" Muriel shouted from across the room. The mystic had been standing by just in case and it was a good thing she did. She stared hard at her friend, conveying more with a look than the aging Cedric could say in an entire evening. The old woman offered sympathy but held firm that outbursts were not becoming of a queen.

The silence held everyone in an iron grip for several dozen heartbeats while Gabrielle returned her friend's intense stare. Then the frazzled queen looked down.

"I'm sorry for my outburst," said the queen. "But I really must retire to my bedchambers. Sometimes, even a queen has limits."

Gabrielle ran from the room and out of sight just in time to fade away back to Agrin, leaving Muriel to attend to damage control as the old woman so often needed to do.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the mystic said. "Queen Gabrielle has truly been tested these past several rotations. She gives a lot for her queendom and asks very little in return. I'm here to ask for her. Please allow her the dignity of a little time off to deal with her personal problems."

Cedric started to say something but the others at the table all turned to glare at him, effectively silencing the troublesome old man. The queen would get her much needed time off.

* * *

During her next visit to Prizzaria, Gabrielle met with Muriel for a different kind of meeting. The conference was forgotten for the moment. It was time to talk about Marie.

"Still no word?" the hopeful queen asked.

"Sorry, but no."

"I'm so worried. If she is out there somewhere, she could be in trouble. She doesn't even speak our language!"

Muriel reached out to touch her friend's shoulder and tried to soothe the distraught woman.

"Hey. You taught her a few words, and she knows my name and the name of the queendom. She can learn the rest. She's a smart young woman."

Gabrielle snorted. They kept having the same conversation but Marie was still nowhere to be found.

"What about your books? Have you found anything to explain why I can't find her with my magic?"

"No luck there either, but I did finally think of something."

The queen tried not to hope. Hope had gotten her nowhere so far but she couldn't help herself. She looked at her friend with pleading eyes, desperate for anything.

"She could have a talent."

"A talent?" Gabrielle's heart raced. "You mean like some kind of stealth magic?"

"Exactly," the mystic said.

"But none of her people had talents. How could she have one?"

"You changed her into a woman so I'd guess she'd have to be a woman of Kispri. If that's true, she'd have to have a talent."

It wasn't much. The queen still couldn't find her lost love, but it was something. It gave her hope that Marie was still alive.

So the conference was postponed a day while Gabrielle thought about Muriel's idea. Magic couldn't be used to locate someone with a stealth talent, but there were always other ways. They could post flyers and alert those with the translator magic talent to watch for a woman with short dark hair that speaks an odd language. The queen wouldn't give up searching for her true love, not for all the cocoa on Kispri.

* * *

Marie had no concept of time. She entered the portal and time ceased to have any meaning. There was a long, dark tunnel with a light at one end, a light that she couldn't seem to reach no matter how long she waited.

She passed the time counting heartbeats until she got to a thousand. The light still seemed no closer. When she tried to turn around to look behind her, she had a shock. She couldn't move. She couldn't do anything other than blink her eyes and think. It was the magic of the portal.

The portal she'd entered connected to another one on her destination world, and it was a very long distance between them. The trip would take several days. That's why she was paralyzed. She was actually in a limited form of suspended animation so she could make the trip with minimal discomfort. Her heart rate felt normal to her but it was actually slowed to less than one beat a minute. Counting a thousand heart beats took a long time but she still had a lot farther to go.

Luckily, the portal she'd entered only needed to start her journey. That was good because it was destroyed immediately after she entered. It barely had enough time to send her. The destination portal did the rest of the work, keeping her on course and waiting to receive her.

At the end of her journey, she opened her eyes and casually walked out of the second portal onto another world. She was greeted by a yellow-white sun and a single large moon in an area surrounded by dense forest. Could she be on Kispri?

The anxious woman immediately moved back a ways and stubbornly watched for Gabi. She had no idea that the portal back on Agrin was destroyed and refused to believe her mate wouldn't be coming.

* * *

Several days after the conference had ended, Gabrielle was tired of niggler meat, and the thought of eating one more root nut nauseated her. She had to leave her lovely hot spring and do something with her life.

Her bruises had faded and she felt well enough for a brisk pace so she traveled north, back to the only place she knew on Agrin. She had no money but she hoped to sell the magic book, or at least trade it in for another one. She needed to find a way home.

Every night back in Prizzaria, she asked about Marie and every night it was the same answer. Her true love hadn't been found. With her hope reserves nearly exhausted, she stumbled along in both physical and astral form, merely existing rather than living. The life was slowly draining out of her.

* * *

Mother Moon took pity on the poor young woman at the portal and sent heavy rains. She hadn't moved from the spot other than to sit down when she got too tired to remain standing. The rain snapped her out of her funk and got her to recognize both her thirst and fatigue. She satisfied both, taking shelter in a small intact building that stood near the portal.

The next morning, the rains had passed and she went back out to the portal -- still no Gabi. She checked the instrument panel, having studied the book along with her mate, and found a curious result when she tried to set Agrin as a destination. It wouldn't work. The view screen said the world was inaccessible and refused to open a connection. She was devastated.

She spent the next several weeks taking shelter in the ruins and slowly working out how to live off the land. She also explored the ruins around the portal and came across something interesting in one of the many underground sections. If it was what she hoped it was, she might just get somewhere on the new world.

* * *

Gabrielle was surprised when she found herself walking past a farm. She'd been lost in thought, dwelling on her sorrow, and hadn't noticed she was close to Roggzer once again. With a renewed sense of urgency, she increased her pace and headed for the book shop.

Occupying herself with magic was a welcome distraction. She made it to the book shop several hours before sunset and began talking to the owner. She couldn't read so she'd need his help deciphering the cryptic symbols. At least she knew the language well enough to talk to him.

The intensity of the tall woman disturbed the old man who ran the shop, and he was about to tell her to leave his shop. Then he looked deeply into her eyes and saw the sorrow in them. He remembered her and her companion, and he noticed her companion's conspicuous absence. He figured the sorrow had something to do with that absence, so he let her stay. He even offered to help. It went against his better business judgment, but he softened and gave her all the help he could.

In the end, they could only find one page in a thick book that had any useful information. The page contained a large scale map with several places of magic on it. Gabi couldn't very well carry the whole book so the old man did the unthinkable. He carefully cut the plastic page out and gave it to her, free of charge. He even bought the other book back from her at full price. Something told him she needed the money more than he did.

"Now go," he said. "Please leave and heal the sorrow in your heart. It's painful just looking at you."

Gabi thanked the man and graced him with a friendly smile before hurrying out to check on the market. She'd lost track of the days and had no idea when the next weekly market would take place.

* * *

Marie was most pleased with herself. She never considered herself to be a mage but here she was, flying in a magic craft at high speed over the forest. It was an exhilarating experience.

The craft had been built by her ancestors who'd come through the portal. It had simple controls and was well constructed with a very reliable power source. She figured everything out in short order and used it to search for Prizzaria. That was one odd name Gabi taught her that she'd never forget.

The first village she came across was little help. She didn't speak the language so all she could do was speak the name of her destination and point in various directions. Every person she saw seemed a little surprised to see a woman on a flying craft, but they weren't afraid of magic so they humored her. Unfortunately, they'd never heard of Gabrielle's queendom so they shrugged and went back to whatever they were doing.

The determined woman followed a road out of the village and flew over several more villages, each with the same result. Disappointed, she continued on until she came to the outskirts of a small town. Surely someone in town would know of Prizzaria.

"Hello," she said to a tall old man using Gabi's language. It was one of a few words she knew.

The man gave her a blank look. He did so because he didn't speak the language of Prizzaria. That was because Marie was actually several hundred leagues from Gabrielle's queendom. The portal could target a world but not any random place on that world. One portal could only connect to another, and that second portal was a long way from Prizzaria.

The young brunette shrugged but she didn't give up. She mentioned the name of the queendom and the man's eyes widened a little. He'd actually heard of it and was surprised to see someone so far from home, naturally assuming the woman before him was trying to get home. When she pointed in various directions, he deduced what she wanted and pointed back over her left shoulder. She gave him a broad smile, spoke another unrecognizable word and was soon a small speck on the horizon in the direction he indicated.

Marie pushed her speed to the limit, and at that rate, it would take all of the remaining power the little craft had left to barely reach the border lands of Prizzaria. In less than twelve hours, the small brunette would be making a very rough landing within Gabrielle's queendom.

* * *

Over the next several days, Gabrielle scoured all four of the large markets in Roggzer, looking for cocoa. She didn't find any but at least she was able to buy something more nutritional. There were many fresh fruits and vegetables available and they were very inexpensive. At the rate she was going, her money would last her several weeks as long as she kept going back into the wilderness to fish and camp every night. She could afford a couple nights in an inn but food was more important. She couldn't bring herself to indulge for even one night no matter how much the soft warm beds called to her.

Finally, after more than four weeks, Gabrielle returned to her queendom in astral form and discovered that the universe wasn't as cold and cruel as she accused it of being.

"Welcome, my Queen," Muriel said. "I've got a surprise for you."

"What ... are you going to tease me with hot cocoa again? You know I can't even smell it. Why do you torture me so?"

"No, no," her old friend laughed. "We found Marie ... or rather, she found us."

"What?!" Gabrielle shrieked.

Muriel hushed the excited woman and told her that Marie was in the royal bedchambers. She was pretty badly injured when they first found her that morning and she was fully healed only moments ago. They used the royal translator to confirm her identity and then pampered her like a princess. That was all the old mystic could get out before the queen rushed to reunite with her true love.

Marie faced away from the closed door when Gabrielle phased through it. She was talking to Ribbles, her toy rabbit that sat on Gabrielle's bed. She refused to part with it and took it from her pack those many weeks ago before entering the portal. She'd stuffed it under her blouse and tucked in the blouse to keep it safe. Ribbles and her dagger were the only possessions she had left other than the clothes she wore.

"I don't understand anything, Ribbles," said the frustrated brunette. "Everything is royal this or royal that, and they tell me that Gabrielle rules as their queen. How can that be? Did I really reach the right world? Are they really talking about my Gabi? Will I ever see her again?"

Gabi patiently listened, happy just to hear the woman's voice. Finally though, she felt compelled to say something.

"I came in to check on you but I can go if you'd rather be alone with Ribbles," she said with a straight face.

Marie quickly turned and squealed.

"Gabi! Is it really you? How on Agrin did you get here? Are you really a queen? What's going on?"

The tall woman slowly moved closer as her lover bombarded her with questions. When she got within range, she solidified her astral body and just answered with a hug, causing Marie to break down and cry.

The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 11, the concluding chapter, Marie struggles with separation anxiety and Gabi tries to find some measure of closure.

Chapter 11

"I thought I'd never see you again," the tearful brunette said. "How is this possible?"

"My body is back on Agrin. This," Gabi said, pointing to herself, "is like a duplicate. I've been visiting Prizzaria ever since I got to Agrin, but I can only visit when my body is sleeping."

"Why didn't you say anything?!"

"It had never happened before I got to your world. At first, I thought it was just a dream, and I didn't have the vocabulary to even try to explain it to you."

"You could've said something later."

"I was preoccupied ...," Gabi blushed. "I was focused on finding a way home ... and distracted by a certain someone's cute behind."

It was Marie's turn to blush but she covered it nicely by kissing her mate gently on the lips.

"You never told me you were royalty either, your Highness," Marie said, breaking the kiss with an impish grin.

"You never asked ... and please stop with the titles."

"I don't know," Marie said, continuing to grin. "I'm not sure you should be consorting with a peasant like me."

Gabi's eyes narrowed. "I consort with whomever I please." With that, she grabbed her true love and proceeded to kiss the small woman silly.

* * *

The sex was intense for Marie, but Gabi couldn't feel anything in her astral body. The frustrated queen had be content with pleasuring herself in the morning after she woke up on Agrin, something she did just as frequently as she pleasured her mate.

Pleasuring herself wasn't nearly as good as sharing herself with her true love, but the universe had a way of compensating. Late one night, after Marie fell asleep, Gabi watched over her and thought back to something Muriel had told her. Could it be that everyone had astral bodies?

The curious queen walked over and moved her phased out hand over her lover's body. When her hand met Marie's, something interesting happened. She felt it catch on something and pulled back. As she did so, a ghostly arm rose up. She continued to pull and eventually got a completely formed astral body that looked identical to Marie down to the smallest detail, including the mole on the small woman's upper thigh.

Gabrielle quickly made a mental note to see about helping Marie fashion astral clothes as soon as possible. Then she completely phased out and tried to use her mind to speak to the ghostly duplicate of her love -- and it worked. Marie's astral eyes blinked and looked confused for a moment before she thought back a reply.

"Gabi?"

"Yes, Marie. Welcome to the astral plane."

With that, Gabrielle was too excited to hold back. She pulled her mate up into the sky and beyond, showing off the wonders of space. They looked below and saw clouds swirling over the oceans and continents that spread across the surface of Kispri. They flew past Mother Moon and Sister Sun out to see other planets and moons, and Gabi even pulled them both back to Agrin and pointed out her sleeping body.

Marie's eyes went wide, but not with fear. She was in awe.

The two astral women rose again and somewhere between their two worlds, Gabi began to brightly glow. She stopped and pulled Marie to her. Their astral bodies overlapped and fused together into one, and in that moment, they both found bliss. They'd discovered the joy of astral sex.

* * *

Months passed with many diversions to keep the two lovers busy and happy. Both had their lessons. Gabrielle learned to read the written language of Agrin while Marie learned to speak the queen's language. The small woman also worked on battle training. She was determined to be able to defend herself with all manner of weapon, including a new longsword crafted especially for her.

Though it took getting used to, Marie grew her hair out, much to Gabi's pleasure. The small brunette had thick, beautiful hair that fell in gentle waves and the queen's handmaiden's took great pleasure in styling it.

Beth and Heloise got along every bit as well with Marie as they did with their beloved queen. As far as they were concerned, the small woman was a princess and they treated her accordingly.

The queendom thrived for those many months, but there were still a couple unresolved issues, one of which was Farrott. As long as he was out there, Gabi couldn't rest. She'd already figured out that she couldn't call up her gender magic while in astral form, so she couldn't change his gender if she found him. Finding him was a problem in itself though. She had never actually met him so she couldn't use her astral magic to seek him out.

The issue of Farrott had annoyed the queen for a long time but it was elevated to a serious problem one morning after breakfast. The queen was back on Agrin and Muriel and Marie had their usual morning chat. Unfortunately, the old woman let slip how Gabrielle came to be on Agrin. She mentioned Farrott's magic power and that was all it took.

Marie became obsessed with finding the ugly little man. She planned to harass him into sending her back to her true love on Agrin. It didn't occur to her that her plan might be dangerous. Her only thoughts were being with Gabi.

The queen was afraid of Marie finding out. She'd always been vague about how she got to Agrin, saying only that it was magic. Now one of her fears came to life. Her mate left by midday to go after Farrott, escaping through the secret passage that she herself had used so many times before. The small woman was gone and untraceable with her strange stealth talent that as yet, no one had been able to figure out.

When Gabrielle arrived back in Prizzaria later that day, she fretted and paced the hall outside her bedchambers. All she could do was wait and hope for the best.

* * *

Marie sat near the top of a large oak tree, lost in thought. When Muriel told her about the man who'd sent her Gabi to Agrin, she had mixed feelings. Gratitude wrestled with resentment while love battled hate. She was sure the man was a maggot but without him, she would've never met Gabi and known such happiness.

She vowed not to kill him no matter what, even though he probably deserved death for all the lives he'd disrupted. She wasn't a vigilante. No, she just wanted to get him to do to her what he did to Gabi. She'd rough him up and injure him just short of death if need be, but she'd get him to send her back to her home world to be with her true love.

It had taken several days and just as many bribes to track down her target. She found him holed up in a little farm house just outside Prizzaria. It didn't make sense to her that someone with his power would be living in a small house in the middle of nowhere but she shrugged it off. The only thing she knew with certainty was that he didn't come by the house legally. She just hoped that the true occupants were currently alive and well on Agrin.

The only reason she didn't go barging in right away was because the Farrott had a partner, someone who appeared to be a mercenary. That second man was large and not to be trifled with. Unless the large man left, she'd have a fight on her hands.

After two days of camping out in the tree tops, Marie grew impatient. The mercenary showed no signs of leaving so she began making battle plans. Her training had been thorough and she made excellent progress thanks to her background in the militia, but she wasn't certain of victory. She could very well die and she accepted it. As long as there was a chance to be with her mate, she had to try.

One thing that Gabi taught her still bothered her. The tall, strong woman insisted that it was fair for a smaller opponent to do anything possible to try to win. Kicking men in the crotch, throwing sand in their eyes and using magic were all valid tactics, but to Marie, it didn't seem honorable. She lost her manhood and lost her strength, but she wouldn't give up on her sense of honor no matter what the odds. She'd give it her all and take the consequences. Nothing less would do.

The small brunette climbed down from her tree and made her way to the farm house well after sunset. At least using the cover of darkness still held honor in her eyes. Fights happened in the dark and she needed some advantage. She was a smaller target and hoped she'd be harder to hit in the dark.

As soon as she saw the mercenary go outside to relieve himself, she charged and used her best battle cry to try to rattle him. It didn't help.

The seasoned combat veteran didn't go anywhere without his heavy longsword. The tall man had his weapon out and blocked Marie's initial strike with ease. He pushed her back and immediately thrust with all his strength, hoping to end the fight quickly.

Having a full bladder didn't exactly slow him down, but it made him quicker to anger and made him sloppy. The small woman got lucky. She jumped up and over the man's sword and came down swinging, connecting with the edge of his sword hand. It wasn't enough to break his grip but the blood would make the handle a little slippery and harder to hold.

The mercenary howled in pain and anger, finally attracting his partner. Farrott threw open the door, letting out enough light to see the two combatants going at it.

"Kick her ass, Gavin!" the little maggot shouted. "But try not to kill her. Perhaps we can have a little fun with her later."

Marie had learned enough of the language to know what the pig was suggesting and she had to bite down a retort. She had to save everything she had for the fight.

"Who in the Seven Hacks is she?" growled Gavin, stepping back and giving Marie a much needed rest.

"She's probably someone out for revenge, but who cares. She's a real looker. That's all I care about."

The two sexist pigs shared a laugh and the mercenary stepped forward to finish what his opponent had started.

She didn't have enough strength to completely block the powerful strikes, so instead she redirected them with her dagger. She was very glad she'd learned the two weapon fighting technique. If not for that, she might already be dead or worse, another notch in their bedposts.

As the fight wore on, fatigue began to slow the small woman. She'd been able to hold her own but she didn't have the stamina to keep it up. Luckily, the mercenary got overconfident and gave her an opening.

The large man tried a strong but slow horizontal backward slash and Marie blocked it sharply down into the ground with both weapons. Then she kicked the back of his knee with the toe of her boot as hard as she could. If she'd still been a man, the mercenary would've crumpled to the ground, but as it was, he only stumbled backwards and managed to keep his footing. She immediately pressed the attack though and kept the man off balance and quickly backing away out of the light of the open front door.

"Idiot!" Farrott yelled after him. "Use your magic and be done with it. We can still have fun with her corpse."

Marie didn't like the sound of that but she kept after Gavin. All he could do was feebly block her strikes with his sword as he continued to stumble backward. Then she noticed a blue glow and inwardly cringed.

From the light of the glow, she could see a grim smile on the man's face as he called forth his magic. Little sparks and tiny lightning bolts danced around his body and his sword. Occasionally, a larger spark would dance across to her sword, but so far she felt no ill effects so she kept attacking.

After several more of her blows, the magic power hit its peak and a large lightning bolt flew from his chest. Both fighters staggered to a stop and watched as the jagged bolt immediately branched out and surrounded her. She thought she was as good as dead but it never got closer then an arm length away. Instead, it danced around her as it had him, and within only a few heartbeats, it shot back in the direction it had come. It struck the man and burnt a large hole in his chest. He fell to the ground, dead.

"Shit!" Farrott shrieked behind her. "You little bitch! You killed him!"

Marie was stunned for a moment, too stunned to speak, but not too stunned to act. She turned and silently marched towards the little maggot. Her eyes burned from her adrenaline rush and she hoped he was quick about sending her away, because if he wasn't, she'd very likely gut him where he stood.

Farrott backed away, muttering to himself. He had to force himself to remain calm so he could use his power. Lucky for him, the crazed woman hadn't increased her pace. With a final deep breath, he managed to call forth his magic and released it at the woman.

Marie closed her eyes and smiled. She wouldn't get to gut the maggot but she'd get something much better. She felt the magic hit her and gasped at the cold, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes just in time to see a glowing ball of energy fly back at Farrott. It hit the surprised man and he began to shrink away, caught by his own magic. He just sent himself to Agrin!

'What is going on?' the confused woman said to herself. It didn't quite sink in yet but she'd just witnessed her own power taking effect. She could reflect any magic back to its source. It was the ultimate defense against magic. No one could touch her except by ordinary means.

Marie got back to the castle late the next day and told Muriel all about her adventure. She managed to get a pretty good idea of what her power was too. It was no wonder no one could figure it out with magic. Any magic they used on her wouldn't work.

The tired brunette had just enough energy to take a bath with the help of the handmaidens. Then she crawled into her beloved's bed and fell asleep for a very long time.

* * *

Gabrielle arrived that night to check for an update and was greatly surprised when Muriel relayed the information about Marie's little adventure. The queen had to suppress a dark laugh too. It was only fitting that the little man got hit with his own magic.

The astral queen spent some time catching up on the affairs of state before she made her way back to her bedchambers. Once there, she found her mate still fast asleep in their bed but she couldn't resist pulling out Marie's astral body. They were long overdue for a little fun and stress relief.

The two astral women floated high above Prizzaria and merged into oneness as they had so many times before. The experience never got old, never felt forced. Sharing one's soul with another could only be beautiful. Even if they never met again on the physical plane, they'd always have their astral trysts to keep them happy.

They separated after a time and snuggled together, just reveling in each others' presence until it was time for each to go back to their bodies. However, just before they did so, Gabrielle had an inspired thought and whispered it along with a few sweet nothings in Marie's cute little astral ear.

* * *

After nearly three weeks, the determined queen caught up with her quarry in a small town to the northeast of Roggzer, all thanks to Marie's astral tracking. Since the small woman had met Farrott once before, she was able to find him and lead her mate to his location.

"Hello little man," smirked Gabrielle as she stepped out from the early morning shadows.

"You!" Farrott's eyes went wide with fright. "Stay away from me," he whined, backing away. "If you change me I won't send you home."

"If I change you," she snarled, "you won't be able to send me home. My talent will change your magic talent as well as your gender. You'll most likely gain a minor power related to homemaking and end up making some man a wonderful wife."

"Okay! Okay! You win! I'll send you back. Just don't change me. Please!"

The frightened man twitched and muttered to himself. It wasn't clear if he could send someone back. His power had only sent his victims from his home world to this one. Would it be possible to reverse the direction? He desperately hoped so he could because his manhood depended on it.

The angry queen stopped to consider his offer and glared at him, imagining she could burn a hole through his head with her eyes. That would be a useful talent, though not likely to happen, and not likely to solve her problem. If she really wanted him dead, she could cleave him in two with her sword, but that wouldn't get her home either. She really wanted to get home so she momentarily lost herself in her fantasies and kept them to herself.

The man's obvious discomfort amused Gabrielle almost as much as her mental diversion, but after several minutes of waiting, her patience began to wear thin. Something was wrong.

"Well?" she finally asked.

"I'm trying! You're making me too nervous. Stop staring at me!"

Gabrielle looked to the sky. "Mother Moon! Give me strength!" Then she had a horrible thought. If he did send her back, that would leave him to dominate the magic-free inhabitants. Could she allow that to happen? Could she live with herself if she did?

"Hey," she suddenly said. "You know what? Never mind. Welcome to my world." Then she laughed at her play on words and called forth her magic.

* * * The End * * *