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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Foreword

Emerald Princess is set in a world with humans who have evolved unique characteristics that make for superhuman abilities through 'Emergence.' The concept was partially inspired by many such works from comics and other fandoms. While published initially as a fan fiction piece in another universe, I have worked to edit it into its own unique universe. I have made sure to edit out anything that might be considered the copyright of other parties.

This work is meant for adults; the main protagonists are all eighteen or older. It contains Adult Baby Diaper Lover (ABDL) themes. If diapers, bottles, and babying of regressed adults are not your cup of tea, you may wish to give this a pass. (However, I do believe this particular work can be read even if those aren't normally your thing as it is much more than your typical such tale) If those items don't offend you, I hope you will enjoy this tale!

Thank you to my readers who have commented and encouraged me throughout my postings online! Thank you to anyone who purchases my novels and/or takes the time to read them! A special thank you to a reader, Chloe, who continually badgered me to finish this tale after I left it unfinished for several years!

The full edited version of Emerald Princess is available now on Kindle here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a new chapter about every other day until the full work is posted. (62 Chapters and Epilogue)

Chapter 1: Jealous

I STARED AT the road as Mom drove me to school. The town where I grew up was in a category of its own reality as one of the most unique towns in the world. Just for me to come to school, we had to drive through a checkpoint with a guard shack manned by an MP! As usual, though, my mom was waived like normal without stopping. The only time they really checked vehicles like a military base was when there was some sort of alert.

The town of Los Alamos was on the backside of a beautiful mountain that was a part of the Rocky Mountains. I loved hiking and fishing the mountain streams with my dad on the occasional weekend when he wasn’t bogged down in his research projects.

I felt a prod in my side and looked over at my baby sister in her rear-facing car seat. She poked me with the play hairbrush she used on her doll. “Why’d you poke me?” I asked Lily.

“Play?”

I sighed, “If I get a chance, I will later, Lily. I have a lot of assignments due soon…”

Lily looked at me with her pretty green eyes, “Please?”

I sighed again, “We’ll see Lily Bear.” With that, I tickled her a little to make her smile.

“Stop dat!” She giggled.

I smiled at her as Mom pulled up to the loading zone at the school. Lily was probably the prettiest baby sister that I knew! She was a total oops child for my mom a bit over two years ago. My parents apparently forgot where babies came from one week while I was out of town at a music camp. As I opened the door of the Toyota Land Cruiser and swung out, Mom reminded me, “Don’t forget that you have Tae Kwon Do tonight,” through the window that she had rolled down.

“Like I could forget?!?” I asked with a bit of incredulity. I was testing for my second-degree black belt tonight! I just hoped I could manage to pass this test. If I could get this belt, I would be able to really think about teaching in my own studio after college. After this belt, though, I would no longer be able to just test at home; I would be flying to major cities or maybe even Korea! For something I had been practically forced to do at the start, I had really grown a love of it!

I walked down the hallway to my locker to drop off some things. I passed my reflection in the window of a dark classroom and shook my head. I was one of the nerdiest of the nerdy kids to my peers, and in Los Alamos, that was saying something! I was a decent height, five foot eleven, but was a total stick. It didn’t matter how much I ate - it took tons of fat just to get me to 105 pounds. That was with my clothes and shoes on! My brown hair was also really long - three inches past my shoulders in a neat ponytail. As far as anyone else was concerned, I was just riding the fad, but there was a deeper reason for it that I wasn’t about to share with anyone.

“Nick!” I heard behind me.

“Hey Jacob,” I said as I turned to one of my few real friends’ voices.

“Did you get the math homework done?!?” He was in a panic. I groaned, like always; he hadn’t done anything but play games last night. I spent the next few minutes walking to our first-period band class, being cajoled into helping him finish - i.e., copying my homework.

“Please, Nick!” He pleaded.

“Jacob, you’re not asking to copy Nick’s homework again, are you?” Hannah asked with disdain.

“Umm… maybe?” Jacob said, “Unless you’ll help me out?” He asked and batted his eyelashes.

We both laughed. Jacob, Hannah, and I were like the three musketeers. Hannah and I had been friends for a long time, and she was one of the few people I felt I could trust with anything. She also happened to be Lily’s go-to babysitter if my parents and I weren’t available. I had a crush on her that confused me regularly since I really just thought of her as a best friend.

I looked at my cell phone for the time and figured we had about ten minutes to save Jacob’s rear again. It’s not that he was stupid… he was probably as bright as I was, but he was lazy when it came to homework. Amazingly he managed to keep good grades up - of course, his parents probably would have killed him otherwise. That’s the thing with having two parents with PhDs; slacking isn’t even a remote option. I was fortunate that my parents only had one Ph.D. between them… It didn’t matter, though, because it might as well have been two since the only reason Mom didn’t have hers in Chemistry was that she found it too hard to take care of me and work on her doctorate. Dad was considered very useful at the lab due to his Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering and his Doctorate in Physics. Their graduate degrees both came from MIT, and their undergrads were at rival Ivy League schools.

Needless to say, my parents were brilliant! In any other town, their resumes would shine like a star, but they were practically a dime a dozen in Los Alamos. The number of well-educated parents in the community was absurd!

As the first bell rang, I pulled my flute case from my backpack and went to sit in my first chair spot that I had fought for so hard. Playing flute as a guy is never a task that will prevent people from giving you grief. Fortunately, I was one of three guys in the flute section, so I wasn’t alone, but still… I quickly figured out that the way to shut up most of the chatter in junior high was by being better than everyone else. Well, that and the Tae Kwon Do lessons that they figured out I took by then. My Sensei trained me never to be the aggressor from when my parents had me start in second grade. That didn’t stop me from protecting myself when attacked, though. It sadly took until seventh grade before the last bully figured out the folly of attacking me.

“Morning,” the band director said as he sipped a cup of coffee.

“Morning, Mr. Muñez,” I responded politely. We both shared the opinion that there was no ‘good’ in mornings and had our private joke with this greeting.

Before too long, rehearsal began, and I once again had to hide the guilty pleasure that we were playing music from Frozen for our Christmas Concert in three weeks. But, of course, it might have been just that we were playing music that wasn’t traditional Christmas music too! That had to be played that day, too, unfortunately. It didn’t matter what a composer did with Jingle Bells; it still got old!

At lunch, I sat with Hannah, Jacob, and a couple other friends. “So your big test is tonight, huh?” Hannah asked.

I blushed but nodded, “I hope I don’t fail it.”

She gave me a hard stare, “Of course, you won’t fail it. Didn’t you like just win those competitions this year?”

I shrugged, “This isn’t a competition, and even if it was, there would be just as good of a chance of things going wrong.”

She kicked me under the table, “Come on, positive attitude!”

I smiled at her, “Okay, if you’ll quit beating me up, I’ll think positively.” That led to her kicking me again for spite.

“I hear it’s supposed to snow tonight?” Jacob asked.

“Yeah, but don’t you go jinxing it!” I said with a warning. Truth be told, it would take a fair amount of snow for school to be canceled. Living in the mountains, you just had to learn to deal with it much of the time. It’s why families like mine that lived on the outskirts of town had to have a four-wheel drive vehicle.

Hannah gave him the glare too.

“Think the ski resort will open this year?” I asked thoughtfully.

“Even if it doesn’t, we could always hit Sandia or go up to Wolf Creek over Christmas Break,” Hannah suggested. “My parents have offered to take us up to either.”

“That would be sweet!” I said with a smile. “I’m hoping my parents will get me a new board for Christmas.”

We spent the remainder of our lunchtime talking before having to go our separate ways to classes. I managed to get through the end of the day, and my Calculus test, without too much trouble. After the bell, I fought my way through the hallways full of students as quickly as possible and found my mom was waiting for me in our car. I climbed into the back out of habit to sit next to Lily.

“You know you’d have to do a lot less driving if you’d let me get a car,” I suggested to her.

“Your father and I want to wait until after Christmas Break,” she reiterated. I had just turned 18 the week before, but for whatever reason, my parents still didn’t want me driving by myself yet. It was like she could see my whining getting ready to increase, “Besides, you haven’t gotten a job to pay for it either…?”

I sighed.

“Just be patient, sweetie,” she said.

I looked to my left and saw my baby sister sleeping quietly in her car seat. “How did you get the princess to sleep?” I asked quietly.

Mom shook her head; “She had a playdate today with Becky’s daughter Zoe. They didn’t stop running from the time I dropped you off at school until I packed her up twenty minutes ago.”

“Whatever works, huh?” I smiled. I looked over at her red hair that mom had put into pigtails this morning. One of the rubber bands was starting to slide off, so I gently fixed it.

Mom drove us home to our house outside the city limits. Los Alamos is a weird town because it’s technically all government property. That means you had to move outside of town and commute if you wanted to own your own house. I didn’t mind because it meant our house backed right up to the forest. Well, sort of… Due to past forest fires, my family decided it was for the best when we moved here to clear the land immediately around the house. No sense in making it easy for the house to burn down when someone couldn’t figure out how to put out a campfire!

Our house had two stories and a full basement containing a workout room, playroom, and home theater. As I grew older, the playroom became more of a hangout room for my friends and me. The playroom was back mostly in use now, though with Lily, and had dolls and other baby toys scattered everywhere in the room. Once Mom parked, I threw my backpack on my shoulders and went to Lily’s side of the car. I opened the door, quietly unbuckled her highness, and then picked her up gently. Mom gave me an appreciative smile. I had to appreciate that she only weighed 25 pounds at this point. She was tiny for her age of two-and-a-half.

“Is she wet?” Mom asked quietly.

I felt her diaper under her tights and nodded as we walked into the house. “Here,” she motioned, “hand her to me, and I’ll change her before I put her down to finish this miracle nap.”

I smiled at her, “I’ll do it, Mom.”

“How did I get lucky enough to have a son that doesn’t mind changing his sister’s diapers?” She smiled at me.

“I don’t know,” I told her with a smile and walked upstairs past my bedroom door and to Lily’s room. My parents had switched her crib rails out last month for her toddler bed version of the bed but had kept Lily’s changing table in there. I gently sat her down on it and took care of the wet diaper. Truth be told, I loved taking care of my sister! She was the most precious person in the universe to me. I managed to get her tights pulled back up and lay her down in her bed without her stirring a bit. The pacifier in her mouth never once looked like it was in danger of falling out, either!

I crept out of her room and went down the hall to mine. I sat down at the desk to start doing my homework. I only had about thirty minutes until Mom would call me down for dinner, and then I would need to change for my testing. But I figured it was just enough time to start typing the ridiculous essay I had to write for English. My teacher wanted three pages analyzing Dante’s satirical use of people in the Inferno. It’s not that there weren’t plenty of people and characters to use; it was that all three of those pages would have to be perfect for her to be happy. I sighed and began typing. I managed to get through the first page when I was invaded.

“Can I help?” Lily asked me as she climbed into my lap with her favorite doll.

I smiled at her, “I wish you could!”

“Play with me?” She asked with a smile.

“Hmm… I kind of have to get this done,” I told Lily while squeezing her in a hug.

She frowned. “Please?”

I looked at the clock. Mom was going to call us down for dinner any minute. I was just about to give in to her sweet eyes when Mom came in. “Dinner’s ready, you two.”

I looked at Lily, “Maybe tomorrow night?” I suggested gently.

She looked like she was going to go into crying tantrum mode, so I started tickling her. She instantly started laughing as my fingers danced around her mercilessly for a moment. “Stop…” she cried, and I stood up with her still in my arms.

“Let’s go eat,” I told her and carried her downstairs. At the table, I set her in her highchair.

Dad came in the door right as I finished buckling Lily in. He kissed Lily and mom, said “Hi,” to me, and went to wash up. Then, we sat down to mom’s roast and potatoes she had put in the crockpot that morning. She looked up at the clock as I finished eating, “Nicholas, go get ready,” she told me.

“Okay,” I said with the butterflies flying in my stomach. It took me less than ten minutes to get dressed in my gi, and I ensured I looked ready for my testing. Then, I walked out of my room to see Mom changing Lily again. She usually had a messy diaper right after dinner, and it seemed like this was the case tonight, too, as I could smell it from the doorway. She had her bottle in her hand while she was being changed.
“I’m ready,” I said with a smile.

“So is Lily, huh?” Mom said and gave her a kiss. I loved my sister, but I have to say she was fortunate to always have so much attention from us. ‘I wish I received half that attention!’ I smiled.

My parents and I loaded up the Land Cruiser and headed to the dojo where I studied. Mom hugged me, Dad said, “Good luck,” and I went to my place at the front of the middle line. Other students trickled in, and before I knew it, our Sensei had us warming up and running through some simple forms as a group.

A few other parents were there for the younger children that night. A couple of my friends were also there to take their own belt tests. “Tonight, we have twelve students testing for their next belt,” Sensei announced as he had us gathered around the outside edges of the room. “We will go in order of lower belts to higher belts.” He explained the process, and I watched the other eleven students test through their forms, breaking boards, and sparring.

It seemed like no time at all before I was called up. “Nicholas Hammerstein, please step forward.” He smiled at me.

I walked to the center of the room and stood at the ready.

“Nicholas is testing for the highest belt he can earn here. After this belt, he will have to test elsewhere with a grandmaster present. Good luck,” he told me.

“Thank you, Sensei,” I said politely, bowing.

He asked me to do my forms, and I hoped I did a credible job for him and the visiting masters. I was less worried about this part than the breaking test. I sized up the boards I was to break first with a punch and was relieved to see all of them broken after I tried. Next, he had me perform a kick break which I successfully nailed! I was feeling confident as the sparring portion came up.

“Nicholas, you will spar against Randy,” he told me. He motioned to a student who had just successfully tested for his first-level black belt the previous month.

I watched him like a hawk and would have been declared the victor by points if this were a tournament. At that point, Sensei concluded the match. I stood at attention before him as he discussed my test with the guests.

“Nicholas, you have performed well on your test, and it is my great honor to bestow your second-degree black belt to you.” He handed me my new belt, and I bowed to him.

“Thank you, Sensei,” I said.

Suddenly I was attacked from below by a pink bundle. Sensei laughed at me, “You are going to need a higher degree belt to deal with that one!”

I held Lily back to the car and put her in her car seat. “You so cool!” She told me with a smile.

“Thank you, Lily,” I told her and reached over to hand her doll to her.

That night we found a place to get ice cream before heading home. We talked about my confidence as I progressed through the testing. Dad mentioned he thought I might even have a chance of sparring against Mergents, but I shook my head. I knew how good they were from some of the tournaments that ran side-by-side with mine sometimes! They usually had too much speed and faster reflexes, even if they didn’t have the strength to throw a car a block away!

We eventually finished our ice cream, and I fell asleep as soon as we got back into the car. It had been a long day!

MOM WOKE ME up at home, and I discovered the snow had indeed started to fall! “Snow!!!” Lily said excitedly, waking back up.

‘Uh-oh,’ I thought, ‘I bet she’s going to be a hyper handful for the rest of the night. I looked at my phone and groaned when I realized how late it was. ‘10 pm already?!?’

I went upstairs, showered, and put on my pajamas before trying to finish some of my homework. The essay could wait until tomorrow night, but the math homework wouldn’t. So I scrambled to do the six calculus problems but was still struggling on the final one when my dad came in. “It’s time for bed, Nicholas,” he said.

I sighed, “I have to get this last problem done first, Dad; I just can’t figure out where I’m going wrong.” I hoped that would get his attention, and maybe he would help.

He gave me a stare that told me he knew exactly what I was up to, but he looked at the clock next to my desk and said, “What is it?”

Dad looked at it for five minutes and scratched his head too. “Okay… If this number was different, this would work out to a nice even number, but the way it’s written… It has to be a mistake,” he said to me.

“How would you solve it, though, if it’s right?” I asked.

I watched as he found another piece of paper and started solving the equation using the much higher math knowledge he’d gained from his physics doctorate. “Well, this is the solution as written, but you can’t fully solve it because of this,” he pointed to errors. “Why don’t you…?” He walked me through what he had done to get to that point, and I copied it down to talk to the teacher the next day. I understood how he did it, but like him, I was pretty sure there was an error. This way, when I spoke to the teacher, I would have both an answer and a question on whether the problem was wrong!

“Okay, time for bed now!” he said.

“Thank you, Dad,” I said as I hugged him, “I don’t know what I’d do if you didn’t know math!”

He laughed, “You’d be fine. My parents used to look at my calculus homework and then walk away as quickly as they could!”

I decided to go to the bathroom one last time and watched Mom put Lily down in her bed. As much as she was growing up, she still wanted to be held in the rocking chair and told a bedtime story each night with her bottle. I figured one of these days, Mom would have to be mean and finally take away her bottles, pacifiers, and potty train her, but she seemed in no hurry to do so.

She turned and saw me walking back to my room, “You should have been in bed a half hour ago,” she said with a look.

“Sorry, Dad was helping me with homework. Besides, why should I go to bed before my baby sister?” I asked with a smirk.

“She takes naps,” Mom said with a smirk. Then, she gave me a hug, “Good night, Nicholas.”

“Night, Mom,” I told her and crawled into bed.

My last thoughts before going to sleep were, ‘I did it! I’m a second-degree black belt!’ Then, ‘I’m so jealous of Lily. I wish I could have a bedtime story and a bottle!’

SOMETIME LATER, IN the middle of the night, I woke up soaked with sweat and chilled. I pulled a blanket that had fallen on the ground and wrapped myself tighter, but I couldn’t stop shivering. I must have been audibly whimpering because my door opened, and Mom came in. “Are you okay?”

I shook my head, “I’m cold and shi-hi-vvv-vv-ering.”

She took one look at me and turned the lights on. I felt her hand on my forehead. “You’re burning up,” she said with concern. I watched her leave the room, and she returned with a thermometer and a washcloth. She stuck the thermometer in my mouth and put the washcloth on my head.

“This can’t be right…” she said. “Levi!!!” She shouted.

Dad came sleepily into my room. “What’s wrong?”

“He’s burning up… you don’t think…?”

This wasn’t making much sense to me as I was just not feeling it. All I could focus on was how much nicer it would be if Mom could just pick me up and hold me. Maybe I’d be warm enough then...? “I feel like I’m going to be sick,” I said, suddenly standing up and trying to run to the bathroom. As I got to the bathroom doorway, I saw my baby sister standing in her nightgown with her pacifier squeezing her bear, looking at me, scared. I felt terrible that I had woken her up; she looked so cute.

‘I wish I could be that cute,’ I thought. ‘Lily is so lucky that she’s a baby girl!’

That was my last thought before everything suddenly went black.

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Thank you so much for reading! I'll post another chapter in a couple days, until then please press the 'Thumbs Up' Kudos button and consider leaving a comment!

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 2: Be Careful What You Wish For

I LOOKED AROUND the house and wandered around from room to room. Where was Mom? Dad? Lily? I decided to go up to Lily’s room and found it empty. It was weird. I walked over to her changing table and noticed her favorite purple pacifier was there. I picked it up and looked at the pacifier, and there were open cutouts on either side of the button in the middle of it. I always liked her using it because I could see her cute smile still.

“Would you like that?” I turned around and suddenly faced a beautiful lady in her early twenties.

I blushed, “If I was young enough, I’m sure I would,” I said and sat it down. “Who are you?”

“Names are powerful things, young one,” she told me.

Something about this didn’t seem like a dream, and I could feel something like static electricity running up and down my body. “Maybe a nickname?” I asked before stretching out my hand and saying, “I’m Nicholas.”

“Well, they certainly brought you up to be polite,” the lady said. “You may call me Caireen,” she said simply. “You’re a very unusual young man. Willingly taking care of your sister?”

“She’s a sweetheart,” I responded.

“Still not normal for an eighteen-year-old boy to volunteer to help,” she said. “Of course, we wouldn’t be talking if you were normal,” she smiled.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ll find out. I guess we’ll be together for a very long time since you found me. Please don’t be upset at your gifts,” the strange woman said with a bright smile before taking the pacifier off the table and putting it into my mouth. “There you go,” she said.

My eyes must have been as big as saucers as I realized this had to be a dream.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, I heard what had to be the most annoying metronome of all time as I woke up. I started to stretch with my eyes closed and suddenly realized something was wrong. “Levi, he’s waking up,” I heard Mom say, and I looked up suddenly at their faces.

Something was not right here. Not right at all! The angle of their faces was all wrong from where I was lying, and I was obviously in a hospital… but not in a regular hospital bed.

“Where am I?” I asked - or tried to ask. Something was in the way for me to talk. I reached up to my mouth and pulled out a… “Why do I have a pacifier in my mouth?” I asked, starting to panic, and sat up. My voice sounded really weird and squeaky.

Mom gently pushed me down, but something was wrong there. Her hand was too big!

“What happened?” I asked, more agitated and upset that my voice sounded weird.

“It’s okay, sweetie, calm down, and I’ll try to explain...” She said. Something in her eyes reassured me, but somehow I could tell that she wasn’t being truthful.

I lay back down, though, “Explain.”

Dad came in with the doctor right then. “Good, you woke up,” the doctor said.

“What happened?” I said again more forcefully.

“Nicholas,” Mom started, “...I don’t think there’s any easy way to explain, but you emerged last night and went through a major burnout.”

“I’m a Mergent?!?!?” I asked, surprised.

“Your mother and I both carried the gene recessively, but we figured the chances of you getting it was minuscule as a boy. “I looked at them in shock. I never knew our family had any history of Mergents.

“But don’t people usually emerge younger?” I asked, thinking back to when one boy in our school had emerged during our sophomore year.

The doctor shrugged, “Usually, but eighteen is not unheard of to emerge.”

I nodded finally, “Okay, so I’m a Mergent. Why… umm… why do I think I changed much more than average?”

The doctor answered this one, “Nicholas, you’re going to have to do some testing to be sure, but I believe you are an exceptionally high-level paradigm. Your EFP, or the Emergent Form Pattern that it made you look like, normally takes months to a year to change you to your final form. But for some reason, yours did.”

I sat up now and felt my mom’s hand helping me. I had lost a lot of height. A LOT of height. I didn’t seem to have any hair on my arms or legs. I felt the hair on my head, and it felt like it was shorter than it had been. It barely reached my shoulders but had a lot of curls at the ends. I pulled a lock of it and held it in front of me, surprised that it was now red! Looking down at the gown and noticed it was covered with very juvenile bears like you would see in pediatrics. Something else about my body felt ‘odd’, and I ran my hand down to my groin area. ‘Could it really have happened?!?’ I prayed that wish had come true. As I tried to feel that area, I was surprised that something padded was in the way.

I looked up at Mom and asked, “How old am I?”

“Eighteen…” she paused and grimaced, “going on three, we think.”

“And am I…” I was scared to ask this next one. If only it could be true, ‘please be true,’ I said to myself. “Am I a girl now?”

She nodded, and tears streamed out of her eyes. Dad came around and held one of my hands on the other side. I smiled.

“Being the same age as Lily is embarrassing,” I hopefully looked at the doctor, “But, I’ll at least grow back up, right?”

He looked at me and shrugged, “I don’t honestly know. Sometimes when a teenager emerges for the first time, they’ll go through a similar experience and get younger. Most of the time, they do begin aging again, but usually at a slower rate.”

“The other times?” I asked, finding myself craving something in my mouth to soothe myself. I knew the pacifier was sitting next to my hand and had to fight the urge to put it back in my mouth.

“Well, there have been a few cases of them getting younger and not aging at all,” he said, “I don’t know of any easy way to say it… but to be honest, there’s probably an eighty percent chance your EFP may lock you like this.”

“Great!” I groaned. “So, I’m going to be the baby sister before long!”

Mom smiled and said, “Well, maybe Lily will remember you taking such good care of you that maybe she’ll do the same?”

It was at that moment that I passed out again.

I WOKE BACK up as I felt my body being contorted. I opened my eyes and began to cry as I realized mom was changing my diaper. It smelled like one of Lily’s after-dinner diapers, which meant I had to have gone poop in my sleep. She finished and then picked me up. I realized then that the wires and IVs had been unhooked while I was sleeping.

“It’s okay, sweetie,” she told me, and she hugged me tight, cuddling me like my little sister.

Eventually, I calmed down, and she asked, “Do you want something to drink?”

I nodded. Mom produced a cup with a straw and some ice water. I tried to put the straw in my mouth, but something was in my way. “Here, I’ll take that,” she said as she pulled the pacifier out of my reddening face. A moment later, I found myself guzzling down. I was really thirsty!

When it was empty, I looked at her. “Am I a real baby or something? Why did I have a pacifier in my mouth?”

She sat down and held me on her knee, facing me. “You were burning up and stumbled down the hallway. When you reached the bathroom you… you… you suddenly started smoking and steaming before there was a burst of fire where you were standing.” Tears trailed down Mom’s face as she spoke, “I thought you had to be dead, but suddenly the fire was gone, and in its place was a… a little girl…” She cringed.

“Lily was as shocked as I was, and she walked over to you, and her pacifier fell out of her mouth right next to you. You picked it up, put it in your mouth, and then passed back out.”

I grimaced. I honestly could feel a craving for it even now. “Sorry, I have a bad feeling it’s going to be hard to break this pacifier habit!” I told her.

“You want it back?” She asked.

I couldn’t help nodding.

Mom placed it back in my mouth and started talking again, “What were you thinking about when you went to bed?”

“Why?” I asked around the pacifier. Mom still understood, with a smile curling on her lips.

“It may have affected your EFP,” she told me.

I grimaced and thought back, “I was thinking how nice it would have been for you to be able to pick me up and hold me like Lily.” I paused, unable to tell her the full truth about my wish. “Then I saw her standing in the hallway looking cute in her princess nightgown.”

Mom looked like she had understood most of that around the pacifier and hugged me tightly.

“I’m stuck like this, aren’t I?” I asked her.

“Probably.”

“The baby stuff?”

“Well, the pacifier seems tough for you to be without.”

I nodded.

“And the potty training… maybe we can re-train you.”

I pulled the pacifier out again and groaned. “How am I going to go to school in diapers and sucking on a pacifier?”

“I don’t know, sweetie, but we’ll find a way. I don’t think your mind will be hurt in any way. If anything, you’ll probably be smarter.” I smiled a bit at that, “And you’re probably a lot stronger, too,” she told me. “And you probably even have some really cool abilities now. The doctor said only the highest-level Emergents seem to change this much.”

I just nodded to that. “Where’s Dad?”

“He went home to get Lily.” She told me.

“What did you do with her last night?” I asked, suddenly worried.

“We brought her with us and then were able to drop her off at Hannah’s house since there’s no school today.”

“Really? We had a snow day, and I have to be sick?” Mom just laughed, plopped the pacifier back in my mouth, and sat there cuddling me until I must have fallen asleep.

I DIDN’T SLEEP long because I was soon woken up by voices. “Is that really Nick?” I heard and groaned.
I opened my eyes, “Hi, Hannah,” I said timidly. Mom was still holding me, so I felt some comfort from that.

She held out a cute teddy bear to me that had a ribbon tied around its neck. I couldn’t help but notice it seemed more than half my size! “I thought maybe…?” Then, she appeared to lose her words and was unable to speak.

“Thanks, Hannah,” I said as I held an arm out to hold it. Mom held onto my waist and kept me from falling off her lap.

“You’re beary welcome,” she told me with a smile. But then, she hesitated before saying, “Wow, you’re adorable, Nick.”

“I haven’t even seen myself,” I said aloud. Through the pacifier, I thought it sounded like gibberish, but Mom must have understood it.

“Do you want to?” She asked me as she stood up and leaned me back to look at her.

I grimaced but nodded, “Uh-huh,” I said. Mom carried me to the bathroom, and I saw a pretty little girl, maybe just a little older than Lily, staring at me. My hair was fiery red now, like the color of Merida’s from Brave, and I had green eyes. Not just any green, though; they were a dark emerald color that seemed to glow almost – and certainly were abnormal!

Seeing myself as a girl was enough to make up for suddenly being a baby. I smiled at the realization that I, in fact, was a beautiful little girl!

The pacifier in my mouth must have been swapped at some point because it was a new one I had never seen my sister use. The guard was purple with a button of pink flowers on it. It was so girlish I would have to keep it safe from my sister stealing it. I giggled at that.

“What’s so funny?” Mom asked as I kept giggling.

“What’s not funny?” I asked, gasping as the pacifier fell from my mouth. “I’m supposed to be eighteen years old, and suddenly, I’m a three-year-old baby girl with a pacifier in my mouth that my sister will probably want to steal from me.” I kept laughing.

“Well, you did steal hers first,” she told me with a smile. She sat me down on the ground, and I walked towards the bed again.

Surprisingly I felt like I was able to walk normally. The only thing that made me waddle a little was the diaper, which was obviously a little wet. Hannah had picked up my dropped pacifier and washed it in the sink. I walked over to her and put my arms up in the traditional ‘pick me up’ pose. She obliged and said, “Well, I guess you won’t be worrying about that English essay for tomorrow?”

I smiled, “Somehow, I don’t think I’ll get that lucky?”

Mom nodded at me, “We’ll keep you home for now, but you’re going to do all of the assignments and homework from home.”

Just then, Dad came in, holding my sister. Lily looked at me and frowned, “Nicko?” She still couldn’t say Nicholas yet, which was the closest she could get.

I sighed and said, “Yes, Lily.”

“You little like me?”

“Yes, Lily.”

“You play with me?” She asked with a timid smile.

“Sure,” I said.

Dad had brought some of her favorite dolls with her, and I sat down in the bed… crib… with her and just like that, we played for an unknown amount of time before I felt my stomach growl. Mom, Hannah, and Dad sat in the corner talking and watching us and paused, having heard it from there. “Are we hungry yet?”

An orderly walked in, pushing a food cart as if on cue. “Mac and cheese?” she asked Mom.

I groaned; I would have to get used to people talking about me as if I wasn’t there…

“Yes, just leave it there.” She told her. “Lily, you’re going to go back home with Daddy and Hannah to take your nap. Hannah’s going to stay with you until later when hopefully, we’ll be able to bring Nicholas home.”

“I’m going home tonight?” I asked, surprised.

“The doctor said he’d probably send you home since you woke up. There’s nothing else they can do for you since you’ve stabilized. We have some paperwork to fill out, and they want us to get you tested Monday.”

“I wonder why I haven’t been able to sense any abilities yet?” I asked. “I thought ever Emergent gets abilities of some sort?”

As if it was waiting for that question, all of a sudden, the world looked very different. I could see all of these weird lines running over the floor in every direction I looked. I noticed some leading towards my new teddy bear and had a silly thought, ‘She could really use a dress...’ Everyone gasped as there was a small flash, and suddenly, my new teddy bear had a perfectly sized and pretty purple dress.

“Did you do that?” Mom asked suddenly.

“Do it again!” Lily said.

I looked at the bear she had brought and imagined a pink dress to match. Suddenly there was another flash, and she shouted, “You did it, Nicko! Thank you!”

Mom looked at me and said, “How did you do that?”

“All of a sudden, after I asked what my abilities were, I saw all these lines…?”

Dad sighed, “Well, that’s going to mean we’ll have to get you taught sooner than later.”

“What?” I asked.

“It means you have a magic trait,” he explained. “You can probably do many things like that with magic.”

“Awesome!” I said before my stomach growled again. The lines were still everywhere, so I thought, ‘vision normal?’ I smiled as the lines went away.

“We’ll see you in a bit,” Hannah said and hugged me. I hugged her back, and soon Mom had me back on her lap with the tray of macaroni and cheese.

“It might be easier for me just to feed you,” Mom said as she tried to figure out the arrangement for me to have the bowl in front of me. Unfortunately, the bed wouldn’t work.

I sighed, “Let’s get it over with,” I said. We managed to get most of it inside my mouth. A couple times, she started to bring the spoon up, and I turned my head slightly on accident, and she missed my mouth. A baby wipe quickly took care of it, and she placed the bowl back on the tray.

“Let’s change your diaper, sweetie,” she said.

“I’m not…” then I realized I was wet and finished, “feeling myself going at all.”

Mom stood and held me securely to her right side while she used her free hand to unfold a changing mat onto the crib mattress. Then, she moved to a shelf on the side and grabbed a fresh diaper and some wipes, which she laid beside it before lying me down on the changing mat. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I have a feeling between what you were thinking and your body size that this may be a part of life now.”

I felt tears going down my eyes. “Forever?”

She said nothing else for a moment as she pushed the hospital gown out of the way to expose the diaper. I lifted my head forward to look, but she pushed my shoulders back down. “Stay down, sweetie, so I can take care of this. Even if it’s forever, I’ll always love you.”

I felt myself jolt as I heard and felt the rip of the first tape on the diaper. The second tape was ripped next, and I felt Mom grab my ankles just like we did to change Lily’s diaper. It only emphasized the massive size regression I’d undergone, as my ankles easily fit in her single hand. She used a baby wipe to gently wipe me, and her touch felt intrusive and tickled.

I squirmed a little as she thoroughly wiped a part of my body that was foreign now and felt my face turning the color of my new hair. “It’s okay, almost done!” She told me

I stayed silent as she placed my butt down on the new diaper. She folded the used wipes inside the old one and set it to the side. I tried to sit up again, but my left hand pushed down firmly above my belly as she taped the left side of my diaper shut, then switched to securely tape the other.

“I’ll never have a normal life,” I said, embarrassed to have my mom in my personal space like that!

“Who’s to say that, sweetheart? You may find part of your abilities lets you grow up too!”

She pulled the gown back down over my diaper and kissed my forehead before taking the balled-up used diaper to the trash can. Mom returned and carried me back over to the chair and held me. I felt comfortable as she gently patted my back. I fell asleep at some point because the next thing I knew, Dad was back, and so was the doctor. Mom had woken me up to talk.

“Okay, sweetie, we have to have a frank discussion about some things here.”

I nodded and noticed the pacifier in my mouth. I pulled it out and held it so I could talk. “Okay.”

The new doctor looked at me, “I’m Doctor Earnhardt.” He held a hand to me. I took his hand with his completely enveloping mine.

“Nice to meet you; I’m Nick… well, sort of?” I smiled.

He did too. “Okay, I think you’re out of the woods from the burnout possibilities. Your mom and dad will probably be best off taking you home now. However, we can’t do that before we take care of some things.”

“Okay…?”

“Well, first things first, we need to go to the nurses’ station so I can measure and weigh you.”

I nodded. Mom picked me up and carried me down the hallway, where I was placed on a scale, a typical doctor’s office one, and weighed. “Okay, twenty pounds, one ounce,” he said.

“That’s it?!?” I asked, surprised. I spoke around the pacifier that had found its way back into my mouth.

“Yeah, I thought you felt much lighter than your sister.” Mom said.

“Okay, come over here, and let’s measure your length.” He directed me against a wall and said, “Okay, thirty-four inches.”

‘I’m an inch taller and seven pounds lighter than my baby sister,’ I thought. “I’m never going to be able to get a car and drive now!” I moaned aloud.

Mom hugged me, and we returned to my room with her carrying me. Back in my room, the doctor took out a measuring tape and measured the circumference of my head, waist, arms, and just about everywhere else while making notes. He did some reflex tests on my knees and feet. He had Mom remove my diaper before examining my lower end gently for a long awkward moment before telling her to put my diaper back on.

“Okay, honestly, you seem to be physically a little bit below weight, but otherwise normal twenty-six-month-old girl,” he told me when she was done. “Your reflexes are better, though, and I suspect you probably have the physical abilities of an adult or more. Have you tried lifting anything yet?”

I shook my head.

“Put her down on the ground,” he said. He pointed to the chair against the wall. “See if you can move that or pick it up.”

I looked at him skeptically as I was sure it weighed more than my twenty pounds! I walked over and was surprised I could easily lift it above my head. For fun, I threw it up in the air and panicked as it hit the ceiling and bounced back toward me. Somehow, he caught it and said, “Okay, that answers that. Be very careful with your strength. You’ll probably find yourself getting stronger over the weekend. If you’re not careful...?”

I nodded, fighting the tears from my eyes - I could hurt my sister. That would be horrible.

“You made an appointment at the lab for Monday, right?” He asked Mom.

She nodded, “First thing in the morning.”

“Good, last thing before I write the release papers… We need a different name for you, I think.”

Dad had been sitting in the corner, just being quiet. “Nicholas, do you want to pick, or do you want us to pick?”

I froze at that. I had dreamed of girl names before but had never settled on one. “Can I let you pick but veto it if I hate it?”

He and Mom smiled about that. “Okay,” he said. “We were thinking Sofia,” he said, “spelled with an F.”

“So, like the cartoon character?” I asked, trying not to smile. It was actually a name I had thought of before!

Mom nodded sheepishly, “It was the other name we thought of when Lily was born?”

“And a middle name?”

“Elizabeth, like your mom and your sister,” Dad said.

“Okay,” I said.

“Really? You’re not going to fight us on this and throw a fit?” Dad asked, confused.

“No, I’m not, let’s talk about it at home, though,” I told him. “Assuming I can go home?” I asked the doctor.

“Yes, you may. I’m going to send a nurse here with the discharge papers. Why don’t you go ahead and get her dressed to leave?”

I smiled again at ‘her’ being used again. ‘I can’t believe it really happened,’ I thought. Mom felt my diaper and said, “It can last until we get home. Which would you like to wear?” She asked me.

She held up three outfits. One was a pretty dress with tights. I really liked it, but it was snowy outside if they didn’t have school today. The next was a yellow sweater and a pink set of overalls with snaps along the legs, and the final option was a pair of jeans and a plain blue sweatshirt. I pointed to the overalls, “That one please.”

She handed me the sweatshirt, and I gratefully put it on myself. I stood up, pulled the overalls up without too much trouble, and buckled the straps unassisted. The nurse came then, and before I knew it, Mom was sitting in a wheelchair with me, cuddling my new teddy bear, now named Amber, getting pushed out to the parking lot where Dad was waiting.

He opened the door I usually got in through, and I saw a brand-new rear-facing purple car seat beside Lily’s. “I guess I’m stuck in one of these, huh?” I asked.

“Yes,” Mom said. She pulled the harness straps around me, adjusting them before buckling me in and closing the door. As we pulled away, I couldn’t help but wonder just what in the world happened to my brain cells that I had to get locked with the body of a baby girl!

‘At least I am a girl, though!’ I beamed.

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 3: Homecoming

I LOOKED AHEAD at the road from the seat and noted that it was weird to be unable to move as much. I did feel safer, though, from a collision this way. I couldn’t believe how small I was now… I sat sucking on the pacifier more without noticing for a few minutes and decided to experiment by pulling it out of my mouth. I held it in my hand to reassure myself that it wasn’t going anywhere.

“Tired of sucking on that?” I hear Mom ask from the front looking at the camera monitor we had for the backseat.

“Experimenting…” I told her.

“Huh?” Dad asked.

I sighed, “How long I can resist sucking on a pacifier. I assume this is what a smoker feels like while trying to quit.”

“It’s that bad?” Mom asked with concern.

“Not if it’s in my mouth,” I said grimly. Trying to change the subject, “So I’m the same size of clothes as Lily now?”

“Well, not diaper-wise,” she said.

“Huh?”

“You’re lighter and skinnier… you’re actually a size smaller there.”

I groaned, “I am taller than her, at least.”

“For now…” Dad said quietly.

I glared at the camera in case he looked at the monitor screen. I managed to last with the pacifier out of my mouth until we pulled into our driveway nearly thirty minutes later. Something about arriving home sent anxiety to my brain. The outside was covered in seven inches of snow or so. I tried to pop the latches on the harness, but I couldn’t quite make my fingers hit it from the right angle. I had just decided to try using magic when Mom opened my door and swatted my hands from the straps. “I’ll get that, honey.”

I sighed. “I’m not really a baby…?”

She raised an eyebrow and said, “I know you’re not… but how about we pretend the rules for your sister apply to you until we get testing done Monday.”

I groaned! Mom didn’t spank Lily for much, but getting out of her car seat on her own had nearly caused an accident a couple months ago. They had been very strict about not messing with her buckles after that!

“What day is it anyway?” I asked with a sigh. “Was I just out the one day?”

“It’s Thursday; you were only unconscious for about seven hours.”

“So, three days?”

“What, you can’t last that long?” Mom teased but looked concerned.

I shrugged, “I don’t know, actually.”

“Well, let’s go inside and let Hannah off the hook from your sister. Your dad is going to drive her home.” She had picked me up, and I was easily able to cling onto her and my teddy bear at the same time as she held her hand below my bottom. I could feel that my diaper was squishier than it had been a moment ago, but I hadn’t felt any sensation of going.

“Can you please change me too?” I asked.

“Did you go again?” she asked me.

I nodded as Dad opened the door for us. “I don’t know when either,” I said with a frown.

She tickled my chin, “No frowning! If you can’t help it, you can’t help it. We’ll deal with it,” she said with a smile and then kissed the top of my head and carried me upstairs. Hannah and Lily had just come from the basement and followed us there. Lily was climbing up the stairs as best she could.

‘Great, that’ll be embarrassing,’ I told myself as I considered how I would be climbing the stairs the same way. ‘The baby gates are taller than me now, too,’ I sulked as mom carried me up the stairs.

The most embarrassing experience was when I was laid down on Lily’s changing table a few moments later. Mom didn’t hesitate or give me any warning as she put the strap over my chest and began pulling at the snaps at the crotch. I saw Hannah watching, and then she turned away guiltily.

As painfully embarrassing as being naked with a wet diaper was, I decided I had to say something to help with the awkwardness. “So... Hannah… are they planning on there being school tomorrow?”

She looked back over at me, and I realized it had to have been hard to understand around the pacifier. So my hand pulled away the pacifier, and I repeated it.

“Probably, unless we were to get more snow.” She said.

“Can you turn in my essay if I can get it done?” I asked.

“Umm… sure.” She said.

“I have calculus done, too,” I said as I felt mom rip the tapes open on the old diaper.

As if she finally understood that it was okay to look and talk to me, she came back toward me. “Did you figure out that last calculus problem?”

“Sort of,” I said as I tried to distract myself from Mom grabbing my feet in one hand and lifting my bottom while pulling the wet diaper out from underneath. “My dad and I think there’s a mistake. So he helped me solve it as far as possible, and then I also solved it with the corrected problem.”

“Think you can help me with that before he takes me home?” She asked me.

“Sure,” I said as Mom finished taping the new diaper on me. I had done my best to ignore the powder she had used and the whole experience. Especially the embarrassment I was fighting with one of my best friends watching! Mom snapped the crotch of my overalls back closed and set me on the ground. “Now?” I asked.

“I guess,” she responded, and we went to my room.

Mom called, “Lily, where are you? Let’s change your diapee too while I’m at it.”

My backpack was lying on the floor, and I unzipped it without any problems. Hannah looked at the book I was about to grab and was going to offer to carry it.

“I’ve got it,” I told her with a smile.

“That book weighs like a quarter of your weight, though,” she started to argue.

I picked it up like I was still her size. “I may be the size of a baby Hannah; I may even never be potty trained again and need a pacifier...”

Suddenly I felt tears coming to my eyes, “Where is my paci…?” I started, but she reached down and put it in my mouth. The tears quickly went away, “Fanks,” I said around it with a sigh.

“This sucks!” I said. “Anyway, I’m strong!” I told her with a smile that made its way around the shield.

She shook her head and had a seat on the ground with me. Hannah had grabbed her backpack, too, and we sat down to talk about it. As we were finishing, Lily came in after Mom had finished changing her and pulled at me. “Play with me, Nicko?”

I looked at Hannah and winked, “I guess now that I’m a baby, I get to play more?”

“All da time!” Lily said and kept pulling at me.

“See you later, Hannah,” I told her, knowing she would leave now.

She hugged me before I let Lily lead me down to her room, and we played for what seemed like a few minutes when Mom picked us both up. “Come on, dinner time, you two,” Mom said.

“Aww…” I heard Lily say and realized my voice joined hers.

She took us to the bathroom, where she picked us up to wash our hands before carrying us down to the kitchen. Lily’s high chair had been joined by another. “You get chair like me!” she said excitedly.

I sighed. “I’m too short for a regular chair now, Lily,” I told her. “Couldn’t I use a booster seat, though?” I suggested to Mom.

She looked embarrassed, “I don’t think we even thought about that… Would you mind for now?”

I grimaced but said, “Okay.”

Mom put Lily down in her chair first and handed me to Dad. I groaned a bit as Dad buckled the seatbelt and put the tray in place. Mom put one of Lily’s bibs around her neck and seemed to look at me for whether or not she needed to put one on me.

“Nicko bib?” Lily asked.

I shook my head, “I’m a big… girl; I shouldn’t need it.” I said to Mom as much as Lily.

Mom nodded, “I know you’re still eighteen, really… we’ll try it.”

I sighed in relief. Dinner was a piece of pizza, and I asked, “Mom, may I have a fork and a knife?”

She looked at me skeptically but brought me a regular size fork and knife. I hated eating with my hands, especially pizza, something my mom had no idea where I had gotten from. I noticed my parents trying not to watch me as I gripped the too-large silverware in my hands. I still had the coordination to make the cuts, but they were too big. I thought for a moment and decided to try something.

I pictured the lines I had seen earlier back in my mind, and I could see them on everything again. I visualized the silverware being back to a normal proportion for me, and with a quick flash, they were!

“What did you do?” Mom asked nervously.

“Same thing I did to make the bear’s dresses,” I told her with a smile and used the correct size utensils to cut a piece of the pizza off. From my new perspective, the single piece looked like half a pizza. “May I have a drink, please?” I asked her.

She looked at me and shook her head. I watched her go to the cabinets, where she grabbed a pink Disney Princess sippy cup for me and filled it with juice from the fridge. I looked at her like, ‘really?’ but she smirked. “You’re going to have to get used to using sippy cups in this house, sweetie. I learned long ago that it was a good idea until you were about six!”

I sighed, “Whatever,” and took a drink. It really was okay, I didn’t mind the girly cup, but I hated having another reminder of my new situation. ‘How bad is a sippy cup compared to a pacifier addiction?’ I asked myself. With a sigh, I returned to eating my meal and had the pizza devoured before my sister managed about half of her much smaller slice. I finished the juice too. “May I please have more?” I asked. They avoided actively staring at me and were surprised I finished the food.

“You need more?” Mom asked.

I shrugged, “I’m hungry, I guess.”

Even I was a bit surprised as I finished the third slice a while later and finally began to feel full. “You’re going to be sick later, Sofia!” Mom said to me as she unbuckled me from the highchair.

“Maybe, maybe not… I’m not really three…”

“No, you’re really more like two, sweetie,” she said to rub salt in the wound but had a smile on her face.

I turned around and looked at my sister standing next to the couch. I watched as she bent her legs for a moment and knew what she was doing. Sure enough, when she stood up, she smiled and looked happy. I was just getting ready to wonder if I would be in a similar state when I felt something warm coming out of my rear end. I realized I was standing with my knees bent and stood back up, shocked. Meanwhile, my sister sat down, and I swear it looked like she was smushing it all around.

Mom came up from behind me, “Smells like I have a poopie pants around here,” she said.

I just started bawling.

I felt her pick me up and try to soothe me for several moments. It made it worse, though, because she accidentally smushed some of it against my butt when she picked me up. Finally, she carried me upstairs and said, “Lily, come on! You’re poopy too! I need to change you and your sister and put you in the bath.”

I bawled uncontrollably and barely registered anything until she laid me back on the changing table. She gently unsnapped and pulled the coveralls off my body to expose my shirt and the diaper. I felt her undo the tapes and was surprised that this time I didn’t smell the terrible scent I usually did when Lily pooped her diapers. She gently opened the diaper and began wiping me clean. I was surprised when she sat me back down on the ground without putting another diaper on me.

“Ni… Sofia, would you please go wait for us in the bathroom?” Mom said.

I couldn’t do anything but nod at that point. Then, I walked into the hallway bathroom and realized everything seemed big. The toilet was like a giant chair in front of me. Even if I was potty trained, I knew it would be tough to get up and down it all the time. The tub had begun to seem shallow a long time ago; now, it looked like it could swallow me easily. I stood there until Mom came in with my sister on her hip.

Lily looked at me, “You have vageena too?”

I sighed. “Yes, I do,” I said.

“But Nicko was boy?” Well, my sister certainly was as intelligent as the rest of us.

“I’m not anymore,” I told her.

“You girl just like me?”

“Yes, Lily, just like you now,” I told her, “but I’m still the same Nicko you’ve always known, but call me Sofia now.” Mom listened as I watched her fill the bathtub and add bubble bath.

She looked at me, and I could tell she was trying hard to think. “You sistah instead of brother?”

I shrugged, hating the fact that I was naked right then. “I guess so, Lily,” I told her.

For whatever reason, that excited her. “Yay, I have sistah!!!!” She suddenly jumped and hugged me. I returned the hug and couldn’t help but notice she was nearly the same height. An inch difference in size wasn’t that much, and it was clear she was bigger. I was careful when I hugged her, though, knowing my new strength was dangerous.

“Okay, my little princesses, arms up in the sky like a ballerina!” I groaned but lifted my arms up and let her pull my shirt off after she had taken Lily’s off. I watched her pick Lily up, plunked her gently in the tub, and then she did the same with me. As much as I didn’t want to take a bath with my sister, I couldn’t help but enjoy the playtime with her. Mom pulled out some of her toys, and we ended up squirting each other and drawing on the walls with bath markers alternately while Mom washed us and our hair.

She was very gentle as she washed my hair. “Close your eyes, Sofia,” she told me gently. Then, I felt her dump several cups of water over my head before massaging shampoo into my hair. It felt pretty good, and before I knew it, she said, “You can open them now,” just in time for my sister to squirt water in them!

Before I could retaliate, she pulled the plug from the tub and said, “Okay, let’s get you both nice and dry and ready for bed!”

“Do I have to go to bed?” I asked her.

She shook her head, “Not yet. Your father and I need to talk with you first.”

I thought that going to bed might be the better plan! Lily looked like she might whine, but Mom told her, “Sofia will go to bed soon. She’s still older, so she has a later bedtime like before.”

Lily looked at her and said, “Okay.”

Mom wrapped both of us with towels and then sat Lily on the counter. I watched her take a blow drier and dry her hair while brushing it out. I noticed her wince a couple times as Mom found a ‘snarl’ as she’d learned to call the tangles in her hair. Finally, when she was done, she carried her to her room and said, “Sofia, come with me. We’ll come back and do your hair.”

She picked Lily up and sat her down on the changing table. I watched her give her the pacifier she loved and suddenly felt that craving for mine again. I groaned and found my thumb in my mouth before I could even think about my hand moving to my mouth. Lily was dressed in a pink blanket sleeper and sat on her bed. “Next princess,” Mom said with a smirk.

I put my arms up, and the towel fell down. Mom placed my naked body on the table and quickly diapered me before pulling my thumb out and replacing it with another pacifier. I suddenly found myself relaxing from the feeling of it inside my mouth. I shook my head, ‘This is going to get old...’

I had to at least give myself credit for making it from dinner through my bath without it, though. Mom asked, “Should I dress you?”

I shrugged, “Do you want to?”

The smile on her face and the gleam in her eye was enough answer. She dressed me in one of Lily’s other purple sleepers. Mom sat me down, “Your dad is downstairs if you want to go watch TV with him until I get Lily to bed.”

I realized dad must have brought her bottle up already as it was sitting next to the rocking chair. I felt my jealous monster roar again then, but I nodded and said, “Okay,” and began walking down the hallway.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are always super appreciated as well! Thank you to those of you who have done so!!!!!!!!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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---

 

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 4: No Magic

BEING CARRIED SO much today, this walking business was almost a novelty! At the stairs, I held back a feeling of panic at looking down the tall staircase! I grabbed the rail tightly and took it one step at a time before making it down. I looked back up and wondered how I would deal with those regularly!

I could hear the TV on in the downstairs living room and walked over there. My dad was sitting in his recliner and taking a drink right then. I thought about just walking over to the couch and having a seat, but he opened his arms and said, “You want to come sit in my lap?”

I had been so jealous of my sister that I couldn’t turn that down! I started running and realized a problem as soon as I jumped into his lap. I was moving faster than I should have been. He said, “Oomph,” and I looked to ensure he was okay.

“I’m so sorry, Dad! Are you okay?!?” I asked, suddenly afraid I had hurt him.

“Thankfully, you missed the jewels, sweetheart. I’m fine,” he said and hugged me to reassure me. “You need to be really careful, though. You look like a baby, but you’re definitely not a normal one!”

I returned the hug and leaned into his arm to watch the TV show. It was a new episode of one of the CSI spin-offs I didn’t usually watch. I didn’t tend to spend much time watching TV between practicing and doing homework. Then, it suddenly occurred to me, “If I’m stuck like this, I’ll never be able to play flute again!”

Dad hugged me, “I’m sure we’ll figure something out. What about piccolo?”

I smiled, “I bet I could do that!”

“Well, maybe we’ll see about getting one for you for Christmas.”

We sat there for about ten more minutes until Mom came down. “Already a daddy’s girl?” She asked teasingly.

I tried sticking my tongue out at her before realizing something was in the way. I pulled my pacifier out, stuck my tongue out, and then put it back in my mouth. She laughed and came over to pick me up from Dad’s lap. Then, she proceeded to start tickling me without any warning!

“Stop…” I giggled.

“Okay…” she said. Dad turned off the TV and came and joined us on the couch.

I sighed; this was going to be one of those conversations. “Okay, so what do you want to talk about?”

“A lot of things,” Mom said gently.

“Well... start talking,” I said.

“First off, I think we’re going to have to have some ground rules here, sweetie,” Dad said.

“Like?” I said and pulled the pacifier from my mouth. I had to force myself to hold it in my lap.

“Well, for one, until you get some training, I think no magic in the house would be a good one to start with.”

I looked at him skeptically, “Why?”

He sighed, “Look, some of my work - which you know I can’t talk about - involves some of the after-effects of energy output from mergents. We particularly study those that use so-called magic power. We’ve been trying for the last decade to isolate the physics principles that have to be at work behind ‘magic.’ We have a few magic users in our group that help us out. Unfortunately, I’ve heard too many horror stories about them learning to use magic, making sprites, and destroying things.”

“Sprite?” I asked.

“They’re kind of like creatures… but come in all sorts of shapes. Normally they start wandering around destroying things and wreaking havoc anytime they appear.”

“Oh,” I said. “Will I be able to learn from someone here?”

Dad shrugged, “We’ll know more on Monday. There’s a school that a lot of other...”

He hesitated, so I added “Mergents,” for him.

He grimaced and nodded before continuing, “go to back east. I’d probably have you on the plane next week if you weren’t two years old. I’m not sure if they would be willing to have a student who basically needs a daycare, though…?”

I hit him lightly on the leg. Or I thought it was light; he winced. “Sorry, Daddy, are you okay?”

“Yes, but that will probably leave a bruise. You’re going to have to be really careful, sweetie!” He told me.

I felt some tears in my eyes at that.

He stroked my hair gently, “We’ll get through this, I promise you.”

“So, what else?” I asked Mom.

“Well, I think when we’re out, you need to pretend to be a normal two-year-old.”

“So, tantrums, pooping in my diaper at random points, sucking on a pacifier...?” I sighed, “I have the second and the third down, at least.”

“It wasn’t random, at least. It was after dinner, just like Lily,” she said with a smile. “If we had put you on the potty in time, you might have gone there.”

I smiled but shook my head, “I might have by random chance, but I can’t feel when I’m going or need to go at all! Lily will probably be out of diapers before I am again.”

She squeezed my leg gently, “It’s okay, though; that’s not the end of the world.” Mom hesitated but said, “No, I also mean things like using a bib, like your sister, definitely sitting in your car seat, high chairs, etc.”

“Why?”

“Well, partially to protect you,” Dad answered.

“Huh?”

“Look, and especially until Monday when you get tested, the EPC is a powerful government agency that could come and take you away if something funny happens. Then there’s Sanguis Primum; while they don’t have much of a presence in Los Alamos, there are a bunch of those nutjobs in Albuquerque and Santa Fe.”

I nodded at that. Even among ‘norms,’ I’d heard horror stories of the Emergent Protection Commission officers committing horrible acts against Mergents. The Sanguis Primum members took racism to a whole other level from what I had seen. “Okay, I get that. Do I have to be a complete baby here, though? Can I please have time on my computer and maybe keep up with my school stuff or something? I enjoyed playing with Lily tonight, but I’m still eighteen in my mind.”

Dad nodded, “I don’t see any reason why not. I think we may have to move your computer to another room, though, and give you another bed and redecorate.” He hesitated, “It doesn’t have to be too girly, though.”

I took a moment and decided to say, “No, it can be girly; that’s fine. Can we maybe decorate it with Sofia the First stuff? Since you named me after her and all. I mean, they made a TV show about me. Shouldn’t I have some of her stuff?” I winked at Dad.

“Why do I get the feeling the girl part of this isn’t upsetting you?” Mom asked gently.

‘Here goes nothing,’ I thought to myself, “Because…” I felt my breath shake, “Because it doesn’t,” I felt a tear roll down my face. “It’s a dream come true.”

“You wanted to be a girl?” Dad asked in surprise. His tone was still gentle.

I nodded, “Since I could remember, I thought I was one, but I had the wrong parts. Now I have the right body… well, sort of.” I grimaced and told them how I’d been scared to ever say anything to them. I knew I was transgendered, and becoming a girl was a dream come true! “Being a baby again really wasn’t in the plans, though,” I finished in tears.

“I think that you were focused so much on the simple pleasures of Lily’s life, though, that you kind of got stuck on it then,” Dad told me softly. Then, he leaned over to me and hugged me. “I love you. Never forget that.”

Mom joined in the hug and said, “So do I, sweetie; whether you’re eighteen, two, or one hundred, I will always love you.”

“I love you too,” I said to them and was glad I had parents like these.

We stayed there for a few minutes before I asked, “May I go to my room and get on my computer?”

Mom looked at me for a moment before nodding, “You may. Let me check your diaper first, though.” I grimaced as Mom felt the crotch of my diaper and said, “A little wet, but I think it’ll hold until bed.” She smiled at that.

“You could ask me to check it myself, you know,” I told her. My privacy already felt invaded during the changes.

Mom looked embarrassed herself, “I’m sorry sweetie, I… I guess I’m just used to checking your sister.”

I nodded. I guess I checked Lily all the time, too, since she didn’t usually tell us when she was wet. “I’m sorry; I guess that’s natural for you,” I told her and hugged her.

I then hopped off the couch lightly and headed to my room before the conversation got any more awkward. I took the stairs a little faster this time. They still seemed gigantic, but I didn’t feel the fear of them. I had to climb up my computer chair awkwardly to get into it before discovering I couldn’t just sit and reach the keyboard. I hopped down and let the chair go as high as possible before climbing back. I could sit on my knees and just reach everything pretty much. I noticed my cell phone there and saw Jacob had sent me a slew of messages starting with, ‘Hey, do you want to hang out?’ at first to really worried ‘Where the hell are you?’ messages.

I sighed.

I opened my phone’s unlock screen and sent a text to him. ‘Sorry, bro, got… sick. I’m going to be quarantined at home for a while.’

I sent a message to Hannah simultaneously, ‘Thanks for watching my sister earlier… and… thanks for being my friend.’

Hannah responded first, ‘You’re soooo cute now! You do realize that?’

I turned red, ‘I know...’

‘So what are you going to do now?’

‘I don’t know. I’m supposed to pretend to be two anytime we’re out and about. If you run into us somewhere, go ahead and let loose your maternal instincts I guess.’

‘lol, I’m sorry Nick.’

I paused before sending, ‘It’s okay, but it’s Sofia now… might as well get used to it. I need to go. I’ll ttyl’

‘Ttyl (-:’

I was just about to start browsing the internet when Jacob responded. ‘Dude, are you okay?’

I sighed, ‘Sort of… look, I’ll talk to my parents and maybe you can come over with Hannah Tuesday for us to explain.’

‘You’re acting like you emerged or something...’

‘Tuesday,’ I told him.

‘Okay, I’ll take the hint. I need to go; Mom is yelling at me.’

‘ttyl’

Putting my phone aside, I opened the internet and typed ‘Mergent’ into Wikipedia. Of course, everyone knew ‘about’ Mergents, but I never thought I would turn out to be one. I searched one website after another, looking for information. One of the first articles I read about were those with ‘Paradigm’ abilities.

‘Paradigm talents often manifest into super strong, super-fast, and super-beautiful Mergents. Little is known about how this trait is passed on, but those who receive this form of emergence tend to be the most ‘super’ of the variants. Nearly every high-level Paradigm Mergent will have a strong EFP that will guide and shape the Paradigm’s appearance. The most powerful will find that they may not even be able to cut their hair without it instantly growing back to maintain their ‘ideal’ form.’

I groaned as I read about EFPs or Emergent Form Patterns that controlled a high-level paradigm’s body appearance. It seemed like the higher level of a Paradigm you were, the more it could change you. I read a few accounts of gender change before, but it seemed like it wasn’t all that common. I didn’t find many examples of anyone getting younger, and none to my age.

I looked at the clock and saw it was almost ten, figuring my mom would be coming in soon. I looked around my room and saw my new black belt hanging off my dresser. I wondered if I could even still do those forms. Curious, I jumped off my chair, moved to the center of my room where there wasn’t a lot of clutter, and began moving through the basic warmup forms and worked to the ones I’d performed last night. Surprisingly I felt like I was even more nimble and sure of myself. The only thing that seemed to be holding me back was the stupid diaper. Until I managed to lick potty training again though I would have to get used to it, I was afraid.

I had just run through the final form when Mom came in. She looked surprised to see me in one of my forms - well, I’m sure it looked a little out of place. “Practicing?” She asked.

“I wanted to see if I could still do everything,” I told her with a smile.

“You can?”

“Uh-huh!”

“That’s great, sweetie.” She came over and kneeled down to give me a hug. “Look, I know you’re probably not a fan of this, but your father and I are tired, and I think it’s time for bed.”

I just nodded, “I understand. Can you change my diaper?”

Mom said, “That was just what I was coming to do!” Mom had my sister’s diaper bag and a changing mat that she laid down on the floor next to me. In next to no time at all, she had my sleeper feet off, my wet diaper peeled off, wiped bottom, powdered, taped the new one on, and had me redressed.

“You would think you’ve been doing that for the last two-and-a-half years or something?” I told her.

“Well, I had my three years with you before!” She picked me up and started to set me on my bed.

I felt embarrassed, but I pulled the pacifier out of my mouth and asked, “Umm… Mom… my?”

She looked at me strangely, “Yes?”

“I know this may sound kind of weird… but could you put me to bed like you do, Lily?” I felt my face flush a bit.

“With a bottle and a story?” She asked, kind of surprised.

I just nodded and put the pacifier back in my mouth, my face now fiery red.

“Sure, sweetie,” she smiled, “I’ll be back in a couple minutes.”

Mom disappeared downstairs and came up with one of Lily’s bottles filled with warm milk in one hand and a book about Rapunzel, one of Lily’s favorite stories. “You don’t have a rocking chair in here,” she started to say, but suddenly there was a pop, and one appeared where a bean bag I had on the ground was. “I thought we told you no magic?”

I looked up at her in fear, “I didn’t mean to, Mommy. I didn’t do what I did earlier at all!”

‘You didn’t, I did,’ I heard in my head. It was the voice of the lady from last night.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are always super appreciated as well!

For those who have read this before, I hope this is a smoother reading experience! There are lots of little changes and adjustments through the work. Let me know what you think!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 5: Emerald Castle

‘UMM...’ I THOUGHT in my head. ‘Who are you?’

‘I told you last night, Caireen.’

‘And… you’re inside my head?’

‘Your body. You bonded with me last night.’

‘Oh...’ I thought. ‘So, I guess I’m an avatar?’

‘I believe that’s what your people call it,’ she agreed, and somehow, I could sense she was nodding.

‘So you can act without me wanting you to?’ I asked.

‘Most of the time, no, but right now, I couldn’t help myself. In fact,’ I felt Caireen do something, and suddenly my walls, bed, desk, dresser, and clothes all seemed to transform. The walls became a light purple with some beautiful scrolling leaves and flowers in some sort of mirror paint. My bed became a crib, the dresser a changing table, and the room straightened everything to a neat order. It was a prettier nursery than Mom had done for Lily - which had taken us months to do!

“Sofia Elizabeth,” Mom said to me while looking stunned.

‘How am I going to prove I didn’t do this!?!’

‘Let me talk to her...’

There was something akin to a light switch thrown, and I felt like I was now watching my body. “Sofia did not do this, Mrs. Hammerstein,” came from my body with a much more mature voice somehow coming from my vocal cords.

“What did you do to my daughter?” Mom asked, panicked, “Is she okay?”

“She’s perfectly fine. You may call me Caireen. Your daughter and I bonded last night… I saw she would die without my help, but she has so much potential I decided I had to help her… In the process, she and I ended up bonding.” I felt my eyes move around, “She’s going to take back over now; I just don’t want her to get in trouble. She really needed a pretty nursery, though.”

I felt myself take back over again and, at the same time, could still feel her presence. ‘You’re still here?’ I asked.

‘Until you die, sweet pea,’ she said with a voice that seemed to smile. ‘I’ll talk to you later; your mommy is worried sick.’

“Sofia, are you okay?”

I nodded, “I am; it’s exactly like she said happened.”

“You’re not trying to get out of trouble?”

“I wish I could be this imaginative to get out of trouble,” I sighed.

Mom had a scared and shaken look that she managed to shake her head and ask in a mostly normal voice, “Well… still want your bottle?”

I nodded. Mom carried me to the rocking chair, positioned me in her arm’s crook, handed me the warm bottle, and then began to read the story. “Once upon a time...” I stayed awake for half of the story. I had to rely upon my memory of telling Lily to remember how it ended!

ALMOST AS SOON as I fell asleep, I was standing in a green meadow with flowers and gigantic, beautiful butterflies everywhere. It was a spectacular view when I turned around and saw a stone castle that looked even prettier than anything in a Disney fairytale movie! “Like it?” I heard her ask.

“It’s beautiful!” I told her as I looked up to view a beautiful red-headed lady with emerald green eyes like mine. Her eyes had a twinkle to them that said she was friendly but with just a hint of mischievousness concealed beneath. She seemed like a giant compared to my size, but I guessed she was probably under six feet tall. I recognized the voice as Caireen’s and knew this must be her. “Where are we?”

“Ireland,” she said with a smile, and I finally caught the accent I had somehow overlooked in all of the weirdness from the previous night.

“Are we really here?”

She shook her head, “This is real, but it’s in your dreams. There are some Native American tribes here in America that have similar ideas, but this is where I’ve always come to relax and meet with others in the past.” She paused.

“So… umm… Who or what exactly are you?” I asked.

She reached down and picked me up. I noticed I was wearing a beautiful green dress from sometime before the 1900s. Actually, it wasn’t too far removed from what Merida’s dress in Brave looked like. As she picked me up, I could still tell there was thicker underwear on me. I sighed at that.

She took her finger and brought my face to look up at hers, “Don’t be sad. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to get to that stage of maturity or not again myself, but even if you don’t, at least it looks normal for you to be wearing diapers.”

Caireen carried me towards the castle, and I once again asked, “Who are you?”

“Well, that’s complicated,” she stalled, “but I was known in ancient Ireland as the Goddess and Protector of Children.”

I sat there and mentally thought, ‘oh shit!’

“It’s okay, Sofia; I will not harm you.”

“Joining with you caused me to become a baby?” I asked timidly.

“No, you were on your way to that on your own. But, I sensed you calling for someone to help and couldn’t help but fall in love with the baby girl I saw you would become.” She smiled at me as we crossed through the gates of the castle.

“So…?”

“So I saw you needed my help to survive both your change and your future. I also saw that in doing so, you would help me save many children from suffering in the future. You are the kind of person I have encountered only a few times in my existence.”

“How long have you existed?” I asked her timidly.

She smiled, “You should know better than to ask a girl how old she is!” Her voice said she was amused and not angry… even though she didn’t answer the question.

As we passed through the castle, it felt weird that there were no people there, even though it appeared as if an army of servants were at work at all times maintaining it. She eventually reached a massive hall door and walked through with me. Next, she climbed a spiraling staircase that was terrifying to me in my current size. They seemed to go on forever. Eventually, she opened a wooden doorway that opened to a nursery. A round crib and other decorations for a baby in the past decorated the room. She then sat me down on a table that had to be a changing table.

“Hold your skirts here, sweetie,” she told me, and I had my view blocked by the very puffy skirts and underskirts. She unpinned the diapers and pinned a new one on me before setting me on the ground and joining me on a bearskin rug.

“So, what are we doing here?”

“Well, in the future, you and I will be doing some training here.”

“What kind of training?” I asked.

“Magic, of course, silly,” she told me while touching my nose affectionately. “There will be teachers for you in your world, especially if you can go to that school, Bechtel, but our magic operates differently from most of your kind. The only kind that is very similar is the Faerie.”

“The Faerie?” I asked.

We sat talking for what seemed a long time as she told me about the crazy world that existed out there. Eventually, she saw me sucking on my thumb and said, “Oh my dear, we’ve been going a long time. It’s time for you to take your nap!”

For the first time in my life, I didn’t remember arguing about a nap. She picked me up and laid me down in the pretty crib. “Sleep well, princess.”

I WOKE UP with sunlight coming into the room. I could tell it was extraordinarily bright due to the snow outside, which had mostly been a forgotten thing to me. I sat up and freaked out for a moment. ‘Why are there bars around me?’ I thought and then realized, ‘oh...’ I stood up and wondered what I should do when the door opened and Mom came in.

“Oh, so the sleepyhead decided to wake up finally?” She asked me.

“Huh?”

“It’s nearly eleven,” she told me.

“Really?”

“Your sister wanted to wake you up to play, but I told her you needed to recover.”

“I probably did,” I admitted. Then, I put my hands up in the air, “Can you get me out of this cage, please?”

She laughed. I noticed that the crib seemed taller than Lily’s old one by a couple inches. I could just graze the top of the rails with my fingertips, but I would have to jump to grab on. She reached down, picked me up, and immediately took me over to the changing table that had appeared last night. “You know I’m probably the only girl in existence that sleeps in a crib, but her baby sister doesn’t?”

Mom laughed at me again. “Do you think Caireen would let you sleep in a regular bed?”

‘No,’ I heard.

I sighed, “No, she won’t.”

“Well then… I guess that’ll just be the first thing your baby sister does before you.” She admitted as she unzipped my sleeper. “Sit up,” she said, and I was stripped from the outfit down to my diaper. My very wet diaper.

I sighed, “This is embarrassing.” As I woke up, it really was becoming increasingly annoying to me.

“Here, maybe this will help,” she said and put a pacifier in my mouth.

I would have loved to have claimed it wasn’t helping, but the truth was that it did. Mom quickly and efficiently changed me into a dry diaper and asked, “So, what do you want to wear today?”

I shrugged and said around the pacifier, “What are my options?” It sort of sounded like that was enough for Mom to interpret.

She picked me up and walked to the closet, where I learned Caireen had been very efficient. My entire wardrobe was filled with adorable dresses that I suspected would be sized perfectly for me. I noticed a green one that looked like the one in my dream last night, or whatever that was, and pointed at it. “Dat one!” She pulled the hanger down, and we discovered it had a matching diaper cover.

“Probably should have some tights too,” mom said and went looking for some tights to match in a dresser drawer that had obviously also been a target for Caireen. She looked for a few moments before deciding on a set of black tights. They had some sort of leaves in a shiny gold stitch embroidered.

Mom sat me back down on the changing table edge and began helping put my toes in the tights. Then, she had me lay back down before she pulled them the rest of the way up over my diaper and set me down on the ground. “Okay, let’s step into these panties,” she told me.

“Mom, it’s a diaper cover, not even real panties,” I groaned.

She smirked at me, “Well, at least between the tights and the cover, you might not have your diaper seen later?” I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Okay, now arms like a ballerina!” She smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but giggle a little that she kept saying that to make me smile. Once she lowered the dress onto my body, I discovered it had a petticoat built in to puff it out. Mom tied a bow on the sash in the back, then went back to the dresser for some ribbons, and had me sit on her lap in the rocking chair. She looked at my hair, trying to decide what to do. Finally, her hands took off and made a simple set of braided pigtails with bows.

“You just need a tiara,” Mom said with a smile as she looked at me.

‘I can’t see myself getting one of those...’ I thought to myself.

‘But of course, you will.’ I heard in my head.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I called you princess last night; that wasn’t the endearment term used here in your modern world.’

“What?” I asked, stunned, dropping my pacifier from my mouth.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Mom asked in alarm.

“Umm… just something Caireen said, Mom, don’t worry about it.”

‘So, I have a tiara in that world?’

‘Actually, you should have it here too; let me just bring it out.’

There was another flash, and then in my hands, I held a beautiful me-sized tiara. It looked to be a material like silver, but somehow, I guessed it wasn’t really silver… A large emerald rested in the middle, with two slightly smaller emeralds on either side. Intricate curves and flowers with pearls decorated the rest of it. Mom gasped.

“What is that?”

I sighed, “Apparently, you may call Lily and I ‘princesses’ mom, but I really AM a princess. Still trying to figure out how that one works, though.”

‘I have a feeling this is priceless?’

‘Yes, Sofia, it is very priceless. It has been in the royal family for forty-five of your human generations.’

‘You can tell me the story tonight?’ I asked.

‘Certainly, now try it on?’

I handed it to my mom, “Would you please put it on me?”

She held it for a moment and examined it. “This isn’t a toy, is it?”

I shook my head, “Caireen’s words were that it’s priceless.”

“Maybe we should just put it somewhere safe…?”

‘Tell your mother that as long as you have it on your head, it will never unwillingly come off. Also, it will reappear to you if it ever gets lost or stolen.’

‘Cool!’

“Mom, Caireen says don’t worry about it… basically, you can’t remove it from my head if I don’t want you to, and if someone does steal it, I’ll get it back later.”

“O...okay,” Mom said, and she did put it on me. She instantly gasped and hugged me. “You’re beautiful, sweetheart!”

“Can you take me to the bathroom so I can see?” I asked.

“Shoes first!” she said. She carried me to the closet on her hip and found some black Mary Janes that would go with the dress well. She set me down and helped me into them, picked me back up, and then I was standing in front of the mirror on the bathroom counter, looking at my reflection.

“Oh my god...dess,” I decided I should add the last part at this point.

‘You do look perfect, princess,’ I heard Caireen say.

I was the picture-perfect toddler and tiara girl, but I wasn’t fake with it. I looked like I legitimately belonged to a royal family and was being taken somewhere formal with the family. The tiara shone from my head, and I couldn’t help but smile at how pretty I was. I turned around and hugged Mom. “Thank you for doing my hair.”

“Well, in the future, we’ll have to do something different with your tiara. It’s not a formal enough style. Let’s go down and show your sister?” She asked me.

I kind of froze for a moment but nodded. “Lily’s going to be jealous, though,” I said.

“Not to worry,” Mom said as she carried me through my sister’s room and picked up one of her play tiaras. “She won’t notice the difference, I hope!”

She carried me downstairs to the first floor, where my sister was coloring in the living room with the TV on the toddler channel. Mom sat me down on my feet, and I walked over to Lily, “Hi, Lily,” I said, “whatcha coloring?”

“Just a princess picture,” she said and then looked up at me. I watched my sister’s mouth open. “You playing princess today?!?!” She asked excitedly and clapped her hands together.

“Sure,” I said. Mom placed her tiara on her head, and I couldn’t help but feel a little bad that hers wasn’t real. ‘No, don’t go doing anything, Caireen!’ I thought.

‘You’re no fun,’ she griped.

“You two can play for a few minutes, but we need to get lunch in your tummies!” Then, as if to emphasize it, my stomach growled.

Mom left me to Lily’s devices, and we practiced our curtseys until Mom called us. I walked into the kitchen and waited for her to put my sister in her high chair, and then she lifted me up. “I know you don’t want to wear a bib normally, Sofia… but that dress…?” Mom pleaded.

I turned red but nodded, “I don’t want to get it messy either!”

Mom smiled, returned with a bib covered in butterflies and flowers, and velcroed it around my neck. “What’s for lunch?” I asked her as she put one on my sister too.

“Grilled cheese,” Mom said.

She watched as I held the sandwich with my hands, which I hated doing, and began eating. I finished the first sandwich, and she looked at me incredulously before making me a second. “Where are you putting that?” She asked me.

I grimaced, “Probably in my diaper later.”

She laughed at me, sat me down on the ground, and pulled the bib off. Then, as she wiped my face with a wipe, she asked, “Do you need changed?”

I lifted my skirt, felt my diaper, and nodded. “Okay, let’s change the two baby girls and then maybe take a nap?”

“I’m not sleepy,” I told her honestly.

She whispered in my ear, “Maybe a pretend nap for your sister’s sake, and you can get on your phone?”

“Okay,” I said.

Mom grabbed a hand from each of us and led us up the stairs. Lily was changed, given her bottle, and then Mom closed the door. We walked to my room, and I just hoped Caireen had not gotten rid of my cell phone during her act yesterday.

‘I didn’t; I know how you teenagers are addicted to them.’ I could practically hear her shaking her head.

Mom quickly changed my diaper before she found my cell phone and sat me down in my crib. “Can you take my dress off, so I don’t wrinkle it?” I suggested.

‘Don’t worry, it won’t wrinkle,’ I heard.

I shrugged, “Never mind, apparently that won’t happen.”

Mom gave me a look. “At some point, you and I are going to have to have a talk Caireen.”

‘Tell her tonight we’ll talk,’ Caireen told me.

“I think that will happen tonight, Mom.”

“Okay,” she said. “Be quiet, and don’t get out of your crib until I come for you.”

“Okay, I be good girl!” I told her with a smile.

“You want a bottle too?”

I hesitated for a second and nodded. Mom returned a moment later with a bottle filled with milk and then closed the door. I got on my phone and sucked at the bottle for a while and then noticed I was kind of sleepy. So I lay down and wondered why I was tired after sleeping as long as I had!

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I always appreciate comments to know there are readers! Please leave me one if you’re enjoying this work so far!

For those who have read this before, I hope this is a smoother reading experience! There are lots of little changes and adjustments through the work. Let me know what you think!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted. I may do some more frequent postings if I end up with lots of comments or likes on a post too! ;-)

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 6: Playing Princess

I WOKE UP and played with Lily for the rest of the afternoon. Mom made my favorite meal of green chile enchiladas that night! I was nearly in tears, though, as I suddenly became much more sensitive to the green chile than before. It tasted really hot! Mom saw my face and brought milk in my sippy cup to help.

‘Why can’t I deal with spice now?’ I asked Caireen.

‘Why on Earth would you want to eat such disgusting things?’ She asked in reply.

‘You can’t ruin chile for me. I’ll never survive!!!!!’ I told her. I was an authentic New Mexican and regularly had the spiciest chile dishes I could get my hands on!

‘Well, then just get used to it again, I guess. Remember, in Ireland, we don’t really do spicy food.’

I made it through dinner with Mom, Dad, and even Lily, all laughing at me. Lily didn’t even have a problem with those mild enchiladas! Dad had looked at me in amazement when he walked in. He, too, was terrified of something happening to my tiara before I explained nothing could happen to it. Clearly, we were all in way over our heads, and I just hoped that nothing bad happened to my family members through all of this.

As soon as Mom let me down from the high chair, I thought about walking to the toilet just to try and see what would happen. I found myself squatting in place just a few steps after I was let down, though. I sniffled, “Mommy, can you change me?”

“Give me just a few minutes, sweetheart; I need to put this food away first.”

I stood still, trying not to move and make it squish and get worse. Suddenly I found myself squatting again, and I guess I wasn’t done… I looked for Lily and saw her in Dad’s arms as he was heading upstairs. “Sofia, do you want your diaper changed too?” He asked.

I nodded and did my best to follow him. I climbed up the giant steps one step at a time and felt the mushy poop roll against my legs several times. I finally climbed the stairs and saw Lily lying on the changing table. I had to keep from crying, so I put my thumb in my mouth. Daddy saved the day soon, though, and he worked to get through my diaper cover, tights, and pushed the skirt of my dress up. After all that movement, my diaper was smeared with the mess, trying to escape it. My climb and his attempts to undress me had just made it worse!

“Icky,” he said to me with a smile. “You stinky!”

I felt more tears going, and he said, “Oh, don’t go crying, Princess, you’re a baby. This is normal.” He tried reassuring me.

Daddy had to use many more wipes than Mom had the night before, partly because he rarely changed Lily’s diapers. Usually, that was Mom or me… ‘Guess he’s having to step in now...’ I sighed.

I felt a mental hug from Caireen, but she didn’t say anything. Daddy eventually had my new diaper on, tights in place, and the diaper cover on and sat me down on the floor. I went up to him and hugged him around his legs. “Thank you, Daddy,” I told him.

He squeezed me back and said, “Any time Princess.”

Lily came up then and pulled me downstairs to the Basement playroom. We played with a playhouse she had down there and pretended to make dinner and feed some baby dolls. I had fun just because I was spending time with my favorite sister. I was a little surprised I was having fun, though, pretending too. Still, I guessed the activity was novel enough that I wasn’t complaining. I had basically been an only child until a couple years ago, so I’d never had a sibling to play with. An hour later, Mom came down and said, “Bath time,” to us.

“Do we have to?” Lily asked.

“Yes, of course we do, Princess Lily; princesses can’t be dirty!” I told her with a smile. “Come on!”

She smiled at me, and I avoided the tantrum she probably would have had otherwise. I had a thought as we went upstairs, “Mommy, before I get undressed, would you please take a picture with my iPhone?”

She looked at me funny but said, “Sure…?” We went down the hallway with Lily in tow. Mom took a picture for me in my room in front of the rocking chair, then with me sitting in the rocking chair, and then at Lily’s insistence with her sitting with me.

Mom then undressed both of us, and we repeated last night’s bath before she let me again stay up for a while. I had picked out a purple nightgown that was in my closet. It looked like a modern-day little girl’s nightgown, complete with an embroidered picture of Merida on the chest. Still, I could tell it was another one of Caireen’s special clothes by the way the material felt on my skin.

I got on my phone and texted Jacob about some school things before sending Hannah the picture of me standing in front of the rocking chair. I’d completely forgotten most of the day that I was wearing my tiara! I giggled a little as I sent it to her with the caption, ‘Princess Sofia.’

‘OMG Adorbs!!!!!!’ she sent me.

‘Thanks,’ I replied.

‘That’s a beautiful dress and tiara,’ she added.

‘I know, they’re kind of special too. I told Jacob you guys could come over Tuesday after I get the testing done Monday...’

‘You haven’t told him yet?’

‘He seems to be guessing something like this… well, not like this.’

‘Giggle, no one could,’ she responded.

I eventually finished talking with her and went over to the child-sized desk that my computer now sat on. Mom had sat my tiara there, and I wanted to look at it. ‘What is this made of?’ I asked Caireen.

‘Mithril.’

‘Like from Lord of the Rings?’ I asked.

‘Tolkien had an encounter with some of the Faeries at some point. That’s where he got a lot of his ideas from. It’s an uncommon substance that’s very special. This tiara was gifted to me from Queen Nicneven herself back before the fall of the Faeries.’

‘Who was she?’

‘Later,’ she promised me, ‘we have a very long time to answer the billion questions you have, my dear.’

I went to my Snapchat account and decided it would be wise to delete it now. I backed it up last night just in case I wanted to do this. I then deleted all of my other social media accounts while I was at it. ‘The only social media I’ll probably be on for a while will be my mom’s ‘OMG my baby girl is pretty’ posts.’ So far, of course, she hadn’t done any of those!

I was just getting ready to do some more research into Mergents when my mom came in. “Sofia, it’s bedtime.” I looked, and it was ten. When I turned around, I saw that she held a bottle and another of Lily’s bedtime books in her hands.

I smiled at that, “Story time again?”

“Yep!” She smiled, “Do you need a change first?”

I had to nod, “I wish I knew when I was going. I just eventually notice that everything is squishy.”

Mom picked me up and changed me quickly before carrying me to the rocking chair. She sat me like she had last night, and I began nursing the warm milk while she told me a story of Merida this time. I felt a warm feeling coming from Caileen, and I had a feeling she liked this story too. I lasted a little longer into the story, but I still didn’t remember Mom putting me down in my crib.

I WOKE UP in another crib, this time at Caireen’s castle.

I saw her standing there looking at me. “Come here,” she told me, picked me up, and cuddled me for a moment. She changed my diaper and put me into a new dress that was once again mainly green. My tiara was added, and I asked, “So does this castle have a name?”

“Emerald Castle,” she said with a smile.

“I take it you like green?” I asked with a smile.

“It’s my favorite color,” she said. “Although I won’t hold your favorite color being purple against you!”

She sat down on the floor with me, and we talked for a little while before trumpets blared a fanfare. “That will be your parents,” she said with a smile.

“Huh?”

“Your mom wanted to talk, remember?” She said, “It’s easier to pull them into here and talk than to leave one of us out when I use you to talk.”

“Oh.”

We waited a few minutes when I was surprised to see a well-dressed page come in. “The Duke and Duchess Hammerstein to see you, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you, James,” she dismissed him.

I saw both of them looking around at my nursery with open mouths. “I do apologize for being so forward, but with Princess Sofia coming here each night, I thought it would be wise to get the nursery back in use.” She said, “I am Caireen,” she said with a smile.

“Why did he introduce us with titles?”

“Well, on your side of the family, Rachel, may I call you that?” She paused for Mom’s nod, “Your family is the descendent of one of the last rightful Irish Kings in the 1700s. On Levi’s side, you are actually also descendants of a bloodline in Germany.”

“Oh,” Mom said. “So... that’s too long ago, though… why?”

Caireen sighed, picked me up, and said, “Let’s go somewhere more comfortable for sitting?”

They nodded and followed her to another door that opened into a beautiful sitting room that would fit right in a Louis XIV chateau. She pointed to a sofa and took her spot in a sitting chair beside it. Caireen looked at me, and I stayed contentedly in her arms.

“Okay, you’ve been very patient, and I appreciate it.” She told my parents with a smile. Sitting on her left knee, I could easily see her and my parents by swiveling my head a little. “First, please don’t be frightened, but I am not a mortal or a simple spirit. I am, in fact, what you would call a goddess.”

Mom spoke up, “I wondered. I searched your name after I learned it last night.”

“I know,” she said with a smile.

“Of what?” Dad asked.

“Generally, of children.”

“Is that why Nicholas became a baby?” He asked.

She shook her head, “I told Sofia about this last night, but here goes. She had already had her EFP set when she began changing. I was drawn to her because of her gentle and loving nature. I was impressed by how she had always cared for her baby sister. I’ve never seen a young man be more nurturing and caring with a baby! When I saw that he was changing so severely, I knew he was in danger of dying due to a severe case of what your people call ‘burnout.’ It was much too severe of a change, happening too quickly for him to survive. I knew she was becoming a toddler all over again and decided that I could help her and she would be able to help others in the future. The avatar talent that she has bound me to her, though… I wasn’t expecting that! She’s exceptionally powerful there!”

Mom and Dad just politely looked on at her to go on. “Anyway, the two of us will be bound together until Sofia passes from this Earth. A time which I believe will probably be a very long way down the road.”

“So how does this turn her fully into a princess?” Mom asked.

“Well, essentially, she’s become my daughter now too.” She noticed Mom and Dad looking nervously at her, “Don’t worry, I will never ever take her from you.”

“What do you intend to do with her?” Dad asked.

“I’m going to help her become an amazing girl with a magical talent few will be able to match. I’ll be with her to help her when she’s hurt, help her fight the battles ahead, and generally be her mentor. Unfortunately, I may occasionally be unable to help myself and have to throw in real-world gifts here and there… Sorry I couldn’t help myself last night and today.”

“We appreciate the gifts,” Mom said, “I didn’t really want to travel into the city until we get her tested.”

“A wise idea, I believe. Having a quiet weekend with your two daughters at home playing would be the best plan you could have.”

“What should we do after that?” Dad asked.

“Honestly?” Caireen responded, “I think Sofia would best be served by going to that Bechtel school for her education. I’m hopeful they’ll accept her when they see her testing.”

“What about her age? Will she ever grow up?” Mom asked.

Caireen shrugged, “Like I said, her EFP was set before I even got involved. I’m guessing she’ll be this size and have the same needs for the rest of her life. She’s powerful enough she should be able to do some spells to make her life a little bit easier down the road. Glamour spells to make her seem like she’s a teenager, some others to mask the odor of a poopy diaper, and down the road, probably one to change her diaper too…?”

“The pacifier addiction?” Mom asked.

Caireen laughed, “I have no clue how we’re going to break her of that. She managed a couple hours today while she was playing with Lily. It’s possible that if she’s distracted enough, she can do without. Any time she gets nervous or frustrated, she needs it like a smoker needs a cigarette!”

By this time, I started to feel my eyes drooping. My parents and Caireen must have continued talking through the night, but the next day I couldn’t remember anything after that.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++




Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I love to know what my readers are thinking with a comment too!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 7: Testing

MOM WOKE ME the following day, and life began again. I managed to find time between playing with Lily to work on my homework and catching up with the stuff I missed Friday. Sunday, Hannah came over and oohed and awed about my tiara and nursery. Sometime during all of this, Lily began to notice that I had a few more baby things, like a crib and started asking if she was going to be the big sister from now on. I just groaned.

‘I guess I’m going to have to accept that...’ I admitted to myself.

Before I knew it, Monday had come!

Lily and I were in our car seats with Dad driving and Mom up front. Due to the secret nature of a lot of the work at Los Alamos National Labs, the lab set up a testing facility in town for any personnel with kids that emerged. Mom changed our diapers before we walked in, with Dad carrying Lily and Mom carrying me.

It seemed like walking into a doctor’s office to me as we approached a receptionist. “Do you have an appointment?” She asked.

“Yes.”

“Name?”

“Nicholas Hammerstein,” she said.

“Where is Nicholas?” She asked.

Mom patted my back, “Right here.”

She stared for a moment before saying, “Whoa… that’s different!” She shook her head and then said, “Okay, please fill out this questionnaire, and we’ll be calling… her back shortly.”

We sat and filled out the forms together, essentially telling them the various things that had changed about me, symptoms of powers, etc. Under ‘Any New Disabilities,’ we wrote down incontinence. Embarrassing! About fifteen minutes after our appointment, they called, “Nicholas Hammerstein?”

Mom walked with me and quietly asked, “May I go back with her?”

He hesitated for a moment as he looked at me but shook his head, “Sorry, he’s originally eighteen, correct?”

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

“In that case, you’ll have to wait outside. I promise we’ll take good care of her.”

“Okay then,” Mom said, hugging me, “good luck.”

“Thanks,” I said.

I followed the gentleman dressed in military fatigues into an examination room that looked like a standard doctor’s office. “I’m Lieutenant Commander Fields. Let’s get you weighed and measured,” he said.

“Okay,” I responded.

Before he began interviewing me, we went through a typical doctor’s exam, including blood work. “So basically, when you emerged, your EFP turned you into a two-year-old baby girl?” He asked.

I nodded.

“Well, this is a first for me, maybe anywhere for that matter... I’m sure this has got to be really hard on you. So your survey states you cannot control your bladder or bowel movements?”

I shook my head, “And I have some really weird needs and addictions to things like pacifiers,” I told him about a few other things too.

“Well, let’s get going on the tests then. I have some staff members who will test you on different things for your levels for your EID card.”

The first room they led me to had a table of electronic components, gears, and other things sitting in various piles. The tester sat me down on the table so I could reach them. I played with them for about ten minutes. I probably looked like a typical two-year-old playing while trying to see how they went together. Still, I couldn’t make anything useful from the parts.

“Okay then,” the tester said as he opened a door and led me back down a hallway. “Did you bring a more practical set of clothing?” He asked.

I looked down and thought a dress probably wasn’t the most practical clothing. “Oh… umm…”

‘I’ll take care of it,’ Caireen said.

In a flash, my dress changed to an emerald-colored leotard with a tutu attached. ‘Really? A tutu?’ I groaned at her. I could feel the edges of my diaper sticking through the bottom of the leotard, showing it off. I also knew I had to look as adorable as my sister going to her beginning ballet class each week.

I sensed laughter from her.

“That’ll work, I guess,” the tester allowed with a smirk.

I was led into a room, and he simply said, “Do your best to not get hit and avoid the balls.”

That was his only instruction. So I sat there for several moments before hearing a pop from behind me and ducked just in time to see a rubber ball flying past me. After that, it seemed like they came non-stop. Somehow though, I could just sense them before they arrived, and I kept dodging for a long while before I finally got hit.

“Very good,” the tester said when he returned for me. “Let’s get the rest of the physical tests done.”

I thought for a moment about a feeling in my stomach and groaned. Then, without having any control over it, I squatted and messed my diaper. “Can I get a diaper change first?” I said with a whine and a groan.

He looked at me in shock and said… “Umm… just a minute. Let me… uh… Let me go ask what we should do.”

I stood in that spot with a poopy diaper, made worse by the leotard smushing it, for about ten minutes before Mom came in with the diaper bag. Finally, she picked me up, “Where should I change her?”

The man led her to a medical room where she lay me on the table. She giggled as she did so, “You realize your poopy diapee just about broke that poor man.”

“Huh?” I asked, sniffling, trying not to cry over the sticky state of my bottom as she popped some snaps that were in the crotch of my leotard.

“I don’t think they’ve ever had a two-year-old Mergent before… And I’m certain if they did, they were potty-trained,” Mom’s eyes twinkled.

I groaned and did my best not to cry or beg for my pacifier. I wanted to seem a little more grown up, so I had intentionally left it with Mom in our diaper bag... One poopy diaper certainly ruined any hope of that image!

“By the way, you look adorable in this leotard and tutu!”

After a few minutes of mom magic, she had me cleaned up and ready to move on with the rest of the testing. “All done?” a different tester asked as Mom returned me to where I was.

“Yes,” I said.

“Ma’am, if you’ll please go back out to the lobby… we’ll come to get you if she needs another change; otherwise, please wait there.” Mom sighed but turned and left while I followed the tester to a massive room with an obstacle course of ropes, beams, bars, and other things.

It was like the world’s largest playground in my mind as the lady described the path. It was really intimidating and scary with its massive size! I began thinking of it like a playground and just started running. I’m sure there were probably some stunned looks as I completed it in a respectable time, even with my size! While going through it, I discovered I could now leap some large distances. Combined with the strength I already had found, it meant I really was only held back by my short legs. I certainly wasn’t a speedster, but I could probably make it faster through the course than an average human.

This lady verified my lack of speed ability by setting me on a treadmill next. A ten-minute mile wasn’t too bad for a two-year-old, I thought! So I kept running for four miles before she told me I could stop.

“Okay, final physical test,” she told me skeptically as she took me to a weird weight setup. “We’re looking for single max reps,” she started the machine at my weight of twenty pounds.

“I can do this all day,” I told her as I pushed up. “You sure there’s my weight on there?

“Yes… let’s bump it up.”

We sat there for a long while, probably longer than necessary due to her caution, before I finally said we’d hit my limit after doing 550 pounds. “This should be impossible…” she told me.

“I know, right?” I shook my head. “Believe me, when you’re an eighteen-year-old thrown into the body of a two-year-old baby girl who’s not potty trained… it’s starting to seem less impossible!”

She laughed. “Speaking of which, do you need a change?”

I felt my diaper and sheepishly nodded. Whether it was pee or sweat, I did. “Can you get my Mom?”

“Or I could just change you?” She suggested. “I have one of my daughter’s diapers in my bag over there.”

I groaned but decided it would speed things up. “I guess…”

She returned from her bag by a desk with a different diaper brand but the correct size. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“Lara,” she said.

“Thank you for changing me,” I said as she finished.

“You’re welcome, sweetheart. I understand you changed your clothes yourself earlier?”

I nodded, “Sort of… that was Caireen.”

“Who is she?”

I was cautious, “She’s a spirit that I bonded with.”

“Diapers beyond her?”

“I don’t know; she and I need to have that conversation, though.” I noticed she was staying silent.

‘So?’

‘I can do it… but I’d rather you be dependent on your mom or another adult like a normal baby for now.’

“Apparently, she’s choosing not to,” I told Lara.

“If you want to get back dressed to regular clothes, we’re done with the sweaty portions.”

‘Please?’ I asked Caireen.

A moment later, I wasn’t dressed in the outfit from this morning, but instead, the first emerald dress from a few days ago. I could feel the tiara had also made its way back onto my head. ‘Any reason?’

‘I think they’ll take a picture later; honestly, this would be a good costume for you.’

“You’re so adorable!” Lara let out a squeal before looking a bit sheepish. Seeing her act like that with her lab coat on was funny.

“I know…” I sighed. “So, where to next?”

She led me to another tester that tested my magic ability with several crystals and other devices. Things kept happening with every test, so I’m pretty sure the tester was impressed. Finally, I was asked some questions and described seeing the lines and being able to interact with them. “Whoa…” He said, and I guessed that was a big deal.

“Now, about this spirit, you bonded with?”

‘Should I be honest?’ I asked.

‘Yes, in this case,’ Caireen responded.

“She’s not really a spirit... “I started, “she’s actually a goddess.”

I watched the blood drain from the guy’s face as he kept making notes on his tablet. “Her name?”

“Caireen.”

“Culture?”

“Irish.”

I watched as he searched for several minutes, and then he asked a dozen more other questions. Finally, he sat down his tablet, “Okay… let me take you to the last stop.”

The final part of the testing was my regeneration. Those doctors started by pricking my finger and eventually making cuts on my arm that healed quickly. This sucked, as it hurt! I really wanted my pacifier by the time he was done cutting me. However, each time it didn’t take too long for the wound to heal. Finally, when they wanted to cut off one of my fingers, I said, “No more!”

They made some final notes before I was again led to an office with Lieutenant Commander Fields. “Okay, you want your new name to be Sofia Elizabeth Hammerstein, correct?”

I nodded.

“Okay, just to explain a few things to you. Due to your father’s work for the lab, you’re being given a Government Emergent ID card instead of a standard EID. Quite frankly, it can save you a lot of hassle from the EPC.” He shook his head in disdain at that organization. “On your card, I’m listing your actual birthdate and age of 18, as well as your apparent age of two years old.”

I grimaced, “So, which am I legally?”

“Both,” he said with a smile. “I guess your parents can take advantage of free admission and kid’s meal pricing at many places with you! But, in theory, you could get your driver’s license if you get a car adapted to your size.”

“Cool!” I said. “Somehow, I don’t think my parents will go for that anytime soon.”

“I can understand that,” he paused, “You’d probably get pulled over by the police every other block!” He laughed, and I giggled a little bit at that picture. “I’d like you to review the information we’re placing in your file, but there’s one more thing we’ll need, and that’s a code name.”

I thought for a moment and responded, “Emerald Baby.”

“You don’t think that might be a problem name?”

I shook my head, “I’m a baby, probably for the rest of my life. If I embrace the nickname, maybe I’ll get less grief for it.”

“Fair enough.” He smiled, “Okay, this will all be listed in our file. However, none of this information will show on your card. We choose not to share everything with the EPC if we can avoid it.”

“Okay,” I said as I looked at the tablet screen, he showed me.

GOVERNMENT EID 99-382385-3928-5
Name: Sofia Elizabeth Hammerstein
Code Name: Emerald Baby
Birth Date: 11-3-1997
Apparent Age: 2 Years
Height: 35” Weight: 20lbs
Avatar: Level 5, Esens: Level 3, Regen: Level 3, Magic: Level 4+, Paradigm: Level 4

Legally recognized as both original birth age and apparent age per her requests.

Additional information was stored about Caireen in the database but not listed on the card itself. A picture of me in my ‘costume’ was also on the card. “Okay, now for some of the ground rules. You must always have this card with you to show the EPC - if you don’t, they will arrest you. Keep in mind that with your size, I really don’t think you want to be dealing with them any more than you have to.

“Do they have any way of recognizing me as a Mergent on sight?” I asked, curious.

“Facial scanners will pick you up now that you’re in the system. Also, sweetie, I hate to tell you - those beautiful emerald eyes of yours just aren’t quite natural.”

I nodded. “Am I done now?”

“Yes, you are,” he handed me a packet of information on some other laws and resources. “Follow that hallway, and it’ll lead you to your family.”

I skipped out of there, so happy to be done!

I leaped up to Mom when I saw her and showed her my card. “Good, glad we have that done!” Mom said. “Do you need changed? It’s been a long time?”

I thought about it, “Probably, but I was changed again by a nice lady who was testing me.” I told her. “May I please have my pacifier?” I asked in my next breath with the voice of an addict.

Mom smiled and put one in my mouth before finding a bathroom where she could change me. I felt really embarrassed as another teenage Mergent with fur on her arms came in and went to the bathroom while mom had me on the changing table. She smiled at me, though, probably thinking I was an ordinary baby girl. After she had me changed, Mom helped me put my coat on before I was reunited with my dad and sister in the car. They had to leave the waiting area because Lily was getting bored and started to cause a scene.

“All done?” Dad asked me as Mom buckled me into my seat.

“Uh-huh.”

We waited until we drove home and were inside on the couch before they started asking me about the testing. “I can’t believe I pooped my diaper there…?” I wrinkled my nose.

“Sweetie, your body is a two-year-old’s body. Trust me, you’ll go poopy at the most embarrassing times!”

“I wish Caireen would just change me or teach me a spell to do so, though!”

Mom laughed, “She said she would eventually last night when we talked to her.”

“She did?”

“You were asleep by then.” Mom told me.

“Oh.”

“So how did the rest of the testing go besides your poopy diapee?” Mom asked with a smirk.

I was half tempted to throw my pacifier at her that I had a death grip on, but I thought better of that. “Do you really want to know it all?” I asked hesitantly.

Mom and Dad nodded.

“Okay…. Well, they started by showing me a bunch of electronic junk parts that apparently were supposed to do something. Don’t ask me what!” I said, a little embarrassed, “After a while, they decided I was clueless. So they asked me if I had another change of clothes, and Caireen changed me into that leotard and tutu.”

Mom grinned, “You looked soooooo cute!”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “I always look cute!”

Lily laughed at that. She was sitting in Dad’s lap right then while I was sitting on the opposite side of the couch from Mom so I could look at everyone.

“You do,” Mom agreed. “As does Princess Lily,” she smiled at my sister to keep her from feeling left out.

“Anyway,” I said with some exaggeration, “they took me into a room and didn’t really tell me what was going on other than, ‘dodge the balls.’” I paused for a drink out of the sippy cup of juice I was holding in my other hand. “It took them a while, I have a feeling they were re-calibrating it for my height or something, but I sensed a ball coming and dodged it. A lot more followed before I finally got hit when there was a lot in the air at once.”

“What was that supposed to test?” Mom asked.

“Danger sense and being able to tell the future or something,” I told her.

“After that, he was going to take me to the next test when I embarrassed myself… So after you changed me, I was taken into this huge rope and obstacle course room. I didn’t think I could do anything with it due to my size, but it was no problem at all. In fact, besides the parts where running happened, and my legs don’t give me a long stride, I apparently did pretty well above average.”

“You got to play?” Lili asked jealously.

“Sort of, Lily,” I told her, “It wasn’t a lot of fun, though,” I lied to her. “They had me run on a treadmill then. I’ve slowed down there as I’m only running a ten-minute mile… but I guess for my height, that’s pretty good.”

Dad nodded, “I think you’re probably much faster than any other two-year-old!”

“Well, and I was able to run the distance too. I think they had me run like four miles without stopping.”

“What else did they do?” Dad asked.

“Well, they ran me through a bench press test.”

“How much?” He asked. He had sensed my smile.

“550 pounds,” I said with a smile.

Dad whistled, and Mom looked a little uneasy. “How is that even physically possible, I wonder…?” Dad said thoughtfully. “Within all reason, a twenty-pound body should never be able to do that…?”

“They were just as confused, Dad,” I smiled. “The lady there was nice enough to change me then, and Caireen switched my clothes back out to this dress. Apparently, she wanted me to look good for the picture on my card,” I felt her mentally smirk and nod to me. “They then did some magic tests. I guess I’m a weirdo there, too, because I got the impression that they couldn’t test higher than that.” I debated about the healing test but said, “Then they tested my regeneration.” Dad flinched at that; he apparently knew what they did. Mom looked a little lost. “They tested how well I could heal from cuts.”

“They cut you?!?!?” Mom asked, concerned.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Please consider leaving a comment just so I can see your thoughts on this story on this board!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 8: Visitors

“YOU CAN’T EVEN tell,” I said as I showed her the underside of my wrist where they tried. She spent several nervous moments examining it before agreeing. “Apparently, I have some regen ability too.”

“So what did they list your powers as?” Dad asked quickly to change the subject.

“Well, I’m an Avatar Level 5 since I am hosting Caireen. I think that might be higher, but that’s what he put down. Apparently, from the ball attack test, they decided I’m an Esens Level 3. I have Level 3 Regen healing abilities, I’m a Level 4 Paradigm, and they put down 4 plus for my Magic skills.”

Dad whistled again, “They ran out of tests with you then on the magic skills. You’re probably at a higher ability level than any of the people I have working with me.” I could see some wheels turning in his head, “Rachel, we really need to send her to Bechtel.”

Mom nodded, “They were talking about sending someone out to see us when I called them earlier.”

“Sending someone out?” I asked, surprised, “Isn’t that really expensive for a school?”

“Depends on who you’re talking about, sweetie. In their case, they may have a teleporter that can bring the person on out without even getting on a plane or wasting too much time.” Dad said.

Right then, Mom’s cell phone began to ring. “Hello? This is she.” I heard her say some uh-huhs and such for several moments before she said, “Okay, tonight at eight would be fine for us.” She ended the call and looked at me, “Apparently, they saw something on your testing that bumped up their interview. So they’ll be here at eight.”

I looked at the clock and saw it was almost four. I had missed lunch and was suddenly starving. “I’m hungry…”

Mom laughed, “Tell you what, why don’t we go out to eat?”

“Okay,” I said. Mom picked me up and told Dad, “You’re on diaper duty with Lily, honey.”

He stood up with Lily without a word, and we were both taken to our rooms to be changed. “You know, you two would be sharing a room in most houses? That way, we only had to keep track of one changing table,” she said as she looked down underneath, “We’re going to have to go buy you some more diapers.”

I just sucked on the pacifier that had reattached itself to my face and nodded. Mom, had me changed quickly and asked, “Do you want a less conspicuous outfit on now?”

I thought about it for a second and nodded. ‘I hope you don’t mind, Caireen,’ I said.

I felt her laugh, ‘Go for blending in.’

Mom picked out a purple one-piece romper with hearts and flowers on the front and quickly undressed and redressed me. “We need to figure out how you’ll keep your GEID on you, sweetheart.”

I nodded… I didn’t know where though. ‘Caireen, you have any way for me to keep it on me? I’m a little worried about losing it since most of my clothing isn’t about storing stuff...’

‘Here,’ she said, and a cute purple purse decorated with Princess Sofia appeared.

‘Huh?’

‘Put your GEID in there,’ she insisted.

“Mom, can you hand my GEID to me?” I asked. She was, of course, staring at me again.

“Here,” she said.

I placed it inside there and asked, ‘Now what?’

‘Think ‘put away,” she told me.

I did, and it vanished. ‘How do I get it back?’

‘Just imagine it back in your hand.’

I did so and then put it away a few times before realizing Mom was glaring at me. “Sorry, Caireen was giving me a lesson and helping me put it somewhere safe.”

“Okay, Princess, let’s go then,” she said, a little bit on the cranky side herself. I hoped she would get to be in a better mood. Mom held the diaper bag on her shoulder while she carried me, and Dad had Lily still. When both of us were strapped in our car seats, we headed off to our favorite restaurant in town. We walked into the restaurant and were greeted by the hostess.

“How many?”

“Two adults and two high chairs please,” Mom said.

I refrained from glaring at her since we’d talked about this. I’d have a bib on, too, I was sure. My only real question was how I would get enough to eat! Mom and dad set us in the wooden highchairs that sat on opposite sides of the table, and then Mom sat next to me while Dad sat next to Lily. “Here you go, sweetie,” the lady said as she put a coloring mat in front of us that I could just reach. I felt Mom push me in a little bit farther to help.

“Twins?” The lady asked, confused.

“No, she’s older,” Mom pointed to me. “Just hasn’t started really growing yet,” Mom added.

“They’re adorable! Your waitress will be right with you.”

Mom and I quietly talked about what to order me. She didn’t really think I should have a full adult meal, but I wore her down. Finally, she agreed to order a combination plate (chile relleno, taco, shredded beef enchilada, and cheese enchilada) for me to split with my sister. She would only want the taco, and a little bit of the beans and rice Mom knew. I admitted my wimpy new status when I agreed that green chile on the side was a better plan than smothering the plate. Once she had taken our orders, Mom asked her to fill our sippy cups with milk and then put bibs on both of us.

I was sitting like that when I saw Jacob come in with his family.

“Oh no,” I said quietly to Mom, “Jacob is here!”

“Relax,” Mom told me.

I sucked on my pacifier fervently as he saw us and looked obviously for the missing person, me.

“Hi, Mrs. Hammerstein, Doctor Hammerstein,” he said. “Where’s Nick?”

“He’s still at home sick,” Mom said smoothly with a smile, “he’s going to be out for a while, I’m afraid.”

“That’s too bad… any chance I could stop by and see him?”

“Why don’t you and Hannah come by tomorrow after school?” Mom suggested. Jacob had a car and had long been designated as our trio’s taxi driver.

“Okay, sounds good,” he said, staring at Lily and me. Then, as he looked at me, he asked, “Who’s the other baby?”

“Oh, that’s Sofia. She’s a friend of Lily’s that we had over today while her Mom does some shopping in Albuquerque.”

“Okay,” He said. “Anyway, I’d better go join my parents; tell Nick we’ll see him tomorrow and bring his homework.”

“Thanks, Jacob!” Mom said.

“See, it’s all fine,” she said after he left.

“No, it’s not,” I said, trying not to cry.

“What do you mean?”

“I pooped my diaper again. And in front of one of my best friends!”

Mom laughed, picked me up, the diaper bag up, and told Dad, “We’ll be right back. Someone is a poopie pants.”

I was so embarrassed to have my diaper changed in a bathroom with a long line of ladies and girls waiting for the stalls, but a clean diaper was worth it, I guess.

Mom carried me back and placed me in the high chair just before the food arrived. After she split off my sisters’ portion, she left the main plate in front of me. There were a few stares from the waitress as she came by and saw my devouring the plate. Mom had been thoughtful enough to provide me with the miniaturized silverware I made the other day. “I can’t believe she ate all of that,” the lady said as she dropped off the check.

I smiled.

“How is she so tiny?”

“High metabolism,” Mom said and kind of glared at me. We would probably have this problem regularly, so she would have to deal with it. As it was, I was still hungry! On our way out, Mom stopped in the bathroom to change Lily and decided she could skip me until we got home for me.

I thought we were heading home, but instead, we stopped at Smiths. “Honey, do you want to stay in the car with the girls while I make a quick stop inside?” She asked Dad. “I need to buy Sofia some more diapers and probably some more wipes and stuff for both the girls.”

He nodded, and I watched Tangled on the car’s DVD player with Lily to kill time. Mom came back out to the car not too much later with a large box of diapers and a couple of sacks of stuff that she put in the back.

I was glad to have been spared the embarrassment of going inside to purchase diapers for me!

“Come play!” Lily demanded when we got home at seven.

“Okay, until our visitor gets here,” I told her.

“Actually, I’ll be giving her a bath at 7:30, so you have thirty minutes,” Mom told us.

“Sorry, Lily, I promise I’ll play with you all morning tomorrow!” I said, as I knew today had to have sucked for her.

“Pwomise?” she asked.

“Pwomise,” I smiled and said right back the same way.

In the end, we sat and fed a couple of baby dolls. Their clothes and diapers had been changed before Mom came for her to get her in the bath. Mom had just finished putting Lily to bed when there was a quiet knock outside our front door, precisely at 8pm.

“Is this the Hammerstein residence?” a woman’s voice asked.

“Yes, I’m Doctor Hammerstein,” Dad said, “I assume you’re from Bechtel?”

“Yes, we are. My name is Talia Hensley; I’m the Headmistress for Bechtel Preparatory School. This is Catherine Raspin, one of our mystic arts faculty members and the head of our junior high program.”

“Please come in,” he said. I was sitting on the couch waiting for them nervously when they came up. I jumped down.

“And who is this pretty little girl?” the lady who hadn’t spoken asked.

“Sofia Hammerstein,” I said and curtseyed. I hadn’t planned on it, but it seemed appropriate, “How do you do?”

“Wait a second,” she said, and her eyes opened. “This is the young lady we’re here to see?” She asked Mrs. Hensley.

“You can see why I asked you?” she replied.

“I can’t handle another one!!!” she told her in a soft but scared voice.

“I promise I don’t think she’ll be like the others you had,” she said with a smile. “She doesn’t need to go stealing manna everywhere.”

“Where are our manners? Please sit down. May I get you anything?” Dad said nervously. “My wife will be right down; she’s just putting our youngest to bed.”

“I’ll take a glass of water,” Mrs. Hensley said, and Mrs. Raspin agreed. I felt they did that just to give him a way out.

When they came in, I forced the pacifier from my mouth, but it was still clutched in my hand. I tried to put it on the couch behind me but couldn’t release it.

“So, Sofia, what can you tell us about yourself?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

“Well, until last week, I was a skinny eighteen-year-old boy… I liked playing in a band and did well in my classes, like most kids at LAHS. I just tested for my second-degree black belt last week in Tae Kwon Do...” She nodded. “I also really loved helping care for my baby sister Lily - kind of hard to do now.” I paused and politely asked, “May I ask why you came so soon to see me?” Then, after a second, “And how’d you get here?”

Mom came in right then, and Dad returned with the glasses in hand, too, “Hi, I’m Rachel Hammerstein,” Mom introduced herself. “Talia Hensley,” Mrs. Hensley stood and extended her hand. “And this is Catherine Raspin,” she added as Mom shook her hand before coming to the couch where I was sitting, picking me up, and plopping me on her lap.

I sighed, “So?”

Mrs. Hensley smiled, “You’re a driven individual, aren’t you? Well, you’ll definitely need that. I came so soon because the head of the testing lab called me and explained your situation. He seems worried you are extraordinarily powerful and may stand out a bit.”

I blushed, “How can a baby stand out?”

“Your size is certainly among the more unique emerges I’ve seen!” She laughed, then added, “But, in my experience, I doubt that will hold you back in the future? Just how much…?” she seemed to be fighting for words.

“I think what Mrs. Hensley is trying to ask is this, how much do you act like a baby?” Mrs. Raspin prompted.

I really blushed then. Mom answered before I could, “The diapers are something I don’t think she will be able to help. As far as I can tell she lacks any potty-training readiness that they tell you to look for in babies. I think she’s behind the age they figure she is for that. Besides that, she behaves like she did as a teenager. The only real babyish thing that she can’t seem to escape is a need for her pacifier,” Mom said while holding my hand up that was keeping it in a death grip.

“Intelligence hasn’t changed, and maturity hasn’t changed?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

“Not that I’ve seen. Sofia’s played with her sister and might be enjoying it more, but that may be because she knows it looks normal now.” Mom said.

“Can she take care of her own needs?” Mrs. Raspin asked.

I cringed as the conversation continued around me like I wasn’t even there… Finally, I jumped in myself to respond, “Well, I can change my clothes magically and normally still,” I answered. “Diaper changes seem to be the one thing I have to depend on others for so far. Caireen indicated she’ll eventually teach me to do it with magic. Still, she wants me to get into the role first or something.”

I felt her nod before she said, ‘I will teach you the magic to change yourself in a few months.’

I sighed, “She said in a few months she’ll teach me that.”

“Okay, so when would you want to send her out to us?” Mrs. Hensley asked my parents.

“She’s accepted?” Dad asked in surprise.

“Oh, most definitely. We’ll have to deal with the logistics of having a toddler as a student, but I think she’ll do very well at Bechtel. Besides the oddity of her transformation, she is very much what we look for in a student who will excel at Bechtel.”

“What grade would I be in?” I asked timidly. “Assuming you run the school by grades?”

Mrs. Hensley sighed, “I don’t honestly know yet. I brought Mrs. Raspin with me because she has had several young ladies as junior high students for the last ten years. Currently, she has five that she takes care of. Unfortunately, our institution has no elementary or preschool for us to even consider those options. I looked at the transcripts your Mom faxed us over the weekend, and I think you would normally be listed as a sophomore on entry to our school.”

“I have to go back two grades?” I groaned.

“Would it be better to go ahead and have her be in the junior high?” Mom asked. I glared at her as she was not helping!

Mrs. Hensley said, “Maybe, but I think the high school level is where all of her classes will be, so we might do well to consider her a high schooler. Or maybe we’ll consider her an eighth-grader to finish out the year...? I don’t think she’s going to grow, so it’s not like waiting for her to get older will do any good. I’ll probably try and find a high school junior to pair her up with.”

“And changes?” Mom asked.

“I’m going to look into our best options for her.”

‘You’ll need space for a crib,’ Caireen told me.

‘Really?!?’

‘Yes baby, that won’t change.’

I sighed. “Caireen says I need space for a crib in my room instead of a normal bed.”

“She’s the goddess that you’ve bonded with, correct?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

“May I speak with her?” She asked.

I said, ‘All yours,’ to Caireen and felt her take over.

“Good evening, I am Caireen,” I heard her say through me.

“Good evening, Your Majesty,” Mrs. Hensley said. “I assume you know all of what we spoke about?”

“Yes, ma’am, I do.”

“Do you foresee any issues with Sofia coming to our school?”

“No, she should be more than fine. I will ask that you either provide a crib and changing table for her, or I can create them when we get there. She will need an older student or adult to help her several times through the day.”

“You won’t help her with that?”

“No, I believe it’s in her best interest to learn to blend in by being just as needy as any two-year-old is.”

Mrs. Hensley looked thoughtful, “Okay, would you let Sofia rejoin us?”

I came back from the closet it seemed like, “Yes, ma’am?”

“Would you be okay if I assign an older student as a big sister/caregiver?”

I sighed, “I hope I don’t regret it, but I should be fine.”

“Okay, I have a student in mind in Trident House that should do well. She’s a junior, so she’ll be able to be around next year too.”

“So, when do I come?” I asked nervously.

“Well, after Christmas Break seems wise right now. You have a month and a half to get used to things before coming out.”

“Will she be safe around here that long?” Dad asked her.

“I’m not sure, honestly. If it seems like it would be better for Sofia to come out sooner, please let me know. We can get her in sooner, but we probably should have a lot of pieces in place first. Not least of which are Caireen’s requests.” She paused, “Best bet is to pretend she is a normal two-year-old anytime you’re away. Any magic should be done only under Caireen’s supervision and keep a low profile.”

‘Should be easy enough...’ I thought sadly.

‘Don’t be so sure...’ Caireen said, and I thought I could detect some worry.

“Well, I guess we should be going. Please call this number immediately if we need to take Sofia sooner.” Mrs. Hensley said, handing her a card, “It’ll get to me no matter what, and we can make emergency arrangements.”

“Thank you for coming to see us.” Mom said to her.

“Our pleasure,” Mrs. Raspin said, “I look forward to seeing you at school, Sofia. You’re going to turn a lot of heads!”

Once they were out the door, Mom said, “Okay, bath time,” and, without hesitation, picked me up and carried me upstairs. She started the bathwater, stripped me, and washed me quickly. “What time is it?” I wondered suddenly.

“Ten,” she answered, “Time for baby girls to be in bed,” she said as she dried my hair.

“Oh.”

Mom took the time to heat up a bottle and fed me like the previous nights. It had been a long day, and I went to sleep during another story before it had even really begun.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading! I do appreciate the Kudos(Likes) as well, but it’s nice to hear what my readers are thinking!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 9: Playtime

I WOKE UP in the castle crib with Caireen standing over me.

“There’s my baby girl,” she said with a smile.

“Hi,” I said timidly.

“Let’s get you changed and going for the day!” She told me with a smile.

She changed the soaked diaper and then dressed me in a pale-yellow dress before setting me down on the ground facing a giant dollhouse. “Okay, I think it’s time for you to start learning to play.”

“Umm?” I said, “Huh?”

“Take one of your dollies,” she told me with a smile.

I looked, and many cute and lifelike dolls were sitting by the house. They seemed far more realistic than I imagined appropriate for this period; they were very anachronistic with the surroundings. Finally, I picked one that looked like me, with red hair and green eyes painted on her face. I was surprised to see she was like Lily’s nicer dolls, and her eyes opened and closed as I picked her up or lay her down. She had on a pretty green dress similar to mine. I sheepishly looked under her skirts; sure enough, she had a diaper on too.

“Okay, now you have to name her!” Caireen said with a smile.

I thought for a moment about some Irish names I had come across when researching who Caireen was the other day. I also thought about my code name and said, “Emie.”

“That seems perfect,” she praised me in a voice like she was talking to someone my apparent age. “Okay, for the fun part, let’s practice changing her clothes.”

I looked over at the box and saw there were other outfits there. I wondered, though, if Caireen meant this to begin my training. I pictured a dress similar to the green one but fancier and with tights. I kind of willed it to be so, and the dress I imagined was now on Emie!

“Well, aren’t you a quick learner!” Caireen said as she leaned over and squeezed me into a hug. That night she had me practice changing Emie’s dresses to other period-appropriate ones and more modern baby clothes. After hours, she finally had me try working on her hair. I was starting to feel tired when she said, “I think it’s time for bed here,” with a smile.

“Am I actually getting sleep in the ‘real’ world?” I asked sleepily.

“Yes, Sofia, you are.”

“Can I do this stuff there now?”

“I think you can safely. Stick to clothes on dolls and hair on dolls for now, though. The last thing you want to do is mess up your sister’s hair like you did Emie’s a bit ago!”

I blushed as she changed a wet diaper, thinking about the tangled mess of hair - Caireen had to help get it back to normal. She then held me in a rocking chair and rocked me to sleep with a lullaby.

I WOKE UP on my own when I heard Dad moving around the house to get ready to work. I smiled as I realized that Caireen had brought Emie into the real world for me, and she lay next to me.

This was the first time I had woken up on my own, so I wasn’t quite sure what to do. I tried saying, “Mommy? Daddy?” Quietly for them to hear. The last thing I wanted to do was wake up my sister early if we could avoid it.

Finally, I couldn’t help myself anymore; I reached up to the rail of my crib with a short hop and pulled myself over like I had a wall yesterday.

‘You are so going to get in trouble for this,’ I heard Caireen sigh.

‘I’m not really a baby...’ I told her.

‘I know, but will your Mom appreciate the difference?’

‘She’s going to need to; how else am I going to get out of bed at school?’

I heard her sigh, and I decided to just face the music. I opened my door quietly and walked downstairs, where dad was reading the paper.

“Well, good morning Sofia…” he thought for a second, “how did you get out of your crib? Your mom is still in the shower.”

I blushed but decided to spit it out, “I climbed out.”

He sighed, and I could tell he was mentally trying to decide what to do. “Well, we didn’t say you couldn’t do that. Be ready for your mom to get mad about it, though.”

“Mad about what?” Mom asked from behind me.

“She climbed out of her crib,” he answered.

I turned towards Mom. “I’m not really a baby mom, and it was way smaller of a climb and jump than what I was doing yesterday.”

She picked me up, and I worried I would get a spanking. She sighed, “I guess we’re going to have to get used to finding a balance between you being a baby and not being a baby, huh?”

“You’re not too mad?” I asked, kind of scared.

“I probably should be, but you’re not a regular baby. Of course, this would be the sign we needed to get you in a big girl bed or spank your bottom if you were. Since Caireen doesn’t really want you in a regular bed, maybe…?”

I trembled, “Please, no?”

Mom smiled and tickled me, “Like I said, you’re not a regular baby. At least if you get hurt, you’ll get better quick. Don’t expect to come crying to me about it, though!”

I smiled, “Okay.”

She felt underneath my nightgown and said, “I guess I get an early start on diaper changes today, huh?”

“Please?”

Mom changed me into a knit dress that had a few tiers of ruffles on the skirt. Lily had one similar that she wore all of the time. As if Caireen had felt like there should be some sort of constant joke with my name, it had a picture of Sofia the First on the front.

“Okay, shall we get breakfast?” she asked as she sat me down.

“Umm… can you actually get Emie for me? I left her in my crib by accident.”

Mom looked in the crib and saw my baby doll, “She’s beautiful,” she said. “Where did you get her?”

“Caireen gave her to me in the castle last night. I guess she decided to bring her with me to the real world.” I hesitated but then said, “Watch this!” I changed her dress into one identical to mine.

She grimaced but said, “Cool. I actually think I liked the other one better,” she said.

“Okay,” I said and changed it back.

“This ability doesn’t work to change your diaper?” Mom asked.

I sighed, “I asked Caireen that last night. It works exactly like that in theory, but she’s blocking me from it.”

Mom carried me down the steps and then let me down on the ground, and I walked on my own to the dining table. “Pancakes?” Mom asked.

“Really?” I asked, surprised.

“Well, it’s worth celebrating that you’re up before the afternoon!” She said semi-sternly.

She sat me on the counter a few minutes later, and I stirred the ingredients. She had to stop me before I went too far in mixing it; my extra strength had a practical application of helping me stir faster! She paused long enough to wake my sister up and bring her down in a nearly identical dress to mine before actually cooking the batter.

“We twins!” Lily said when she saw what I was wearing.

I giggled, “Sort of; I’m taller!”

“Well, Mommy said I’m heavier,” she said.

Mom laughed, “That’ll be the only time in your life I think I’ll hear you brag about being heavier, Lily!”

“Well, it’s the only time in my life I’ll probably still be taller than her, too,” I told Mom.

“I get taller than you?” Lily asked me.

I sighed, “Lily, by the time you hit your next birthday, you’ll probably be taller than me.” Then, I added, “You’ll grow up, but I’m always going to be a baby.”

Her eyes widened, and she must have grasped that wasn’t normal because she toddled over and hugged me. “I love you, even if I bigger! You bestest brother sister ever.”

I smiled and hugged her back. Mom put us in our high chairs and then put bibs on both of us. I watched her cut up Lily’s pancake after putting some syrup on it, and then she did the same with mine. “You don’t have to do that...” I grumbled.

“Shhh…” Mom said with a smile, “If you complain too much, I’ll feed you!”

I gulped and just ate the mutilated pancakes. Mom had given me a stack of three that I quickly finished before also finishing the sippy cup of milk she had given me. Mom attacked Lily’s face with a baby wipe and mine as well. “You two go play; I remember someone made a promise last night.”

I nodded and said, “Come on, Lily, let’s go to the playroom.”

I stopped for a moment, though, and Mom seemed to have read my mind because she had a pacifier ready to go that she attached to my dress with a clip. “This way, you can’t lose it!”

I blushed and sucked on it.

“Mine, Mommy,” Lily said. She produced it, and I had a feeling Mom was wondering how she would get the baby sister to break a habit her older sister would never break.

As soon as we hit the playroom, I let Lily take the lead. She ended up deciding we should have a tea party that morning. She made sure to teach me how to play right. I had fun following her lead. After a while, I amused her by changing the clothes of several of her dolls with magic. I also let her play a little with Emie. It was strange because I had to fight a peculiar possessiveness I felt about her.

Mom came down and watched us off and on through the morning. She changed another messy diaper on me during the morning and a wet diaper on Lily, but mostly just let us play. When lunch came, she made us wash our hands and gave us PB&J sandwiches.

“Okay, nap time, girls,” Mom said as she lifted Lily out of her high chair and came for me.

She changed us and let me have my cell phone and Emie in my crib. I had several messages from Hannah and Jacob, and some other friends. I responded to Hannah and Jacob, telling them they could come over that afternoon. With Hannah, we debated how I should tell Jacob. Still, a couple of his messages from last night made me wonder if he hadn’t already put two and two together.

I couldn’t help but think back to last night when I asked Caireen about changing my diapers the same way as the clothes. As soon as she said I would be able to, I tried. It was pretty funny when I suddenly ended up with this weird not-diaper thing hanging half off my body, and the rest of my clothes went away too.

‘I said you would be able to, not that I would let you yet.’ She had said, laughing. ‘I think given your situation, size, and lack of potty training, it would be best if you get used to being taken care of for a while...’ Then, as if to emphasize that it was a bad idea, I felt urine trickle down my legs without the diaper to collect it.

I tried to argue and negotiate with her for twenty minutes, but in the end, I ended up with another diaper and outfit and put back to play some more with the doll’s clothing.

‘I know you think I’m being unfair,’ Caireen said.

‘No...’ I said, ‘I guess I don’t mind Mom changing me. I wouldn’t even freak out too much over Hannah changing me later. It’s the thought of going to school with all these superpowerful kids and being unable to handle something like changing my poopy diaper.’

‘I promise you it’ll work out.’

‘I hope so...’ I told her.

After an hour or so of playing games and surfing the internet, Mom came in. “Didn’t feel like a nap today?” Mom asked.

I shook my head, “I think I still have the circadian rhythm of a teenager. Or mostly, at least.”

“Are Hannah and Jacob coming over?”

I nodded, “I’m guessing they’ll be here in an hour?”

I let her pick me up from my crib and walked downstairs with her. I decided since I was going to Bechtel, there was no point in doing my homework. Apparently, I was going back at least two grades anyway, so what was the purpose? I turned on the TV and used a streaming service to find ‘Sofia the First’ episodes. I watched a couple with my sister, but I usually did homework and ignored it. Somehow, I thought it would be wise to actually know what happens in the show!

Three episodes in, my sister had joined me, the doorbell rang and I knew it would be my friends. “Lily, would you please give me and my friends some privacy for a while?” I asked.

I could tell she wanted to be annoyed, but I was really proud of her. She said, “Sure, I play downstairs!”

I would have hugged her, but she ran downstairs so fast I couldn’t catch her. I instinctively knew my pacifier was still in my mouth and decided to let it dangle from the clip instead. ‘On second thought...’ I pulled the clip from my dress and the little purse I had my GEID in from that other space. I looked in the bag and easily fit my pacifier in.’

‘That’s my baby girl!’ Caireen praised me.

I smiled.

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! Comments are always super appreciated as well! In fact they’re sooooo appreciated, I’ll post a chapter again tomorrow night instead of waiting the extra day if I can just have two people comment today!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 10: Friends

MOM WALKED TO open the front door, and I decided to stand behind her.

“Hi, Mrs. Hammerstein, may we see Nick?”

“Come in, Jacob,” Mom said instead.

“Is he okay?” Jacob asked.

“Hi, Jacob, Hannah,” I said as I came out from behind Mom when the door shut.

“Hi, Sofia,” Hannah said. She couldn’t seem to help herself. She leaned down, picked me up, and squeezed me in a hug. I hugged her back before she said, “Come on, Jacob, we need to talk.”

“Let’s go to my room?” I suggested.

“Your room?” Jacob asked but dumbly followed. “Hey, this is Nick’s room. Why is it a nursery…?”

Hannah sat down on the floor with me on her lap.

“Jacob, this sort of is still Nick’s room, but you were sort of right on your guess that I was a Mergent…?”

“Holy shit! Nick?!?!?!?” He said, finally getting it. “What the Hell happened to you?”

“I emerged,” I said, “unfortunately, my body decided to play a trick on me.”

He looked around intensely at the crib and changing table, “So you’re a girl?!? And, like a baby now?” He asked, “Not just in size?”

I sighed, “I’m no longer potty trained and have a bonding with a goddess who prefers I continue to act my appearance for a while.”

“Diapers?”

“Unfortunately.”

“That sucks!” He thought, “Hannah, why aren’t you shocked?”

“His parents needed a babysitter for Lily when he changed. They were a little bit panicked for some reason,” she said with a smirk and squeezed me against her tighter. “It was kind of impossible to hide it all from me.”

“How come you didn’t tell me before?” He asked.

“Honestly, I’m scared to let anyone know about this! The fact that I let you know to come over was a big step, Jacob.”

“So, did you get any superpowers?”

I smirked, “Yeah, I did.”

“I mean, besides super stinky diapers.”

I momentarily wondered if I hadn’t gone again, but he was joking. So in revenge, I decided to turn his socks bright pink and add some white ruffled lace.

“That’s not fair,” he told me, looking down.

“I think they’re cute, Jacob,” Hannah said.

“Change them back, please?” He begged.

“Or?”

“Umm… tickle?”

I squirmed against Hannah, “Oh no, you don’t,” she said. “She’s all mine.” Then, suddenly, she started tickling my sides from nowhere, and I couldn’t help but giggle non-stop until she finally gave up. Unfortunately, my dress had ridden up during the tickling and my very soaked diaper was on display.

Mom came in just as it was ending. “I see you three seem to be doing okay.” Mom said and hesitated before adding, “Umm, Hannah, seeing as how I assume you just helped her make that wet diaper, would you mind changing her?” With that, she walked away, and I found my mouth open.

“Well, your mommy’s right,” she said, and I was up in the air before I knew it. She carried me flat in her arms outstretched in front of her. “You know, I think you’re lighter than a lot of one-year-olds I’ve babysat.

I blushed.

“How much do you weigh?”

“Twenty pounds.”

“I’m going to the restroom; I’ll be right back,” Jacob said, clearly not wanting to be present for my change.

“Wow, that’s light!”

Hannah sat me on the table, “How do we do this?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you’re my best friend turned into a two-year-old baby. Do I treat you like your sister when I’m changing her diaper, or do we do this differently?”

I shrugged, “Caireen seems bent on me getting used to embarrassment and diaper changes. Change me the same way you do, Lily.”

She smiled, “Okay!” The next moment she had me laid back on the table and used the strap to keep me from going anywhere. She pushed my dress back up to where she could see my diaper, “Wow, you’re one soaked baby girl!” She said, using that mommy’s voice all girls have.

My thumb found its way to my mouth then, and she noticed. She reached underneath the table, “Here, why don’t you use your paci,” she said with a smile and put it in my mouth. I nursed it as she undid the tapes of my diaper and pulled it out of the way, setting a new one in its place. She wiped me really well, powdered me, and then taped the new diaper on. The next part was a surprise as she suddenly blew a big raspberry on my exposed belly button.

I giggled.

“Oh, do we have the giggles again?” She asked as she tickled my feet a little. Hannah undid the strap, pulled my dress back down, and then picked me up and held me in her arms. “You do realize you’ve stolen my heart at this point?”

I looked at her, slightly confused, “You have got to be the most adorable baby girl known to mankind. I so want to take you home with me instead of leaving you here!”

I knew she was joking, but a part of me would have been okay with that too. Jacob came back in then once he determined the coast was clear. The three of us sat back down then. “So, are you going to go to preschool now?” He asked, trying to start up the conversation.

“No, silly, I’m going back to high school!” I told him.

He laughed. “Seriously, what are you doing?”

“I’m going back to high school.”

“You’re joking, right?” He paused, “I know LAHS is weird, but even that would be too much for us.”

I laughed, “I am going back to high school, just not here.”

“Where are you going?” Hannah asked nervously.

“There’s a private school in the Northeast just for Mergents. It’s some sort of superhuman high school, I guess…?” They both gaped at me for that. “Anyway, they said I might have to be a sophomore again… or maybe in junior high for the rest of the year after Christmas. They’re supposed to get me through all of their placement tests then to figure that out.”

“A sophomore again? Or back in junior high? That sucks!” Jacob said.

I nodded but said, “It beats daycare?”

“I don’t know, naptime, playtime, snacks - daycare was pretty sweet,” he said.

I laughed, “I guess… of course, at this rate, I’ll probably find out since I’m not going until after Christmas. Mom occasionally has to drop Lily off at daycare and do some errands and things. Especially with me no longer being able to babysit her.”

“I’ll babysit you two if you need one,” Hannah said.

“We’ll definitely be taking you up on that, Hannah,” Mom said behind me, making me jump. “Are you two staying for dinner?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind?” Jacob said.

Hannah nodded, “I don’t have anywhere to go.”

“Let your parents know, though,” she told them.

“Will do.” I heard them answer in stereo.

I watched them both pull their cell phones out and text their parents. Of course, neither parent would be surprised by them being at my house. My new appearance…

“Hannah, have you said anything to your parents?” I asked nervously.

She looked sheepish, “I told my parents… They promised to keep it a secret, but I was worried they might ask some really embarrassing questions until I had no other choice.”

I just nodded, “I don’t see how you could have kept it a secret.”

“That being said, my mom really wants to see you!!!” She laughed.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Sofia, you realize you’re just like all of the other paradigm girl models, right? You’re just the ideal baby model!” Hannah said while I shot her daggers. “No, seriously, have you thought about it? You would be like their perfect toddler model since you could behave and listen to directions so much better!”

“So, what you’re saying is that I should be modeling Pampers?”

She laughed at me, “If it pays, why not?”

“I don’t think so…” I said. Although, in my mind, I had to admit that money is nice though...

We talked about things other than my new status as a baby. Hannah told me that my missing-in-action situation was hurting the flute section - apparently, they were lost without me. There was absolutely nothing I could do on that front, unfortunately. I hadn’t even had a chance yet to see if I could still play a piccolo. However, I had no doubts that holding a regular flute would forever be beyond me now.

“Dinner is ready, guys,” Mom said to us.

“Okay,” Hannah said in stereo with me. I had been sitting in her lap for a while, and she stood up and picked me up simultaneously. “You are so light!”

“How light is she?” Jacob asked.

“Here,” Hannah said and handed me towards him. It was like a deer caught in the headlights; the idea of holding a baby scared him to no end! Not to mention that I used to be his normally tall teenage best friend.

“Umm…”

“Boys!” Hannah huffed. “Here, put your arms out and let her grab around your neck. You grab her right here along her waist.” She made sure he was holding me right, and I made sure I could use a death grip to hold onto his neck if I needed to! “See, how hard is that?”

I giggled.

Mom must have heard some of it, too, and she took a picture of him holding me and standing there with Hannah. Three musketeers and all that…

Mom had made nachos for dinner. For those of you who may be thinking about those gooey things with fake cheese you get at the movies, that’s not what I mean. Instead, mom makes them with corn tortilla chips, some refried beans, lots of shredded beef, and real grated Colby jack cheese. The meat is cooked in plenty of red chile-based sauce, so it has a bite.

Much to everyone’s amusement, I insisted on my’ me size’ silverware.

“What? I really hate eating with my hands!” I said to them. I still had to touch my food some, though; the stuff doesn’t stay on the chip. It was a good thing she’d insisted on the bib, though. My more petite mouth made it much more challenging to eat with big chips than it used to! I forced myself to continue eating the meat even though it tasted as spicy as a ghost pepper to me now!

“How are you still eating?” Jacob asked in shock after my second plate.

I blushed, “I don’t know. It’s not like it adds any weight to me…?”

“I wish I could eat that much and not gain weight,” Hannah said.

“Me too,” my dad affirmed.

When I finished eating, Mom let me down from the highchair. I think she was trying to help me be discreet, but just like the last couple of days, Lily pooped first, and I was right behind her. I sighed and scrunched my face up.

“I’ll take one of them,” Hannah offered.

“Umm, thanks,” she said and Mom looked at me. So I just went ahead and pointed my head towards Hannah as okay. “Which one do you want?”

“I’ll take this stinker,” she said with a maniacal laugh and picked me up in such a way as to avoid smushing the mess anymore. I was getting upset, she could tell, so she pushed a pacifier into my mouth. “There, that’s better,” she said with a smile, teasing my nose with her finger.

I always knew Hannah was great with Lily because she liked her, but now I know how great she is with babies. She got me changed and kept me giggling the whole time. Before pulling the tapes down, Hannah had blown some raspberries on my belly. She tickled me to make me smile around my pacifier. Then Hannah cleaned me up quickly and never once made a disgusted face about it. She did make some fake comments about me being stinky. Well, sort of fake, you know what I mean. I’m sure it did smell! For some reason, the smell of my poopy diapers didn’t bother me.

She had just finished washing her hands and thrown the dirty diaper away, and I hugged her.

“Thanks,” I told her.

“Anytime, Princess,” she told me. Then, she looked at her cell phone, “I guess I need to get going home. If I can find a ride out here, would you mind if I came out again sometime this week?”

“You want to?” I asked, amazed.

“Sure, you’re still my best friend.”

As they were walking out the door, Mom caught Hannah. “We’re going to Albuquerque to go shopping for some things on Saturday. Would you be able to come and help with Sofia and Lily? It was nice having an extra set of hands for diaper changes today,” she smiled. “And I’m sure Sofia wouldn’t mind some time with a normal teenager.”

“Sure,” she said, “I’d love to. Let me just check with my mom.”

“Let me know, and we’ll pick you up on the way out of town.”

“Cool,” she said. “Bye, Lily, bye Sofia.”

As they left, Mom approached Lily and me and grabbed our hands. “Okay, girls, bath time!”

It was soon bedtime, and Mom once again gave me a bottle of warm milk. “I guess with your regenerating, I don’t have to worry about tooth decay,” she said as she kissed my forehead. “I don’t know how I’m ever going to break your sister of her bottles and pacifiers, though, with you around.”

I pulled it out of my mouth for a moment, “Just wait until I go to school?”

“That means getting through Christmas and your grandmother complaining about how her kids were done with bottles and diapers before they were one!” She laughed, and so did I.

“Have you told them about me?”

Mom shook her head, “They’re supposed to come down for Thanksgiving… I think it’s best to tell them in person.”

“And Grandma Wendy?” That was mom’s mom. The other two were Dad’s parents.

“Well, she wants us to go to lunch on Saturday…?”

“Oh…” I said. I sat up and hugged her as well as I could. Mom’s mother was her only family left, as her dad died when she was just a little girl. The biggest problem with her mom was that she was nearly a Sanguis Primum member with her rhetoric. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Mom shook her head, “No, but you’re my baby girl, and if she can’t accept it, then that will finally be it,” she said. Mom grabbed the bottle from my hand and pushed the nipple of the bottle back into my mouth. “You don’t worry about any of that, sweetheart; I promise you’ll be safe.”

She didn’t read me a story that night; instead, she held the bottle for me, stroked my hair, and sang a lullaby.

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! No one has commented for a long amount of chapters here… please consider leaving a quick comment? It just helps me know people are engaged and what they’re thinking! I’ll even bribe readers with an extra chapter sooner if just two people comment today!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 11: Butterflies

‘ONE DAY ENDS, and a new one begins,’ I thought as I woke up in my castle nursery.

“There she is!” Caireen crooned over me and picked me up. “Who’s the prettiest princess in all the world?” She said, “Yes, it’s you!”

I let her baby talk to me for a few moments and finally said, “Okay, enough already; what’s going on?”

“Her little diapee must be messy! She’s a cranky little baby!” For the next thirty minutes, I swear I had the most embarrassing and surrealistic treatment of me, like I was younger than I even looked to be. Finally, when she changed my diaper, and I was dressed, she said, “Well, I’m having fun,” she paused, “why aren’t you?”

“Umm… it’s ridiculous and humiliating?” I suggested with my face flushed from embarrassment.

“No, it’s normal mommy behavior and definitely normal grandmother behavior.”

“Is that what this is about?” I asked, confused.

She sighed, “Remember also that I am the goddess of children?”

I nodded.

“Maybe I like to have fun every now and then?”

“Oh,” I said guiltily. “Have I ruined it completely for you?”

“Only a little. You can make it up to me, you know?”

I groaned, “I guess, given we’re stuck with each other, I need to let you get it out every now and then. Just don’t do it all the time; my brain already has enough trouble grasping being a teenager in a baby’s body.”

“Yay!” She said. “Let’s go play outside!”

I rarely saw the castle staff, but one of the maids came then. “Fiona, would you please pack a bag with a lunch, some changes for Sofia here, and bring it down to the East Garden?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she said.

“Let’s go see the butterflies!” She said with glee.

Mentally I groaned a little, but I kept a smile on my face. My thumb found its way to my mouth since pacifiers didn’t exist here. The bottles were a little anachronistic because they did. Still, they were old-fashioned with rubber teats that weren’t life-like or orthodontic. In the meantime, I noticed Caireen had either grown herself larger or shrank me down further. I decided she was taller because the doorways were closer to her head than I remembered. I had been shifted from holding onto me like a toddler on her hip to a more traditional infant cradle you might carry a newborn. All through the journey of stairs and corridors, she talked baby talk to me, and I did my best to try to not hate it.

We exited the castle through a door I hadn’t been through before, and I felt my breath catch as she held me up to see. Acres and acres of mowed grass were present, with a rose garden lining walkways. It was like a scene from one of the castles in France or England that took my breath away. “Beautiful,” I said around my thumb.

Caireen stroked my hair and continued walking down the path past roses that had no equal in the real world. Their colors were too vibrant, varied, and indescribably beautiful in appearance and smell. Caireen set me down when I squirmed to look at a green rose that looked like it had emeralds glittering in the petals.

“What is it?”

“A gift from a people that you base your dwarf legends off of. They dwell in caverns and mine for both money and joy. They designed this hybrid and gifted me with one of them many years ago.” She paused, “Those are real emeralds too.”

I gulped. That plant was worth a fortune!

I was picked back up, and she walked me past the pathways and the mowed grass to a field that stretched out far in the distance, with yellow, pink, purple, and blue wildflowers growing everywhere. The largest and most beautiful butterflies I’d ever seen were alighting from the flowers.

Many looked similar to the monarchs in our world. Still, there were so many other color combinations as they blended in with the many wildflowers around me. Finally, Caireen sat me down, and I snuck as close as possible to a big purple one. “Will you sit on my hand?” I asked it.

I was amazed as it looked at me skeptically and then moved to the finger that I held out. It tickled as it moved around. I brought it closer to my face and looked at it in wonder. When I was through, I said, “Thank you, you’re very beautiful.”

The butterfly seemed to bow before it flew away, and I spent a long time chasing others before Caireen said, “It’s time for lunch, my little butterfly!”

She laid me down on a blanket that Fiona had set out. I realized then that I had messed my diaper at some point and not noticed. “Well, you finally behaved like a normal baby and didn’t care about your poopy diaper.” She said with a smile, retaining that high-pitched baby cooing in her voice.

‘I really didn’t notice..’ I thought.

“How long have I been messy?” I asked, nervous about a rash forming.

“An hour or so?”

“An hour?!?”

“Relax, sweetie, you didn’t notice, and your skin won’t get a rash. You could sit in a messy diaper for a week, and your skin would keep healing.”

“It’s so disgusting, though,” I said with tears in my eyes.

“Not to a baby with no interest in getting out of diapers. You need to get yourself in that mindset. If you don’t, you’re going to go crazy in the next few months, let alone the rest of your life, honey,” The last bit she had answered sincerely and in her regular voice.

I nodded.

She continued wiping me with a cloth, and finally, I was put into a new diaper. “Okay, let’s have our lunch!”

I expected a regular lunch, but instead, I had a very finely chopped soup mixture that she fed me. At the same time, she ate what it must have usually looked like. “I’m thirsty,” I said after I finished.

“Okay, let’s get my little princess something to drink!” she said. I expected her to grab a bottle from the basket or something, but instead, she picked me up and pulled at her dress.

“What are you doing?!?” I freaked out.

“What are we doing today?”

“Treating me like a baby?”

“Exactly. You’re still young enough to nurse from the breast,” Caireen told me. “Normally, someone like me would not do this herself, you would have a wet nurse assigned to you, Princess, but given who I am, I love feeding babies!”

Before I could raise any more fuss, I was confronted with her breast and nipple. Knowing there would be no give here, I relented and at least tried it. I put my mouth around her nipple, latched on like a bottle, and sucked on it. Instantly my mouth was filled with a liquid that was sort of like milk… but so much better! I swallowed and repeated over and over again before I must have gone to sleep.

WHEN I WOKE in the real world, I felt different somehow.

‘Did that really happen?’ I asked, blushing.

‘Yes, my sweet princess, that wasn’t so bad, was it?’

I blushed, ‘No, I actually enjoyed it.’ There was no sense in hiding that from someone whose consciousness shares a body with you!

‘Good, I believe we will be doing that more often,’ she assured me.

‘Why?’

‘Well, for one, I enjoy it, and you enjoy it, right?’ she asked.

‘I guess.’

‘For another, you thought you felt different today, right?’

‘Uh-huh,’ I said.

‘When you nurse a baby, they get their nutrients and food from their mother, correct?’

‘That’s the idea...’ I said.

‘You gain magical power from me and additional strength when you nurse,’ she told me.

‘Seriously?’

‘Why do you ask that all the time? I don’t joke that much, do I?’

I sighed, ‘No, it’s just a figure of speech that I must say a lot for you to ask. I’ll try not to say it as much.’

I could feel her smile.

Mom came in right then as I was getting ready to stand up, and she said, “Oh, you just woke up?”

I nodded, “I was having a conversation with Caireen.”

“About?”

Oh boy… “Umm… What did we do last night?”

“Oh, her nursing you?”

“How do you…?”

“I came while you were asleep, still nursing,” Mom said wistfully. “I miss doing that,” she admitted.

‘Tell her I can help her lactate if she wishes...’

‘NO!’ I said.

“Mom, Caireen asked if you would like her to help you on that, but I said no; I’m hoping you’re okay with that?”

Mom smiled at me, “I know you wouldn’t be comfortable with me feeding you like that, so no worries.”

I sighed in relief. During this conversation, Mom stripped the blanket sleeper off my body and pulled the soaked diaper off. I was soon in a dry diaper, and Mom found a cute dress to wear without any tights. With that, my day began, and I alternated playing with Lily, eating, pooping, getting diaper changes, and getting on the computer. I found myself researching my new school as much as possible online. I also watched Tangled with my little sister. Much to her joy and amusement, I used magic to make her a dress identical to Rapunzels. She looked adorable in it and had to show Mom. Unfortunately, I forgot to create a diaper in my mind... She peed on the kitchen floor as she excitedly showed it off. Oops!

I really hated being Nicholas and had avoided looking at my reflection over the years because I didn’t like what I saw. Now though, Mom frequently discovered me looking at myself in the mirrors around the house, asking me each time if I was okay. Of course, I would assure her I was, but I couldn’t believe I was really a girl now! The baby part I could do without, but I felt like all of the dysphoric feelings I’d dealt with over the years had completely melted away!

Thursday and Friday passed similarly during the days, and my nights were filled with a second day in the other world where Caireen nursed me at least twice each night. During the days, I could feel more energy at my fingertips. So I was excited when Friday night, Caireen said, “Okay, it’s time to teach you some defensive magic.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m nervous about this trip tomorrow. I want you to be able to defend yourself and your family if needed.”

I nodded. “So what’s first?”

“I want to teach you to make a shield for yourself first. It should stop any physical hits and projectile weapons you might encounter.”

“Cool!”

“I want you to visualize the lines coming towards you right now.”

We had spent much time already teaching me to see them more clearly than when I first became aware of them last week. I noticed that there were always at least four or five lines that led to me at all times. This time though, there were more like twenty. I opened my eyes, “Why are there so many more lines?”

She laughed, “I told you that nursing was making you stronger?”

“Oh,” I said. “Will that keep increasing?”

“I believe it will go to a point, and then it’ll plateau.” She smiled, “Now, let’s get back to work. Visualize those lines again.”

I saw all twenty, “Okay?”

“I want you to visualize those lines to weave together around you and protect you.”

The first time I tried, it was like a fishing line that had gotten tangled in the trees, an unfixable knot! After five tries, I finally managed to get it around me like a grid defining a three-dimensional character on a computer screen. I looked up at Caireen, “Is that it?”
“It should be; let’s see how it holds up!”

I gasped a second later when she threw a dagger from her sleeve straight toward my shoulder. It hit the field and glanced off.

I jumped and felt my diaper grow warmer, “I think I need a change…?”

She laughed, “Why, you’re perfectly safe in there.”

“How long does it hold up?”

“Until the power in the lines, you are using runs out. Right now, I would say about twenty minutes.”

“A minute per line?” I asked.

“That’s a good way to guess it, I guess,” she agreed. “Now, drop it and try it again.”

We practiced my bringing the shield up for about another hour before she changed me and nursed me. I was still awake when she finished, and I asked, “What can I do to protect my family?”

She sighed, “I hope we have much more time to perfect this in the future. The same idea lets you do it around someone else. So you can visualize it around multiple people. Just know it won’t last as long!” We practiced that for a while before she said. “I have one last defensive spell I want to teach you tonight, though it’s really more of an attack. You must never use this purely for fun or games.”

I nodded.

“Take one of the lines out of your shield and visualize it going to your hand. From there, think of it sending all of its energy as a ball of energy at that wall.” She pointed at the far end of the stone room we had been working in.

A ball of purple lightning, that’s the best way to describe it, went shooting through the air at the brick wall and… right through it. I gasped as I saw a hole in the wall six inches in diameter. She picked me up and showed me that it went through three more walls before ending at the castle’s outer wall. “How come it didn’t go through that wall?”

“I have warded the walls; it’s impossible to use that spell to attack this castle.”

“Will it ever stop otherwise?” I paused, “I might accidentally hurt someone I didn’t intend to if it never stops…?”

“The way you just did it would send it flying until it met a barrier like this or shot into space from leaving the earth’s curvature at the angle you shot it.”

I felt my diaper get wetter. “That’s scary.”

“Now, let’s teach you to limit it!” She smiled, “I wanted you to know your full power first so that you’ll respect that power.”

We spent an hour practicing limiting it to a distance in my mind of the target plus a foot to five feet, depending on what she asked me to do. I could also limit it to hitting a human target and stopping them. Then, as she nursed me to sleep, she said, “Sofia, I would not teach you the blast spell if I did not know that you have a pure heart. I will teach you many less destructive spells in the future, but if something happens tomorrow, I want you to be prepared.”

I felt her stroke my hair and pat me lovingly before I fell asleep.

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I had one comment on the last posting, and very much appreciate them taking the time to do so!!! Please consider leaving a quick comment if you read this? It just helps me know people are engaged and what they’re thinking! I’ll even bribe readers with an extra chapter sooner if just two people comment today!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1(link is external) I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 12: Picture Perfect

THE NEXT MORNING I was woken up as Mom changed my diaper. “Oh, you decided to wake up?” She teased me.

She was just finishing wiping me and had me in a new diaper before I could respond, “Yeah,” around my pacifier. “What time is it?”

“6:30,” she told me.

“Ugh…” I responded.

Mom first dressed me in white tights before wrapping me in my signature green dress.

“Isn’t it cold outside?” I whined about the dress.

“I want to get some pictures with you and your sister for our Christmas Cards and photo album.”

“Oh,” I said.

Mom did my hair for several minutes and added my tiara to make me look picture-perfect. “Are you going to have Lily wear her tiara?” I asked.

Mom shook her head, “I’m going to have to do some convincing with her since she doesn’t have one as pretty as yours.”

‘I can do something to help there,’ Caireen said.

‘My sister doesn’t need a priceless magic tiara, though...?’ I said questioningly.

‘Of course not, but you can make a silver one with glass jewels just as easy to make her happy,’ she insisted.

“What color is her dress?” I asked.

“Pink,” Mom said with a smile, “you should have been able to guess that.”

I nodded and concentrated without saying another word to Mom. In my hands appeared a tiara similar to mine. The shape was similar, but it featured clear crystal jewels for the prominent gemstones and several crystals that looked like pink sapphires that circled around the base. It was made in plain old silver, which meant it was probably only worth a grand then…

‘Probably a bit more, you made crystal jewels for the main ones, but the pink jewels are real sapphires,’ Caireen said.

‘Let’s keep that to ourselves?’

Mom stared at me in shock, and I said, “It wouldn’t be fair to Lily, so here is a tiara for her. Of course, it’s not the same as mine, but it should make her happy.” I said the last with a smile. I was grateful that my new size hadn’t caused a bunch of sibling rivalry so far. I had a feeling it would come someday soon, though.

Mom hugged me and said, “You’re still the best older sibling she could ever have.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Let’s get something in your tummy, and then you can go back to sleep while we drive to Albuquerque. I need to do Lily’s hair now.”

I nodded, and she carried me downstairs. My sister was already in her high chair with a bowl of cheerios in front of her. “What do you want to eat?” Mom asked as she strapped me into the high chair.

“Cereal’s fine,” I said as I pulled my pacifier out of my mouth and sat it on the tray. She had already poured a sippy cup of juice and sat it on the tray. I drank out of it silently while she found a bowl and filled it with just the cereal. I had never liked mushy cereal!

“Lily, look what Sofia made for you!” Mom said with a smile.

“It’s pretty like hers!!!” She said. “Am I a princess like her?”

“Absolutely,” I told her.

I played with the cereal more than I ate it as I watched Mom rearrange Lily’s hair. Eventually, I stopped when Mom said, “Sofia, you can either eat your cereal or I’ll feed it to you?”

I furiously ate it, so I didn’t have to live with that embarrassment that morning. By 7am, Mom had walked out the door once with all of the things she needed to take care of two toddlers and then came back inside for the two of us. Mom put Lily in her car seat first, ensuring she had her favorite doll with her, before coming over and doing the same for me. I had Emie in my arms. Mom attached my pacifier to a clip and then to my dress so we wouldn’t have to search for it. Since we had the garage, she didn’t have to remove our coats before we sat.

“Here’s your bottle,” she said to Lily. Lily still got a bottle anytime we went on a long trip to help calm her down in her car seat. Mom looked at me with a question on her face, and I said, “Why not?”

She smiled, handed me a warmed bottle, closed our doors, and then got in herself. I nursed slowly on the bottle, in no hurry to drink it as I wasn’t that thirsty, so I still had half left when Mom pulled up to Hannah’s driveway. Hannah came out of her house as soon as she saw us. Mom motioned for her to sit in the front seat. I was suddenly self-conscious and thought about hiding my bottle.

“So you’ve discovered the joys of a bottle too?” Hannah said sweetly to me.

I turned red.

“Sofia, you’re a baby. It’s perfectly okay for you to have a baby bottle! So don’t go feeling self-conscious,” she told me. “It’s part of blending,” she added with a smile.

“You ready to go?” Mom asked her.

“Uh-huh, I’m so looking forward to not being stuck at home today! Thanks for inviting me!”

“Well, thanks for coming!” Mom said. She pulled out of her driveway, and I returned to nursing my bottle. I looked as much as possible at my sister on my left and noticed she was asleep already. Of course, that’s why Mom was still more than happy to give her a bottle on long car rides.

Mom and Hannah had a conversation in the front seat, but it was hard for me to hear them up there. So I settled for looking to my right for a while before I must have fallen asleep too.

I woke up when I felt our car starting to slow down. I looked out the window and saw we were on the outskirts of Albuquerque. Then I felt my body do something I hoped wouldn’t happen in the car! I filled the back of my diaper, and it smushed everywhere as it did so.

It was only a couple moments before the smell made it to the front, but Hannah said, “Uh-oh, smells like we have a stinky princess!”

I squirmed in the seat. I wouldn’t get a diaper rash, as Caireen had pointed out, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be in it any longer than I had to. I put my pacifier in my mouth to try and keep from screaming like a real baby.

“I assume that’s you, Sofia?” Mom asked.

I whimpered, “Yes,” around my pacifier.

“We’re going to stop to do those pictures and some shopping at the mall first. We’ll change you when we get there. It’s not too long,” Mom reassured me.

That was one of the longest twenty minutes of my life when Mom pulled into the parking space. Mom and Hannah got out of the car and came to the doors. Hannah took the bottle from next to me and handed it to me, “Can you hold onto that for a few minutes?” She asked me. I nodded.

“Do you want me to change her out here or in the bathroom?” she asked Mom.

“It’s easier to throw away a poopy diaper in the bathroom,” Mom told her. “We’ll change both of them inside.”

Hannah picked me up and put me over her shoulder while I whimpered and held onto my bottle as she asked. Then, Mom grabbed the diaper bag and Lily. She must have already put Lily’s bottle in the bag because I didn’t see it in her hands.

As Hannah carried me back to the bathrooms, with Mom next to her with Lily, we passed by a girl who was probably about four. “Dat baby is poopy!” She cried out in a loud voice.

I buried my head in Hannah’s shoulder and felt tears going down my face.

“Shhh, It’s okay,” Hannah said to me softly as we walked through the bathroom door.

“Sofia first?” Hannah suggested.

“Yes, the poor thing always hates having a messy diapee,” Mom said.

I pulled my head off Hannah’s shoulder and saw Mom wipe off the changing table before placing the mat on it. “I’ll change her,” Hannah offered.

Thankfully she didn’t waste any time waiting around. Mom grabbed my bottle from my hand and rinsed it out while Hannah happily changed the messiest and most disgusting diaper I had yet had. She wiped me clean, put a new diaper on, and pulled my tights back up. “There you go, all beautiful again!” Hannah said with a smile. She picked me up, sat me on the ground, and washed her hands. I then stood by Mom while she changed Lily while Hannah used the toilet. ‘I wish I could do that,’ I thought sadly.

I felt Caireen give me the mental equivalent of a hug. As soon as Hannah was out of the stall, Mom had her take over watching the two of us, and she went to the bathroom too. Hannah had the diaper bag on her shoulder and picked me up when Mom came out of the stall. Lily was in Mom’s arms soon, too, and we were off a little way down the corridor to the portrait studio where Mom had made an appointment. A man was standing at the counter when we walked up.

“Hi, we have an appointment,” Mom said.

“Name?”

“Rachel Hammerstein,” Mom said.

“For two toddlers?”

“Yes sir,” she said, and he looked up to see what Hell he would experience. When he saw us, he smiled, “These two princesses?”

“Yep,” Mom said.

“Okay, Bonnie will be your photographer today; let me make sure she’s ready.” He walked away.

“So that we don’t have the shape of a pacifier around your lips, would you be okay with taking it out?” Mom asked me.

I shrugged and let it drop out of my mouth to hang on the strap. Hannah did some sort of one-handed gymnastics and unhooked the clip. I felt Hannah start bouncing me a bit like I used to do with Lily to calm her.

“Ready to get your pictures taken?” She asked.

“I guess… I just want to get it over with.” I told her quietly.

“You never know; you might have fun,” she told me.

“I hate pictures…?”

“No, you used to hate pictures,” she told me, “now you’re an adorable little princess. All princesses LOVE getting their pictures taken.” She chose that moment to tickle my side a little. I giggled and had to smile. It was weird having all of the tricks I used to use against Lily used against me - especially since most of them worked!

“Mrs. Hammerstein?” A lady in jeans and a sweater asked.

“Yes?”

“Come on back. We’re ready to take your daughter’s pictures.”

We followed her back to a studio that had a white background, ready to go first. Mom and Hannah set Lily and me down and began checking our appearance. Luckily my dress never wrinkled, but Lily’s had a little. Mom did the best she could to straighten it out, though. My hair was a bit crooked, but that was sorted through quickly.

“Okay, you want individual shots and some together?” The lady asked Mom.

“Please,” she said.

“Which princess first?” The photographer asked in the high pitch mama voice.

“I’ll go,” I said. If I was a good example, maybe Lily would be quicker…

‘Good girl,’ Caireen said in my head. ‘Now pretend to have fun and enjoy it too!’

“How old are you?”

I held my two fingers up, “This many!”

“They’re both two, actually,” Mom told her. The lady looked at her, and she said, “Ten months apart.”

“Ouch,” the lady said. “I assume this princess is the older one?”

Mom nodded.

“Okay, Princess, what’s your name?”

“Sofia,” I replied.

“Well, Sofia, that dress is beautiful! And your tiara too! Why don’t you sit...” She took pictures of me standing in front of the white background, sitting crisscross style, leaning on a number two, and crawling on the floor quickly before doing the same with Lily. She then had us sit together with the number and then some other poses together before repeating the same steps with two different backgrounds. One, we used a gigantic teddy bear as a prop. Mom and Hannah also joined in at times; one of the photos I hoped turned out had me sitting in Hannah’s lap. She had always been one of my best friends, but she was quickly turning into a big sister.

I actually had fun, smiled, giggled, and was probably a photographer’s dream happy baby. Of course, Lily got a little grouchy at the end, but I told her, “Come on, good princesses, smile!” and she bought into it.

In the end, the lady said, “I have never had two more well-behaved toddlers for photos. Ever! You should look into a modeling agency for Sofia. She’d make a fortune as a model.”

Mom smiled, “You’re not the first person to tell me that. When will you have proofs for us to look at?”

“Well, we’re pretty dead right now. If you want to come back in an hour, we can have printed proofs, or you’re welcome to look and pick from the computer screen in a couple minutes.”

Mom shook her head, “We’ll come back; I like having a print in hand to choose from.” She paused, “Plus, I think they both need to have a diaper change and burn off some energy.”

The lady laughed, “At least you’re probably close to being through with changing that many diapers.”

“Hopefully,” Mom said, as I noticed she eyed Lily. I would probably never grow up past that; we both knew that.

Mom grabbed my hand in one hand and Lily’s in the other. “Come on, you two, let’s go change your diapers.”

‘It would be nice if she wouldn’t announce that to the world...’ I thought.

‘You’re a baby; your potty habits are public record,’ Caireen said. I could feel the smirk on her face.

 
 
Chapter 13: Grandma

LILY AND I walked down the hallway to the bathroom, holding Mom’s hands. Mom changed both of us, this time on the changing table. “Okay, we need to get the stroller out of the car,” she said. “I don’t think Hannah wants to carry you all day Sofia.”

“I can walk, you know,” I told her quietly. Hannah was holding me tight.

Hannah whispered back, “A normal two-year-old wouldn’t walk the whole day, though.”

She was right.

Back at the car, Mom pulled out a new double stroller that she had bought online and had express shipped to the house. The stroller was a classic design that had one seat behind the other. Mom put Lily in the front, and Hannah placed me in the back. “Why am I sitting in the back?” I asked.

“Eyes,” Mom said.

I hadn’t even thought about my eyes… I wondered if the photographer noted them.

“May I have my pacifier?” I asked, suddenly nervous again.

Hannah reattached the clip and placed it in my mouth, and we were back shopping. I was very bored for the next hour as we walked from one store to another, mostly keeping Lily and me in the stroller. Mom picked out a dozen new outfits for me and a couple for Lily. Still, we mostly walked and looked with them, occasionally dressing us as their living dolls. The only place I got enthusiastic about shopping was the Disney store, where I found a couple of costume dresses I liked. Mom also bought Lily and me each a princess doll there. Several times as they walked, girls would say, ‘Oh my God, your daughters are sooooo cute!’

We were in Sears, and I really was getting thirsty. “Mommy?” I got her attention.

“Yes, Sofia?”

“I’m thirsty.”

“Okay, just a minute,” Mom said. I heard her messing with the bag behind my seat for a moment. I listened to a cap pop, and she handed me my bottle of apple juice.

“Umm… thanks,” I said. “No sippy cup?”

“Why? You love your bottle!” Mom said with a smile.

I just began nursing from it slowly as she kept shopping before finally we returned to the portrait studio. “Ah, you’re back!” The lady said, “Come over here to the counter, and you can look at the proofs.”

Lily was out for the count in the stroller in front of me, her head lulled to the side. Seeing her asleep, Hannah pulled me out of the stroller and placed me on the counter so I could see. The pictures of me were perfect! I did look like a child model… except for the eyes. There was just something unnatural about the shade of green, and I didn’t think my being two years old would keep that from being noticed. Mom and Hannah chose their selections of three pictures of each of us individually, two of Lily and me, two with Mom and the two of us, and finally, one of all four to get printed.

“They’ll be ready about four if you want to stop back by?” The lady offered.

“Great! We’ll be back then. Come on, Princess,” Mom said as she put me back into the stroller.

The journey back to the car was made, both of us were strapped into our car seats, and Mom pulled away.

“Where are we going now?”

“Grandma’s,” Mom said.

“Oh,” I said nervously.

“It’ll be fine,” Mom reassured me.

I watched the streets and buildings pass by and sucked nervously at my pacifier. I had heard many cruel things from Grandma directed towards Mergents over the years. I clearly remembered a year ago, we saw a lady with GSD that looked like a half-human/half-bear person at the mall. Grandma had loudly said, “I can’t believe they let that animal inside!”

‘She can’t hurt you physically,’ Caireen reassured me.

‘She’s my mom’s mother, though, Caireen. I don’t want to be why she doesn’t love my Mom anymore...’

‘You have one of the smartest mothers I have ever met, Sofia. I guarantee she would blame her mother, not you.’

The drive seemed to take both forever and be too quick. I noticed my diaper growing wetter as we pulled into the driveway. ‘Great, I’m meeting my Grandma as my new self, AND I need a diaper change.’

Not wanting to antagonize my grandmother, I took my pacifier out of my mouth, unclipped the clip, and pulled out my purse wherever it disappeared. I quickly put it in there and then put my purse back. Mom watched me in the mirror and gave me a smile and a nod. “Good idea,” she said.

“I’ll take Sofia. Would you take Lily, please?” Mom said to Hannah.

“Sure,” Hannah said. So they went to each of our doors, and I was soon let out of the car seat.

Mom reached under my dress and felt my wet diaper. “I’ll change you once I figure out how your grandma will take this.”

I nodded and held onto her as she grabbed the diaper bag, and we walked up to the door. Mom opened the door, “Mom, we’re here!”

“My land, Rachel, who is this beautiful little girl?” She said as she saw me.

“This is Sofia,” Mom said.

“One of Lily’s friends?” She asked as she hugged Mom and moved on to hug Lily in Hannah’s arms.

“No, Nicko!” Lily said.

The world ground to a halt for a moment then. ‘Really, Lily?!?!’ I thought to myself.

‘She’s a two-year-old; you know it’s a requirement that she blurt out embarrassing things inappropriately.’ Caireen said.

I had to agree with her. I watched Grandma’s face as she turned to look at me again. “She’s just pretending, right?” she asked Mom.

Mom sighed, and I felt her squeeze me reassuringly. “No, Mom, Nicko emerged last week, and his EFP, or rather her EFP, transformed him.”

“I knew you should never have married that no good husband of yours!” She started.

“Mom, stop right there. I know you have some extreme beliefs against Mergents...” Mom said all this in a calm, soothing voice, “but it’s not true. I love my child no matter what they may be, and that won’t change. If you can’t do the same, please tell me now, and we’ll turn right back around and never come back.”

I saw the hurt on Grandma’s face and felt terrible.

“But…”

“Look at her, Mom. I promise you she’s the most beautiful grandchild you could ask for. She’s just as sweet as she always was, and all either of us wants you to do is just to love us.”

Grandma cried and said, “I’m sorry; I promise I’ll behave. Please don’t ever think I could walk away from you, Rachel.” She came over and hugged Mom, and said, “May I hold her?”

Mom passed me to her, and she said, “Well, you are a beautiful baby, my dear. Why did you end up like this?” She asked.

“I woke up sick and saw my sister in the hall… I guess I was thinking about how it would be nice to still have Mom hold me like she did when Lily got sick... Next thing I know, I’m a two-year-old baby girl.”

“Wearing diapers?” She asked in surprise as she readjusted her hold on me and felt it. “And a wet one?”

I buried my head in her shoulder, “Sorry… I can’t help it.”

“Let me see that diaper bag, Rachel,” Grandma said. I looked surprised, “What, you don’t think I can change diapers still?”

Grandma carried me to the room that served as her spare bedroom. Inside was a large dresser we used to change Lily on when we were there. Grandma sat me down next to it, laid out the changing pad, and then picked me up. “Let’s get those tights down, huh?”

I lay patiently while Grandma changed me almost exactly like Mom, but it was sweeter somehow. Maybe that was because she didn’t change a dozen diapers a day or something. “Where did you get that pretty tiara?” she asked me.

“It was a gift,” I said simply.

“From?”

I sighed, “From the goddess who bonded with me.”

“Goddess?” She said, “There’s only one God,” she said tersely.

“Call her a being then, Grandma. She’s very powerful.”

“Do you have powers now?” She asked as she pulled my tights back up.

“Yes, but I’m barely learning how to use them,” I told her.

“What can you do?” She asked me.

“I can change my dollies clothes,” I said with a smile.

“Umm… well, that’s special,” she said.

Mom had Emie in her hands from a second trip to the car. When she handed me Emie, I changed her into a one-piece jumpsuit like Mom had purchased for me earlier.

“Whoa!” She said and glared at me. “Can we pretend you’re a normal baby now?” Then, she paused, “It’ll be easier for me to get used to?”

I nodded as she hugged me in thanks, picked me up, and carried me to the living room, where Hannah played with Lily on the floor. She held me in her lap and sat on the opposite side as Mom on the couch. “So, I assume Sofia is all registered and such?”

Mom nodded, “We took care of that first thing Monday.”

“What now?” She asked.

“Well… after Christmas, she’s going to go to a school in the Northeast.”

“A Mergent school?” She asked, a little bit of prejudice showing, but I could tell she was trying.

“Yes,” Mom said simply.

“They have a preschool program?” She asked without any malice.

“No, I’ll be going to high school, I think,” I told her.

“You’re a little young for a high schooler, plus they’re usually potty trained?” She suggested.

“I know, but it’s just part of what I get to deal with. It’s like having a disability with the diapers.”

“And you really don’t have any control?” She asked.

I shook my head but tried not to look ashamed in front of her. “I have less control than Lily, I think.”

“Yes, speaking of Lily, when are you going to potty train her? She’s about six months overdue if you ask me, Rachel.”

“After Christmas,” Mom said simply, “it’d be too hard right now with her big sister still in diapers. It’ll be a bit easier when she goes away to school.”

Grandma looked at me for a moment and just sighed. “So this tiara of hers - I see Lily has one just like it?”

I shook my head, “No, it’s a lot different; it just looks similar. I made it for her to keep her from feeling jealous. Mom wanted me to wear mine today.”

“And just why do you even need a tiara?” She asked me.

“Because I’m a princess now,” I told her matter-of-factly.

“Of COURSE you are,” she said and laughed a little, “I forgot all little girls are really princesses.”

I decided not to correct her, and Mom didn’t either.

We spent about an hour talking there. During this, the criticisms never really stopped. Grandma went on about me being too light, about my eyes being pretty but, still obviously, those of a Mergent. Lily needs to be potty trained, and a billion other nitpicking things came up. It’s part of why Mom didn’t come to see her that often - it wore on you. Eventually, Grandma said, “Well, shall we go out to eat lunch?”

Hannah ended up in the middle seat between the two car seats and seemed squished. Luckily it wasn’t far to the restaurant. Mom carried Lily into the restaurant, and Grandma had me. “You are way too light,” she told me quietly while we waited for them to get a table with two high chairs ready.”

I blushed.

“You do eat, right?” She asked.

“Umm… you could say that,” I whispered back.

“Rachel for five?” the hostess said and led us to the ready table. Lily and I were placed into the seats, put on our bibs, and sat there coloring on the menu while we waited for Mom to order for us. Thankfully we’d already talked before that I wanted the chicken alfredo! The waitress preemptively brought us a box, thinking we would need it. Instead, she and my grandmother were shocked to see I daintily finished every bite! Mom checked Lily’s diaper where she was sitting in the high chair and said, “I’m going to go change Lily’s diaper. Do you need to be changed too, Sofia?”

I had to nod. Hannah picked me up from the high chair and sat me down on the ground. Mom grabbed Lily and my hands and walked us back to the bathroom. We had to wait for another mom to change her newborn’s diaper before Mom could use the station for Lily and me. After she washed her hands, we went right back to the table. By the time we got back, the check was paid by Grandma, and she and Hannah were ready to go.

Grandma decided to go shopping with us. We started at Costco, then Kohl’s, Buy-Buy-Baby, and another mall before returning to the photo shop at the mall we started at in the morning. Mom decided to be brave and go without the stroller since we had both been getting antsy inside it. “Come on, slowpoke,” Hannah prodded me when I stopped to look at a window display of pretty dresses on our way in.

Mom and Grandma had just gone up to the counter to talk to the man while Hannah, Lily, and I stood outside the store. Someone grabbed me all of a sudden and started running.

“What are you doing?” I screamed.

It wasn’t Hannah! Someone was kidnapping me!!!!!!

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I looked at my work schedule and realized it’ll be a really late posting schedule if I did it the next two nights. Instead I decided to group these two together to tide you over until Wednesday! If you don’t like being left with that cliffhanger a couple readers comments might get me to at least make a late night posting of the next chapter Tuesday! (Thank you to the couple who have commented on the last two chapters, please consider leaving one!) Thank you so much for reading!

Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 14: Back Road

“PUT ME DOWN!” I screamed loudly.

“Shut up, freak!!!” A man said as he found the pacifier clipped to my dress and shoved it in my mouth.

“I warned you!” I said around my pacifier as I touched his body with my hand and pushed a charge of magic into it. I didn’t have time to think about ley lines or technique; I did it by instinct.

That’s when all Hell really broke loose. He fell like a sack of coal, but his momentum carried us forward. I tumbled across the floor, and my head hit the tile floor hard! I wanted to cry and could feel some tears begin to stream out of my eyes.

“Oh my God, someone call 911!” A lady screamed.

“That baby’s a Mergent!”

“Someone, get that baby! It’s a freak of nature!”

I looked around at the unfriendly faces for a second before I picked myself off the ground and began running as quickly as I could back down the hallway I’d come. People tried chasing me, but I ran between the legs of the adults and around mothers pushing strollers, and I was sure I was putting the mile time from the other day to shame. ‘Caireen, is there any way for me to move faster?’ I asked.

‘You already are. You need to find your Mommy.’

‘Duh!’ I said.

Fortunately for me, I spotted Hannah not far from me. “Hannah!!!” I cried! When I got close to her, I leaped into her arms.

“Oh my God, I was so worried,” she said as she caught me and hugged me tightly.

“We’re not out of the woods. Where’s Mom…?”

“That girl has her; come on!” I heard a voice yell.

“Run, Hannah!” I told her.

Suddenly, the world seemed to almost freeze in place as more things happened at once than my brain could process immediately. First, I noticed that Hannah’s eyes changed colors to a green almost identical to mine. Then, before I could even gasp, she began glowing green like a glow stick… Finally, she shouted, “You won’t hurt her!” A shockwave of green light flew out from her towards the mob chasing us.

‘What the Hell?’ I screamed in my brain.

Hannah staggered a bit, then she sat down suddenly while barely holding onto me. Luckily Mom and Grandma were right there by then. Mom asked Grandma, “Mom, can you help Hannah?”

Grandma nodded while Mom picked up Lily. Grandma put her shoulder underneath Hannah’s arm and began helping her move down the hallway. I ran alongside them as we retreated to the parking lot as quickly as possible. As we made it through the doors, I thought we might just make it away safely without any other pursuit… but that wasn’t to be.

We had just about made it to the car when a dozen men began running towards us with ski masks over their faces. “I’ll take care of this,” I told Mom.

“But…”

“We’ll never make it past them, even in the car. I’ll take care of it. Get Lily strapped in and Hannah in there. Leave the door open for me to jump into.”

Thankfully my mom decided not to argue and just started doing what I’d told her.

As the crowd approached, I found six lines for a blast right in front of them and let loose. A green ball of energy flew from my hand and struck true about eight feet in front of where they were. A sudden explosion nearly knocked me to the ground! The blast was terrifying, and a vast crater formed in the asphalt where I had aimed. All of our pursuers were blown backward and lay still on the ground. Car alarms blared all around me, and windows were shattered all around the crater. I only caught that with a glance as I turned to jump into the car, closed the door, and screamed, “Go!”

Mom sped away with screeching tires. I clambered into my car seat, and Hannah shakily latched the straps for me. “Are you okay, Hannah?”

“I think so. I’m so glad you’re okay!!!!” She said, and there were tears in her eyes.

“Mom, drive to Grandma’s as fast as you can.”

“Why there?” Mom asked.

“I’m hoping she’ll let us borrow her car to buy a little more time. Then we need to get back to Los Alamos as quickly as possible. Hannah will have the EPC all over her if we’re not careful!”

“That’s fine,” Grandma said. “We’ll put your car in the garage to try and kill a bit more time.”

“Won’t they be watching the road to Los Alamos?” Hannah asked.

“Probably, but we’ll take the back road through Jemez Springs instead,” I suggested.

Mom nodded and pulled through the streets as quickly as she could without getting pulled over.

I pulled my purse from the space it was kept, pulled out my cell phone from where I had left it that morning, and dialed Dad. “Daddy!” I practically shouted in relief.

“Sofia? What’s wrong?”

“We’re in trouble… Someone tried kidnapping me, and I used magic to take him down. Some Sanguis Primum types tried to grab me, but I escaped to Hannah, who chose that moment to emerge herself… She used some sort of energy to blast at the people following me, which made a huge blast to knock them over.”

“So, you got away?”

“In the parking lot, there were more, so I used my magic and blasted a spell in front of them… it might look like a bomb went off,” I said, embarrassed.

“Where are you now?”

“We’re heading to Grandma’s to trade cars for hers and leave her there.”

“Which way are you planning on coming home?”

“The back way,” I said.

“I’ll see if I can get some friends to help you. Be careful.”

“Okay, talk to you later. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

“Dad’s going to try and get us some help,” I said as Mom pulled into the driveway. Grandma had a garage opener in her purse, used it to open the door, and was in her car quicker than I believed she could be at her age. She pulled it out, and we parked our car and switched out the car seats before jumping in her car. Quick hugs were exchanged, and Mom took off quickly.

“Are you okay, Hannah?” I asked as we drove. I was glad she didn’t seem to be going through an immediate burnout like I did.

“I think so. People and a lot of objects have these weird glowing auras around them now…?”

I nodded, “You definitely emerged too! And you nailed those guys; thank you for that!”

“You’re welcome, Sofia, but I couldn’t let anyone hurt you. When I saw those guys coming to attack you, I felt something pop inside and… it’s weird.”

“What’s weird?” Mom asked.

“The last week, Sofia has mattered to me because she’s been like my little sister, but now she seems different. I really don’t think I can describe it…?”

‘She bonded to you,’ Caireen said with a gasp.

‘What do you mean?’

I felt her sigh. ‘It means I have to share you with two other mothers now.’

“WHAT?!?!” I screamed aloud.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Mom asked, frantically looking around.

“You’re fine, Mom. Keep driving.” I said, not wanting to mention it.

“You know what it is?” Hannah asked.

I nodded, “Do you?”

“I think so… sorry,” she said.

“What, it’s not like you could help it?” I suggested, “We’ll talk about it when we get home.”

“If we get home…?” Hannah said nervously.

Mom took a back route through Rio Rancho to Bernalillo and then down the road to San Ysidro, where we would turn. Just before she made the turn, my phone rang. “Hello?”

“Sofia, it’s a good thing you went the other way. The news is showing a group of Sanguis Primum has set up roadblocks the other way to catch the suspects in a heinous terrorist attack.”

“Great, nothing on this route yet?”

“Not mentioned on the news yet, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Unfortunately, one of the ‘features’ of Los Alamos for the government is there are only two ways in and out. You might try and disguise yourselves if you can.”

“Doh! How come I didn’t think about that?” I said, annoyed. “I think we’re going to lose service here, Dad. Hope to see you soon.”

As soon as I hung up, I changed everyone’s clothes. Lily and I were now in frilly innocent-looking onesie rompers that showed the edges of diapers. Hannah’s outfit was altered into a Gi, and Mom’s into a business suit. Mom and Hannah’s hair colors also got changed to dark brown. I left mine alone for a while. I was prepared to make a shield around the car if we were attacked.

“Why am I wearing one of your uniforms?” Hannah asked.

“Well, would you prefer a cheerleading outfit?” I asked.

“No…” she said thoughtfully. “I think a sweater and jeans stick out less, don’t you?”

I sighed, “That’s why I had you wear that. It’ll make your clothes stand out and not your eyes.”

“Oh.”

Mom drove down the twisty road through the Jemez Pueblo and the Mountains. In Jemez Springs, we spotted the first sign of trouble: a long line of traffic seemed to be running into a roadblock. “Hannah, can you get a bottle for Lily and me?”

“Now?” She asked.

“Now, I’ll look more innocent,” I said with conviction. “Then act like you’re napping.”

So it was that five minutes later, we pulled up to a roadblock of a county sheriff officer and some Sanguis Primum volunteers. The volunteers seemed to have been deputized and were all looking at vehicles. “Looks like you got your hands full, ma’am, the officer said while looking around the car with a flashlight.”

Mom laughed, “At times, it feels that way.”

“Where you coming from?”

“Las Cruces, my oldest had a tournament there today.” She nodded towards Hannah, “It always amazes me how tired she is after her adrenaline wears down. Anyway, I heard there was some sort of Mergent problem the other direction to town, so I decided to play it safe and drive this way.”

He nodded and shined a light at me in the car seat. I could feel it somehow, even though I had my eyes shut. I hoped I looked like I was sleepily nursing on my bottle. “Cute daughters,” he said, “Yeah, we’re keeping an eye out for a couple of dangerous Mergents here. Have you seen anything suspicious on your drive up?”

Mom shook her head, “It’s been a quiet drive until we ran into this checkpoint. I hope you catch the Mergent filth you’re looking for.”

“Me too,” he said, “go ahead and move along,” he said.

Mom drove away, and I waited forty seconds before I dared breathe. She moved through the small town and sped away at the limits down the highway to Los Alamos. “I can’t believe that worked,” Mom said.

“Don’t get cocky, Mom; they’ll probably have another guard looking out at the guard station going into Los Alamos. Hopefully, Dad at least was able to help out with that...” I sat in the car and watched the steep cliffs and forest go by. The snow from last week was still around, and it was beautiful. I noticed I still had half a bottle of milk left and nervously nursed the rest. I never once felt sleepy as we continued up the mountain. It was at the Caldera entrance that we hit another checkpoint - this one an EPC run checkpoint that seemed to have hastily been put into place.

“I have a bad feeling about this one, Mom. But, play it like we did the last one. If they get suspicious, gun the engine and don’t stop until we get to Los Alamos.”

Everything was going well until they ran the license plate and discovered it was registered to Grandma, “Ma’am, we need you to step out of the vehicle. The Mergent scum in your car are to be taken in.” He said as he leveled a pistol at her. I activated the shield spell and said, “Go, Mom!” At the same time, I also fired spells at the cars they had and obliterated their transportation.

The next fifteen minutes of my life were the most terrifying moments I had ever experienced! Mom drove like a crazed lunatic through the switchbacks down the mountain and into town.

“There’s a helicopter up there!” Hannah cried out halfway down.

As I tried to see from my limited view, I saw a blue electrical pulse flying toward us. Fortunately, my shield stopped it and the energy dissolved. My shield seemed undamaged, but I felt it was slightly weaker. Fifteen or so shots of that or a few more powerful blasts would probably knock my shield down! Then, just as I was getting ready to shoot off a spell attack, Hannah rolled her window down and sent another of those bright green balls of energy at the helicopter. The ball exploded against the rear of the helicopter’s engine.

“They’re really not going to like us,” I said.

“Oh my God, I didn’t mean to!” Hannah said.

“Hannah, it’s okay. They would have done much worse things to us.” I told her as it went down, “Besides, some of them probably made it off and are just going to deal with broken bones.” I doubted all made it, but they weren’t too high above the ground when they crashed...

Finally, the lights of the town came into focus, and we could see flashing police lights waiting for us. Fortunately, they were Military Police vehicles, and I was eternally grateful as they welcomed us into town and then asked us to step out of the car. Dad was standing there beside one of the chief security officers.

Mom grabbed Lily and me out of our car seats and launched herself at Dad in a hug. “Get in here!” I told Hannah as she looked sheepishly around.

“Mrs. Hammerstein, is everyone alright?” He asked.

Mom sniffed her nose and nodded, “Mostly, I have two poopy babies, though.”

I hadn’t even noticed.

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Kudos’ Button to like if you’ve enjoyed it! It would make my night to see some comments from readers as well! I know up to here in the story has been a lot of character/relationship building. Things take off quite a bit more from here in the storyline for Sofia! Please let me know what you think!
If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 15: Bonded

AN HOUR LATER, we were in a secure area of the Los Alamos labs with military guards outside our conference room. Lily was cuddled up in Mom’s lap while I was in Dad’s. Hannah’s parents were there, along with the chief of security, Dad’s boss, and a representative from the EPC.

“I demand you turn custody of these two Mergents over to us immediately!” A flustered EPC agent demanded. “I have warrants for their arrest in the attempted murder of 20 people in Albuquerque. We’ll also be charging them for the attempted murder of 8 EPC officers up at the Caldera, Murder, and attempted murder of EPC agents when they shot down a helicopter, among other charges!”

“No.” The Captain of Security, Robert Jennings, said simply and unemotionally.

“But…”

“The facts are pretty clear in the first part, sir. They defended themselves from a mob after Emerald Baby defended herself from a kidnapper. Your agents only were attacked when they were abusive and said ‘Mergent scum’ as they tried to detain them. I think anyone would doubt their safety in that instance.”

“But…”

“They have a video recording of this that I have viewed. Furthermore, these Mergents have Government EIDs and fall under our jurisdiction.”

“I’ll fight this!” the gentleman fumed.

“I’m sure you will. Sergeant Weathers, please escort this man and all other EPC agents out of town. The EPC has no jurisdiction here.”

When he left, I looked at Hannah, “When did you get your card?”

“Actually, that was a bit of a stretch of the truth. We’ll need to take Miss Rayburn and test her immediately for one, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for your daughters to remain here much longer,” he said to our parents.

Mom nodded, tears coming out of her eyes, “You’re right.”

“Is there any way we can see if Bechtel can take both of them right away?” Dad asked.

A knock sounded on the conference room door as if to answer the question before it even came from his mouth. Another uniformed Sergeant stepped in, “Talia Hensley just arrived, sir.”

“Excellent timing,” Robert said.

Mrs. Hensley walked in a moment later and smiled at us. “How are you doing?” She said to us as a group. “It’s good to see you again, Robert, Mr. and Mrs. Hammerstein, Sofia,” she said politely. “I’m Talia Hensley, the headmistress at Bechtel Preparatory School,” she said to Hannah and her parents.

“How are you here so quickly?” Dad asked, surprised.

“Sofia has some interesting abilities that left her flagged in our system. We prefer to take students at a semester break at this point, but if something like what just happened goes on, we like to be ready to move things sooner.”

“So, you can take her now?” Mom asked.

“Sort of; I have to work out one last thing. I suspect it’s going to be just fine, though,” Mrs. Hensley told Mom. “Mr. and Mrs. Rayburn, based on what happened with Hannah, that she would also benefit from coming to Bechtel. Unfortunately, the EPC will be breathing down her back for some time. I believe, like the Hammersteins, you don’t actually live in Los Alamos?”

Hannah’s dad shook his head, “No, we live outside too. The lab’s protection only extends through Los Alamos?” he asked Mr. Jennings.

“That’s correct. Since the labs were historically military-operated, we have retained the ability to send those EPC scumbags out of town at our leisure. The problem is that if you exit town, they can do whatever they want again.”

“Your school, it’s also free of this issue?” her dad asked her.

“Yes. Historically we’ve had many students who have found the school to be a safe haven from EPC witch hunts.”

“It’s a good school?” Hannah’s mom asked, “I mean… I never expected Hannah to be a Mergent…” she sounded shocked. “And,” her voice cracked, “I never thought I would have to send her away for school so soon...”

“You would, of course, be welcome to visit, and your daughters are always welcome to come home for breaks. I wouldn’t recommend them visiting for Christmas, though. The EPC probably won’t let up until at least March when they’ll likely have had some bigger fish to fry.”

I watched both of our moms burst into tears at that. “You said there was one more issue?” Dad asked.

“Well, we still need someone to roommate with Sofia and help her with... “

“Diapers and babysitting?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“I’ll do it,” Hannah said.

“Are you sure?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

“I don’t think I could let anyone else do it,” Hannah said.

“I’m sure someone else could,” Hannah’s mom started.

“No, Mom, I mean I physically and emotionally couldn’t let someone else do it.”

“What do you mean, Hannah?” Mrs. Hensley asked.

I answered, “Mrs. Hensley, when I jumped into Hannah’s arms, with everyone chasing after me, that was when she emerged. Just as I ended up with the EFP of a baby… I think she ended up with the EFP of a mother.” I looked sheepishly at Mom, “Caireen complained that she had to share me with two other mothers. This kind of confirmed it to me.”

“A true bonding… that is unique,” Mrs. Hensley said. “In that case, I think we’ll take both girls as roommates. Do you need a crib, or can Caireen help you modify your room?” she asked me.

‘Caireen?’

‘I get to make another nursery!’ she sounded happy.

I groaned internally, “We’ll take care of it,” I told her.

“Okay then, Robert, have you finished processing Hannah’s GEID yet?”

“We haven’t tested her yet…?”

“Can you make the GEID, and we’ll test her at Bechtel? We retest everyone there anyway, and it would let us settle them in tonight. I’ll send her test results to log into the system by Tuesday.”

“Give me a half-hour?” He suggested.

“Good, that’ll give the girls a chance to say goodbye to their parents and me to get an extra teleporter to help them out.”

“What about my clothes and stuff?” Hannah asked.

“We’ll ship them to you,” her mom said.

The next thirty minutes were tear-filled. Mom insisted on changing my diaper before we left, and I hugged my sister and parents, clinging to them until it was time to go. “Be good for Hannah,” Mom told me.

“Mom, she’s my best friend?”

“And, apparently, another mother now. She has my full permission to discipline you or whatever she needs to do.”

“But…”

“Sofia, that’s not up for debate. You’re in a two-year-old’s body - and you sometimes act like it too.”

I sighed, “I’ll be good, like always, Mom!”

Finally, the time came, and Mrs. Hensley directed us to follow her to an area that wasn’t warded against teleporters. Hannah held me on her right hip, so I could see a little bit. Mom had given her Lily and my diaper bag with four bottles that had been rinsed out, some diapers, and a few extra pacifiers. She promised to ship me some other clothes and more diapers the next day with express shipping.

We came to an area marked “Teleporter port,” with a dozen armed Marines standing guard.

Two people there looked to be in a uniform that said Bechtel on the shirts. “Good evening Mrs. Hensley,” an older one said.

“Hi Tom, these two ladies are going back with us,” she said.

“The baby?” He asked, surprised.

“Come on, Tom, you know better than to judge by appearance,” she chided with a smile at the man with some decidedly canine-looking features on his face.

“Right, Mrs. Hensley.”

“Okay, young lady,” he said to Hannah, “I’m going to grab onto your elbow; hold on tight to the baby.”

A moment later, our parents were gone, and we were no longer in Los Alamos. Instead, we stood outside a large building on the street. “Welcome to Bechtel, ladies,” Mrs. Hensley said from beside us. “Normally, we would have a meeting and complete some paperwork when you arrive. But, given it is nearly midnight, I think it’s better to take you to your dorm and get you settled in.” She paused, “Umm… Hannah, because of Sofia, I have a dorm I want to place you in… Please don’t be offended by it when you discover more about it.

“Huh?” We both said, but she didn’t explain any further.

A very pretty-looking, short Hispanic girl came up the path just then. “Mrs. Lang asked me to see you and help some new students?”

‘Be careful. This girl is very powerful,’ Caireen told me.

“Yes, Esmie,” she pointed towards us, “these two will be joining Trident House. Mrs. Lang will help them find a room there.”

“Okay, no problem!” She said with a beautiful voice and beckoned us to follow her. “I’m sorry, I’m Esmie,” she said, and you are?”

“I’m Sofia, and this is Hannah,” I said.

Esmie kept walking, “I assume Sofia, you’re actually older than you look?”

I laughed, “Sort of… at least I was.”

“Sounds like an interesting story,” she said.

“That it is,” I agreed.

“Any chance I can hear it?”

“Tomorrow?” I suggested. “It’s been a long day…?”

“If you arrived in the middle of the night with Mrs. Hensley and teleporters, I imagine it was!” she agreed.

Esmie stopped just outside a building with a statue in front of it. It looked like a proper private school dorm from the movies, with nothing terrifying about it - and that made me nervous. “Look, there’s a lot that I need to fill you in about this school… But most of it can wait until tomorrow, though. Before we go in, I want to ensure you know about Trident.”

“What about it?” Hannah asked, “Mrs. Hensley alluded to something too.”

“We have a secret. Everyone here is either a changeling or prefers non-traditional relationships.”

“They’re gay, in other words?” I asked.

“Sofia Elizabeth!” Hannah hissed, shocking me with her motherly use of my middle name.

“What? I’m not knocking it.” I felt a bit bad.

“So, I’m assuming Sofia, you are a changeling?” She asked me.

I nodded, “In about every way.”

“Hannah?” she asked, and I looked up to see Hannah blushing.

“Hannah?” I asked softly, confused.

“I’ll fit in here,” she said with a smile. “Leave it at that,” she said as much to me as to Esmie. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep the dorm’s secret.”

Meanwhile I felt like a bomb had been dropped on me! Hannah had never told me, or anyone else that I knew of!

Esmie smiled at us, “Welcome to Trident!”

It was quiet as we entered the front doors, and a kindly older lady with stern eyes greeted us. “Good evening Esmie,” she said, “Go ahead and head up to your room. I’ll see to these two now.”

“Thanks, Esmie,” I said, joined by Hannah’s voice.

“Ladies, my name is Mrs. Lang. I’m the house mother for Trident.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Hannah, and this is Sofia,” Hannah said.

“If I didn’t know any better, I would say Sofia was your daughter?” she asked.

We both blushed, “Not by birth,” I said.

“How old were you before you changed?” She asked me.

“Eighteen.”

“I see, Hannah; you were the same age?”

“Yes, I guess at least I don’t think I’ve changed ages like Sofia…?”

She smiled at Hannah and continued, “Anyway, we are fortunate enough to have an empty dorm room on the freshman floor. I hope the regular beds work for Sofia?”

“Mrs. Hensley is expecting me to change it,” I said simply.

“Alright then.” She showed us where the bathrooms were and led us to our room. It was a pretty good-sized room, in all honesty, but I hoped it would be big enough for whatever Caireen had in mind. “Do you need any bedding?” She asked curiously.

‘Caireen?’

‘Nope, I’m going to take care of everything!’ She said with a giddiness that made me fearful.

“I’ll be making it,” I assured her.

She looked suspiciously at me in Hannah’s arms but shrugged and said, “Good night, ladies; I need you ready to go at eight so you can get your breakfast. You have an appointment at one to begin sorting out the next few days for yourselves out.”

“Okay, Sofia,” she said as she sat me down on the floor, “do your thing?”

‘Caireen, you want to just take over, and I’ll watch? I’m exhausted,’ I confessed the last bit with a little bit of shame.

‘Absolutely!’

For the next twenty minutes, Caireen worked spells that I tried to follow but didn’t have a chance to do so. It was advanced magic that was way beyond my understanding. At the end of it, we stood in the prettiest and most girly room I could imagine existed on the planet. Everything, including the existing furniture, closet doors, and wardrobes, had been changed to a white color with fancy molding along the ceiling and the walls a couple feet from the floor. The drop ceiling tiles had been transformed into a plaster ceiling with many decorative sculpted accents. Two medium size crystal chandeliers hung down to illuminate the room. Glass wall sconces now adorned the wall. The floor was cushioned by a very soft, light lavender carpet.

The walls of the room appeared to have been split into two personalities. Hannah’s featured a pretty deep lavender color with an extensive, bold black sketch of a tree with music notes and hearts interspersed.

Mine featured a mural of the castle from the Sofia the First show and the characters painted on it in painstaking detail. My mural spanned both of my walls, just as her color spanned her wall. An accent color was visible along the wall portions around the closets and wardrobes. The room itself seemed to have somehow grown larger by at least double.

Hannah had a beautiful white four-poster bed with elegant bedding and lots of lace on the curtains that came down. Somehow, a minor detail or two made it seem older fashioned and retro than the little girl’s dream bedding that was mine. I felt both excited and diabetic from looking at my side of the room. A round crib with a canopy over it was just offset from the wall. A changing table leaned against the wall opposite the doorway. It was all styled very similarly to my nursery in the castle, which didn’t surprise me since the same person decorated this one! My bedding was a light pink, and I could see the crib had emerald jeweled accents along the top and bottom rails and ornate carvings of tiaras along the rails.

Each of us was allotted desks along a wall. One was obviously mine by the size, and computers rested on both. A rocking chair was conveniently located in one corner of the room, with a soft pink and green baby blanket hanging over the back. There were bookshelves for both of us, with one shelf completely filled with picture books. A toy chest sat next to the wall, most likely filled with toys. Hannah confirmed that when she went to open it.

“Wow,” Hannah said.

“Too much?” I asked.

“Way,” she giggled. “This is the princess bedroom I dreamed about since I was a little girl!”

“Well, we both have it now,” I said while shaking my head.

Without warning, she picked me up and walked me over to the changing table. She noticed diapers there and said, “Caireen, Your Majesty, thank you for this.”

‘Tell her she’s welcome,’ Caireen said.

“She said you’re welcome.”

Hannah had me stripped from the romper and the soaked diaper I was wearing in no time. She left me strapped on the changing table and walked to the closets. Inside she found a light green nightgown with as much lace as anything I had seen at Caireen’s castle. “This is adorable!” She said.

I sighed and agreed, “It’s very pretty.”

She had it on over my head and said, “Your mom said you normally have a bottle at night?”

I nodded, “and a story,” I paused, “I don’t expect that from you, though. It’s not like we have any milk in the room!”

Hannah nodded and sat me on the floor. “Let me see if Caireen left me anything to wear.” She opened the closet and saw a collection of modern and heirloom dresses. She found a pretty pink nightgown and began taking off her clothes. I was really embarrassed, but I couldn’t help but watch. When the Gi she was still wearing came undone, she stiffened.

Her bra was soaked.

“What the Hell?” she said. “Eew…” she pulled off her bra, and we both realized why she had that problem. She was lactating.

She just stared at me and didn’t say a word.

‘Caireen, what’s going on?’

‘I don’t know for sure...’

‘But?’

I felt her sigh, ‘I told you there was another mother… I think that’s why.’

‘Is she okay?’

‘Of course. Though if Hannah continues to lactate without having a baby pulling the milk out, it gets excruciating.’

“Say something Sofia,” Hannah said, “You had that ‘I’m talking to Caireen look’ on your face.”

Now I sighed too, “She said that it’s because you bonded with me.”

“Is that all?”

I shook my head, “she also mentioned that it will get pretty painful if you don’t have a way to remove it.”

“Is this a permanent thing?”

‘Is it?’

‘Maybe. Hannah might dry up like a normal mother if there’s not a baby feeding.’

‘But?’

‘But I have a feeling this is her EFP, just like yours is leaving you in diapers.’

“Great…” I said aloud. “She says you might dry up if there’s no baby feeding.”

“Or?”

“Or... this is your EFP.”

Hannah burst into tears then, and I ran up to hold her legs in a hug, at least. “What am I going to do? They already thought you were my daughter… Like I had you at sixteen!?!?! If I’m lactating…?” I held onto her for a moment before she picked me up and hugged me tightly.

Her face was really red when she pushed me back so I could see her face, “I wish it wasn’t so out of the question to have you help me…?”

“Help how?” I asked cautiously.

“Well, you’re the only baby I know around…” she paused, “and you got me into this mess.”

“I was your eighteen-year-old male best friend last week!” I whined.

“Well, you’re a baby this week,” she said with a smile.

I looked at her face and could see the discomfort showing. Hannah had been my best friend for years, and I could tell she was embarrassed beyond words right now too. “No one other than a doctor or our parents knows about this, right?” I asked.

“What happens in the nursery stays in the nursery,” she told me.

“Mom never follows that rule!”

“I promise not to announce your poopy diaper changes all over the school like she would.”

“Can I have that in writing?”

She tickled my side, “I guess shall we try this? If it’s too weird, you really don’t have to… I kind of feel like I need you to,” she told me honestly.

“I’m more worried about the two of us being so dependent on each other, but let’s give this a go,” I told her with a smile.

“You know, other than pretending to feed my dolls when I was little, I don’t know how to do this…?”

“Well, put me up there and hold me,” I told her.

So that’s what she did. I sucked tentatively a moment later before beginning a natural rhythm I felt I had no control over. “Does that taste okay, Sofia?” She asked me. I didn’t respond; my body was on autopilot, just like it was with Caireen in the castle. Eventually, when I had drained her first breast, she instinctively shifted me to the other side. While she was holding me, she began singing a lullaby. Her voice was beautiful and soothing. It left me feeling like I was in the safest place in the world. I was so comfortable! At some point, I must have fallen fast asleep.

 
 
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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I really appreciated the comments on the last chapter, please consider leaving one on this post too! If I have at least three comments by the afternoon tomorrow from different readers I’ll post an extra chapter tomorrow!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 16: Sofia-Proof

I WOKE UP in Caireen’s arms as she picked me up out of my crib. “Oh, so those eyes do open?” She said sweetly.

“It was a long day,” I told her.

“I know,” she said and cuddled me tightly in her arms, “I was so worried things were not going to work out.”

“I knew they would,” I told her with a smile.

“Why?”

“Because I had you and my family, duh!”

“Well, I know you fed before bedtime, but I think you need breakfast,” she told me with a smirk.

She nursed me, and I reflected that it wasn’t so bad in my own private castle. What would happen if Hannah nursed me somewhere publicly, though?

It was only when she burped me like an infant that I realized I had finished. “Wow, you’re really not awake yet, are you?”

“I was just thinking,” I told her.

“About?”

“Can’t you tell?”

“Not when we’re here.”

“Oh… Well, there’s a stigma to breastfeeding in our world. I know you said it was normal in the past for the wet nurses to nurse royalty until later. But, still, in our world, it’s seen as really weird to be breastfeeding past the first birthday… and taboo past the second birthday. Let alone for an eighteen-year-old girl to breastfeed a two-year-old who looks like she must have had her when she was only a sophomore in high school… It’s not fair on Hannah, especially,” I told her with tears.

She hugged me, “I don’t think you need to worry as much as you think, Sofia. First of all, you are tiny for a two-year-old even. Most people would probably assume you were under two if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I nodded, “Maybe. But still, poor Hannah had a normal life, and all of a sudden, she’s like gotten locked into being the teenage mother of a freak.”

The spank on my bottom made it through the wet diaper without problems. “You are not a ‘freak,’ and I’d better never ever hear of you saying that again!”

I whimpered, “Sorry...”

“Okay, tell you what, why don’t we go ahead and pull Hannah in here? Maybe that will help both of you.”

“What about you, though?”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you going to be jealous?”

She laughed, “Sweetie, I’m with you twenty-four hours a day, more than that because, with the day here, you end up with a thirty-eight-hour day each day. I’ll be fine.” She hugged me. “Let’s change that messy diaper, and then I’ll leave you to play while I go get Hannah.”

Caireen laid me down on the ornate table and got to work on changing a disgusting diaper. I never seemed to poop right away in the mornings at home, but in her land, I seemed to be as regular as my sister after dinner. Dinner… Breakfast. ‘I guess I just had a meal, didn’t I?’

I sighed as she pinned a new cloth diaper onto me and said, “Feel better now, butterfly?”

I smirked, “Is that my new nickname?”

“Well… one of many. A moment ago, it was Poopy Princess!”

I stuck my tongue out at her. “While I’m gone, I want you just to play. No magic practice right now.”

“Can I use magic to change my dollies’ clothes?” I asked with a smile.

“Well, of course, as long as you’re playing!”

I giggled as she tickled me, carried me over to the floor, and sat me on a rug next to my dollhouse. “I’ll be back - you be good!”

I had to laugh at the fact she would leave me alone. I mean, how much mischief could a two-year-old get into? Ask my sister… it’s impressive!

I must have been really focused on playing because I didn’t hear Hannah approach before she picked me up and threw me up into the air. “Hmm… You’re so light; this is easy!” She said as she caught me and threw me again.

She held me then and hugged me. “So, this is where you go every night while you sleep?”

I nodded, “Isn’t it beautiful?” Then, I paused, “Which way did you come?”

“I brought her through the front gates,” Caireen said, appearing behind her. “Why don’t we go to the garden and have tea?”

“Okay,” I said. I wriggled out of Hannah’s arms, grabbed Emie, and said, “Follow me!” Hannah dutifully followed me out to the garden. I had run at my top speed down the stairs, it was kind of terrifying, actually, but she hadn’t had any trouble keeping up. As we approached the garden, a butler, Benjamin, met us.

“Your Highness,” he bowed to me. “Your Majesty,” he said to Caireen, who was also right behind us. “Your table is right over here,” he motioned.

“Benjamin, this is Hannah,” I told him.

“Yes, I know,” he said, “pleased to meet your acquaintance right this way.”

‘That’s weird...’ I thought to myself. That was borderline rude.

I kept walking on my own behind him and basically had to run three steps to his one as he was very tall. A table with a wooden highchair was dressed with a cloth tablecloth, fine china, silverware, flowers, and a tray of fruit was sitting temptingly. Hannah picked me up and placed me in the highchair before sitting on one side of me while Caireen sat opposite, facing each other.

“Berries?” Caireen asked me as she put some on a plate and put it on the wooden tray that had been placed onto the chair.

“Please,” I said.

“So, Hannah, I’ve wanted to meet you face-to-face for a while now, but this is the first time it was possible for me to pull you in.”

“Why is that, Your Majesty?” Hannah asked politely.

“You weren’t bonded to Sofia before. There was no connection for me to do it like I could with her parents.”

“Oh,” she said and slowly chewed a small piece of apple. “So, am I the same to her now as her parents?” She asked nervously.

“Maybe more so,” Caireen said gently.

“How can I be more connected than them?!?” She said, “I’m just her friend…?”

“That was true before your change.”

“Do you know what it did to me?” Hannah pleaded.

“All the Mergents that are awakening have some changes; some like Sofia a lot, some like you won’t see as many physical changes. Over the next month, though, I think you’ll find yourself filling out a bit more up top and getting that model figure many of your kind have. I suspect you’ll look a little older, but I don’t think you’ll age anymore - or at least not as fast as you would if you were normal.”

“I know the physical stuff, but why did I start lactating?”

“When Sofia jumped into your arms, what were you thinking?” Then, she added, “How about just before too? Sofia hasn’t heard your side of the story.”

Hannah looked like her heart was wrenched as she said, “Well, I was sitting out in the hallway with Lily and Sofia, both of them quite close. I mean, if Sofia had gone running down the hallway, I would have caught her and made sure she stayed with me. I swear you were only a couple feet from me!”

I nodded.

“I looked down at Lily, starting to flip up her dress. I leaned over to push it back down, and then I couldn’t believe it when I saw a man grab Sofia and just take off with her.” Hannah had tears in her eyes at that point. “I didn’t know what to do! Luckily Sofia’s mom and grandma came out right then, so I handed Lily to them and ran after her. I made it to within sight of the food court, and suddenly, it went from the noisy early dinner sounds to absolute silence.”

“I heard a lady scream, ‘Oh my God, someone call Nine-One-One!’

“Followed by another person, ‘That baby’s a Mergent!’”

“And then finally, ‘Someone, get that baby! It’s a freak of nature!’”

“Everyone seemed to get in my way as I ran to find you. Suddenly, I could see you being chased by a dozen men and a couple of women. You were running and jumped into my arms.” She paused and squeezed my arm gently. “All I could think of was that my baby was safe in my arms, and no one would take her away again!”

‘Uh-oh,’ I thought. ‘I bet we are stuck together… Or at least, Hannah’s stuck to me!’

“Suddenly, I felt angry and pushed my hand out to shove away anyone that might get close.” She looked down, embarrassed, “I was more than a little shocked when a ball of green light flew out and hit the ground in front of them. It was like a bomb went off… After that, I just kind of collapsed and don’t really remember much except her grandmother helping me to move and run away…?” Tears were streaming down her face.

“So, what happened to me?” she asked Caireen.

“Your EFP locked into the ‘my baby’ idea Hannah. At that moment, it locked into the idea of being the best mother for a baby it could be. Not only that, but it did that with Sofia specifically in mind. That meant your hair had to change, your eyes changed, and realistically I have a feeling your very DNA changed to match hers.”

“So, I really am her mother now?”

“Sort of… Sofia’s mom will always be her mom. Normally, a baby grows up and sheds their mother to move on with their life. The mom, of course, stays in the daughter’s life some, but never forever. In your case, I think the two of you will probably be inseparable. You shot that ball of energy out through a method other than magic. I think your people call it a pyrokinetic talent. Still, you have just enough magic inside of you that, combined with Sofia’s relief, essentially bound you two together for life.”

“So even when I grow up?”

“Problem is that Sofia will never grow up. She’s eventually going to be shown by me how to change her diapers with magic. Still, she’s never going to be potty trained.”

“But why would I need to lactate?!? She’s way too old to breastfeed!!!”

“Maybe in your modern world, but I’ve already had this discussion with Sofia. Before the last hundred years, breastfeeding was common until babies were four or five. Sofia’s well within that range. Technically they’ve called her about twenty-six months old, but I think twenty-two to twenty-four months is a better guess myself.”

I nodded at this - I kept having a nagging feeling that they inflated my age for my ego.

“Anyway, in this world, I’ve been nursing Sofia for most of the last week. It helps her magic grow in your world. I’m not sure what your milk may do for her in the real world, but maybe it’ll even help her grow?”

“You think we should do that again?” I asked.

“I don’t think the two of you really have a choice, sweetheart,” Caireen said. “Hannah, I have a feeling you will produce milk until you die someday in the distant future. Of course, you could use an electric pump or nursemaid other babies, but why would you want to when you have your own to hold and comfort?”

“She’s really basically my daughter, then?”

“Yes.”

Hannah sighed and then picked me up from the high chair to hold me. “How often am I going to need to nurse her?”

“Well, it’s not like she’s an infant, and that’s all she eats. So I would say morning and bedtime for certain. Maybe after lunch and dinner? You’ll probably need to express milk more often than that, though.”

I felt Hannah squeeze me. “I’m never going to live down the teenage mother stares.”

“Actually, you probably will in the next month. You’re going to start looking older, and people may assume you’re old enough to have had her when you graduated high school.”

“Why does she get to grow up and I grow down?” I asked irritatedly. They both laughed at me.

Caireen eventually sent Hannah home to her own dreams after telling her that she would be invited to join us from time to time. Her dreams were important, though, and she didn’t want to disrupt that every night. Once she was gone, Caireen again nursed me to sleep herself and said, “You have got to be the luckiest baby in the world to have three mommies who love you!”

 
 
I WOKE UP to Hannah moving around the room. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you, Sofia,” she said.

“It’s okay,” I said. “What time is it?”

“6:30,” she said. “Would you mind?”

“Mind?”

She blushed, “Nursing from me again?” She paused, “It felt so amazing and right last night.”

“Look, I know we just talked about this, but I guess I feel like we need to set a few ground rules?”

She looked almost scared, “Like?”

“Can you pick me up out of this crib?” I asked.

“Can’t you pull yourself out?”

‘Go ahead and try it,’ Caireen prodded.

I had a bad feeling about that as she almost sounded like she was goading me. I reached up to the rail to pull myself over. Once I had a handle on it, I leaped out but suddenly found myself on my rear in the crib again. ‘What was that?’

‘Well, we can’t have the baby getting out of her crib without an adult’s help, can we?’

‘Really?’ I seethed, ‘We are going to talk about this later!’

“Apparently, I can’t,” I told Hannah angrily.

She giggled at that but picked me up and stood me on the floor. “Umm, can you sit on the floor across from me?”

Hannah sat down, and I began, “Okay, I get that for all intents and purposes, I am now physically and emotionally connected with you as my mother... But I was eighteen last week, AND I’m trying to go ahead and have somewhat of a normal life. If I have to go back a bunch of grades…?” I shuddered, “I don’t want to have the stigma of everyone seeing me breastfeeding.” I paused, “I really would like that to stay the deepest darkest secret that no one ever finds out!”

Hannah nodded, “I’m okay with that. So… morning, bedtime, and maybe a couple others if we can get back to our room?”

“For now, please stick to that.”

“Okay, what else?”

“Okay, I guess I have to accept that my potty training will never happen. And I know everyone will figure out I’m in diapers in about two seconds, especially when they smell poopy. They’re probably going to think I am a real baby for the first couple of hours, I’m guessing… Please don’t just check my diapers, though. If you can tell I’m wet, or you guess I am… say something like will you come to the bathroom with me or something? Or just pick me up?”

“What about the poopy diapers?”

I groaned, “Like I said, nothing is going to hide those. Just don’t embarrass me, please?”

“Okay, where may I change you?”

I thought, “Well, I doubt the bathrooms here will have changing tables for babies, so we’ll have to figure that out.”

“You would be okay with me changing you like a normal baby in the bathroom?” She sounded shocked, “And letting the other girls see that?”

I shrugged, “I’m probably never going to be able to avoid that one.” Then, I sighed, “They really are the most convenient places for you to change a baby… and unfortunately, as much as I hate it... I am a baby.”

We talked for another few minutes about some rules before she said, “Okay, if we’re going to get ready in time, you need to eat now.” She picked me up and sat in the rocking chair before exposing her breast to me. With that, we began a new routine that didn’t feel awkward or wrong anymore. I was a baby; she was my mother…

Okay, I lied. It was still bizarre! I probably would have been sick if my body didn’t seemingly go on autopilot as I nursed.

Hannah left to shower, and I began looking at the computer on my toddler-sized desk and was ecstatic to see it was perfectly sized for me. It also had the most impressive specs of any laptop I had ever seen! I tried to get logged in but got an ‘access denied’ screen. I looked around the room and opened my closet to look at all the pretty dresses inside. I couldn’t help but notice one that was the exact duplicate in real life of the one from Sofia in the cartoons. I smiled, ‘Thanks, Caireen.’

When Hannah was finished showering, she looked flushed. “What’s wrong?”

“Umm… any chance you or Caireen could help me out with a nursing bra and those pad things for leakage?”

I nodded, “Caireen had already put those in that drawer last night,” I said, pointing to one of her white dresser drawers.

“Oh, thanks.”

She wrinkled her nose, “Smells like a poopy princess in here!” Then, she looked at me and said, “Can you wait until after I get dressed?”

I nodded, “I guess I’m getting used to it; I hadn’t really noticed?”

“Of course not; you’re a baby!” She told me with a smile.

I watched Hannah get dressed into a simple tunic and tights, as it was Sunday and the uniform wasn’t required. She quickly put on her makeup, came over to where I was playing with some dolls, picked me up, and sat me down on the changing table. “So, what happened with the crib earlier?”

I sighed, “Caireen didn’t appreciate that I could get out of my crib at home without help. I guess when she created this one, she felt like it needed to be Sofia-proof.”

“Only I can get you out?”

“No, anyone old enough to take care of me can.”

She smiled, and I looked terrified, “Don’t worry, I’m not mean enough to do that to you.”

I sighed in relief!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I would love to see some comments and feedback as well! You can comment anonymously too!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 17: Tour

“WHAT DO YOU want to wear today?” Hannah asked as she picked me up in just my diaper and walked to the wardrobe.

“That!” I said, pointing to the Sofia dress, unable to help myself!

“That is adorable!!!!!!” she cooed. It came with a ruffled diaper cover that I know Sofia didn’t have in the show, but it was cute. Once I was dressed, I decided it was a tiara day and used magic to put mine on.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Hannah set me on the floor on my own two feet, and we greeted Esmie again at the door.

“Hi,” Esmie said, “Umm, may we come in?”

“Sure,” Hannah said.

I watched the three girls’ eyes practically pop out of their heads a moment later. “Whoa!”

“Pretty!!!!” Esmie said.

“Sugar overload!” the third one said. “Esmie, this is like your room would be if we let you!”

“Pretty much! Except for the crib...?” Esmie mused.

“Hi, I’m Hannah,” she said to the other two we hadn’t met yet.

“I’m Camille,” a girl that was very beautiful and regal said, “I go by my codename Sora a lot, though.”

‘Oh, my Goddess, no way?’ Caireen spluttered in my head.

‘What?’

‘I’ll tell you later; just keep in mind she’s no one to be messed with.’

“I’m Sofia,” I added down on the lower level.

“And I’m Hailey,” the oldest girl with dark brown skin said, “codename Sinopa.” She looked similar to the Pueblo Indians near my home.

“Well, welcome to our room,” I said.

“Umm… you promised me the story?” Esmie asked. “Oh, and in case you care, my codename is Zing.”

“We can tell you the story over breakfast?” Hannah suggested. As I looked at her, I could tell she looked like I felt; somehow, we had fallen into the twilight zone!

I wasn’t really that hungry, but I’d already had a meal fit for a baby already. “Sure, we need to go that way anyway.” Hailey said, “Umm, in case you hadn’t figured it out, we’re your tour guides for the morning or day or whatever you need.”

“Oh, okay,” Hannah said. She looked at me, and I debated in my head before putting my arms up in the traditional ‘pick me up’ pose. She held me on her right hip and grabbed the diaper bag to put over her other shoulder. I swore I saw the girl’s eyes bulge even more.

Esmie couldn’t help it, “Sofia… umm… how old are you, were you... “

“It’s complicated,” I said. “I was born eighteen years ago. If you ask a doctor, they’ll say between twenty-four and thirty months.”

Esmie and the others waited until we reached a place they called Friar Hall before speaking much more. “Let’s get something to eat for you guys, and we’ll talk more?”

“Sure,” I said.

The building itself was beautiful. As we walked into the building, our guides walked us past some weird artwork and statues donors had insisted were placed on campus. Several were odd abstract works, and one was apparently the idealized version of the villain, one of the wealthiest of all time. I just shrugged when they explained it all. I had seen so many weird things in the past week since I emerged that it didn’t even rate a one on my weird scale! “I’m going to put you down,” Hannah told me as we approached the buffet lines.

“I can hold my own tray and everything,” I reminded her.

“We must get you through the line first,” Hailey muttered.

“Huh?” I asked.

“Don’t mind her… she and a few others have occasionally just had a bad first day here,” Esmie said and elbowed her older friend.

Hannah handed me a tray, and I began having her place food onto my plates and tray. I was getting plenty of odd looks as the mound of food kept growing. Of course, I had no problems carrying it, but it looked weird to everyone else. At least I could drop the baby act for a few moments with this, though!

I could feel Caireen not necessarily agree with that, though.’ Please?’ I asked. ‘This is hard enough!’

‘Alright, I’ll agree to similar terms as Hannah. No embarrassing you in front of your classmates if we can help it.’

‘Thanks,’ I told her.

“These two just arrived last night,” Camille told the cashier when we got up to the front, “I was given this to give to you for today for them,” she added.

The cashier looked closely at the cards, swiped them, and motioned for us to move on. “We’ll sit over here,” Esmie told me with a smile. “Umm… do you need like a booster seat or a high chair?” she asked nervously.

‘I’ll take care of it,’ Caireen said before I could even think to argue. Fortunately for me, she simply took one of the chairs and made it taller. Since there was no tray, it looked like a bar stool or something.

‘Thank you!’ I told her, truly gratified.

‘You’re welcome. I’m going to demand extra baby time though sometime...’ she grumbled.

I smirked internally. ‘You would want that anyway.’

I decided to just climb up into the chair. I placed the food tray in front of me with no major issues. I began eating as the others stared at me in disbelief.

“You just emerged last week?” Esmie asked.

“Umm… yeah?”

“How can you already do magic like that?” she asked.

“I didn’t do that one,” I told her.

“Huh?”

I sighed, “I think I probably have a lot in common with Hailey and Camille too.”

“Okay… so how about starting from the beginning?” Hailey asked a little tersely.

“Well, about a week-and-a-half-ago now, I woke up with a fever and felt sick. I ran to the bathroom but didn’t get there before I started to burn up. My baby sister came out of her room and stared at me… I guess I thought something about how nice it would be to be able to be held by Mom again…?” I grimaced, “Next thing I know, I’m in the hospital looking like this!”

“Ouch,” Camille said.

“So, what about the presence I feel?” Hailey asked, then hesitated. I watched her suddenly say some incantation and wave her arms to perform a spell. Finally, she said, “Don’t worry about being overheard.”

I sighed, “I’m an Avatar. A…” I felt a warning from Caireen not to say too much, “being… decided I wasn’t going to survive on my own through the burnout. She decided to help me but unintentionally bonded with me due to my avatar trait.”

I was about to answer another question when I heard behind me, “OH MY GOD!!! Whose baby sister? She’s soooooo adorable!!!!!”

Suddenly without warning, I was picked up in the air by a beautiful blonde girl. I had no control over it and zapped her with magic out of fear; it was too much like yesterday!!! I instinctively leaped from her and onto the table to face my attacker, preparing to pull at ley lines to strike her.

I was momentarily distracted as I suddenly realized how strong the lines ran through the area! I quickly looked back as the blonde bombshell said, “Ouch!!!!” and shocked me by standing right back up like I’d done nothing to her.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, realizing she was probably harmless.

“Not a baby?” She said, surprisingly not even that phased from the shock.

I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. “It’s complicated…?”

“Lizi, meet Sofia, Sofia, Lizi, or Knag.” Camille introduced us while laughing hysterically.

I eventually began laughing too, and she joined our table, and I was back in the chair.

“Is the privacy ward still up?” Hannah asked.

Camille nodded, and I did as well since I could feel it. “That’s part of why Lizi was able to surprise Sofia,” she added.

I looked embarrassed.

“So… where were we?” Hailey asked. “Oh, entity?”

I wondered how much I should say with Caireen’s warning, but I decided something about these girls meant I could trust them. “Her name is Caireen; she’s a Celtic goddess.”

“So, did she cause this…?” Hailey asked suspiciously.

“No, she probably saved my life by helping me keep from killing myself during the change. It was a bad burnout – I finished emerging in about ten minutes, I would guess.”

“Can’t do anything about the size, though?” Lizi asked.

“No… Of course, I think she would if she could… but there’s no doubt she enjoys my being a baby.”

“So how much of a… baby… are you?” Lizi asked gently. I could tell she felt terrible about attacking me as a toy doll or something.

I sighed and looked over at Hannah before saying, “I’m no longer potty trained… And let’s just say if I get nervous, I really crave having a pacifier in my mouth.”

“Not to mention sleeping in the cutest nursery eeeevvvver!” Esmie squeaked.

I stuck my tongue out at her.

“Where did that come from anyway?” Camille asked.

“Caireen is apparently the world’s best decorator,” I said simply.

“So, what can you do?” Lizi asked, “Usually only really powerful Mergents change THIS much.”

I smirked, “Well, according to my tests last Monday - I’m a Level 5 Avatar, a Level 3 Esens, a Level 3 Regen, a Level 4+ Magic, and, as you probably guessed, a Level 4 Paradigm.”

“Holy shit!” Camille said.

The others looked at me widely, too, except Hailey.

“I can’t be that unusual?” I asked uncertainly.

“Well, the Avatar and Magic traits are. I’m not surprised by it, though,” Hailey added.

The others nodded. Esmie said, “You know you would make the world’s prettiest baby model. The Toddlers and Tiara’s kids would have nothing on you!” She said with a smile.

“I would love to see that,” Lizi said with a big smile.

I grimaced, “Somehow, I suspect it’ll happen eventually.”

“What about you, Hannah?” Esmie asked. “You two obviously are connected and arrived together?”

“I was one of Sofia’s best friends before she changed,” Hannah said. “When the change happened, her parents called me to babysit her little sister Lily while she and her dad were at the hospital with her. They were really worried she wouldn’t make it...”

Hannah shuddered then and chose that moment to pick me up from my chair. I wasn’t done eating my bacon, though, and audibly whined. She moved my plate in front of her and sat me on her lap with a quick hug. I knew if I wanted to eat, I had better do it while she told her part!

“Anyway, because I was already sort of in on it, I was the first person outside her family who knew about what happened. So I came and hung out with her family and sort of became the big sister helping out. Especially as Sofia could no longer change Lily’s diapers, let alone her own, her mom appreciated a little help when I came over!”

“Why can’t you change your own? Couldn’t you use your magic?” Lizi asked skeptically.

I sighed and finished the piece of bacon in my mouth. “Caireen won’t let me do some things yet. She wants me to learn to be a ‘normal’ baby and depend on others for that.”

She smirked at that. “What else?”

“If I’m in my crib, I can’t get out by myself… I think that’s mainly it…?” I wasn’t about to tell her about my feeding sessions.

“Anyway,” Hannah continued, helping me out, “I was invited to go shopping with her mom and sister in Albuquerque yesterday. I was happy to be able to shop, and her mom was happy to have changing duties shared. We went yesterday morning and had some new family pictures done of her and her sister and then saw her grandmother. Later we returned to pick them up at the mall. Apparently, the photo studio must have a Sanguis Primum staff member because they had planned to kidnap Sofia when we returned. I was watching Sofia and her sister when suddenly I watched a creep pick her up and run away with Sofia...” Hannah told the rest of the story with occasional input from me here and there. “So anyway,” she said as I put the last piece of bacon in my mouth, “they decided it would be a good idea for us to get out of town last night.”

“Wow,” Lizi said.

“I’m glad you made it here, though,” Camille said with a smile. “Well, are you ready to continue the tour?”

“Is there a restroom we can stop at first?” Hannah asked.

“Sure,” Esmie said, “it even has a changing table if Sofia needs changed.” Her eyes sparkled, and I guessed she would love to play with me like a little doll…

“Umm…” I started to say.

“I’m guessing she needs to be changed,” Hannah said quietly. “But, I agreed to avoid her being too embarrassed by shouting out her diaper changes to the world.”

I nodded and instinctively found myself leaning back into her protective arms.

“Sorry if I embarrassed you,” Esmie said. She looked genuinely embarrassed.

I sighed, “It’s okay; I’m not sure how this will all work. I don’t think there’s any way we can realistically have the same classes. Especially since they want to make me go back several grades…?”

“I think we can help find some others you can trust,” Esmie said with a smile.

With that, Hannah stood up and put me on her hip. Esmie picked up the diaper bag for her, and we walked out of the dining hall and took a couple quick turns to the restrooms. Surprisingly they did have a changing table in there. “I need to go first; can you wait to be changed?” Hannah asked me quietly.

I nodded, “I didn’t even realize I was wet.”

Hannah took me into the stall with her like you would do with a real baby, and I turned to not watch the sight of her using the glorious porcelain throne I would kill to be able to use. Without realizing it, I had stuck my thumb in my mouth while she was going. “Does your thumb taste good?” she asked with a smile as she stood up.

I pulled it out, grimaced at the slobber, and shook my head. “Ugh! I didn’t even notice!”

She opened the stall door, and I followed her to the changing table. Hannah wiped it with a baby wipe before setting me on top of it. I lay there patiently as she pulled the diaper cover down, lifted my dress, and then proceeded to quickly change my diaper. Amazingly the only girls who were in there at all were the four new friends we had made. I turned red when I realized Esmie was watching my change, but so did she when she realized she was watching, so I knew it wasn’t intentional.

Hannah washed her hands and held me up to wash mine before I said, “So where to next?”

“The tour!” Esmie said.

We left and were properly shown the campus. First, we toured a campus museum that displayed the ‘hall of fame’ heroes and villains from the school. Apparently, each year a villain and a hero equally get nominated for the honor! From there, we walked to the areas we would have classes. “There are so many stairs!” I whined.

“What’s the big deal about stairs?” Hailey asked.

“When you’re tiny, they’re a pain… and kind of scary,” I told her honestly.

Esmie giggled, “We can find someone to carry you if Hannah isn’t there.”

I just groaned. We were done with the tour by eleven and back at Trident. “We’re going to head to our room for a bit and settle in,” Hannah said to them downstairs.

“No problem,” Camille said, “Lunch starts in an hour, and then you have your meeting with Mrs. Hensley.”

“Okay,” I said for the both of us.

Hannah carried me upstairs, unlocked our room, and closed it behind us. She held me and sat directly into the rocking chair. “Umm…” I looked at her face and noticed she was a bit red, “Do you think…?”

“It’s time for lunch?” I smiled at her, “You’re already feeling full?” I asked.

“You have no idea,” Hannah complained. “This is the weirdest feeling ever!”

“Well, get your clothes out of the way,” I jokingly grabbed at the top of her top.

“You really don’t mind?” She asked hesitantly.

“We’ve been over this, Hannah. Yes, it’s extremely weird for me to see the breasts of my best friend... And it’s even weirder to start sucking on them and then lose complete track of myself… but we both know you need it…” I squirmed, “and I can’t say it’s unpleasant.”

She hugged me and kissed my forehead, “Thank you!”

Hannah fumbled for a minute to pull down her top and the cup of her bra. When she was done, I just leaned in and began suckling again. She patted my back and played a little with my hair as I nursed. I realized that her first breast was empty only when she stroked my chin and got me to release that nipple. My nursing of her other breast was just as natural, and before I knew it, she was burping me like an infant. Embarrassingly I felt myself spit up some milk onto the towel she had thoughtfully placed on her shoulder!

“Full?” She asked me.

I shrugged, “It’s weird… Yes and no?”

She hugged me and carried me over to the changing table, quickly changing me again. Only when she said, “What a stinky baby!” did I realize I had pooped and not even realized it.

I just started crying.

 
 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I really appreciate any comments you might leave! You can even comment anonymously too!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 18: A Baby

HANNAH HELD ME and cuddled me for a long while before I managed to regain control from bawling my eyes out. Then, when I was finally nearly calmed down and merely hiccoughing, she asked, “What’s wrong, Sofia?”

I shook my head and said, “I didn’t” I hiccoughed, “even,” hiccoughed, “know I had...”

She hugged me tightly. “It’s okay,” she reassured me.

“No, it’s not!” I said with fresh tears starting to fall.

“Yes, it is Sofia. You’re a baby! Why should you know or care that you’ve gone?”

“Because I’m not; I’m eighteen!!!” I bawled into her shoulder.

“Not all of the time Sofia,” she reminded me. “And I think when you nurse, you become more of a baby than at any other time.” I looked up at her, and she looked guilty, “which is why we don’t have to...”

I shook my head, “You need it, though,” I sighed, “And I guess I need it too.”

She sat down in the rocking chair with me for a while longer before she said, “You feeling up to going to the dining hall for me to get some food?”

“You only?” I asked.

“Well, you already had lunch,” she said while poking my nose.

I stuck my tongue out at her! She responded by tickling my side for a few moments before setting me down on the floor and going to the bathroom down the hall. I decided I couldn’t sit there moping any longer. I walked over to the new computer sitting there for me and was sad when it required login information I didn’t have yet.

I walked over to the toy chest and opened it with nothing better to do. It was filled with various toys, from infant or toddler appropriate, all the way to standard Lego sets. There was clearly more magic at work inside as it was holding much more than it should have been able to! I picked up a brand-new box of Disney Princess-themed Legos and examined the picture. It was supposed to be a castle and featured bright colors that were supposed to be girly.

Before I could open it up, Hannah walked in and laughed, “You always have liked your Legos.”

“It’s kind of cute,” I said, holding it up to her.

“Isn’t it a bit old of a toy for your age,” she teased me.

“Caireen must not think so since she put it in the toy box,” I said with a smile.

Hannah replied, “Well, I guess if she’s okay with it… you can play later?”

I smiled, “Okay!”

She grabbed my diaper bag and looked inside it quickly to see if it still had everything she needed. I watched as she grabbed a couple more diapers and an empty bottle to put inside it before zipping it up and throwing it over her shoulder. “Come here, Princess,” she told me.

I put my arms up, and she carried me off to lunch. Once again, I filled a plate and ate more than you would expect, but it wasn’t as much since I felt slightly fuller from my ‘other’ lunch. We sat with Esmie and a couple of her other friends for the meal. They were all intrigued by me, and I was grateful Hannah picked me up and held me after a while. She was like a mother bear with her cub in body language, and anyone with a brain could see it.

“Well, what do we have here?” I heard an obnoxious voice behind us. “We’ve found ourselves a new easy piece of tail, boys!”

Hannah and I turned in our seats to see three high-level paradigm boys who looked too handsome to be human. I knew a bully when I saw one.

“So sure of that, boys?” I asked. “I’d be happy to kick your tails back to the other side of Friar Hall.”

They looked stunned to see the little baby talking back at them.

“What the hell?!?”

“Get the hell away from them, Ewe,” Esmie said behind us.

“What? It’s obvious that she’s a teenage mom slut? She’ll be doing all of us before...”

I’d had enough; I didn’t know what I was doing, but I hopped down from Hannah’s lap and walked straight toward him. I jumped into the air and did a spinning kick at his groin!

Sadly, he didn’t go down like I had hoped. He did, however, look shocked.

“You little bitch… if you weren’t a baby…”

“Is there something going on here?” a man in a security uniform asked behind him.

“Yes,” Esmie said, “these jerks were just bullying our friend here. Then they attempted to attack a baby!”

I internally laughed at that… since it was definitely a lie.

“What have we told you, Ewe?!?” The guard asked. “Come on, let’s go talk to the Captain.”

“But the baby kicked me!”

“That innocent-looking toddler?” He asked incredulously. “Even if she did, what could she do to a big beefy invulnerable guy like you?”

I fumed in my head that the answer was not much. I watched as they were led away, and Camille came up. “We need to get you to your meeting with Mrs. Hensley.”

Hannah sighed behind me. “I knew this was going to happen…” she muttered.

I walked back over to her and hugged her leg.

A moment later, I was picked up from behind by Esmie and had to fight not to attack her again. I did catch myself, though!

“You are soooo light!” She said.

“Really?” Camille asked.

“Here,” she said and passed me to Camille.

“Oh, my goddess, you don’t weigh anything! How is that even possible with all the food I just saw you eat?”

I stuck my tongue out at her and found myself holding onto her side like a toddler looking at Hannah.

“Are you okay?” I mouthed.

She nodded.

We walked to the administration building and were shown where the offices were. Because it was a Sunday, only Mrs. Hensley seemed to be in for our special appointment. She motioned the two of us in and said, “Thanks for helping them find my office, ladies. I’ll make sure they make it back to Trident later.”

Camille sat me down on the ground after a quick hug. They closed the door, leaving Hannah and me alone with Mrs. Hensley. She pointed to two chairs in front of her desk, “Would you please have a seat?”

I moved to sit down in my own chair but noticed that Hannah still didn’t look alright. I found myself standing in front of her with my arms up. She smiled, picked me up into her lap, and turned me to face Mrs. Hensley while keeping her arms loosely around me.

Mrs. Hensley smiled, “I have to say, Sofia, you are the cutest student on campus… maybe ever.”

I blushed but mumbled, “thanks.”

“Okay, you two, unfortunately, have been through the wringer this weekend. I wouldn’t normally want to bring in new students mid-semester, but you won’t be the last we’ve had to take in on short notice like this. We have this week, and then our Thanksgiving Break, and semester finals start pretty soon after that.”

I felt Hannah shudder as much as I did. “I don’t know that we’ll ever be able to catch up that fast?”

“I don’t know about that, Sofia. With your new memory, I bet you can pick up on the coursework in a couple days. But this is the bigger issue; I don’t know that you both can. That’s why I think it’s best to go ahead and move you both back to your Freshman year.”

“Wait, you’re not going to put me back in middle school after all?” I said, both stunned and relieved.

She shook her head, “After looking at your transcripts, I think that would be a mistake… plus I feel there is no way we can separate you and Hannah down the road. So our best bet is to move you both to the same grade. I don’t think Hannah would be happy back in eighth grade either.”

I felt Hannah squeeze me, “Not especially… It’s bad enough going back three grades!” I could tell she was choked up in her voice, “Do I have to go back that far too?”

I watched Mrs. Hensley shrug, “With you missing half of this year, I think it’s for the best.”

I noticed her language indicated that the subject was now closed. “So, what now?” I asked.

“Well, we’ll get you both tested for your powers here in the next couple of days. Then, we’ll send Hannah’s results back to Los Alamos to backtrack the GEID she was given last night.”

“Me too?”

“Yes, while I think Los Alamos probably tested you better than most EPC testing locations, it’s best to be safe. We always recheck new students to be sure nothing was missed. We have far better personnel and facilities for it here.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” I answered.

“Then after that?” Hannah asked.

“After that, we’ll get your schedules organized.” She paused to take a sip of tea from a cup in front of her. “That leads me to my next question. Is it possible for you two to be separated?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked.

“Well… your needs for one?” She suggested softly.

“It’ll depend on who is in her classes, I guess. If it’s a friendly face, we can have them help her out.” Hannah suggested.

“You mean someone else changing me…? A babysitter?!?” My voice raised a bit. Hannah hugged me tightly.

“Sofia, yes, I’m saying a babysitter to help might be wise in those cases.” Hannah added, “At least until Caireen unblocks your ability to magic yourself into a clean diaper.”

I sighed, ‘How long is this going to have to go on until you let me reclaim some dignity?!?’

I could feel Caireen’s smirk, ‘Until it no longer bothers you.’

‘So forever?’

‘I’d say a month to six months, depending on how hard you keep fighting it.’

I fought tears coming out of my eyes and could see Mrs. Hensley staring at me and feel Hannah’s stare from above me. “I’m alright; I’m just frustrated.”

“Well, we could have you just take the same classes all the time…?” Mrs. Hensley started.

“No, we need to take the classes that apply to us, and Sofia needs to get used to playing baby every now and then as needed,” Hannah said from above me.

The way she said it…

“That sounds like something a mother would say,” Mrs. Hensley said with a smile.

This time it was Hannah’s turn to blush. “Umm…”

“It’s okay; remember, I know the two of you bonded. Hannah, you emerged only yesterday; have you noticed anything else about your emergence?”

“Well… Umm…”

She squirmed and stammered for several moments before I decided to do the toddler thing. I blurted it out for her, “She’s lactating.”

Mrs. Hensley’s eyebrow raised. “Lactating? How much?”

“Enough that I’m already full again after two hours or so…?”

“Full again?” She looked at us both.

I sighed, “I nursed from her to help.”

“Well, that’s different... Sofia, do you feel a need to nurse from Hannah?”

I shook my head, “It’s soothing, but I don’t have to do it.”

“But Hannah, I assume you feel compelled to nurse her?”

I could feel her body move as she nodded and squeezed me tighter. “When she’s nursing, it’s like… it’s like I’m complete. As I get fuller, it gets painful until she’s nursed it from me.”

“You could just use a breast pump?” Mrs. Hensley suggested in a calm voice.

Hannah shrugged, “I guess.”

I sighed, “It’s not like she’s the first person to nurse me.” I told her.

Mrs. Hensley’s eyebrows raised further than they had before.

I blushed, “Caireen nurses me in the dreamland we meet each night.” I told her more about Caireen and the castle where I spent my second day each day. “So, I guess nursing from Hannah isn’t really any different for me,” I told her.

“Well… just when you think you’ve seen it all…” she practically muttered. “I see no real issue with it except. That said, Hannah, if you’re already full two hours later, you may need to still think about pumping some if Sofia won’t be around.”

“Yes, ma’am,” she said.

“You should be able to store that milk and send it with Sofia in her diaper bag when you’re in separate classes.”

“Umm…” I started, “I don’t have to have her milk in class. And do I really have to have a diaper bag in each class? Couldn’t I just carry a couple changes in my backpack?”

We must have spent an hour more going over procedures to Mrs. Hensley’s satisfaction and to mine to minimize my embarrassment as we went on. As the meeting drew to a close, “Hannah dear, you’re starting to leak, it looks like.”

“Oh no!” She cried from behind me.

“It looks like three hours is about as long as you can wait. So why don’t you go ahead and nurse Sofia in here while I see about getting you a pump and write a few more notes down.”

“In here?” We both asked together. I was sure our reddened faces matched.

“You can use my couch over there, dear.” She pointed to the couch, “Don’t worry about covering up; as far as I’m concerned, breastfeeding a baby is a perfectly natural thing.”

I think we both must have turned even redder, as this was anything but natural for us. Still, Hannah moved over to the suggested couch, and I nursed until she was empty. Then, Hannah burped me and said, “Thank you.”

I looked at her and said, “It’s private enough, I guess.”

Mrs. Hensley asked, “Tummy all full?”

I shook my head, “I don’t think I’m ever full... It’s more that she’s finally empty.”

She looked thoughtfully at us, “Well, I’m assuming you’re trying to be discrete with this need of yours, Hannah. We’ll try and schedule your classes so that you two can get a chance together for this every few hours. I ordered a pump to be delivered to your room; it should be there by tonight. I recommend you at least try it and make sure you can pump. For all we know, it might only work with a baby… or even just Sofia.”

“Oh…” Hannah said. “I hadn’t even thought about that.”

Mrs. Hensley shrugged, “we’ve seen so many weird things over the years that anything is possible. But, for now, please remember that unless it’s Sofia, it’s probably not wise to feed your milk to anyone else or their babies. I think we need to have your milk tested tomorrow as one of the many things they’ll be checking.”

“Okay,” she said simply.

“So, what do we do now?” I asked.

“Well, I think tomorrow you’ll be done quicker than Hannah on most tests, but it’ll probably take until Tuesday for you both to be done. So you both need uniforms still?”

“Caireen took care of that for both of us, actually,” I told her.

“Really?”

I nodded.

“Well, she does seem to help you both out quite a bit. I’ll be curious to see when you learn how to do all of this on your own. I suspect you will grow to be very powerful in a short amount of time, Sofia.”

I shrugged, “How much power can a baby really have?”

“A lot.” She said with a smile. “I would be willing to bet that within the next week, you’ll have recruiters from the CIA and FBI trying to get you to go ahead and join up to help them.”

“Why?”

“What’s more innocent than a baby?” She asked. “You’re the perfect spy.”

“Oh…” I said. That was true.

‘Yes, it is,’ Caireen said, ‘it’s why I think you can help so many children.’

‘What?’

‘Just think about how much help you could be in an investigation where children normally can’t answer questions?’

‘But I’d be dealing with…?’

‘Yes, but then some innocent child might be spared from some monster.’

“Sofia, are you still there?” Mrs. Hensley asked nervously.

“Yes, ma’am, sorry, sometimes Caireen and I have conversations…?”

“The voices in her head literally do talk to her!” Hannah said, and I turned my head to stick my tongue out at her.

“So, Sofia, do you want me to let any of those recruiters through?”

I sighed and thought for a moment about what Caireen had said… She was right, “I’d be okay with seeing the FBI ones.”

She nodded, “It’s a more worthy path, I think too.”

I just nodded back.

“Well, do you need anything else right now?” She asked us.

“I think we’re good,” Hannah said. “Caireen took care of everything. But I think we still need access to computer systems, student IDs, and such?”

Mrs. Hensley nodded, “Here is a packet for each of you that has your temporary ID and information on the network. You need to change your temporary passwords when you first log in.” She handed Hannah two large manila envelopes that she put in the diaper bag beside us. “Well, if that’s all you two can think of too, you probably need to change a stinky diaper.”

“Huh?” I said. “Again?” I groaned.

Hannah answered by picking me and the bag up and walking down the hallway. “That bathroom down the hall has a changing table for her,” Mrs. Hensley pointed.

I started to tear up and sniffled quietly.

Hannah patted my back gently as she carried me down the hallway. The bathroom was empty when we arrived, and she pulled down the changing table, wiped it off, placed my changing mat down, and then had me buckled down. As Hannah lay me down, I started crying out loud. As she changed me, she said, “I think you need this right now, Sofia,” and put a pacifier in my mouth.

The silicone nipple muted my sobs as she pulled my dress up and away from my bottom to expose the soiled diaper. It was a few minutes of work for her to fully clean up my messy bottom before she had me re-diapered and dressed. Finally, Hannah picked me up and patted my back, but I still wasn’t calming down.

“I don…” I hiccoughed, “know…” I gasped, “why… I… can’t…”

In the process, my pacifier fell from my mouth, but she managed to catch it.

‘What’s wrong with me?’ I called out to Caireen.

‘Shh… Hannah will get you sorted out.’ She reassured me.

Instead of carrying me outside and back to our dorm, Hannah sat on a lobby bench and pulled a bottle from the diaper bag. It was full of juice. She pressed the nipple through my lips, and I instinctively suckled. Initially, I couldn’t even focus on nursing, then as time went on, I calmed down and continued to nurse. By the time it was empty, I was almost entirely calmed down.

Hannah placed my pacifier back in my mouth and said, “I guess we need to get back to the room and put you down for your nap, huh?”

I couldn’t do much more than shrug as she carried me across campus. I never felt nervous about being seen nursing a pacifier until we were already back inside our room. Then, it hit me as Hannah removed my clothes and changed a slightly wet diaper.

“All of those other students!” I said, suddenly turning red.

“It’s okay, Sofia,” she told me, “you’re a two-year-old. It looks normal!”

I squirmed a bit as she wiped my bottom.

“So, what happened?”

“I honestly don’t know. My mind completely went into a meltdown.”

“I’m guessing you needed a nap!”

“But I’m eighteen!”

“Not body-wise. In fact, I’m beginning to think you may not even be fully the two that the testers put on your card.”

“But…”

“It’s okay, Sofia,” she said as she dressed me in a cute romper. “No one minds.”

“But our classmates…?”

“Will call you a baby?!?” She asked with a smirk.

I nodded as I turned red.

“Guess what, you are one!!!” She poked my nose and tickled my side a little to take the sting out. “Not only that, but you’re one of the cutest baby girls anyone has ever seen!”

“I’m not that cute?”

“Uh-huh, you are. But you’re also a cute little baby girl who needs to take a nap before we get your din-din.”

I sighed. Hannah hugged me tightly, kissed my forehead, and then placed me in my crib.

“Now, be a good girl for me and take a nap!” She placed a pacifier back in my mouth and pushed me onto my back. Esmie was put into my hands, and I was quickly asleep.

 
 

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Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! Comments are kind of like putting money in the tip jar! If just two different people will leave a comment on this chapter by tomorrow, I’ll post an extra chapter tomorrow night!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 19: Proposals

USUALLY, WHEN I napped, I didn’t go to Caireen’s castle, but today I was there just as soon as I closed my eyes. “Oh, look at the little baby princess all awake!” Caireen cooed at me.

I looked up at her and was ready to tell her to buzz off, I felt stupid enough already, but I noticed some other people in the room with her. She picked me up from my crib and carried me straight over to the couch.

“Pardon me. She always needs to be fed when she wakes up!” She apologized to a husband and wife who were elegantly dressed. I had just noticed a boy about seventeen sitting beside his dad before she unceremoniously popped her breast out and pushed my head towards it. I couldn’t see anyone now, so I listened carefully for clues on what was going on.

“So, King Camulus, what do we owe the pleasure of your visit today?”

“I’m here because of your daughter. She seems like she would be an excellent mate for my son here, and I would like to arrange for their marriage.”

I stopped suckling and tried to pop my head away from her breast, only to have her hold me there. “I’m sorry, but as much as I like Maponus, I will not arrange Sofia’s marriage. Especially not as long as she remains a baby and the man is old enough to be her father.”

“I could help fix that,” the woman said.

“Yes, Damara, I’m sure you could. I’m sure you could also have her carrying our grandson within a week if that was what you desired and if I let you. However, for at least the foreseeable future, I believe it is in Sofia’s best interest to just be my baby girl.”

“You don’t want to have me unhappy with you, Caireen,” the man said.

“On the contrary, I don’t care. You don’t want to mess with a mother and her baby. I would not hesitate to destroy you and your lands.”

“You hold nothing on me! I’m...!”

“I know who you are. I also know you have outstayed your welcome.” I heard the bell ring while I continued to nurse a now-empty breast. “Please see our noble guests from the castle.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Once I heard the footsteps walk away, I pulled my head away from Caireen’s breast. She stroked my hair gently. “What just happened?”

“What just happened is the biggest reason for you to stay a baby. So you don’t have to worry about me being forced to arrange your marriage.”

“How could I even be married here?”

Caireen sighed, “Sofia, you don’t realize this yet, but you are part of a world much grander than you can imagine. There has always been violence in your world; sadly, plenty of it has been on children. But it seems like it has grown much worse in the recent past. By staying a baby, you can make a difference! The real problem in this world is that if you grew up, you would be honor bound to take one of those marriage offers.”

“But then I would have to have kids?”

“Yes. And, be a dutiful queen to a husband who would claim our lands by his right of marriage.”

I shuddered.

“Sofia, I think you’re beginning to see that there has to be another side to you. You are a baby, at least part of the time. And that has to come out in the real world. You played with your baby sister when you were at home and never even realized you were getting baby time each day. Now that you’re here at Bechtel, you’ll still have to get some in.”

“But how can I go to school?”

Caireen shushed me and patted my back, “Easy, you accept that at times you’re going to be able to be your normal teenage self. At others, you’re going to randomly break down into tears and tantrums appropriate to a baby.”

“But I don’t…?”

“It’s not like anyone will think that odd, sweetie. In fact, it’s more disconcerting to people when you constantly pretend to be the same age as Hannah.”

I thought about that as she bounced me softly in her arms. Then, after a while, she sat me down in a cradle and gently rocked the cradle with magic while she sang a soothing lullaby.

 

“COME ON, SLEEPYHEAD,” Hannah said gently while picking me up from my crib.

I looked at her and felt really embarrassed.

“What’s wrong, Sofia?”

“What’s not…?”

“Well, I can’t know what’s bugging you until you tell me?”

I sighed. “I’m a baby.”

“Duh!” She said and tickled my side as she lay me down on the changing table.

“You don’t get it!” I said around the pacifier that I realized was in my mouth. I pulled it from my mouth and would have thrown it across the room if it wasn’t clipped to my romper. “I’m never going to grow up,” I said with tears streaming down my cheeks. “Even if I could, it would cause problems!”

“Shh…” Hannah told me as she unbuttoned the buttons down the middle of the crotch of my romper. “I’m never going to stop needing to feed babies…” she reminded me, “so what’s so bad about being a baby to help me out with that?”

I glared at her. “I’ll never be able to be on my own… or control my emotions!”

I started bawling again as she quickly took the wet diaper off me, wiped me gently, and put a new one on me. She proceeded to sit down in the rocking chair and presented me with her breast in an attempt to calm me down. Sadly, it apparently worked on me as well as an infant.

I was calm again when she had finished having me nurse on both breasts.

“I can’t believe I’m such a baby… I can’t even control myself!”

She smiled and said, “Okay, so you can’t. So what’s the big deal?”

“What?”

“You’re a baby. No one expects you to!”

“But…”

“Sofia, you wondered why Caireen won’t let you change your diapers with magic? She knows you’ll never be ready to move on past this until you accept that you are a baby and relax into that role.”

“I…”

“Don’t tell me you accept this; you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t have a problem in the world with having your pacifier in your mouth as we walk around campus.”

“Hann…”

“And you wouldn’t have a problem in the world with me feeding you dinner!”

“But…”

“But nothing! Sofia, you have more power magically than most Mergents. However, you need to accept that you have some tradeoffs with that power. We’re not going to make you play baby games all day, but you need to accept that your brain is rewired to where it is a lot like a normal baby’s!”

“I don’t want to, though…?”

She hugged me tight, “Sofia, I don’t want to have breasts that make it to where if I don’t have you nurse every couple of hours, I’m in pain. I didn’t want to change from being a normal girl who liked to babysit... to this… but it is what we have to deal with.”

I found myself nodding.

“Okay, you’ve had the first part of your dinner. Ready to get the solid part of it?”

I nodded and looked thoughtfully at the pacifier hanging on my chest. Finally, I sighed and placed it in my mouth.

“Good girl,” Hannah said with a smile as she stood up.

“Hi, Sofia!” A couple of girls cooed as we passed them. I sighed and waved at them.

“They don’t even notice me!” Hannah complained, sounding slightly annoyed.

I pulled my pacifier out of my mouth, “I’d be happy to let you wear the diapers and suck on the pacifier.”

She unceremoniously plopped it back into my mouth and said, “No thanks.”

When we got to the Friar Hall, she sat me down on the ground and told me, “Stay close, please. I’ll get you a tray going.”

Amidst the students meandering around, it didn’t take much for me to obey that order. I definitely was feeling my lack of height as a monstrous twelve-foot-tall dragon-like creature nearly trampled me. “Sorry about that,” said her husky female voice.

I found myself practically grabbing onto Hannah’s skirt, then! She smiled at me and handed me a tray before we walked down the lines to get our meal. I decided on some chicken alfredo pasta and a couple of pieces of pizza. Well, maybe it was more like six slices… Who was counting, though? As we approached the end of the line, the lady said, “Why aren’t you just the cutest little thing,” to me.

To Hannah, she asked, “Do you have a guest pass for her meal?”

“No, Ma’am, she doesn’t, but I have a temporary student ID,” I said with a smile and let the pacifier dangle from where it was clipped to my romper.

The lady’s eyes narrowed, but she motioned me to hand it to her. She swiped it and said, “you all emerge younger and younger all the time.”

I nodded. The worker didn’t know the half of it! Hannah’s card was swiped, too, and we began walking to the table we had sat at the past couple of meals. Camille was already there. Just as we reached the table, a girl came up to us.

“Why if it isn’t our very own Teen Mom and her bundle of joy?!?” The girl had unnaturally blonde hair. It had some shimmer that made me wonder what was up with her.

‘Watch yourself; she’s got a lot of magic built up.’ Caireen warned.

“Why if it isn’t yet another wannabe blonde bimbo Hannah?” I said to her. “I mean, obviously, if she thinks you’re my mommy, she’s hoping you can give her some tips on getting knocked up. Too bad you’re still a virgin and not my mommy.”

“I know Sofia,” she sighed, “Such a shame that some girls have to fake their hair color.”

The blonde girl looked at us both before saying, “Why don’t you go find a high chair for her?”

“I don’t need one right now, thanks,” I told her. “Now, why don’t you go away. I don’t really want us to get in trouble on our first day here.”

“You better watch yourself, you little snot!”

I thought for a moment and couldn’t help myself. I performed a spell and changed our antagonist’s panties into something more fitting her behavior. “Okay, you’re right. I don’t think you’re the teen mom type. I think you might want to go check your diaper, though.” I smirked at her.

“What?!?”

It was hysterical as she suddenly grasped that she no longer had panties under her short miniskirt. Typically I’m sure that she would never have flashed her underwear. She ran away as a near-blur at super-human speed! Still, everyone had already seen the abnormally large-sized pamper on her!

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I know it’s a normal compaint on BigCloset, but I’ve been surprised by the zero comments in quite a few posts. I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top? This was a short chapter, so if I get even one I’ll give you another chapter tomorrow?

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 

Thank you to everyone who commented yesterday! Due to those comments I’m giving you a bonus chapter today. I’ll post again tomorrow as I had planned, though it will be either really early, or late tomorrow night. Thanks for commenting!
 
 
Chapter 20: Making Friends

“SOFIA ELIZABETH!” HANNAH scolded me. I looked up at her and saw her smirking.

“What?” I said, “She was so upset I was worried she would have an accident.”

Camille and the other girls sitting at the table laughed hysterically, and a few other tables erupted in applause. “So, how much trouble am I going to get in?” I asked Camille once I was in my tall chair.

“From the school? Nothing. That’s a harmless prank around here.” She giggled.

“And from that girl?”

“Well, that girl is known as Streaked,” she smirked. “I think you could say you’re on her bad side,” Camille said.

Another girl down on the end, “Yeah, you might be careful as I know she’ll be looking for revenge.”

I laughed, “What’s she going to do? Diaper me? Embarrass me?”

“I don’t know, but I would watch yourself. Streaked has a bad temper, and she can move ridiculously fast!” Camille told me. She then started giggling, “But that was totally awesome!”

We ate dinner together and enjoyed laughing about the bully. I discovered her real name was Gemma, and I couldn’t blame her for wanting to go by her code name. At the end of dinner, I asked, “What now?”

“Well, we were thinking about watching a movie?” Camille suggested. “Assuming you’re allowed to be awake that late?”

I stuck my tongue out at her, “I don’t have the sleep pattern of a baby,” I informed her.

“Careful, a little birdy will get that tongue,” she smiled back at me and then shoved the dangling pacifier back in my mouth.

I turned red and glared. Camille just laughed at me. Hannah let me walk beside them on my own legs as we returned to Trident. For me, it was almost a jog, though, to keep up with my tiny legs! “We’re going to go to the common room to watch the movie,” Camille told us.

“We’ll be right there; we just need to take care of something.”

“Oh, does Sofia need a change? Can I do it?” She practically pleaded.

Hannah looked at me as if, ‘It’s up to you.’

‘Say yes,’ Caireen told me.

‘Why?’

‘Be a good girl and say yes; I’ll make it worth your while later,’ she bribed.

I sighed and nodded at Hannah, who handed me over to Camille. She followed Hannah carrying me to our room. Once Hannah was sure Camille knew where everything was, she said, “I’m going to the bathroom really quick; I’ll be right back.”

I was suddenly alone without a family member… or pseudo-family member for the first time in several weeks. I couldn’t deny I was nervous. Camille smiled at me and said, “Can I treat you like my little sister?”

“How old is she?”

“She just turned three… I think Mom was planning on potty training her this month.” She said, almost sad she was missing something.

I sighed, “Sure.”

She squealed, and I then endured two minutes of her playing with me and singing silly songs as she settled me onto the changing table. She had me giggling when she got around to pulling the snaps apart on my romper. Camille gently wiped me and changed my very-soaked diaper. She seemed to have as much fun changing me as Lily did with her dolls. Before long, she surprised me by pulling my romper over my head.

“What are you doing?” I asked nervously.

“Well, we’re going to watch a movie, and then I figure it’ll be time for bed, right?”

I grimaced but nodded.

“Well then, shouldn’t you get your jammies on?”

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes.

She looked through the drawers of my dresser and oohed and ahhed non-stop before deciding on a one-piece blanket sleeper with a picture of Merida on it. She unzipped it all the way to the foot and dressed me mostly lying down before having me sit up. By the time she was finished, I was red with embarrassment, but I said, “Thanks.”

She picked me up and hugged me; I couldn’t deny that it felt good. “Can I babysit you occasionally?” I looked at her and noticed she was almost teary-eyed, “I really miss my sister.”

“What’s her name?”

“Cassidy.” She said.

I nodded, “Maybe you’ll be in some of the same classes as me if Hannah isn’t. I know you’re more likely to be since you are a magic user too?”

She squealed and said, “Yay!!!” She bounced me for a moment and then said, “So do you have a doll or a bear you want to take to the movies?”

I pointed at Emie, and she picked her out of my crib and held her out to me. “She’s pretty!” Camille cooed. “I love her dress. Do you have jammies for her that you want to change her into, though, so she can join the party?”

I wanted to get annoyed with her, but part of me knew she was absolutely correct - Emie needed pajamas to join in! I looked down at myself and then pictured the same on Emie. A moment later, she was wearing an exact copy of my pajamas.

“Aww!” Camille said. “You two look so cute together!!!”

She was walking around the room holding me when Hannah finally came back from the bathroom. I noticed a problem a moment later. “Umm, Hannah…”

“What?”

“You’re… ummm…”

“You’re leaking,” Camille said with a little bit of shock.

Hannah burst into tears suddenly, and I found myself jumping at her to hug her. Camille was there a second later. “It’s okay, Hannah,” she soothed alongside me.

A few moments later, she said, “How can I show my face?”

“Sofia isn’t yours, right?”

Hannah shook her head, “I’m still a virgin. When I emerged, my EFP locked into being a mother for her, though.”

“So, you lactate?”

Hannah simply nodded.

“Do you need to pump now?”

“Or…” I said.

Hannah looked at me like, ‘Do you want her to know?’

“Or…?” Camille asked.

“I guess I need to nurse,” I said simply. “Hannah, how are you building up so much milk, though?” I groaned as she carried me to the rocking chair.

“I don’t know? I guess I’ll ask the doctor tomorrow. Are you sure you want to do this right now? I mean, you just had a meal. I could pump now and…?”

“Just feed me already; you know my appetite never stops.”

I could tell Hannah must have been uncomfortable because it didn’t take her long to bare her breast to me and push my head towards it. Then, as I nursed, it was quiet for a moment before Camille asked, “What’s it feel like?”

I could almost feel Hannah smile above me, “Well, for one, it’s a relief to get it out. They just feel... full... They’re kind of too firm? Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to take more than a couple hours it seems,” she sighed.

“No, how about…?”

Hannah breathed deeply and said, “It’s probably the most amazing feeling you could ever feel. Sofia feels like my baby, and it’s amazing to know that she’s getting part of what she needs from me!” She paused and patted my back a bit. “It also feels good in a weird way as she nurses...” I could practically feel her skin turn red as she blushed then.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell the others about this,” Camille assured her.

Hannah sighed, “I’m not sure I’ll be able to hide it from them. Everyone obviously is all too close to keep it a total secret since I know there’s no way I will avoid leaks. So if anyone asks, I’m just pumping it, and they’re taking it to study, okay?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Camille got quiet for a while, and after I was switched to Hannah’s other breast, she burped me, and Hannah asked, “So you sleepy yet?”

I shook my head, “Nursing doesn’t make me as sleepy here as it does in Caireen’s world.”

“Well, I guess let’s go watch this movie.”

I nodded, and Hannah handed me off to Camille. “You want to take her on out there? I need to change my bra and top.”

“Why not just change into your jammies like Sofia?” She suggested sweetly.

“I’ll go change, too,” she added. “You want to stay here or come with me?” She asked.

I looked at Hannah.

“It’s okay; you can trust her.” I found myself snuggling into her grip and said, “Okay.”

Camille shoved Emie into my grip, pushed a pacifier in my mouth, and carried me down the hallway to her room. Camille sat me down on her bed and quickly stripped and changed her clothes into pajamas. It was odd seeing a naked girl like her. As a former boy, I should have felt something, but all I noted was jealousy over her size and having a mature body that didn’t need diapers! ‘I wonder if I would feel anything for a naked guy now…?’

‘I don’t think so,’ Caireen said. ‘You’re a baby.’

‘So, I guess I’m never going to have sex?’

She remained silent, which probably meant a big fat no.

‘Being a baby sucks!’ I told her.

I could feel a mental hug from her, ‘You will find many more comforts in life, Sofia. Just be patient; you have a very long life ahead of you.’

Camille finished dressing into a cute footie pajama set of her own. She smiled at me briefly before frowning, “What’s wrong?”

I sighed, “Two weeks ago, I would have killed to have seen you like I just did?”

I saw Camille nod, “I’ve been there; I understand. I… changed a lot too.”

I grasped that she, too, used to be a boy then. “No, it’s worse than just not being turned on by you, Camille… I… Imagine you never would be turned on by anyone?”

With that, I saw a lightbulb go on in Camille’s head, and she quickly picked me up and hugged me. I didn’t cry, but I was sad about it. ‘At least Lily will eventually be able to give my parents the grandkids. I’ll never give them...’

“It’s okay, Sofia,” she said to me softly. “Come on, let’s get out to the movie and back to Hannah!”

I nodded, and she carried me down the hall while I held my doll too. On our floor, we had a large ‘common room’ with a gigantic flat-screen TV the size of the wall itself, bean bags, and other comfy-looking seating areas. “Wow, this is great!” I mentioned to Camille as she sat down on a couch next to another girl and shifted me to her lap.

“Yeah, this was all started by some of the students about ten years ago they said. Each group has a tradition of adding some other cool thing to the room before we move to the next floor in the next grade.” A new girl said that I hadn’t met.

I dropped my pacifier from my mouth, “Hi, I’m Sofia,” I said politely.

The girl looked at me and shook her head, “Bechtel gets stranger every day! I’m Volango,”

“Monkeys?”

She laughed, “That’s my code name; my actual name is Beth. I discovered I climb really well.”

“And she loves bananas!” Camille added, pointing at the one she was peeling.

Hannah came in right then and sat on another couch. I looked at her as if to ask if it was okay to be on someone else’s lap, and she nodded discreetly. She had her pajamas on, along with what I assumed was a new bra. I sighed, ‘I’m going to have to nurse like every other hour to keep her comfortable!’

‘I think she needs to use those pumps a couple times a day,’ Caireen told me, ‘I’ll explain later.’ So she said in answer to my unasked question.

Before I knew it, Esmie and Lizi had come to join us on our couch, and we started watching a movie. During the movie, I discovered more about some of the urban legends of the school. Each was unbelievable but too crazy not to be true in my mind! Let’s face it, putting a school of super-powered teenagers together and crazy is pretty normal!

At some point, the movie ended, and Hannah said, “We probably should go to bed… they said they’re going to test us tomorrow so we can start to figure out our class schedules.”

“Fun!” Lizi said.

I shook my head, “I just did this!” I groaned a bit.

“Bechtel has way better testing, though. So you probably have at least a couple more abilities than your other tests revealed.”

“Really?” I asked, kind of excited by that.

“Yeah. Plus, Hannah gets to figure out all the cool new things she can do!”

I laughed, “Yeah, other than big balls of energy, we don’t really know much about her abilities. Maybe you’ll have some sort of magical abilities too?”

Hannah picked me up off Camille’s lap and said, “Night, everyone!”

She couldn’t seem to help herself and grabbed my arm and said, “Wave’ bye-bye’ Sofia.”

I glared at her, and she just laughed.

Once we returned to our room, she said, “Would you mind nursing one more time?”

“Already? I guess...” I said, but I knew it was probably three hours since the last time.

“I know, this has to be a little obnoxious on you. I’m sorry, I can just do the pump…?”

I sighed, “Use the pump a time or two in the day… I’ll nurse at night and breakfast for certain each day?”

She nodded.

“Save the rest of it… I think we have a line of girls that want to ‘babysit’ me.”

She smiled, “I’ve had like eight girls offer! I’m not surprised, though; you are like the most adorable baby ever!”

Hannah settled into the rocker with me and sang a lullaby as she nursed me. I must have been more tired than I realized because she told me she had changed my wet diaper, and I didn’t even stir.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! Getting several yesterday was really nice! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 21: Powers

AS SOON AS I was asleep at Bechtel, I was waking up in Caireen’s world. “This is so weird,” I said to Caireen as she picked me up out of the crib.

“What is?”

I sighed, “Not really ever feeling like I’m asleep?” I paused, “It’s like I live the life of a vampire, never sleeping.”

I saw Caireen flinch, “Please don’t mention those creatures… You are most certainly not like them.”

I raised my eyebrow, “Huh?”

“Vampires. They aren’t like that novel I saw inside your head, but they’re based on a real enough creature. They are nasty creatures of evil. I really have no desire to think of them,” she said. Then, she changed the subject as she changed my diaper, “It seems like today you started to at least get the point that you are a baby, though.”

I sighed, “I guess I don’t have a lot of choices.”

She nodded, “Good, the sooner I believe you believe that maybe I’ll work on helping you regain independence.”

I looked up hopefully, “Like changing myself?”

“That, and maybe an illusion for you to make yourself look like an average teenage girl?”

“Wait, what?!?!” I controlled my voice, “You can help me be a regular teenager?”

“No, but you can appear to be to observers. You can make your body appear to at least visually look like you’re eighteen or so. Really you’ll still be your same size.”

“Could I…”

“What?”

I thought for a second and tried to find the right question “Can I be touched and felt like that?”

She looked at me and sighed, “Not with the illusion I’m thinking of. It depends on the fact that the person is not trying to actually touch you. What you’re speaking of would be a physical shapeshift spell.”

“It is possible?” I asked hesitantly.

Caireen thought long and hard before answering, “Yes, Sofia; eventually, you will be powerful enough to change your body to some small amounts. However, I would advise against you ever trying anything that extensive.” Then, she paused, staring at me momentarily as if judging my maturity. She helped me put on a new dress, “The problem is that EFP of yours is likely to interfere if you do more than something that keeps you your current size. I would say at most you might have a one percent chance of being successful with transforming to adult size - even when you are fully trained in a few decades.”

I mouthed, ‘decades?’

She nodded at the silent question but continued, “You’re probably about eighty percent likely to make yourself look like some sort of hideous monster, though.”

“The other percent?”

“Something unknown, or nothing at all.”

I sighed, “So not really worth it.”

“No, not really.”

“But the illusion?”

“I’ll make you a deal. You go along with the baby treatment for a couple more weeks.” Then, she poked my nose, “Let that cute girl Camille and your other friends take care of getting you from class to class, changed, and drink out of a baby bottle in the cafeteria.”

I groaned at the last one, “sippy cup?” I suggested.

She shook her head, “Bottle - you know that you like drinking from them more than the sippy cups. This is about getting comfortable with the unavoidable truth that you are a baby.”

“Anything else?”

She looked at me briefly and said, “No, that’ll do. You do those things the next few weeks, and I’ll teach you those two spells.”

I reached my hand out with my pinky, “Pinky promise?”

She looked almost offended for a second but smiled and took my tiny pinky with hers, “Pinky promise.”

I smiled at that. The end wasn’t in sight, but at least there was a chance of me going on with life a little more normally!

“Okay, now that we’ve talked, let’s get breakfast before I want to teach you a few more things before the testing tomorrow.”

The next several hours, the baby routine continued, and she taught me a great deal about the principles behind magic and ley lines. By lunch, I felt like I had new ideas for working spells. She had also taught me some simple warding spells and how to detect them by the time I went to bed in her world.

“Good night Princess,” she said with a smile as she lay me down in the crib.

 
 
AS I WOKE up in the real world, I found myself already on the changing table having my diaper changed. “Those eyes do open!” Hannah cooed at me.

I sighed, “What time is it?”

“Six-thirty,” she said, “now that you’re awake, instead of me putting another diapee on you - you up for a shower with me?”

“How about by myself?” I suggested.

She shook her head, “You didn’t see the showers here yesterday. I don’t think you’ll be able to work them by yourself.”

“Oh,” I admitted. Then sheepishly, I asked, “aren’t there bathtubs?”

“Not yet… I thought Caireen might be able to help out with that one tonight?”

Caireen stirred and told me, ‘We can do that. You’re a baby… And babies really should have baths!’

I just nodded at Hannah. Then, instead of putting a new diaper on me, she wrapped me in a ‘Brave’ themed towel and sat me on the floor to walk. I held onto the towel and toddled behind her as she had a basket of shower supplies, a clean diaper, and her clothes in her hands. “What about my clothes?” I asked her as we walked.

“We’ll come back to the room and get you dressed,” she told me.

‘So, I’ll be sitting around watching her get ready and only be wearing a diaper,’ I sighed.

‘Remember what we talked about last night, Sofia,’ Caireen reminded me.

‘I know…’ I said, ‘Sorry, it’s not like I was always diapered and used to everyone seeing me naked. I am...? Was...? A teenager and we like our privacy.’

She didn’t say anything back, and we were in the bathroom. Other girls were naked and getting in and out of the shower, but just like with Camille, I felt nothing. I just sighed and followed Hannah to an empty stall. She pulled her pajamas and nursing bra off as discreetly as possible and hopped into the shower. I could see that she was full, but she didn’t seem to be leaking yet. ‘I would have thought she had to have been leaking by now?’ Hannah must have noticed me looking because after she flicked on a switch labeled ‘silence,’ she said, “I used the pump in the middle of the night and before I woke you up.”

“Oh,” I said.

“I didn’t want to wait until you finally woke up enough. Plus, I thought you might like to have a shower,” Hannah added.

I nodded, watched her press some buttons on an electronic screen, and braced myself to be hit with freezing cold water when she turned it on. But instead, the water immediately streamed out at the perfect shower temperature. “Wow,” I said as I stepped closer to her and the water.

She giggled, “Apparently, one of the rich kids in that initial class they were telling us about added this feature to the showers. They made improvements to each floor as they went through high school. The senior’s floor is supposedly absolutely amazing, thanks to them!”

Hannah took some body soap and put it on a loofa before handing it to me. ‘May I?’ I asked Caireen internally.

‘This isn’t one of the conditions, so go ahead,’ she said.

I smiled as I took the loofa and lathered up every inch of my body. In the meantime, Hannah did her hair. Once she had the shampoo and conditioner out of her hair, she took the loofa and used the body wash on herself. She picked up the shampoo bottle and said, “Close your eyes, Sofia.”

She washed my hair out gently and pulled the shower head down to rinse my hair free of the suds. Hannah turned the water off, reached for her body towel, wrapped her head in a towel, and then used my Merida towel to dry me. She wrapped me in it briefly and said, “Let’s step out into the bathroom, and we’ll get your diaper on you.”

I groaned but had already unintentionally peed a bunch in the shower. Without warning, Hannah pulled the towel away from me, laid it down on a bench, and picked me up to lay me down on it. She grabbed the diaper she had brought, lifted my legs, and quickly fastened the tapes before setting me down on the ground to walk with her to the mirror. Hannah picked me up and sat me on the counter to brush out my hair and blow dry it as she did the same to hers.

Camille walked in then and sleepily said, “Hi Sofia, hi Hannah,” and then trudged to the shower she seemingly got into on autopilot. Most girls in the bathroom ignored me or waved ‘hi’ to me as they walked past. One girl, though, stopped and stared at me as I stared back at her.

Though I wasn’t attracted, I could still know she was probably the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She must have been a high-level paradigm, and I swore I had seen her before somewhere. Then it hit me, I had! She was in one of Mom’s magazines. I was curious enough to read it one day and remembered an ad for makeup or something with her in it!

“You have to be the most beautiful baby I have ever seen!” the girl cooed as she came over.

I decided to maybe correct her there, “Hi, I’m Sofia,” I said as I held my hand out to her.

“You’re not really a baby?” the girl said, “I’m Anna, by the way,” she added to be polite.

“It’s kind of complicated. I was eighteen until a bit over a week ago.”

“I know how that goes…” she said. “I assume you were probably a guy too?”

I nodded, “You?”

“Yep! It took seven months to change into this…” she said as she motioned to her body.

Hannah finished putting her clothes on and said, “Hi, I’m Hannah,” to her.

“Her mother?”

“Complicated,” we said together and laughed.

“We used to be best friends pretty much,” Hannah said. “Sofia changed first, and then I changed when she was being chased by some assholes.”

Anna nodded as if that was the most natural thing in the world. “Well, I’d better get a shower. Sofia, you really should join the Aphrodite’s Club. Hannah, you would probably be welcome too. Sofia, you would make a fortune in modeling contracts and acting as a baby.”

I sighed, “So I’ve heard. I’ll look into it. I suppose being the model on the box of Pampers toddling around in nothing but a diaper isn’t any different than right now?”

She laughed, “It would suit you well, and you could make a ton of money.”

‘Money?’ I thought to myself.

‘Like you really need any….’ Caireen reminded me.

She was correct; as easy as she magically made anything that I needed to just appear… and most babies don’t really spend money themselves… I sighed as Hannah brought a toothbrush up to my mouth. I took it and brushed my teeth before she helped me rinse my mouth out and carried me to our room. “You ready for breakfast now?” she asked me.

I looked at her and nodded. Then, after I nursed her breasts, she put me into my miniature version of her school uniform. “You look adorable!” Hannah said.

I stuck my tongue out at her, “I’m waaaaay more than adorable!”

She laughed, “Oh no, Princess Sofia is going to turn into a conceited brat if I keep giving compliments.”

I glared at her, “I’m already there! Now can we get some solid breakfast?”

She laughed and said, “Just a minute, let me make sure I have your diaper bag stocked since I have a feeling that they’ll separate us most of today.”

“In that case, you might want to have your pump handy somewhere, too,” I advised her.

She sighed and patted a backpack on the bed, “already in there.”

I stood up and hugged her legs, “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, I’m the milk cow, and you’re the diapered baby… not sure which one of us has the most to complain about,” she admitted.

“I’m pretty sure I won that battle. You can still do all the things you want to do,” I reminded her as she helped me put a coat on and then did the same.

“And you can’t?”

I sighed, “At least not for a while. Maybe eventually…”

“That’s the most hopeful you’ve sounded?” She said as she put on her backpack, put the diaper bag on her shoulder, and picked me up.

“Caireen and I made a deal last night. Speaking of which, you have bottles, right?” I asked suddenly.

“Of course, what kind of mommy would I be without bottles for my baby?” She said with a giggle. “Why are you asking, though? You didn’t want to use one in public yesterday?”

“I made Caireen a deal that I would let others help me out in class, change me, and carry me as needed… and drink out of bottles in the cafeteria. In exchange, she’ll teach me what I need to know to maybe sort of be normal some of the time.”

“How?” she asked as we passed through the door to go outside. “It’s cold out here,” she said in her next breath.

“Yeah, glad you remembered the coats!” I said and looked around at the ground and the shallow older-looking snow. Then, for the first time, it really struck me that we were in Vermont and surely would be getting as much, or more, snow as in Los Alamos. As if the weather had heard me, I felt a snowflake land on my nose and looked up to catch one in my mouth.

“Earth to Sofia,” I heard.

“Oh, right,” I said and told her how Caireen offered to help me. She looked a little disappointed with the idea that I would be a bit more self-sufficient, but I think she also understood. We went to the table that had become our typical hangout and left her bag and my diaper bag sitting with Camille watching over them. She smiled and waved us to get food while she munched on some variety of oatmeal.

Once again, I loaded a plate high with food and accepted the incredulous looks of the students around me. Anna saw me and said, “Hi, Sofia! You need a hand with that?”

I shook my head, “I’m good, thank you, though.”

Hannah followed me behind, and we swiped our temporary cards before returning to the table with our food. Hannah had a baby bottle full of juice in her hand that she handed me, and I sighed before putting it in my mouth.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Anna asked quietly as she sat down in an empty chair beside me.

“What?”

“Letting people know you’re a baby?”

I laughed, “I was worried about that at first, Anna, but trust me, there’s no way I can hide the fact that I’m a two-year-old who will never be potty trained.” I sucked from my bottle again and said, “At least I look like a normal baby like this…?”

She nodded.

The conversation around the table mostly centered around projects due that week and the classes students were working on. There were a few discussions about something called the Cube and midterms. I looked with an eyebrow raised at Hannah about that, and she shrugged. “I’m not sure if you’ll have to participate in the Cube or not since you have come so late. They may not make you take them until the spring,” Anna told us.

Then, everyone filled us in on what the Cube was. Apparently, with superpowered teenagers, they needed to teach us how to fight and survive. The Cube was the center of that achievement; apparently, it kept getting ‘better’ every year. We had a couple upperclassmen at our table who had been through it and told their stories. I shuddered a bit but knew I could probably actually hold my own in there. Our favorite bully walked in right then and glared at me. As she started to come over toward us, I could see in her body language that she still hadn’t learned her lesson. To discourage her, I changed her hair from carefully styled, loosely hanging about her face to two tightly braided pigtails. At the ends of the braids were giant bright pink and white bows holding them together. It was almost comical as she felt her hair change, pulled one of the ends of the braid towards her face to look at it, and then screeched loudly in anger!

“You know you probably shouldn’t taunt her,” Anna told me.

“Probably not.” I nodded solemnly but couldn’t help smiling and adding, “She’ll eventually try and spank me or something.”

Everyone at the table laughed, and Hannah looked at a clock in the hall and said, “Come on, Sofia, we need to get you changed and then get to Caduceus Hall for power testing.”

I grabbed my half-full bottle and stuck it in my mouth as she carried me out of the dining hall. I couldn’t help but laugh as Streaked was having her friends try and loosen the ribbons on her braids. I debated on undoing them, but they would fade away in another hour on their own. Maybe she’d learn her lesson about threatening Hannah or me in the meantime.

Hannah carried me to the bathroom she had used to change me yesterday and soon exposed my diaper by pulling up my skirt. “You soaked this, Sofia,” she told me.

“Well, I had half a bottle at the table, and umm…. that would have to be at least a bottle earlier?”

Hannah shook her head, “It’s probably more than that.”

I thought back as she wiped me with a cold wipe. It distracted me for a moment before I asked, “Umm… Hannah, just how much do you think I’m umm... drinking?”

She finished taping my new diaper on, “It’s way more than a normal baby,” she said.

“Huh?”

She sighed, “Remember I woke up early?”

I nodded.

“I looked up the normal amount for mothers on the internet… it’s like somewhere between twenty to thirty-four ounces a day.”

I thought back, “my bottles are like eight ounces?”

“Actually, ten, and you can fill them a bit beyond that.” She said as she washed her hands in the sink and looked down at me. “I used the pump this morning…” she sighed again, “I definitely am putting out more like that maximum daily amount of each breast each time. So far, I think I’m averaging thirty-two ounces per breast per time.”

My eyes must have been showing their shock as I realized that only because I’m a Mergent could I keep up with her load of milk! Over sixty-four ounces every time I was nursing?!? She could feed multiple normal babies and not even come close to emptying herself! ‘How are my diapers keeping up with that?!?’

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! Getting several this weekend was really nice! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top?

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 22: Playgrounds

“WHAT DID YOU do with all of that milk?!?” I asked Hannah, mind blown at how much I was nursing from her.

“Well, there are a few bottles of expressed milk in the bag for you if you get thirsty,” she said with a smile. “And I talked Mrs. Lang into letting me use her fridge until we can buy a fridge with a freezer to put in the room tonight.”

I shook my head, “That space will be filled in no time, though!”

Hannah squeezed me as she picked me up, “Probably!” Then, she placed me on her hip, “Let’s get this testing over with!”

I smiled, “At least you’ll know more about yourself when we’re done!”

“Yeah, other than shooting energy at people and being the best wetnurse in the world, I don’t really know what I can do yet.”

We walked to the building together and checked in at the front receptionist’s desk. “Hi, I’m Hannah Rayburn, and this is Sofia Hammerstein. We’re here for powers testing?”

The lady smiled at me, “Why aren’t you just the cutest thing.”

I sighed and politely replied, “Thank you.”

“Let me just look up some information and have you fill out some forms for you and this little princess,” the lady said condescendingly.

Before I could get upset, Hannah said, “Ma’am, Sofia can fill out her own set of forms.”

“Isn’t she a baby?”

“No, ma’am, she’s eighteen,” Hannah said bluntly. I took a moment and looked up at Hannah and cringed a little bit. Being friends for most of our lives, I’ve seen that look only a few times. The last time she gave Sarah Acosta the ugliest black eye I’d ever seen.

“Oh, my apologies,” the lady said. “Here you go then, sweetie,” she said and handed us each a clipboard.

To assert my age a little more, I did a backflip off the counter and walked to a chair in a small waiting room. Hannah smiled at me and shook her head. After that, it was like déja vu all over again since it was mostly the same questionnaire from the powers testing in Los Alamos. I found myself filling in the ‘incontinence’ line again, but at this point, I had to admit there was no changing that.

“You done?” Hannah asked me a few minutes later and took hers up simultaneously.

“They should be out to get you two in about ten minutes.”

“Thanks,” Hannah said.

As she came over, she put her hand on my diaper and said, “I think you’ll be fine for a while.”

I nodded and looked at her chest, “How about you?”

She sighed, “I probably should pump or have you nurse, but I’ll wait until we’re back there and have them take a look. Why? Are you thirsty?”

I thought for a second and nodded. Hannah reached into the diaper bag and grabbed a bottle out of a pocket. She shook it, uncapped it, and then handed it to me. “Yours?” I asked as I looked at it.

She nodded.

I took a hesitant suck on the nipple and discovered it was cold and didn’t taste as good. “It’s cold,” I said while I made a face.

Hannah looked thoughtfully and said, “Here, hand it to me for a second.”

She held the bottle in her hand, and I saw a quick glow before she put a test drop on her wrist. “Here, try it again.”

I found it was precisely the temperature from her breast then and smiled around the nipple. ‘When did she start being able to do that?’ I wondered.

‘She’s got the most to learn today,’ Caireen reminded me.

Hannah picked me up and sat me on her lap as I continued to hold the bottle to my mouth. Sitting there was pretty relaxing, but I couldn’t help but be a little disconcerted by how much I was missing nursing her milk from her instead of using the bottle. When a white-coated scientist came out to the waiting room, I had finished the bottle and was just absentmindedly sucking on the empty bottle. “Hannah? Sofia?”

Hannah and I nodded. She grabbed the bottle from me and stored it in the diaper bag before getting up, and we walked back with her carrying the two bags.

“I’m Doctor Kestner,” the scientist said to us. “I’ll be one of the people running your testing today.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said, “I’m Sofia, and this is Hannah.”

He paused in the hallway, looked at me briefly, and then shook his head. “I understand you two are a team at this point?”

Hannah nodded, “Probably for the rest of our lives.”

“I get that; teaming up in emergences happens every now and then. Will you be okay being tested separately?”

I nodded, “I will need Hannah to help me every now and then, though.”

He raised his eyebrows, and Hannah responded, “She’ll need a diaper change in about an hour, I would guess.”

“Umm… okay. Or one of our staff could help with that,” the doctor said courteously.

“We’ll see where we’re at?” I suggested.

“Fair enough. I don’t want you two to impact each other’s testing right now, so we’re going to run one of you through one portion while the other is doing another. Sofia, if you’ll come with me please, Hannah, if you’ll go down that hallway and take a right, there will be someone waiting for you.”

With that, I was led into a room like the physical testing area at Los Alamos, but at least several times larger!

“I didn’t think to have her leave your bag with me… do you have a change of clothes for the physical portion of this?” He asked.

I didn’t even answer him with words; I just said, ‘do it’ to Caireen, and I was soon in the same leotard and tutu I’d been in for the initial test.

Doctor Kestner snorted and chuckled, “Okay then, I’ll take that as you’ll be fine in that?”

I nodded, “Yes, sir.”

We began with a treadmill, moved to weights, and then finally, he led me down to an obstacle course that made the one in Los Alamos feel like a home swing set in comparison. Tall platforms that rose forty feet above the floor, with rock climbing holds, ropes, poles, and swings set up throughout. It reminded me of the Ninja Warrior TV show that I had seen on TV one time. Given directions for a route, I had a blast running through the course, jumping, leaping, and climbing it like a playground. When I completed the course, I ran up to him, barely panting. “Doctor Kestner, that’s a lot of fun. Is there any way I could come back sometime to play?”

He looked at me like I had grown horns or something, “Play?”

Right then, I barely became aware of Hannah behind me as she picked me up, “Yes, I’m sure she’s thinking play. She’s a baby, after all!” She said and hugged me tightly before wrinkling her nose. “One with a stinky diapee!”

“Uh… would you mind taking care of that before I take her to the next test?”

“Not at all. Do you have a private room?”

He led us to an empty locker room, and Hannah placed a portable changing pad on the concrete bench before laying me on top of it. She pulled apart the snaps in the crotch of the leotard and shimmied it all up my body before un-taping my diaper.

“Peee-ew!” She cooed and smiled, “What a stinky baby!” She took a moment to tickle my side before getting to work on cleaning my bottom.

When she was done, I said, “Thank you” to her.

“You’re welcome, Princess,” she said as she found a trash can and dropped my soiled diaper inside. “Running around on that course sure made you a mess! I think that’s the messiest diaper I’ve changed on you.”

I blushed, “Sorry.”

“Why? You’re a baby. That’s what you should be doing!” she smiled and tickled my side.

I giggled, “What have you done so far?”

“They had me stare at a bunch of parts, and things that I guess are supposed to do something,” she shrugged. “You know I’ve always been terrible with mechanical and computerized things. They also had me grabbing some things from across the room, too… that’s kind of fun!”

“Huh?” I asked.

“Here, watch,” she said as I saw the diaper bag next to me open back up, and a bottle came out. The cap was pulled off by some invisible force, and she held it for a moment to warm it up. A quick wrist test and the invisible force picked it up as she settled me in her arms. The bottle floated to my mouth, holding the bottle for me to nurse.

“Cool!” I said around the nipple, and she smiled.

I nursed the bottle to empty pretty quickly, and she turned me and burped me unnecessarily. Of course, my body still burped on command, though!

“Okay, back to work, Sofia!” she said and walked me back to the room.

When we reached another room, I recognized they were testing me by shooting the balls at me again. Once again, I could duck out of the way for a while. I eventually failed the test, though, as I assumed all students must! I wound up sitting in that same gadget room, just as clueless as Hannah had been. Finally, I was bored enough that I started stacking parts like a tower of blocks before they seemed to think I might break something and rushed me out... I was then tested for telekinesis and other related powers. I was sure I could do the tests with magic, but that wasn’t what they wanted.

To my surprise, though, I suddenly seemed to be able to do a lower-power version of the green energy blasts I had seen Hannah do when she emerged. They weren’t powerful enough to explode like hers, but we discovered they were sufficient to disable unshielded electronics. They also seemed to be able to knock a person’s nervous system out. It wasn’t the same as my magical blasts; I was sure of that!

“You weren’t able to do that before in Los Alamos?” she asked me.

I shook my head, “No, not like that… That’s like Hannah’s power.”

“I wonder…”

Whatever it was, she thought though she didn’t tell me then. After some more testing, I was eventually led into yet another room. Questions from another technician were all about my avatar spirit. As I explained more about her, the man’s eyes seemed to get larger and larger. Eventually, I was tired of answering questions and let Caireen take over my body. It was weird being the bystander as she answered history questions he asked, questions about her powers, and many other things. During that session, I noticed he couldn’t type notes fast enough into his computer.

At two in the afternoon, Hannah came to find me, and after changing back into our uniforms, we went to get a late lunch. When we returned to the testing labs, I was greeted by a young technician in her late twenties wearing a lab coat over a pretty flowered dress. She introduced herself, “I’m Trinity.” She held her hand to me first and then to Hannah, “Sofia, do you mind coming with me to meet with Ms. Raspin for your magic testing?”

I looked at Hannah, and we both decided we’d have to split off. “Here, her diaper is a little wet, but it’ll probably hold for another hour,” Hannah said and handed her my diaper bag. My face turned red, and I glared at her.

“Do you want to walk, or should I carry you?” Trinity asked.

I sighed, “I guess we’ll go quicker if you carry me.”

She smiled and shouldered the diaper bag before placing me on her other side. I tried to ignore the feeling of the stranger securely holding me by my diapered butt!

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (Thank you to those of you who have left some!)

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 23: Magic Tests

“WOW, YOU SURE are light!” Trinity told me as she carried me across campus.

“So I’ve been told,” I told her.

“So, how do you like Bechtel so far?” Trinity asked.

I sighed, “I hate being without my parents,” I told her, “though I’m sure they feel the same way. I probably should have called them last night,” I said guiltily.

“You’re not the first student to forget to call their parents early on,” she laughed at me. “My parents practically yelled at me when I didn’t call them for a week!”

I giggled, “I’m pretty sure that’ll happen if I’m not careful. I guess I’ll call tonight… I’m sure Hannah would like to talk to hers too.”

“How about friends?”

“I seem to be making a few,” I admitted. “We’ll see how things go once we figure out what classes Hannah and I are taking.”

As we came up to the building, Trinity said, “Umm… Sofia, I think this may be a bit awkward?”

“What?” I asked, distracting myself from the fact I could clearly see a second entrance to the building other than the one the public would probably use. ‘It’s magic, right?’ I asked Caireen.

‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘pay attention.’

“Umm… I think you need a change,” Trinity said simply.

I looked down and felt a little bit of pee going down around my leg and sighed, “I never thought it would be my diapers leaking… she said I was just a little wet...”

“Do you want help?” Trinity asked.

I looked at her, “I don’t have any choice; I need help.”

“But aren’t you…?”

“The goddess I have lurking inside me isn’t allowing me to change myself for a while yet.”

“Okay…”

“So yes, please, if you don’t mind changing me?” I asked.

I expected her to walk to a bathroom but was surprised to see she had just walked into an empty room with a stone table instead. She sat me down on it while she dug out my changing pad, a clean diaper, and wipes. “Just lay down,” she told me with a smile.

She changed me like she well practiced at changing diapers every day. As she was taping the diaper shut, I asked, “You have a baby at home?”

Trinity grinned, “Yep, she’s just a little bigger than you. I keep hoping we’ll be able to potty-train her soon. I think we might do potty training boot camp over the Thanksgiving Break with her, as my sister calls it.”

“Good for her.”

“How about you? Any chances?”

I shook my head, “I think your people want to run a few more tests this evening on me, but everyone is guessing my EFP has locked me into being a baby with no control.”

“So, it’s a matter of learning to deal with it?” She asked as she dug into the diaper bag and found a new skirt to replace the one that had gotten wet.

“Something like that.”

“I guess I can understand your spirit’s insistence on depending on others for a while,” she said.

I just nodded.

“Okay, all set,” she said a few moments later after helping me fix my skirt and blouse. She straightened my hair before picking me back up and saying, “Let’s get this testing out of the way, shall we?”

She led me through the corridors of the building to an office with a lady I remembered from Mrs. Hensley’s visit to my house. “Hello, Ms. Raspin,” I said politely as Trinity sat me down on the ground.

“Good afternoon, Sofia,” she responded.

“I’ll leave your bag here,” Trinity said while placing my diaper bag on the chair.

“Thanks for all your help,” I said to her.

“Anytime,” she told me. “Ms. Raspin, if you’ll call me when you’re done, I’ll get her back with her friend.”

She left and closed the door on her way out. “Are you ready to start this testing?” Ms. Raspin asked me.

“Yes, ma’am,” I responded politely.

“Okay then, let’s go to one of our well-warded rooms for safety.”

Instead of picking me up or holding my hand, she opened her door and started down the hallway. I followed her, making several steps for each of hers, but I appreciated the freedom of movement there. Finally, she led me down to a large stone room with a circle of salt in the middle.

Caireen became nervous inside of me, and I knew why. Circles were dangerous, but we just had to trust the school here. “Would you please step into the circle?”

“I trust you will let me out of it?” I asked.

“I swear upon my true name that I will not keep you there against your wishes. It’s just a safety precaution as we test you.”

I nodded and stepped inside. Instantly I could feel the wards that were around the circle. Still, I also felt way better when we had a feeling that the power of this circle could be easily broken with our own strength. “Okay, Sofia, we’re going to do a few things once I clear out of the room.”

She left and went to an adjacent room with a glass observation window. “First, I want you to draw in as much manna as possible...” We spent the next three hours with her testing me in numerous ways. She tested my power level, knowledge of spells (limited then), spell strength (not so limited), and things I didn’t even have a name for.

When she finally finished giving me tasks, she asked, “Sofia, I could tell you became less nervous when you got in the circle. You can break through it, can’t you?” She asked.

Instead of answering her, I drew in the partial power I needed to do it and busted through the circle.

“Not another one…” she said with a sigh.

“Another one?”

“Yes, I’ve had about four students in the last six years who could do that. It makes it difficult to safely trust you when we start learning higher-order spells.”

I smiled, “Don’t worry, I can practice the really dangerous ones in Caireen’s castle.”

As we started walking back to her office, she seemed deep in her thoughts, and I realized for the first time that not only was my diaper leaking, but it was also sagging badly! It was almost falling off my waist as I awkwardly toddled, hoping it wouldn’t fall to the ground. Ms. Raspin didn’t notice it as she called Trinity to come to collect me, but Trinity saw it instantly.

“Umm… Ms. Raspin?” She asked.

“Yes, Trinity?”

“Did you ever check Sofia’s diaper?”

Her face fell as she realized she had dropped the ball and was embarrassed, “Umm…?”

“I thought so. Come along, Sofia. Let’s get you changed and back to Hannah before hitting your final tests tonight.”

Several minutes later, she was saying, “I can’t believe her…” as she undid the tapes of my diaper. I was soon in another diaper, but she said, “Sofia, you should see if you can get some uniform tops in as onesies.”

“Why?”

“I think they’ll help keep your diaper up when this happens again.”

“Oh,” I said. Trinity dug through the diaper bag and eventually came up with a pink romper for me to put on. “Won’t I get in trouble for not being in uniform?” I asked about wearing it.

“You’re going to have some exceptions noted in your file by tonight,” she told me, “And, as far as I’m concerned, you have no classes today.”

I was led back to Hannah at the other building. “How did she do?” Hannah asked like a worried mom.

“She did great!” Trinity said, “But you might want to see about getting her some onesies as tops instead of the regular blouses. It’ll help hold up any really wet diapers.”

Hannah blinked at me and said, “That’s a great idea! Thanks!”

We walked to Trident first, and I figured I knew why. “Full?” I asked her.

“I pumped five times today, and I’m even fuller now,” she complained.

In our room, she closed the door, pulled her shirt away, and we took care of her problem. “Do you mind doing this?” She asked me as she switched me to her other breast.

“No,” I sighed, “It really is very comforting,” I admitted before nursing that breast too. Hannah’s skin was far more comforting than the silicone nipple of a bottle.

‘See, there are good things about being a baby,’ Caireen told me.

‘I guess… On the whole, I would rather not be, though,’ I sadly told Caireen.

Once I had finished, Hannah cleaned up, and we went to dinner at the Friar Hall. It was already almost seven when we walked in, so we had to hurry to meet our final night appointment at 8pm.

Doctor Kestner met us at the receptionist area and asked, “If you’ll please follow me?”

I was a little surprised by the curtness but didn’t really care. It had been a long day, and I was looking forward to finishing these final tests. Hannah carried me and followed the doctor through an elevator door that took several minutes for us to go down to a low-level basement.

“How far are we below ground?” I asked her.

“About five-hundred feet,” she responded to me with a smile.

The door opened eventually, and we found ourselves in a concrete corridor. The walls reminded me of the pictures I’d seen of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex. Large pipes lined the wall, along with steel supports and the occasional solid door that was probably blastproof! She led us to another room with a young man waiting for us. “This is Doctor Wilks,” she introduced us, “Hannah and Sofia,” she said to us. “He’s going to run you through our latest device that we have to finish deciding your powers.”

“Okay…” Hannah said nervously.

In the end, it wasn’t that big of a deal. It was almost an MRI, and I’d been through one of those in the hospital once. We had to change into form-fitting white suits before getting in the machine, which meant my diaper had to go. I felt awkward when he pulled me out of the device and had to spray down the table with disinfectant… But I laughed along with Hannah about it later!

When both of us had run through the machine, I asked, “So can we see our scores?”

He shook his head, “I have to let Doc Strauss or a faculty member go through them with you.”

“Oh…” I said.

“Don’t worry; they’ll meet with you early in the afternoon tomorrow.” Doctor Kestner said, “You only have to get through your physicals and Sofia’s martial arts placement first.”

“So, we’re done for the day?” Hannah asked as she pulled her skirt back up.

“Yes, we are. I’d recommend heading back to your dorm and getting some sleep.”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Hannah said.

Back in our dorm, the other students waved at us, but we managed to make it back to our room without being interrupted. We both took the time to call home then.

“Hi, Mommy!” I said in a sweet voice.

“Sofia?” She asked, obviously a little weirded out.

I giggled, “Who else would it be?”

My dad got on the line, and even Lily was on the phone for a few minutes. I decided to go ahead and get the awkward conversation out of the way. I told them about Hannah’s condition and our ‘fix.’ Mom seemed to take it in stride, but you could tell Dad was uncomfortable hearing about my nursing. Just before we finished, Mom said, “We sent you a few boxes of things that should be there tomorrow. It sounds like Caireen mostly has you both set - but there are a few things from home to make…” she teared up a bit, “to make you feel more at home.”

“I love you, Mommy,” I told her. I could tell being apart was hard on her. But, especially as for a week, she’d literally gotten her baby back!

“I love you too, Princess,” she told me.

“Love you,” Dad said.

“Love you too, Daddy,” I said with a smile, “Good night.”

“Night, Princess,” he said to me. Then, as I hung up the phone, I saw Hannah was finishing up too.

Hannah picked me up, and we gave each other a well-needed hug. There was no doubt we would both be totally homesick without the other!

“So how about that bathtub and a bath? Hannah asked me.

I asked, ‘Caireen?’

‘Let’s go to the bathroom, and I’ll get it settled,’ she assured us.

Soon enough, we were in the restroom. Caireen created a beautiful clawfoot bathtub with a circular curtain that closed around it. Caireen matched most of the shower controls to make it easier to use. I noticed she placed a silence button there too, and I would have to ask Hannah about that later. Hannah didn’t even bother with the round curtain that could conceal the tub, though, as she placed me in the tub. I blushed as Hannah bathed me, and other girls could see her doing so. Most of the other girls seemed more interested in the tub than my naked body, “Oh my God, can I take a bath next?”

In the end, Caireen made two more tubs through me before Hannah diapered me for the night and placed me on her breast. When she lay me in my crib with my pacifier, I was exhausted and fell asleep instantly.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (Thank you to those of you who have left some!) I might be inclined to post an extra chapter tomorrow night if I see a couple!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 24: Bullies

MY NEW NORMAL day began when I woke up in my crib in Caireen’s palace, but Caireen wasn’t there. I stood up and grimaced a little at my soaked diaper. “Hello?!?” I asked quietly.

I heard nothing and wondered where Caireen would be. So I called out louder, “Caireen!?!”

Still, no one came.

‘Calm down,’ I thought to myself… I looked around my crib and found Emie next to the bars. I picked her up and held her while I waited and hoped someone would come.

Then I waited.

Eventually, I began playing with Emie to try and distract myself, but still, no one came.

After what must have been a few hours, I felt my stomach rumbling. ‘I’m hungry, and I’m wet!’

‘What would a normal baby do?’ I asked myself. ‘Is Caireen waiting for me to cry?’

I sighed and thought some more before standing up and grabbing onto the bars that hung just at my fingertips. I figured I could jump over the bars if Caireen hadn’t left a similar spell on this crib. So I ensured I had a firm grip and flung myself over the bars!

And then promptly found myself flung back into the crib and onto my wet rear-end.

I sniffled.

I felt tears going down my face.

Then without warning, I felt myself begin to wail at the top of my lungs!

‘Where is Caireen?’ I thought to myself.

As if waiting for me to cry, she suddenly appeared in the room. She picked me up and held me tight, “It’s okay, baby,” she told me.

“Where were you?” I sniffled out.

“Taking care of some things,” she said while bouncing me and shushing me. Nothing she said, though, was helping me stop the tears. “Let’s get that wet diaper changed,” she told me.

I was gently placed on the changing table, and Caireen was gentle as she unpinned the diaper and wiped me gently. I found myself still sobbing, though, as she finished. ‘Why can’t I stop crying?’ I asked myself.

‘Have I truly gone nuts now?’ I asked myself again as she dressed me, and I was still crying. Caireen continued to ‘shush’ me but, in the end, sat down in the nursery rocking chair and nursed me at her breast.

Embarrassingly it finally calmed my body down.

After I had finished nursing, she burped me and asked, “Better?”

I almost started to tear up again, “Why was I crying? And why couldn’t I stop?!?”

She hugged me, “The longer you spend time here in this world as my baby, I suspect you will begin to have more normal reactions. For example, a baby waking up alone and then crying in a crib for attention is normal behavior, isn’t it?”

“But why didn’t you come when I called your name?”

She smiled, “The alert ward in your nursery won’t go off unless you’re crying.”

“You tricked me into crying?” I asked, upset.

She shook her head, “I would have been here in another half-hour or so, but the only way I knew that you were awake and needed me was if you cried.”

I glared at her, “Would you please change that ward to if I call your name?” I remembered my manners at least, but my tone of voice had her clucking.

“You’re a baby; if you want my attention before I’m ready to give it, you’ll just have to cry.”

“What about…” I started to argue.

She put her finger to my mouth, “Do you need your first spanking from me?”

I felt my eyes open in terror and quickly shook my head, “No, I’ll be a good girl,” I told her, fearing how hard a goddess could hit!

“Good!” she said, “Then let’s get to some magic lessons here.”

I sighed and nodded. “What’s up today?”

“More wards,” she said simply.

For the next several hours, we practiced. First, Caireen taught me a simple privacy spell to prevent others from listening to me. Then she showed me another simple spell to protect something like our dorm room from anyone else breaking into the room. Caireen explained that she had already placed a bunch of wards around the room. Still, it would be better to continually add layers of wards to the protection.

After she fed me lunch there, she walked me outside and to the forest’s edge. “What are we doing here?” I asked.

“I wanted to show you your tree house!”

I looked up suddenly and noticed a beautiful tree house up on top of a thick tree. I could barely see the stairs that were cleverly camouflaged around the tree up to the top. “Cool!” I said.

I climbed the tree’s steps and came to a door. I tried opening it, but it wouldn’t budge. Caireen followed me up and said, “It’s locked by magic. You have to unlock it first.”

‘Another lesson?’ I asked myself.

I sat there for over an hour trying to feel how she had locked it with a ward. She had to change my diaper in the next hour while I picked the magical lock. It was frustrating beyond belief, but a part of me was enjoying the challenge. I eventually succeeded in opening up the door and immediately squealed in excitement!

“I did it!”

“Yes, you did, my clever little princess!” She said with a smile when I looked at her. “Now go on in there!”

I walked in through the entryway and quickly realized this was another of those weird spells to make things bigger. Inside was huge! There was a play kitchen with a modern-looking stove and microwave, “What, no wood-burning stove?” I asked her with a smile.

“Time to come to the modern age on some things,” she told me with a smile.

I walked through the house and found a playroom, a living room with a TV, a nursery just right for playing with Emie, and a door that led to a deck that ringed one edge of the house. I ran back to Caireen and hugged her, “Thank you!”

“You’re very welcome, Sofia. Before we go back to the castle and put you to bed, I want you to put up the wards you learned about today. Then you need to lock up the door again too!”

I looked up and excitedly said, “Okay!”

I walked inside and around the perimeter as I put up the warding spells. When I got back to the door, I knew everything about how it locked from picking it, so I created my custom magical key of a spell to relock it. Finally, I closed the door behind me and asked, “How did I do?”

“Great!” she told me as she scooped me up. She carried me back to the castle garden and sat in a chair. One of her servants brought a glass of some sort of juice to her, and she said, “You’ve got to be thirsty and hungry now…?”

I turned a bit red but nodded. Caireen moved her dress out of the way, and I nursed until I fell asleep to return to the real world.

 

I RUBBED THE sleep from my eyes as I felt myself get picked up. I blurrily looked up at Hannah and noticed she was already dressed in her uniform. “Good morning, Princess,” Hannah said with a smile.

“Morning,” I mumbled. Then, finally, my eyes began to focus, and I could see she was already dressed for the day. “You already showered?”

“Uh-huh,” she said as she carried me to the changing table, “I figure a bath at night should be enough for you?”

I thought for a second, “I guess normally… but I used to use that to wake up,” I told her as she unzipped the sleeper I had been dressed in.

“Well, we’ll try the normal baby way for a week?” She suggested soothingly as she slid my feet out and pulled the sleeper away, leaving me in only a very soggy diaper.

I shrugged, “I guess.”

With that, she laid me down the rest of the way and gently cleaned my diaper area with a couple baby wipes. “Umm… Caireen?” Hannah asked hesitantly.

I felt her stir and let her come to the front of the focus, “Yes?”

“They had a really good idea yesterday about making her uniform blouses actually onesies with the snap crotch there… Would you mind?”

I could feel a little magic leave me, and the blouse she had waiting on the changing table instantly added a tail. I knew without looking that the others in my closet had also changed. I sighed; it would probably keep my soggy diapers from sliding off me!

“Thanks!” Hannah said. She pulled it over my head and said, “You know we could just have this be a one-piece dress almost,” as she snapped the crotch shut. “The skirts could be attached like a couple of those outfits that you and Lily have…?”

“Whatever,” I said. Clearly, my dressing choices weren’t going to be mine again for a long time - if ever!

“What a cranky baby,” Hannah said half-teasingly, “let’s get something in your tummy, and maybe you’ll stop being grouchy!”

Hannah carried me to the rocker for a nursing session, burped me, then said, “Let’s go get breakfast, and then we’ll get to our appointments. I can’t wait to see what they list as my powers!” She said excitedly.

“Super breasts on the EID?” I joked.

“Well, super stinky diapers must be on yours?” she retorted.

“Ouch,” I said.

I felt the back of my diaper, wondering if I had gone, and she laughed at me. “You’re not stinky now, Silly,” she told me with a smile and kissed the top of my head. “I’m sure you will be soon, but that’s no biggie,” she said with a smile and sat me down on the ground. I watched as she gathered my diaper bag and our coats up. I put on the coat she handed me while she put on her own. As soon as she slung the diaper bag over her shoulder, she picked me up and said, “let’s go!”

We ran into Camille on the way to breakfast, and she asked us about how our powers testing went the day before. I learned a lot more about how Hannah’s had gone, and by the time we got to our seats with food, I mentioned that I had been able to shoot out some green stuff like her. Camille looked at me and asked, “Is it maybe because…?

I looked at her and glared. She got the hint.

“Because of what?”

“Because of her bond?” Camille recovered.

“Maybe,” Beth said. The others began talking about other Mergents and how sometimes they managed to influence things, “You could be a little bit of a copyist?” Beth suggested later.

As we finished, I hopped down and immediately groaned in my head. My body forced itself into a crouch, and I was soon pooping my diaper. Hannah grabbed my diaper bag and asked, “Do you want to walk to the bathroom or for me to carry you?”

I held my arms out in answer as I did everything I could just to not start wailing. I felt my pacifier push into my lips and kept my eyes closed. ‘This is so embarrassing! In front of everyone!’

‘Sofia, open your eyes.’ Caireen insisted.

I groaned but did so. ‘What?’

‘Notice, not a single person cares?’

We walked right next to a few gorgeous girls, and they just smiled at me. I forced myself to smile back. We’d almost made it to the cafeteria door to leave when Streaked just happened to walk in. She sniffed and looked surprised for a moment before looking at me and asking, “Oh, did the wittle baby girl make a poopy diapee?”

I felt a tear threatening my eyes, but I refused to give in. I couldn’t help this and was not going to put up with Streaked’s bullying. With a single spell, I had changed her outfit into a onesie top like mine, panties to a diaper. Then Caireen added a special touch of her own, and I watched the bully squat down and make her very own poopy diapee.

“I think the wittle baby girl did make a big poopy!” Camille said through her laughter. Other students pointed and laughed at Streaked.

“I’m going to get you!” she shouted at me and started to run at us. I quickly put up a shield between us and watched as she ran into it, rebounded, and sat on the ground. I felt for her as I thought about how much that had just smashed her mess. She began to try and retaliate again, but a member of Bechtel security came up right then. “What’s going on here?”

‘Uh-oh,’ I thought to myself.

“That little bitch just changed my clothes and made me shit myself!!!!” Streaked screamed.

The officers looked at me, and I remembered one of them from the other day when the officer led Streaked away. “Is that true?”

I thought about lying, but that never got me anywhere, “She was making fun of my disability and the fact that I was in a ‘poopy diapee.’”

“Let’s go to the security office and chat then…?”

“Umm… we don’t have to do that,” Streaked suddenly looked scared.

“This isn’t the first time you all have had problems, and I’m not going to have an ongoing feud,” the man said, “Let’s go.”

“Can I change Sofia really quickly?” Hannah asked.

The man looked thoughtfully at us, “Only if Sofia changes Streaked, so we don’t have to smell her?” There was a bit of a bemused smirk on his expression.

I looked at Streaked and used a spell that I wished I could use on myself. A second later, she was in a nice clean diaper, and I’d even given her a skirt to cover her diaper and the onesie… sort of. The onesie definitely peaked out from underneath the edge a little!

The officer smirked again and nodded at Hannah. “I’m so tempted to spank you, Sofia Elizabeth!” Hannah growled in the bathroom while she changed me. “She wasn’t doing anything bad to you there.”

I glared at her, “Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is to poop your pants and then have someone say something about it?!?!?”

“You’re a baby, Sofia. It happens all the time! Get used to it!” She said as she slid my pacifier back into my mouth. “Let’s go get this over with. Hopefully, you didn’t just land us both in detention!”

“But…”

Hannah finished wiping me none-to-gently and put a new diaper on me. Then, she angrily snapped the onesie snaps, pulled my skirt down, washed her hands in the sink, and then mine too. “Let’s get this over with quickly, and maybe we can still make our appointments on time.”

I pulled my pacifier out of my mouth and said, “I’m sorry, Hannah.”

She sighed, “I know you are. I just hope they let us off with a warning. As it is, I think you’ve made a permanent enemy of Streaked for us.”

I bit my tongue from saying, ‘She started it!’

When we walked back out of the bathroom, one of the security guards was still standing with Camille. They led us to the security office at Kane Hall with no one saying anything. The dread of being in real trouble hung over my head like a knife.

Before we reached the Hall, I decided to do something unasked and changed Streaked’s clothes back to her regular clothes. She gasped but smiled that she was back in her actual clothes. In return, though, she gave me a glare that made me glad I was in Hannah’s arms. One of the security officers looked at me and said, “No more changing anyone’s clothes right now, please!”

I nodded, “Sowwy.” I said around the pacifier. As we walked in the doors, I felt like we had walked into a police station and not someplace on a school campus.

“The Captain is waiting back there for you all,” one of the officers with a name badge that read ‘Giddings.’

I found myself sucking on my pacifier more, but Hannah pulled it out of my unwilling mouth just as we went in the door. I glared at her, but she angrily whispered, “You’re going to face this like the big girl you claim you want to be!”

Streaked had already taken a seat in one chair across the desk from an imposing man who I had to assume was the Captain. “Well, this isn’t the way I like to meet new students,” he started, “I’m Captain Tilling,” he said without getting up, “and we seem to have a problem with you all. Please sit down,” he motioned to the chairs. Camille took the chair in the middle of where Hannah sat down with me on her knee and the one Streaked was in. I heard the door shut behind us.

“So, let’s start at the beginning. Streaked, what’s your side of the story,” Tilling asked.

I knew it would do me no good to interrupt, so I listened as she wove a tale that made it sound like I was the first to start picking on her. I gritted my teeth and resisted pulling a spare pacifier from my purse to help me stay quiet. In the end, she said, “all I did today was to comment about the baby having a stinky diaper? What is so wrong about that?!?”

“Emerald, you’ve been really good about waiting for Streaked to say her part; what’s yours?”

“She started the whole thing by making fun of Hannah the first day. She made a comment that Hannah must have been some teenage slut,” I paused, “Pardon my language,” he nodded. “And, I made a comment to shut her up about ‘sorry, Hannah really is a virgin, and she can’t give you lessons.’ My friends laughed, and she took the hint and left.”

“Bull… I never said that!!!!”

“Streaked; I watched Emerald control herself very admirably through your side of the story. Time for you to do so too.”

“The other things?”

“She was picking on me another time about needing a high chair, and I made her hair turn into cute pigtails with bows. This one… she was embarrassing me in public and being a bully. I couldn’t help turning her outfit into what it was.” I felt Caireen stir and knew my voice had changed, “Sofia wasn’t the one to make her lose her bowels, though; that was me. I can’t stand bullies and people who pick on children. Her comment was not meant as a cute baby comment.” she faded.

Captain Tilling looked at his computer before asking, “That was your avatar spirit?”

“Yes, sir,” I said.

“You have anything else to add?” He asked me.

I sighed, “No sir, I’m sorry. I was mad and afraid I’d deal with them constantly if I didn’t stand up to a bully like her. In my defense, she was never harmed.”

“Uh-huh,” he said, unconvinced. “Ms. Rayburn, do you have anything to add?”

“Only that whatever you decide, I’ll back you up on. I know Sofia’s parents approved of some alternate forms of punishment.”

“Alternate forms?” I asked and was squeezed into silence.

“Yes, Emerald, your parents, and Mrs. Hensley discussed that cleaning up the containment labs for detention would probably not be within your abilities for your size. However, several other ideas were given as alternatives…?”

I gulped.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (Thank you to those of you who have left some!) I won't reward it every time, but like this one is an early extra special thank you to those who commented!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 25: Sparring

‘SOMEHOW, I THINK Hannah will be getting me as soon as we return to the dorm too.’ I thought as I looked at Hannah’s serious face.

Caireen seemed to nod, ‘I’m sorry, Sofia, I should have helped you remain a little calmer… but the truth is that little witch deserved it.’

I forced myself to not show the smile I thought at that.

“Sora, do you have anything to add?”

“Well, in all honesty, Captain, this was a harmless prank by Bechtel’s standards, and you know Streaked was egging her on. It was also a no-visitor day…?”

Captain Tilling glared at each of us in turn before saying, “Here’s the deal. My first instinct is to punish both Emerald and Streaked for their actions. I think, though, that Sora is right.” he paused and glared. “You will stay away from them,” he said to Streaked, “if I hear of any contact, I will give you two weeks of detention cleaning the worst rooms in the containment labs,” I watched Streaked shrink down in her chair. “And you, Emerald, will leave Streaked alone. Of course, if she directly attacks you, then by all means, you may defend yourself. Still, any more magical changes of clothes, appearance, or other tricks on her by you will result in the alternative forms of punishment that were suggested.”

I nodded, feeling my diaper warm. “Yes, sir,” I said. I heard other voices join mine before he said, “Okay, you all, get out of my office, and I’d better not see you back here!”

With that, we all split from the building as quickly as we could. Streaked ran off as fast as she could move, which was pretty fast, leaving just Camille with Hannah and me. “I need to get to class,” Camille sighed, “I’ll see you two tonight after class!”

I watched her run away, and Hannah checked her watch before hurriedly walking us towards our appointment with the health services doctor.

Hannah was still angry as she opened the clinic door with a crash, which startled me a bit. Unintentionally I let out a whimper. She looked down at me and sighed, “Sofia, I’m sorry, it’s going to take me time to get used to all of this. Since you changed Streaked’s clothes, my instinct has been to take your diaper off and give you a spanking.”

I whimpered again.

“I won’t do it this time,” she told me.

“This time?”

“That’s one of those alternate punishments Sofia.” She gave me a hug as she said it and rubbed my back.

“But…”

“Yes, your cute little butt can and will get spanked if that happens again.” She pushed me a bit farther back from her face to look into my eyes, “Caireen, that’s your tush too. Don’t you dare do something like that again!”

I felt Caireen stir and take over; she was angry. “Silly little girl, you think I will let you just abuse Sofia? Yes, maybe it was impulsive, and I took on a bit of Sofia’s immaturity. Still, at the same time, that was a calculated attack by me. I guarantee Streaked would cause more trouble if we didn’t respond.”

“What do you mean?” Hannah asked as she started to move again after looking at a clock.

“I mean, she planned to use a spell right then to do to you what we did to her.”

I went ‘huh’ at the same time as Hannah said it.

“Alright then… Caireen, you must know there will be a time or two as a mother I may need to spank Sofia.”

“If she deserves it, I’ll let you do it.”

I grumbled in my head as she let me take over. Hannah tightened her hold on me and kissed my head. “Sorry for doubting you.”

I plopped my pacifier back in my mouth and leaned against her shoulder as she walked into the office. She walked up to the receptionist’s desk and said, “Hi, I’m Hannah, and this is Sofia. We’re here for our medical checkups?”

A plump lady looked up from her computer and said, “Oh my land, aren’t you just the most precious thing?” Her accent was the most stereotypical Georgia peach accent I had ever heard. I felt my body blush from my toes to my red hair.

“Sofia…” Hannah prompted.

I sighed, “Thank you, ma’am.”

“Well, don’t you have great manners, young lady?” She gave Hannah the look of someone judging her for being a teen mother.

“Thank you,” I said, “My mom back home tried her best to teach me.”

I saw her eyes open. She looked down at her list and said, “I’m so sorry, sweetheart!”

“It’s okay, Ma’am,” Hannah said for us, “it’s been a weird couple of weeks for us, and we don’t expect strangers to figure out the facts on sight.”

The lady nodded, “Well…” she seemed to try and think, “okay…” she looked down at her desk, “we have all of your information from your registration and yesterday. So, you’ll just need to wait for Doctor Cori, and we can get you both all sorted.”

“Thank you,” I said wearily.

Hannah carried me back to a chair in the lounge, and I sucked contentedly on my pacifier. “You thirsty?” She asked me.

I looked at her as if ‘not again,’ and she laughed. She produced a bottle of apple juice that she exchanged with me for my pacifier. Just to be safe, she clipped my pacifier onto my blouse. “So that’s getting old…” she said aloud.

I whispered, “well, you could nurse me in front of her… that’d convince her I’m yours for certain.”

Hannah giggled and muttered, “behave, Sofia!”

Thankfully we were late and didn’t have to wait too long for the Doctor to come out. “Hannah? Sofia?” He asked.

“Right here,” Hannah said and stood up.

“We can either take you one at a time or do both at once?” He suggested. He seemed to linger with his look more at me.

“Might as well both go back. It’s not like there’s an inch of my body to hide from Hannah,” I told him with a shrug.

“Same here,” Hannah added.

Doctor Cori led us through a typical doctor’s office corridor before opening the examination room door. I thought it was unusual that a nurse hadn’t done that for him. He seemed to sense my thoughts, “My normal main nurse is busy taking care of an emergency case down the hallway, so you just get me today. Really there’s not a lot of tests that a nurse would do that wasn’t already done yesterday during your initial workup.”

“Oh, okay,” I said aloud.

Indeed, he had two massive folders in his hands that must have contained our medical records and everything they had done to us yesterday. “Sofia, why don’t we start with you,” he said gently. “Hannah, would you set her down on the table here?”

Hannah gently set me down where he directed. He approached us. “Okay, I know you were just given a full physical Sofia, but with everything we see here, it’s best to do everything again here.”

“Everything?!?” I asked nervously.

He shrugged, “Everything.”

“This sucks…”

“Sofia…” Hannah scolded me.

“Hannah, Sofia, could you strip her down to her diaper?” He said, “Here is a gown for her and you if you’ll change into them.”

“This is a… full physical?” I noticed Hannah finally getting it.

“Yes.”

“This sucks…” She repeated.

“Hannah, language…” I mock-scolded her and received a glare that would have burnt me to a crisp if I was still a boy. Luckily my new girl shield protected me from it!

Doctor Cori left, and we followed his instructions. “Your diaper is wet, Sofia, but I have a feeling he’s going to want in there anyway…?” Hannah told me.

“I know…”

The next hour was embarrassing for both of us. Doctor Cori did a complete physical on me before he had Hannah dress me, and she had her own. He had her pump a bit more milk out for additional testing, as well as performed a physical that was even more thorough than mine. I tactfully sat in a chair away from them, drinking a bottle while hers was done.

“Okay,” Doctor Cori said, “You both seem healthy. But, Hannah, you are lactating far more than a normal mother. We did take the sample you provided yesterday and tested it. It obviously isn’t showing any harmful effects on Sofia. Still, our lab would like to experiment with it before we say it’s okay to feed any other babies… or others. We believe it probably is safe and might even have some healing properties, but until we’re sure, it’s best to play it safe.”

“Okay,” Hannah nodded, unsurprised. “Anything else that we need to be aware of?”

“I think your body will probably be filling out and maturing the rest of the way into your early twenties fairly quickly. This is based on your hormone levels from yesterday’s blood samples. I want to see you again for a checkup in six weeks.”

“And me?” I asked

“Sofia, there is no doubt that you are the healthiest baby in the world. I don’t see anything wrong with you at all. However, you can probably skip a routine visit for another six months unless something comes up.”

“What about her incontinence issues?” Hannah asked, and I blushed.

“Unless she grows or changes in some other way, I don’t believe there will be any real progress there. Everything about her is normal for a twenty-month-old.”

“Twenty months?”

“You should get a full report later. The test you took last night looked at your dental structures, bone structure, and everything developmentally. The conclusions were that your body is right on target for an eighteen to twenty-month-old.”

“So, I could be really an eighteen-month-old? I’m not even two years old?!?” I whined.

“Well, we’re not necessarily putting it in the system like that,” he smiled.

Hannah hugged me and then asked, “Okay, so what else do we need to do here?”

He shook his head, “You’re all finished. We’ll finish analyzing blood work and such, but I think you’re both cleared from a medical standpoint.”

“Could we have a few minutes of privacy before we head off to Sofia’s martial arts testing?”

He looked at her and said, “Of course, if you need to nurse here, there’s no problem. I’m also noting in your file that considerations for nursing or pumping must be accommodated discreetly for you.”

“Thanks,” Hannah blushed.

He closed the door, and she said, “Please?”

I couldn’t tell he had taken another sample from her… she seemed to be full again already! Half an hour later, she changed my messy diaper, and we headed to the building, where I was told to meet with Sensei Kwon. In the locker room, I asked Caireen, ‘May I please have my Gi?’

She seemed to smile, ‘Sure,’ she said.

I had a replica of my Gi from back home in a flash but in a smaller size. She’d even added my black belt with the second stripe. The only thing that didn’t make sense is it didn’t quite feel right. So I moved the fabric back at my waist and saw that she had somehow made a onesie attachment. ‘Why?’

‘It works better with your blouses and will probably help your diaper not fall off during your training,’ she told me.

‘Oh.’

“You look so adorable!” Hannah cooed at me.

I sighed and walked with her to the main room, where a few other students in groups were practicing. An older gentleman who seemed to exude experience saw us and came over. I bowed respectfully to him. “Sensei, I was told I needed to see you for martial arts placement.”

He also bowed to me and replied, “You are Sofia?”

“Yes, Sensei.”

“And that makes you Hannah?”

She seemed awkward in her regular uniform and responded, “Yes, Sensei.”

“It is a pleasure to meet you both; I am known to most of the students as Sensei Kwon. I see Sofia, you wear a belt with a second degree. Which style?”

“Tae Kwon Do,” I responded and spent a few minutes having a respectful conversation where he asked my thoughts on my strengths and weaknesses.

“You have just tested for that belt, though?” He asked after a while.

“Yes, Sensei.”

He led us to a mat. “Then let me see your katas,” he started off. Over the next two hours, he put me through my paces completely.

“Not bad,” Sensei Kwon said, “I can tell you’re still getting used to a new center of gravity, but you’re not off by much. Would you mind sparring with some of the advanced students now?”

I nodded enthusiastically, “Sure!” It would be the most adult thing I had done since I changed!

“Efferous, would you please come over here,” he called to a girl on the other side of the room.

As she came over, I could see that she was probably close to my old height… which meant she might as well be a giant now! Her eyes were an odd amber color with a Mergent glow. “Hi,” she waved at me like I was a real baby, “what’s your name?”

“Sofia,” I said.

“Came dressed up with your mommy today for testing?” she asked. Apparently, she hadn’t paid attention to my forms at all.

“Something like that,” I said.

Her eyes shifted a little, but before she could say anything else, Sensei Kwon said, “Efferous, I would like you to spar with Emerald here.”

She looked up at Hannah and asked, “Is she going to change first?”

I laughed, and Hannah looked worried. “I’m Emerald, not her,” I told her.

“You want me to spar with a baby?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, Sensei,” she said respectfully. However, you could see she had her doubts.

“Take your places,” Sensei ordered.

I stood opposite her and bowed.

“Shee-jawk!” He ordered, and I watched her try to decide what to do.

Ultimately, she wasn’t willing to do anything other than circle me, so I decided to attack first. First, I jumped into the air with a kick to her stomach. That seemed to surprise her entirely with how much it hurt! Next, she went to grapple with me, but I managed to wriggle free. She nearly made me cry with a loud animal-like howl at one point, but I kept moving. I continued to leap and kick at her for several minutes, with her only managing to land one blow on me when Sensei Kwon concluded the match.

“You’re stronger than you look!” Efferous said woozily.

I shook the hand, and she leaned down and said, “Thanks.”

“Remember Efferous to never underestimate your opponent by their appearance!” Sensei reminded her.

“Yes, Sensei.” She said and smiled at me.

Sensei Kwon had me spar with two other individuals, and I collected quite a crowd on the sides. However, it took several shocked opponents before I had one get the best of me.

A girl codenamed Celer was a speedster. I figured out quickly Celer was like in ‘accelerate.’ I tried doing the same kicks and punches I had been doing, but she was so fast that she would dodge in and out. She finally went around and around me like some cartoon, and I got caught off balance trying to follow her. She jokingly spanked my bottom at the time and said, “Bad baby!”

I was embarrassed but forced myself to laugh to save face. Celer hugged me after we bowed and said, “I so want to hang out with you sometime! You’re too cute!”

Sensei Kwon led us to an office and said, “Okay, Sofia, it is clear you will do very well in my advanced martial arts class. We will work to round out your education with other styles, though. As accomplished as you are at Taekwondo, you should be able to learn and advance in several other styles very quickly.”

“Yes, Sensei.”

“Hannah, I would recommend you join the entry class. I think it will be invaluable for you to study and train. Sofia here can help tutor you, and you should be able to learn quickly.”

“Yes, sir,” she said.

He dismissed us, saying, “Thank you for stopping by. I’ll pass along my recommendation for placements to Mrs. Hensley. I believe she’s handling you two personally?”

We nodded, and Hannah said, “We’re supposed to meet with her after lunch.”

“Then you probably should get a move on if you want to change Sofia and eat before that meeting!”

I frowned. Sure enough, we went to the locker room, and I had a dirty diaper to have changed. I did my best to act calm as the next girls’ class came in to get changed for their class. “She’s sooo adorable!” One girl said with a smile right when Hannah had a wipe on my butt.

I was mortified.

Once Hannah had a new diaper on me, Caireen changed us back into my uniform with magic. Hannah washed her hands, and we exited with about half of the girls still cooing over me. I pulled my pacifier from my put-away purse and pouted while I sucked on it.

Hannah patted me on the back and said, “Once we get some lunch in your tummy, you’ll feel better.”

I sighed, “I really want a shower.”

“I didn’t even think of that… I don’t think we really have time, though.”

“How about you? How are you doing?” I asked, thinking it had been a few hours.

“I snuck away and pumped while you were testing,” she told me.

She carried me to the Friar Hall, and we quickly made our way through the food line and to our usual table. We arrived as Camille was telling Esmie about Ewe apparently trying to pick on another student that morning. The kid apparently transformed into a spider and sent Ewe screaming away just by his appearance. “I’d be scared by a ten-foot-tall spider too, though,” Lizi admitted.

I nodded. I hated spiders, so I would have been crying and running before the change. Now I think I would just send one of my spells at it...

Hannah had placed a bottle of her milk on the table in front of me, and I found myself nursing it and ignoring the plate of food. I only had made it about halfway through my plate of food, and now I was skipping it altogether. For some reason, I was craving that taste more than the fettuccine alfredo. Hannah gave me a sideways glance and a concerned look but didn’t say anything. I think she and I both knew I was getting nervous leading up to our meeting with Mrs. Hensley. ‘What’s my schedule going to be like?’ I thought.

‘It’ll be fine, Sofia,’ Caireen cooed at me.

‘But… Also, what will I do with getting to classes on my own? I haven’t even walked across the campus by myself once yet.’

‘You were fine an hour ago sparring; you’ll be fine getting across campus.’ But, she reminded me, ‘besides, all you have to do is make one cute look at a girl, put your arms up, and I guarantee you they’ll happily carry you across this planet.’

I nodded to her mentally and realized my bottle was empty. Hannah picked me up right then, and I felt her discreetly check my diaper. I looked at her, and she shook her head, “Dry,” she mouthed.

I was surprised; maybe that’s why I was craving the bottle? ‘You might be dehydrated from sparring,’ Caireen said.

‘You’re probably right.’ I acknowledged.

“Come on, Sofia,” Hannah said to me. She grabbed my diaper bag, and we sat off to walk to Mrs. Hensley’s office with a chorus of ‘good lucks’ from our new friends. “It’ll be okay, Sofia, I promise!”

Hannah’s hug helped me believe that as we made our way out of the Friar Hall.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (Thank you to those of you who have left some!)

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 26: Results

WE WERE SENT into Mrs. Hensley’s office by her secretary shortly after arriving. “Come have a seat over here on my couch, ladies,” she told us.

Being in the principal’s office was at least slightly less scary. “Okay, I’m swamped this time of year, but I wanted to ensure I took care of getting your schedules done personally due to your… umm…?”

“Weird?” I suggested.

“Odd,” Hannah suggested with a smile.

“Unique,” Mrs. Hensley said with her own smile, “unique circumstances.”

“Thank you,” I said simply, and Hannah’s voice overlaid mine.

“You two must have been great friends before all of this?” She asked.

“Us and our friend Jacob… we were like the three musketeers,” I told her.

“We grew up with each other,” Hannah added.

“Well, it seems that’s been good for you two now.” She paused to shuffle some papers, “Okay, well, the first thing is to let you know what your powers testing showed.”

Hannah squeaked and started to shake just a little bit.

“Hannah, since you haven’t been told anything yet, let’s start with you.” She paused and pressed a few times on the tablet she held, “First, you’re a Paradigm Level 2. You’re at genius intellect levels mentally and about as strong as a normal human can get. Next, you can sense emotions from others and discern who is feeling what. We label that as an Empath Level 2 talent. Next, you seem to be Level 2 in Danger Cognition. Your main abilities seem related to the Pyrokinetic blasts you can make. They rated you a Level 5 in Pyrokinesis. Your blasts seem to reach around 1500 degrees Celsius, and you can pinpoint them to the accuracy of a dime at one-hundred feet. You also have a Telekinesis ability that we rate at Level 2. Tests show you can lift up to two hundred pounds from a distance of fifty feet. The power is fairly useful since you seem to have a very fine level of control as if you’re using your hand. The final thing they noted was that you seem to be a Regen Level 5. Meaning you should heal very well if you get hurt.”

I smiled at Hannah, “You’re a tough cookie!”

“Yes, you are,” Mrs. Hensley agreed. “Don’t get overconfident around here, though,” she advised.

Hannah nodded and squeezed me, “What about this one?”

“Sofia’s tests were interesting. We already had a foundation with hers from Los Alamos, of course,” she smiled at me, “but we can test here beyond theirs. The device you went through last night is one of a kind built by one of the technomages we have on staff that has helped our accuracy improve. So far, it seems to give about the same results as our established tests, but once in a while picks up on some powers that slip by us. We may ask Sofia to undergo additional tests in a few weeks to confirm the device.”

“What changed?” I asked.

“Well, obviously, your main talent is your Avatar talent. We agree with Level 5 from your previous testing there. Esens Level 3 also did not change,” I nodded. She took a deep breath and said, “We’re labeling you a Copyist Level 1 because you seem to be able to take on Hannah’s talent. We think this is likely due to your nursing from her?” She shook her head, “Not really sure. It lets you have the equivalent of a Level 1 Pyrokinesis with your blasts.”

“Cool,” I said off-handedly. It was kind of, in a way. I wondered if I stopped nursing if I would still have it, though?

“Next, your Paradigm Level stayed at Level 4, borderline Level 5. One of our technicians was leaning towards five in his assessment. But, the device went with four, so we’re sticking with that.”

Not much had changed so far; how she spoke before made me wonder about my Magic level.

“The last power that showed up obviously is your Magic power. Mrs. Raspin and the device seemed to think you’re a Level 7 here.”

I looked at her and said, “You’re joking, right?”

She shook her head, “I’m afraid not. It’s probably partially due to Caireen being involved. Still, you fit our definition simply by how you interact with Ley Lines. Mrs. Raspin noted that you also blew through her protection circle easier than anyone else she’s had before.” She sighed and seemed to age a decade in her posture. I watched her pull her glasses off her face as she looked at me, “Sofia, I have to implore you to be very careful with your use of magic. Level 7 Magic abilities are exceedingly rare. We’ve only had a couple dozen at Bechtel since the school was founded at that level or greater. Those levels of magic very often lead to self-destruction... On the other hand, you have more power at your fingertips than almost anyone else.”

I nodded, “The whole with great power thing…?”

Hannah squeezed me reassuringly again. “So, did the device come up with any other results?”

Mrs. Hensley nodded, “Age regression seems to be a common side-effect with high-level paradigms, so the device was designed to pinpoint the exact age of a student. Hannah, you’re showing up as being 16.”

“Wait, what?” Hannah asked. “I feel like I got older… not younger?!?!”

Mrs. Hensley shrugged, “I’ll be honest, the device hasn’t been wrong yet. But, I think you may be perceiving the changes brought about by your Paradigm trait?”

“And what about me?” I squirmed.

She looked at me and gave me a kind smile like she was about to pronounce a death sentence or something. “Well, this is where the device and our doctors really can’t make up their minds. So the Device is saying eighteen months.”

I nodded, “That’s what the doctor said earlier,” I sighed, “but...?”

“But the doctors think you could be more like right at twenty to twenty-two months based on your dentition, height, and skeletal structure.”

“So, are you changing my GEID data?” I asked.

She shrugged, “I’m going to leave that up to you. We probably should split the difference and change it to twenty months. However, I have seen enough out of the machine to believe it’s probably more accurate at eighteen months.”

Hannah squeezed me in a hug, and I just nodded, “Go ahead and change it to eighteen months, I guess… I definitely qualify for free everything at restaurants now, right?”

Hannah laughed behind me, “Somehow, I don’t think your appetite is what they have in mind for ‘kids eat free.’”

Mrs. Hensley cracked a small smile herself. “There’s one other thing that the Device did seem to confirm on you, Sofia... We can rerun the test in a few months, but the results indicate that you aren’t aging.”

“I kind of figured that. I guess I’ll spend a lifetime as a baby.” I felt a tear going down my cheek, which Hannah wiped away and kissed the top of my head.

“Hannah, I won’t be surprised to see you reach eighteen again with your body and then freeze at a certain age. The doctors have made notes that they’ll test you both again in three months.”

Hannah nodded.

“Well, here are your new GEIDs and your official student IDs,” she said, handing over two new cards to us. “Sofia, do you have your old GEID so I can destroy it?”

I nodded and reached into my storage place for my purse and to give it to her. She smiled at me and said, “You both have great pictures on these!”

“Okay, now that we have all your test results, I think we need to talk about your coursework. You were almost done with high school and taking very advanced courses.”

I sighed and nodded, “So it’s official, back to preschool for me?”

She laughed, “No, but I think it would do both of you good to consider this a chance to explore some of our more specialized coursework. Also, because of your abilities in your other subjects, I think you two could benefit from working on this for more than six months or even a year.”

Hannah nodded, “So sophomores...?” I couldn’t blame her for trying, even with the discussions on Sunday about us being freshmen.

Mrs. Hensley looked thoughtfully but shook her head. “Because you’re coming in so late this year and already rooming on the freshmen floor, I think it would be better for you both just to go ahead and be freshmen.”

“I’ll never make it to college!” Hannah groaned.

“We will be sure that you work on some coursework over the next couple of years that will make it to where you can enter college as at least a junior. So it’ll make up for that a little bit,” Hensley said.

“I guess,” I heard her grouse behind me. I leaned into her and turned around to give her a hug.

“Thanks, Sofia,” she told me.

We spent the next hour putting together our two schedules as best as possible. We both ended up with Costume Design I, Powers Fundamentals, Power Exploration, and Calculus II. Separately my schedule listed Magic I, Intro to Magic Theory, Mythical Fundamentals, and an Advanced Martial Arts class without her. Hannah would split off and had Esens I, World History, Intro to Psychic Arts, and a Firearms Basics class on her schedule. I wanted to take the Firearms class too, but there just wasn’t room in my schedule. As it was, we would both have a class after dinner each day. Mrs. Hensley tried tweaking the schedule as best as possible to allow us to meet up at least every other hour, even if we didn’t have classes together.

“Thank you for your help with this,” Hannah said politely as we wrapped up.

“It’s my pleasure,” she told us both. “Try and make it by the bookstore in the next couple of hours before they close so you can get your materials and supplies.”

“Okay,” Hannah said before we left her office and bundled up in our coats.

Ms. Hensley’s secretary gave us an odd look as we walked out the doors, past the reception area, and out of the building, where we could see snow flurries starting up. “Remind me to wear tights tomorrow!” I said to Hannah as I shivered.

Suddenly the air around me was warm, though. “What did you do?” I asked her.

She looked down at me and shrugged, “I guess I can warm up the air too?”

“That’s cool… I guess we don’t need coats when you do that?” I suggested.

Suddenly, it was cold again, and I glared at her. “Well, I haven’t quite got the knack for that yet. But, maybe you can learn a spell.” She said with a bashful smile.

Caireen said, ‘there is one, but I think tights would be good until spring comes anyway.’

I just sighed, “Where are we going now?”

“The bookstore, like she said?”

“Are you going to make it any longer than my diaper is?” I asked. For once, I noticed it was squishy without someone else telling me.

“Our room first?” She said with a grimace.

I nodded.

Unfortunately, Trident seemed to be the furthest building away from anything! Hannah walked quickly, though, and it wasn’t too long before Hannah carried me through the doors and sat me down on my feet in the lobby. Ms. Lang stopped us as we passed her room and said, “There were a bunch of boxes that came for you two today. I took the liberty of putting them by your door.”

“Thanks,” Hannah said and smiled at me. “Shall we go see what our mommies sent us?”

I smiled, “I’m hoping for cookies!”

She laughed and patiently waited while I walked beside her up the stairs to the second floor on my own two feet. It wasn’t that I moved that slowly; I just had a very wet diaper that seemed to have gravity trying to pull it off my body, even with the help of the onesie. I grimaced since my skirt seemed to be having issues too. ‘Caireen, do you think you could make some of these outfits with the skirt attached to a onesie?’

‘Sure,’ she seemed to smile at me, ‘I thought it was a good idea yesterday too, but I didn’t want to push you into that one.’

‘Thanks, but I think it’ll be easier to deal with for us.’

Walking down the hallway to our room, I noticed the dorm seemed almost eerily quiet, with all our friends and fellow students off at their classes. A large pile of boxes sat in front of the door to our room. “Wow, our moms went a bit overboard?” Hannah suggested.

I looked at the pile as she unlocked our door and shook my head. Hannah and I dragged the boxes in and began opening them up. We put the contents on the ground where I could help sort them. My mom had sent me several large packages of diapers, dozens of baby bottles, pacifiers, bibs, clothes, hair supplies, shampoo, and toothpaste. She had even included some stuffed animals - including the bear Hannah had given me in the hospital. I shrugged at most of it as boring necessities. Many of them had already been provided by Caireen and the school. The items I did treasure were framed photos she sent. There were the pictures we had taken Saturday, pictures of our family before my emergence, and even pictures of my grandparents and extended family. With Caireen’s help, I took a moment to magically hang all of them above my desk. I had a few tears going down my face with homesickness as I looked at a picture of Lily and myself from the other day.

In another box, I found a pink Disney Princess backpack with Belle, Cinderella, and Rapunzel. Mom had thoughtfully stocked the front pocket with pens and pencils, but I couldn’t help but notice the kids’ backpack was huge compared to my body! Even being one of the smaller kids’ backpacks, it was two-thirds my size! I looked at it thoughtfully and then instinctively used magic to make it shrink in its outward appearance. ‘Caireen, how do I make it larger inside like you’ve done with this room?’

I could feel her pride as she instructed me on how to do it. I then made the main compartment much more extensive than any regular backpack and divided it into several sections. So I could keep spare diapers, clothes, books, and maybe a bottle or two and still have some extra space. Hannah had stopped opening boxes to watch then, “That is so cool!”

I smiled, “And the backpack fits me and looks’ totes adorbs,’ right?”

She laughed at me, “Please don’t ever say ‘totes adorbs’ again?”

“Why, I am, according to Esmie!”

“I am never letting you talk to her again!”

I just laughed, “You want me to do this to your backpack too?” Her mom had sent her own well-used purple Jansport backpack out to her.

“Please?”

I just smiled and motioned for her to hand it to me. She grabbed a few things from the main compartment first, and then I began working to help her have the space for stuff for her and anything she might want to carry for me in there too. It was now the world’s best student backpack and diaper bag a young mom could need!

“Thank you, Sofia!” she said with a big smile, and she stocked it for herself. Next, we sorted the rest of the makeup, clothes, and other supplies her mom had sent her.

“They did send cookies!” Hannah said as she opened the final box. Inside was a package of microwave popcorn, homemade cookies, and even some dried red chile pods!

Nearly an hour later, she had changed my diaper, nursed me, and we were on our way to the bookstore with her backpack on her shoulders. I also wore mine and enjoyed the novelty of walking across campus on my own two legs. Mrs. Hensley had mentioned that our IDs held money that our parents had loaded into them and any money we might earn on-campus jobs to spend there. Following the directions we were given, we soon found the campus store.

“Whoa…” Hannah said when we entered the doors.

“I can’t really see anything,” I told her. She leaned over and picked me up so I could see. From a taller vantage point, I could see that we were in a store that would rival Walmart for supplies. It seemed to have electronics and components in one section of the store, making even an old Fry’s store seem pitiful. Hannah noticed traditional shopping carts were sitting next to the door. I waited in her arms while she grabbed one, put the seat down, and then set me down. Unlike a regular cart seat, this one seemed to sense a baby and automatically buckled a belt across my waist.

I frowned, “This isn’t fair!”

Hannah laughed, “You haven’t been in one of these since you emerged, have you?”

I shook my head, “Mom never made me go into Walmart or the grocery store. The closest we might have been would have been the stores on Saturday, but you all pushed us in the stroller or let us walk?”

She smiled reassuringly, “I promise I’ll let you out if you want to look at something.”

I huffed and spent the next ten minutes looking at her rather than the store from my fixed viewpoint. She would grab items from shelves, which would be my only real opportunity to see what was there. “Please let me out?” I asked.

She sighed, “Alright, but you have to stay with me!”

I nodded.

She poked at a button on the buckle and released me from the restraint before setting me down on the ground. I still couldn’t see past the aisle we were on, but at least I could look around it! As we followed the maze, I got the impression you would never have to leave the campus for anything. First, there were your basic necessities for hygiene and groceries. Then there were whole sections of clothing, movies, games, electronics, computers, and finally, the books and supplies we came for!

It took us a half hour to look at our course schedules and the required texts to find all of the books for us. Next, we found some needed supplies for the courses. For example, my magic courses required specific items, and Hannah needed a gi for her beginning martial arts class. Finally, we carefully split each other’s things into two separate piles at the cashier.

“Why aren’t you the cutest little girl?” The cashier asked of me.

I smiled, “So I hear.”

She looked blankly at me for a moment but processed our items, “Okay, that’ll be six hundred and ninety-four dollars,” she said with a smile at Hannah with my pile. Somehow, she seemed to be missing me handing her my student ID.

“Ma’am, that stuff is mine; here’s my ID.”

The lady looked at me suddenly like I’d grown two other heads. “Umm…”

“I’m a student,” I reassured her.

She looked like she was about to faint as she ran my card and passed me a receipt. I had only purchased my books and a few other supplies. I pulled my backpack off my shoulders, took the shopping bags she had placed the items in, and shoved it all quickly inside my backpack. I zipped it up and put it back on my shoulders. I couldn’t help but grin at the lady as she looked like she was about to faint.

She caught herself, though, and quickly rang up Hannah without saying another word. She’d picked up more items than I had. Still, she was also able to throw everything in her enlarged backpack. Hannah picked me up and placed me on her hip. At the same time, surreptitiously, she checked my diaper, “Come on, Sofia, let’s go find the restroom before we head back to our room.”

I watched the lady practically have her eyes pop out of her head as Hannah carried me into a nearby ladies’ room. We both giggled as she pulled down the changing table on the wall.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (Thank you to those of you who have left some!)

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 27: Dark Creatures

THAT NIGHT AT dinner, Camille and our new friends all pumped us for information on her powers testing and our class schedules. “Now we just need to figure out who can go with Sofia to each class,” Hannah finished.

“Well, I have Magic Theory at the same time,” Camille told her, “and Knag and I both have Magical I at the same time too.”

Lizi nodded at the mention of her name. “We can just go straight from lunch over there,” she assured Hannah and me. “I have the same section of Powers Fundamentals, too,” she added.

“I have the Advanced Martial Arts class with her,” Volango piped in as I watched her munching on what had to be her fourth or fifth banana. Beth was obsessed with them, even if she tried to deny it!

“That only leaves Mythical Fundamentals,” Camille said. “Anyone taking that section?” She asked the friends sitting around the table. I watched as everyone shook their heads.

“Guess I get to be on my own for once,” I said, sort of happy and terrified simultaneously.

Hannah frowned, “How far is it from my history class to there?”

“It’s pretty much on the other side of the campus,” Hailey said.

“Look, it’ll be okay; I’m not ever really alone,” I reminded her.

She nodded, “I guess.”

“So, you both are starting tomorrow?” Esmie asked.

“Yeah,” I said before popping my bottle into my mouth.

Esmie smiled at me, “You are so cute!”

I just blushed and kept nursing the bottle until it was empty, and Hannah replaced it with my pacifier. I just took in the conversations around the table and tried to keep track of everything. Stories of student feuds like Streaked and me, others about villains’ actions in other towns, and horror stories of the EPC and Sanguis Primum continually were told. Something was always discussed that made everything feel completely unreal. When everyone finished eating, I jumped down from the table to return to the dorm. I thought I would get a chance to walk, but Beth picked me up and put me on her shoulders for a piggyback ride. “The view better up there?” She asked me.

I sighed, “I miss this being the view.” Or at least, I sort of said that through my pacifier.

“You’ll get used to it,” she assured me, “trust me.”

I didn’t say anything in response as we walked back to Trident. Once there, everyone ended up in our room for some last details. “Okay, so Sofia can’t change herself. It looks like I’ll be able to be there for a lot of her changes, but if she needs it, can you all change her?”

Camille smiled, “I’ll be happy to help!”

Beth looked a bit uncomfortable, “I’ve never changed a diaper before,” she admitted.

“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Hannah said and suddenly put me on the changing table.

“Do you…” I started to say and then felt the warning look from Hannah and the internal warning from Caireen.

‘This is what I’m talking about, Sofia,’ she said.

I sighed, “Get it over with, please…?” I looked at Hannah.

“Okay, Beth, you’ve at least got a good baby here to change. She doesn’t wriggle around like her sister!”

I smirked at that! Lily was a wriggle worm most of the time when she needed changed!

“Okay, the first thing you’re going to do if you’ve got a table is strapping her down so she can’t accidentally roll off,” Hannah instructed and had Beth do it. She was clearly uncomfortable with it but did it anyway. “Now she’s got this skirt on; just push it out of the way underneath her.”

Beth timidly pushed it up, “You’re not going to break me,” I told her.

“Sorry, I…”

“Didn’t grow up thinking you would have to be a mother?” Hannah smirked.

Beth shook her head, “No...” She looked almost a little upset, but she said, “Okay, I’m not going to break you, Sofia… Next is this onesie, I’m guessing?” After that, she gained confidence and made it to my diaper quickly.

“Go ahead and get another diaper ready to put underneath her,” Lizi suggested.

I turned red as I realized I had become the ultimate doll for all of the girls here. She exposed me with the pull of the two tapes on my diaper. “Wipe her really well front to back,” Hannah instructed. I was having difficulty keeping my composure as I had three friends and Hannah working together to change my wet diaper. “If it’s a dirty diaper, use the back of the diaper to wipe as much off her as you can,” she added.

After a seemingly interminable amount of time, I was in a dry diaper, and the onesie had been snapped shut. “Why don’t we leave the skirt off, Sofia,” Hannah suggested.

I just shrugged since Caireen hadn’t gotten around to attaching the skirt to the onesie. My friends had just seen me at my most vulnerable; what more embarrassment could come? Hannah grabbed my backpack and showed everyone where we would keep my diapers, wipes, bottles, pacifiers, and extra clothes. “It’s a good thing you can do magic,” Lizi noted, “I don’t know how you would have made it around without it.”

“Simple, a diaper bag,” Camille said, shaking her head while smiling. “Most mothers don’t have magical babies, and they get along just fine.”

Eventually, they left to do their homework, and Hannah closed the door to gain privacy. A nursing session was needed for her sake, and I finally logged onto the sweet computer I had on the desk. I discovered that unique games were only available to students here on a test basis and downloaded a couple. Before I could do more than make a character in one, Hannah said, “You want to call Jacob with me?”

I shrugged but walked over to join her at her desk. She used her computer to go ahead and set up a video chat with him.

“Hey, Jacob!” She said.

“Hannah, Ni... Sofia!” He was somewhat excited. “Where are you two?” He started, “Your pictures were all over the news. They said you were wanted for a terrorist attack.”

I sighed, “We’re at a special school for Mergents. We were attacked at the mall and defended ourselves.”

“You’re okay then?” He asked.

“Yes,” Hannah said, “Just in a bit of shell shock.”

“Wait… Hannah, why are you there?”

“My parents didn’t call you?” she asked, a little annoyed.

“My parents grounded me from my phone. They may have called it? So I can’t get to my messages.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I might have decked a guy for making rude comments about you?” he answered sheepishly.

Hannah shook her head, “Well, Jacob, I’m here because I emerged too.”

“Wow!” Jacob said. I noticed him adjust something on his computer, and I was sure he was zooming in on Hannah. “You have the same eyes as Sofia now.”

“Yes,” Hannah said simply. We spoke together for an hour before his mom banged on his door, and he said goodbye quickly in a panic.

“Something tells me he wasn’t supposed to be on his computer,” I said.

“Nope!” Hannah sighed, “He’s going to be in so much trouble,” she shook her head, “typical Jacob!”

“Wow, it’s late, Sofia. We both have classes tomorrow.”

I sighed, “Bath time?”

She nodded. I followed her to the bathroom in just my onesie and drooping wet diaper. In the bathroom, I noticed that the other girls used two bathtubs, but the one I had used last night remained open. Hannah started a bubble bath for me with some of the soap mom had sent and plopped me inside the tub. While I played with the bubbles, she washed my body and hair. “Okay, Princess, we don’t need you wrinkling away!” She said as she picked me up and dried me with a towel. She wrapped me in it and carried me back to the room in her arms like an infant. The routine of diapering me, dressing me in a footed sleeper, and then nursing me to sleep while singing a lullaby was truly becoming… a routine.

 

IT WAS ALSO becoming routine to wake up in Caireen’s castle. Like yesterday she wasn’t in the room as I woke up. I had some dolls in my crib, so I began playing like I had been with Lily. I had to have been playing for a while when I felt a quick cramp and found myself squatting. ‘I can cry and get her attention… Or just keep playing…?’ I told myself. Right then, though, I found myself squatting a second time and went the crying route.

Caireen was in the room within a minute and picked me up, “Oh no, do we have a poopy diapee Princess?” She cooed at me, “Shhh… I’ll get you all cleaned up in a moment.”

She laid me on the changing table and worked to clean my bottom off. Routine was the action at this point, and I only squirmed a little as she worked to get me into a new diaper. After a quick nursing session, burping, she said, “I have to get some things done in court today. I want you to come with me.”

“Court?” I asked.

“It’s one of the things you have to do as Queen, sweetie, you’ll see,” She assured me.

One of the servants showed up at that time and bowed before saying, “All is ready for you, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you,” she said. “We’ll be ready in a moment.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” he said and exited the room.

“Let’s get you dressed properly!” Caireen said with a smile. She sat me on the ground, and I followed her to a wardrobe of fantastic dresses. One of them looked very much like the Sofia dress I had in the real world. She didn’t hesitate to pick that one and began dressing me in a petticoat and then the dress. My hair was piled onto my head quickly, and my tiara appeared in her hands.

“Well, Princess Sofia, I believe you’re ready to see what being a Queen is like today.”

I shrugged and said, “so, do they believe I’m your daughter in this kingdom?”

She nodded, “You are my daughter and my chosen successor here.”

“How can I…?”

“Someday… not anytime soon. Relax!” She smiled at me. “Behave and watch today.”

She picked me up and carried me down corridors and stairs until we came to a small receiving room with couches and a small fireplace. She sat me down and said, “You will wait here for a minute, and then my advisor Elizabeth will let you know when to enter.”

I felt nervous as she went through a door and down a hallway that I supposed must lead to a throne room? The door in my room shut with an ominous thud, and I heard one do so further down the hall. I felt my diaper grow wet from my nerves.

I paced a little bit and sillily practiced curtsying for no reason other than boredom. My dress was pretty, and I enjoyed twirling around in it for a moment too. I wondered how much longer it would be when I was surprised by a voice.

“Princess Sofia,” a lady had snuck up on me and curtseyed, “Your Highness, your mother is ready for you in the throne room.”

The lady was dressed in a simple but elegantly styled emerald green dress. “May I ask your name?”

“I’m Rosemerta,” she said.

Something inside me, for some reson, had an alarm bell ringing. I instantly wondered what had happened to Elizabeth. Caireen had very clearly said it would be Elizabeth coming for me. “What happened to Elizabeth?”

“She’s waiting in the throne room.”

“Mother told me Elizabeth was coming for me. Go get her and have her come.” I said. Something was not right here, and I began drawing in power to protect myself.

Suddenly the lady before me scowled, “Come along, you sniveling little baby!”

As she reached for me, I screamed and fired one of the energy blasts I had been taught to make at her. Rosemerta managed to jump away from most of the blast then, and only a bit of her arm was hit.

“You little bitch!” She cursed and lunged at me again. I dodged her and attempted to kick her in the head with a flying kick. I missed and hit her chest instead. She cursed again, got a hand on my foot, and dangled me from the air. “Little girls do not attack their elders!” She screamed at me and smacked me hard on my face. I felt her try to rip my tiara from my head, but all it did was make it feel like she was ripping my hair off!

I charged up another charge and managed to get her to drop me. Just as I rolled to a standing-up position Caireen and a dozen guards ran into the room. “Seize her!” Caireen commanded.

Rosemerta cackled and said, “Oh no, I don’t think so!” Somehow, I watched as she shapeshifted into a bat, of all things, and then flew out the open door. Caireen missed her with a spell, and we watched her fly away into the distance. “Secure the castle!” She said to her guards, and two of them left to carry out her orders. The others took up places at the two doors inside and out.

“Oh no, Sofia, are you okay?” Caireen asked me as she picked me up.

I could feel my face was bruising, and my leg hurt from how she had suspended me in the air. “I hurt,” I answered simply before I began bawling.

Caireen said, “I need a fresh diaper and a new dress for Princess Sofia.”

One of the guards bowed and said, “Right away, Your Majesty.”

I was still incoherently crying. I thought the castle would be safe from anything!

“Who was that?” I managed to sob.

Caireen shifted me in her lap to where she and I could see her face. I could see her own tear streaks and anger evident on her face. “One of many enemies I have…” she paused, “you remember my anger with the vampire comment you made?”

I nodded and felt my eyes open wide, shaking my head, “You’re kidding?”

She shook her head. “They’re not like your culture thinks of them. They don’t drink blood; they drink the manna within their victims for their own twisted magic.”

“And they can turn into bats?” I asked, “That’s real?”

“Some of them?” She shuddered in anger.

A woman in a servant’s uniform walked in and then to the room carrying a change for me. Caireen laid me on the floor and quickly changed my soaked diaper and dress. “Are you thirsty, baby?” She asked me when she was done.

I had mostly stopped sniffling by then and nodded. Then, without any sense of shame of the guards being present, she carried me to a chair and presented me with her breast. For once, I didn’t even feel embarrassed or need to resist; I just nursed for a long time until she burped me. While nursing, I could feel my manna refilling, and my face seemed to hurt less. She eventually stood up and said, “Court is canceled for today for security reasons, Princess, but I want to meet with my generals and you to come with me.”

With that, she carried me down the hallway she had disappeared to earlier. I nervously sucked on my thumb as another door to the throne room was opened by a guard and my mouth opened in shock. The room was gilded in gold accents with a patterned wooden floor that was extravagant enough on its own. The room was decorated with paintings like European castles often were. Still, this room somehow made the most luxurious castle I’d seen pictures of look like my parents’ house. On one end opposite us stood a set of doors fifteen feet in height and massive. I guessed that is the end visitors came through.

To my left, I saw a raised platform with six stairs leading to the top. There sat a large and a much smaller throne next to it. Both thrones were covered in green fabric and gilded legs and frames. I could see emeralds inlaid to the edges, and I couldn’t help but think, ‘mine?’

Caireen walked to the top of the dais and sat down with me in her lap. “Your Majesty, Your Highness, General Reginald is here with his staff,” a herald stated.

“Send them in!”

I watched as a giant of a man walked in with five other men behind him. They bowed before us and said, “Your Majesty, Your Highness, a million apologies for my failure to protect Princess Sofia. I will be stepping down...”

“No, you won’t,” I found myself saying. Yet, somehow, I knew this was a good guy, and it wouldn’t have mattered who it was; the vampire lady would have made it in any way.

“Your Highness, I failed you and the Queen. There is no other option.”

“My daughter is right, General Slane, even if a little out of turn here,” I blushed at her light rebuke. “I do not believe this attack could have been prevented. This creature managed to get through my wards, something I did not believe was possible. I’m at least as much at fault as you are.” I felt the sadness in her words.

“But…”

“Your oath was until death, or I release you from your service, correct?” I felt Caireen squeeze me slightly in a hug. “My daughter does not wish for you to be released, and neither do I. All I want is to find out who put this creature up to this and make them pay.”

“We think we know that,” he said and motioned an advisor forward.

“Your Majesty, we believe King Camulus and Queen Damara met with this Rosemerta this week.”

“How dare they!?!” Caireen snarled. “Fine, if they want to play this way. Do you know of any other movements by them yet?”

“No, but I would recommend...” After several hours of discussions of plans, we left the throne room to return to my nursery. Everyone was under the impression that they would force us into the marriage since Caireen turned down the marriage offer. If they could seize our kingdom, they would be a force to be reckoned with… and not a good one either!

“I was scared,” I told her as she changed my diaper.

“I can imagine. How did you know that lady was a fake anyway?”

“Well, I had an instinct that something wasn’t right… she didn’t come from your throne room hallway for one… and you told me your advisor’s name was Elizabeth,” I reminded her.

She nodded, “Simple, but you were able to figure out the deception. Luckily for us, they didn’t take that part further.”

“Am I safe now?” I asked.

She kissed my still, slightly sore cheek, “as safe as I can make you. But, truthfully, Sofia, I think this will mean war. I will make them pay as soon as I confirm they were behind all of this.”

I nodded but didn’t say anything more. Caireen nursed me to sleep, and I wondered which could possibly worry me more, a war with what amounts to gods and goddesses in my dreams or going to high school as a baby...

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? Pretty please with a cherry on top? (Thank you to those of you who have left some!)

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

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The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 28: First Day

THE NEXT MORNING, I woke up to a worried shriek from Hannah. “What happened to your face?!?”

I groaned, “I’m trying to sleep here.”

“Sofia, your face has a horrible bruise on it!”

I groaned and opened my eyes, looked around, and then it dawned on me what she said. “Wait, I have the bruise here?”

Hannah gave me a piercing look, “What happened to you?” Then, she looked at a clock, “Talk quickly while I get you dressed.”

I blinked again and sighed, “It’s a long story… Last night someone tried to kidnap me from the castle.”

“What?!?!” Hannah shrieked.

Caireen pushed to the front, “Hannah, please calm down. Sofia fought back against the lady and could hold her own until I got there with my guards.”

“What about this bruise?” Hannah asked exasperatedly; she looked like she was about in tears.

“I’m surprised by this, but apparently, Sofia carried an injury back to her corporeal body. Give me a moment, and we’ll have her healed up.”

I felt Caireen do something, and my face instantly felt better. “Is she safe now?” Hannah asked.

“I think so for now, but my world will become increasingly dangerous for a while… So I definitely won’t be bringing you in for some time.”

“What about Sofia?” she asked worriedly.

“Believe me, she’ll be as protected as anyone possibly can. She should be safe.”

“Should?” Hannah asked.

“Just change our diaper and get moving, Hannah. You can interrogate me later, but I don’t want you two to be late for your first day of classes.”

With that, I felt her move to the back, and I took over again. Hannah didn’t say anything as she quickly changed my diaper and sat in the rocking chair. She bared her breast for me to nurse, but other than patting my back, I could tell she was angry at me. After I had emptied her other breast, she burped me. “Hannah, I’m sorry; I didn’t choose to be in this life. This isn’t Caireen’s fault either,” I added.

“Well, it doesn’t matter, does it!?!” She asked.

Before I could reply, she popped my pacifier into my mouth, and I decided to leave her alone. She put her coat and backpack on, my jacket on me, then helped me with my bag before picking me up and settling me on her hip to go to breakfast. I decided it was in my best interest just to be a good baby and stay quiet while my ‘momma’ was mad. I never liked being around Hannah when she was this angry. Still, unfortunately, now I couldn’t exactly get away from her to let her cool off.

By the time we reached the dining hall, I was hoping she’d get over her anger that day! She sat me down to get food, and I held my tray through the line again. At our table, our friends were chatting about many things. Lizi finally asked, “Are you excited to start classes today, Sofia?”

I shrugged, “I’m glad to be doing something again… who likes to go to classes, though?” I asked with a smile.

“We could just take you to daycare instead,” Hannah said.

I sighed, “Please, Hannah!”

“Whoa… are you two fighting?” Camille asked.

“Yes,” I said to Hannah’s, “No.”

She glared at me, “This is not fighting!”

“It certainly is, Hannah. You’re mad at me for a bruise that wasn’t even my fault!”

“Huh?” Camille asked, “What bruise?” I could see she was looking us both over.

I took a moment to perform one of the privacy warding spells Caireen had been teaching me. She nodded in approval as Camille said, “Wow, that’s a perfect ward!”

I shrugged, “I had to keep this private… Each night when I go to sleep, I don’t really sleep…?” I explained how I went to her castle each night, and even though I could feel Caireen was a little annoyed at how much I was sharing, I knew I could trust my new friends. “Anyway, last night, Caireen was getting ready to introduce me to the court for a session, and while I waited for my summons to go in, I was nearly kidnapped.”

The others looked stunned as I explained everything more. Camille’s eyes flashed, and she said, “Your Highness, you should be careful; I can feel your future value to this world… if you die in Caireen’s world, you will likely also die here.”

Hannah whimpered next to me and picked me up to hold me tight. “You can’t keep taking her there, Caireen!”

I felt Caireen come back to the surface, “Hannah, as much as I like you would prefer to lock Sofia away in a safe bubble for the rest of her life, that’s not her future. She is meant to be a great leader in my world and will do much good in this world. She will be in danger sometimes, but I promise you I will do everything I can to protect her.”

I felt Caireen slide to the background again and just shook my head. “This is never going to feel normal!”

It took a few more minutes for everyone to reassure Hannah before I felt like she was at least no longer angry at me. It annoyed me that she had been in the first place! Especially given I was the one in danger! Eventually, it was time to go to our first class at our Mergent high school!

It would have sounded much cooler if that class hadn’t been Calculus!

We walked into the classroom and introduced ourselves to the teacher. He directed us to two seats that weren’t occupied and happened to be on the opposite side of the room from each other. Hannah looked pained about it, but I shrugged and said, “We can’t be together all the time,” as quietly as I could.

I ended up standing on my chair for much of the class so I could see the board and what the teacher was doing. I was just grateful that we had covered the same stuff at our school a week or so ago! The cool thing I noticed, though, was that as I went to copy my notes down, I didn’t have to worry about glancing up at the problem every other second. My new paradigm memory let me remember without doing that! I debated about not even taking notes then, but I was sure I would land myself into trouble that way!

Toward the end of the class, the teacher came to speak with me and looked over a couple of homework questions he had asked us to start. To my relief, he pronounced my answers correct and just shook his head. “I can’t believe a baby can do those equations that quickly,” he added with a smile.

I just smiled back.

Hannah and I visited the restroom before our next class so she could change my diaper before we went into the Costume Design. While we weren’t behind the students in Calculus, we both felt dismayed at how far behind we were in this class!

Mrs. Gaskin, the teacher, approached us at the table she had assigned us, “Ladies, do you have any ideas on your costumes? Remember as you’re making them that you need a costume and a mask for your time in the Cube.”

“The Cube?” Hannah and I asked.

“Oh, dear… I assume you’ve heard about the skill finals?”

“Someone mentioned it and said we might not have to do them since we came in late?” I said, remembering a couple of hints.

“Well, let’s not count on that just yet…” she began walking us through things the class had already done. She spoke of materials that were bulletproof, fireproof, magic proof… The sky was the limit if you had tons of money! I shook my head, “So we have like two weeks to do this?”

As I sat there panicking, Caireen mentally poked me, and I smiled. “Okay, we’ve got this.”

“What?” Hannah said, clearly afraid.

“Don’t worry. May I see some of these fabrics you mentioned?”

Mrs. Gaskin looked at me skeptically but led me over to cabinets with massive racks of bolts of fabric. Hannah held me up as I touched and felt everything she had there. Caireen and I got a good handle on the materials and how they worked. ‘Is that enough, do you think?’ I asked her.

She seemed to nod at me. “Before we start working on our costumes, Mrs. Gaskin, are there any rules we need to be aware of?”

“Well, copyright… you cannot have an identical costume to another established superhero or villain. It has to have at least color differences in the design so you can be identified as unique.”

“What about design?”

She and I had a ten-minute conversation before I looked at Hannah and said, “Okay, we can do this by the end of the week!”

Mrs. Gaskin looked skeptical, “Umm… you shouldn’t rush through this, sweetie.”

I grimaced but said, “There are no rules about using magic, correct?”

She looked taken aback by my asking that and said, “No…?”

“Okay, we’ve got this!”

“I do need sketches before you begin,” she told me.

“Okay… Hannah and I’ll have them for you tomorrow.”

With that, it was time to switch classes. I almost forgot that Hannah and I were separating when Camille met us at the door. Hannah handed me over to Camille and said, “Be good!”

I sighed, “Yes, Hannah.”

“She needs changed,” Hannah whispered to Camille.

Camille squealed, “I’ll take care of that.”

I groaned but just stayed in the good baby role as she walked down the corridors and eventually into a bathroom. She pulled down a changing table that looked rarely used and made quick work of what I was sure would just be a wet diaper but instead was a poopy one.

“There, I bet you feel all better now without that poopy diapee,” Camille said with a smile.

I just said, “Thank you,” while I was shocked that I hadn’t noticed and no one had said anything.

Camille hugged me after she sat me down and washed her hands, “It’s okay, Sofia, no one minds.”

“I do,” I said quietly.

“Come on, let’s get to class. Mrs. Cranther really doesn’t like late students!”

I groaned but accepted that. As Camille carried me into class, Mrs. Cranther looked at me wide-eyed, and I returned the favor. Mrs. Cranther was covered from head to toe in bark and leaves! I knew this to be a case of body morphism, and she was harmless, but I couldn’t help but take a breath in as it was shocking, to say the least. For her part, she seemed to be looking at me similarly.

“I’m Sofia Hammerstein,” I told her as Camille carefully stood me up on a desk at the front of the room.

“I’m Mrs. Cranther,” she said with a smile. “I see we both are shocking the other. You have so much power that I know you’re not a baby, and I look like some overgrown plant.”

I laughed, “Can’t judge a book by its cover, huh?” I said with a smile.

“We’re going to get along just fine. Why don’t you join Camille at her table since you seem to be friends with her.”

I thought maybe I would be just sitting on the table or something, but Mrs. Cranther suddenly performed a spell that made a highchair-like seat appear. It was made of something like living tree limbs woven in a beautiful pattern. As much as I disdained the idea of a highchair, at least it was a beautiful one. She looked at me expectantly, and I said, “Umm... thanks.”

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading? I will fully admit to feeling neglected when there’s none…? To make it worth your while I’ll post an extra chapter tomorrow night if I can get at least two people to comment today!

If you're someone who must finish a good story 'now,' consider purchasing the full book on Amazon Kindle! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTBTTGX1 I will be posting a chapter about every other day until the complete 62 Chapters and the Epilogue are reposted.

 

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

---

---

 

---

 
The Legal Stuff: Emerald Princess © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2016-2023 By Sofia Hammerstein. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
 
 
Chapter 29: Old Friends

I GRABBED THE textbook for the course from my bag before Camille placed me into the chair. I was actually pretty happy I could sit in relative comfort for this class. It was a good thing because as much as I liked her, she was definitely a voice that would make me sleep if I wasn’t awake! However, I seemed to become the object lesson as she discussed gathering manna.

“How do you do it...?” she paused, “Anyone?” Camille’s hand was up, but she called on me, “Sofia?”

I grimaced, “Well… I can sense the ley lines, and I just use them for the power.”

I heard a couple intakes of breath around the room. “You only mean minor ones, right?” A girl that looked a little bit catlike asked.

“Umm… Not really? I haven’t found one I can’t tap yet…?”

“What do you feel around here?” Mrs. Cranther asked inquisitively.

“Well, there’s an artery going through a big one right underneath Friar Hall. It passes close enough to here, I can easily tap it…?”

“Let’s not do that just yet…” she said hastily. “Hmm… If what you say is true, you will never suffer from a loss of manna you can’t recover from.”

“Camille, how were you going to say…?”

The topic shifted from me, and I quickly gathered that the most powerful would only grasp the smaller veins, not the main arteries. I kept getting stares through the rest of the class, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I had pooped my diaper again. Eventually, we were told to work in our groups on a set of questions at our table.

“Camille… Why was everyone staring at me?”

She looked around and then back at me, “Umm… Sofia… Most people can’t do what you say you do to collect manna. The ability to tap into minor ley lines isn’t unheard of, but very rarely has anyone been able to say they can tap into a mainline like you mentioned.”

“Oh…”

She smiled at me, “That just means you’re cooler and more powerful than others.”

“It means I’m more of a freak…?”

Caireen mentally spanked me, but I just shook it off.

“Sofia, you’re not a freak… Well, not any more than the rest of us!” She said with a smile. She reached over, grabbed me from the highchair-like seat, and sat me in her lap. “Okay, let’s get this done!”

Camille was a great person to work with; she was easily the most brilliant person in the class. However, towards the end of the lesson, her voice changed, “You are going to be an interesting little girl to be around.”

“Who are you?”

“You should know by now that names are dangerous,” she said.

“You are one of Queen Solana’s sisters, correct?” Caireen asked, taking over.

“Yes, I am, and I know who you are as well,” she said before Camille’s voice changed.

“Well, that went well…” she said in her normal voice.

“Yeah,” I said as well. “I guess we know each other…?”

She shook her head, “the great thing about having an avatar spirit attached is all of the information you get…” she paused, “the tough thing is all of the baggage!”

I smiled, “it’s even more awkward with mine… maybe we can talk mor

e privately later,” I said as I looked around and saw Mrs. Cranther coming our way to check on us.
She smiled, “so I think that’s about it with this question?”

She surreptitiously checked my diaper at the end of the class and carried me down the hallway and off to our dorm. We met up with Hannah in our common room, “Hey, Hannah!”

“Sofia!!!” She said excitedly, and afterward, “Hi Camille!” I felt my eyes narrow and found myself quickly captured in her arms.

“I missed you so much,” she said as she squeezed me tight.

“Umm… I missed you too,” I told Hannah.

“Sorry… I don’t know what is wrong with me...?” She said, suddenly turning red with embarrassment.

“You’re a new mother with separation anxiety,” Camille and I said at the same time. Her tone was joking; mine was resigned.

I hugged her around her neck, and she said, “Thanks Camille for taking care of her.”

“No problem, I’ll meet up with you at lunch?”

“Sure, we’ve just got to take care of a few things first, and then we’ll be over at the Friar Hall.”

“Sounds good, bye Sofia,” she said and waved at me with a smile.

“See you in a bit,” I called after she tried to maintain some maturity.

Tough to do when you’re being carried back to your room to be breastfed…

 

‘LUNCH’ AND LUNCH progressed quickly and without incident, leading to my handoff to Camille again for Magic I. With each non-traditional class, I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmingly behind all my classmates. The three months they had before we came had obviously been packed with valuable information. My worry, of course, bled through to Caireen.

‘Sofia, don’t worry about it,’ she reassured me.

‘How can you say that?’

‘What did Dr. Raspin say was the principle behind manna?’

I thought back and repeated, ‘Manna is free energy that flows through the universe and can be tapped for magical spells….

‘So, what are you worried about?’

‘What do you mean…?’

‘You have a perfect memory now, Sofia! Worst case scenario, you have to sit down with your books and your friends’ notes over Thanksgiving Break and read them. Then, you’ll have perfect responses on tests.’

‘As long as it’s just regurgitating! If I have to use it…?’

“Sofia, here’s Hannah; I’ll see you later, Princess,” Camille said with a hug as she passed me over.

“Huh?”

“In la-la land, huh?” Hannah asked.

I just nodded and looked over her shoulder at the passing students. She patted my back reassuringly before shifting me to her hip. From there, I could at least look forward. Many students waved at me and smiled; some obviously did not know yet that I wasn’t a regular baby. Before long, though, Hannah walked through the doorway to our Power Exploration class. I felt her check my diaper briefly as she sat me down with a smile and whispered, ‘it should be okay through this class.’

I was glad something was okay throughout the class… Right away, I realized that we were behind in the material and that the course was not the most interesting one I would have had. Once again, I found myself being the object lesson of the teacher, though, as they began talking about powers that day and how power and significant changes came into play. As far as the class was concerned, though, I had been a teenage girl a week ago…

At the end of the class, Knag met Hannah at the door, passing me off again. “That diaper’s a bit wet if you don’t mind changing her on your way?” Hannah asked.

“Sure!” she said with a smile. I could see her face, though, and could tell she was nervous about it.

I giggled, “It’ll be okay; I’ll help you if you get stuck - it’s just wet.”

She squeezed me slightly, and we found a bathroom on the way to class. I helped her by handing her a new diaper, wipes, and a changing pad from my bag. She picked me up nervously and set me on the table to change me. It took about four minutes longer than it should have, but she had me out of the wet diaper and into a new one without too many corrections!

As soon as we walked in the door for the class, I could see the word was definitely out from the teachers about me as there was a bland high chair sitting next to the seat that Knag took. Powers Fundamentals, in general, seemed like it could be interesting. Still, I could only groan in dismay at how far behind everyone I was. ‘I’m going to have to read every moment of the day over Thanksgiving Break!’ I complained mentally.

‘Yeah, but it’ll be okay,’ Caireen reassured me.

When she passed me off to Volango, I was aching to do something other than sit still. Apparently, babies don’t like to sit still all day? She helped me quickly change a slightly damp diaper before Caireen helped me into my gi she had created the day before. Instead of carrying me out of the locker room, she held her hand out to me that I reached up to take. She led me to where the other students lined a mat.

I took a similar stance and waited for Sensei Kwon to appear.

“Good afternoon, class. Before we begin today, I would like to introduce a new student who has joined us. Some of you met her briefly yesterday. Emerald, would you please come here?”

I stood and bowed to him respectfully, “Yes, Sensei Kwon.”

“Emerald may look like a baby, but she is like many of you, having changed significantly when she emerged. Therefore, I expect there to be no differences expected towards or from her than anyone else in the class.”

“Yes, Sensei,” the other students responded.

“Very well then, today…” he began our class much as I had back home in Los Alamos. Still, there were definitely differences in the way he taught stylistically. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the course as he took us through some techniques I knew slightly differently and had us practice. Volango partnered with me for many of the exercises before he started having us spar.

Much to my opponents’ surprise, I could give as good as I got with most of them. Only the speedsters like Celer seemed to be able to easily outmaneuver me. Sensei Kwon began stepping in then and instructed me how I could find other advantages there. It was the one class of the day that, when it ended, I was genuinely disappointed!

After changing out of my gi, I found Hannah waiting outside the locker room. She gave me a big hug, “I missed you!”

Seeing her tears, I said, “I missed you too, but see, everything is fine!” I smiled at her.

She didn’t dilly dally on returning to the room quickly, nursed me, changed me, and then headed to the Friar Hall for a quick dinner of solid food. “You two better get going,” Camille advised us shortly after we sat down. I sighed, threw another fry in my mouth, and then stood up.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Hannah asked worriedly as she zipped up the coat I had put on when we came to dinner.

“Yes, Mommy,” I told her quietly so no one else could hear.

I thought it would feel odd, but oddly it felt normal to call her that. Her eyes welled up, but I hugged her and said, “I’ll see you after class!”

In theory, I knew where this class was since it was near where I had my testing for magic powers. However, I wasn’t sure of the exact room location. So I kept walking around and jumped when I heard from behind me, “Sofia?”

I turned and saw Cate coming towards me. “Hi, Cate.”

“Where are you going? Why are you alone?” She asked somewhat worriedly.

“Mythical Fundamentals,” I told her, “you?”

“Same thing! Let’s see if we can’t find you a seat near mine!”

With that, she led me down one last corridor and held the door open. Caireen gasped a ‘really?!?’ as she saw the teacher. To her credit, the teacher seemed to do the same thing, and I let Caireen take over, “How are you doing Artemis?”

She hesitated a moment, “I’m doing well, Caireen. I never thought I’d see you bound to a human… but somehow it seems fitting you would find a baby to bond with; you always did show them way more affection than I ever understood.”

I actually felt Caireen blush at that, “It’s been a surprise to both of us. I’m going to let Sofia retake control. She has questions, but I’ll try to answer them later.”

“So, you’re my new student, Sofia?” Artemis asked me a moment later.

I sighed, “Yes, ma’am, it seems you and Caireen know each other.”

“Yes, we do, but it’s been a good relationship, so don’t fret.” She smiled at me. “I see you know Efferous; why don’t you sit next to her?”

I smiled, moved to the table, and just went ahead and duplicated another of the raised chairs that seemed more comfortable than the other chairs right next to Cate. “That’s got to be awkward,” she said quietly.

“You have no idea!” I responded.

The class itself was genuinely intriguing. I flipped through the textbook and frowned when I saw a page on vampires. I read things about them that I now knew from first-hand experience. I shuddered and stopped flipping through the book, and paid attention.

 
 

Thank you for reading! Please press the ‘Like’ Button if you’ve enjoyed it! I’ve gone a few posts without any comments, I would really appreciate it you would leave one! I do really appreciate the Kudos button, but please consider leaving a comment if you’re reading?

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