.
The Sentinel’s appearance directly in front of us on the visual screen was so sudden that I screamed. “Zephyr!!!!”

"You don't think Stan would come after us, do you?" I asked her, half joking, half serious.

"That clown is capable of anything," Femke answer in a grim tone.
 

Rage was not something Aleksandar was used to. He didn't even like getting angry. However, since coming to the cursed fort, he was becoming well acquainted with the feeling. But he hadn't felt the fiery emotion that made his hands shake and his throat tight, since he'd been a child.

"How does it feel to be a woman?"

It was a beautiful morning and we were sitting in the balcony, taking in the view with a cup of coffee.

She had been unusually quite. She's not a chatterbox, but she usually has something to say. If nothing else, she will drop a teasing remark or two.

So to bring her out of the flunk, I asked her, "How does it feel to be a woman?"

She seemed to register that I was talking and looked at me, "Hmmm, what was that?"

"Honey, how does it feel to be a woman? Or rather what's the difference between me and you?"

"What does being transgender mean for you?". That was how we began our way through all of this.

I responded, "It means that I have a feminine side to me which feels more authentic than the male side I present to the world. It means there is a constant expectation from myself to express my feminity".

The next morning, I woke to find the bedroom door still locked from the inside. My wife usually woke up around the same time and we did the chores around the house. But not today, after the revelation last night.

June 3rd 2023
Connecting to BLUSH.
Good evening, Seth, welcome to Blush.

You seem like my type.

Thank you.

What's your favorite food?

Sushi.

I love sushi too! Do you eat it often?

Not too often as it can get kind of pricey

That's true... How do you feel about pizza though?

Pizza is the miracle food from the hand of God himself.

Keir stood behind his three students, Blau, the lame boy, Katalia, the angry girl, and Kazmer, the boy who used both necromancy and fire magic. They didn't know it, but this was going to be their last lesson with him. They each had a cage with a live rat inside, some pests that had been caught near the warehouse of food. There were a dozen rats for each of them in a large cage off to the side.

“I see that grin. You got something different, don’t you?” Beth asked.

“Yeah, what my helper said.” Beth replied.

It's been three years, but hopefully I can get back into writing. Here it is, picking up from the last chapter, more Tracy!
Once again, if you feel the need, go back and re-read the old ones, I had to.

Sitting in General Ajani's office, which had been expanded and improved since the last time he'd been there, Keir studied the different players. They'd made the polite greetings, everyone had a mug of mint tea to take the chill off, and now things were about to get interesting.

. . . as much as I enjoy my life as it is, somehow, it’s never enough. I wanted something else. Something more. Hermes might be the one who could bring me there.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you Americans, the moment something happens to one of you,
the first thing you do is create a support group,
and the second thing is that you go on TV."

I thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, probably," I admitted.

I just had to hope I wasn’t going to move too far down the alphabet.

Looking out the window at the howling blizzard, Von sipped his tea, contemplating his rather open schedule for the day. Since Mage Aleksandar had taken over all Council business, he had found himself largely at loose ends. Scratching his stump, he realized he should have expected that to happen. While he hadn't been declared a traitor, he couldn't expect much more than that.

Princess Gracia leaves the city with her people heading for Winterbrook and times with the thieves and maybe their ruler and then headed into Dwarven lands to see and meet up with her sisters at Angeline's wedding in Braithehold.

Command track, private bunks for each of us and it’s literally us walking in through this archway and we see not cots but like these crafted cubicles that are open with no roof to them but like a four foot privacy wall and there are other cadets there hanging out.
Well hanging out or waiting.
There’s more people watching, even coming over to watch as we’re getting assigned and taking our bunks by the numbers.
I hear them say hushedly. “The Apollo.”
And I can feel eyes on me.
Not just us but on me.
And people whispering. “It’s her.”
Oh dammit.
People know who I am?

Authors Note: I did not realize I had not published this chapter before publishing chapter 5. I am sorry for any confusion and hope that you will enjoy this chapter.

When Matt said That's the protocol, it reminded me of something my grandfather told me
about his time in the Army: "The most important thing you can learn in the Army
is that there's a right way, a wrong way, and the Army way."

"How do you know which way is the Army way?" I asked him.

"It's in the manual," he replied.

Stepping into combat class, I saw that everyone was lined up by the protection medals. Ameth was crouched on the table watching everyone like a hawk. Getting in line behind Naomi, I asked, “What's going on?”

“No idea,” she said. “I just got in line with everyone else.”

We moved quickly and soon enough it was our turn. “Sign your names for a medal,” the cat girl said.