Like many people, I had wondered if there was nothing more to life, especially when it came to my pathetic life. Not to say that I was not headed places. In fact, my guidance counselor had assured me that I would be on the fast track of whichever career I choose to pursue. I suppose there was a bit of truth in those words, but a little pity as well. Even someone in such a meaningless profession as guidance counselor had to see the isolated world to which I had imprisoned myself. I was a prisoner in my own jail cell and I was the warden as well. Shyness, anxiety and self-doubt were the lock and key.
In a pursuit of a career, I had the brains. In fact, I had the title of class valedictorian locked in even though there was still a semester of high school left. I think it was less academic talent as it was patience and hard work. I mean, why not spend countless hours studying? It was not like I had anything else to do. I was a shy and timid girl, and always had been as far back as I could remember. My physique matched my meek spirit. I was short and skinny, beyond a waif. I was a mere 4’10” in height and not even 90 pounds. Some of the kids joked that if I had wanted to go as a skeleton to the Halloween dance, I would not have even needed a costume since I was nothing but bones anyway. Indeed, a light breeze could just about blow me right off my feet. I more resembled a young boy than a girl of 17 years. My breasts and hips were near nonexistent. That fact, along with my paralyzing shyness made me invisible to the boys. Why should they waste their time with me when there were girls out there that actually looked as though they had gone through puberty?
Yes, I had the time to dedicate to studies. It wasn’t like I would be missing any parties or dates. I had no girlfriends either. Female friendship was just a foreign to me as male romance. I was isolated in this miserable world. I wondered what the point of it all was. Why should I even be alive? What was the point? In the philosophical sense, it was the age old question: what is the meaning of life? Is it a test for one’s worthiness to enter heaven as some of the religious people of the world profess? Perhaps it is simply to procreate and pass on our genetic material, as the biologists would have us believe. Being that I was neither religious nor of a physique which catered to great fertility, I was dissatisfied with both of those answers to the meaning of it all. Perhaps the nihilists were right. Maybe life had no grand purpose or meaning.
I liked to think that life had more to offer me. Someday, perhaps, my true destiny would find me. I dreamed about a more exciting life. I had delusions of grandeur with me as the music diva or movie actress. I suppose girls of the past dreamed of being a queen, and I too had thoughts of that, but the real royalty of today were the music and movie superstars, larger than life upon a stage or in a sold out stadium or on the silver screen.
I was right. My life did have a grand purpose, but it was neither a record executive nor a Hollywood producer that approached me. Why would they? I had no acting ability or a beautiful singing voice. Even if I did, the big name executives who cared more about looks than talent would still have ignored me. Nonetheless, someone did approach me. It was a mental case, or so I thought at the time. Who would have believed such a strange story as what he had to tell? Not me and my rational mind that’s for sure, at least, so I would have thought. Yet, boredom and a mad desire for some shred of excitement can make one listen to just about any story, and if you listen to something long enough, it has a way of seeming more plausible with every additional syllable that is spoken. I suppose that is how con artists operated. They prey on those people who lack any excitement in their lives. Those people who are willing to grasp any straw if promises of riches, fame, or glory are dangled out in front of them like a carrot. Yet, with all the con artists and false hopes of the world, sometimes, every now and then, those hopes are real. It was a life so alien to my own yet so suited to me, something I never even knew I was capable of until called on in the moment of necessity. My destiny awaited me, a life I had lived before but long since forgotten. It was a world that I had forgot had even existed, or even believed could exist.
The man approached me early in the morning that October day as I walked to school. I didn’t know it then, but I would not attend class that day, or any day thereafter. I would come to realize that they would have nothing to teach me. I already had the knowledge of all those teachers, that knowledge, and ten times more, all locked away in the dark forgotten passages of my mind. The man was short in stature, but jolly in frame. His thick, round spectacles divided his chubby round face and magnified his otherwise small, squinty eyes. The top of his head was bald but the ring of hair that crowned his head extended down to his shoulders in dead, gray curls. His clothes were old-fashioned. He had the look of someone who had just stepped out of the pages of a Sir Author Conan Doyle book, and extra character about to be stabbed in the back by a dark mysterious streetwalker of whom only Sherlock Holmes would have the ability to discover.
He was not stabbed, and, in fact, only walked, or rather bounced in a sort of pseudo-skip in his jolly way, up to me, and stated with a warm smile and a high-spirited voice that contained the same jolliness as his pudgy body: “It’s so good to see you again, Your Highness.”
“Pardon?” I asked in my usual meek voice. The man’s only response was to hug me tightly. I tried to pull away from this stranger’s embrace, but my tiny body was unable to pull free until he had almost finished his bear hug grip. “What are you doing?” I demanded in a voice that I tried to make sound angry and hard, but with me, everything came out has a high-pitched squeak that most resembled Minnie Mouse.
The man shook his head and bellowed out a hearty laugh. “Don’t tell me that you’ve gotten so full of yourself to become unapproachable. And here I thought you were a woman of the people.” He gave me a hearty slap on my back which nearly knocked me off my feet.
Woman of the people? Hardly! I thought to myself. I was a woman of detachment if there ever was one. Speaking was not the only area of social life with which I had trouble, any embrace, kiss, or touch from another tended to make me uncomfortable. “I’m sure you have me confused with someone else, Sir.” I walked by the man and tried to proceed to school. The man grabbed my arm and pulled me back to him.
“Sorry to be so forceful, Your Majesty, but your people need you.” The man continued to hold me in a death grip from which my feeble body was unable to free itself.
“Majesty? What in the world are you talking about? You crazy or something?” Fear was starting to set in as I feared that I might be in the clutches of a madman.
“I know it is you, Your Majesty. You look different, true, and you are a woman now, but you are our beloved leader.” I looked into this stranger’s eyes, and they did almost seem familiar to me. Moreover, they seemed to be pleading with me to help.
My fear was briefly replaced with a twinge of pity. “Sorry,” I stated. “But, I have no idea to what you are referring. I’m sure that I don’t know you or anything of which you speak.”
The man released his grip on my arm as his head sunk in sorrow. He looked up to me with eyes that seemed on the verge of tears. “How... How could you have forgotten us, Queen? Your people still love you. You are their only hope. It took forever to find you. Some of your subjects had given up on your return. It is only because it has been so long. I finally found you on this world and now you have forgotten.” A tear finally did stream down the man’s chubby face, a face that had been so happy when he first approached me. “What hope is there if you do not remember?”
I didn’t know how to answer that question. The idea of being a queen sounded appealing, but I knew nothing of it. If this man was a madman, then he believed everything that he said. If he was a kidnapper, then he was also a very good actor, because his sorrow seemed very real, just as his cheer had when he had first walked up to me. “I’m sorry, I just don’t remember.”
The Man sighed. “Have you been in this mundane life so long as to forget your importance?”
“I have always felt that I was more important than to be stuck in this life which I lead.” I admitted. “But, most people feel that way I’m sure. The possibility of another life always seems more exciting.”
“Will you come back with me, Queen? Maybe you will remember.” The man said as he looked at me with hope.
“Go to a strange place with a strange man who is talking crazy? I’m afraid that is not possible, Sir.” I was almost sorry to refuse him, but I knew it was the smart and safe thing to do. And I was always acting smart and safe now wasn’t I?
“Sir?” The man queried. “Won’t you call me ‘Huxley’ like you used to, Your Highness?”
“If that is your name, then I shall call you that as I say: ‘Goodbye to you, Huxley.’” I started to walk away again, but something drew me to turn back toward this odd man. His words seemed true, and his promises of a more exciting life were too irresistible for me to ignore completely. “Where would we go?” I asked casually as Huxley raised his head in renewed hope.
A smile escaped Huxley’s expression. “I would take you back to your people. I would take you back to what used to be your kingdom.”
“And where is this place which used to be my kingdom?” I asked, making my doubt as to the veracity of the place obvious to him.
“Far far away from here,” he stated with some amount of awe to his voice. “That is why it took so long to find you.”
“Uh... ok,” I struggled to think of something more to ask. “Is it at least here in America?”
Huxley looked at me quizzically. “I don’t know of this ‘America’ of which you speak. I can tell you that no road will lead you there, and no ship of vast oceans will help you either.”
“Then how might one get there?” I asked with a chuckle, as Huxley’s tales were starting to become amusing to me.
“I can get you there very quickly. Finding you was the hard part; the traveling itself is quite simple. Just merely take my hand, my dear, and the magic of the Dryads will guide us safely out of this world of the mundane and into your lost kingdom.” Huxley held out his hand for me. Curiosity got the better of me as I placed my diminutive hand into his sweaty outreached palm.
What happened immediately afterward I could not say. As soon as I placed my hand in his, consciousness slipped away from me. I awoke to find myself in a forest shrouded in the darkness of night. I had no idea where I was. There were no woodland areas of this sort anywhere near my urban home. It appears that Huxley was a kidnapper after all. Or was he? I had voluntarily placed my hand in his. The truth was that I just didn’t expect anything to happen once I did. I looked over and saw Huxley was asleep to my side. I stood up slowly and brushed away the grass and dead leaves off my shirt and pants. The forest had many huge trees that seemed to extend all the way to creation in the night’s sky. I tried to be quiet with my movements, but the sounds of me rambling my way through the dark forest must have awoken Huxley because he was soon standing beside me.
“Where have you taken me!” I demanded in a voice that was angry, but hardly threatening.
“Exactly where I told you that I would take you: your lost kingdom. Well, a forest in it to be exact.” Huxley seemed perplexed that I would be anything but happy to be here in this strange place. “You’ll have to excuse the fact that we are so far a walk from the center of things, but it was the Dryad’s magic that brought us here, and well... they wanted to see you before you made your appearance to others. You can’t blame them really, it has been a long time since you have been here, Queen.”
“Who or what are these Dryads?” I asked, still irritated to be in this strange place.
“They are spirits of the forest. They are one with nature, and have certain magic at their disposal. There magic is not strong, but what magic they do have is quite effective. I mean, we are here aren’t we?” Huxley asked with a laugh.
“Where is here!?” I again demanded.
“You memory has not returned?” Huxley seemed disappointed.
“I have a pretty clear memory of my life for the last 12 years, so unless I was here in the first five years of my life, I have never been to this place.” I crossed my arms in frustration.
“Five years?” Huxley seemed confused. “You think that you are 17 years old, Queen?”
“Of course I am. I think I would know my own age.”
“Queen...” Huxley let out a gentle laugh as if in disbelief of my ignorance. “You are much older than that. You are almost ageless. You and your friends ruled here for time out of mind.... until Supreme Chancellor Bryan took over.” Huxley’s amused look turned sour when he mentioned the name “Bryan.”
“I have no friends.” I stated bitterly. “And I have no idea who this Supreme Chancellor Bryan is either.”
“Chancellor Bryan was the head of the Royal Department of Human Affairs. He was a trusted employee of yours, Your Highness. Until he betrayed you and your friends that is.” Huxley again looked at me with pleading eyes. “It has been horrible since you’ve been away, Queen. Bryan rules with none of the compassion that you and your friends did, Your Highness. He suppresses one’s freedom to speak, and when people do dare speak on a forbidden subject, Bryan will arrest and torture them, if not kill them outright. He is the supreme arbiter of all speech, press, and policy in the kingdom. He does not seek to understand and tolerate those who differ with him. He merely stamps out dissension with an iron fist. He says that absolute security of the kingdom is a necessity, otherwise we would sink back to the anarchy and barbarism of the days before you and your friends’ reign began. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I believe that barbarism would have to be better than the authoritarian prison which Bryan has created for us.
“This is all very interesting,” I stated sardonically. “But, I need to be going back home now.”
“What?” Huxley asked with concern. “You can’t leave us. Please, Your Highness, you are our only hope.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “I guess now is a good a time as any to tell you. I don’t believe any of this crap you’ve been feeding me. Now, let’s go.”
A look of dejection passed over Huxley’s face. “As you wish, Your Majesty.” Huxley’s voice was broken and melancholy. “Will you at least meet the Dryad who brought us here? I sort of promised her, and it would mean so much to her.”
“Yeah, fine, whatever.” I stated impatiently. My anger and impatience soon turned into amazement. Huxley led me to the Dryad. What I saw was incredible. It had to be some kind of illusion. The woman’s legs had to be hidden somehow. Yet, it looked as though that tree trunk really did merge into the woman’s torso. I couldn’t resist but touch the woman at her waist where the tree trunk appeared to fuse with her human torso. My hands confirmed what my eyes had been telling me. This woman was half tree! More than half in fact, her arms were tree branches that stuck straight out perpendicular from her torso. Leaves dangled from her branch arms. I felt along the wood surface of her arms and felt as it slowly blended into the human flesh of her shoulders and back. Despite the definite wood surface of her lower body and arms, her head and torso were quite human. In fact, she was quite a beautiful woman notwithstanding the fact that she was half tree. Her large bare breasts hung down nakedly from her chest. Any man walking by could have coped a feel without the worry of being slapped. That daring man couldn’t get any further than second base though. She had no visible vagina. The tree trunk part of her body extended all the way up to her waist.
The tree-woman that Huxley referred to as a “Dryad” was speaking to me. She told me about how honored she was to be in my presence and how lucky the kingdom was to have me back. I was barely able to catch and comprehend these words, as my mind seemed to float in the fantastical reality of the fact that a half woman-half tree was speaking to me. Suddenly Huxley’s story seemed to have more validity, or, perhaps, I was becoming as crazy as he was. Then again, maybe there was no Huxley. Perhaps my delusions of grandeur had slipped into full-blown dementia. Had I created a whole world in my mind? If so, it was very realistic. No, impossible, as strange as it seemed, I was really here, speaking to a woman who was half tree. Huxley told the Dryad to return me to the place from where I had departed.
Before the Dryad had time to plead for me to stay, I stated: “I think, maybe, I shall stay a while longer.”
Huxley smiled brightly. “I knew you would not turn your back on your people, Your Majesty.”
“I’m glad to see that you have so much confidence in me, Huxley, but I must admit that this is all a little much for me. I still don’t remember anything of this world. Perhaps you should tell me the WHOLE story.” I said as I still looked in amazement at the tree woman.
“Where should I begin, Your Highness?”
“The beginning,” I stated simply.
“Very well,” Huxley began to recite a history that he stated as if it was from a history book, even though it sounded more like a tale of ancient mythology. “As I said, the land that was to become your kingdom and that is now ruled by Supreme Chancellor Bryan, was long inhabited by competing tribes of brutal savages which warred against each other for the resources of the land. And, no offense Your Highness, you and your friends were all members of those barbaric tribes. You and what would later become your six friends were each a member of a tribe. Seven main tribes fought for supremacy. Each tribe had times when it gained power and other times when it bordered on destruction. No tribe was ever able to gain supremacy. All the fighting and war only led to death, bloodshed, and temporary changes in the power structure. The times were fierce and violent. Until the fateful day that Gould, the god of peace and wisdom, called one member from each of the seven major tribes into the forest. You were one of those called. Even though you were part of a savage culture, Gould saw the compassion, wisdom, and love that lived within you and struggled to be set free. You and six others wondered into this very forest many hundreds of years ago.
“Gould called you and your friends stood before him and underwent the “Punctuation,” as he called it. Your bodies were all changed to accentuate the strengths that each of you possessed. All of you seven were wise and compassionate, which is why you were called in the first place, but you each had additional strengths. These additional strengths were materialized in your living form as a living metaphor of your power. Hypasia was a free spirit. She had a strong sense of the importance of freedom and free will. Gould transformed her into a harpy. Her legs were turned into those of a bird. A tail of feathers emerged from her bottom. Her arms transformed into the large wings of a bird. She resembled a giant bird, except for her head and torso, which remained human, so that the people might still recognize and relate to her.
“Crick was a specimen of male power. He was strong and authoritative. Dana was a specimen of female power. She was caring and nurturing. Gould combined Crick and Dana into one body. Their heads sat atop a single set of shoulders. Crick’s head was on the right and Dana’s on the left. They were completely conjoined from the chest down. They had three legs with a penis between the rightmost leg and the middle leg and a vagina between the leftmost leg and the middle leg. Crick controlled the right half of their conjoined body and Dana controlled the left. They both, however, felt sensations from either side of their shared body. Either of them could control the middle leg. Together they represented the best of women and men.
“Darwin was aggressive and a true hunter. He was given the lower body of a bear. Gould punctuated him into a beartaur. His strong and muscular male human body merged into the body, minus the head of course, of a bear at his waist.
“Muir was a nature lover and hated the damage the constant fighting was doing to humans, animals and the land. She was transformed into a dryad. Not the rooted type of dryad who shares our company now, but Muir was rather turned into a free-roaming dryad with a light body and green skin and delicate fairy wings on her back. She could fly short distances, but her wings were too fragile to fly the long distances that Hypasia could easily cover.
“Watson was a man of great grace and speed. He was turned into a centaur with strong and sleek human male torso attached to the powerful, fast, and graceful body of a horse.
“And, of course, there was you, Queen. You were a great lover, a champion of love, companionship, sex, and relationships. You were transformed into a hermaphrodite with a large penis and testicles to accentuate the male sexuality while retaining your female sexuality. In addition, your breasts developed to a large size and a second set of breasts developed below the first. Your four large breasts accentuated the nurturing love of a woman and mother.”
“Wait a minute,” I interrupted. “I barely have two breasts, much less four, and I can assure you that I have no cock.”
“Yes, you have changed a great deal.” Huxley admitted. “You have lost your memories and your power. Your presence is still strong though. I knew it was you this morning. It could be no one but you, Queen.
“Lost my power?” I asked. “What power?”
“In addition to your physical changes, each of you were given increased mental and physical capabilities. Your current weak physique is quite a contrast to the large, four-breasted and muscular herm that used to help rule our kingdom.” Huxley said with a certain nostalgia to his voice.
The idea of being a hermaphrodite was not exactly appealing to me, but the idea of being tall and powerful with large breasts was enticing. Yet, even if Huxley was telling the truth about some forgotten past life, what did it matter? I was not that powerful person to which he referred, not anymore.
Huxley continued the history. “The seven of you were shocked by your changes, but quickly grew to love the new abilities they allowed you. You were all strong and ready to conquer anything. The seven of you returned to your people. At first, you were greeted with fear and horror at the look of your new forms. After the initial shock of your appearance passed, however, you started to get through to your people. You seven united the tribes together, united them in peace. A new kingdom was born out of the depths of chaos. Peace and harmony reigned for hundreds of years. The seven of you shared leadership of the kingdom. A shared leadership would have proven difficult for many, but your combined wisdom allowed the seven of you to flourish as leaders of a large and thriving kingdom. Your gifts from Gould also included long lives. You ruled for hundreds of years with no sign of aging. Peace and harmony ruled the land until...”
“Until Chancellor Bryan.” I finished.
“Yes, exactly,” Huxley continued. “Chancellor of the Royal Department of Human Affairs was an important governmental position. During your reign, many people had filled the position well. When Bryan took over the position 26 years ago, he seemed the best chancellor yet. He was energetic and passionate and seemed to work well with the Seven and with you especially. He was an especially strong force in promoting your initiatives for women’s rights to the public. His passion made him a favorite of yours, Queen.
“That all changed when the Heldinist Movement started. The Heldinists denied the existence of the gods. They also denied the divine province of the gods. This included, of course, a divine grant of power to someone like yourself. Bryan warned that the Heldinists had no respect for your authority as leader, and that they posed a threat to your rule. You tried to convince him that stamping them out as he had suggested would only make your rule appear tyrannical and only add support to any movement against your rule. Bryan didn’t have your wisdom and was unable to see past the immediate threat. His desire to eliminate the Heldinists became so fervent that you had to remove him from office. After that, Bryan’s desire to preserve your rule became a desire to protect the unity of the kingdom no matter who ruled it. He saw your inaction against the Heldinists as a weakness and felt that you and the other six were jeopardizing future peace and unity.
“For the first time since your kingdom started, someone desired to overthrow the Seven. Obviously, Bryan could do nothing against the Seven alone. He had neither the power nor the popular support. In addition, many believed that you and the other six were immortal. How could Bryan overthrow ones who are popular and don’t die? The answer was divine intervention. Finney, the god of war and fire, and long been annoyed by Gould’s meddling in the trivial political affairs of humans, namely, his aid to you and the other six in establishing the kingdom, especially since it eliminated the constant battling that used to rule in the old days. Finney finally had a human to carry out his own brand of meddling. Finney gave Bryan a magical, silver sword, which would give him the strength and wits of the Seven. Knowing that Gould had made it impossible, or at least very difficult for any of the Seven to die, Finney created the sword so that when pierced with it, the victim would turn to a statue of gold in which the spirit would live on inside of an immobile shell for all time.
“Bryan sneaked into the chambers of the leaders and stabbed each with the silver sword, transforming them into statues of gold. Luckily, I discovered Bryan’s doings and was able to warn you before he reached you. You managed to escape the Royal Palace. You fled to safety in order to determine a course of action. Unfortunately, your six friends and fellow leaders were all transformed to golden statues.
“Chancellor Bryan quickly established himself as ‘Supreme Chancellor’ and set up the new golden statues in front of the Royal Palace, now inhabited by him, as trophies of his takeover. The people waited for you to return to remove him from power, but you never did. You disappeared. People tried to overthrow Bryan, but with the silver sword fully in his grasp at all times, he was too powerful. He holds onto that sword with his life. All his power is derived from it. Many have tried to dethrone Bryan but all have failed. In time, Chancellor Bryan started to take some perverse pleasure in the pathetic attempts to challenge his rule. The bastard even made a contest out of it. Once a year he invites subjects to challenge him. The contest can only be won by him. In order to even be provided the opportunity to challenge Chancellor Bryan in a sword fight, one must lift a giant steel sphere five feet off the ground. The sphere weighs tons and is beyond the power of any single man to lift on his own. Bryan does not exempt himself from having to lift the sphere. If he is unable to lift the sphere then the challenger is still provided the opportunity to fight him. But, with sword in hand, Bryan can easily lift the sphere with only the power of his mind.
“Obviously, few ever accept the challenge because it is utterly futile. Yet, Chancellor Bryan loves the annual event as sort of a celebration in his honor and a testament, in his mind at least, to the people’s satisfaction with him as a leader. Indeed, the usually miserly Bryan spends vast amounts of tax money to provide food, drinks, and entertainment only so people can show up and refuse to challenge him. The whole thing rings of stupid propaganda. Yet, if you could get your powers back, you could make him swallow his pride. If you had your powers, you could lift that sphere with your mind and fight him. It is what you must do to end his 17 years of tyranny.”
“I’m afraid that I’m far from being able to fight anyone at the moment.” I said as I glanced down to my puny body.
“Yes, that is unfortunate, especially since this year’s great challenge is only three weeks away.” Huxley said with great disappointment.
“I wonder how I went from being a ruler of this strange land to being a child born and raised so far away.”
“That is a mystery.” Huxley acknowledged. “Some thought you fled in cowardice, but I knew that couldn’t be the case. Others thought you might have been dead. I knew that was not the case either. Chancellor Bryan would have displayed your body as if it were some trophy. It is just his way. Many of us went searching for you. All except for me gave up on their search long ago.”
“Maybe it was this god, Finney. Perhaps he banished me into a different life.” I proposed.
“Maybe,” Huxley pondered. “Yet, that is not really the gods’ way. They never tend to interfere directly with the lives of humans. They typically will bestow a human with a gift or curse and let matters proceed from there.”
Huxley and I continued to speak for some time, until we noticed the sun starting to rise on the forest. Huxley had told me about his world. After sunrise, we bid goodbye to the dryad and walked and chatted our way to a nearby village. It was a world similar to mine except for the gods and the occasional strange creature. This world didn’t have the technology of the world I knew. No highways covered the landscape. No cars zoomed passed skyscrapers that blocked the horizon. The architecture was primitive and people traveled via horses or ox and cart. The people seemed friendly enough except that they lived and worked as though a great burden was upon all of their shoulders. I assumed that burden was the rule of Bryan.
Huxley took me to a small house that belonged to a friend of his. She let us stay there, and in fact, said she was honored to have royalty here once Huxley explained to her who I was, or rather, who I apparently once was in another life and time.
After my second week in this strange land, I began to feel like a freeloader. I slept in Huxley’s friend’s house, ate her food, borrowed her clothes, and used Huxley’s money to buy new clothes for myself. I tried to help our hostess with her daily chores, but she would have none of it. She said that she would never forgive herself if she allowed a queen to work for her. All this hospitality was grounded on the proposition that I was a lost queen who’d come to overthrow a tyrannical leader whom I had neither met nor knew. Yet after two weeks in this lady’s home, I was no more majestic or powerful than I had been the day Huxley came to me. The stories Huxley told had excited me. After two weeks of my same old pathetic life however, I was ready to go home.
As I prepared for bed one night, I decided that I would have to tell Huxley that I must return, and that I was probably not the queen for whom he searched. While I slept that night, however, a dream came to me. It was Gould. He had no true form, but his presence was clear in my dream. His message was simple. If I wanted to become “repunctuated” as he called it, I would have to free my mind. I would have to free it of all the doubts about this world, my past life, and my present life as well. I would have to abandon all the self-doubts that had accumulated my entire life. I would have to find confidence.
I awoke from the dream, and rushed to the corner of the house where Huxley slumbered. I shook him awake and told him of my dream. Huxley was encouraged. He said that it was a sure sign that Gould was behind us and that it was my destiny to return to power. I had my doubts though. Those doubts were the problem. How could I find confidence in myself when I had been so unsure of myself and my own abilities all my life?
Huxley must have seen the uncertainly in my expression. He asked a simple question. “Do you consider yourself smart, Your Highness?”
“Well... I, uh,” I hadn’t been expecting a question like that. “I get the best grades in my high school.”
“That was not the question.” Huxley repeated himself. “Do you consider yourself smart?”
“Well, yeah, I guess so.” I said.
“It looks like you have some shred of confidence in that matter at least. How did you become smart? Were you born into this new life of yours quoting poets and solving mathematical equations? Or did you become smart by hard work?” Huxley asked me with a devilish grin.
“Hard work of course,” I began to see where he was going with all this. “No one comes out of the womb with all the knowledge to serve themselves in life. You have to study it, and that takes time and effort.”
“Of course it does.” Huxley agreed. “That is, unless of course, the knowledge is bestowed on you from the gods. They can give you whatever knowledge or strength they desire. No studying or workouts are necessary. Thus, you only need to believe in Gould and his abilities. Once you do, that confidence you have in your learned abilities will be found in everything else.”
I shook my head. “I’m not much for believing in gods or divine grants of power.”
“What? Why not?” Huxley asked with genuine surprise.
“Well, where I come from, the gods don’t give any objective proof of their existence. You are expected to believe in them merely on blind faith.”
“How odd,” Huxley stated. “But here, you have seen Gould, so there shouldn’t be a problem.”
“It was just a dream.” I stated with my usual doubt. “Perhaps you should ask him to reveal himself to you in a more... objective way. He may oblige you. You were one of his chosen ones after all.” Huxley stated with a certain amount of reverence.
“And how would I go about doing that?”
“Call out to him. Ask him,” Huxley said simply.
“Uh... ok,” I suddenly felt very self-conscious and stupid, but despite my shyness I yelled out and looked up to the ceiling. “Gould, reveal yourself to me! Reveal yourself objectively and in a way we will not forget!”
Huxley and I stood there in silence for a few seconds. Just as I was about to give up on this god, he revealed himself to me. I felt a burning in my crotch. It was rather intense, so much so, that I had to pull up my dress and claw off my underwear. My usual shyness about standing naked in front of someone had to surrender to the intense burning pain that suddenly emanated from my vagina. I went to rub it hopefully to soothe the pain, but before I could, it spoke to me. Yes, my vagina was speaking to me! Or, at least, a voice was emanating from it. It was a booming male voice at that.
“I am the god Gould for which you called!” The voice echoed with loudness in the small room.
I looked down at my vagina in shock and disbelief. “What the hell?! You choose to reveal yourself by possessing my pussy?!”
“You said to reveal myself objectively and in a way you wouldn’t forget.” The voice continued to come forth from my crotch, which was still burning in pain as if on fire. “You humans seemed to be obsessed with sexuality. I figured this would be the most unforgettable way of revealing myself to you.” And just as quickly as Gould came, he disappeared. The burning pain disappeared and the voice was gone. I quickly returned my underwear to their usual position and lowered my dress. I was greatly embarrassed by the whole affair.
“Good enough?” Huxley asked.
“Yeah, good enough,” I managed to say even though shock and embarrassment still had the best of me. Yet, something else was raising up within me as well. It was confidence. Something normally so foreign to me. It was raising quickly and I suddenly felt as though I could do anything, absolutely anything.
And just that quickly, the changes started to occur. It was the repunctuation. I was returning to the form of which Huxley told me. I was returning to my true form. I ripped off my dress and underwear. I was no longer ashamed to be seen naked in front of Huxley. My old shyness was fading. I wanted to witness the changes, and I wanted Huxley to witness them as well. I felt a warm tingling in my gut and it quickly spread over my entire body. My vagina started to slide down slightly and a lump appeared above it. It soon took the familiar shape of a penis tip. A scrotum started to form as well. It grew in size and was soon dangling over my vagina. My new cock started to grow and lengthen. By the time it stopped, it was a good 4 inches wide and at least 18 inches long. It stood out far in front of me, stiff and already dripping with precum. My new testicles which hung down were each the size of tennis balls. I was now a hermaphrodite, complete with a huge cock and testicles and a vagina, obscured by my large dangling scrotum, but still there nonetheless.
My chest next began to change. Two bumps appeared directly below my regular nipples. The bumps quickly took on the form of two new nipples. The flesh around the new nipples started to swell. Soon my new lower breasts were equal in size to my regular A-cups above them. They continued to expand, as did my upper breasts. As my four breasts swelled in size, my body was growing too. My height of 4’10” was soon a memory. I felt myself growing taller. The changes were painless and actually rather pleasurable. My breasts continued to swell and finally stopped their expansion at about DD-cup in size. I soon surpassed Huxley’s height. My growth did not end until I was about 6 foot tall. My puny body was becoming more muscular. I wasn’t hugely built like a bodybuilder, but the muscles all over my body were more definite and I felt much stronger.
I walked over to a mirror that hung by the window, which was letting in the first rays of sunrise, and looked at my new body. I stood there naked, looking at the person who stared back at me in the mirror: a six foot herm with two pair of large breasts and a huge erect cock. I turned around and saw Huxley kneeling on the floor with tears streaming down his face.
“You have finally returned to us, my Queen.” He said through the tears of joy.
Somehow it seemed odd that he should be calling me queen when I was no longer female, but then again, I was not a male either. I walked over to Huxley and pulled him off the floor. “You are a good subject, Huxley.” I noticed that my usual mousy voice had changed as well. It was now a deeper and sexy female voice. “Would you serve your Queen?”
“Always,” Huxley tried to kneel again, but I held him up.
“Then I need you to do something for me,” I was a little embarrassed to ask, but this new cock of mine needed satisfaction immediately. I looked down to my new cock. “Suck me off.” I stated bluntly. I was surprised to see no hesitation in Huxley. He immediately opened his mouth wide and wrapped his lips around the end of the tip of my cock, sucking up the precum and licking all around the tip of my penis. At that moment, our hostess walked into the room. She was embarrassed at walking in on us, but pleased to see the old familiar me had returned. I bid her to come and join us. Like Huxley, she did not hesitate. She immediately disrobed and lay on top of me on the bed in which Huxley had been sleeping when I came to tell him of the dream. She took one of my lower nipples in her mouth and startled suckling me as she caressed two of my other breasts with her hands. Huxley worked his way up to my breasts while our hostess worked her way down. She began to suckle my penis tip while Huxley now licked and caressed my many breasts. As our hostess continued to lick and suckle at my huge cock, I felt the pressure building. I reached down and lifted my scrotum and began fingering my pussy. I experienced male and female orgasms simultaneously. The feeling was indescribably delightful. Thick streams of cum shot out from my large cock and coated our hostess with pearls of cum that I rubbed into her breasts with my still hard cock. When the streams of cum finally stopped, we were all soaked. My new cock softened and dangled down as the last remnants of my cum dripped from the tip.
We cleaned ourselves up. The clothes I had bought for myself no longer fit me. I bid our hostess to go purchase me new ones. “I will also need a sword.” I said to Huxley almost without realizing it. Do I even know how to use a sword? Yes, I did. I knew that I did. I had wielded a sword many times in the past. In my life here on this world. The memories were all coming back to me. I remembered my life here. The hundreds of years I ruled, and all the generations of people in my kingdom that I loved and watched grow. All my monarchical knowledge returned: how to lead a kingdom, how to serve in government, how to speak to the people, how to inspire them. I also remembered how to fight. I remembered my training with the crossbow, bow and arrow, and, of course, with swords. I remembered my other skills too; my skills of telepathy, telekinesis, and hypnosis. The only memory that didn’t return was what happened after I fled from the royal palace that night that Bryan attacked my friends. What had propelled me from this magical world to my mundane world? What had changed me from this beautiful and powerful hermaphrodite into the normal human fetus that inhabited the woman I knew as my mother on my world? It remained a mystery.
Oh, my friends, how I missed them, and to think that I had forgotten about my beloved friends and fellow leaders. I loved them, and they loved me. How I used to love to ride atop Watson’s horseback and wrap my arms around his strong chest as he galloped through the fields of our kingdom. I remembered how I used to caress Muir’s soft green skin as she gently fluttered her fairy wings. Darwin was so strong. I loved how he held me in his muscular human arms and wrapped his powerful bear claws around my waist. I used to love having sex with Crick and Dana. We would get in a 69 position and Crick could tongue my pussy while Dana licked my huge penis shaft. I would tend to their privates too. I would suck the cock on Crick’s side of their shared body to the point of orgasm and move to Dana’s side of the body and lick her pussy, sending waves of pleasure through their body. No matter whether I sucked on their cock or licked their pussy, both Crick and Dana would feel the bliss of my actions. And, of course, there was my darling Hypasia. How I loved it when she would hug me and wrap her huge soft wings around my body. I would bury my face into her feathers and get lost in her loving embrace as her huge two breasts pressed against my four large breasts. Now that I remembered all of them, I suddenly missed them all greatly. By the time our hostess returned with new clothing for me, including large tops which would accommodate my four large breasts, I was weeping at the remembrance of my friends and at their loss.
Huxley had purchased me a new sword. I practiced with it, quickly regaining my familiarity and skill with it. It was a week later that we traveled to the Royal Plaza to take part in the Great Challenge. I wore a hooded cloak which covered my body and most of my face quite well. There was no need to alert Chancellor Bryan of my presence until necessary. The Royal Square was packed with people enjoying the food, drinks, and entertainment. I saw the huge metal sphere to the left of the Royal Palace. It was nearly as tall as the palace itself, and nearly as big around too. At the center of the large square, the golden statues that used to be my friends and fellow leaders were displayed. The expression on their frozen faces still exhibited their shock as they had awoke in the middle of the night to the sharp point of Bryan’s magical sword being pressed into their guts. One by one, Chancellor Bryan had sneaked into each of their chambers and stabbed them, all except me of course.
Trumpets sounded and Chancellor Bryan emerged on the steps of the Royal Place. He had his silver sword in his hand. I tried to reach out with the power of my mind and pull the sword away from him telekinetically, but it did not work. The magic that surrounded the sword included making it immune to my magical mental abilities. Trumpets sounded again marking the beginning of the Great Challenge.
Chancellor Bryan shouted out to the people. “Who will challenge me for control of this great land?”
Before I could say or do anything a voice shouted out from the large crowd. “I will!” Gasps of shock arose from the crowd.
“This is the first time in five years that anyone has even bothered to try.” Huxley whispered in my ear. The man who had taken the challenge emerged from the crowd. He was a young man of small stature and little muscle. “That is the local pharmacist’s apprentice.” Huxley explained. “He has mental abilities, but nothing like yours or Chancellor Bryan’s. He could never even come close to lifting that huge sphere.”
A large and muscular man descended from the steps of the Royal Palace. He had an extra pair of arms below his normal ones. All four of this man’s arms were hugely muscular, as was the rest of his body. Additionally, he stood a good 8 feet in height. The four-armed man escorted the challenger to the giant sphere. “That big four-armed fellow’s name is Moody. He is the Chancellor’s body guard, as if he really needed one. With that silver sword of his, Bryan is virtually unapproachable by any human. The magic of the sword would protect him from hordes of regular humans. Only someone with great powers like yours could ever hope to defeat him.” Huxley whispered.
The four-armed man positioned the challenger in front of the sphere and allowed him an opportunity to lift it. The challenger placed his hand up to his forehead and furrowed his brow as if trying to conjure up all of his telekinetic capabilities. He focused on the sphere, but after several minutes, was still unable to lift it even a millimeter.
Chancellor Bryan walked over and smugly stated. “Let me show you how it is done.” Drawing on the power of his sword, he used his mind to lift the sphere off the ground.
“Why don’t you try it without the sword!” The challenger yelled angrily at the Chancellor. Gasps of shock again arose from the crowd. It was obvious that people generally did not dare speak to the Chancellor in such a manner. Moody grabbed the challenger roughly with all four of his massive hands.
Chancellor Bryan again addressed the crowd. “You know, as fun as it was to finally have another challenger, I think you people need to take your decision to challenge me more seriously.” Bryan pointed to the challenger still in Moody’s grasp. “Kill him!” Moody grabbed the challenger by the throat with his two upper hands while holding him with his two other hands. Moody started to strangle him, but ended up crushing the man’s neck bone under his powerful grip. The crowd looked upon this murder with fear and suppressed hatred.
With a fiendish grin on his face, the Chancellor again addressed the crowd. “Now, is there another challenger?”
It was obvious that Bryan did not expect anyone to answer because he had already turned around and headed back into the palace when I yelled out. “I will!” Those now familiar sounds of shocked gasps again arose from the crowd.
The Chancellor turned around and scanned the crowd. “Who said that?!”
“I did.” I walked forward separating myself from the crowd. I pulled off my cloak and let it fall to my feet. The crowd burst into cheers when they saw me for the first time.
Bryan’s fiendish smile was replaced with a look of genuine concern, but he still managed to say. “Finally get over your years of cowardice?” I didn’t respond except to lift the sphere with the power of my mind, an easy task for me. Bryan lowered his head and proceeded to perform the mandatory lifting himself.
“It’s now a fight between you and me, Bryan.” I said as I pulled out my sword and approached him. Moody approached me with his own sword drawn, but before he even knew what happened I had swung my sword with such power as to completely slice off his two left arms, just before plunging my sword into his gut. “That was good practice, but now it is your turn, Chancellor”
“You can never expect to defeat me in a sword fight in which I have the silver sword of power.” The Chancellor declared as he wielded his magical sword. I launched myself at him and our sword battle began. Bryan’s moves were quick and accurate. He was a talented sword fighter when he was still my chancellor, and the magic of the silver sword only served to greatly magnify his abilities. He was quickly taking the advantage. The fact that I had four huge breasts didn’t help my sword fighting ability either. Bryan raised his sword. He had me off balance. I saw his attack coming and raised my sword in defense. His magic sword broke through my sword and one of the sharp bits of my sword, which had broken off, ripped into the flesh of my chest. The tip of his sword had just missed me. I had been about an inch away from being a golden statue myself. My blood squirted out and ran down my lower breasts. I didn’t know whether I was immortal or not, but it suddenly seemed unlikely as my blood began to soak my shirt. I threw what remained of my sword aside and backed away as quickly as I could from his charging attack. Chancellor Bryan swung his sword at me, but in his haste and anger, he kept swinging wildly and I was able to dodge his blows.
I kept retreating and fell back to the center of the plaza. Blood continued to pour out of the gash in my chest where the piece of metal from my broken sword was still lodged. I found myself beside the statue of Hypasia, my onetime harpy friend. The Chancellor continued his charge and brought his sword down to hit me. I was able to again dodge his blow. The tip of the sword missed me and instead clanged against the gold surface of Hypasia. The metal surface started to change. It started cracking away from the silver sword’s point of impact. The golden skin crumbled away and the living body of Hypasia emerged. The silver sword had freed her, just as it once had encased her. Bryan quickly recognized his folly and again tried to kill me. He would have done it too. I would not have been able to dodge this blow. As Bryan drew back his sword to swing, however, Hypasia flew over him and used her claw feet to grab the sword away from him. The sharp edges of the sword cut into her feet, but she managed to drop the sword down to me.
It was the first time the Chancellor had been without his magical sword. He was powerless now. I took the sword and slammed it against each of my golden friends. They emerged from their golden prisons. We surrounded the Chancellor. It was over. He had been defeated, and he knew it. Chancellor Bryan sobbed as he knelt down at my feet. The crowd shouted for his blood.
“The virtue of mercy shall not be lost on you, Chancellor.” I said. “You will be banished from the kingdom. As our kingdom extends to all of this world, the only place left is the mundane world from which I just returned. If these angry crowds don’t kill you, then the boredom of that place surely will.”
I ordered the Chancellor’s safe departure to the woods and then to the world which had been all I had previously known before my repunctuation. The Chancellor would not return. He had no magic now, and the world from which I just returned had none to offer him. All was right in the kingdom, and my real life had returned.
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