This story is meant to be fairly wholesome and for most viewers. However…
*Numerous LGBTQ characters are in this story.
*There are depictions of struggling with gender dysphoria, as well as transphobia.
*Multiple gender transformations (change and change back) and one species transformation occur.
*Mild profane language is used.

A Healing Friendship (Part 2)

Frua sat up. “Where?”

“Outside my cabin. We’d still be in my vessel, but I can make just about anything in here, so…”

“You know, maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea…”

Ariel quickly got to work. She remembered all the details Frua told her about their home before it was claimed by the Decay. Given that she saw similar scenery on Earth when she was growing up, she figured she could fill the gaps with her memories.

Frua wasn’t sure what to expect on a walk through a genie’s vessel. It could have been anything… They opened the door to the “outside,” and their jaw dropped: it was the Hallow! Not just any regular part of it, but it looked like the pine woods of their long-lost home! Pine trees with teal needles and pink bark stretched into the distance. Softly glowing teal grass and foliage lined the path, with the fallen plants and leaves coating the ground with pale pink mixed with brown.

“Wh-what!? How?” Frua asked, shocked.

“A little bit of what you told me, a little bit of what I remembered of my own home growing up, given it’s roughly the same place on Earth. Is it okay? I can change it if you’re not up for it…”

Frua looked at Ariel. Then back at the replica Hallow before them. It was so real… Ariel recreated the look of Frua’s homeland with startling accuracy. Something about it was comforting.

Frua turned back to Ariel and smiled. “I think it’ll be okay…”

“Oh, and for another detail…” Ariel shapeshifted herself, taking on a kitsune form of her own! Now adorned in lavender fur with four sky-blue ethereal tails, she looked (almost) like any other kitsune. “Old Hallow didn’t have too many humans, right?”

Frua looked concerned. “But, aren’t you uncomfortable with it?”

“I admit, the fur brings some bad vibes. But I have to remember it’s not human body hair; it’s something different that all kitsunes have like this, even the girls…” Ariel suggested even as she scratched her arms. “Besides, it’s about making you more comfortable, not me. I’m here for YOU right now.”

Frua smiled and nodded. “Thank you.”

Ariel stepped ahead of Frua and offered a paw. “Ready?”

Frua took it and nodded. They and Ariel stepped out the door, and Frua could feel the breeze. The smell of the air, the sounds of the world around them… It wasn’t the same, Frua knew. But Ariel did a fantastic job regardless. For its faults, it was like the pinelands of the mid-northern Hallow were alive once again.

Ariel could see as they walked through this land that Frua was relaxed and calm. The worries melted away. Sometimes, Frua would reach out for Ariel’s hand. She grabbed it, and she could tell that offering the hand of a kitsune gave Frua some comfort. It was immersion, the feeling that Frua was back in the world they knew an age ago. No humans to interact with, the Hallow full of life, just as they remembered it.

And yet, Ariel could tell something was still bothering them.

“Frua? Is everything alright?” Ariel asked softly.

Frua looked away. “It should be. You did a truly amazing job for someone who wasn’t there back then. It’s like I’m there, like the horrors of Darumond never happened. But there’s one thing that still reminds me of that…” Frua looked down.

“Me,” they answered.

Ariel thought about it for a moment. She realized she had an answer to that problem too – if Frua wished for it.

“Well… I AM a genie. I know your Wild Magic is amped up by the transformation you experienced centuries ago. I think, at best, I can only temporarily change you before your Wild Magic takes hold and reverts you back, even for as powerful as I am. But I think I can still do it…” Ariel suggested.

Frua stared for a moment, processing the idea.

“I know you’re used to-“

“Do it. I wish to return to my old form, if only for a time,” Frua wished.

Ariel nodded. Sky blue sparkles filled her hands. She let Divine Magic guide her, and she offered her hands to Frua. Frua took them, and they were overtaken by a magical glow. In short order, their form shifted from the red haired, orange furred female kitsune Ariel knew to a stockier, taller male kitsune, royal blue hair adorning a body of pale cyan fur. One of Frua’s tails disappeared too, reverting Frua exactly to the state they were before the Luckbreaker transformation.

With the wish complete, Ariel stepped back. Frua looked at their hands before inspecting the rest of their body. “I… I haven’t seen this body… In four hundred years… Same with this voice…” they said in a lighter masculine tone. “And yet… It’s like it never left me.”

“Are you okay, Frua?”

Frua looked up and nodded. “Yeah… Yeah. Thank you, Ariel!” they said with a smile.

“You’re welcome, Frua! I mean, you are still Frua, right?”

“I never changed my name. It’s an old gender-neutral kitsune name, granted no one ever uses it anymore, given the sacredness of the ‘Hero of the Hallow’ and all that… But could you use male pronouns for me until I revert back?”

Ariel was startled by the request, but she wasn’t going to argue. “Alright, sir!” she replied, smiling.

Frua blushed and smiled. Clearly, something inside them had still been masculine. The life Frua lost in a moment’s notice, cut off abruptly with something vastly different. Ariel realized Frua needed more time as the man he once was. He never got the chance to close that chapter of his life before he was tossed into the next one.

They continued their trek into the woods. In time, Frua started opening up more. He recounted a girlfriend they nicknamed “dragon lady” for her Wild Magic ability to breathe fire. He remembered his parents fondly, both of his mothers. One had transitioned before he was born, but the kitsunes already had ways to make those pairings work even in his age. They even gave him a younger sister with a rare condition called “monochrome,” where all of her head hair and fur color was the same – and given she was the same shade of pink as the tree trunks, she could easily win games of hide and go seek just by laying herself along a tree trunk or log.

He recounted fishing, which was always an adventure in the Hallow. The fish in the ocean were massive beasts; a single one could feed a town for days! It was always a team effort, and the crew always had a deep bond of trust, knowing every man, woman, and other on the team was a necessary cog in the machine.

He told the stories as if he were talking to a friend from that time. Ariel did her best to understand and try to fill in the details with her imagination. Every now and then, she’d slip up, but Frua would gently nudge her on track with the right detail. He knew this wasn’t real, but it sure felt like it. And besides, it felt good to share the past with Ariel like this. It was like he had reached into the past and taken the details straight from it.

They came upon an outcropping and sat down, enjoying the view. Frua took a deep breath. “Wow… Talking about my family, my friends, my job from the distant past… As this… It…” His eyes watered as he turned to Ariel. “You don’t know how much I needed this.”

“Maybe not, but I can imagine. How does it feel?”

Frua thought about it for a moment. “I think… I think I just was never able to close this chapter of my life properly. That might have been why I struggled so much. I don’t know if I’ll ever escape some of this gender fluidity I feel, but…” He turned to look back at the view. “I think I can finally close this chapter now. Ariel, thank you. For everything. For these Hallow pinelands. For letting me live as a man one more time. For being a kitsune, even when you were uncomfortable with it…”

“Well, about that… I think I’m getting used to it!” Ariel suggested with a smile.

“Heh, glad to be of help! And… Thank you, for being that friend I needed to talk to. Today, and playing the part of a friend from the past. You helped me feel like I was there. So, thank you!”

“You’re welcome! So, what do you want to do now?”

“It’s been a few hours. I know I don’t have a lot of time left as this… Let’s just stay here until I change back.”

Ariel nodded and slid closer to Frua. In turn, Frua leaned over onto Ariel’s shoulder. Within a few minutes, Ariel felt Frua start changing, getting a little shorter and his body slimming and feminizing. Unlike his original transformation, it came without pain this time, and he sighed contently as his fur shifted color and his transformation back into the female kitsune came to fruition. With a single extra tail sprouting from the back, his return to his present-day form was complete.

And he didn’t mind at all. There was only so long someone could live in the past. And he might have finally finished doing so…

END OF PART 2

By Erica Chrisman (CrystalSeaDragon44)