| Later, on the order of ten years back on Terra Prime.....
My name legal name is Astra Thessamer and I suppose you could still
technically call me the warrior princess of Aquilaria....that is, if you
discount the fact that the Aquilaria in question is in another universe
entirely....and was falling apart at the seems due to a horrible twist
of fate.
Nowadays, I just call myself Astra 9 even in public away from the need
of using the designator number (much to both my mother's consternation.....God
bless them both!) It's fun!
I sometimes wonder how things fare there, now...... However, I have
the most wonderful....and wonderfully weird family....and things on THIS
world in THIS universe alone is more than fascinating (gee, I sound like
that one man....Mr. Spock, from the Enterprise) diversion in and of itself!
Oh, I don't know where to begin. This world is still in transition....old
and new together.....magic and science.
Lovely!
But despite the wonders of it all. Despite the odd family members (for
there are many nonhuman members....including a sister......Hannah Thessamer....who's
a unicorn), I feel a longing in my soul.
It's been two years to this day from my eighteenth birthday....and I
haven't grown any older since that time (due to me being what they call
a Champion of Rules and Agents).
My good friend and niece from the D'Honaire side of the family put it
best....
"Well, I believe that we all could use a quest of sorts," Joan
says, smiling a lovely smile.
Astra and Andrea 2 smile at each other, reflecting on the irony on how
quickly and completely Joan had changed from their first initial meeting
with what would become her family. Joan D'Honaire had been born a male.
She'd been called Frederigo....and had looked and according to her, acted
much like many of the other Freds (honor, duty, courage, and other knightly
stuff). She still was all that, but it now had a most definite....feminine
quality to it.
According to Andrea 2 when she'd asked her teacher in magery, Demifox
Synizn (the demifox who'd saved her life by infecting her with lycanthropy.....healing
her of fatal wounds) just why that was (tactfully, of course).
That was VERY early in her training, and even I now know the
answer.
Her Matrix had been altered. A Matrix is that mystical link between
soul and body.....final determinate of a creatures form...... had been
altered. Basically, behavior is somewhat effected by the body a perosn
wears, I'm told. While not totally dominate, it plays a large part in how
an intelligent being thinks and acts. Dragons act like dragons and on and
on.... Change a human into a dragon via their Matrix and you get a dragon....with
some odd human quirks. While there are elements of...shall we say "Freddiness"
within Joan, it's now bent in a feminine expression. See, if Joan had resisted,
the stress on her mind induced by the struggle against the change would
have driven her insane.
Kind of disturbing, but then again one still is one's self at the core
of it all despite the change.
So Joan was a very brave and skilled warrior, but also now loved dancing....dating...and
looking absolutely stunning! She even kept that gem that had been implanted
in her naval when we first met. It's never coming out.....since she'd asked
the Champions to make it part of her being (any female offspring will be
just as lovely as her....and have a gem in their naval as well).
Anyway, that aside I'm in total agreement with Joan.
"Right you are!" I say firmly, "Been too long since something interesting
has happened, if you ask me."
"Ah, but be careful what you wish for, young Astra," Andrea 2 said softly,
fox tail twitching (she'd remained a demifox despite being offered a cure
by Rule 1....right before she became the Rule's newest....and last....Champion
for the next hundred years <some kind of quota having been met or some
such>).
She now was permanently of one of Terra Prime's newest official species:
the demifox. No longer a lycanthrope and released by that one.....er.....odorous
instinct (bluntly put, demifox no longer were subject to going into heat)
she now enjoyed her new body. Said that it was a final break from the chains
that had been on her throughout her life....via her father!!
She still hadn't forgiven or forgotten that her father for disowning
her back on her old world.
The memory still filled me with anger myself, actually. And I'd only
been a witness, not the recipient of that terrible blow.
"Yes, I understand that....where sometimes wishing for something like
that can get you more than you bargain for," I reply, seeing that she'd
been referring to the misadventures and hardships she'd gone through when
she'd run off so long ago.....
"But I do believe that we could go out on a lark and see our old/young
elfin friend and cousin, Ti'mma." Andrea continues, referring to the daughter
of Kethiani (formerly named Astra) and Feir-dalen (formerly named Fred).
"Sound good by me," Joan smiled, "But I really don't feel like taking
a shuttle.....it take too much time and effort to go through channels to
get one for something like a visit to the Elven Forests."
Queen Astra and the others had opted to go a slower pace of modernization.
Right now, they were still in the first stages of modernization. Universities
and other training methods were being used to just set up the populous
to be able to understand and take advantage of "high technolody".
It could have been done in ten years, but with lots of pain and suffering.
Forty years was a bit better. Still, every town and village had some kind
of modern convenience showing up more and more every day.
That aside, it was finally decided by the young women that the best
way (and the most loved way) was by horseback.
-
 It would
take a few days, but would be wonderful!
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