“Signing out.” I say, magically pressing the button to stop recording. I go over the footage with Jane, and she’s happy to be in one of my videos. Which naturally pulls the mood back down with her worries.

“Do you want to talk about it? You don’t need to tell me the details or anything, just the parts you are okay with telling.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Well, then you might as well tell me. Actually, before that, are you okay with me trying to help?”

She makes a sound of (probably) approval.

“Okay, first question, and again, you can choose not to answer: Do you think something illegal is going on?”

She shakes her head almost instantly. Well, that’s good at least. There’s either no clearly illegal stuff, or she doesn’t want to tell. Which is not so good.

“Okay then. I wondered earlier, but aren’t you supposed to go to school?”

“But all my supplies are back home, and if I go to school they will take me back…”

“Maybe not necessarily, but it is likely that they will try, yes. But it does lead us to the, ah, central question here. Why is it that you want to be out in the world trying to make a living instead of being with your parents?”

She turns away.

“Do your parents live together?”

“Yes.”

“And just to be clear, they aren’t beating you or anything?”

“No, of course not!” She says with vehement opposition.

“So it sounds like they love you, then?”

She looks down at nothing and mumbles “…probably”

“Well that’s good at least. And there’s no…” Ho boy, this is probably awfully close to or even over the line. Should I even…? “Nothing that goes beyond normal familial love?”

“Like what?”

“It’s… not a nice thing to talk about, and illegal.”

“Oh. God, no! There’s nothing like that.”

“Do you think your parents are good parents?”

“Mmn, they’re stupid.”

Oh, seems like I’m onto something. “Okay, it sounds like you have a good family then. Siblings?”

“Just my little brother.”

“Little brother? They can be more like little bothers at times.” That got a smirk, hm. “What about your friends?”

“I can’t go to them because-”

“No, I meant, how is your relationship with them?”

“Oh. I have three very good friends. Kai is really smart and gets the best grades, Ellen is really good at dancing, but she twisted her ankle during a show for christmas, so now she can’t dance for three months, and Kate is a little bit weird, my mom says she has autism or something, but she’s also really smart, just not as good with school stuff, but she can sing, so sometimes Ellen and Kate teaches us how to sing and dance, but Kai is even worse than me.”

I feel the warm smile on my face. “It’s great that you have good friends. You know, if you wanted to hang out with the for a while you could probably call them and ask if you could meet immediately. If someone came to take you back you could just fly off.”

“I didn’t think of that, maybe I should call Kai and meet up in the park…”

“Say, have you ever had any crushes?”

“What? Uhm, I can’t talk to a boy about that!”

“I could turn into a girl, if you’d like?”

“Ehm, that would just be weird.”

“Well, I am weird. But it’s your choice.”

She fidgets as silence sets in, before looking determinedly… past me. “Hey, can I ask you some questions as well?”

“Sure, that’s just fair.”

“You’re an adult, right? And you can become a girl and stuff… Uhm, like, which is better?”

“Better of what?”

“Boys or girls?”

“Better at- you know, you’re not really clarifying things here, how about try that question from the ground up?”

“I-i-is it better to be a boy or a girl?”

“Oh. Well, I don’t really become a child, if that’s what you mean, but being male or being female… Well, it depends, really. There isn’t all that many things where one is all that better than the other, at least not with magic.”

“That’s not what I meant. I meant, like…” her voice, already unsteady just trail off.

“I can’t read your mind, so- well, I could, but I’m not going to, so unless you speak up I can’t understand you.”

“Sex! I mean sex!” She says, turning red.

“Oooh. Sorry, I told you I’m not very good at these things. As for which is better… It’s, well, very subjective, but pros and cons… It’s easier for a man to climax, I mean, it’s just back and forth, where as a woman you gotta feel your way. On the other hand, once a man is done, he’s done, while women can go on, or even climax multiple times in relatively quick succession.”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah really. Well, I don’t know if you’ve tried, but after the first time you might not feel like it any more.”

Even through the feathers I can see her blush as she stammers.

“So you haven’t tried with a lover or anything, then.”

“No! I can’t even have one.”

“What, are you gay and your parents don’t approve or something?”

She looks at me in shock.

“Oh.”

Her eyes seem to widen even more at this.

I open my mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by a scream, “Noooooooo! Please forget that I said anything!”

It seems like I might have accidentally found the core of the issue. I meant that more as a joke than anything else, I- I can defuse this:

“Why?”

That one simple word, favorite of five year olds around the world, and to drive it in “It’s not like you said anything wrong.”

I feel a bit clever for that one, but it’s dampened by the circumstances, and the mix of hope, relief and fear in her even more shaky voice. “But I-”

“You what? You didn’t say it, but if I’m not wrong you are gay, or at least have a crush that is female, and your family are homophobes. I agree, they are stupid. But who you like or not is none of their business. Or mine, for that matter.”

She wipes the liquid from her eyes, and immediately finds out (again) that it’s not a great idea with feathers. “…then why did you ask…?”

“Honestly, it was meant as a joke to lighten the mood. Clearly that failed. And it’s not a problem I can help you with, unfortunately. I know that some people, upon finding out that their parents don’t like their sexual orientation, have just moved out on their own. I also know that there are places online where you can chat with people with similar experiences, and maybe learn from that.”

I poke at some of the feathers on my wings, a habit I seem to do instead of scratching my hair or rubbing my beard.

“I guess you sorta kinda moved out, but that doesn’t exactly put you in a good position for, well, making a living. The only real tip I can make is to pretend like nothing, as hurtful as that might be, until you can move out. Besides, Romeos and Juliets all over the world has found ways to sneak past their families for probably all of history, and even before that.”

She still stares at me, but look less fearful now. She looks as defeated as I feel, though.

“Err, do you need a hug or something?”

She gets up to me, at which point we realize that it doesn’t work with both spreading our wings, or at least she does, so instead I sorta cocoon her with mine. We stand in what is possibly the least hug-like hug in history for a couple seconds before she backs off.

“Have you cleared you mind? Got a plan, maybe?”

“Yes, I…”

“You don’t have to tell, but if you feel better, wanna jump down and race to that tree on the hill on that side of the city?”

“Okay.”

“Oh yeah, quick tip: Channel mana into the crystal at, uhh, your left, to reduce drag and go (and fall) faster, and the other one to increase drag and go slower, but use less energy on flying. Jump when ready, I’m probably faster than you.”

She steps off the skywhale, and I soon follow. As it turns out, I am not faster in a free-fall, though that’s just physics, but when time comes to not splatter across the ground she is significantly more careful than me, practically stopping her vertical velocity while I just curve out and turn my momentum horizontally.

A few minutes later I have managed to fly two literary circles around her before we land at next to the tree I mentioned.

“This is exactly what I meant when you asked me about flying, I love that feeling in my stomach!”

Is what she said. “I know, right? You should learn some air magic to go even faster and turn better, and other than that just practice. You might be able to learn from the enchantments.”

“Thanks for talking to me, I guess. I’m gonna call Kai now, like you said.”

“All right, goodbye.”

“Bye.”

Fffffuck! I forgot that whole part about her being shapeshifted, so I didn’t get her to pay for that! …should probably have turned her back, too, or made her go through that whole ID changing process. Oops. Well, I guess someone will contact me if it’s a problem. I should report that I’ve seen her, though.

So today a sexually awakening teenager in mild rebellion, tomorrow, a bachelorette party, apparently. They’re gonna pay me a lot, which is nice, but then again the price hike is because they said they couldn’t tell me what they wanted me to do.

Well, much better than the request from a supposed cult to ‘make our priestess hung like a horse’, which I sincerely hope is a bad joke, and even if it’s not, that doesn’t work, since the human body is not build to have three legs. Also, I think that would stop your heart and/or make you faint from blood loss if you got excited.

“Lars Eikeli, at your service.”, I say with a short bow after landing at the, uh, landing pad someone has laid down. I neatly introduces myself, as well as the specific service, which is named the same. The whole thing, not just my name. I think that was pretty clever as a name for a general ‘I’ll show up and can do whatever’ service. Which costs more than the specific ones, of course.

I talk to the woman who scheduled this, and she tells me that the main thing they want is a group flying lesson, but they have ‘other ideas as well’ which is why the second thing I do is to make a puppy puppet for the titular woman to pet and hold. They also want me to be female, which is why that was the first thing I did.

As they wait for the last people to come, they just hang around and socialize. Well, I say they, but they include me in this. I’m a bit of a famous/public figure by now, and lots of the questions and topics revolve around that, but some question seem to probe at what I can and/or are willing to do.

When the question of how many animal genitalia I can ‘make’ comes up, I look the person who asked dead in the eyes. “Do you reeeally want to know that?”

Yes, she does. “One for every animal aspect I have, which is… around fifty, give or take ten? And any combination or mutation I can make from those. Do you want examples?”

Thankfully, someone takes the hint and changes the topic. “Hey, is it true that you can feel everything the ‘puppet’ feels?”

“Well, yeah. As far as I’m concerned it’s essentially just a second body.”

She looks at the bride-to-be and, in a swift motion reaches out to touch its belly.

“Yeaaaueaugh!” I scream as the cold feeling pushes past even the reduced senses I get from it.

“Oh, it really does.”

“Doesn’t that mean she has been, like, petting you this entire time?”

“Yes? I have reduced the amount of sensory input I get from it, though.”

“Hoo. Hey, can’t you turn into a puppy as well?”

“My main body? No, a puppy is too small, I don’t want to affect my brain.”

“Oh-oh-oh! What if you become like a werewolf, but dog, and it’s a little girl!”

“A dogkin girl? I guess that’s possible…”

When the organizer, bride-to-be, and the damned woman who realized it to be possible all want me to do so, I quickly cave in. “But if this is to pet my main body I’d like to unsummon the puppet.”

A couple minutes later, due to planning and some tweaking, I look objectively cute, being smaller, but with comparatively larger head and eyes. I grew a light, almost white, coat of fur, with darker, but still mid-tone, patches and spots here and there. Add floppy ears, and you get a cute dogkin loli. And a lot of squeals.

…I feel so small like this, my head is patted and cheeks pinched possibly more than they have in my entire life so far. It’s not bad, though, and they seem to enjoy themselves, which is why I’m here, anyway.

When everyone has gathered (and hugged and pinched me) and greeted each other, the party is at six plus me, and they want to get started on the main reason why I’m hired: Flying. To start off, I explain, I will teach them some air magic as well as force magic, to levitate without the form.

“But I can’t use magic…”

Oh. “Then you can’t learn the magic. Have you actually cultivated?”

“Cultivated?”

“Practiced essence and qi, but I take that as a no. I’ll make you an amulet enchanted with some of the magic instead, and the shapeshifting itself should be no problem. You just have to fly a bit more carefully since you can’t control the magic.”

“Besides,” I say, taking a broad stance with one hand on the hip and the other fist to my chest. “I’ll be there to watch and take care you.”

“Pfft, the little puppy will protect us.”

“Bark! Yes I will! Yes I will!”

The entire party laughs as this, so I make a ‘threatening’ growl to show that I’m serious. I start by forming a mana link with all the magic users and showing both the air and the force magic levitation spells.

Once that group has gotten enough of a grasp on it to practice without guidance, I grab a small mana crystal, some string and a bit of copper. I shape the metal around the crystal, and make a hoop for the string, then inscribe and enchant the spell I learned from the skywhales. It’s not going work all that great, or for a long time, but it’s something.

I test and tweak it a few times before I am satisfied with its effectiveness and hand it to the woman to try on. I’m not entirely sure how well full-body enchantments apply to non-magicians, but as she puts it on she remarks that she feels lighter, so at least it does something.

She does a little jump, which seems almost floaty. When she does another hop, one of the other women tries the same to little effect. And then the bride-to-be leaps into the air, floating like a thrown balloon. I take back the amulet to improve its power, and by the time I’m done, two of them are laughing after a mid-air collision.

Next up, I take on the birdkin form and explain the basics of flying, before taking the bride-to be off to the side for shapeshifting. She’s a bit worried about the cold, but while the birdkin tunics don’t cover you that well, it’s not even below freezing, and feathers are surprisingly insulating.

Once she has gotten used to simply moving around her new form, it takes a few hilariously flailing attempts before she manages to stay airborne, and I have her fly up higher as I do the same with all the others, with the non-magician last.

“Take your time. I might be able to take off without magic assist, but I’ve specifically practiced for that, with magic as a backup. That said, if you cultivate, you should be able to learn an alternative.”

Being hesitant to flap her wings, she lands after another short glide. “What do you mean cultivate?”

“It’s like… practicing. So magic users have mana, but there’s also something called ‘essence’, and ‘qi’. Those who have that instead of mana -you can have either or- can ‘cultivate’ it, and are called ‘cultivators’. I’m not exactly an expert on in, but you can look it up online.”

“I can’t do it! When I move my wings I feel like I’ll fall.”

“Calm down, it’s like riding a bike, you jus-”

“I don’t know how to ride a bike.”

“Oh. Well, it’s a thing you sorta just have to trust in yourself, maybe get a few scrapes, but in this case I’m here to help. Swimming is also kinda the same, can you swim?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well, then you will learn to fly before you learn either of those. But you know, it’s pretty clear to me that you can land just fine. If you want I can levitate you up and give you some speed, and if you can safely land from that I can just assist you in getting up there?”

She hesitantly agree, clearly wanting to try flying, but after I give her the first push she actually dares to flap her wings, so she gains height instead of landing. I have to remind her to turn around, but soon she joins her friends in the joy of flight. Well, they have a lot more maneuverability than her, but perhaps as a show of sympathy, also try to fly without magic assistance.

After half an hour they’ve sightseed the entire city from above, gotten an aerobatics show from me, and managed to avoid crashing into each other, tall objects, or the ground. They seem to have that satisfied tired feeling as I turn them back to normal.

They pull me along to the next stop, a pretty decent restaurant by the looks, but we aren’t allowed entrance until they relent and let me change my form from the dogkin girl to that of an elf. Thankfully they’ve reserved their own room, as the mood is high, and their requests to me get increasingly elaborate and/or juvenile.

Which is kinda surprising, given the low amount of alcohol involved, but then again social dynamics is a drug on its own. Around the time we get dessert there is a few things I have to turn down because we are technically in a public place, but when they drag me home to the bride-to-be, I don’t have that excuse.

So let’s never speak of what happened there.