“Daughter? Well this is an interesting way to introduce the game, I wonder what the others are going through right now?” I thought to myself as I moved forward to approach Queen Amoiraishe. I was very aware of the differences in my body as I moved and each step, each sway of my hips, each shift of the weight on my chest made me feel uncomfortable, this wasn’t me, it was wrong. The technician had told me to expect some body dysphoria by just being another race though, so I had to expect this, with being the opposite gender on top. I could handle this for three months to make Jess happy, after all it was no worse than how he felt every time that he was in male mode.

As I came close enough to touch, Amoiraishe produced a rolled up scroll and held it out to me as she smiled. “First you must choose the skills that you will learn to survive in this harsh new world, read this and choose the skills that will help you to best survive and serve our people Taelya.” I unrolled the scroll in my hands and saw the list of skills that were available, with my required skills highlighted in red. I quickly tapped those first, followed by the skills that I had decided on weeks ago with my sister and Jess. I figured that my change in gender wouldn’t affect how I was going to play the character overly much, so I saw no need to change my plan.

The moment that I finished selecting my skills it was like my brain was on fire. An assault of information invaded my mind like the knowledge was being directly downloaded into my head. It wasn’t just simple knowledge though, it was memories of learning and perfecting the skills flashing through my mind like a video being fast-forwarded, far too quickly for me to get anything more than a jumble of disjointed images and words here and there. It was like in that short moment I had lived through months and months of training, but all of those memories had been thrown in a blender. When it was done I stepped back, momentarily dizzy, but feeling full of knowledge that I knew that I had not previously possessed, like my brain had just eaten a really filling meal and was trying to digest it.

“Please sit my daughter, and I shall tell you of the history of our people and your duties to them,” Amoiraishe said as she motioned to a comfortable looking emerald-hued cushion on the floor of the clearing and gestured for me to sit down. There was something strange about her voice, it was more musical and lilting and seemed different to my ears in other ways as well. Wait, she was speaking Elvish now, I’m not sure how I knew that, but I did know it, and I understood.

I sat as instructed, okay I didn’t so much sit as flow into the lotus position atop the cushion, my every motion was fluid and graceful, seeming to glide casually from one position to the next as only one of the Fae can pull off. I realized then that I should try to ignore the mental discomfort of my new form for the moment and try to enjoy the experience, and the game. I mean really, I was a freaking Fae, brimming with power and grace and I should at least try to enjoy it. With that in mind I listened as she explained the background of the Fae.

The first Fae were four elven women, created by the Goddess Danu in ancient times from her own blood, magick, and aspects of the natural world that they would all be bound to care for. Spring was sculpted from fertile soil mixed with water to give it shape and form, she had silver eyes like flowing water and hair the green of new sprouts and leaves. Summer was from a clover, placed in rich soil and grown into the form of a woman with eyes the deep brown of fresh tilled soil and hair the pinkish purple of the flower she was grown from. When the heat and warmth of a beam of sunlight fell upon a pile of fallen leaves, Autumn was born and rose from the pile as a woman with eyes filled with the bright golden warmth of the sun and hair the red-gold of fallen leaves. Winter was formed from the ice of the north, sculpted into the form of a blue-eyed and white haired woman by the winter winds.

These were the first of the Yseil'dhraí, or High Elves those who would guide all Fae to follow in their duties and they were known simply as ‘The Four’. Four was a number of great importance to the new-born Fae, it bespoke the balance of nature; four seasons, four elements, four queens to guide their people, each equal and different, but in perfect balance. Other Fae followed after; the Nyiir'dhraí, Tokh'dhraí, Sprites, and various other species, their duty to protect, nurture, and preserve the natural world wherever and whenever they could In Danu’s place. They spread out over the lands, four clans, or Courts as they would later be called, each following one of the Yseil'dhraí. The four courts became known by the names of their first queens and prospered, but seldom interacting unless one of the four queens called for a Council to discuss matters of mutual importance. One such Council was called upon the advent of Man’s dominance.

Man showed no respect or care for the natural world, their very presence corrupted it. They slaughtered all beings of magick indiscriminately and the Fae had suffered great losses. The heirs of the Yseil'dhraí became few and only Amoiraishe herself remained of the Yseil'dhraí of the Autumn Court. Those magical beings who had once kept monsters from multiplying beyond control, protected the balance of the natural world, and stemmed the evils created by Man were now weary and greatly reduced in numbers, and the balance was in peril of being lost and endangering all, including Man. The balance of nature was extremely important to the Fae, and the entire reason that they were created. It was decided that something needed to be done to protect those that remained, until balance could be restored. When that decision had been reached, the Goddess Danu Herself acted by forming the Veil and locking away all magick and creatures tied to it until Man could learn to honor the Gods, magick, and the natural world once again.

The Veil had been slowly fading for years and the more powerful of the Fae, and some of the other Races, had been able to leave the Veil and bring a few chosen others with them as magick slowly returned to our world. Man had grown more than they had ever thought possible and those who had returned attempted to increase their numbers to prepare for when the Veil collapsed completely. Now that had supposedly happened and I needed to learn my duties as a Princess of the Yseil'dhraí.

My primary duty would be to train to someday lead my people, should something happen to Amoiraishe, which was probably the reason for the required skills like governance and Fae culture. If anything happened to her, the marks on my face would change to match hers and reflect my new station as Queen of the Autumn Court, as any other Yseil'dhraí beneath me in the line of succession would have their facial marks updated as well, because magic I guess. My second duty was to ‘restore and keep the balance’, which probably meant eventually having children, though this was merely alluded to and not said directly, probably because the path to that would involve mature content. It mostly involved nurturing and protecting nature, and keeping monsters, evil curses, and the like from growing too powerful or spreading out of control, all while not dying and trying to prevent anyone from any of the Allied Races from dying as well to keep our numbers up. At least that meant that I could go adventuring with others instead of remaining in a drafty castle or something.

With all of that explained I was able to go on to class skill training and get down to the magic that I had been so looking forward to. I left the clearing and appeared in another clearing, this one with several targets lined up along the far end. Waiting for me in the clearing was once again a smiling Queen Amoiraishe. “Welcome Taelya, I have summoned you here to begin training you in the use of magick. This will be your focus, your tool as a Magus to control your magick and direct your will upon the world around you. Take it and we will begin your first lesson.”

In her outstretched hand was a gold choker with a ruby set in the front and as soon as I took it I could feel a powerful energy coming from it. I quickly put it around my neck and fastened it in place at the back. I thought that that might prove awkward at first, but I had such nimble hands now that it didn’t present much trouble at all. Once I had it locked in place the queen spoke again. “Magic for the Fae and other magically inclined beings is used by drawing on the magical energy, or mana that exists in all things. Drawing on that energy takes concentration and burns a lot of physical energy. Natural magic users tend to eat a lot and yet still be thin because of this. Men, and other non-magical races, generally have to take the path of a Druid and use rituals, potions, and herbs or make a pact with an elemental to use magick. There are exceptions to this such as Witches, who are born with such abilities, and Priests, Priestesses, or Bards who have been given an item imbued with power by a God or Goddess.”

She paused for a moment, allowing me to process that information in my mind, before continuing. “Most Magi use hand gestures, and often words or phrases, to gather the magic, specify its purpose and direct it as their mind focuses on the desired effect and target. The hand-signs and incantations used by a Magus depend on the race of the caster and how they specifically were taught, but generally the more advanced a spell is, the more energy it requires and the more complex the hand motions and chant. Since you are of the Yseil'dhraí, I will be teaching you by having you draw Elven sigils in the air while speaking them when you focus your spells. Each sigil is tied to an aspect of the natural world or a basic concept and you will use these in combination to focus the purpose of your spells, the more sigils you use the more specific and powerful a spell becomes.”

She had me start off with drawing in mana, which meant that I had to learn to sense it first. Luckily for me the Yseil'dhraí are naturals at magic so that didn’t take me too long. Once I had managed to draw mana from a stone, a tree, and the ground beneath me under her instruction it was finally time to cast my first spell. She had me start with a simple two sigil spell using the sigils for ‘fire’ and ‘to encircle or cover’. I concentrated on drawing upon the mana around me and focusing on the effect I wanted as I drew the sigil in the air before me with my right index finger, speaking each sigil as I drew it. “Tierre liantuir!” Once the sigils were drawn and spoken I pushed outward with the mana I had gathered and the target I was focusing on burst into flames.

I may have squealed in delight at my first successful spell, but then wouldn’t anybody? Once I had that spell down Amoiraishe taught me two more simple spells, one to encase something in ice and a teleportation spell that could take me either to my set home or to a specific place or person that I was familiar with. By the time I left my training to join the others in the beginner’s gathering area I was as giddy as a schoolgirl. That of course only brought my attention back to the fact that I now was a girl, at least while we were in the game. Not that I had forgotten, no my body felt way too different and wrong to me to do that, but it did bring to mind one very important question, “How can I face Jess and my sister looking like this?”

It looked like over half of the other people on the server had finished their characters as I appeared in a large area that made me think of the inside of a warehouse. At first I wondered how I was going to find them in all this, but then I realized that I had a spell for that. I gathered in mana and then spoke and drew the sigils as I focused my intent on moving myself to wherever Jess was. “Kaida Reiko!” Nothing happened and I was fairly disappointed until I realized that I was focusing on Jess, because I didn’t know what Reiko would look like and hadn’t encountered her in game yet, therefore I was not ‘familiar with her’. It looked like I would have to do this the old fashioned way, so after a long sigh I muttered, “Show usernames.”

Names popped up over the heads of all the characters around me, but it still took what felt like at least ten minutes for me to find them. Reiko was a very pretty woman with a distinct Japanese look at the moment, red fox ears poking out from her long black hair and a pair of red fox tails. She also wore a necklace with a glowing white gemstone on it. Nishalle, as my sister had told me she was going to call herself, was shorter than me at maybe five foot six and looked about eighteen in human years with long braided black hair, red eyes, dark blue skin and ears as long and pointy as my own.

The pair was standing with two other characters and looking around, probably for me. The first of the other two characters was a five inch tall female Sprite named Venika who looked to be in her early twenties. She was slender and cute with short brown hair and I thought that she might be wearing a pendant of some sort. Was she a Magus or something? The other character was really hard to miss. Lissany looked to be about fifteen and pretty with hip length black hair and green eyes. She also had tawny-colored cat ears poking out from her hair, an adorable kitty-nose, and a long tail with black bands and rosettes, so I had to assume that she was a Beastkin. Surprisingly that wasn’t what had made her stand out though, she was also covered from her neck to her toes, with the exception of her tail, in a full set of steel plate armor and had a massive wall shield hanging from her back and a one-handed war hammer and a helm matching the armor hanging from her belt.

From the age of her I had to assume that Lissany was Danielle, the girl I had met before we entered the game, and Venika was probably her mother April, one of Karin’s co-workers and friends. I had been hoping that my sister and Jess would be alone when I had to face them for the first time like this, but I should have probably known better since we had briefly talked about the five of us forming a party together before heading toward out F.I.Ts. With a sigh I gathered up all the confidence I could and casually strolled up to the group. “Hi everyone, I’m sorry I took so long, there was a small issue with my character creation.”

The group stared at me uncomprehending for a long moment before the Shadow Elf that was my sister, said, “Ummm I dunno who you are, but you might want to speak English, not everyone here took Elvish as a language skill.”

Damn, I was speaking Elvish? I sighed once again and focused on saying, in English this time, “It’s me… Caleb.”

Four jaws dropped as one and Nishalle was the first to speak. “Wow bro… err sis? That’s a good look for you… nice… ummm… hair. This is a bit of a surprise, I didn’t know you were going to play a female character.”

“Neither did I,” I retorted dryly to her last statement. “The gender selector for male wasn’t working for my Race. Looks like I found my first bug to report, ah the crazy life of a closed beta tester.”

Reiko’s face was now a mask of concern and something else that I couldn’t place at first. “Are you going to be okay like that for what will feel like three and a half months? I was told that the body dysphoria from playing a different race could be hard at first, but you’ll be playing another gender too. I wouldn’t wish gender dysphoria on my worst enemy.” Guilt was apparently the emotion I had trouble placing because she looked away from me and down at her feet, “I’m so sorry honey, this is all my fault, if I hadn’t pressured you into joining the game…”

I frowned at her and cupped her chin to raise her face so that she could see that frown. “This isn’t your fault, you didn’t want or expect this. I wanted to play this game too or I wouldn’t be here now. Besides I get to have fun playing with magic and I’ll get to walk a mile or two in your shoes and understand you better. This might be good for me, for us…if you think that you can still be attracted to me like this.” I knew that Jess was as bisexual as I was, but was I her type in this new virtual body? Did she like girls pretty and feminine or more tomboyish?

She gave me a weak smile before hugging me so tight that I thought that she was going to break my spine. “Thanks honey, I think you’re a total hottie. I’m just surprised that you didn’t choose a more tomboyish look. The dysphoria has got to be pretty bad for you like that.”

She was right, ever since I had gotten out of character selection I had felt like my whole body was sending me all the wrong signals. I may have liked looking at girls who look like I do now, but being one with the realism of the feel of these virtual bodies was filling me with a sense of alien-ness, a discomfort with myself that made me feel sick if I allowed myself to focus too much on it. I shrugged, “Yeah it is pretty rough, but I was told that it could fade over time, and sadly there weren’t many tomboy options, so I figured that if had to be a girl I was going to at least be a hot one.”

“Well you nailed that,” Lissany offered with a thumbs-up and a somewhat awkward grin that displayed her prominent canines.

“If you need help adjusting, I’m sure we all would be happy to help you.” Venika offered. Then thankfully she changed the topic. “Those marks on your forehead are those your Danann’syr? What rank are you? I didn’t think we were going to get anyone to play an Yseil'dhraí.”

“Well I’m the only one apparently,” I replied, glad of the change of topic away from my currently incorrect gender. “I’m a princess I guess, at least that’s how Queen Amoiraishe referred to me in my tutorial.”

Nishalle broke into a fit of laughter. “I… I’m sorry bro… I mean Princess Taelya. I know this isn’t funny for you… I just can’t stop picturing you in frilly dresses and acting all girly. And... by you… I mean Caleb. It’s weird seeing that and knowing it’s you in there.”

“You have no idea, and thanks sis for bringing attention back to my situation when we had just changed the topic,” I snapped, causing the Tokh'dhraí to look away in shame. “Is there anything else I can do to make this more amusing for you? Maybe with my next skill point I should take animal training so I can get a cute animal friend. Should I maybe take singing too so I can break out into song when I feel the need? Get your laughs in now, once things get started I’ll need your head in the game, after all every princess needs a royal guard and didn’t I read that your Race serves the royal family when your alignment is good?”

My sister was looking at her feet as I said the last, trying not to giggle visibly at my list, until I got to the end. “Well, yeah I kinda forgot that bit about serving the royal family though,” she managed to get out.

“Congratulations! You’ve been conscripted. You are my new official bodyguard and general lackey, you may now address me as Your Royal Highness. I do hope you can spare skill points for massage and cooking and such, I mean somebody has to pamper me.”

“Okay! Okay! I get it, I’ll stop teasing now, geeze you’re sensitive all of a sudden. I was just teasing, or have you forgotten that we do that to one another all the time,” Nishalle grumbled.

“Sensitive? Maybe that has something to do with these,” I said hefting my new breasts with a frown. “And Caleb and Karin might tease one another all the time, but we’re supposed to be getting into character and, since I don’t have much choice in the matter, you’re talking to Taelya now. And Taelya wasn’t kidding about the conscription, consider it a royal declaration and welcome to your new life for the next three months and change.”

“I think I’ve created a monster,” she said, sticking her tongue out at me.

“That should be, ‘I think I’ve created a monster Your Royal Highness’, Nishalle,” I corrected sticking out my tongue right back at her. Then in an attempt to change the topic again I turned to Venika and Lissany. “So you’re a Sprite and a Beastkin right? What classes are you? Mage and Warrior?”

“Yes I’m a Sprite, it’s kind of weird having everything look so big and I’m not used to wings, and now they’re starting to get tired,” Venika said as she landed on Lissany’s armored shoulder for a rest. “As for my class I’m a Support, it’s kind of like a multiclass that can learn skills from the Magus, Priest, Medics and Scout classes to support their party members, but I needed to take the class skill for each class I want to learn from. I’m a mix of Scout and Magus.”

“And you were right about my Race, and almost my class too,” Lissany added with another feline grin. “My Beastkin tutorial was fun, I started out human and for the first part of it I was wandering through the jungle feeling something calling out to me and then there was this Jaguar and as soon as I reached out and touched it I started to change. So now I can turn into a jaguar and a half-beast form that increases my strength, and I got these awesome kitty features. I was going to take Warrior as my class, but I got asked if I wanted to change a few days ago.”

Reiko gave the Beastkin girl a curious look, her vulpine ears and tails twitching. “You got asked if you wanted to change it? And so close to the closed beta launch? Was there something wrong with the Warrior class?”

I had to admit I had been wondering that myself, especially given my own current situation. “No, the class works fine I guess, it’s just that when I was choosing my class I noticed that the game didn’t have a dedicated tank class. I figured I could make the Warrior work for that, but I though it weird that the game didn’t have a class like that. I mentioned it to Mom and she told Ms. Llewellyn. Then a few days ago Ms. Llewellyn called and said that they had spent two weeks creating a tank offshoot of the Warrior class that they were calling the Guardian class, and she asked me if I wanted to be the one to play test it since I was the one who saw the need for it.”

“They made a whole new class just because you mentioned it?” I asked incredulously. “That does explain the shiny armor and the massive shield though.”

“Yeah, I was so nervous when I talked to her on the phone, but she said that she was happy that I had found a potential problem for the game and they wanted to fill that need, and reward me for bringing it to their attention. So I get to be the only Guardian in the game, at least for the closed beta. She seems really nice, I’m glad I got the chance to meet her in person.” She was beaming with pride, her long tail swishing happily behind her as she added, “I had to use two of my skill points for the armor and shield, but they’re exclusive to my class. They’re called the Guardian’s Shield and the Guardian’s Armor, both are Kevlar lined, so I’m hoping I’ll make a decent tank even in this mix of modern and fantasy.”

“You could probably get even more protection if a Magus with magic crafting enchants them with protective spells, though it’ll be a while before I get to that level with magic. I’ll be happy to do it when I am able to though,” I offered. “If you’re tankier that will be good for the whole party.”

Someone whistled behind me and a male voice called out, “Damn guys! It looks like we’ve gone from Call of Duty to Call of Booty. Any of you beautiful ladies want to join the winning team for this fucked up game? I’m Razor, and these are Jericho, Napalm, Risk, and Thunder. We still have a spot or two open and we’re willing to give... auditions.”

“I’d rather choke on my own vomit thanks, oh wait I already did,” Nishalle spat, her crimson eyes narrowing as she glared. I turned around to see five college aged guys, all human in appearance, wearing military combat gear, and carrying assault rifles.

“I’m with her,” Lissany agreed, her ears flat and her tail bristling.

“Oh how cute, you all match, did your moms dress you that way?” Reiko shot at them and I had to fight not to giggle. Damn girly-ness. “Who are you supposed to be?”

“Like I said,” their apparent leader answered with a smug smile. “We’re the team that’s going to win this game. We’re from H3lls-Pwn, the number one guild in Blitzkrieg Online and we were specially invited to test this game.”

“Everyone here was specially invited jackass,” Venika snapped from atop Lissany’s shoulder.

“I didn’t know this game was supposed to have pets, I sure don’t see someone like you being much use in combat situations,” Razor said, causing his friends to laugh before turning toward me, “How about you sexy? Are you up for getting to know some real men instead of all the poofs on here playing fairies and elves and shit?”

I was about ready to throttle him, and though I kept my cool for the moment my face was probably turning the color of my hair. “I wasn’t aware there was supposed to be a winner of this game,” I said coolly. “They said this is a cooperative game.”

He laughed again and the sound was starting to grate on my nerves. “You must be a n00b, this is why girls can’t play worth shit. Sure they say it’s supposed to be cooperative, but if there’s a prize package then that means somebody has to win that package. If you join us I can teach you some real gaming skills. There are all sorts of things I could teach you. You interested? I’ll even show you how to handle my glock.”

“Razor is it?” I asked. Once he nodded I gave him a slow once over with my eyes. “I don’t see anything I’m even remotely interested in. And I think you and your cronies should have read the game materials better if you plan to do much besides dying on a regular basis. Party composition, tactics, and a variety of skills are going to mean a lot in this setting and you’re not going to be able to shoot your way out of every situation. Good luck n00bs.” I nodded to the others and we headed over to the stage area where a crowd was starting to gather.

As we walked off I head Razor say, “Fucking bitches.”

“Umm… Razor, what if she’s right?’ another said uncertainly.

“Way to put them in their place,” a man’s voice said as we walked past a pair of men. “Those idiots are so full of themselves that I don’t see how they can have the inventory space for their weapons.” That caught all of our attention as my companions and I all laughed and turned to look at the speaker. He looked to be an Atlantean from the descriptions that I had read. He looked in his twenties and was close to my own height with light blue skin, silver eyes, and dark purple hair. Seeing that he had gotten our attention he offered his hand. “I’m Grell, an Artificer, and this is my best friend IRL Pete.”

Pete appeared to be human, a little younger than Grell and about 6 feet 2 inches tall with long blond hair and green eyes. He extended his hand as well and once we had all shaken politely he said, “Those guys are going to be trouble, I wouldn’t put it past them to PK so I’d keep my eyes open if I were you. I’m a Soldier class and I think those jerks were Special Ops. I wasn’t an idiot though and put my skill points into skills rather than gear.” He looked us over and grinned. ”Nice well rounded group you have here. I didn’t think anyone would choose the High Elf race and I don’t know what you have going on, but that armor is totally badass.”

We were about to answer when a familiar voice came from the direction of the stage. We turned in that direction and I saw that there was video footage of Moira Llewellyn playing in the air over the stage. “Welcome players to the closed beta of Apocalypse Dawn! We hope that you all enjoy yourselves, but now I have a few announcements before we officially start the game. First, you may all have heard that this is only one of four servers. This is true and, when there are two days left on the game clock here in AD, we will be linking the four servers so that you can all get to know your counterparts and engage in a friendly combat tournament for experience rewards that will be applied to your characters’ total XP on your home server.”

That was met with some applause and Moira had apparently expected that because she paused before continuing to speak. “Secondly, you may be wondering why there were no clothing options in character generation. That’s because we will be starting off Apocalypse Dawn with a little shopping trip, something that we like to call Deadrush. When you leave this warehouse you will appear in a city teeming with panicked people, and infested by the undead. You will have exactly six hours to make it to the safe zone on the north side of the city and gather clothing, supplies, and other gear along the way. If you die you will not be able to resurrect for one day and will lose any gear that you have gathered. If you are late you will be docked one XP for every minute late that you are. The clock starts… now!”