We eventually made it to the next town after two more days of uneventful travels. The town was bigger than I had expected. Come to find out this town was one of the oldest Western towns until about 40 years ago. 'North Town' was more of just an Outpost during the initial construction of the Now cursed village.

"So how does my disguise look? I simplified it." I whispered to Turnip.

"The same? What did you do? Please be careful we don't want a repeat from a few days back." She whispered back.

"I switched to just my face, head, hair, and hands. It's not eating up nearly as much mana so I'm regenerating quicker then before… it still might take me 3 hours to completely go back up to full." I replied.

"Just be careful while skills can't directly harm you, the indirect danger is still very real. In fact we don't know of any other users. Which if you haven't already figured out is how most skills are understood." She said.

"I am learning as much as I can about it and trying to be safe…" I argued back.

"I know, but please be very careful until we can find a proper healer." She said.

I gave a soft bump with my body to hers, I did appreciate that the party was only trying to help.

"By the way, tonight I would like to borrow you in private for a few hours… I would like to ask you some personal questions if you would not mind. As well as your opinion on something." She asked.

"Sure I'll get a separate room for tonight. It's been nice sleeping with Lluvia but we need a tiny bit of space… your comment a few days ago did make us both do a bit of self reflection." I said.

"Oh… did I cause the two of you to sort of break up? That was certainly not my intent or anything, you both do make a cute couple." She said.

"Oh we are both fine. But we travel together, share the same tent, and do all the same things. Neither of us have any personal space so we are going to at least get separate rooms when we can." I said.

By this point in our conversation we had finally reached the targeted Inn. The town actually had two nice Inns, the party stayed at the other last time and wanted to see the difference.

We were greeted by an older looking gnome or halflings woman. Maybe a head shorter than me.

"Ah welcome to the Outside Inn, would you like some rooms for the evening or would you just be looking for supper." The tiny, almost grandmotherly woman asked.

"Rooms for each of us, preferably next to each other if possible." Orlo said.

"Let me see, see what's available." She said as she started to look through a ledger.

"The best I can do is 3 rooms next to each other, then 2 rooms, then a single if you would all prefer your own this evening. They are all on the same floor." She said after a moment.

"That will be fine, we could all use a break from each other's company for an evening." They said.

"We are more than happy to accommodate." The Innkeeper said.

We selected our rooms, dropped off our gear and headed down for supper. It was nice to eat something other than travel rations or hunting.

"Alright, how long do we want to stay in town ? I would not mind a day or two at least. We are not in any rush unless anyone objects." Root said.

"I do remember I heard rumors of a dungeon nearby. If the town does not hold restrictions on it we could take Nicole through and get her some more experience." Lluvia said.

"I would be up for that, it would be a nice distraction from all the walking." Iser said, there was general agreement all around.

"I would also like the distraction… Also Lluvia I am borrowing your girlfriend for a few hours." Turnip said.

"Ok, just save some of her for me, I would like to spend at least a little bit of time tonight having fun on a real bed." Lluvia retorted.

"Y… you know that's not that I mean. I almost miss the old Lluvia, the dark broodiness had less innuendo." Turnip said with a blush of embarrassment.

"No you don't." Lluvia said with a hungry smile as she approached my side and pressed a kiss on my cheek, then sort of just disappeared in-between tables and patrons of the Inns community dining room.

"So am I still allowed to borrow you?" Turnip asked me.

"Yup, your room or mine?" I asked.

"Mine seeing as Root and mine surround yours." She said, so then she followed me up and we both took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"So the first thing I would like to ask you. Would you mind massaging my ears again like you did that last time… it reminded me of what it was like just to sit with my older brother and just vent about stuff." She asked.

"Sure, but I would like to ask first. What does that mean in Bun culture? Mutual massaging of each others ears I mean " I asked.

"Ah… it very much depends on how a particular community tends to raise their young and what is taught. In my community it was an intimate action between close friends and family. And no it was not sexual in nature for us. Just a form of bonding and stress relief." She said.

"Ok that's fine, I just wanted to make sure I didn't misread anything." I said.

"You're fine, I like you and even love you as a friend or cousin even… but you really arnt my type… and Lluvia has her fangs in you already." She said.

I leaned up against the backboard of the bed and indicated that she positioned herself leaning or laying up against me with her back. She did and we both adjusted to make sure we were comfortable. I then gently felt the top of her skull looking for tense muscles, it was hard to tell but there was a difference in skull shape as well as additional muscles and ligaments to help support and adjust the ears.

Turnip groaned in relief after a moment as a particularly tense spot finally released.

"Alright so I can certainly figure out why you needed to borrow my help for this." I said with some fascinations due to the difference in physiology I could understand.

Turnip let out a soft groan of relief as I found another spot.

"Sorry I have to pry a little bit now, but why not get help from Root for this?" I asked.

"We tried dating a while back and we can certainly keep things professional between us now… but this is far too intimate normally. I will say when it gets bad enough we do have to help each other out still but we both avoid it when we can." Turnip said.

Her bun ears started to go all floppy as I released knot after knot of tense muscles.

"I'm guessing you would get constant headaches from this." I asked.

"Yep and migraines it would also put me in moods for sure." She said.

We worked on effectively a scalp massage for the next 20 minutes I would have to say and I learned quite a bit out the specific anatomy. It was fascinating. By the end of it her ears had lost all rigidity and kinda just flopped around.

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"That…. Thank you… that feels so much better." She said and she let herself relax.

"Are they going to become ridged again?" I asked.

"Mmmhmmm, just lots of tense muscles that have finally released. I'm purposely not trying to use those muscles right now." She said.

"So what did you want to ask me about." I said.

"Ummm yes, so I guess the first thing… How comfortable are you talking about your past? Like before you changed to Nicole." She said.

"Ah umm for me no real problems, which is uncommon but hardly unheard of. There are some that would prefer to deny their entire existence prior to transitioning or changing." I said.

"That seems a bit complicated." She said.

"It can be… I try to be open in my particular case and people who knew me before might make mistakes and I don't hold it against them or anything." I said.

"So I guess my first question is how did you know you were well… Nicole?" Turnip asked.

"I didn't initially, it wasn't until I saw a random comment about someone else's personal experience that I started to investigate." I said.

"It took maybe a year of going back and forth, and playing with the idea and talking it over with others that I finally came to the conclusion." I continued thoughtfully.

"It took a while too even after I came to that decision to start presenting differently. As well as using medicine to make some body changes." I finished.

"What about before all of that? I know you said you didn't know but there must have been something." She asked.

"So when I was much younger I wanted to be a girl but I was too embarrassed by the idea. I also didn't know anything about being transgender at the time. I ended up suppressing that part of me when I hit puberty as I was very embarrassed by the idea." I said.

"How strong was that urge then?" She asked.

"I honestly can't remember but I suspect quite strong based on how much of those impacted my decision." I said.

"So how did the medicines help?" She asked.

"Ah let's see what translates. Medication is used to suppress and supplement the mix of hormones an individual produces to match the 'target' biology and chemical make-up. These hormones act as triggers to cause the body to express different physical characteristics." I said.

"I understood like three quarters of the words but basically medications help is what it boils down to." She said.

"Yep… the actual chemical processes I don't understand myself but the basic idea is you retrigger puberty but for what the opposite sex would experience." I said.

"Ok that makes more sense, wait how long does it take?" She asked.

"Takes a few years just like normal puberty, but you end up having to take the medications the rest of your life." I said.

"Oh… that seems like a lot of work." Turnip commented.

"It can be but where I came from medications like that are widely available and can be used to treat far more than my particular situation." I said.

"Wait, you said you need to take them for the rest of your life?" She asked.

"Yep, for me once a day, missing a day might not be that big of a deal, heck missing a week also not too bad if you can stand the mood swings." I said.

"But it's been several weeks now for you." She said a bit worried.

"... yes actually it's one of the things I am a bit worried about. The reason I need to figure out a solution is because I don't have the same glands either men or women do. I had my male counterpart removed surgically a year back." I added.

"So wait, is this why you are so interested in the Shaping ability you have?" She asked.

"Yup if I can give myself the same glands as a woman then well I would not need to worry about medications among other advantages. I will also add it is a very fascinating ability, I think most people would be very interested in being able to adjust their looks even if only by small amounts." I said

"By the way did you test that ability on a stick or rock or something?" She asked.

"Not yet, I want to but I'm nervous about it as well… I am unsure how it would work. If we have a small object I could try it right now, I have plenty of mana. Worst case you have to run and grab someone, and well it's not being used on me so I can imagine the risk being very small." I said.

"Alright sure but just stick to the object and that is it, also take it slow. Probe the maternal with your mana first, I don't have as much experience here but I know a few tricks." Turnip said.

"Umm anything around we can try this with, it might destroy the item in question." I said.

"I'll be right back and see if I can get a broken plate or two." Turnip said then stepped out of the room for a few minutes. When she came back she had some porcelain chunks and a plate with some bread and cheese.

"Snack?" I asked.

"Yup and here is a broken plate and some extra pieces." She said

I grabbed a small chunk of cheese and popped it in my mouth. It was a hard cheese like parmesan but the flavor was not as salty. It was quite interesting.

I took one of the extra chunks of broken hardened porcelain and examined it. It was standard from what I could tell, nothing really unique about it. I then pressed a very small amount of mana into it, when I did so I could gain a bit of awareness of my mana from within the object. I did this all the time for my bombs but this was much slower and weaker than that.

"Yep I can feel my mana within and I can even visualize the shape of it in my head." I said.

"Good, I guess try applying your ability to your mana in the object. It's what you have likely been doing to your body without realizing it. You will need to check with Iser or Root on that idea both are more familiar than I am with this subject." Turnip said.

With the mana in the object I concentrated on my skill and pushed and pulled at the object. It was definitely different then doing it to myself but not completely alien. It was also much more taxing mentally and mana wise.

"It works… but fuck that's an intense amount of effort…" I said and handed her the now sphere of hardened clay.

"I’ve heard about variations of what you can do to yourself, if much more limited. Same goes for the ability to affect an object. But never both from a single source." She said.

"I'm wondering about myself, I have to question if others with a healing ability can do more than what they currently do. Or any other skill for that matter… Honestly, the real difference between myself and you is in available education. I am now wondering how much of an impact my understanding of physics plays into how flexible skills are." I said.

"It very well could… comments you have made have caused me to try and experiment more with my own abilities. Not everything has been successful but it does indicate you might be onto something." She said

"This is interesting but I would like to get back to our original topic." She then added.

"I want to tell you a little about myself if you are comfortable with that." She asked me.

"Sure." I said.

Turnip took a deep breath then another.

"So I have been questioning my own self for a while now. What you have does exist in our world if not nearly well understood. Orlo is a good example, I asked them about it before but they could not really explain it to me much more than fine with being either a boy or a girl." She said.

"I guessed and it's not a new concept in my world either, it's just gotten more attention over the years... I blame the Internet for that. Orlo is what we would call non-binary neither man nor women but a mix." I said.

"That seems complicated as well… but I don't know… wait so then there are three genders where you are from?" Turnip asked.

"Ah umm are we referring to gender as a social construct or 'sex' in the form of biology. Because wearing a dress is not inherently a male or female thing." I said.

"I.. wait what?...wait hold on let me think about what you just said." Turnip said with an expression of focused confusion. I gave her a minute.

“Wow…” Turnip said in astonishment after nearly 5 minutes.

"I think you're right. I'm trying to come up with an argument but there is a distinctive difference between gender and what have you been saying biology?" She said.

"Mind you I personally think at least some of what society has developed has been influenced by biologically. For instance a female needing to stay behind instead of hunt because of being the only one to be able to feed a newborn connects to the idea that women make and tend a home." I said.

"But plenty of women are in the military or hunt or do any number of tasks men do. I know some cultures on Dirt prescribe women to these sorts of roles and it is idiotic." She said with a bit of heat.

"Oh agreed, it's really only a hypothesis as to why society followed that pattern. That does not preclude that people are assholes and belittle each other and that also influences society as well." I said

"Wait so then based on what you are saying biology plays a role for people being an asshole?" She asked.

"Yup but again more of an unmeasurable influence. Being willing and able to steal another's food could mean your and your offsprings survival. At least if we look at this in the form of evolutionary biology." I said.

"Fuck…. This is crazy complex isn't it." She said after a minute of thinking.

"Very… the only reason why I know anything about this is it's kind of like a puzzle." I said.

"You want a drink? I need a drink…" she said and I nodded.

Some time later we both fell asleep after drinking way too much wine.