Seren felt their throat close and their ears ring. They were bleeding. They wanted to scream but they didn’t know how.

“Seren? Can we talk?” Mrs. Houper called.

“Mrs. Houper, I uhhm. I think I need to go to the hospital.” Seren called. They took off the soiled clothes and wrapped themselves in a towel.

“What? Are you injured? Let me come in.” Mrs. Houper said at the bathroom door.

“I’m bleeding, I’m not dressed.” Seren said, beginning to panic.

“I’m coming in.” Mrs. Houper said sternly. Opening the door and looking at Seren in the towel. “Where are you bleeding from?” She looked around the ground and saw the discarded clothes. Her eyes lit up in recognition.

“Oh, this is what I was coming to talk to you about.” Mrs. Houper said. “You don’t need to go to the hospital. It’s part of growing up.” Seren stared at the housekeeper in utter confusion.

“Are we about to have sex talk?” Seren asked.

“Well… yes.” Mrs. Houper said. She looked at Seren’s legs and frowned. “How did that happen?” Seren looked down at the cuts on their leg.

“I.” Seren said, not knowing what to say. “Job hazard. Can we have this talk after my bath?”

“Yes, sure.” Mrs. Houper said unconvinced. “But if there’s anything you want to talk about, anything at all. You can talk to me, you know that right?”

“Yeah. I know.” Seren said. Mentally correcting that the problem wasn’t that they didn’t trust her, it’s that she just didn’t want to talk about it at all.

“Okay,” Mrs. Houper said and closed the door. Seren started running the water and got into the bath. Deciding that this day was indeed the worst day ever.

Seren felt well and truly traumatized as they fell into their bed. That talk about puberty with Mrs. Houper was awful. But they learned about that time of month, and how they were growing up, and how life as a woman sucked. Seren felt sick. They didn’t want to be a woman. Their dad always let them be whatever they wanted and they very clearly didn’t want to be a girl so why in the world would they want to evolve that into a woman?! Seren curled into a ball. Life was so unfair. Why wasn’t there a way to undo this? To prolong the childhood version of their body forever? Just get taller and stronger but none of this stupid.

Seren felt the pillow they were laying on getting wet. They shoved their face into their pillow and tried not to reveal they were crying to the humming sprites on the other side of the bed. They cried themself to sleep, waking up with their alarm the next morning. They reached out to turn off their alarm.

“Protect the savior!” A group of tiny voices shrieked. Seren’s eyes opened and they sat up fast.

“No, no, no! Not my alarm!” Seren quickly stumbled to turn off their clock and protect it from the army of sprites. Leading to them tangling up in their sheets and falling out of bed.

“But it screamed out a war cry!” One of the sprite warriors said, hovering over Seren.

“It wasn’t a war cry. It’s a noise that wakes a person up when they’re sleeping so they wake up on time.” Seren explained, exhausted.

“You don’t just sleep until you wake up?” The sprite asked.

“If I did that, I’d miss my tutor and my work.” Seren said. They started untangling themself from their sheets.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You could just do all that afterwards.” The sprite said simply. Seren groaned. The nest whistled and the sprite flew away. Seren stood up and was immediately struck with an all consuming pain in their stomach that felt like something ripping them apart. Seren dropped to the ground and let out a string of curses that were enough to make a sailor blush.

“Excuse me?”

Seren heard Eric from behind the door but their cares were taken by the sudden and unrelenting pain. Their door opened and Seren thought about the nest.

“No! Don’t!” Seren yelled as they tried to get up but another wave of pain had them curled back up into a teary eyed ball.

“Don’t what?” Eric asked as he walked into the room, “What happened?” He knelt beside them but Seren pushed him away.

“Don’t touch.” They said weakly. “Hurts.”

“What hurts? Where?” Eric asked.

“Stomach.”

“Oh.” Eric said, clearly trying to figure out where to go with the conversation. “Why don’t you get back into bed, I’ll have Mrs. Houper bring you a hot water bottle. Just. Take a sick day.”

“Take a what?” Seren said through bared teeth. They’d never taken a sick day, they’d never spent a day in bed.

“You need to take it easy today, and as your parent I’m calling you out of class and work today.” Eric said.

“That’s not fair.” Seren said. Trying to ignore the pain and stand. Or doing anything that shows they were capable.

“Perfectly fair. Come on, I’ll help you back into bed.” Eric held out his hands for Seren to take. Seren couldn’t make their legs work on their own and had to reluctantly let him pick them up and put them into bed.

“It’s okay to need to rest.” Eric said. Seren sneered at their bed covers.

“I don’t want to rest. I can’t rest. No one else rests, time doesn’t rest.” Seren said. Eric sighed and sat on the bed.

“You’re right. But if you push yourself to the end you will have more to make up then you would if you took the time to rest now.” He said.

“You don’t rest.” Seren said.

“I’m not curled into a ball on the floor.” Eric said. He pulled the covers over them. “I’ll have Mrs. Houper be listening for you so if you need something you can call for her.” Seren frowned but their lip curled into a pout as the pain redoubled and they whimpered. Burying their face into the pillow and curling into a ball.

“And I’ll have Kalyani make something sweet. Cupcakes?” Eric asked. Seren didn’t respond, they didn’t know if they could. “What about red velvet? With the buttercream?” Seren felt like they were going to throw up. The idea of food was not helping.

“Maybe I'll send someone around the apothecary and grab you something to help.” Eric said, “I… Mrs. Houper will be around if you need her.” Seren nodded. Holding their breath until the volley of pain was manageable again. They looked up to see the door shutting. They let out a breath of relief that Eric didn’t spot the now soccer ball sized nest in the corner of their room.

“Are you in distress?” A sprite came up and hovered over them.

“Nooo.” Seren whimpered. Not wanting to incur the sprite’s wrath on anyone.

“You sound distressed.” The sprite said.

“No one is distressing me. I’m just… becoming a woman.” Seren hissed. The pure loathing was clear in their voice.

“Are you in pain?” The sprite asked, hovering closer.

“Yes, but it’s my own fault.” Seren said, “Now please leave me to my suffering.” The sprite flew away and Seren sighed. Trying to forget they existed.

“This will solve the distress.” The sprite appeared again, Seren didn’t turn over right away, afraid of what they’d see. But they slowly looked up and saw what looked like the cap of an acorn.

“What is it?” They asked.

“Water from the Waterbearer. It will solve your distress.” The sprite held out the cap to them. It was big as a dinner plate in her hands.

“What does that even mean? Make the pain go away? Make the.. Gross. Go away?” Seren whimpered. Burying their head into the pillow again.

“It soothes.” The sprite said. Seren groaned but sat up.

“Okay, fine.” Seren said, holding out their hand. The sprite put the acorn cup in their hand. Seren looked at it before popping the whole thing in their mouth letting the cool water run out of the cup before pulling the acorn cup out of their mouth.

“Thanks.” Seren said, handing it back to the sprite who took it back to the nest. After a few minutes with their eyes closed, Seren found the pain gone. They sighed in relief. Looking over to the nest. “Thanks, really.” The humming changed and Seren jumped out of bed. They grabbed their clothes and ran for the bathroom to change. Hoping if they could be quick, they’d be able to salvage their day.

Seren ran up to the study to show they were better, not bothering to knock before entering.