My wife’s angry shout jolted me out of the book that I was reading. She had returned from the bathroom some time ago. After complaining about how no matter what was happening to us. There were still bills to pay. Nikki had begun to prepare for work. Having reached the point where she was ready to pick out her outfit for the day.
“I can’t wear any of my underwear, and all of my pants are a problem too,” she wailed.
Examining her closely. Her tall zaftig figure hadn’t changed markedly. Although there was a greater sense of strength and grace to her stance.
“Nothing fits? How is that possible.”
“It’s my tail. My tail keeps my panties from fitting properly, and I don’t even want to talk about what it felt like to put my tail down my pants leg. I wasn’t even able to put them on until I tried that. Since my tail sticks out of my tail-bone, and that’s pretty far down my ass,” she complained.
“I’ve got an idea. Give me your most worn out pair of panties.”
Leaving the bedroom room for the craft room. I returned to the bedroom with my hand sewing basket. I took her panties and cut a slit where I estimated her tail would fall. Curling the fabric slightly. I quickly sewed some stitches to reinforce the hole. Sliding them on, a look of relief crossed Nikki’s face.
“With these on I can probably get away with wearing a dress or skirt. Thank you Honey.”
******
My supervisor called me over as I walked into work for the night.
“Eddie, go clock in. We have a job that you need to take care of, and it’s going to take a while.”
“Crap, what the hell is it?”
“I’m not even going to tell you what it is, but your unique situation means that you’re probably the only one who can handle it?”
“Wait, is this because I’m a dragon?”
“I don’t even know how to answer that. I’ll meet you out back once you get clocked in though.”
Hurrying back to the locker room I put my 2 liter away in my locker. Grabbing my vest and slamming my locker shut. I ran to the back room.
Yelling for Jerry once I passed through the double doors. He called me back to where we Located (ask your Retail employee friends about this) the overstock.
Hearing a giggle. Something buzzed my head. Looking up I saw a six inch humanoid figure with crystalline insectoid wings. Was it a Faerie? No wait, Faerie was another world linked to this one, and everything from that world was a Faerie. At least that’s what the news had been saying. This was properly called a Pixie, maybe. It dived again, and I swatted it away.
Flying unstably. It chittered angrily at me. Several dozen more Pixies flew towards me. Emerging from the most unlikely places. How did one even fit in that pair of children’s shoes?
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Some long buried instinct told me exactly what I needed to do with these creatures. Concentrating I called on just a small portion of my power. I grew half a foot taller than my usual six foot two and occasional blue or green scales dotted my skin. Luckily my clothes seemed to adapt to my body whenever I called upon my abilities. Drawing in a deep breath. I prepared myself.
“Stop it now!” I shouted
Pixies started dropping to the floor from shock. Quickly shaking themselves off they lined up in front of me like preschoolers. From the corner of my eye. I noticed Jerry was staring at me in stunned silence.
“Get out of this building and never come back.”
The Pixies looked like a row of bobble heads from how quickly they nodded yes. Which surprised me since I had heard that they were only as intelligent as dogs.
“I didn’t think you’d be able to get rid of them. We just thought that they might find you scary and leave you alone.”
“What?”
“You haven’t noticed? You have a slightly menacing aura around you since your change. Okay, now let’s get to what I pulled you back here for. I need you to sort out all of the boxes that the Fairies broke into and ate. Set them on this Four High to get Delocated and Damaged out. Be sure to put the intact boxes back in the right location. We don’t need anything Located wrong.”
Getting right to work. I let my mind wander while I performed my rote task.
******
Working 16 hours shifts was definitely leaving him exhausted. The fact that older doctors acted like there was some glory to half killing yourself when you first started practicing. Seemed like a generational relic to him. Getting enough sleep and having the best judgment for your patients made more sense. Doctors needed a real union, an organization that cared more about the well being of health care workers more than industry profits. Mused the young resident as he entered the Emergency Room.
“You look like death warmed over tonight, Doctor Jameson.” Quipped the Nursing Supervisor. Whose name David was still struggling to learn.
“Thank you,” he paused and surreptitiously glanced down at the man’s name tag, “Ivan. You don’t look much better.”
“Fucking budget cuts. They think we can squeak by with half the staff we had last week. ‘Oh, the Pandemic is over, we don’t have the extra funding we used to.’ Bullshit. They just wanted more money.”
“Be careful that admini…” David’s formulaic reply was cut off as something opened up in his soul at that moment. Sensations of pain, anger, confusion, loss, and agony overwhelmed him. Head swimming with vertigo. He instinctively reached out and grabbed onto Ivan, as he began to collapse.
With Ivan’s help. He managed to fall to his knees, instead of flat on the floor. In an effort to focus David muttered his personal motto. A bit of bad Latin doggerel he’d heard overheard somewhere in college.
“Asclepius, sana nos omnes.”
At that moment. Doctor David Jameson began to glow from within with an indescribable light. That was somehow both white, and pulsating with the colors of the rainbow at the same time. Impossibly, the light passed through walls, ceilings, and floors. Spreading outward in a sphere. Cutting off with as little warning as it had first appeared. Leaving David drained as though he’d just run a marathon, or swum across the English Channel. He felt Ivan and another nurse lifting him as his consciousness faded to black.
It wasn’t until much later that David would find that miraculous recoveries throughout the hospital, neighborhood, and even passing vehicles coincided with his “Awakening.” Thankfully, his collapse would not be connected to the miracle until much later. When many more people with a gift of healing magic were active.