Chapter 2

Early next morning

The elder’s wife Willow was a cleric, and she was fully trained in the healing arts. She had taken the Hight Human Rudina to the Keeps royal room to sleep and recover.

While she treated her for exhaustion and any other ailments she could find. She also found the unusual truth of what a Transgender Woman was after removing her clothing to give her a sponge bath. She then asked her goddess what a ‘Transgender Woman’ was. The goddess being well aware of things mortals weren’t, whispered the truth and the cure for Rudina. She then covered Rudina up and asked for her husband to come in.

“Garth, my dear, I need your help with one of your spells.” She asked her husband the Elder of their community.

“What spell is that?” he replied unsure what wizards spell could be used in the healing arts.

“Her condition is uncommon, but not unknown, however it is easily cured with a sex change spell, she needs one that will turn a man into a woman, and then she will be whole.”

He didn’t quiet grasp but shrugged and left the room to his study which was the very top room of the keep. It took him about an hour to find the spell.

Looking at the spell in one of his ancient tomes, he realized it was an easy one to have prepared. It was a classic spell from elvish lands. He never understood why someone developed it, however he was familiar with its use. It would cause a person to change sex. “Evil beings used it as an ironic curse. Elves used it, daily to confuse non-elves” he thought while chuckling.

Rudina the High Human Hero was awake as he entered back into the room. His wife Willow talking to her.

“Did you find it?” Willow asked.

“Yes, dear,” he replied, “for what purpose is the spell needed, as it is an uncommon spell, and as far as I know only Elves use it for purposes I do not understand.”

Willow turned to Rudina, “He’s really highly intelligent, but still an idiot with life matters. He can cure your gender dysphoria if you so wish, by casting a spell which will turn you into a natural born woman.” She was proud that her goddess had given her the words to use in this situation, until now she was aware that people could have dysphoria but had no words to describe the condition.

Rudina’s eyes shown with a happiness she had never expressed before, and said “Yes please, this would be the greatest treasure I could ever receive.”

Garth the Elder said, “Well then I guess, no time like the present.” He then reread the spell to insure he knew it’s method. Once he was sure of the spell, he took out a few precious gems from a small pouch at his waist. He then closed his eyes and cast the spell which changed Rudina from a Transgender woman in to a Cis Woman. As a bonus, the spell also resets the persons age to the equivalent of 20 years old. Elves, they do love their youth.

Rudina’s body shined for a few seconds in a pale pink tone. The glow was bright enough to make being able to see her impossible. Once the glow faded, Rudina still looked basically the same, still tall, still a High Human, however she had a full head of hair that was reddish brown, and it was clear she was all woman, and an attractive one at that.

Once the change was done, Rudina started patting her body carefully, and asked for a mirror, she was clearly very happy.

Willow asked for a bit of privacy as the young human woman started to explore her body hidden under the covers, “She’s got a life time of pent up frustration that has just been freed, give her a bit to settle. You’ll find she’ll be glad to help out and finish things once she calmed a bit.”

Late Morning Kings Chambers

After a couple of hours of privacy and a few pleasant and happy sounds, Rudina partially opened the door and asked for some clothes.

Willow had of course been waiting outside patiently for this with some nice comfortable woman’s adventuring clothing. It was a Bards set, but they should fit her perfectly.

Rudina gladly accepted the clothing and carefully dressed in them.

The Bards set was a short burgundy suede dress, with built in bodice and corset. The matching leggings were full tights but made of a light leather like elastic material which made them look and feel like pantyhose while being rugged and strong like a pair of jeans. The boots where thigh high with a three-inch heel designed in a way that they could be used in stirrups or while hiking on a wooded trail much like a good pair of cowboy boots.

The outfit was amazing, it made her feel like a real woman, and she was knock out gorgeous, while not sacrificing mobility or comfort. The only thing from her world she still wore was her bra, and panties which surprisingly still fit. Willow explained that a spot of magic was used to size her old clothing, to fit, which was also used on the bards set as well.

She smiled and then attached the holster for her pistol and checked the weapon properly before holstering it. Clearly no one touched it, besides removing the holster straps while she was asleep.

Then she realized her home was crushed last night. Her clothing, the rifle with a partial box of ammo and her service pistol with two magazines were the only things she knew would still be serviceable. She sat back down and started to cry, Willow gave her a hug as she could empathize with the young human after all the things that have happened in such a short time.

Once her emotions relaxed, Willow showed Rudina to the Meeting hall of the keep, “We’re having a community meeting about what has transpired, and your role in things. I think this will make a good debut of your new self and figure out what professions and class you are willing to take up, also we will be able to divine your skill levels then.” I think this will make a good debut of your new self and figure out what to do next.”

Earlier that morning

Deep under the earth, in the lands known as the Abyssal Dark, not far from the cave entrance where the Tiefling village sat blocking the way to the lands in the light. The mighty beast returned to its master, in great pain it died.

She looked to her creation and was angered, what manner of weapons could ruin his beautiful eyes, who had the ability to remove his great Arms. Lovingly she placed her black delicate hand against his last good eye. “Randell my sweet boy, I will avenge your death.”

Standing she made a quick hand sign, to her unseen forces, and motioned to follow her.

The Great Hall late morning

Rudina was smiling as they walked down to the next level of the ten-story tall Tower.

An ancient Stone Throne was empty as Garth the Village Elder sat on a small chair in front of it. The rest of the community elders sat at a pair of large tables which made a crescent circle in the room facing towards the throne. Standing against the walls where about a hundred young warriors, mages, and bards.

The hall had a large stained-glass window on the ceiling which lit the great hall with uniform light. This puzzled her slightly as she was sure that the floor directly above this hall was where she just was, and there was no place for light to shine down.

“must be magic” she whispered to no one in particular.

She then took a moment to study the art on the window. It had an image of Roman soldiers in a pike formation with large shields and red plumed helmets, there was also a Roman standing over the dead body of a slain red dragon with its severed head held in his hands.

Willow tapped her side to have her move forward, and interrupted the meeting by commenting, “The Lady Rudina, High Human of the mysterious World, and Savior of the village of Heorod.”

Rudina blushed as she had never been introduced before, and to begiven what was basically titles was slightly embarrassing.

All eyes looked at her. Those sitting at the tables had to rotate their bodies and look behind them to see her. She realized that the men had wolfish eyes for her.

“Umm, ... thank you,” she stated while quickly looking around and giving a slight curtsey, “where should I sit Garth?” She looked to the village elder hoping it was ok to talk to him like this.

“My young lady, High Humans sit on the Throne,” he pointed at the stone Throne across the hall, which she then realized was set so everyone was looking right at it.

She gulped and walked to it and sat demurely in the throne asking, “what is a High Human, and what are you guys anyway? I’m sort of new to this world after all.” She then pointed to the stained glass on the ceiling, “Also are those Roman Legionnaire?”

Garth moved his small chair and set it down to the right of the throne and sat next to her, “High Humans are Humans from the world you came from. All Humanoid beings descend from your kind. Even my people the Tieflings. Millions of Years ago Dragons pulled humans from your world as slaves and reshaped our bodies to fit the roles they needed. My kind were mixed with infernal energies and were used to help keep other slaves in line. Ours is one of the few communities on this world with records left from those dark days. These days, Elves claim the Gods made the Mortal races in their images, and that elves were the first born,” the elder sated with a huff. “Most people accept the Elvin story.” He pointed to the overhead light. “That is a representation of when the Hysponian helped overthrow the Dragons who used mortals as Slaves about nineteen thousand years ago.”

“Nineteen thousand, not nineteen hundred?” she asked puzzled, because she was sure Rome was about two thousand years ago, nineteen thousand years ago the Earth was still in a great Ice Age, and humans had yet to develop civilization. She also seemed to recall that Modern Humans were at most two to three hundred thousand years old, no more. Three million years ago Human ancestors where basically still chimpanzee like things.

“From what I know from our records, your world and ours experience time at a different rate.” The Elder replied

“Oh” Rudina replied.

The Elder in a more serious tone while looking back to the gathered community leaders, “Well the ‘demi-arachne giant’ has been severely wounded and has fled back to the abyss. Until we know it is truly dead, and that it was alone, our community is not safe.”

Pointing at the woman next to him, “I used my strongest buff spell to aid Rudina during the fight, and she saved the day. But now it is time to decided who goes into the abyss to track and destroy the beast and to ensure our community remains unseen by the denizens of the dark. First a show of hands who is willing to volunteer for this quest.”

Rudina stood up, with her hand in the air, “I’m game. He killed a lot of your people, and destroyed my home, which had all my worldly possessions in it. I feel better than now than I have my whole life. So, I have no issue chasing him down, and putting a final bullet in its brain.” She looked to Garth, “However, I do want to check somethings before I head out. I want to see if I can use magic like the spell you used on me, and also to see what kinds of weapons you have here. As my own weapons have limited ammunition, and I am unsure I can make any more while I’m here.” She sat back down. With her legs crossed, but in a more relaxed fashion, as if something dawned on her “Oh yah, I have no idea where I am, or where I’m going so, I’ll need some help from you lot.”

Four of the Men, and one of the Women Stood and raised their hand, and each stated they would help track the beast.

They all gathered in front of Rudina, in turn they each took a knee and said their name, and what they could do.

I am “Alfred a Wizard. Garth our village Elder trained me personally” the first one said.

“Ferdinand, although you can call me Fred. I’m a Ranger and Scout I will be able to track the beast, I also have a magic sword passed down from ancient times by my forefathers. It’s called in the ancient tongue, ‘Sancti plus tria Ultor’, which means, ‘The revenger of more than three things, the Holy.’ the next person said as he took his knee.

The next person with a flourish of his hands, “My fair lady, I am Asher, a Bard. Besides increasing our spirits, I am well versed in healing spells”

The last of the men was a grizzled man in dull full plate armor, using his Halberd as support he took a knee, “Brenner, ma’am I am a Warrior and a town guard. I was guarding the tower gate, you saved my life. The beast was reaching for me when you hit him hard in the back”

Rudina looked to what she had to admit was a stereotypical Paladin, the woman was standing tall in full plate armor which was designed to look good on a woman and might not have been as practical as Brennan’s armor. The woman spoke up with authority, “I bend no knee to any man,” she then used her shield as support and took a knee “But your ladyship is no man, and the goddess herself has informed me to always be at your side. I am Helga a Templar of the ‘Templum Luna’ I wield the power of the goddess while being a frontline warrior.”

Rudina was impressed, she was actually a Paladin. If she was building an adventuring party, then she was sure that this party was good.

“I guess were an adventuring party of six” Rudina said. She then walked up to face them directly, “Please rise, I am uncertain of the rites and traditions of your people, but for mine,” She gave a fast and crisp USMC salute and released it just as fast and crisply, “Stand at ease, we are going forth to face a monstrosity we need not be so formal.”

The Elder spoke to the Six Heroes, “You should prepare to leave as soon as possible, however give yourselves a day to rest, and to prepare for the worst with your families, because the Abyss is a dangerous place. Rudina, I’ve had the villagers remove the wreckage of your home from the courtyard, they pulled out everything that wasn’t building materials, and set that aside for you. You should go through your possessions, we can use magic to fix most of it, and I have a gift for you once we are done sorting it.”

He turned to the rest of the party, “Go prepare, and come back late this afternoon, so you can work out your roles as a party and get to know each other better. You’ll be sleeping here in the keep tonight as a Party in the Kings Chambers. As you will set out first thing tomorrow.”

The Courtyard noontime

Garth led Rudina to where her possessions had been collected. Not all of it was beyond hope. There were piles of her furniture, piles of her clothing and shoes, books and collectibles, kitchenware, food, and computer hardware. She was ecstatic to see her entire armory room had survived with only being covered in dust. She had used two walk-in safes to store everything, and had a workbench set between them with cabinets for gear and supplies. She was glad that she used such good quality safes. Just past that was all the hardware of her home, she couldn’t help but laugh as the wiring, pipes, electrical outlets, solar panels, house battery, and utility meters laid out as if they might be worth something to her now there was no house.

Turning to the elder, “Garth” she pointed to the house trash, “sadly this stuff here goes with the house and is worthless without a home, she then pointed to the furniture, likewise, no home, no need to furnish it, so make of it what you can. The food and kitchenware are useful, albeit smushed, have any cooks in town that can use it take it.”

She then looked at her Armory safes, and clothing. “So, magic can adjust the size of my clothing?” she also fished out her camping gear, from a cabinet that was attached to the outside of one of her safes.”

Garth looking at the clothing pile, pulled out a scroll from a tiny bag at his waist, holding out his hands, he chanted what was said on the scroll and raised his hand over the pile of clothing. It all lifted in the air and started to shine a bit.

Rudina was watching with amazement, as the clothing all flew up glowing, and then sat back down neatly folded.

“They are all cleaned, repaired, and sized correctly for you.” Garth said, “it’s a spell I got in the city from a merchant who specializes in such matters. It’s called a Dry-cleaning spell with Alterations and Repair.”

This left Rudina’s jaw hanging when she heard those words. “That is so cool” was all she could say. Forgetting the backpack on the workbench, as she walked over to look closer.

Garth then, pulled a small bag from under his robes, “this is a very valuable gift, I’m sure it will serve you well.” He said as he held it up so she could see it. “It’s a greater bag of holding, much like the one I use.” he pointed to his belt pouch. “It was mine from when I was a young adventuring Wizard. I’m giving it to you as a gift. It has several tons as its maximum capacity, and can be used to store anything nonliving, food will be preserved fresh forever.”

He held the tiny bag, so the opening faced the pile of clothing, and said, “Take all.” The clothing jumped into the tiny bag. He closed the bag and handed it to her, “To retrieve something, just think about what you want, and reach in and grab it. To put something in, put it in, size doesn’t matter. You can also say ‘empty all’ if you want to unload the bag completely. Or like I just did ‘Take All’ to place a pile of objects in to the bag. there are a few warnings, it won’t open a safe to retrieve an object, and if you put a bag of holding in another bag of holding, you’ll end up with a bag of devouring, which is a nasty thing which consumes everything that it comes in contact with.”

She looked at the bag, and then thought “Doctor Martin boots”. She pulled out her old and not as worn out pair of boots, she then put them back in the bag. “Empty all” as she pointed the bag to the empty space in front of her. The pile of neatly folded clothing flew out of the bag. On top of the pile was her Winchester Model 70 Alaskan, a box of ammunition, and a pile of gold and jewels.

“Wait, what?” she looked at the wealth in front of her.

“As you can see, I’ve also given you your official reward for your help as well, that’s worth about 1000 gold in currency, and another 1000 gold in materials needed for reagents in magic. The bag is my personal gift to you, as are the clothing you received. I saw your books on Magic, and they are useful if not a bit out dated.” He pulled a book out of his own bag of holding. “This is a good study of modern spell craft, it goes up to about 5^th level mage spells, with a selection of Bard spells, that focus on healing and enhancement of abilities and gear. It was the book I used when I first got started. Your skills with ranged weapons, and the lack of heavy melee weapons and armor, says a lot to me. I think you might have talent as a Ranger or Bard, with a possibility of also being a hedge wizard. Before you leave, we’ll test you for the adventure’s guild, I’m sure you have enough skills already to have a high starting level.”

“Thank you,” she said a bit stunned, but yet she was accepting of what has happened, this was no dream, and this new world was amazing.

She then walked to her armory, seeing how impractical it was to load and unload the two large safes, she removed all her weapons and all her ammunition, plus her cleaning kits, camping gear, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, tents, combat knives, bows and arrows, cross bows and bolts, sling shot, and a paintball gun with it’s supplies.

“So, magic has easy to use repair, and easy to use storage, but what about ammunition? I’ve got a lot for now, but without specialized gun stores, my firearm ammunition will run out, is there a fix for that in this world?” She asked him.

“Yes, there is, I’ve known many archers with special quivers that duplicate any ammunition stored. They are very similar to bags of holding but worn on the back.” He replied, “you might be able to buy one for about 10,000 gold in the city, or like most adventurers try to find one while questing. Which is what I would suggest. Also, a trick, pick your favorite weapon. And I’ll teach you a spell to convert any ranged ammunition in the type used for your bonded weapon.”

“Well, that’s easy then.” She drew her service pistol, removed the magazine, cleared, and checked the chamber that it was clear, and held it so he could see it. “Colt m1911a1, .45cal used by the Marine Corps as a Service pistol until they switch to Glocks in the ‘90s. I purchased this one from government surplus back then. I’ve maintained it as it would have been when in service. It’s been at my side for over twenty years now.”

“I see, that’s a small handheld ‘firearm’, I was wondering what it was.” Garth replied, “ok then, take the spell book I gave you, and turn to the page with the flower stem as a bookmark,”

She followed his direction, and she read the spell. He then instructed her on how to cast it. She then picked up an arrow and a gold coin and chanted the spell as he directed. The arrow became a .45cal bullet in its casing just like what she usually used in her pistol, although both the bullet and casing looked to be made of brass.

“Oh, wow, that is awesome!” she exclaimed. “I did magic, real honest to goodness magic!”

“We’re not done, that bullet you made wont work yet, as the magic that powers it hasn’t been created.” He said, “from what I understand, you need to now cast the spell on the page marked with the red colored leaf to make it work. the reproduction is always slightly flawed, in this case the ammunition is made up of only one magical metal, so the chemical reaction that empowers the projectile portion wont happen without special magic.”

She turned to the page he marked for her and cast the spell that he indicated. The spell also cost one gold coin, but the case had a slight reddish tone to it that it didn’t have before.

“May I try it” she asked.

“Yes, I insist actually.” He pointed to human shaped dummies in the opposite side of the courtyard. Clearly, they were used for martial training.

“Cool” she grabbed two pair of ear protectors and two pair of cheap shooting glasses. She put on one set of each and handed the elder the other. “You should wear these.”

She walked up to a mark on the ground which looked to be about ten yards from the dummies, loaded the magic bullet as the second round in the magazine. She then loaded the pistol and took a standing two-handed shooting stance. Relaxed her breathing and squeezed off a perfect headshot. In the minds eye, she made a slight prayer and squeezed off the second shot. She noticed no difference, she took a third shot to be sure there were no complications.

While holding her stance she cleared the weapon, checked the chamber, and then bent over picking up her brass. She noticed the magical one was fading into smoke. “Well that’s convenient, don’t have to pick up my brass afterwards.” She holstered the weapon, and walked back to the bench between the safe, her DD was still sitting there from yesterday. “Time for cleaning and inspections, and then I’ll load my weapons and ammo into the bag. I’m gonna need a chair.” She looked to the furniture, although she had chairs there, not one of them was in condition to be used. The elder, pulled out a wand from his cloak and with a word and a flick of his wrist a broken chair flew next to them and magically healed the damage.

“Neat trick, I guess that’s a special item or something?” She asked.

“Naw, the instructions to make a wand and to use that spell are in your book, it’s just a pure wizard spell, unlike the bard stuff I had marked.” He replied.

“I figured bard spells were songs” she commented.

“You did sing them, you just didn’t notice it.” He chuckled.

“Oh, great, I’m the singing Marine now.” She joked.

That afternoon, on the Courtyard by the training dummies.

The remains of the house had been completely removed, Rudina had moved everything she needed to her bag of holding and gave the safes to the village elder along with the combination to unlock them. She kept the workbench in her bag of holding though, it was as much a necessary tool as her cleaning kits. However, she did find a wizard’s spell which seemed to do the cleaning part fairly well. She still needed to lubricate the weapons and check the repair.

She had found an enhancement that she could add to her magical ammunition which allowed each shot she fired to have a magical property, this apparently was useful to hit things immune to non-magical damage. Also, the property choices were simple one for each of the four primary elements. She also found as she got better with magic the spell would open up to further choices of elements and energies such as lightning, ice, lava, holy, unholy, nature, and undeath, she wasn’t sure what undead energy was but was impatient to experiment with it.

She filled her magazines with her self-created ammunition, as they were practical, and made cleanup much easier.

The rest of the party was training along side her, to get use to the sound of gunfire. She also gave them cheap in the ear earplugs as she had several full bags of them. She used her personal hunting set, which were washable and reusable. Turns out thanks to magic, the cheap ones were now just as practical.

Besides her service pistol, she decided to use her Remington 700 set up as a M40. It had excellent range and one of her armory friends from years ago was a Marine Armorer, and he set the weapon up for her. It wasn’t exactly like the version she had trained with in the Marines, as it was based on the a5 and not the a2, but that was fine. It was even better than the old one, and being a natural lefty, meant that the custom build could be set up just right for her. She was still an expert shot with her right eye, but it was far more comfortable to shoot lefty for her. Plus, her grouping was much better that way.

To show what the weapon could do, she cleared the courtyard, and had the party follow her to the top of the tower, she fired five shots from the tower, all five were kill shots to the head of the dummies, all the dummies now had a nice fist size hole in the back of their heads.

But now they were training together, she wanted to conserve ammo with her rifles, until she had a way to replace it like she did with her pistol. Which she found would happen sooner than later as eventually she could form a bond with a second weapon.

Together they worked on movement, as three of them relied on melee while the other three were at range. The bard was a master with daggers, he used them as ranged and in melee. The Ranger, although he had a big sword on his back, he used a short bow, his grouping and skill was rather impressive. As he could do tricks while shooting, such as flips and cartwheels. Which he said made it harder for people at range to target him.

Rudina’s POV

Although I was billing myself as a ranged fighter, I also practiced my Krav Maga, as it seemed a good time to practice my throws, punches and kicks. Brennan made a good sparing partner, as he was almost as tall as I was, and he could keep up with me using his kickboxing like martial arts. He moved like an MMA fighter once out of his armor. This was the most fun I’ve had since I was twenty something. Before the backpain, before I couldn’t move. He taught me a few of his moves, and I explained a bit about the martial arts I used, and the history of the people who developed it. Turns out the Martial Arts he uses came from the heroes that were summoned a hundred years ago, the ones in the M1 Abrams. Kind of hard to get my mind around that idea. Especially if the guys who taught him were Marines. I’ll have to check out the Tank before we leave tomorrow.

That night the party was exhausted, we trained well, and were really getting use to how we each handled things. Although I’ve never felt like a leader, as my highest rank was corporal in the Marines, I was able to handle the leadership position the team wanted from me. While we ate, I pulled out a few toys from my bag. I pulled out my camping generator, a small Honda, I didn’t have much fuel so I figured I might as well have some fun with it until I can find a new way to produce electricity, I also pulled out my PS4 and a few Blu-ray movies. I have a 4k projector, so I could watch movies like in a movie theater. Now was a good time to watch something fun. The only trouble was, I was the only one who spoke English. So, we had to cast comprehend language on everyone.

I then put it to the group what kind of entertainment did they like? What kind of story?

In the end, I picked the greatest adventure film of all time.

Star Wars: A New Hope

For a screen, I settled on using one of the walls covered with an old white sheet I had. Sadly, my actual screen was never found, must have been taken away with the rubble of the house. I still had to use a repair spell on the projector, fortunately it worked fine.

My audience however may have missed the wonder a bit of the Force, as magic in this world was real, and there is such a thing as monks who use magic the way Jedi use the force, and there are even magical swords apparently that work the same way light sabers do. Other than that, they enjoyed the movie, and told me that in the cities, they have recorded plays that are the same as the movie. Although they use magic not science to show them, and they are called recorded plays. So, I switched tactics and pulled out the best animated film of all time.