Chapter 8

Jax was pleased that he was now taller than he had been the last time he had been in male form.

He could only guess that he was having another growth spurt. He had learnt that shifters were often not considered mature until eighteen and not fully grown until twenty-one. If this was true, he probably still had another couple of years of growth left in him.

He was sure that he would gain more height and weight, especially if he stayed mostly in his male form for a few months. Jax was well aware that the men he had met so far all thought he was a youth. So, any gains he made would be considered normal.

He was sure that if he worked out and ate well, it would all help. Working with the greater gravity on this planet would also compact his muscles and increase his strength.

He suspected he was about ten to fifteen percent heavier here than he had been at home. He suspected that he could adapt, and if he was still growing, that would only help.

He was sure that the new magical item would also help him.

Jax picked up the two ‘Jacky Howes’, as David had called the singlets.

He had no idea why they got that name and would have to ask at some stage. He selected the smaller one and pulled it on over his head. It had stretched and then fitted to his body and felt comfortable. It wasn’t too tight and gave him room to grow.

He had to chuckle when he slid the pants on over his bare arse. David hadn’t thought of giving Jax any undies, and he didn’t have any. The pants legs’ width was such that Jax was sure he could get both of his legs into one hole. The pant legs went down past his knees.

Jax pulled them up and then slipped the short-sleeved shirt on. The buttons weren’t a problem, as they were similar to the ones on his shirt. Amazingly, his old work shirt even had the same style of pockets on it as this one.

Jax had chosen the bigger shirt as he was sure he would need the space, and it was cooler. It also covered his arse when he didn’t have pants on. He tucked it into his pants and finished buttoning them up.

He threaded his old belt through the loops like the other men had been wearing their belts. He had noticed the brass buckle on his was as simple as the men’s. Probably one reason why they had assumed he was one of them.

Once dressed, Jax realised that he would need to hide his female clothes, but he didn’t wish to lose them. However, his pack was rather full. A spell came into his mind, and he emptied the main part of the pack.

He did the ‘Hold a dozen more’ spell to make it twelve times larger in cubic space and tossed in a ‘Clean and Repair’ spell for good measure. He performed the same incantations to the largest front pouch and added a ‘Keep-dry’ and a ‘Preservation’ spell on the pack.

He then added a ‘Keep-away’ and a ‘Locking’ spell so only he could open the pack. If someone could ignore the keep-away spell, they would find the main pouch and pockets empty.

Happy, he tossed all of his possessions back into the pack. He chuckled when he looked in as the clothing was all folded neat and tidy, and his other possessions were neatly stacked in the bottom of it.

When he picked up the pack, it still looked modestly full like it had before but felt only a quarter of the weight it had been since most of the matter was now in the dimensional storage spaces.

Frowning at this, he added another spell, so it felt as heavy as it had before so that if anyone else, like David, picked up his pack, it would feel the correct weight to them. He kicked himself for not doing the spells before he left home.

For some reason, they seemed a lot easier since he had gotten here, and he wondered if the new bracelet had anything to do with it. It had disappeared like his medallion after he put it on. He got a warm and happy feeling from his entity at this thought.

The entity was confirming his suspicions that the bracelet was a magical artefact and that it was a lot more powerful than it seemed. He remembered that it also had the extra gem for Psychics and bigger gems for his other disciplines.

Jax now believed that having this new skill, along with his Lore discipline being enhanced, was why he understood and could speak the new language so easily. He suspected the entity had also borrowed the speech patterns from Ian when he talked to Jax.

He did wonder why the two bracelets had been left where he found them.

David inspected his new off-sider and grunted, “It took you long enough.”

To his surprise, Jack replied, “Sorry, had to rearrange the hardware.”

Jax was totally unaware that David thought he meant he had done something else. David inadvertently looked at Jax’s crotch.

“I hope you didn’t leave a mess in there,” David retorted.

Jax looked at him with confusion. “No, I picked up all of my things before repacking my pack.”

“Oh! Did you make room for some more clothes? You’re allowed three sets,” David told Jax as they walked back to the racks.

David put the clothes that Jax handed back to him, neatly folded, onto the shelves they had come from. He then pulled off two more sets in the sizes that Jax had picked and handed them to him.