Silver Light Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Inside the store it was dark, but I had to wait until Fiona had cleared the broken glass somewhat before I could even enter. When she’d done so, I carefully tiptoed my way in behind her. I felt my heartbeat going through the roof with the adrenaline of breaking and entering, but the tall girl in front of me assuaged some of the fear with her presence. She seemed to know what she was doing.

I almost stumbled into a display of jeans when I heard a flicking sound and suddenly there was a little bit of light. Not much, but enough to avoid large obstacles. I looked up to see her holding a Zippo lighter up.

“You smoke? That sounds like a bad idea given the whole… lung destroying chronic illness thing,” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

She looked confused for a second, her gaze flicking to the lighter and back to me as if she couldn’t figure out how the two were related.

Making a sound of understanding, she shook her head, “No I don’t smoke, my dad is just a survival nut who always talked my head off about carrying a knife and a lighter at all times. Guess he was right in the end. Too bad his heart gave out, the cranky old fucker would have loved this situation.”

“He wasn’t fun?” I asked cautiously.

“Nope, he was a dickhead. Turfed me out on my ass at sixteen because I was gay and had the audacity to be caught making out with a very curious cheerleader,” she grinned, then threw a packet of underwear, then some jeans at me, “Put the underwear on. I won’t look I promise, then try the jeans on and see if they fit. I’m going to find something to throw all this crap into.”

I almost caught the underwear package, but it slipped through my fingers. Following straight after, the jeans landed on my face with a wump that made me stumble slightly. Luckily I managed to get myself righted and bent down to pick up the underwear.

“Wow… sorry I forgot. I’m used to people being able to catch things I throw at them,” Fiona said looking sheepish.

“It’s fine,” I smiled. I’d been living with my uncoordinated nature my whole life, and it seemed that not even a gender swap was going to take that away.

Turning her back as I put on the underwear, Fiona moved further into the store holding the lighter aloft like a beacon. The way the underwear cupped everything snugly was altogether a new feeling after a lifetime of wearing boxer shorts. I spent half a minute just wiggling around in them and marvelling at the strange but not altogether unwelcome feel of it.

The jeans were tougher, but I got them on in the end. I was pretty sure that she hadn’t gotten a good enough look at my new ass when she was checking me out because they had been sliding on just fine until then. My ass was pretty damn big I realised with a strange surge of pride and then annoyance as it took a lot of dancing to get them over the twin mounds of muscle and fat that comprised my butt.

I almost whooped in triumph when I got them over, but I was interrupted by giggling from nearby. Fiona was back holding a satchel and had seen my struggle.

“Wow that was the funniest shit I’ve seen in a while,” she laughed.

“Oh leave me alone you perv,” I grumbled.

“Nope, you need to put on some of these sports bras, then a shirt and a jacket,” she told me, making a beckoning motion to follow her further into the store, “Oh and grab like five pairs of jeans of the same size.”

“But I didn’t look at the size before I put them on!” I cried in dismay.

“Your problem not mine!” came the laughing reply.

Lucky for me I was able to match the size she’d given me by measuring a few pairs against myself. I had a few pairs under my arm when I went in search of wherever Fiona had gotten to. I found her throwing random sport’s bras from the limited range they carried in the shop onto the ground.

“Damn these people have never heard of… oh here we go!” she mumbled, apparently finding a size she was looking for. She turned to me and took the jeans from me, swapping them for the sports bra, “Alright put that on and see if it works.”

I watched her expectantly until she realised that she needed to give me privacy so I could take my top off. I was entirely new to having boobs, but I wasn’t going to just flash them around the place.

Taking my top off, I was immediately struck by the strange new view I had staring down at myself. The next thing I registered was a strange warmth in my stomach that seemed to lazily coil there. Oh no, please tell me I wasn’t turning myself on with the sight of my own boobs! I quickly pulled the sports bra on, only to have the adjustment process make things worse. Wow this was odd. At least the bra seemed to be working, and it wasn’t uncomfortable.

“Uh yeah… I think you have a good eye for sizes I guess,” I said at last.

“Thanks! I guess we’ll throw a bunch of these into the bag as well then,” Fiona smiled, then ransacked the rack for more.

Once she was done we wandered into the women’s shirts area, only for my guide to throw her hands up in disgust, “Fuck. It’s still summer! None of these are useful or practical. Guess we’re going to the men’s section.”

“Alrighty then,” I laughed.

She was totally right though. Everything was all frilly and had no sleeves and shit. I couldn’t see myself surviving whatever was to come in a flowery summer shirt. I kinda wanted one though… without really thinking I swiped a black shirt that had these pleated shoulders. I liked it. I don’t know. I had the body for it now so I may as well give it a try.

“Typical. Guys get all the shit that might actually hold up under more than a light breeze,” my friend huffed when we got there.

She started going through all the different shirts, randomly throwing smalls and mediums into the bag, then threw one at me to put on. It had this sort of red and black tartan pattern on it, but was otherwise a normal shirt. I put it on and didn’t think much more about it. It seemed sturdy, and that was what we were probably going to need.

Fiona had somehow materialised another bag and was shoving more clothing into it seemingly at random.

“How come you’re filling an extra bag?” I asked as I followed her.

“Just in case we can’t make it back to my place tonight. I have this nagging feeling that things might go to shit for the next few weeks and I want us to be prepared,” she explained as she filled the two satchels with clothing.

“So we should stick together then?” I asked, trying to keep my tone free of the apprehension I felt.

This one got her to stop and look at me. She appraised me for a moment then said, “If you’d like to go your own way, that’s okay. Sorry… I just assumed what you wanted to do I guess.”

Shaking my head vigorously I said, “No definitely not. Without anything working, not even cars, it might be hard for just a few cops to keep order. They’ll bring the army in pretty quickly to keep order, but it will still be pretty shit for us civilians. I will be so much safer with you.”

“Good, then it’s settled. We stick together!” she smiled, then turned back to what she had been doing.

We ended our search in the shoe section, where she directed me to grab two pairs of shoes, one to wear now and one to wear later. Fiona gave me the bag with all my newly acquired clothing, and then it was time to continue our mission to find our friends.

The night was still eerily quiet outside the store, except if you focused you could hear shouting faintly in the distance. We didn’t even get time to start walking before there was a tremor that rolled through the ground. It felt like an earthquake, and one close to the surface too. I stumbled as the rolling continued for a few moments, and my new friend reached out a hand to steady me.

“What was that? Was that an earthquake? What’s going on?” she asked with worry lacing her voice.

“I think it was, but it felt really close to the surface. I’d say like a hundred meters meters deep at most, and about a four or five,” I guessed.

You didn’t grow up in an earthquake prone country like New Zealand and not gain at least a passing knowledge of how to guess those things.

“How do you know?” she asked, puzzled.

“You can’t tell by the accent? New Zealand has a lot of earthquakes,” I explained.

“Oh I just thought it was really cute, I didn’t really focus on where it might be from,” she said sheepishly.

“O-oh,” I blushed. Oh no… cheeks why? Thank gosh there wasn’t much light so she couldn’t see it.

“Forward?” she asked awkwardly.

“Yeah lets.”

So we did. We kept moving further into the city towards the bar where our friends had been. There were more and more people wandering around, many of them confused looking students due to the area of town we were in. We passed a crashed pair of cars that seemed to have been unable to stop, but no one was around anymore who looked like they owned either vehicle. Then we saw a group of people raid an electronics store. Unlike the GAP store that we had broken into, this one was guarded by a scared looking man in underwear carrying a shotgun.

“Get back! I’ll shoot!” he yelled at the crowd as they readied bricks to bust the windows in.

Someone in the back of the small crowd of rough looking dudes hefted a brick through the shop window, and the tired store keeper fired randomly. Or at least… that’s what should have happened. Instead we all heard an echoing click as nothing happened. We all stared for a moment, until he readied the gun again and fired once more. Again a click. The mob didn’t wait for him to try again, they rushed him, pushed him to the ground and kicked him until he stopped moving.

I couldn’t help but want to move forward and help the man, but Fiona held me back. She was eyeing the people around us warily, then she looked down at me. She pulled out a knife from somewhere, flashed it where everyone could see, then walked forward towards the guy on the ground. I rushed forward with her, and quickly knelt to check if the guy was alive. I had no idea how this stuff worked, but he was breathing and there wasn’t too much blood around so I figured he was at least alive.

Fiona watched me for a moment, then nodded and moved over to the gun that was laying forgotten on the ground. She picked it up gingerly, pointing the barrel away from anyone, then pointed it into an alleyway and pulled the trigger again. Nothing happened but the click. She took out the shell and chambered a new one, then tried again. Still nothing. She did that until there were no more shells left in the gun, then placed it on the ground with a deep frown. She picked up one of the unfired shells and inspected it. She pocketed two shells, wary of the rough looking people around us, and indicated I should follow her further down the street.

“What was that about?” I asked when we were out of earshot of the people behind us.

“His gun didn’t just misfire. Every one of those shells looked fine. I don’t know… It just seems fucked that they all broke you know? We’ll test these shells later, but we have our friends to find,” she explained, a frown still creasing her brow.

“Should I ask Moon?” I offered.

“Sure go ahead. She’s probably the one who has the best idea on the subject,” she shrugged.

I nodded, then looked up at my other new friend hanging there in the sky, “Okay… um Moon? Why didn’t that guy’s gun work?”

I do not know. It’s probably related to all the other strange phenomena that have been occuring. Might I suggest setting those capsules of gunpowder on fire to see if that still works?

“That sounds… dangerous, and I think Fiona already had that idea,” I replied.

Well in that case, I do not think I can be of assistance at this time. If you have any questions related to magic on a celestial scale however, I would be of far greater help.

“Right… I’ll keep that in mind when I want to terraform Mars,” I said dryly.

Mars has been working on that already for a while now. He was jealous of the Earth and her interesting humans and wished to seem appealing. He is rather upset about the implications of the changes that have happened.

“Okay then. That’s some damn interesting information,” I replied diplomatically.

Were all the celestial bodies as odd as the Moon? What a wild idea.

“Any luck?” Fiona asked hopefully.

“No… although I did learn that Mars was terraforming himself for us,” I said.

“That’s… kinda crazy but okay. Whatever floats Mars’ boat I guess,” she replied, confusion and disbelief apparent in her expression.

“Yeah that’s what I thought,” I laughed.

Mars has never been in a boat. I would very much like to see a boat big enough to hold Mars though. It would be terribly entertaining.

I ignored the oblivious hunk of rock in the sky and continued walking. We were almost at the bar when I spoke again.

"I didn’t like leaving that man on the ground," I said quietly.

"Yeah I know. I was worried about what would happen if we tried to help though. He was alive… he might be fine," she shrugged, "And he did fire on those people, even if his gun didn't work. Best to just stay out of the whole affair."

“You’re right. Still, people being hurt isn’t something I like seeing,” I sighed.

Fiona nodded and was silent for a while before she finally spoke in a defeated tone, “I hope you don’t have to.”

I didn’t really have an answer to her words, nor the words between what she’d said, so I stayed silent and walked next to her. I was pretty happy to at least be wearing something that wasn’t just my old ratty oversized polo shirt. Funny how my companion had dressed me in the same style that she herself wore.

I wonder what I looked like? Fiona had said I was pretty, which had felt oddly nice. I hadn’t gotten many compliments about my looks for most of my life. Most of the time people would say something along the lines of, “My god boy! You’re so tall!” which I wasn’t really a fan of. Sure being tall was good for some people, but I just felt… awkward. It didn’t match some internal standards bureau in my brain. I was fairly sure it was because being tall had just meant I had more of myself to smash on things by accident.

I wish I was home right now as well. As entertaining and... if I’m totally honest, exciting as all of this was, I wanted the comfort of my room and my bed. Oh, or my computer! I wish I could play… oh no. If this continued, I might never be able to play games again? That was a genuinely depressing thought. Gaming had been my escape and my solace when life had been hard, or just when I’d been bored. How was I going to entertain myself now? It’s not like I had any useful skills that would work in the world as it stood now. Who needs a bloody programmer when all the computers are busted?

“Um… Fiona… are you sure you want to group up with me? I’m a nerdy programmer with no practical skills at all,” I said tentatively, already fearing her answer.

My new friend stopped and turned to me with a surprised expression, “What do you mean? You just exploded a few cars and buildings with magic and you can talk to the fucking Moon. She might be a little odd but that’s still a positive. Don’t be dumb Evan.”

“I… I’m… hmmm. I guess you’re right. I was only really thinking about all the stuff I knew from before. I guess I might be useful if I can figure it out,” I said, not really all that convinced.

“You don’t need to be good at anything to be worth helping and having around ya silly goose. Honestly… come on let’s keep walking, we’re almost at the bar,” she smiled, gesturing slightly that we continue.

We had only taken a few steps before she spoke again, “Do you want me to call you like… Eva or something? I mean I can still call you dude pronouns and stuff, and use Evan if you want… but yeah, offer’s out there.”

“I haven’t actually thought about tha-” I started, before being interrupted by friend above.

I should get to name you!

"Wait what? Why should you get to name me?" I asked with consternation, looking up so that Fiona knew who I was talking to.

Because I fixed you.

"But-"

I always wanted a friend named Delphira, so that will be your name.

"Delphira? Really?"

Yes.

"Fine... I guess it's as good a name as any other. Makes me sound like some forest nymph from greek mythology."

No, it is better, because I am the one that made it up. I remember the greeks though, I had this very good friend named Sappho. She was-

I snorted, damned if she wasn’t funny in her own way, “But why Delphira?”

I don’t know. Hmmm… why don’t I know?

“No idea,” I said, then turned to a thoroughly amused Fiona, “The Moon just named me. Apparently I’m going to be called Delphira.”

“That’s a damn mouthful, so I’m calling you Elph,” she declared.

“Wow everyone’s just throwing names at me now. Why Elph? How does that work?” I laughed.

“Delph. Elph. You know… and plus it sounds like Elf and elves are good at magic. You’re going to be good at magic, so it fits,” she grinned.

“Right. I appreciate the enthusiasm I guess. Elph it is. Or Delphira…” I smiled.

Once again starting to walk forward, I thought about my new name. Delphira huh? I could make it work. It actually sounded kinda nice in my head, although if I’d picked for myself, I probably would have chosen something more normal. It was nice though. I liked it. Evan was so boring anyway. Evan. Blech. Evan was a boring antisocial programmer who bumbled around breaking himself on things… Delphira might be someone worth being though…