Lumina had spent an hour and a half in her room. Finally she came out and ate some dinner. She couldn't help but feel better. She wasn't sure what she had felt, but she knew that someone somewhere could sense what she was going through.

She was furious at Photus, ~Surely he isn't that stupid. He couldn't have possibly assumed that we would just naturally assimilate ourselves into this society. There is no way he could have expected me to react well to his answers. That would be insane. So why do I get the feeling that he IS that stupid?~

After eating she got up and walked out of the house to go and think, ~And where does he get the nerve to remind me that I made the decision to put the bracelets on? He can't possibly think that the fact that I made the decision means anything. 'Cause it doesn't mean anything!~

~Man, I'm going to have to talk to the other girls. This is going to be difficult.~ Lumina kept walking and thinking until she was interrupted by the muffled sound of something bouncing on the ground. She looked to her left and found the Hurrcanik house. Distracted by the sound, she investigated.

As she turned the corner around the house, she discovered the basketball court Dioney had told her about. On it was Raydiun, Tude, Fuse, Tsuno, a pair of identical twins with platinum blond hair, and big teenager with brown hair. Lumina leaned up against the corner of the house and casually watched them. After about 5 minutes of watching she figured out that Raydiun, Fuse, and one of the twins were on one team while Tude, Tsuno, and the other twin were on the other. The real big guy with brown hair seemed to be playing all-time offence.

After about 10 minutes of observing, Lumina wasn't impressed, ~They can only do basic dribbling. The only ones who can shoot correctly are Tude and Fuse. The big guy is the best but that's because he just muscles his way to the basket. They don't seem to know anything about cutting to the basket or even general strategy. I could dribble and shoot circles around any one of these guys-even in this body!~

After watching Raydiun's team clang it off the iron five straight trips Lumina figured something out, ~Basketball has existed for only 90 years I think. And this whole island seems to be a couple of decades behind us. So I guess it would make sense if they've only had basketball for a short time. Man, I could really pop some eyes open if they knew what I could do. And I was only on the JV squad!~

Clang! Raydiun's shot ricocheted off the side of the hoop, straight to Lumina who had slowly inched closer to the court while watching. She was barely out of bounds when she caught the ball. For the first time, the guys noticed that Lumina had been watching them. Fuse and Tsuno gave Raydiun quick, smiling glances. Tude raised his hand, "Hey Lumina, pass it here!"

The tall guy with the brown hair scoffed, "If she throws that ball away I'm not going to get it."

Lumina didn't like that guy's attitude, ~Moron! He thinks he's so good! Somebody needs to deflate his ego-hmmmm, a wide-open shot-from this distance-it's about a 50/50 chance I'd make it. But then again I'm not as strong in this body. It's probably a 1 in 4 chance this goes in. Oh well, let's let her rip!~

With a very unladylike grunt, Lumina heaved up the shot. It looked on line; but she wasn't sure if she gave the ball enough umph to make it to the bucket-swish!

Every single guy watched in disbelief as Lumina sunk the shot from out-of-bounds. Once the ball hit the ground, they simultaneously turned and faced Lumina with their mouths wide open.

~That shut the big guy up!~ Lumina turned her back to them and began to walk off. Putting her hands in her pockets she gave the guys a playful wink, "Have a fun game boys!" Leaving seven awestruck teenage guys in her wake, Lumina practically glided back to the Solace house.

* * *

The nefarious sun glared into Lumina's eyes. Squinting into the rays of the morning, Lumina bitterly piled out of bed. ~Why does that window have to face east?~

After trudging downstairs, Lumina quizzically surveyed the kitchen, "Where's Solmaren?" Glancing around she found a piece of paper on the counter. Upon further examination she found words on the paper, "Lumina- I noticed we were running low on food so I went to the market to get some more. Sorry, I ate the last cuminora. I'll make sure to buy more; I know how much you love cuminora. I should be back around 9. There should be some other food in the fridge you could eat. See you soon, Solmaren"

Poking her head inside the fridge, Lumina found a grapefruit and dug in, "Not bad, but not as good as cuminora!"

After the quick breakfast, Lumina hopped into the shower. The initial shock of being hit with the ice water was still overwhelming; but with each passing day, Lumina adjusted to the temperature quicker and quicker.

~Great-today I have to tell the girls about my talk with Photus. How do I explain to them I really didn't learn much of anything? I mean, I now know that it's possible that we can return home but it appears unlikely that we can do so in our true bodies. And it appears Photus COULD HAVE brought girls to the island instead of us five guys. This royally sucks. I want to believe that Photus isn't a bad guy but with the way he's hiding everything he's leaving me with no choice but to.~

After drying herself off and ringing out her golden blonde hair, Lumina put on her clothes. After a week and a half of being a girl, Lumina was acclimated to female clothing. The fact that her cutoff jeans showed off her legs and that her yellow tank exposed her tummy no longer made her high-strung and nervous.

She wanted to believe that she was just adapting; but she knew that in reality she herself had become more feminine. She had noticed that over time her steps had become shorter, more mincing. Her hips swayed a bit more. Three days ago, while having a debate with Terren, she found herself putting her hand on her hip in a very un-guy like manner. She didn't understand how she could become girlier every day when she was trying to avoid it and nobody but Solmaren was really pushing her act like a girl.

As she sat at the mirror in her room, she thought about what life would be like if she went back home as a girl. What would she be like? Would her relationship with her sisters be as strong as her relationship with her brother was? Would her relationship with her brother be weaker than it was? Would she still be considered an outsider or would her new body throw her in with the popular girls who had avoided Jay? Would she be a cheerleader or would she remain a basketball player? Would she have a boyfriend? The future looked more and more complicated.

While brushing her hair, a knock came at her bedroom door. She assumed it was Solmaren coming home with some groceries, "Come on in, the door's unlocked." In her mirror, she saw that it wasn't Solmaren who came into her room; it was Photus. Lumina's face immediately displayed her anger at Photus, "What are YOU doing here?"

Photus shut the door behind him; "I didn't get any sleep last night. My mind kept returning to what you said to me yesterday-" There was long pause. Photus thought Lumina would have made some sort of comment right then but she just continued to fix her hair. Photus knew then that it was going to be tougher than he thought to get Lumina to listen to him. "When I brought you and your friends here to this island, I thought things would turn out fine. I thought I was preventing needless death. But you made me realize that I committed bloodless homicide."

Lumina silently fixed her bangs.

"You see, Lumina-I brought you and your friends here with the expectation that you would be integrated into our society without too much difficulty. And when you all were fully assimilated, you would bring a bit of your own culture into our culture. This would in turn improve our society as a whole and everyone would be happy in the end. But I now see a major flaw in my ideal situation. It may very well be impossible to ever fully assimilate you five into our society."

Lumina started the finishing touches on her hair.

"I can't yet tell you why you five are so important to the future of this island. Doing so would make the situation even more volatile and unpredictable than it already is. I'm beginning to think that maybe I made a mistake in choosing you five to come here. That's why I'm going to make you an offer."

Lumina's hair was fixed. The mention of an offer caused Lumina to turn around and face Photus, "Go on."

"In four to six months I will be able to send you back to your homes. As of now I don't know how to give you back your old body but I will spend all the time I can trying to figure out a way to do so."

Lumina was skeptical, "If we are so important to the future of this place why would you be willing to send us back?"

"It's quite simple really. You are important to our future but you will not be helpful if you aren't a productive member of our society. If you five can't survive outside our own society then you won't survive here. If you five can't live here without being miserable, then why force you to live here?"

"Well, it took a while but at least now you are thinking about how we feel about things. Why not just allow us to go back right now? Why force us to wait four to six months, hmmm?"

"You make it sound as if teleportation and the manipulation of timelines is simple. Let me tell you right now that it isn't. I could transport you back home right now with no problem. The catch though would be that the timeline would remain unaffected by your return and you would be penniless, without a family, and homeless. To send you back AND adjust the timeline for your arrival we need several variables to be in our favor."

"And just what would those variables be?"

"The variables mostly are things that release strong electromagnetic waves. The sun is the biggest factor. The moon is also a large factor because it reflects the sun's energy. Stars, planets, and even the temperature have an effect on this type of antiscience. One cannot be sure when all the variables will be just right; but the variables are correctly aligned about once every 4 to 6 months."

"And you swear that during these 4 to 6 months you'll be researching on ways to get our old bodies back?"

Photus looked out the window, "That's where the offer comes in."

With something like this there was always a catch. As much as Lumina hated making a deal, she felt compelled to listen, "You see Lumina, trying to do what has never been done before would be a huge sacrifice on not just my part but on this entire city's part. If I spend more time figuring out how to fix your problem, that means I would spend less time I spend improving the city. I'll need you to make a sacrifice to make my efforts worthwhile."

Lumina knew she was going to not like this, "What kind of sacrifices are we talking about here?"

Photus looked her in the eye, "I don't think I am asking too much. All I want is for you to give this place a chance. I'm asking for you to actually interact with the people here. To go outside of the town center and interact with other people beyond your friends. Even make some new friends. To go out and search for what our city has to offer. Is that too much to ask?"

~He's pretty much guaranteed that we can go home when the heavens align or whatever. He can't say that his research will get any results. So whether or not we do it we'll probably still go back home as girls. But I think faking some sincerity isn't too high a price to pay in order to have a chance of getting our old bodies back. I can fake an interest in anything. But what about the others? I doubt Terren would go for it. Zephia is also a question too.~ Lumina voiced her concerns, "What if some of my friends don't want to give this place a chance?"

Photus nodded his head, "Obviously you have no control over what your friends' actions are. I suppose that as long as you give this place a chance and try to get them to do the same that the deal is on. But please don't encourage isolation. If you do the deal is off. Do we have an agreement?" Photus held out his hand.

Lumina regarded the outstretched palm, ~He'll send us back home whether we do this or not. So we really have nothing to lose from this. But still-- I can probably get more out of this deal. Hmmm, I wonder...~

Lumina kept her hand in her lap, "I'll accept your offer on one condition."

"And that would be?"

"I want you to remove the spell you put on me. The one that is supposed to comfort me. I want it removed."

Photus squinted, "You want it removed?"

"Yeah, what's so difficult to understand? I want the spell removed. You have something against it?"

"Well no I don't have anything against removing your spell. You could have asked me to remove it anytime you wanted. I placed that spell on you because I thought you would have wanted it."

"Why would I have wanted a spell that messes with my emotions?"

"Well I placed it on you because I thought you would want help easing your troubles."

"Hey Photus, if you want to ease my troubles, make my life easier. Don't make me more tolerant of my problems."

Photus paused and then nodded his head, "Hmmm, I've never looked at it that way before. But it is true, I did nothing to solve the problem."

"You have a bad habit of not looking at things a different way."

Photus didn't know what to say. A teenage girl had never belittled him before. He knew this girl was sharp; it was one of the reasons he had chosen her to be one of the five. But he had expected for her to eventually see things his way. But she was forcing him to see things a different way-- her way.

He didn't get it. When he first brought the "girls" here, he was so sure of his decisions. But the more he talked to Lumina, the less confident in his decisions he was. Even when he thought he was helping, he was making a mistake. He hoped his decision to hold off on telling the girls why they were here was the right one and that Lumina wouldn't prove that decision to be foolish also.

Photus finally gave up on responding to Lumina's comment and just instructed her, "I'm going to remove the spell. Just hold still."

Lumina grabbed Photus's wrist before he could put his hand on her head, "You have to promise to remove the spells you placed on my friends too."

"After we determined that the original spells were counterproductive we removed them from all of you. But as far as I know, none of the other girls had second spells placed on them. You were the only one."

Lumina raised an eyebrow, "Why was I the only one?"

"Because I thought that spell would help you. I guess my good friends decided that the spells wouldn't be of help. But if they did place a spell on your friends I promise that they'll remove it before the day is through."

Lumina looked into his eyes, trying to read him. She let go of his wrists, "Ok, continue."

Photus nodded and put his hand on Lumina's forehead. Closing his eyes he recited something in English. It depressed Lumina to hear something in English and not understand it. It was one more way she was reminded that the Troco Alquas had affected even her brain.

When Photus had finished his incantation, Lumina somehow felt lighter. She figured that the sensation was probably just a mental reaction, but she still felt better.

Photus opened his eyes up and dryly stated, "It's done. Now, do you accept my offer?" He held his hand out for a handshake.

Lumina carefully regarded the outstretched palm. Before grasping it she had to remind herself that she had nothing to lose by making this deal. With a firm grip, she took his hand and gave him a quick handshake, "Very well then. We have a deal. But I warn you Photus, if I find out you're lying, we will find some way to make you pay."

Deciding it was best to let her last comment go, Photus gave her a warm smile, and began to walk out of the room, "Do not worry about it. I will keep my end of the bargain. And you won't regret your decision. You'll soon realize that this place isn't the hellhole you seem to think it is. It's a rather delightful and beautiful place. And you're going to love the people who live here. Well, I must be going. The plant isn't going to finish itself."

Lumina poked her head out of her door to make sure Photus was gone. With his absence confirmed, Lumina exhaled, "I need to get the girls together. Boy, this is gonna be one interesting meeting."
* * *

Lumina leaned up against her door. Flare lied on the bed idly staring at the ceiling. Zephia rested at the edge of the bed and casually wiggled her toes. Terren sat on the floor with her head resting on her palm. Of course, there was one more person who was supposed to be there.
A frantic knocking was heard on the other side of the door. With a sigh, Lumina opened the door where a gasping Tidranna stood, "I'm huff sorry I'm huff late. I huff lost track of huff time. Did I huff miss anything?"

Lumina's response dripped with sarcasm, "Yeah Tidranna, we went over all our plans and ideas without you."

Tidranna maturely replied, "Humph!"

Terren voiced her observation; "We're all here now. We can get the meeting started. You sounded like you had something to say Lumina. Something big come up?"

Lumina nodded, "Yeah, umm-- I finally had the chance to talk to Photus."

Silence fell over the room. Zephia was the one who decided to break it, "So what did he say?"

Lumina began to pace the floor, "Well, here's the short version: we can go home in four to six months if we want to but we can't be guaranteed to get our old bodies back."

The other four unanimously spoke up, "WHAT?"

Lumina winced from their shouting, "Jeez, don't yell. Ok, here's how I understand it. Photus could teleport us back home whenever but the problem is that he erased our past selves from the history of the world so--"

Tidranna interrupted, "ERASED US FROM HISTORY?"

Lumina once again winced, "OKAY! Enough shouting! Yes, he erased us from the history back home so that our parents and siblings wouldn't have to deal with the pain of losing loved ones."

This troubled Tidranna, "He erased our past without our permission?!?!"

Terren scoffed, "He's already kidnapped us and transformed us without our permission. I don't see why you're so shocked that he would erase our pasts without our consent. Heck, it may be the only thing he's done that makes sense. At least our parents won't have to suffer while we suffer."

Hoping to stave off an argument between Tidranna and Terren, Lumina continued, "So as I was saying, Photus could send us back at anytime but can't restore our pasts. In four to six months though, he'd be able to reinsert us back into our timeline."

Terren nervously bit her fingernail, "Who cares if we can go home if we're going home in skirts? How we getting back with our manhood intact?"

"Photus said that he doesn't know how to fix the change that made us female. But he also pointed out that just cause he doesn't know how to fix it doesn't mean it can't be done. He said he would spend the next four to six months studying how to do that if we do something for him."

Flare sat up, "He wants to make a deal, eh? Let's here it."

"He said we had to give this place a chance. To interact with the people here and try to function in the society."

Terren disapproved, "Well screw that! I won't trust that weasel any farther than I can throw him. I won't make deals with someone I can't trust!"

Lumina pointed out a flaw in Terren's logic, "Well Terren you said you won't go home in a skirt. But now you're saying you won't trust Photus to find a way to transform us back. Unless you have an idea on how to transform us back, those two items are mutually exclusive goals."

Zephia gave her two cents, "I don't see the danger and interacting with the people. I don't know about you but I wasn't about to just hole myself up. I need to get outside every once and a while. The way I see it, if we actually make a half-ditched effort to interact with people and Photus finds something, we gain. If we make a half-ditched effort to interact with people and Photus can't find anything or lied, we don't lose. We don't have anything to lose from this deal."

Tidranna nodded, "I was thinking the same thing."

Lumina signaled her agreement with Zephia and Terren, "We don't know magic. Photus and the others are our only chance of getting our only bodies back. Making small talk occasionally seems like a small price to pay for a chance to once again pee standing up."

Terren stood up, "You girls can do what you want. I, however, am not am NOT going to do anything that Photus wants. I'm finding a way to get my body back with or without you ladies! Later!" Turning her back to the four girls, the emerald-haired beauty stormed out of the room.

Lumina yelled after her, "TERREN! WHERE DO YO--"

Zephia grabbed Lumina's wrist, "Don't do it Lumina. You know how stubborn she is when she's like this. We're all a bit frustrated right now and letting her blow off some steam is a good idea."

Tidranna added her two cents in, "Even if you do talk to her you'll just end up arguing with her. It's a no win situation. Easy decision if you ask me."

Lumina ripped her hand free from Zephia's grasp and made for the door. Before grabbing the knob, her shoulders sagged, "Arrrrg!-- You two are right. Ya'll are right-- I just wish she'd-- that she would just not take it so personally when we show her that's she's wrong."

Tidranna shrugged, "Well, we did make it look like it was her against us. She's been pretty understanding up until now. It took longer than I expected for her to explode at one of us. I figured that in this situation, she'd have little patience towards us."

Disappointedly shaking her head, Lumina trudged around the room before she realized something, "Hey Flare, you were quiet through that whole ordeal. It isn't like you to hold back info. What is it you're thinking about?"

"Hey Flare, something on your mind?"

Flare cleared her throat, "Ah-hem, this may sound a bit rude but I think this whole agreement thing is a bit trivial since it now appears that we're going home in a few months regardless of what we do. What I'm curious about is why we are here. Photus didn't tell you anything about that, did he?"

Lumina smirked, "How'd you know that?"

Flare smiled, "Actually I didn't. But I assumed that had he told you why we were here, you would have told us that first. But because he didn't tell you, you led off with what you thought was the better news. I've noticed you always like to start off on the best note you have."

Lumina shrugged, "Nice read of me. Anyway, all he really said was that our presence here somehow ensured the future's safety. Anybody have any ideas on that?"

Tidranna shrugged. Zephia shook her head. Gears turned inside Flare's brain. After a few seconds, Flare reached into her pocket saying, "I think I just had an idea."

"Well, let's here it."

Flare pulled a folded piece of paper out and laid it on the floor. Carefully unfolding the faded paper, Flare revealed the map hidden on the inside. Flare began speaking, "I found this map two days ago in Embro's office. Unlike the last map I had, it tells me north, south, east, and west. Here is the island." She traced the island with her finger. Then, pointing to an area of orange on the map, she continued, "This orange area in the northwest corner of the island is the city limits of Bikacanus. Ever noticed what surrounds the entire city?"

Zephia, "Trees?"

Tidranna, "Water?"

Lumina, "Nature?"

Flare rubbed the temples of her head, "WALLS! THE CITY IS SURROUNDED BY FREAKING 35 FOOT WALLS!"

Zephia, "Sheesh!"

Tidranna, "Sorry!"

Lumina, "Well you didn't have to get snippy!"

With a vexed exhale, Flare continued, "Ok, so the city is surrounded by 35 foot walls. Anybody see why that is strange on an island?"

The three were about to make sarcastic responses when Flare cut them off, "You know what, I should just avoid asking questions. Anyways, it's odd because walls that big would be used to protect your city. What would they be protecting it from? Animals?"

Zephia pondered that, "35 foot walls would be a bit overkill for keeping the local wildlife out."

Flare nodded, "My point exactly. Whatever they are keeping out must be able to jump over walls that are about 10 feet tall. Only thing I know of that could find a way to scale those kinds of walls are humans."

Tidranna scratched her head, "So who would be trying to get in?"

Flare shrugged, "Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe people who committed crimes and were kicked out? Exiles seem to be the only solution. That's why I find this interesting." Flare pointed to a small black area on the other side of the island, "The shape looks oddly familiar. It looks just like the shape of Bikacanus, only smaller. I think that may be an exile city."

Lumina raised an eyebrow, "Are you suggesting that Bikacanus is having problems keeping out these exiles we can't confirm?"

Flare scratched her neck, "Well think about it. You said that Photus said the reason we're here deals with the safety of the future. Safe from what? I say safe from these exiles."

Zephia shook her head, "If we were brought all the way over here to make the future safe, then Photus ain't just having problems with these people. He'd have to be at war with them. Also, how would we help insure the safety of the future? We gonna be trained as warriors or something?"

Flare frowned, "I think it would be more like giving birth to warriors."

Lumina's head spun with such force she almost had whiplash, "What? Give birth? Look I know we have all had the idea that we're just breeding material at least once but let's think about that first before we jump to conclusions. If he wanted to make babies he could just employ the women on the island for that job. Why would they import and transform us for that gig?"

Flare rubbed the back of her neck, "Well I don't really have a way to explain why they would do that. We're missing key pieces to the puzzle. But I think I might have found a way to figure it out." Flare addressed the map, "See this X drawn here on the northern coast of the island? It's a rich color of red. The rest of the map is faded. That tells me that the mark has been made recently. The only thing I can think of that has happened recently on the coast is our arrival."

Zephia's hope was sparked, "We now know where we arrived? We can go investigate the place."

Flare gave her a sagely look, "We only know how to get there. How to get out of the city is a different story. As far as I can tell there is no way out without Photus knowing. I doubt he'd approve of us just traipsing outside city walls. But I don't think that where we arrived will be as helpful as this spot." Flare placed her finger on another equally red X on the map, a point near the bottom of the mountains, "This mark is the exact same as the one by the island. I think this spot has something to do with us also. And because it hasn't been shown to us, I think that it has to be more important than the beach X."

Lumina nodded, "That makes a lot of sense. But as you said, we can't get out of the city without Photus knowing."

Flare gave Lumina a fox-like smile, "I have an idea. But I want to work it out a bit before I go blabbing my mouth off."

Tidranna was a bit behind on the conversation, "It's nice that we know where to go looking for clues but I'm a bit confused as to why we care. Photus said he'd tell us soon. Why risk pissing him off?"

Lumina gave Tidranna a kind but firm rebuke, "Tidranna, I can see why you'd ask that but personally I want to know first hand if Photus is telling us the truth as to why we're here. I've blindly trusted him this whole time. It's time we find out what is up."

Thanks,
Jay