Chapter 27 Izzy
IZZY
It was Sulnari, the second day of the weekend, and I had a packed day.
I was excited for my time at the beach with Tala this morning.
This afternoon, Vyns and I would go out and be seen as fake boyfriend and girlfriend, so he’d seem to be doing Saldrea’s bidding.
Though after our last — intense — talk, I still didn’t know what to say to him.
Finally, this evening, Myel had some time off, so we’d planned to spend some time together.
For the beach day with Tala, I wore the one-piece suit — because I didn’t need any more men interested in me — with a loose skirt.
The stairs down to the beach followed a natural crevice where part of the cliff had fallen away in a rockslide. It probably would have been possible to climb down the rocks, but stairs were much safer. The area was known as The Tumble, and Tala had agreed to meet me at the bottom.
She waved up at me when I reached the last series of steps. Apparently, she had no reservations about eyes on her, practically bursting out of a tiny bikini. I was worried she’d fall out of it, given the excited bouncing she was doing as I reached her.
“This is going to be so fun!” She beamed. “You don’t know what it’s been like here with no one to talk to.” It seemed she needed a friend as much as I did. “You look gorgeous by the way. That suit makes you look so sophisticated and refined. I love it!”
“Yours… will certainly make others look,” I said.
Tala rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that the point of a beach day? To get all the guys to stare at you?” I got the distinct impression she was on the hunt for a boyfriend.
“I have trouble believing guys haven’t noticed you,” I said with a flick of my gaze down to her rather incredible chest. I didn’t recall her being that buxom during our water magic class.
She laughed. “Oh, this is just my beach body. There’s no way I’d want to carry these things around all the time,” she said grabbing her breasts.
It took a moment for that to sink in. “Because… nymphs can change their form,” I said slowly.
She cocked her head, brow furrowed with an: of course look. Then she sighed, shoulders slumping. “Sorry, I forgot you’re not used to any of this, are you?”
I shrugged. “I’m here to learn, teach me the ways of the nymph, oh great master.”
She laughed. Then she got a quizzical look. “So… this body…” she motioned to me, “you’ve never changed it? This is what you’ve always looked like?”
I nodded. “Although, recently I’ve noticed my eyes and ears and hair changing a bit. That’s it.”
But then — finding it hard not to look at Tala’s massive chest — a realization hit me and my jaw fell open as things clicked into place.
It wasn’t just my hair and facial features that had changed.
I recalled first meeting Rook and how my bra had suddenly felt too tight.
I’d thought it just some arousal thing, but…
Even before that I’d had trouble finding bras that fit well.
They’d be perfect when I tried them on, but then they’d be far too tight sometimes while wearing them.
In short, my ears hadn’t been the only thing growing it seemed.
That made me wonder, if arousal caused my bust to grow, then…
Closing my eyes, I thought back to Rook’s steamy kiss last night, or my even steamier time with Myel. I focused on my breasts and — with a deep breath — sort of pushed a little.
“Oh! There you go!” Tala cheered.
I felt it before I opened my eyes and looked down. Thankfully my suit had some give to it, but I was nearly overflowing the confines of the stretchy cloth.
I breathed out and focused on reining myself in, then watched as I shrank back to “normal.” Though, I had to wonder what was normal for a being who could alter their appearance at will.
“That’s the first time I’ve changed anything on purpose,” I breathed, feeling just a little proud, but also weirded out by the experience. I looked up at Tala. “How do you do it, change and still stay… yourself?”
Tala laughed and hooked her arm in mine, starting a walk down the beach. Many other students were down here enjoying the sun and surf on the weekend, luckily, no one I knew seemed to be around.
“Nymphs are taught from an early age that appearance means little. If you can look however you want, then what really matters is what’s on the inside.
We’re taught about grace and kindness and joy.
I’ve heard there’s a saying in the human realm that beauty is skin deep? We nymphs take that to heart.”
How very enlightened of them, but then, if you didn’t have to worry about what you looked like, you could probably afford to not care about it. An odd duality.
“But… doesn’t it send the wrong message?” I asked. “If you’re wearing your beach body today and some guy likes it… won’t he be upset when your normal form is different?”
She shrugged. “If he is, then he’s not the right guy.” Another very enlightened way of thinking about it. “Also, there’s nothing to say my beach body isn’t also my in bed fooling around body.”
I laughed. That made sense. Show a man what he could have, even if it’s not all the time, because carrying around that much on your chest was bound to cause back problems.
“And do you just… think it into existence?” I asked. “Is it that easy?”
“Now I can,” she said with a laugh that spoke of experience and failure. “But there was a whole lot of mirror time, getting things right during my exploratory years.”
“Ah,” I said with a nod. So, if I really wanted to get things under control, I’d have to take some time to do just that, focusing on what I wanted to look like. Although… “Mine seems to shift according to how I’m feeling. Is there a way to stop that?”
She shrugged and it did things to her chest that had several guys around us drooling. “That’s also normal during puberty. Again, just takes time and control.”
So, a lot of practice. Got it.
We chatted for a while as we strolled down the beach. I learned a bit more about nymph life, and I did ask her about bindings, but as suspected, she didn’t know much more than: it’s something elves do, which constrains the body or mind or spirit in specific ways.
Then we switched to how to identify others, so I wouldn’t be too formal or informal with people. Tala pointed out examples of the different races around us which helped me get the hang of it.
It seemed the primary indicator of status was ear height.
Those with the tallest ears were elves. Dwarves’ ears were equally as tall, but they had a much darker complexion than elves, often with a silver or gold sheen.
Undines had ears which were nearly as tall, and a sylph’s were a touch shorter.
Dragons’ ears tended to angle back, not straight up.
Dragons also tended to be big, not a single one Tala pointed out was under six feet, even the women.
The races of the gentil caste: nymphs, dryads, seraphim, and concubi, all tended to have a shorter, less pointy ear, though still much more of a point than a human ear.
Pixies had short points to their ears and triton ears were slightly swept back with multiple points like spiky fish fins. Salmaeri ears had a tiny spike, barely swept up at all. Troll ears angled out from their head not up or back.
Hobgoblins had swept back ears, nearly flat on top. Ogres had round ears like humans, as did beastfolk. Though in the case of shifters the story went that elves had “cursed” them to be that way long ago.
There were some other unique identifiers. Salmaeri universally had flame red hair, which explained Rook’s look. Pixies had vibrant skin tones, undines and tritons had scales over parts of their body, and so on.
I didn’t see any titans on the beach and when I asked Tala, she shivered.
“You won’t find many who like titans around here. Too much bad blood. They’ve been our enemy since the dawn of time. It’s hard to believe we’re making peace now.” She lowered her voice so only I could hear it. “Though given what they say about Valnea…”
The queen regent?
“What do they say?”
“That she’s mad, completely insane. Who knows what she’s capable of?”
“Like peace with your mortal enemies?” As much as I didn’t like Saldrea, that wouldn’t be a horrible thing for her mother to accomplish.
Tala shook her head. “No, like bringing our mortal enemy among us to wreak havoc.”
Oh.
Yeah, that would be pretty crazy.
“You think she’s in league with them?”
“Many do.”
Wow. I’d have to talk to Vyns about this, this afternoon.
A few guys approached us then — mostly focused on Tala — and our conspiratorial conversation ended.
But it lingered in my mind for the rest of the morning as Tala and I swam and played and flirted with guys — well, she flirted — and sunbathed. All in all, a fun morning, though our little talk of the queen regent left me feeling on edge.
Because if Saldrea was as unstable as her mother, would it really be a good idea to piss her off?
Probably not.
Was I going to do it anyway?
Probably.
It was who I was. I didn’t react well to authoritarian figures dictating how I or anyone else lived. I’d just have to be careful.
For my sake…
And for the sake of anyone close to me, like Rook, Myel, perhaps even Vyns… and now Tala. I didn’t want any of them to get hurt because of my issues with authority.
But that wasn’t always how things worked out.