Miss Hemstitch passes you along to Housemistress Beeblossom

You and Fauna Aspen stand outside the Tutor's office as the Tutor's assistant, a tiny glowing mote, tells you in a high whining voice that Miss Hemstitch is busy getting the other first-years sorted but that the Housemistress has some time after supper.

Fauna sucks in her breath with a hiss. "Oh well," she says.

"What?" you ask.

She tilts her head. "Let's go," she says.

Once you're around a couple of corners from the Tutor's office, Fauna looks around with her wide-set, alert eyes.

"Housemistress probably wants a favor," she says.

"Oh?" you say.

"Betsy Larch warned me she likes a tumble with the students," Fauna says. "That might be what it is."

"Oh well," you say. "That isn't the worst thing I suppose."

"Well, aside from being against the Academy rules and fraught with, well, you know, every kind of danger," Fauna says. "Mostly envy, jealousy, and bitterness."

"How would you know?" you ask.

Fauna Aspen puts a hand on her hip. "Betsy Larch played favorites too," she says.

But when your time comes round to see the Housemistress, Bertha Beeblossom, she asks each of you questions about your interest in joining the work parties, nods, and tells you to see her after breakfast on the week-end to start your first day.

When you sleep, roll for RAPID GENDER CYCLING. You start in a hermaphroditic form with reduced sexual characteristics, following a last full gender of male.

⚂⚁ = 5.

On a 6 or less, describe a combination of features directed away from the last full gender or reversing direction from the previous intermediate state.

The last night's sleep before your work party is fraught with symbolism. You wander through the cards of the Tarot, sitting in the High Priestess' throne between the pillars of Mercy and Severity, and later you're wrestling the Angel of the Strength card, your arms and shoulders bulging with muscle as you assert your will. Later you balance on the riverbank, one foot on land, one in the water, as you negotiate a complicated alchemical operation.

You wake to find your body in disagreement with itself at about the navel. Above your waist, your chest and arms display the muscles and hair of a distinctly male figure, while below, your hips flare wide above a pair of well-padded buttocks. In front are the deep folds of a feminine sex, with a clitoris not quite big and long enough to count as a penis.

Your sheets are soaked with pungent sweat, so your first order of business is laundry and a bath. Blinking at yourself in the mirror, you decide to let the lower half decide, and head toward the women's baths.

After breakfast, the Housemistress leads a party of Beavertails out with tools in hand, dressed in plain work clothes, and organizes you to sweep, weed, and rake the trail, trim away encroaching branches, and polish up the rune stones marking the directions.

Fauna seems happy to be out, capering round on her hooves, running circles round the other students in between sieges of concentrated work. Despite Fauna's playful antics, she seems to be getting as much or more done than any of the rest of you. Mistress Beeblossom alternates between directing the students, picking plants for a gathering basket, and staring off one direction or another. Once in a while she lifts her wand and casts a spell to assist with a task or to perform some completely inobvious action.

Despite the cool of the autumn day, you work hard enough to be dripping with perspiration. You collect aches, scrapes, and smears of green and brown on your body and your work clothes.

Late in the afternoon, Mistress Beeblossom calls you all together, thanks you for your work, and directs a Prefect -- not Susan or Sandevin, someone you don't recognize -- to take the rest of the work party back to the House and put away the tools, leaving yourself and Fauna Aspen to stroll along with her.

"I was impressed by your interest," the Housemistress says. "And you have worked well today. I have not decided whether to grant your request -- it would be a special favor to you as first-years. However I would like to reward your dedication. Would you bathe with me?"

Fauna Aspen shoots you a knowing glance, then looks at the Housemistress and smiles. "Yes, Mistress Beeblossom," she says.

"Yes, Mistress Beeblossom, I would be honored," you tell her.

"Come with me," she says. Giving Fauna her basket to carry, she leads you both by the hand directly away from the trail. A mist rises from the ground, concealing you from others' eyes. The Housemistress steps confidently onward through the misty trees until she reaches a grass-fringed pool surrounded by nodding flowers. Thick twists of vapor rise from the pool, and you can feel the warmth from a short distance.

Roll +DILIGENCE(+2) to HAVE SEX with Mistress Beeblossom. On a 7+, you are granted a space on the work parties in the Weirding Woods along with Fauna.