The Fine Print✔️

Chapter 3

As I sit outside the cave (that had not only changed my destiny, but my gender as well), I curse my choice of words.

'The part about 'Without revealing my Identity' was probably the phrase that had got me into trouble. 

 The body I am presently occupying feels like mine but also not mine. 

 Well, I am not actually occupying it now, am I? No. It is my body. I will get used to it. I will adapt. Like I always do.

To make the best out of bad situations and to think positively we're my greatest strengths. These qualities that had not only helped me survive in the palace but also helped me endure my adoptive parents' unfair treatment. 

 I had lost my parents and freedom, yet, nothing had changed how I was taught to look at life. 

 Mother had always said, 'If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.'

 Well, life has given me lemons now. 

 I stand up and take a deep breath. 

 First things first, now that I am a man, I definitely had to check myself out. You know, the bits that mattered, and by that, I mean my face, obviously.  

In all the excitement of checking my size, I mean, my physical attributes, I had forgotten that I had, in fact, asked for not one but two wishes. Thus I had conveniently forgotten that there would be one more fuck up from my side.

I walk to the stream intending to disrobe, but before I can do so, my eyes fall on a pale blue cloth floating in the stream. 

 Being a curious person by nature, I go to inspect the said cloth. 

 'Men's outer robes. Probably belong to a palace servant.' I realize picking it up. 

 Though wet and a little unflattering, the robes I realize can come in handy given my present predicament. That is me, a man, dressed in female attire.

With my next move in place, I get out of the stream. I have barely taken a few steps when I see another piece of clothing floating downstream. The only difference is that these robes are still on a body. 

 You could have given me a few minutes before fulfilling my wish to be a hero, Weredra! I curse the creature and make my way into the cold stream again. 

 'I hope I am not too late.' I pray, wrapping my arms around the body and drag it out of the stream. I lower the man on the dry patch of grass under the huge tree next to the stream.

The man's face is partially covered by thick locks of hair. I push it away from his face.

 'Jackpot!' I mutter, looking at the unconscious man with the most angelic face I had ever seen. 

 I blink several times. 'How can a man be this beautiful!?'

I stare at the man's high cheekbones and straight sharp nose, and bow-shaped lips. The mole just below his lower lip begs to be tasted. It's like my brain is paralyzed by the sudden attack of his gorgeous everything. Not that I have had a chance to look at his everything.

 I don't know for how long I stare before someone kicks me from behind. 

 I yelp, and I fall forward right on the lips that had me mesmerized just minutes or probably seconds ago.

I know I should turn back and defend myself or at least punish the rude person, but the feel of the soft lips on mine makes me want to thank the person who had kicked me.

I know that the right thing to do, the decent thing to do, is to remove my lips from where they seem to slowly brush against the unconscious man's very enticing lips, but I find myself incapable of acting even remotely decent!