Elspeth

	She and Ajani came to this peaceful plane about a week ago, after Elspeth had escaped the Theros underworld and grip of the gods without resorting to becoming a returned. She knew they had to stop New Phyrexia, but this respite was so she could mentally recover; the two of them stayed in an abandoned farm house and did what they could to repair it during their time. Elspeth walked out of the house without her armor or weapon, a feat that she was thankful she could accomplish in this small village, and walked down the small run down road. Ajani had gone off somewhere before she was awake, he might have gone to another plane or just to get some food since this area seemed tolerant of Leonin.

	Making her way down the road, Elspeth scanned the fields for any people but failed to find them; it seemed she was alone in her afternoon walk when she felt something brush against her leg. Reflex had the knight errant backed away quickly and grab a post as if she had intention of pulling it out of the ground, but what she found was a small white kitten with a pink bow around its neck looking up at her with large eyes. A redness came over Elspeth’s face and she knelt down, holding her hand out as an act of good will to the cat who had startled her a moment before. “Hello little one,” she said as the kitten approached and rubbed its face against her hand, “perhaps I could learn some bravado from you.” The kitten mewed once expectedly, then again looking up at her as if it was speaking a common tongue she simply was not smart enough to understand. “White as death,” she mused about the cat as it mewed again, “I wonder what Ajani would think.” In her moment of whim, she scooped the small cat into her arms and gave a quick glance to make sure no one was on the path with her. She took the cat back to their house with the intention of finding its owner and returning as soon as she had given it something to eat.

	She set the kitten down in the house and went to get some cream for it to drink and dried meat to chew on, she really didn’t have much in the way of food which was a possible reason Ajani was gone. As the kitten was eating and drinking, Elspeth made her way to her sword and contemplated taking it with her when she returned to cat but decided against such action even if the lack of weight would unnerve her. She wouldn’t even settle for a knife, she convinced herself that she didn’t need her weapon here and whatever dangers she might face she could scare off with her magic if she absolutely had to. Maybe Elspeth wanted desperately to stay on this plane which brought her a calmness, if she liked it maybe she could just stay here; her thoughts of peace were doused by memories of Phyrexians resurfacing in the back of her mind. She knew deep in her heart that New Phyrexia was a looming darkness over all planes and would consume even this idyllic land if left alone. She shook her head, clearing it of those thoughts and went over to pick up the kitten “Let us get you back home, I’m sure there’s a little girl waiting for you.” When she went to pick up the kitten this time, it threw a fit and began scratching and biting without warning; Elspeth moved away from the cat and put up her hands and when she looked the cat was gone without a trace. The door was open from when she came in, but was that really enough time for the cat to flee without some noise?

	Elspeth spent the rest of the day looking in the area around the house for the missing kitten, partly concerned for its safety, but came up with nothing. Night came and Elspeth reasoned that it probably went back to its owner, she had heard while she lived in Bant that cats could find their way home no matter where they were. Inexplicable exhaustion suddenly overtook her as she locked up the house with her companion still away on whatever business he had, affording her just enough energy to put on her night clothes and crawl into her bed. With a passing thought about meaning to ask whether he could find his way back home from anywhere he went, Elspeth drifted off to sleep.

	She woke with the sun hitting her face with its warmth; Elspeth sat up in her bed and saw that the door had been left open which meant that Ajani must have come home some time during the night. She got out of bed and without so much as a thought she walked out of the door to see the farming community far away in the valley as it had been the day before. She smiled as she took in the sight but then smoke began to plume from the village, then screaming started as visible fires erupted from the buildings. Elspeth turned around quickly to get her clothes on so she could help the village but she was confronted by a young woman pale as snow, seventeen at most. “Why bother?” the girl shrugged, standing in the doorway of the house, something besides her paleness struck Elspeth as odd but she didn’t exactly bother with figuring out what it was.

	“Out of my way, I need to help them,” She pushed the compliant girl aside to get inside the house and get dressed in more than just a nightgown in case there was fighting.

	The next thing she knew, she was running towards the village and leaping over barriers as smoke filled the air; Elspeth could hear the clashing of weapons and the pale girl managed to keep up with her. “You know they’re not going to thank you anyway, you’ll just be that crazy sword lady,” the young woman told Elspeth, not missing a leap or step, “you know: again.”

	“I can’t sit by and let people get hurt.” Elspeth said, she was in sight of the fighting and prepared to summon soldiers to guard the innocents when she landed back first in a grassy field with the sun gently caressing her body.

	“Ex-actly.” the girl said standing over Elspeth, this time slightly older and with yellowed eyes ,though she remained pale as snow otherwise. “You don’t just stand by, you can always leave; you are a planeswalker after all. Who wants to see all that suffering and all those hurt feelings because you couldn’t save someone’s husband or wife?” Elspeth pushed herself up and the girl moved out of the way of Elspeth’s fist.

	“You can’t talk like that, I need to go back,” She said and paused as her mind came to a slow, the time skips and the sudden change, “this is a dream, this isn’t real.”

	“Your next title should be Elspeth, Master of the Obvious.” The girl said with a catty laugh and Elspeth looked to her, recognizing now that she had strange cat like ears and what appeared to be a tail swinging behind her.

	“Who are you?” Elspeth said, her sword appearing in her hand. The strange girl may have trapped her in a dream, but she would use that to her advantage.

	“I’m you,” she shrugged, “this is just one of your dreams reflecting on your failures as a human being, and I’m here to tell you of a revolutionary new way to forget your problems.” She smiled as Elspeth’s grip loosened on her fading weapon. “Just say ‘Fuck it, not my problem.’” Color seemed to be coming to the girl’s skin though she still was unnaturally pale by non-vampire standards.

	“I can’t do that,” she said, trying to force herself to wake up, “I had a chance to do it on Theros but I refused, I can’t turn my back on innocent people just to live the easy life.” She paced back and forth across the field, she could feel the sun trying to relax her but she had to stay vigilant.

	“No, you could do that, you just have a hero complex,” the girl said appearing in front of Elspeth the moment she turned around in her pacing; the girl’s eyes became catlike and more intense, a pink ribbon wrapping itself around her neck.

	“You, you’re the cat, some kind of monster!” Elspeth gripped her sword and slashed at the girl, who stepped out of the way. She swung again with renewed anger but the cat-girl seemed to avoid her attacks without effort.

	“You mean the cat that upped and left as soon as you helped it? That seems to be a recurring theme for you, don’t it?” She asked ducking another swing. “Oh, and speaking of things that resent you even though you helped them, Bant.”  She faded and Elspeth’s sword struck a head stone and the planeswalker looked up to see she had been taken to a graveyard. There were three women huddled around a grave talking “You know what they’re talking about?” The Girl asked Elspeth. “They’re talking about you, not the good things either… well not in a good way at least.” Elspeth backed away; it wasn’t real, just a scene from her fears of how people viewed her. As Elspeth backed away from the group, they fell silent and looked to her. “Why didn’t she use her magic earlier?” The Girl whispered into Elspeth’s ear “Why didn’t she save Richard?” A cruel grin formed on her lips as Elspeth put her hands on her head “Why, why ,why,why,why-“ she said and the scene changed once more to the green field with the women glaring at Elspeth fading.

	“Please, stop this,” Elspeth thought she had put that guilt behind her when she escaped the underworld but this girl seemed to be intentionally opening up old wounds, “I don’t know what you aim to do, but…stop.”

	“They always ask ‘why’, don’t they?” The Girl began to gain more of a complexion in her skin, her hair becoming darker. “Why me, why not me, why weren’t you there to help him, why didn’t you save him?” She pushed Elspeth onto her back and got on top of her. “Here’s the secret Elspeth, you know it I know, they never say ‘thank you’; it’s always something that you’ve done wrong in cleaning up their messes.”

	Elspeth shoved the girl off of her and got up, trying to gather her resolve against this attack. “That’s wrong,” she said bluntly, “you’re wrong. They are appreciative and even if they aren’t, I’m not fighting so people will like me.”

	The Girl appeared behind Elspeth and wrapped her arms around Elspeth’s waist. “They appreciate you? The gods had a funny way of showing that, Heliod killed you and Erebos screwed you in your deal for Daxos. What about Mirrodin, or wait, New Phyrexia? You didn’t really solve anything there, except getting your friends killed.” The Girl’s hair became a dark brown as her complexion became healthy, Elspeth could see her face staring back at her practically when she looked back. The scenery changed to a strange plane where they were surrounded by ruins and standing in ankle deep water.

	The Planeswalker pulled away from the girl and turned to face her “Get out of my head, I need to do this,” she said backing away as the girl approached her.

	“You only think you need to do this, I think you need to relax and let your troubles melt away.”

	Elspeth had to resist the temptation to agree with her, but there was a warm feeling rising up in her body. “No, I need to, I can’t rest until I defeat the Phyrexians.”

	“Let someone else do it,” The Girl dismissed and moved in to pin Elspeth against a pillar she hadn’t noticed or perhaps hadn’t been there before, “there are so many other planeswalkers in the universe, it’s not even funny. Surely one of them will save the day this time.” Elspeth was about to object but a finger on her lips stopped her and she became aware that The Girl’s body was becoming more voluptuous as it was pressed against hers.  “You just need to sit back, and relax. You fought the good fight and won; you deserve to take it easy, don’t you?”

The girl’s face was close to Elspeth’s and her breathing got heavier as she felt the warmth spreading through her body. “I…” She could smell the girl, she needed to resist whatever this was, it wasn’t real. She could feel the heat between their two bodies, and felt her arms pulling the girl against her body despite her mental objections. “I w-” she hesitated, her mind warring as one side threatened to pull ahead.

“…Yes?” The Girl asked expectantly.

“I want this,” Elspeth said quietly, eeking out the words as if that’s the only way she’d let herself say them.

“I know you do, all you need to do is open your eyes,” The Girl said and moved in to kiss Elspeth tenderly.

That’s when the Planeswalker woke up in her own bed, it was night time still but everything seemed brighter and she could hear the breeze outside much clearer than before. Her body felt strange as she sat up, something swishing in the covers behind her. Elspeth bolted up and began feeling her body, cupping her breasts and realizing they were larger than before. She rushed over to one of the windows and held up a light so she could see her reflection in it, her ears had changed and eyes became catlike. “I’m, her?” she asked in a slight moment of confusion before a happy feeling washed over her. She had a beautiful body no one would recognize her in, the means to leave on a moment’s notice and the desire to do so. “This is just…wonderful,” she purred as she examined her body. Elspeth moved her hand up to her neck where she felt something which she pulled loose and it turned out to be the pink ribbon; she let it drop to the floor, she didn’t belong to anyone after all. Elspeth imagined the strange plane she was in in her dream, it felt so real thinking back, and could feel it being pieced together in her mind the more she thought of how the water moved. The Plane came together in her mind, and with that Elspeth took her sword and flung herself across the blind eternities to see what this new plane had for her.
-
Sometime the next afternoon Ajani appeared outside of the house, he had gotten a disturbing message about Planeswalkers vanishing but didn’t wish to alarm his companion. “Elspeth,” he said gruffly, unlocking the door, “are you still asleep?” He stood at the entrance to the small house, nothing was out of place save a small saucer and plate but it felt wrong still. Ajani proceeded inward and peeked into her room, only finding an empty bed. “Elspeth?” He called again “Are you home?” He looked in the other rooms before stepping on a pink ribbon which didn’t seem like something that should just be lying around the house. He checked the main area again only to discover that Elspeth’s armor was still there but her sword missing. He grumbled something and locked the door to the house before flinging himself across the blind eternities to find his missing friend.