They were hands. Gigantic human hands like the ones I had seen and not really cared about my entire life. Big, flat, and furless. Skin. Long long fingers with round little nails at the end. No claws. A scream buried in my throat, I wiggled them, just to make sure. And they wiggled. I screamed.

It was a quick scream, just something to express how I felt. Then I shoved those hands to the ground as I gasped for breath. It seemed I needed a lot of breath just to make my chest rise. And what a chest it was.

It then occurred to me that I was completely naked. More naked than I had ever been. I had always been in the habit of wearing clothes, but fur had always counted for something. This time around, I had nothing on.

Human. I was a human, no doubt about it. I was huge and furless and had every appendage I had ever seen on a human. I felt like screaming again, though my mind happily fiddled with the irony of the situation. This was who I was supposed to be, was it not?

What would have happened if I hadn't known about my birth? I would have been pretty much all the more freaked out.

"All right, Babiole," I muttered. "This is… this is just magic. You don't care anything for magic, but apparently you have had plenty of it already and this is just a nice little spell to set everything back as it should be." But I suddenly wanted to be a monkey again. Being a monkey was safe.

I flattened my long bare feet against the grass and pushed myself up. Very slowly. I hated to think of myself as a coward but there was no doubt this was pretty much terrifying. Even huddled down I had been bigger than I had ever been and each inch I rose into the air without the comfort for a human body beneath me just built up the screams I was not screaming. My legs were much too long and too unsteady for any proper balance. My knees were still mostly bent when I tumbled forward.

Something long, thick, and black fell into my face when I fell, and I took it in my hands. Hair. I had hair. No fur, but I had hair the exact same color. And bunches of it. More hair than I had ever seen.

I tried standing again, this time with more success. My feet and legs shook under me and the hair was more weight than I could nearly stand, but if I concentrated and I pretended I was merely on someone's shoulder it wasn't so bad.

The hair, I noticed fell right past my knees. Who had hair that long? That didn't keep it bundled up? Then again, if I had been too busy being a monkey for sixteen years I would have never bothered to cut my hair.

The box lay at my feet, and I didn't dare risk picking it up. Magic. What kind of magic was this? Well, I couldn't be worried about it now. I was a human without a stitch of clothing. The clothes I had worn earlier had burst with my growth. My pretty gown was no more than a few handkerchiefs.

And if things could not possibly get any worse, the sound of horses coming my way reached my giant human ears.

My first reaction was to climb into the tree, so I went with it. I had never felt so clumsy. I was easily able to grab the boughs above, but I did not know what to do with my feet. They scraped against the bark, unable to cling to anything.

The next thing I knew the sound of trotting horses had stopped. With a silent swear I dove behind the tree.

"Girl! Miss!" an old woman's voice cried out.

I had been seen. My naked humanness had been spotted.

"Well, don't just stand there, Gilles, go see if the poor thing is lost!"

Gilles was a male name. I knew enough about human behavior to not let a man see me like this. "Don't!" I cried.

The old woman's voice laughed. "Ah, so she is there. Dear girl, come out here so we can see you!"

Apparently they had not noticed I was naked. I took a deep breath and quickly thought of a lie. "I… I was swimming in the river, and it seems I have misplaced my clothes."

Silence.

I took another deep breath and released it, somewhat amazed at how much my lungs could hold. Peering around the tree, I saw the carriage. A beautiful thing, with an elderly driver and four white horses. Inside I could see the face of an old woman with a powdered face and hair pulled tightly back.

"Gilles, go through my trunk," the old woman's voice commanded. "Find something for the poor girl. We can't leave her out here naked with ruffians about!"

"Yes, My Queen," said the old man with his creaking voice as he slowly descended from the driver's seat. On ground, he was much faster, and before I knew it he had pulled a very large gold-plated trunk from the back of the carriage and was flipping through it.

At last he pulled out a dress. It was not what I would have chosen, much too fancy, like the carriage. It was a deep red and trimmed with more lace than I had ever seen. "This should be small enough for a young girl."

"Take it to her, Gilles," the woman said impatiently. "Don't make her wait. No, take that back. Don't take it to her. Toss it to her and respect her dignity, the poor thing!"

Gilles nodded, hobbled a few feet closer to my tree, and with surprising strength tossed the dress for me. My ridiculously long arms were too clumsy to catch it, but it landed close enough for me to pull toward me. I slipped it over my head. It was much too big, but thankfully covered me. I was now a human girl wearing a dress. With a deep breath, I stepped out and nearly tripped over the dress' hem as well as my big feet.

"Much better," the Queen said after looking me over with scrutiny. "Now get in the carriage immediately and tell me what has been going on. I don't believe for a second this lie about you misplacing your clothes. You're perfectly dry."

Not used to disobeying queens, I obeyed. Gilles opened the door for me, and I somehow managed to get myself up onto the bench across from the Queen. Walking was far more difficult than I had imagined, but at least I could blame it on the too-big dress.

"Start moving again, Gilles," the Queen commanded. "I don't want to keep Queen Flore up too late. She expects me today."

Queen Flore? I bit my lip.

The Queen did not so much as smile at me. I half-expected her to criticize my lack of royal respect; I would have deserved it, but in my state it was the last thing on my mind. I couldn't even speak.

As soon as the horses had started back into a steady rhythm the Queen spoke again. "Well, don't bore me! What happened out there? The last thing I expected was to see a naked girl running about. Were you robbed?"

"I was swimming…"

The Queen rolled her eyes. They were a magnificently bright brown, the only time I had ever seen brown so bright. Her face was smooth, only her heavily lined eyes and white hair telling her age. She was dressed more extravagantly than I was in a dress that seemed to consist of poofs and more colors than the rainbow. "Yes, yes, you said. But you're dry now, so you're either lying or your clothes were stolen while you were swimming. So immodest, swimming in the river."

I had no idea how to reply.

"Did anyone hurt you?" she demanded.

I cast my eyes down. "No, Your Highness. No one did anything to me. Just took my clothes."

"You poor dear. Tell me your name, girl."

I almost said Babiole, but if this Queen did know Queen Flore I didn't want the names to become mixed. Especially if we were heading toward Queen Flore's kingdom. So I said the second thing that came to my mind, as ridiculous as it was. "Singette." A play on monkey. I could have smacked myself. "My name is Singette."

"Singette," the Queen repeated. "Unusual name. But pretty. Like you. It's a very pretty name."

Pretty? I was pretty? I had no time to think of myself being pretty.

"Where do you come from, Singette?"

"I…" I had no idea how to respond, so I let another lie develop. "My parents are dead. I was just traveling through when you found me."

The Queen sighed with pity, then reached over and patted my hand. "Well, I'll see that you are taken care of. Have you heard of Queen Flore? I'm traveling to visit her tonight."

So we were going to Queen Flore. Home. Except I just wanted to panic. They were supposed to see me like this? Except I was not Babiole, I was Singette.

"Unless you are going somewhere in particular, I will take you with me. We can get you cleaned up, get some food into you, and maybe figure out something to do with you."

"I would like that very much, Your Highness," I said demurely. I had to appear calm, at least somewhat calm, as the carriage grew closer and closer to home.

All the while my heart pounded and I was surprised the Queen did not hear a thing. Would I mess up and reveal that I knew Queen Flore? Would she somehow recognize me? Was this spell permanent or would I suddenly find myself a monkey again? I had no way of knowing, and the latter thought was frightening. I wanted to know for sure.

The Queen seemed through asking me questions and chatted about herself or kept happily silent. Her name was Patricia and she ruled over a tiny kingdom just beyond Queen Cerise's. I could hardly think of her as my mother. She had never married and had no children and was determined to carry her crown with her to her grave. She had no patience for silly immodest girls, men who played sports, and slow music. She was visiting Queen Flore for political purposes as the kingdoms had an alliance. She spoke in the same sharp voice with very little change in tone. I decided I liked her, though it was difficult to pay attention.

All I could think about was my body under this dress and the fact that despite my plans I was going to see Bastien again.

Darkness had long since fallen when the carriage pulled up, and true to her form Queen Flore was waiting to greet even though I knew she would have rather been in bed hours ago. Queen Flore was like that.

It was the same greeting I had seen time and time again over the years. The queens were polite and formal—clearly they did not see each other much. We were well into the palace before Queen Patricia bothered mentioning me.

"This is Singette, a stray I found on the way. She was robbed. I told her you would be hospitable. I'll be caring for her during the course of my stay."

I couldn't look at Queen Flore. Already I was a mess in my new gangly body and this ridiculous dress. I was so happy to be home, though. What had possessed me ever to leave? Hopefully my lack of social skills would be mistaken for respect and reverence. "Thank-you," I murmured.

But Queen Flore looked at me for a long time, then lifted my chin with her hands. I locked eyes with her for only a moment before casting my gaze down. "Singette. Welcome. Ask my servants for anything you would like." She smiled. "You're a beautiful girl."

So I had been told.

"I advise you to stay away from my son," she continued. "He has quite a reputation with girls. I'm trying desperately to marry him off."

Bastien could not see me like this.

I wound up spending the night in a room reserved for the finest of guests, one I had played in many times when I was young. Plans would be made for me in the morning. I didn't know what that meant.

There was a mirror in the room. I remembered the last time I had looked into the mirror and had tried to break it. Had I not liked my monkey face?

It took me four tries to look into the mirror. Each time I approached it, I became scared. But the fourth time I just did it.

I had seen enough humans to know what beauty was. Or at least I had thought so. As I stared at the girl in the reflection, I had no idea who she was or if she were pretty or not. Her skin was good, her eyes big and dark, and all that long black hair was rather shiny. But beautiful? I couldn't tell.

Truth be told, I didn't want to think about it.

I tried to curl up in the bed, but my body didn't seem to know how to do that. There was no tail to wrap around me, and I suddenly could not remember how humans slept.