The child centaur galloped deep within the forest, long brown locks flowing behind them. They reached the center of the forest, deep in the heart of it, where a rocky cave led to deep underground. Descending downwards, the child felt a tug within them, something was drawing them to the darkness beneath. Under the ground revealed a long glittering lake that appeared to stretch for miles. It glowed and twinkled many different colors, reflecting in the child centaur's light colored eyes as they looked on in amazement. The reflections of the magical water bounced off the rocky ceiling, mirroring the appearance of a night sky.
The child's amazement soon faded as reality dawned on them, their lower horse body comfortably sat near the edge of the water. A ripple expanded in the magical water, more appeared as if invisble raindrops were falling from the ceiling. The child was too asborbed in their emotions to notice, the ripples began to appear one by one towards the edge where the child was sitting. Suddenly, a hand reached out of the water, clutching onto the child's sleeve, snapping them out of their daze, "Wha-?"
Before the child could react, they were pulled into the magical lake. What the child thought was magical and relaxing water at first glance, it was dark and murky underneath. They tried to look at what pulled them down but all they saw was darkness interwining their body. The hand gripped tight onto their left arm, they felt another pair of hands grasp their right, a soft hissing whisper soothingly talked near their left ear,
"It hurts, doesn't it, little sibling?" The whisper was gentle and soft.
"Running away from your problems as usual, sibling , eh?" A smooth as silk deep whisper appeared against their right ear.
The child centaur trembled, trying to jerk free of their grip, their horse legs jerking and kicking at the murky water. "Let me go!" They cried and after a pause, they noticed the water wasn't gushing down their throat... they could breathe underwater...?!
"See, little sibling, there is nothing to be afraid of." The gentle whisper continued.
"Who are you?!" The child centaur jerked. "Why are you holding me down?!"
"You know who we are, dear sibling," The soft voice answered while the deep voice boomed, "We never hold you down, you do it to yourself, silly sibling of ours!"
"W-why are you calling me sibling...? I am an only child!" The child became frightened by the uncertainity that was growing within their chest.
"Incorrect... I was the one who went through the pain all those years ago..." The soft voice spoke,
"... and I was the one who shouldered the pain and tried to take us somewhere I thought was the correct path..." The harsh voice finished. Their grips on the child slowly loosened and the water became clearer...
"W-wha..." The child centaur began crying, tears floating in front of their wide eyes.
"Little sibling," The two whispers joined into one, the soft and deep tones becoming neutral, "We are you."
"Together, we make up the components within you." They both spoke to the child, "But lately you have been rejecting us on the basis that we conform to the binary. You could not be any more wrong."
"I do identify as being female," The soft voice spoke, "However, I proudly hold traits of being masculine."
"I do identify as being male," The deep voice spoke, "However, I proudly hold traits of being feminine."
Their voices joined together once again, "We both reject the binary. However, identifying with being female/feminine or male/masculine does not define us as who we are. We are more than those labels, just as you are more than being genderless/sexless. Please do not reject us, it will only cause you pain. We are not binary as we step out of the norm by being androgynous and if we were, would that really matter so much?"
"We are what we are. We cannot change ourselves and you cannot change us."
"Please, accept us together as three within one body." The voices pleaded. "Let us harmonize within your body, with you as one being."
Their hands touched the child's body, embracing them, "If you fear us in pushing to change your body, do not fret. We accept your desire to have a sexless body. A sexless body will not invalidate our identities as we can still express ourselves androgynously, just as you do everyday. As long as we can express ourselves, what the physical body looks like does not matter. We want to laugh, cry, smile and fall in love... things like sex and physical appearances mean little to us..."
"We want to live...within you, beside you as one."
The child centaur began crying again, "Yes... yes. I am sorry for pushing you two away... Jay, Jason, I need to treat my siblings much better... and listen to your concerns... thank you for accepting me. I'm sorry it took me so long to accept you... We will shift together as one, as it was always supposed to be."
The child embraced them both, feeling their physical forms fade into separate energies that absorbed into their body, blue and pink energies swirling around the child's purple heart, transforming into one, a beautiful shining display of multiple colors, much like the universe.
"Thank you..."
The child flinched and felt something burning in the middle of their forehead, they gasped and winced, feeling the skin burn as a silver circle appeared and magically, something grew from the circle. The child gently touched it and realised they had grown a unicorn horn...! It was tiny and baby-like, much similar to their body.
Suddenly, their back began to surge with pain and the child's vision surged to blackness. When they came to, they found themselves floating above the lake, seeing their lower horse body replaced with two slender bare legs, the unicorn horn was no longer to be seen, the circle on the child's forehead was transformed into a silver bindi that reflected many colors in different rays of light. They remembered the back pain and realized it was no longer there, but in place was a pair of fairy wings, bright pink fading into purple and blue. With every flutter, sparkles twinkled within the wings like stars and the child flew out of the underground cave as fast as a speeding bullet.
They were giggling and full of happiness, their weight lifted off their shoulders, accepting their trigender identity to the fullest. They halted at the sight of the forest creatures and reality began to dawn on them... would they be accepted...? Tears welled up in their eyes as they smiled... it didn't matter... they had accepted themselves, that's all that mattered.
They saw the fairy hide inside the log and they darted in the air, hiding among the trees before spiraling into the sky and falling downwards, swooping to tackle hug Shanpooh, "Surprise cuddle!!"
The child giggled, gently placing Shanpooh on the ground and flew away, feeling exhausted from their sudden burst of energy, they soared to the crescent moon, where it cradled the child to a much needed blissful sleep.
