”“No, no, Sally. No, I do NOT want a wheelchair. I shall walk to him just as I did before. Just give me your arm, as my own father did as he walke... me down the aisle. I must walk to him.”Sally wanted to run, to rush to her father’s side, to be with him, to not let him be alone but she knew it was pointless to protest. Her mother was so stubborn when she wanted to be. It had taken them well over an hour since the phone call. She was sure they were now too late. She took her mother’s arm in her. "Think of it this way: I've invited every friend I know over to meet you because I'm proud that you're my grandmother - not because of a title or anything but because you're you. I hope that you're just as happy to have me as your grandson as I am to have you as my grandmother." I am," Anne said in a choked voice. "I was so excited to know you existed. Still, I should have taken your sensibilities into account before I spoke of you." Yeah, like I waited to see how you'd react before I brought. If it makes you feel better, you can squash the next bugs we find.’ ‘Nah, that’s okay,’ Eldrian mumbled. ‘But it’s fun. You can pretend you’re slaying monsters like zombies or skeletons and stomping them back into the dirt.’ Iyda stomped on the ground several times, huffing with every blow. ‘I’ma join the Goliath Guard when I’m done here. Then I can stomp on proper things, not just bugs.’ In the dark, Eldrian sized up the girl’s silhouette. Granted she did look rather tall for her age, even. .. trapped. When I'm a girl Ifeel free." Beverly nods, then says something that almost makes me sickwith nerves."You need to tell your parents," Beverly firmly states. "You clearly havesome degree of gender dysphoria. Whether or not you are decisively a girltrapped in a boy's body I can't say for certain without speaking to you-and to Nikki- further, but bottling it up won't help you or anyone." I- I can't tell my parents," I complain, tears welling in my eyes."They'd kill me! They'd actually.