“When you think about it, humans are really strange creatures.”

“Oh?” asked the pixie, stretched out as she was on the operating table.

“They consider themselves normal.” The surgeon finished drawing up the liquid into her syringe. “As if they are some base template.”

“Really?” She hadn’t heard that. Not that it changed anything. She had done all of the research she had ever wanted to do. It didn’t change what she wanted.

“They think the rest of us are just like them, but with differences.”

The pixie snorted. “I think every species is like that.”

“Have you ever seen what a human looks like on the inside?”

The pixie sighed. “The psychiatrist wouldn’t have signed off on this if I hadn’t learnt everything about the human body.”

The surgeon paused, finally seeming to be out of whatever state of mind she had been in. “Good.”

“Was this just you making sure there wasn’t any hesitation?”

“Major surgery. It’s my job to make sure you’re ready.”

The pixie grinned. “I’m ready.”

Then her mind blanked, as the sedative was injected into her stomach.