There is was again, the five words in the English language Phillip most hated. "Thank you for your service." You want to know what my service was, lady? he thought by did not say. Killing guys who were trying to kill me. Watching my buddies get killed. And all for nothing.
Phillip was having major difficulties adjusting to civilian life. The hardness that he had developed overseas hadn't left him, and was smothering, like a hard shell that shrunk a little bit each day. He had trouble relating to people who hadn't been through what he had been through, and wasn't even very good at relating to other vets. He had gone from concealing his emotions so as not to reveal vulnerabilities to being unable to express them at all. He was so sick of evaluating every space he was in terms of firing lines and escape routes, and every human interaction in terms of not showing weaknesses. The kind, gentle, curious boy who had joined the army felt farther away in his memory every day.
But maybe there was a way to bring him back. Well, not him exactly.
Never had a sacrifice felt less like a sacrifice, Philip thought as he laid his medals on the altar of the goddess.
He felt his hardness dissolve leaving him emotionally naked, like a snail out of his shell. Tears of joy were streaming down his face. I can cry again, he thought. So focused was he on his new emotional freedom that it took him a moment to notice that his body had changed as well.
The hard sheath of muscle that had imprisoned him physically was gone. Her new body was soft. She actually poked it a few times, marvelling at how responsive it was to her touch. Hard pectorals were replaced by soft breasts, hard glutes by soft buttocks.
Philippa was alternately crying and laughing as she left the temple. One joyous thought kept running through her mind: "I'm soft! I'm soft!"