“Richard, you’re taking this madness further! You insist on keeping those things in the dungeon, feeding them, and you even brought the King’s Advisor down to see them! You even let one of them practice spells in the library! But now you want to see another fight?”
“We have guards, don’t we? Maybe all three of them together could get through a guard, maybe two, but we have more than two guards. Are you not interested at all to find out how they got this way and what they can do?”
“Do you want to find out how cannonballs feel when they strike you in the face?”
“You didn’t have to tag along, Simone. You also don’t have to complain about every single decision I make!”
Great, these two again. They walked straight over to our cell again, opening the door and shutting it behind them.
I didn’t want to open my eyes to them; I could hear them perfectly well from the stairs, and I could smell the pudgy one, Simone. He had meat on his breath; whiskey, too. Richard didn’t have a particular scent, but I could still smell him.
Simone stepped forward and jabbed me with his finger. I opened one of my eyes to acknowledge him.
“I know what you’re here for, I could hear you out on the staircase,” I told him.
“Staircase?” he asked.
“I’ve been here before.”
“So, are you interested or not?” Richard asked. I turned my eye to him, and I saw him holding a steel sword and mail armor.
“I’ll play your games, but those aren’t going to fit, I can already tell you.” I got up and looked around the cell. I was still shackled, but the other two shackles were lying on the stones, empty. A pile of clothes sat in the corner where Brooke had been.
“Where are Brooke and Evine?” I questioned.
“Brooke is down at the Arcanists’ Library, our mages looking for some way that they could prevent this from happening again. Evine is down there as well, already testing how his spells work. Get those clothes on, and we’ll bring you down to the guards’ armory.”
I moved to the corner of the cell and sorted through the clothes. There was a black cloak, cut just so that it didn’t make me trip, and it reached around my body. Good, I didn’t need anything else trying to trip me. There was a pair of sandals or something, but I didn’t bother putting them on. They would only make tripping on my tail more painful. I slipped on the cloth pants, and thankfully Leena had noticed our humongous tails, and had a hole cut in the back. That blasted thing barely fit through the clothes, but it still did. There was a cloth shirt in the pile too, but now I had fur, and there just didn’t seem like there was a point to it.
“Let’s go,” I told the two. Simone walked over and unshackled me. I followed them out of the cell, and two guards equipped with spears followed us up the dungeon’s spiraling staircase. It led out and onto the foyer, no one in sight. That was okay, though. It’s not like I wanted anyone to see me. The five of us exited the castle through the front doors, sunlight piercing my eyes. Had it truly been that long since I saw the sun? No matter.
Smells flooded my nostrils. It was overwhelming; some were vomit-inducing, others making my mouth water. Hundreds of peoples’ scents were also apparent, not helping my nose calm down. I could hear the footsteps of all of the hundreds of people, and the bargaining at the merchant stalls. While I could still see and observe everything about Lyniel Hold again, my new senses were much more overwhelming.
I was so distracted that when we were stepping down the castle’s steps, I tripped on my tail… again. The guards had their spears directed at me in an instant, looking for me to escape or something. I slowly rose off the ground with my hands in the air, the guards still towering over me. While I can deal with fur, heightened senses and claws, being shorter than everyone except for the kids running around in the hold really sucked.
We walked on in silence again towards the armory. Only a few people were between there and the castle, but all of them stared at me. I’m sure this wouldn’t have looked much better if I were about to be executed.
The Guard’s armory was a boring place. The only people walking to and from it were guards, of course, and none of them ever want to deal with someone like me asking questions. That would be one of the reasons I was in the dungeons.
The stone building had dummies outside, but there were five or so guards around the door, more than the usual patrol. More than that, they were using the dummies, and they were cut down to my height.
“Ha! Look at the puny thing spin!” one would yell.
“Go for the legs!” another yells.
Most of the guards were laughing all while cutting the dummies up.
“A-am I that big of a threat?” I asked Richard.
“That’s what we’re letting them think. Either you win and almost kill one of the guards, maybe kill one, or you fail horribly and we throw your disembodied limbs back into the dungeon. Your choice is going to influence that, so you shouldn’t worry.”
Richard and Simone both walked into the armory, probably trying to find something that would fit me. My escort moved over with the other guards tearing the dummies up, laughing along with them. I would bet that Evine and Brooke were having a better time than me, the midget fourteen-year-old animal-human.
Richard stepped out of the armory alone, carrying only a long dagger. At least, it looked long from my new body’s eyes. The dagger was much the same as my old one, with a steel blade and a decorated hilt. To hold it, I had to dig my claws into my skin. It didn’t hurt too much, and I had a weapon I was familiar with, so all was good for now. Richard gave a whistle and all the guards turned around. He even caught some of the other folk moving around the guard’s armory. He noticed, and changed his voice accordingly.
“People of Lyniel Hold! Today is a pit-fight for the ages!”
Pit-fight? What?!
“Here are seven guards, all of them in their sixth year of service!” More people gathered around us. “See their spears, their short swords? Their silver armor? They have accepted to fight this magically-changed, fourteen-year-old human!” Richard proclaimed. Even more people gathered around, forming a circle around the people at the armory. Some laughed, pointing at me. Others cheered on the guards they knew. I was obviously the under-dog here, but whether I was going to make a comeback was in the air. “This is his fight for freedom,” Richard told them, pointing at me. “If he wins, he can do as he pleases. If he loses, he is slaughtered right here!
“To make this fair,” Richard explained, “we are pitting him against one guard at a time. Will it be the guards who win this fight? Or will it be this creature?”
I have a name…
Fifty or so people (and counting) were gathered around us, none cheering for me. I didn’t expect to beat the first one, and if I did, there were six others!
“I’ve got them expecting you to lose! Show them you won’t!” Richard whispered.
Pep-talk wasn’t going to help a fourteen-year-old anthro-fox fight seven guards!
Without warning, Richard pushed me towards the seven men, all looking down at me.
“BEGIN!” he yelled.
One of the guards rushed towards me, yelling as he went. There was no chance I was going to beat him in a heads-on attack, so I just ran. My speed far out-matched his own, giving me one advantage. Something told me to drop down on all fours. Animal instinct? Didn’t matter. I did as it told, and my speed increased even further still. I turned around and ran around behind the guard while he was swiping where I had just been. I jumped up on his back, my dagger up to his throat. He dropped his weapon and kneeled down on the ground. I jumped right off of his back and walked in front of him. I was breathing heavily, my chest pushing out and drawing in air. My feet were just barely starting to hurt. I could feel the absolute silence of the crowd, all staring at me. Then, they broke into cheering simultaneously.
“The creature wins!” yelled Richard.
Wasn’t he on my side? He could at least use my name.
Well, I had won my first fight. Was it going to get better? No. But had I left a better impression on the crowd? If it was worth anything, yes.
“Perhaps I’ve been unfair. Not to this thing, no, but to the guards!”
The crowd laughed again, mocking the guards. Maybe Richard was on my side.
“If that’s so, let’s give them a one-person advantage!”
No, he wasn’t on my side.
The patrol from earlier stepped forward, both with long-reaching spears. They were none too pleased that a midget human-fox thing just defeated a well-trained guard.
“BEGIN!”
The guards went back-to-back, making sure I couldn’t get one alone. They stood there, waiting for me to make the first move. I knew minimal combat tactics, but I could tell that wouldn’t end well for me. So instead I stood back, doing what I always did when I was bored; flipped my dagger. The crowd laughed at the guards, making one of them red-faced, another yelling back at the crowd. They separated momentarily, and that was when I struck. I darted around their backs, just like the last, heading for the guard on the right of where I stood. I jumped up on his back, reached my arm around his neck and pointed the dagger straight in his eye. He picked me up right off of his shoulder with two hands, making me drop my weapon, but he had as well. He pulled me straight to his face, looking me in the eye. I did the only thing I could at that point; made a cheap shot. I spat in his face, making him drop me onto the ground. I picked up his weapon, an impairing weight to me, and threw it over to the crowd. They cheered, the only entertainment they had, apparently. I ran over to my dagger and moved back to my earlier position. Making it even better, the other guard hadn’t done anything while I decimated his buddy.
“What were you doing?” yelled one of the guards while he wiped saliva out of his eyes.
The other just shook his head, still red-faced.
“Give me that!” yelled the guard, and took the other’s spear.
He threw it over at me, angling it just right so that if I hadn’t dodged, I would’ve been stabbed in forehead.
The crowd was still mocking the guards, some whistling, others making smart comments about their actions.
“The guards forfeit! Our champion emerges from the fight victorious once more!” proclaimed Richard.
The guard who had been spit on was outraged. He was yelling at the crowd and Richard, swearing that I, “a thing”, hadn’t beaten him. The other walked back into the armory, ashamed. The other followed after him.
“Are the rest of the guards as frightened of him as these two?!” yelled Richard.
None stepped forward.
“Nobody wants to deny this creature his freedom?”
The crowd was silent, but one person, male, moved away from the crowd, stepping towards me.
“I will,” he said.
He looked maybe five or six years older than what I once was. He carried the same weapons as I once had, a dagger and a bow. He was wearing leather and a modified guard’s helm. I could still see his face, and he looked plain bored.
“And you are?” asked Richard.
“Does it matter?” he asked him. “I’m in the mood for a good fight, and this thing”- DREZIN! -“seems like a good fight.”
He drew out his bow and an arrow from his sling.
“You going to yell ‘BEGIN’ or something?” he asked Richard. He reminded me a lot of my previous self.
Richard sighed. “BEGIN!”
I got down on all fours, narrowly dodging his arrow. He seemed shocked that he hadn’t killed me right away. I just kept running around him, making him angrier every time he missed his mark. I pulled out my dagger and ran around him, repeating the process for the third time. But before I could get my steel around his neck, he tracked me and got an arrow in the hand not carrying the dagger. Blood dropped on the stone, and I could smell it as I stopped where I was. He had another arrow drawn, and I procured the arrow in my paw. It stung, but Evine wasn’t lying; we were immortal. The skin was already healing around it while I dodged his arrows once again. I knew that he would track me again if I didn’t change up my patterns. I stood for a quick second and threw my dagger at him. I tripped over my tail yet again, altering my aim. I wasn’t surprised that stupid thing got in the way just when I didn’t want to. Blast it! Just missed! Now I had nothing to defend myself! But he just stood there, depleted of arrows. I looked down at my paw, wound non-existent.
The man drew his dagger and ran over at me, but I fell down on all fours and began running again. I dashed over to my own weapon and picked it up, ready to counter him, but he had an arrow that hadn’t broken when he fired at me, ready to go in his bow. It flew through the air, about to pierce me between the eyes, but out of instinct I reached out, trying to stay alive.
I caught the weapon in the air.
He relaxed and lowered his bow. I threw the arrow and dagger onto the ground and watched him, expecting some other plan. But he just walked away into the crowd, knowing that I wasn’t going to be beatable.
It felt good making him sad, knowing someone was better than him. Evine probably felt the same way when he caught me in the dungeons. Of course, I had magic, but he had ranged weapons, at least putting me unconscious for a week if he caught me somewhere vital. The speed was the compensation for that stupid tail and those ears.
The crowd slowly separated, some with whispers of discontent, others still cheering and laughing. Richard stepped over to me.
“That was absolutely worth the time,” he said. “We just found one of our most valuable assets.”
“I just got thrown into a home-made arena and told to survive against four people, one stupid, two morons and one sharpshooter who caught me, and you think I’m worth that time?!” I yelled at him.
“You just showed the crowd that Brooke, Evine and you aren’t to be crossed! You think I threw you in there for fun?”
Honestly, I had.
“Also, you have shown the guard their new ally!” he yelled.
ME? An ally of the guard?! No. That wasn’t going to happen. Evine has dragged me out of bad situations enough times; he doesn’t need to do it again.
“Th-that’s nice, but I don’t think it’s a good idea,” I tried to convince him.
Richard handed me a letter with the guards seal on it. I had seen this before when Cyrus was approved for the guard. Of course, I wasn’t looking forward to this like he had.
I tore it open with my claws and looked at the parchment inside:
DEAR SIR:
You have been approved for the Lyniel Hold guard.
Your official commanding officer is: Orinoco Credd
You are to speak with: Richard Alay regarding your accommodations.
Fight the good fight!
Richard Alay
Orinoco Credd?! It was bad enough that Richard pushed me into the guard, but it was worse when he put me into Orinoco’s squad!
“Look, I know it’s strange to you, being in the guard and all while you’re like this, but-“
“No, that’s not it,” I interrupted Richard, “even though this is strange. It’s just that this officer and I go back.”
Way back. When I was ten or so, I was stealing from vendors when I had nothing better to do. No, my family (or lack thereof) didn’t need any food; Evine fed me before he brought me into bounty hunting. I just stole for sport. But when I was stealing from a stall rather close to the guard’s armory, Orinoco caught me, him being the youngest guard, and put me in the dungeons for the first time. Then, for my second time in the dungeons, he was the guard on day patrol.
“I thought that man looked familiar,” Richard said.
“THAT was Orinoco?!”
“The only good archer in the guard, so you shouldn’t have a problem in combat.”
Wow. I defeated four well-trained guards with cleverness and thievery. Richard was very accurate with his previous statement.
“Follow me,” Richard said, maneuvering through the few bits of the crowd left.
I made sure to grab my dagger before we left. “You’re showing me to my accommodations, then?” I asked him.
“Yes. You’ll be staying with Evine and Brooke up in the Arcanist’s Library.”
-----
“Do you know where Drezin is right now, Evine?” Brooke asked of me.
She had interrupted my casting, but it didn’t matter; my magic was enhanced doubly so when I became like this.
I stood and answered her, “Richard said he was going to test his combat skills at the armory.”
Nothing was simple with Drezin. “What happened?”
“Leena said she just saw him in a pit-fight! She came running back to tell me when she saw him get wounded by an arrow!” Brooke yelled.
“Shouldn’t be too bad,” I told her. “Drezin doesn’t like stopping for anything. Add that on to the fact that we’re immortal, and you have a deadly match-up.”
Brooke became more impatient and shook her head. “I’m sorry, I just get worried over the tiniest little thing, and I can’t handle any little bit of pressure, and now I’m like this, too, and here we are, just the three of us, and-“
I put my hand on her shoulder. “Calm down, okay? I know Drezin. He’s like a son.”
She took a few deep breaths. “Alright. I’ll guess we’ll see how he’s doing when he arrives here.”
Now it was my turn to be worried.
“Drezin’s coming over here?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s what Richard said,” Brooke replied. “Why?”
“It’s just that…”
“What?”
I gave a long sigh. “I guess I should explain to you how Drezin, a fourteen-year-old thief, and me, a thirty-year-old mage, wound up together.” I motioned for her to take a seat. She sat, and I did the same.
“You know how I said that Drezin was like a son to me?” I asked.
She nodded.
“I was moving through Lyniel one day, trying to reach the Arcanist’s Library to study. The crowds were very thick, perfect for pick-pocket-ers. I happened to ignore that, and once I had reached the thickest part of the crowd, a small hand came by my side and took this book.” I lifted up my spell-book to show her. “I could barely see a small child wearing rags running through the people quickly, the book in his hand, so I chased after him. Once we both left the crowds and entered an alley, I managed to get a hold of his hand and picked him up in the air.”
-----
“And you are?” I asked the small child.
He didn’t answer. He kept struggling to get free.
“Well?”
He still didn’t answer.
I casted a spell to shock him, a small spark. I let go of him, and he fell to the ground and whimpered a bit.
“H-how’d you do that?” he asked.
“Answer my question, and I’ll answer yours,” I negotiated.
He sat there and thought over the deal, staring down at the ground. Then he looked up.
“Drezin,” he said.
“And why are you stealing on the streets?” I probed on.
“Where’s my answer?”
Smart kid.
I sighed. “Magic,” I responded. “Now why are you stealing here on the streets?”
“If you want more answers, I want to learn how to do that, and more.”
I gave another long, dissatisfied sigh. “It takes time to learn magic, Drezin. You can’t just think it to happen and it does.”
He stood up. “I have time.”
“I’ll teach you later,” I told him, “if you can give me answers now.”
Drezin flipped through the spell book. “What are those?” he asked.
“Spells.”
“The things with black?” He was pointing at the letters, piece by piece.
“Those are letters. You don’t know how to read?”
“You can teach me though, right?”
Maybe this kid wasn’t as smart as I thought he was. A mage doesn’t have time for a family; every mage that ever was and is knows that! Yet he stood there, flipping through the pages, looking at the words and parchment, thinking of nothing else. Did he even have any family? He closed the book and handed it over to me.
“Here,” Drezin said.
I took it from his hand and put it back onto my side. I started to turn around and leave, but he tugged on my robe.
“What?” I asked angrily.
“You said you’d teach me.” For a child thief, he believed anything he was told.
“Yes, I said that.”
He looked expectantly at me. Was this how a parent felt when they first saw their child? Couldn’t be. I wasn’t going to have a family, and certainly not a makeshift one.
I sighed yet again, and lifted him up onto my shoulders. He was surprisingly light, but if he was stealing on the streets, he probably wouldn’t have eaten much. We departed from the alley and walked through the crowd. I still headed toward my destination, the Library, and Drezin looked around at the city.
“Where is your family?” I asked him.
“’Family’?” he questioned.
“Do you have a father or a mother? Or a sister or a brother?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said.
I knew very well by now that I was helping a street urchin.
“Don’t you live with anybody?”
“I did,” Drezin said.
“Where are they?” I asked.
“People said the bug got ‘em.”
That flu outbreak was terrible. The fact that many people didn’t trust mages only led them towards a swifter death.
“Did those people help you?”
“No.”
“Do you steal food from people to stay alive?”
“Yeah.” He looked down at me in the eyes. “People don’t like it. Is it bad?”
Naïve child. But I couldn’t do anything to help him besides tell him what not to do. I nodded.
“I’m sorry. But nobody feeds me.” We walked on in silence through the crowds for a few more
seconds. Drezin interrupted, “My turn. What’s your name?”
“Evine,” I told him.
“Where are you going?”
“The Arcanist’s Library.”
“Ar-can-eest? What’s that?”
“It’s where people like me go to learn more spells, like the one I shocked you with.”
He looked down at me again and smiled. “Can you teach me there?”
“Maybe another time.” He did seem pretty pitiful. “Do you need somewhere to stay tonight?”
“I go sit down back in that alley when the sun goes over the castle. It gets cold all the time. Is it warmer where you sleep?”
I nodded.
“I’ll stay with you, then.”
-----
“So that’s how you met. But why did you become bounty hunters?” asked Brooke.
“You need gold to survive, don’t you? Drezin fights well, and I’m a mage, so we have an uncanny knack for killing. We had a third mercenary friend, but he perished at the hands of whoever did this to us.” I pointed at myself and her.
“Why are you scared of seeing Drezin here?”
“Drezin has been waiting for the last ten years to learn magic from me!” I got up and started pacing around the room. “What if he or I can’t learn it or pass it on? Or what if he understands it more than anyone before, and kills himself with it to end this change? I just don’t know how this will work in the long run…”
“He might not even remember. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself.”
Brooke stood up and walked over to me, putting her hand on my shoulder.
“You know him better than me. You’ll know what to do.”
There was a moment of silence.
“You’re right,” I told her. “I’ll teach him the best I can.”
Footsteps flooded the room where the two of us were discussing the future. One person, something making a slight *tick* noise as they walked on the wood floor.
It was Drezin. He waved at Brooke and me, carrying a dagger in one hand and a letter in the other. He saw Brooke’s hand on my shoulder, but he just leaned against a book-shelf, uncaring.
“Hello,” Brooke said, taking her hand off and sitting down. He waved again.
“Drezin,” I said, nodding. He moved over to a table and placed his dagger there. He forced the letter in my hands, encouraging me to read.
Approved for the guard? Drezin?
“Surprised?” he asked, disappointed. “So am I.”
“How did you get into the guard?”
“Richard put me in a pit-fight, said I did well, and handed me this letter. No explanation whatsoever. You saw the officer name, too?”
“Yes! But what do you plan on doing now?” I yelled.
“Ignoring any guard meetings or anything like that, for one,” he said. “I was hoping you could tell me, since you guys have been here for a while.”
Drezin had a point. We were things nobody wanted to have anything to do with, living forever with this curse.
“I could try some spells on you to see if we could break this spell,” I told him.
“I thought you said we were stuck like this,” Brooke chimed in.
“Never hurts to try. I’ve been waiting to try some spells for myself, anyway,” Drezin replied.
He sat down at my feet and curled his tail into his lap. He threw his dark cloak and letter onto the table and sat there expectantly.
“Well?” he asked.
I sighed and began writing a rune with a stick of chalk on the floor between all three of us. I began casting a spell that could work; a shape shifting spell to counteract the previous one. Drezin took his tail and started jabbing it with his claws. Brooke sat there, observing Drezin and myself. Words flew through my lips, not mattering what came out as long as it helped the spell. I could feel the magic coursing through the rune, but nothing was changing. I tried urging the magic onward, to do something.
But nothing happened.
I stopped casting and took in a deep breath.
“Evine?” Brooke asked.
I shook my head. “It’s fine,” I told her.
“Nothing,” Drezin said. He was still stabbing his tail.
“I’ll try something else,” I told them.
I wiped away the previous chalk and drew two new runes, interloping. I could try the melding spell Eleanor had used in reverse to separate the animal and human, even though I knew it wouldn’t work. I recalled the words Eleanor had used and threw them out backwards. Drezin seemed intent on something in the room, but I couldn’t follow his eyes to see what it was. Brooke looked through the approval letter and I tried to focus on the aura of the runes. I tried to pull them apart from eachother, getting them separated. I thought I had made progress, but it was finished before any could be made.
I fell on my knees, exhausted, crushing my tail. I couldn’t think; I just fell, letting my body stay still.
“Evine!” Brooke yelled as she ran over to me.
“It’s… fine…” I tried to comfort her. Even Drezin walked over and inspected me.
“No, it’s not!” she yelled.
“Relax, Brooke, he’s been through worse,” Drezin laughed. “Me, for example.”
She slapped him on the muzzle and looked down in my eyes.
“What was that for?!” Drezin screeched. His voice was ridiculously high as he covered his face.
“Are you okay?” Brooke asked worriedly.
“I’m really fine,” I told her.
She took my hands and pulled me up to my feet. She walked me over to her chair and sat me down in it.
“Brooke, it’s not that bad,” I reassured her.
Drezin was stamping out the runes while Brooke brought over my spell-book.
“Do you have any healing spells or anything like that?” she asked.
“I’m just a little exhausted; I’m not going to die without help.”
Brooke hovered over me, asking if I needed anything, while Drezin stood watching us.
“Can I just talk to Drezin alone?” I asked her.
She stared at me, mouth gaping. She glanced over at Drezin and back to me. Then she nodded, and left the room.
Drezin interrupted the brief silence with a huge laugh.
“You should have seen your face! Face, muzzle, whatever!”
“That’s not the point!” I told him. Brooke was embarrassing me more than a bit. “Did you feel any different at all during either of the spells?”
He calmed down until his laugh was a small chuckle. “Not a bit,” he said between laughs.
I sighed and looked through the book, seeing if there was anything else I could try. Drezin picked up his cloak and his dagger and began to leave.
“Wait!” I called out. He stopped and turned around.
“I thought you’d want Brooke back in here by now,” Drezin mocked.
“Truth be told, I’m worried about that, but that’s still not the point. Are you going to go see Orinoco later?” I asked. Drezin nodded. “Make sure you ask Richard while you’re out there to assemble that team of mages.”
“Why? Do you already want to take down Eleanor?”
“Eleanor wouldn’t be staying in the same cave if she allowed you and I live. But she might have left those spells behind, and maybe we could find one to remove the foxes.”
Drezin swirled his cloak around his body and nodded. He walked out slowly and carefully, probably trying to avoid tripping on his tail like he had been before. After he had disappeared from sight, Brooke rushed right back into the room, her ears and tail down.
“I’m sorry!” she said, on the verge of crying.
Can we cry?
“Calm down,” I told her. “It’s not your fault. Like you said, we are the only were-foxes alive. I can understand why you were worried.”
“I need to find somewhere else to be. I can’t keep bothering you!” she said. “I’ll… I’ll go help Leena with something, anything. I’ll just find something else to do than bother you!”
“Brooke,” I told her, “don’t worry so much. I promise you, Drezin and I are fine. Just find some way to feel normal like this.” I picked up my spell book and skimmed through a few of the shape shifting spells to try and find whatever Eleanor might have used. “Even if it means bothering me. I don’t mind.”
She seemed to calm down. “Thank you,” she sniffled. “I’ll just find something to do.”
-----
“Get that thing away from me.”
I started swiping at the gray-white cat with my dagger, but the thing continued to stare at my swishing tail.
I was ready to stab it if it pounced.
“He’s not a thing. He’s an Albino Plains Lion, and he is going to do what he wants with you. I’m your captain now. He is my pet, and you are my lackey. If he wants to eat some fox stew, I don’t have to spend gold for food or waste time hunting.”
“Well, Captain Sharpshooter, I don’t think dogs like cats. And I’m a canine-human. Just get it away before I ‘accidentally’ stab it.”
He jumped up out of the seat and had an arrow pointing at my throat.
“Touch it, and I kill you.”
Oh, what friends we were.
“Fang, back off.”
Immediately the cat dropped its attention from my tail and walked into a corner of the room. Orinoco traced the arrow along my gullet before taking it back and sitting back down, reading over some more papers.
“You and your mage friend look so stupid,” he said. “I was ready to laugh every moment you tripped on your tail when you walked around the hold.”
“It’s not so easy. I’d like to see you try.”
I would like to see him try being like this.
Heh heh.
“Yes, well, as the case so holds, you and the other two are the only ones like this. So, as far as I’m concerned, I don’t need to try.”
Oh, as soon as we’re finished chatting, I’m cashing in a favor. And you will need to try.
“My name is Drezin! And the others are named Evine and Brooke!” I yelled at him.
“I’m aware of that. But why should I have to address a dog by name? Who’s the one that threw you into the dungeon once? And the one that watched you sit and do nothing until that other rag-tag mage dragged you out?”
That was enough. Insulting me, I was used to. But insulting Evine? Sure, I was the thief kid who everybody either kicked in the gut when he was down or felt sorry for but never did anything. And when Evine helped me out, I wasn’t going to let anyone insult him because he took care of me. I wasn’t going to let anyone think badly of the one person who looked out for me.
By some miracle, I was able to keep my temper and not gut his cat.
I was looking forward to the next time I saw Orinoco, for once.
-----
“Evine.”
The voice broke up my casting, but when I realized the source, it wasn’t too terribly annoying. It was only Drezin.
I opened my eyes and scanned him over. Still hadn’t killed anybody. Good.
“Drezin. Did you talk to Orinoco concerning an escort to the cave?”
“Not Orinoco,” he said. “He isn’t going to cooperate with me. I talked with Richard. He said whenever we’re ready, he’ll send some guards. He also said Orinoco is included.” He frowned.
“Drop your differences. We’ll need friends if we want to live like this,” I told him.
“That’s why I’m here. Orinoco has a special ‘bond’ with his cat. I say we could make that bond stronger, and…”
“No, Drezin! It’s bad enough that we have three of us!”
“And have him experience what it’s like to be his cat for a short time. We don’t need another one of us, just a shape shifting spell, a temporary one.”
Maybe it could work. Maybe.
“You said you’d teach me magic one day, anyway. Revenge is so much sweeter when you get it yourself.”
“I… I suppose it won’t be too… bad of a lesson for magic…”
I could tell he was determined.
Something was wrong. He’s never been so determined. Besides…
“Drezin, I’m not your family. We both know that. I’m used to being insulted, as well. You don’t need to look out for me. I can take care of myself.”
“That’s not the point! I’ve been waiting to learn magic for a while, anyway. Just… please, Evine. I know how it looks. Please…”
I sighed. “Alright.”
-----
I turned the brass knob and pushed the door open into Orinoco’s office. He didn’t deserve one, but he had it, anyway.
I checked the room for any signs of the archer. All I could see was his wooden desk and his mangy cat. No other signs of anyone else in the room.
Slowly and being sure I didn’t make any noise on the floor or trip over my tail, I walked over to his cat and prodded it with a claw from my foot. It opened an eye and looked me over.
Had the magic worked? I didn’t have a clue. Only one way to see.
“Orinoco?” I asked quietly.
Surely enough, it answered. “What?” it said dreamily. It yawned. “What… Drezin? Where…”
Ah, perfect. He gets to be the one mocked, and I get to hear him suffer.
“Hello, Orinoco.” I held back a laugh while I spoke. “Wake up, would you?”
The cat seemed shocked as it opened another eye and looked around. Seeing somebody I despised go through a change was so much better than seeing myself. It slowly stood on all fours, stretched, and yawned.
“Wait. You’re… bigger than me… and so is the room…” He looked down at the ground where his paws were pushing him off the ground. “I’m… F-f-fang?!”
I couldn’t hold back the laugh. It broke out and I had to rely on the wall for support while I watched him study his new feline body.
“You bastard!” it yelled. “You and your mage friend are going to… When I get back, that is!”
I slid down the side of the wall, holding my chest and cloak while I laughed, watching him stumble across the floor on all fours. He hissed once, but before it could even become a warning, he was falling down on his head again.
“This… this was worth the pit-fight and then some!” I yelled. Apparently our voices weren’t too loud. No other guards came in to check on the weird screaming and laughing.
“Change me back! Now! I want to be human again!” he said.
“Now you know how we feel.”
“What?!” he squeaked. “You… you can change me back, right?!”
I quit laughing so I could deal with his uneasiness. “I can’t, but it’ll wear off by tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?! No, no, I want back now!”
“Can’t. Simple as that. All I did was do what Evine told me.”
He slowly gathered himself and managed to stand on all fours without falling. “This is terrible! How am I supposed to do anything? All I can do is talk and fall over!”
“Get over yourself. I’ve been like this for the past few days and will be forever. You’re only going to be like this for a day.” I pushed myself off the floor and watched while he looked worried at me. I flipped my dagger while I waited for an idea for anything to discuss with a talking cat.
“W-where’s the real Fang?” he asked quietly.
“You are Fang. You’re also Orinoco. All the magic did was combine you, and you show as Fang.”
“Why’d you do this?”
“You were being overall an annoying person. So now, you aren’t a person. That’s all.”
“I’m sorry…” he muttered.
“Yeah, well, being sorry isn’t going to fix it. Deal with it for a day, and maybe I won’t do it again.”
He changed his stance until he was sitting like Fang had the other day after he forgot about my tail. He licked one of his paws, and looked back at the tail sweeping across the wood.
“Why so long? You don’t like being an animal.”
“You made fun of us. Now, I get to make fun of you.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“I don’t know. You took care of that lion before. You know better than me.”
“ What, am I going to tell you to do something and you’ll do it for me?”
I gave a sarcastic laugh. “Hah-hah. No. In fact, I think I’ll just be going now…”
There. That's the writing. There are no words I can use to describe it. Hope you enjoyed!
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