Perspective Flip

by Kris Schnee

  Your tail flicks against your legs for several seconds, like a metronome. Then Bragho darts forward and wraps his arms around you, planting a long kiss right on your muzzle. He's warm and strong and the moment makes you happy and terrified.

  Bragho lets you go and steps away, swiping the back of his hand over his eyes. "Go. See a hundred other worlds and do good in them."

  You stand there flustered, battered. If you stay, there are danger and friends waiting for you here. If you go, there are many unknown wonders awaiting beyond the next costume.

  It's you that we've been talking about. Your life. So it's only fitting that you be the one to choose where it goes. What's the true ending to this little adventure?

  * 5A. Staying: One Tale's End *

  ~ Years Later ~

  "That's how it was," you say. "I told him, I could trade away his world, but he was something I wanted to keep."

  George gazes up at you, muzzle hanging open in amazement. On the other side of the sofa, Bragho ruffles the boy's pointy ears. "Bet you didn't know your mom was so cool, eh?"

  George stammers as he looks over the mansion's living room with new eyes. There's the menacing black space-knight helmet in its plastic case, the silly photo of Wylan posing with boxing gloves outside a museum, and the fedora and bullwhip. "So all your movies are from a whole other planet?"

  "Only some," you say. "The 'Skyhopper' ship there is from a book that wasn't a movie back home, and the bat-girl figurine there with the halberd is based on a true story. The 'Legend of the Chalice' franchise isn't our fault. And your dad made up some of the others by himself."

  Bragho says, "With a lot of help. Anyway..." He glances over at you.

  You gulp. "Right. George, that's why we need you to stay out of that box of costumes in the poolside room. I thought we'd locked it away."

  "You kinda did." George taps his claws together guiltily. To distract you he says, "So you were a boy once?"

  "Yes, and I used to get into trouble like that, sometimes. Which is why I'm not grounding you. For that or the little incident with your sisters and the box of worms."

  "You knew?!" The twins are chasing each other around the living room, oblivious to your story. You get the feeling you'll be telling it all again someday.

  You say, "So, that one box is a family secret, okay? And you are definitely not to touch them unless you want to give your parents a heart attack — and never see us again. Or until you're older, and fully understand what you'll risk."

  Bragho chimes in. His fur's a little grizzled and he's gained a few pounds, but he's the same guy who's been on your side all along. "Someday, you'll have that chance to explore other worlds like we did. If you want to. Your mother and I agreed. And there're six that we found between us, so that's enough for all you kids with three choices to spare."

  You glance over at him, tail twitching, and mouth the word, "Two." Bragho's face is suddenly a mix of joy and terror as he looks down at your almost-flat belly. You'd been meaning to tell him anyway... For now you give a Mona Lisa smile.

  George is caught up in looking at the movie souvenirs, and at the wooden bat above the fireplace. "And baseball? That's from another world too?"

  You nod, then sniff the air and look back at the big custom oven in its brick hearth. "And the pizza over there, which smells about done. A lot of the things that made us so rich are from our... unusual background, but we still worked hard to get where we are."

  "Back to the beginning," says Bragho. The family mansion stands on the hill where you first arrived, a place that's special to you both.

  The twins wobble back to you, panting. You scoot over so they can sprawl on the sofa beside you, tails draped over your lap. They and George are the most wonderful things to have happened to you, and that's saying a lot.

  Your son's ears flick, as though he's not sure what to make of you. He's just learned he's sort of an alien, and his parents are both from other dimensions. ("It figures," you can practically hear him think.) And he could take a costume and go to a world of griffins, or a couple of others, or stay here and live in a world more complicated than he'd known it was. He looks up at you and Bragho again, finally fixing big eyes on you. "You were playing a game. That's what this whole costume thing was about, right? So... did you win?"

  You blink, surprised to be reminded of the rules you once fished out of a pocket. The costume game seems far away now, hardly real. But you got through it with your mind and spirit intact, and brought some of your favorite things from Earth along. This world's more peaceful and free thanks to you, too, though how that happened is another story. There's hot pizza in the oven, the warm fur of your kids brushing against you, your best friend Bragho sneaking his fingertips over to scratch your shoulder, and an independent country out there that you helped create. The fur of your cheeks feels matted with tears. And there's more to see yet in this wonderful new world, more to discover.

  "Yes," you tell him, and hug him close. "This is what winning feels like."

  * 5B. Leaving: Higher Up and Farther In *

  ~ Years Later ~

  "That's how it was," you say. "I told him he was a good man, and I'd never forget him."

  Around you beaks clack and feathers rustle. You've told the raven tribe about your first dimension-hopping experience, as part of your very unusual initiation ceremony. See, it happened only after you fought the Red-Beaked Tyrant and freed the land...

  "Wait, wait." Warrior Leif interrupts your story about the foxes' world and reaches one wing out to you. You and the other raven-folk perch in a vast cliffside cave. Firelight dances, and the gruesome carrion of the battle you all just won is only half cleaned away from the once-sacred stone buildings. Leif says, "So you were one of these 'human' creatures, became a talking fox, and only then became one of the People? That's where your magic came from?"

  You stand and stretch your wings, then will yourself to shift. Feathers ripple and fade as you assume one of the battle-forms you used today: part human, part wolf. Through your fanged muzzle you say, "I didn't get them from the fox land. This is planet number two hundred and six for me. I've been many, many creatures." There's a gasp at that, and you show off your vixen form too before returning to raven. With this many costumes behind you, you've built up some impressive powers.

  Leif's mate Kvelda toasts more fish over the fire. She says, "We knew you were special even before you offered to fight the Tyrant for us." That marauding bird now lays broken on the jagged rocks below, being picked over by hungry cliff-racers.

  You bow your beak. "I wanted to do good deeds in a hundred other worlds, like my friend said. It's a good deal for me. I'm not getting any older, and by now I've got..." Two hundred-odd worlds, in which you spent from three weeks to four decades... "Ages of experience. Now that the Brightbeak Clan is free, I can teach you about iron-working and many other things."

  "Before you go?" asks Kvelda.

  Leif's head-crest sticks up uneasily. He's likely to be the next chieftain, unless you claim the title. You give a screeching laugh. "Don't worry, Leif. I'll move on, as beautiful as your world is. I do need help in finding at least one costume, though. The Tyrant tore apart the first one when he captured me."

  "You have the gratitude of all the People! We'll scour the area at dawn."

  A fledgeling at the edge of the fire's light chirps nervously. Nobody respected the kid till today. In the end he not only figured out how to disable the Tyrant's secret lightning idol, but made sure the Tyrant didn't just fall off the cliff and out of sight. (You hate it when that happens to villains.) Now he says, "What if we find more than one?"

  "Well, there should be two costumes somewhere nearby," you say. "And I want first choice. If you find both, why then, there'll be a spare for somebody."

  His eyes go wide.

  You open your beak in what passes for a smile. "Don't be too hasty to leave home. If you do, though, I'll teach you what to expect."

  A squawk from Leif interrupts you. "Wha
t? You would let the boy fly off to another world?"

  "If he wants to," you say with a shrug of your wings. "It won't be the first time I've ended up having spares that people wanted, especially when they were really strange and flashy. There was this world that ran on sixteen-bit... never mind; you wouldn't know what that means."

  "But he's a weakling!"

  You fix Leif with a piercing stare. "The Red-Beaked Tyrant thought he was the strongest bird in the world. It turns out there's always someone stronger, somewhere. You should remember that." You're not entirely sure that Leif will turn out to be much better as a ruler. But you've tried to spread certain ideas in the places you've visited, like "kill all dictators". You came to that stance after world sixty-six, which you'd rather not remember tonight. You shake your head and smooth down your feathers. "Anyway, he's earned the right to go where he pleases. And he'll get stronger if he does... and maybe even come back someday after helping people in all the worlds."

  Kvelda passes grilled fish around. You tear into one of them. You've collected some interesting recipes, but simple ones are the best. Kvelda looks deep in thought. Suddenly her wings flare wide and she squawks, "This all sounds familiar!"

  "Oh?"

  "There's something you should see. An old legend, higher up and farther in." She points away from the fire into the dark cliff-city.

  You crane your neck to peer into the shadows. Suddenly you're not so hungry. "Let's go see it then."

  You and Kvelda and the boy take wing, carefully flapping up along the desecrated roofless houses in the darkness. In a little while you reach a high tier of buildings past where you broke out of the Tyrant's prison. Kvelda lights a torch and shows you a space that's been walled up completely. "I think it's here. Very old; I only heard about it from my grandmother. Can you get in?"

  "Of course." You shift to a massive form like a centaur elephant and give the stone wall a tap. The rocks crack and fall. You peer in though the hole you made, and spot something. Quickly you clear away more stone blocks, shielding the ravens from debris.

  There's a statue here made of tarnished silver. Its wings are spread wide in a welcoming gesture, watching over the cliff city. Before the pedestal was bricked over to hide it, the statue would've been lit from those torch-holders beside it and cast silver firelight on the whole area. And there's writing on the pillar. It says:

  "Here, Brig'o the Wanderer led the People to victory over evil. May you do likewise in all the worlds that exist."

  You lose control over your mighty battle form, and shift to the sleek vixen body you had a long time ago. Leaning against a broken wall, you manage to laugh and cry at the same time.

  Kvelda and the fledgeling exchange a glance as though you're crazy. They back away and give you a few minutes to gather your thoughts.

  Then the boy taps your fox-tail with a wingtip. You look down at him, smiling weakly. He says, "Look closer."

  At the base of the statue, hidden to one side, is a folded costume with hairless tan skin. It's the first human suit you've seen in all your wandering.

  The fledgeling startles you out of your fascination with the thing. "You were playing a game. That's what this whole costume thing was about, right? So... did you win?"

  You blink, surprised to be reminded of the rules you once fished out of a pocket. The costume game itself is just a means to an end, to you. But you got through it with your mind and spirit intact, and brought some of your favorite things from Earth along. This world's more peaceful and free thanks to you, too, though how that happened is another story. Through your adventures you've worked to sow the best seeds of hundreds of worlds. You've seen things others could hardly believe, from radiant starships to cities built on the backs of crystal dragons. In hindsight, you've probably earned a few statues yourself. And in this place, as in others, you've inspired someone else to go and do likewise. Even for you who's been through so much, there's more to see.

  "Yes," you tell him, and hug him close. "This is what winning feels like."

  Stripes of Justice

  Terry's time at Bakagaijin High School had been going well despite the occasional disaster. The week after his dad got stationed in Japan and brought him along for the senior year, he'd struggled to fit in, but when a giant squid rose from the sea and everyone had to cower in the basement shelter, he'd started making friends.

  What turned things around for him, after moving so far away from his old friends in America, was being introduced to the Element Masters card game. Everybody played it, even the teachers. The Student Council used their elite card skills to stay in power and arrange free subway travel for all Bakagaijin students throughout the city, so long as students promised to hand over any ultra-rare cards they found while traveling. It was said that anyone who collected a full set of ultra-rares could unlock the lost vault of the game's genius creator, a collector of Sumerian artifacts rumored to have magical powers.

  Terry didn't much care about winning the game, though, so much as getting to spend time after class with his fellow students. There was Mako, the girl who had a complete prosthetic body that gave her superhuman fighting skills and no boyfriend. Ray was usually depressed even though the government kept pulling him out of class to pilot a giant robot. ("I don't even like robots.") There was also a long-eared rabbit-girl claiming to be a princess from another star system, a guy with four cute yet vicious pets that taught the school bullies or some criminals a lesson every week or so, and a billionaire lawyer/ninja who'd been turned into a teenager again by a curse a few years ago. The only one who was just a student, it seemed, was Terry.

  One Friday, someone challenged the teacher to an Element Masters game that won them a reprieve on Monday's science test. Terry sat around after school eating hamburgers with Ray and Mako and Himura. Terry said, "Himura, can you teach me to fight?"

  Himura was well into his fifth burger. He'd spent gym class demonstrating his Whirlwind Strike Style, and still wore his martial-arts gi with its seven black belts. "No. Fighting comes from the heart."

  "Oh, come off it," Ray the pilot said. "Everybody tells me it's all about emotion and fighting spirit, but whenever I have to go fight angels the scientists keep arguing about whether being happy or scared makes my robot more powerful. All you have to do is punch or shoot energy beams until you win. I just ignore the scientists when they start going on about biblical prophecies and stuff."

  Terry said, "There's got to be something you can teach me. How about you, Ray? Can you teach me the punching part, so I can be a martial artist someday?" It wouldn't be as cool without a robot, but who knew? Maybe he'd randomly find one like that girl in the cross-town school, and end up going to Mars like her.

  Ray slumped in his seat. "If I'm allowed. But you really wouldn't want the kind of lessons I get; they're just depressing."

  "Maybe I should get a cyber-body like you, Mako. How do you sign up for that?"

  Mako wasn't even pretending to eat; she had a power cord plugged into the wall. She held up two fingers. "Two ways: tragic or wacky. In my case, when I was eight, I somehow got the idea I could jump off the roof and fly. I ended up with a broken arm. Since my dad is the security boss for Nakatakimurasana Corp, the company doctors went a little overboard and replaced my everything. They wanted to send me off to uncover a global conspiracy with my new cyber-powers, but then they found out it was just a couple of the managers stealing money for a fake charity. They didn't even go to jail or anything."

  "That's rough," said Terry.

  She shrugged. "The other option was to get this body by almost dying in a car crash that killed my parents or something, so I like wacky better."

  Himura tossed aside another burger wrapper and chugged a big frothy mug of root beer. "Oh yeah! Did you hear about that kid who got flattened by a meteor last week? He got better and now he shoots lasers from his hands."

  "Cool." Terry couldn't make himself sound enthusiastic about that, though, when it was someone else getting superpowers. Sin
ce Terry was already nearly done with high school and didn't have anything cool going for him yet, would he ever? He could end up as just another salary-man corporate guy, and not the kind who jumped into cyberspace to fight hackers. "What about the field trip next month? Did the principal decide yet if we're going to the magical fox shrine in Kyoto?"

  Mako grinned. "Nah, we're touring the Museum of Ancient Samurai Relics. Rumor has it that Amaterasu's mirror is going to be on display for once. Why, were you hoping to meet a fox spirit?"

  Himura said, "Those are no fun. This one time, before I got into martial arts, a two-tailed fox offered to swap places with me and send me to his world of talking animals for a year."

  Terry stared at him. "And you said no!?"

  "Well, yeah. Do I look like a furry?"

  "I wish that'd happen to me."

  "You'd abandon your family just go on a magical adventure?"

  Terry threw up his hands. "It'd only be a for a year! And it always works out so that your family is fine with it. I mean, nobody at this school has up and vanished without some good explanation."

  "What about Ienaga?" said Himura.

  "He turned into a suit of living armor and now he's in the Alchemy Tournament League."

  "And Satori?"

  "She turned into a spaceship. Why am I the only normal one!?"

  Terry realized he'd stood and rapped his fists on the table while shouting; everyone was staring at him. He blushed and sat back down.

  Mako put one plastic hand on his. "That's what this is about? You want to get caught up in some mad science thing?"

  "Or magic. I don't care."

  "How about training really hard at Element Masters?"

  Terry was skeptical. "Don't you need the power to make whatever card you need show up right when you need it?"

  "That's called 'cheating'."

  Himura said, "Unless you have a black-bordered Lotus Evolution card, since that lets you —" He launched into a detailed explanation about designing a powerful deck.