Prince in the Tower

by Stephan Morse

  The Leviathan closed filthy teeth over her wing. I felt the crunch as she cried out. Her other wing broke as tons of weight yanked her down into the ocean. My first instinct was to rescue her, and I shifted into position for a dive after the two.

  Agent Brand’s bird eyes were wide. Liquid flame gushed, landing on the creature’s descending form and sparking. I reached out claws and grabbed around her, thankful the teeth were on the other side of her burning bird body.

  I landed both claws and flapped hard, demanding the elements to aid me. Air pooled under my wings in a fight against a creature multiple times my size.

  Agent Brand’s body burned like a bonfire. The sea monster’s lips sizzled. My claws felt happily warm, as though wearing a pair of awesome slippers.

  My other mind split between groaning in pleasure, marveling at tingles reaching all the way up my legs, and worry over the larger beast. I pooled air again and bunched my body to assist with yanking.

  Agent Brand’s body came apart. Her body split in two as the unchewed half pulled away. I struggled to get altitude before the rolling waves below caught us both.

  The sea monster’s huge form sank below. Its body moved in labored gasps. Bones crunched in its mouth. Each motion brushed against my senses giving me too much detail.

  The ash within my claws grew warm, but not unpleasantly for the first few seconds. I flapped onward toward land, in case the creature felt like thrusting itself into the sky to grab us both. Brand’s bird form became scalding, growing worse. I struggled toward land but felt more energized than ever. It was as if my body absorbed the heat.

  I’d never lifted an elephant-sized bird before but it felt like I’d be able to lift two, or three of them. The warmth made my toes cry in pain and snout happily drunk. That’s what it was like, carrying Agent Brand made me delirious.

  I carried her straight toward Leo. He sat along a cliffside dozens of miles inward. A small river cut a thin groove into the land. The tactile senses told me he and two others were on high alert.

  The earth rumbled. That huge sea serpent bellowed and thrashed slowly under the waves. I now understood where the earthquakes came from. It could move the earth and water, either due to its bulk or gifts like my own.

  I winged on. The energy rush faded as Brand’s body lost heat.

  Agent Brand’s body was half made of dull feathers and ash. Those pieces of plumage still glowing crumbled at the ends, forming a solid pile that made me itch. I wondered if she’d return to the shorter female form or stay a bird while dead.

  My strength gave out. Without an extra source to pull energy from, fire, I couldn’t keep going forever. Pulling air under my wings took power. Staying in this form didn’t use any, but it was like being in neutral.

  Finally I couldn’t keep carrying myself and Agent Brand. I dropped her without any kindness. My body cruised a few seconds longer before dwindling to a human form. The extra mass simply faded away as if it’d been made of dreams.

  I stood on wobbly legs, then walked back to the giant bird body of Agent Brand. It was cold of me to simply watch. I felt certain a bird with half their body missing and bleeding glowing drops would die. If that’d been me, I’d have been a sorry sight as well.

  Her bones turned to ash. It was like a vampire. They too burned away when death came for them. This much was familiar. I’d never expected to watch a giant flame chicken perform the same trick.

  Her body collapsed into a pile of gray. The trees around us protected her from being scattered by wind.

  A single flame inside must have still burned. I couldn’t tell for sure, since my senses were jumbled from the return to humanity. I sniffed and tightened my nose. Parts of her crumbling form must have gotten up my nose and it itched.

  That fire sparked and soon the entire pile of ash was burning once more. A fire that grew brighter than any flame I’d ever seen, as if the sun was twenty feet away and going supernova.

  I closed my eyes tightly and stepped back from a heat too strong for me. Blisters formed on my face that stung, ached, then popped. My eyelids burned away. I felt energized, but instead of using that power to channel my abilities, it felt like my body bent itself toward healing.

  “What,” I muttered, surprised I could talk straight.

  It’d been quick, brutally fast, and by the end my body had returned to a weird normalcy. That wasn’t what confused me the most.

  Agent Brand stood in an even smaller pile of ash. Gray soot littered her shoulders and made her skin even paler by comparison.

  “Dammit!” she shouted.

  My mouth hung open. Agent Brand was younger than she had been. Though maybe I’d simply felt it wrong, or her now vanished clothes made it a lie.

  So, she could turn into a giant bird, be killed, and resurrect from the ashes as a younger person. It made absolutely no sense. Who was I to talk? I turned into a giant winged monster that breathed fire and caused the earth to rumble.

  I sat, rubbed my hands over my charred hair, and contemplated what the hell was wrong with the world I’d known. Dealing with monsters had been much easier when I’d had my memories suppressed and believed myself to simply be an altered human.

  16

  Ownership

  The jungle wasn’t exactly peaceful. Dozens of people watched us through the trees as we walked. Agent Brand followed me, all the while complaining in a language that made no sense but conveyed the tone of every irate girl I’d kicked out of a bar. She came off as entitled, snappy, and spoiled.

  I wanted to throw her across the island back to where ever her feline guardians were. Then she could return to doing whatever it was fire birds did when they weren’t bothering me.

  My abilities were muted after the transformation. I fought to keep focused and refused to let the simple transformation put me into slumber. Something about the heat from Agent Brand’s fire form had helped fuel me but it ended up being a wash after regenerating rapidly.

  I tried to sort through memories and figure out if such an event had happened before, but nothing came to mind. The closest I could remember was walking through the woods with Julianne while on the way to find Evan. This wasn’t the same, and the woman behind me might have the same height, but nothing else matched.

  And she was utterly unclothed. I may have preferred my women a bit taller and more mature, but it’s difficult not to notice when you’re being followed by an athlete whose ass felt firm.

  “Don’t look back!” she shouted at me and threw a rock. “Asshole.”

  My anger issues were minor compared to hers. I really shouldn’t look, but Agent Brand wasn’t married. She had no wedding ring. The whole growing younger and spawning from a pile of ash was weird, but I had my own issues.

  “It’s not like you’re wearing anything! You’re naked too.” She muttered the last line.

  I stared down and slowly realized the air I’d been feeling didn’t come from my extra senses. There certainly was a large breeze. That made sense, I’d been a huge monster flying through the sky moments before. Clothes would have split.

  Then it hit me. Poor Leo must have been carrying my naked ass through the woods while trying to escape law enforcement. How weird had that been? I laughed at the idea of the police arresting one linebacker carrying another utterly naked man in the woods.

  That set off Agent Brand. She cursed in a language I didn’t understand. I laughed harder and abruptly snorted. For some reason her harmless anger and naked form were comical.

  I hadn’t been around many women during my time in the jail. They were there, to be sure, but most were in packs or guarded. No one wanted to come near me, anyway.

  “What are you laughing at?” she shouted.

  We were close enough to Leo and the others that I could put off answering her. Instead, I lifted a finger to my lips and pantomimed for silence. Not that it mattered. Stacy would have heard us coming from a mile away.

  “What, you’re scared of those whimpering sacks out there?”
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  I grumbled. Dozens of people were out there watching us. This island only had so much space. Even if the creature off shore ate someone every day, it’d take another year or two to clear everyone.

  Shouldn’t it? My grip on the math was getting fuzzy. There’d been a large number of earthquakes. The creature was obviously still stirring out there, if it had enough strength to leap out of the ocean for us. I suppose meal wise, each person was like an opium laced piece of popcorn, where Agent Brand and I were closer to drumsticks.

  The thoughts helped me drown out Agent Brand. She pushed past me and strode toward the riverbed. I shook my head and stepped after her. At the river’s edge stood two women, half clothed and washing their linens.

  Near them was a third figure, Leo, facing the woods and watching our approach. He had a tired expression.

  “Leo, you’re still alive,” I said. Of course, I’d known he was still alive. The original intent had been to praise him for surviving out here, but it came out backhanded.

  “Where. The fuck. Is Muni!” Agent Brand shouted. “This isn’t her! I followed you because you had to be going to her. There’s no way you’d risk exposure like that without the ability to wipe out peoples’ memories!”

  I felt fairly sure she’d stated no one cared if I was a one oh one. Whatever it was they considered the call sign for races beyond the big four. Obviously she’d been lying or simply goading me into action.

  “Well, you’re exposed too,” I told her.

  “That was you?” Leo asked. His eyes tightened.

  Behind him the two girls dismissed us. I ignored them as well. Stacy preferred ladies, and she’d been dating Julianne. She’d also helped me keep Kahina alive and threatened to tear me a new asshole at some point. So my feelings on her were mixed.

  Plus, when I caught a glimpse of her and the other way more muscled woman, both topless and dripping water, about a dozen memories of other ladies came to mind. I decided to stay away from the mental trigger and focused on the young man.

  I didn’t need to remember all my years of sleeping around before Kahina. It would have helped pass some nights in solitary, but being aroused in the woods with murderers wouldn’t be a good time.

  “Great,” Agent Brand said. She crossed her arms and glared at the young man. “You stink like Muni too.”

  Leo blinked slowly and closed his eyes tight. He covered his face and turned away from Agent Brand.

  “Jesus. Does no one wear clothes around here?” he muttered.

  Right, she was naked too. There had to be a joke in here somewhere. A wolf, a flame hawk, and a muscled woman alone in the woods with only a young boy for company. No, it was all sorts of wrong.

  I covered my eyes as well and groaned. This side of the island was meant to be a constant battle for survival, not the opening to a bad porno.

  “Stacy!” I shouted to her because Leo had completely shut down.

  I could feel Stacy turn. Her assets way more noticeable after visually confirming she wore nothing. It was like my other senses were far too happy to report in size, shape, and elasticity. Leo at least had the decency to look away.

  “Please tell me you have spare clothes out here,” I groaned. Her companion had like a six percent body fat rating, or at least it felt like something absurd. She moved like Roy did, with the air of discipline and years of martial arts practice.

  “What? Fucking hell, princess, can’t a girl enjoy the view without your ugly ass mucking it up?”

  I rolled my eyes. Stacy had a type, or a height, I guess. Agent Brand was probably close to Julianne’s size. Then there was that stupid nickname. Julianne’s brother, Thomas, had been the first to call me Princess.

  Leo, surprisingly, answered instead, “There’s a few pairs. The Caretakers send over clothes with goods as part of their encouragement to civilize us. Not that everyone cares. No one but me wears a shirt half the time.”

  “Can’t be wearing tops when I’m just going to need to shift and fight off those assholes again,” Stacy said. “But these pants are super stretchy. I could fit like two of your friend in them. Or just her, if she wants to join me.”

  I couldn’t figure out if that was Stacy the aggressive wolf in the wilderness talking, or if she’d always been that forward. A year ago she’d dressed mousy. All bets apparently were off now. Time changed everyone.

  “And tell me you’re not as bashful as this idiot. Not when you’re wearing nothing.”

  Bashful, I wasn’t. I had no reason to be. If anything, being in jail and reliving some of the most grueling moments of my life had helped burned away anything gained over months of heavy drinking.

  “It’s going to get cold,” I answered dryly.

  Stacy nodded and smiled. “Sure it will.”

  Agent Brand muttered and rubbed her face with her hands.

  “Is there any chance Muni will show up?” she asked.

  I shrugged. It was possible. She’d been on the island somewhere and probably didn’t fly away. She had a vested interest in keeping me alive. I cared about keeping Leo and Stacy alive. It was a nice big happy circle.

  “Great. All right, kid, where’s Muni?” Agent Brand walked directly toward Leo. Leo turned himself to the side and blushed.

  The other woman I’d never seen before rolled her eyes and continued washing shirts. Her hair had been tightly braided and she had finely detailed tattoos on her back.

  I glanced from Leo to the other woman, then back and forth a few extra times. Those markings reminded me of the ones Roy and Tal and all those in The Last Tribe had, but they centered on different ideas.

  Roy’s family crest had a starburst that curled out in waves. This woman’s were way softer, but they followed the same curls and lines. It, radiated, I think was the best description. At its core was an eye and crown instead of the sun.

  Having noticed, it was the slight bumps under her lower lip that looked like overbite and yellowish skin and eyes that were the real clues.

  If Roy and his wall of muscle were one type, she would be a female version. Tall, muscled enough to make her breasts look like extensions of pectorals, and the way she moved. They were all hints.

  “What about you?”

  “I have no clue who, or what a Muni is,” the woman answered.

  “I got nothing,” Stacy said after.

  I couldn’t remember seeing a female version of Roy’s race, ever. A dozen males. Never a female. I’d assumed they only came in one gender, stupid, but with Tal’s broken grasp of their lineage, there weren’t a ton of details. Even Daniel had only found records of men.

  Agent Brand sighed heavily and flopped down. Someone tossed a shirt at her and she stared off distantly while shaking her head. The woman muttered, alternating between two languages and almost too quiet for my senses to pick up.

  Leo came over and said, a bit too loudly, “Here. They’re drawstring so one size fits all.” He plopped next to me, apparently eager to be with someone who didn’t challenge his sensibilities.

  I slipped on the sweatpants and rolled up the pant legs. They would fit nearly anyone, even a shifted wolf. Stacy and the others wore similar clothes. Gray, dull, and clearly mass produced for savages to attempt being part of civilization.

  Warden Bennett really believed in trying to redeem people. Or at least, this set up did, I mused, and kept an eye on the surroundings. Other folks were rolling around out there, but as sunlight drifted away, they too pulled back. Some stopped near trees, picked up debris. Others gathered and spoke to each other but my senses were getting fuzzy.

  It might have been a lack of energy, realizing slowly this place in no way resembled home, or being distracted by three women behind me who were getting along far too well.

  Which, I couldn’t completely understand. Stacy, sure, she hated men for the most part. Or me, or had mental mood swings regarding our complex relationship. Hell if I knew anymore what her issues were, but, she’d suffered Leo for days. I’d felt them speaking before.r />
  So we could be on the same sort of team out here. Us against all those other creeping people in the forests who were probably like Spike.

  I almost—for a second—regretted outright killing him.

  The girls gathered supplies for a fire. I stared dumbly while drifting in and out. So many people moved around us. Then there was nature, simple nature. Ants, bugs, birds, trees. Leaves were the worst. They curved air and rustled as thick winds blew through.

  I struggled to reel in my senses. Going this batty shouldn’t have happened. I struggled to recall the parts of my life which explained how these powers were tied to ownership.

  Only they weren’t, were they?

  “I need to be able to protect myself out there,” I said.

  The others spoke but their words didn’t register. My mind had already chased down the bit of past which helped clear up what was happening. It’d been years ago, before I left Kahina the first time.

  Daniel paced in my apartment. His footsteps sharp; pressed against the floorboards. Whenever he stopped a nervous muscle would tap repeatedly.

  Muni stood in a corner near the back porch’s sliding door. She picked at fingernails and her hair.

  “Look, man, when you go away, you’ll still have your powers. That’s what’s dangerous. It’s like what happened with—”

  Muni clacked her teeth which caused Daniel to shake his head. They glared in some silent exchange.

  “What we need to do… is make you think it’s harder to draw on your power than it really is. We’ve got to make you think differently or you’ll just burn through the charm.”

  Daniel’s foot beat, rapid fire against the wood, his shoes leaving dents in my flooring. I stared at his foot and pushed down a wave of annoyance.

  “He’s right,” Muni said. I checked with my senses and felt that she stood there, and wondered if maybe it was a lie. Maybe we only remembered her being part of the conversation, but she wasn’t.

  Daniel kept going, “Your powers work based on energy. But if we make you think they’re tied to people you care about, or things you own, it’ll let you pull them out to keep yourself and those around you safe.”