by John Goode
That was it. I just insulted a talking rock.
“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling foolish. “Diamonds suck, you’re right. You’re a prince or something?”
“That word would work, yes,” Ruber said.
“So then how does a prince get traded to someone else and then end up in Hawk’s backpack?”
Another pause, and I felt if the stone had a face and could have moved, it would have turned away from me as it answered, “That is a long and sordid tale.”
“Is it a long and sordid tale you need to tell right now?” I asked, stifling a yawn.
“Of course not,” the gem said, obviously insulted.
“This has just been a day,” I replied, amid another yawn. “And I need some sleep before I pass out.”
“Of course,” Ruber said, floating up from the table.
“Oh wow. You can fly,” I said, amazed.
“I am capable of many tasks,” the ruby answered smugly.
“Bully for you,” I said, walking up the stairs to my room. “Hey, can you find out where he is staying so I can give this back?” My room was lit with a magical red glow as Ruber floated in.
“I am aware of that location, yes,” he said, settling down on my dresser.
I pulled my shirt off and fell onto my bed. “Awesome. We can do that tomorrow,” I mumbled into my pillow as I fell asleep.
HAWK THREW the pack across the room as he walked into the house.
“Dammit!” Hawk exclaimed as he fumed, pacing the room.
“Master?” Spike mewed, the combination of normal cat sounds and the cadence of his other-world-self combining well enough.
“That boy is…,” he growled, kicking the floor in anger. “I had every right to refuse scraps!” he bellowed.
“Of course you did, master,” Spike agreed, following behind him. “The human has no knowledge of the way things are.” After a beat. “We should kill him now.”
“Enough with the killing!” Hawk roared, spinning on the Changeling. “We are not killing anyone without cause, and that boy has not given any cause. Are we clear?”
“But he has…,” Spike began to argue.
“Are we clear?” Hawk boomed the question again.
“Yessir,” Spike said in a tiny voice.
“Dammit!” he said again, sitting down on the bedroll he used to sleep on. “Why did I react like that?” he asked himself aloud. “And why do I care about it?”
WHEN I got up, there was a message on the answering machine saying that school was closed for today and would most likely open again Monday. I felt guilty for loving the fact that we got a three-day weekend because Hawk burned the place down. As soon as I thought about him I felt a hole in my chest where he was supposed to be. As I stood in the shower I tried to distance myself from the feeling, knowing there was no way it could be real.
This was just emotional residue based on a lifetime of isolation. I didn’t even know him, so how could I feel this much? I had heard tales of teenage puppy love and always dismissed them, mostly because I knew I was never going to find love until I left for college. I swore to myself I would never be that guy, the guy who loses his shit for the first pretty face he sees.
And yet my shit was truly lost.
I got dressed, wondering all the while if I should go and find him or not. I supposed I could ask Ruber to take him the earring, but I wanted to see him again. I grabbed a pillow off my bed and screamed into it as I fought the dueling urges in my heart. I wanted to be all Destiny’s Child and be an independent woman.
But I needed to see him more.
“Come on, Ruber,” I said, grabbing my satchel and slipping it over my shoulder. “Show me where Hawk is.”
“Indubitably, sir,” it said, floating in front of me as I walked out the door.
HAWK OPENED his eyes and found two iridescently gold eyes staring back at him.
“Are you awake yet?” Spike, in the form of the black cat, asked.
Hawk sighed, dislodging the “cat” as he turned over. “Go away, Spike.”
Undaunted, Spike moved around to Hawk’s face. “The sun is up, though, and you are normally awake by then.”
“It’s called morning, and you know that,” Hawk said, flopping over the other way. “I hate it when you play helpless little kitten.”
Spike prowled down Hawk’s back and over his lower legs, finally ending up looking back into his face. “You’re upset.”
Hawk stared off across the floor as he mumbled expressionlessly, “I’m sad.”
Spike inched forward a little more. “Because of the human.” Hawk nodded. “Please don’t be sad because of the boy. He’s….” Hawk’s eyes locked onto Spike’s, and the Changeling knew he had to choose his next words carefully. “…not worth your sorrow?” he tried.
Hawk sighed, wriggling until he ended up on his back. He propped his head up with his hands and stared at the cracks in the ceiling. “Not worth it. I don’t even know what that means anymore.”
Spike crept cautiously up onto his master’s chest and, when Hawk made no move to brush him off, began to knead his front two paws slowly. “You are a prince, heir to the throne of Arcadia. You can have any person in existence, why care about a lowly human?”
“He’s not lowly,” Hawk said, his voice dropping an octave in growing anger.
“He’s a commoner. He fed you scraps and was going to clean the floor himself. How is that in any way not lower than you?”
Hawk’s eyes flashed in anger as he reached out and grabbed the scruff of the Changeling’s neck. “He’s not lowly.”
Spike froze, his form shrinking to that of a kitten in response. “I’m sorry?” he offered.
Hawk tossed him aside, the kitten becoming a sparrow and landing in the long-disused fireplace. Wisely, he didn’t say anything else as Hawk settled back into his funk.
They stayed that way for another half hour, Hawk mulling his thoughts as Spike kept a respectful distance.
The sound of the door opening cracked like a gunshot in the silence.
Both of them acted as one. Spike leaped off the mantel, his black feathers flattening together, becoming a pelt of black fur covering what was now a vicious dire wolf. Hawk grabbed Truheart, which had lain within hand’s reach on the bed all night, rolled off his bed, and came to his feet in one movement. His teeth were set as he stared at the opening door. Startled, on one level, he realized he was in the mood for a fight.
The door stopped at about a quarter open and a head peeked around the side to check the interior. Spike leapt as Hawk screamed for him to stop.
There was a pulse of red light as Ruber faded into visibility, expanding his field to repel the wolf. Spike flew back, rolling up onto his haunches almost instantly, his claws digging into the rotted wooden floor to stop his momentum. Hawk called at him to stop again but the Changeling was obviously enraged. He charged at Kane, who stood at the doorway, a stunned look on his face. The wolf’s snout grew longer as the fur shimmered into a layer of scaled skin. What started its jump as a wolf hit the middle of the leap as a large velociraptor. Kane screamed and drew back, but Ruber was not impressed by the transformation.
The gem swung in a wide circle around the lizard and collided into the side of its head, knocking him down and away from Kane. Screeching its anger, the dinosaur slid across the floor, scrambling with its claws to stop itself. The lizard shrank and twisted to feline form as he reoriented himself, focusing back at Kane. Ruber darted between Kane and the jaguar, a low hum beginning to form from inside of the ruby.
Spike let out a deafening roar and crouched for the attack again.
Which was when Hawk barged in front of him and glowered down at him. He still held his sword in one hand; his expression had gone beyond furious. “If you move one more inch toward him I will personally cut off your head,” he vowed.
Spike sidled to the left, attempting to look around Hawk, but the prince would not get out of its face. “I mean it, Spike. Stand. Down. No
w!”
The Changeling continued to growl for another few seconds as its form began to shrink. Now the black cat again, he looked up at Ruber, his eyes more predatory than ever.
“Go upstairs,” Hawk ordered, his stance not relaxing a micron.
“They are intruders—” Spike began to argue.
Hawk casually swung the sword toward the cat, effortlessly stopping the motion a hairsbreadth from its neck. “I mean it. Go.”
Cursing inaudibly, Spike moved around the human and ruby, slinking its way up the stairs, casting furious glances behind him as he went.
Only when he was out of sight did Hawk relax. He let out a sigh and turned back to Kane. “You have quite an effect on him,” he said with a small smile.
Kane didn’t move as he looked at the stairs and then back to the large gashes carved out of the floor where the velociraptor had skidded. Words apparently didn’t want to cooperate with him; he opened and closed his mouth helplessly.
“Are you okay?” Hawk asked worriedly.
“He was just attacked by a Changeling,” Ruber said, closing the door behind Kane. “I am quite sure that is outside of the normal range of events in his life.”
Hawk shot a dirty look at the gem as he led Kane over to a chair and sat him down. “We weren’t expecting people to find us. Spike didn’t mean anything by it.”
Kane looked up at him. “You can’t be that stupid.” Hawk pulled back a bit, confused. “Let me spell it out for you. That thing wanted to kill me. He still wants to kill me!” he exclaimed loudly.
“No, he doesn’t,” Hawk tried to assure him.
“Yes, I do.” The voice came from the second floor.
“Shut up!” Hawk roared at the ceiling.
Kane shook his head and held out his hand to Hawk. “Anyways, I came to give you this. You forgot it.” Hawk put his hand up to his ear and realized he hadn’t even noticed.
He took it slowly. “Thank you, I would have been….” His words trailed off as he put it in his ear. “Well, it would have been bad.”
Kane noticed the other boy was shirtless and looked away quickly. “Um, so… this is where you live?” he asked, standing up and looking anywhere but at the half-naked boy.
“It’s not—” Hawk said, looking around in embarrassment. He quickly began throwing his clothes into a corner, out of sight. “It was the only abandoned house we could find,” he explained awkwardly as he pulled a shirt on. He kicked the blanket off his bed and behind the chair.
“No it’s… rustic,” Kane said, trying to be as nice as possible.
Hawk raised one eyebrow skeptically. “It’s a hovel.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty bad,” Kane agreed, laughing.
Hawk tried not to notice the way he reacted to the sound of Kane’s laughter.
“So. You brought the bauble to me,” he said self-consciously.
“Yeah,” Kane agreed, looking around some more. “I guess… I should go, right?”
Hawk answered quickly, “You don’t have to go.” Clearing his throat he added. “I mean, if you don’t want to.”
Kane answered just as rapidly. “No, I’m fine.”
“Because we don’t have to stay here.”
“If you don’t want to stay here…,” Kane countered.
“No, I’m fine.”
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
Finally Ruber said, “Oh dear God, please just admit you like each other and move on to the next step.”
Both boys blushed as they looked at each other and then away.
“What is there to do in your world?” Hawk said, deciding to pierce the silence.
“In general?” Kane asked, confused.
“In this town,” Hawk clarified.
“Oh. Oh! Well… with no school we can go get coffee. Or see a movie.”
“Movie?” Hawk asked, the word obviously having no direct translation.
“Um… moving pictures. Like….” He looked at Ruber. “Little help?”
“It’s a form of entertainment,” the ruby described, sounding bored. “Like a play that has been recorded and replayed.”
Hawk was obviously intrigued. “A play that has been frozen and then thawed somewhere else?”
“Well… no… well, close enough,” Kane decided aloud. “You want to go?”
“With you?”
“If you want to, I mean, you don’t have to…,” Kane began to stammer.
“Yes, together,” Ruber said, cutting him off. Kane tried to shush the ruby with a look.
“I’d love to go with you,” Hawk said, smiling. “To the movies. I mean,” he added. “I mean, I love the movie, or I might if it….”
“Please. Stop talking,” Ruber announced before Hawk could go on.
“Let me put on my boots,” Hawk finished, giving the gem an angry glare.
I’M NOT sure how you can get turned on watching someone put on shoes, but I was.
He looked so embarrassed to be squatting in any house, much less a dusty one with no running anything… it just broke my heart. He seemed so lost that it took everything I had not to just rush over to him and tell him it was going to be okay. Of course, I had no idea if things were going to be okay, since I had no idea what was going on. I knew I should have been more freaked out by the whole magic ruby and the vicious Changeling thing, but they were just part of Hawk’s world.
And that world was one I wanted to be a part of, I realized. I didn’t even know if my being part of his life was possible. But I knew that, if being a part of his life wasn’t possible in the end, I wanted to be close to him as long as I could.
“I am ready,” he said from behind me.
He looked perfect.
Between the way his shirt tightened across his chest and his jeans hugged his ass, he looked like he had been pampered by a team of make-up artists instead of having just rolled out of bed.
Literally rolled out of bed.
“Is there something wrong with the way I am dressed?” he asked after seeing my Double Take and Drool session.
I shook my head and looked away again. “You’re fine. I mean, they’re fine. I mean… yes. You’re dressed perfectly.” Nice work, Kane. Stumble over that tongue much?
He shot me a smile that made me embarrassed and excited all at once.
“You look incredib—” he started to say when Spike bounded down the steps.
“Are we leaving?” he asked Hawk eagerly. Seeing a cat talk is weird. It’s nothing like the Disney cartoons where the cat’s entire face reflected human expressions. Spike’s mouth moved like a human’s, but the rest of his cat face was as inexpressive as any feline I’d ever seen.
“We are,” Hawk said, indicating himself and me. “You are staying here.”
“Why?” he whined.
“You shouldn’t even have to ask that.” His voice was full of contempt toward Spike, and I felt a little sorry for him.
That was right up until the cat turned back at me and showed me what a cat’s face would look like if he hated every little thing about you and wished you were dead. Nothing Disney about that, either, by the way.
“Do not blame him!” Hawk said, causing Spike to look away quickly. “You brought this upon yourself. Stay here and clean up this mess,” he ordered as he shepherded me out the door. “Do something useful.”
I looked back as the door was closing, and Spike’s feelings came through pretty clearly to me. That Changeling hated my guts.
I noticed that the air was colder than normal as we walked the streets of Athens. My dad’s storm was on its way, and he was halfway across the country missing it. Hawk looked around at everything. Even strolling casually he had a presence that made it pretty clear he wasn’t from around town. He asked questions about everything, and seemed to be the most interested in what the various stores sold and how they came to be named what they were.
“Puns?” he asked after I tried explaining.
“Wordplay. Um, jokes about…,” I star
ted to explain.
“I know what a pun is,” he interrupted me with a grin. “I have just never heard them used for naming actual businesses.”
“What are the names of places on your side?” I asked.
“Well, most don’t have a name, per se, they are owned and known by their wares. Some names are more famous than others, but nothing as colorful as it is here.”
“They’re lame,” I said, grumbling. His side sounded much cooler than Rice Rice Baby, which was one local Chinese takeout.
“They can’t walk?” he asked after a second.
“Lame,” I repeated, and realized that wasn’t going to help. “Um… stupid. Not cool. No, that probably doesn’t work either. Not popular?”
He shook his head, and I tried not to get lost in the way weak sunlight playing across his hair turned its color to something I’d never seen before. “Your side uses a fair number of idioms. It makes translation difficult at best. I’ve understood the instructors well enough at your academy, but the other students seemed to be speaking another language altogether.”
“We do have our slang,” I admitted. “Why would you end up going to high school anyways? There has to be a better place to learn about our side.”
“Well, this was the closest learning establishment from the facilitation point. I figured since the students looked roughly my age it would be easier to mask my presence and learn what I could.”
“And what have you learned?” I asked as we stood in line for tickets.
“That your world is nothing like mine,” he shared in a whisper.
That much I agreed with.
I paid for our tickets, and I saw Hawk watching the money I handed over. As we walked into the lobby I offered him a dollar bill to examine. He scrutinized the piece of paper closely, turning it over and over again as if he was memorizing it. “You hungry?” I asked as he was on his third pass of the bill. He looked up quickly and nodded. “Famished,” he answered. I steered him into line at the concession stand as he continued his inspection.
I was about to ask him what he was doing when the sound of Pink’s “F**kin’ Perfect” came drifting from my pocket. I barely noticed the way Hawk seemed to stiffen up at the sound because I knew that was Jewel’s ring tone. “I have to take this,” I said to him, as I flipped my cell open.