Family of the Fox, #1

by F. M. Isaacs

  Allen paused, shuffling his feet in the dirt. “I really don't want to scare you.”

  “I dare you to try!”

  “Well...”

  “What's wrong? Is the time still not right? Am I too delicate to deal with your scariness?” I goaded.

  “My scariness is world-changing, Corinne.”

  I blew a raspberry. “You're a magic ice cream man, right? You couldn't scare me if you tried, Allen. I'm going home.”

  “Wait!” Roughly, Allen pulled me into the woods. “You want scary? And I’m warning you, this is your last chance to say no and turn back.”

  Something about his tone sounded darker this time, and I shivered slightly despite what until now had seemed like flirtatious banter. Either he was playing with me, or maybe I would actually learn something about what was going on. Perhaps naively, I trusted that he wouldn’t really hurt me.

  “Definitely,” I answered, mustering all my confidence into that single word.

  He backed up a step. “You can't tell a soul about this.”

  “Never. I wouldn't dream of it.” I rolled my eyes, shaking my head in annoyance. What was he preparing to do? Dance for me?

  “You promise you won't tell?”

  His serious demeanor stirred a seed of doubt inside of me. I was quivering now, half-worried that he was going to do something awful to me, hoping my faith in him wasn’t misplaced. My fight-or-flight responses were all revved up to go.

  “I promise.”

  “Fine. Prepare yourself,” Allen intoned, deadly seriously. “I'm going to become your worst nightmare!” He stepped to the side, threw his head back in deep concentration, and suddenly he was glowing.

  I shrieked as the light around him intensified so quickly that it soon surrounded his entire body in a fiery orb. Then it swelled massively and changed shape, stretching taller and taller until it towered over the treetops, illuminating the ground below in brilliant radiance.

  Rooted to the ground in absolute panic, I grew hoarse from my screams. “Stop it! Stop it!” I begged, sobbing and shaking, but the spectacle had only begun. The stretched fireball started to dim, but rather than fade away, it seemed to be regaining solid form.

  But this form was enormous, and it was not remotely human.

  There were limbs, but there was also a long neck, a snout, a tail, wings... “Oh my God!” I screeched in terror, staggering backwards into the shrubs. “No...no...”

  A magnificent dragon now stood before me. It stretched its wings out, felling leaves and branches, then made a booming roar which echoed through the woods.

  “No, please...Allen, it's me,” I whispered. “Please, don't...” My whole body was quaking; sweat flowed from every pore...

  Then the behemoth craned its neck to the side and pumped a wave of fire from its mouth.

  “Allen! Please! Stop!”

  While moaning like a child, I watched the flames rain from the monster's throat and set several trees ablaze. I could not accept that this frightening, demonic creature had recently been the man I was growing obsessed with. I finally found my footing and turned away to run, but the dragon blocked my path with a single step. It leaned over and stuck its scaly face into mine.

  And it winked at me.

  “Allen?” I squeaked, barely managing to get the name out of my throat.

  It nodded.

  “You won't hurt me?”

  It shook its head no, and something resembling a smile played over its immense face.

  Hesitantly, I reached out and touched the scales. They were warm. This dragon was very real.

  Clasping my hands over my eyes, I entreated him, “Please be yourself again. Please. I beg you.”

  Even through my hands I could see the intense light, and when I finally uncovered my eyes, a self-satisfied Allen stood in the dragon's place.

  Speechless, I ran at him, burying my face in his shirt. I had never experienced such extreme fear as this, and it felt like something had broken deep within me. “Please tell me you didn't turn into a dragon. Please.”

  “I turned into a dragon, Corinne. Calm down. I won't hurt you. I'd never hurt any of you.” He glanced over at the patch of trees that was burning. “However, I wasn't intending to start a forest fire with my little 'display', so brace yourself for another change.”

  Before I could speak, he had dislodged himself from me and started to glow again. “This'll be fun. Don't take your eyes off me,” instructed the radiant pillar before me. I could only nod as it rose into the air, a fluid mass of gold. Lengthening and traveling far above the flames, it disintegrated into a sparkling cloud. It hovered there for a moment, then cascaded over the flames as ton after ton of water, putting out the trees and flooding the forest.

  Then all was still.

  Very slowly, I crept over to the charred area. I stared down at the ground, which was flooded with...Allen. Without warning, the puddles coalesced. All the water began to glow, forming into a bright ball in the middle of the ashes, and became human Allen once more.

  And the soil was now dry.

  Shaking the dirt from his legs, Allen stepped from the blackened remains and approached me. He still had the sheepish look on his face, and, as he had previously instructed, I really couldn't take my eyes off of him.

  “Well?” he said with a grin.

  Finally, I managed, “Holy...God...”

  He chuckled. “Was I scary enough?”

  “I hope you didn't kill anything,” I exclaimed. “Look at the destruc-tion...” My anger at the mess he made kept me from focusing on the fact that he had turned into a dragon and then tons of water. It just...helped me cope.

  “You set so much on fire. I wish I could make all the trees and bushes come back in this area.” I regarded the charred underbrush sadly as he led me from the woods. I think I was still trembling.

  Pulling me away from the devastation left my mind free to ponder Allen's apparent transformations. “So you're a dragon that can turn to water,” I breathed, barely any sound issuing from my lips.

  He snorted. “No, I’m human, but I can be far more than just dragons and water.”

  These words only heightened my fear, which I didn't think was possible. “Please don't become anything else,” I whimpered, extracting my hand from his. My eyes remained on his fingers, however, as I recalled how enormous and clawed they’d just been.

  If he was hurt by my pleading, he didn't let on. “I won't change. Unless you want me to.”

  We came to the edge of the woods, and I gathered up the strength and the nerve to ask the questions I knew he was waiting patiently to answer.

  “What are you?” I didn't want his response, because it couldn't be anything good, but I knew that I would get it anyway. He'd shared his secret with me, and I was in it for the long haul now.

  “I'm a changer,” he said softly.

  “A changer?” This didn't mean anything to me. “What's a changer?”

  “Well, like a shape-shifter, but I can change anything I want. Not just me.”

  I gulped. “Like...me?”

  He smiled. “If you want.”

  “Uh...” Why did the whole idea bother me? I guess everyone at one point has imagined what it would be like to be something else, but the idea of it actually happening – especially when it was at someone else's mercy? No.

  “You don't have to, but you don't know what you're missing.”

  What was he, crazy? “Uh...well, I'll think about it,” I stuttered, trying not to insult him. The last thing I wanted to do now was get him angry. I could end up as a garbage can – or worse.

  Haltingly, we wandered down the street. The streetlights cast an eerie, permanent glow over Allen, which persisted even when we were in the dark. The brightness he'd emitted before had probably damaged my eyes. I hoped it was temporary.

  “Are you an alien?” I blurted out.

  “An alien?” he chortled. “Why?”

  “People can't do this. It's physically impossible. How
did you get so big?”

  “I can get small too.”

  “How small?”

  “Oh, you've seen me get pretty tiny. That moth you saw?”

  The image of the beautiful moth on my music stand popped into my head, and my mouth fell open. “That was you?”

  He smiled yet again.

  “But...but...”

  “I was at your window as a moth too. You saw me.”

  I gasped, and then quickly grew annoyed. “Why were you at my window?”

  “I missed you?”

  “Don't spy on me!”

  “I wasn't! I'm just making sure you're okay. I was that fly that landed on your clarinet too.”

  That was how he had heard me play! Okay, now things were getting creepy. “How is that possible? Doesn't it hurt you? How do you get so perfect, and then come back to yourself so perfect?”

  He blinked at the near-nonsense I spouted, but I think he understood what I was attempting to say. “Well, I can't tell you the exact process of transforming. Apparently I become pure energy, then I convert back into a mass with a different form. I retain some kind of energy signature that helps me get back to my original shape.”

  The science here was making my head spin. Normally I loved learning how the world worked, but this was not the time for lessons. “So you figured this out yourself?”

  “Oh, no. This is physics, which is a bit beyond my schooling. Jonas explained it to me. He’s been studying it for years.”

  Uncle Jonas! I knew he was aware of far more than he let on, and resentment began to well up deep inside me. “You know Uncle Jonas?”

  “Yes, I met him recently.”

  “So he knows about people like you?”

  “Well, there are very few people like me– it's a very rare talent to have, unlike some.”

  What was he talking about? “Some talents? There are others?”

  He studied me a moment. “You really have no idea?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “About what?”

  We were approaching my house now, but so much more needed to be said. My frustration mounted as Allen was once again avoiding answer-ing my questions.

  “They haven't told you anything,” he stated, nonplussed.

  “They?” Why did I have the urge to break into tears again? Or punch someone...

  He took both of my hands, and we stopped. “Look, now they'll have to tell you, but let me begin first by saying I've done nothing wrong. I'm grateful beyond words to be here in this country, and I beg you to get them to let me stay.”

  “Who, Allen? Who?”

  “Your family.”

  What did my family have to do with anything? “But, other than Jonas, my family doesn’t know about you!”

  “They know.”

  How would they know about him? Did he mean they knew of his ability? “Well, they don't know that I know you, do they?”

  “No, and it's better that you don't tell them.”

  I found myself marveling at the deep blue color of his eyes, and I suddenly remembered seeing them looking back at me from the woods. “You're the mountain lion!” I exclaimed.

  He seemed surprised by my comment. “Yes.”

  “Who was the other one behind you?”

  “Daniel.”

  “My brother can turn into an animal?” I was completely floored. How could Daniel possibly keep something like this to himself? “I can't believe he didn't tell me!” I seethed.

  “No, he's not a changer. I transformed him. He loves it. I do it to him whenever he asks me to, to thank him for his help. Although I have a feeling I won’t be changing him much more.”

  “Thank him? For what? Did he cure some fatal disease you had or something?” For some reason, Jack came to mind.

  “Daniel?” he paused for a moment, seeming to contemplate his next words very carefully. “No, no. He doesn’t do that. I wasn't ill. See, he rescued me from...a long time ago.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “Corinne, your brother is a time traveler.”

  MY PARENTS WERE ASLEEP when I got in. As much as I wanted to wake them and barrage them with questions, I knew they would want to know where I was and how I came by all this information. Two o'clock in the morning was not a good time for this. So I forced myself past their bedroom and into my own room. Despite the hour, I grabbed up my cell phone and hit Daniel's number. Him I could bother. He was probably awake anyway.

  As I counted the rings, I only grew angrier. “Pick up, Daniel, you lying jerk! I hate you! So that's the secret! I can't believe you didn't tell me any of this–”

  “'Hey, it's Daniel. Leave a message!'”

  “I need to talk to you!” I screamed into the phone and slammed it down. Then, after taking a deep breath, I picked it back up and texted him, “When can I call you tomorrow?”

  I put on my pajamas and got into bed, waiting and praying for an answer from my brother. Time travelers, people transforming... My safe, mundane world had been completely overturned into a bizarre fantasy, and I couldn't even begin to unravel any of it. I still wasn’t sure I was completely sane, and it weighed heavily on my mind. Thankfully I was so tired, however, that I quickly fell into a long, blessedly dreamless sleep.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  I awoke to a text alert from Daniel. It was Wednesday morning.

  “You OK? Call me when you get back from school. Doing surgical rotation all day, so can't talk until then. D.”

  “I hate you!” I yelled at the phone.

  My mother, who had been walking past my bedroom, poked her head inside. “Who do you hate?”

  Was this the time to talk? But Mom was on her way to work, stressed as usual. I wished I knew if she was aware of what was going on. Allen had said “family”, and that was pretty much all-encompassing, so Mom probably did know. But it made more sense to pester Daniel first. I could always break him if I really tried, and once he admitted what he could do, then the rest of the family couldn't deny anything.

  “I hate Daniel. He's a liar,” I mumbled to myself, pulling on my shoes and edging past Mom. “I'm going to be late. See you later.”

  ALLEN WAS BACK IN SCHOOL after his absence the prior few days. In class, he smiled at me from his seat as if last night had never happened. “Want to meet me later?” he asked, winking at me.

  Pictures of a familiar dragon winking at me flooded my brain, and I shuddered. Why should I join him? So he could scare the hell out of me again? No longer was he the mysterious foreigner who had chosen to befriend me in school. Now he was somewhere between a sorcerer and a god.

  “Um, I'm so busy...” I lied.

  He seemed to be expecting my response. Pushing his mouth up against my ear, he whispered, “I'll be anything you tell me to be.”

  Involuntarily, I shuddered yet again.

  “Oh, sweet nothings!” Marnie called to us from across the room. Several of the other students looked back at us and tittered.

  “I need time, Allen, okay? It's a lot to process. Not today.” Yes, people turning into dragons could take some time to accept.

  Nodding, he replied, “I understand. But I'm not giving up on

  you.”

  WHEN I GOT HOME, I rushed into my room and locked the door even though no one was around. I snatched up the phone and called Daniel, who finally answered.

  “Daniel, you sneaky, lying...jerk! I hate you!” I started crying again. I couldn't help it.

  “Whoa, whoa...What's wrong, Corinne?”

  “You...you...” I could hardly string words together through the tears. “You didn't tell me!”

  “Tell you what?”

  I made a dramatic pause, just to annoy him. “That you're a time traveler!”

  My outburst was met with silence.

  “Daniel!” I insisted. “Answer me!”

  He didn't for a good few seconds. “Do you have clothes on?”

  “Clothes? Of course! What the hell are you talking about clothes for?” I slammed my hand dow
n on the dresser in exasperation, then wondered if the resulting throbbing meant I’d broken a finger or two.

  “Good. Stay right there.”

  “Well where would I go if I'm–”

  My brother now stood before me.

  I dropped the phone and it hit the floor while I let out a blood-curdling scream. Daniel leaped toward me and took me in his arms. “It's okay. It's okay! I'm here now.”

  “Here?” The sobbing came back with a vengeance, while my anger increased exponentially. Shaking, I pushed him away, shrieking, “No! No! Just...no!”

  “Shh. Corinne, it's fine.”

  “It's...fine? You just...appeared, you idiot! People can't do that! You're a liar! I hate you for not telling me any of this!” I didn’t care that I sounded like a five-year-old. I threw myself at him, pounding on his chest and getting tears all over his shirt. Helpless and guilty, he simply allowed me to keep pummeling him until I’d exhausted all my fury.

  Then he cleared his throat. “Are you done?” he inquired in a gentle voice.

  “No!” I shrilled, but I didn't start hitting him again.

  He sat down in my desk chair, waiting for me to speak. But I didn't. I was just too enraged that my beloved brother, who used to tell me everything, kept from me the biggest, most stupendous secret ever.

  “How'd you do that?” I finally demanded, sitting down on my bed cross-legged.

  “What? Oh, appearing?”

  “Allen said you're a time traveler.”

  “Allen,” he said, looking away. “I had a feeling that's how you found out. He shouldn't have said anything. Yeah, the teleporting is really part of the traveling. As a time traveler, I can go anywhere I want in time. Of course, if I keep myself in the present, I can still travel spatially.”

  Well that sounded pretty convenient. “So, wait, you can just say, 'let's go to Disneyland' and you're there?”

  He took my hand, and, with a sickening lurch, I now stood in the middle of a dark road. Out of balance, I almost fell to the ground, but Daniel caught me.

  “Oops! Watch it there. Yes, it can knock you for a loop the first few times,” he laughed.

  “A loop?” I gasped, looking around. And indeed, I recognized our surroundings as “Main Street, USA”, the entranceway of the Disney theme park. It was late at night, and there were no people about. The storefronts were dark, with unlit streetlights casting shadows in the moonlight, and there was no sound of any rides to shatter the quiet.