by Namita Singh
angrily lashed at me was when I was eight years old, for a reason that I don’t seem to remember at the moment. I only remember that I was shit scared and had decided to never cause anger to my father again. Apparently, I seem to have forgotten all about that decision as I have yet again made my father yell at me in anger. My father’s stoic stance in all these years had somehow convinced me that he never gets angry anymore. But apparently my judgment has come to be wrong. I don’t push his buttons more. I take one glance at my sleeping partner and follow Aakir outside.
Both of us remain quiet as we get in the car and start driving away, towards our house. I am partly thankful that Aakir doesn’t say anything. I am in too much of a shock to understand him anyways. Besides, I feel abashed after my father’s reprimanding. My thoughts still manage to steer towards the event that has just occurred. What does Ethan mean that Neal belongs to his realm? Neal is a pure human, right? He suddenly seems very important to therians of the First Realm. Does Neal know about us? What is his connection with therians? What is going to happen now? Father said that he’ll be bringing Neal home. What about Neal’s family? Now that I recall I didn’t sense any other aura, human or otherwise inside his house…
“There was nobody in his house.” I voice loudly, staring out of the window at the darkness that has fell.
“Yes,” Aakir agrees, “His family must not be home.”
I don’t say anything else. I see the familiar woods around me as we near our house. Aakir clears his throat. “Hmm…Josh?”
“Hmm?”
“Neal could see our transformations.”
“Hmm?”
“Fluxing. Our animal forms…Neal could see that.”
I blink, still looking out of the window. I don’t say anything but it dawns on me what Aakir intends to say. Our ability to metamorphose is a gift, a secretive one at that. To preserve its secrecy, we have been granted another benefit. During changing forms, our bodies emit high frequency waves, creating haziness in vision for the spectator whose line of thought doesn’t match with that frequency.
Usually humans who believe in the existence of our species are able to see our metamorphosis since in their thoughts they know of our existence and the waves resulting from that thought overlaps with the waves emitted by our body. But an oblivious individual who has no knowledge of our species will not be able to witness our transformation; his vision will turn hazy at our parts that our converting.
I recall how horror stricken Neal was looking as he took in Ethan’s and my father’s fluxed arms, his gaze imperceptibly trained on the metamorphosed arms. He could definitely see their transformed arms. Which implies that he is already aware of the existence of therians.
I don’t get time to marvel over that much. We reach our house. Cautiously, Aakir and I step out. I am able to sense only three auras inside the house. I optimistically believe those are Terry uncle, Gwen aunt and Rome. As we enter the house, Terry uncle greets us immediately.
“Good, you are here. You guys stay here.” He says to Aakir and I. “I am going to go and get Nina from the shop.”
“They have left?” Aakir asks for added measure.
Terry uncle sighs, “Yes. Vincent wasn’t aware of Ethan’s excursion. But nonetheless, they have left. They know better that two of them stand no chance against all of us. Just stay in the house and stay alert. I’ll be back soon.”
And with that he takes the car keys from Aakir and disappears. Aakir and I sit in our living room, awaiting the elders. We don’t speak. It feels an eon to me after which I hear my father’s car stop outside our house. Almost coinciding is the sound of another car, probably Terry uncle returning as well. All the elders enter simultaneously into the house. Aakir and I immediately get up and make way for my father who is carrying a still unconscious Neal. Carefully, he places Neal on one of couches. My mother almost immediately crowds over Neal, her usually happy face contorted with worry.
“He is just unconscious, Nina. He’ll come around.” Rufina informs my mother. The latter sighs in exasperation, still worriedly looking at Neal. “Though,” Rufina aunt continues, walking past us, “He may face a massive headache when he wakes up.”
A shriek, coming from the top of our house, coincides with the sounds of worry my mother lets out.
“God, not again.” I hear Aakir mutter behind me.
I simply sigh. Rome is obviously not used to with the kind of aura Neal is radiating. I should have known that it’ll trigger Rome’s episode. My mother, ignoring the screams, sits beside Neal’s head. I make move to walk towards Neal but Aakir holds my arm back. I frown at him. He simply jerks his head in the direction of the kitchen where my father and Terry uncle’s auras have travelled. I hesitate, looking over at Neal again. Mother is gushing over him, speaking gibberishwhile lifting his head to drop on her lap. I sigh and follow Aakir towards our kitchen, which is sort of a discussion room most of the times.
“-At most we have a week.” Terry uncle is saying, intensely staring at my father. The latter sits, calmly and stoically. As usual.
“Minimum four days.” Father mumbles.
Terry uncle shakes his head, “Minimum five days. They won’t get a flight back to Kansas till tomorrow night. And they need two days to travel back too.”
“We need to start preparing.” Father says, sitting straighter.
“We can’t go back.” Terry uncle whispers, staring at his long time best friend. If I were not a therian, I would have probably not heard him with Rome shouting at the top of his lungs in the house. For a moment, my father and uncle just stare at each other as if telepathically conversing.
“Dad?” I interrupt their eye staring game.
Father looks at me, gazing at me for a long time, scouting me. He then sighs and then turns back to Terry uncle, “We have to go back.” He says, louder this time.
“That’s insane.” Terry uncle mumbles, looking slightly angry.
“Go back where?” I ask.
Terry uncle looks at me and stares at me for as long as my father just did. Then he turns towards my father too.
“We can…we can hand him over-”
“No.” my father interrupts.
“Nik, listen to me. Josh can shift to USA. They can stay together. I think his partner would be allowed to live a life, Nikolai.We are not living in the BCtime anymore.”
“What are you guys talking about?” I ask, my own voice getting louder as Rome’s shrieks grow even louder above us.
My father shakes his head, “Josh wouldn’t allow it and neither would I.”
Terry uncle huffs, “As much as I am in support of you, you should know that this is suicide. Neal belongs there.”
“Belongs where?” I cry out, exasperated.
My father looks at me again. After a moment he begins, looking at me andfrowning unhappily, “Why didn’t you tell me about his aura?”
“I didn’t think it was significant-”
“Really?” my father asks, his face stoic but his vociferated voice is sarcastic.
The tone immediately makes me shut up. An uncomfortable silence emerges as we all awkwardly stare at each other. Two times in a row. Two times in a row my father has expressed his anger. I don’t know if I should feel happy that he is expressing something towards me or abashed at being rebuked.
“It’s partly my fault.” Aakir says after an eon of silence. Confused, everybody turns to look at him. He squirms under the sudden attention but continues nonetheless, “I kept complaining to Josh about Neal’s aura. I also kept pressurizing Josh to know more things about Neal that’ll explain his aura. Josh, as is expected with regard to your partner, grew defensive. He started to…dislike when people focused on Neal’s aura. That’s why he never talked about it.”
I do not know if Aakir is being truthful on his part or he is just lying to save my ass but I know for sure that his reasoning is definitely one of the reasons why I never talk of Neal’s aura.
“What is Neal?” Aakir asks when nobody say
s anything. I shoot him a glare for using ‘what’.
Terry uncle sighs, “He is the…I never even thought I’ll meet one in my lifetime.” He mutters then sighs again, “Neal is a vaticinator.”
“A what?” I ask, frowning at the unknown word.
“You mean like an oracle?” Aakir asks, grimacing. I look at him incredulously. Aakir shrugs under my gaze, “Vaticinator means someone who can see the future.”
Now that makes me give him an ‘are you kidding me?’ look.
“No,” Terry uncle says, “He is not an oracle.” Uncle rolls his eyes, “And his abilities are much more than just simply seeing the future.” Uncle suspires, “His kind face birth only once in hundred years or so.”
“Okay, hold on.” I say, not able to digest the information. “He is not human?”
“He is human.” My father says quietly, “Only a very talented one.” He rolls his neck, emanating popping sounds.
“Don’t jest.” Terry uncle smirks. He looks at me and notices my utter serious, frowning and scowling face. His smirk vanishes and he begins seriously, “Well in short, he is the leader occultist’s oracle of sorts. An occultist’s power is non-forbidden with her vaticinator by her side. They wait eons for the birth of one. Technically,” Terry uncle continues cautiously, “Neal is the property of the occultist of Ethan’s realm.”
“B-but-” I splutter.
“He is waking up.” Rufina aunt’s voice stops me from uttering anything. The thought of my partner being a