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Chapter 4
Sacred Prey
Nina awoke to a pounding headache. Thankfully, Jamie was being as quite as he could this morning. Afternoon. What the hell was the time?
It was either midnight or noon, according to the clock next to her bed. She sat up, trying to remember something just on the edge of her memory.
It turned out to be noon, as she stumbled slowly into the living room, where Jamie was clicking away at a Game Boy.
"Welcome to Wednesday," he said without turning round, just nodding to a mug of coffee on a small table.
"Thanks,"' Nina said, slurping up the hot beverage. Her memory gave a twitch. "I had the weirdest dream last night…"
"Oh yeah?" Jamie said, cursing at some gaming catastrophe.
"Yeah… I was in this jungle…"
The FBI had done remarkably well. Or, from another point of view, nothing happened. Nothing at all. Got it? Good.
Manitou knew he had to get back as quick as he could, but that meant flying to Little Prospect, and that was not possible with his injured wing. He had to go in a small army van with John, driven by a stubbly, tanned Spanish looking army type.
John was the first to talk. "So what's it like, being a primal?"
"It's, uh, it's hard to explain. For me, it's normal. I've always been like this since I was thirteen." Manitou answered.
"That young?"
"Yes. Each primal has their own date, when they, uh, 'emerge.'"
"What happens if they miss that day? Can they miss it?"
"Sort of. They either don't become a primal and stay human, never knowing their powers, or…"
"Or what?" John pressed.
"I don't like to talk about… rejection. It's not a subject I'm comfortable with."
"Sorry. It's just my job to ask."
Manitou nodded his head, and frowned curiously. "What's it like… with only one arm?"
"I got used to it. To tell you the truth…" John leaned forwards, and started whispering. Manitou followed so he could hear. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but I'll tell ya anyway; the guys in the tech dept of the FBI are making replacement limbs that attach to the nerve endings. They asked me if I could be the first human to get one." He grinned.
"So you'll get you arm back?"
"Well, not get it back, but replaced. They've still got a ways to go yet."
"How did you lose it, if you don't mind me asking?"
"You know the Dead?"
Manitou took a sharp intake of breath, sitting bolt upright. "Of course. That unholy creature's with them… on the island."
The D.M.W. Or, to give it it's full name, the Dead Man Walking.
"I was tracking it, on one of my first missions. The guy who handed me the assignment didn't know it was a walking corpse, and I lost my arm when it started waving its sword about."
"I think it lost its sword a while ago," Manitou interrupted.
"That's good. Anyway, just before it killed me, Vicky showed up with Jack Hill and saved my ass. They're the ones who got me into the FBI."
"Jack?"
"You don't know him? He's out of action now, paralysed from the waist down, lives in a nice place in Southern California. When I first saw him, he was this big beaver guy. I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw them, and neither could Dead. He ran as soon as they showed up. Vicky stopped me bleeding to death, but she can't regrow arms."
The van jolted from side to side as it went over a pothole. The driver apologised as he righted the vehicle back onto the road. Manitou thought about the cover-up now going over the US. He didn't know how, but the humans had managed to cover up the biggest Incarnation outbreak since Titanic (Wrath had punched a hole in the hull, the iceberg was pure coincidence).
Ca-chunk.
Anya's head snapped up at the sudden noise.
Ca-chunk. Ca-chunk.
Anya was always in two minds about things. The mind she displayed all the time; vicious, cruel and reptilian, and her human mind, which cowered in the back of her head, watching the Incarnations force her into behaving this way.
When Insanity was in Chicago she gained enough control over herself to stop eating a small rodent her animal side had caught, and she had shed a small tear when Xanthi told her that Robert was dead. She was having tiny thoughts to herself when she was sure Despair wasn't looking around with his 'mind,' and if Sorrow remained the way she was, immobile and useless, then there was a chance she could break free. And free them all, her human mind thought. She had looked in the cage cave one night, when most of the animals were asleep, in the reptile section, at Sarah and the brown cobra next to her. And cried inside her head that currently there was no way she could help them. She'd tried to lift her arms to open the glass cases, but the animal side held them too strongly.
I'll free them. I owe Manitou she struggled to think.
Ca-chunk. Then she herself slid under as a wave of anger coursed through her animal mind at the sound. It grated the cobra's senses.
Anya watched herself slither along a long, tall fissure in the rock to where the D.M.W. was.
"What do you want?" it croaked, smelling of musty tombs and long forgotten crypts. It held a nail gun in its hand.
"Stop that damn noise!" Anya shrieked. Inside she grimaced. That was her animal side, going on instinct again.
Slowly, the left cheek and temple of the D.M.W.'s head started to peel off and fall to the dusty floor, revealing the inside of its head. The left eye fell out as the corpse leaned down to retrieve the fallen parts of its skull. Shoving them back in place, it raised the nail gun to its face and hammered home some more five-inch nails.
It was believed that zombies could not 'live' without a brain, but Dead Man Walking was not a zombie. He was just an evil man that refused to pass on.
Dead walked to a table strewn with rusty metal lumps and slammed down the nail gun. "Why are you still here?" he shouted.
Anya slithered away, leaving Dead by himself.
He looked at one wall of his shadowy cave. It was covered floor to ceiling in war memorabilia. Some were caked in rust, others shiny and new.
Reaching between a rusty AK-47 and a WW2 trench spike, he pulled out a shining broadsword.
Dead liked to fight. He had no reason to. He just found a massive conflict, joined in on his side (e.g. by himself) and went ballistic. He'd been squashed by a tank once, and still managed to chase it halfway across the Sahara and give its occupants a damn good thrashing.
Dead gave the sword a flourish. Guns were fine, he reckoned. But so boring. Just simple point, click, bang, he's dead. You needed skill for a sword. Dead liked to kill up close and personal.
Anya slithered back down the fissure, away from the stench of the undead creature. She just wanted somebody to talk to, her human side did. The primal just wanted the thrill of the hunt.
She found Xanthi in his cave-cum-dojo, practicing with his swords. He was a skilled ronin, and he just added that to his extra clawed arms and his insect wings. He turned to look at her, both pairs of red eyes flashing.
"What?"
Anya hissed, and stalked away as much as her tail would allow.
"Adrian! Wakey wakey!"
Adrian found himself being shaken by Lulu. Blearily, Adrian looked at the alarm clock next to him. Eight in the morning, and did this girl not look any less sexy than she did last night?
Hell no.
"Come on, get dressed, you'll be late for school!" Lulu chirped, seemingly overjoyed that she and her mother had both got men in the space of a day.
Lulu trotted out of the room, leaving Adrian to get ready for the day. It was also the first time he had seen the Grant's spare room properly. It was mostly faded blue wallpaper, the bed… just a bed, and the carpet had lost its fluffiness a long time ago. Still, it was better than his old apartment in Haverton's boarding house.
After he had managed to get dressed in his morning stupor, he blundered downstairs.
Not a morning person? Tigsy yapped as Adrian passed the mouldering tabby.
"Nah…" Adrian yawned. Tigsy repeatedly tried to tangle Adrian's legs up by rubbing up against him, but Adrian suddenly felt unusually light on his feet, even this early in the morning.
You crazy primal! Stop nicking our feline traits! I could so have you if you were a real cat. Hey, get back here, I ain't done with you yet!
Adrian left the raving Tigsy on the stairs to go into the Grant's kitchen. He still felt like a sort of intruder in their home, and so stood uncomfortably in the middle of the strangely messy kitchen.
"Don't just stand there," said a voice that made him jump. "Get your breakfast, Mr. Jumpy," said Molly, wrapped up in a fluffy pink dressing gown. Was there a - yes, there was a rabbit embroidered on the pocket.
"I'm making toast, hey? Do you want some?"
"Um, yes, yes please," said Adrian, sitting down.
"I know it's a bit mucky in here, but you get used to it-" Suddenly Lulu's shouting cut off Molly.
"MUUUUM! I'M STUCK!"
"Oh, not again… Just give us a minute, Adrian."
"Do… do you need any help?" he asked as Molly hurried to the stairs.
"No! No, we're fine, thanks!" she exclaimed before rushing upstairs.
Adrian's mind automatically started thinking about what had just happened without him telling it to. Firstly, where had Lulu become stuck? Secondly, how? Thirdly, why wasn't Adrian allowed to help? Maybe Lulu was stuck in the shower or something, but that would have to make her a moron, and she wasn't.
Tigsy leaped onto the table in front of Adrian and fixed him with a steely glare. Get me some milk or you'll be looking for your ears in the garden.
Adrian subconsciously leaned backwards.
So… as I'm a cat and, apparently, curiosity has rendered me deceased, when am I gonna see you changed?
"I… I don't know? Never, I hope, because what if Lulu or Molly see me?" he whispered.
What if Lulu likes it?
Adrian choked. "What?"
I don't know. Just do your head then.
"No!"
Face? Fortunately, the door knocked, so Adrian stood up and walked into the hall with Tigsy following him. Just the eyes? A finger? How about you just show us your tail?
"No, shut up!" Adrian said while he opened the door.
"Adrian? What are you doing here?" said the apparition in front of him. Its face was dead-pan white, the green eyes ringed with black makeup, framed by long strings of dyed black hair. It was wearing an ankle length, buckled up trench coat, black fingerless gloves and a rucksack covered in tiny circular badges. It was Jane 'Crazy Jane' L. Palmer, the resident Goth.
"I didn't know you knew Lulu," they both said at once.
"She's my friend," Jane said whilst Adrian said "I think I'm going out with her."
"Hello Ms. Palmer, please don't let Adrian here delay you, hey?" Molly said, right behind Adrian, making him jump again. He was sure Lulu's mother had whispered "Score!" when she went back into the kitchen.
"She's making a hobby out of making you jump, you know," Lulu said while Adrian recuperated. Lulu and Jane did that annoying double kiss on the cheek thing. Jane may dress like a goth, Adrian's thoughts said, but she sure as hell doesn't act like one much.
"How's your uncle?" Lulu asked.
Jane sighed, and her face sank. "The same… he gave me this yesterday…" reaching into a pocket on her figure hiding coat, she pulled out a folded piece of paper, unfolded it, and showed the picture on it to them both. Lulu nodded knowingly as Adrian stared in puzzlement.
The picture was of what Adrian knew as a primal called Manitou. Maybe it was just a coincidence, there was no way Jane's uncle, in the infirmary at the hospital, knew about Manitou, even less about his true nature. It was very proficient for an apparently deranged man. Jane turned it away from them and seemed to stare longingly at the eagle man.
"Do you want some coffee?" Lulu asked her gently.
"That'd be lovely, thanks…" Jane said in a far away voice, stuffing the picture back in its pocket. She shook her head, sending her shoulder length hair everywhere then tried to look innocent of her surprising staring at the picture.
Lulu might like you in your… other shape, but that girl definitely will. She's one of those 'furry' types, through and through.
"Tigsy really likes you, Adrian," Jane said coyly, watching the cat meow at length, only Adrian understanding it.
With Tigsy still yapping at him, Adrian followed the two girls into the kitchen. He was still puzzling over how Lulu had got stuck, and why Molly had abruptly refused his help.
Added to this was the strange tightening in his chest, as if his tiger side was trying to get out.
Adrian didn't have many lessons on a Wednesday. He walked with Lulu and Jane to school, which was odd. Firstly because he was under the impression that Jane didn't go to Sunnyvale ("Little Prospect") High, and secondly because… well, he'd think of a secondly soon enough.
"I'm just starting," Jane answered when he asked her why she was walking with them. "I used to go to one nearer to New York but it closed some weeks ago."
Adrian wasn't really paying attention because Lulu was squeezing his hand.
During the short walk from Lulu's home (which was now also his, he realised with a jolt) he learned by merely watching how Jane walked and talked that she was clever, but not in an academic sense. She seemed a talented artist with a flare for fantasy and a very vivid and active imagination. Jane walked like someone with something on their mind, in that she, rather than walking in a straight line, moved along in a continuous stumble. Adrian kept waiting for her to fall over.
At the moment she was staring at the birds in the sky.
"So Jane, where do you live?" Adrian asked the daydreaming Goth, merely to break the silence.
Jane took a moment to come out of her daze. "Oh, an apartment building on other side of L.P."
This is serious daydreaming, Adrian thought. She misses words out and abbreviates the others.
"I'm taking Art. My class thinks I'm crazy because I draw those mumble mumble mumble..." Jane drifted off.
"Draw what?" Lulu asked. As if we don't know, Adrian thought treacherously.
"Y'know," Jane looked at the pavement passing below them. "Furries," she whispered. Lulu looked at Adrian.
"Don't be like that; we've all got our little things…" Lulu said reassuringly.
What the hell? Adrian thought. Oh, humouring her, he added to himself when Lulu winked at him.
"Really?" Jane said.
"Yeah, and there's nothing wrong with it, okay? It's just they're narrow minded, so don't pay attention to them."
That is so like what I feel sometimes, but different, Adrian's inner monologue continued.
Finally the three reached L.P. High School, with Jane smiling and humming, eyes staring at the sky again.
Lulu put on a witchy voice. "When shall we three meet again?" she mock cackled.
"I think we'd go the shoppin' mall after school," Jane spoke softly.
"That's fine with me," Adrian said when Lulu looked at him. "I got nothing else to do." Besides, he added in the privacy of his head, I want to be with you.
Just after Jane went off to her Art class, Lulu kissed Adrian on the cheek as a goodbye. "See you in Science," she said playfully as she walked towards her Home Eco class.
All in all, it couldn't have been a better start to the day. Apart from the amount of concentrating Adrian had to pull off to stop his hairs growing.
Where was it?
Manitou flicked through the piles of scrap paper he kept in a cupboard in his apartment. Somewhere was a list of all the primals he knew with their phone numbers on it.
He furrowed his brow in annoyance as Arnold started up another terrible din downstairs with his saxophone. Haverton shouted something expletive, containing the words "outside" and "bloody tuba." Manitou walked over to the window and clamped it shut as the racket started up anew outside. He wasn't expecting Arnold to be that bad, but come on…
"Ah," Manitou sighed with relief when he pulled it out. Grabbing his phone, he started to dial numbers. "Haverton's not gonna like this…" he said to himself, half the numbers weren't even in America.
First up was Meizao Miyazaki in China. Vicky had said that she had been taken, but just to be sure…
"H-Hello?" the voice of an old Chinese woman stuttered in fractured English.
"Hi, this is Manny Borlington. I need to speak with Meizao Miyazaki, is she there please?" Manitou said hurriedly.
"Oh, no, I'm her mother… S-She's been missing for a week now…" the old woman chocked. "You don't know anything, do you?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm an old friend, goodbye." Manitou hung up before Meizao's mother could ask any more questions and started dialing the next number.
"Hillo?" a thick Russian accent growled.
"Is that Boris? Boris Skrovinski?"
"Ya, this is heem. Who his thees?"
"It's me, Manitou. Have you heard from any other primals recently?"
"Uh…no. Wha's happen?"
"They've been taken. By Ganas. Vicky Moonchild thinks there aren't many of us still free and I was making sure."
"Primalski going missink? Nyet!" Boris shouted. "I get to calling others!"
"Good man. Be careful."
"You too, comrade."
Right, so Boris was relatively okay.
So were Joseph and Janette, after Manitou deciphered their Welsh accents.
But that was little comfort as Manitou worked his way down his list: George Morris in Canada had been missing two months now and was presumed dead, Paul Claydon in Africa was last seen by his daughter Hilary as his giant elephant form running into the Sahara, and Soorya Jarafar and Chei Ping in India were nowhere to be found, likewise husband and wife Ned and Elisa Hailing in Australia. Manitou had fond memories of Ned the koala and his wife Elisa, who was a kangaroo. They were very rare amongst primals because their animal forms actually matched their birthplace. Headstrong Nathan Raleigh had remained unseen for months now, but Manitou knew even the boy's chameleon side couldn't stay cloaked that long. Worst of all was poor Thomas Dale of the Falkland Islands. His body was recovered off the coast by the FBI, Manitou found out from the deadpan voice on the other line, yesterday, shedding raven feathers and still bleeding from the stab wounds that covered his chest. All together, it made upwards of sixty missing primals.
Manitou paused to calm his frayed nerves before trying the very last number on the list: David West in the Caribbean.
Pleasepickuppleasepickuppleasepickup… Manitou thought franticly.
"Hello?" David said. Manitou sighed with relief.
"It's me, Manitou. I need you to listen, David."
"What are you drawing now?" the voice drawled. Jane cringed, leaning over the sketch of a raccoon man.
"Well?" Candy snapped. Candy was the head cheerleader, and disliked by most in the school. Tall, slim, blond and annoyingly beautiful, Candy stood on tiptoes in an attempt to see the sketch, so Jane leaned over more, but Candy just reached under her arm and snatched away the paper.
"What the? Some furry guy with a tail? You like animals, freak?" Candy drawled loudly so the whole class could hear.
"Not an animal…" Jane mumbled, her face burning red.
"Oh, so you like guys with tails and lots of hair, right?"
"No, 's different…"
"Whatever, freak."
"Candy, sit down and get back to work," Mr. Dorgan, the short, balding Art teacher, said sharply without looking up.
"Weirdo," Candy smirked as she walked back over to her table to join her giggling clique.
Jane sighed and, still red faced, turned back to her sketch. Furious at her self, she began to vigorously rub it out.
"Mr. Johansen, may I be excused?" Adrian said, waving his hand in the air.
Mr. Johansen, tubby and with large bottle-lens glasses, looked surprised that anyone would interrupt him from the wonderful world of algebra. "Yes, yes you may, Adrian," he sighed, letting a slight drop of annoyance enter his voice.
In the corridor, Adrian didn't know where to go, but he didn't want to be in that stuffy room, with Johansen droning on. He wanted, needed to be outside. At least to get some fresh air.
Adrian's legs, using some sort of subconscious student sense, took him to the toilets. Not just any toilets, these were those on the top floor. Nothing special you might think, but up there he was less likely to meet anyone he didn't want to. He needed a place to think, and that was the best place to do it.
Adrian faded anyway, disappearing from the view of anyone who might walk into him. He was almost there when it happened.
Adrian doubled over, not in pain, but in another, intense feeling. A feeling he couldn't give a name to.
"What?" he gasped as he looked at his hands. The orange and black tiger fur was growing, covering them while they turned into thumbed paws. The thing was; he wasn't willing this transformation himself. It was as if the tiger was trying to escape.
Adrian managed to stagger into the mercifully empty toilet room, into a cubicle and locked the door. Adrian then sat hunched over on the toilet seat, breathing heavily. It didn't hurt, but it was taking all his might to hold… it back. He suppressed a groan as striped fur grew all over him and his tiger tail pushed its way out of his jeans. It went on for a time Adrian could not estimate, he was too wrapped up feeling his body change shape, until it stopped as suddenly as it started.
Adrian felt his face in panic. It was cat shaped; the nose triangular, the ears on top of his head and pointed and all covered in fur. He stood up, noticing he wasn't any taller this time. At least his clothes were still in one piece, but he took his trainers and socks off to relieve the pressure of them on his foot claws.
This time, he had changed differently compared to when he had fought Agony. He'd grown fur, a tail and his face had changed shape, his legs were digitigrades and his hands were paws with thumbs, but he was still the same size as he was human. His muscles hadn't grown at all. Still, the tiger seemed happy.
"Right, we're going back to human now," he told himself. Adrian tried to flick the switch. He screwed up his eyes and balled his fists in concentration, but it still wouldn't reverse yet.
"Uh oh."
Adrian was still sat on the toilet seat a quarter of an hour later, head in his hands. He was stuck for ideas. He'd tried everything he could think of, including trying to contact Oro by thinking really hard. She either couldn't hear him or she was here and it was Adrian who couldn't hear.
He was going to have to risk it. Adrian was going to have to go through the school looking like an anthropomorphic tiger, across Little Prospect, back to the boarding house and find Manitou, faded all the way. Manitou would know what to do, assuming he could find him.
Adrian tried to push thoughts of what could happen if he was caught like this out of his mind. He'd probably be taken to a secret government place and dissected. Lulu's horrified face kept popping into his vision. Adrian tried his fading ability, and felt it still working.
Adrian rushed through the school as fast as he could without being heard. He was sure the clicking of his claws on the tiles would be heard.
Outside, he felt exhilarated at the feel of the breeze on his fur, and the way his tail swished as he ran. He almost unfaded at the feeling.
As Adrian reached Magnus Avenue, he gave up running on his two feet, put his trainers he'd been carrying his mouth and started bounding along on all fours.
This was what the tiger wanted. To be outside, not inside sitting at a desk. Adrian almost forgot where he was going while he was so caught up in the wonderful feeling of freedom.
Adrian came to the boarding house steps, looking up at Manitou's window. He realised he was sitting like a cat. He jumped to his feet, still faded, and crept past Arnold, who was sitting on the porch outside practising his saxophone. The noise was deafening to Adrian's enhanced hearing and it didn't help that there was no actual tune in it at all.
Arnold looked around, surprised. Adrian froze as Arnold peered right at him. After a few unbearable seconds Arnold went back to tooting the sax and Adrian gratefully crept inside.
Arnold lazily looked at his watch. Eyebrows rising in surprise, he stood up, took his sax inside and emerged a few moments later, hurrying down the road.
"-so Adrian's been what he really is for barely two days and sends one of them back already?" David's startled voice echoed down the receiver.
"Yeah, and I don't think he's shown everything he can do ye-" Manitou was interrupted by a fierce hammering at his door. "Just a sec', Haverton might be outside."
When he opened the door, Manitou was barged aside by an orange furry thing that slammed the door behind it.
"Manny, it's me, Adrian!" the furry thing yelled at him.
"Yes, I know. You're stuck, aren't you?" Manitou asked calmly.
"Yeah!"
"Just calm down, take a seat," Manitou said.
Adrian slumped onto the sagging sofa, resisting the urge to curl up.
"Do you feel strange, like you shouldn't be that shape?" Manitou asked, walking into the small room that passed for his kitchen.
"…No. I feel normal. Should I be feeling weird?"
"No, that's good. I was making sure you hadn't rejected the primal. What did you feel before you changed?" Manitou continued, walking back in with a drink of water for Adrian.
"I dunno," Adrian said, sipping the water. "The tiger wanted to be free. It didn't like being inside…"
"Ah," Manitou said knowingly. "This often happens with newly emerged primals. You may find your primal side takes a bit of taming before that'll stop happening."
"You could've told me," Adrian said, slightly resentfully. "What if I was seen?"
"Sorry. I've been busy staying in contact with the other primals," Manitou bowed his head. Should I tell him? he thought. Eventually Manitou decided against telling the boy. It was too early to tell him and he didn't want Adrian to panic.
"So how do I get back to human, then?"
"You just have to relax and search for a way. We each have our own way of getting unstuck."
"Oh…" Adrian scratched his pointed ear. "Can I stay here until I'm human again?"
"Sure."
Manitou walked back over to the phone and picked it up, taking it into the kitchen.
Alone in the room, Adrian lay back and started to think about… about what he was.
He heard Manitou talking in the other room to the primal on the other end of the line.
I'd like to meet another primal, he decided. I wonder what an average primal is like, like if they behaved like humans or let parts of their animal side show through. Did they have the same thing as me when they first became primals? What are they like when they get together?
What about the animals themselves? I know there can be bird and cat primals, so there must be reptiles and maybe fish and possibly even insects…
As Adrian got lost in thought, Manitou had to practically shout down the receiver because the line was becoming less understandable.
"Sorry, what?"
"Manny, there's a storm coming in, the lines'll be down for a while," Manitou made out. "I'll call you back, okay?"
"Okay, just be careful." Manitou shouted as the line went dead.
Arnold Fister tried his best to flatten his curly hair against his head, only achieving to make it even messier. Swallowing nervously, he rung the bell on the Grant's front porch and raised the small bunch of flowers in his hand.
The door was opened by Molly, causing more flakes of red paint to fly off it.
"Arnold!" she cried cheerfully. "Come in! Do you want coffee?"
"How kind," Arnold simpered, stepping over the threshold.
Adrian's thoughts raced through the jungle of his mind. He realised he must have drifted asleep sometime.
It seemed there were now two separate parts of him. They stood in a clearing facing each other; the pale pink human Adrian, wearing human clothes, opposite the imposing tiger Adrian, wearing nothing but his stripy fur. Tiger Adrian was shaped like a normal tiger, but Adrian was looking out at… himself. It was very disconcerting.
Adrian was seeing things from his human side. He was aware of Oro's presence, though he couldn't see her. Noises of the jungle were all around.
"Why'd you do that?" Adrian asked his other side.
"I don't like being cooped up like that. You have to let me out sometime," growled tiger Adrian.
"Couldn't have waited for a better time? What if Lulu was around?"
"I needed to be out. After banishing Agony, I wanted to fight again."
"Fight what? We have to wait for Manitou to tell us what to do."
"Him? He isn't going to order us about. There is no official primal leader. We either live with a mate and cubs or alone. You can't order me about as well."
Human Adrian gulped as tiger Adrian strode closer.
"But there are times when primals gather… it is coming close to one of those times… You must realise that we have to work together, to become one entity." Tiger Adrian held up a paw. "Do you know why Sorrow attacked us?"
"…No."
Human Adrian nodded and gingerly shook the paw.
There was a flash of something that wasn't light, but energy. Then there was light. When it had cleared, there was one Adrian in the centre of the clearing. He looked like both tiger and human at the same time. Oro padded over.
"Well done," she said, lounging in front of him.
"What for?"
"Now you have truly become a primal. You are one entity, rather than human and animal. Goodbye, Adrian Tigermane. You shall not see me again unless your situation becomes dire."
"Tigermane?"
"It is your primal name. Tell only your most trusted. If enemies were to find it, the consequences are unthinkable."
"Wait, so why did… Sorrow attack me?"
"What did you feel like before? Before you found your true self? Before you knew what Manitou was, before primals even existed in your world?"
"I…" Adrian paused, slightly afraid of the answer. "I felt like I didn't have a purpose, like I was… unfinished…"
"Yes. Subconsciously, that made you feel upset, which changed and grew worse over time, correct?"
"…Yes. But I feel… complete now."
"Good. Now the Tearful One has no power over you. And you sent back the Torturous One. But the other four… they are dangerous even if they have no connection to you."
"Other four?"
"Yes. The Twisted One, the Hollow One, the Enraged One and the Poisonous One. I cannot say their names, even here. Goodbye," Oro added, before springing away into the foliage.
Gradually the jungle faded from view until Adrian jolted awake.
"Woah," he gasped. Manitou's apartment swam into view. Manitou was in the room, leaning on the wall opposite him, arms folded and smiling.
"You did it, then?" he asked.
Adrian looked down at his body, and saw to his slight relief it was human. He sighed. "Yes. Oro said I was complete or something…" The dream was already fading.
"What," Adrian asked, rubbing his eyes, "is the time?"
Manitou glanced at a clock on the wall.
"Half three."
"Crap! How long was I asleep?" Adrian exclaimed, jumping up.
"Since you got here; about four hours ago."
"I've missed a whole day of school." Adrian couldn't help the trace of pride slip into his tone. A memory snuck up and presented something important.
"I gotta go! I gotta meet Lulu at the mall!"
Manitou chuckled as Adrian tore out of the door. Somewhere in the house Haverton shouted something fortunately incomprehensible.
Throughout the corridors of Sunnyvale High School the bells rung and the halls instantly filled with rushing students. Caught up in the tide was Lulu, half fighting, half dodging the dashing bodies to get to Jane, who was waiting patiently. Jane was staring at the flying gulls that had taken off at the sound of the bells with a look of longing on her face.
"Hey!" Lulu yelled when she got within hearing. "Seen Adrian? He wasn't in science."
Jane looked around at Lulu, her eyes glazed over. "Nah," she said placidly, scratching her nose with black varnished fingernails.
"D'you think he went to the mall ahead of us?" Lulu said, almost to herself as they started walking.
Jane didn't answer, but gave a little squeak of fear and dived behind Lulu.
"What are you doing?" Jane didn't answer. Lulu realised she was hiding from the cheerleaders, lead by Candy, striding with their noses in the air across the front steps of the school.
Jane ducked out from behind her impromptu hiding spot when the clique had gone.
"What was that about?" Lulu asked the goth, who was glancing about to see if the cheerleaders would return.
"Mumble mumble mumble."
"Did they make fun of you?"
"Yes. Cos I'm a furry." Jane looked straight at Lulu, traces of tears in her eyes. "I wasn't doing anything to them; Candy just did it because I'm different."
"Well, just because you like… things different to them doesn't make you a bad person. I like you just for who you are."
Jane smiled meekly. "Thanks. Where's Adrian?"
Lulu laughed. "I asked you the same thing seconds ago! I think he's gone to the mall ahead of us."
It was nearly four when Adrian reached the mall. He had a stitch in his side from running most of the way.
Adrian regarded the mall with some caution. For a start, the corrugated steel roof was painted a garish pink. Adrian couldn't bring himself to like something that shade of pink. Secondly, most of the school groups he strove to avoid ended up there at the end of school. Jocks, cheerleaders and general annoyances gathered there.
Unfortunately, so was Lulu and Jane.
Steeling himself, he went inside.
Actually it wasn't as bad as he had envisaged. He felt the tiger inside watch with interest. Inside was a large main hall with lines of plastic plants down the centre, surrounded by wooden benches. At either end were pairs of escalators up to the second floor, which was a wide walkway around the walls. Fluorescent lighting reflected off the shop windows. The whole place bustled with shoppers, mainly teenagers, but with middle aged couples and older people dotted about. That was what the human saw.
The tiger smelt. The blend of scents almost knocked Adrian off his feet. Behind the accumulation of human scent were the smells of cooking food from the various fast food places, sweet tangs of sugar, slight traces of spices and, as a sort of background to it, animals.
"We are not hunting the mice," Adrian said through gritted teeth as the tiger twitched his ears expectantly. "I'm looking for Lulu."
Okay, the tiger said to him. Somehow it focused his already sharp sense of smell and Adrian singled out out an aroma that blared at him like a foghorn. Somehow he knew it was Lulu.
Adrian picked his way through the crowds, following his nose.
Lulu sat with Jane in a Starbucks outlet, Lulu looking out of the window to see if she could spot Adrian. Beside her, Jane scribbled in an A4 pad. Lulu caught glimpses of muscular men and slender women, all with fur and tails, or sometimes with feathers and wings or some with scales, before someone walked behind them and Jane hid the pad by hugging it close to her chest. Her eyes constantly darted about to spot if anyone besides Lulu was seeing what she was drawing.
"You don't have to be so secretive, Jane," Lulu said as Jane concealed the pad of the umpteenth time in the last minute. "Why are you embarrassed about it?"
"Don't know. Cos people think it's weird," Jane looked incredibly lonely at that moment. "I'm the only one in LP. The only furry." She sighed.
"One double cappuccino and one plain black coffee," said the waitress, placing the steaming paper cups in front of them. Lulu recognised the voice.
"Nina?"
Nina stared back in surprise, standing there in her Starbuck uniform.
"I didn't know you worked here!" Lulu said cheerfully. Jane flipped the pad over when Nina glanced at it questioningly. "Where's Jamie?"
"In the arcade," Nina said blankly. "I gotta get a living somehow, girl."
"No offence, but everyone thinks you sell drugs," Lulu whispered.
Nina laughed. "I know everyone thinks that. How's Adrian doing at your place?"
"He's fine, though I know he's hiding something." Jane sunk in her chair at the words, her ears burning red. "Have you seen him anywhere here?"
Nina glanced up. "Is that him?" she pointed. Lulu turned to see Adrian wandering vaguely towards them. He spotted Lulu standing up through the glass, smiled and waved as he walked to the door.
Lulu turned back to thank Nina, but found she was on the other side of the coffee shop, taking a stout man's order.
Shrugging, Lulu leaped up and planted a kiss on Adrian's lips when he got to their table.
"Where've you been?" she said in mock anger.
"Um… I had to see Mr Johansen," he lied.
Lulu sat back down. Jane started sketching again. Apparently she trusted Adrian enough to let him see her pictures. "You weren't in science," Lulu said as she sat back down.
"He… uh, he wanted to talk to me about my career."
Lulu smiled warmly at him. She knows I'm lying, Adrian thought. Then; she knows and doesn't care! Lulu reached over and laid her hand on his, and they stared into each others eyes for an improbably long time, until:
"I gotta go!" Jane yelped, making them jump. "I gotta see my Uncle!"
"Wait up; we'll walk with you for a bit." Lulu said, following Jane, Adrian tagging behind. The tiger inside said So this is human courtship? It's complicated. Adrian didn't answer.
Nina absently scratched the back of her hand.
She couldn't stop thinking about that dream. The jungle irritated her for some reason.
She changed her mind to Jane. She was nice and all, but she was strange. Jane tried to hide that fact that she liked… those furry animal people. She wasn't very good at it. In Starbucks Nina had seen her drawing in that pad, then looking longingly at the half-fox, half-man picture she had drawn. When Jane had seen Nina staring, the Goth had hastily torn the page out and stuffed it in a pocket on her large trench coat.
Nina didn't mean to be, well, mean, but she just thought that sort of thing was… weird. Damn, what's up with this hand? she thought. It's itching like crazy.
Nina looked at her hand. Some sort of rash was covering the back. If she squinted it looked like, just under the skin, there were scales.
She shook her head. Obviously, she was just imagining things. Growing scales? That sort of thing was impossible.
Both Adrian and Lulu noticed that Jane had sped up between the walk between the mall and Lulu's house. Finally, she turned on them when they reach a cross roads near the centre of Little Prospect. All the buildings here were three to five stories high and a dull brown colour.
"Sorry, but I really have to go. If I'm late I'll miss visiting time," she said breathlessly. "Bye!"
"See you tomorrow!" Lulu shouted after the retreating figure.
The couple started walking down another road, towards Lulu's home.
"So what do you think of Jane?" Lulu asked him conversationally.
"Umm… She's kind of… odd. But in a good way, you know?"
"I think. She's so misunderstood. She told me those cheerleaders-" Lulu heard Adrian grumble something under his breath "-bully her or something."
"Why though? Why are the bitches always popular?"
Lulu sighed. "Survival of the meanest…"
Tigsy padded slowly down a dingy back alley somewhere in Little Prospect. He was accompanied by a mongrel so ragtag and dirty it looked like a walking bathmat.
"So what you outside for?" the mongrel said throatily.
"I ain't going back to that place while he's still there. I don't like his smell." Tigsy raised his tail in contempt.
The dog scratched irritably at a floppy ear so tattered it was a miracle it was still there. A ragged collar hung from its neck. The word 'FIDO' could just be picked out in gold embroidery.
"You need to get that off, mate. Flea collars ain't did nobody any good."
"'s mine…" Fido hung his head miserably.
"Yes, well, don't generally hang onto what kicked them out in the first place, get my drift? If Butch catches you with that still on…"
It should be noted that these two animals were not talking in human English. They were speaking the animal equivalent. I have done my best to translate.
"What's Butch gonna do? He's just a son of a "
"You'll be gutted if he heard you saying that. Hang on…" The cat and dog wandered into a grotty little backyard. The ground was bare concrete and a rotting sofa was piled in the corner. A small flock of pigeons cooed ignorantly at the other end. Fido had not noticed them. He was grumbling.
"What's wrong now?" Tigsy muttered, crouching and preparing to pounce.
"Stupid Lassie; she's bringing the whole of Dogdom down in one fell swoop. If that was a real dog, she'd have left Timmy down that well, the little brat…"
"Shut up, will yer?"
Fido noticed the pigeons. He bounded over, barking furiously. The pigeons scattered, leaving only feathers and Tigsy's rumbling stomach.
"Thank you, Mr. Subtle," he hissed, stalking off with his tail in the air. After barking at the fleeing pigeons, now mere blots in the sky, Fido followed, tongue lolling happily.
Lulu pushed open the door to her house. Adrian felt something from inside. Not a smell, just a change in the atmosphere.
"Come on," Lulu said, stepping inside while he stood on the porch, watching a flock of pigeons take flight from behind a block of buildings nearby. A dog's barking met his ears.
Inside, through the living room door, he saw Molly sat on the couch with none other than Arnold Fister. He seemed more… there than the last time Adrian had seen him. Somehow more noticeable, clean-cut and buffer in someway.
"We'll leave 'em to it, hmm?" Lulu smiled teasingly, gently pulling Adrian upstairs.
When the door slammed shut above them, Molly turned to Arnold, smiling kindly. "Kids, hey? Well, that's Lulu for you. Ever since her father left, she's always needed someone to be close to…"
"If I may ask, why did he leave?" Arnold asked, resting his hand on hers.
"Oh…" a shade of shock passed over Molly's face for a second. "Uh, poor Lulu has a certain… problem. She'll tell you herself when she's ready. It's best not to press her on it, hey?"
"Alright," Arnold leaned over to plant a kiss on her forehead.
In Lulu's bedroom, Adrian was at a loss. So he let Lulu take charge. When it came to kissing women, Adrian really didn't know how fast to come on or where to put his hands except for round the waist, so he let Lulu decide and just… went with the flow, as it were.
After several interesting minutes, Lulu stopped and stared into his eyes. She seemed worried.
"Do… do you love me?" she asked anxiously.
"…Of course!" Adrian answered, taken aback. "Why? What's wrong?"
"It's not you… but, you know I said about my… secret?"
"…Yeah?"
Lulu stood up, leaving Adrian on the bed, and padded about the room, torn in between telling Adrian and keeping quiet.
"Oh, God!" she exclaimed at last. "This is so unfair!"
"Why?" Adrian said, standing up and hugging her. She was crying faintly.
"If I tell you… I'll never see you again…" she looked up into Adrian's eyes, tears starting to pour. "It's happened before. It doesn't matter if I tell you now or later, you'll still leave…" Lulu buried her face in Adrian's chest.
There was a knock at the door.
"Can you get that?" Lulu's muffled voice sobbed.
Adrian was reluctant to leave Lulu in this state, but he softly walked over to the door and opened it, to see Arnold standing there, smiling cheerfully.
"Oh dear," he said, smile slipping away when he saw Lulu slumping back down on the bed. "Uh, Adrian, I just remembered I needed to talk to you, please?"
As stated a few lines ago, Adrian really didn't want to leave Lulu. He turned and saw her nodding shakily. "I need to think by myself, Adrian," she smiled mildly.
Closing the door behind him, Adrian sensed a feeling of unease. Not from Arnold, but from his tiger side. It did not like Arnold.
Arnold put his arm around Adrian's shoulder, and the tiger twitched angrily inside. Steering Adrian down the upper landing, Arnold started talking. Adrian wasn't really taking it in, he was thinking about Lulu and hoping the tiger wouldn't take him over and decapitate Arnold. That's what the tiger seemed to want. It was getting more riled the longer Arnold was next to Adrian.
"Sorry, what?"' Adrian said, shaking his head.
"I said I was thinking about-" Arnold dropped his voice to a whisper, "-proposing to Molly. I thought we could go out for dinner and - oh sod it."
"What?" Adrian said, stunned.
"I've had enough of this tiresome charade." Arnold let go of Adrian and turned to face him. He seemed to have grown taller, and his eyes were puffy and red.
Adrian's mind jolted in shock. Grown taller, like the fake Morcedi…
Arnold's hand swung up and picked Adrian up off the floor by his neck. Slamming the struggling Adrian into the wall behind him, Arnold brought his face close to Adrian's. The man's breath stank horribly.
"I know what you are, tiger boy."
From inside her room, Lulu heard the thud of Adrian's head hitting plaster. Next she heard Adrian being flung down the landing into her door. Lulu jumped up when she heard her mother run up the stairs and say "What was tha-" She was wrenching open the bedroom door as Molly screamed.
Adrian scrambled up from the floor and pulled Molly into Lulu's bedroom, shielding both of them from the… thing.
Arnold's skin was festering hideously. It was like he was rotting. A repulsive stench filled the house as Arnold stepped forwards. Roaches fell out from the bottom of his trousers which were disintegrating, as were the rest of his clothes.
Adrian heard Molly vomit repeatedly behind him. He tried not to watch Arnold's face, but he couldn't pull his eyes away from it. The skin mouldered away and fell to the floor, revealing a grotesque mouth filled with crooked, brown teeth, each as big as Adrian's hands. Finally the rest of Arnold's skin peeled away and was replaced by a gross amount of greenish-brown sludge. His arms lengthened and he got even taller, his swamp weed covered head brushing the ceiling. The wallpaper in the hall started to stain, then flake away. Rusty metal pipes grew out of the monster's back, belching foul smoke into the hall.
Above the now cavernous mouth were five bleary yellow eyes, all showing malicious hatred of what they saw. And what they saw was Adrian.
"This is for my brother," the mound of slime and corruption started slopping down the hall towards him.
Adrian was at a loss. If he changed, he risked scaring the life out of both Lulu and her mother, but this creature; he knew it must be one of the things like Agony, would eat them all if he did nothing.
"Get out of my home!" Lulu shrieked, raising her arms, palms facing out.
Two beams of light shot from Lulu's palms, streaking down the hall into the cancerous mass. It burst, splattering the walls near it with mucus and bile, but fortunately the spray didn't make it to them.
"Lulu?" Adrian said, eyebrows raised so high they threatened to leave his head and get their own orbit.
Lulu was sobbing uncontrollably now. "I'm so, so sorry, Adrian."
Lulu gulped back her tears and faced the blob, which was steadily reforming itself. Breathing slowly and heavily, with eyes closed to the world, she started to change.
Adrian watched in amazement as soft white fur grew over Lulu's exposed skin. She tilted her head back, tears rolling down her fur, as her nose and mouth lengthened into one and became, against all odds, a horse's muzzle. Her blond hair slid down her shoulders and chest as it too grew in length, and her clothes ripped away as she grew in size. Adrian averted his eyes, but Lulu's form was hidden under a now thick coat of velvety white fur. Her feet had morphed into hard black hooves as well, shredding through her trainers.
Then she leaned forward as her centre of balance changed. Somehow her legs split vertically, the hind pair moving backwards as a horse's body grew in between her two pairs of legs. Lulu staggered slightly as she rested her hind hooves on the wooden landing. A long silky tail appeared, swishing peacefully in the air. Adrian tore his eyes away from it and looked back at Lulu's head.
She had opened her eyes, but was avoiding his gaze. From between the parting in her hair a thick horn spiralled upwards until it was at least seven inches long and very sharp. Lulu's blond hair took on a faint, sparkling, pinkish tint.
"Lulu?" Adrian said weakly. She finally looked at him, tears still falling. Her muzzle was set in an unhappy grimace, her eyes now a gently glowing lavender.
"I'm sorry," Lulu said again. "I… I… I don't know what I am. I've always been this way. I don't know what I am…" she whispered again. "Look after my mom."
Resolutely, Lulu turned to face the mass of sludge again.
"How touching," it dribbled. "Two of you will not matter." The monster flung an arm down the hall, an arm tipped with poison tipped barbs. Lulu blasted it to pieces with another well-aimed burst of light.
Adrian stepped back. Somehow, she, Lulu, his girlfriend, was a primal. Like him. A unicorn primal, no less.
He had to help her.
Thought you'd never ask, the tiger said. Adrian leapt over Lulu. At the peak of his arc, his clothes tore off to be replaced by his thick, orange and black fur. His tail trailed out behind him. His face altered until it was its familiar feline shape. He felt like he was becoming his true self, that his human shape was just a disguise.
He heard Lulu gasp as he landed in front of her. Grinning despite the smell, which was timed thousandfold in this shape, he ripped a squirming tentacle from the beast.
"Cover me!" he roared. Lulu, wide eyed, blasted another venom-barbed hand from its arm.
Adrian sliced more wormy tentacles to chunks when he saw it. Nestling in the carrion mass was a triangular gem, fist size and sickly orange. Quickly, before it could retreat into the mess, he reached out and brushed a claw against it.
Instantly his sight was obscured by a horrific vision. It was a bleary grey landscape. The sky was concealed behind a viscous black fog. Tall, soot stained chimneys dotted the landscape pumping out noxious fumes. Dead trees and plants were spread limply on the barren ground. Rivers of sewage poured endlessly into a venomous lake. Shopping trolleys and fish skeletons floated forlornly in the scum. There were no animals anywhere. sound but the faint pulse of machinery in the distance.
Adrian gasped, his lungs filling with rank smoke, and let go of the gem.
The polluted scenery vanished, to be replaced by the cracked ceiling. Adrian was flat on his back in Lulu's bedroom. The door was barricaded shut by the bed and wardrobe. Lulu was knelt leaning over him, still in her primal form. Molly was slumped up against the wall, her pale face tinged with green, holding a bag in front of her.
Lulu smiled. "I… I'm not alone…" she sighed.
"You… you're a primal too?" Adrian whispered.
"Is that what I am?" Lulu's hooves clattered on the floor as she stood up, helping Adrian to his feet… paws.
Adrian stared at her, enraptured. She was, to him, even more beautiful than she was human. He could scarcely believe it, even though she was right there. Gingerly, Lulu reached out and stroked the white fur that ran down his chest.
"You so soft…" she breathed. "I…"
"Is Molly okay?"
"I'm fine," Molly said from the floor, her voice shaking. "Wha' is that, outside?"
"I'm not sure," Adrian turned to the door. "But I've fought one like it."
The three jumped as the sludge that made up the creature slammed into the door. Small parts oozed through the gaps. Lulu stepped close to Adrian, wrapping her arms around one of his.
"Kiss me," she said, nuzzling his fur. "Please."
"What? Lulu, the thing-"
"I know! But if we don't make it through this, I want you to know I love you for making me see I'm not alone."
The creature slammed into the door again, harder this time. More scum leached through the gaps.
"We will make it. I'm not letting it get you two. You're like… my family."
Lulu nodded and then trotted backwards, hands hidden behind a white glow. Her horn burned silver and tipped with red sparks.
A sickening squelch announced the appearance of more tentacles, sliding through the slits in the doorframe. Wrapping tightly around the door so the paint burned with an acrid smell, they merged into a web and ripped the door from its hinges. The creature shoved the bed aside, forcing its bulk slowly into the room.
Behind it was the sound of the front door crashing open.
A second later there was a strange noise. It was like a fan, a long, drawn out whumwumwumwum that got closer. A second after that an object impacted the side of the demon's head, splashing through it and burying itself in the opposite wall with a loud thunk!
The creature's head, even as it was reforming, turned to face the person who had thrown the axe.
"Shit," the monster swore.
"Manitou!" Adrian cried gratefully. The birdman, feathers and wings trailing behind him, half glided up the stairs and sank two more axes into the soft flesh of the creature.
"How did you get here?" Manitou screeched at it.
"You know me, Filth gets everywhere," it growled. "Careful, bird boy, you wouldn't want that wound getting infected…"
Manitou grimaced and started chopping furiously at the thing with axes. Adrian noted a mote of panic in the creature's latest gurgles. He joined in; hacking at whatever appendages came his way. Lulu shot her beams of light over their heads into the creature's face.
The monster gurgled, starting to draw in a long rasping breath. Its mouth closed and it tilted its head back, but the gurgling continued. Green veins stuck out from the creature's flabby neck as its cheeks bulged.
"Get back!" Manitou shouted. Adrian leapt backwards, Lulu skidded and cantered to her bedroom doorframe and Manitou flapped along, still facing the blob.
"More!" Manitou ordered. Lulu scrambled into her room, Adrian close behind. Manitou fluttered inside and dragged Molly so she was behind him. The gurgling continued, until it changed to a high-pitched whistle. Then something went bleeurgh, and a giant ball of some horrid sickly green ooze rocketed through the doorframe, splattering into the wall opposite. The only sound that met their ears was a corrosive hissing as the glob ate its way through the wallpaper, then the plaster beyond, and the flushing of the toilet across the hall.
"Damn," Manitou clicked his beak angrily.
"It escaped down the toilet?" Lulu said in disbelief.
"It was the only way he could go. He didn't want to fight all three of us," Manitou explained, bending down to help up Molly.
Molly still looked sickly and shocked. She stared at Manitou and Adrian with a trace of fear, but mostly awe.
"You're like my daughter?"
Manitou turned to look at Lulu, who hung her unicorn head, embarrassed. Adrian couldn't really tell with Manitou's beak, but he was smiling.
"I'll explain everything," Manitou looked at Adrian's scum clogged fur. "After we've cleaned up a bit," he added.
Manitou and Molly sat in the kitchen. Molly was in hysterics, Manitou doing his best to calm her down.
Adrian and Lulu sat on the living room, both on the sofa. Adrian had turned back to human to get the dirt out of his fur, but Lulu insisted he become furry again afterwards. Adrian didn't argue.
Adrian had to sit at one end of the sofa, because Lulu's horse hindquarters took the rest up. Neither of them minded.
Lulu was letting it all pour out. Adrian listened; nodding his head when he thought it was expected of him.
"I first changed when I was five. It scared everyone in the playground at this school, I can't remember where. Orlando, I think. One moment I was an ordinary girl, suddenly I was a living My Little Pony," Lulu laughed slightly. "I went around asked the other kids to change as well, back then I thought anyone could do it. The teachers didn't know what to do… Somebody called my mum and by the time she got there I was human again."
In the other room it sounded like Manitou had succeeded; Molly had stopped wailing and they were talking quietly.
"She took me straight home and asked me what was wrong. I think I was crying when I told her nobody else would change. She asked what was I talking about and I showed her.
"I don't know why, but she never freaked out. She just said, 'Okay, this has to be our little secret.' Mum must've saw I was still her daughter, or something." Lulu sniffed. "Dad didn't."
Lulu cuddled up closer to Adrian, resting her muzzle on Adrian's fuzzy chest. Adrian's heart leapt into action, achieving what his eyebrows were trying to do when Lulu first revealed her 'little secret' to him.
"He divorced Mum straight away, and we've never seen him again. We had to move away when the neighbours and reporters kept coming to the door asking to see me. One guy from the church said I was a demon because his kid had been traumatized or something. I never went to a doctor about it cos he'd probably would've taken me away to some lab or something." Lulu shuddered, stroking his fur gently.
"We moved to Seattle. I was going fine, and there I found that I could shoot that white light. It's good for cleaning stuff. Anyway, when I was fifteen, I got a boyfriend, and we went out for half a year, until…" Lulu took a few deep breaths to calm herself, then leaned back on Adrian, staring at the ceiling. "We were kissing, and I must have relaxed too much because I changed… He fainted, and when he came around he ran out of the house and got the police.
"By the time they got to our house we'd already left. We had to leave most of our stuff behind, furniture and all that kinda thing. We wandered around for a bit and eventually came here because it was small and quiet. That was two years ago.
"I tried not to get involved with anyone again, but I met Jane. She was, well, still is a great friend. I think it was because she was so different to everyone else. I really don't want her finding out about me… us, cos who knows how she might react, yeah?"
Adrian thought about it. "You're right there," he agreed. "She'd most likely get really jealous or snap like her uncle…"
"And then I found you… I had no idea… Well, why would I?" Lulu laughed, and so did Adrian. Then Lulu snuggled closer, resting her upper body on his. "God, I could fall right asleep on you."
Adrian purred, making Lulu giggle.
So the weird guy's gone now?
Adrian looked down at the floor to see Tigsy slinking in. He had a fish head clamped in his jaws. Molly followed him in, eyes still red and ringed with tears, and tried to snatch it away.
Bugger orf! 's mine! Molly snatched it away and held it at arms length. Smiling frailly at Adrian and Lulu, she took it into the kitchen.
"I still don't think she can believe it," Lulu said.
Sod! Tigsy yapped when the bin lid slammed down on his prize. I played poker for that, woman!
"Cats play poker?" Adrian asked before he could stop himself.
At last! You're outta the bag!
"You can understand him?'" Lulu said, grinning.
"Yeah." Adrian's pointed ears flopped in slight embarrassment.
"What's he saying?" Lulu said, staring at Tigsy, who was raving something about Big Macs.
"He wants a bath," Adrian smirked.
What? Why, you-ooooh! I'm outta here! Tigsy scrambled back out of the cat flap before any further damage could be done.
"Wait. We stopped off at a farm once. I thought I was going crazy cos I was hearing voices, but it must've been the horses talking! Wow."
Lulu looked up from her epiphany into Adrian's greenish eyes, stretched up and kissed him on the lips. Sure, neither of them had human faces, but neither cared. They had found someone like themselves.
Later, Manitou came in, sat on the armchair opposite them, to explain to Lulu what she was exactly. This took some time, what with Lulu constantly interrupting. Manitou didn't mind at all, however. Adrian was reminded that this wasn't a job for Manitou, it was his life.
Molly intervened when Manitou asked if Lulu could join him and Adrian.
"No! I won't have my daughter risking her life like that!"
"Molly, I explained that the world needs saving. We can't do it without Lulu. She has a power that they hate."
"Well," Molly faltered, but only for a second. "Well you'll have to find some more… primals from somewhere else."
Manitou lowered his head.
"Manny?" Lulu said anxiously.
"There aren't any more," he whispered. He stamped his foot in frustration. "They've all been captured. I'm sorry I had to tell you this way."
Molly covered her mouth with her hand. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"
"It's not your fault. It's nobody's fault, except for Ganas'"
"Who?" Adrian said incredulously.
"Ganas de Velierious. He's a man who found the black arts and, in his greed, tried to summon the Nightmare for his own personal gain. Instead he got its minions. The Incarnations. They ate him out from the inside; he's just a hollow shell imitating life now, and they're the ones in control. They just keep up the illusion that he is the master."
"Why do they do that?" Lulu gasped.
"When they have enough… primals, they'll perform a ritual. A blood rite that will summon the Nightmare into Ganas' body and possess him. We can't let that happen."
"They're going to… sacrifice them?" Molly murmured in disbelief.
"Not all of them. They've kept the useful ones, or the ones they find amusing as pets. I've known them to have three, and… I've killed one. Robert McConner. He partially caused the thing that happened in Chicago, with an Incarnation. I can't say its name, but the primals call it Psycho."
"What about the other two?"
"Kentaro Xanthi and Anya Mayors. Xanthi is a hornet primal, and I don't know his motives. He's either in it for himself, or he's somehow under Ganas' thrall. I knew him once…" Manitou stared wistfully at the ceiling. "He was blunt, but a good man.
"It so much worse for Anya. She's just Des-" Manitou stopped himself just in time. "-the leader's plaything. She'd probably kill herself if she had the chance, and if she could she'd take Ganas out with her."
"See, Lulu? This is why I can't let you. It's crazy!"
"Muuum! As corny as it sounds, the world's in danger! And don't say 'it's crazy' when the other people in the room can change shape!"
"Please, just please think about it. We need her." Manitou said to Molly, standing up. "I have to go; I might be able to find their exact location by tracking Filth."
"Well, bye." Adrian said blankly. In the enclosed space of his mind a dozen emotions got to their feet and started shouting. Panic was in full spate when Disbelief cut in on a point of order and then Bewilderment, Terror and Loss started a fight which only ended when Shock snuck in to see what all the row was about.
"I think we should get upstairs cleaned up," Molly said, merely to break the silence as Manitou left the house, quietly closing the door behind him.
Surprisingly, the cleanup took less time than Adrian imagined. The grime seemed to flee from Lulu's blasts of energy. This allowed plenty of time for Lulu and her mother to have a vague argument.
"I want to help. I have to," Lulu stated, burning away a particularly stubborn piece of something nobody wanted to examine closely. The wall underneath was unscathed.
"But you heard what Mr. Borlington said about those monsters. They could kill you."
"Adrian sent one back."
Molly looked at Adrian, who had changed back to human simply so they could all fit on the landing. "Uh, yeah."
"What was it?"
"Uh, physical incarnation of pain…" Adrian muttered, not meeting Molly's glare.
"If Adrian can send one back, so can I," Lulu said matter-of-factly, shooting a stringy patch of mucus from the light fitting.
Finally, after at least half an hour of persuasion, Molly caved. Lulu could help, even fight, as long as she didn't do anything too reckless and stayed close to Adrian for protection.
Afterwards, Lulu and Adrian stayed in the ruckus that was her bedroom, mainly to explore…
Manitou meditated. He was trying to track Filth's stench to the island. After the Incarnation had slipped out of the sewer system of Little Prospect into the sea, the trail continued southwest until it just… petered out. Finding the island was not for his benefit, he knew exactly where it was, he just needed to get coordinates to John.
Every time Manitou had gone to the island, he had tried to determine its position using a map and compass. The numbers on the map turned unreadable, the compass spun on its axis.
Somebody hammered on his door. Manitou sighed at the prospect of tangling with Haverton again. So when he opened the door, he was surprised to find an ashen face Jamie standing there, panting.
"UncleMannyyougottacomequickit'sNina!" he bawled.
Before Manitou could answer, the boy grabbed his wrist and dragged him upstairs. He was surprisingly strong for a boy half Manitou's height, but this may have been because of adrenalin.
Jamie kicked open the door to his apartment, and dragged Manitou inside to show him a collapsed Nina.
"Shedidn'thaveanythingallday! Shejustfellover!" he yelled.
The girl's eyes were open, staring unseeing at the ceiling. If you were watching for it, occasionally her skin would shiver and prickle, even though there was no draft.
"What'supwhat'supwhat'sup?!"
Manitou hushed Jamie into silence as he knelt next to Nina. "Get a glass of water, please."
Jamie ceased his nervous bouncing and ran to get a glass.
With Jamie gone, Manitou leaned over and looked into Nina's eyes.
Another one. How had Manitou not seen her? He talked to her nearly every day. Then he saw that Nina had buried it deep within her, under years of suspicions and negative thoughts. However pleasant she was to talk to when sober, she was a remarkably narrow minded person.
He patted her cheeks. There was a crash from the kitchen as Jamie fumbled a glass. He was supposed to break it to her gently, but there was no time for that. Her time of emergence was much too soon to take it slowly, to peel away all the prejudices she had.
He was just going to have to tell her straight out. He realized this wasn't the best thing to tell a waking person; "Hey, you can turn into a powerful were-animal, welcome to the gang, we're off to fight killer demons from another dimension, you in?"
Nina sat up suddenly, blinking in the light from the lamp. Jamie rushed up with a glass of water. She scratched her arm.
"OhthankGodyou'reokayIgotUncleMannyseehecametohelp," Jamie blurted.
"Nina, I need to talk to you," Manitou said, taking the glass from Jamie and handing it to Nina. "Alone."
He looked at Jamie.
Jamie hesitated, then nodded and walked onto the landing, closing the door behind him.
"Right, what is this?" Nina asked, slipping the water.
"I know why you collapsed. And I know about the jungle dreams you've been having."
"How… how did you know that? Did Jamie tell you?"
"No… What I'm going to tell you may seem very strange, to your eyes, but there is no time left for me to explain slowly."
"What are you talking about?"
Manitou sighed, stood up, and walked away from Nina. "Close your eyes."
"Why?" Nina stood up, her arms rose defensively.
"I'm not going to attack you. I just need to prove something to you. Believe me, you won't find it pretty in-between."
"In between what?" Nina put her right hand in the back pocket of her jeans. Manitou knew she hid a stun gun in there.
"Just… trust me. Don't open them, no matter what you hear."
Nina could hear a lot. A vaguely organic sound, a kind of rustling she normally associated with birds taking flight, a pair of dull thumps which were Manitou's wings touching the ceiling. Above all, she heard the snaps as his beak grew out of his jaws.
She also heard Jamie come back in, ask "What was that snap?" and then go "Woah!"
Then she heard Manitou say "Damn…" and then "You can open your eyes now, Nina."
Nina opened her eyes. Nina saw Manitou as a giant humanoid eagle. Nina screamed at the top of her lungs.
"Nina, don't! He's cool!" Jamie said, staring at Manitou's eagle shape.
"He's not!"' she shrieked, dragging Jamie back. "He's like those things on Buffy!"
"I - I'm not. Trust me, Nina," said Manitou. This was Not supposed to happen.
"Get out!" Nina shouted, pulling Jamie further away from the bird man and brandishing the Taser. Manitou slowly changed back to his human shape as not to alarm her more.
"Nina, I only want to help-"
"Get away from us!" she shouted, pushing him out of the room and slamming the door in his face.
Nina stepped backwards, panting. "Jesus…" she whispered. "They're real…"
Outside, Manitou stared at the woodwork, wiping his brow. "Oh, no," he groaned. "She's rejecting it."
While Anya's body slept, her two minds fought.
The primal was stronger than the human, but too direct, working all on instinct. Anya, the human Anya, could think around it.
But this alone was not enough. Anya was afloat in a sea of savage, animalistic rage. She couldn't focus.
Anya twitched and rolled over in her sleep.
She was winning! Insanity wasn't paying attention, he was tormenting a crocodile, Sorrow was still out of it, and Filth was somewhere in the ocean, sulking and making oil spills over seagull colonies. Wrath couldn't do mind stuff at all.
Anya clawed her way out of her uncontrollable cobra side. She was almost out. Almost free. Free!
Then I can free them. All those poor people…
Something grabbed her ankle. The coldness of it shocked Anya so much she yelped in horror. Nonononono, her mind raced.
In her mind, she turned to see Despair. If he had a face, he should have been grinning evilly. But his eyes looked bored. As if he couldn't be bothered. As if Anya weren't worth the effort.
Naughty naughty.
"NO! I'm not going back!" she shouted.
Weak. Useless.
"Let me go, you bastard!"
Despair dragged her down, back under the animal.
"Why are you doing this?!" Anya wailed, desperate to keep her head above the creature inside.
Why? Despair's voice grated. Because I can.
Despair's cold, metal hands grasped her light blond, silken hair and yanked. Anya screamed.
"Nooo!"
It is what I do.
Anya went under.
It is what I am.
Anya's body woke up and hissed, flicking the air with its tongue. Time to hunt…
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