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Chapter 5
Scale and Tail
Jane practically skipped into the hospital. She always enjoyed visiting Uncle Roderick. He listened to her problems, although he didn't really listen, it was more like she'd talk and listen to herself. Plus there was always the chance he'd have drawn a new picture.
His psychiatrists could never figure out why Uncle Roderick needed help doing anything, but could draw the most vividly detail pictures of animals, people and occasionally combinations of the two. They almost looked as if they were leaping out of the paper.
The chief of medicine, Dr. Grisham, had told Jane it was his way of communicating with her. Jane didn't like Dr. Grisham much, if at all. She had the sneaking suspicion he thought she was becoming like her Uncle.
"Hi, I'm here to see my Uncle Roderick Palmer," Jane said cheerfully to the plump African-American nurse behind the reception counter.
The nurse glanced down at a sheaf of paper in front of her. "Oh, I'm sorry dear," she said comfortingly, standing up and walking around the counter to face Jane directly. "There was an incident with your Uncle last night."
Jane gasped. "He's not… is he?"
"No no no, dear, but he became… increasingly violent through the night. We had to move him to New York. They'll take better care of him there."
"But… I can still see him, right?" Jane squeaked.
"Of course, dear, but only on certain days, not every day like here."
Jane sniffed, holding back tears. Uncle Roderick brightened up her day. He was vaguely cheerful when he was half there.
"Ah, Miss Palmer," said a stern voice from behind them, making both Jane and the nurse jump. Jane spun on her booted heels to confront Dr. Grisham.
"Jane, we need to talk privately. In my office." As always, Dr. Grisham's deadpan voice chilled Jane. As did the general hospital atmosphere. Jane had always felt that hospitals were one of the worst places to keep sick people. But there was nowhere else for Roderick.
Jane solemnly followed Dr. Grisham down the disinfectant smelling corridors. Although they didn't exactly feel sticky, they gave off an air of stickiness. Plus there was the colour. It is a known but unproven fact that no matter how carefully the colour of the paint is chosen, the walls of any institutional building will end up either vomit brown, acid green, nicotine yellow or surgical-appliance pink.
The fashion this time was nicotine yellow.
Dr. Grisham's office was a stark, sterile white place, with a dull wooden desk on which squatted a boringly beige computer. Jane always felt stifled in this dreary environment, she wanted to get outside and run around after being in there. She dreaded the conversations with Dr. Grisham, because he always managed to shift them onto her way of life.
"Now, Jane, we were forced to move your uncle yesterday because he attacked a nurse, demanding to see, and I quote, 'the bird man.' Do you have any idea what he might mean?" Dr. Grisham asked, sitting down in the squeaky leather chair. Jane sat down on hers, on the opposite side of the desk. Jane cringed; this was real leather, not the fake stuff she wore.
"Uh," Jane took the folded piece of paper out of her pocket. "I think he means this… He said I could have it, but he might've wanted it back…" Jane mumbled, handing over the picture. "He never usually got this violent over these."
Dr. Grisham made a dismissive noise as he unfolded the sketch of the eagle man. "You carry these around with you?"
Jane paused. "Yes," she said eventually. "They, they remind me of Uncle…" Jane reached out and took the sketch back.
"Before Mr. Palmer got agitated, he told me to give you this. He seemed almost normal when he did." Dr. Grisham reached into the desk's draw and handed over another sheet of paper. Jane smoothed it out and stared. It was a woman half way turned into some sort of reptile. Where it differed from Roderick's typical drawings was that the woman had a pained expression, rather than the usual peaceful or battle ready faces. Clustered around the picture were bundles of seemingly random lines. The paper itself was folded in odd places; two horizontal lines that didn't quite make it fold in half exactly. Jane carefully put it in a pocket by itself.
"If I may ask, do you still feel… attracted to these… 'furries'?"
Jane fixed him with a steely glare. "Yes. I do. And if you think there's something wrong with it, you're wrong."
Dr. Grisham returned the stare for a second. "And why do you feel this attraction?"
Jane's mouth opened then shut. "I don't know. I just do, okay? It's like a man liking other men, he just does!" Jane let the rage die a bit before continuing. "I've always liked the feel of fur, the way animals don't have the restrictions we do, the… uh, shape of their faces… they just seem more beautiful than humans to me…" Jane trailed off, looking at the floor.
"And?" the doctor prompted.
"They're more pure than humans. They don't kill for pleasure." Jane stood up and walked for the door.
"Wait! We were getting somewhere here!" the doctor said from behind his desk. Jane stopped, but didn't turn to face him.
"I didn't realise I agreed to a psychology session. And you can't change me just because of this. I'm going home." Jane's voice had ice in it. She wrenched the door open and strode out, leaving Dr. Grisham alone to scribble something in his note pad.
Outside Jane half-ran down the sterile hospital corridor, tears starting to spill, smudging her eyeliner.
"Rejecting? What's that?"
Manitou sighed, slouching forward. He had come straight back to Lulu's house after being chased out of Nina's apartment. The sun was setting outside, and the house was finally free of Filth's stench. Adrian was in his half primal form, human shaped but covered in fur and with a tail. Lulu had tried the same and come out with a two legged version of her unicorn figure, abet closer to her human height. They were sitting opposite Manitou again on the sofa in a tight embrace. Adrian had asked the question.
"It's serious. Very serious. If a primal refuses to accept what he or she is or has become, it causes… problems."
"What kind of problems?" the asker was not Adrian or Lulu, but Molly. She walked in with a tray of coffee mugs.
"Well, each primal kind of has a set date of emergence-"
"Is that why I changed when I was five?" Lulu interrupted.
Manitou nodded and continued. "If the primal has not been taught or visited by their guide by that date… then what happens isn't pleasant. Not at all."
"Why? What happens?" Adrian leaned forward. "What's going to happen to her?"
"Nina, what's up?" asked Jamie, his young face etched with concern.
Nina stood hunched over the couch, clutching at her chest with one hand and her head with the other.
"Just… chest pains," she gasped. "And a headache. I'm going to have a lie down, okay? Keep the noise down," she said gruffly, shuffling into her bedroom.
Jamie nodded to himself, putting his headphones on. He got so caught up in his music he didn't hear Nina start whimpering in pain.
"On the date of emergence, if the primal is ready, he or she would change of their own accord. My tribe had a ceremony for it. But Nina's time was five hours ago. The Ancient has told me this. The Ancient also told me she could unintentionally attract an Incarnation."
Adrian stood up suddenly, spilling his coffee. "One of them?"
"Maybe one. Maybe more. Maybe all of them. It depends on what Nina is feeling. They won't find her until she really feels bad though. But they aren't our problem for now, and they won't turn up for Nina for a while."
"That's a relief," Lulu said, clearing up the spill with a short burst of manna.
"As I was saying, Nina's time has passed. Now her primal side is out of control, and it will force its way out of her. I've seen it happen once." Manitou shuddered at the memory.
"A boy, near the same age as Adrian. A jackal, I think he was. He couldn't - wouldn't take the burden, and when he changed-"
"I don't wanna hear if it's horrible," said Lulu, covering her ears.
"-It was like he had a seizure. Because he tried to stop himself changing, it was painful. Very painful. In the end he got stuck between shapes."
"What did you do then?" Adrian asked, even though Manitou grimaced at the past.
"We had to kill him. If you get stuck between shapes, you'll be fine, except stuck until you get unstuck. But if you've rejected it, you'll be in constant pain. We had to put him out of his misery."
"Oh, God." Lulu whispered. "Nina…"
"So if you two do see Nina, please try to explain to her. She doesn't deserve that pain," Manitou said as he started to leave.
"Wait!" Adrian said, leaping up and following him, tail swishing. "I keep getting the feeling there's something you aren't telling me," he said in the hall. "You're not hiding anything, right?"
Manitou stared for a short while. "No," he said at last. "I need to contact the Ancient, to seek guidance. I'm going to the warehouse. I don't know how long I'm going to be, please keep an eye on Nina for me, Adrian?"
Adrian wavered then nodded, watching Manitou stride off into the darkening night.
Pain. That's all there was.
Nina couldn't see through the red haze in front of her eyes. It had passed beyond the point where you cried out and flailed. Nina just lay there and occasionally twitched as a bone changed shape or groaned as a new patch of scales ripped through her skin.
"Nina?" she heard Jamie say, it sounded like it came from a long way off. He had run into her room when she had shrieked over his music. Nina scraped a clawed, half-clenched hand across the floor in desperation. The searing pain came partly from her transformation, and partly from the realisation of what was happening to her.
"Ge' 'way…" she managed, pushing limply at him with her… tail. It wasn't possible, but she had one. Her waist had been on fire when it had grown out of the small of her back and changed the entire shape of her pelvis. "Ge'…ou'."
Currently the pain was wrapped around her face. She could feel her mouth and nose merging into one thing and lengthening into… something else.
"What?" Jamie stuttered.
"Don' wan'… you t'… see…"
Fifteen seconds later, but it felt to Nina much longer, the pain stopped.
Then she just lay there, panting. Slowly, ready to tense up at the slightest twinge, Nina stood up awkwardly. She was too tall. Her legs didn't feel right. Nothing felt right.
"What hff are you hff staring at?" she asked her brother. He looked frozen to the spot in fear, his eyes wide and mouth agape.
"What is it?" By chance, she caught a glance of her hands, and she herself froze to the core. Her hands, they were definitely hers; she could move them herself, weren't human hands anymore.
"Holy shit!" she shrieked.
Hysteric, Nina half ran, half stumbled into the bathroom to the mirror over the sink. Then she screamed at her reflection. She had the face of a lizard. Not just the face, but everywhere she could see was covered in light green scales. A green frill stuck out of the parting of her hair. Her throat clenched. She tried screaming, but it was stuck. Instead she gaped like a goldfish, trying to tear her eyes away from the mirror, but she couldn't; frozen by fear.
She spun to find Jamie had followed her to the doorway.
"Wha- no…" she gasped. "It's not… why… shit!" Nina collapsed, breathing erratically.
Jamie instantly awoke from his daze and rushed over.
"Breathe, just breathe," he said over and over to her, hands on her shoulders, staring into Nina's eyes. They were bright yellow, rather than deep blue and the pupils were thin vertical slits. But, somewhere in there, Jamie saw his sister. He knew what to do when Nina did this, because she did it too often when drunk.
"Look't me," she moaned, waving her hands in front of her face. Her eyes were now streaming with tears. "'m all…"
"Nina! Get a grip!" Jamie shouted. Nina, however, just curled up, wrapping her new tail around her waist, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Ge' - sniff - Manny" she choked.
"But you said-"
"Just get him!" she shrieked uncontrollably.
Uh… I couldn't find Manny," Jamie said nervously after returning from Manitou's apartment. "Haverton said he went out…"
Nina noticed the fear in his eyes as she sat hunched up on the couch. She would go between staring at the ceiling; as if the normality of it would somehow make her normal as well, her shaking, scaly green hands, and Jamie; who was scared enough not to move at all.
"She say anything else?"
"She asked why you were screaming…"
"You can move, I'm not going to hurt you," she said, wiping away the tears.
Jamie slumped into his slouch, slowly walked over and sat on the couch next to her. Then he gingerly leaned over and hugged his sister, who hugged back. To Jamie, her scales were cold and hard, but he didn't complain.
"What's happening to me?" Jamie heard Nina whisper as he felt tears trickle off her cheek onto his back.
"I don't know, but I'm gonna find Manny and find out."
"'nk you."
Nina finally got to a troubled sleep after midnight. She slept above the covers, and wore as little as she could because the scales felt unnatural to her against the materials.
Manitou slowly pulled the door of the warehouse open. There was no moonlight tonight; instead it was almost pitch black, save for the streetlights reflecting off the low clouds above and a few singular stars.
Inside it was completely dark apart from a shaft of very dull fluorescent light coming through the broken skylight. Manitou let his eyes change to his eagle variants so he could see in the gloom. The air burned ever so slightly, and tasted of acid and the faint tang of blood. Agony's influence still had not left the place he had been banished in.
Sitting cross legged in the centre of the warehouse, Manitou took his jacket and shirt off, and let his wings unfold, making the swirling dust motes in the light twist and sparkle for a moment.
Seeping deep into a trance, Manitou's body shifted until it was more eagle than human, feathers sprouted all over him, and the snaps echoed around the warehouse as his beak tweaked into place.
Manitou sent his spirit out into the night to look for answers and hope.
"What're we going to do?" Lulu asked Adrian.
They were both in the guest bedroom, which was now officially Adrian's. Lulu sat on the bed with a purring Tigsy. Adrian lent on the window sill, looking out to the shadowy beyond. Lulu was human again, but Adrian was still half changed, mainly because it kept Lulu happy, and also because it felt more natural to him this way.
"I think," Adrian said after a while, sitting down on the sleeping bag spread on the floor (Lulu was sleeping in Adrian's bed; her own bedroom was a bombsite at the moment), "that we should, uh, visit Nina tomorrow?"
Lulu smiled warmly. She lent down to kiss him, and said "That's why I love you, Adrian. You care."
"Plus the fact I can become a giant cat guy at will?" he joked. Lulu laughed, standing to turn the light off. Tigsy ran through the door before she closed it, making fake puking noises.
"G'night, Adrian," Lulu said softly, settling into the covers. She smiled as he started snoring, the room filling with his comforting purrs.
The alarm clock buzzed in Nina's ear. She gingerly felt up to her head. It was an ear, not just a flat piece of scales surrounded by yet more scales. Maybe last night was a nightmare?
Nina's hopes were dashed as she realised she had felt her ear with not fingers, but claws. Whipping both her hands in front of her eyes, she saw short hooked black claws, but no scales.
Nina cautiously felt her face with the back of her hands. It was human shaped. She sat up, feeling something really odd about her waist. She could move both her legs, and they were both proper, single kneed human legs. She tried to ignore the claws on her toes. But there was another limb.
Nina cringed as she unfurled her tail. It felt disgusting. What was worse is that it didn't have any scales on it this morning. Instead it had the same pale pink flesh as the rest of her body. Blanching and trying not to throw up, she slid off her bed onto her feet.
Walking in a morning stupor, claws catching on the carpet, Nina struck up her courage and faced the dressing table mirror. She groaned at her reflection.
She did have a human face, but her eyes were still reptilian; thin black slits for pupils surrounded by burnished yellow.
"Where am I?" she choked. She couldn't see herself in those vicious animal's eyes. But she'd also seen something else, a fleeting glimpse of it when she had spoken. She slowly opened her mouth and stuck her tongue out.
Then quickly pulled it back in, spluttering. Now she knew what it was, she could feel it. Clamping her hands over her mouth, she hurriedly tried to think what to do about it.
Calm down, calm down, just try to ignore it, she thought. Eeeurgh.
Jamie knocked on her door at that point, and she gladly took the distraction, pulling on her gown and opening it.
Jamie shrank back slightly at her eyes, but recovered. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," Nina answered quietly, still covering her mouth with her hands.
"I made you some toast," he said, holding up a plate. "Why are you doing that?"
Nina sighed. He's gonna find out eventually, she thought. Nina hesitantly lowered her hands. "It's my mouth," she said. Jamie's eyes widened when he saw the rows of pointed teeth, the thin forked tongue.
"Ah, um… I, uh," Jamie stuttered, taking his ever-present cap off and fiddling with the rip in the brim. "Do you want me to get the shopping today? I've got the list you wrote," Jamie held up the scrap of paper.
Nina smiled weakly. "You're a good kid, J. Moneys in the kitchen, next to the hotplate."
Jamie was about to leave when Nina felt something. A burning sensation spread up her tail, onto he spine and enveloped her chest and head.
"Jamie!" she cried, trying and failing to stop the tone of panic get into her voice.
"What?! D'you want me to stay?" he said anxiously.
"No, nng, just, ahh, get aspirin…" Nina fell onto the couch, picked up a cushion and bit into it. "Lock the door,' came her muffled voice.
Jamie closed and locked the door. Halfway down the stairs she heard Nina's muffled screams.
Adrian tied the laces on his scuffed trainers, thinking how odd it was that he was wearing them. He wanted at least his tail to be there, but he couldn't. He and Lulu had to hide their true selves when going outside.
Lulu stood next to him, swinging her arms eagerly. He wondered what it must be like for her, having an extra pair of legs hidden away. She tapped her foot rapidly.
"Oh, it's not you, sometimes it just tightens to get out, you know?" she said as he straightened up.
"I hope you do help her," Molly said gravely when they both stepped outside.
"Me too," Lulu said.
Ten or so minutes later the reached the boarding house and stood a few buildings away.
"Do we tell her everything? About… them?" Adrian asked.
"We better not. It might make it worse," Lulu answered. "Hey, isn't that Jamie?"
The figure in question was indeed Jamie; only he wore a bright blue cap two sizes too big and could sidle forwards. He kept glancing back to the window of his flat, worry creasing his young face. He didn't see the two primals approach.
"Hey kid!" Adrian said cheerfully, making the young teen jump.
"Adrian?" His eyes moved to Lulu. "You… you're Lulu, right? I've seen you an' Nina talk sometimes."
"Yep, I'm Lulu. Nice to meet you. You're Jamie, right?"
"Yeah…" The preoccupied look returned to his face. "Why are you back here?"
"We want to talk to Nina, please," Adrian said.
"Ah, uh, um, you can't," he said bluntly. "She's not well."
Lulu knelt down to get eye to eye with Jamie. "Jamie, we're primals. Like Manitou."
Jamie jumped back like he'd been shocked. "You're bird people as well?" he squeaked.
"No, we don't have the same animals. We just want to help your sister," Lulu said gently.
"I-I-I-I don't think she'd want to see you right now. She's, uh…"
"Changing?" Adrian prompted.
"Yeah. She screams. It must really hurt. Nina just wants to be alone for now." Jamie held up a small list written on an old receipt. "I'm going shopping…" he said pathetically.
"Can we come?" Lulu asked quietly, still at his level.
Lulu opened the boarding house front door for the boys, as they were struggling under a pair of large bags each. Adrian smiled at a scowling Haverton as the dumpy landlady passed them on the first landing.
On the way to and from Little Prospect's general store Jamie had been constantly asking questions about primals, most of which Adrian could only half answer, and Lulu could only shrug on nearly all of them.
"So Nina needs to just accept it?" he whispered while they climbed up the second flight of stairs.
"Yes. Otherwise I don't know what'll happen to her." Adrian whispered back. He felt uneasy in this place now. It didn't seem as busy as it used to be. Manitou's flat was empty as he was still at the warehouse, as was John Hunningan's place. He was still out doing… whatever he did with the FBI. The Indian family had moved away to make room of the so-called 'Arnold Fister' who had himself 'disappeared.' The Chung family seemed to be out for the day.
"I ain't sure Nina'll appreciate this…" Jamie mumbled as he fumbled in his pocket for his key. Eventually he pulled out a twisted strip of metal and jiggled it in the lock. "I lost my key once. So I learned to pick locks…"
"Why didn't you just get another key?" Lulu asked as Jamie pushed the door open.
Jamie didn't answer. Instead he ran inside, dropping his bag, to Nina. She was curled up on the couch, amidst a pile of crumpled up, soiled tissues. Adrian couldn't see much of her, she had wrapped herself up in layers of bed sheets, but he caught glimpses of bare human skin and patches of light green scales. Jamie was gently shaking her awake.
"Nina? I'm back," he said quietly.
"Ugh?" she groaned. "Who's with you?" she quickly pulled the sheets over her head. "You've not brought a doctor, have you?"
"No, it's Lulu and Adrian. They came to help. I got your painkillers-"
"Goddamnit, Jamie, what you bring them for?!" Nina shouted, her hidden shape trembling with rage.
"It's alright, Nina," Lulu said soothingly, kneeling next to Jamie and putting a reassuring hand on Nina's shoulder. Nina flinched. "We're primals as well."
For the next minute, nothing happened, apart from Lulu cautiously removing her hand. Nina was completely still. Like a reptile, Adrian thought.
"You're like Manny?" Nina's muffled though entirely monotone voice said through the cloth. Then Nina's head guardedly emerged from under the covers. One of her eyes was human, the other reptilian, and both were red with tears and full or fear. Around the lizard eye were scabby looking patches of scales. A short ridge of frilled, rounded spines stuck up from the parting between her ruffled hair.
"I… don't want your help," she said, shrinking away from Lulu. "Jamie, can you get me that aspirin?"
It was Lulu's turn to lean back when she saw Nina's fangs and forked tongue.
"Please Nina," Adrian pleaded. "I don't like seeing anyone in pain…"
Then you'd better go," Nina said, glaring at him.
"What?"
"I said, get out. I can feel it coming again." Nina suddenly groaned, clutching at her face with a clawed hand, the rest of her body seizing up.
"Nina, don't you want us to-" Lulu started, hurriedly standing up.
"OUT!" Nina shouted through a changing face. Lulu ran past Adrian into the hall, and he followed, stopping to glance back at Nina, who was glaring at him through eyes running with tears.
Adrian shut the door behind him and tried to comfort Lulu.
"That could've went better," she joked half-heartedly. "Sorry, it's just… those teeth scared me…"
"What're we going to do?"
"I don't know. Manitou will think of something, I know he will."
Time passed, because that was its job.
Manitou emerged from the warehouse, barely aware of the hunger in his stomach, or the sun edging closer to the horizon.
He knew what to do now. With a face so firmly set in an expression of grim determination you could have mistaken it for a marble bust, he set off back to the boarding house.
Passing the other way, on the other side of Magnus Avenue, was a dejected goth, her head hung low and her feet shuffling along. Jane was going for a midnight walk; she couldn't bare being indoors at the moment.
The four active Incarnations stood in Despair's cave, saying nothing.
"Well?" the speaker was Ganas, who had just strode in.
We've found another one. Despair's voice rattled through his skull.
"Oh really? Which one of you is going?"
We must choose carefully. The girl will be at more risk if we send someone she is attuned with.
"Is that why Agony failed to kill the boy?"
Despair stared out of the metal mask. It was hard to tell what he was thinking, partly because he had no face to put expressions on, but mainly because thinking was a word that couldn't really be put to his 'mind.'
Yes, he said at last. The boy was in no pain, Agony had no real advantage over him. I would have assigned Sorrow, but she had been… disabled by the bird man.
"Eheh, now we have a choice," gibbered Insanity.
Yes. A difficult one. She is angry, but not enough for Wrath. She feels me, but not severely. And she is still level headed enough to resist madness.
"It'll creep in eventually," Insanity smirked.
Ganas de Velierious turned to face Filth, who had finally returned in a sulk of sorts.
"She's too hygienic," he gurgled. "And anyway, there's the chance the unicorn could show up and help her."
"What are you afraid of, Filth? She is just one primal after all. I've seen you eat several of them."
"Her manna burnsss!" Filth raged. "She could be my undoing in this world!"
I shall not risk brother Filth to take out one rejecting primal. Despair hissed.
"We could send Xanthi or Anya."
If we send those two too far away from our influence, Manitou could set them free. They are too useful to risk. The girl is in a large amount of pain.
"I suppose you would have sent Agony for her."
Yes. Brother Agony would have been perfect, Despair said, almost wistfully.
Something groaned croakily behind him. Despair silently turned as if on castors to face the Dead Man Walking. It had sorted out its collapsing skull problem with a few large strips of metal and bolts.
Yes?
It pointed out of the cave into the main cavern where the pentagram was, just visible down the low tunnel, and grunted.
"Sorrow's gone," it said in a cracked and musty voice.
"OhgodohgodohgodJamieHELP! AAARGH!"
Jamie rushed in to find Nina writhing on the couch, shrieking and scrabbling at her face. Her body seemed unable to decide what it was trying to be. He hated this, where he could do nothing but watch Nina's pain. The best he could do was hand over some painkillers and a glass of water when she finished… changing. Before that, though, all he could do was stand there with his fingers in his ears.
"AAARGH NO! NGH OW ow nngh AAARRSSSsshit."
Nina stopped flailing. Slowly she sat up, glaring at the carpet, and held her hand out. Jamie silently handed her the painkillers and glass.
As Nina took the drugs, she took in her appearance. She dropped the glass and stood up, wobbling on her legs. Her mismatched legs. One was too long, green and double-jointed, the other human. The same applied to her arms.
"Oh Jesus," Nina gasped, patting her face. The snout was half formed, and her eyes different colours. "I'm such a freak," she wailed, falling back onto the couch, crying openly.
Jamie sat next to her. "No, no you're not. You're my sister."
"That doesn't stop me being a freak," Nina mumbled.
"But… look. See them pad things on your hands?" Nina nodded. "I think you can use them to climb walls like a gecko. And Spider-Man."
"Why the hell would I want to do that?" Nina said, hands clenching to fists.
"I, I, I, I dunno," Jamie stuttered, leaping up, hands raised defensively.
Nina stared at his reaction.
"You hate me, don't you."
"I, what? No!"
Nina sighed, more tears falling to the carpet. "You do. I bet if you could do this and it didn't hurt you'd enjoy it."
Jamie deflated and walked to the window, where the light was turning sunset pink. Leaning his forehead on the glass, he whispered "Yes."
Nina sighed again. "But you shouldn't. It's not right. And it feels like your skin being peeled off." She saw Jamie shudder out of the corner of her eye.
"Hey, that's-!" he said suddenly.
"What?"
"It's Manny! I'm gonna get him!"
Nina calmed down some more. Manny. Maybe he was coming back with a cure. Maybe he was a good sort of were-animal.
Lying on the couch, she turned on her small, portable radio and closed her eyes.
"-And that was Gwen Stefani with 'Crash.'" the DJ announced as the song stopped. "And next we have Sheryl Crow with 'A Change'd Do You Good.'"
Nina's eyes flicked open.
Jamie clattered down the stairs as fast as he could go, and was almost out of the door when a ham-sized hand clapped onto his shoulder.
"Where d'you think you're goin'?"
Jamie turned to his landlady.
"Tell yer hussy sister she's late wi' rent again," Haverton bawled.
"Lay off, Nina's going through a really rough time."
"Why should I care? Rent by the enda the week or you're both out, you hear?"
Jamie was stopped from retaliating by a plastic shattering sound from outside.
"Ain't that yer radio?" Haverton growled.
Five minutes later Manitou was being dragged upstairs by a boy running on backup adrenalin.
When they entered the Ronkko's flat the pair could both hear Nina being noisily sick in the bathroom.
"Nina! Manny's here!" Jamie yelled.
Four seconds later Manitou had been thrown to the floor by a horrible mix of human and gecko. A scale less tail was wrapped around his neck and the rest of Nina sat on his stomach.
"Listen, birdy, I ain't in the mood to be fucked about okay? My tongue just shot out halfway across the room and I ate a friggin' fly! So what in God's name have you done. To. Me?!" Nina pounded his chest while she said the last few words, fortunately missing Manitou's bullet round.
"Get off me, calm down, and I'll explain everything," Manitou said calmly.
Slowly, Nina unwrapped her tail and slid off him, slumping onto the couch. Manitou's tone of voice was hard to disobey.
"Right. Fine," she snapped. "Is there a cure?"
"It's not a disease."
"Is. There. A. Cure?" Nina repeated.
"'…No. There is no 'cure.' But you can stop the pain."
Nina sat up. She might not be able to regain humanity, but at least she could stop it hurting like hell. "How?" she said urgently.
"You must accept it."
"What?"
"You have to come to terms with what you are. It's the only way."
"I… I can't! I want to be normal! Like him!" she moaned, waving at Jamie, who was twiddling his cap in his hands, in the classic Ai-Señor-Bandits-have-Raided-our-Village position.
"'Normal' is merely a point of view."
"But… that's… this isn't fair!" Nina wailed, her face becoming more pointed and lizard like.
"Life never is…" Manitou whispered, his thoughts turning to all the imprisoned primals on the island not on any map. "You can become a true primal, accept it and come with me, Adrian and Lulu, or stay here in pain. Your choice. I'm not forcing you to come to a decision."
"And you'll help me be a… primal?"
"Yes. That's what I do."
"Can't you just stop it hurting and I can stay… a human shape?"
"No. It hurts and you change suddenly because you can't control it. But if you've welcomed it, you still have to change at least once a week before it… hurts."
"And if I go with this, I can choose when to go all freaky?"
Manitou sighed. "Yes. You'll know when you've done it when your guide visits." Manitou stood up and moved to the door.
"What's a guide?" Nina asked.
"You'll see," said Manitou, opening the door. "Goodbye Nina, Jamie."
"So… you gonna do it?" Jamie gingerly asked Nina when Manitou had closed the door.
"…Maybe. I don't know. It just seems so weird."
Nina drew the curtains and nudged Jamie into his own bedroom with her tail. "At least I've got used to this thing."
Jamie laughed. "I guess it'd be better if you could change when you wanted, rather than… you know?"
"Yeah, probably," Nina sighed. "I just didn't realise how fast my life could change in a week. I was just a girl, an' now…" Nina shook her head. "Come on, bedtime."
In her own room she undressed and started to put on a silk night gown. It was a present from her late mother and father and she derived lots of fond memories from it. In her mirror a flash of colour caught her eye, so she wandered over.
Twisting slightly so she could see, she saw the most beautiful pattern she had ever set eyes upon. And it was in a mosaic of scales running the length of her back.
While the rest of her reflection; the cruel mix of human and gecko, horrified her, she was mesmerized by this. Green scales shaded to a long patch of sky blue that covered her shoulder blades and ran down her spine onto her tail in a long line. The blue shaded darker to violet in a series of small circles, and in the centre of each circle was a spot of red.
"Wow…" Nina sighed, twisting some more, making the scales ripple and shimmer in the sunset's light.
Maybe… maybe Manitou's offer wasn't that bad. And Jamie was right, it would be better without the pain if she couldn't be rid of this altogether.
God, the pain was like…
Was like…
The pain was like… what it was now, creeping up on her.
"Oh, fuck," Nina swore as she collapsed.
There. Right there. The suffering. So close. Just a bit closer. Then she's ours.
Slowly as a trickling tear, silent as a funeral, Sorrow slipped back into shadow.
"Adrian! Lulu!"
Manitou rushed out into Lulu's garden to find the two teenagers lying next to each other on the parched grass, staring at the night sky. They were relaxing, so parts of their primals side showed through the human shape. Lulu's hair had a pinkish sheen and her ears were slightly pointed, and Adrian's hair had black stripes in the ginger and he had small claws on the end of his fingers.
"What? What is it?" Lulu asked, sitting up.
"One of them… hunting Nina. I sensed it when I was coming here," he panted.
"Which one?" Adrian stifled a shout. Don't want the neighbours hearing.
"Sorrow. The one that attacked you some weeks ago."
"Right." Adrian growled, ears and teeth shaping to points and striding to the house.
"Adrian, wait!" Lulu said, catching him up. "You don't know what we're gonna do!"
Inside Lulu's house, it was time for a Plan. This meant getting a map out and pointing at it. Adrian paced about, trying to reign in the tiger inside. He'd already grown his tail.
"Here's us, an' here's the boarding house…" Lulu said patiently.
"Okay. I'll stay here, meditate, and guide you two to them in spirit form."
"Right," they agreed.
"Change only when you know it's them. It's late, so if you are seen people will doubt it. Lulu, you need to aim for Sorrow's lifeline. It's the blue gem it has around its neck."
"What'll I do?" Adrian asked.
"You have to distract Sorrow so Nina can escape from it. Keep your eyes on Sorrow and don't let it get behind you."
"Got it."
"Good. Now get going," Manitou settled into his meditating stance. "Good luck."
Jane aimlessly wandered the streets of Little Prospect, trying to think. These days, she was finding it harder and harder to concentrate these days, and she was worried she was suffering the same fate as her uncle.
She realised night had fell long ago, that it was cold, and she was in the centre of L.P. Jane slumped on a cold steel bench next to a bus stop and put her head in her hands. Jane wanted something she knew she could never have, and she was sure it was the cause for the empty, hollow feeling in her chest.
Nina sat scrunched up, at the foot of her bed, sobbing into her hands. She was her full reptilian shape again. She wouldn't touch her skin… scales if she could avoid it; they felt too hard and alien to her. And the pain…it was too much. It didn't get better, it got worse. The change was random, parts of her body transforming at different intervals. Nina thought that it didn't hurt for Manitou because he changed… all at once, he flowed from shape to shape, while she jarred and jerked along the way, trying to stop it.
"I can't take this…" she whispered through the sobs. "I want my life back…"
But what life was that, her treacherous thoughts said. Selling drugs? Scraping what she could from numerous part-time jobs? The only thing that gave Nina light in her life was her brother Jamie. But he depended on her, not Nina depending on Jamie. And if she didn't beat this, what could she do? Just stay here, in hiding, unable to go out in the sun because she wouldn't know when she was going to change.
Slowly but steadily, Nina clawed her way to her feet, the double jointed legs giving her trouble standing, and tottered over to her dressing table and picked up the packet of cigarettes. Putting one between her lizard lips while fumbling for the lighter, Nina felt a presence in the room behind her. She'd never felt this before, it was… like an instinct. It told her the presence wasn't a threat.
"If you're gonna smoke," drawled a Jamaican voice. "Can I 'ave one?"
Nina turned slowly, as if mounted on a turntable, to face the voices owner.
"Yo," said the tiny, glowing gecko on her bed. The unlit cigarette fell from Nina's mouth.
"Who the… what?" Nina frowned. "Are you that spirit thing Manny told me about?"
"Got it one, sis." The gecko shimmered, even in the lack of light. It was light green, but the pattern on its back was like the pattern on Nina's, blue with red spots.
"Don' be afraid," it said soothingly. "We won' harm you."
We?" But as Nina asked, two more spirit guides faded into her view. A gently glimmering orange tiger and a shining white unicorn stood on each side of her bed. Nina's new senses told her that these ghostlike animals were nothing to fear, and Nina calmed down.
Sitting on the chair that matched the dressing table, Nina looked at the assembled guides.
"Whose guides are you, then?"
The tiger was the first to talk. "I'm Oro, and I guide Adrian."
The unicorn bowed. "I am Nichan," it said an a deep male voice.
"And you haunt Lulu, right?" Nina said.
"Guide, not haunt, Nina."
"Uh… what's your name?" she asked the gecko.
"Call me Vinsoni. Care to guess why we're here?"
"To make me accept that I'm a freak?"
"Nonononono," Vinsoni said, shaking his head. "To be a primal. Save the world. Yadda yadda yadda."
"Save the world?"
Vinsoni sighed as if he'd been through this too many times before.
"Look, there are these demon things, and Manitou's been fighting them, and there's one coming for you and if you don't get your act together it'll get you and Jamie and that'll mean we'll lose another primal to them and-"
"What demon thing?" Nina shrieked.
"And," Vinsoni continued, "if you escape it anyway but you still won't accept what you are you'll keep changing more often and it'll get more and more painful until your body just goes 'I'm not 'avin' this no more,' and just quits and you die."
"I'll… die?" Nina stood up and started pacing the room. "But I don't wanna die, and I don't wanna be a primal, isn't there an in between?"
"Nope. I don't see what's so hard about this. You either die or stop the pain and change when you want."
"But what about the demon?"
"That's your fight. I guess it came because you got so upset about this and… Oh shit, here it comes!" Instantly after saying that, the spirits guide faded away, leaving Nina in alone in her room. Which was slowly growing much colder.
"Vin… Vinsoni?" Nina whispered to the growing cold, her breath condensing into mist.
Water dripped from the ceiling onto her head.
"What's going on?" She shivered as the water trickled down her back. Her lizard senses were screaming at her, for Nina to climb out the window, to get away.
Nina started edging towards the closed window as the dripping water shorted the light out. The window was locked. The key was on the dressing table.
She wasn't alone in the room.
As stealthily as her awkward legs would allow, she crept over to the table, where the key glinted temptingly. As she reached halfway, a shadow rushed across the mirror above the table.
Nina whipped around to see what had caused the shadow, but there was nothing there. But her erratic animal senses said there was. Nina tried to control the senses, to pinpoint the location of the intruder, but they slid out of her grasp.
Nothing there, nothing there… just pick up the key and get out the window.
What about Jamie?
It's not after him, it's after you.
Slowly, ready to leap away if something happened, Nina reached for the small key. The carpet was becoming sodden underfoot with all the dripping moisture, and the wallpaper started to stain. Droplets condensed on the glass of the mirror as Nina's terrified lizard face started out at her.
Nina found her long, slender and clawed fingers too oddly shaped to pick up the key, but Jamie was right, the pads on her gecko hands could stick to things. The small copper key stuck to her finger and she picked it up silently.
Nina relaxed. If that was the chance for something to jump out at her, it had missed it. Nina held the key between her forefinger and thumb and started to move back to the window when-
Nina screeched as a watery and very slim arm reached suddenly through the mirror and clutched her throat. Its stick thin fingers elongated and slid around her neck and up to the back of her head.
Nina picked up the nearest thing she had as a weapon, the stainless steel comb. Slashing across the wrist of the arm, she was free as the mirror wailed unnaturally and the arm retracted. Nina began to run towards the window, but the arm, accompanied by another, shot out and grabbed her shoulders.
She was being pulled into the mirror, and there was something on the other side. Slicing with the comb had no effect now, so Nina braced both legs on the wall on either side of the mirror and pulled back on the arms.
What came through was a woman's head and torso, made out of some kind of dark liquid. They eyes glared, they were pure white and crying floods of tears. The mouth was stuck open in a silent wail, and its black hair, like weeds at the bottom of a river, dripped black slime over the dressing table. Nina screamed again.
Reaching into the pockets of her nearby jeans, she pulled out the Taser gun and turned it up to full voltage. Pressing the red button on one side, Nina thrust it into the face of the ethereal attacker.
Now it was the monsters turn to scream, an unholy screech from before time, as the electricity coursed through its watery body, and it fell limp. Without the creature holding her up, she should have fell to the floor, but her feet stuck to the wall Nina briefly wondered why no one else in the boarding house was hearing all this yelling as she rushed over the wall to the window, at last, unlocked it and wrenched it open.
Cold night air flooded in, but it wasn't as cold as inside the room. Nina swung herself out of the window and onto the wall outside, her hands and feet sticking to the brickwork easily. It felt so strange…
But of more concern to Nina was the ghostly woman sliding from her mirror into her water logged bedroom. Nina started scaling the wall until she was on the roof and looked back down to the thing following her. Its fingers dug into the masonry and the rest of it just floated after its scrabbling hands.
Nina whimpered and ran across the roof to the other side. Hesitantly she stared down at the drop below her, then took a running jump to her right onto the building next door. Nina stopped again to catch her breath, but started to flee once the freezing mist that the creature seemed to generate stroked the back of her neck.
Don't turn around, don't turn around, she constantly thought, trying to concentrate on getting away. Manitou, this is all your fault was the thought that kept returning to her.
A few stomach churning roof leaps later she was lost. If she was at ground level she'd be able to locate where exactly she was, but it was so different up here. Plus the ghostly woman on her tail wasn't helping.
Nina spun to see it cresting the roof of a nearby building behind her, shrouded in thin grey mist. Panting, she ran to the edge of the roof and leapt. It was poorly timed; her odd legs fighting against her, and she hit the edge with her stomach, winding herself and scrabbling for purchase.
Coughing and gasping for breath, Nina used her sticky hands and feet to climb onto the flat asphalt roofing.
"Get up, girl, you can't run anymore!" said a panicked voice in her ear. Nina slowly craned her head to see Vinsoni next to her, his glowing body lighting up part of the roof with a vivid green.
"What?" she gasped.
"You have to fight it!"
Nina painfully dragged herself into a sitting position and saw the eerie woman lightly land on the roof Nina had just left.
"I can't… I'm scared…"
Nina tried to crawl away as the air around her grew even icier.
"Ugh… Nnngh… Not again, not now, please…" she pleaded, as her insides squirmed. She coughed into her hands, and threw up. She looked blearily at the mess in her hands and on the roof. It wasn't vomit, it was blood.
Nina found herself wondering how she would die. If the thing behind her didn't get her, then it would only be a matter of time until what Vinsoni predicted came to pass. Maybe my human skin'll go away to get replaced by the scales, but the scales won't grow in its place… or my bones'll bet too big before the rest of me catches up with me…
These aren't my thoughts, Nina thought with a jolt.
"No. They are mine," shimmered a voice. Sound didn't shimmer, but this voice somehow conveyed this effect.
Nina pried open her eyes, dreading what she might see. The hem off a deep sea blue shroud filled her immediate vision. She raised her head slowly, looking up at a kind of anti-bride.
The shroud was styled like a wedding dress, though one what had been made in deep navy blue and had been left to soak at the bottom of a pond. What she thought was a veil was in fact long stringy clumps of wet black hair that wavered in the breeze. The breeze that wasn't there.
A small, marble sized gem, ice blue in colour, hung around the creature's neck by a tarnished silver chain. Its hands were clasped together in front of its waist, the long thin fingers continually flexing.
One of the hands left its other and reach up and parted the veil of hair, revealing an ice grey eye with a pinpoint of bright blue light shining from it. Tears rolled down the cheek and the rest of the face was mercifully hidden, because Nina felt she couldn't bare that stare much longer, even though it was from only one eye.
The other hand reached down and grasped her lizard chin. Nina's eyes widened and she moaned as the coldness of the touch stretched into her mind.
"Do you want to die?" the woman asked, still staring at Nina with that unblinking stare.
"Nnnn," Nina tried to say, but the cold seemed to have frozen her vocal chords.
"Thought not." The creature thankfully released her chin and straightened up. "If you come with me, I can stop your pain."
"Don't listen, Nina!" Vinsoni said, leaping up to attack the things face, but he was snatched out of the air.
"Shut up, lizard. Don't you see, Nina, if you go with them, you will have nothing but pain and suffering. This world is dying. Come with us. Live forever." The wraith squeezed the fist holding Vinsoni, who squealed.
"Stop that! You're hurting him!" Nina suddenly found control of her vocal chords.
"He's the cause of your condition. Choose. The survivors or the animals," it ordered, tossing the lizard roughly to the ground next to Nina. "Choose," it repeated.
"What about my brother?" Nina whispered, staring at the squirming Vinsoni.
"Him? He is a burden. Isn't your desire to rid yourself of all burdens?"
"But… I love him!"
"Love. There is no space for it here. There never was." The wraith held out a clawed hand. "What is your choice?"
Nina looked back and forth from Vinsoni to the hand.
Finally she reached up and took hold of the hand. It wasn't cold. The wraith started laughing triumphantly.
"See Vinsoni, you have lost another to our cause. When will you learn? Extinction is all you animals have-"
The monologue was cut off when Nina pulled on the arm, raising as the creature fell over. As both of them reached the halfway point, Nina's knee connected with its face, making a crunching noise. Nina pushed the thing away and picked up Vinsoni, who quivered in her hand from the cold.
"I'll take my chances with him, bitch!" Nina screeched, kicking the wraith in the side of the head. Nina held Vinsoni close to her face. "Let's do this, Vinsoni."
Vinsoni smiled and jumped from her cupped hands and somehow landed in her chest. For the first time in two days, Nina's head finally felt clear. There lifted a pressure she had not really felt until it had left. Her senses sharpened, like she had been hearing through cotton wool and seeing through a smoky haze.
"It… doesn't hurt anymore," she whispered. "The pain's gone…"
"Then let me give you some!" the wraith screeched, leaping up and scraping its claws across Nina's face, leaving deep bleeding scratches. Nina howled and brought both clenched fists around and smashed its head.
The wraith reeled, but spun with the blow and stabbed in Nina's right shoulder. It felt like being stabbed with an icicle, the freezing touch spreading through her system, shutting it down. Gritting her fangs, she wrenched at the claw, but it was hooked inside the wound. Instead she darted her head forward, opened her mouth filled with rows of serrated teeth and clamped it around the wraith's neck.
Salty water spilled into Nina's mouth and she gagged and let go. The wraith, also coughing, glared at her, tearing its claw out of her shoulder, taking a chunk of flesh with it.
"Aaargh!"
Nina was cut off as the wet stringy hair of the wraith flitted through the air and wrapped around her snout. The wraith pulled her close, so close she could feel its breath, a cruel wind from the ice age.
"I offered you salvation, escape, and you refused. You chose to side with the beasts," it said as more of its hair bound Nina's legs. She tried to throw a punch, but her arm was twisted painfully aside by a band of hair that wound around her waist. "You have chosen death."
The wraith walked to the edge of the roof, dragging Nina along with it. "I am upset. You see, my brothers have their pets. I have always waited for one of my own. Despair has his cobra girl, and she fuels him with her misery. Insanity and Wrath share the hornet. Agony owned the rat until the tiger banished him." The wraith's hair dragged Nina over the edge, where she hung in the air over a long drop, the hair somehow holding up her weight instead of dangling from it. Directly below her was an iron railing. It was large, ornate, painted black and, above all, spiky. "The rat was passed onto Filth, until Manitou killed him. Your sadness drew me to you. I am Sorrow. If you had not accepted the lizard, you would have been my perfect pet to feed off. But now you are of no use to me. Oh, that's right. I lied about the escape."
Sorrow let go, and Nina fell.
Vinsoni told Nina what to do. Here, he said inside her head, squeeze these muscles.
Nina decided she had nothing to lose, so she tried them out. Instantly her forked tongue shot out to a length of three or four meters, ensnared a window sill and turned her fall into a swoop that brought her into contact with the wall. Nina scrabbled at it but stopped as she realised that her hands and feet gripped it easily.
Nina found herself starting to enjoy this.
Sorrow stamped her foot in anger. "Damnit, why can't they just give up?"
Before she could react, a sticky pink tongue lashed up, wrapped around Sorrow's ankle and yanked. Sorrow lost her balance and fell after Nina.
Nina growled in frustration when Sorrow's hair dug into the wall next to her, bringing the wraith to a halt.
"This way, quickly!"
"This is so weird."
The shining eagle shape swooped through the night air, followed by a galloping white shape and an orange and black blur.
"There they are!" Manitou's spirit form said as a building wreathed in mist came into view. Hanging from the side of the building were two female figures.
The two primals and the spirit came to a stop in the shadow of a gap between buildings.
"How is she doing?" Adrian asked between bounds.
"Nina's accepted it. She still needs our help though."
"Ready, Lulu?" Adrian looked to the side to see Lulu grinning and swishing her mane.
"Hell yeah!"
"Why can't you freaks just stand aside and let us have this world? It's our turn now!" Sorrow demanded, grabbing Nina's head and slamming her into the brickwork. Nina retaliated with an angered yell and flicked her tail into Sorrow's stomach, causing it to lose another few feet.
"What? You can't even talk anymore! You're an animal, prey for those higher up the food chain, beings like-uugh!" A blast of searing light pierced through Sorrow's chest, reducing its rant to hoarse hissing.
"Damn. Missed," Lulu said.
"You shut it up, though," Adrian grinned. "That's the thing that got me in hospital, right?"
"Yes, but something different…" Manitou mused. "That Incarnation isn't usually so angry. I think another one is lending it power."
Manitou took off from Adrian's furry shoulder and flapped up to the fight.
Nina stared in amazement as the gaping hole in Sorrow's chest healed over.
She started climbing away from it when a glowing bird landed on its head and started pecking at its face.
"What did I say about the face, bird?" Sorrow growled, ripped Manitou from her head, wrapping his spirit in damp hair and bashing the cawing bundle repeatedly into the wall.
"He's trying to save me again," Nina said to herself. "Stop that!"
Nina leapt fully onto Sorrow, tearing at anything she could grasp.
"Woah. She's hot when she's mad," Adrian mumbled from the ground. Lulu subjected him to a look before shearing off some of Sorrow's hair with a lance of light.
Sorrow let go of Manitou, whose form shimmered and wavered until it flickered out. Sorrow also let go of the wall on account of not having enough hair to hold onto it will, as Nina had succeeded in tearing most of it out.
Adrian leapt up onto the railing, then onto the drainpipe on the wall in front of him. Bracing himself, feeling the tiger's muscles bunch under his skin, he jumped from the wall, grabbed Nina out of the air and landed in the street. There was a splutch behind them.
Lulu trotted over to them. "Nice catch."
"Thanks," Adrian replied, setting Nina down.
She stared at them, her gaze flicking between Adrian's feline features and Lulu's two hoofed pairs of legs.
"Lulu? Adrian?" she said at last.
"Yes, it's us," Lulu answered gently. Nina hesitated then put her arms around them in what was unmistakably a hug.
"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," Nina said quietly, burying her head in Lulu's mane.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay," Lulu comforted. "It wasn't your fault."
The three became aware of a slow rasping breath behind them. Nina let go and folded her arms.
"Well, well, well, not so big now, are we?" she taunted.
Sorrow struggled, trying in vain to lift herself off the iron spikes. Adrian could see they went right through and poked out of her back a few inches. Something pearly blue and marble sized fell from the creature and rolled towards them.
Nina picked it up, making Sorrow squirm more and reach out for it.
"Is this important?" Nina said sarcastically. Then Nina dropped it, lifted her clawed foot and stamped. There was a very small breaking sound.
Sorrow screeched, her arms seizing up, her hair ceasing its waving and flopped down. The wail continued to climb in pitch until it reached ultrasonic and Adrian clamped his paws around his ears. The noise became a hiss of escaping steam, thick clouds of it pouring from the incarnation's mouth, its skin becoming transparent and dripping. Whatever force held Sorrow in that shape suddenly departed and she dissolved into a large spreading puddle of salty water, pouring down the nearest drain. The deep blue shroud frayed rapidly at the edges, the threads spinning away in the cold wind along with the long strands of hair until nothing remained.
"Is it gone?" Nina whispered.
"Yeah. You beat it," Adrian answered.
Nina sighed in relief. "I'm going back to human now, okay?" Nina closed her eyes and concentrated. She shrunk a few inches while her scales and claws retracted, her snout folded backwards until it morphed into her slim nose and mouth, the frill sank under her hair and the tail was last to disappear under her nightgown.
Opening her eyes, Nina looked up at them and said, "Wow, you two are tall. Wait."
"What?" Lulu said, noticing the anxious look on her face.
"That bird, that was Manitou, right? Is he okay? What happened to him?"
Adrian's head spun. "A cars coming, quick, in the shadow," he said, pulling them both into the nearby alley.
"Hey, that's mom!" Lulu cheered when a white Honda spluttered to a halt. Manitou was in the passenger seat, looking dazed. Adrian pulled open the door, thanking Molly for picking them up, and climbed in, halfway changing back to human to fit.
Molly grinned sheepishly at Nina and handed Lulu her pyjamas.
"For when you change back,' Molly explained. "You can't fit in this car like that, and I'm not having you in the nude, hey?"
"Thanks, mom, but you could'a brung something else," Lulu complained slightly as she pulled on the pale pink pyjamas and shifting back to human at the same time.
Nina got in after Lulu, obviously still nervous of Lulu's shape shifting. Molly started the car down the street, continually asking Lulu if she was okay.
"Um… Manny?" Nina said guiltily, tapping Manitou on the shoulder.
"Yeah?" Manitou slurred. "Sorry, but Sorrow caught me off guard. It shouldn't have been that strong. Getting beaten in spirit form has left me a little groggy."
"I want to… apologize. I've been horrible to all of you." Nina hung her head. "I'm sorry."
"Accepted," Manitou said calmly. "I shouldn't have forced it on you like that. I realise now it was too sudden for you, that you've taught me that not every primal I find is always completely ready to accept. I'm sorry as well."
It was silent for a few minutes, except for the rattling engine of the car. Molly broke the silence. "Well, now that's all sorted out, would everyone like to come back to our's for some coffee?" she said perkily.
Nina yawned. "No offence, Mrs. Grant, but I'd like to get home. I'm worried about Jamie."
"I have to get back as well," Manitou mumbled. "I'll need to meditate to get rid of this cold she gave me."
Manitou and Nina were dropped off at the boarding house. Inside, Jamie was restlessly padding back and forth in his empty apartment, but laughed and ran to her when his sister came in.
Manitou smiled at them, embracing each other in a hug, and left to his rooms below.
He was stopped halfway there by a disgruntled Haverton, whom he diverted by flashing momentarily his true, eagle's eyes between blinks.
In his room, he just about made it to his bed, where he collapsed in a heap, snoring loudly.
For Adrian and Lulu, they went to bed together, Lulu stroking Adrian's thick fur until they both fell asleep in each other's arms in Adrian's bed.
Molly stayed awake for a while. Earlier she'd watched Manitou enter that trance, and seen a vague yellow smoky object rise from his head and leave the house through a wall. Molly, not being a primal, could not see its true shape, but she knew it was Manitou's soul or something very much like that.
She'd been there when something had attacked his spirit, when he'd choked and fell back, and she'd caught him. Molly hadn't the foggiest idea how to treat a damaged spirit, so she'd held him close and waited for him to wake up. It had been awkward when he did, with Manitou's head in her lap and such, but… there had been something there, when they'd stared at each other.
However, the night was not entirely over for someone. A very lonely someone.
This someone had lurked in the shadows when she'd heard the sounds of fighting. She was still there now; even twenty minutes after the car had departed.
They'd looked so beautiful, fighting that ghostly thing. The figure ached to become one of them.
Jane was still there half an hour later, eyes wide and mouth agape at the images replaying in her head, still unable to believe or disbelieve what she had seen.
Finally she seemed to get control of her legs and ran as fast as she could back to her apartment.
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