Chapter 5: Chapter 5

Waking up wasn’t really something that came easy to Tyler. It was always a constant fight against the alarm clock and his mother to never wake up. Thankfully today Tyler had no school, so he didn’t have to get up early, not so thankfully was the fact that he forgot to turn off his alarm clock. It still rang out, waking him from a wonderful dream about a dragon cursed to be a human and how she decided to make the most out of her new existence.

Turning over, Tyler expertly turned off the alarm with a single flick of his finger and went right back to sleep without even registering he had been awake for a moment in the first place.

Eccleston, we don’t have the time for your antics, we’ve got to get a move on now. The town guard will be here any moment.

Eccleston, to his credit, got an air of hurry about him, but he never once lost the giddy smile that adorned his face almost constantly. They both moved to the front door, but before they could exit the dimly lit tavern, the owner stopped them.

“Excuse me. You two have done so much for me and my wife. Please take this and be safe on the road. I’ll tell them you went out the back and headed to the city center.” Came the words from the stout man. He handed them a bag and, without looking into it, ran back the way he came.

“How did he know we were going to be headed south?” Eccleston wondered loudly. Sam wanted to respond, but there wasn’t any time to work out who knew what and how. They ran through the door and headed south into the woods.

Coming to a little clearing, the two decided now would be a good time to sit down and catch their breath. The leather armor constricted Sam’s ragged breathing, and she moved to remove the lacing and threw the thing on the ground while they sat to catch their breath.

“What do you suppose is in the bag?” Eccleston asked.

“Dunno.” Came her reply, “Let’s find out.”

Sam moved to open the bag she had been clutching the whole run out here and tossed aside when she undid her armor. The bag was a simple thing, woven from a patchwork fabric and looking a little dirty. She both hoped it was and wasn’t food. She hoped it was because there’s a good chance, they’d have to avoid populated areas for a bit, and she hoped it wasn’t because she didn’t like the idea of eating anything out of a dirty bag.

Sam took a deep breath and was about to open it when shouting game from the North. Sam and Eccleston shared a look, bolted up quickly grabbing whatever they set down and ran for it in a random direction. She had the armor she threw off earlier under her arm, and it started to chafe as she dodged trees and underbrush, not bothering to try and hide their tracks. They’d have to get away from their pursuers and quickly, or at least make them give up the chase.

She couldn’t think of anything, so she ran in a panic and opted to just scan the surroundings as she ran behind Eccleston’s tall, lanky frame wrapped loosely in robes she assumed were enchanted with something but didn’t know enough about magic to know what.

To her left, she spotted a cave. This could be a good choice, but things tended to live in caves, but she decided to risk it. She sped up a little faster to Eccleston and tapped his shoulder. He looked over while they were still running and saw the cave as well. They both changed direction and headed into the cave, only slowing down when they entered. They were both winded again, but this time they couldn’t stop to sit down. Eccleston spoke a few words that instantly entered and left Sam’s ears without it registering to her conscious mind, and there was a small glowing orb that Eccleston held in his hand. They scanned around and noticed this cave was a network of caves.

Score.

Now all they needed was to get lucky and pick a direction that their pursuers would hopefully not pick, and that the way didn’t contain any dangerous besties. Decided to leave the decision up to her gut instinct, she pointed at one of the forks in the path, and they headed into it.

◊◊◊

Carl and his two men were on the trail of some criminals, it seemed like they were catching up with them. It was a good decision on his part to have his men not take any armor with them. The plate mail would have slowed them down through the thick under brushes of the Night Forest. He was running behind the expert tracker of the group as good as he could when he suddenly stopped and looked around.

“Did you lose them?”

“No, they just changed direction again. It looks like we’re getting closer, too. The steps have become more chaotic, suggesting that they’re losing steam and slowing down. It seems they headed this way.”

They continued for a little more when a small outcropping came into view. “They wouldn’t have gone in there, would they?”

“That’s precisely where they went.”

“Well, then we’ll follow. Everyone, draw your swords. Does anyone have a torch?”

One man spoke up, “I managed to grab one on the way out.”

“Good, go ahead and light it. We might need it.”

The three of them moved into the cave carefully. They all knew that when you went from a bright area to a dark one, your vision will take a while to adjust, and they wanted to avoid getting caught in an ambush. After a few minutes of slowly walking as quietly as they could, they started to get their vision back just as they found a bunch of forks in the path.

“Well, this is just great.”“Which one do we pick, sir?”

“I don’t…” He was about to reply when the sound of screaming echoed off the walls of the cave. “Did you catch which way that sound came from?”

“This way” the tracker replied.

The all started at a run through the fork in the path, now worried what they might find instead of just some criminals. Carl just hoped it wasn’t anything too dangerous.

After a few minutes, they came to a small open area of the cave.

“What in the name of Set?” came one of his men.

He wasn’t sure who because he was too transfixed on the scene. Before the three men were two bodies, and above them was a nightmarish black fog. At least it looked like fog, but it must have some corporeal form because it was chewing on a leg it had torn off one of the two people.

Without saying a word more, the three of them turned and ran as fast as they could. Whatever that thing was, it finished their job for them, and they’d do well to just let it eat in peace.

◊◊◊

Thirty minutes passed.

Then an hour.

When it was clear that the three guards who were chasing them were gone, and no more sounds came from the front of the caves, Eccleston gave a magnificent laugh from his belly. Sam joined in, relief washing over them.

“Thank Set, the bag contained all the ingredients I’d need for a quick illusion spell.” Came Eccleston. “I don’t think they’d have stopped following us if they didn’t think we were dead.”

“Yeah. I’d still like to know more about the tavern keeper, and why he knew our direction, and how he’d known to put everything we’d need for an illusion spell into a dirty bag before we left.”

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“I’d like to know that too, but at this point he can keep his secrets. He’s done us a favor that paid us back ten times over.”

“When you’re right, you’re right.” Sam said.

Now that they were out of danger and the fear had fully left them, Sam leaned a little closer to Eccleston. Then a little further and rested her head against his shoulders. He didn’t have the strongest frame, but being like this always put her at ease, as if he was strong enough to wrestle a wild boar. Sam found herself attracted to that face. Magnetically attracted. It seemed to pull them closer and closer until they shared a passionate kiss. Eccleston’s kissed fiercely back, and Sam wasn’t sure where her tongue was anymore, there was just the euphoric bliss of this kiss melding together with the relief that they were no longer in danger.

She wasn’t sure how long they stayed there like that, and she didn’t care, but when she did pull away, Eccleston looked different. He still had that quirky smile, still had that devil-may-care attitude, and now he wore a cute blush on top of all that. But his face’s cheekbones weren’t so high, and were his eyes always that color? He looks—.

He looked just like Orlando!

◊◊◊

Jolting awake, Tyler was breathing heavily, staring at the ceiling. In the middle of the night, he must have wriggled his way down the bed because he was no longer on his pillow, his whole body having moved down a bit towards the foot of the bed.

Just what was that dream? Tyler thought to himself. No one in my dreams ever changed like that… and no one in my real life ever came into my dreams before!

Without moving the rest of his body, Tyler reached up for a pillow and smothered his face into it and screamed. Why did that kiss feel so real? Why did Eccleston turn into Orlando, of all people!? Sure, Tyler wondered on more than one occasion what it would feel like to kiss his best friend, but that never moved into his dreams in such a real way! Heat radiated off his skin, and he worried the immense heat of his blush might be a fever. Yeah, just a fever. That would explain the dream. I better go take my temperature.

Tyler began to sit up in his bed and swung his legs over the edge. He looked at the clock on the side of his bed and panicked for a moment. 9:13 am, the digital clock blinked at him. He was late for school! He almost bound out of bed in a panic to try and rush through his morning routine when the events of yesterday came back to his mind and he settled down again. He didn’t have to be in school, he got suspended. Gloom started to replace the embarrassment of the dream, and Tyler hopped down to do his morning routine anyway. He got to the bathroom and started brushing his teeth. Through the monotony of the experience, his mind wandered back to the dream he was just having, and he felt his cheeks flush once more. He shook his head to clear it of the thoughts and his hair brushed his upper arm, but he didn’t think anything of it. It tended to do that when it was this long anyway. He was just about done with brushing his teeth when a large yawn escaped him.

I must have not gotten enough sleep. He thought to himself and determined he’d go back to bed after he had a bite of something to eat. Opening his eyes again, a girl in the mirror was rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the toothbrush hanging out of her mouth.

She’s cute. Tyler thought. Looks a little like Eris. Gosh, last night was weird, wasn’t it? Maybe I was already sleeping then too.

Tyler went to rinse his mouth and put the toothbrush away. Standing back up and looking in the mirror, he smiled at the girl and moved back to the bedroom, yawning again. Maybe he’ll get some more sleep now instead of eating—wait.

Tyler ran back into the bathroom and stared at the girl again. She mimicked his movements and had a panicked look on her face. He looked down and picked up a lock of her hair and stared at it.

What in the—? Came a thought, but Tyler couldn’t think anything past that. The girl in the mirror was him!? How’d this happen? How was he going to explain this to his mom?

Tyler ran his fingers through his now much longer hair. His short, wispy brown hair had grown just past shoulder-length and was now a light blond. His nose had shrunk quite a bit and while Tyler was pretty sure he was shorter, it didn’t seem like it was by much. Before he had looked a bit like his mother, but now he didn’t look like anyone in his family at all.

He looked back up at the mirror, and the girl looked like she was going to start crying any minute now. The panicked look on her face now replaced with fear. He looked around the bathroom as if something in there could give him a clue as to what had happened, and then back at the bed. Last night came back to his memory.

That girl, Eris I think, she looked like this. Why do I look like her? Where is she?

Panic set into Tyler’s veins, chilling his new body quickly. And then a new panic set in. Tyler needed to pee.

◊◊◊

Walking out of the bathroom with a blush that looked like it could double as a night light, Tyler crept to his mother’s room as quietly as he could. Looking inside, he breathed a sigh of relief, she wasn’t there. She would always sleep in when she didn’t have to work, which meant he had some time to figure everything out. He wasn’t sure how he was going to, but in the worst case he’d have something figured out to tell her when she got back.

Or would she even believe him that he was Tyler in the first place? He looked so different now…

That fear settled in his stomach, and at the same time it rumbled. Somehow, he managed to be hungry, so he decided to grab something from the fridge and see what to do later. Before he could open the fridge, though, he spotted a small post-it by the handle.

Tyler,

I’ve taken a half day at the office. I’ll be back with groceries around noon.

Love, Mom

A sense of urgency reignited itself, and Tyler thought about what he could use to distract himself when he remembered he was going to eat something. The fridge was basically empty save for a couple of eggs. Deciding on eggs and toast, he turned on the electric stove and started grabbing spices for scrambled eggs while the pan heated. He poured himself the last of the orange juice and sipped slowly while he waited for the pan to finish heating. He always had an active imagination and when it wanted to go wild the only thing Tyler could do was hang on, and now it was going full force with one catastrophic scenario after another. Tyler imagined his mother throwing him out or calling the police. Or maybe she’d accept the new him? Then he’d have to go to a new school. Orlando wouldn’t be able to find him anymore, what would he think? Somehow, that thought was the most painful.

He was just about to go down another spiral when the toaster popped up, and he jumped, making an “eep!” sound he wasn’t used to hearing from his mouth. Flushing with embarrassment again, he finished making his breakfast and ate quietly. The toaster having thankfully brought him out of the reverie and now his head was just empty. Tyler glanced at the clock above the stove. 11:00 am. He had one hour before he figured his mom would be home and decided to try and hide himself beneath clothing first. He walked back to his bedroom and started digging through the top-most dresser drawer.

Tyler was just about finished pulling the hoodie over his head when a voice startled him from behind.

“You have some wonderful dreams, you know?”

“Wha—!” Tyler shouted, asked as he fell over. He peeked out from the hole for his head, and saw Eris sitting on the foot of his bed trying her hardest to not burst out laughing. He sighed and finished putting on his navy-blue pull over the rest of the way.

“You’re actually real!” He said, now finally on his feet. He leaned over and poked her cheek. She swatted his now much smaller hand away from her and pouted.

“Of course, I’m real. Who do you think healed you yesterday?”

“Sorry, it’s just…” Tyler had a million different questions for her, and he had a hard time just picking one, until he looked over at the clock on the nightstand and saw that he had a little over a half an hour before his mother came back home. He turned back to Eris and asked, “Why do I look like you? How can I go back?”

“Look like me?” She asked, tilting her head. “You don’t look like me at all.”

“But I—” Tyler’s brain locked up, and he looked over in the bathroom and decided he needed to see for himself. He ran into the bathroom and turned on the light again and stared into the mirror. In the mirror was a cute girl. She was his height, with his color of hair, and had his eyes, but she was undoubtedly a girl. Her face was rounded and soft, and her eyes were bigger and more expressive. And the hoodie she was in was stretching in some places Tyler wasn’t used to. He blushed and turned to Eris, about to ask another question when the front door unlocked, and the voice of his mother echoed up the stairs.

“Tyler! Come help me with the groceries, please.”