“What do you think of this place?” Amelia tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. “I mean, it’s pretty roomy. We’d have space for Ari and for any more kids. It’s a bit further away than I was hoping, but maybe that’s for the best – more privacy.”
Zahara was walking around opening all the doors and peeking inside, whether it was a closet or another room, with me perched on her shoulders.
“It’s a little older,” she observed, “and some of this paneling has to go. It’s ugly, for one thing, but also I think there was some mold in here and they didn’t get it all out – I can pick up on it thanks to fairy genes, I guess. It’s something growing, so I know it’s there. Point is, it’ll probably require some work. But,” she added, stopping in the arched doorway to the kitchen, “the bones are good, and the location has its upsides. I know it’s further out, yes, but privacy is big, and the schools on this side of town are good, too. There’s also a busline from here that goes to the bigger university in town, if Ari wants to go there. The distance for you and me might not be so bad, too – I can work from home on days I’m not in court and you’re home a lot while you’re learning lines and getting ready for practice.”
Amelia nodded slowly. “It would involve more driving for both of us, but it is within our budget, even after the work to be done, right?” She looked a little more nervous at the last part.
“It is,” Zahara confirmed. “I might do some of the work myself to help save some money, but yeah, we can afford it, even with the work we’d have to do.”
Amelia considered, then went over to the large double doors in the living room that opened up into a small patio. Beyond the patio was a field and then a forest. Talk about not being in town anymore – this place barely counted as being in the city.
“What do you think, Ari?” She asked, turning around to us. “We’re both assuming you’d like someplace where you wouldn’t have to worry if you did want to shift back ever. And you’d have your own room and lots of space to run. You and Zar could make trails through the woods for jogging, I bet.”
I hopped off Zahara’s shoulder to come join Amelia in the doorway, breathing deeply for a moment.
This place kind of reminded me of my home. The one with my parents. We’d lived in a pretty small town, with a field right next door, so sometimes Dad and I would go running around chasing each other through the grass, just enjoying life outside. I didn’t think I’d get the chance to do something like that so close to town, but this – this was perfect, in my opinion.
I turned and looked at Amelia, then rubbed my head against her leg, purring.
Amelia started to smile. “You like it, then?” She asked hopefully.
I nodded, then looked back at Zahara, wanting her opinion, too.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that,” she complained, holding up her hands in surrender as we both looked at her. “I’m already on board, remember? I was the one trying to talk you into it,” she reminded Amelia. But she came over to the doorway to join us, looking happy as she kissed Amelia and then stood there, breathing in the fresh air.
“Ari and our other kids will have space to run around and grow things,” she said softly, mostly to Amelia, I thought. “And Ari won’t have to worry about people spotting him when he’s in human form, there’s almost no one out here but us. There is someone down there,” she pointed in the direction of the next house, “but they’re a nymph family, so even if they recognized Ari, they wouldn’t say anything because they’d realize he’s a shifter and it’s more complicated than it seems.”
“Can we meet them?” Amelia asked, intrigued. “That could be fun! Having another family out here that we can trust, but not so close as to invade our personal space.”
“Sure,” Zahara agreed with a smile. “We can meet them, we can have friends out here sometimes, whatever we want. We can make our own little castle away from the city, but still within fairly easy reach of it.”
“Sounds nice,” Amelia murmured softly. “Sounds like a dream.”
I leaned against them, happy. I had a new family and now a new home where we could all live together. It might take some work to get it fully ready to live in, but still, there was a promise of a home together on the horizon.
When I’d run away from my aunt, I hadn’t expected anything like this. I just wanted to escape. Now, though, I had a real home again, and a real family, and I couldn’t be happier.
I hoped nothing would ever threaten my newfound happiness.
~~~~~
Several times while we were working on the house, I debated shifting to human form. Sure, I was still on the scrawny end of teenagerhood, but even that might be more helpful than cat paws, which were not that practical for helping rip out portions of the walls and put new ones in.
Zahara and Amelia didn’t seem to care, though. They both liked having me around, but they actually seemed to like it when I ran around outside and had fun. Maybe they wanted me to play instead of worrying about helping them, but I really did want to help them get our new home ready to move into. I was also just still hesitant to shift into human form, despite knowing that it was probably safe here and no one should see me. It was the “just in case” that stopped me. Just in case some random person might see me by accident, even if it was unlikely. It was just safer to stay as a cat than risk that. Maybe eventually I would feel more confident about it, but I hoped they didn’t mind too much if I was still scared and had to wait a little longer to work up the courage to shift again.
We – or rather, they – weren’t able to work on the house every day. Zahara had court some days, but since she didn’t need to sleep as much, she was able to come out most days and get something done. She also was faster at it than Amelia, who wasn’t as familiar with construction projects as Zahara apparently was – which led to my discovery that Zahara had worked for a construction firm during college to help fund her schooling. Amelia also had a lot of rehearsals lately for an upcoming play, so she often ended up spending hours at the theater and getting back late enough she didn’t have time to go out to the house to do anything.
I was hanging out with Zahara one day, sitting in the open doorway and listening to all the sounds, breathing in the fresh air, and every now and then looking back as Zahara worked on retiling the kitchen. I’d tried to help before she shooed me out, saying she could work faster on her own – which was likely true – but I still wanted to be nearby, just for her to talk to if she wanted, and, well, because I liked hanging out with her and Amelia, even if we weren’t talking. It was just nice to be near people I cared about who cared about me, too.
Zahara moved a pile of tiles over, carefully placing them one at a time, but going quickly enough I suspected she’d be done with the project by the end of the day. They’d already taken care of the walls and most of the floors, so we were getting pretty close to being done. I felt my heart pick up a little at that thought. We were going to officially move in soon, I was sure of it.
Then Zahara suddenly dropped the tile she was holding and looked up in alarm. Before I had a chance to get over to my tablet and ask her what was wrong, I felt a strange tremor vibrate through my paws, rattling my bones a little. Around me, there was a strange noise and then it went silent again, leaving me puzzled and trying to figure out what just happened.
“An earthquake,” Zahara breathed. “Oh no.” Without another word, she was on her feet, snatching me up before I knew what was happening, and running for her car.
“Amelia was just hurt,” she informed me as she practically gunned the car down the road. “Not fatal, not very dangerous, but not by a supernatural, either, so my protection magic didn’t stop it. I can only tell that much from the protection mark. But an earthquake – that theater she’s in is old. We only got the edges of the quake where we were, it felt like the center was probably in town.” She looked worried, but like she was trying to hold back her fears for my sake. “I hope she’s okay,” she finally whispered.
We both spent the ride further into town afraid, worried about what we would find. Unfortunately, what we started to find wasn’t good.
The earthquake had hit downtown and several of the older buildings looked like they had structural damage as a result. Police were already directing traffic away, so Zahara wasn’t able to get close enough to the theater to see its condition. She immediately found a place to park, then took off running with me at her heels.
When we reached the theater, everything was chaos. People running around, sirens wailing in the distance, and it was already clear that the building had partially collapsed.
“Damn it, damn it,” Zahara muttered, her fingers tightening into a fist. “I can’t – I can’t get in there without risking hurting someone. Maybe if I shifted down to true fae form? We’re really small then, but…but no,” she realized, “I’d start healing people without meaning to and could heal someone with a rebar still in them or a broken leg in the wrong position. No, that won’t work. There’s got to be something I can do, though!” She looked at the building anxiously, biting her lip as she thought.
But the answer seemed a little more obvious to me. I placed one paw on her foot, then looked at the building, then back at her.
It only took her a moment to get what I meant.
“You go in? You are small enough,” she allowed, “you could get in there without risking damaging the building further in the process, but I don’t know, I don’t like it. You’re just a kid, you don’t need to be putting yourself in danger like that.”
I might be just a kid, but I was also a supernatural, and this was one time I could use my abilities to help someone important to me.
I tapped her foot again, then looked at the building. Yes, I was asking for her permission, and I could have just run off without it, but I really wanted her to agree with me here.
Zahara groaned, then dropped into a crouch. “Okay, listen, Ari. Go in there, find Amelia, make sure she’s safe. See if you can lead her out, but if not, just make sure she stays somewhere safe until rescue workers can get in there. But please be careful, Ari. Don’t do anything dangerous, and pay attention to what you’re stepping on. You might be small, but you’re not invulnerable, so please, please be careful.” She leaned over and kissed the top of my head. “Please be careful,” she whispered as I headed off to the ruined building.
I looked back over my shoulder at her and gave her a little nod, trying to reassure her. Then I focused ahead, on the task at hand, and ran into the building to try to find my Mum.
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