“This isn’t working,” I said after trying to talk to Larry through my mind for 12 minutes.

“Maybe it only works when the familiar is an animal or is not in hearing range?” Larry asked.

“I’m still weirded out that you unsummoning me makes my body stiffen up,” I said, “Like my body is stuck in a limbo state.”

“Normally, it would just make you disappear,” Larry said, “But you’re  half Astral Mage… Or at least that’s what Divina Crumpet wrote about you, right?”

“Maybe, Larry, you could possibly  only use telepathy and unsummoning with me if I’m in my dog form?” I asked, “That makes some sense, right? I mean, I am just speaking hypothetically here.”

“Vernon, what if I was able to turn you into your dog form on my command?” Larry asked.

“I dare you to try,” I said.

“Vernon, turn into your other form,” Larry said. My body obeyed and I turned into my Giant Labradoodle puppy form. I thought “the fuck? It worked?” and I saw that Larry’s lips weren’t moving, but I heard him say “I think I was right.” I thought “This is surreal.” He thought back “I know.” I thought “please change me back.” Larry smiled and hugged me for like 5 minutes while I was in dog form. “Vernon, turn back into your human form.” I changed back.

“I really like you, Larry,” I said, “But that sucked. I hate not being able to use my powers in human form.”

“But shouldn’t you be an adult dog by now?” Larry asked, “Maybe there’s something that’s causing you to not be able to use your Astral Mage powers?”

“That sounds ridiculous, Larry,” I said. “I mean think about it. What would cause someone to not be able to use their powers?”

“I don’t know,” Larry said, “Why don’t we talk about what you want to make for dinner?”

“There’s so many things I could possibly make,” I said, “I just need to know what ingredients you have first.”

“Okay,” Larry said, “I’ll take you on a tour of our kitchen.”

“I’m glad you’re willing to,” I said. Larry and I went downstairs, and he showed me around his parents’ kitchen. There were a few boxes that I didn’t know what they were and Larry didn’t say anything about them. The labels were as follows: eat at your own risk, eat when feeling fancy, eat when all others fail, eat when exhausted, and eat only during the new moon. Other than those boxes, I was able to figure out easily what I could make.

“So, what’s the plan?” Carly asked when she came into the room.

“I’m thinking about making a fun dish,” I said, “You’ll both be surprised. It’s one of the ones my Dad created and left for me. I like calling it by a different name, but my Dad called it ‘Soup of the Setting Sun’ which is super overkill, but it looks like a sunset so I guess that is what he was getting at.”

“What’s in it?” Carly asked.

“I don’t want to tell you,” I said, “But I’ll give you a hint, it uses only ingredients that you already have.”

“That’s too broad of a hint,” Carly said.

“Well, how about you and Larry go in the other room?” I asked, “I’ll have it done in about an hour, so just watch TV or something?”

“You don’t want us to watch you?” Larry asked.

“I’d rather you don’t,” I said, “Too many cooks in the kitchen with only one having the recipe is a disaster in itself, and I don’t have the recipe with me, so I have to use my memory to remember it. I’m also bad with interruptions when I’m trying to concentrate.”

“Oh, okay,” Carly said, “We’ll stay out of your way then. Larry, let’s go in the other room like Vernon asked us to.” Larry looked a bit disappointed, but he went with Carly into the other room so that I could concentrate.

I finished cooking quickly, and just before I announced that it was completed, I heard Larry and Carly talking.

“I wonder what he made would taste like,” Larry said, “It smells delicious.”

“I don’t know,” Carly said, “But I’m kind of excited to try it.”

“Yeah, me too,” Larry said.

“Are you two ready to eat?” I asked.

“Definitely,” Larry said, “Is it done yet?”

“Yup,” I said, “Just give me a little bit and I’ll get it on the table. You two should go grab a drink.”

“Okay,” Larry said. They both grabbed something to drink and I put three bowls of the soup onto the dining room table with spoons. We all sat down and I watched their reactions. Larry looked like he liked the first spoonful so much. Carly on the other hand wasn’t sure about it until her second spoonful. And I just ate it like usual.

“I love it,” Larry said, “It kind of tastes like a sunset too.”

“You can’t eat a sunset, Larry,” Carly said.

“But this tastes like how I’d imagine a sunset to taste like,” Larry said.

“I wonder what other things your Dad left in his recipes,” Carly said.

“There’s a lot of unusual flavors,” I said, “But I don’t like to talk about them so much as make them.”

“Interesting,” Carly said.

“So, do you want to play video games with me before bed?” Larry asked.

“What about the dishes?” I asked.

“It was my turn to do them,” Carly said, “You and Larry can go along and do whatever. Thanks for the food, Vernon. It was really interesting.”

“I’m glad you liked it,” I said.

“What game should we play, Vernon?” Larry asked as he and I went back to his room.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“We don’t have to play a game if you don’t want to,” Larry said.

“As long as I get to stay summoned and in my human form, I’m okay with pretty much anything,” I said.

“Pretty much anything?” Larry asked, “Isn’t that kind of vague?”

“I guess,” I said, “But I don’t want to be too obvious on what I mean.”

“You’re ridiculous,” Larry said.

“And you’re not much better at this moment, Larry,” I said, “We’re both being vague. Just tell me what you want to do, and maybe we will do that or maybe not. Just tell me what you want to do.”

“You’re staying the night,” Larry said, “We can do a lot of things or just a few. It just depends on what you feel like doing.”

“Then let’s look at that book that we were talking about,” I said, “I want to see the pages.”

“Okay,” Larry said. He went over to his nightstand and took out a book that looked like it was from the 15^th century, or at least it looked really old. He put it down in front of me and the two of us looked through each page together. It seemed to be something like a journal that listed every type of tamable magical creature written by Larry’s ancestor, a man named Ivan North. There were some little notes here and there that were written in a different handwriting that seemed to be written by one of the familiars.

“Do you know which familiar wrote these little notes?” I asked.

“Luxius said it was his grandfather,” Larry said.

“I didn’t know that Phoenixes could write,” I said.

“They can be taught,” Larry said.

“So, where is the page with jelly?” I asked.

“You want to be randomly teleported?” Larry asked.

“No, I just want to know how to remove the jelly,” I said.

“Don’t even try,” Larry said, as he put his hand on my shoulder. My hand brushed against the jelly and sure enough, we were both teleported to another location. We were surrounded by some kind of really short dwarves who all held big knives that were almost as big as they were.

“You touched the forbidden preserves, didn’t you, children?” One of them asked me.

“Why would they be here if they didn’t touch it?” Another one asked.

“Why are the preserves forbidden?” I asked.

“This one smells of Spirit Wolf, Ganiel,” a third one said after he took a whiff of me, “Should we fight him?”

“Spirit Wolf or not, they touched the forbidden preserves,” a fourth one said, this one wore a crown, “They are to be punished for that, but the Spirit Wolves might not want me touching their child.” A few others smelled me.

“No, this one smells like an Astral Mage,” a fifth one said, “Wolf Spirits don’t smell like Astral Mages.”

“This is a half-breed,” a sixth one said, “And a liar. It’s a female.”

“What a rude comment,” a seventh one said, “Did you forget that the human world tends to breed diversity? It’s not uncommon, but to call the child both a half-breed and a liar, just because the child smells of the wrong gender.”

“No, I’m really the child of both and Astral Mage and a Wolf Spirit,” I said, “And I’m not a liar, I’m just being myself.”

“The words are spoken,” the one with the crown said, “We are now at the eve of a new Era, do not fret my patrons. The forbidden preserves were touched, we must both celebrate and weep. The future is upon us. The children must have their punishment.”

“What kind of punishment?” Larry asked.

“You must drink until you vomit, of course,” the one with the crown said, “It is tradition for the ones who touch the forbidden preserves to drink until they vomit.”

“We’re too young to drink alcohol,” I said, “Or is it a different type of drink?”

“It’s the berry drink,” the one with the crown said, “Fairies love it, but it is non-alcoholic, as it only gets Fairies drunk. They get drunk on sugar.”

“But why would we vomit if it’s not alcoholic?” Larry asked.

“It’s extremely sweet,” the crowned one said, “Now give our visitors the drink.” We were both handed a cup and as soon as we took a sip, I understood why he said we would vomit, it was so sweet it tasted like how I thought liquid diabetes would taste like. I vomited almost immediately and Larry threw up after his second sip.

“What is this shit?” Larry asked.

“Now, go home, children,” the crowned one said, “We will summon you when we need you.” All of a sudden, Larry and I were back in his bedroom.

“What was that?” I asked.

“The forbidden preserves,” Larry said. I looked back at the book, the jelly was gone.

“Hey, Larry, look!” I said, “Those were Florin Halfling Elves. They were on the opposite page of the Wolf Spirits.”

“Oh, that’s why I didn’t recognize them,” Larry said.

“I guess,” I said, “It says that they have a very keen sense of smell and that they have you drink an intensely sweet drink to call you back again.”

“Do you think they will call us back, Vernon?” Larry asked.

“Probably,” I said, “Maybe you could tame one of them.”

“With my luck?” Larry asked, “I’ll probably not be able to.”

“I’m surprised that we were able to come right back like that,” I said.

“Me too,” Larry said, “What does it say about Spirit Wolves?”

“It says that they can live for an extremely long time and the oldest ever recorded was 3,859,” I said, “That they are typically from a mountainous region in Japan, but you can find them wherever as they love to explore and experience other cultures as an adolescent. They typically live in packs and have a Seer that lives with them to check on others of their packs or families of relatives. They typically look human, but they can transform into a Wolf form. In Wolf form, they are only a bit bigger than regular wolves, but their coats in Wolf form come in only three distinct colors: Black, Grey, and White. They typically find a mate of the same color coat, but on rare occasions, they choose a mate who isn’t a Spirit Wolf. But the children of a Spirit Wolf and a non-wolf are typically watched over very carefully, as the Spirit Wolves do not allow the children of these pairings have another child if the magic isn’t  passed down or the pairing is kicked out of the pack, which sometimes is cause for feuds.”

“That’s interesting,” Larry said.

“Why am I so big then?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Vernon,” Larry said.

“I don’t like not knowing,” I said, as I threw myself on his bed. Larry laid down next to me.

“Hey, Vernon,” Larry said, “I’m going to ask you if you want to do something, but you can just say you don’t want to if you don’t.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Would you want to sleep with me?” Larry asked.

“As in next to you in the bed?” I asked.

“Either is fine,” Larry said.

“Because I would sleep next to you in the bed,” I said, “But probably in my Dog form.”

“Okay,” Larry said, “I got it.”

“Just promise me that you won’t get too touchy with me,” I said.

“If you are in your other form,” Larry said, “It would definitely make sure that I wouldn’t be touching you like that.”

“Fine by me,” I said. All of a sudden, I remembered the sign that I saw next to the lake that I saw my first day at Morning View High School. It said ‘You shall come again to fulfill your destiny, but the pain of waiting is too much for me.’

“Can I kiss you a bit more before you turn into a Dog?” Larry asked. Before I could answer him, there was a knock on the door. “I’ll go see what Carly wants.” Larry got off the bed and opened the door to a really upset looking Carly.

“Vernon has to go home,” Carly said.

“Why?” Larry asked.

“Ask Luxius,” Carly said, “He’s the one who somehow was able to contacted Vernon’s parents and tell them that you two got teleported to the homeland of the Florin Halfling Elves. They were very worried, and also why did you touch the forbidden jelly on that book that Luxius told you not to touch? Luxius is so much smarter than both of you.” I jumped up off Larry’s bed and walked over to the door.

“He’s a bird,” Larry said, “How did he tell Vernon’s parents anything?”

“Larry, Luxius speaks 14 different languages,” Carly said, “And he likes telling on you, especially when you or people around you make stupid mistakes. But Vernon’s parents are here, so you two better get downstairs and explain yourselves. I can’t stall them for much longer, Luxius is very persuasive and he might’ve told Vernon’s Dad that Vernon was almost eaten because his Japanese was a bit rusty.”

“He what?” Larry asked, “Vernon, we better get downstairs.”

“Yeah,” I said. The three of us rushed downstairs to see my Mom looking worried and my Dad looking worried and confused. Their expressions looked better when they saw my face, but only barely, as Dad glared at Larry.

“What is this about forbidden jelly?” Mom asked, “Larry’s Phoenix, Luxius, told us in very broken Japanese that you were almost eaten by forbidden jelly.”

“No, we almost ate forbidden jelly,” I said, my parents calmed down instantly.

“But he also said that you both were teleported,” Dad said, “Did you come back already or did he mess that up too?”

“We were teleported,” I said, “To the Florin Halfling Elves Kingdom, maybe?” Dad chuckled.

“So, you drank the vomit juice?” Dad asked.

“The what?” Mom asked.

“They did give us vomit inducing hyper sugary liquid,” Larry said.

“So, they’re going to call you back too,” Dad said, “I was friends with the King who ruled before this one, so I know all about them.”

“How old are you, anyway?” I asked. Dad chuckled again.

“I’d prefer you not know,” Dad said, “But I will say that I am my parents, your grandparents’ youngest child and that Spirit Wolves live to be very, very old, but I’m not even close to being out of the young adult section and my oldest sibling is about 400 or so years older than me.”

“What?” Larry asked.

“I’m not joking,” Dad said.

“Are you sure you don’t want him to know?” Mom asked, “You were much older than me, but I was 23 when I had Vernon.”

“I don’t want to shock him so soon,” Dad said, “Besides, we’re not here to discuss my age, we’re here to bring Vernon home.”