---

“Are we there yet?”

I had to push down a giggle as John slumped childishly in his seat.
Sarah twitched in the passenger seat but I think Mum found him amusing at least.

“We’ve only been driving for a few hours John..”
I know Sarah’s trying to sound reasonable, but reasonable people don’t talk through gritted teeth.

..It really IS fun to see him annoying someone OTHER than me for once..

I can understand him getting bored too.
For some reason Mum took us through town and instead of pulling right onto the freeway she went around the far side of Upper Klamath Lake onto the US-97 northbound.

The breeze from the Lake was refreshing for the fifteen minutes we hugged the water line but the road turned off at Madoc Point far too quickly into a long string of very boring empty fields on one side and view-filling hills on the other.

I’ve been tempted to pop the middle seat hatch open and grab a book from my bag honestly.

The only thing stopping me is the argument I’m sure would spark off about it.
We’d probably be slowed down in some way when Mum took the chance to have a go at me again.
I’m ‘grounded’ after all.. No books, No magic..

..This sucks..

“Where even IS this ‘farm’ anyway?”
I folded my arms under my chest and tried to look surly.

Judging from what I’ve seen in the mirror when I tried this look out the other day, I probably look more ‘stroppy’ then ‘surly’, but I’m not talking to mum without giving off some kind of negative emotion at the moment.
I know she won’t care and, if anything, she’ll consider it to be just another example of me being childish.. but it’s the principle of the thing!

Mum cut a quick look of surprise at me in the rear-view mirror for even speaking to her, considering I’ve spent the last few hours trying to ignore her that’s not a COMPLETELY unexpected reaction at least.
It might be my imagination but I think she smiled a little as she turned back to the road.
Who knows, maybe it’s just my overactive imagination?

“The Farm’s hidden in the forest around Elk Lake Creek.”

Thanks for that.. I guess?..
..Where the hell is ‘Elk Lake Creek’?..

She cut her eyes over at me in the rear-view mirror again.
I think I need to work on my poker face because she seemed to be able to tell at a glance that I had no idea where it was.

“..about sixty miles east of Salem.”

Oh.. that’s a bit more useful.
I know where Salem is at least.

We’re talking about Salem, Oregon by the way.. not the other one in Massachusetts..

Hopefully we don’t have to drive through it though!
Salem, Massachusetts is just.. it’s not a place to go if you’re a mage let’s leave it at that.. but Salem, OREGON isn’t much better if your ME.

We did a two day long ‘museum tour’ of Salem back in school.. let’s just say it was painfully boring for almost ninety-nine percent of the time we spent there.

Looking at it in hindsight, maybe the reason I found it so boring was that, subconsciously, I knew everything there was to know about the displays?
There’s a certain level of bleed over from past-incarnations for mages, even before you have your awakening.
I definitely have memories NOW of living in the time periods they tried to show in those museums.
I can tell you that they were a LOT less pleasant then they made them out to be too!

Have you ever even heard of a ‘Chemisette’?.. stupid fiddly hot lacy fluff stuck around your neck all day!.. Oh!.. and Engageantes too.. or even WORSE those puffy ‘pagoda’ sleeves!

Don’t even get me started on waist training with a whale-bone corset or bonnets!
I can’t STAND bonnets!

Everything in the Victorian Era was hot, annoying, smelly and stupid!

..the ‘nostalgia’ people seem to have about those days REALLY annoys me..
Just thinking about it all gets me worked up!

Anyway!
John seemed to like the air museum at least and I’ll admit that I had fun in the archology museum too.. I guess.. but the rest of it was just old houses and stupid stuff!

I’m pretty sure the archology museum is what got Sarah officially interested in treasure hunting or ‘adventures’ as she call’s them to this day.
She’s kind of lucky that she got to turn something she enjoys into an actual paying job when you think about it really..

======

I jumped a little when John’s hand touched my arm.
Everyone was watching me with some degree of worry, even Mum seemed to have put aside her anger at me to glance back at me in the mirror when she could.

..I didn’t say all of that out loud, did I?..

“You spaced out again Han.”
Sarah settled back properly in the passenger seat.
She seemed to relax a little now that she knew I was okay.
When she was facing forward again she still glanced at me in the side mirror though, as best she could.

Mum’s lips tensed as she stared at the road ahead of us with a little too much force to be normal.
She mouthed something to herself but I couldn’t hear what it was, if I wasn’t specifically watching her I would have probably missed it completely to be honest.

“You need to get that checked out, does it happen often?”
I glanced at John and nodded distractedly before turning back to looking at mum again.
I think her hand’s tightened on the steering wheel just a little.

“It reminds me of when a seer has a vision.. but you don’t get the vision that should come along with it.. do you?”
I shot another look over at John.
He seemed to be almost talking to himself at this point, his head down slightly as if he was trying to work something out.

The car suddenly revved, drawing my attention back to mum.

The lights changed and she turned left off of the main road.
She pulled us into one of the expansive parking lots lining the street, connected to one of several open air shopping malls around us.

In this case it was a pretty big mall of smaller shops lining the outside of a superstore called ‘Fred Meyer’, if the sign I spotted earlier is to be believed then we’re in a place called ‘Bend’.

I’ve never heard of it before but, judging by just how big the lot is for the amount of stores here, they either have a lot of visitors daily or the real estate prices in this area are worryingly low.

Mum swung us around into a spot that was pretty clear and away from all the other cars, pulling up a little too sharply.
Her head sunk down a little and she let out a long breath.

“Sarah.. can you go into one of the stores and get us some lunch?.. take Max with you.”

Sarah opened her mouth to argue but stalled when mum shot her a strange look.
Without another word she popped her seatbelt and gave me a slightly worried glance before eventually getting out of the car.

John didn’t seem any more enthusiastic about leaving us alone together then Sarah did.
He fixed me with a serious, slightly judging look.

I stared back for a moment, feeling a little uncertain, but he must have seen something he was looking for because he nodded to himself and got out to join Sarah in walking towards the shops.

They met up and moved off, every few seconds Sarah would glance over her shoulder at me though.
After the third time she almost tripped over her own feet John took a hold of her upper arm and sped up their walk a little, much to her obvious annoyance.

When they finally disappeared behind a far wall mum’s shoulders un-tensed and she let out a gusty sigh of relief.
“Ari, can you come sit in the front seat?.. we need to talk..”

I KNEW nothing good could come of her sending Sarah away!

Reluctantly I popped my door and shuffled around to the passenger side in my too big, sock stuffed sneakers.
For a moment I considered not opening the door and just going to find Sarah instead.

My hand stalled on the handle as I processed all the ways that idea could go wrong.
Running away wouldn’t help this situation much.
I need to get out of that mind-set anyway.

While Trudy may like the idea of us going out of town to visit Mum’s ‘family’ at some farm in the middle of nowhere so she can hide my location easier from whichever of the several different groups, apparently trying to find me, that gets to Klamath Falls first..
..and I wouldn’t define the tense drive of the last two-and-a-half hours as being in ANY way ‘fun’..
It FEELS like we’re kind of ‘running away’ from everything for a while.. like a holiday, ya know?
I really can’t keep running from trouble no matter how much my instincts are telling me it’s the best option of what’s on offer..

..Al wouldn’t run from danger like this..

I KNOW I’m technically not ‘Al’ and it’s slowly getting easier to make that distinction in my head.
That doesn’t change the fact that I have twenty-four years of life experience in there with a much stronger connection then any of my other past-incarnations.
It doesn’t help that those memories just feel RIGHT to continue living with, ya know?..

Having Sarah, Mum and John around doesn’t help really either.
I’ve not had a reincarnation that I can think of where I’ve awoken early enough to actually interact with the normal people I knew in my last life.
Until surprisingly recently, the life expectancy for your average human was pretty short after all.

I guess it doesn’t help that.. if I HAVE to be a different person.. I want to be as much like I used to be as possible?
I can’t let this new body with its new reactions, emotions and a ‘fight or flight’ response that appears to be far more geared towards ‘flight’ then ‘fight’, get in the way of that goal!

======

“Get in the car Ari.”
I jerked back into reality again and let out a long breath I didn’t realise I’d been holding.

At least mum doesn’t sound angry, if anything she sounds.. resigned?

Cautiously I opened the door and slid into the seat.
It felt a little warm from where Sarah’s been sitting on it for the long journey in the mid-summer heat.

Luckily the ‘air conditioning’ enchantments I put on Al’s old underwear, underneath my clothes, are working pretty well to keep me cool and the layers of clothes over them mean that I don’t have to actually TOUCH the seat with my skin at least.

I love my sister.. but not enough to sit for a long, probably bad, talk with mum in the wet patch of her sweat she left behind for me thank-you-very-much!

“Ari.. I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier..”

I froze mid-way through settling myself in the seat.
Mum doesn’t apologise.
She’s never apologised for anything to me before!

She always used to just brush things aside and pretend they never happened?!

“Try to see it from my side of things Ari.. I only just got you back from your rat-bastard of a father, I know your hurting and I don’t know how to help.. then I realised you were a mage which throws a whole new level of potential dangers and problems into the mix..”
She sighed heavily and stared down at her hands rather than look at me.
“You scared me Ari.. you just.. just DISAPPEARED an.. and I didn’t know WHAT could have happened to you..”

Her head shot up suddenly to stare at me with wide, hurt, teary-eyes which made my chest ache a little from guilt just by seeing them.

“I know you’re used to dealing with things yourself, I can’t imagine your father was much help for most things, but you have US now.. Me and Sarah.. we can help you, whatever you need.. I..”
She was shaking a little.

My brain told me instinctively that I should give her a hug but I held back and watched instead.

I’ve never seen mum fall apart like this.
I’d expect this kind of reaction from Sarah.. maybe.. but mum?..

“..I don’t..”
She huffed in a shaky breath and stared at me hard for a moment.
“I’ve messed up a lot of things over the last few years.. you made your point perfectly clear when you picked out that outfit earlier.”

I went stiff, the pain and loss in her eyes left me feeling uneasy.
I forced my eyes to not shift down and glance at the far too baggy clothes I was wearing.
They were mine when I was Alistor.. I guess she think’s I was trying to make some kind of big point by wearing them?..
I’m kind of ashamed to admit that I just wanted to hurt and annoy her a bit more at the time.. kind of ashamed NOW at least..

“I’ve already lost one child due to my anger, I wish I could go back and change how I reacted to everything but I can’t.”
My mouth went a little dry.
“I ruined my relationship with your brother because of my stupid hang-up’s and the way I lashed out at him.. I know you’ve had contact with Al.. Sarah taking you into town so often since you got here?.. you’re both not as subtle as you like to think you are..”

Her lips twitched into a hint of a smile but it washed away quickly under the wave of grief that crossed her face a second later.

“The best I can do for Al at this point is to just leave him alone. Hopefully someday he can forgive me but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to forgive myself even if he does..”
Her arms shifted and she laid a hand on my knee.

I nearly jumped out of my seat when she made physical contact.
My eyes feel a little wet.
..Damn it!.. Stupid new body!..

“I’m still mad that you didn’t think to contact me when you went missing Ari but I’m not willing to hold a grudge over it.. I’m trying to learn from my mistakes with Al, your little stunt with this.. outfit.. you’re wearing, reminded me of that fact pretty easily.”
She shifted in her seat a little and gave me an intense look.
“Can you promise me you’ll try to keep us in the loop from now on? I understand that you’re a mage and you have things you have to do sometimes but I’m your mother and.. you had me really worried sweetie..”

I sat silently in the passenger seat and stared back at her for a long moment.

She’s really trying to be understanding.. I didn’t expect that.
The way she reacts to me now is so different to how she reacted when I was Al.
At least she’s willing to admit she made mistakes when I was Al I guess?.. I never thought I’d hear her admit something like that..

..My eyes feel a bit wet again..

She’s right too, I should have called or.. or SOMETHING.. I even went to do it at first but I didn’t have my phone on me and I wasn’t thinking clearly!

“I promise mum.. I’m sorry I worried you so much, I jus.. I just needed to get away and find my center again.. I didn’t think.”
She gave me a warm knowing smile and opened her arms wide for a hug.
I practically dived into it, nestling my nose tightly into her shoulder.

..Hopefully if I stay like this she won’t see the water in my eyes..

Her chin came down and she rested it reassuringly in the thick mass of hair on my head.
“I love you Ari.. my little mage.”

I squeezed her back as best I could in response but couldn’t get the words out.
‘I love you too mum.’

We sat like that for roughly a solid minute by my estimation before mum broke the moment with a deep sniff.
Her hand came up to gently wipe her eyes, which was enough to get me moving back into the passenger seat again.

We both kind of sat there for a moment, I wasn’t quite sure what to do or say next honestly.

Mum seemed to recover from everything a little faster than I could.
She shifted in her seat and gave me a teasing smile.

“I don’t suppose.. now that your points been made.. you could go to the ladies room and change into something else could you?”
My mouth twitched a little with a smile of my own that mirrored hers.
“The colors really don’t suit you, it’s far too baggy and I’m pretty sure if you turn up at the farm looking like that your Granma will tan MY hide for letting you go around dressed like that.. before she turns around and tans YOUR hide.”

A slight giggle escaped me at almost the same time that one escaped mum too.

I glanced down at the rolled up sleeves of my far too big high school sweatshirt and the ends of my jeans that seemed to be trying to engulf my feet despite how many times I folded them over earlier, so much so that the turn-ups look more like doughnuts at this point..

“Yeah.. I think I can do that..”

Mum shot me a proud smile and took another go at wiping her eyes dry.
I don’t want to admit that I like making her smile as much as I do honestly..

Before she could say something else or I could do something to ruin the cleared air we’ve managed to somehow achieve in the last few minutes I popped the door open and made my way around to the trunk so I could get a change of clothes from my expanded bag.

“Get something pretty!.. you want to look nice for the first time you meet your Grandma don’t you?”
I froze with my arm shoved shoulder deep into the bag and growled slightly under my breath.

No!.. we just made peace.. peace is good.. don’t burn down the house just to kill a mosquito Hannah!..
I’m an adult, I can chose my battles with logic and give some concessions when necessary.
..even if it means I have to wear a stupid dress for a few hours..

“What about that nice pink one?”
My head snapped up suddenly to glare at the lid of the trunk as if I could see her through it.

NO!
I refuse to wear that.. monstrosity!

Sarah only threw it in the cart because she found the look on my face amusing when she picked it up!
It’s a joke item, not something to actually be WORN!

I pulled my arm out of the expanded bag and stomped around to the driver’s side of the car to tell mum exactly what I think of her fashion suggestions.
I’m an ADULT, I can pick my battles.. and that pink dress is a battle I’m definitely willing to fight over!

The moment I cleared the side of the trunk lid my anger deflated and could feel my cheeks burn.
Mum was watching me in the side mirror, silently giggling her head off in amusement.
..I can’t believe I fell for that..

“I can’t BELIEVE you fell for that Ari!”

..Yes.. my feelings exactly.. thank you mother..
Without another word I huffed to myself and turned on my heel to go get my change of clothes again.

Just for that, I’m not wearing a dress at all.
So THERE.. that’s what you get for mocking me!

It took me almost two minutes of blind digging, summoning and sorting before I found something I could loosely consider a workable outfit to wear when meeting my ‘Grandma’ for the first time.

A simple yellow T-shirt with cap sleeves in a material that felt soft and breathable, paired with some black shorts with some kind of weird apron/skirt thing fitted to them which will make it look like I’m wearing a skirt but offer the freedom that comes with shorts.

I’m not sure where the weird shorts came from, probably Sarah, she tends to wear shorts a lot and it shows in her fashion choices.
I think I’ve heard of them before, now that I think of it.. for some reason the word ‘skort’ comes to mind but it sounds stupid so I refuse to call them that!

Finishing off my new outfit I picked up my bag of hair accessories so I can pull my hair back properly because it’s FAR too hot to leave this MASS loose around me at the moment, and grabbed a thin red checked-pattern button-up shirt to wear loose over my T-shirt.

Why not wear it now?
We’re going to a FARM after all, doesn’t everyone on a farm wear that sort of thing?

..okay, so it’s not technically ‘flannel’ to properly match with the ‘farm-girl’ image I’m thinking of, but it’s HOT today, flannel’s a thick material and I’m going to have to ditch my ‘Al’ underwear when I change, taking my free magic-powered ‘air conditioning’ with them.

I never handled the heat well when I was Al, it seems even worse now that I’m Hannah!

Tucking the bundle of clothes awkwardly under one arm I slammed the trunk with the other one.
Mum caught my eye as I walked around the car for the second time.
Her little smile made me smile back reflexively which seemed to brighten her smile a little more in return.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can mum.”
She nodded and shifted in her seat to get a bit more comfortable while she waited.

I turned around to face the mall of little shops across the other side of the parking lot.
Hopefully I can find a public toilet quickly.

I’m going to get some funny looks wandering around in Al’s clothes with a bundle of other clothes under my arm.. I can just TELL.

======

“..Finally..”

It took FAR too long for me to find a toilet.
In the end I had to go into the big ‘Fred Meyer’ superstore at the back of the mall and hunt around there.

A glance around the bathroom made me grimace a little.

One thing I’ve learnt over the last week or so is that woman’s toilets are in NO way the ‘clean’ and ‘pretty’ little havens of femininity that most guys seem to think they are.
I already had at least a suspicion of that from all the times I had to use the ones in the mall when out dressed as, or with, Sarah when we were kids but I’ve been in a few really nice toilets when I’ve been on missions to high class establishments too so I figured it evened out pretty well.

I can honestly say from personal experience at this point that you won’t understand just how bad stuff can be on the other side of the gender-fence until you actually cross over it.
From what I can see, the reason that the ‘grass seems greener on the other side’ is because it’s not grass.. its mold.. bright green, disgusting, potentially dangerous mold..

“..I hate public toilets..”

A woman standing at the sinks checking her makeup in the cracked mirror smiled at me.
“Preaching to the choir honey..”

I blushed brightly, which seemed to amuse her even more.
..I didn’t realise I said that out loud!..

Eventually she finished fiddling with her makeup.
She seemed even more amused as she walked past me on her way out.
I tried my best to not react, just kept my head down and fought against my blush as much as possible.

I waited for about twenty seconds to make sure the coast was clear and then shot a glance around the bathroom.

I CAN’T get changed in here!

It’s disgusting.. maybe if I..
..It shouldn’t take too much?..
Just a little..

It took a few steps to reach roughly the center of the room.
I ran the math in my head quickly.
One line’s worth of magic is barely enough to clean me up.
Three would be overkill and possibly be a bit too bright, someone might notice.

Two lines.. maybe two-and-a-half.. that sounds about right..

I squared my shoulders and dived into my lines.
Careful to not stir up more of the magic swamping my body then necessary I dragged a lines worth of magic from my core and eased it out.
The moment the line left my body to start building up for a blast, the rest of the magic in my body started pushing hard to come out too.
I’ve gotten better with control in the last few days but it’s still hard to manage, like holding back the sea with a tennis racket.. I’m not sure if that even makes sense honestly? Magic’s hard to explain!

Holding back the sea with a tennis racket is the best way I can think of to describe it, okay?!

When I had roughly two-and-a-half lines worth of magic built up just under my skin I shut off the line from my core and vented the lot of it into the air around me.
The dome of golden light that came out seemed thin, almost translucent when compared to the solid looking walls I was producing regularly until just a day or so ago.

The magic washed across the room and despite looking weak the effects spoke for themselves.
The mirror repaired itself, the floors cleaned instantly, the change of clothes in my arms lost the wrinkles they’d gained while in my bag and my hair decided to puff itself up a little more as if I’d just had it professionally styled.

“That’s better.”

I made my way over to the disabled cubical on the end.
I know I shouldn’t use it but no-one’s here to notice and it will be a lot easier to get changed in the wider space available in there compared to a normal cubical.

A slightly proud smile came to my lips when I looked at the practically shining white porcelain toilet in the corner.

It’s frustratingly hard to control and rather hard to hide when I have to vent some magic with it but I LOVE this diversion Edith gave me.
Even the headaches and annoying sense of bliss I get after having a full blown vent of magic are worth the ability to fix and heal things so easily!

======

My hair slapped against my ass like one long solid object every few seconds as I walked across the parking lot back to the car.

I tried to style it in some way but it turns out that watching someone else plat your hair into a nice neat braid ISN’T the same as learning how to do it yourself.
After four failed attempts and one rather nasty, smug look from a girl about my apparent age when she caught me failing to make a bun of some kind at the back of my head, I gave up and just pulled it back in a lose ponytail.
..I’ll get Sarah to do something with it after lunch..

I could see the car already, the doors are open and it looks like John has his legs hanging out the rear door lazily.

Sarah was the first to notice me.
She scanned me up and down for a second then smiled wide in approval of the new outfit.
Mum followed her gaze a moment later and gave me a warm smile.

I couldn’t help giving her one back.

After having the two hour long awkward drive to consider things, on top of Mum actually giving a pretty heartfelt apology over it all.. I can see that I was being a bit.. childish..

With a calmer head I can see that, in hindsight, she had a very valid reason to be mad at me and I jumped straight from trying to be a rational adult about things to a moody teenager.
It’s this sort of thing that makes me so worried about the way I’ve been acting lately!

I’ve never read his books or anything but the famous quote from that ‘Sun Tzu’ guy feels appropriate at the moment, he said something about knowing yourself to win everything.
That’s what it feels like!

Al knew himself to a scary degree..
Me?.. not so much..

I honestly have no idea how I can fix that problem.
Al used meditation and sheer willpower to put his foot down so hard in his mindscape that he practically blocked off all of his past-incarnation memories.

I can’t do that.. it might be a side effect of the change in gender, not that I’m weaker as a girl or anything, but because I’m unsure of myself and struggling to feel comfortable in my own skin.
That’s my best working theory at least.

You can’t ‘know yourself’ properly if you don’t really LIKE large parts of ‘yourself’, ya know?

======

“Han..”

Sarah’s hand touching my arm made me jump.
She seemed really worried for some reason.

“I swear this is getting worse..”
I shot her a questioning look and let my eyes drift around a little.

Oh yeah.. I was walking towards the car wasn’t I?

Maybe Sarah’s got a point?
It FEELS like I’m spacing out more than ever at the moment.

“Come on Han, we got you one of your weird sub mixes from the Deli on the corner.”
She took my hand in hers and practically led me over to the car.

Mum seemed tense as her eyes scanned me up and down.
She looked like she was trying to judge if there was something wrong with me or not.

John had sat up in his seat at some point and was watching me carefully as well.

“Switch seats with me John, I need..”
Sarah trailed off and shot a thoughtful glance at me.
“..I want to sit next to Han.”
I perked up an eyebrow at her but she seemed to be focused more on John then me.

He looked between the two of us, seemingly more interested in me then Sarah.
After a long moment he huffed to himself and rolled gracelessly out of the open car door.

“I don’t like sitting in the back anyway.”

My lips twitched a little at his petulant tone.
I can tell he doesn’t really mean it.
He’s just putting up a front, probably to annoy Sarah.. or maybe to cover up any worry he has for me I guess..

“Thanks John.”
His head perked up a little and he gave me the slightest of smiles before moving off to go sit in the passenger seat.

Sarah took my arm again so she could try and guide me into the backseat.
I growled at her a little bit to show my annoyance.

I’m not an invalid damn it!

Sarah turned her head slightly and growled back at me.
We both locked eyes for a moment.

Finally she let go of my arm and sighed to herself peevishly.

She stood there watching me with her arms folded under her breasts as if daring me to actually walk the two steps to the car on my own.
I gave her one more warning growl just for the sake of it and slipped into the backseat without a single problem, obviously.

Mum seemed highly amused by our little disagreement.
John smirked at me for a moment too but his magic felt warm rather than mocking for once.

“For you..”
He reached out a paper wrapped baguette shaped object and waved it teasingly in front of my nose.

I wanted to smile seeing him act so playfully but the smell made me yank the package from his hands instead.
Sarah slid into the seat beside me but I was a bit busy un-wrapping the paper.

I was RIGHT!

TUNA!
Lifting the side of the sub a little I could see mayo, the green of cucumber with a sprinkling of chopped green peppers too!

My head rolled to the side slightly so I could smile at Sarah.
She seemed rather proud of herself.
I’m glad she remembered what I like.

The radio flicked back on and they all settled back into conversations that had obviously stopped when I turned up and spaced out again.
I almost hummed a happy little tune to myself after taking my first bite of the delicious sub.
If anything, it tastes better than a Subways one!

I tried to hold some level of decorum together but my second bite left me with bulging ‘hamster cheeks’ as I struggled to chew more than a mouthful of lovely-ness without choking, despite my apparent best efforts to the contrary.

It took me less than five minutes to polish off the sub.
I licked my fingers clean of mayo and couldn’t quite get the contented grin off my face.

Mum passed some wipes back for me to clean up with before turning on the engine and John offered over a bottle of water.
I took both, my fingers feel sticky from the mayo and I need a drink too honestly.

I’m starting to feel the heat without my ‘air conditioned’ enchanted Al underwear to keep me cool.

The food probably doesn’t help.
I always feel warm and cosy after eating something nice but that warmth isn’t helping at the moment.

“Can you do something with my hair, Sare?”
She turned from looking out the window with a slightly manic grin forming on her lips.
..why does it suddenly feel like I’ve made a mistake asking that?..

Her hair’s currently pulled back off of her neck in a high ponytail that looks nice and cool.
I figured with her now having the same length and body to her hair as me she would know how to help better then I apparently can.. right?

======

“What do you think John?”
Sarah sounds far too amused for my liking.

I twitched and tried to reach a hand up to feel what the hell she’s been doing for the last half an hour but she slapped my hand down before I could even get close.

John twisted his body in the passenger seat and after a painfully long moment his face split into a wide grin.

I managed to shake off Sarah’s grip and turned to glare at her.
Judging by John’s reaction, it has to be something bad.

“What did you do?”

My hand came up and made contact with some kind of bun on the side of my head.
I could guess what she did just from the location of it.
My magic rolled a little in agitation.

..Calm down!.. it’s just a joke..
..take deep breaths Hannah..

To ease some of the pressure I let a trickle of magic out in the same way I started doing while ‘studying’ in my bolt-hole, just enough to bring a slight glow to my skin.

It worked pretty well.
I held back the usual surge of power as it happened with relative ease, having practiced to get this exact effect a lot more than any other so far.
The flow of happy, soft feelings that came from venting some magic using my diversion helped calm me down a bit too.

My eyes swerved over to glare at John warningly.

“Not.One.Word.”
His grin grew if anything.
I shouldn’t have said that, he’ll see it as a challenge!

“..The force is strong with this one..”

My glare went up another notch.
He just HAD to be a smart ass didn’t he?!

Of all people, mum was the one who broke the tense silence that had fallen over us as I focused angrily on John.
She obviously took the moment we were pulled up at the lights to glance over at me because she burst into a fit of giggles that she tried and failed to hide as best she could.

I tried to not let it get to me but my lips twitched anyway.

John’s eyes lit up happily.
Damn it, he saw it too!

I was trying to be angry about this mum, you’re not helping!

Sarah seemed to pick that moment to let out her own laugh which sounded a little relieved now that the tension had bled out of me.
John quirked an eyebrow at me challengingly, but his own lips were twitching into a smile as well at this point.

I managed to hold out for another few seconds before finally giving in and laughing myself.

She DID kind of do what I asked at least.
It’s just.. she took all my long, hot hair and wrapped it up into Carrie Fisher’s iconic buns that she wore as ‘Princess Leia’ in Star Wars!

“You’re fixing this.. quickly.”

Sarah rolled her eyes and let out another giggle.
Out the corner of my eye I saw John’s hand move to pick up his phone.

“You even think about taking a picture and I’ll flash-freeze your phone to your hand John!”

He quickly moved his hand up and spread his fingers to show they are empty.
He valiantly tried to not let his amusement show on his face again but I could feel his magic roll with it so his efforts were kind of wasted.

“Don’t threaten to freeze people while I’m driving Ari.. can you even do that?”
Mum finished her reprimand by shooting a curious look at me in the rear-view mirror.

I was tempted to let a little magic out as ice to show her.
It might actually cool the car down now that I think about it?.. but no, probably not a good idea..
I’ll have to do some tests when we’re not actively traveling down a highway at speed first.

“Yeah, I can freeze stuff mum.”

Mum shifted in her seat a little at that.
I think she’s actually pleased at the idea that I can do a type of magic she’s heard of before for some reason..
..She’s so weird sometimes..

We all settled into a comfortable silence for a little while.
I turned around to stare out the window and Sarah started taking apart the ‘Leia’ buns so she could actually do something nice to my hair instead.
Naturally, the serenity couldn’t last..

“Are we there yet?”

I yelped when Sarah’s nail dug into the side of my head as she let off an annoyed growl in John’s direction.
She quickly moved her hand away and shot me an apologetic look but it still hurt a little.

John seems entirely too pleased with the reaction his simple question got for my liking too!

======

“Are we th-”

Before he could finish asking it for the thousandth time my hand came up to cover his mouth.
He tried to stare at my hand cross-eyed for a moment before he seemed to come up with a better solution.

“..eww..”

I yanked my hand away from his mouth leaving him to sit there smugly with his tongue still out from where he licked me.
“You’re disgusting!”

He shrugged happily and settled back into his seat properly.
..smug bastard..

“We’re almost there surprisingly.”
Mum finally decided to chip in once everything had settled down.

I let out a relieved sigh which was mirrored a moment later by Sarah.

It feels like we’ve been driving for ages.
The sun’s going down and everything!

At least with the sun going down it’s getting cooler.
I’ve actually broken a sweat sitting here!
Even with the windows open, my arm out there to wave in the wind and cool off, it’s far too hot.

“What’s the plan then mum? Do we just roll up and go ‘Ta-daa! Hello family we’ve never met!’.. or what?”
Sarah snorted but she nodded along with me in agreement anyway.

Mum glanced at me in the rear-view mirror.
I can see the smile on her face, just from the way her eyes have crinkled a little at the sides.

It’s nice to see her smiling again.
I let my temper get ahead of me earlier and almost ruined that smile.. it didn’t feel good honestly..

“The farm is pretty big, we’ll go park up in the old stables and then walk around to the main house.”
Her voice dipped into a mutter for a second as if she was talking to herself.

“..hopefully the kennels aren’t full yet..”

I don’t think she intended for us to hear that for some reason?
Her mouth twitched a little and a moment later she carried on at her usual volume level as if nothing happened.

“We’ll probably run into my sisters first, I know at least three of them are already in the house with their families..”
She huffed and peered around at the trees ahead of us.
“I know it’s probably not going to help but.. try to be a bit open minded when you meet them girls?.. the whole family is pretty easy going and informal, it can make people feel awkward at first..”

I shot a curious look at Sarah but she shrugged back seemingly just as confused as I was.

“How informal are we talking?”
Mum turned us off the single track road we’ve been traveling for the last five minutes onto a surprisingly flat dirt road that seemed to come out of nowhere on our left.

“Do you remember how Sarah used to be.. overly affectionate?.. when she was little.. and how she had no sense of personal space?..”

John snorted from the passenger seat.
Sarah blushed and sunk down in her seat a little more.

“..that’s one way of putting it..”
I smirked over at Sarah and she glared back at me in warning.

She was pretty bad with that sort of thing as a kid, especially around me.
It seemed like she couldn’t go five minutes without rubbing her cheek against mine like a human-sized cat.
She practically hung herself off of me too, when she wasn’t busy dragging me around by the arm at least.

“When are you going to tell them about-”
We all turned to look at John but he stopped short with a meaningful look at mum.

She blushed and purposefully kept her eyes facing forward.

A confused silence stretched out painfully long as mum pretended to not notice it and focused on driving.
Me and Sarah shot glances between the two of them but that only seemed to make her blush spread up to her ears.

“You really should you kn-”
Before John could finish whatever he was going to say mum cut across him in a voice that seemed far louder than necessary.

“Oh look! We’re here!”

I frowned at her and shot a glance over at John.
He seemed amused which is honestly not a good thing most of the time.

There’s something she doesn’t want to tell us about and John, of all people, knows about it?

With a bit more speed and force than necessary Mum swung the car around into a large, long building with massive doors lined all along it.

I take it these are the ‘stables’ she was talking about a minute ago?
They look pretty old and I can kind of see how you could keep horses in here I guess.

It seems to work for car’s pretty well too judging by the long line of them I can see spread out inside the ‘stables’ through the thin metal fencing dividing them.

“Is that an Audi?”

I’m pretty sure it is.
A nice one too, it looks almost brand new.
I’m not really a ‘car’ person, I can’t drive for a start, but I can still appreciate its sleek curves.

It looks pretty, especially in that color, I’m not sure what you’d call it but to me.. I’d have to say it looks like a ‘metallic sea green’.. I guess?..
..Is that even a color?..

“That’s your Uncle Joe’s new car.. I didn’t realise he was here yet.”

..wow..
Uncle Joe has a REALLY nice taste in car’s.. who knew?..

“We’ll leave the bags here for now, I’m sure Jessie’s lot will have fun showing off by carrying them up to the house in one go if we ask nicely.”

Sarah let off a sly little laugh.
I didn’t go that far but I didn’t stop the little smirk that crossed my lips either.

It’s kind of nice to not be bundled in with the ‘boys’, having to do some of the crappy jobs like heavy lifting.
Even if it IS a bit sexist.. it’s a kind of sexism I can abuse to my advantage so I’m not complaining.

We all got out of the car.
I was a little surprised that the ‘stables’ smelt more of motor oil and wood then horses.

I don’t know why I expected it to smell like horses honestly?
Just from the look of the place it’s not held horses for a LONG time, if ever.

We made our way up the wide gravel path leading around the back of the stables.

I couldn’t resist taking a deep breath of the clean air around us.
Between the sounds and smells of the thick forest and the sun slowly making its way down in the sky, the whole area feels so nice and relaxing.

Sarah caught my eye and shot me a little smile.
She likes it just as much as I do, I can tell.

We shared a meaningful look and stopped walking.
Without needing to try, we both simultaneously took in great big sniffs of the air, puffing our chests and cheeks out in the process.
As one we let out long breaths and grinned.

The air is so nice!
We live in a thinly forested area near a large body of water and even OUR air isn’t this clean.

John caught my eye with an amused look but thankfully he didn’t make any kind of smug comment for once.

“If you’re both quite finished?”
Mum’s voice sounded amused, it matched the happy little sparkle in her eye too.

We smiled back at her and nodded at the same time.
Whenever we used to do something at the same time on purpose it always takes us a few minutes to stop doing it afterwards.
It’s a twin thing.. or an ‘us’ thing.. who knows?..

Out the corner of my eye I saw movement behind mum.
Much too slowly I moved to stop it but I was too late.

A tall woman with wild looking messy shoulder-length blonde hair and a wicked grin on her face managed to get behind mum in seconds.
Her arm quickly moved up, grabbing her around the neck.
Mum let off an indignant squawk of surprise which cut off with a cough as her neck got squeezed.

“Long time no see runt!”

I stalled in my steps at the warm tone to her voice and I stayed that way when the blonde woman brought her fist up to rub hard into mum’s hair for a rather painful looking ‘noogie’.

“Mum?”
She twisted her head in the woman’s grasp so she could look at me; despite the situation she had a smile on her face.

She hooked her fingers onto the blonde woman’s arm and gave it a slight tug downwards to get some breathing room.

“How many times do I have to tell you Grace..”
Mum’s fingers squeezed down tightly on the woman’s arm and she pitched her body forward in a roll that I vaguely recognise from my own combat training.

Sure enough, the woman’s eyes went wide in surprised as her feet left the ground.

She let out a yelp when her whole body was levered up by mum’s movement and she was physically tossed over her shoulder to land hard on the gravel path.
“..stop calling me ‘runt’!”

Mum stood over the woman, Grace apparently, and panted hard from the effort it had taken the flip the taller woman.

I stood there with my mouth gaping wide.
When did mum learn how to do something like that?!

“Way to go Mum!”

Sarah practically bounced on her toes and grinned as she looked between the two of them.
She’s always found martial art’s moves cool.
It probably helps that it was OUR mum who pulled it off, out of nowhere too.

Mum shot a look between Me, Sarah and John for a moment before a blush formed lightly on her cheeks.
She let off an awkward laugh and tried to casually rub the back of her hair into some kind of order nervously.

After a moments pause she stuck her hand out to the blonde woman to help her back to her feet.

The woman shot her a slightly moody look before breaking into a wide grin and slapping her hand into mums.
We all saw the tug coming from a mile away but mum had obviously seen it coming too because she’d already braced her legs against the force.

The blonde woman ended up on her feet with a slight pout on her face, most likely because her trick had failed again.

“You’ve been practicing runt!”
Her face split into a warm smile.
Without warning she scooped mum into her arms for a tight hug which literally lifted mum off her feet.

I had to fight down a laugh at the squeak of surprise mum let out as her feet left the ground with her arms pinned to her side.

The blonde woman rocked mum back and forth in the air like a dog playing with a chew toy before finally letting her land back on her feet and giving a barking laugh of amusement.

She rested a casual arm around mum’s shoulders and turned them both to look at us.

She seemed to scan us intensely for a moment.
Finally her face split into another wide grin and she started gesturing at us.

“Sarah, I’d recognise you anywhere, look just like your mum did at your age.. you’re probably just as boy crazy as she was no doubt!”

Sarah sputtered to herself indignantly.
She’s never been good at being put on the spot, especially if she can’t tell whether she should be insulted or pleased with what’s been said to her.
She didn’t get a chance to say anything in return before the woman moved her hand over to point directly between my eyes instead.

“YOU must be little Arista, your mum wasn’t kidding on the ‘little’ part was she?.. what are you.. five-foot-one in heels? A hundred pounds when wet?”

It was my turn to sputter this time.
..I..?.. She!..

Without conscious effort a growl rolled out of chest.
How DARE she!

It’s not like I can help it that my new body is the same size as the original Arista’s!

My growl cut off suddenly when the blonde woman bared her teeth at me and growled back in a way the sent a chill down my spine.
I could feel myself instinctively shrink away from her.

After my second unconscious step backwards I bumped into John.
He quickly shifted himself so he was standing protectively in front of me.

Normally I’d have growled at HIM for doing something so embarrassing but the sound that came out of the blonde woman set off warning bells in my head and left me shaken enough that I can’t honestly bring myself to be mad at him for helping right now..

The woman looked away from me smugly and settled her eyes on John instead.

“You must be Al, nice of you to play up to the classic ‘big brother’ role and everything but you shouldn’t get involved, you’re little sister needs to learn when to not start things she can’t finish.”
She tossed her wild hair lazily and shot John a wide grin.
“How’s she going to learn that if your always saving her little ass, huh big man?”

Without her focus being on me it was easier to calm down a bit but I could feel John’s magic bubbling away under the surface.
Something the blonde woman did has pissed him off pretty badly!

“Grace, enough.”
Mum finally got herself together and shrugged the woman’s arm off her shoulders, stepping between the two of them to break the silent stare off that they’d slipped into.

She paced over and put a gentle reassuring arm around my shoulders.
To my shame I flinched at the contact but sunk into her side after a moment to collect myself.
Mum shifted us over a little and scooped Sarah into the hug with her other arm.

“These are my girls, Sarah and Ari. The young man you’re glaring at is their friend Max..”

The blonde woman blinked suddenly and leaned away from John to consider him as a whole.
I’m not sure, because it’s hard to see with her sun-tanned skin tone, but I think she flushed a little guiltily.

John’s face split into a smug grin.

I can’t blame him.
I’d appreciate being able to get one over on the blonde woman at this point.
She’s rude and mean!.. and she GROWLED at me!

..oh sure, I may have started it by growling first.. but I didn’t growl like THAT..
That was just scary!

“Girls, this is my sister Grace.. she’s ironically named after the thing she has nothing of.”
The blonde woman, Grace, turned her head to grin at mum.

“Love you too runt.”
She pursed her lips and sent mum a taunting air-kiss before turning back to stare thoughtfully at John.

Before we could all settle down properly from everything that had happened in the last minute or so there was a woman’s shout from somewhere behind the stables.
We turned as one to see what was going on and after a long moment two little balls of fluff came skidding around the corner, kicking up a cloud of dust and sending pebbles flying in their wake.

I cringed when their bright little eyes latched onto me.
They didn’t break their sprint in the slightest but it was pretty obvious that they’d shifted their movements so they were aiming straight for me.

I staggered back a few steps and put my hands up to stop them.

“No! Good doggies, nice doggies, leave me a-”
The first puppy with its sandy brown fur kicked off the ground in a flying leap towards me, just a moment before his little partner in crime with dark black fur did the same thing.
I cried out and shut my eyes tight as they crashed into me sending us to the floor in a tumbling mess.

My head hit the rough gravel path hard and bounced back up once more before settling painfully down again leaving me to groan through squinted eyes and a headache.

The puppy’s, because that’s what those fluffy little speeding balls turned out to be, seemed quite content to sit on my stomach and sniff me a lot.
The brown furred one on the left stepped forward putting a little paw down painfully onto my right breast in the process.
He sniffed my face a few times and seemed to like what he smelled because his little tongue flopped out and he started licking my face like mad.
Not to be outdone the black puppy pushed him to the side a bit, planting its own paws on my other breast and started licking away as well.

I squeezed my eyes and mouth shut tight; shivering every time their warm tongues came into contact with my face.

I could hear Sarah laughing, either ‘Grace’ or Mum was laughing too.
John didn’t make a sound though.

I could feel his magic as he shifted closer to my side.
From what I can feel he seems really tense and a little worried for some reason.

“BOYS!”

The puppy’s both stopped licking my face simultaneously.
I felt their paws tense down and I swear they both cringed a little at the woman’s shout.

“Back here, NOW!”

I winced in pain as they pushed down their little paws hard onto my boobs but they used that push to launch themselves off of me at last.

For a moment I considered opening my eyes but the dog slobber felt gross and I REALLY don’t want to get any of that in my eyes or mouth.
It didn’t take much to dip into my lines, take a strand of magic from my core and vent enough to clean myself up at this point.
As a bonus my aching head healed itself in the process.

John was at my side in seconds, offering an arm to help me up.
I took his hand and let him pull me to my feet.
When I opened my eyes fully I came face to face with everyone looking back at me.

Mum seemed a bit exasperated, Sarah was amused.
The new people though..

Grace certainly wasn’t mocking me now at least!
She was watching me with surprise and something close to awe on her face.

The woman who owned the puppy’s turned out to be another blonde, with similar enough facial features to Grace and Mum for me to make the connection pretty easily.
She was staring at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth.

The puppies were hiding themselves behind her legs and peeking out at me with what I can only describe as fear and awe on their little doggy faces.
When they noticed me looking at them they seemed to try and look like they WEREN’T busy hiding behind the new woman.

For a second I found myself staring at them in confusion.
..those aren’t normal puppy’s?..

I’ve never seen a dog show so many recognisable human emotions, with such appropriate timings.. as if they know what’s going on.

I opened my mouth to comment on that fact but stalled when the pup’s started shaking.
After shaking at a worryingly fast speed there was a muted flash of light and I found myself staring at the crouched forms of two little boys who were staring back at me with open awe on their faces.

..I..They!..
..WHAT?!..

“That. Was. So. AWESOME!”
The little blond one shot out from behind the new woman and ran over to grab a handfull of the loose end on my open red checked shirt, tugging it excitedly.
The dark haired one followed closely behind him but with a lot less obvious exuberance on his face.

The moment the dark haired one reached the blond’s side they both turn their faces up at me simultaneously to stare with wide ‘puppy dog’ eyes and quivered their lips pitifully.

“Show us how to do that glowing thing! You lit up like you were goin’ Super-Saiyan!”

I stared at them, a bit stunned and a little lost in all honestly.
..what the hell is ‘Super-Saiyan’ when it’s at home?..

“Boys..”
The new woman practically growled out the word making both of them cringe visibly.
Reluctantly they turned around and scurried off to hide behind the woman again but they kept shooting me awed looks when they thought no-one was looking.

I’ll admit I’m a little lost for words at this point.
It’s not every day that you get attacked by overly eager puppies who turn out to be actual, human, children after all..

I shot a curious look at mum.
She cringed and averted her eyes a little.

“I tried to warn you to tell her ahead of time..”
My head swivelled to look at John this time.

I know he’s amused by all this just from his magic but his face looks serious for some reason.

“uh..”
My head turned again, back to mum.
She withered a little under my intense look of curiosity.

Just what the HELL is going on?!
Animals don’t just turn into people!.. or people turn into animals for that matter!
The only time people can turn into animal forms that easily is when they’ve either gone through the long, complicated process of bonding with their spirit animal.. or when they’re...

My eyebrows shot up and I could feel my mouth drop open in shock.
..No way!..

“Uh.. heh.. funny thing girls.. you’re.. um.. you’re kind of .. one-quarter werewolf?..”
Mum ducked her head down to stare at her feet for a moment and let out a long centering breath.

Finally she looked back up to us and continued on with forced cheer.
“Um.. Surprise?.. a-heh..”

Her hand came up to rub her messed up hair nervously again.
I glared at her hard.

If this is a joke, it’s not funny!.. how the hell can we be related to WEREWOLVES of all things?!
..Surely it’s all just a big joke?.. right?..

This is a lot of effort being put in just to pull one over on me and Sarah!
I bet they’re REALLY regretting it now that they obviously haven’t gotten the funny reaction out of us they want-

My head turned at a sudden scuffling sound and I stared in slight awe at the weird sight of John struggling to hold up Sarah, having just caught her limp body before she hit the ground hard in a dead faint.

..well.. okay then..
I guess they DID get a reaction after all..

No-one seemed to find the whole thing funny though.
Even Grace was watching us with an oddly somber look on her face.

..Holy CRAP!.. this ISN’T a joke, is it?..

..They’re Werewolves!..
Honest to powers, snarling teeth, eat a baby for lunch and the parents for dinner, Werewolves!

All eyes finally stopped staring at the sight of John tending to an unconscious Sarah and shifted over to me.
My legs shook a little at the intense scrutiny they were giving me.

..Do Werewolves eat family members?..
..PLEASE tell me they don’t eat family members!..