Creatures

Chapter Twenty-One

Exactly as I’d hoped, Sarah flew the rest of the race as our finisher and put us ahead on points. We won with a comfortable lead, 38 to 32. After the congratulatory back-claps and huzzahs were finished, things quieted down and I went to find Beth.

“Beth?” I asked, looking at my feet, which were paws now. “What am I? A mouse?”

Beth tilted her head to one side. “Maybe, Connor,” she said, and I thought I heard a waver in her voice. “I think you’re at least half-mouse.”

Jake came up. “You really had a plan,” he said, shaking his head. “I’d thought that was all just bluff. What plan, a surprise change in the middle of the course, breaking all the rules just like Danny did.”

I smiled back at him. Maybe I should have told him that he’d been closer to the truth with his first thought, that I’d gotten lucky. But why pop his bubble? I rarely got a chance like this. In fact, I’d never had a chance for glory like this.

“What are you exactly?” Jake asked, bemusedly. “Long-tail, whiskers, but you don’t look entirely transformed. There is still some human left in those paws with opposable thumbs. And in your eyes. Definitely a rodent, but which one?”

“I’m going with mouse,” I said.

Jake nodded. “Smart move. No one likes a… You know.”

I knew. Rat. I winced at just the thought of it. I looked back at Beth. She wasn’t looking at me anymore. She was looking off toward the obstacle course. A sudden pang of worry hit me. What if Beth didn’t like me anymore? What if Beth couldn’t get over my change?

I tried to urge my body to change back. I shook myself, then closed my eyes and concentrated. Nothing seemed to happen. I wasn’t in control of the change yet. Some people never learned to control it and changed at the oddest times, such as when they were asleep or when the moon was full in the sky. Some of us became more animal than human and couldn’t even live with normal people. I hoped for my sake I wasn’t going to grow up to become one of the wild ones.

I opened my eyes again and caught Beth staring at the long claws that curved over the ends of each of my toes. She looked away quickly and rubbed her face. I licked my teeth. My teeth were strangely sharp and my tongue was raspy, long and pink. She was definitely having a hard time with this. How could I blame her?

“Line up!” came the command from Urdo. It was time for the final team to team handshake. It was a bit awkward to walk on my hind legs in my rodent body, but I forced myself to do it. I wanted to look as human as possible.

As we went through the line, the kids on the other team whispered things to me as they slapped my hand.

“Good move,” said one.

“Congrats on the change,” said another, “It was about time.”

Danny came up and smiled at me. He still had a Rottweiler’s fangs. “All you did was cheat worse than I did. I should have known you’d be a rat.”

“Sniffed any good butts lately?” I muttered back to him.

Thomas came next. “Dogs eat rats, you know,” he said.

“I heard your parents had you fixed,” I said to him. “That’s probably why you tanked back there on the course.”

I was pleased to note that both of them had stopped grinning after talking to me. A hand pushed me lightly from behind. It was Beth. “Did you have to go and make it worse? I swear, Connor, if you see a smoking pile of wood you like to throw gasoline on it.”

I pouted. At least, I think that’s what my face did. What does a pouting rodent look like? I’d have to look in a mirror later to find out. Secretly, I was pleased that Beth was still talking to me. Maybe she could get over this little matter of my smelling like a hamster cage. I thought about what she said as we lined up back at the edge of the tumbling mats. She was right of course, my mouth and my tricks were fun, but they always got me into trouble.

What had Urdo called me? The trickster. Born under the Sign of the Thief. Well, I’d never stolen anything, but I guess turning into a rodent shouldn’t have been a surprise.

As she walked along, inspecting us, Urdo paused in front of Danny, and then me. She gave us each an appraising up-down look. She seemed pleased. I thought to myself that she would soon be presenting us to Vater. As the school principal, I supposed our performance would reflect upon her.

“The purpose of the Hussades is to train you for your future,” she said seriously. She always said everything seriously. “Some of you have made complaints concerning the bending of certain rules. Imaginative thinking is a survival skill. It was always been rewarded in this game-and in life.”

It was in the bathroom that I finally changed back. Maybe it was because it was a private place. Or maybe it was because I really didn’t want to relieve myself as a giant rodent. That was just too much for my first day out.

When I came out of the restroom Jake grinned at me. He had lost his toad form right after the race. He looked as relieved as I felt.

“You did it buddy, you’re no mundane, everyone knows that now.”

“And everyone’s happy except for Beth.”

Jake raised his eyebrows at me. “Ahh,” he said. “So that’s how it is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing. I hope it works out.”

I felt my face turn a shade redder, but for once kept quiet. I decided to change the subject. “Can you believe we won?”

“Frankly, I almost can’t. My folks will be very happy. I need to thank you and Beth for helping me out. I don’t feel so bad about being a toad now. I can work with it.”

I grinned at him. “That’s really Beth’s doing. She’s great, isn’t she?”

He nodded. “I really hope she sticks with us. She’s great for the team. If she can get over our crazy world and Sarah can get over the competition, we will all be better off to have her.”

“But if she’s a mundane…” I worried. I told him about Urdo and our little trip through the Forever Room and across the roof.

“So that’s why she made you team captain!” said Jake. He gave a long low humming sound. “She wanted to see what you could do.”

“I don’t want to see Beth kicked out of our town.”

“She’s not going anywhere,” said Jake confidently. “There is something special about that girl. Just like Urdo said about both of you.”

“Speaking about Urdo, she’s quite a mystery,” I said.

“She sure is.”

“I’ve been thinking about the Forever Room and the things we saw up there. Any chance you would like to check them out?”

He eyed me with a sidelong glance. Finally he sighed. “I swear if you weren’t my friend I would lead a very boring life.”

I grinned at him. “Okay. We go on recon tonight after lights out.”

Jake shook his head, but I knew he would come.