Old Emergence 3. Many Dreams

Karen shifted in the hard chair, under the adults gaze. She’d never had fond memories of this room, this office with its white clean walls, its cabinet of trophies and certificates, its metal filing cabinets that the principal would dig into for records and evidence. The crowd looking at her quietly didn’t do much to settle her nerves either. Principal McAllister was a fairly old woman with dark heavy eyes that followed her, under greying red hair, and she seemed to have gained a few wrinkles and lines in recent times to boot.

The next man was the real shock, Hugh Carpenter, Mayor of Ranelk, a short slightly tubby man with receding black hair and thick glasses perched over his small eyes. He was look fairly intently too, although he seemed friendly, wrapped up in a big furry coat and twiddling thick thumbs. Behind him a policeman with shaven hair stood, looking utterly bored, but aware, and his presence worried her the most. The last was a woman she’d never seen before, tall with flowing shiny black hair, leaning against one wall as she held a notepad and twirled a biro pen.

“Now, Karen, do you have any idea why you’re in here?” The Principal finally asked, and Karen frowned, her mind running through the possibilities. Because she had been skiving school, like everyone else? Because she’d swam in the lake last night? Because she’d got turned into a snake-person for two hours? Those seemed like causes for concern.

“Um, no, why miss?”

“Well, Mrs Morris has noticed you’ve been helping our new pupils settle in, and we wanted to talk to you about them a little, get your perspective.” McAllister said, and she relaxed a little. “You might not have noticed, but they aren’t exactly normal.”

She laughed at that, she couldn’t help it, “I think that’s a light way of putting it miss.”

“Alright, she knows! We can stop beating around the bush now!” The Mayor said impatiently, and leaned forward over the desk. “Basically, we just want to know what you think of it all? The non-humans, the magic, or whatever you call it, just your opinion.”

“Oh, right.” Karen said, feeling a little bit of relief. That was it? “Lorcan and Maddie are nice, cool, not any different from us. Just people. I was a bit freaked out at first, I’m not big on reptiles and she’s part snake, but she’s a great person.”

The pen scratched as the woman scribbled something down, and Carpenter nodded a little, “Very fair minded of you, Ms Thomson. Have you met many of the others? I’m going to see most of them myself this afternoon, it should be pretty eye opening.”

“Um, I met… there were these little dragons around Lorcan’s place, and there was a goblin yesterday, and this little girl… Maddie called her a kitsune or something.”

“Ah, was Jess behaving herself?” The woman with the notepad asked and grinned, her voice was low and rough.

“She tried to get me lost in the woods as a prank.” Karen said, smiling a little, “Do you know her then?”

“She’s my daughter, she does like tricks.” She explained, and Karen frowned. That would mean she was a kitsune too, a fox creature of some sort, and this was just a human form, an illusion, Lorcan had said. It was a little unsettling, realizing she was something else, some kind of animal hiding behind that form.

“Alright, Diana’s being an impassive observer, don’t worry about offense.” The Mayor said with a jolly wave, “What did you think of them? I suppose you didn’t talk to them as much.”

“Uh, the goblin, Norman was a surprise; he was going to the coffee shop. Jess was fine, didn’t even realize she was something else until Maddie told me. The dragons looked pretty scary, I’m not good with reptiles, and they’re rather large. Lorcan said they behave though, and he could talk to them.”

“Scary? Did they do anything worrying?” The policemen asked, his voice grinding and dry as salt.

“They just looked at me, and then went back to playing with each other. I think they weren’t too interested in me.” Karen said, not willing to admit she had practically run off, too overwhelmed. That had been an overreaction, they didn’t need that. “But, I was a bit scared so I stayed back, to be honest.”

“They are quite childish. Jess loves playing with them.” Diana put in.

“Yes, no doubt you are correct.” Carpenter said forcefully, “But, it’s also interesting to see an inexperienced reaction, your daughter… or kit? She will have been dealing with non-humans all her life. My town will be much like Ms Thomson, and probably far less reasonable... For that matter have you talked to anyone else about this?”

“No… no one that doesn’t know already. I think my little brother’s been seeing stuff, but he doesn’t know the full explanation.” Or did he? If he did, Ollie wouldn’t give it away either, but she doubted it, he was ridiculously excitable and immature.

“Why not? Surely you’d have been concerned?”

“Well, my parents don’t know I’ve been missing school, if I said then I’d get in trouble for skipping.”

“Don’t worry about that quite yet, you’re a fairly responsible girl.” Principal McAllister said, “It might do you more good to experience our new neighbours and help them than sit in here, that’s to keep an eye on the young children really.”

“When will lessons come back miss?”

“We don’t know, we’re working on that.” She said, and sighed, “Rather big changes needed it seems. You’ll be told when we resume, don’t worry on that count.”

“Agreed. Getting to know the new inhabitants would help everyone a good deal. Building bridges, so to speak.” Mayor Carpenter announced and nodded in agreement with himself, “Yes, I think that’s everything worth asking, you’re free to go.”

She nodded and walked out quickly, feeling the policeman’s eyes follow her, though the others began to talk. The school corridors, walls speckled with essays and posters, echoed quietly with her footsteps, they seemed creepy when empty.

“Hey, Karen, you in as well?” A cracking voice called out, and she turned as she entered the hall, spotting a band of two boys and a girl around her age.

“Yeah, Tony, still no lessons though.” She said, moving forward, “Have you guys all been staying off then? Bit of a holiday.”

“Yeah, it’s been pretty good, been into the shops and stuff.” The blond tall girl, Emma said cheerfully, “Although it feels pretty weird, doesn’t it, not knowing if schools on or not?”

“Weird?” Karen fought back the urge to laugh, the world was far beyond that. If they had been at the lake they might have seen three impossible beings. “Yeah, it’s odd. I’ve managed to get out though, my little brother wanted to skip too.”

“Don’t your parents lock the house during the day?” Caleb, a skinny, shorter youth with spiky brown hair asked.

“Yeah, it’s not so bad, I’ve been trying… hiking.” She said. She didn’t want to be the one to explain everything to this lot, it’d be too awkward. “It’s nice to get some air and just, uh, think.”

“Hmph! Next you’ll be sitting cross-legged and going ooooooooooom.” Tony laughed, “All that meditation stuff. What are you doing today?”

She bit her lip, she had hoped to see Lorcan and thank him, apologize for the last night, but that could wait right? “Nothing really, no plans.”

“Come on, we’re going around to the coffee shop. Waste of time coming in, I still need to wake up!” Emma declared and yawned theatrically. “I dunno how you get up and out like your parents every day.”

“I’ve got an alarm clock called Ollie. You’re lucky to be an only child.” Karen said and followed on as they walked slowly out of the school chatting and talking like nothing at all had changed. A little of her was envious, their realities were intact, no unpleasant surprises yet. But they’d find out in time, everyone would, eventually.

The coffee shop was pretty quiet when they got into the nice wooden building and ordered a few warm drinks. The owner, thin and chatty Mr Blake worried as he got them their drinks, “Was your friend okay on Tuesday Karen? It looked like you were a bit panicked.”

“Um, she just… forgot her medicine, she’s got a stomach problem.” Karen said quickly, “She’s fine. No biggie.”

“Who is this? Natalie?” Tony asked.

“No, this new girl.” Karen said dismissively, picking up her coffee to go sit at one table.

“There’s a new kid? Cool, what’s she like?” Caleb asked.

Scaly, Karen thought, “Nice, pretty quiet and shy though. You’ll meet her when school starts back up.”

“Yeah, we will. Are you feeling okay Karen? You a look a bit off.” Emma asked with concern.

“No, I’m fine.” She smiled and took a sip of coffee, diverting the conversation back to normal things. They’d seen a few other classmates around town, though most were making good use of the time off, having late nights, long sleeps and going into the larger towns to shop and hang out.  It was a relief that it was these four who she’d met, they were some of the nicer ones in the year, people she was friendly with normally.

The door opened and Karen glanced over her shoulder for a second, before jumping and looking again. The creature entering the shop wasn’t human, although she recognized him as the goblin from yesterday, looking as freakish as before. His face was odd, his nose, mouth and eyes looked too large, and he was short with bandy legs and gangly arms. Norman, she remembered his name was, although his appearance still concerned her.

“What’s wrong with his face?” Emma asked in a low voice, wide eyed as he wandered up to the counter and started chatting amicably with Mr Blake.

“Maybe deformed at birth? I mean, you can get conjoined twins and stuff, no reason why you can’t get folk like that. There was that, the elephant man, remember?” Tony suggested, watching warily. The goblin, Norman turned and spotted Karen amidst the youths, and waved cheerfully over, showing sharp teeth. “Uh, hi.”

“Hello!” Karen said, swallowing nervously.

“Could just be prosthetics.” Caleb said, “You remember that werewolf mask Jack had last year? He kept jumping out on five year olds. it was hilarious.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s something, I want to get good costumes for Halloween this year and have an actual party. Could have like a best costume prize, and pumpkins and jack o lanterns, all that stuff.” Emma said enthusiastically, then stood up and walked over to the counter. “Hey, excuse me, where did you get that mask?”

Karen snorted and winced as the goblin snorted, “What mask?”

“Okay, nevermind, nothing.” Emma gasped and spun around, coming back over to noisily say, “Right, I did it Karen, I believe you owe me five dollars.”

“What? No I don’t.” Karen frowned.

“Yeah, for the dare.” Emma said forcefully, glancing back at him nervously.

“Dare?” Karen took a second to laugh at the clumsy attempt to mask her shame, “Yeah, sure, I’ll get you it later.”

“Anyway, Halloween, we could try and book out a school hall or something, even sell tickets… or, or!” Emma said excitedly, “We could set up something in the woods, like make it really really spook-“

“Oi, where did the “we” come from?” Caleb asked in surprise.

“You said hello to her earlier, you’re now her slave. Don’t question it.” Tony replied. “Anyway, the woods would be freezing, it’s October! Have you seen what some girls wear at Halloween? They’d get pneumonia!”

“But come on, a spooky party in the woods. We could do torches and horror stories, get a laptop, play scary movies. The cold wouldn’t be that bad, we could have campfires, and it’s not that far.” Emma argued, still excited. “It’d be an adventure! This is like the best idea I’ve ever had!”

“Cos that says much.” Caleb joked, but nodded, “It’d be kinda fun, don’t see why not. Would people have to dress up?”

“It’s a Halloween party. Of course you would.” She said firmly, and banged her hand off the table as he opened his mouth, “No arguments. Costume.”

“Fine, fine. Do sheets with holes in them count?” Tony asked, “Hey, Karen, are you okay? You look zoned out.”

She blinked and looked around, brushing away the memories of last night again, the feeling of speed and power as she darted through the water. And if they were in the woods at night, well, the three dragons seemed to hunt there at least, it was their territory now. “No, I’m okay, it’s just, I’m not sure about it. Why not have it in the hall where it’s warm?”

“Haha, do you fancy wearing a smaller costume? Would it be too cold?” Tony laughed.

“Shut up! No.” Karen snapped and glowered at him over the coffee, “It’s just… my little brother says he saw something in the woods, some kind of monst-“

“Are you scared? That’s the point, it’s supposed to be spooky, it’s Halloween! We’d have to work hard, there’s just two weeks to set it up!” Emma declared, and continued planning the event in glorious detail in her mind, designating the boys with tasks despite any protests they might have had. Karen couldn’t dissuade her, and she gave up fairly quickly, it might be that nothing happened anyway. The dragons had hidden from most people so far, and she hadn’t even seen Jess’ true form, chances were that they would manage a night without one of the monsters showing up.

Except, what had Lorcan said? The dragons had a den somewhere in the woods, somewhere they kept so private that they had scared him off, and he was meant to be their friend. They might be even more territorial to some high school kids.

“We should go find a good place to have it too, like a clearing or something.” She said eventually, making Karen’s heart leap.

“I can take care of that, I’ll find one on a walk.” Karen said quickly, not wanting them wandering into the dragons.

“Good, make sure there’s space for lots of people.” She said with a firm nod, “And it needs to be dark.”

*  *  *  *  *

“Hey! Lorcan! Are you around?!” She called as she wandered up towards the path to the large caravan, parked and surrounded by tall trees with browning leaves. Her legs hurt a little from the long walk, but the air smelt nice and clear, and the sun was starting to cast long bold shadows under the trees.

“He’s out.” The door opened and a cloud of steam emerged, followed by a pretty tall man with jet black hair. “Can I help you?”

“Uh, I was just looking for Lorcan, to say thanks.” She muttered, a little surprised, she couldn’t remember him mentioned his father.

“Thanks? Oh, were you his guinea pig last night?” He shook his head, “Sorry if you were freaked out, I don’t know what’s wrong with my cousin, he’s pretty frivolous with magic.”

“Oh, cousin… you’re Matt then?” She asked, finally remembering the mention. “Any idea where he is?”

“Yeah, he’s off in the woods.” He muttered, “Went east an hour or two ago, but I doubt he’s too far, didn’t say anything strange. Not that he would, I only learned about your little escapade afterwards.”

Karen glanced up, orientating herself, “Right. The veil doesn’t do anything bad does it? I’m not going to randomly grow a tail or anything?”

“No. See you.” He said and closed the door, vanishing back into the caravan as she paced off, starting a march through the woods. Leaves crackled and branches creaked as she watched, but it wasn’t too bad, she had brought her phone anyway and she knew the rough direction of his house and town, there was no danger of her getting lost. The woods were massive, extending for ages with barely a few sparse houses, so she only hoped he hadn’t gone too far.

It was half an hour later that she heard voices and hurried through the trees, “Hello? Lorcan, you around?”

“Huh? Who’s… hey sis!” A voice called, and she blinked, surprised to see her younger brother marching through the trees eagerly, flanked by a few other kids. She recognized a couple from school, and then there was a beefy boy with dark black messy hair and piercing eyes, a thinner younger boy with dark brown hair, and Jess, small with her mother’s black hair, grinning eagerly.

“Hello Ollie. What are you doing here?” She asked, cocking her head. “You were supposed to stay near the town if you were skipping school.”

“Like you?” He teased, then pointed down to the leaf strewn ground with a long stick, “We’re tracking down the monster!”

“Come on, it’s probably gone this way, you didn’t go past it, did you lady?” The skinnier boy asked and hurried past, stumbling a bit in ill-fitting shoes.

“No… monster? Have you seen Lorcan? He’s my age, looks sort of native American. Jess?”

“Uh, no, missed him.” She shrugged but kept her grin and hurried after the others, “Wait up Ollie, Hex!”

“Hex?” Karen gasped, turning around. She knew that name, it was one of the dragons, the big red male.

“Yeah, he’s a new kid. It’s a cool name!” Ollie said enthusiastically, batting leaves aside with his stick. Behind him, the thin boy turned slightly and shook his head, raising a finger to his lips. “Come on, this way, we’ll find it!”

Karen breathed out slowly and started walking, feeling her head pound a little as she digested that. Her little brother was marching along after a dragon, with a dragon and a kitsune. And he was apparently oblivious. How on earth did he manage these situations? Her feet found their own way as she thought, trying to remember Hex’s human appearance with a shudder. It wasn’t quite as hard now, although part of her wanted to turn and run after them, to warn Ollie of the monster by his side. But he was just a kid, Lorcan had said they wouldn’t hurt people, maybe scare Ollie a bit, and she couldn’t object to that.

The trees thinned a little ahead eventually, and she squinted, emerging into a clearing of green grass and white flowers, lit by the setting sun. A cairn of stones stood at the centre, a pile of large smooth rocks maybe four foot high, with three burnt sticks rising out of the top, smoking a little. Lorcan was in the grass she noticed, recognising his black hair immediately, slightly bowed in front of the cairn, and stroking the creature lying across his lap. Shen looked like a small Chinese dragon, curled up with blue grey scales and seemed asleep. The green dragon hatchling was next to them, sitting with her wings half raised and two fierce columns of smoke burning from her muzzle, and shaking a bit, a weird tremble as though she was sick or feverish or…

…crying?

Karen blinked and took a step closer, rubbing her eyes. That was ridiculous, the dragon must be laughing quietly, or be angry or sick? Sad looked like the best word though, dejected, head drooping on the long neck like she was sobbing.

“Leave them alone.” A voice came, and she turned quietly to see the boy Hex again, standing a few yards back under the trees with a stern look on his young face. A trickle of smoke curled out of his nostrils, like a strange reminder of his real form.

She flinched a little and nodded, taking a few steps back under the tree line. “Alright, what’s happening?”

“Well, I just had to abandon our prank with Ollie for one thing.” He breathed and clucked his tongue in annoyance, then glared up at her, “How’d you find them?”

“Luck I guess, I was just wandering, looking for Lorcan.” She said, feeling a bit of guilt for the creatures. “Sorry. Is that your den?”

“No, it’s the grave.” He said, stony faced, “We only finished it this morning, getting all the rocks in a pile, it was hard. They’re really heavy.”

“You built it? Well done.” She said quietly, feeling slightly impressed. She had presumed the reptiles would only be able to destroy, not build anything like that. “Whos grave is it? You didn’t ki-“

“No, we didn’t kill anyone here.” He snorted, and she winced as a cloud of smoke flew from his mouth. “It’s for the dead people. Jaromir the troll. Jerak, he was Lorcan’s dad. And Nessie’s mum, Morag. And Tam I guess.”

She nodded slowly, guilt rising. Hex looked barely ten and he was listing off names so easily, and she hadn’t even thought to ask Lorcan about his own parents. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.“

“Sorry doesn’t change anything, none of the monsters that murdered were sorry. They were all nice people, they didn’t deserve killed.” The dragon boy muttered, “Keep it a secret, please? It’s ours, no one else’s business.”

“Were you trying to keep my little brother away?”

“Yeah, and have a trick, I’ll have to do that some other day.” He said and then spotted a scared look on her face, “Hey, I wasn’t going to turn back in front of him, just have a wild goose chase. It was Jess’ idea.”

“Somehow I’m not surprised.” She said, “The Mayor might be looking for you as well, he said he’d be trying to meet lots of new folk today.”

“No, I’m gonna go make sure Nessie’s alright.” Hex said firmly, and turned on the spot, moving back through the trees towards the grave site. She watched him, and then kept walking forwards, heart pounding as if she had just escaped something dangerous. No, she thought, not that dangerous, just three kids taking care of themselves. That wasn’t quite as scary.


*  *  *  *  *


“Lorcan, do you know the woods around here pretty well?” Karen asked as they walked the next day, moving along his road. Maddie followed on too, smiling cheerfully at falling leaves.

“I’ve lived here less than three weeks, so not really.” He shrugged, “I know bits of them near our caravan, that’s it.”

“Some of the others at school were wanting to try and have a Halloween party in them somewhere, they think it’d be spooky. I’m just a bit worried about them wandering into the dragons territory or something.”

“Why? The worst they’d do is scare them, isn’t that the point?” He chuckled, “There’s a couple of empty clearings a little way in, I went through them on Wednesday. Could try there. Am I invited?”

“Uh, yeah I guess, don’t see why not. You and Maddie could meet some of the others.” She said, and spotted an uncomfortable look on the blond girls face, “It shouldn’t be many, there were only three others I talked to yesterday.”

“You’ll manage fine Maddie! You’re good when you start talking to people.” Lorcan reassured her, “It’d be pretty fun.”

“Yeah, by the way, wanted to thank you for Wednesday night. It was more fun than I thought, and I was a bit grumpy, sorry.” Karen murmured, bowing her head. “I was just surprised.”

“No problem, it was cool. I’ll try and give a bit of warning next time.”

“Next time?” Karen gasped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I make veil, so sometimes I like to experiment and try other forms like on Wednesday. It was fun doing it with someone else for a change, we could try it again.” He said casually. “You could try it too Maddie, when the human veil runs out.”

“You want us to… what, shapeshift together? Matt said you were frivolous, I think I get it now.”

“And there goes nice thankful Karen, bye bye.” He grinned and waved a hand.

“Hey, I am nice! I’m just out of my depth, dealing with a crazy wizard.” She protested and batted his hand back down, “Maddie, what do you think? If Lorcan wanted to turn into, like, I dunno, deer for two hours or something.”

The blond girl chewed her lips nervously, “I guess I might go along with it, you looked like you enjoyed Wednesday night and Lorcan enjoys it, so…”

“Cheers Maddie! You said you enjoyed it when you got the hang of it Karen, what’s to stop you enjoying it if you try it.”

“This sounds an awful lot like you’re talking about drugs or something.” She muttered, “You sure it’s not addicting?”

“Um, I use it almost daily Karen, veil’s harmless.” Maddie pointed out, looking down at her skirt and legs. “You’re just still getting used to it all.”

“And it hurts changing. Like torture.”

“There’s a way to make painless ones, once I figure all that out, and experimenting will help that.” Lorcan argued, “Come on, why’d you have to be so negative about it? Be more positive Karen. Have you never wanted to be something else just for a day?”

She had, it wasn’t that strange a thought, imagining what it was like to be a cat or a squirrel or something, or wondering if they could talk to one another in some kind of animal language. But those were just fantasies, they weren’t supposed to be real, there was meant to be a division there. “Ugh, just leave it for now, where’s the clearing you were talking about?”

“That’s a maybe?” He smirked and moved off the path towards the woods before she could object, “Clearing’s this way, come on.”