“Back so soon?” I heard Lillianne call from the counter. “Not much to do with no money.” I felt annoyed at the tone she used, feeling like it was meant to mock me. “Kyumi is upstairs. Maybe today she’ll even let you eat with us.” Surprised by the invitation I smiled realising she sounded like a parent with a distant child, and went to the stairs. “Finally brings a boy home and locks him up, jeez, pesky child.”

  Walking up the stairs faster after hearing Lillianne talk to herself. Still tripping over some steps, trying not to get hurt, and heading towards my room, I could see the door was open. Creeping closer, feeling cautious, I looked in only to see Kyumi sitting at the edge of the bed petting her tail on her lap looking uneasy. Suddenly I hit the floor as something kicked off my head.

  “Tiara!?!” Kyumi jumped up grabbing the flying animal. “I thought you were with Amari?” Then she looked my way laughing a little. “Oh, there you are!” She sounded so happy to see me, I was confused. Coming closer she helped me off the floor. “Since you can’t see in the dark, I was worried you’d get lost or something. Pretty much everyone in town can see in the dark and those who don’t carry a light, and I forgot to tell you to bring one just in case.” Turning as she spoke, she went back to sit on the bed.

“Uh, thanks, but Tiara seems to do anything if I offer her food.” With the mention of this, Tiara chirped again seemingly proud of her cleverness. “Oh ya, Lillianne wanted me to eat with you guys.” I blurted out the message before thinking, covering my mouth with my hands. ‘Do they live together or something?’

“Oh, Aunt Lily just wants me to get a boyfriend.” She rolled her eyes. I just stood where I was feeling strangely nervous. “If she truly wants you to eat with us, I guess it’s fine after all tomorrow we set out.” With all that information my jaw dropped.

“Wait, Aunt Lily? She’s your aunt? Leave tomorrow? But I just started to explore!” I began to complain and quickly regretted it. Her eyes were boring into my soul.

“We leave tomorrow.” She said sternly, even Tiara moved away. “I need help to figure out how to bring you home so we will be going to visit the Wolf-shifters at Rivoston.” I sat on the floor, this all seemed so sudden.

“Wolf-shifters? Like werewolves?” An image of humanoid wolves flashed in my head making me feel scared.

“I’m not too sure what those are, but if it helps they look like us Fox-shifters just bigger.” Her confused expression towards what I said, reminded me that I was definitely somewhere else. “I’m not sure if they can help us, but they are all I can think of and they are the closest to us. Plus I don’t believe you’ve spent much time in survival classes let alone defensive or battle classes, so we need as much help as we can get.” I spaced out at her words feeling for the second time overwhelmed by how different this place was. I couldn’t help but wonder why she would need help to bring me home. A light knock sounded on the door and we turned to see who it was.

“I don’t mean to interrupt, but I couldn't help hearing that you plan to visit the Wolf-shifters.” I was shocked to see Lillianne standing in the doorway, looking much less intimidating than my last interaction with her. “I don’t understand the situation at hand but as I am responsible for both of you right now, I would like to help out as best I can.” She soon looked like a caring mother now, rather than an aunt. “So, Kyumi, please take the small caravan and Spits, he’s our strongest deer and can travel the best. I’ll even help you pack, so… let’s go eat together, I’ve even prepared enough room for us all at the table.” With that she turned away heading out down the hall, not waiting for us to answer.

“Let’s not keep her waiting, I’d feel bad doing that.” Kyumi soon followed her out the door and I was left feeling the energy in the room changing becoming more tense. Tiara sat next to me with bright eyes.

“What in the world have I gotten into…” slowly I got up off the floor, picking up Tiara almost instinctively and walking down the hall to the stairs. I took my time getting down, not wanting to trip. Then for the first time I noticed the kitchen to my left with a dining table all set with the foods I had been eating. Tiara jumped down heading to a bowl of food on the floor, making a mess as she started to eat. Candles sprinkled the room, as I walked closer I questioned if I would even fit at the table.

“I made sure to bring a short bench for you, so come sit.” Lillianne tapped a seat near her. Almost as if I was back at home, feeling like a family. As I sat next to her my legs bent a little weirdly on the small bench.  “So, Amari, was it? What brought you here?” She asked innocently, but I froze finding myself unable to answer.

“We don’t know, he doesn’t seem to be from here,” Kyumi spoke up, a confused look now on Lillianne’s face, “it seems like we crossed into each other's worlds, but I can’t find the evidence to prove this.” Her voice was serious and low. “I promised I would help him get home since he untangled me from a bush.”

“How did you, of all people, get stuck in a bush?” Lillianne questioned, confused but not surprised by the whole situation, “you just need to turn into a fox or back to normal.” Her statement caused me to think about that fact and question this whole situation even more.

“Well, I was trying to crawl out and change back to normal so that I could unhook my necklace but I couldn’t even change.”  She had her ears back and eyes sharp, either she was mad or annoyed at this point it was hard to tell. “Then Amari saw me and pulled me out. When I was out I saw tall shiny houses that seemed to reach the sky and no trees.” She poked her plate as she spoke.

“So in his world it seems you’re just a fox and shifters don’t exist.” Lillianne trailed off into deep thought. Nobody touched their food as we all tried to figure out this weird situation.

“But I’m still normal in this place.” I could feel like I was being judged or examined. ‘It’s not like I gained powers being here.’

“Like I said shifters don’t exist in your world so you don’t have that ability, and therefore wouldn’t have it here.” Lillianne sounded annoyed with me. Ignoring her glare I tried to go back to eat my food only to see it was gone. 

“Tiara! I wasn’t finished…” Tiara was sitting next to my plate her beak. Looking up again, I  could see Lillianne and Kyumi were still deep in conversation.

“I think he came through because he helped me. That’s why I’m bringing him to see Boulder.” Kyumi seemed stern but respectful. Her ears back to their normal position. Her eyes gave off a glimmer as she turned her head while she spoke, as if she was excited to go see the Wolf-shifters.

“Boulder doesn’t like helping others unless there’s a gain for himself. That’s why we keep a distance from those damn Wolf-shifters.” Lillianne was now the one with her ears back, clearly annoyed. Starting to feel like a burden on this place. ‘I can’t fight, I can’t cook this food, let alone my own food, I can’t even pay for anything.’ I was at the mercy of them being nice. ‘I wonder what the Wolf-shifters are like?’ I could feel myself trying to picture them. But no matter what I did they just looked weird. “Alright, that’s enough, we need to pack the caravan if you truly plan on leaving.” Lillianne took the lead heading to a hallway next to the stairs. I started to follow them, only to have Kyumi put her hand on my shoulder shaking her head.

“You go to the room.” She smiled at me. “This will be easier since Spits knows us. Don’t worry you’ll get to see him tomorrow.” With that she gave me a light nod, then turned to follow the older Fox-shifter. “Don’t worry tomorrow we set out to bring you home! Just like you did for me.” She bounced away, turning back to the girl from the day I met her. And all I could do was smile.

After getting back to the room I lied on the bed. Listening to the two foxes packing and bickering about what to bring reminded me of when my mother and I would try to pack the car for vacation. I could then hear my door creak open, but couldn’t see anything since I had blown out the candle. The bed next to my head dipped, as I felt something soft slide by my face. Then a small purr was followed by the feeling of feathers.

“Oh, hey there Tiara.” I lifted my hand above my head to pet her. “Maybe when I go back home I’ll get a cat.” I never had a pet with me in my apartment, so the feeling of Tiara cuddled on me was comforting and different. As I continued to pet her I felt myself drift into sleep, the sensation of her coat becoming more normal to me. Slowly I gave into the pull of my tiredness and was out cold.

-----

“Let’s go! Time to get up!” I could feel something jumping on my chest. “We gotta gooo~!” The jumping then multiplied and finally I opened eyes, only to see a flurry of legs,tails and wings. A light was shining in through the window. My eyes finally adjusted, finding Kyumi and Tiara were jumping on me to wake me up. Then I remembered we were leaving to go see the Wolf-shifters today. Finally jumping upright and launching the two creatures off in the process onto my lap. I rubbed my eyes and ran my hands through my hair stretching.

“We gotta go!” I shouted, seeing an annoyed Kyumi sitting next to me, now in her human form.

“Well then sleepyhead, let’s get to the caravan.” She got off heading towards the door. Watching her leave, I felt myself get up to follow not even thinking as I did so.

As I left the room I felt fairly certain that it would be the last time I saw it. Lagging behind in the doorway examining the room I started to feel a little uneasy, finally I left the room. Slowly picking my way down the stairs I saw Kyumi and Lillianne in the main room. Hearing chatter outside I could see that they looked concerned.

“Seems like over one day you became a bit of a celebrity.” Lillianne joked, ears turned to the door. “They won’t bite, only stare.” She giggled to herself.

“No choice now, we need to leave by the back.” Kyumi, unlike her Aunt, was determined to leave in secret. “I will take Amari out the back if you can pretend you’re just moving Spits to the stables.” She gave the order, then turned to walk away to the other end of the building, not even bothering to check if Lillianne was going to do it. “Amari, let’s go. They will peak in the second she opens that door.” Not wanting to cause issues, I turned and followed her out the back to wait for the caravan.

“Is it bad if they get curious?” I realised how stupid the question was after I asked it.

“Yes it’s bad! They’ll start asking you questions and and…” She trailed off as we walked.

“I mean, they already saw me a few times, so what’s the harm?” Looking over at Kyumi I could see she was fed up with the whole thing.

“It’s not your fault, but if they saw you today we would never have been able to leave. If they started asking where you’re from they would freak out knowing you aren’t even from this world.” Understanding what she was saying I hung my head. “That’s not saying what you asked was stupid, just it wasn’t well thought out.” She turned to smile at me. “Unless you don’t actually want to go home?” Kyumi was looking at me with a big smile and I felt odd.

“That’s not what  meant.” I blurted out and I saw her recoil. “Sorry, you’ve been very nice but I miss my home.” For the first time since being here, I truly missed my friends, or more my only friend, and even the tall buildings and empty skies. The feeling of loneliness, and reminder that I was so far from home hit me hard. Suddenly I felt something on my shoulder. Turning to see what it was I saw Tiara sitting there. Bringing my hand up I rubbed her head. “Now, if I could take you with me I would.” I felt myself smile and she chirped through a purr.

“Then the sooner we leave the sooner we can bring you home.” Kyumi stood in front of me, her hand outstretched to my free shoulder. “But Tiara stays.” Then in the distance I heard the click of hooves. Turning my gaze I saw Lillianne guiding a deer of sorts by a lead, a small caravane in toe.

The deer was a mud brown, with beige spots on it’s rear. Small antlers protruded from it’s head. It seemed fairly tame, and even friendly. As Lillianne brought the deer closer I found myself wanting to pet it, then I remembered it’s name. ‘Spits…’ Not wanting to know how it got that name, I took a step back. Next thing I knew Lillianne was beside me, she looked to me and smiled. Tiara shifting on my shoulder to get more comfortable.

“Kyumi, you remember the rules right?” Lillianne turned her attention to Kyumi, she was stern but caring still. Kyumi nodded as she reached out to grab the lead from Lilliannes hands. “Please be careful on your way…” The two Fox-shifters hugged each other tightly as we got ready to depart on this journey, not knowing what we were going to find.