Parallel

October 3
The Morning:

Mina woke me up not long after nine in the morning, her fingertips brushing against the very tips of my wing. She whispered in my ear, “Alice…”

I twisted, my wing trying to tug itself away from her. She pinched it in her fingertips and dragged me back until I finally turned to look at her, “Wha-what’s up?” My eyelids pressed shut again .

“Come on, keep your eyes open,” she said. “We’re meeting Bruno at the Third Street Cafe.”

“I’m dreaming. When would you ever invite him?” I slowly pushed myself up. My wings extended as wide as they could behind me, a warmth spreading through them and into my back. I leaned forward, stretching my arms.

“He came bursting into our student council meeting and just told me it was an emergency. Mr. Acton was furious. He demanded to hear what Bruno was going on about, then Bruno said you had sent him, and that if you sent him then it must be serious. We’re going to talk about how to figure this out about… about Dad. About Mom.”

My breath got caught in my core, pressing against my tummy like a weight. My hand shook, hot and shivering, and my words didn’t form properly, “Right… Right.”

The Third Street Diner chittered, shaking on its own in the Saturday morning rush. Every face in Maple was one that I’d seen before, and I picked a dozen people out of the crowd as I saw them. I’d met them all before, at least in passing. Bruno was already there, sitting quietly at a wide booth. Beside him was Pippa with her tail resting across Terrance’s lap. He tried to push it away so that he could drape his napkin over his legs, but she quickly swished her tail back over his knees.

“You brought them, too?” Mina landed softly on the table. “I mean… the more the merrier, right?” I slowed to a stop just beside her, perching on the edge.

“I heard about your dad!” Terrance yelled across the entire restaurant, “It’s awful- really awful!” An elderly rabbitfolk man with long, drooping ears matching his twisted white hair turned around to shush him.

Pippa poked Terrance in the cheek with her claw, “It’s a secret, you know!” She scolded him, “People aren’t supposed to know their dad was horrifically murdered and probably torn to bloody, steamy bits!”

“He’s not even necessarily dead,” Bruno said in a sing-songy voice. He didn’t believe himself.

“Bruno…” I shut my eyes.

“Your mom is a representative, right?” Bruno asked. He already knew the answer, “That means her office is in The Capitol. That thing pretending to be your father is in D.C. it has access to the offices of elected officials. In a fair world, we’d tell Principal Gray, and he’d tell the DOO, and we’d never have to think about it again. Somehow, I think telling the DOO would be a grave, grave error.”

“What’s the idea, then?” Mina’s wings wrapped forward around herself, their tips curling over her shoulders. She rocked back and forth.

Terrance held up five pieces of paper with text and barcodes across them, “There’s a train leaving San Luis Obispo for Los Angeles at six AM sharp in three days. Another train leaves LA for the East Coast at 9 PM that evening.”

“San Luis Obispo is nearly a hundred miles away!” Mina yelped, “We have to get there in three days?”

“That’s where a friend of ours comes in,” Bruno shook his head, “you won’t believe who I ran into late last night, just when I was putting this plan together. By pure chance, I saw somebody moving out of their house. I asked who he was, and he said his name was Teddy Silver, the same guy you all rescued. Him and his family are driving out of town after what happened. We just need to sneak out of town, past Site 84, and they’ll pick us up about 20 miles down the road.”

Pippa’s ears flicked backward, “He knows we were there for him?”

“The President told him you all came for him when she let him go, apparently. I don’t know why she did that,” Bruno shifted through his pocket until he produced a little bottle of pills. They were transparent gelatin capsules, just over half my height, containing tiny flakes of gleaming, sterling silver. He downed it with a sip of coffee. The feathers on his neck and chest ruffled as he swallowed.

“That works for us, then,” Mina said, “I don’t know why she told him something like that.”

“Maybe she just supposed it was interesting,” I offered. I wasn’t entirely sure, but she had expressed some degree of impressiveness in our attempt, “If she told him, was she planning to let him go if we weren’t there?”

“What if she wasn’t?” Pippa asked, “We’re Ledoric’s students, so she can’t exactly stop us from telling someone, but she would have just kept him otherwise. Would she do something like that?”

“Ms. Snowfox seems to think she would,” Bruno chirped, “maybe she can tell us more about President Dreammaker. Just one last thing before we leave.”

We paid our bill and returned to her home. The door opened as soon as we knocked, “I was almost expecting you,” she said. The temperature was lower than before, her excessive lights weren’t blaring, the deafening music not playing.

“No dog door this time?” Mina flew inside.

“Mr. Acton told me there was some emergency last night,” Ms. Snowfox walked inside, “and when I heard it involved you, I almost went to your home myself. He didn’t find me until late, and I thought it best to let you sleep.”

“Well, I’m there in student council as a spadefoot toad,” Mina began recounting, “and who busts in but Bruno, going on about something awful happening. Of course Mr. Acton was concerned. We need to know more about President Dreammaker.”

“I see,” Ms. Snowfox curled around herself, her tail twitching behind her, “Bruno, we were practicing together. Do you feel ready?”

He displayed the bottle of pills, “No.”

“What to do?” She muttered, “Days have a way of creeping up all too fast. We always wish we could have two more weeks to prepare. The President… She’s a former student, you know that, many years ago she was the valedictorian.”

“A valedictorian?” I asked, “I knew she was a good student, Ms. Verdant talks about her sometimes, but I never knew she was quite like that.”

“She was not a good student by any means, Alice,” Ms. Snowfox’s fur bristled, “Sally Dreammaker and her childhood friend, Cain Archstar, murdered another student. It’s a famous story, but the DOO covered up the story when she was running for senate. They weren’t going to suddenly bring it back when she was running for president. That’s why nobody knows the names anymore, it’s almost just a rumor now.”

“How?” Bruno asked.

“Don’t you know Longleaf V. United States?” Ms. Snowfox asked, “Sure, you don’t take government until high school, but one of you?” She sighed, “There was a case that it was unconstitutional for the DOO to detain people at the borders of Maple. The Supreme Court ruled that the DOO could act in the interest of national security, and that magic could be a threat to national security; the DOO is allowed to do anything so long as they can argue magic is even tangentially involved.”

“It was at Ledoric’s…” I looked away.

”There isn’t a place in the nation where there is a greater concentration of magical individuals,” Ms. Snowfox said sharply.

“Agent Limerick is FBI,” Bruno muttered, “I was arrested by him one time… Isn’t FBI separate from DOO?”

“Director Archstar of the FBI and Secretary Sharp of the DOO work directly together. Director Archstar even doubleS as the acting Site Director of Site 91,” Ms. Snowfox went on, “Spirit, Limerick, and Crest, that squad. They’re Archstar’s claws, personally used to cut away at any magical… problems. They have the full authority of Secretary Sharp behind them.”

“I thought the FBI…”

“Who cares what they’re supposed to do, legally?” Ms. Snowfox looked away, “The DOO is the law. Dreammaker was one of their own as a senator, she is one of their own as a president. And, I implore you not to tell me more than you have to. Tell me what you are doing, but tell me some other way how, the wrong plan. Lie to me, right now, because as a Ledoric’s teacher, I am employed by the DOO.”

“We’re leaving town to search for my mother and father,” I explained, “by… by heading north to Monterey and to San Francisco from there. We’ll go to Maryland by plane, then the rest of the way to the Capitol by bus.”

Ms. Snowfox nodded, “From tomorrow on, think of me as any enemy. I can’t wait for your ultimate victory, so that I can go back to being your teacher. That is what you all deserve.”

Pippa sat beside her. She ran her hand along Ms. Snowfox’s back, “Bianca…” She whimpered, “I don’t want to be against you.”

Ms. Snowfox tensed up. Her legs twitched under her, “It’s just a test, Pippa. It’ll be over as soon as the time is up. Don’t let it stress you out too much.”

“What will you have to do?” Mina asked.

“Whatever I’m told,” she stood up, “I’m one of the greatest masters of transformation magic. If they send for me to stop you, it’s not just because I know you. Bruno, I’ve done what I can to prepare you. I told you before, if you can’t do this, you must stay behind. Decide. Now.”

“You were preparing me… for you?” He asked.

Ms. Snowfox looked away sadly, “I was preparing you for anything. Sometimes anything is deeply unpleasant.”

“Ms. Snowfox,” Terrance saluted, “may the best man win.”

She laughed to herself, “Good. That would be the Chosen One. I love you all. I love you more than anything, and I will continue to do so between this world and any other.”

We bid her goodbye silently, a word that did not want to speak itself. It was lost breathlessly somewhere near and far. And we all wished it would be a lie like any other we’d known. That it would burn itself away in time. Still, it was cruel, and not one of us had done wrong to any other.

Later:

Any of us who held doubts did best to enshroud them. Even me, who was born once with confidence and again without stared blankly at the tide. There she was fathomless, a thing challenging the horizon, so vast someone half the world away could see her also. Her seafoam tickled the thin beach below the cracked, rocky cliffs, and she laughed at us with each thundering wave. There was the Pacific Ocean, as she had always been and would always be. There she was, the last foothill below the precipice.

The seagulls hollered like crows. For my size, they had chased me desperately before, but I’d never allowed them close. Now, the little white vultures shunned me. I took a deep breath as I neared the water, I knew that I could not naturally swim. As soon as I transformed myself, I was sure I’d be daring them to come closer. Mina and I flew over Pippa and Terrance as they waded out to sea. Bruno waited, he couldn’t hover like Mina and I could, so he intended to fly out quickly and suddenly as late as he could. Him and Terrance had never attempted a transformation spell like this one before, so I was worried for them.

It was important we all cast the spell far enough from the shore that the tide didn’t wash us onto the beach. None of us had the endurance to transform, then return to our normal form safely after. Mina or I could do so and survive, but we’d be overexerted and immobile just beside the seagulls. We would be better off staying as fish and hoping the tide luckily washed us back out to sea before things could end much, much worse. Pippa would wait just a moment longer than everyone else to transform in case Terrance or Bruno collapsed like the rest of us had during our first transformation. In that case, we’d all agreed, Mina and I would go on alone. We wanted to cast the spell in as quick succession as possible so we stayed close to each other.

I hovered in place over the water, looking directly south. The sun hung straight overhead, and I could not afford to get turned around. If we went east, we’d be swimming endlessly into the Pacific. West, and we’d get washed ashore for the birds to enjoy. North, and we’d end up going in the wrong direction, we’d have to improvise from there, and the odds would be against us. We had to go South. We had to go almost exactly twenty miles. We had to manage that on guesswork, and we had to avoid getting separated.

Larger transformations were always more difficult than smaller ones. For that reason, we intended to become Anthias, a tiny kind of fish. Even if we all stayed together, there was a hint that somebody would be finding a kind of misery they didn’t want to imagine, and a quick resurrection within a few days. There were sharks, there were pelicans and seagulls, there were dolphins and whales. None of us knew enough marine biology to know for sure those weren’t but the least of our worries.

I held my breath as Bruno darted out toward us. He would cast his spell as soon as he was close, and once the spells were cast, there was a chance Pippa would have to take him and Terrance away. My heart tapped. The spell rested between my fingertips, the measurements hung behind my lips. I pleaded with myself that Bruno and Terrance would be able to handle the spell. I couldn’t say goodbye to somebody else today.

The light surrounded me, silver and overwhelming in my eyes. My wings disappeared as my arms were replaced by fins and my legs by a tail. I dropped five feet into the water with a pitiful splash, and sunk for a moment before catching myself and turning around. Bruno was more lively than I was, and Terrance was floating. His fins moved awkwardly beside him, and he was awake. We swam up to the surface of the water, Pippa holding her arms out over us to keep anything from giving chase. Terrance coughed, “All clear!” None of us could talk without poking our heads out of the water, and we had to stay near the shore to keep from getting lost. Anytime we tried to communicate, I thought I saw distant seabirds turning their heads to us. Pippa cast her own spell, and fell into the water beside us all.

Before I dipped my head back under, I looked at the coastline again. I was already afraid that I’d been turned around. I looked up at Maple over the cliffs, and I caught the feint image of the cookie cutter houses just beyond the school. Between them was the ice cream parlor and the Third Street Diner. I followed the buildings with my eyes, and I traced their path along the Pacific Coast Highway. That way was south.

I started along, heading parallel to the coast. The issue with our size was that we couldn’t swim tremendously fast. The first mile took just over an hour, and to make twenty miles, we’d likely be swimming until this time tomorrow. Teddy wouldn’t be driving through to pick us up for two more days anyway, so we had time. I wanted to swim the full twenty miles to be safe, but everyone else had considered only swimming ten, transforming back on land, then camping the rest of the night before making the remainder of the journey on land. Either way, we’d have to make camp as soon as we got out of the water, since we’d all be near collapse from casting spells. I hoped there’d be long enough between them that we’d stay awake. If we didn’t, there was some chance our journey would end there. At least, Mina and I would be treasured by the little things wandering the beach. I hoped Terrance or Bruno or even Pippa would stay awake long enough to stuff both of us into their pockets while they slept.

Yet, it was Terrance who cured the worst of our ailments, that miserable speed. He flicked his tail behind him, a gust of wind circling behind him, and his spell forming a current in the water. He drifted slightly after casting it, but managed to recover. I pulled him up to the surface to sharply remind him that he couldn’t handle casting any more spells. I forgot to thank him for how much the spell helped us. It continued extending behind us for several miles, and though the change in speed would only save us a couple of hours, those hours would have eaten away at our morale. I promised myself to say something kind to him later, at least.

Nobody else dared casting a spell like Terrance did, even if we knew it would help everyone else. I was afraid of spending that many Dames, and everyone else was twice as selfish. I knew what it was like to die, surely no worse a death than we’d experience if we failed here, and everyone else seemed even more fearful than myself. All, but Terrance, who wandered nonchalantly away from the group when he saw a pretty fish, or who invented a new use for a spell he otherwise could hardly handle, or who let himself be seen on the surface of the water just to make sure he could say motivating things to the rest of us. I didn’t understand.

By some small margin, Bruno was the largest of us, and I was the smallest. Constantly, he had to stop for other people to maintain his pace, while everyone else had to linger for me to catch up. On land, I was one of the fastest people I knew. If I ever flew slowly, who knew what would happen. It was grating to be in the back, and I knew they didn’t want to wait for me. Even all transformed into the same animal, I was smaller than everyone else. I wondered if I was bound to that, if that was just a destiny.

Beyond Maple, the coastline was a winding gradient of gray cliffsides and green flora. It beame the same image, twisted slightly each time I dared peek. There weren’t mile markers, nor landmarks to tell us where five miles became ten or twenty. I looked one last time as the sun lingered orange against the seaside horizon. Half of it was gone now, the rest sinking. The water carried a sudden shadow over it, passing like the encroaching night. Two stars appeared dim against the faraway mountains.

I dipped back under and continued with the rest of the group. We’d been nervous whenever other fish were near. Suddenly, I saw few. I wondered if they’d sunk into deeper waters. The water over us rippled subtly. We were making good time, and I ignored it to keep up with my friends. Now, the water just over me shook. Instinctually, I dove deeper. Too late.

The water around me was lifted up, and I was caught in it. Bruno turned around, not seeing me. I was pulled out of the water in the expanding beak of a pelican as its wings carried it away from the water. I tried to force myself to splash out of its mouth, but the beak shut around me suddenly. The last thing I saw was my friends’ heads poking up over the water. You idiots, I thought, swim away.

The cold water around me was draining away, leaving only a sticky warmth behind. I tried to swim up the water, but gravity, what I could always fight against, was working against me. I couldn’t fly. Not that it would matter if I could. As I sank, I flicked my tail around me. A spark escaped from it, but the spell fizzled out. I miscalculated the measurements. Focus! I demanded of myself. Why can’t I think! I can’t think! My mind screamed at me, and my body only flailed about. Deeper. Everything was dark. If I cast another spell, my head was spinning. If I cast another spell, I’d overexert myself. That wouldn’t hurt, at least. I landed completely in the water, the world shifted away from me. I was flying again, sort of. I took a deep breath, and thought through the measurement. The spell needed to cost just enough Dames to put me under, then a few more. My heart was going to stop anyway.

I stopped myself. I couldn’t die while transformed. People who died while transformed had trouble changing back into their normal body after being resurrected. If I died now, I may as well die altogether. I held my breath. I could do that, I could untransform. It would cost enough Dames that it might kill me instantly, but at least, I’d be in my own body. I started focusing on the spell.

I was thrown out of my concentration, striking my side against some kind of wall as I heard a loud noise. A bright flash of red light sparkled through its body, and for a moment I could see. Magic? I thought to myself. Another boom, and I was thrown upward. I was forced forward so forcefully, I could suddenly see the bird’s beak again, and the sunrise out of it. Its wing was crooked, sparkling with fire, and it dropped me.

I fell back down into the ocean, and within a moment everyone surrounded me. I swam forward, forcing the saltwater through my gills. I looked at Bruno as he struggled to stay afloat. I ran my fin against his to thank him. We continued for a safe distance, then ascended over the water. He gasped as he did, “Alice!” He forced himself to say.

“You saved me,” I sighed, “Bruno, you saved me.”

“I knew I could,” he looked out over the mountains. The sun had disappeared now, and they were but silhouettes of teeth over the cliffs. I wondered if it was worth telling him how close I was to quietly letting myself disappear. If I hadn’t waited one more second, what a coward I’d have been, then.

I swam beside Mina. She wouldn’t let me out of her sight. I promised her I was confident I’d be okay, that I had a plan to try and save myself also. I never said anything to her about despair, she had just as long of a journey left as I did. I shook as I wondered about how she would have gotten on. She’d have to go across the country without knowing if I was going to be revived. Or, she’d have to give up on Mom and Dad and hope she could survive going all of the way back to Maple. She would do the latter. Mom and Dad would die, if they were even still alive. I’d have spent a night or five dead until whatever was left of me was forgotten in a pile of guano somewhere. Until I had a brand new body sitting in Nurse Var’s office, disoriented and plagued with nightmares. I cursed myself, I was a mere second away from failing everybody.

Bruno forced us to stop halfway through the night. He recognized the beach near us was quiet enough that nothing would bother us right away. The cliffs were short enough that we could barely struggle past the highway and make camp just in the forest, just deep enough not to be seen by passing cars. We didn’t have any tents or sleeping bags. Terrance collapsed as soon as he turned back, and Pippa had to struggle to lift him up onto the road over a three-foot lip. Her and Bruno carried him across as Mina and I struggled to fly to the other side. The underbrush was quiet, and there wasn’t anything big enough to bother Bruno, or Pippa, or even Terrance while he was unconscious. Bruno hid me in his pocket, while Mina hid in Pippa’s, and we went to sleep there. It was lucky our clothes and belongings transformed with us. Terrance’s train tickets had gotten wet while he was swimming out to cast his spell at the very start of our journey. Those twelve hours were so long ago, I thought they were my past life now. But, the wet tickets weren’t ruined.

Sleep took me in the single beat of a song I could barely hear. Somebody’s radio blaring as they drove quickly down the road just twenty feet away, unaware of us all asleep so close to the highway. It was worth hoping nobody would find us. We’d be sent back to Maple if we did, and this would have all been for nothing. I laughed at myself, if I’d been through all that for nothing. I didn’t need to worry about that now.