Warning: Be Jorseph

A hole opened. Jorseph flew out and hit the floor with a thump. Wrists and ankles were bound with scratchy rope. Tape over his mouth muffled his protests. Satchel bounced against Grabby’s side as he hopped out of the portal. The shimmering black claw on his index finger caught end of the circle and zipped it from top to bottom. Hands smacked at himself to dust the debris from the skate park off his clothing. The blindfold slid away from Jorseph’s eyes. The tape ripped off his lips.

“Owwwww! What was that for!?”

“Don’t be such a baby. You’re going to have scales again anyway. A little pain is the least of what you deserve.”

Jorseph wriggled against the bindings, “Are you going to let me out or not?”

Grabby inspected Jorseph by feeling around with his foot for a key, “You’ll be able to free yourself just fine once you’re a dragon again. But first, where are the keys you stole?”

“I put them on a shelf before I left,” Jorseph confessed.

“What shelf!?”

“I don’t know, I just set them between two books. I didn’t want to take them outside.”

“Oh really, why’s that? Did it feel too much like stealing? That conscience of yours certainly didn’t object to stealing my most valuable book! It certainly didn’t object to destroying my bathroom! Tchsk!”

“She isn’t just a book. You don’t have any right to keep her sealed in that dark bag! Let her out.”

Grabby pointed at Jorseph’s nose, “No, you already caused enough trouble. I’m going have to use expensive items just to get you back to normal. And then I have an entirely worse situation to deal with.”

“A worse situation? What’s that?”

“Not your business, that’s what! You’re going to do as I say unless you want to drag you and your mother into a prison facility, understand? This is serious, serious business you crimed your way into!”

Jorseph rolled to push his forehead against the floor. Cheeks puffed out as he refused to answer that.

“Fidglesticks, your mother will be here within the hour. Hopefully later rather than sooner. Stay put until I get back.”

“Not like I have much choice.”

Grabby ran off. He wiped his sweaty upper lid. Heat from the satchel radiated uncomfortably into his body. This former human had been properly riled up with whatever mischief her and Jorseph were up to. This kind of hope meant it would take years in the bag before her will firmly faded away. Now both the mop and the spellbook were going to curing failures!

“Fidglesticks! Fidglesticks! Fidglestiiiiiiicks!”

Grabby took a book off the shelves and slammed it against the floor, then stomped on it until out of breath, “I need to calm down. First thing first, one thing at a time. Once I get Jorseph settled, I’ll go after the mop.”

A muffled cry came from inside the satchel, “Zenobia!”

“Mop! Mop! Mops don’t have names. That would just be silly! Shut up and go dormant so that you’ll be actually useful to somebody.”

Grabby took a deep breath. Now he was talking back to it. That would reinforce all the wrong behavior. Something caught his eye. Keys glinted on a nearby shelf. He pocketed them on the way to his office. The satchel slammed over the surface of his desk.

“Oww!” it protested.

“Shut up, you don’t feel pain!” Grabby screeched, “I’ll have to apply another coat of seal to this satchel. I hope it’ll hold up. Leather is expensive.”

He made sure to seal all five straps as tightly as possible. Leather strained under the pressure. His desk was full. The filing cabinets were full of tax documents, receipts, and business reports. Since he didn’t have any place to shove the satchel, he stood it on the floor next to filing cabinet.

“Fidglesticks!”

Grabby left the office to return to his collection of magical artifacts. He pulled a duffel bag from a bin. If he got caught, he’d need to be ready to flee at a moment’s notice. At the very least, he needed to hide any evidence he could access a liminal space. Too bad keeping these items in a liminal space wasn’t an option. But right now, he didn’t time to pack. Dealing with Jorseph came first.

The bronze bull statuette stood on the bottom shelf. He turned the bull’s horn sideways. A panel on its back opened. Round brown hard candies were inside. Three candies shook into Grabby’s palm before he carefully closed it by resetting the horn. Since it was already out, he wrapped it in a towel, and placed it in the satchel.

In the center of the library, Jorseph still squirmed on the carpet.

A candy rolled between Grabby’s thumb and index finger. It glistened under the lights, “This should restore you to dragon form. Just think about yourself as you were. Open wide.”

Grabby plopped the candy into Jorseph’s mouth. The hard shell dissolved rapidly. They waited. Nothing happened.

“Think really hard about being yourself, your normal self,” Grabby poked Jorseph’s shoulder with his foot, “C’mon, do something!”

“I’m trying. Leave me alone.”

Grabby paced around Jorseph in hopes he would change back. Those candies didn’t have an expiration date and the bull contained powerful magic. Did the spell book over power the bull because it still had will? Would he have to resort to using the book itself? Avelina would return any moment. There wasn’t time to wait and see.

The front door buzzer rang loudly enough to make Grabby jump. He looked at Jorseph expectantly and poked him with his foot, “Change back already!” he screamed, then ran around Jorseph in circles.

“Fidglesticks! Explaining this to Avelina is going to be problematic. You’re going to agree with whatever I say. Do you understand me? This is for both our sakes. So, unless you want a huge deal of trouble for your poor mother, you’ll play along and not dispute me. You found a strange artifact in this library, a bull with candy in it. You ate several candies and then, you changed into this creature. I doubt Avelina will recognize it as a human. Do you understand? Can you keep your story straight?”

“Why do I have to lie?”

The buzzer rang again for a long time, followed by pounding on the door.

“Because if you dare mention anything about a spell book that can talk, you’ll cause untold suffering for all of us! There are dragons who won't care about how innocent you are, or if it was an accident. They will eliminate you and everyone else who knows without so much as moments hesitation. Understand!? I can figure out how to fix you. Really, I can, but I need more time! Now, I’m going to cut you free. Follow me and don’t cause trouble! We’re going to need to calm your mother after she sees you like this.”

“Sure, whatever! I'll play along.”

A claw sliced into the knots tying Jorseph’s wrists, then about his ankles. The rope came undone. Jorseph hopped to his feet and threw the hoodie over his head.

The buzzer continued buzzing without stopping.

“I’m going to answer the door before she breaks it down, follow me.”

“Okay. Got it.”

The front door was straight down the aisle from the center of the library. Grabby slapped the red button near the entrance. He postured himself forward and took a deep breath as he stared forward. The steel door slid open with a lazy rumble.

Avelina stood tapping her feet with all six of her arms akimbo.

The purple scales of her slender snout still shone but with several scuff marks and a few smudges. Her whiskers drooped. The frilly violet hairs of her mane remained combed back but slightly disheveled. The business power dress wrinkled slightly. Her scales still shimmered, but not as powerfully in the afternoon sun. The broad tip of her tail fanned her body. Her eyes had the reddish violet glow.

Grabby felt his posture shrivel, “Avelina. I’m so sorry. I didn’t have a chance to call you. Your son caused, umm, well no end of trouble for-”

“Where’s Jorseph?”

“This is Jorseph. He found a-”

The eye squinted shut as Grabby rubbed it. Nobody stood behind him. Jorseph wondered off. Grabby turned back to Avelina.

“Gah! He’s probably hiding. He’s not looking like his usual self. But I’m sure with your strong mother’s instinct you’ll still recognize him.”

“What are you going on about? Is Jorseph hurt? Did something bad happen?”

“You may want to, maybe, I mean, you’ll soon see. But I’d refrain from taking your son out in public. He morphed.”

“Morphed? What happened to my son? He’s shedding? Did he molt scales? Is he okay? Did he get hurt? Why didn’t you call me!?”

She swatted Grabby aside and rushed inside.

“He’s fine, he’s fine, just a little different is all!” Grabby darted about the shelves, “Jorseph! Jorseph! Stop hiding! Your mother is here! Come out and show her what you’ve been up to!” he turned to Avelina and pointed at her, “I’m not sure what is wrong with your boy, but he caused me no end of trouble today. He wrecked the bathroom, abused books, stole keys, trespassed, and played with items he had no business touching. What happened to him is not my fault! Don’t even think of blaming me for that boy’s misbehavior!”

“What happened to him!? Where is he? Jorseph! Mommy is here. I promise not to be mad so you can come out now.”

A rustling came from behind the shelves. Something moved behind them in the direction of the still wide-open entrance.

“Mom?”