A Boy, a Dog Girl and the Night of Remembrance Lanterns: Part Two

Chistos sat in his chair, leaning over, hands on his knees, the glasses he rarely wore stubbornly clinging to his nose. His eyes ran over each inch of Honey, feet to hands to chest to face.

“It happened when Zack was about to kiss you.” He said it calmly and clinically.

“I wasn’t exactly about to kiss her…” Zack said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck.

“Now is not the time to be the nervous teen boy,” Chista said.

“The point is, Honey thought he would kiss her. Do it again,” Chistos said.

“I don’t think you can command me to kiss a girl, old man!”

“Oh no, I told you to kiss a beautiful girl who loves you, how horrible. Do it.”

Zack sighed deeply, then knelt before Honey. As his face neared hers, she let out a sudden squeak and her head transformed. Only her head this time, her snout booping Zack’s nose.

“Incredible. It seems your transformation is tied into your emotions, exactly as Zack theorized.” Chistos began leafing through an old book on his side table, frantically muttering. The smell of old leather and paper lingered in the air as he sought the page he wanted.

“What are you looking for, father?” Chista asked.

“When you remade Honey, you accidentally did something incredible. All magic is fueled by human emotion. It is why only higher life forms can use it. However, when you remade Honey and brought her to our world, you made a mistake, one most wizards would never make.”

“I’m sorry, father! I…”

“No! I’m not chastising you! Most wizards wouldn’t do it because they aren’t brave enough! You see, lycanthropes are humans with an animal form cursed into them. Honey, however, is a dog’s soul given human mind and form. I was wrong about Honey not being a dog. She absolutely is, an evolved dog in human form.”

“I’m not a dog!” Honey shouted standing up, her dog head still there, frowning and shaking. “I’m Honey! I’m me! I’m…”

“You are Honey, a wholly unique creature in the world,” Chistos said, standing up and embracing her. “When my daughter saved you, she should have tried to copy your mind while creating an artificial soul out of copies of hers and Zack’s. Or, more realistically, she should have simply kept you a dog. There have been experiments in transferring animal souls into human shells, but the souls cannot handle it and burn out. You…Honey, you are a miracle of magical science!”

“So this is why Honey is an S rank wizard!” Chista said, grabbing Honey’s face and smiling brightly. “Oh wow! I totally didn’t…Honey, you can use magic like you can because you have a pure animal soul!”

“I do?”

“You do!”

“I do!”

“And I did it!”

“You did! But…how do I stop turning into a dog?’

“You don’t,” Chistos said, stroking the top of her head. “This form is a fusion of your animal innocence and human will. It is, in essence, your true form. You aren’t regressing. You are evolving.”

“I don’t feel evolved,” Honey said with a self deprecating little laugh, feeling along her snout. “Wait, if most like me don’t make it, why did I?”

“I’m guessing, and this is only a guess, you had something important to you which kept your body whole as your soul solidified itself,” Chistos said. He and Chista looked to Zack, and Honey followed their gaze. He looked up, then behind himself as if knowing their gaze must be going elsewhere.

“What? What did I do?” Zack asked, looking slightly panicked.

“The unfathomable ignorance of youth…” Chistos sighed, a small smile ghosting his lips. “All of you, off to bed. Honey, your face should revert in a short while. Chista, I want a report written up on exactly what you remember doing. This is…you all are extraordinary.”

Chista had never smiled harder than when Chistos said those words.

*

Zack and Honey laid in bed, the moonlight playing over their faces, a feeling of unease shared between both of them. Honey’s condition was solved, and the result was actually something good. However, the night still felt like it had slipped away from them, and they weren’t sleeping closely like normal.

“I’m sorry everything got all…blah,” Honey said softly.

“Nothing you could have done about it. And hey, until the fur came out, the night was perfect.”

“Perfect…” Honey sighed. “Even a dog knows you only get one first date with your sweetheart. Now I don’t even know if you want to be sweethearts. It’s so…complicated. I can’t…”

“Do you want to be my girlfriend?”

Logic told them there were other sounds to be heard as Zack said those words. Auto carriages rolled through the streets, night owls flew overhead, and in the bottom floor apartment Gratham was having an enthusiastic conversation with Helline about the benefits of gills.

Neither Honey nor Zack heard any of it.

The only sounds which existed were the thumps of their hearts.

“Girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

“Me?

“Ideally, yeah.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

“I ruined our kiss. You’re nervous about kissing me.”

“I’m nervous about all of this!” Zack sat up, frustrated, his legs dangling over the side of the bed. “I’ve never had a girlfriend, magic dog girl or otherwise! I screwed up my mom’s life enough by being me. Each time I started to like a girl I remembered all the stupid stuff I’ve done and I figured I had no right to invite them into the garbage heap which is my life.”

Honey scooted next to him, holding his hand. “You…you weren’t nervous about dating me because of me? You were nervous about…you?”

Zack slowly nodded. Honey grabbed his face, tears coming down her face.

“The only regret I’d ever have is saying no. I want to be your girlfriend, Zack.”

Clouds covered the moon. Their lips met in the darkness. Life allowed the sweethearts, finally, to end their night with their first kiss.