Lucky Rabbit

Pandy managed to get back to Thaniel’s room just before seven, but some other students had already been awakened by their bowels and were wandering the halls, so she couldn’t shift and open it. Instead, she sat in the hall until the bell rang, and within thirty seconds, Thaniel himself threw the door open, hair sleep-mussed and still wearing his nightgown.

As soon as his eyes fell on her, he scooped her up and returned to his room, only to be forced to dodge around Isidor, who was somehow already fully dressed and carrying his toiletry bag. On the weekends, quite a few of the boys slept in and missed their spot in the Great Morning Shuffle, allowing others, like Isidor, to sneak into the bathroom before it was technically their turn.

The two boys exchanged a mumbled good morning, and Thaniel carried Pandy over to the desk, picking up the tile with five green pips on one end and two yellow pips on the other, carefully returning it to its bag, which lay open on the desk. “You said you’d be back by seven,” he told her, lower lip protruding just a bit.

Well, this was as good a time as any for her big reveal, so Pandy wiggled until Thaniel put her down. She moved a bit away from him, since she didn’t want to frighten him, and thought,

Shifting Faces successful.03:36:17 remaining.

As soon as she appeared, Pandy attempted to place the necklace back into her inventory, so Thaniel could see that she was still Ms. Wellington underneath it all. Which meant that she was now a dead woman pretending to be a demonic undead rabbit pretending to be a Shadow Exchange operative pretending to be... what, a real teacher? This whole thing was getting a bit out of hand.

Inventory full.

Maybe you should dump the burning trash can?

“No!” Pandy yelped, reaching up to fumble for the clasp of the necklace as Thaniel’s eyes grew huge and he backed up. Thirty points of Agility didn’t help her as the tiny latch slid away beneath her fingers, and Thaniel’s mouth opened. She flinched, not quite willing to yank the necklace off, in case the chain was necessary for the enchantment, and got ready to switch back to Bunny if Thaniel started screaming.

Instead, he said, “You got a necklace like Eleanor has!” He grinned. “Can I try it on?”

Pandy wilted, arms relaxing as her fingernail finally caught on the tiny lever that opened the clasp. The moment the two ends of the chain separated, Pandy’s arm became pale and lightly freckled once again, and she gave a choking laugh as she crouched in front of Thaniel, wrapping it around his neck.

“I don’t know if it will work,” she warned, then almost tipped over backwards as an adult woman suddenly appeared in the place the boy had been standing. Pandy flailed and managed to catch her balance, but took two large steps backward, bumping into the desk as she gawked at the face she was already beginning to think of as hers. One of hers, anyway.

“Wow!” The other woman raised a hand, speaking in Thaniel’s voice. Rather than lifting that hand to her face, however, she held it in front of her waist, turning it as she opened and closed her fingers. She was still wearing Thaniel’s white nightgown, which had been bonus-sized for her larger frame, but it didn’t quite move correctly. It was almost like seeing a video-game character with hair or clothing that clipped their own body. There was something wrong about it that was only made worse by the fact that the person wearing that shape was very much too small.

Reaching out, Pandy passed her hand through the woman’s upper torso, and giggles emerged from somewhere around her belly button. “That’s so strange,” Pandy whispered, and the woman nodded, raising her arm to poke at Pandy’s gut. The finger went straight through Pandy, as did the hand and part of the wrist, stopping only when a small finger hidden somewhere in the phantasmal forearm jabbed Pandy’s stomach.

The door clicked, and Pandy jumped back, feeling terribly awkward about the fact that her own hand was still inside the other figure’s illusory throat. Isidor entered, froze, then whirled and slammed the door shut behind him.

“What are you doing?” he hissed at Pandy. “And who is-”

Thaniel lurched toward the other boy, arms out, mouth and eyes wide and vacant. “Oooooo,” he moaned, in his very-Thaniel voice. “I’m a ghooost!”

Isidor’s hand jabbed out, two fingers gouging deep into the eye-sockets of the woman staggering toward him, then gaped as his hand went straight through her. Thaniel howled with laughter as he apparently hugged his friend, though it was difficult to be sure that was what was happening, with all the body parts overlapping each other.

When Thaniel finally released the older boy, they were both on the ground, with Pandy’s new face contorted in laughter, while Isidor looked like he couldn’t decide if he should be horrified or furious. He definitely looked like he was leaning toward the latter, so Pandy crossed over to them and knelt next to Thaniel, feeling for the necklace. As she removed it, he groaned in disappointment.

“Can’t I play with it a little more?” he wheedled. “I bet I could scare Geraldine somethin’ awful. She hates ghosts.”

Pandy shook her head, placing the necklace around her own throat again. As the latch closed, Thaniel looked even more disappointed, while Isidor’s face flooded with comprehension. “This is so you can be human, but not get caught, isn’t it?” He reached up as if to touch his own necklace, but quickly jerked his hand back down as Thaniel’s eyes caught the motion.

Thaniel knew Isidor was actually eight years older than he appeared, but since Isidor never removed his necklace in the younger boy’s presence, it simply didn’t matter, and Thaniel seemed to have dismissed it as unimportant. Now, with Isidor sitting right next to him, reducing their height difference, Thaniel was able to reach up and pass his hand through the air over Isidor’s head.

“You don’t just look little, you are little,” he said, looking back and forth between Isidor and Pandy, clearly confused.

Isidor sighed, getting to his feet. “The necklace I have is very special,” he admitted reluctantly. “The only reason I have it is so I can protect the princess. Items that physically change someone are... very rare.”

“Can I try that one?” Thaniel asked, standing so he could reach toward the silver pendant resting at the hollow of Isidor’s throat.

“No!” Isidor took a step back, sweeping aside Thaniel’s arm with a movement that looked very practiced. Seeing Thaniel’s look, he quickly added, “It’s not mine. And I’m supposed to leave it on at all times, unless I have to remove it in order to keep,” he glanced at the door and lowered his voice, “Princess Eleanor safe.”

“Oh,” Thaniel said, stepping back. He still looked a little upset, but Pandy had a feeling it was more because of the way Isidor had struck his hand away than because he couldn’t try on the necklace. Thaniel was far from spoiled, and a simple no would have been enough.

The older boy sighed, and reached out to pat Thaniel awkwardly on the shoulder. “I’m sorry. That’s what... I was trained in self-defense from when I was very young. Most of the time I can suppress it, but after seeing you and,” he glanced at Pandy. “I guess I was still on edge.”

Thaniel nodded, expression relaxing into his usual sunny smile. “I understand. I’m sorry, too. I shouldn’t’ve asked.”

Isidor offered a small but genuine smile. “Thank you.”

Seeing that the moment was over, Pandy cleared her throat softly. “I, ah, should switch back to Bunny. I just wanted you to know that this,” she indicated her body, “was me now, so you wouldn’t worry.” She grinned at Thaniel. “Mr. Blackwood says he might be able to let me be your teacher again.”

Thaniel’s face lit up with an answering grin. “No more Ms. Davenport?” His cheeks flushed. “She’s okay, I guess, but I like you a lot better. Ms. Davenport never gives us presents, or hugs.”

That was certainly true. Pandy suspected that the hall supervisor’s response to an injury would be, “There, there, it’s not bad. Chin up!” or something similar. She just wasn’t a very comforting sort of person, though Pandy also didn’t think she was actually unkind, like Ms. Wellington.

Then Thaniel’s eyes narrowed as something else occurred to him. “Can you take us out into the city for the festival? Since you’re our new teacher?”

How quickly he’d gone from ‘might be’ to ‘already is’. Pandy gave a reluctant shake of her head. “I won’t be able to start until after the festival, so there’s no way I would be trusted to take you off campus. But,” it was her turn to lower her voice, as she glanced from Thaniel to Isidor, “can you keep a secret?”

Both boys nodded, though Thaniel did so with considerably more enthusiasm. Pandy couldn’t quite resist winking at them as she said, “I have it on excellent authority that Lord and Lady Reedsley will be arriving in Knightmere in time for Open House on Monday. They’ll be able to take Geraldine around, and I bet they’d take you, too, if you asked nicely and promised to stay right with them all the time.”

She gave Thaniel a meaningful look, and he nodded so hard it was a wonder his head stayed attached. “I will!” he exclaimed, holding out a pinky. “I promise! I’ll do everything they say, and never, ever wander off.”

Pandy smiled. “Now, I can’t make any promises for them, but I don’t think they’ll abandon Geraldine’s friends while they take her out to play. And remember,” she pressed her finger against the white brooch pinned to his nightgown, “if you need me, all you have to do is tear this off.”

Now his face fell. “But won’t you be with me?”

She grimaced. “Sometimes, yes, but I have some things I need to do, too.” For the most part, those things would involve watching Clara, who would probably also be with her family, but Pandy could think of at least two times where she’d need to leave the group.

Thaniel sighed and came to lean against her. At first his hug was slightly tentative, either because she looked different or because he was afraid of falling through her, but once he realized that she still felt the same, he really glomped on, squeezing her until she laughed and picked him up, snuggling him like he did her when she was a rabbit. It was the first time she’d ever done this, but she found that he wasn’t heavy at all, and he seemed perfectly comfortable as he rested against her chest and shoulder.

Then his fingers dove into her hair, exploring the spiky little stubs left behind by the tiny scissors Pandy had used to cut away her tresses. Pandy squeaked, and Thaniel leaned back, saying, “Did you mean to turn your head into a hedgehog?”

A snort came from Isidor’s direction, and Pandy looked over at him. His eyes widened innocently, and he shrugged, as if to say, “Well, he’s got a point.”

“I didn’t want anyone to feel my hair and realize it wasn’t what it looked like,” Pandy admitted, reaching up to run her hand over her scalp. It really did feel very strange to have so little hair. Even in her first life, her hair had always been at least shoulder length, partially because she often cut it herself, and when it was shorter, it always came out crooked. Not that it wasn’t crooked when it was long, but at least when she put it up, nobody could tell.

Isidor shook his head, then gave a defeated sigh and reached under his pillow, pulling out a sheathed knife that had to be at least six inches long. With a practiced flick, he slid it out, and motioned for Pandy to come closer. “Well, if anyone feels that, they’ll definitely know something’s wrong,” he said. “Come here, and I can at least even it out.”

Swallowing hard, Pandy put Thaniel down, then removed the necklace again. For a moment, she looked into the small mirror above the wash basin, wincing as she saw her new haircut in all its glory. It really was a mess, with some chunks that were several inches long, while in other areas she was practically bald.

She was about to go under the knife when she came to a horrifying realization. “We can’t fix it,” she whispered, poking at a particularly scraggly bit that hung over one ear. Isidor was already lifting his blade, but hesitated at the words. She met his eyes in the mirror.

“Every time I change back to human shape, it will look like this, no matter how many times I try to change it,” Pandy told the two boys. Isidor’s lips compressed, but Thaniel’s laughter escaped before he could clap his hands over his mouth. Her eyes went back to the mirror. “Oh no, what have I done?” she moaned. Did undead hair even grow back? Was her only option to completely shave her head when she next had an opportunity to change her outfit? Most important of all, what would Augustus think?

I would have warned you, if you’d asked my opinion.

But you could always use a Spark to just burn it off!

Pandy groaned, letting her forehead thunk down on the little bedside table.