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Speak of the devil and she shall appear…


Branwan’s was still spinning with the horrible nightmare that she had had. What, she wondered, do you call a nightmare that happens in the day? She was walking down the river, her feet in the water. A noonmare? Perhaps. I really shouldn’t sleep in the day, she thought to her self.

She saw Erik over where the river widened into the lake and waved hello to him, speeding up her pace to meet him. “Well if it isn’t my favorite puppy!” she called when he was within earshot.

“Oh, not much,” said Branwan smiling, “but I gatta tell ya’, that wolf friend a’ yours is cra-zy” she shook her head smilingly, a faint smile still lingering on her face.

She sat down, looking out over the water, “I had the worst nightmare, you wouldn’t believe!” She flopped back and looked up at the sky.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Branwan said smiling, “I mean this island wouldn’t be any fun if it didn’t have any crazies.”

Her smile melted like an ice cube in the Sahara as she thought of her dream, “well it started off okay,” she said quietly, “I was in a meadow, right, looking up at the sky? And above me there was this bird flying, it looked sorta like,” she wriggled her fingers, thinking of the right words to describe it, “do you know the old native American myth ‘Rainbow crow’? sorta like the crow in that.” But as it flew it’s feathers started dropping off and I say that they weren’t feathers, right? They were little kids in really big shirts, each one of a different color, right. So the crow, which now looks like a skeleton of a crow flies down and starts eating the little kids and when I run over to try to make it fly away it turns and starts attacking me!” she shivered and sat up.

“But that’s not the worst part,” she said, leaning against Erik, “the worst part is it means I’m going to change.” Yes, Branwan could put two and two together as well as the next girl and she knew what was coming.

“Oh, you don’t have ta be here when I change,” Branwan said, squeezing his hand tightly. She was just saying that, she wanted him here more then anything.

She frowned as she felt an odd tumbling sensation in her stomach that had nothing to go with happiness.

Branwan felt warm at his response and smiled, her eyes closed.

She nodded, bracing her self for the pain, “Yes,” she said softly.

It started with her feet. She cried out in pain as she felt her ankle twist and bend into a new, more toe-oriented position. Speaking of her toes, she felt another painful twisting sensation as her big toe moved to the side of her foot. She grabbed onto Erik’s arm as her first three toes lengthened, the skin breaking and healing rapidly.

The pain subsided for the moment, “maybe I should take up ballet,” she said, her thoughts cloudy with pain.

Branwan shut her eyes as the pain began again, wrapping her arms around Erik.

This pain was relatively mild compared to the first. She felt a tightening in her legs as her skin hardened as callused. She had just opened her eyes when she felt a tingly sort of pain up her back and down her front and arms as soft downy feathers grew there.

“Well,” she said, wiping away her tears prematurely, “that wasn’t so bad.”

Sadly Branwan’s changes were not yet over, she pushed back from him with a scream of pain and horror as her hands began to change.

Before her terrified eyes her first two fingers began to merge even more together until they became only one finger. At the same time her other two fingers started to shrink until they were half the size they should have been.

She let out another scream and flipped over onto her stomach as long stiff feathers sprouted from her tail nub.

Shaking she brought her self to a kneeling position, “is it over?” she asked the world at large, not expecting an answer.