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Chapter 1 The Trap is Sprung It was a Friday afternoon and Dylan's life was just getting back to a level just below pure chaos, finally completing the move into his new house, and addressing the 30 years of life that a family of five can accumulate. The kids visited several time to take what they wanted, Salvation Army and St. Vincent De Paul hauled off what they wanted, and finally Take My Junk took the rest. Dylan still had enough stuff to fill most of the rooms that he planned on using and in one of the bedrooms went the boxes, which someday he would go through but not now. Today was different, it was the first day of not living under the pall of grief, two emotions drove him, the hope of a brighter future and a lingering dread of the recent past. It seemed like he had finally passed some stage of grieving and getting up this morning was a whole level easier. Finally, it seemed as though whatever was feeding his mind on the hopelessness of his situation was gone. Still, the love of his life was gone; that emptiness had not changed, maybe the distraction of their crazy dream of starting an Alpaca farm would be enough for now. The setup in the house was sort of barebones with a 1980s bachelor pad flair but then again it was always Michelle's pleasure to decorate and set the atmosphere for a home you wanted to nest in. Dylan had taken a quick power nap after putting his finishing touches on setting up the last room. He never heard the delivery truck that dropped off the non- descript package sitting on his front porch. He noticed it while checking for the mail; 'hmmm no mail but this package shows up today,' Dylan thought it was pretty strange as he was always getting something every day. Picking up the package which was fairly light and whatever was in there shifted to the one corner. Now that it was closer to his eyes, what he thought was a mailing label had lots of small symbols and the words "Dylan, please open me." With the item sliding around, his thoughts about anything bad were minimized, so taking package to the desk in his office, found a knife, and cut it open. In the box, was a green metal box with more strange symbols and looking back on it now, Dylan realized that something was compelling him to lift this strange green box out of shipping box. Touching it resulted in a shock; still he persisted in pulling the box out and put it on the desk. The box had some goop on it, so Dylan rubbed it with a rag. BZZZZ-WAP! A rising arc of electricity captured his attention and now a man was standing in his office. He was dressed like lumberjack; he bested Dylan in height, weight and overall physical condition, he was using a rather large smile to keep Dylan calm. "Dylan, dang glad to meet you." He reached out to shake Dylan's hand. Dylan paused for a second, and then took the offered hand, he asked, "And you are?" "Oscar, that's not relevant at this point, I am Djinn, and I promise I come with good intentions, to do no harm and just frankly talk to you." The robust hand shaking continued, Dylan was pretty sure Oscar believed that he would bolt out of the house or go get a gun, and at this point both were extremely viable options. The thought of overpowering Oscar was fleeting; the brain came back with 'that's not going to happen.' Fortunately for both parties, Dylan's brain cycled back to 'what the hell is going on here?' With no immediate answer forthcoming, Dylan stood there frozen in place; it was not his greatest moment. Oscar continued, "I'm really glad you're handling my sudden appearance so well, most people freak." "For what it's worth, my brain is still trying to catch up with my lying eyes. Though for a Stage 3 colorectal cancer survivor, you are really stressing my capacity to avoid soiling myself." Dylan thought, okay I'll humor him and see where this goes. I can always say no and maybe save my arm before it falls off.' Dylan realized that the fight or flight reflex was causing his heart rate and blood pressure into very dangerous numbers and he really needed to take control of the situation. "So..., let's take this into my kitchen and talk. Do you want a beer...? I really need one right now and I got some nice local craft beer chilling in the refrigerator." Oscar finally stopped shaking hands, as Dylan's eyes pointed towards their destination. "What's up with the Monty Python lumberjack outfit or are you like me, stumped on what an Alpaca farmer wears?" Oscar chuckled. "I guess I should've looked in a mirror before I popped in here. A yes on the beer, I'll take the Imperial Spruce Pilsner, you've misplaced it on the lowest shelf in the back, right side." Dylan looked back at him. "Are you showing off or is that what you really want?" Not waiting for a reply, "So, you can read my thoughts or was the beer giving off a Dylan lost me vibe?" "I can catch superficial thoughts and yes I've been hoping to find it on my visits here. My operational guidelines usually don't give me much leeway and yes I am supposed to take whatever offered. Okay, I'll stop reading your thoughts." "Thank you." Dylan stuck his head into the refrigerator and spotted Oscar's beer right where he said it would be. Dylan grabbed the beer and another one for himself. "Do you want a glass or bottle?" "Glass please. So, why I am here...? Would you believe you've got a wish coming to you...? Don't give me that BS meter buried look. The truth is in this cosmos, there are some beings that can pick-up the pain that others are suffering and sometimes they're able to help ease it through vessels like me." So many thoughts ran though Dylan's mind, why me, danger, danger, danger, too good to be true. He looked at Oscar and something struck him hard. 'Listen to him, what the hell do you have to lose at this point?' "Okay, what makes you think I need that sort of help?" Dylan replied with extreme cynicism while setting Oscar's beer and glass in front of him. "Yes, I am a recent widower; I just moved to a farm that I have absolutely no clue how to run, soon to be taking delivery on livestock that I don't know how to take care of, and the hole in my heart, no make that my soul seems to be growing every day." Dylan stopped, so he could hold back the tears that he wanted to shed. 'Why can't I let them out, I'm man and we don't do that, especially in front of another man.' "What did I do deserve a wish?" Dylan's pain wracked his response. Oscar struggled on how best answer. "I cannot answer it directly but I can assure you that with my input, your wish can address most of what you just told me. One of the things that I am trying to do, is give you hope that there is a way forward and from there you can build on it with the faith that there are better days coming with the promise of some speed bumps along the way. It won't be easy." Oscar stopped for a moment; he could see that he had Dylan's full attention. "Remember when you first found out you had cancer, you knew that it was bad but you had a strong belief that you were going to beat it. You used that to have the faith to follow through with the Chemo- Radiation therapy then with a strong conviction, you knew the life changing surgery was no longer needed. Since then you've been cancer- free. Think of this wish as an extension of that faith, I am just the vessel of that hope which will feed your faith." Dylan nodded in agreement. "And how big of wish do I get? I assume solving world hunger is out, what about going back in time, do you get some literary license...?" Dylan drained his first beer, he noticed Oscar's beer was gone, Dylan asked, "Another one?" "Yes, I'll have what you're having, correct on hunger, extremely bad idea and I operate more on the literal side of things," Oscar replied. Dylan started reaching into the refrigerator. "Mr. Blue Sky, a mighty tasty beer, if I do say myself." Three beers later for Dylan, they had worked out the wish. "I think I am ready," looking at Oscar. He nodded for him to proceed. "I wish for a new love of my life, who can help me realize the dream of this farm and be young enough to enjoy it." "So how young is young?" Oscar asked. Dylan blurted out the words. "Surprise me!" "Done!" as Oscar slammed the table. "Waaa..it! I'm too late, right?" For some reason, Dylan blacked out at this point. When he regained consciousness, it was dark; he was in his own bed dressed for sleep. Dylan was very groggy; he was fishing around for his phone to see what time it was. In Dylan's head he could hear Oscar, '(It's 2:30 in the morning, your body had the quite the shock, just go back to sleep and we'll catch-up in the morning.)' 'That sounds like a very good idea,' Dylan yawned, 'is a wish supposed to feel like a flu shot, I am achy all over?' Dylan's head dropped back to the pillow. Once again Oscar replied, '(Not really but it does wipe you out physically sometimes with the type of wish you made.)' 'To be young again, that had to be it,' Dylan thought 'I hope I'm not going back to be a kid again.' '(No, that's not going to happen, I wish it was that simple),' Oscar sighed. 'Great.' Dylan fell back into a deep sleep and the next time he opened his eyes it was pretty bright outside. Nature was beckoning and Dylan headed to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror first thing. "Is that new hair growing up there?" He leaned closer. "Yesss!" Dylan could see the start of lots of brown hair between the few surviving gray hairs that inhabited the top of his head. "My chin seems a bit tighter, looks like I've lost a little weight." He stepped on the scale. "four pounds, not bad." Right then, his bladder reminded him of the real reason he was in here. Dylan could smell coffee and hear somebody moving around in the kitchen. Walking into the kitchen, Dylan spotted Oscar, who was just finishing up some scramble eggs. "I thought you would take off after granting me my wish." The confusion was showing on his face. "Normally I do but I am taking a working vacation, you were excellent host and I feel the need to reciprocate and help you get ready for the transition to Alpaca farmer extraordinaire. We do need to discuss some logistics and some other things too." Dylan grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down at the table, the aroma of ham, onions, and scrambled eggs got his stomach's attention and Dylan was pleased as punch that someone else was doing the cooking. Dylan was about to say something, when there harsh knocking on the back door, and his nearest neighbor Bethany started yelling "Dylan are you in there? We need to talk now!" "Crap, I was hoping for a little more time," Oscar mumbled. Chapter 2 The Unicorn Dylan went to let Bethany in, the look on Oscar's face worried Dylan; Oscar had the look of someone who was going to get verbally blowtorched and on a djinn who just granted you a life changing wish, it is not a good look. As soon as Dylan twisted the door knob, the door flew open, and a rather hot and bothered Bethany stormed right in. Bethany staring directly at Oscar and holding out something that looked like a small wreath of very fragrant flowers. "what is that thing still doing in your home?" Bethany looked directly at Dylan, she stepped back, the color drained from her face. "oh my God what have you done?" Oscar and Dylan both looked at each other like a couple of kids getting caught by mom with hands in the proverbial cookie jar. At this point Dylan did the only thing he could think of 'distract and confuse' and see if he can diffuse the situation. "Well I am starving. Bethany this is Oscar. Do we have enough eggs for Bethany? Bethany, coffee, and if yes how do you take it?" Dylan only met Bethany twice, once while checking out the property and while he was moving in. Dylan started towards the cupboard for coffee cups. Everybody else reacted with Oscar getting another plate for Bethany and Bethany starting towards the table. "I take it black and easy on the eggs for me Oscar, I already had a big breakfast this morning. Oscar, I take it you had something to do with the sudden uptick in magical energy and what have you done to Dylan?" They all sat down at the table with Bethany and Dylan staring at Oscar. "I was just getting around to that but what I tell you now stays between the three of us for now. Dylan was under some sort of spell that compelled him and his wife to buy this farm. Once he moved in, it started a slow moving cascade of spells breaking down the barriers that kept in check the huge reservoir of magical energy that permeates the land here." "So how does Dylan moving here start the unraveling of the wards to prevent the release of this massive reservoir of magical energy...? Did you know he's the seventh son of a seventh son going back five generations? We both shook our heads. "All five were twins with the other the twin being a girl, all five are left handed, and all were born on the Winter Solstice. Somebody went through a lot of trouble to make that happen." Dylan shook his head. "How did I not know this?" "Simple, you were glamored to forget parts of your life, like your birthday which was probably getting lost in the hub bub of Christmas." "You never had a birthday celebration?" Bethany asked sadly. "Not that I can recall," was Dylan's pathetic reply. "Dylan, somebody has been using strong and powerful magic on you in a very subtle way, in how you've lived and who you are. I strongly believe your wife was murdered to put you into a funk, like the one I found you, so that you would stay here. The improbability of your existence is Unicorn like. Your extreme uniqueness belies the fact that you are a living functional magical item with the expressed capability, nay purpose of tapping into this magical energy reserve like nothing else can. That being said, in the process of doing that tapping you are opening it to every magical item and creature for them to exploit it. We also have reason to believe that it opens up pathways to several other planes of existence. You cannot imagine how much potential chaos, destruction and death was caused by your arrival to this area. I am sorry that I have to dump all of this on you." It was quiet for a moment. "Then I should leave immediately," Dylan said with as much conviction as he could muster. Oscar cut me off immediately. "It's too late, in fact it was too late when I arrived, and that is why I had you make the wish the way you did. I feel that in the long term, it will work out for you. You will find love, make this farm a going concern, be young enough to enjoy it and set in motion the means to have that future." - "In the process of making that wish, Bethany here picked up the increase in the flow and came to investigate but her first try came to a screeching halt, once she realized that I was in here with you." Bethany nodded in agreement. "She went back to her house to craft a ward to protect her from me. Fortunately for all here involved, I am not that type of magical creature, right church, wrong pew, I sit in the last row, and that only affects really nice goodie two shoes. I am pretty amoral with slight lean towards the good guys side." Oscar waited a moment to let that last statement sink in before continuing. "So when Bethany barged in here this morning and saw both of us, she freaked that I am still here and one look at your aura screams 'Holy Guacamole!' and that leads us into Dylan's wish. The new love of your life, they're coming, now is just not a good time. The Alpaca farm, what you need to know is getting pumped into brain even as we speak, my compatriots and I will provide the muscle and Bethany will fill in with the practical knowledge, right?" Oscar waited for Bethany to agree which she nodded in agreement. "As for your age, I am dialing you back to about 24 with this caveat; you had another 30 plus years to go on your prior path. That means I can guarantee you making 55 barring any unforeseen circumstances like accidents, going for Darwin award, you get my drift, after that you're playing like you're in Game 7 Hockey overtime, except you can't win the game. Finally the surprise, Bethany I bind you to be silent on this one, in Bethany's mind she heard, '(Aidan's got enough on his plate, beside we have pool going for when he figures it out, care to join?)' "Dylan, part of it is you get to learn how to do magic, the rest of your surprise will become apparent over time. Bethany don't give me that look, Dylan is going to need it big time. I know I shot down the 'get the heck out of Dodge' pretty harshly, here's why, Dylan is unknown entity, no one knows his strengths or weaknesses. We got that working for us but whoever precipitated this event is not going to let Dylan walk away; they will drag him back to make sure that nothing stops the unwinding of the measures protecting this reservoir. So we stay put, keep acting like everything is on track for them, we figure out how to control the release and repel any attempt to grab this land." Dylan looked at Oscar and Bethany. "So this is a holding action with no retreat, is this going to be a big or small unit action, do we have any help coming? "To the last man or person, no clue and yes we have some known help coming with feelers out to some other sources." "What about rendering the energy useless or diminishing its effectiveness, what's our last resort?" "It's too big, we don't know the replenishment rate, the fantasy solution is putting new guards in place, and minimize/stop the flow." "Is there anything to really indicate that whoever is behind this, is acting in a nefarious way or is it pure speculation?" "Nothing solid, though your wife's death was pretty suspicious, whoever started this is playing the long game, incredible smart to find this place and powerful enough to come up and make you their solution. Through very discrete feelers and selective mind reading, we're pretty certain those who you would consider to be good guys aren't even aware of this place." Oscar continued. "now for the real fun Catch-22, for Dylan to practice magic he needs to use said source and that speeds up the process breaking down of the existing guards. I am hoping this will work to our advantage as our best guess is that Dylan can use as much as he wants. First of all we hope to screw up their timing by speeding up the removal of the barrier. Second and more important, this energy is attuned to Dylan making it more efficient for him to use and has an affinity to flow towards him, in other words it will always satisfy his needs first. Bethany, I am hoping your grandmother taught you some really good wards to conceal what we are planning to do here." "She did, my problem has been the maintaining it, most of them are pretty labor intensive and use lots of exotic materials. Wait, how do you know that?" "Oscar can read minds and apparently some telepathic capabilities, I think if you ask him he has to stop, correct?" "While I am not obliged to do so, if asked nicely, I will stop for a while. Dylan, I'm betting you will be able to do the same thing; there is something in your aura that shows you may have it. Bethany what other types of wards did Granny teach you and what about potions?" "For wards, mostly what she called mind your own business, pushes or what I call Jedi mind tricks, and ain't nobody or nothing here. Most of her potions were healing that handle physical, mental and spiritual needs, plus some pretty lame love potions." "That's good to know, I know what you were thinking earlier and I am going to get this out of the way now, we are really going to need your help and I would appreciate anything you can do for this coming storm. I am not sure how I can repay at this point but I have a strong feeling there's going to be a pretty special reward at the end." '(Now I'll ask the real fun question, how good is your shape shifting and transformation magic?)' '(Both are good under the right circumstances, again duration is my biggest issue as they both use a lot of energy to sustain them. Granny told me my efficiencies were bad and if I could ever get them figured out, I could basically do it for as long as I wanted to do it. I can use my transformation powers on other people, easy stuff on a short term basis.)' Dylan looked at both of them. "So trading little secrets, eh?" They both looked at him; the blush on Bethany's face confirmed it, along with Oscar's smirk. '(Busted, though I am sure if you ask Bethany nicely she will probably share or show you.) Dylan was not sure if it was possible but Bethany's blush went up a notch and spread to her upper chest area. "You keep talking about my aura what's that all about and why is it so jacked up?" "The aura is the energy that surrounds each one of us; think of it as your soul, it shows to those of us who can see it your current state in the cosmos. In your case, you are in transition from a 62 to a 24 year old person, that you're growing capable of wielding magic and somewhere in there I see an Alpaca farmer. It is also shows the turmoil of what you just learned, your loss, the reawakening of hope, and the dashes of faith. Finally, for a lack of a better term, your Unicorn element which is scrambling up everything, most of us have a fairly coherent one that is easy to read, you... All I can say is my brain hurts when I look at your aura. Bethany, do you have anything to add?" "I see a really faint thread of magic running from him to another room. Dylan, is it alright if I check it out?" Bethany was already walking out of the kitchen. "Yeah, I guess so, sorry for the mess." Dylan shrugged his shoulder at Oscar and started following Bethany with Oscar in tow. They end up outside his bedroom door. "In there?" "Yep, right in here." Dylan nodded for her to go in. Bethany opened the door, they all piled in, and she looked straight at the night stand. "It's your watch, can you see it now Oscar? The thread seems a bit more stronger and definitely has some dark vibes to it" "Nothing, let's leave it alone and have Charles look at it. Dylan do not touch it until we've had a chance to properly examine it. I would suggest you sleep in the spare bedroom tonight. Okay, nothing like a stealth magical item to feed the paranoia. We're going to need a full sweep the house and the immediate grounds. Do you remember how you acquired the watch?" "Sort of, my wife and I got them as anniversary gifts from our kids through a friend of the family, who for the life of me, I cannot remember." "Know that we know, somebody has put at least one item that is affecting Dylan in close proximity. We're going to do a little search for other magical things. Bethany, you seem to have a gift for spotting them and since you know what some wards look like. I suggest you and I take a walk around the immediate grounds. I will take the place of Dylan for this recon. Dylan, I am going to ask you stay inside for now and to keep you entertained, I got a video that I want you to watch and practice the focus exercise that it contains. Can I please borrow your wedding ring?" "I guess what do you need it for?" Dylan started to pull it off. "It will be easier for me to show you." "Okay, my curiously is piqued." Dylan handed it over to Oscar. He held it for a moment and he then whispered something to it. The ring started to glow and Oscar slipped it on. The glow continued for a moment and then stopped. Nothing happened for a moment, and then Oscar started to shrink, his face melted for second, the hair started to thin out, and go gray. Dylan blinked his eyes and he was looking at himself. Dylan smiled. "Impressive." Oscar pointed to Bethany. "Let's get ready, Dylan give us a minute and meet us in the kitchen. It's okay now." Dylan walked into the kitchen and the blinds were all closed. "Let me pop back into my home and grab a couple of things for our tour." A small pop and he was gone. Dylan looked at Bethany. "I bet that you weren't expecting to get dragooned into something as wild as this today?" Bethany couldn't make eye contact with Dylan for some reason and started to reply. "I'm not sure, I had already made a promise to myself to help my widower neighbor as much as I could and your wife reminded me so much of my mom. I was really looking forward to doing mother-daughter stuff with her. To borrow a phrase from Apocalypse Now 'But one look at you, and I know it's going to be hot.' You're wondering where that came from, well you can thank Granny for that piece of movie arcane. Yes, your aura is hot mess, your drinking buddy is dragging us both into something that's way over our heads and he's holding back info to both of us. I knew when you made your wish; there was a serious spike of magic, and since then levels coming from the area have increased noticeably. I am seeing and feeling faint traces of the reservoir that he is talking about. So on these points he is telling the truth but how did he know to come here in the first place and it appears he has had some time to come up with plan." A small pop announced Oscar's return; "okay we're just about ready to go, here Bethany use these sunglasses. I am hoping they can enhance your vision for spotting magical items, things that seem strange or out of place. Dylan here's a tablet with your first lesson in magic and can you step out the kitchen while we go outside, my gut is telling me that this place is under some sort of observation and seeing two of you is going to raise whoever's interest." Dylan moved to the hallway and listened to Bethany and Oscar leave the house. Dylan moved back into the kitchen and looked at the tablet that Oscar left me. He noticed the video start button and pushed it. The opening monologue lets you know R. Lee Emery's spirit lives on through a Djinn named Delta, who was the instructor. That Dylan learned anything is still open for debate. Chapter 3 More Truth Bethany and Oscar proceed to walk towards the barn, once he felt comfortable Oscar started talking. "Do you see anything?" "Nothing so far," was Bethany's reply. "Bethany, we both know that I am withholding a lot of information from both of you, so just hear me out. For you, a lot of it has to deal with the fact that I don't want to put you in a position where you have to choose sides and to be blunt you would be a liability in a fight, as you don't have the right skills and I doubt you can you live with shedding blood. Yes it will come down to that. You're a healer and protector; I am betting Granny put some of those wards out to hide this site. My guess they were the type that kept the curious away and you two had nothing to do with the disappearances over the last 50 years, correct?" "You would be amazed at the amount of instantaneous cases of poison ivy, Granny and I dealt with over the years," Bethany chuckled. "The disappearances are another matter with at least two dozen people never being heard from again. Funny thing, cows, sheep, and alpacas nothing, dogs would occasionally come back all cut up and never leave the immediate vicinity of their house ever again. People complained about cats arching their backs and hissing at something outside of their house on really pitch dark nights." "Granny, at times would put extra wards around the house, it would always be around Halloween and the two Solstices. Several times, she would stop whatever she was doing and call me to stand near her. Once both of our wards glowed and something was scratching the side of our house. We didn't find anything in the morning but all of the wards in the house were spent with not a lick of magic among them. Granny and I scrambled to create new ones to protect us and to sell to the tourist." Oscar stopped for a moment and looked at Bethany. "Can you do me a favor and just a quick visual sweep of the area, then say flip and do the same thing?" Bethany completed her sweep and said "flip. Wow, I assume the glasses are looking for other things, correct?" Oscar nodded. Bethany was just about done with the second sweep, when she stopped and said "what the hell? I see a beam of light coming from old man Thompson's woods and it appears to go towards Dylan's house." "Let's continue to walk around and will investigate as part of our tour. Let's step inside the barn for a moment." The two continued their walk and entered the barn. "I keep thinking we're under some sort of observation and hopefully we can talk a bit more freely. So, the mystery continues to grow, what about Old Man Thompson?" "He's a nice gentleman, very solid in the community and always willing to lend a hand. That could also be asshole Mac Dowel's land; I am not sure where the property lines are in that direction. Granny and Mac Dowel had some sort of run in; I think magic was involved, as Mac Dowel has some talent in that area. I remember several times where I thought they would come to blows, she warned me never have anything to do with him and if I ever started to learn curses, to try them all out on him. She told me that he was just pure evil." "Okay, remind me never to get on your bad side." Oscar missed the glare that Bethany gave him; his remark steeled her resolve about giving Oscar a piece of her mind about what he had done to Dylan. Once the pair was in the barn, a very pissed Bethany rounded on Oscar. "how the hell I am supposed to deal with the elephant sitting in that kitchen? What you did was so wrong and you're not going to say anything." Before she could continue, Oscar mumbled something, and Bethany froze in place. "Right, my bad for joking about it with the ongoing pool, however there are Many lives at stake here including you, me and that elephant in that kitchen there. I am not sure how much you know about the way magic works but what we're sitting on is the common currency that powers all of them, be it blood, lifeforce, necromancy, and direct energy. That Unicorn in there was defenseless unable to use the magical energy until I granted him his wish, I gave him a fighting chance, by allowing him to wield that energy, and dramatically improving our odds of survival, so that we can all enjoy long happy lives." "Now listen, I don't answer to you, my clients have given me free rein to handle this problem because the blowback on this if it is not controlled will expose the whole world to fact that magic does exist. Every magic item and artifact within a 300 mile radius will be hit with a sustained wave of energy allowing any idiot to wield them or better yet some will self-activate doing random acts of magic. Anybody with a lick of magic ability will experience a ten-fold increase in their capabilities whether they're good, evil or indifferent. Imagine what they will do with all of that power and no restraints. Some of the scenarios, have the government figuring out where all of this coming from, starting a nasty little ground war, leading right up to a nuclear strike which under the right circumstances leads to a twenty-fold enhancement of the blast and resultant radioactive fallout." "Dylan is already a casualty of this little war with the loss of his wife and being held here as a prisoner to do someone's dirty work. His transformation is a necessary sacrifice but I promise to do everything possible to make what he calls his mulligan, as a means to forget his pain and gain some measure of happiness for the remainder of his years. I was hoping to put this off and bring you both onboard when the timing was better." Oscar blinked and Bethany was free again. "Now that you know what is at stake here, will you help?" Bethany struggled for a moment to answer. "How do you know all of this, I am just small time witch seriously what can I do to make a difference? Granny always told me that I would be needed, if people ever learned what was hidden here. I guess this is what she was talking about." Bethany looked at Oscar, and then to his eyes, she could see his fear, doubt, and resolve. Bethany's memories of Granny came back to her with Granny telling her that she is special and needs to be ready as a guide and healer for something big. Bethany realized this is what Granny was preparing her for and now it was her time to answer the call. Bethany smiled. "I am all in." Oscar's sigh of relief broke the tension between them. Oscar made a move towards hugging Bethany paused. "I really need hug, okay?" Bethany nodded, moved closer and reached up to complete the hug. "As for how do I know all of this...? Let's just say, several parties who have interest and probably involvement through creating, containing this cluster puck have engaged my team to fix it. Again, I remind you with very wide latitude on how to address it and if possible terminate the perp responsible for lighting the fuse in the first place. As for the last part of the contract, I am not holding my breath, while I have my suspicions; they're smart enough to not be directly connected to this and will have at least have a couple of patsies available to take the fall. So, now that we've basically let the cat out of the bag, is there anything in here that we should be worried about?" Oscar chuckled. Bethany walked around for a couple of minutes and then said, "Flip." She then continued for a couple of minutes, finally looking at Oscar. "we're in luck, there are a couple of Granny's wards in here and they're still working. When did she place them in here and what didn't she show me to make them last?" "Leave them in place, we can have Charles can look at them when he arrives, and he can show you some tricks that will improve your wards and potions. I've trusted him many times with my existence and I am still here. Now, let's go check that beam of light. Make sure you don't point at it or do anything that might alert somebody that we're on to it." The two left the barn and started heading towards the other side of the house, '(Is it still there?)" '(Yes and it appears to be hitting Dylan's bedroom window. I've looked twice and I still cannot spot whatever is making the beam.)' '(Okay, when I tell you, look in the general direction of where the item might be located but don't home in on it and while you're at it if you can please point in the direction of where the Thompson's and Mac Dowel's places are located, I would appreciate it, annnd now!)' Bethany pointed. "Thompson is over there and Mac Dowel's place is in that direction." '(Nicely done, the glasses are in record mode right now and hopefully we should be able to figure out what that beam of light is doing.)' "Okay let's finish up and go in the front door." The pair completed their tour and entered through the front of the house. Once inside they headed to the kitchen where they found Dylan. "Well, we found a couple more mysteries," Oscar announced. "First, you have a beam of light coming from the woods and it is hitting your bedroom window, another reason for you to sleep in another room. Next, Bethany's Granny left several wards in your barn, all of which are still active, when they shouldn't be working. I see you finished your first class, how was it?" Dylan laughed. "I am amazed your tablet still works, Delta reminded me of my second day in bootcamp, when we came back from lunch, my sleeping rack was tipped over and my bedding was scattered all over the floor. I was ordered to pick up my bedding and reassemble my rack. While I was doing that, the company commander questioned my manhood, why I hadn't been aborted and how such screw up could be allowed in his navy. Delta opening monologue puts that to shame and she doesn't back off through the whole class. Somehow I was supposed to learn how to mediate to renew my magical energy faster and increase my capacity to store more energy. Amazingly, it worked, I was so emotionally wiped out that I was able to shut everything out and concentrate on pulling in the energy. She brilliant! Just kidding, I honestly don't know if it worked, all I know is that I was able to forget everything until you came back in." "She does have a way to get your attention, I am not sure when but you're going to be doing some one-on-one training with her soon." Oscar picked up the tablet and looked at Bethany, 'can I have the glasses? I want to get the recording over to Charles ASAP. Bethany, I think it is time for you to leave. Here's a burner phone, I let Charles know to contact you in one hour. You two can discuss the recordings. He going to get you started on making some more wards, we need to have the energy release appear to follow what we've simulated. Finally, I need you to go out the front door and wander around out front for a couple of minutes; you need to pretend to be looking for something. I am hoping you will distract the observer, while I try and look at the light device." "Dylan, you can you peek out the front windows a couple of times, to watch Bethany and add more distractions for our observer. I am sneaking upstairs to put some eyeballs and one or two other devices on it. So give me a minute." A small pop and Oscar disappeared. "Bethany, I feel you know a lot more about what's going on, as you are not pushing back on Oscar and your coloring is a bit paler, since you went outside with him." Again, she avoided his eyes. "Dylan, I am all onboard now and with the stuff we found outside, convinced me that Oscar has our best interest in mind. We've got a lot of stuff coming our way and to borrow the over used sports clich?, we need to take this one day at a time. I expect Oscar will have something for you to do this afternoon. I will catch up with you two soon and when it's just you and me please call me Beth from now on; we're in this to the end." Dylan was about to ask her what she meant by her last statement, when the pop announced Oscar's return. His face told Dylan to not go there. "here Bethany put this in anyone of the empty ports on your PC, it will adapt to fit, and will allow Charles and you to have secure communications by whatever method you use. I am going to ask you to make sure you ask Charles to help you make a ward that will track what goes on with in your house. I am assuming you weren't on their radar until this visit, I expect at some point soon that will change, we need to know when, how and what did they leave behind at your house. We may want to cover any out building close to the house and frequently used too. Dylan, you will be practicing some more meditation and playing farmer this afternoon in case anybody was wondering. So is everyone ready to play?" "Beth, let me show you to the front door and Oscar give us the green light." Bethany and Dylan went to the front door and waited. She looked at Dylan strangely for a second, started a weak smile, her eyes finally met mine and her smile lit up her face. "I can see several seeds of hope and you?re still a hot mess." "Ready!" bellowed Oscar. "Do you think, he listening in to all of our conversations?" Dylan asked. "Assume yes until we have proof to the contrary," whispered Bethany. She grabbed Dylan for a bear hug which threw him for a very pleasant loop. He held her for a second or two longer than what he normally would for anybody but his wife and kids. "You better go now or Oscar will start chaperoning us." Bethany snorted. "Funny, he strikes me as somebody who would want to join in." Dylan opened the front door and Bethany stepped out in to the promised sunlight, she lingered for a moment, then she started walking away, she caught Dylan watching her, and they both renewed their smiles, it was time to close the door. Dylan went to the window in the front room. he could see her again, she was looking around and something caught her eye. Dylan could hear Oscar in his head, ?(Bethany, I am not sure why we missed it, please stop staring at it and move on. Dylan shift windows).? Theu both moved as requested, Bethany dawdled for a moment longer and headed down the road to her house. Chapter 4 The rest of a long day (for all of us it was) Dylan went back into the kitchen to clean up the breakfast dishes and wait for Oscar to bring him up to speed. He was just about done with the cleaning when the TV went on and volume was turned up, Oscar walked in, he did not look happy, and appeared to be talking to somebody. "Charles, you need to start working with her now! I need some of that stuff yesterday as we are under some serious surveillance. Yes, our intelligence people failed again, color me surprised on them getting anything right on this one. Okay I?ll calm down. Yes and both of you need to be here in the next 72 hours. Apologize to Brits and get the Killer Bs to take over and finish it out. Hear anything from Sis or the D.O.A.? That?s good to hear and yeah that really was a bad idea on you granting the wish on Greek Fire but it didn?t fall outside of our guidelines. So you get your wrist slapped, we make peace with them and make sure you don?t get thrown in the sin bin. Gotta go and the clock started for both of you." Oscar smiled. "okay let?s play farmer and see if anything is sticking in that noggin of yours." Oscar than shook his head no while opening and closing his hand in the universal signal for talking. Dylan pointed to the door, Oscar nodded yes and then in his head ?(when we get outside nothing but farm talk until we make our way to the barn.)? They stepped outside; Dylan started thinking, ?What the hell do I know about Alpacas?? Suddenly, his brain felt like a 2 by 4 hit it and then the 4 years of studying Agriculture at MSU came spilling in. "Okay Oscar, I am glad we still have a couple of weeks before they arrive, follow me." Dylan headed over to feeding area. "We?re going to need to change up the feeding troughs and will need more gallon buckets for their water. I am still trying to figure the easiest way to move the hay over here and will need to set-up a station for cleaning their water buckets. The fencing on the other side of this area is too low and the holes need to be smaller. I remember some of the pasture fence has the same construct type low and big holes. Let?s check out the barn." They walked over to the barn, Oscar knowing smirk, showed how much his mood had improved. As they entered the barn, Dylan continued. "We?re going to need a lot of stuff in here. No leads, halters or blankets, scale needs to be replaced, more of everything to clear the manure out of here and I need to ask Bethany about who?d she recommend for vet services." "Very impressive Dylan, now do you want Good or Bad news first? "Bad," Dylan replied. "Okay, the beam of light combines high-tech electronics and magic and is some sort of transmitter-receiver. Your watch is reporting back on your mental-spiritual state and at the same time it is feeding bad vibes to keep you in a funk. Good news, it is offline right now because you?re not wearing your watch. Next bad piece of news, there is some sort magical device sitting near the chimney, its purpose is unknown at this time and we think some of the rooms are bugged. Sort of good new, Charles believes that everything is keyed to the watch to minimize power requirements and detection, he thinks it is all offline, we won?t know until he gets here. That means you need to stay away from the watch, until Bethany and Charles come up with effective counter- measures. Now for the really bad new, all of this stuff that we?re finding is way over the top for something like this. This narrows the list of suspects to one hand, all of them extremely bad and in a couple of cases life and death desperate. I suspect we will have visitors soon to investigate why the gear is offline and how to rectify it. We caught a break with you taking off the watch, prior to you meeting me." Dylan thought for moment. "That watch was so comfortable that I never even noticed it, yesterday for some reason it really felt annoying and I couldn?t wait to get it off. As for the rest of the stuff, wow, you are Mister Sunshine." "I just wanted you to know what we?re up against. Now what?s going on between Beth and you?" "I could ask you the same question, she was lukewarm about helping, she comes back from the walk around, and she is committed to the end. What?s that all about?" Dylan waited for an answer. "Simple, I knew her commitment was at best lacking. I talked to her as one practitioner to another and explained the fallout of an uncontrolled release of the magic energy on an unsuspecting world. Until last night, did you believe in magic?" Dylan shook his head no. "That little shock you felt when you picked up my portal was a spell to keep you calm and take the edge off of what happened last night. Now think, what would happen to everyone within a 300 mile radius, if everything magical starts going crazy." "Bad, very bad, bat shit crazy bad," was Dylan?s stunned reply. "Aptly put. Bethany started to remember things that Granny told her and realized that this was her destiny. In both of your cases, you were born and thrusted into to these roles. Now I need you to tread carefully with Bethany, as the path she and her Granny took tore apart her family. Both of her siblings blame her for their parent?s deaths and she is still dealing with that undeserved guilt. Finally, I am not sure if she will remember but Charles, use to occasionally work with Granny, and none of us knew about the magic then as Granny was quite tight-lipped about the place." Dylan waited a moment. "She seems committed to the cause now, and she mentioned several seeds of hope are in my aura, are they really growing? Oscar squinted for a second as he looked at Dylan. "Yes!" "Otherwise I am still a hot mess," Dylan added. Oscar chuckled. "I don?t see it ever working itself out, people who can see auras will to an extent are always going to freak when they see you. In fact, you can expect to be called some rather nasty names before this is all over. Can we walk the rest of the property, confirm the fencing issue and just see if they?re any other surprises? While we are walking, talk about Alpacas and Sports only, don?t point to anything odd, if something does come up, just talk about taking a bio break and finally enjoy the sunlight." The walk was pretty uneventful, though they did see the issue with the fence in several spots, it seemed like the prior owner was just putting up temporary fixes just to sell the place. Dylan noticed a strange mound with a couple of antennas sticking out of it; Oscar mentally informed him that it was the surveillance device. Dylan noted that it was on Old Man Thompsons? property, they both noted that it was an easy fence hop from Mac Dowel?s property; it was then that Dylan noticed the same temporary fencing between their properties. Once Dylan got back close to the house, something clicked and he asked Oscar to head over to the barn. Dylan wanted to let Oscar know his suspicions and check the loft. Dylan expected Oscar to lay out the ground rules back in the house. When they were in the barn Dylan started. "I have a sneaky suspicion that the temporary fence serves two purposes, to help whoever find their way around and hide when they do access an area. The more I think about it, the fence can easily be disconnected from the post and swung back to allow wheeled vehicle access if needed, and no one being the wiser." "I?m glad you figured that out, I knew something was off, I just couldn?t put it together. I know that you are new to the magic world and sometimes a fresh set of eyes can really make a difference. You probably saw them but you didn?t realize those piles of leaves at the base of the trees around the surveillance device were probably wards to protect it or warn the owner." Dylan interrupted. "Hmmm, now that you mentioned there seemed to be a lot of squirrel and bird nests up in the trees around it, same things?" Oscar gave me a look. "probably, that means were not going to get anywhere near it without making them aware of us toying with it. We?re going to have to hack the stuff in the house. As for going back in the house, we can talk about Food, Booze, Sports, and Alpacas. You will take your meditation class with headphones. Bed time is early tonight, okay?" Dylan nodded in agreement. "Still need to check the loft?" "As a matter of fact, yes, I believe the access to get up there is over here. I just hope I can squeeze through the trapdoor; it was quite a pain the last time. Okay, need to fix or replace the ladder, strange I remember this ladder being in much better shape." Oscar stopped me, mumbled something and the steps were mended. "Much better, thanks." Dylan started up the ladder, getting through the trapdoor seemed a little easier, he stopped to look around, he remembered where the light switch was located, and flicked it on. Dylan was stumped for a moment, things had been moved, He thought to myself why? Oscar?s head popped up through the door. "What?s the matter?" "Some of the farm gear has been moved, bales of hay unstacked, almost like someone is hiding something up here. Another mystery, there?s some extra electrical wiring coming out of the light switch and amazing coincidence the redistributed hay is covering wherever the heck it is going. Here give me a hand moving the bales." They started moving the bales, exposing the wiring as they went; finally they tracked it to the original stacks hay. "I detect some magic in those bales, we need to be careful," Oscar said with a hesitant voice. Working together and slowly they moved more bales, the wire exposed lead to a black box with several cables running out the other side, two more bales and we found two video cameras pointing towards the house, the magic was hiding the holes that were in the barn wall. They took pictures of the cameras and the black box and then put the bales back to cover the cameras and left the box exposed. Dylan still wanted to walk around and let Oscar know. A couple of minutes later, he realized all of the gear up here was not needed and could probably sell most of it. "Oscar, I am done up here and we go back to the house as planned?" "Dylan, we need to keep up appearances, so yes and we will still do as planned. Though, I do need to let Charles know about our latest find. This we can take care of pretty easily. I know we?ve missed lunch, so let me get started on dinner and you can get back to your studies." They headed back to the house, Dylan grabbed the tablet, and Oscar set him up with his second session. Dylan heard a pop and knew that Oscar was gone. The second session had a much calmer Delta and again Dylan was not sure how much I learned, as he kept drifting in and out of sleep. Next thing he knew the screen was blank and he had a little drool on the left side of his face. Oscar popped in a moment later and the smells coming from the kitchen told Dylan that dinner was just about on. With everything that had gone on today, Dylan felt that he had earned a beer and lo he could hear Oscar pulling a couple of beers out of the refrigerator. Dylan moved to the kitchen and there were a couple of carryout boxes of Chinese sitting on the table. "Normally I?d said you?ve read my mind, in this case I would be right." Dylan?s growling stomach confirmed the choice of food. They sat down to eat; it was quiet, as we were both inhaling our food. ?(Dylan, these types of transformations affect everyone differently, in your case the napping and appetite will be feast or famine both are pretty typical and will continue until it is done.)? Dylan looked at Oscar. "I am thinking we need to go into town in the next day or two for the supplies that we need for the Alpacas. Possibly, connect with the vet based on Bethany?s recommendation. Get human food and we need to get better clothing and gear for ourselves. Also, I need to drop in on the realtor and find out what happen to the trailer to haul the animals around." The beer hit Dylan a bit harder than he thought he was fighting to stay awake. This happened to him before when he had mono and after his chemo-radiation therapy; he called it his zombie sleep. "Oscar I am really sorry but I am starting to feel wiped out, I am heading to the spare bedroom, and call it a night. I am not sure what if you had anything else on tap, can we pick it up in the morning, and I hope the extra rest will help." "I think we should plan on taking things slow for the rest of this week. You did pretty good today Dylan Moore, Alpaca Farmer Extraordinaire. I agree with everything you listed. I am going to Bethany?s place to ask her some more questions about the property." In my head, ?(I am going to put a ward on the house while I am out. If you wake up and I am not around, you should be able to go in and out of the house with no problems. If you find yourself locked out, say "I need a Bio Break.")? Dylan nodded yes and gave Oscar the thumbs up. Dylan dragged himself upstairs, dressed for sleep, went to bathroom to finish his preparations, and looked in the mirror. "More hair, excellent!" The bed called him, he crawled under the covers, he forgot how good the mattress was, and that was his last thought. Oscar stepped out the front door, normally he would use the portal but the ward he was he was putting on the house would stop anyone from trying to pop in. So he had to go caveman and hike over to Bethany?s. He looked over to the barn to see what sort of blind spots the video cameras may have. Somebody had done a good job; there was very little cover for Oscar to use. Even when he found some cover, he still had the feeling that he was under observation. It was then that he looked across the road, the neighbor on the other side was a big conglomerate farming operations, and very little was known about them. Again, there was that temporary looking fence, done better, a closer match to the fencing left and right of it, and this time there was no effort to hide the fact that a wheeled vehicle had come through it. Oscar started thinking, ?Going to need more info on them. I am glad I didn?t need to slip Dylan anything to make him go to sleep. The Unicorn is already surprising me, his first day of transformation and he is already showing the ability to access and store magical energy, that shouldn?t be happening. I?m glad Delta is coming soon; hopefully she can figure it out and adjust our training. I need to make her aware that I see two elements in his aura. Charles is going to have to put some aerial observation up tonight. I hope we can at least secure the inside of Dylan?s house from all of the surveillance. We?re going to need to pick up our battlefield preparations and plan for something bigger than anything we gamed for so far. We?ll need to cast a bigger net for Allies to help us. Finally, we need to renegotiate our contracts. Focus, so the three of us have a long night ahead of us; I pray Granny taught Bethany well, and that she lives up to her family?s reputation. We?ll just focus on securing the house tonight and getting our surveillance started. I got to start exercising again. It?s too early for mosquitos. I am glad there?s very little traffic on this road and I probably should have checked the weather before I left the house. This night is going to suck big time.? Oscar doing a great imitation of drowned rat arrived at Bethany?s house, just as he tried to knock on the door, it swung open, and there was Charles. "Great you here, we need you to run out and get a couple of things. Now the items in green need to be still living, the things in red you?re probably to have to steal or leave an I.O.U., and finally the items in bold red require you to hunt them down for a lock of their hair." "You?re talking a vampire and werewolf, seriously," Oscar whined. "Oh I forgot the full cup of freely given fairy dust. Think you can manage that in the next 30 minutes?" "Sure, I bet we can put all of this in our expense report too." The sarcasm dripped from Oscar?s reply. Charles stopped for moment and said, "Probably, just need to put it in the right context." Bethany popped in from another room, holding her hands like a surgeon who just cleaned their hands. "I don?t suppose Dylan came with you, we could really use an extra set of hands?" Oscar shook his head no. "Probably just as well, okay Charles what?s next?" Bethany told Dylan about the craziness the three of them endured, for Charles and her they finished up just after sunrise, Oscar took the completed items back to the house and placed them in their designated areas. Dylan got up just as Oscar finished setting the last ward. "Dylan, don?t? touch anything, work on your To-Do list and look-up everything on the Happy Brothers partnership, A.K.A. your neighbors across the road. Bethany will be over sometime in the afternoon and we will all go into town. You?re on your own for Breakfast and Lunch. By the way, your welcome and goodnight." ?Pop,? and Dylan was left to his own devices. Chapter 5 First week in transition Day 2 Breakfast and Lunch were light, Dylan found very little on the Happy Brothers and the trip into town was cut short by his need to take another zombie nap. Bethany asked Oscar if Dylan was alright and he told her that this was to be expected. They were able to get some of the items needed for the Alpacas, the rest of it should arrive at the farm in the next couple of days. Bethany and Oscar did some food shopping and picked up some items to make more wards, while Dylan napped. They also found out the realtor had taken the trailer to her place to keep it out of the hands of the prior owners kids. While they were talking to her they mentioned Happy Brother, her answer seemed canned, and that?s when both noticed that something was hiding in her aura. So they had another mystery on our hands. On the way home, Dylan could barely hear Bethany and Oscar talking about regardless of the emergency, no more stealing in our own backyard. Bethany told Oscar, she will figure out how to get some replacements for the pilfered items and she would appreciate if he could sneak the stuff back. Dylan was awake by then and was about to ask them about pilfered items, when Bethany asked about locks of hair from Vampires and Werewolves. "Let?s just say I used up a few favors, good news for us is that we?re still on the right side of the ledger with both of them." Oscar turned towards Dylan. "hey sleepy head, what?s with the hat?" "More hair came in and the surviving gray ones look rather silly. As you can see the side hair is definitely changing from grey to several shades of brown. I lost another 10 pounds, great, the funny thing is all my clothes still fit. Hey I am going to look like my 24 year old self, can we tweak somethings, I assuming all of my medical issues will go away and I?ll have a clean bill of health, right?" Oscar looked over at Bethany for a second, then Dylan. "As to what you are going to look like, that?s a work in progress as I am trying to fit a narrative here. You?re going to be your own offspring, the youngest child of Michelle and Aidan Moore, who will take over running the farm, when you disappear chasing a mail order bride in Miami. It was always expected for you to help your parents, especially now with your widower father as he struggles to make a go of it. Medically speaking, you?ll be in primo shape, though I do hope that you do a better job this time around. So, go easy on the BBQ, layoff the bacon and no mystery meats. I don?t think you have to worry too much about exercise while you stay on the farm. The plan is to confuse the watch surveillance by having Dylan chase a new love; we have been exchanging correspondence with a Sister of the Djinn posing as a Chinese mail order bride in Miami who?s just become available. Someone posing as you will take the watch and truck down there to meet said bride at a hotel. You, the watch and truck will fall off the grid and eventually parts of your truck show up in a chop shop and the watch will pop up in pawn shop. You will be out of the area while this is going on and bring back the truck modified to have an updated look, different registration, new VIN. This way we get the watch out of the house, we give everyone a plausible explanation to your disappearance and introduce the new you. Bethany can introduce the new you to the community. We still have one problem." Dylan spoke. "Let me guess, my hot mess aura, right?" Oscar nodded yes and continued. "The amount of magic needed to obscure your aura, cannot be sustained very long and brings attention to the fact some major league magic is going on with your body." Dylan asked Oscar, "Why obscure, wouldn?t be it easier to project something else? I am sure there?s lots of stuff in my aura that you could amplify and we can make me look like something we want people to see." Oscar thought for a moment. "Maybe, Bethany what do you think?" Bethany looked back at me. "Well there are a lot of fun things to work with, and I would need to consult with Charles. We need to decide what we want to project, though the really good aura readers will see through it anyway and whatever we use in charm-ward there is a lot of oddball stuff you cannot hide. Silly question, how do we handle Dylan?s kids, especially when he disappears down in Florida, we can?t blame it on Florida Man?" Dylan looked at both of them. "I can?t do this to them, they?re innocent in all of this, and I know it will devastate them. Their mother is barely in the ground, apparently murdered, I know that we all took her death very hard, she was the rock we all used as a foundation that allowed all of us to grow and thrive which made all of us kinder loving overall better people than what we could?ve ever had done on our own." Dylan stopped for second and realized he was crying, he tried to stop it but that made it worse and then he felt it, his grief and anger leaving him, and in its place hope, faith, and love surged through his body. He was so consumed by this spiritual cleansing, that he did not notice that Oscar had pulled the truck over; Bethany was sitting next to him and holding on to him like her life depended on it. Something strange was going on until Dylan realized, she was having the same experience with her parent?s death. He knew that we were reinforcing each other?s hopes for a better day. Out of the corner of his eyes he caught Oscar wiping a tear away from his eye. "I want to write them a goodbye letter and give them hope that we will get back together one day. Is there any way to magically put something in there that only they can trigger that gives them hope about seeing me one day in the future and that I am not lost to them?" Bethany hesitated for a second. "I am fairly certain Charles and I can come up with something, okay?" Dylan smiled. "thank you, I?d appreciate anything you can do; I just can?t leave them hanging when I disappear." Oscar started the truck back-up again and moved us back on the road. "By the way, should I be coming up with a name for the new and younger me?" Both of them gave Dylan the look like he just released a real nasty one." Oscar finally spoke up. "I need you to concentrate your magic classes, prepping the farm for the Alpacas, and writing your letter. We?ll have a couple of brainstorming session for a new name later on this week or early next week. Okay?" "Sure," Dylan replied. ?I need to get Bethany alone and ask her what?s going on,? Dylan thought to himself. "By the way, Charles did a sweep while we were out and your house is secure now, so we can talk freely in there now. He has set-up a tunnel for our portal only and warded the house so no one can magically pop in. Just outside the house that?s different story and something that needs to be addressed. Bethany?s place will get the same treatment and Charles will stay with her. Eventually we will configure the portals for non- magical beings to pass through them. Dylan you may be able to use it now, we will need to test later on this week and show you how to use it." By now, they pulled up to Bethany?s house and dropped her off. "Oscar, give me a couple of days for the replacement items, okay?" Oscar leaned over to the passenger window. "Sure that works, most of that stuff was pretty obscure and I doubt anyone will notice them missing." "Besides Mac Dowel who noticed by the way and now the Sheriff put out an alert for people to lock their doors. This was a safe place until you two came along," Bethany chuckled and disappeared into her house. Dylan jumped up to the front passenger seat. "You need to tell me what mischief you got into last night and what?s all that talk about Vampires and Werewolves?" "Let?s talk about last night at dinner and pray that the Vampires and Werewolves stay out of this one." The talk at dinner was interesting, Dylan found out the area is overrun with fairies, and they really don?t like him but pitched in any. Oscar felt that the Vampires and Werewolves would stay clear of this, as the magical energy was useless to them and could be used to hurt or kill them. It was another early evening for both of us, Dylan saw more hair with most of it at least a half inch long and another 5 pounds lost. Day 3 Still sleeping in the spare room, going near the watch is forbidden and there was Delta standing at the foot of Dylan?s bed. The word abomination was rolling through his head and it was on her face. "Good morning," Dylan smiled at her, Delta?s eyes shifted to his face and her face shifted to a less disturbed state. A very chilled. "Good morning," was her reply, she continued. "I let Oscar know you?re awake." Once she left the room, Dylan got up with no aches, ?that?s a good start,? he thought to himself. After taking his morning leak, he looked in the mirror. ?Huzzah, the hair is coming in great, strange still no sign of weight loss in his face, gut is looking pretty good though. He took a shower; he started prepping to shave when he realized there was no need to do it. ?Hmmm, that?s strange the only time that happens is when I go a week, then shave, I can sometime get away with no shaving for a day but I?ve been shaving every day.? He noticed his chest looked a little strange, it?s just not clicking as to what?s the issue, ?may be the weight loss is hitting there, goodbye man boobs, that I can survive,? he snickered. A knock on the door interrupted his inspection. It had to be Oscar. "Dylan we?re going with two sessions for training today and another walk round the farm with Charles playing the role of Bethany, okay?" "Sounds good," Dylan replied. The training session was sheer torture, Delta?s extreme contempt for Dylan, threw him for a loop, and it never let up during the whole session. He was emotionally wasted when they were done. The walk around revealed very little, though Charles felt he could address the cameras in the barn. He was stumped by whatever was up on the roof. He did think it was somebody else?s gear and that added another mystery to the growing list. Dylan slipped in a zombie nap after the walk around and felt a little better prepared for the afternoon training session. Amazingly, Delta had another level of contempt that Dylan didn?t know existed; He barely survived, and shocked that he did not need stitches for his tongue. He came to realize his best play was a yes or no answer and that was all she was going to get out of him. It was just Oscar and Dylan for dinner, there was no sign of Delta and Dylan?s face showed the extreme relief he was enjoying with her absence. Oscar didn?t have to read my mind to know what was going on with Delta and me. One more look at Dylan, he looked like he wanted to say something, finally he cleared his throat. "Delta is a very complex person; I?ve known her for almost 800 years, we?ve saved each other?s lives so many times, I?ve lost count, and outside what she has told me about herself I am still clueless in understanding her. There?s a reason she thinks of you as an abomination and it won?t be just her. She sees you as a catalyst for War and a harbinger of Pure Chaos. She?s very conflicted with the fact that she is here helping and training you. The fact that you can already store magic is not normal, your capacity is growing, and the big question is what you can do with it. It?s the Unicorn element in you that makes you a wild card." Dylan was a bit peeved and let Oscar know it. "She does realize that we?re on the same side and that I am just a pawn in someone?s twisted game. I didn?t ask for this, so if she can come up with a better way to handle this, I am game." "Dylan, I will talk with her and try to get her to dial the attitude back but I cannot guarantee anything. Have you started the letter to your children?" "I want to thank you for the help with Delta and not yet on the letter. I guess I need to cool it with the beer as I am already to call it a night. Is there anything else I need to do tonight?" Oscar nodded no. Dylan yawned and said. "Okay, good night then." Dylan didn?t even bother with his evening check on changes. Just before he fell asleep, he thought about Beth, Oscar voice entered his head, ?(She and Charles are still working on wards, charms and potions, and she will visit tomorrow with Charles.)? Dylan replied, ?(Thank you.)? Day 4 When Dylan woke Delta was there at the bottom of his bed, the level of contempt was now an 11, he thought, ?Oscar?s intervention backfired on me big time,? and in his throbbing head, ?(Abomination bitch!)? "Good morning Delta," Dylan smiled weakly. Delta turned and started to leave. "you?re going to let Oscar know I am awake...?" She turned back towards Dylan, her eyes had slight red glow to them, the smile on her face maniacal, mischievous, it was then he noticed his blanket was smoking, and he reached out to touch it. It was very hot, like it was ready to burst into flames, he thought to himself ?I need some water here,? what appeared to be a static electricity spark went from his finger to the blanket and that area of the bed was now soaked with water. Dylan watched steam rising from that spot and the shocked look on Delta?s face made his day. Dylan gave her a surprise smile and their eyes met. The color drained from her face and my brain throbbed with, ?(Oh shit!)? Dylan heard both Oscar and Charles in his head, ?(what just happened?)? Delta almost shrieking but it was in his head, ?(she just did some magic! This should not be happening yet! This is why I cannot work her! This is going to spin out of control so fast, there?s absolutely no guard rail here and I have no idea on where she is going to end up once the transformation is complete.)? Dylan thought, ?(Who is she? Oh my god you?re talking about me!)? Delta face went ashen and she collapsed. He ran over to her. Dylan screamed out loud. "Oscar get your dumb ass up here now!" Dylan could hear a pop and two sets of footsteps stomping up the stairs. He touched both Delta?s hand and face. "You?re going to be alright." Another spark and a second later Delta?s eyes opened, she stared at him for a moment and then of all things she smiled, it was warm and loving, in his mind ?(Yes, everything will be alright sister healer.)? Delta sat-up and she looked at me and then behind him at Oscar and Charles who finally arrived. Still smiling. "this I can work with and we can safely assume that the Unicorn knows the secret. She reminds me of my sister, always full of hope which just like now, she could freely give to others. She is still chaos with no guard rails, and dare I say it the Unicorn elements continue to grow within her. The magic she has been storing is feeding the Unicorn, frankly there is going to be no way to hide that from even the most novice magic practitioner." Dylan looked at them. "So when one look at the Unicorn element in my aura, what does that tell them, does it give away what sort of magic I can do?" All three shook their heads no. "Let?s blast the Unicorn element at them and leave them guessing what I am packing." They consider my idea for moment, in my head was Charles. ?(Well it does follow the KISS principle, I can make it work.)? Dylan tried to put his best death stare on Oscar. "Delta and Charles, I think now would be a good time for you find something else to do for one or two hours and let?s kill the party line, this needs to be between Oscar and me." Dylan waited for the parties resituate themselves and then Oscar closed door. "My Sister Healer, I?ve known since the first day, I was just waiting for someone to confirm it." Dylan let that sink in with Oscar. "You are probably expect me to have a cow right now, the question of what good would that serve, outside of burning off some emotional baggage, not much. The truth of the matter is that if I had a chance to weigh the Pros and Cons and with everything I know now, and allowing me to make an informed decision you had a 1 in 3 chance of getting an outright yes, same for an adamant no. The rest, you would still be waiting for an answer with a lean towards yes. I am guessing you were under time constraints that forced you to cut corners and take advantage of my emotional state. I had to go over the talk in the kitchen several times, until I realized that you did toss out the caveat about some changes would need to take place, then you did a little misdirection with rolling back the age, and the means to hold on to this farm. My bad for not asking if there was anything else that would change." Oscar started to say something but Dylan held up his hand to stop him. "Please don?t insult either?s intelligence here, am I an aggrieved party here, simple answer is yes. Based on what I am gathering from our talks, there will be some sort of fight/battle around this area, correct?" Oscar nodded yes. "A couple of other things that I picked up or deduced is that I will doing quite a bit of the heavy lifting and playing the role of bait." Oscar nodded yes. "All I ask is that all three of you will grant me one wish each. The main purpose of these wishes will be to fix the resultant battle damage." ?(Is that alright with you Charles?)? ?(Sure! What the...? Delta agrees to it too.)? "Oscar, what about you or am I tapped out with you?" Oscar coughed. "I think our employer will make an exception for something like this." ?(Okay, the million dollar question is the transformation reversible or did I really get Rubiconned?)? All three of them came back with there is no way to reverse it but they will do everything to help ease the transformation. Dylan asked Charles to really get off of the party line and not eavesdrop. "Oscar, your answer had some squishiness in helping the transformation, what gives?" "Well bottom line, I can?t have you go too girly on us. I need you to stay a bit of curmudgeon for awhile. Beth and Delta will help you with the basics of being a woman but I need you to focus on your magic and running the farm until we are to get a battle plan in place." "Okay, I can play tomboy for a bit but I am going to need some magical help as Michelle would never let her soon-to-be daughter be as incompetent as I am with the coordination of colors. 30 years of marriage and I am still clueless." Oscar indicated that something can be done to fix that issue. Dylan asked him if it was really necessary for me to become a female and with no hesitation he said, "Yes." He went on to explain that we needed to have me able to manipulate the magic energy and when he first found the male me I was flat lining when it came to do anything magical, even the Unicorn element was dormant. He said that the best practitioners of magic have had to go this route, why it works that way, is anybody?s guess. The transformation to a female kicked started the ability to store magical energy, what nobody realized was how much of a wild card the Unicorn element was becoming. Once I started storing the energy, it started feeding the Unicorn which is allowing me to do magic when I shouldn?t be able to do yet. The scary part is that they were still trying to figure out what I would be capable of doing magical speaking. They talked about Dylan?s kids and how he was going to be inserted into their lives as little sis. The new set of memories was already loaded and he will be able to access them once the transformation is complete. As for Beth and his team they will still know him as Dylan and why they are here, while everyone else will know him as Dylan?s youngest kid. He asked if his kids would know him as Dylan if he told them and Oscar said it was possible and may be necessary later on if thing got a little tricky and they needed to be more proactive in protecting them. Dylan was not happy hearing that last statement but if whoever was willing to kill my wife, there was no reason that they would stop there. Dylan asked what he was going to look like when he was done. "Well I went with the low maintenance approach first go around and beyond that it?s a surprise. The good news is we got several opportunities to adjust before we settle into something that will work for you. Consider yourself lucky on that one, I mean how often do you get to try out your body first and then adjust whatever you want, and yes that is why the size labels have disappeared on your clothes." "Am I going to have start liking boys?" "On that one I going to leave it wide open and let you figure that one out yourself. My only advice is that you experiment and have fun before you try locking down that one down." "How much longer will the transformation take?" "End of next week, we?re going to have to get you out of the area before the final changes take place. It won?t hurt but you will be in a rather funky state of mind and from what I remember the last time I did this, there?s a lot of sleeping involved." Oscar looked at Dylan for moment and continued. "Yes, I?ve had to do this before, for some it was punishment, and for others it was a means to allow them to wield magic and gain power. Both of which are very poor reasons to do it, in practically all of those cases, it worked out very poorly for the recipient of said wish. I?ve done it twice where it was done out of necessity, it worked out very well for the first one and with you, let?s just say the jury is still out." They both laughed at that. "As for the other one, ask me sometime when you are struggling." "Will I be a fully functional female when the transformation is done, can I get pregnant?" "100 percent female, yes on getting pregnant, I think you should hold off on that for a bit." We both chuckled and he continued. "Which means you will have periods and all of the fun that goes with that." "I?m thrilled." Dylan struggled for a moment before he continued. "In the simplest terms, someone kicked off this whole thing over 125-150 years ago that is some nefarious plot to release a massive reservoir of magical energy, and I am just the final step in their spell. Just what do they hope to achieve?" Oscar?s answer came down to two possibilities, first some sort of power play to take over what..? He just shrugged his shoulder. "the types that want to do this don?t live long enough to set something like this up and are not the type to think that long-term. On the other the really bad guys namely Necromancers live long and are patient enough, and they would be looking to use the energy to extend their miserable existence." He went to explain that the first set may show up any way once we cannot hide the energy release and the second set will work through proxies. "So are we going purely defensive or do we plan on doing attacks ourselves," Dylan enquired. They spent the next 30 minutes talking about our strategy with first securing the area, using spoiling attacks to disrupt the bad guys plans, if possible determine the real culprit here, and eliminate them as a threat. Oscar pointed out that since we?re not sure who?s really involved, we will need to sit tight, wait for the first attack, stop it, then counterpunch and defeat it. "Oscar, the last thing I want to talk to you about is not holding back on anything regarding me, from now I want to make fully informed decisions, remember I am Catholic and the sin of omission is just as bad as committing a sin. We both know that if there?s a fight here people?s lives are going to be on the line and if I am asked to put then in harm?s way I need to know everything, if I find out you held something back, there will be severe blowback regardless of the outcome. Is that understood?" "Yes, yes, I completely understand and I let Charles and Delta know it too!" "Okay, I guess I got to bite the bullet and deal with Delta and my training. Who?s walking the property today?" "It?s Bethany, Charles as me and you. We?re trying to figure out where and how to place the wards and some charms. Charles thinks he?s got an answer for the video surveillance from the barn. I am going to be gone for the day as I have to go mend some fences with the Daughters. I will explain them and the Sisters soon enough." Charles timing was amazing, as he knocked on the door right then. "Guys, can I come in?" "Sure, we?re done in here," Dylan answered. Charles entered "what the heck did you do to Delta? She?s all giddy and smiling for the first time, since I can remember. She keeps saying ?Sister Healer? and ?she is just like her?. All I can ask keep doing whatever it is you?re doing." Oscar smiled. "I never knew that she could smile, I would consider this a positive step forward between the two of you. She can be a very loyal friend but never ever get on her bad side. One of our former Killer Bs did, let?s just say a couple slices later and our colleague needed six months to heal and a cane to get around for the rest of his existence." "Ah, thanks for the warning, I just hope I can live up to her expectations," Dylan said nervously. Both Charles and Oscar laughed and Charles said. "Don?t worry he really screwed up and left her hanging in an extremely bad fight where all three of us barely survived, so we looked the other way when she delivered her justice." "Okay, good to know, can you let her know that I need to clean up and I?ll be right down." Charles nodded and headed back down the stairs. Dylan looked at his face, it was getting smoother and softer, it was then he noticed his hands smaller and thinner, not that they were that big to begin with, arm were thinner same with the arm hair. It was finally sinking into his brain, just like when he walked out after the first day after radiation therapy with his chemo pump pushing medicine into him every 30 seconds. Dylan thought to himself, ?This is really happening; you?ve already had your pity party, let?s accept it, and adjust accordingly. Embrace... I?m not quite there yet.? I observed less chest hair, most of my gut was gone, man boobs were smaller, nipple were just a little bigger, not much change waist and below, stay tuned for more changes I guess.? The shower and dressing was still a pretty straightforward effort, a quick bowl of cereal with a several gulps of coffee and he was ready for Delta. Delta was in the living room waiting for Dylan with a big smile. "Welcome sister healer." Dylan blushed and was stumped to give an answer, finally he just said. "Thank you and I am honored to learn from you." Now she was blushing. "First of all please forgive my horrid behavior towards you, I see now that it was totally uncalled for and I promise to never do anything like that again." Dylan broke into a big smile. "Apology accepted, I am struggling too, trying to keep my calm, and still function. So let?s get started." They started off with Dylan trying a couple of simple tricks; one was filling a glass with water which he did a little too well, the glass was full and there was a large puddle on the table. Next, he was asked to light a candle, nothing happened for a while, finally a little smoke, that was it until Delta was ready for the next test, Dylan moved to put the candle away, once again the familiar spark and the candle was lit. Delta smile at this. "We thought this would happen, you?re elemental magical strengths are fire and water, usually it?s one per customer. This is one of the things that scared and excited me as it is a sign of truly powerful practitioner. As we are calling it for the lack of a better term, the Unicorn element continues to astound and baffle us as to what you truly are and what you are capable of in the long run." "Let?s try your healing powers." Delta proceeded to cut her hand which freaked Dylan out a little. HeI tried a couple of things with no success, He was starting to panic a little and Delta could see it. Finally, she took his right hand and looked at him. "It?s alright just try to repeat what you did the last time, it will work, I know it will." He calmed down, looked at the cut hand, he said, "You?re going to be alright." As he touched her hand, a little stronger spark between them, it was strong enough to jolt both of them. Delta held out her hand, they both watched as the wound bounded itself, next thing is was a scar and then it was gone. Delta flipped her hand twice. "Hmm." "Is something wrong?" Dylan asked. She smiled. "Absolutely not, I am quite happy, I had a couple of other scars on this hand, and now they?re gone." "Fantastic!" Dylan beamed. "I am not sure if you can heal your own body but the next time you hurt yourself and draw blood, try it then. My sister was never able to heal herself but she could do wonderful things for others like you." Delta proceeded to show Dylan how he could get on and off the telepathic party line between them and crash others. She then showed him how to prevent others from reading my mind, even the surface thoughts. She watched his meditation practice and hi actually let her into his head for a moment. "Wow, I thought I was a mess." Delta looked into my eyes, ?(Let?s see what we can do to turn the volume down on some this stuff.)? She put her hands on the side of my head. ?(Do you have a happy place you like to go to that can help you focus?)? Dylan pleaded with her, ?(Please don?t laugh).? The image of the beer cooler at the local market popped into his head. She snickered for a moment. ?(Sorry but that?s where Oscar and Charles both go, you men are all the same, though in your case you?re going to need a new place. Here try this one.)? Dylan was watching the sunset over a body of water, and he realized he had several scenes like this from his days in the navy, thing were a lot simpler than. His mind started shutting down the excess noise, he heard Delta, ?(You?re doing great, now go back to the meditation exercise.)? Dylan zoned out for an unknown amount of time, when he finally came out of it, all three of them were there and they all had big smiles on their faces. Dylan leaned forward. "Did I miss ice cream time?" They all chuckled, from Oscar, ?(Sorry, you were wide open for us and you took all of us to a wonderful spot, that only this place called Earth can offer.)? Charles asked for something from Oscar, once he got it, he whispered to it and now there were two Oscars. The Charles-Oscar asked, "Ready to walk the property?" Dylan looked over to Delta, she said, "Go ahead, we had an excellent session here today, when you get back see if you can achieve that same state again." Oscar indicated that he had to go off and make peace with the Daughters, Charles-Oscar popped out to get Bethany, and Delta just before she popped out. "We?re going to try some other magic tomorrow, so get a good sleep tonight." Charles-Oscar popped back in with Bethany, she wobbled for a second. "Whoa I haven?t had the spins since college, how the hell do you guys do that?" Charles smirked. "I pretend I am on a roller coaster, the intercontinental ones are worse, and don?t even ask about the ones between the planes, barf bags are mandatory." It took Dylan a minute to figure out that I was now shorter than Bethany. ?Well that just shot a big hole in my good mood.? Charles-Oscar looked at Dylan to get his attention. "Catch!" Dylan reacted just fast enough to catch the crystal that was thrown at him. Charles-Oscar was now heading out the back door. "Put it in your pocket so we can talk freely." Bethany shouted, "Hey wait for us!" In Dylan?s head, ?(I?ll lock the door, try and keep up.)? Charles-Oscar headed straight towards the barn, Dylan had it in his head that he was going to address the video snooping. By the time Dylan got caught up, he was heading up to the rafters. "Hustle up Dylan." He scrambled up the ladder, Charles-Oscar was already looking around. "Okay where?s the feed?" Dylan located the cable and held it up for Charles-Oscar, he pulled a pair of wire cutters out and cut the cable. "Problem solved." They pulled the video cameras, Charles-Oscar examined them for a minute. "Pretty nice stuff, we?ll leave them on the front porch and see if we get interested parties. Hey Bethany does this place have any issues with porch pirates?" Her reply was. "Not really. Why, do I need to worry?" Charles-Oscar shouted. "Don?t sweat it, just wishful thinking." Charles- Oscar looked at me. "I spent too much time on this crap and was getting nowhere fast. So let?s see what Granny left us." They carried the video cameras down, placed them on a bench and walked over to where Bethany was leaning over, she examined the small swag of flowers, twigs with some sort of medallion. She stood up. "Well this is definitely granny?s work, I took my photos back to my house, looked at Granny?s notebooks, and this one was definitely in there, less the medallion." I stared it for a moment. "I give, what it is supposed to do?" Bethany then explained to us, that it was one of her ?nothing to see here, move along,? what was baffling both Bethany and Charles-Oscar was it looked like it was made yesterday and the medallion should not be there period. Dylan reached towards it to see the other side of the ward and the medallion, and another spark. They both gave me the WTH look, next thing Dylan heard in his head was a woman?s voice, ?(Child, I need you to hold the ward and hold hands with the others there with you.)? Dylan sheepishly said. "some woman wants us to join hands." They both said, "Who?" Dylan shrugged his shoulders. "if I was to guess, I am betting it?s Granny. So, let?s hold hands and see what has to say for herself." Once, they were holding hands Dylan picked up the ward and held it with Bethany. She started speaking in their heads, ?(Welcome Beth, Charles and all others here in the barn, if you are hearing this, I have moved on to the next great adventure. The one who you were going to call the Unicorn activated this message which means there is big trouble coming. I won?t bother explaining how I know so much; just take my word on this. As Bethany can attest to, there have been several visits by foul creatures to find the magical energy that lies underneath and release it. I have been able to hide it through use of wards and charms strategically placed around the area. As you can see I had to go overboard with this barn as it is literal epicenter for the reservoir. Magical energy is just floating all around the immediate area. The wards and charms were made so that any magical creature or practitioner would not even be aware that was magic here and actually come across as a dead zone. The medallions make that possible by absorbing the magic changing into something that refreshes and strengthens the charms and wards. You need to protect this barn at all cost as it possible with the right spells or magical items they can easily overcome the magic keeping the reservoir in check. Defend this barn and you can win. I have left what you would call a couple of Easter eggs that will become apparent as time or events dictate their appearance. I would like word with the Unicorn only and finally my beloved Bethany.? I let go of their hands and I stood there for a moment. Granny started up again. ?I hate using Unicorn, so I will call you honey as I know you transforming to a girl or already done. I am assuming Oscar did the dirty deed, so let him know that you are to turn out gorgeous or I?ll come back and fix him until he gets it right. I know this may be difficult to hear but it had to be done and I hope that Oscar will make it up to you for the sacrifice you had to make. I need you to be strong and protect my Bethany, there are others that will help and do not be afraid to ask for help as you can?t do it alone. Now, please hand this ward over to my lovely granddaughter Bethany.? Dylan handed the ward over to Bethany and watched her listen to Granny. She had a huge smile, then she started blushing, she glanced at Dylan, they made eye contact, her blush went deeper and further, her jaw dropped, she turned away from him at that point. A minute later Bethany put the ward back where it was hanging. Dylan grinned at Bethany. "Granny must?ve said some pretty racy things to get that sort of blush." The blush started to return to Bethany, she leaned towards him and whispered, "Wouldn?t you like to know." "Okay you two are we done in here?" Charles asked. He seemed a little annoyed and they both nodded and headed out to walk the fence line. Dylan remembered that he was receiving some farm supplies tomorrow. "Hold up one minute, we got supplies arriving tomorrow, I just want to see where I want to store it." Dylan did a quick walk through and around the barn, he accessed his farming knowledge and he knew where everything needed to go. "Sorry about that, who?s helping me with setting up the feeding area." Dylan looked at Charles-Oscar. He told me that Oscar and he would flip a coin on that tonight. They proceeded to walk the fence line; Charles-Oscar seemed hell bent on getting this task done ASAP, while Bethany and Dylan took their time and quickly fell behind. Dylan could see that Bethany was struggling on how to start the conversation, eventually she figured it was just easiest to not dance around it. "I understand you figured it out this morning and that you took it very well. Delta seems to have calmed down and Oscar?s hold on me saying anything is gone. Not sure what Charles is thinking but everyone seems to be relieved, especially since you?re doing magic before you should be able to do it." Dylan stopped and motioned to Bethany to hold up, he was looking to put some distance between Charles- Oscar and them, started to set his mind up so Charles couldn?t read it and definitely shut off the party line. He took Bethany?s hand. "This stays between the two of us." He felt the spark and felt confident that she was now unreadable by Charles and he assumed the other two. The slight misstep by Charles-Oscar and the head twitch told Dylan he was good to go. "I figured out that my magic so far needs the physical touch for it to work and the right state of mind helps too." Dylan let go of Bethany?s hand and started to walk again, as he could see Charles-Oscar figured out that he wanted privacy. "Beth, I don?t where to start with this outside telling that when you stormed in that first day and Oscar put that bind on you, I knew that something was up. After doing some online searches, reading through many sources, I narrowed it down to a couple of possibilities and the lack of candor on Oscar?s part thinned that list down further. Looking at the last two options, I remembered him saying I would have the ability to do magic and lo it came to me, I needed to be transformed into a fully functional female. Every conversation after that reinforced that possible outcome; Delta was just nice enough to confirm that this morning." Dylan watched for Bethany?s reaction, he could tell she looked sorry for what happened. "You?re thinking why is he handling this so well, to start with I had myself a wonderful pity party that night, in the morning I tried to find my lemonade and I realized I was given do over. I get rolled back to my prime years, a clean bill of health and lose the damage done to my body while fighting cancer. I get a second chance at true love, save lots of people, possibly get revenge and get to have fun of running an Alpaca farm." Dylan chuckled and Bethany found it amusing too. At this point Charles-Oscar came over to talk to Bethany, something about placing a couple of charms and wards in this area as the road allowed for easy entry to the property. They discussed quantity and type, both wondering where they might get more medallions. Dylan asked them. "will the Alpacas want to eat them?" Bethany replied. "We can add something to keep them from eating our stuff." Charles-Oscar proceeded to walk ahead of them and Dylan picked up where they left off. "Giving up the man card, whoa that?s a biggie. I looked for the lemonade there; it took a little while to remember that half the planet seems to get along just fine with this affliction, just kidding. My two slim reeds of hope are: if I am getting a repeat the great adventure as granny called it why not do a 180 and secondly I avoid some of the baggage that comes from the first go around. I know they?re rather weak and I am hoping that once I become a female I can find the happiness that being a part of the fairer sex can bring into one?s life." Bethany was quiet for moment. "Let me be the first to welcome you to the better half of our planet. Delta and I will everything that we can to make the transition as easy as possible. I am really sorry I couldn?t tell you earlier, Oscar indicated that I can be your big sister literally and figuratively speaking in this adventure." Dylan nodded and said. "I appreciate everything you done so far and I hope to not be too much of a burden. Also, I am getting the impression from Oscar while I am getting the physical changes, I don?t think my head is getting rewired which seems to be rather problematic." "Wow, Granny was spot on with her talk to me, she told me that you say something about being a burden and that you need to realize, you have a lot on your plate, learning how to be a female should be a joy and pleasure. As for your head, she told me two things, that fooling with the brain is pretty risky and that we could easily wipe out what make you you Dylan Moore. So we need to slowly move rerack that gray matter of yours to function as girl. You know this never came up before but what about your larger family, your brothers and sister, are your parent still alive?" Dylan stopped walking, he was struggling to answer the question and it became apparent to Bethany that something was really wrong. "I don?t know, I can?t remember them, something happened at Michelle?s funeral, I think we had a big falling out, I may have even said they can all go to hell and I never wanted to talk to them ever again. I think I followed through with that by getting rid my cell phone, the house phone is unlisted, deleted email and social media accounts, and I think I even told my kids that if they ever try to pass on something from any of them that I would disown them. How the hell do I fix this before I disappear? Can it be fixed? Beth, I am lost and can?t find my way here." Dylan looked at Bethany for help, he took a step towards her and she reached out to hold him. "Dylan, we?ll figure out something out." Charles-Oscar came up to them. "What?s going on, Dylan what?s the matter, I can feel that you are in extreme distress." Bethany explained to Charles what was going on. Charles strongly suggested that they get back to house as fast as they could, and he would explain why once they got back. When they were close to the house, they could see that Delta was there waiting for them. The look of concern on her face worried Bethany, just then Dylan spoke "I am not even sure if my parents are still alive." And then Bethany felt it this time the anguish of loss, it caused her to stagger. They barely got Dylan into the house and in a kitchen chair. Everyone was struggling. "We need to shut this down or we?re all in trouble," Charles-Oscar shouted. Delta tried to touch Dylan to calm him down, as soon as she touched him she groaned and fell to the floor unconscious. Charles-Oscar yelled at Bethany. "Help me drag Delta out of here now!" As soon as they cleared the kitchen and settled Delta, Charles pulled out a large satchel, he reached into. "Please be in there. Yes and now one my favorites. Bethany cover your ears now!" Charles-Oscar waited a second and hoped she was doing it. The first bottle went into the kitchen and the magical equivalent of a stun grenade went off. Charles- Oscar took a second to gather himself and went into the kitchen, Dylan was still in the chair which made thing easier for him, he lifted the head and poured a green liquid down Dylan?s throat. It started working immediately, the confused eyes started to look peaceful and then Dylan drifted off to sleep. Charles-Oscar surveyed the damage in the kitchen and outside of a couple broken coffee mugs and glasses, everything else looked pretty good considering what just happened. Bethany stuck her head into the kitchen. "is it safe?" Charles-Oscar sighed. "Yes, Dylan has a nice long nap ahead of him. Let?s revive Delta and get him into a bed." Delta was just coming to when Bethany and Charles-Oscar entered the room. "As I told you there?s no guard rail for Dylan," Delta said groggily. Charles-Oscar helped her over to the couch and asked, "If she needed anything?" "Just give me a couple of minutes, you can fill me in later," Delta replied. Charles-Oscar and Bethany wrangled Dylan into the spare bedroom, took off his shoes and covered him with a blanket. Bethany and Charles-Oscar trooped back down to where Delta was now sitting. She looked better and definitely had her senses back. Bethany kicked off the conversation. "Okay what the hell just happened there?" Charles-Oscar replied. "In the simplest terms, we just experienced a telepathic death spiral and you now have a new number one for how nasty it can get." Charles-Oscar explained that new telepaths can sometimes experience a traumatic event which they literally broadcast out; it gets returned back to them which amplifies the event and it just keep cycling until the telepath breaks it or the mind snaps leading to very bad things. Delta asked Bethany to go through the events leading up to the episode with Charles-Oscar and Delta quizzing her along the way. Delta described when she touched Dylan as like being in a place so dark that all hope was lost and that Dylan probably saved all of their lives by stunning her, as it broke the cycle long enough for Charles-Oscar to stun and knock Dylan out. "I pray that I never ever experience anything like that again, so hopeless, we came so close to losing Dylan," Delta said haltingly. She started crying; both Bethany and Charles-Oscar tried to comfort her and ended up joining her. A pop announced Oscar?s arrival. "What happened in the kitchen?" Oscar demanded. Charles-Oscar switched back to himself and explained everything. "He upstairs right now knocked out. I think it is safe to check on his state of mind now." All four cautiously proceeded up the stairs. They found Dylan laying there, snoring loudly, looking very peaceful and then he smiled. In all four heads, they heard, ?(I am glad all of you came up, let me introduce myself, I am Aidan, and I will merge with Dylan, once the transformation is complete.)? The female voice laughed, ?(did you really think that Dylan is in any shape or form to do magic at this point...? That which you call the Unicorn created me as a firewall against Dylan which was made necessary by those who sought to destroy him and use his powers for the darkest evil. Let?s get a couple of things out of the way. First of all, Oscar, please quit beating yourself up, the magic you performed on us released me and truly gave us a fighting chance. Delta, so brave you saved all of us in the kitchen, I am sorry you viewed me in my raw aura, you are right I am a daughter of Chaos, and Dylan is my counterpoint. Bethany, I will continue to need your help in unwinding the damage done to Dylan, the good news there is I am now able to assist. Charles and Bethany, the charms and wards that you are creating are making this place safe and secure which allows me to focus on transformation and merger. What I am trying to say is thank you for everything you?ve done so far.)? Aidan switched the conversation over to Dylan and told them what happened at the funeral and afterwards with his own children. Oscar observed that whoever was behind this effort to isolate Dylan did it with extreme malice and a tinge of desperation. Aidan agreed and then told them that Dylan is unable to make the first move on his own as he is ashamed of his actions and they were going have to do it for him. ?(The memories are starting to come back unfiltered, that?s what started the death spiral, Delta?s touch disrupted the cycle enough for me to slow it down, and give Charles the time to literally stun Dylan.)? They were advised that Dylan won?t be happy that they reached out to his kids but he knows it has to be done and there?s not a lot of time left to fix things. ?(Delta, I believe I can pretty much do any type of magic that you can think of for others or when it is a direct threat to me but as you can see I need to touch it for it to work.)? Aidan scared everyone by simply telling them that she did not know what Dylan was bringing to the party but reassured them that his magic will compliment hers. Dylan?s magic will manifest itself after the transformation and she noted that energy in the area was well suited to their magic and as long as there was source was available they would get first dibs, the drawback not as efficient and cannot store much of it. She told them to ask Dylan about a crazy idea called drop tanks. ?(Oscar, I can live with my first iteration of Aidan but I promise you that Dylan will do a lot of pissing and moaning about it, please be patient.)? Aidan explained that she can help set expectations and they needed to emphasize the low maintenance and that they are easing him into being a female. They were told to magically enhance Aidan?s strength as it will annoy and scare Dylan to the point of distraction and will slow progress on Dylan?s adapting to his new gender. Aidan reminded them that Dylan has accepted the need for the change, he?s flexible and can adjust, just nothing too fast or radical.