"What did they call me?" Karyn asked, stumbling to her feet.
Jon struggled with the word. "Lycan-something?"
Her eyes grew wide to bursting. "Lycanthrope! Cool!" She smiled, until her gaze met Jon's blank stare. "Y'know, lycanthrope? As in werewolf?"
It was Jon's turn to go wide-eyed. "What? How? I mean, I know how, but well, how?"
Karyn shrugged. "It might have something to do with Zoe's wish. I mean, today, everyone believes in magick, and some people even end up practicing it. Maybe she wished for some magickal creatures to go along with it."
"Okay, but why you? And a werewolf, no less?"
Karyn scrunched her shaggy eyebrows and growled. "What's wrong with werewolves?"
"N-nothing, really! Get a grip, okay?"
Her features eased a bit. "Good. To answer your question, I'd always had a thing for werewolves. I think Rick Baker started it for me. Anyway, I'd fantasized about being one a couple of times. Guess I wanted it more than I thought."
Jon nodded, slowly relaxing. "Looks like you're not the only one who wanted to be something else."
Karyn turned to face the hall, and saw a variety of creatures mingling with the human students: a centaur, two satyrs, several elves, even a nine-foot humanoid dragon!
"Wow," she whispered. "Zoe did all this?"
"It'd stand to reason. That's why we've gotta find her before she makes things worse."
Karyn nodded. "No problem." She sniffed the air, double-checking the direction of the second-floor stairwell. "That's odd."
"What?"
"Zoe's that way, but she doesn't smell like she used to."
Jon sighed. "So she's changed too. Wonderful."
"If that's what she wanted, then so be it. C'mon."
