Haru left the counselor's office a while before practice started, so she killed some time by walking around the school. Very little was going on right now - Friday's night-side classes were long over by this point, and there were only a handful of people in the building.
She stopped by the classroom where she'd seen Tiffany doing...something to the walls the other day. She could still see the outlines of claw-marks in the plaster. The blackness that had been seeping out of them was gone, but still...there was a bad feeling that remained. She wondered if she should mention this to someone, but...that teacher must have known what she was doing, she was sure of that.
It was interesting - she no longer felt confused and terrified by her ability as she had when it had first fully manifested. It was still strange, especially when she stopped and thought about it, but the shock had passed. Even so, she was still kind of scared; things like her experience with Tiffany and that benevolent yet terrifying teacher made her feel like she was being drawn into some larger world that was always there and she could only see now.
Why? She hadn't wanted to see what she'd seen. And it wasn't even like she'd helped; she hadn't even gotten the teacher, she'd just been there when she arrived. She didn't belong in this circle, she was just a girl who saw things! Why did she have to face...things like this?
"Lady Haru?"
Haru yelped and nearly jumped out of her skin, whirling around to see Brittany. She hadn't realized until now that the strange girl made no noise when she moved - her steps were silent, as if she weren't actually touching the floor. "Oh, s-sorry," she said. "I didn't notice you come in."
Brittany nodded. "My apologies. I ought to have warned you." After all, she'd also scared that poor night-side boy coming through the wall - she wasn't really used to considering what other people would think of her nature.
"N-no, it's all right," Haru replied. "How have you been?"
Brittany smiled. "I am well. And I wanted to give you my thanks - your vision was truthful."
The three-eyed girl blinked. "My...oh, that? Was it?"
She nodded. "I remembered, during the storm this last night. It was as you saw - I am a woman of the past, somehow brought forward into this time, to this place to aid someone."
Haru gave a soft gasp. "Then you're really a gh-a ghost?"
Brittany frowned. "I do not know - I remember my last journey, yet I do not recall ever dying, nor even being in a state that I might have. Perhaps I was simply brought forward without death so that I might complete the last task that my master, my teacher, laid upon me, to find and assist someone in this future time."
"You need to help someone?" the Chinese girl asked. "Who?"
The time-displaced girl sighed. "I cannot say yet," she said. "I was never told a name, or even a sign by which I would know them - only that I must find them and help them. And I desire to, yet I cannot leave these walls."
Haru nodded. "That must be frustrating...do you think it could be someone in this school?"
Brittany shrugged. "It may be - or it may be that this is an obstacle I must overcome before I can continue. I only wish that I might be done with my quest at last...it's been so long..."
Haru felt sorry for her friend...she could hear the weariness in Brittany's voice. "Do you...do you want to talk about it?" she asked, sitting down on one of the desks. Brittany nodded absent-mindedly. "Yes, I think I do..."
They sat in the empty classroom while Brittany related her story, Haru listening intently. It was so strange to hear this combination of what she could buy as history and what she would have thought to be myth if she weren't hearing it from someone she knew had been there herself.
The girl in front of her had lived nearly two millenia ago, so far back that even Haru's points of reference were things she barely thought of as history. She wondered, how much else that she would think to be mythical had actually happened, or at least had some factual basis from which people's stories had sprung?
"Mom," Riley said, "what do you think is going to happen to us?"
Terri looked down at his new daughter, who was curled up on the ottoman. It was so strange to think that this girl was both his daughter Anna and his son Charlie - both in one person, yet (by their account) neither dominant over the other... He wondered if the two-tone hair and heterochromic eyes were indicative of that, or whether it was just another of the sun's assorted oddities.
"I don't know, sweetie," he said. "How do you mean?"
"Well, with our change, this magical-girl thing, and you and Dad, um..."
Terri nodded. "You're still worried about us, aren't you, kiddo?" he asked.
Riley frowned - he'd gone and done it again! But she nodded.
"Well," he said, "I...don't really know what to think of all that. I guess you're right in observing that we've both picked up some different habits, but...if that's the full extent of it, I can think of far worse things that I've heard of happening. Heck, you yourself have undergone a more drastic mental change than anything you noted in us."
Riley hadn't really thought of that - certainly her new situation was strange, with two people separate within her, yet united into a single new entity, but it hadn't seemed like something to freak out over as much as just to try to understand and learn to live with. She wondered if she seemed as altered to her parents as they did to her?
"I guess I understand why it worries you," Terri said. "And if you notice more drastic changes, we'll absolutely listen to what you have to say. But the things you've mentioned, honey...in the grand scheme of things, they're just little details. Besides, some of them, like my noticing your father...there's a lot simpler explanation for that."
"Ewww, Mom!" All three people within the fused girl grimaced.
"Hey, you asked. In any case, both your father and I are still mostly ourselves - maybe we wouldn't notice our own changes, but we both still recognize the person we've loved for the past fifteen years in each other. As far as we're concerned, that's what really matters."
"And what are we talking about, now?" Toby asked as she entered the living room. Riley was a little relieved that she wasn't wearing a dress today, but she did have another largish sucker, the stick hanging out of her mouth like a cigarette.
Terri noted with amusement that, while his husband-turned-wife had given up smoking before Anna was born, some of the mannerisms still remained fourteen years later. "The situation in general," he said. "Our changes, Riley's change, the magical-girl thing..."
Toby nodded. "It is pretty stunning, isn't it? Within the space of a week, all this has happened...honestly, I'm still trying to wrap my head around having one child where we had two, without losing either..."
Terri grinned. "We could work our way back to two, if it'll make things less confusing for you."
Toby was bemused and mildly annoyed at the same time. "Are you just going to keep dropping hints, dear? I-um. Right, Riley. This magical-girl thing...the number theme we've noticed, the girl who saved us seemed to be 'four,' so that implies there'd be at least two others..."
"Probably four," Riley mused. "That's usually how they group it. Sometimes five. But then, that's for 'elemental' stuff, I don't know that numbers usually come into it..."
"There's probably no way to know, short of discovery," Terri said. "And on that note, shouldn't we be trying to get in contact with the other girl?"
Toby shrugged. "She was with the police," she said. "Probably she's already been returned home, and they're not usually in the habit of just giving out the whereabouts of children. Still, I guess I can look into it. Maybe Jay knows something about it; she was going to look into some possibly-related stuff..."
Sarah wheeled gently above the house, enjoying the feel of the breeze on her wings. Ever since she'd discovered that she could fly, she'd found herself doing it more...at first it had kind of bothered her, but since she'd decided not to pretend to be human anymore, why shouldn't she fly? She was made for it. And with the balcony from her room providing such a perfect launch point, and the weather as nice as it was, she had everything she needed to practice what now felt as natural as walking to her.
The harpy looked down at the yard. Her transformed father was sitting contentedly in the sun, soaking in the light with a beatific expression on her face. Sarah knew her dad still wasn't comfortable with being a flower-woman, especially since she was rooted in place, but it was nice to see that life still held its pleasures for her.
Iris was out as well, tending to the more mundane flowers in the flowerbed. The drider-woman had been such a help to them - now that Sarah had no hands, her father couldn't leave the yard, and her mother(s?) was too small to do much of anything, it was useful to have a more fully-capable member of the household. Sarah in particular appreciated her assistance - she might not need help dressing now that she no longer wore clothes, but without her aunt's help, she'd have to bathe bird-style, and good luck keeping her hair in order that way.
The harpy-girl swooped down and alighted gently on the ridge of the house's roof, looking around at the strange landscape that was the McMillan home. It was crazy to think of how much life had changed here in just over a month, but...now that her parents were sane again, Sarah really didn't have any complaints. In fact she was feeling pretty happy.
She felt an urge she hadn't felt in a while. She'd always been a bit too embarassed to do this in public, afraid that her peers would see and mock her for it, but now? Who cared? She adjusted her posture, took a breath, and burst into cheery, wordless song.
