Gwydion... the young human boy of only ten years old was at an age where he was acutely aware of the changes going on...
It was exciting!
He had heard of the changes from before he was born. He looked at various pictures and photos of the sun from when it had become this strange and magical, surreal phenomenon. He was never there and he could tell most of the kids his own age just kind of... took it for granted.
Astronomy became his passion, very similar to his father actually. Watching the stars change into rainbows was perhaps the greatest thing he had ever seen and he hoped it would spark the start of his own adventure. But not only that... he loved the change with a degree of admiration that bordered on the obsessive. It was an obsession that only grew as he got older. He had made friends with the other children in class... slugs, elves, even a centaur. He loved harpies and of course... that very strange space-girl who rarely even came into class.
But most of all, Gwydion admired his older sister, Lilly. That didn't mean he didn't like Stacy, his human older sister either. He loved both his sisters... but Lilly the twin tailed squirrel was special. When he was younger, he would sleep on her tails, and would crawl all over them. Lilly to him was like a fully interactive teddy bear, so snugly and soft...
When he heard about the adventures they had and of the many other strange situations in the world Gwydion almost regretted that he was not in the world sooner. "It just isn't fair," he thought to himself. Maybe he just sort of wished his mother had been exposed to the sunlight so he could also have become something a little more... interesting then human?
Helping Abigail and Ernestine find out more about the past was the most exciting thing he ever did... and he wanted to do more. However they never let him join in, just because he was human. Or.. a boy. Or something. Who knows why. So he had to solve this problem... but how could an ordinary human really be useful? So he started to work on a 'costume'.
It was late afternoon, and he was in the play area of an after-school park. "Water... and paper and glue," he nodded as the newspapers started to pulp into paper-mache. He wasn't exactly the best at it, and it looked like a real mess with it's fuzzy and wrinkled appearance. He started to place the material into a bowl and with patience, it hardened into a rounded sphere. He smiled happily as he started to add the triangles onto it that would approximate the ears. "I'm gonna be a change even if the sun doesn't make em any more," he declared.
Gwydion carefully took out the fragile sphere, looking it over. It should just about fit over his head like a helmet if he just cut the edges off. Slowly he used the blunt scissors they always gave out in arts and crafts, glancing around hoping nobody would notice his efforts to make something like this. Once it was a reasonable shape, he started to paint it. He wanted it to be the same colour as his sister Lilly's fur, but because the paper-mache was a dusky grey it came out rather badly. Some parts bright, others dark...
... it was a real mess.
But not to the young boy, who just smiled gleefully, seeing what he always wanted to be come to fruition. He placed the orb on his head, with the fake ears at the top. He felt a strange sense of peace well inside him as he crouched down like an animal. "Rawr!" he growled and smiled to himself. But still... it was incomplete.
... what kind of animal would he be, with no tail?
"How am I gonna make a tail?" He wondered to himself. He looked about the arts and crafts for some ideas... maybe he could make it from paper mache? but it would more then likely break given how small it would have to be. No... he needed cloth. He glanced at the table cloth as an idea started to come to mind. Carefully he took it off the table, and wrapped it around a table leg. It already had some spilt glue from when he made his new ears. Unfurling it again, he started to wrap part of it around him like a belt. It was... quite long. Also there was only one, and it was very thin. It wasn't fluffy or nice as Lilly's either... but again, it felt comforting to have.
He went out in the playground eager to show what he had made to his friends.
"What the heck is that!" Laughed one boy.
Gwydion looked up at the older boy. "I made it," he said happily though the helmet fell down a bit over his eyes. He quickly adjusted it to be able to see again.
Two of the boys appeared to be whispering with a glint in his eye. One of the boys approached. Stuart was his name, and was pretty much the stereotypical young bully. Stuart quickly and effortlessly took the helmet from Gwydion turning it over. "It's a fruit bowl!" He laughed.
"Hey!" The young boy cried as he tried to get it back. He looked tearful. "Gimmie it back!" Did they even know how hard he worked on it?
Stuart just gave an evil grin. "If you want to be an animal so much, why don't you try getting it from me freak?" He shouted to him.
Gwydion did his best, but the older boy seemed to already have a plan. he ran to a jungle gym and up a set of steps, where there were these large swings on raised platforms. the frame was made of wood, and the swings were quite rustic made of rope and a soft cushioning seat. Why was he running here? There was nowhere to go. Stuart jumped onto the swing... alright no problem, Gwydion could jump onto him as soon as he swung back-
why was he... oh no.
Stuart being older and stronger then the average child was performing the 'forbidden swing technique'... adults disapproved of it because of how dangerous it was. Instead of swinging forward, he was arcing into a dramatic circle, so that the swing hit the corner of the frame it was built on. With practised precision Stuart's feet touched onto the angled wood... A large trunk, much like a tree that supported the whole swing. He then effortlessly climbed up... until he was at the top, a good Thirty feet high. A mountain to a young child...
"Try and catch me from here!" Stuart said. "If you can make it, I'll give your bowl."
"It's not a bowl!" Gwydion shouted. "Please... Please give it back." The tearful boy jumped back down, and tried to climb up from the base of the frame. He couldn't use the swing to perform the same action. Even if he could physically do it (which he couldn't), Stuart had tied the rope to the frame making it impossible for anyone but him to use. It was just as well, that swing would be needed for Stuart to get down too without a ladder...
Gwydion tried to climb up the frame instead, but the wood was just too broad at the base for him to even wrap his arms around it. He tried to find a foot hold, but found none... If Lilly was here, she could do this easily! He missed her so much...
"Alright alright, I'll give you your helmet back," said Stuart eventually with a shake of his head. "Here take it."
Gwydion looked up hopeful... but felt his heart break as he saw speckles of papermache, rain down and fall to the floor. All his work, ruined.. gone. His 'animal side' was destroyed before he even got to explore it.
In a bit of a daze, the young boy left the swing, still hearing the bully laughing.
"Humans suck," said Gwdion as he walked down the road crying, and eager to get back home. Why did he have to be born human? Just why couldn't he have been a cool animal or something from mythology... there was no end to what he could have been.
There seemed to be another human down the side of the street. A teenager who had over heard him. "Hey, humans certainly don't suck. Let me guess, the animal changed are telling you they do?" he asked curiously. He seemed to be dressed in strange robes, with an open hand on one side,and a closed fist on the other.
"N-No... not really. I like them." Gwydion couldn't help but feel a little creeped out by this person.
"Take a pamphlet," he offered a slim piece of paper. "We're part of the Church of Mankind... though the rest of the world may have turned it's back on being human, we never did... and never will. God made us the caretakers of all beasts that walk this earth after all," he sneered slightly at a passer by. Some strange 'lizard girl'...
"I don't understand," said Gwydion glancing around with a shiver. Something was telling him he shouldn't talk to this person. But... at the same time, he was feeling a bit lost and he wasn't saying anything bad... not really. Humans were good right? "...My sister is a changed. She's the best sister I have. You sayin' she's bad cause she's an animal?"
"No of course not," said the person quickly. "But humans are certainly no worse either... and we were made in the image of God, so we are closer to Him then 'they' can ever be. The sun only changes you if you are part of the plan of... other entities. We believe we are the chosen race with great responsibilities towards the changed... a greater path then the others."
Gwydion looked in awe at that. "I... I thought that 'cause I'm human I can't be special or nothin'," he admitted. "My sister is special, they all do fun things. I just..."
"Of course you are special... you are human."
Human? What a weird word that was becoming. It almost felt.. divisive now. Maybe that's why Gwydion didn't like being human. "But.. another human made me feel bad. I was just tryin' to see what it felt like to be an animal like my sister... but he broke my costume." He wiped a tear at that very upset.
"Ah... well, perhaps again this is all part of a greater plan for you to see what being human means. Don't try to be something you are not young one, and there will be a greater reward for you." He said with a slim smile.
Again Gwydion felt a shiver. "I.. I should go. Um- thanks."
