Scents
 

 by Michelle Wilder
 
A story of another world

 

-

"So... Dane and Aya... are... your family?"

I heard Aya sigh, and Dane move.

He put his hand on my neck. It didn't send any shivers or anything. It was warm.

"They are, little one. All the Waere are my family."

I closed my eyes. I remembered his huge, gentle hands... I reached up and took his paw so I could feel it better.

It was almost as big as his hand. The pads were rough, but with the softest, most wonderful hairs between them... and his nails were cool and long... and sharp.

I held it against my cheek.

-

"My bite is gone!" I was amazed I hadn't noticed before, but my ankle where Josie had bitten me didn't have any marks on it. I looked as closely as I could, but there wasn't anything...

My hair looked different too...

"What bite? I thought-"

"A little dog bit me yesterday, Thursday, on the way home from work. She, I had to bandage it and everything..." It really was gone. I couldn't even feel it like a healed cut. I looked up at Aya and Alfaarr.

"But it's completely healed up." I wanted to ask if being Waere meant I healed..? Alfaarr leaned closer and gestured.

"Can I see, please? You say it was a bleeding cut?" I sat beside him on the arm of the chair and managed to lift my leg up and sideways. He took my ankle and examined at it. I pointed and rubbed the area with my finger.

"Right about there. There were three holes that bled a lot and I needed a pretty big bandage..." It felt completely normal. But it wasn't really ~that~ big a bandage, either... Josie'd been a pretty small dog... Alfaarr kept looking at my leg but he sat back up.

"Do you have any other... do you have any scars?" He looked at me. Away from my leg. I had to think. Of course I did.

"My hand has a burn and my... "

My hand didn't have the scar... from when... ever since I was little...

I looked at it. Stared.

Ever since my father'd taken me to get my broken hand bones healed I'd had a burn scar on the back of my right hand. A half-circle shaped curve of white scar. It wasn't hard or a bump, but it was a scar, almost an inch across.

And it was gone. I turned my hand over. The little scar on my middle finger was gone. I looked at my left arm. The small scars from scrapes and little cuts...

"They're all gone..."

I looked up at Alfaarr and almost felt like crying. It felt like my world had changed. Like I wasn't ~me~ anymore.

Then I heard myself. What I'd just thought.

"All your scars are gone?" Alfaarr interrupted me before I laughed, or whatever I might've done. I looked for a few more I thought I remembered. I nodded.

"I think so... all the ones I can remember... I can't see them anymore, and there was a big one on my hand, here." I drew the old shape with a finger. "It was a burn, or the doctor said it was like one, from a healing when I was little..."

"What happened? Why didn't the doctor heal it so there wasn't a scar? Was it really bad?" Dane looked like he was thinking about something else, too.

"I remember I smelled old blood when we arrived..."

"Yeah, I do too." Aya looked at my leg. "And you didn't have a cut when you changed the first time... but I think..." She stood up and headed towards the hallway. "Wait a minute. I want to check something."

Dane and Alfaarr both took deep breaths. I realized what they were doing and took one myself.

I could smell... well, tea and coffee and us... toast and milk and urine... and... it was too hard to tell what all the little smells were...

"It was in her pants." Aya had a small bundle of bandage-tape and gauze pad.

"That's what I had on my leg. The lady with the dog had a first aid kit in her purse."

"Well, it has dried blood on it. And your pants smell of the dog and your blood, too." She grinned at me, not funny. "And your leg doesn't have a mark."

I didn't know what to think. They weren't acting like it was a normal thing.

"You don't heal? When you change?"

Aya shook her head. Dane said, "Nope."

Alfaarr put his arm around my shoulders and pulled me down, half off the arm of the chair into his side and hip.

"I heal a great deal with each change, little one. It's why I've lived so long."

He looked at me, really serious.

I remembered that he was over a thousand years old.

I blinked.

-

Alfaarr and Dane just had to 'share' me. Thirty minutes each. Aya said. I was too tired to argue, and couldn't anyway... But she was really bossy, even with Fenrir!

I just wanted to lay on them. Either. Both...

They said they'd try not to wake me up when they moved me... every half... hour...

-

Napping - on anyone - was my new favorite thing.

Maybe dozing was a better word. I could hardly stay awake, but I wasn't sleeping, either. Laying length-wise on Alfaarr's chest, rising and falling with each breath, my own breath almost timed to his heart, I couldn't imagine a better world.

That I could peel my eyes open and see his face - and every time he noticed me he'd smile and ruffle my ears - just made it perfecter...

I tried to listen, too. I wasn't asleep ~all~ the time.

Alfaarr called a doctor he knew, a Waere specialist. Because I was different. Healing like I did - cuts and scars - was different. Even Alfaarr had scars.

He said... or someone did... that there were no Waere healers... but he knew one... Maybe Aya and Dane did, too...

I had a nap right then.

-

They were still talking about me. About how small I got.

Waere never became ~any~ heavier or lighter when they changed. They didn't lose even an ounce of weight.

So people became very big Waere, and almost everyone tried to keep trim and light because being ~too~ big attracted attention.

And young Waere (like Dane) ~behaved~ like great big, overgrown puppies (according to Aya and Alfaarr, with mild objections from Dane). But they were still adult Waere.

Babies didn't become baby Waere. Little kids didn't become little Waere. Even if they were Waere inside at ~birth~. They just didn't change until they were grown. Alfaarr said nobody knew why.

Nobody became a Waere puppy. Even if a baby was bitten, it wouldn't change until it grew up. It's why there was no language for young Waere, like cubs or whelps or whatever.

There ~were~ no Waere puppies. Except me.

There were no ten-pound Waere too weak to walk. Except me.

And Waere didn't change sex. Except me...

-

Dane had a faster heart, and he breathed too much... but he knew ~just~ where to scritch... and smelled wonderful....

-

"Come on, darling..."

Aya picked me up and slung me over one shoulder, like I was a human baby, I guess. I objected to her waking me, just when I'd been dreaming about... something I forgot....

Then I yawned, which ~really~ woke me! I could yawn bigger than my HEAD!

-

She showed me how to go. Had to hold me up too, actually, while I went.

First my rug, then my own back yard.

And being told I did it ~just~ right? How embarrassing....

The only good part was discovering, while she carried me back in, how much fun it was being koochie-kooed.

And trying to drink from the hose while she held me. That was fun, too...

And she told me what some of the sounds and smells were, too, like there were mice and owls and bats and raccoons and rabbits... all in my neighborhood!

So it wasn't that bad...

(But, really, the best part ~was~ her tickling me.)

-

Dr. Kerr wasn't a man: he was a ~woman~! A real one, too!

A woman doctor! I'd never even heard of one!

I was sure medical colleges were even just in ~universities~ for men!

And besides, all healers were men.... But Dr. Kerr was a woman!

They told me just when her taxi was pulling up, just to see my face, I bet, and I'm sure my eyes were worth it.

But their joke was ruined when I saw Alfaarr. I mean, when he went to the door, I could only watch him. The way he looked when he opened it and saw her.

I could tell they were more than friends.

She smiled that way, and Alfaarr... I couldn't tell just what, but he was ~younger~ when he shook her hand. I didn't even hear what they talked about, he was so ~happy~!

It was like him being both forms. They just smiled and chatted hello and polite stuff, but I could see he loved her, too. And that she... she wasn't as easy to see, but she smiled really a special way when they touched or she looked at him. She even smelled like she liked him, all the way from the door.

I was on Dane's lap when they came over to the couch and Dr. Kerr sat beside us and took my paw, and shook it!

"I'm so pleased to meet you, Jacob. My name is Vivian and if you'll allow me, after I get a coffee to make sure I'm awake enough, I'd like to give you an examination to make sure you're healthy?"

She was almost the only person to treat me like an adult! Even Alfaarr didn't really, though he knew I was one, too.

I licked at her hand and tried to nod! She laughed and said she'd take that as a yes.

When Aya went with Alfaarr and her to the kitchen, Dane whispered that she was a secret doctor, and a veterinarian, and took care of all the Waere all around. And that she'd studied with a veterinarian who did it ~before~ her.

And he admitted that they'd surprised me about her on purpose. I licked him okay. It was a good trick.

I could see why her being a doctor for us was secret stuff. People didn't even know ~Waere~ really existed. There wasn't even anything about them in books or films anymore. If it was anywhere it was just in comics.

And when I thought about it, any doctor would be able to tell Alfaarr was more than a regular human. Or Dane or Aya. ~I~ could tell!

So keeping the Waere secret would need a special doctor.

But ~her~ being a doctor... that was almost a bigger secret! A woman!!

-

By the time they got back and Dr. Kerr - Dr. Vivian, she said to call her - well, she said just Vivian, but she was a doctor... but by the time they'd had their coffees and finished talking about me, or Alfaarr and them telling her, I was almost calm.

I'd only let one doctor touch me since the burn, and he'd hurt me too. I closed my eyes.

She took me in her lap and said I could keep my eyes closed if I wanted, but she wouldn't hurt me...

I knew it would.

I closed them tight and tried to hold my breath so I wouldn't cry... and she put her hands on me.

Nothing.

Well, no pain. But I felt her, all through me...

I felt her hands, and the way she hitched her breath, how it hurt, and her... breast...

-

They weighed me by Aya stepping on and off a heavy little scale Dr. Vivian brought, with and without me, about ten times.

She said my nails and feet were a lot like a newborn's, and my joints might be, too - she couldn't tell for sure - but I was as big as six or eight weeks old, if I was compared to a wolf or a really big dog breed.

She looked at my teeth, too, and said they looked about right for a few months old, still pointy, but nothing like a newborn's.

She said I could probably ~try~ eating solid food.

So I was officially a 'puppy.' But not a usual one.

And not a ~baby~ puppy.

Well, ~I~ said the last part. In my head.

It was almost as if Dane heard me think it, because he leaned way down and bumped his forehead off mine and whispered I was going to grow up into a ~huge~, fearsome Waere!

Dr. Vivian said I was completely healthy, too, and I had all the proper girl-bits, no different from every other female Waere, except I was immature.

And she didn't understand about me changing size and weight. She said so far as she could tell, my magic was just Waere. She couldn't tell anything different.

Alfaarr and Aya both looked really serious listening to her. Aya told her about how I'd been infected, what I'd told them, and how it must have been the tiniest bit of blood and saliva, and could that matter?

Dr. Vivian said since there were stories about Waere from even tiny contacts all through ancient history, she didn't think so. And Dane didn't have other magic.

And even him being fey wasn't all that rare....

Then Alfaarr told her more about my seeing and touching his other form and I remembered I still had to tell him I saw him both ways, too... and before.

Dr. Vivian got really serious and asked what ~he~ sensed.

He had to think a long time and then said when he shook my hand the first time, he just knew ~I~ was seeing something in him, and he wasn't sure how, and then it was more and more something that ~he~ sensed, and the last times, he felt it as if he were in his Waere form when I touched him. He said it better.

He said it was very "disconcerting," too. Then he smiled at me and reached over to ruff my head that that wasn't bad, either.

"Jacob?" Dr. Vivian sounded like she wanted to ask some serious question at me, too. I blinked yes. (Aya told her that was yes.)

"Do you see or feel Aya's or Dane's other forms the same way?"

No. And yes. I blinked three times because I didn't know how else. I saw a lot more of Dane that way than Aya. But I thought I could see her a bit too, and I even heard her, once. But I could always see Alfaarr, even if at first I didn't understand, 'cause I saw him first. That way.

She had to ask about a hundred yes and no questions to get even part of that right, but she did.

Even, finally, that I did when I was human, too. Saw them both ways.

-

Dr. Vivian wanted to wait and see my human form. She said she had some theories and needed to talk to me and examine me that way too, to check them.

But first, or right then, she wanted me to do an important experiment about my leg and scars healing. I blinked and she asked to have Dane's hand.

"Dane, may I make a small cut on your hand? I promise it won't be more than a prick?"

He said sure, and she took out a small box with needles in glass tubes about the size of toothpicks and broke one and scratched him with the needle on the back of his hand, near his wrist.

A little cut. Blood.

I watched with wide eyes and heard myself whine.

"Okay. Now, Jacob?"

I looked at her, but had to look at Dane's hand again.

"Jacob, you see the cut? Can you try to make it better?"

Dane put it close. I wanted to make it better. I knew it didn't even hurt him, really, but when Dr. Vivian asked, I needed to try!

I couldn't see exactly where, but I licked it. I knew doctors didn't lick, but I didn't have hands, either, and I remembered sucking on a scrape to make it sting less....

I licked and wished... I didn't know what for...

I felt him.

It was a bit like when how I felt her when Dr. Vivian examined me... inside Dane...

It tasted like blood and Dane and... other people. Toby Robinson, maybe. Dr. Vivian. Aya. Alfaarr. Me. People, too faint...

little things that were bad, or... wrong...

just different...

Tingles... too many... animals and plants... like the backyard...

The tastes changed. More little ones I didn't know....

Suddenly, I got his fur wet, and kept licking, everywhere I could reach... until it was different, again. A pain, a place with a sour taste... Small tastes...

Then... just Dane. It was a good taste. Some of the little ones were gone, but all the scents that were left were him... like they'd changed to be him. Or I learned them, him...

-

I felt a hand around my neck and then Dane nosed me. I looked up and he licked my nose. I blinked at him and tried to lick back, but missed. I was wobbly tired...

Everyone sounded really excited, but I was so sleepy all of a sudden I couldn't even listen. Even for Dane. To see he was better... But he was smiling...

Dr. Vivian had a magnifying glass, and said it was healed.

I couldn't keep my eyes open.

She said I was a healer.

-

I woke up with Aya, in my bed. I was still a pup and she was still human, and awake. Kinda curled around me.

"Hey, puppy..." She sounded pretty sleepy. I felt pretty awake.

I gave her a yip, and since I had some experience with my bed from before, I managed to half-crawl, half-stand-wobble-fall over to her, all of a foot, and give her human nose a lick, wagging furiously all the way.

She said she was ~very~ impressed!

I was too, though I was still glad she lifted me the six inches back to let us talk better. Backwards was harder. She smiled at me as I got settled, and stroked my ear for me.

"What you did with Dane was pretty impressive too, you know."

I looked at her. All I did was lick it.

"It really was. Dr. Kerr thinks it's a first too, like your size. I've never heard of anything like it."

I still didn't understand. If I was a healer, then I could be a doctor, but there were hundreds of them, just in the Commonwealth. Any of them could.

"Jacob, you're a healer! A ~Waere~healer! And you healed Dane's hand without touching it! He says he could ~feel~ you licking his Waere form, but his human healed at the same time! We can't even ~be~ both at the same time!"

She scared me, talking so loud or something, but stopped when she saw, and hugged me close.

"I'm sorry, sweetie! It's just so exciting. I promise not to yell, okay" She kissed my mushed forehead and then kept her face close enough to breathe on me.

"It's just you're a ~healer~! And Dane says he can almost feel his other form now, from what you did!" She smiled again.

"Okay, I promise not to talk about it anymore. For now."

-

Still holding me close, she kissed my head again.

"Why on earth do you have your radio in here?"

-

When I woke up, I'd changed. Aya was sitting in a kitchen chair by the door, reading a book by the hall light. The radio was on, the sound really quiet. Music.

I listened and thought. I guess I dozed a while, too.

-

Aya must've covered me since I had a sheet on and I was pretty warm, and I think that's what woke me again. I was tired, too, not as bad as before, but tired. Aya was still reading.

I had a thought.

"Aya?"

She looked over at me and smiled when she saw I was awake. Reached to turn off the radio, too.

"What is it, honey? Did you sleep okay?"

I nodded. I'd slept a lot, here and there. I felt weak, but awake.

"Aya? How come when I change when I'm awake it's so... so strong, but when it happens when I'm asleep I don't even wake up?"

She thought about that one. I did too, or remembered the feelings. She moved over the edge of the bed as she thought, and brushed at my hair with her fingers.

"I don't know. And when you say it that way it doesn't make any sense, does it? We usually change on purpose, so we're awake, and I suppose it's something I'd wake up for...." She made an odd face and stroked my cheek.

"Something else happens that doesn't make sense, either."

"What?" A million things... her hand moved different when she said that. Like it was bad. Her smell even changed, to... different.

"Well, when you change to human, and you have twice in bed with us now, and in the other room? You just do, and we aren't pushed or bumped or anything. Nothing is." She smiled like that was really weird.

"But-"

"But we only usually change when we're awake, and if we're sick or hurt or something and change any other time, things get bumped, just from our shape, and we don't even change our weight... or our size, too much. But you get a ~lot~ bigger and heavier, and it all just... appears!... and you still don't push or bang anything."

I ~really~ thought about that. I was afraid to ask what occurred to me first. Afraid to even ask if she knew. If they moved when I changed. Or noticed, if they did.

I could touch things that they couldn't even see...

I was a freak. A magic freak. And a whole other horrible idea occurred to me.

Aya leaned close, before I could move. She was kneeling by the bed and kissed my nose and stayed that close, hugging me.

"Oh, baby! It's nothing bad! You can heal people! You're a ~healer~! I bet it's that you won't even hurt us when you're asleep- or unconscious! And there's stuff about Waere that ~nobody~ understands, even little stuff, like why we don't always stub our toes when we change! Or none of us need glasses that way! They still just call it magic! You're just more careful! It's bigger, but the same!"

I didn't say anything. I managed to get an arm from under the sheet to hug her a little, too.

It made sense. It explained at least the bumping, sort of. But I was worried.

A lot of it ~didn't~ make sense.

-

Nobody would like becoming a girl Waere... no man would.

-

End of Part Five