Dinner consisted of glazed chicken, shallot mashed potatoes, and brussels sprouts that had been cooked with bacon. It was all completely delicious, including the brussels sprouts. Of course, that was to be expected since my mom used to be a professional sous chef before she decided that she preferred working outside the kitchen and having more reasonable hours. Now, she worked as some sort of supply chain manager and sourced products for a local high end restaurant chain.

We were all sitting at the dinner table, including Vivian who’d stayed, probably to satisfy her curiosity as to whether I was going to be a Were or not, not to mention which kind. When I’d finished looking up the different types of mythical creatures on the web and came back out of my room earlier on, I pretended to be surprised to find her here. She didn’t say a word about my possibly being a mythic, nor did dad. I suspected that he just wanted to keep me from getting my hopes up. As it was, I only had a fifty percent chance of being a Were at all.

Mom sat across from me, being slender with shoulder length strawberry blonde hair. She was still very attractive for her age and I knew that a lot of the guys at school would probably call her a MILF, especially right now. Mom usually had small breasts, but at the moment she was a nice D cup…just a bit larger than Vivian. Of course, that was no accident.

Though my mom wasn’t a Were, she certainly wasn’t a normal either. In fact, my mom was from a people who were known as the Touched. The name came from the old belief that they were touched by god…or by the devil.

While most old legends and stories about people who turn into animals or about animals who act like people are inspired by the Were, the ones about witches and wizards were inspired by the Touched. And like the Were, the Touched have been hiding among humans for a very long time. It is even believed that both races share a common origin and may even have once been a single race.

The Touched have magic and can do things that would normally be completely impossible, though no more so than a man being able to turn into a bear. Every touched has a single magic power, a talent which they can perform at just about any time. This talent is different for every Touched and appears to be almost random. For my mom, her talent is that she can make her breasts grow larger for about an hour. Needless to say, my dad absolutely loves it when she uses it.

I glanced at Vivian and then looked back at my plate, thinking about what she’d said earlier. I also thought of how it would be getting dark soon and how she and dad would both change. And of course, how I might change as well…or not. My emotions about that were still mixed since I thought it would be exciting to be a Were who turned into a cool animal, especially a mythical one, but it would also be great to have some other kind of magic talent.

In just a short time, I would find out for certain whether I was a Were or not. But even if I didn’t take after my dad, there was still no guarantee that I’d take after my mom. If both parents were Were, then you were guaranteed to be a Were as well. But even if both of your parents were Touched, there was still no guarantee you would be too. Most of the time you would be, but it did sometimes skip a generation. I was a little nervous that this might be the case, that I wouldn’t have inherited enough from either of my parents to take after them and that I’d be left as a normal. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with normal since all my friends at school were, but considering my family, I knew that I’d feel ashamed and left out.

“It’s only a little bit longer,” Vivian told me from across the table. She gave me an odd look and asked, “So, are you excited? I remember I was during my Changing Day.”

“A bit,” I admitted.

“Remember,” mom reminded Vivian. “Aaron might end up being Touched rather than Were.”

Vivian nodded at that and then asked mom, “Do Touched have a Changing Day?”

“No,” mom responded with an amused smile. “We don’t have anything quite like it. You see, our talents aren’t as predictable about when they’re going to appear.“

“The sixteenth birthday is still important though,” dad added, giving me a quick look and grinning. “We discover our other form on the first full moon afterwards…”

“And we can discover our talent anytime afterwards,” mom continued with a chuckle. “We tap into the source of magic anytime between our sixteenth and seventeenth birthdays and develop our talent. If we don’t do it before seventeen, then we never do.” She shrugged at that. “I don’t know why that is…only that this is how it works.”

“I always wondered why it has to be the sixteenth birthday,” Vivian said with a shake of her head. “It always seemed so arbitrary…”

The three adults continued talking about the similarities and differences between Were and Touched while I just ate in silence. When I was finished, I left the table and returned to my room, immediately glancing at the clock when I got there.

“Only a couple hours,” I reminded myself, feeling a knot in my stomach.

I’d spent half the day imagining what it would be like to be a Were but now I found myself thinking about being Touched. If I was touched, what kind of talent would I get? I grinned as I imagined what it would be like to actually do magic.

Specific talents weren’t inherited any more than Were forms were, but sometimes certain types of talents would run in a family. In my mom’s family, most of the talents seemed to cause some kind of physical change or transformation. Mom could make her own breasts grow, grandma could make people fat, and my aunt June could turn them into frogs. Then there was my uncle Dave who could turn himself into a raccoon and was sometimes mistaken as a Were because of that. In fact, that very misunderstanding was what led to him meeting my dad and introducing my parents to each other all those years ago.

There is a family legend that the reason our bloodline has so much transformation magic is that we are descended from the powerful sorceress Circe. However, there is absolutely no evidence to prove this and Circe herself has been dead for a VERY long time. More than likely, someone had just made it up in order to try impressing other people with.

“Touched or Were,” I mused with a sigh. “I guess in a little bit I’ll be able to check one of them off.”

I decided that I’d had enough of worrying about this for now and wanted to take my mind off of the topic of Weres and Touched. Instead, I went to the table that was set up in the corner of my room and which was covered with a half complete jigsaw puzzle. Putting puzzles together was something of a hobby of mine, as demonstrated by the two large assembled puzzles which had been framed and hung from my bedroom walls. As an only child, I’d always had to find ways to entertain myself and this was one of my favorite ways of doing that.

The puzzle I was currently working on was a nature landscape and was a bit of a pain since so much of it was shades of green and brown, making the pieces hard to tell apart. Still, I rather enjoyed the challenge of that and knew that I’d feel quite proud of myself once I was able to complete it. It was a pretty nice picture to so I might even end up framing it and putting it on my wall as well.

I had been intently focused on the puzzle for a good half hour before I was distracted the sound of a hesitant knock on my bedroom door. I didn’t even have a chance to answer before the door opened and my mom stepped into the room.

“How are you doing?” mom asked me with a slightly concerned look.

“I’m fine,” I lied, giving her a cheerful smile.

“Well, I know that in your place, I’d be a little nervous,” she told me. “But regardless of whether you end up Touched or as a Were, I want you to know that your father and I will both still love you the same.”

“I know,” I responded. Then I hesitantly admitted, “I’m just not sure which I’d rather be… I know there are some good things about both…”

“Well, I certainly have no complaints about being Touched,” she told me with a faint smirk. “But I’m sure you’d be perfectly happy as a Were too.” In spite of her saying this, I knew that she was really hoping that I’d be Touched like she was. She was nearly as nervous about tonight as I was, though she wouldn’t admit it.

“I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” I told her with a wry smile.

“Now come on,” mom told me, putting her arm around my shoulder and leading me towards the door. “We have cake to celebrate your Changing Day.”

“But what if it’s not my changing day?” I asked.

She just grinned and answered, “Then we have cake for dessert.”