A Moonlit Task

by Tom Hansen

  Nancy wrung her hands together. “What can we do?”

  Ushageeta looked up at her. “Short of getting a vet? Not sure. I have to get around Anca’s lingering magic here, something she’s woven deep into him. Normally the shifters keep in packs, so when you turn for the first time, you can imprint on the leader, like a baby duck or wolf imprinting on its mama. I don’t think he had this. He didn’t have the proper conversion that their kind is used to.”

  Ushageeta shrugged. “If we had his pack here, or any other were-tiger, they might be able to help him imprint again and get better control over his form. Then they could help him get down off the edge that he’s on right now.” She paused, studying him. “Hell, I’d even take a werewolf over nothing.” She sighed. “But short of that, I have to treat him like a regular tiger even though he’s not, and even with that I’m having to fight with whatever Anca’s done to him.”

  Nancy knelt down and brushed her hand across the fur of the tiger before her. “I’m so sorry, Peter. I wish I knew how to help.”

  Nancy’s mind raced. She had come so far, gone through so much, only to have this young man die in her living room, trapped in a furry prison. She hoped to find something, anything that might clue her in to something that could help. A thought popped into her head; it was a long shot. Peter had stolen that book from Anca and given it to her for safekeeping.

  “Anca did something to him, something abnormal that you can’t get around. What if she had written down the spell in a book?”

  Ushageeta furrowed her brow. “Possibly, but I doubt I would have enough time to unravel everything. He’s lost a lot of blood and unless I can get him converted back to his default state immediately, I’m stuck.”

  Nancy stood, her mind whirling. The book had to have the answers Ushageeta needed. Why else would Peter have risked the wrath of Anca to steal it?

  “It might have something in there. Let me get it. I can’t accept that he’s just going to die. Maybe you will know how it works. Maybe it’s marked, easy to find.”

  Nancy crossed her house to the library. The wine bottle sat where she had placed it there the night before, a night that seemed like a distant memory.

  She pushed the wine bottle out of the way and opened up the hidden compartment. The space was surprisingly roomy and contained three shelves and a drawer in which to store valuables. The small jade figurine she received from Linda was sitting on the shelf in front of the dark, ancient, leather binding of Anca’s spell book. Nancy reached in to move the figurine but stopped. Her hand hovered just above the green mineral. Something about its shape ticked in her brain, the spell runes, etched into its base, called to her from a primal place, a place she had not known existed before this all started, before a witch had died in her arms after being mauled by a were-tiger. Fear, anxiety, and raw power coursed through her spine and down her arms, causing her fingers to tingle and her whole body to shake.

  She remembered Linda’s words, begging her to return this figurine to Peter, something Nancy had meant to do, but hadn’t actually accomplished.

  She picked it up, rolling it around, looking at its intricate carvings. The pads of her fingers tingled slightly. This wasn’t just an ordinary figurine of a tiger. It had purpose. It had power.

  Realization hit Nancy like a six-hundred pound were-tiger.

  Giving it back to Peter the first time they met would have simply given it to Anca, same with the second time. Nancy had to ensure that she got Peter away from Anca’s clutches before giving it to him. It was the only way to keep Anca from using it against him.

  Nancy yelled as she hustled back to Ushageeta. “You said if we had his clan here it would help, right?”

  “Yes.” Her voice was curt, frustrated.

  Nancy was panting as she reentered her living room. “What about something from his pack? What if, when he left to study out of state, they gave him something that would tie themselves to him, so if he turned while he was out of state, he had something to help him through the transition, something to bind him to the pack? Could something like that be put into a small totem?”

  “What sort of totem?” Ushageeta’s response was hesitant this time, curious.

  Nancy chided herself for the casual nature with which she had treated this figurine as she handed it to the old woman.

  Ushageeta took the small green tiger and turned it over in her hands. Nancy felt a strange heat emanating from it, even though the other woman held it. Was Ushageeta able to activate it?

  Ushageeta looked up at Nancy, tears welling up in her eyes. “Where did you get this?” Her voice wavered and cracked.

  The sight of Ushageeta crying flooded Nancy with hope. She was barely able to hold back her own tears. “Linda gave it to me right before she died, asking me to return it to Peter, only I never did. I didn’t realize at the time how powerful it was. I … I couldn’t feel it until today.” Nancy reminded herself that if the figurine had started buzzing with magical energy before the last twenty-four hours, she probably would have brushed it off as some oddity of the stone.

  Ushageeta turned over the jade cat again in her fingers.

  “Well?” Nancy peered at Ushageeta intently, hoping she would have some miraculous insight into the figurine.

  “I don’t really know what it does, but it is quite magical. There is great power stored in this. Only, I don’t know how to activate it. We would need the person who created it to tell us, or Peter. He was probably instructed in its use before leaving his pack.”

  Nancy reeled at this information. This was supposed to be the answer! This was supposed to fix him, heal him, make him turn back into a kid she could talk to.

  Nothing was going right. Peter was unconscious on her floor. His father was back in California, and Nancy had no idea how to contact him. Everything she knew about magic had been told to her by a ghost.

  No, two ghosts; Peter’s mother, who had died when Peter was young.

  It had to be her figurine. She might have created it. She knew how to unlock it.

  And she had told Nancy how.

  Nancy held out her hand. “I think I know who made it.”

  Ushageeta hesitated for a moment, then, narrowing her eyes, finally gave back the figurine. “Anca?”

  Nancy shook her head then took a step back. “Peter’s mother.”

  She crawled closer to the tiger. She picked up his right front paw and placed it into her lap. It was heavy and limp and Nancy couldn’t help worrying that he was going to wake up any second and attack her. She placed the small figurine on his pads, which dwarfed the tiny statue, and closed the paw around it. She felt the slight twitch of Peter’s muscles responding to the stimuli of her hand moving him.

  She closed her hands around his paw, squeezing her eyes together. “Please, Peter. Please stay with us. I don’t know what else to do to help you, but I hope this is what you need.” She thought about Peter’s mother, pining to hold her child one last time. Nancy hoped this would work. She needed it to work.

  Peter lay motionless in her hands. His breaths so shallow she wondered how any air was getting into his lungs at all. She had been here once before, a bare week ago, holding a dying person’s hand while the life slipped away from them. Do not die on me, Peter! I can’t let you die!

  Something welled up inside her, something that had lain dormant all her life. It was white and dark, hot and frigid, furious and caring. It was alive now, coiling around her hand, around his paw, and seeping into the figurine. It would not be contained as the intertwining coil of emotions and magic heated her spine to the boiling point. This was her, this was right. This was her gift, her power, her magic.

  She looked down at the tiger, but she saw through him to the boy underneath. The blue-white glow of his spirit lay limp on the ground.

  She continued to allow the flow of energy to course through her body, down her arms, and into the statue, which seemed to gobble up everything she poured into it.

  A hum emanated from Peter�
��s paw, followed by a cold, sapphire light. Nancy hugged his paw harder, closing her eyes and concentrating on Peter and his pain. She willed him with everything she could mentally throw at him, to get better, to respond somehow, to come back so that she could tell him what Linda’s dying wish had been. So she could tell him his mother loved him.

  She felt … something. Another cord. Another entity in the statue. Nancy pulled and the entity slid easily out, a blue spirit that was instantly recognizable to her. It was Peter’s mother from the dream she’d had only a day before.

  She was young and thin, with hair down to her waist. The two locked eyes for only a moment before the woman turned and gazed down on her son.

  The ghost knelt and picked up Peter’s spirit’s head. She placed it in her lap and stroked his cheek, pushing the long, matted hair away from his face. Her expression was as solemn as a stone as she took in his now fully-grown look.

  Then Peter’s mother began to cry.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Peter growled. A heat enveloping him, starting at his paw holding the figurine and traveling all over his body, light following the warmth. Over a few seconds, Nancy felt the massive paw shrink, fur retracting, disappearing, until she was holding onto the smooth, clammy skin of a young man.

  The ghostly spirit of Peter’s mother was gone.

  Peter groaned. Nancy opened her eyes, then immediately turned her head when she realized he was fully naked. Nancy felt herself go red.

  From behind them, Edna snickered.

  Ushageeta smiled.

  Nancy looked up at the old woman carefully. “I didn’t think he would be naked.”

  “Did you think he would be wearing shorts?”

  Nancy shrugged. “Guess I didn’t think about it. This is all so new to me.”

  Ushageeta sighed. “Yes. And you and I have some things to discuss, but not now. Now that he’s human again, I can start working on the damage.” She furrowed her brow at Nancy. “We need to discuss your shoulder, too, don’t forget. And I want to know how you were able to be in there with me.”

  “I know, but spend your energy on him, please. I’m okay.” Despite that, Nancy could still sense the darkness inside herself. They had not had time to push it back fully before being interrupted.

  Nancy chanced a look at him, just because he had changed form did not take away the injuries he had sustained. If anything, they looked significantly worse on his stark light skin and much smaller body than they had on his large tiger frame.

  Nancy got up and retrieved a sheet to cover him and a blanket to replace the warmth that he had just been getting from the fur. Ushageeta grabbed more herbs out of her satchel.

  An hour later, Ushageeta gave the okay for Nancy to come back.

  Peter was propped up slightly, pillows under him as he lay on the couch and smiled weakly at her as she came in.

  “Ma’am,” he said after she adjusted his blanket and set a cup of hot tea on the table beside him.

  She smiled. “Good to see you.” She brushed back his unruly hair.

  He still held onto the small jade figurine in his hand. Nancy smiled. “I’m glad you are doing better.”

  She glanced at Ushageeta, now sitting in her wheelchair again. Ushageeta gave her the slightest of nods, calming her fears, assuring her that Peter would be okay.

  “You two talk. I need to go make a phone call to Peter’s father.”

  She left the room, leaving Nancy and Peter alone.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “I’m amazed that you healed so well.” Nancy thought about putting out her hand to touch his barely-scarred side. It seemed unreal.

  Peter ran his hand over his side. “I don’t remember what happened.”

  Nancy sat down on the couch beside him, holding her own cup of tea close to her nose so she could inhale the aroma. “It’s probably best that you don’t. It was … unpleasant.”

  He looked up at her, lip quivering. Nancy finally felt compelled to put an arm around him and give him a great big hug. She settled for a light touch on his shoulder.

  “What she made you do while in that state is not your fault.”

  He looked up at her, eyes moist. “I know. I just feel terrible for everything going on.”

  Nancy put on her stern face. "You were the victim here. You and Linda, of Anca and her evil plans. I don’t want you to forget that. She was the one that forced you to do things against your will. That is a violation. Her. Not you.”

  He smiled, a weak, almost shy smile, but it warmed Nancy’s heart to know that he could smile after all of that.

  “Thank you.”

  “You call me if you ever need reminding.”

  They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment, sipping their tea. Nancy finally broke the silence.

  “I don’t know if you want to talk about it, but while you are … well, a tiger … how does it feel?”

  Peter sloshed his tea around in contemplation, or avoidance—Nancy wasn’t sure which—but he finally responded. “I don’t remember. Honestly. It’s a bit of a haze.” He looked up at her eyes to drive the point. “Have you ever been so angry at someone or something that you could not see other things around you? You just have that one thing that you cannot see around. So focused that you ignore your safety and all rational thought?”

  Nancy’s mind drifted to her husband. Their entire married life had been relatively argument-free but she could remember, long ago, a couple intense fights and the single-minded rage she held in her mind during those times. Of course she knew; it was a shared human condition.

  “It’s like that,” Peter continued, jerking his hand slightly to punctuate the point. Nancy saw the tea slosh out of his cup slightly, a drip going down the outside of the cup and onto his knee. “I can’t remember anything, really, just this red rage clouding my mind. I do have fleeting single images, though.”

  “Did you know what was going on with the whole tiger thing?”

  He shook his head, glancing back down at the figurine. “My father gave me this the day I left for college. He pulled me off to the side with my uncle. I remember that day because my father and his brother rarely talk. Things have always been strained between the two of them, but that day they were both there, talking to me in hushed tones, sharing looks.

  “He told me that he loved me. It was the first time in my life he ever said that, but he gave me the totem and said to call him if I ever got any funny feelings or something.

  “I remember laughing and telling him I already went through puberty and I already had those feelings, but my uncle chimed in and told him to just tell me. Then my dad shot him a look and I swear, he growled. At the time, I didn’t think anything of it, but thinking back, I see what that meeting was all about. Anyway, he told me again to keep the figurine close, keep it with me at all times and, and to call him if something strange happens.”

  He turned the figurine over a couple times in his hand and looked back up at her. “I guess this counts as strange, huh?”

  Nancy laughed. It felt good, cathartic.

  The last week had been a tumult of excitement and she was not one used to such excitement in her life.

  A shuffle and squeak behind her made Nancy turn around. Ushageeta came into the room, pushed by her assistant.

  “I spoke to your father,” she said as the young woman came to a stop with the wheelchair.

  “How much does he know?”

  “Enough. There were a lot of details that are hard to really place given your … odd … change over. Normally you have the benefit of a pack to help you navigate the rough waters of this time in your life. You haven’t had that. He asked me to get you a plane ticket to head back home.”

  “Plane flight?” Nancy asked.

  “He needs to get back to see his family. That figurine, no matter how powerful and personal, was meant as a stopgap measure till he can return to his pack. He needs them to recover from all of this.”

  Peter nodded. “What about
my studies?”

  “Those will need to be put on hold for a while, but don’t worry.” Ushageeta gave an odd, toothy smile. Nancy had seen her smile before, but only while making fun of Edna. This was different. “I think this is a little more important.”

  Nancy hesitated before turning to Ushageeta. “I want to thank you for your help, for coming over here.”

  Ushageeta reached out and placed her hand on Nancy’s. “I am just glad he’s alive. Plus, you did the real magic, young lady.”

  “I have questions.” Nancy had avoided thinking about what had happened. The whole situation was too surreal. She needed to have some closure with Peter before she could worry about herself. Her shoulder still hurt like hell every time she moved it.

  Ushageeta squeezed Nancy’s hand. “I’m sure you do, but those will need to wait until this matter is put behind us. I still stand by what I told you at my house yesterday. You are meddling with dangerous things here. You need to be careful and cautious, not curious. Everything that happened last night was because you put your nose where it didn’t belong.”

  Nancy opened her mouth to defend her actions, but Ushageeta raised her hand to signal silence. “I understand, I really do. But it doesn’t change the truth. You have questions, but I cannot promise I have answers. I will help where I can, but there are things that you simply cannot know for now. I know it’s a horrible answer, but that’s what I can offer. For now, get some sleep and get that boy to the airport. I will head home, if that is okay with you.”

  Nancy nodded. “Thank you.”

  Ushageeta nodded curtly while calling for her assistant.

  Nancy turned to Edna, who had been sitting back watching everyone. Nancy felt bad seeing her best friend sitting on the periphery of the action.

  “Thank you for pulling me out of that building. I wasn’t myself.”