by Ben Cass
She felt Kira move away from her, and then Doyle’s legs pressed against her. She felt the soft fabric lift gently from her back, and then Doyle’s hand was on her skin, sliding gently past her shoulders. “I’m just going to touch your back, Elowyn,” he said. “The pain will be over soon, I promise.” His fingers stopped on the bottom part of her back.
All at once, the agony left her body, a giant pressure suddenly gone. She still couldn’t move, but at least she didn’t feel anything. Doyle’s anguished scream tore through the shower, nearly deafening her. What had he done?
“Almost...there,” he said, sounding like his teeth were clenched together. “Hold...on.” She felt her sister take her hand, squeezing it.
“I’m right here, honey,” Jen whispered. “We’re all here.”
What felt like a year later, Ellie’s body suddenly collapsed onto the tile floor, her back resting against Doyle’s leg. His hand moved back up her back and gently squeezed her shoulder, comforting her. She wanted to cry, but didn’t have the strength.
“Let us dry you off, dove,” said Kira. “Alistair, could you give us some privacy for a few moments?”
Ellie didn’t want him to leave; there was something reassuring about his presence. He’d taken the pain away simply by touching her. She didn’t want him in there when they dried her off, though. She struggled to speak, but her voice still wouldn’t work.
Doyle’s hand remained on her shoulder, gently massaging her trapezius muscle. “Kira, we both know I can dry her off faster with my magic.” Ellie heard Kira cluck her tongue, but her brother continued, “I don’t need to look. I’ll keep my eyes closed until you determine I can open them. Besides, her skin is going to be raw and tender right now, and I can guarantee rubbing it with a towel is going to hurt like hell until I can get some medicine into her. The one she has on now is probably driving her crazy. She needs something softer.”
Her nerves were definitely protesting the cloth currently draped on her body, and Ellie fought to get a few words out. “No towel,” she managed to say.
She felt Kira’s hand gently touch her cheek. “Elowyn, do you want Alistair to use his magic instead? I promise you he will not see your body.”
Summoning her strength, Ellie managed to nod. Kira stroked her cheek. “Very well. Jeniah, cover his eyes, and I will remove the towel from her.”
After a moment, the cloth lifted from Ellie’s body, exposing her skin to the air. She heard her sister gasp, and could have sworn she said, “Woah.”
“She will be fine, Jeniah. Alistair?”
All the droplets of water on Ellie’s skin suddenly leaped off of her. Faintly, she heard water splashing against the wall of the shower. The tile floor beneath her heated up, evaporating the liquid trapped beneath her body.
Air gently flowed over her, caressing her, drying her skin, which was burning like she had dragged sunburned knees twenty feet on asphalt. The breeze was cool, but not cold, and it soothed the fire in her nerves. She felt herself relax further, and sighed in relief. What the hell happened to me?
“I have a bathrobe for her,” Kira said. “Can her skin tolerate it?”
“If it’s the one I had hanging up, then yes. That one is very soft,” Doyle said. “It shouldn’t bother her.” His eyes must still be closed. That was a relief.
She felt Kira’s strong hands lift her up and gently wrap the bathrobe around her upper body, which felt quite different than it had earlier. Kira wrapped the bathrobe around her, then gently raised her legs and pulled it down to cover her. Kira tied the robe closed.
“You can release him, Jeniah,” Kira said. Ellie felt Doyle’s hands move to her face, his powerful fingers surprisingly tender as he turned her head sideways, opening her eyes gently to look into them before closing them again. Like his sister had, he gently stroked her cheek, his touch comforting.
Jen’s voice came to her. “Should we call an ambulance?”
Doyle sounded unworried when he spoke. “They can’t do anything for her. She just needs to rest. She’s going to be exhausted now, I imagine.” Ellie opened her eyes long enough to see him look at Jen. “Why did you say ‘woah’?”
So Ellie hadn’t imagined that. Jen had sounded surprised. When she answered Doyle, her voice was hesitant. “Well...she’s bigger. Much curvier. It looks like she gained a lot of weight and muscle mass all over her body. I...uhh...I also think she grew five or six inches.”
Curvier? She had gotten taller and heavier? In the shower???
What the hell was in the water here?
“Hmm,” Doyle said thoughtfully. “Are you sure she grew? Still looks short to me.” Inside her mind, Ellie smiled. If Doyle could joke around at a time like this, then everything was going to be fine.
Ellie felt Jen’s hands on her legs. “What happened, sweetie?”
With some effort, Ellie forced herself to speak. “Pain. So much pain.” She found herself yawning. “I want to go to sleep.”
She tried to curl her legs up and found they were responding again. She felt Doyle’s arms underneath her knees and her shoulders, turning her onto her back. She started to automatically protest about flashing him, but her mouth wouldn’t form the words. Jen adjusted the robe again, pulling it around Ellie’s body to cover her up. He lifted her off the floor as easily as he would a newborn baby.
“Better. Open your eyes again, Ali, and let me get the door so you can get her out,” said Jen. Ellie peeked long enough to see Jen holding the shower door ajar, Kira standing just beyond, and her eyelids closed again as Doyle turned sideways to carry Ellie out. It didn’t take him long to reach the bed, and he gently laid her on it.
She forced her eyes open to slits, and saw Doyle rummaging through a drawer in the nightstand. “Here we go,” he said, pulling a small bottle out. He popped the lid and dumped something into his hand. Recapping the bottle, he placed it back and closed the drawer. “Here, kid. Chew this. It’ll help.” He gently pushed something small and squishy against Ellie’s lips. She figured it was the gummy tablet she’d taken before, so she opened her mouth and took the thing inside with her tongue. It wasn’t the same gummy, though; this was far more sugary. She chewed it up and swallowed it. Almost instantly, she started feeling better, strength returning to her.
Ellie opened her eyes all the way and looked over at Doyle. His pants were wet from the knees down, and his socks were soaked. A vicious-looking cut, which hadn’t been there earlier, ran across his abdominal muscles.
She suddenly remembered his cry of anguish in the shower at the same time her agonizing pain had vanished. Did he...did he somehow take my pain into himself?
Kira stared at his abdomen. She pointed at the wound. “Alistair...what did you do?”
“Removed the agonizing suffering she was experiencing.” He looked directly at his twin. “Menstrual cramps, my ass. She’s Changing, Kira! I could have helped her with this if you’d listened to me!”
Kira inclined her head. “For what it is worth, you were right, and I was wrong. However,” she jabbed a finger at him, “I would have supported you if you had simply told me instead of keeping it a secret!”
The twins stared at each other for a moment before Ellie spoke up, her voice weaker than usual. “I really hate to sound like an ungrateful bitch, but if we’re going to talk about my horribly embarrassing, murderous girl issues, can it please just be us girls? I’m so not ready to hear my sister’s boyfriend talk about my body, even if he did just save my life again.”
Doyle gave a half-bow. “Whatever you like. Kira, can you handle this?”
His sister gave a nod. “Of course, Alistair. Go on; leave us girls alone. If we need you, we will call Theonus.”
Doyle bowed from the waist. “Yes, ma’am.”
He turned and walked into the bathroom. Jen watched him go, her eyebrow cocked.
“He does realize he just walked into the shower, right?” She rose to go get him, shaking her head, and walked into the bathroom. “Ali, you went...
” She emerged a moment later, looking baffled. She pointed over her shoulder.
“He’s...he’s gone. That’s...” Jen looked back at the bathroom, and then back at Kira. “That’s impossible; there’s no way out except for a tiny window.”
“Not for Tayamu, Jeniah. They have ways of moving that are beyond the ken of ordinary people.”
Ellie struggled to sit up. “I’ve heard that before, but I don’t know what it means. Our ken?” Kira put a hand behind Ellie’s back and helped her ease forward.
“It means our comprehension.”
“Oh.” Ellie considered this. “Yeah, seems about right. Every time I think I have him figured out, he reveals another layer of secrets.” She saw Jen’s lips tighten, and knew her sister was upset about something Doyle had told her—or, possibly, hadn’t told her.
“He is Tayamu. Secrets are a way of life for them. Where are your clothes, sweetheart?” asked Kira. Ellie pointed at the dresser.
“I put it all away earlier. Three left drawers.”
Kira stood and went over to the dresser, pulling out drawers and removing some underwear and soft cotton pajamas. She brought them over to Ellie’s side, and then she and Jen began helping Ellie get dressed. It took longer than normal, because Ellie’s muscles felt like she’d been dragged across a bumpy road by a large truck and then pummeled by a posse of jackhammers. Forcing her legs into the pajamas felt like trying to force a sleeping sea lion into a shoe box. Once they were in, she looked down. The pants were several inches shorter, and much tighter against her thighs. Jen was right. She’d grown.
When she was dressed and settled, sitting up against the wall with Jen next to her, Kira offered to get some tea for the three of them. As they agreed, there was a knock on the bedroom door.
“Is everything okay in there?” came Jerry’s voice. “I brought some tea, in case you wanted it.”
Ellie quirked an eyebrow. “Wow. You have your husband housebroken, don’t you?”
“If only I did,” replied Kira, gliding over to the bedroom door and opening it. Jerry was holding a tray with three steaming mugs on it, the floral designs seeming out of place in Doyle’s home. Maybe they were Kira’s? “Thank you, love.”
He smiled at his wife. “I know you prefer tea when you’re in a rough spot, and when I heard all the commotion, I figured you’d need some, so I went to the kitchen and got it ready for you.” He slipped past her into the room, setting the tray down on the dresser. “I’ll be down the hall if you need anything, so just give a yell and I’ll come running.” He nodded to Jen and Ellie, kissed his wife and went out the door, pulling it closed behind him.
Ellie was surprised at how much stronger she felt. What had Doyle fed her? It must have been some kind of Tayamu medicine, but what? She dismissed it from her head in favor of a different question. “Why doesn’t Doyle like your husband? He seems like a great guy to me.”
Kira handed Ellie one of the mugs of tea, and Ellie took it with a murmured word of thanks. The second one went to Jen. Kira sat on the bed, pulling her long legs up beneath her. She cupped her tea in her hands, looking down into the hot liquid.
“Truth be told...Jerry was not always the best person when we first got married. He was far more immature than Alistair was, even though Jerry is older than we are. He had some personal issues to work through, and he has. It took him longer than I would have liked, but I could see the potential in him from the start.”
Kira glanced toward the window, which overlooked the backyard. Out in the distance, the barn lights softly illuminated the ground in front of the large double doors.
“My brother has also never forgiven Jerry for marrying me and giving me a reason to stay here. I was not in Kiamada when our parents died of a rare virus; I was in Ohio with Jerry. Alistair was furious, and when he came here from Kiamada, the first thing he did was find me. I still do not know how he tracked me so easily, and he has never told me. He had no idea I was married, obviously, and he definitely did not approve of Jerry.”
Ellie rubbed her thigh, trying to work the soreness out. “You’d think that, by now, Doyle would realize you’re happy and just accept it.”
Kira’s eyes were sad. “It has always been my hope they will one day find common ground. Jerry really has turned his life around, but Alistair does not believe it to be permanent.” She sighed heavily and took a sip of tea. “Enough about that for now, though. We have something much more important to discuss, but I need to be certain my brother is correct. Please, tell me what just happened. Leave nothing out.”
Ellie did as Kira had asked and told them what had happened to her. She described being unable to move or even breathe, and panicking as water began seeping into her nose. She recounted how all of her body hurt, not just her midsection and chest. “They felt like the most agonizing growing pains ever.”
“And has this happened before?” Kira asked.
Ellie nodded. “Yes.” She briefly reconsidered before continuing, “Well, sort of. Not to this extent. I had an episode at school minutes before Doyle came to tell me about Jen’s mugging. I had a second one when the girls visited me while Jen was in the hospital, which is when I learned about that amazing gummy medication from Doyle, and then another attack shortly after Doyle first told me about the Tayamu and why he came here.”
Jen looked at her, surprised. “You didn’t tell me about the other two!” she said.
Ellie shrugged. “I figured you had enough to worry about. They were just bad cramps, or so I thought.”
Kira swallowed some more tea. “Delicious. I wonder which of Alistair’s mixes Jerry used?” She took another sip. “So it would be accurate to say these incidents all started after you met Alistair? And have they all occurred when he is, or has recently been, in close proximity to you?”
Ellie thought about it for a moment. “Uh...yes, actually. Everything started a few days after I first met him, though. It’s not like I saw him and things just started happening.” She gave Jen a sideways glance. “I mean, other, umm, things might have started happening immediately. I can neither confirm nor deny that.”
Jen rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s convincing.”
Kira did not reply; she just drank some more tea. After a few moments of quiet, Ellie felt the familiar annoyance within and broke the silence.
“So, are you going to tell us what you know? Or should I just guess? I’m pretty good at that.” Again, her eyes traveled the length of her altered body. Then again...I’ve got nothing to explain this.
Kira started, her eyes widening. “What? Oh, I am truly sorry. I was analyzing everything before I told you our suspicions. I am afraid I have a bad habit of doing that.” She set her mug on the floor, then shifted herself forward on the bed to rest her hands on Ellie’s legs.
“As my brother guessed, your body has begun Changing.”
Ellie snorted rudely. “He’s a few years late for that guess.”
Jen, however, tilted her head slightly, looking at Kira. “It sounded to me like you capitalized that word.”
“I did,” Kira confirmed. “She described it as growing pains, and she is precisely correct.”
“Say what?” asked Jen. “She’s almost seventeen. Shouldn’t she be past that by now?” Kira sighed, but Ellie could sense some concern in it.
She didn’t like that.
“Do you know about Elowyn’s lineage?” Kira asked.
Jen scowled. Ellie didn’t like that look at all. “Doyle just dropped that bomb on me right before we came over. The conversation is...still ongoing.”
Ellie’s heart sank; her sister was absolutely furious. Jen glanced at her, and her face softened. She reached out to gently smooth Ellie’s hair back. “Oh, honey, I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at Doyle for not telling me without my having to drag it out of him, especially when he’d just told me the truth about himself. Why that man keeps so many secrets, I’ll never know, but it’s getting really old, really fast.”
“You’re not g
oing to break up with him again, are you?” Ellie asked curiously. A flush of red hit Jen’s cheeks, and her eyes widened.
“Of course I’m not!” she said quickly. “I just...I just want him to tell me everything, not pieces of things over periods of time. It’s extremely frustrating.”
“Jeniah,” Kira interrupted gently, “he is Tayamu. It is what he was trained to do. It is ingrained into his very being. He cannot easily ignore the Tayamu way.” Kira sipped some tea. “He and I had a fight earlier over keeping secrets. I know him better than either of you, but I still get frustrated about it. He did not tell me who you were when he called, and it hurt me deeply.”
“You called her your closest friend,” Ellie remembered. “Out in the barn.”
“And she is,” Kira said. “Although, judging by her expression, I would wager she still does not remember it.”
Jen sighed and shook her head. “No. I don’t. I’m sorry, Kira. I guess there are still holes to fill, but Doyle refused to tell me about them.”
Kira nodded. “That part is understandable. I want to tell you everything, but his reasons for keeping those secrets are, as much as it pains me to say this aloud, good ones.”
“That’s what he basically told me,” Jen confirmed. “So I’m just trying to make the best of it.” She waved her hands in the air in front of her. “But enough about me and my secretive boyfriend. What about Ellie’s heritage? What does that have to do with anything?”
“Elowyn’s lineage is not of this world. Sometimes, when somebody whose family is from our world is raised here, parts of their physical development are delayed and do not finish until they go home. It typically happens to those whose parents were born in Kiamada. After a generation removed, it tends to not happen often.”
Kira smiled gently, gesturing ever so slightly at Ellie’s body. “Your body is beginning to adjust itself, Elowyn, and it will be painful. I assume you have noticed an increase in appetite recently?”
Ellie nodded. “Over the last couple of days, I feel like I can’t get enough to eat. I figured it was just, you know, hormones. This is about my time of the month, and I’m usually a lot hungrier then.”
