A Rare Friend - Part 2

Claudia and Anthony were amazed the furdrakes decorated themselves with jewels on their horns, making them more cuter than before.  Anthony thought it was more impressive then knowing English and writing it out.  The furdrakes wrote they made them as a sign of friendship, but not telling them the real story behind the gems.

As the second week went by, Claudia became more cheerful, acting as if her mother's death was a thing of the past.  She realized that mourning her death day and night was pointless, even four months after the painful passing.  She managed to accept Riverdale, making two friends at school with no signs of furdrake fandom.  Brandon saw this and felt excited that the move was working, and the construction of the nursery was moving smooth without a hitch.  Anthony was still curious, and a little suspicious, about the furdrakes and examined their nature.  Nothing on the Internet had the answers and not even the local library.  He took notes of their bodies and attitude at any point he could take.

At home they were getting closer.  In any given moment, the furdrakes get to sit on their laps while doing homework, read books with them, take naps, and when their father wasn't around, they play in the backyard.  Helping with the garden was their favorite, pulling weeds and planting flowers and vegetables.  The furdrakes asked to have a fruit tree and the siblings settled for an apple and peach tree.  They were planted at the forest border.  When it was finished, Brandon loved it.

But they still kept their promise and stayed out of sight.  There were some close calls, but Anthony told the curious father it was a trick with his eyes.  The furdrakes snicker and flap their tails while hiding.  

When Brandon is home, they stay quiet.  When he is gone, the house turns into a party of calls, moans, and chirps, with the laughter of the children.

On Thursday night, the day that was supposed to be the cutoff for their unique friendship was now a distant mention.  The siblings were in the living room, watching TV and doing homework.  Their father was out for the night, trying to earn some overtime if the construction could be finished in five days.  Claudia wore brighter colors, wearing a simple yellow blouse and jean shorts.  Anthony stayed the same.  The furdrakes were watching TV too and sitting on the coffee table, seeing what was beyond the confines of the forest.  Both dreamed of exploring the world with them, but that's all it was-a dream.  Nobody won't accept a new species; so much for going to the Bahamas.

"What's that stupid math formula again?" Claudia asked.

"a2 + b2 = c2," Anthony answered.  Both were somewhat helping each other with math, even though their father was good when it comes to building sketches.

"Ah, got it.  Thanks."  Claudia finished the last homework problem, set down her folder on the table, and leaned back into the couch groaning.  "My eyes burn from the numbers."

Anthony huffed in agreement.  Citrus jumped on the couch and laid on Claudia's lap, instinctively letting her scratch her neck.

Rogan had a chance to inspect the kid's homework, not interfering with Anthony's concentration.  The papers and open books on the table told him that they are close to finishing their studies.  Between him and Citrus, they were waiting the whole week for the right moment.  Both wanted to be closer to their friends while there were limits to written conversations.  Tonight's the night, he thought.

Rogan came to Claudia's notebook and ripped out a blank page.  The kid's see this as normal behavior, thinking they wanted something to eat.  Citrus saw Rogan's eyes and nudge of head and got the message.  She came onto the table and bite down on a pen, then they both walked to the kitchen.

"You know what," Claudia said.  "I think I'm sick and tired of American Idol."

Anthony let out a sigh.  "Oh, thank God.  I thought I was ready to feel my ears bleed.  Now changing to Deadliest Catch."  He grabbed the remote and changed channels.

As the boats brought in their catch of Alaskan king crab, the furdrakes came back with the paper full of words.  Rogan had it in his mouth.  He handed it to Anthony and he took it along with a scratch behind the horns, a spot both found that made the furdrake's eye roll and give off a higher pitched purr.

He glanced through the letter.  "Oh, look at this," he said.  "You two wrote more this time."  He began reading it.  The smile quickly turned into an open one, feeling disconcerted.  The letter held something else.

"Ah, Claudia.  I think you need to see this."  He sounded off and Claudia noticed.

"What is it?" She asked but Anthony didn't say, only held the letter to her.  Curious, she took it and read the words, noticing it was in Citrus' handwriting, or headwriting.  Skimming, she became confused, then red it out loud.

The past two weeks were amazing to us, at the most WAY better than living in the forest protecting each other.  When we saw your family moving in, we spent day and night watching you, noticing you were not violent, but sad after loosing your mother.  I can feel your pain.  Since we've been with you, we figured we made success to make you happy again.  As for letting us stay with you we thank you two from the bottom of our hearts.  However…

Writing has turned out to be a struggle for our jaws.  I think I chipped a fang while writing this.  Me and Rogan have been waiting for this day, the day that our trust is fulfilled.  It's time to hear our words from our very mouths.

Claudia looked at the furdrakes, sitting on the coffee table.  Citrus lifted her paw and motioned her to go on.  Anthony sat up.

The gems strung around our horns grant you the ability to hear us, but they also do wonders to your bodies, giving you a better sense of our world.  More or less.  We would love for you to swallow one.  If you don't, that's fine.  It's your choice.

Claudia set the letter down and stared at the furdrakes, and the gems on their fur covered heads.

"Wonder to our bodies?"  Anthony pondered.  "Did she mean what I think she means?"

"Yeah," Claudia said, "we won't have to rely on paper."  Her mouth formed a grin as the thought of hearing Citrus' voice talking in English.

"No no no, I mean the body part.  I think their saying they want us to turn into one of them."

Claudia blinked.  "You sure?"

"Does a bear crap in the woods?  I have a hunch."

Rogan bit down on a pencil and wrote on a clean paper.  Anthony, I know it sounds weird, but it's what we are capable of.  Just trust us.

Anthony bit his lip, looking uncomfortable.  "Well not to me.  It smells fishy."

While Anthony was no doubt against it, Claudia had other thoughts.  Deep down she had ideas of the life of a furdrake, hot they are free, how soft they were, and the level of mysticism the creatures held.  One day she asked Citrus about it, but Citrus wanted to keep it a surprise.  She didn't know what that meant and judging from the letter, she might be right.

"If we, or I, do it," Claudia said.  "Is it permanent?"  She felt Anthony looking at her.

The voice is for a year, Citrus wrote, the body is voluntary and can change back by us or in a couple of hours.

"Well, that helps, but I'm still not sure," Anthony added.

"We can at least try it.  She said its temporary."

"The body, not the voice.  Behind that fur covered face, they might be lying to us."

"Anthony, since when did they lie to us?"

He had no evidence, but only came out with a short mutter.

"I thought so.  Lets at least do it for them.  I love them and so do you.  We at least owe them something in return."

The furdrakes shifted their tails, feeling that they are close to throwing the pen away.

Anthony looked at his sister with caring eyes, the same eyes that Jane Sheppard used before she died.  It let Claudia know that her brother cares for her safety and willing to protect her.  To Claudia, she wanted to grow out of the guilt.  Anthony looked away and combed back his hair.

"If you want to," he sighed, "I'll do it as well, but if anything evil happens to us, those two go straight to the government."

The furdrakes smile and yelped.  Claudia smiled and jumped a little in the couch.  "Okay, let's do it," she said.

Citrus came to the edge and presented her horns to Claudia, as the same for Rogan and Anthony.  The gems dangled like bells and gleamed in the living rooms' light.  Diligently, they took one as it popped off the strand, holding it between their fingers.  It felt firm and smooth.  Anthony gasped as he saw one grow in place of the plucked one on Rogan.

Claudia looked at it like money.  The secret to talking to furdrakes was inches from her mouth.

"Well," she said, "down the hatch."  She consumed the jewel and swallowed.  Anthony was hesitant at first, but swallowed his to avoid any fights.

The furdrakes looked at them as they felt the jewels work their magic.  The kids looked around.  "So…what now?" Anthony asked.

Close the blinds, Anthony, Citrus wrote.  Don't want any unwanted attention.

Anthony nodded and got up, closing the living room's window drapes facing the driveway.  He sat back down.

Once a place of privacy was made, the furdrakes winked at each other and jumped on the kid's laps.  Anticipation ran through them, hoping that what they did will work.  They came closer to their faces.  Claudia felt a little scared from their sudden move.  Then in one fell swoop, Citrus and Rogan kissed Claudia and Anthony's noses.

A surge of energy passed through them from head to toe in a delicate electrical current, leaving the kids of guard.  They parted and fell back on the couch, gasping and a little limp.

"Oh my goodness," Claudia said first.  "What was that?"

"Definitely not a taser," Andrew managed, rubbing his head.  "Is it just me or do I feel hot?"

Claudia felt the same as warmth spread over her body.  The furdrakes jumped off and came resting on the far side of the room, watching a miracle unfold.  She sat up as the warmth downsized to a dull throb.  It grew around her head.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," Anthony added and turned to his sister, gasping.  "Ah, sis."

"What?" She asked.

Anthony's eyes were getting wider and it concerned her.  "Ah, do this."  He swiped his hand over his ears.

She followed and stopped as she felt them.  Panicking she did the same to the other side, finding her ears were gone, down to simple holes.  The warmth centralized in two places on top her head and as she ran her fingers through her hair, she felt horns growing with no pain.  They stopped at five inches and tipped back.  Then her ear holes closed, making her deaf, then her horns took over as she heard more clearly than ever.  She saw the same with Anthony with horns the same as Rogan's.

The warmth traveled down her head and neck.  Claudia's skin itched a little as orange fur sprouted, thick and smooth as Citrus'.  The feelings felt so good and alien to her, she became engrossed in her own mind, ignoring the outer world around her and focuses on the transformation.  She closed her eyes.  As her nose and mouth fused and grew out into a muzzle, teeth sharpening to points, her clothes got caught in the magic.  Her blouse was dissolving and shrinking to a black strapless tube top.  The shorts grew an inch and changed to black, framing her curves.  The fur kept growing down her neck and chest, a tuff of white fur grew over her breasts, then her breasts grew from a B to a C.

Anthony saw in horror of his sister changing.  He felt the fur, the muzzle growth and his clothes changing as he kept his eyes open.  His blue pants shrank to shorts and his shirt stayed the same, but changed to a dark crimson.  When Rogan had light green fur, Anthony sprouted forest green fur down his head and upper chest.  "This is impossible," he said inevitably.

Claudia still kept her eyes closed.  The fur ran down both arms and consumed her hands.  They morphed and flexed to have paw like features, with black pads on the palms and white claws.  Once the fur covered her torso and went down into her shorts, her eyes rolled back and gasped, causing her to fall off the couch and to the floor.  The fur was ticking her to an extreme level and couldn't help but laugh.  Her hips widened, stomach tensed up, and a hole appeared in her shorts for the six foot tail to grow and fluff up with orange and white fur.

Anthony felt an intense surge of electricity in his crotch and made him grip himself.  His back arched as his tail grew, wagging by his emotions.  The fur grew faster down their legs, reshaping them to a digitigrade look and their feet shifting to paws.  Anthony laid down on the couch when the heat lowered a little.  Gasping he looked at himself.  There was no sign left of Anthony Sheppard.  He looked down at Claudia to see a humanoid furdrake lying on her stomach, breathing heavy, with the same hair color and style as his sister.

He thought it was over, but then he felt warmth appear on his lower torso.  Two protrusions grew from rounded stalagmites of fur into two sculpted frontal furdrake legs and paws.  He felt fear from the new limbs, then his spine lengthened as the magic mad a second pelvis.

Claudia experienced it too as her new limbs formed and her spine grew.  A series of moans came when the limbs linked with her nervous system and plant themselves flat against the carpet.  Both the kid's transformation was complete.  One half of the second pelvis was a humanoid furdrake, the other end in the body of a furdrake, melding into a taur.

Citrus and Rogan still sat in the same place, watching them and wagging their tails.

Claudia opened her eyes and took in a deep breath.  She smelled new and familiar smells to a heightened level.  Her eyesight was sharper and her hearing was more sensitive, even as the horns acted like radio antennas from every direction.  She started to pick herself up then saw her new hands, the fur and paw pads.  With a flinch of muscle, her new claws extended.

"Holy crap," she whispered.  She felt the tail, the legs and every corner of her new body.  Turning on her back she cursed.  Each leg moved by her command and made her mind trip.

"Si…Sis!?" Anthony hesitated.  "Is that you?"  She saw her brother, but his voice came out of a green humanoid furdrake taur, eyes and hair very similar.

"Anthony?"  She said.  "Look at yourself."

"Look at yourself.  I told you there was something else to this, but no, not even my sister wanted to back away."

"You can at least thank us," a third voice said, sounding like a popular male comedian, jarring the transformed kids.

"Wha?  Who said that?"  Claudia looked around.

"Yes, it worked, goodbye pesky pencil!" A fourth female voice said, coming out as a young college girl.

Both kids saw the source.  Citrus and Rogan approached them in an excited manner.  "For a minute I thought it wouldn't work," Rogan commented, "but the others were right.  Humans can become like us."

Anthony freaked.  His legs kicked the air and his lower body shifted only to fall on Claudia's back.  Both yelped then he rolled off her, pushing the coffee table a few feet back.

"They talk, they really can talk," Anthony exclaimed.

"Guys calm down, you'll hurt yourselves."

"Oh my god," Claudia gasped.  "This is amazing!"

"I think it's creepy in all the wrong places," Anthony added.

Rogan shook his head.

"So, are you going to try to stand up?" Citrus asked.

Claudia looked behind her.  "I…I don't know if I can."  She jerked her legs, trying to come up with a new stance in her head.  Seeing a cat on all fours was all she could imagine.

"You wont know if you try."

With that in mind, Claudia moved her legs to stand up using the couch for support.  What the magic also did was rewire her mind to accept her new body by force.  She was thinking of two leg terms, but it translated to four legs.  Hoping to not trip on herself, she realized within seconds she was on all fours.

Anthony saw this and could believe how fluid it was.  It was as if she did it before.  By then he was getting up too and stood next to his sister.  From the furdrakes point of view, they looked a few years older, maybe at the point of being man and woman.

Claudia glanced at Citrus.  "Is this it?"  She asked.

"Yep," she said grinning.

"Kind of a trippy feeling with the legs," Anthony commented.  "What's with the clothes?"  He reached behind and pulled up the shorts covering his butt.

"For modesty.  We also have the power to change them to your taste."

"Walk, walk," Rogan chanted.  "Get a feel of yourself."

Curious, Claudia began walking.  Her lower half behaved just like an animals, arms stretched out in case of falling.  She walked from the dinning room table and back, getting faster and better footing.  Anthony followed the same pattern, stunned that he knew how to do it.

"Okay," she said.  "Now I'm officially stoked."

"You don't have to tell me twice," Anthony said coming around the coffee table.

Satisfied, Citrus and Rogan climbed up the kids, walked over their backs, and rest on their shoulders.  Claudia wanted to hold her friend in her arms, cradling her over her new bosom.

"You like it," Citrus said.  "Then by all means, be with us.  Our Watchers."

Anthony blinked while Rogan was perched on his shoulder.  "Say what now?" He said, but was cut off by an odd sound.  "Wait, do you hear that?"

Claudia whirled around and nodded while rubbing Citrus' belly.  From her antenna horns, it sounded like a car's engine, getting louder and louder.

"Oh you gotta be kidding me," Anthony muttered and went to the window, almost knocking over the coffee table.  Rogan jumped and landed on the couch.  He pulled back a small corner to see and felt a bad chill when he saw the family car's headlights pull up the driveway.

"Shit, dad's home!  Quick we gotta hide!"

The furdrakes gasped.

"I thought he said he was working late?" Claudia asked.

"He did, I swear."

"Guys, listen," Citrus intervened.  "You don't have to hide, we can fix this.  Rogan, help me out here."  Citrus crawled to Claudia's face and kissed her nose.  Rogan jumped on Anthony's back and slinked to his face.

*****

Two bright flashes shined through the curtains, but Brandon didn't notice as he was pulling his briefcase and blueprint tubes from the trunk.  He was exhausted with a bladder full of processed coffee and was awaiting to eat the leftover chicken from last night.  He opened the door and set his stuff on the table.  As he turned, he saw his children on the couch with their bare feet on the coffee table.

"Hey," both said with straight faces.

"Hey," Brandon said.  "You two finished your homework?"  Both nodded.  "Glad you did.  If you need me I'll be in the kitchen."  He went but stopped to look at them again.  Both were slouching on their backs, hands folded, and watching the Discovery channel.  The look on their faces and the show they were watching didn't feel right to him because as long as he raised them, they go at each other's throats for control of the TV.  Did Anthony win a bet or something? He thought.

"What?" Claudia asked.

"You guys all right?"

"Yeah, were fine," Anthony said.  "What's up?"  His straight face showed no falter.

Brandon shook his head and went on.  "I need to stop drinking that cheap coffee."  He went out of sight.

The kids sighed hard and laughed low to not be heard.  Their clothes were back to normal and had no signs of their furdrake taur bodies.  They freaked when changing back in less than three seconds to have their senses bombarded by change, but their little friends hiding behind the cushions took great care to not break their bodies.

The furdrake's heads popped out.  "That was close," whispered Rogan.

"To close to count.  I almost bruised my knee on the table," Claudia added while whispering too.

Anthony turned to them.  "You better get upstairs before he comes back."  They nodded and wiggled out of the cushions, then scuttled up the stairs and in their rooms.

Claudia punched Anthony in the shoulder, excited, and still whispered.  "My God," she said, "the furdrakes are magical!  Can you believe that?"

"Yeah, I believe it, but their story does not compute," Anthony whispered but he looked distant.

Claudia felt lost.  "What do you mean?"

Anthony folded his arms and went deep into thought.  "See, here's the thing.  We've been here for four months and they were watching us the whole time.  Then two weeks ago they started showing up.  Technically when I hear that, it sounds off a lot of alarms.  Think about it.  They are a new species hiding in the forest that can talk to us when we eat jewelry, transform by choice, have the same level of intelligence as us, and be that soft and cuddly at the time.  Don't tell me that all of this is making you weary?"

The microwave in the kitchen turned on.

"Anthony, you might be exaggerating on this."

His eyes leveled.  "Sis, don't toy with me.  You're probably ignoring me and still tripping out.  When I see them sitting next to each other, I see something else.  I think they're hiding something.  They might as well act the same as the others from school."

Claudia looked at the stairs.  "Hiding something?"

Anthony tucked one leg, a sign of him gathering puzzle info.  "When we became them, or something entirely, Rogan said that 'others' did it too.  Could it be that there are more of them?  Obviously.  But what about other people?  Definite possibility?"  He cleared his throat.  "What if the kids at school do have a furdrake and transform in secret?  Citrus said something about Watchers and sounded happy, like a baby.  It all sounds like…like…" He lost his train of thought for an analogy.

"A conspiracy?"  Claudia suggested.

"It might.  I need to do more digging, on top of my other notes on the two."

Claudia felt overwhelmed by Anthony's theory, however how accurate it seemed.  Figuring out the weirdness of the school was never a priority, but it irritated her.  An image grazed through her mind of exposing them…and losing Citrus.

"Whatever the case," she said, "it's too soon for me to give up Citrus.  I just met her.  She's my first friend I ever made in this town.  She changed my life, Anthony, made me live past mom's death.  I don't want to be that weeping girl again and piss off dad even more."

"Who said I wanted to expose them?"  Anthony clarified.  The beeper went off on the microwave and Brandon pulled his dinner.  "I just want answers.  But promise me you don't go too deep in your feelings.  That new body might leave behind some side effects."

Claudia nodded.  "But how are you gonna get more info?  It's not like you can go up to somebody and say 'ever heard of a furdrake running around in your bushes?'"

"Leave that to me.  I have ways."  Brandon, after liberating himself in the bathroom, came to the living room and sat with his kids to watch a new episode of the daring crab fisherman.

*****

Like every puzzle there is a sense of time to solve.  Anthony made a living to solve medium to over the top Sudoku problems in half an hour and cryptographs in at least two.  Everything else he can crack in a minute at the same time scratching his back.  For the most difficult ones, he needs to find or create a geriatric cypher, a guide to solving a problem.

Unraveling the mystery of the furdrakes is no exception.  His process is to hang out at the school and listen for key phrases and body language from the "possible furdrake owners."  Three days he did it; three days of standing, sitting, and pretending to read, so to stare at people like a hungry hawk.  Besides the students, adults acted the same too.  He created lists of names, ranging from ages thirteen to sixty, including the shaggy haired barber across from the burger joint.

At the same time he monitored his sister.  He watches her transform, examine the furdrake physiology, and after school before Brandon comes home, all four are in the yard, feeling their taur bodies as Claudia prances around with Citrus.  Anthony limited his transformation by three, gathering insight into his notebooks.  By day three of sleuthing, he had more notes that consumed three more notebooks, one containing the names.

But there always the certain people that pop out.

One particular was a junior student, Jasmine Kenneth.  A social girl participating in the booster club and the softball team, she had signs that she did have one.  For starters, she died a bundle of brown hair to a dark red and kept it tucked behind her ear.  Another was on her zipper binder, she had a sketch of a black/red furdrake made from a friend of hers.  Whenever she talked to another "owner," she talks about this "Duke" guy in an "I'm in love" and a "What a spoiled brat" kind of tone.

Anthony wanted to meet her as she was mostly open hearted.  In the past before he ever knew of Citrus, he talked to her about the drawings, but with no luck.  And the best part from his studies-all the owners looked up to her as a leader.

He stood in the hallway, staring into space and sometimes looking over the crowd at Jasmine.  The clothes she wore were normal but in a western sense: calf high cowboy boots over her jeans, buttoned t-shirt, leather vest, and a small purse.  Her brown hair came down to her neck, but the red strand went passed her shoulder, tucked as always.  As she spoke, she laughs wide.  Anthony liked that, but hormones aside he had a job to do.

Jasmine finished and walked off.  Anthony followed her to the quad.  As she went to a grass area to sit under a tree, he came up and said hi.  She looked up from her book.

"Hi there," she said.  "Wait, let me guess.  It's…Ant?"

"Close, it's Anthony," he corrected her.

"Oh, right, sorry.  Never talked enough to remember your name."

No kidding, he thought, four months and you never knew?  "Hey, ah, do you remember a few weeks ago when I asked about those drawings?"

Jasmine's eyes leveled.  "Yeah.  Back when you were desperate.  You still think were all a bunch of obsessive art enthusiasts?"

"I've changed.  That part of me is gone.  On the other hand…" He approached her.  "It's still about the furdrakes."

"What about them?"

"Well you know.  Where they come from?  How big are they?  Do they possess a certain love power?"  His attempt was to ask the right questions if any of them sparked a sign.  Jasmine did not answer any of them.

"Anthony I told you before.  It's a school thing for us."

His eyes went to a portion of her thin neck.  Liar, I can see that shift in your throat.

"Besides it's not something to make fun of, we all have feelings you know."

"Yes, I understand that but to show you that I've changed my ways, I got into your little shindig."

Her eyebrows rose.  "Really?"

"Yeah and I was wondering if you can critique my work."  Anthony took off his backpack and pulled out a piece of paper from the front pouch.  "It's not much but it works."  A sly undetectable smile formed then went away.

"Sure I can take a look."  She got up.

Anthony's heart was beating fast.  Anticipation and fear pulled at his insides.  It took him minutes to get the sample ready before leaving for school.  He had trouble just to keep Citrus and Rogan to stand still.  He was also banking and betting on his theories, whether or not he and Claudia were the first to have real life furdrakes or, almost true, they weren't the first.

Anthony handed the paper to her.  She gazed at it and gasped so hard he thought her eyes were about to explode.  "What they hell?"  She said.  "This is a photograph!  "How the hell did you find them?  I've been…" She paused, realizing what came out.  Letting go of the picture she clamped her mouth closed with her hands, shaking.

"Gotcha," he said with a goofy grin.

In the picture were Claudia and the furdrakes.  She was against the wall carrying a furdrake in each arm like babies.  Paws up and smiling was what he wanted, then it took him three more minutes to print the photo.

She began looking all over, nervous if anybody heard.  Fury filled her eyes as she grabbed Anthony's arm.  "Behind the gym. NOW!"

Anthony grabbed the photo.  Both dodged students and faculty to end up on the far side of the school's gymnasium.  Nobody goes there except the occasional junior or senior couple socializing where nobody was looking.  They hid in an unused corner best for dampening sound.

"You have no idea what the feels like" Anthony said in between laughs.  "I've had thoughts you people knew but now…" His speech was cut when Jasmine let go, balled her fist, and sailed it at Anthony's jaw.  He took the full blow, sending him into the wall and slumping to the asphalt.  He yelled in pain as he cupped his throbbing jaw.  "Ah, why did you do that for?"

"You're a nosy asshole, you know that?"  Jasmine yelled.  "You almost exposed me.  How could you?"

"Hey don't blame me, this was the only way to get any reaction."

"Yeah well don't rub it in, you got what you wanted.  They exist, we knew before you, end of story."  Jasmine folded her arms.  "Now tell me, how did you find those two?  I've been looking long and hard in the forest for Citrus and Rogan."

Anthony's ears perked and got back on his feet.  "We didn't, they found us when we moved.  Well, my sister was the first, then me.  We had them for two weeks."

Jasmine shook her head.  "Shit.  It's been since Thanksgiving since the last time I've seen those two.  I don't know if I want to be happy they're alive or angry they didn't come back to the field."

"So you do know them?"

"Of course.  Let me see that photo again."

He pulled the picture from his pocket as she looked.  "Coat looks healthy.  Wait a minute, are these gemstones?"  She pointed and Anthony nodded.  "Great, now you two are bonded for a year.  I was afraid this would happen.  I guess you figured out what they do to you?"

"Like hearing them talk and transform us?  Yep, four days ago."

Jasmine sighed.  "Look this isn't a good place to go deep into this.  I need to see them."

"What about where they come from for starters?"

"I'll tell you everything once I see how healthy they are."

"How about my house this afternoon, dad doesn't get off work until six."

"Deal.  Oh, and sorry about the whole punching you in the face thing."  Anthony rubbed his jaw again.  "We'll meet at my car in the parking lot."

She started walking off but a question formed in Anthony's head.  "Hold on.  So this Duke guy, is he your furdrake?"

"Of course.  I'm his Watcher."  She whirled and went into the building.

Again with the Watcher name, he thought.  As he reconciled his findings and the reaction from Jasmine he jumped and yelled.  His jaw screamed to shut him up immediately.  The time to know the truth was upon him.