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They do. Naturally, it doesn’t fill Lauren?iu or Adrian up.
A light dust of snow and frost glitters on the ground behind the house. He barely feels the cold.
Adrian wears a dark gray undershirt, their black binder straps showing.
Facing them, Lauren?iu asks, “You know that you can transform, don’t you?”
“No.” A pause as those shrewd eyes work. “How do I do that?”
“It’s not as hard as you might think. You think, and you are.”
“Hm. That’s very Descartes. I tell myself, ‘I want to be a bird. Or a dog. Or a dragon.’”
Lauren?iu lifts a finger. “Almost. You think, ‘I am a bird.’ No doubt, no distance. You are a bird.”
“I am a bird.” They look down at their decidedly unchanged body. “Well?”
“It takes time and concentration.”
“Can I have a demonstration?” Show me,” Adrian tells him, their stance wide. “Show me how to transform into something else.”
“That’s one of the harder skills. It was difficult learning that on my own. You can’t just think that you’re going to become something. You have tobeit.”
“I don’t care.” Adrian waves in a way that is so like Paimon on his throne, motioning for the next petitioner. “Well. Go on.”
“All right, let me focus.”
He stares at the ground. Imagining running on all fours, chasing a mouse or a squirrel...
And then he’s running, and he scales the nearest tree, silvery paws digging into the bark as he runs up to a branch. He pauses on the branch for dramatic effect, raising his fluffy tail in the air, before leaping off and elegantly changing back into his normal form.
Adrian says, arms crossed, “A cat.”
Slightly peeved, Lauren?iu replies, “Is that not impressive enough for you? Want me to show you how to turn into mist?”
“No. You’re a very pretty cat. I suppose a Persian fits.”
“What does that mean?” He’s about to ask if Adrian is more of a dog person, but he catches himself.
They hum. “You know. They’re very beautiful, but they have faces that look angry. At least, my mother’s cats never liked me very much.”
“Do I always look angry?” Lauren?iu scowls. How could they think that?
“No. But you don’t look pleased.” They sober. “How long did it take you to learn how to turn into that?”
“Several years. Mist is easier. You just work to become nothing.”
“I see,” they reply.
Adrian tries to change. They try hard. Too hard.
“It’s okay,” Lauren?iu tells them when they give an irritated huff. “It takes time.”
Tilting their head and suppressing a sigh, Adrian runs their hands through their hair. “I’ve never struggled to learn anything before.”
Thunder in the distance.
There’s so much Lauren?iu wants to say. To do. To show before the rain comes.
