Tom gently pulled back the rear part of the blanket, sure enough, there were wings, and lower, a spade-like tail. Replacing the blanket, he lifted the front of the blanket to verify Rupert’s long black nailed claws. Naturally, his biceps and other muscles seemed to have swelled a bit, and seemed to be continuing to do so.
Tom stepped back and ran his fingers through his hair. He wasn’t sure, but unless he missed his guess, Rupert looked exactly like a smaller copy of himself.
Tom sat hunched on his knees again. His hand resting lightly on Rupert’s shoulder. Shock did not quite seem adequate to describe what he felt. Rupert was a demon! It did explain certain things that hadn’t made a whole lot of sense before. Actually it explained a lot of things, the more he thought about it. What couldn’t be explained is why Rupert looked like Tom.
Rupert shuddered suddenly. As Tom looked down at the boy, demon, Rupert opened his eyes. He’d stopped breathing also. This, however, did not worry Tom, since he wasn’t breathing at the moment either. “So Rupert?” Tom smiled at the boy, “anything else you forgot to mention?”
“Heh... no, I think this was the only big thing.” Rupert’s voice had easily dropped an octave or two. Tom simply continued to stare concernedly down into Rupert’s eyes. “I don’t hurt quite so bad, but I do feel rather funny, and I ache.”
“Yes, well I’d expect so. But experience tells me the aching will go away.”
Rupert closed his eyes again for the moment. “Tom?”
“Yes.”
“What do I look like?”
“What do you look like? You mean you don’t know?”
“Heh, well, I have a rough idea, but I’ve never let myself go all the way.”
“What?” Tom was startled. “You mean you’ve always looked like human Rupert until now?”
“Yeah, actually, until I was ten, I really did look like human Rupert.”
“Until you were ten?” How old was the kid, Tom could swear he wasn’t any older than ten, or hadn’t been earlier in the day.
“Yes, a year ago, just before I came to Lenamare’s school. Up until I turned ten and then puberty started to kick in. Only it was a lot worse for me. I started growing a tail, and horns, you know.”
“Fun.”
“Yeah, well, mom had always denied the rumors townspeople spread. But as soon as it became obvious to others in the town what was happening to me, we were driven out. They don’t seem to like demon-get for some reason. They, they hurt her... bad.” He paused for a moment, Rupert thought he was going to cry, but of course, demons didn’t have tear ducts. Rupert took a deep breath. “I eventually learned to suppress the changes by force of will, but it was too late, she died.
“I’m sorry.”
Rupert sniffed. “Yeah, well, anyway, I managed to lock my old form in, from before I started to change. I then managed to get myself enrolled in Lenamare’s school. It wasn’t easy, but by passing myself off as two years younger than I really was, I looked like a prodigy.”
“Why would you enroll yourself in Lenamare’s school.” Tom was curious at such a notion. Seemed rather antithetical for a demon, or half-demon as Rupert claimed to be.
“Well, I had to do something to eat, and have a shelter.” Rupert said. Tom decided not to mention the fact that demon’s didn’t need to eat, nor did they really need shelter. “Besides, I wanted to become a great conjuror.”
“Conjuror! Why in the world would you want to become a conjuror!” Obviously the kid was a bit strange even for a demon.
Rupert paused at this. “Tom, tell me, what do I look like?”
Tom did a double take at this evasion. Since Tom hadn’t answered this question yet though, he did now. “Quite handsome really,” he said with a smile, “you look exactly like a smaller version of me.”
Rupert smiled widely then, and seemed suddenly to relax a great deal. Any human would have been terrified by the smile, Edwyrd got chills down his spine, but Tom recognized the expression. “I wanted to be a great conjuror... so I could summon you.”
Tom’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor. “Why? Why would you want to conjure me?” Tom was completely flabbergasted. This was not at all the sort of answer he’d expected.
Rupert smiled again, and when he spoke, Tom finally thought he understood what it was that Jenn and Gastropé seemed to enjoy about fainting. “Why,” Rupert answered, “doesn’t every kid want to meet his father?”
His father? What? Tom didn’t know what to make of that response; he was completely at a loss. Why would the kid think... “Jesus...” was all he could say.
Rupert tilted his head on the pillow, “Who?”
Tom waved his hand, “never mind...”
“Where is he? I’ve got to see him!” Jenn’s voice came loud and clear from outside. She was apparently trying to enter the sterncastle. “Get away from the door!” Tom couldn’t hear Evert’s response; Jenn was obviously screaming for her voice to carry so well. He looked to Rupert, Rupert looked rather concerned.
“Can you shift back yet?” Tom asked. Rupert seemed to gulp and concentrate, then shook his head negatively. Tom closed his eyes for a moment, thinking what to do.
