My name is Lila and I am a werewolf. I am larger than all the other dolls who live in this house. There was no one like me.
I had almost given up hope. I was surrounded by laughter and conversation but still felt entirely alone. The children from Monster High liked to keep me company, but the fishy one called me “Clawdeen” for some reason.
Suddenly, I found that I was being attended to by the giant one who rules our world. She carefully packed my things and carried me -just me!- to the home of the one known as “Grandma”. I was admired and shown around to several giants who were very nice. I even got a fantastic Pirate ensemble from Isabel’s Giant! I really do love this pirate coat and hat. They suit me very well.
The next thing I knew, there was a strange red person of my size sitting with me! She looked me in the eye and smirked. She had the most beautiful horns I had ever seen! They were not at all like Liaden’s graceful horns. They were curved like a ram’s horn and yet not at all unfeminine.
"Nice pirate coat," the red one said. "Can I try it on?"
I was startled by how forward she was, but I have always been generous at heart.
"Well, of course," I said, and shrugged out of the coat.
"You can try on this blue dress," she said, gracefully allowing it to drop from her shoulders. "It’s pretty, but a little bit too… Alice-in-wonderland."
Having watched the little ones trying on each others’ clothes and wigs, I suddenly understood why they thought this was so much fun! As it turns out, she and I are not exactly the same size, so sometimes it is neat to see how things fit us. My “Dark Angel” shirt would be so perfect for her, but it hangs like a tent on her frame. We also swapped wigs, but once again, she is more slender than I am (in the head?)
Back at home, I discovered that we were going to live together, and I tell her all about my monstrous heritage and she tells me about her own. She is decended from demons and from djinn, and her family is not fully accepted by either group because of it. I would have assumed that Djinn and Demons would be harmonious together, and she said that while her parents prove this to be true, there are prejudices that interfere. She then confessed that she had to escape from her world where the demons demanded that she work as a succubus or temptress and her Djinn ancestors insisted upon arranging her marriage and binding her to a shiny object.
"Have you ever crammed yourself into a lamp or a ring?" she said, with a sharp edge to her voice.
"EEEEEty-bitty living space?" I asked, helpfully.
"BWa HA HA HA…" she laughed. "Yes. Like that."
As part of her escape plan, she had made herself as plain as possible, but I encouraged her to ask for a more glamorous look. With her new face, she’s nearly unrecognizable. But she still seemed sad, despite the fun we have been having. I told her that she was safe and that anyone who came looking for her would have to get through not only my fierce wolfishness, but a whole mob of the littler ones. Trixie is awfully fierce for a near-human! Plus there are the critters, and one should never discount their wiles and ferocity! Icky the Bat has a mighty stick, after all.
This just caused her to cry, and she finally was able to tell me that she wished her brother were safe, too. She didn’t know where he was or what was happening to him, but she worried that the demons would lean on him to hurt people or cause him to do something against his innately gentle nature.
"Bring him to us using your power!" I offered. "I know that he would be welcome here, and if he looks at all like you he would be… very easy on the eyes."
"I cannot use my power for myself, or for him. I only have the djinn power of the wish, and that is only for someone other than me. He cannot wish to come to me because I cannot communicate with him."
I took her hands and grinned from ear to ear. “Then I will wish him here!”
"Be careful, Lila. I have the power, but Djinn magic is notorious for giving you what you want in the worst possible way. You must be very specific." Her words were filled with caution but her voice was filled with hope.
"I wish… that I had another companion of our size. I wish that he were handsome, half-demon and half-djinn and he must have an inherently gentle nature. I want him to be tall, red and gorgeous. Oh, and he must have exquisite horns, too."
Sanguine closed her eyes and her skin began to glow. Her horns threw sparks and her hair lifted and blew around her face. There was a faint smell of spices and brimstone. She opened her eyes and said, “Did it work?”
"Don’t you know? Can you not tell?" I looked around. "He is not here, but even I could feel that something magic happened."
She frowned. “Well… um… I hate to tell you this but that’s the first time I’ve used the power of the wish.” She seemed somewhat embarrassed. I could see that her skin was still kind of glowy, and as she shook her head her horns were still throwing sparks.
"Is there some part of the process that you’ve missed?" I thought about the spells and incantations I had witnessed and read about. "Do you need to do or say something to make it… work?"
She frowned. “Well, you touched me, and made a wish. I felt the magic begin, and I had a clear picture of what you were wishing for. I felt the magic build within me and it’s still here, burning in my chest. You have let go of my hands, but it’s still here, in my heart.” She looked like she was trying to figure a percentage in her head. “OH!” she exclaimed. “Lila, your wish is granted!” Her voice changed as she said that simple statement and it echoed through the room.
Have you ever felt your ears pop? Have you ever held your breath until you almost passed out and then gulped a new breath? Have you ever struck a balloon with a sharp pin? It was nothing like that, but even less like everything else. For a second, everything was too small and too big at the same time. The universe re-oriented itself and everything was suddenly too quiet.
"What the blazes was THAT?" shouted Ariana. "I know a thing or two about faerie magic, and that was some kind of WYRD magic, wasn’t it?" Ariana and Sanguine had been sharing wigs and talking shop lately. "I smell burning hair. Did you fry my favorite brown wig?!"
"Ariana, be still. We are trying to rescue Sanguine’s brother!" I retorted. "She wasn’t even wearing a brown wig." Those little ones can get uppity if you let them.
Sanguine hugged Ariana to her. “Ari, Lila figured out how to use my magic to bring him here.”
"You used magic? Was it djinn magic or demon magic? What did it feel like? Can you really grant wishes? Can you teach me how?" Ariana was full of questions, so I left the two of them to further discuss the differences in faerie and infernal magics.
Weeks passed. There was no large red handsome devil on my doorstep, but I could feel a peculiar sensation in my chest. It felt like an elastic string pulling at me from far away. At first I assumed that I simply needed to loosen my stringing, but considering what an effort it is to sit up, that didn’t seem quite right. Besides, Absinthe and I had already been talking about going to the spa together for new elastic, since both of us are feeling a bit… lethargic… lately. But I could still feel something pulling at me, every day.
I finally asked Sanguine, but she just gave me a very strange look and said, “He is awake. He is coming.” Sometimes I thought I could see marks on her face when she would say that, and I offered her a cleaning sponge but she just looked puzzled. “I know that the magic worked, Lila. I can’t explain how I know, but it is very certain.” I knew what she meant. I could never explain how I feel when the moon is full, or when I run with the strength of the wolf.
Weeks passed, but the tightness in my chest continued to gain strength. Finally, one day a box arrived, and it was another flurry of packing materials and a faint smell of spices and brimstone. Finally, he came to us and greeted his sister. Their fondness for one another was obvious and they were both delighted to be reunited. “This is Lila, the princess of Werewolf,” she said. “Lila, this is my brother Carmine.”
She’d never told me about his eyes.
I am entirely lost.
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday! Mine went smoother than I expected, we ate ourselves silly and watched Elf (one of my favorites). Most of my family is out shopping today while I work, but I have my Santa hat on so it's not a total loss. ;)
