5
As Ianto walked through the front door, he realized two things. One, he'd finally found the right antique store. Unlike the oppressive, dark feel of the other stores he'd visited, the atmosphere here was lively and optimistic. It was strange, but he could feel an energy here that called to him.
And two, the town of Nowhere, Kentucky produced the same type of lovable residents as the last place in West Virginia. Behind the counter, Ianto could just see a frizzy mop of gray hair, on top of a pair of the largest goggling, brown eyes he'd ever seen. The eyes were emphasized even more with a pair of dark-rimmed, thick round eyeglasses, and as he walked toward the diminutive individual, he called out, "How are you today? I wonder if you could help me with something?"
"Stop! Don't take nary a step closer if you know what's good for you." The husky voice carried surprisingly loud, and Ianto halted his progress immediately. It was a woman behind the counter, Ianto believed, though she sounded like a pack-a-day voice of years beyond.
"I'm sorry if I startled you. Your store was recommended to me by the Cookie Mage in West Virginia. I'm looking for a book." Ianto took a baby step toward the counter but stopped again as the impossibly large eyes grew even wider.
"Are you crazy? Didn't you hear me say steppin' closer was a bad idea? Or do you just have a death wish?"
"I don't understand what's going on." In a hot second, something with outstretched wings swung down from the ceiling, levelling a wide-open beak at Ianto's head. With minimal time to spare, he dropped to all fours and stared upward as the humungous bird-creature flew back up toward the metal rafters, honking loudly down at him. "What the hell is that?"
"Duh! That's the reason I told you not to step any farther. You just had to go and make it even more spittin' mad. Great job, Dolt."
Ianto didn't know which was worse... almost getting his head taken off by some flying weirdo, or not getting his head taken off and having to hear the badly combined sarcastic remark. "Smooth move, Dolt."
"What?"
"The way you say that is 'smooth move, Dolt,' not 'great job, Dolt.' That just doesn't make any sense at all."
"Really? That's what's got your panties in a bunch? Goddess save us from stupidity. I shoulda just let the damn thing eat you and be done with it." Yep, she was pissed with him, but Ianto couldn't help but admire her blatant honesty. Clearly something unexpected was going on here, and if Ianto could concoct a solution, he might just find favour with the husky-voiced lady. With a little luck, he'd be leaving here with the book within the hour.
"So, what exactly is this thing?"
"I could be wrong, but it seems to me that, that there might be some sort of bat out of hell." Her distinctive dialect was hard to decipher, but Ianto was getting the hang of it.
Ianto looked at the red feathers coating most, but not all, of the body. The face looked kind of like a goose but with crystal blue, human eyes. The legs were bird-like and long, but ended in huge clawed, webbed feet. Ianto's best guess was that this was a Shifter change gone wrong.
"Was there anyone in the store before I got here?"
"I believe so. Let me think. Yes, yes, there was an elderly gentleman with one of those fancy hats. You know, a fedora, or something like that. I hadn't never saw him before, but he must have left without me noticin'."
As Ianto looked up, he noticed a fedora on the head of the goose. Not the typical headgear for waterfowl. "Actually, here's another question. Where I come from, we have someone in the town that does special kinds of healings. We call her the Shifter Whisperer. You wouldn't by chance know of anyone here like that would you?"
"Shifter what? Hell, we ain't got no one here called that."
Ianto looked down and shook his head back and forth. He had known that Zelda was a one-of-a-kind type of healer Mage, but he'd hoped that a town like Nowhere would have had someone like her. Now what? "Okay. This is what we're going to do. I'm going to lure our friend here to the door. Then, I'm going to..."
What? What was he going to do? And, how the hell was he going to lure the poor creature to the door? This was a shit plan if ever there was one. Truth be told, if he couldn't shoot it, stab it, or poison it, Ianto was at loss.
"You're goin' do what? Sit on the floor and wait until a thought happens to sneak its way into your empty head?"
The woman was losing her original appeal. If Ianto didn't need her in order to find a book, he might just feed her to the creature. Although, it was likely to be a vegetarian, as most Shifters were for obvious reasons.
As Ianto thought about the book he needed, his gaze fell on a red volume, face-down on the ground in the middle of a pile of drab-coloured clothes, and he suddenly understood what had happened. It was cursed. And the shifter had set it off. They wouldn't need a Shifter Whisperer after all. Ianto could fix this. They just needed to close the book and put it into a space that neutralized the dark magic in it.
Slowly, he pulled his arms from the straps of his backpack. The half-shifted goose Shifter squawked loudly in his direction, drawing his focus there for a moment. "It's okay. I'm going to help you. I just have to pull out my gloves and lead-lined bag from my backpack."
"Who're you talkin' to?"
Ianto didn't answer. He just eased the zipper of his pack open and slipped his hand inside. With slow, measured movements, he searched blindly without breaking the connected gaze he had with the goose Shifter. When his fingers found the items he needed, he pulled them out one at a time and began to put the gloves on. "I'm going to move now. It's the only way I can fix this. Don't freak out."
As he swivelled his head and body toward the book, he heard the rustling of what sounded like wings flapping above him, but he didn't stop crawling toward the book. Once he hovered over it, he opened the bag and focused on the red cover. He wiggled his fingers slightly as he lowered his hands slowly. He needed to close the book with a snap and wrestle it into the bag quickly, but he knew it wouldn't go easily. He swallowed and steadied his breathing, feeling the pulsing curse as it sent waves of energy through the air around him. This was a delicate situation, and one wrong move would cause chaos to erupt in the entire store.
"What're you up to over there? I can't see you. You'll be payin' for anything you break."
Ianto tuned out the deep, raspy voice, and with a swift sweep inward, he smashed the two covers together, feeling the fight within the book. He felt little control over his own hands as it jerked its way left and right, trying to free itself to continue the mischief it had started. Using his considerable strength, Ianto gripped the book tightly shut with his right hand as he quickly wrapped magically enhanced tape around the tome seven times exactly. It fought even harder as he pushed it toward the opening of his bag.
An unopened, cursed book was easily managed, but the minute you opened one, the fight was on. With a loud cry, pulled from deep in his chest, he shoved the book into his lead-lined bag, zipped it as quickly as he could, and muttered a hastily whispered incantation.
Silence filled the store.
Ianto sat back on his heels, feeling his pumping heart work as air still rushed in and out of his lungs. Over the past five years, he had learned how to deal with cursed books and objects, but it was never easy. Even the calm ones had the potential to do some damage if they weren't handled correctly, but that one had put up a good battle, and Ianto thought he might have been lucky to have won this one.
He stood up and dusted himself off. A few careful motions had the bag with the book in it stored safely in his backpack. He faced the clerk who had stood to his full height now—all of four-foot-eight.
"Now, as I was saying, I'm looking for a book."
A smile split the clerk's face in half as she cleared her throat, bowed, and said, "Prince Ianto, I knowed it was you. They told me to expect you, but I didn't recognize you right away."
"Who told you to expect me?"
She waved a hand like that part didn't matter. "The two Mages who visited about seven years ago. They gave me this picture, so I'd know what you look like and this envelope to give to you when you showed up."
Within a second, she dropped below the store counter once more and seemed to be rummaging around in a cabinet.
"Do you remember the names of the Mages who visited?"
She rasped, "No. They didn't give me their names, but one of them looked exactly like you. I mean, she coulda been your twin."
Ianto perked up even more. Everywhere he'd gone growing up in Torchwood, people had said that very thing about his mother and him. Ianto had inched to the counter and peered over it now, seeing only two legs wiggling out from a two-door cabinet, both doors swung open wide. Finally, the clerk shouted, "Here it is!"
With high-energy, she scooted backwards and jumped to her feet, a light pink envelope in her hands.
As she handed it to Ianto, a familiar scent wafted into the air. His mother. It smelled exactly like his mother. This had been left by his mother. His fingers couldn't move quickly enough as he tore open the envelope and pulled out a thin, slip of parchment.
It was small and the script looped and leaned to the right in a flowing, beautifully written message:
It's time for you to return to the place where your new life began. There you will find what you are looking for.
The breath rushed from his lungs. Were these his mother's words? How could she have known that Ianto would come to this shop? The clerk had said she'd been here seven years ago. That would have been right around when she'd shown Ianto the portal and taught him how to use it.
It was also right around the time she'd disappeared, and his father had tried to erase her from the entire kingdom. Could she have come here to prepare the way for Ianto? Could she have known all of this would happen? How was that possible? Return to the place where your new life began.
He had to go home. Yes, he'd run from his old life to here, but the first time he'd begun a new life was at the Assassin's Academy.
Ianto had to return to Torchwood.
He had to go back to school. The book must be there, and that's where he had to go. "Um. Excuse me. Not to be a bother or anything, but do either of you think you could help me down from here?"
They looked up, and their regret was instant. Above them, in the rafters, stood one very wrinkled old man, naked, except for a fedora atop his head.