Vee blushed as she stood in the tall dark green grass watching many kids running and screaming around the park. She was dressed in a blue and yellow sweater, which sweaters were kind of her thing as she was always found in one. During fall time she wore her orange and brown sweater with the pumpkin in the middle, at Christmas time she had a red and green one with a Christmas tree in the middle of it, and in summer she was thinking of a green sweater with a beach ball on it. Or she might switch to T-shirts at that time so no one thought anything suspicious was going on with her. She already had the old museum worker Jacob trailing her and trying to get her into trouble. She did not want the fact she was a shape-shifting monster to be public news. But thankfully she was able to avoid that drama and she wanted it to stay that way.
But now for her spring wardrobe, she was wearing a light blue and yellow sweater with a large yellow egg in the middle of the sweater, a pair of black shorts that fell to right above her knees, a bandaid on her knee where the rips in the jeans she normally were at, and red velcro shoes and short pink socks covering her feet. She wouldn't normally wear velcro shoes, but in her current situation, they fitted her better. Normally she took the form of a teenager, matching the age of her human sister Luz, who was fourteen years old. But ever since their trip to the aquarium at the tail end of summer vacation and the girl took the form of a little kid so she could slip in for free, since she was a shapeshifter she could do that at will as long as she had enough magical energy, her mom Camilla had insisted she should be a little kid for a few other things. Christmas time for instance she had gone to bed as a six-year-old and spent all of Christmas as a little kid. Which she wasn't going to complain about as Camilla had let her live there without wanting anything in return, even after she learned that she was just impersonating her daughter for a time. So if her mom asked her to have a fun time and turn into a kid from time to time then Vee supposed she could oblige and entertain her mom with it.
Today was one of those as Vee looked like she was about five or six years old, standing there with a purple basket made of straw in her hands. Though one of her hands had to shoot up into her swam green hair to scratch it as she had a headband with two large white bunny ears on it, and the cheap plastic band was digging into her head with its sharp tips. Unlike her clothes, she didn't make the ears with her power but those had been bought from a store. Which Vee had offered to just make them with her power but her mom insisted on buying them and Vee wearing them. That way she would have something to put away and keep to remember her 'childhood'. So she wore the itchy bunny ears and a little fluffy white bunny tail that was clipped to the back of her pants. Which it did make her look pretty cute, there was no way Vee could deny it. But the tail made it awkward to sit on a chair as it pushed her forward making it so she couldn't sit with her back flat against whatever it was that she was sitting on. But seeing the excited look in her mom's eyes and the daw she got from her made it worth it in the end.
"Smile mi hija!" Camilla said, pulling Vee's attention away from the group of kids her current age, and when she looked her eyes grew wide as she saw her mom holding her phone out sideways, her finger clicking down on it, meaning she just took a pic on her. "So cute." The lady said with a giggle looking at the picture. The little girl's eyes were wide in surprise, though her bushy hair was a bit blurry as it had been flying through the air when the picture was taken, her mouth slightly ajar showing her white teeth, except for one of the middle teeth that weren't there since little kids were starting to lose their teeth at her age. "That one is a keeper," Camilla said with a wink, her brown eyes still sparkling with excitement as she looked down at her daughter. "Now you're going to be running with a big group of kids. Some bigger than you, Vee." Camilla said squatting down to be closer to Vee's current height. Her sweet peach-smelling perfume instantly attacked Vee's nose as her mom put a hand on her shoulder. "You need to be quick and get as many eggs as possible so you can find the big egg!" She said, her smile fading as she got serious, making Vee give a sheepish grin.
If she had learned anything about her mom in the few months of living with her was that Camilla did not like to lose or have any of her children lose in any kind of competition. While posing as her sister Luz whenever she would play any kind of game Mom would always give her the same speech. "You are a Noceda and Nocedas don't lose!" So she was surprised when her mom started to give her the speech once more, fire practically burning in her eyes. The lady dramatically closed her eyes and had her head pointed down to the ground, her left hand on Vee's shoulder while the right one was up to her mom's chest curled into a ball and shaking as she held onto the air tightly. "And don't forget to have fun, sweetie." She ended the speech and patted the girl's head.
"There's no way she's going to lose. Mom." Luz piped up from one of the lawn chairs that they had set up to watch the kids run and try and pick up the easter eggs. She, like their mom, was dressed for the warmer weather the springtime brought in with a pair of pink shorts with a matching shirt but was also prepared for the random cold snaps that could come with pantihose and her brown jacket that had a large faded E on the left side of the jacket. The jacket was open and she had her hands shoved into the pockets of the jacket. Their mom had on a long-sleeved light blue shirt and blue jeans. "She's my sister after all," Luz said with a wink.
Sitting in front of them was a red and white checkered picnic blanket with a wicker picnic basket with sandwich fixings inside of it sitting on top of the blanket. Past the easter egg hunt, there was more to do at the park, the entire town of Gravesberg had planned a big activity day to celebrate spring. There were games spread out: large Jenga, Cornhole, and large checkers. Food carts were parked, filling the air with the smell of greasy fried foods like corn dogs, funnel cakes, and even deep-fried chocolate eggs. So when they left that morning they were planning on being there all day.
Before Vee could say anything to either of them, wanting to say she'd try her best, someone with a blowhorn announced, "Kids K through 2nd grade please line up at the white line for their hunt." With that Vee was sent with her basket and she lined up beside a girl in a yellow dress and black shoes, the girl was probably in the 2nd grade since she was almost a foot taller than Vee and her shoes were tie shoes. She was busy talking to the boy in a baby blue buttoned-up shirt with a dark blue bow tie.
"I'm going to find the big egg this year." The girl said with a proud grin, fist against her waist, her yellow basket almost hitting Vee in the face. Which almost being hit was the only thing that drew her into the conversation, as she had been distracted by looking at all of the colorful plastic eggs that were dotting the field. "This year they filled the giant egg with gold coins!" The girl said, not even trying to be quiet. And hearing this Vee's eyes went wide, no wonder Camilla wanted her to win the competition if they were giving out gold!
Not that Vee had actually even seen gold before. But she knew that humans really liked the metal and paid a lot for it. So giving it away as a prize for this showed how important this competition was for humans! And if Vee could win those coins and give them to Camilla, she could start to show how thankful she was for her mom taking her in. Plus it would help out around the house as well, as it wasn't too long ago that there were four other teens in the house along with her and Luz. And you didn't walk away from something like that without your wallet feeling it. So it could help them make up for all the shopping her mom had to do during that time.
"Really, gold coins?" Vee asked, tugging on the sleeve of the girl, having to stand up on her tippy toes to do so.
"Yeah!" The girl said, smiling down at Vee, her green eyes burning with excitement. "I watched my mommy fill the egg up with them." She said and Vee lowered herself back down so her feet were flat. She nodded her head with excitement as she turned back to the large field, trying to look for the big egg. Unlike the girl beside her, whose mom had filled the egg, she had no idea what color the egg was. So she was going to have to find it fast while collecting other eggs.
"Ok, boys and girls." The man with the megaphone said into the machine, he had on a pair of black pants and a white and black striped shirt, though his shiny bold head reflected the sunlight off it. "A few rules before we get started. First off stay inside the box, all the eggs are within the white box!" He said and waved his arm around, and a rectangle about half the size of a football field had been outlined with white paint. "We don't need or want anyone going into the woods and getting poison ivy or scaring any of the wildlife." Which off to the left a thick line of trees and bushes sat and the white line lay right in front of them so no one would actually go in it. "Next…" He went on going over basic rules like no fighting, if someone grabs an egg don't rip it out of their hands, and other rules like that. After that everyone braced themselves as the man lowered his megaphone and raised a whistle to his lips.
SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The high-pitched shriek of the whistle tore through the air, and as soon as everyone heard it they blasted off into the field. A lot of kids laughed as they ran through the field, some kids yelled instantly as eggs sniped from their grip, and adults instantly yelled and cheered for their kids. Vee didn't though, frowning as she scanned her entire surroundings for the big egg as she grabbed the tiny ones. Her basket quickly filled with red, blue, pink, and purple plastic eggs, rattling with whatever small pieces of candy filled them. She quickly had to hold the basket with both of her hands to stop the basket from dragging across the ground, due to her size the ground was only about a foot away from her basket as it hung at her side. But she pushed forward, putting one egg after the other into her basket.
Soon all the little eggs had been picked up from the ground, all the baskets looking like a unicorn thrown up into them. The adults had made sure that there were plenty of eggs so everyone would have a lot of eggs. Now the only egg left was the big egg with the golden coins in it that no one had managed to find. The adults even made sure none of their kids didn't have the egg already and just didn't understand what they meant by big egg. But no one had the egg, which meant it was still somewhere on the field!
"Don't worry Mom I'm going to get the egg!" Vee said, stars in her eyes, as she watched her mom start to put the eggs back in her basket. She was squatting a bit as he fist shook up and down with excitement. They made Camilla look through her easter basket even though Vee told them she hadn't picked up an egg any bigger than the other eggs. But since she look and sounded like a five-year-old she understood why they didn't just take her word for it.
"I'm sure you will Vee." Camilla chuckled as she sat on the ground and ruffled the girl's hair, her bunny ears staying planted in her hair still. "I'm glad to see you so eager." She said to her daughter, considering the girl seemed apathetic about the whole thing at the beginning of the day. So seeing her excited warmed Camilla's heart. "Now get out there and find it!" She cheered Vee on, Luz giving a "Whooo" as Vee ran back out, where a few kinds were on their hands and knees looking all over for the big egg. The adults gave them a hint telling them the egg was yellow, so now everyone was looking for something big and yellow.
Vee dropped to the ground like the other kids, sweeping her hand around as she looked, hoping she would bump into the egg with her hand. But it was like the egg just wasn't there on the field, as a few dozen kids were looking around for it. But no one was able to find it anywhere! The hunt went on for about five minutes before some kids got bored and started to walk off the field, leaving the only really dedicated kids to try and find the egg. Vee herself was about to give up when out of the corner of her eye she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.
At the edge of the forest amongst the bushes, there was something yellow peaking out, almost completely covered up by the green leaves of the bush and outside of the white line. Maybe if Vee's body was inside the white line and her arm was out she wouldn't be breaking any rules? She wasn't trying to cheat to win the competition, but if the egg had been sat outside the lines or accidentally kicked out of the line then she kind of had to cheat to win. So laying down on the cool ground the girl reached her tan hand out trying to touch whatever yellow thing was in the bushes. Her fingers wiggled as she stretched them out, nicking the egg with her nails. Whatever it was felt like plastic.
"Ah ha!" Vee said smiling as she tried to reach further to grab the egg, even using her powers to make her fingers a bit longer to help. But as soon as her fingers started to grab the egg, it suddenly started to move forward. "Hey!" Vee yelled and jumped to her feet and rushed into the woods. Clearing the bushes the girl saw the egg rolling down the hill, the top of it barely surfacing past all the weeds and other plants that grew in the woods. "Not so fast, Egg!" She yelled as she started to run down the hill after it. She had her fingers around the egg again, when it felt like something shoved it out of her hands and even turned the egg in a different direction, making Vee stand there shocked. Her mouth dropped open and her eyes wide. She may not have known everything about the human realm, but she was fairly certain that plastic eggs couldn't turn on their own. Or run away for that fact. It rolling down the hill was understandable, but now that she was on flat ground and watching the egg only pick up speed she knew something wasn't right.
"H-hey stop!" She begged the egg, immediately running after it again. Chasing it up a hill, jumping over a little creek, and out of the woods. At this point the girl was huffing and puffing, making a mental note to not do any kind of sports as a kid. Their endurance was terrible! But she pursued the egg, sweat dripping down her face, as the egg ran into a wooden step. "Gotcha!" She cheered, jumping and pouncing on the egg, both her hands grabbing the egg, which immediately started to shake trying to get free from her hands. "Let's see what we got here." She said frowning. It was clear this was some sort of magical egg, the way it literally ran away from her and the field, and now that she held the egg she definitely got the hints of magic from it. But it wasn't really strong, meaning the egg itself wasn't magical. But something inside of the egg was.
So bracing herself, ready to drain whatever was in the egg of its magical energy, she started to open the egg. If whatever was in the egg was dangerous she couldn't just let it run around, so she was going to have to take care of whatever it was. But if it didn't attack her then whatever it was she'd let it go. But she was prepared for the worst as she pulled the top of the egg off and took a deep breath. But she instantly stopped as she saw a dark brown owl in the egg, its beak holding onto a black web, that had a small bag of shiny gold coins in it.
"Owlbert!" Vee gasped and sighed in relief seeing the palsmen, and not a dangerous monster. "What are you doing here?" She asked crossing an arm across her chest, raising an eyebrow to the owl.
Hoo hoo hoo hoo. The owl respond, which made Vee roll her eyes. She didn't understand a word he had just said, she wasn't sure why she asked him that. But no doubt he was there on Eda the Owl Lady's behalf. She always sent the owl to gather shiny human stuff for her to sell.
"Oh wait." She said realizing the bag in Owlbert's beak had a bag filled with shiny coins. "Owlbert wait, can I have those?" She begged the owl, "Everyone has been looking for those coins and I kind of need them. And they would help my mom out a lot!" She said pulling the bird close to her face. "Gold is worth a lot to humans and if I brought my mom that gold it would probably mean the world to her!" She said. Upon hearing this Owlbert gave a confused look as he lifted his beak and shook the bag, as if making sure thats what Vee was talking about. She nodded her head vigorously. The bird dropped the bag before flapping his wings and flying out of the lemon-colored egg.
Hoo hoo. He said before flying away through an open doorway, dodging yellow and black construction tape, pecking on a pink door that started to glow. The door opened up, a blinding white light shining out of it and a childish voice say, "Welcome to the Boiling Isles! Watch your step!" Hearing this and looking at the house made Vee's heart drop.
The abandoned house was right near where she lived, and the place where she first entered the human realm almost a year ago. Seeing the house the little shapeshifter let out a high-pitched eep. She knew she had run a good distance from the field, and their home wasn't that far from the park. But it definitely was far enough away that someone her age shouldn't have run off on her own. Looking back to the thick lush green of the bushes she knew she had to get back before anyone noticed that she was gone.
Looking around to make sure no one was looking the girl closed her eyes her body turned to the inky black as her form started to change. Now standing on four hooves Vee had taken the form of a doe, her fur the swamp green that her hair had been before. And in her mouth was her bunny ears wrapped up so that held the big egg, that way she had a way to carry the egg in her current form. And after a few seconds of her legs jetting side to side, needing to get her balance, she stood tall, her tail flicking up, gaining extra height as he fake tail was pinned to the top of her tail. and down as she snorted before darting into the woods back to the park.
Her new deer body pushed right past all of the bushes and weeds that had almost tripped her while chasing Owlbert. Now she just galloped and jumped right over them as if they weren't there. She got over the small stream, the small trickle of murky brown water not a bother, jumping over it in one single jump. Then she was back at where the chase had first started and she made her way around the woods, not actually bursting out of the woods yet. Though deer were not uncommon in Gravesfeild, she didn't want to startle anyone whether it'd be parents or kids still looking for the egg. Plus she was sure a deer of her color would definitely would raise some eyebrows. So galloping along the edge of the woods Vee hide until she morphed once more into something a bit smaller and wouldn't be as noticeable as a deer, a raccoon. A small green-furred raccoon with dark blue rings across it, her bunny ears hugging the egg to her back and belly, and the white bunny tail pinned to her actual tail once again.
Scrambling out of the woods Vee made her way to the cars, a few people shooing the raccoon that was running by them, a few yelping in surprise as she between their legs. But soon she made it to behind the vehicles and found her mom's car. Which when she was behind it, she immediately turned back to her little kid self. Taking a second to make sure her ears were on straight, her cotton tail was on her bottom like it should've been, and the egg was in both of her eggs. Taking deep breaths the girl huffed and puffed, sweat starting to fall down her face. All the running and using her powers took a toll on her little body.
"HEY!" She heard someone yell, and looking over she saw a girl with strawberry red hair, dressed in pink overalls and a white shirt staring at her. Making Vee tense up, she hadn't made sure that no one was around before shapeshifting. But thankfully it was just a kid who saw her and not an adult. So Vee just brought her finger up to her mouth as she walked around the car, leaving the girl there with her mouth open.
"Mama!Mama!" Vee cheered as she rounded around the car, her mom and sister jumping and sitting up straight hearing the girl cheer.
"Vee, where were you?" Camilla asked as the little girl her prize up in the air, somewhere a dun-dun-dunda played off someone's handheld. She popped the egg open and pulled a sack of gold coins out, which were all in a black webbing-like bag. Pulling them out she sat them on her mom's lap
"I saw the egg running away…" Vee said, a proud smile on her face as she sat down on the soft grass, knocking her basket of eggs over. "And there was gold in it and so I wanted you… you… you to have it." The girl said rubbing her eye with one hand as she fell back. "Cuz… preciate…" The girl mumbled as her eyes grew heavy and before she could finish she was fast asleep, surrounded by little easter eggs, and cuddling the big yellow egg. Making her family smirk, even though they had no idea what the big deal about chocolate gold coins was.