I don't own Doyle, his parents, or the Secret Saturdays.
Or Doyle or his parents, for that matter.
I own Anzu and the farmer.
Is it possible to retcon fanfiction? Because I think that's what this chapter's doing....
I've been calling this one a retcon, simply because it redoes that whole "illusion" trick that Anzu had pulled on Doyle a few arcs back.
However, my opinion is that it does serve a purpose within the generic. First is that it sets the stage in case I choose to write any other story from a specific angle. Second is that I finally figured out why Anzu allowed this arc to end the way he did.
Apparently, even some of the gods are not omnipresent, and Anzu could not take care of all his schemes at once.
The Hunted
It was not the first time Anzu wished he had the power of the greater gods, and he doubted it would be the last.
He raced to a distance where he could pass through the veil, without affecting the child. Omnipresence would have done nicely; such a power would have meant that he could work his plans from anywhere, everywhere. Omniscience would mean Anzu would at least know when he had to act. But no, not for the likes of him. The only god with those powers was the One Who decreed that mortals must have their free will. It was Anzu's own responsibility to ensure that he never broke that law, and to fix his own mistakes when he did. And he was allowed barely more power than a mortal to do it.
He was simply fortunate that he had only one other world to deal with. Those with strong magics, as the Blackwell child had, never had much connection to other worlds. Oh, there might be two people with the same background, the same nature, the same life. But those sames were all coincidence; unless the worlds were specifically connected, as were these two, such people never had doubles.
And those mortals who could pass through the veil and walk in these other worlds, as the shamans frequently accomplished, had no doubles, even within the connected worlds. Even the gods did not know which was cause and which effect.
The Blackwell boy, alas, was not so unique as that, and Anzu had frequently passed between the two worlds, adjusting things to keep the two worlds, the two children, as close to the same as he could. For it was not just the one Blackwell child that was important, it was also the child on the other side of the veil. Anzu did not care to wager how things would be affected if he allowed their circumstances to become too different.
But those sames generated a few new problems.
Anzu completed the spell and crossed the veil, and searched for the other Blackwell boy. Like as not, his spirit would still be shaped as that pup. With luck, he would still be fighting that other beast.
This child could not count on his father's intervention. For there was something Anzu had not told Jonathon. The birdman had opened the veil to make the one Doyle see what the other could see; those illusions Anzu had used to trick him...had not been illusions, but his own parents—another version of them, from this other world. They were as evil as the other two were good; the Grey Men in this other world had hunted them down to protect the children. And poor, innocent Doyle had trusted his parents as readily as did his double, and feared the people who'd killed his parents just the same.
Anzu spotted them, in time for the herd of cattle to chase one of the beasts away.
The other beast...did not move.
—
"Hey, what's gotten into you fellows?" the farmer asked, pushing his way through the cattle. "What are—" He stared at the body of the beast. His face paled, and he stumbled backwards, away from the dead monster.
He did not notice Doyle's body until he tripped over it.
He stared at the creature, then back down at the child. "Who did this to you?" he whispered. He hesitated, then reached for the gag.
Anzu watched, sadly.
The farmer removed the gag and bent over the child. His eyes widened. "Still alive," he murmured.
Anzu looked up. Alive? But the beast— He watched the farmer with some confusion.
The farmer searched around and found the remains of one of the hunters. He did not want to touch the body, but he forced himself to, and found the hunter's knife. He cut the child free of the cords, and picked up the small form. He stared at the body of the beast.
"They thought to use you as bait, didn't they? To make a meal for her?" Something growled in the distance, and the farmer caught sight of a large pair of eyes in the trees. "Poor girl must have had pups to feed, and them monsters meant you to feed them?" He did not question the creature's death; he did not want to wonder what sort of predator could have brought her down.
Girl? Anzu repeated. Pups? What— He dove at the body of the dead animal. This is—this is the female! The adult! Then the other—the pup?
He flew into the tree line, searching for the animal the farmer had just seen.
—
"Doyle!" Anzu called out. "Doyle, where are you?"
He searched the woods, hoping the child was undamaged, praying, petitioning the kings of his own pantheon and the One Who created all, that he would find the child in time.
He found a pup of a beast, huddled and shivering with reaction.
"Doyle?" Anzu sent a mental image of the boy's human form.
The pup raised his head and looked at the birdman. Who are you? The "voice" was accented by the beast's mind, but the undertones were those of the child.
"Never mind that," Anzu replied. "Doyle, you haven't much time. You need to get back into your body."
The pup looked off in the direction of the farmer. Can't.
"You must return," Anzu said. "Mortal bodies will not last very long without the spirit. If you don't return soon, that body will die."
Can't, the pup repeated. Can't get close. He shuddered again. His thoughts carried the image of the herd.
Anzu believed he knew what humans meant when they spoke of wanting to bang one's head against a wall. "You need physical contact, don't you?" he groaned.
The pup sent a feeling of agreement.
"And the herd will just drive you off again, if you approach as that thing," Anzu muttered. And the child still did not know what he had done, or else he could easily change into something the herd would let pass. But these changes had happened by instinct, and those instincts did not recognize any immediate danger in remaining as he was.
Anzu could teach him to return without that contact, or to take on other forms willingly. But such lessons would be wasted if they took too long. Could he teach the pup to strengthen that connection, to exist beyond the physical body for a longer time?
Anzu considered what little he knew of mortal strength and decided he could teach the child. But it would take time; he must remain in this world during the lessons.
He set a spell to watch Jonathon and Anna in the other world. He was not omniscient for living mortals, but he could keep an eye on them, at least.
"All right," Anzu said. "I'll do what I can to help. The first lesson is of endurance."
Drew will appear next chapter.