The Changing

The Explanation

I stood there, dumbfounded and glued to the spot. All these years and they kept that from me. I felt anger boiling up, my face getting red and tears pooling.
"Even if you couldn't tell me about my position, you didn't tell me about THIS!!!"
"Honey, you promised to let us explain!" My mom said.
"Yeah but I didn't know you were going to tell me that crucial part of info that could lead to better understanding of my confusing life!" I cried, and surprisingly said it in one breath!
My dad glared at me and I glared right back.
My mom looked down, took a big breath and said...
"Look DEAR I'm trying to be nice but you need to understand and try as well see that we did it for your own good and to make YOU feel normal for a while." She pointed her finger at me and motioned to sit down, but not before giving me the yeah-I-said-it look.
I sat down and crossed my arms, daring them to look me in the eye. My parents sat down across from me and gazed right back at me.
"Spill the beans, tell the truth, give the explanation." I muttered, stink eyeing them for a better effect.
"We were told that your mother could never have a child. It was what we always wanted, a baby child growing up in our house. Maybe two or three or even four, little angels filled with laughter and innocence. We dreamed that someday it would be our job to raise one of these miracles of joy. The doctor said it could never be and by this century, there aren't any orphanages and we didn't want to foster. We wanted a proper child that would always be ours. So we searched for four long years until one day we heard something in a forest we were taking a walk in. We looked and saw a lion fighting off these black winged creatures. And a woman lying in the undergrowth with a baby in her arms. We ran to her side, to see if we could do anything for her and we saw she had a huge gash across her back, she wouldn't last much longer and the baby would die to if the mother died. We tried to comfort her and she lasted eight minutes, eight minutes of pure agony. We tried cracking jokes and soothing her while the lion fought off the demon things. He seemed to be tamed, perhaps some sort of pet for the lady. We talked only three minutes before she started telling us another story. She said 'that lion you see is actually my husband, he is what they call a cloak-changer. He won't last long against the orachia, the winged creatures you see. Take my baby, I sense you cannot bear a child, take her and raise her. She will be in good hands with you. On her sixteenth birthday, if she takes after her father as a cloak-changer. Then she will turn into a tiger every time she feels joy. Not happiness like if someone makes you laugh, but delightful joy. You must take her then to yokshika or sanctuary of the hunted in your language. It's in Peru, there's a secret door that only cloak-changers can access in the Inca village. She will be safe and sound in there.'

I asked her name and she said I am princess Fincha, in your language I would be called Maria.

'Please take my child and keep her safe, promise me not to let the demons kill her. Keep my daughter safe. Please, please.' 

And with that her hand fell to the ground limply and she slowly grew colder and paler. We took you home and raised you like a normal girl and quietly waited for your sixteenth birthday. We named you after your mother, because she had long thick locks of blonde hair and bright blue eyes and so do you.  At least until last night when you accessed your cloak-changing and changed. But she also told us that you will be back to normal within three days and the time will be shorter the more you change and the more control you have over your powers."

"So my mother was a princess, right?" I asked.

"Well your father was a protector of the cloak-changers assigned to protect your mother who is something like an elf but without any powers, just mind reading and they each have a six sense, most of them are different. The cloak-changers and elfians are very close and work together, live in the same environment and etc... There was a fortune teller that said the child of Fincha would be the one who would save them from being hunted down by the orachia. That immediately  put her in a dangerous position and she became a princess of sorts but only because you are their hope. The forest that they lived in was ambushed and they were forced to run, the only guardian that stayed with your mother was your father, so they ran but were confronted at every turn by more demons. And finally she was cut down with a sword and your father missing and supposed to be dead."

"Whoa! Cool story!" I said, astonishment on my face. But I quickly shot back at them. "Why didn't you tell me!"

"Well we din't want to stress you for nothing if you weren't a cloak-chang-" my mom started.

But I felt something in my gut, a word, one word. I din't know what it was but I had to say whatever I felt. "Santchos." I blurted. And then I understood. "They aren't cloak-changers, if we're going to say it, let's say it right. We're called Santchos."

We stood there in silence for a few moments. We all knew what came next, I would have to go to the safe haven. I was going to Peru, to the Inca city to find yokshika, my sanctuary.