Cameron opened the door to Oscar's room using his snout, looking back just to make sure Sofie had truly fallen asleep. The girl’s snores told him everything he needed to, a smile on his face as he somehow managed to close the door behind him. He was lucky this new body of his had nocturnal vision, though it messed with his perception of colors far more than he was personally comfortable with. Considering he had heard his kind mainly made their homes in the caves of Eradon’s Majesty, he figured such night vision was necessary for other reasons.

He looked up to the bed before him, the boy that laid on it sleeping uncomfortably and rolling back and forth. Crouching down and jumping, Cameron managed to grasp the top of the bed and pull himself up, the voice in his head giggling at him for his lack of grace. He grumbled for a moment, allowing himself to catch a glimpse of his new body in the mirror only to reel back in disgust and pain at what he saw.

This body wasn’t his. The voice in his head more than knew that.

“If you need to, I can watch for the night,” The voice told him. He nodded to no one visible, Cameron’s eyes turning from icy blue to dull brown. The voice that once was inside is now given control of his body. “Rest well, bro. I got this from here.”

“Thanks, Maria.” Cameron said, having now taken the role of the one with the voice in their head. Maria flexed the body’s wings, stretching out a bit and letting out a yawn. “And… thank you for stopping me from telling her earlier. You are right, she doesn’t need to know about the invasion.”

“If we can leave her with the idea that Ukraine is in a good state, then she can spend her time believing it has gained a bright future,” Maria told him, her voice a whisper yet somehow loud and clear to Cameron. “She’s had enough pain and heartache. Let’s give her some happiness before this whole Lord of Terror thing takes hold of her life.”

Just as Cameron had earlier, Maria turned to look at herself in the mirror. Unlike her brother, though, she felt a sense of wholeness in herself that she hadn’t felt before in her life. She turned her body, allowing herself to take in all of the creature she had become. Yet through the entire thing, she could feel her brother’s discomfort in the back of their mind. The eternal reminder that he was an unwilling passenger in this body they had both gained.

“Hey, chin up Cam,” She told her brother. She turned away from the mirror and looked down at the pale boy they both prayed for inside. “We found the Lord of Terror. She isn’t some terrifying demon of war, but traveling with her can possibly find us a way to get you a body back.”

“I hope,” Cameron said.

With that, she felt his consciousness sleep, or what could be described as sleep for a mind without a body. With a sigh, Maria curled up and looked at the boy his brother was desperate to help. Cameron had a good heart, but he didn’t know when he was over his head. He had always been like that, willing to help at the cost of stress and whatever else he was willing to give up.

She couldn’t exactly get out of it all now, especially after he had told Sofie about it all. The Ukrainian was on board, so like it or not she and her brother were on board too. It wasn’t like she didn’t understand why she was doing this though. To see Oscar suffer after saving him in their first meeting – to see anyone suffer from such a horrid disease after what Earth had gone through for the past three years – it was no wonder why Cameron wanted to do this. Unlike last time, however, she doubted they would be able to save the boy here.

----------------------------------------

One month ago

A paw misplaced, and once again his head met the ground. Maria giggled at her brother’s attempts to walk, Cameron letting out a heavy exhale at it all. This didn’t feel right, absolutely none of it did. Walking with four legs was not how he was supposed to walk, having spent the past twenty years of his life in a human body. His sister continued to laugh at his incompetence, clearly enjoying it far more than he was.

He refused to stand back up, laying down in a position that felt just about as wrong as standing up did. He tried to raise a paw to rest his head on, but it hung uselessly and he found his head once again hit the dirt instead. A groan and a second failed attempt later, Cameron gave up and laid in defeat. Never in his life would he think he would have to relearn to walk, even more so because he wasn’t human anymore.

Though again, up until a few hours ago he was still in Vermont on a get together with his sister. He wasn’t supposed to be transported via oncoming truck like some japanese isekai protagonist to a foreign world. Even then he figured it would be simple enough to learn to at least walk confidently but even that was proving to be difficult. If he was to guess, he wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.

“Alright, fine. I’ll take control for the time being,” His sister said, mentally forcing control of the body to herself. She crossed her paws and smiled. “Gotta say Cam, you are nowhere near as competent as I would expect you to be.”

“Just because I’m the anime fan of the two of us does not mean I’m an expert on these things,” He told her, Maria unable to stop herself from giggling at the sheer amount of exasperation in her brother's tone. “Go figure you have the hang of it though, being Otherkin or whatever.”

Maria shook her head as she got up and walked as if she had lived in the body her entire life. As much as she was teasing him, she couldn’t blame her brother for not exactly having the hang of this all. She doubted that he was supposed to be here, considering he had attempted to push her out of the way of the truck that had taken them. All he had done was get both of them killed, and she would have at least preferred for one of them to be alive for mom and dad.

A twist in the stomach met her as she thought about their adoptive parents and her friends. She couldn’t imagine the pain they had to be feeling. The knowledge she would never see them again sat in the back of her mind. It hurt, but she did her best to tell herself that there was nothing she could do. She had to move forward, no matter how much it hurt her to do so.

“First thing first, we should figure out where we are exactly,” Maria said, looking up at the trees as they passed by. “Pines, maples, some oaks, gives a feeling of home doesn’t it?”

“Yeah, but we know from this body that it isn’t,” Cameron reminded her. “Makes me wonder, are we actually speaking English or is it just yips or barks or whatever?”

Her brother had a good point, but the lack of answer to said question said just as much as an answer itself. Neither truly knew for sure, and they doubted they would unless they interacted with a human themselves. The key for that was simple: try and be as unthreatening as possible. If needed they would take the dignity blow and lay on their back to allow belly rubs. That was only if all other options failed though; Maria knew Cameron would not be happy about it.

As they walked out of the forest and into the wide plains, they only became more sure that this wasn’t home. Open grassland, not a single paved road in sight, the dirt road that was off in the distance was too narrow for a car. It was even more obvious when they realized the lack of the sound of cars in the distance. Not even a telephone poll was visible. A true sign that, wherever they were, it was not home.

“It’s nice in a way,” Cameron said. It was the most genuine happiness that Maria had heard out of her brother since they arrived here. “Seeing nature as untouched by hands as this. Probably means that this world doesn’t need to protect it with laws like ours does.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

A scream cut through the air, their ears twitching as they both looked off into the distance. Maria immediately caught the sight of a young boy in the distance, an animal she believed was a coyote standing over them. A closer inspection made her realize that said coyote was tearing at his shirt, and without either saying anything to each other Maria immediately burst into a full sprint towards them.

Her eyes stayed firmly on the coyote, aiming straight for their torso. The closer she got, the clearer and louder the boy’s screams became, but she tried to not pay attention to it. Nothing about her movements were silent, made clear when the coyote let go of the boy and looked straight at the charging wyrmret. Without a second thought, it ran off, willing to let what would have been its meal live. Maria skidded to a halt as soon as she was where the coyote had once stood, not realizing just how feral she looked as she snarled in the direction it fled.

“Sis, you’re scaring the kid.”

Immediately, any feral showing left her as she realized what she was doing. Turning to the boy, she noticed the blood staining the kid's hand. She went to speak, but felt her words get caught in her mouth. A look into the boys eyes and she saw fear, something she doubted she could dispel. With a sigh, she turned to the side and looked to the ground.

“I leave this to you Cam,” She said quietly. The dull brown of her irises was replaced by icy blue as she gave control of the body over to him.

“Wha- sis!” Cameron shouted out near immediately, only to hear a gasp of fear escape from the boy. Cameron turned to them, realizing that the moment to trade back had all but passed. “Hey, you okay?”

The boy nodded, Cameron sighing as his earlier question of if they were speaking English was answered at that moment. He stepped closer, and the boy shuffled back, wincing and letting tears fall from his face from the pain. Taking the moment that wince gave him, and daring to look at something that he knew would make him somewhat sick, Cameron moved up until he was right in the boys face. Before they could move, he lowered his head down to the bloody arm and moved it, allowing himself to see what had happened.

The good news was that the boy wasn’t missing a giant chunk of his lower stomach, the blood coming from punctures in the skin that Cameron couldn’t guess the depth of. He didn’t want to either, a cold painful feeling in his hindlegs causing him to look away afterwards. The boy could be saved, he just had to find someplace close enough. Chances seemed likely, given the boy looked only around eight years old or so, so he wouldn’t have wandered too far from home.

“You live nearby?” He asked the boy, getting a nod in reply. Cameron laid down, hoping it would further show that he meant no harm to the kid. “Call me Cameron. I’m not from around here.”

“O-o-oscar,” The boy said, his voice still showing fear but Cameron figured it was more at the injury he had sustained and not himself. “Th-th-thanks for saving me.”

“You aren’t saved yet kid,” Cameron told him, his sister wishing she had the ability to whack him in the head for his insensitivity. Not that he was wrong, but it wasn’t something he should have said out loud. “You live close by? I’m willing to give you a lift if you can point me where you live.”

Oscar’s eyes lit up immediately at those words, pointing off towards farms in the distance. Cameron wasn’t sure how he had missed them, but he wasn’t going to admit that to anyone. He motioned Oscar to hop on his back, figuring the kid was young enough to not be too heavy to carry. It didn’t even reach him till he had stood up, Oscar resting on him, how degrading this made him feel.

“Please take over,” Cameron muttered, wishing to keep some of his dignity. Maria more than happily agreed, and with not another word the two swapped and made their way to the farms below.

----------------------------------------

Present day

Since that day Cameron had taken the lead on any and all interactions with people, Maria taking the lead when things involved fitness and finesse. They hadn’t exactly expected to be staying with the family of the kid they saved, but they also weren’t going to pass up a slightly easier living arrangement. To say Oscar had grown fond of them had put it lightly; the boy was the only one to know that they were two people sharing the same body.

Feeling the area where the claw marks had been one month ago showed a mostly healed body, though the injury had left its scar on the boy. He should have been okay when he had gotten back, and yet not even a week after returning home he got sick. At first it had just been a cough, but as time went on it got worse and worse. All Maria could do was pray that he got better, and do what she could. However, she knew that his life was nearing its end deep down.

Then, a hand brushed against her fur, and in shock at the touch she jolted up to see who it was. It was Oscar, only the forearm raised up as the rest of his body was tired and weak, eyes barely open. He smiled, but it was so faint she could barely make it out, and doubt any human would have been able to in the dark of night. It was a wonder the boy had been able to stand up earlier, seeing him as he was now.

“Cameron, is that you?” He asked, voice so weak no human would have been able to hear it. She shook her head as he continued to pet her, something she knew Cameron would have gagged at seeing but felt comforting to her. “Hi Maria.”

“Hey Os,” She said. Maria smiled to hide the sadness that bore at her soul at the sight of the boy so weak. “Feeling any better?”

“No,” Oscar said, his answer so quick it took Maria a little bit to realize what he had said. Even then, she hated to admit that she expected it. “Everything feels heavy. I feel… off.”

Maria gritted at those words, displaying her teeth with the knowledge that Oscar wouldn’t see them. She felt his hands brush against her wings, but the touch was so light it felt like ants were climbing over her. In her heart, she knew exactly what was coming, but refused to let the boy know. With a few steps she made her way to his pillow, curling up on his arm and laying her head on his shoulder. She smiled to hide the pain, as well as to make the grinding of her teeth seem as if it was for other reasons.

“Sorry, that might be my fault,” She told him, sticking her tongue out to try and accentuate the silliness of her actions.

The two were silent for a moment, Oscar breaking it with a chuckle while the wyrmret giggled. Despite the pain, Maria refused to let her own mood bring down what she knew would likely be Oscar’s final few days of life. Despite everything, she wanted him to go out with a smile, a sense that he was in control of what happened at the end of it all. That was all she could ask for anymore. All that she could give.

“Hey, Maria,” Oscar called out. Maria tilted her head a little as she looked at him. “You told me that you and your brother are here because you died on Earth, right?” She nodded. “Then do you think that, when I die, I’m gonna go be a creature in your world too?”

The question caught her off guard, surprised that someone as young as him would ask something like that. Though, given his situation, she guessed she should have expected it. She allowed the question to stir in her mind, thinking about how best to answer it before opening her eyes with a confident answer. Maria gave Oscar a nod as she replied.

“If a girl from eighty years in my brother and I’s past can be brought back to life, I don’t see why you wouldn’t,” Maria told him, the most joyous she had been able to speak the entire time. “Even if it wasn’t human, I’m sure that whatever you become will be powerful. Something that a sickness like this can’t even think to touch.”

“You really think so?” Oscar asked, smiling a little more widely. It was still barely noticeable, but Maria could tell the difference.

“I know so,” Maria said. “In our world, we tell stories of those of ours who go to other worlds after horrible lives or sad ends. The lives they live in those new worlds take many forms, from a girl who worked herself to death given the chance to live a peaceful life as a witch, or a man who turned into a slime and built a nation,” She looked at the bedsheets, recounting the many animes her brother had dragged her into watching. “I guess, when no one knows if they are real or not, you can’t exactly tell the world that those stories are very likely true. Given that they are, I would like to believe that everything that dies gets reincarnated in some way.”

Oscar let out a sigh, one that took longer than it should have needed for him to complete. He closed his eyes and turned his body towards Maria, bringing her into a hug and petting her just like he had earlier. It felt good, not just the pets but seeing the kid look forward to what might come after this all. Even if it was likely the end, he could go out knowing that he would go somewhere else and hopefully live a better, fuller life.

“I can’t… wait…”

With those final words his hand stopped petting, feeling heavier on Maria than it had moments earlier. She placed a paw on his chest, noticing that it no longer rose or dropped to the time of his breath. Cameron had told Sofie that there was nothing that they could do, but the final nail had entered the coffin. Oscar probably didn’t realize, already awake somewhere on a planet far, far away from where she was now. The poor kids last month had been one that got worse and worse as time went on.

She hoped that he was happy with whatever it was he had become. No kid deserved his fate.