Snow began to walk back and forth along the ridge, her tails alternating raising up and down. “So, I’m still pretty young for my kind, just three tails old, and I only know a few tricks. There’s a couple smaller things — seeing into others’ dreams, causing objects to move or break, translating languages, stuff like that — but the big one, you already know. I can make illusions.”

“Wait, you can see into my dreams?” Tarka asked.

“No interrupting,” Snow tsked. “My illusions are pretty useful for hiding, but there’s one big flaw. The magic is based on belief, and if anyone starts to doubt that what they’re sensing is real, the illusion shatters. Got it?”

“I think so,” Alika replied. Illusions and tricks. She found it sort of disturbing. Had Snow been using it on her? If she couldn’t trust her own senses, what could she trust? “Hold on. You said that you need everyone to believe in your illusions to work, but when we first met and you disguised yourself as a dragon, Tarka had already seen you as a fox. And for that matter, what about yourself? You obviously know your illusions are fake. It wasn’t until I attacked you that I saw through it.”

Snow’s ears twitched. “Yeah. You’re right. Tarka knew and I knew.”

“So you’re wrong about your own magic,” Alika replied. That, or she’s lying. Could she be hiding something else?

“I guess so,” Snow said. “Look, I didn’t get an extremely helpful and mission-critical fox explaining how it worked to me. But I think if someone’s willing to be fooled and look the other way, it doesn’t disturb the magic. It’s only when I’m trying to trick someone that it’s a problem.” She paused. “Probably.”

“Probably,” Alika rumbled, her tail lashing. So Snow wasn’t even sure herself how it worked. Was this really a risk they were willing to take?

Alika’s gaze was drawn to the boats once more, tilting as they glided across the fjord. What other choice did they have? It wasn’t like Snow could twirl her tails and fly them across the ocean.

“So you can just disguise us all as humans and we can go down and talk with them!” Tarka exclaimed. “We can just ask them for a boat. They won’t even know we’re dragons!”

“Didn’t I just explain why that was a bad idea?” Snow wrinkled her nose. “You’re right, I could disguise us all. But neither of you have even seen a human before today, much less chatted with them. One wrong word, anything making them suspect that we’re not one of them, and they’ll hunt us down. And while they might not be as fast as dragons, they sure can chase for a long, long time.” Snow placed her paws on Tarka’s snout, opening her eyes uncannily wide as she stared. “They do not stop. Ever.”

Tarka sneezed out a cloud of smoke, causing Snow to roll back and begin wheezing. Alika wrapped a paw around Snow’s tails, trying to pull the fox away from Tarka. Snow suddenly snapped her jaws at Alika, forcing the dragon to pull her paw back to avoid losing a talon.

“Not the tails,” Snow snarled. “Not. The. Tails.”

Alika grunted. If Snow wanted to be Tarka’s first roasted meal, that was her problem.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“You’re sounding like Alika now,” Tarka said, puffing out the last bit of smoke in him. “And Alika is sounding like Mom. Why are you both acting so weird?”

“I’ve dealt with humans before and gotten burned.” Snow shook herself, and a thin layer of soot fell to the ground. “I’m all for a bit of fun and chaos, but I’m not taking any chances here.”

“I’m with Snow on this one,” Alika said. “Snow and I are doing this, just the two of us. And there’ll be as little talking to humans as possible. Tarka, we’ll meet you outside of the village.”

“Who died and made you pack leader?” Snow muttered.

Alika bared her fangs and shot Snow a murderous glare. Tarka hid his snout under a wing.

“Right. Genuinely sorry about that one.” Snow said. “So you’re sure, Alika?”

“I am,” Alika replied. “For now, we’ll start with recon. Magic?”

“Coming right up.” Snow let out a small sigh, before stretching out her tails straight. Her eyes seemed to glaze over as she focused on a point behind Alika, while her tails coiled around each other into a tight spiral. Suddenly, her tails unwound, while her golden irises flickered.

Alika blinked, and where Snow had been standing, a human now appeared in her place far above her. Snow’s snout had been transformed into a flat face of pale skin, and pearly white hair fell from the top of her head. Cream fur wrapped loosely around her body and in a hood around her ears, almost as if the human was wearing Snow around her neck.

Alika turned to Tarka. For the first time in her life, she found herself staring eye-to-eye with him. Had she shrunk? But why was Snow so tall, in that case? She looked down to see that her paws had changed size with her, her legs much slimmer, talons much smaller. Her fur was a dark gray, and it felt coarse and matted. Her tail seemed as light as a feather.

“A wolf! You turned her into a wolf!” Tarka squealed. “She’s like Hedi!”

“Excuse me?” Alika growled up at human-Snow. Her ears fell back, and she let out a loud bark.

“Not a wolf,” Snow laughed, her voice oddly smooth and sing-songy. She placed a hand on Alika’s snout, giving it a rub. For a moment, Alika wanted to bite Snow, but instead, she felt… soothed. Alika’s tail began to rapidly shake back and forth. Why was it doing that? “You’re a dog. They’re like wolves, but smaller. Humans like them.”

“I don’t like this.” Alika tried to wiggle her wings. For a moment, she was afraid they were completely gone, before she managed to feel them flap, cold air running along their undersides. The air around her began to shimmer.

“Hey, stop that,” Snow commanded, crossing her arms. “Remember what we talked about? You have to believe in the illusion too, or else it won’t work. Don’t worry about your wings; they’re safe at your side, you just can’t see them. Just relax. Be the dog.”

“I don’t want to ‘be the dog,’” Alika growled. “You were supposed to turn me into a human, not a stupid wolf.”

“A cute wolf!” Tarka commented.

“I figure this would be easiest,” Snow explained, making an odd waving motion with her hands. “It takes some time to figure out walking on two legs, even if it’s just pretend. And you haven’t even met a human before — if you faked being one, you’d be caught in an instant. All you have to do is sit by my side and let me do the talking. Or, you just could let me go alone.”

“I’m going with you,” Alika said. “That’s non-negotiable.” Why did her neck suddenly itch? She lifted a hindleg up to scratch at it, ripping out a small chunk of matted fur.

“Well then, enjoy your next hour as a canine,” Snow replied. “It’s not all that bad.”

“I will decide that for myself,” Alika muttered. She turned to Tarka. It was weird to see him as tall as she was. She didn’t like it. “Tarka, stay here. We’ll be back soon.”

“I can help!” Tarka protested. “I could be a dog too! I promise I won’t try and talk to the humans! All I would say is ‘Awrf! Awrf!’”

“No, and that’s final.”

Tarka crinkled his snout and got to his hindlegs, glaring down at Alika. Alika held his stare. Even if the illusion made him seem bigger than her, she was still in charge.

“Fine,” Tarka grumbled. “I wish Hedi was here to see this.”