10)

Three kiddos stared out at me, wide eyed, until I tapped at the door just above the latch and they, or at least the girls jumped. Aran just looked over at the latch and told his eldest sister “Lock handle.”

I'm pretty sure knob was the right word, but lock handle was accurate. It was also enough for Sara to get the message and lock the door. Glaring at me as I make a show of rolling my eyes at her and heaving out an exaggerated sigh.

Turns out grandkids are fun.

So how do I do this? I had already found out verbal commands didn’t work, but they don’t know that.

I held out my hand dramatically while waving at it with my other hand. “Change!’

They all looked at my hand expectantly, before looking in order of age. Scornful, encouraging, and disappointed.

“Nope, that didn’t work, let’s try something else.”

I remember the feeling of my bones warming up and going soft, and pictured the lazy eight, letting it turn before my eyes, and willed my hand to change.

Well, it did change. I had pictured it as turning into a ridiculous looking big old paw on the end of my arm. Instead, I had something that looked more like a hairy ape's hand, but with inch long claws on the tips of my fingers and thumb. All curved in on the tips like they were made to tear into something rather than just give me better traction when running on all fours.

Like weapons.

Going to have to think about that later.

I didn’t go full wolf, but the changes went up my arm, all the way to the shoulder, making the bones stronger, and my muscles thicker. Like I had changed to be able to use the claws without dislocating my arm. I could feel the warmth in my other arm and the rest of my body. Like it would not take much effort to change my other arm or the rest of me into something halfway between wolf and old man.

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Something to explore later. Along with the whole barely hurting this time thing I had going on. Right now I had three little kids staring at me half fascinated and half terrified.

Like I could pass up this opportunity.

“Graaaw!”

I jumped forward and slapped both hands, well one hand and one misshaped hand paw abomination up against the glass.

I’m still pretty sure the reinforced veranda door would have held me or anything else shaped like a wolf out. But it turned out they didn't hold up anywhere as well against the powers of a freaked out tween witch.

What went through my head was, "Yep, that was a bad idea, but this is my screw up", fortunately, what didn't go through my head was the doors as they blew out at me. Instead, right after I hit the glass, the glass hit me.

Along with the steel reinforced doors, and the even more steel reinforced door frame. Which was shortly followed by me hitting the plinth on the veranda with the middle of my back with a crunching sound from my spine. As my head smashed into the big clay pot I had put on the plinth in place of the statue the original owner had planned.

I hoped the Wandering jew cutting I had put in there survived, it had come from a plant that started from a cutting I had given my mom back when I was in a high school science class. It was a nice looking plant even if the sensitivity police hated the traditional name.

I had always found that name evocative and mysterious sounding. So I wasn't going to let anyone take that away from me.

In any case, these are the thoughts that go through my head after getting launched twenty feet across my side pouch, breaking my spine, and taking a hard hit to the head.

The kids sounded pretty distressed but more concerned if I was hurt than if they were in trouble. Good kids, good instincts.

They started moving the remains of the door off of me. With Ami carefully picking up some of the shards of wood and glass and telling Aran to keep back. While Sara was grabbing the bent frame of the door, bracing herself, and heaving the entire thing upright before letting it drop away from me.

I think that was about two hundred pounds of steel and wood. Guess she has some magic of her own.

“Don’t move him, he may have a spinal injury, and his head smacked into the Inch plant pot."

Inch plant? Even starting to feel all the pain that I had been too in shock to feel at first, that really hurt.

The kids stood around me, Sara twisting her hands together, Ami waving her arms in the air, and Aran stepping in to pull at my hand.

Then my whole body twitched as my spine snapped back into place and all three of them jumped.

I could feel bits snapping back together in the back of my head as I whispered. “Sorry I scared you Ami.”

The kid planted herself into my side, crying with her arms wrapped around tight over my still unbreaking ribs. Ow. "I appreciate the hug kid, but maybe leave a little room for my ribs to snap back. On second thought you might want to get clear entirely, I think I'm about to cough something up.’

She popped up with an "epp" sound, Sara danced around nervously, and the boy started to clap.

“Again.”

Dammit, kid. Keep that up and you might push Sara up to number two.