It took Noel all her strength not to run all the way home. Any fear she had before was now gone, leaving an excitement that she only got when she found a particularly cute new pet. It took all she had just to walk.

"S-slow down, please?" said a nervous voice from her arms.

"Sorry!"

Oops. Noel slowed. Azrath, who Noel was carefully holding, his soft body pressed close to her chest, sighed in relief. He had asked to ride on her shoulder, but she promptly refused. She didn't want his talons to damage her uniform in any way. He was offended that she would even think that, but he complied in the end.

"Thanks. How much further?" Azrath asked.

Noel shushed him so as not to attract unwanted attention. The people had returned to the sidewalk, but they all ignored her. Did they notice the weird cloud bird she was holding? Or did they just not care? Maybe it was a common thing for girls to carry around stuffed animals? Noel didn't know, but she was glad nobody glared at her.

She was nearing her house when she heard a bright voice yell, "Noel!!" Noel looked into the Kuboue's yard to see Danny's eager face running up to the gate.

Mrs. Kuboue—who had insisted that she watch over him while the house was empty—looked up from where she kneeled in her garden and smiled at her.

"Why, hello there, Noel dear," she said.

"Good afternoon!" Noel replied, smiling back.

"Granny wanted me to help her with her garden!" he said with a toothy grin. Noel saw that his hands were black with dirt, as were parts of his face where he undoubtedly wiped them.

"That's awesome, Danny!" Noel grinned back, "Have you been helping Mrs. Kuboue?" She said the woman's name pointedly. Noel had to admit that she was slightly disappointed that Danny had started calling her "Granny" so quickly. She didn't know exactly why she was so opposed to the idea, but no matter how bad Noel felt about the old woman's situation, she felt strongly that Mrs. Kuboue was in no way her family.

"Yeah!"

Noel looked at Mrs. Kuboue, who nodded happily —though her smile was a bit too wide, she had obviously picked out Noel's tone. She held the brim of the sun hat she wore with a hand to show that she was glad for the help.

Her attention returned to Danny as he pointed a dirty finger up at his sister's chest.

"Ooh, that's a cool toy!" he exclaimed, "Can I see it?!" He reached his hand up through the bars of the gate, trying to will Azrath to come to him.

Noel looked down at Azrath, who was stiff as a board. She had told him to keep as still as possible as she checked on her brother.

She could feel Azrath tense up beneath his fur, trying his best to keep her brother's dirt-encrusted fingernails from touching him without attracting notice.

A gloved hand rested on Danny's small shoulder. He looked up at Mrs. Kuboue, who gently smiled down at him.

"Now, now, you don't want to get your sister's new toy dirty, do you?"

Noel noticed a change in Mrs. Kuboue's voice. While the softness was still there, she now spoke with a thick accent. Her cadence was slightly off from what Noel was used to.

The first time she heard it four days ago, Noel hadn't dared to ask why Mrs. Kuboue now spoke with an accent whenever she talked to Danny. She could guess, though.

She had learned from Aunt Jillian that Kuboue Kiriko had worked in communications for over twenty years and could speak English very well. Jillian told her that it was Mrs. Kuboue who had initially taught her Japanese when she lived with them as a college student while studying abroad.

It was Noel's understanding that whenever someone foreign spoke English, she heard their actual voice. It still boggled her mind that she never heard a word of Japanese or Ezzi unless she concentrated. Unless, of course, they were words unique to the language.

Danny let his hand drop. "Yeah, okay," he said.

"Do you want to wash up and go with your sister?" asked Mrs. Kuboue, "or do you want to keep helping Granny dig up weeds?"

Danny looked between her and Noel, pondering. He looked at Noel with questioning eyes. Noel could see that he still wanted to stay with the Kuboues.

"Go on. It's okay!"

Danny grinned toothily again and turned back to the house, taking Mrs. Kuboue's proffered hand. Noel waved him off, shifting her grip on the quivering Azrath to do so. Then she continued down the sidewalk to the neighboring gate that read "Stillwater" and entered, shutting the gate behind her.

Noel could feel Azrath swelling underneath her arm as she finished her key from her pocket. She resisted the sudden urge to squeeze him as hard as she could.

Not yet.

She really wanted to know if the little ball of fluff would squeak if she did. But she fought off her instincts, unlocking the door and entering the house.

"I'm home!" she called. Even though nobody was there, she only said it to make a habit of it. As soon as the door closed, Azrath shook himself free from her hold on him and fluttered away to land on the railing of the stairs.

"Finally!" he said irritably, shaking himself and his wings, "You sure took your time. I didn't know how long I'd last."

"Yeah, yeah..." said Noel, concentrating on removing her shoes, which was another new habit she had a hard time picking up. During her first couple of days, she regularly tripped on the raised floor of the entryway.

"So that was your brother, right?"

Noel nodded, "Yeah, that's Danny."

"And who was the woman?"

"That was Mrs. Kuboue," she said, then paused. "She's a friend of my aunt's."

Azrath tilted his body, "So she's not your grandmother?"

"No."

Her tone was so blunt that it made Azrath stop, then cast around for another topic. "Well then… Was there any particular reason why you asked me to be still?"

She was glad for the subject change, "Most people have never seen something like you before, not even here."

"So?"

Noel stepped up from the entryway and onto the floor of the house. "So, I just didn't want anybody freaking out at seeing some crazy cloud with wings, that's all."

"Oh," said Azrath, rubbing the fur where his chin should be with the tip of a wing. "But why didn't you… er... 'Freak out' that much when you met me?"

Noel stiffened. She scratched at her chin, "Well, to be honest, I'm not like most people. You're definitely not the weirdest thing I've ever seen either."

The fur above Azrath's eyes slightly shifted as he raised his "eyebrows," intrigued.

"Really? Do tell?"

Noel gave a nervous cough, searching for anything else to try to change the subject again.

Oh right. "Never mind that. Don't you want me to figure out how this works?" She pulled out the golden pen from her pocket and held it up for Azrath to see. There hadn't been much time to explain during their trip home together. All Azrath had told her was that he couldn't use the power from the pen. And since Noel was the last person to touch it, she might be the key to unlocking it. Or something like that. 

"Yes, of course, forgive me. We should start right away!" said Azrath.

"Hold on," Noel interrupted, "First, let me get changed."

"What? Why?"

Noel moved past him and began to climb the stairs as she answered him: "If we're going to experiment with some magic pen, I don't want any chance for my uniform to get dirty."

Azrath took off, following her up the stairs. "Why should clothes matter when you can use Eingh?" he asked.

Noel shot him a look as they crossed the hall to her room. She opened the door, and they both entered. Noel dropped her school bag by the door. There was that word again. Eingh. Whatever it was, Azrath seemed to hold it in some regard. She would get some answers soon.

"Why should it matter to you? You don't even wear clothes!"

"I did so!" Azrath flushed dark gray again, "In fact, I took great pride in my appearance before I transformed!"

"Yeah, sure," Noel retorted, "and I suppose you had a closet full of tiny clothes for you to wear."

That would be so adorable! Noel thought to herself. She pictured Azrath in various costumes, from a tiny doctor's coat to a construction worker's outfit, complete with a toolbelt. Noel imagined Azrath using an oversized hammer with his talons. She squealed internally as she closed the door behind her.

"I'll have you know that I looked a lot like a human before I transformed," Azrath said, wryly as if he knew exactly what she had been thinking. "And I was considered to be quite handsome, to boot!"

"By who, your mother?"

She expected Azrath to swell in anger again, but he didn't. Instead, he fell into a gloomy silence as he came to rest on her bed. He seemed to deflate when he landed in her blanket, too light to make more than a dent in the messy pile.

She worried that she might have offended the little guy, so she cast around for yet another topic to bring up.

"So… Tell me about yourself, Azrath. Where are you from?" It didn't stray too far from the original topic, but it might be far enough away for him to continue speaking. Azrath didn't bite.

"…You've gotta tell me something," she said, "I just brought a strange creature into my room. I need to know that you won't eat me in my sleep or something."

"No, I wouldn't do that," his voice was flat as he glanced at her with a beady brown eye, "I prefer my meat a bit tougher. Little girls tend to be a bit too soft for my liking."

Is that a joke? Noel wasn't sure, but she decided to treat it as one. She tried to laugh, but it came out as a nervous whine.

"Actually," he continued, "I haven't had meat in so long. I'd have to say sah to preferences and eat you anyway." He turned to her fully. Noel could see him baring tiny, fanged teeth from under the fur. She stiffened instinctively. Azrath's mouth changed to an unmistakable grin. His whole body shook from silent chuckles.

Noel's cheeks went red. She should have known. If he had any intent to harm her, Azrath already had several opportunities to do so.

"You really are a gullible girl, aren't you?" he said, settling himself in the folds of her blanket and looking up at her.

"Well, excuse me for helping a poor creature in need!" Noel said, turning around and opening her closet door to select her clothes, but mostly to hide her beet-red face from Azrath. She muttered, "You all but begged me to take you with me. Said you needed my help…."

"And you get embarrassed easily too."

What? How could he—Noel glanced at the mirror on the inside of the door. Shoot! She could see the little grey puffball sitting smugly in her blankets like a cat that had just caught a mouse.

"Yeah?! Well…" Noel couldn't think of anything clever to say, so she defaulted to her previous question, "I still need to know more about you. Where did you come from? Why are you here?"

Azrath sighed. It was less an impatient sigh and more of a sigh of release like he was letting out some bad air. "I suppose that's fair," he said. "My name is Azrath. I come from Ezrio on a mission from Urzuran to rescue—"

"—people from evil monsters," Noel interrupted, "Yeah, yeah, I've heard this. Skip to the new stuff."

Azrath's tiny, round body puffed up indignantly. They had not even been together for an hour, and Noel could already pick up on Azrath's mood.

"Very well," Azrath said, letting himself deflate into a calmer demeanor. "On my world, the world of Eziro, I was able to use the remains of my Master's Eingh to spy on other worlds. You see, there are many more worlds out there beyond Earth. All of them were at war for territory a long time ago. But you don't need to know about that."

Noel desperately wanted to say, then why did you mention it? But she held her tongue.

"The point is, my Master saw a need to seal the worlds away, so he locked them all behind an impenetrable wall of Eingh at the expense of His own life."

He paused as he began to choke up slightly. Noel leaned against the frame of her closet, waiting for him to start again.

"As a means to create peace, He also created a portal for each world to meet for a limited time; every world but mine. Before he did, He instructed all of Eziro to flee to different worlds to spread the message of peace and to live their lives as explorers and scholars as we always had. All did. Except for myself and my father. He—"

Azrath cut himself off, seemingly as if he were about to say something else, then changed his mind. Noel detected a tinge of regret in his voice.

"We were tasked with guarding the last remnant of Urzuran: his sword of immeasurable power, hoping that one day it would be used to break the barriers between worlds. And so, we waited. For decades we waited. Waited for a sign or some hint of what we were supposed to do, but it never came.

"Eventually, my father died, and I was left alone. I spent my days farming and spying, using the sword to watch the other worlds. Until the day I saw them. The Ahngreel. They defiled my master's portal, finding a way to keep it open indefinitely and using it to come to Earth. I knew I had to do something. So, I found a way to reach Earth through a crack in Urzuran's wall of Eingh, and now I am here to save people from the Ahngreel."

He stopped. Noel opened her mouth to ask a question, but then Azrath continued. Noel rolled her eyes and waited for him to finish.

"Or at least I would have, had the hilt had not sealed itself from me. I had never heard of such a phenomenon happening with Eingh, but perhaps your Earth's influence caused it to change the nature of its power."

He stopped again, Noel waited for several seconds, allowing him to continue if he wanted, but Azrath was silent. She opened her mouth again to ask her question, but he began to speak again as soon as she did. Her headache returned in full force as she fixed him with a stony stare.

"I must find out how to unlock the power of the hilt and retrieve the other pieces of the sword, or else—"

"Wait, there are more?"

Azrath blinked, "yes, didn't I mention that?"

"No!"

"Well, there are. There are seven other pieces. You see—"

Noel groaned. She had asked for an explanation of why he was here, not a whole damn life story!

"Well, excuse me for trying to be thorough!" Azrath squeaked.

"Yeah, well, if you could finish before tomorrow, that would be great."

Azrath swelled again. She could hear him murmuring, "ungrateful little… kids these days have no respect…." Then he said, "fine! You want brief? I'll give you brief: I had to break the sword so I could be strong enough to fight, Hidaar, the Ahngreel leader. The wall won't accept anything with large amounts of Eingh—it's like trying to stick a boulder through a pinhole—so I had to break it into pieces so that it could fit, but I lost them. All of them. Along with my father's journals."

"You lost them? How did that happen?"

"Well, I wasn't sure at first," his tone was sheepish, his wings twitched awkwardly, "one moment I was floating in the place between worlds—which is a place I never want to think about. Terrifying, to say the least!—then the next, my clothes fell off my body along with the bag with the pieces in it. Now I know that it was because my body was turned into this."

He spread his wings, showing off his new cute, fluffy form. "And, well, you know the rest: I entered Earth from the sky, and I fell right into your waiting face. I don't know where I am or where any of the other seven pieces are, and now I can't even access the Eingh in the hilt, so I'm not sure what I can do in this form."

Noel nodded slowly. She understood most of what Azrath had been rambling about, but he hadn't answered the one question that had been burning inside her. "So, what exactly is Eingh?"

"All in due time," was his answer that was not an answer, "I think it's time to examine the hilt."   

"Right," Noel said disappointedly. She pulled the pen from her pocket and tossed it at Azrath, who flinched. The pen landed on the end of the bed, a few feet from him. "Here," she said, "knock yourself out."

She turned back to the closet full of brand-new outfits that still made her uncomfortable to own. She chose a sleeveless turquoise blouse and gray shorts and began to untie her school ribbon.

Then a thought occurred to her that made her quickly turn around to look at Azrath, who had gotten up and was standing over the pen.

"Would you mind?"

Azrath jumped, "Huh? Mind what?" Noel held up the hangers with the outfit and gave him a very pointed look.

"Oh! Forgive me!" he squeaked, then he turned his back to her and covered his eyes with his wings.

Noel watched him for a few seconds to make sure he stayed that way before turning around herself and unbuttoning her top.

"And don't even think about peeking!" She carefully hung up her shirt and vest on their respective hanger and began working on her skirt.

"I would never dare do such a thing," came Azrath's muffled reply, sounding offended. "What do you take me for?"

Remembering their previous misunderstanding, Noel glanced back at Azrath to make doubly sure that he was still hiding his face. It was, but she grabbed a folded towel from her closet and tossed it over Azrarth for good measure. You never know. Azrath gave a muffled cry, but he didn't try to escape from it, which was good. She quickly pulled on the blouse and shorts.

"Okay, you can come out now."

The lump that was Azrath crawled towards the edge of the towel and popped out a corner with a gasp. He turned, relieved to see her dressed. "Why did you do that?" he asked, "I wasn't going to look, I swear."

"I just wanted to make sure. For all I know, you could have an extra pair of eyes somewhere hidden in your fur."

"I assure you, I do not. And besides, why should I care what you look like? You're only a child! No, thank you!"

Noel raised an eyebrow and put her hands on her hips. Azrath quelled under the look she gave him. "Are you saying that you would look if I were older?"

Azrath blustered an incomprehensible response. His babbling was a mix of outrage and embarrassment.

How old are you anyway?" asked Noel, deliberately changing the subject. She crossed the room, snatched the pen from the bed, and sat at her desk, facing Azrath.

He was visibly relieved to be on a new topic, answering her with a smile, "W-well in Eziro, I'm over 4,798 years old."

Noel gaped. 4,798 years?!

"But the people of Eziro live much longer lives than humans, and our years are quite different than yours."

He thought for a moment, rubbing his fur with the tip of his wing,

"Let's see, if I were to compare my age with that of a human's, I'd say I'm around... middle age, I think?" Azrath shrugged or attempted to anyway. It was more like a weird jerk of his wings.

"So you are a dirty old man!" said Noel playfully.

"Old!?" Azrath squeaked in his child-like voice. "I believe I am at the age of the highest maturity! And I expect you to treat me as such!"

Noel giggled. She turned her attention back to the pen, muttering loud enough for Azrath to hear, "Mature? Yeah, sure, I'll respect you when you've finally gone through puberty."

Azrath squeaked again in indignation, but Noel cut him off by holding up the pen again.

"Alright, enough chit-chat. Time to focus on figuring out how this works." Azrath sighed and accepted his verbal defeat.

"Very well, here's what I know so far: Before I and the pieces crossed the universes, I was able to successfully pass through the wall without consequences." He looked down at his clawed feet and back up at the pen in Noel's hand. "Well, mostly without consequence," he added. "But after we entered your world, the appearance, as well as the Eingh, changed. And now the pen is rejecting me when it didn't before. I believe that you are the only one who can use Urzuran's hilt, Noel."

Noel absentmindedly pressed her thumb on the blue jewel, which brought out the tip with a click. "Well, look at that; it's a pen," she said sarcastically. She pulled a piece of paper from the stack on her desk and began to carefully draw Azrath with a wreath of flowers on his head. "And it works like a normal pen." Azrath glanced at her drawing and pulled a face.

"What is that supposed to be?" His tone was disgusted. He probably thought she drew something crude.

"N-nothing," she said, crumpling the piece of paper and tossing it in the garbage can next to her desk. "I messed up." She didn't. Azrath's reaction was like everyone else who saw her attempts at art.

"I feel like you aren't taking this seriously, Noel."

"I am. Totally serious." He squinted at her trying to read her tone. If Noel were honest, she didn't know if she took Azrath seriously or not. It's not that she didn't believe what he was saying, she was never one to reject the bizarre, but it was impossible for her to feel fear when all of this was being explained by a woolly softball. All she knew was that she wanted to help Azrath and make up for the curse's prank. "Why do you think I'm the only one?"

"That is where we step into the realm of uncertainty," he said, returning to an even tone. That meant another lecture. "But if I had to guess, I'd say that the Eingh in the hilt has taken on unique characteristics when it entered this world. It appears to have adapted to imitate your world's magic, but as to how the hilt has changed specifically and why it is rejecting me, I have no idea."

"Okay, so what does that have to do with me?"

"When you first touched it," continued Azrath, "Did you feel strange? Did anything happen? Anything at all?"

Noel thought back to that morning, she remembered wiping food off her uniform, then walking to school, and then the clack of the pen falling, and then—

"Oh yeah!" She said, "I remember a tingling in my fingers, almost like they were asleep!"

Azrath nodded to himself, "Then that must have been the moment when the Eingh bonded to you! I'm guessing that you were the first person to touch it."

"Bonded?" Noel was confused.

Azrath nodded again, "Yes, it means that only you can use the hilt, as far as I can guess. Though that raises the issue of the other seven pieces."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I made sure each piece is exactly as strong as the others, so I see two possibilities: One, each piece will bond to the first thing to touch it. Or two, since each piece is a fragment of the same Eingh, then every piece has now bonded to you." Azrath shuddered, "I hope to Urzuran that the latter is true."

"So do I," said Noel. "Okay!" Noel jumped up and held out the pen in front of her. "Let's find out what this baby can do!"

"Yes, let's!" replied Azrath, echoing her excitement. Noel felt a rush of energy that might've come from the pen, which excited her even more.

Eagerly, she clicked the jewel of the pen, expecting something magical to happen. But nothing did. Noel looked over at Azrath, who had taken off the bed and hovered next to her.

"Why isn't it working?" she asked.

"You have to learn the basics of Eingh first," said Azrath, "the time has come for me to tell you about the energy of life itself."

Noel groaned. Not another lecture! And she thought that Mr. Tamayoshi was long-winded. At least she was getting the answer she wanted.

"As I said, Eingh is the energy of all life. In other words, everything that is alive has Eingh. People, animals, plants, and even entire planets have Eingh. However, the more popular colloquialism is the soul or willpower. As long as you have a will, you are channeling Eingh, at least a little."

He paused for a breath. Noel was hanging on to every word. Could this be? She dared not hope. None of her family had even bothered to figure out where the curse came from, but maybe….

"Does the universe itself have Eingh?" she asked, attempting to control the eagerness that boiled to the surface of her voice.

"Why, yes, it does," he answered, apparently not picking up on her tone, "it flows throughout existence; it is where all souls go when they die, though it holds no visible form. The will of the ever-flowing universe creates order. We are all compelled by its will."

"I understand." She paused, "Is there any way for someone to control it?"

"Control it?!" Azrath laughed, "Eingh de Sah, no! There's no way to control the will of the universe. Those who've tried have been severely punished by it."

"What kind of punishments?" Noel could no longer hide her hunger for answers, and eagerness had evolved into desperation. She felt she was on the cusp of finally understanding where her curse had come from. Azrath finally caught on. His eyes narrowed.

"Don't get any funny ideas, Noel. I've heard stories of people who pull Eingh from the universe only to become highly addicted and shut out from access. They wind up taking their own life out of sheer desperation to rejoin the cosmic flow. Either that or they receive divine retribution. Besides, why would you even want to try to control fate? We all must accept what the universe wills, or we'll be thrown into chaos."

"Fate can be cruel," she said flatly. She was not only thinking of herself but much of her family, who had suffered and been driven to early graves. The same fate awaited her too. How many years did she have left? And then there was Danny.

"Yes, it can be," he said, "But Eingh has a purpose for us all. It will guide us to where we need to be, and yes, the path we take is often filled with trials, but our final destination, our rejoining with Eingh, makes it all worth it."

He stopped. There was a somber silence as he stared at Noel. For her part, she couldn't see what was so appealing about joining some ethereal energy flow, but she kept the silence going as she stared back at Azrath. She could see the gears running through his tiny head as he worked out what to say next. Then he said, "If you ask me, being able to control your own fate can be just as cruel, especially when all you've made are mistakes."

Noel had nothing to say to that. There was a pain in his voice that ran far deeper than his words. Noel knew it, the pain of loss and regret. The kind of pain that made your heart hurt. Pain that made you want to break down and give up; that made you want to stop feeling anything ever again. Noel knew that pain all too well. She felt it every single day. Every day they weren't here.

She was glad that there was someone else out there who felt the same pain she did. He had gotten choked up over the mention of his father, but this went beyond him. Noel wondered what or who Azrath had lost and opened her mouth to ask.

Azrath coughed. "Forgive me, Noel. I'm supposed to be teaching you the basics of Eingh."

"Yeah," Noel said, far too brightly, "Sorry. Teach me everything you know." Noel wouldn't press him too far. After all, there would be opportunities later to learn more about him and the universal Eingh.

"Well, it's straightforward. You've already gone through the first step of your training, which is to become aware of what Eingh is. Now that you know, you'll naturally begin to recognize the Eingh within yourself. For the next step, I want you to close your eyes and search deep within. There is a part of your essence or soul where your Eingh lies dormant. When you find it, take hold. It'll want to fight back. Just let it. Follow your instincts and let the power flow. You'll know what to do after that. Follow that, and you'll easily pull Eingh from the hilt."

"What kind of vague crap is that?" asked Noel irritably. She couldn't quite grasp what he meant by grabbing hold of her essence. She had never been good at this "spiritual mumbo-jumbo," as her dad called it. Then, there was the whole "you'll know what to do" nonsense that did absolutely nothing to help her understand. "Some teacher you are!" she added.

"Well…" his tone was awkward rather than angry, "It's true that I'm not much of a teacher."

 All those lectures and you have nothing helpful to say when it counts!

"I don't know if I can do this..." she said, unable to hide her anger.

"Well, then you definitely can't," said Azrath, trying his best to sound wise. Noel scowled harder. Azrath hastily added: "I can at least say that there are two important things when it comes to channeling Eingh: the first is confidence."

He paused, prompting Noel to ask him: "And the other?"

"To breathe..." he answered, finishing with a loud exhale, "Never forget to breathe, and you'll be fine, alright?"

"Alright," she said. Noel planted her feet, took a deep breath, and exhaled, letting the air whistle through the slight gap in her teeth.

Noel grabbed the pen tightly in both hands and closed her eyes. She concentrated on her breathing as everything around her went dark.

I can do this, Noel told herself, I can do this. At first, there was nothing, nothing but a tangle of thoughts and emotions. But as she repeated her mantra of "I can do this" repeatedly in her head, something began to happen.

She saw a light. It was soft and dim, but it was there. She longed to touch it, to reach forward and grab hold of that soft, beautiful light. Noel imagined reaching her hand forward, wanting to feel the warmth that she knew it emitted. It was so cold; she needed that warmth. Her imaginary fingers closed around the light, feeling the heat radiating from it; it felt wonderful!

But then, the light began to grow brighter and hotter. As the light grew more intense, Noel wanted desperately to let go, but she didn't. Even as the burning heat seared her flesh and bone, she refused to let go.

The light grew wild between her fingers, the rays waving and pulsating like the tendrils of some raging monster. But she still didn't let go. As she felt the light reach what she thought was its most intense, she knew it was time. And she let go of the light. And the world around her exploded with its brightness. Somewhere, a million miles away, or so Noel thought, she could feel her mouth moving, words spilling out of her as she raised the pen in the air with her right hand.

"Oh, Great Urzuran, grant me the power to vanquish the darkness! Lend me your strength that I might fight in your stead! For Life, And for Peace, I will fight for you!"

Noel felt her body move on its own. Her eyes remained closed as the light consumed her.

The light began to fade. Suddenly, Noel's body felt heavy. She opened her eyes.

"Wha-what happened, Azrath?" she asked, feeling a bit sick as she tried to steady herself. "Azrath?" She looked to where Azrath had been flying in the air, but he was gone.

Noel looked around in the air, searching for where the little puffball might have gone. But he was nowhere to be seen.

A noise from beneath her gaze caused her to look down at the floor. Azrath was there, flat on his back, staring at her, completely dumbfounded.

"There you are, Azrath. Why are you down there?" she asked. Azrath let out another strangled squeak. "What's wrong?"

But Azrath appeared to be struggling to form words.

"Breathe, Azrath, breathe!" Noel said, echoing his advice back to him.

Azrath took several deep breaths and tried to speak. But he appeared to be struggling to form words. "A-am-am-amazing..." was all that he managed.

Noel looked at him in confusion, "What are you talking about?" she asked.

Azrath didn't even try to speak. Instead, he just simply pointed at her feet with a wing. Noel looked down at her bare feet, which, to her utter amazement, were no longer bare.

 She was across the room in two bounds, opening her closet door again to check herself in the mirror.

The sleeveless turquoise blouse and gray shorts that she had been wearing only moments ago were gone, replaced with a white, knee-length dress adorned with swirling golden vines down the length of the skirt. The skirt's hem was trimmed with a scalloped gold underskirt that shimmered even in the light of her room.

Noel stood in wonder, her eyes moving up and down, taking in every inch of her new outfit.

She looked at the light blue waist-length overcoat with sleeves that widened as they got closer to her hands; they, too, were trimmed in scalloped gold cloth. She stared at her boots, the same blue as her coat, both decorated with a pair of golden feathered wings that rose from the end of the boots. She focused briefly on the delicate-looking belt that wove around her waist and the dark blue bow around her neck before her eyes settled on her hair. Gold twine was laced through the strands of hair that hung over her ears, and a third, larger pair of golden wings came out from behind her ears to form some kind of headdress.

Noel stared at her reflection in awe. She, too, had lost the ability to speak.

Though it seemed that Azrath had finally regained his, his reflection popped into view behind her as he said, pointing behind her: "Noel! Look there, the hilt!" Noel turned and looked to where Azrath was pointing, expecting to see the pen lying on her floor, but that's not what she saw.

There, on the floor, lay a long, beautiful staff of gold. The spiral handle gleamed brightly, as did the large, blue orb that topped it. Another pair of wings arched from the top and curled protectively around the jewel to resemble, to Noel at least, a bird in flight.

Instinctively, Noel reached her hand forward, willing the staff to come to her. Noel was astonished when the staff lifted itself from the floor and flew towards her, landing perfectly in her outstretched hand. She laid the staff across both of her palms, marveling at everything that had just transpired. 

"Amazing, simply amazing!" Azrath squealed, flying close to the staff, and examined it. His eyes darted from the staff to various parts of Noel's costume and back again. He was staring so intensely that Noel had half a mind slap him out of the air. But she fought her violent instinct and instead folded her arm to try and cover herself. 

"I had no idea the hilt could change its appearance like this, and it changed your appearance quite a lot too, Noel. You put on quite the show while you were transforming."

Noel's face went red. "What do you mean by that?" 

"Well, you activated the hilt with a prayer to Urzuran, and then you started glowing and spinning and dancing all over the room!"

Noel's face grew hotter. What?! She had no recollection of any of this. Then again, she thought she remembered saying something about fighting for Urzuran, which was more than a little creepy. Also, sparkles, she thought she remembered there were lots of sparkles.

"And then," Azrath rambled excitedly, "Your clothes started disappearing and changing into what you're wearing now!"

At that last part, Noel felt her face go white-hot with embarrassment and fury, her headache coming in just as hot, boiling just below the surface. The staff whirled in Noel's hand as she pointed the blue jewel straight at the little perverted puffball.

Azrath froze, falling to the ground again as he stopped flapping his wings. But Noel kept it trained on him as he fell. He bounced slightly as he hit the floor, which Noel usually would have found cute, but right now, she was too angry to care.

"Did you see anything?!" she hissed through gritted teeth.

"H-hey!" Azrath squeaked, "Watch where you point that thing! Who knows what it can do now!"

"I said," growled Noel, her voice becoming dangerously low, "Did. You. See. Anything?" She punctuated every word with a jab at him with the staff, making Azrath flinch every time she did.

Azrath shook his entire body in answer, "No! No! You were glowing too brightly to see anything, okay? I swear!"

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Noel stopped, her anger instantly morphing into fear. "Aunt Jillian," she whispered. 

"What do we do?" asked Azrath as he tried to sneak around Noel's staff, which was still trained on him.

But before he could, Noel shot him a glance. "Stay still!" she commanded. Azrath froze on the spot as the door opened, and Aunt Jillian poked her head in.

"Hey Noel, I'm back." she said tiredly, "I brought dinner. Danny's waiting downstairs, so come on and ea—"

Her eyes widened behind her glasses as she looked Noel up and down.

"Weh-hell, look at you dressed all pretty," she said with a small smile. "Where'd you get something so fancy?"

Noel's mind reeled as she thought of a cover story on the spot. She remembered a conversation that she had with Ai earlier in the week. "I got it from a friend from school. She wanted me to try it on to see if I wanted to cosplay with her."

Ai had taught her a bit about cosplay or costume play. Apparently, dressing up as a favorite character was quite popular in Japan. Noel had never heard of anything so absurd; buying or making expensive costumes seemed like a complete waste of money!

Aunt Jillian raised an eyebrow and fully entered the room.

"Cosplay? I didn't think you'd be interested in something like that."

"Oh, you know... Gotta try something new sometimes! When in Rome and all that! Or, in this case, Japan!" Noel laughed nervously, hoping her aunt would mistake it for shame at being caught wearing something so embarrassing.

She hated lying to her aunt, but the alternative was letting her think that Noel was a freak, like the rest of her dad's family, if she knew the truth. It is true, though; she was a freak. 

Aunt Jillian shrugged and looked around the room, to Noel's horror, her eyes fixed on Azrath, who was lying, stiff as a board, on the floor. It took Noel everything she had not to stop Aunt Jillian as she walked over to the frozen Azrath and bent to pick him up.

"This one's cute," she said, grabbing him in both hands and holding him up to her face. "I don't remember getting him for you, though." She looked back at her Noel. "Did your friend give this to you too?"

Noel was impressed at how still Azrath was holding. He hadn't so much as twitched as her aunt had manhandled him. She nodded, "He goes with the outfit!"

"Does he?" Aunt Jillian replied she handed him to her, "Is he a character in some magical girl anime?"

Noel nodded again, "Yep, his name is Azrath!"

"Okay." said Aunt Jillian, then she smiled again, "That outfit's cute on you. Make sure you change out of it before you come downstairs; you wouldn't want to ruin it." Jillian handed Azrath back to her, Noel taking him back as carefully as possible. 

"I will," said Noel, smiling back. Aunt Jillian left the room, shutting the door behind her. Noel waited until she heard her aunt's footsteps disappear down the stairs, then she breathed a sigh of relief and moved across the room to sink onto her bed.

"That was close..."

She looked down at Azrath, who rested on her lap again. "Hey, you did a pretty good job back there, Azrath." He didn't reply. He didn't move either. "Um... Azrath?"

No answer.

Noel poked at his fur, "Hey Azrath, you don't have to pretend to be stuffed anymore, okay?"

Still nothing.

"This isn't funny, Azrath. Please move!"

Noel was growing frightened now.

Carefully, Noel poked one of Azrath's open wings, but instead of the wing moving, Azrath's entire body moved with it, rolling back and forth.

"Uh-oh..." Noel whispered. Noel could feel the panic set in again. Why wasn't Azrath moving? His eyes were open, staring forward blankly.

Oh god, did I kill him?! She picked up the stiffened body of her new friend and put her ear to his fur, listening for a heartbeat.

Wait, did Azrath even have a heart? She listened closely anyway.

She heard a noise, but it wasn't a heartbeat. It sounded more like a high-pitched scream coming from deep within the petrified ball of fur.

He was alive! But he seemed to be unable to move. Azrath stopped screaming, then his voice returned, then stopped, then returned. It seemed to Noel that Azrath was trying to speak. "Uuuf taa saaaff!"

Noel didn't understand. "What did you say?"

"Taa SAAAFF! Uuuf Taa Safff!"

Noel tried to puzzle out what he was saying. She looked around her room for inspiration. Her eyes rested on the staff next to her on the bed. She had let go of it when she had sat down—the staff.

A jolt of realization hit her: Use the staff!

Crap! She remembered the last thing she told Azrath, right before Aunt Jillian had come into her room: "Stay still!"

She had been pointing her staff right in his face as she had ordered him to stop moving. Had she accidentally cast a spell on him?

She jumped to her feet, and, grabbing her staff, she pointed the jewel at poor Azrath, who she had laid gently on her blanket.

She wished with all her heart for the little puffball to move again as she said, "Move!"

Azrath let out a breath, his wings falling limply by his sides.

"Thank god!" Noel cried as she kneeled on the floor, watching Azrath as he climbed unsteadily to his feet.

"That thing packs quite the wallop!" he panted, gesturing to the staff Noel was leaning on. "Even I, in my weakened state, should have resisted such a simple command. But I guess your will was a bit stronger than mine at the time."

Letting go of the staff, which balanced itself in the air, Noel brought her hands together and apologized over and over again. She hit her forehead with her hands with every "I'm sorry!" she said.

"No need for apologies!" Azrath assured, "as I said, it was a simple command attack. Those are often cast by accident. So don't worry about it! With a little training, this kind of thing won't happen again."

He grinned, and, after a moment, Noel smiled back, wiping a tear from her eyes.

"I thought you were dead!" she said.

"I nearly was! But luckily, I was still able to breathe through my nose!" replied Azrath.

"And to think," Noel said, grabbing the staff and plopping back down on the bed —she wondered if and where Azrath had a nose hidden beneath his fluff. "For a moment there, I was impressed that you could be so still for Aunt Jill! But I guess not!"

She laughed, and so did Azrath. But they were interrupted by a loud growling sound. He gave an embarrassed smirk.

"Forgive me..." he groaned, "But the mention of your aunt made me remember how long it's been since I've eaten. I think my sense of smell has been heightened because I can smell the food from downstairs. It smells delicious!" A spot of drool leaked from the corner of his mouth and was quickly absorbed into his fur. Slightly disgusted, Noel stood up.

"Okay, I'll bring something up for you!"

Azrath nodded happily and thanked her.

"But first, you have to tell me how to get back to normal."

Azrath hopped across the bed, nestled himself into Noel's blanket again, and closed his eyes.

"Oh, you can't," he said casually. "I'm afraid you're stuck like that, forever."

"WHAT?!" gasped Noel.

"I'm only kidding." He opened one eye and grinned at Noel's horrified expression, "Payback."

Noel breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

"Fair enough," she said.

Azrath told her how to release her hold on the staff's power, which she did. Holding firm to the staff, she imagined sending the Eingh back into it.

A brief flash of light later, Noel opened her eyes and was relieved to see the golden pen in her hand. She looked at her clothes and saw that the turquoise blouse and gray shorts had returned as well. She tossed the pen onto the bed.

"Here, you hold on to this."

"Thank you, I'll do just that!" he said, moving over to where the pen landed. Then as if remembering something, Azrath turned to look back at Noel.

"Oh, just to let you know, the more times you transform, the easier it should get, so don't be so afraid next time," Azrath said from his position on the bed, "Now go on and eat."

Noel nodded and ran out of the room. As she closed the door behind her, she heard Azrath say: "And bring me some meat if you can!"

"Will do," she whispered through the door so her voice wouldn't carry downstairs.

Noel smiled to herself and ran down the stairs. A new friend and new mysterious powers for her to discover. Maybe the curse was being kind to her after all. It was an unusual thought coming from her, but she was in such a good mood that she decided to hope against hope. Just this once.