“Alright, can you hear and see me?”
“You’re a bit blurry…wait, you’re much clearer now!” The image of an arctic fox appeared on the monitor of a laptop. Sitting in front of the laptop was a young man with mouse-brown hair, glasses, and a lean, muscular build. Upon seeing the arctic fox become much clearer on his end, the young man smiled.
“See hun? I told you having those internet cables run to the resort was a good idea!” the young man said. “Look how much better the reception is now!” The fox rolled his eyes and shook his head, chuckling as he did so. “I will admit that I had my doubts,” he said. “But being able to see you so clearly when we’re this far apart is just wonderful, rakkaani. It’s a little weird seeing you as a human though.”
“Believe me when I say that you’d understand why I’m human right now,” the young man said, making a fanning motion with his hand. “Greece is ridiculously humid. I think I’d die wearing such a thick coat of fur for too long. I don’t know how some of the locals are able to walk around without getting too hot.”
“They get just as hot as you do,” the fox replied. “Delphi’s told me how hot the summers get down there, but they’ve got plenty of ways to cool off. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to give you some advice! After all, you’re basically her cousin now too!”
“Right, I’ll be sure to ask her when I finish up my work,” the young man replied. “Have to make sure that everything is flowing smoothly for the grand opening, you know?”
“You keep reminding me, Tommy,” the Werefox said with a laugh. “Speaking of which, how is everything going so far? Any freakouts or mishaps yet?”
“Surprisingly, no!” Tom replied, a relieved smile on his face. While he expected a few hiccups between opening and now, he was a bit surprised that everything seemed to be going off without a hitch. “Besides one or two guests having a little scare due to the locals, everything has been going rather well! From what Delphi’s told me, a large number of the guests have been willing to try the magic.”
The fox on the other end sighed in relief. “That’s such a relief to hear,” he said. “I was a bit worried that a new resort would lead to some issues, but hearing you say that everything’s going well gives me hope that we won’t have to keep hiding.”
“Don’t worry Lars, the magic will be revealed one day,” Tom said. “It could be in a few years, decades, or even far past our time, but it will happen one day.”
“I know,” Lars replied, a slight smile on his face. “I just hope that it’s within our lifetime.” Tom smiled at his husband through the screen. Everything that he was doing here was for Lars and the rest of his friends and family back home at the Foxfire Resort. By overseeing the opening of new resorts, Tom was playing a part in slowly revealing the existence of magic and Weres to the rest of the world. It was no longer a matter of if the magic will be revealed. Now, it was becoming a matter of when the magic will be revealed.
“Alright, enough sentimental stuff,” Tom said. “How are things going back home? Are you and Fiia keeping everything under control?”
“Tietysti olemme! We don’t have anywhere near as many guests as we do during the holidays, so it’s rather quiet right now. Not that I’m complaining or anything.”
“And how are Eric and Clyde doing?”
“Busy busy busy as always! There’s never really an off day for Santa’s reindeer, is there? But it doesn’t seem like anyone’s complaining, so they must enjoy it. Eric has talked to me about trying to find some time to come down and visit. Said something about a friend of his being there?”
“Oh yeah, Eric had me pull some strings to help a friend of his get a trip here. He said he had a shitty semester at college and wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life, so Eric wanted to send his friend to this resort and see if he would end up becoming a Were or mythical creature.”
“And has he?” Lars asked curiously.
“I haven’t run into him, so I’m not sure,” Tom responded. “I’m sure we’ll cross paths eventually, though.” Just then, there was a knock at the door to Tom’s office. The young man sighed and called out “One minute!” When he turned his attention back to his laptop screen, he saw Lars smirking back at him.
“Duty calls, eh?” the fox asked. Tom nodded and let out a sigh. “Sorry I have to cut our call short, love,” the young man apologized. “I’ll call you later tonight, okay?”
“I’ll be waiting for you,” Lars replied. “Minä rakastan sinua.”
“Minäkin rakastan sinua.” With that, Lars hung up the video call, leaving Tom to stare at his cluttered desktop screen. While he was incredibly grateful to be a part of the opening of a new resort to expose people to the existence of Weres, Tom knew going into it that he wouldn’t be able to spend a large amount of time with Lars. It had been a few weeks since the two had been in the same room together. He missed Lars’ soft fur, his loving cuddles, and especially his tight, plump…
Another knock on the door made Tom snap out of his fantasy. He’d completely forgotten about the person on the other side of the door. “You can come in now!” he called out. The door opened, and two men stepped in. The first man was the taller one of the two, and he had a lean, athletic build. He wore a pair of gray shorts and a blue tank top with the resort logo. His snowy white hair reminded him of Lars’ fur. The other man was a bit shorter than the first one, and he looked a few years younger. His short black hair and red t-shirt were wet with his sweat, and his khaki shorts appeared to be a little dirty, as if he’d fallen in some dirt. Tom wasn’t entirely sure who either of them were, but both of them seemed familiar in different ways.
“Hello Tom,” the white-haired man said in a distinctly Greek accent. “Sorry for coming unannounced. We aren’t interrupting anything, are we?” Upon hearing his voice, Tom realized why the white-haired man seemed familiar.
“No, you’re not interrupting at all Orion,” Tom replied, flashing the man a friendly smile. “Sorry if I looked a little confused when you walked in. It took me a second to realize who you were. I haven’t seen what you look like as a human before now.”
Orion grinned, chuckling a little. “Yeah, I don’t usually use this form since I’m much more comfortable being a wolf. I just figured that my friend here would be much more comfortable walking around with a human rather than a werewolf while I showed him around the resort. Speaking of which…” Orion put a hand on the other man’s shoulder. “This is Alex, a guest at the resort.”
Tom raised an eyebrow upon hearing the other man’s name. “Alex?” he repeated. “As in, Alex Harper?” Now it was the other man’s turn to look confused. “Yeah…that’s me…” he replied cautiously. “Do I…know you?”
Tom snapped his fingers upon finally realizing why Alex looked so familiar. “I knew I recognized you from somewhere!” he said. “I’m Tom, Eric’s older brother. I remember meeting you once or twice, but that was a few years ago.”
Alex’s face lit up with recognition. “So I’m not crazy for thinking you look familiar!” the young man said. “I suppose that you’re the one I should thank for making my stay here possible!”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Tom replied sheepishly. “But it was all Eric’s idea. He’s the one who told me you were in a bit of a rough spot and asked if I could book you an extended stay here for you to relax and unwind.”
“Wow…I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to repay you guys…” Alex thought to himself for a second before he realized something. “So Orion mentioned on the way over here that you’re a werefox…”
“Oh yeah, I didn’t mention that, didn’t I?” Orion chuckled, scratching the beach of his head. “In all honesty, I didn’t expect the person you were talking about to be the same person that I was talking about.”
Tom nodded. “Yes, I became a werefox a few months ago, though I knew about the existence of Weres long before that. Admittedly though, it’s a bit of a long story that either myself or Eric will tell you in time.”
“So then if you’re a werefox…does that mean Eric’s also…?”
Tom chuckled, sitting down in the chair behind his desk. “Yep, Eric’s also a Were…kind of…actually, I’m not really sure if magic reindeer qualify as Weres…”
Alex interjected. “Hang on…magic reindeer? Are you trying to tell me that…”
“Yes, κουτάβι,” Orion chuckled. “Αγιος Βασίλης, or Santa Claus as you Americans call him, is real.”
“And your friend and his husband are two of his reindeer,” Tom added, smirking as Alex looked back and forth between him and Orion in disbelief. “I know, it’s a lot to take in.”
‘A lot to take in?’ That was a complete understatement! Alex had no idea what to make of the bombshell that had just been dropped on him. If someone had told him before he arrived at the resort that his close friend Eric was one of Santa’s magic flying reindeer and he was going to a resort where creatures out of Greek mythology existed and people could turn into anthropomorphic animals through the use of magic, he would have called them insane. But within the past two days, it seemed like everything he thought he knew had been proven to be completely false.
“Hey…you okay κουτάβι?” Orion asked, putting his hand on Alex’s right shoulder. “You look a little shaken up…” Alex shook himself out of his thoughts and gave Orion a slight nod. “Yeah…I’m just a little shocked, you know? I’ve had a lot of bombshells dropped on me these past two days.” The young man looked back up at Tom. “Why did Eric really want me to come here?”
Tom scratched the back of his head, a bit nervous that he was the one who had to tell Alex all of this. “Well, I mean, you already know part of the reason he wanted you to send you here,” Tom said. “He genuinely thought that you needed some time to relax after a shitty freshman year of college, especially once you said you weren’t sure what you wanted to do with your life. The entire reason he took a year off after you both graduated from high school was because he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life either, so he knows exactly what you’re going through.”
“But why send me here?” Alex asked.
Tom hesitated for a second before answering. This was almost exactly like the conversation he and Eric had over the phone when Eric started transforming a couple of months ago.
“It’s probably best if you asked him that yourself.”