Lewis stared at the letter and pendant. Those two items, along with a washer, dryer, a small - but very comfortable - bed, and an empty fridge were the only things in his apartment when he started to move in. Admittedly, most of those items were expected to be there, but this letter and pendant... “Eh, some kid must’ve left ’em here,” he finally decided.
He finished unpacking quickly. He had made it to New York City - more than a thousand miles from his native Texas. It was a bit far from his family and friends, but the money and job - a mid-level programming position for a national bank - for a kid almost fresh out of college was too much for any sane man to reject. He didn’t have much with him, a few books - a mix between programming and fiction, his laptop, a few suits - one a graduation present, and a few other items that would fit in his car.
He sat back, and looked out the window at the New York skyline. It was not quite two PM on a midsummer Thursday afternoon, and Lewis was not due at his new job until Monday, so he had a few days to get used to the city. The cable guy was not due to be here until tomorrow, so his usual pass-time, surfing the Internet and watching television, was out. So then, what could he do?
His mind ventured back to the letter found on his bed, addressed to “the new tenant.” It had to have been a kid that left it here, as some sort of poor attempt at a prank. Lewis examined the amulet. The coyote’s head was faded, as if it were either old or poorly made. The rope was thick, and heavy, almost as if it were a replacement rope. “Or, again,” Lewis reminded himself, “poorly made.” But, still, the coyote reminded him of his childhood in western half of Texas, so Lewis slipped it on, placing the amulet under his shirt.
He looked out his window again, looking down to the busy street below. Houston, he thought the street was called, but he heard both the taxi driver and interviewer pronounce it as Hows-ton during his previous visit. “There must be a grocery store along that street,” he decided, “and perhaps a park. I doubt this letter was real, but if it is, eh, I’ll cross that bridge if I come to it.”
He took out a sketchbook, used for drawing in his spare time, planning to perhaps sketch a tree or a statue in the park. “Hell, I’ll look like a tourist, but damn it, I’ll be a tourist until I know my way around the city! Might as well start learning now!”
About eight blocks away from his apartment, Lewis found a nice, somewhat large park. It wasn’t Central Park - even he knew that! - but it was a nice park all the same. There was a fountain in the middle, and swings and play equipment closer to the south end of the park. He found a nice, interesting, gnarled tree, and sat on a nearby bench to begin sketching, adjusting his hat to become more comfortable and keep the sun out of his eyes while he sketched. Nearby was a bespectacled mother reading a book while her son, probably eight or nine, was playing on the playground equipment. His sketch would only take up half the page, so he decided to put this matter about the amulet to rest, right here, and right now.
“I am sitting across from two kitsune,” he wrote on the right side of his paper. “The mother kitsune is reading a newspaper, while her five year old daughter is playing on the swings, and making some floating colored lights. To everyone’s eyes but their own, and my own, they look like a normal mother and daughter, due to the very skilled illusions created by the elder five-tailed kitsune. The young kitsune will have occasional, realistic, dreams of being a human boy of the same age until she reaches nine years old when the dreams stop and begin fading from her memory as she grows older and becomes a young woman. Unless and until they decide to reveal themselves, no one will ever be able to tell they are not human.”
He paused for a moment, and looked up. The woman across from him was reading a newspaper, and was an anthro fox - with five tails! Her clothes had altered to fit her, becoming a bit smaller and more colorful, as had her glasses. Across the path, was a young kitsune-girl, roughly five years of age, played on the swings. Her hair was in pigtails, flying around as she swung, and as she reached the top of her swing, she released a red-colored, balloon-like light. The light traveled up in the air slowly, and with the wind, much like a balloon would.
Lewis blinked, and closed his sketch-book. The amulet had worked! It had changed two people! The letter was probably telling the truth! What should he - what could he do?
Images filled his mind. He could make the old younger, giving the good more time on Earth! He could make the harmful harmless, making the world a better place! He could become like a God! Or he could change people at random for his own pleasure... it was difficult to decide.
He got up, and walked along the path, between the mother kitsune and her daughter. “Ma’am,” he said as he passed, tipping his hat in greeting. She smiled and nodded in reply, and Lewis could swear that he heard her whisper the word “Magic” in amazement as he left the park.