"There's another way," came a voice from behind the trees.
Both Thomas and Sadie almost jumped out of their skins when Sarah stepped out. "What are you doing here?" asked Thomas.
Sarah shrugged, "I followed you. You seemed so mysterious about this ride that I wondered what you were getting into. I'm still not sure what it is, but I've got an idea something strange is happening."
"How much do you understand?" he asked.
"Not much, can you explain it?"
Thomas sighed and launched into it. He told her everything he knew, from his life as Ian, to his trade with Sadie and everything he understood about the medallion. Finally, Sarah smiled, "I have an idea, an incredibly risky, incredibly hairbrained idea, but I think it could work."
"What that?" he asked.
"Well, you two want to, essentially, share Thomas. I want a happy Thomas. I also kinda feel a little thrilled even thinking that this could be possible. But how about if the three of us, at least for the time being, simply share our bodies?"
The horse chuffed and Thomas tilted his head, "Come again?"
"The only thing that's stopping you from turning Sadie back into a duplicate Thomas is that we'd have to explain that. The same problem applies for turning one of you into some different person all together. You'd have no papers and no life. We could do what you two did, make a trade, but who knows how that might work out. Meanwhile, Sadie is due to be breed in, what, a few weeks?"
"A month, I think," admited Thomas.
"Well, for now, we share bodies. We'll make this a three-way... so to speak. One of us will be Thomas, one of us Sadie and the other Sarah. And we'll switch off until we find a more permanent solution."
Thomas had to think a moment, "But we can't take a horse with us to school," he pointed out.
She shrugged, "Then we 'get' a dog, and one of us spends a little time in that form."
"And what about when one of us gets tired of being a dog? Or cat? What if all three of us decide to be human again?"
She shrugged, "I guess we cross that bridge when we get to it." She smiled, "Besides, I'm not even convinced this will work."
Thomas looked at Sadie. "If you're OK with this, why don't we let her take your body for a couple days, then you can be Sarah, and we'll figure out a way to make Sadie disappear."
When the horse nodded, Thomas reached over and grabbed his backback. "The medallion is in here. You need to take it out and hold it out for Sadie, then when she touches is, you'll swap places. Don't worry, you won't spend long in that form."
Sarah reached into the bag and took it out as instructed, then she held it out for the horse. Sadie reached out and touched it.
There wasn't a spark, but it was obvious when the transition happened. Both of them looked disorented for a moment. Sarah started to fall down when Thomas caught her. "You OK? Did it work?"
Sarah opened her eyes and looked around, "I'm human again!" she said.
Thomas looked up at the horse, who for her part was looking over her own body and moving each part like it was a new toy. "You OK in there?" he asked.
The horse nodded vigorously.
After a little while, the three of them headed back to the farm to start working out exactly how they were going to pull this off.