'Well,' Ty thought to himself, 'I guess I could do what Vøl suggested. But where should I go?'
Ty used his new paw-hand to spin the globe around a few times, looking for anything interesting. He thought about going to Ireland,
where dobhar-chus were from, but he figured he might scare people there. After all, the creature he was now was infamous for eating
humans. Ty ended up spinning the image back to the US.
With no other thoughts making themselves known to him, he re-zoomed to his old house. Mark and June were gone, Dustin was sitting
in his room, but what's this? Out in the yard, there is a young boy. Ty had never seen him before. The boy was the same age as Ty,
and he was only slightly more developed than Ty had been. Ty's brain immediately presented him with the knowledge that this boy was
his replacement as Mark and June's foster child. He was out in the garden, weeding them to perfection like Ty had been forced to while
Dustin lounged around inside.
'They haven't changed,' Ty said, almost sadly. But he knew what he had to do.
He moved the image to the woods behind the house and stepped into the portal. His feet touched the ground and he looked around. He
had shrunk to a much more proportional seven feet tall, as the size he had been in the Order Space would have made him a
skyscraper on Earth. He looked up at where he had come from, but there was no sign of the portal. Had he been able to witness his
own entrance, it would have been like Aslan's with a bright light heralding his appearance.
Ty looked towards the house, it wasn't far off and he could see the top of the kid's head. Ty changed himself so that he was only seven
inches long, replaced his fish tail with a regular one, made his mouth smaller, and dropped to all fours to avoid suspicion. At least, as
little suspicion can come from a mini-otter with white fur and black markings.
Everything was bigger now, and Ty couldn't see the house past the log in front of him. He scampered over the wood and down the
slight hill to where the boy was weeding the garden. From this closer distance, Ty saw that the boy had light brown hair, deep blue
eyes, and a childish face. He was a lot less lanky than Ty had been, he had a runner's build with powerful legs and a slim form. But he
was shorter than Ty had been, probably only five foot four.
Ty's new mind continued to feed him information. The boy's name was Jake, he has been their foster child for four years, and today is
his fifteenth birthday. He was an almost perfect replacement of Ty, as he had been ignored by Mark and June as well.
Jake continued weeding, unaware of the small creature approaching him. Ty moved over behind a small bush and watched the boy
work. Jake sat up from his work, took off a glove, and wiped the sweat from his brow. While he was distracted, Ty placed himself on top
of the discarded glove and waited for the boy to put it back on. As Jake reached for the glove, he saw Ty and pulled his hand away.
"Whoa! Where did you come from, little guy?" Jake asked in the sort of cutesy voice you use when talking to animals. He used his
gloved hand and tried to shoo Ty away, but he refused to budge. "You're one strange animal. Come to think of it, I don't know that I've
even seen an animal like you before?"
Ty just stared up at him. Jake went to reach for the glove in an attempt to simply pull it out from underneath him, but Ty shook his head
in a clear "no".
"What? 'No'? Why not?"
Ty just shook his head again.
"Come on, move!"
Ty wouldn't budge, he stood there and waited for Jake to make the next move. With a hopeless shrug, Jake went inside the house. A
little later, he came back out, leading Dustin over to the creature.
"Jeez, Jake, I thought this was something important," Dustin rolled his eyes. "This things not even big, just kick it out of the way..."
As Dustin positioned his foot to kick Ty off the glove, Ty used his power to stop Dustin in his tracks.
"What the Hell?!" Dustin yelled. "I can't move!"
Ty used his powers to make Dustin swing bavkwards and kick himself, making him stumple and fall forward on his face. He regained
movement and scrambled back away from the creature.
"What is that thing?" he asked in amazement.
"I don't know! It just sort of appeared on my glove! I tried to move it, but it shook its head at me, like it's trying to say something."
Ty nodded his head in response. Then he backed off the glove. Jake moved forward and put on the glove. Once it was on his hand, Ty
jumped up into his palm and scurried up his arm to his shoulder. Jake freaked and tried to brush him off, but Ty held tight. Ty used his
power to make Jake stop fighting him. Jake suddenly stood still as Dustin got up off the ground.
"This is too freaky!" Dustin was earnestly spooked.
Ty used his powers once more to supplant feelings of safety and happiness in Jake's mind while he put feelings of pain and fear in
Dustin's mind.
"What the Hell is that thing?!" Dustin yelled, scared out of his wits.
"I don't know," Jake repeated slowly, "But I think he wants me to keep him."
"No way! No way in Hell are you bringing that thing inside!" Dustin screamed, his eyes wide with fear.
Ty shot Dustin an evil look and forced an image of himself in the house into Dustin's brain.
"Okay, I'm sorry!" Dustin was overwhelmed with fear, he quickly ran inside the house, slamming the door behind him.
Jake turned to look at Ty; "Whatever you did to him, thank you."