With a start, Tama came awake, looking wildly about, scared and unsure where it was she was. After a moment, it came to her that she was in her room, safe, and that she had been taking an afternoon nap like her mommy had wanted her to. Searching about her bed, Tama pushed aside the sheets and comforter before finally locating kitty.
Hugging the plush Hello Kitty, Tama stuck her thumb into her mouth and began to suck on the appendage. As she did so, she thought about the dream.
She remembered that it had something to do with a boy named Justin and that he had been several years older than her. But then he had come in contact with a pretty medallion and he had started to change. She understood that this change upset him and that at some point he was given another one of the pretty medallions to stop his change, as the first had broke.
"But what happened afterward?" Tama asked herself as she took her thumb out of her mouth and looked about the room.
After a couple seconds of sitting there, holding kitty and looking about the familiar surroundings of her room, Tama lay down on her belly and slid off of her bed, pulling kitty with her as she did so. Taking one final glance about her room, she toddled across to the door and pulling open, she listened. Somewhere downstairs, she could hear, and smell, her mother moving about. In the guest bedroom, she knew that her cousin was taking a nap and preceded quietly down the hall, she crept into the bathroom.
Shutting the door, she struggled for a moment to reach the light, but when she had finally managed to turn on the light about the sink, Tama pulled the little step stool closer and mounting it, proceeded to climb up onto the sink. Setting kitty down, she peered into the mirror, taking in the pretty dress that she was wearing and that who she was, was a five year old fox-girl.
As she held up a paw-like hand and then opened and closed it, Tama yawned, watching as her snout opened and exposed her teeth, and thinking about the dream, she wondered what it was she had been dreaming about a boy, or more specifically, why she had been dreaming that she was a boy, turning into a girl.
"I wouldn't want to be no icky boy," she whispered to herself as she ran a hand through her short, black fur.
Hoping down off the sink, she fetched kitty and struggling to reach the light switch, she turned off the light and pulled open the door as her mommy called out, "Tama? Is that you," and calling out in reply, "Yes, mommy," Tama listened as her mother told her to keep it down and that Mandy was still sleeping.
"Yes, mommy," Tama answered and tiptoeing back to her room, she shut the door as her mother called out that dinner would be ready in about an hour.
Sitting down on the floor in front of her toy box, Tama found herself bothered by the dream and unable to figure why she would have dreamt such a thing, having never once wanted to be an icky boy and knowing that when she played pretend, it was usually as princesses and fairies. Reaching for kitty, she lay the plush down on its back and commented, "Somebodies had an accident," and then began to undress the plush toy.
As she took some doll clothes from the toy box, Tama thought more about the dream, remembering that the icky boy's name had been Justin and that he, or rather, she, had started to transform because the medallion had come in contact with something.
Sitting kitty up, taking in the outfit she had dressed kitty in and deciding that she wanted to be dressed in her princess' costume, Tama stood and began to take off her dress. Stopping when she was down to nothing but her underwear, she stared at the fabric, noting how flat in front it was and twisting about, seeing her tail poking out the back, she thought, "No icky boy parts. Just my normal fox-girl body," she headed across her room toward her closet.
As she pulled on the dress and set the tiny plastic crown on her head, Tama thought about the medallion and after a bit, remembered that in the dream she had put it in her jewelry box. Climbing up on the seat in front of her vanity, she pulled the box toward her, deciding that she also wanted something pretty to wear, besides the crown.
Opening the jewelry box, she stopped when, to her surprise, she found the medallion from her dream sitting mixed in with her jewelry. Taking it out, careful not to touch anything but the chain-link affixed to the medallion, she stared at it, confused.
"But," she whined out. "It was a dream. I am not some icky boy," and finding herself confused even more, she sat down fully on the seat before her vanity, forgetting for the moment that she had wanted to play dress-up.
Staring at the medallion, forgetting what it was it had been called in her dream, Tama tried to remember if at any point in her life she had been some icky boy. Unable to think of any time that she might have been a member of the opposite sex and gender, she closed her eyes and tried to think if the dream might be memories coming to in some weird sort of fashion.
When it became apparent that she was just confusing herself even more, Tama opened her eyes and once again whined out, "I am not some icky boy and haft never been one," and setting the medallion down, she placed her hands in her lap and glared at it, trying to remember where she might have gotten it.
At a loss, finding herself even more confused, Tama slid off the seat and sitting down on the floor next to her Hello Kitty plush, she gazed at the medallion, unsure where it came from and how it had come to be in with her costume jewelry. Standing, she toddled across the room, her digitigrade paw-like feet making not a sound as she went, Tama stopped before the window and stared out it for a couple minutes. Turning back to the medallion, she set kitty down and began to pull the seat in front of her vanity over to the window.
Climbing back up onto the seat, she struggled for a couple seconds with the window before she was able to slide it open. Dropping gracefully off the seat, Tama headed back for her vanity and carefully picking up the medallion, she headed back to the window, where she climbed back up onto the seat, careful to keep the medallion from touching her.
"I don't wanna be an icky boy," she exclaimed as she tossed the medallion out the window, watching as it tumbled through the air, the late afternoon sun glinting off it as it fell, until it was lost from view.
Struggling to slide the window closed, feeling that she had made the right decision, Tama climbed down off the seat, dragged it back its place before her vanity, retrieved kitty and after a moment's thought, decided to see if her cousin was up and wanted to play with her.
"And if she isn't," Tama thought. "Maybe I can see what mamma is planning for dinner," as she skipped across her room, opened the door and headed down the hall.
Outside, two stories down and underneath her window, the Amulet of Zulo lay on the ground. After a couple seconds, a shadow fell across it and a voice commented, "You waited too long to make your choice, Justin," as a hand reached down and picked up the amulet and then began to bounce it lightly in the palm of his hand as he started to whistle an odd tune.
After a moment, the voice commented, "Move along," and with another twinkling glint from the setting sun, the medallion vanished.
Glancing back at the house, knowing that neither Tama nor anyone of her family would ever see the Amulet of Zulo again, the man from what Tama thought of as her dreams, dreams that she would forget in a couple days’ time, smiled and quietly commented, "Enjoy your new life, little fox-girl. I wish you happiness in it," and turning about, he vanished.