Young Writers Society

Maahes's arms were already mostly folded, but he stopped poking Elias and folded that arm back in for good measure.

"I am six," he said, "but I'm not stupid! Not-Alterans like you have powers, but I have magic. That's what everyone in the Other Place says. Spirits like me have all kinds of magic - we can change our forms, use fire and wind, and use all kinds of fancy other things!"

Not surprisingly, Elias only heard the first three words out of the whole explanation, and just ran with it.

"You're not six," he said with a laugh, then looked at him seriously. "Uh, right? You're my age. Twelve."

"Nuh-uh," Maahes protested, shaking his head. He held up his hands and showed Elias exactly how many years old he was: one hand full of fingers out, and the other with just his thumb out. "I'm six. I just made myself look like I'm twelve! It's a disguise. I never do kid guises, so Odris would never realize it's me! And you were twelve, too."

Elias squinted at his six fingers, and in response, held up all ten of his fingers, then did a two-fingered peace sign in front of his face. "You're twelve," he repeated, shoving the two fingers in his face. It didn't occur to him that it looked like he was portraying that he was two years old.

He then dropped the fingers and mimicked the height of a six year old, up his waist. "You'd be this tall if you were six!" he said defiantly.

"That's how big Alterans are when they're six!" Maahes argued. He puffed his cheeks out in frustration and pulled his lips into a tiny thin line. Why didn't Elias understand what he was trying to say? He wasn't Alteran! He was a spirit, and spirits had totally different rules.

"I'm a lot bigger," he said. "You just can't see it! Because I'm using a guise."

Screwing his face in concentration, Maahes tried to figure out how he could prove this once and for all. Odris said not to show anyone what he really looked because they might think he was a monster and try to hurt him. Even though he was running away from Odris, he still thought it was a good idea to listen to him about that.

An idea suddenly came to him.

"I got it!" he announced. He took a step back and looked Elias over. He needed to get this perfect. If Elias saw that he could change his form, he would believe him about how old he was. And while he could have looked like anyone, the first person that came to mind was the one right in front of him.

He took a deep breath he didn't really need - because Odris always did them - and switched his guise on the very first plane. That was the only one that Elias could see.

A moment later, an exact copy of Elias was standing right where Maahes had been moments earlier.

"There!" he said, testing out Elias's voice. "See? I can change my guise! That's why I looked like I was your age."

Elias was about to protest and simply deny and swat away Maahes's silly claims, but then he shapeshifted. At first, Elias was shocked. A shapeshifter! They were real? It wasn't just a thing of fiction?

But then... he shapeshifted to him. Elias.

He pointed and stared back at him with wide eyes and an open mouth.

"What..." he sputtered out, not believing that he wasn't staring at a mirror. He poked his nose, then his cheek, then his stomach. Yep. Not a mirror.

Elias narrowed his eyes at him. "This is creepy," he said lowly, studying fake-Elias-slash-possibly-shapeshifter-Maahes.

"You're... me! An impostor Elias!"

He took a step back and pointed at him dramatically.

After Elias poked him so many times, Maahes did the first thing that came to mind when Elias pointed a finger towards him - he reached a hand out and pushed the finger down. He didn't deny that he was an imposter, though. He wanted to! But he hadn't ever heard the word before, and he definitely wasn't going to admit that to Elias right now.

"I'm you!" he agreed. "I can make myself look like anyone. Or anything, too, but being an object is weird. I like having a mouth to talk with."

This piqued Elias's interest. "Anyone?" he echoed. "Or anything?"

He grinned as the many prank ideas started roll in his mind. Okay, one thing at a time. And it was clear that the shock of, "Shapeshifting isn't possible!" had already passed.

"Be a marble!" Elias said with a grin, extending his hand, palm-up. "Right here, in my hand. A marble."

He smirked and then sing-songed in a mocking voice, "Bet you can't do it."

Maahes eyed Elias's outstretched hand.

He furrowed his brow and pursed his lips. He didn't want to do objects. Alteran guises were weird enough. Even though he always did them because he wanted to fit them, not having tentacles was really weird.

But Elias was daring him that he couldn't do it...

He bit his lip.

"I'll do it!" he said. Then he crossed his arms. "But I'm only going to do it for a minute."

He eyed Elias's hand again, this time trying to figure out just how to get into his hand when he was a marble. He could have given himself wings, but he wasn't sure marbles could fly. He needed something tiny-

An idea came to him.

Giving a little stretch to prep himself for the change in guise, Maahes took a deep breath. Then his guise shifted on all of the planes except the seventh. He became smaller with a lot of feathers. A moment later, a little red bird was sitting on the ground in his place.

With an unsteady flap of his wings, Maahes flew up and over to Elias's hand. But landing was harder than flying in the fist place, so he stumbled a little in the air and went crashing into Elias's shoulder instead.

Elias eyed Maahes turning into a bird with wonder this time. He didn't turn into a marble, but a bird was still pretty darn cool.

"Wow!" he breathed out, trying to grab him, but then he flew into his shoulder. "Ow!" he breathed out next, swatting him away and forgetting for a second that he was a person and not a bird.

"Oh, sorry, Maahes," he grumbled as he found his footing, but he only turned around and gave bird-Maahes a big mischievous smile.

"Hey, wanna do some spying?"

If birds could smile, Maahes would have.

"Yes!" he chirped. It wasn't an actual bird chirp. Maahes was good about speaking normally when he did different guises, and he was pretty sure the gates had fancy things that translated different languages. But it was short and quick like a bird chirp, and the little excited flap Maahes gave with his wings made him feel like a bird.

After getting up from the ground, Maahes flew to Elias's shoulder. He added in a little gust of wind to help him get up, too, but he didn't think Elias would notice. He wasn't a scholar or a diplomat.

"Sweeeeet," Elias said in a low voice, giving bird-Maahes a pat after he perched on his shoulder. He started skipping towards the town, leaving behind the burnt pentacle symbol on the ground. That could be someone eles's problem.

He began to muse his thoughts out loud, ignoring the fact that he still didn't quite understand Maahes because this idea was more fun and therefore far more important.

"See, it would be so funny if we could spy on some of my friends right now. Evaline would freak out if we spied on her drawing lesson! It might also be fun to spy on Alistair since he wouldn't yell at us afterwards. But, bleeeeh, they're not here, so, hmmm..."

He pouted for a second, but it was erased with a sudden grin.

"Oh, that's right, my sister Ellie is here too! Let's see what she's up to. I think she might be in the hospital. No, not hurt! She heals people! Like me, someday!"

Elias patted bird-Maahes again.

"Wait, how's this gonna work again?"

Maahes had been nodding along to every single one of Elias's plans, but then he also faltered when Elias questioned how exactly they were going to spy. Maahes didn't really spy. He was able to go anywhere when he was with Odris, so spying wasn't really a thing. And he usually ran away from people when he was running away instead of towards them, so that didn't help either.

He crossed his wings.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I've never learned how to spy."

Elias pursed his lips in thought. "See, I can spy. But I can't be a bird like you. Can you turn me into a bird instead then?"

Maahes thought for a moment.

Was that something he could? He didn't think it was! The others in the Other Place had never mentioned it before. And he was pretty sure he could change his own form was because he had magic and was made of essence. Humans had blood and other fun stuff that he didn't have.

Maahes shook his head.

"You're not made of essence," Maahes said, matter-of-factly.