Boelik (18 page)

The deer gave an elk-like call, making Bo
wince. He dropped down from the tree in front of the animal,
putting up his human hand to show it he meant no harm. It started
at his sudden appearance, tripping and falling to the ground. The
two stared at each other as the animal stood again, standing firmly
now. Bo could hardly see how a human mind could be thinking in that
body.

“
Wait,” Bo said a thought
coming to him. He felt like a fool for not thinking of it sooner,
even after Dayo said it. “Kian?” The deer’s ears perked at the
name. “Oh, Kian…” Kian lowered his head and despite not being able
to understand him, Bo could somehow feel that he was sad. Sad and
scared.

“
Come here,” he said. The
deer walked unsteadily toward him until it was close enough to
touch. He really was uncannily large, his head already higher than
Bo’s. Bo opened his arm and Kian stepped into a hug, Bo’s arm
stretching around his thick neck. “Don’t be afraid,” he told Kian.
“You’ll be all right.”

After a moment, Bo was holding a crying Kian,
naked and scared. His legs buckled and he sank to the ground, Bo
kneeling to follow and keeping him close. It was freezing outside,
and snow had begun to fall again. “See, you’re all right,” Bo said
calmly. “Come on, let’s get you home and warm.”

“
It’s cold,” Kian said in
reply, his eyes squeezed shut as he pressed against Bo.

“
I know,” Bo said. “And
it’s late. So keep your eyes closed. I’ll take you
home.”

“
Okay,” Kian said. Bo
scooped him up, his cloak covering his left hand, and he was
careful not to claw Kian, who passed out in almost the same
instant. Bo sped him back down the path, coming back to a normal
pace at the edge of the woods. Mr. Quirke was just getting there,
carrying a light and a blanket and looking prepared for a search.
He spotted Bo carrying his son and a wave of relief played over his
face.

“
Bo!” he said, his relief
echoing into the air. “You’ve helped us again.”

“
Mr. Quirke,” Bo said with
a nod. Without hesitation, he continued. “I know of your
son’s…condition. Now let me ask: do you have the same?” The man’s
shoulders slumped.

“
Oh. You’ve found out, have
you? Well, yes. I’m the same as my son.”

“
I take it that you were
trying to keep it a secret.”

Mr. Quirke nodded. “Yes, of course.”

“
Well, if you ever need a
place to train him, Mr. Quirke, I know of one. And I’ve trained
people in demon-fighting before,” Bo added.

“
Call me Ryan,” Mr. Quirke
replied with a nod. Bo stiffened and let Ryan Quirke take his son
from him and carry the boy home alone.

Bo walked home thinking upon the name that
just met his ears. “Ryan Quirke,” he said, nearing his cabin. “Ryan
and Colette…you two could have been Kian’s ancestors.” He was
silent as he opened the door, and he closed it softly behind
him
. But I failed you.

As he stretched out on the old bed, he looked
around the quiet, decaying cabin around him. He closed his eyes.
“One day, everything will come back to haunt me again. Just like
one day took the chance of family from the two of you.”

The next day, neither of the Quirkes showed
up to walk, and Bo went home. They did not come out the next day
either, nor the day after. Eventually, Bo gave up waiting and
stayed inside in the evenings until winter was over.

When spring arrived in Ireland once more, Bo
went back to waiting again. The Quirkes returned one evening late
in the season. Ryan and Kian walked to greet Bo, waving as they
joined him. Kian seemed hesitant and avoided his eyes, and Bo
assumed that he’d be training tonight.

“
Sorry about not being out
in the winter,” Ryan said with a guilty smile. “The wife was very
strict. After she got over the fact that we were deer, of
course.”

“
Perfectly fine,” Bo
replied, waving him off.

“
So,” Ryan began, “where
are these training grounds?”

Bo nodded. “This way.” He began to lead the
way into the forest.

“
Hold on a moment,” Ryan
said. Bo glanced back and saw that Ryan was taking off his
clothing, Kian following his lead. Bo returned his gaze back to the
path. “Sorry,” Ryan apologized behind him. “We’re going to change.
You mind if we leave our clothes here?”

“
Someone might stumble upon
them. Fold them up into a pile and I’ll take them with
us.”

“
All right, thank you.
They’re by this tree,” he replied.

After a moment, a tall deer came up beside Bo
on his right, enormous antlers appearing over his head. “Ryan?” The
deer dipped its head, its bright blue eye gazing at him.

Kian’s much smaller deer came up on his other
side. “Kian.” Kian turned his head to look at him straight on,
blinking his large brown eyes.

Bo glanced between the two before turning
back and grabbing the pile of clothes with his right arm. With the
heap in hand, Bo led the way between the bucks to the training
area. He saw Kian looking around once they arrived and assumed he
must have been remembering their two private meetings. Bo stopped
and turned around to face the two, taking a few steps back to keep
them both in sight at the same time. He set the clothing on the
ground next to a tree and said, “All right, this is it. Is it
decent?”

Ryan nodded, his odd eyes strangely human
even as a deer.

Bo nodded in return and said, “Then I’ll be
up here,” leaping into the trees. The two bucks stared up at him
for a moment before Ryan shook his head and looked back at his son,
bleating to attract Kian’s attention.

The two worked until dusk, practicing
charging at trees and each other, after Ryan helped Kian get used
to his deer body, of course. Those first few minutes of trotting
around at anything above a walk left Bo stifling some laughter.

As the shadows began to take over the ground,
the two walked below Bo’s tree toward their clothes. Bo averted his
eyes as they changed back and waited to return his gaze to the
ground until Ryan called his name. He leapt down and looked back
and forth between father and son. “You two were interesting to
watch,” he remarked. “Can I ask—I’ve been wondering—what sort of
deer are you?”

“
A breed called Irish elk,”
Ryan answered. When Bo looked confused, he added, “The actual
animal has been extinct for a few thousand years. Changelings like
us are all that are left.”

“
I see.”

“
How did you jump so high?”
Kian blurted in the following silence.

Bo gave him an amused glance. “You have your
skills—I have mine.” Bo waited a moment before making a quick
decision. “You two…have you ever heard of half-demons?”

“
In myth, sure,” Ryan
said.

“
If they existed, would you
kill them?”

Ryan gave him a curious look. “I don’t know.
Why?”

Bo turned his gaze down and brought his left
arm out, preparing to be hit and to run. “Because I’m one.” Kian
looked at his father, who stared at Bo with shock.

“
Well…er…I guess the answer
would be a no, then,” he stammered. Bo peered up from below his
brow. “What?” Ryan asked. “You saved my son twice. I couldn’t kill
you.”

“
Well,” Bo said, clearing
his throat and hiding his arm again as he lifted his head to look
the man in the eye. “I guess we should start back then.”

The three were about halfway back when Bo
couldn’t stand it anymore. Both Quirkes were talking about Kian’s
training, and Bo had been trying to listen. But a question kept
nagging at him until finally he stopped in the middle of the path,
the crickets chirping as the other two realized that their
companion was stopped, and they halted themselves, turning to face
him.

“
What is it, Bo?” Ryan
asked, waving a firefly out of his face. There were hundreds of
them out.

“
Ryan, do you know where
your name comes from? Why you were named Ryan?”

“
I’m sorry, I don’t think I
understand,” he replied, furrowing his brow above his mismatched
eyes. Kian glanced between the two.

“
Where your parents got the
name Ryan. Was there a reason?”

“
Well, I suppose so,” Ryan
answered, still confused. “My aunt—on my father’s side—she told my
mother a story that’s been passed down through our family for
generations. My mother fell in love with the sentiment that the
name came with, I would think.”

“
The story. Can you
summarize it?”

“
You sure?”

“
Please.”

Ryan nodded slowly. “I think…yes. It was
about a little girl who fell in love with a boy by the name of Ryan
with a deformed face. They grew close until one day the two were
attacked by a monster. Then Ryan died protecting the one he
loved.”

“
An interesting
story.”

“
Yes. My great-grandfather
swore it was true, his great-grandfather having been told by his
own mother.” Then, “Are you all right?”

“
What? I’m sorry. Am I all
right?” Bo asked, shaking his head before looking Ryan in the
eye.

“
You look pretty pale,
there,” Ryan said.

“
I always look pale,” Bo
replied. He didn’t, as a matter of fact. And at the moment he was
feeling rather queasy.

“
Maybe we should take Bo
home first?” Kian suggested, peeking up at his father.

“
No, no,” Bo insisted,
waving them off. “I can get home just fine. But, would you two be
all right to get home by yourselves?”

Ryan nodded. “Come on, Kian,” he said to his
son. Kian gave Bo a worried glance, to which Bo just waved and
turned toward his cabin.

“
She actually did it,” he
muttered once he was alone, walking through the dark woods
illuminated by fireflies. “Ryan lives on. But…” he trailed off.
“That face. Why is only his left eye blue? Seeing that eye peering
at me from that deer’s face was like when Ryan would look at me.”
Bo shook his head. “Living so long is ruining me.”

Bo reminisced as he ate his dinner, staring
at the old hat on the other chair. It was tilted just how Ryan had
had it when he was trying to hide his face. Bo sighed and drank
from his flask, staring into the honey-water despondently as he
swirled it around. It normally made him happy to have a sweet
drink, but today it wasn’t doing the trick.

Maybe I should start drinking. It would make
things a little fuzzier, take the edge off my memories.”

But, not for the first time, he struck the
idea down. Whenever he thought about it, he thought about what Dayo
had said to him so long ago, when he was destroyed inside the first
time
—“Never forget, even the things that
hurt.”
Bo shook his head at the thought.

“
My story is going to stick
around whether or not I forget it for a few hours. And I’ll just
feel more guilty when I remember it again. No, it’s best to take
this sober.” Even though it meant that he dreamt of Olea and Ryan’s
dead faces when he went to bed that night.

Morning came, and Bo trudged through the day,
worn out from his nightmares. When the time came for him to meet
with the Quirkes, however, he managed to come out of his slump. As
he met them and turned while they undressed, Ryan asked, “Are you
sure you’re all right?”

“
I’m fine,” Bo replied. The
two changed shape and came up beside him, and he went back to
retrieve their clothes. He walked between them back to the clearing
and leapt up to his watching spot.

After some time, Ryan stood under his tree
and stared up at him.

What?” Bo asked the deer below him.

Ryan bleated. “You realize I don’t understand
a word you’re saying to me.” Ryan shook his head and stared at him
for a moment more before beginning to change back. Bo averted his
eyes and the man spoke.

“
I wanted to know if you
could help train Kian.”

“
Train how?” Bo asked,
staring at a beetle crawling on the tree.

“
You said you’d trained
before. I figured you might have some ideas. And you have been
watching, so I thought…”

Bo raised his hand to halt him. “All right. I
have some ideas. Now, please, change back.”
I
didn’t like seeing the first Ryan naked as a babe. I don’t want to
see the second.

When Ryan bleated up to him, Bo peeked back
at the ground. Somehow he looked quite self-content. Bo dropped
down and walked past him and over to Kian.

Kian looked at him and whistled. Bo shrugged.
“I can’t understand you, remember.” Kian shuffled his feet, hooves
pounding the ground. “Well, let’s begin. I’ll go easy on you to
start.”

By the end of the training, Kian was
exhausted, Ryan was proud, and Bo was yawning. The Quirkes turned
back to their human selves and donned their clothes before the
three began the walk back, Bo between them. As they walked, Ryan
educated Kian on how to maximize the use of his other form.

Meanwhile, Dayo entered Bo’s mind and
informed him of a demon relatively near that he couldn’t get to
himself.

I’ll take care of
it,
Bo replied, slowing and falling back from the others.
Dayo withdrew, and Bo was left with the task of telling the other
two of his near departure.

“
So,” he said, interrupting
the conversation. They glanced back at him, mildly
surprised.