The Many Faces of Tully

“Okay, so here’s how it’s going to go,” Mirage says to Toshi, Haides, and me, but mostly to me. “I am going to change this room to a random scene, they are all going to be outside now though because Tully can only morph into animals. But the goal will be to hide from the other two, and try to find them at the same time. Last one standing wins.”

“Seems simple enough.” Toshi starts shaking his hands, loosening himself up.

“But it will be difficult, finding someone like you three who should all be skilled at blending in, so good luck. If no one is found, then you all win.” Jace is there of course, He always oversees my first few training sessions.

“All right, are you guys ready?” Mirage asks us. I nod nervously. “Okay, here we go.” He sits down, closes his eyes, and puts two fingers on his temple and the room in front of us changes into a park.

“You can’t start looking for each other for three minutes. That’ll give each of you enough time to disguises yourself and to get into a comfortable spot,” Jace says to us. “Have fun.” He opens the door and we each walk in and head separate directions.

And then the panic sets in.

What do I morph in to? What blends in in a park? A squirrel? A bird? Can I morph into something that small? I’ve never tried. What if I morph into a giant squirrel? They’d find me in an instant. What do I do!?

I look over at Jace, which is starting to become a natural response to when I’m panicking, and he’s watching me expectantly. The strange power he has over me calms me down. He should be expectant of me. I know what I’m doing. I know how to morph. I should not be panicking. I can easily turn into a squirrel. A normal sized squirrel. So I concentrate and focus on turning into a small gray rodent with a bushy tail, little paws and a twitchy nose.

I feel myself shrink and everything seems so large, so loud, and scary. I immediately start scampering to the nearest three. Then, before I can rocket up the tree, I realize that I shouldn’t be afraid. This is just a mirage. It’s not real. Nothing is going to hurt me in here. So I stop and check my surroundings.

“Okay, you guys can find each other now,” Jace announces and my ears perk forward. I start to scamper around a couple of feet at a time, being cautious.

Ten minutes pass before I notice something. I can hear quiet footsteps and the slight rustling of the grass, but I don’t see anyone near. I look towards the sound and I can see the grass being flattened but nothing flattening it, so I scamper over and jump. I catch on to Haides pant leg and I feel him jump in shock.

“Haides, you’re out,” Mirage announces, not opening his eyes.

“This is Tully?” he exclaims and reveals himself. I nod my head at him and he mumbles, “Damn it.” I hop off of him and he walks out of the room, shaking his head.

I’m feeling really proud of myself. I didn’t expect to find anyone. Maybe I’ll be able to find Toshi too. So I scamper around more, searching for something out of place. Someone not blending in with everyone else.

Another ten minutes pass when I feel something closing in on me. I try to jump out of the way but swift hands close around me. My tiny heart starts sprinting and I scratch and wiggle wildly, trying to break out of the iron grip, but to no avail. They’re too strong and too tight.

“Tully, you’re done. Toshi wins,” Mirage says, opening his eyes and removing his fingers from his temple. And with that the park disappears and the white room returns.

I finally stop wiggling and look up at the owner of the hands. I watch as a teenaged blonde boy melts back into Toshi. He’s smiling when he puts me down and I change back into a human.

“How did you know that it was me?” I ask him when I’m back on my two feet.

“I’ve never seen a squirrel that brave. Walking up to people who aren’t even offering it food. It was out of character.” He smiles and shrugs at me.

And that’s how it went. It always came out different of course, and it was always fun. I tried to act more like the animals that I morphed into and it got easier over time. Before I had to really concentrate on morphing but now I just have to think of the animal and I’ll start changing. One of my favorite rounds was when the mirage was of a busy street and there was a fire truck on one side of it. So I morphed into a Dalmatian. As a dog my nose was a lot more sensitive, so I could actually smell the difference between real smells and mirage smells. I stood by the fire truck and tried to blend in. I waited until I smelt one of them finally passing by me, so I turned and saw a girl walking down the street. I barked and hopped up on her.

“Toshi’s out,” Mirage announced. And not even a minute later I smelt Haides and jumped on him too. It was by far the best round I ever had. But after that they said I couldn’t morph into a dog. I was handicapped everywhere I went.

Jace thought our intense version of hide-n-seek wasn’t challenging enough for us though, so he gave us a new challenge after a while. Our new game was blending in. We had to assess the situation set before us by Mirage, and change accordingly in ten seconds. We would go one at a time, stand in the middle of the room and let Mirage set scenes for us.

It’s harder for Toshi and me, because Mirage put us in the most bizarre places, and we would have to try and blend in. It was like a hardcore geography class. I have to morph into an indigenous species. Which birds were from where and so on. Toshi had to get the right race of people, which was slightly easier than what I had to do. But then Jace said Toshi had to learn the languages, the clothing styles, the rituals and habits of the race. I had to do that too, but it was a lot easier for me. I actually change into the species, so I have the instincts already at what to do, and it’s not like I can speak English when I’m an animal or wear the wrong kind of clothes.

And then, after all of that, I practice with the twins for shielding and mind control training. Damon tries to teach me how to have control over people’s minds. So far all I can do on purpose is to transfer my thoughts into his head. I can’t make him do anything yet or erase any part of his memory. I’m not sure if I will ever get this skill down. He isn’t very good at trying to tell me what to do, and I think that’s because he doesn’t really understand his power himself. It was very frustrating training. Jace couldn’t help much either, because he only knows what Damon knows.

And last but not least, Edmund and I would try to shield each other and we’d see if we were able to penetrate the others. He could never get passed mine. I can feel him trying and it’s not as weak as when other people try, but it’s not necessarily strong either.

Whenever I try to break through his shield, I feel like I’m trying to walk through syrup. Or like trying to run through water when you’re shoulder deep. Not impossible but difficult. I could walk through his shield on the first try. He asks me how I do it but I can’t answer him. I don’t know how I do it. I don’t understand my powers and I don’t think I ever will.

Jace pushes us as far as he can. We sometimes hate him for it, but we know it’s for our own good. He really does make us better and stronger and if we win this battle, it will be because of him. He is, to me, our true leader. I would follow him anywhere.