The Professors Memory

Chapter 13

Olive sat in her tiny apartment, waiting for Phabel. She had rushed through the shopping, gotten everything he had written on the list and returned to do the mad dash cleaning. It wasn't as if she was a messy person, she was just nervous and wanted to appear that she had made an effort. So in the tiny studio apartment she had swept the floor, neatly stacked her text books at her desk, scrubbed every surface of the bathroom and tidied the kitchen. She sat on the chair beside her desk looking around the room. He was a prince, he would have some grand place that he lived in, much like what Lucian and Danika lived in. She sighed, his storage cupboard was probably bigger than her apartment. As she sat there, she saw a bug crawl under the door. Her hand shook as she reached for her shoe, slowly taking it off her foot readying to squish it.

'Don't.' the bug said.

Olive screamed as she fell back on the floor, scurrying backwards away from it. Her eyes widened as the bug got bigger and bigger. She sat on the floor agape as she looked upon Phabel.

'Told you I could get in undetected.' he grinned at her.

'Oh my god.' she breathed.

She put her shoe back on as he held out his hand, lifting her up.

'What did you think a shape shifter could do?'

'I hadn't really thought about it.'

'Well I can take on the form of any living being. Now you sit here and tell me of your day after we parted company while I make dinner.'

Olive pulled herself up onto the bar stool and watched over the bench as he fussed around her little kitchen.

'Not much. Had the language lessons, such a bore.' she rolled her eyes 'I can't wait for the change over of my lessons.'

'You find your lessons boring?'

'Well not the ones with my very handsome professor in them.'

Phabel grinned as he chopped the vegetables.

'I have a question about your abilities.'

'Ok, ask away.'

'How is it that you can turn into a bug and when you change back you are wearing clothes?'

'There was a time when normal clothes were a problem. We would change into the creature and there would be a pile of clothes. Depending on the circumstance the clothes could also burn up, turn to liquid.' he shrugged 'Different fibres react different ways. It was ok if it was around the home, the clothes might still be there, however if it was an emergency we could lose our clothes.' he grinned slightly as he looked up from the cutting board 'And of course with loss of clothes it means that we were running around rather naked. No one wanted to run afoul of John Q Law so our most brightest set about creating a fibre that shifts with us.'

'You're wearing a suit.' she said dryly.

'Yes but feel it when I shift.'

His eyes were wide with excitement as he held out his arm, waiting for Olive to reach out. As her hand came out, she gently ran her fingers over the sleeve of his jacket. It felt normal until he started to shift and then it felt like silk.

'Amazing.' she breathed as he stopped shifting, returning to his normal form. 

Phabel regaled Olive with all of the pre-shifting cloth days as they ate dinner. Of all the times he almost got caught because he didn't have the forethought before he shifted. Olive was in tears as she laughed at his antics. As she laughed Phabel watched her, feeling something inside of him sing. The stones colour changed ever so slightly, tinting a little more golden. He could feel himself drawn to it like a moth to the light he had to be near it. Olive stopped laughing, watching his fascination. His head had turned slightly, his eyebrows pressed together with curiosity. Out came his hand slowly moving to it. The singing swirled through his body, a crescendo of angels calling to him. As he touched the stone he was knocked from his chair with brute force, thumping him into the badly worn wood floor.