Colin trilled with excitement as he sensed Kristy approaching the house from the driveway. It had been a long day of waiting, but he’d managed to change himself back into a mix of a crab, chicken and dragonfly to look his most presentable for her. It wasn’t a good form for hunting, but Jenny loved him like this, so Kristy should too.

  When Kristy opened the door, all of Collin’s excitement bubbled up into his shouted greeting as he cheered, “Home home!” and raised his claws while wiggling out a little tap dance with his pincered legs.

  Kristy looked at him and smiled with a warmth that made Colin feel complete. Her pulse felt Curious and sad which was confusing with the smile on her face. It made him stop dancing and watch her more seriously.

  “Colin? Is that you?” Kristy said as she stepped through the door and closed it behind her.

  Something in her emotions tugged at Colin’s memory as if it was pushing him to understand more. It was as if far away parts of himself were calling to him, but he just wasn’t able to understand the meaning. It gave him a sense of longing. Kristy was his family, but he felt like he didn’t understand what that meant entirely yet. It was a frustrating experience like an itch he just couldn’t reach, but he at least Kristy kept the question easy, so Colin knew how to answer her.

  “Colin, family. Home.” He pointed a claw to himself, then pointed to Kristy, “Kristy family. Jenny Family.”

  “Oh god Colin!” Kristy drop to the floor on hands and knees in front of him and reached out tentatively, “What did they do to you?”

  The waves of different emotions changing and blasting out from Kristy were so much and they changed so rapidly that it was too overwhelming to understand. Her feelings were so powerful that Colin had to shut out his pulse senses just to cope. Kristy felt so much deeper than anyone else he had ever encountered.

  “Who did this to you? Why do you look this way?” Kristy asked, still reaching out with one hand but not touching him.

  Colin tried his hardest to be helpful and stop the powerful emotions from hurting Kristy, “Colin, eat down. Colin change.” He nodded in satisfaction at the level of clarity he had been able to deliver.

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  “I’ve seen you change before. Can you turn into something less terrifying?” Kristy said.

  Colin went wide eyed when he realized that Kristy didn’t like how he looked. He wasn’t sure what she would like, so he decided that changing into his favorite form was his best bet. He shifted into a dragonfly and did a quick twirl, then asked her thoughts, “No?”

  “Oh, that’s even worse, I can’t stand bugs. Can you just change into your old human self?”

  “No. Eat, Down, Change.” Colin said, downtrodden. What did she mean by old human self? That frustrating itch returned and he couldn’t piece together why. He’d never eaten a human before so he couldn’t change into one yet. He wondered who he could eat for a second, but the thought made him feel uneasy. Humans were not prey. He decided something with two legs would offer the closest resemblance of a human and changed into a chicken, then looked to Kristy for approval, “No?”

  “Better, but what happened to your body? Why can’t you look like your old self if you can change?” Kristy said, her emotions still too powerful for Colin actively to tune into.

  Colin shook his head and bristled his feathers in a shrug, “No eat?”

  “You need to eat something to turn back?”

  Colin bobbed his head excitedly.

  “So what do you need to eat to look like your old self again?” Kristy asked.

  Colin didn’t understand the question, but when the itch at his memory returned, he realized there was something Kristy knew that he currently did not.

  “Old self?” Colin struggled to form the words, but managed to ask the question.

  Kristy shook her head, “You don’t understand, do you? Are you really my Colin? Did they hurt your mind?”

  It was hard to know how to respond to Kristy when she wasn’t making much sense to him. In a moment of desperation, Colin wasn’t sure how, but he opened his life pulse and fed his feelings to Kristy. Her eyes went wide as he shared his feelings. First, he shared the love he felt for her and Jenny that went deeper than his own mind understood. He shared his feelings about all he could remember: The swamp, the danger, his anger, he shared it all. Kristy’s emotions flooded into him in turn and he braced himself as best he could to endure the sheer power of her feelings while sharing his own. Instinctually, Colin knew the exchange was necessary to keep the connection. Kristy’s sadness was as overwhelming as a glacier trying to be contained by a small pond. Her relief was the ocean itself receding.

  “It really is you,” Kristy said as she snapped Colin into a crushing hug and wept. “I knew you’d come home.”

  Colin let the exchange of emotions continue as they embraced and basked in a love more powerful than anything else. As he spoke, he put as much meaning as possible into the single word that he meant with all his heart.

  “Home.”