He thought he knew everything about the family he grew up in, about its history, about himself. He was wrong. Something happened to him and his whole world turned upside down.
In all the years he'd spent on the mouth of hell, he'd never seen an elf. He'd never seen any centaurs or unicorns or faeries or even mermaids, either. When he and his friends met the Gatekeeper at his house in Boston, he discovered why. All of those mythical creatures were living in another dimension known only as the Otherworld. They appeared in Sunnydale briefly but didn't stay long.
Less than a year passed by before he discovered that those Otherworldly beings left something behind. Before they left Earth for the first time several hundred years ago, they created a new race, and that race was left behind on Earth. The beings in this new race were known as the Children of the Mystik Realms. Only one or two were born every other generation, and each Childe was always male. Each Childe was part human, part centaur, part unicorn, part faerie, part elf, part merman, and part featherwing, a race of human-like beings that were born with wings and the gift of flight. Each Childe could morph into each being whenever they wished.
This race was meant to keep the presence of the mystiks on Earth so that there would be some evidence that they resided there once upon a time. At first, everything went according to plan, but it didn't stay that way for long.
For most of his life, he was Alexander LaVelle Harris, an ordinary human. When he left Sunnydale and started on his road trip, he discovered the truth. He was only part human, and the rest of him was pure mystik. His real name was Elik Prltsl Tyr Mfeselan, and he wasn't as free as he thought he was.
For the past eight hundred years, his ancestors had been slaves. He would be no exception.
It all started innocently enough. Xander had pulled into a truck stop for some dinner and ate it in content silence. During the entire meal, however, he felt eyes on him. When he looked around, he didn't see anyone watching him, but that didn't mean a thing. He quickly finished his meal and stood up to leave.
He made it outside before he was cornered. "The youngest Childe of the Mystik Realms," one of the men that surrounded him said. "I never expected to see Hilik's grandson anywhere near here. The Gods must be pleased with us."
"What are you talking about? Who the hell are you?" Xander asked.
His answer was a slap to the face. The power behind the blow sent him staggering to the ground. "Change. Merman," the man commanded.
The strangest thing Xander had ever felt passed all over his legs. It didn't hurt, but it felt like ever nerve of the lower half of his body was reacting to whatever the other man was doing to him. He heard his pants rip.
He tried to move his legs and heard, and felt, something else lift up off the ground before flopping back down. Xander lifted his half up off the ground. He glanced down.
In place of legs, he now sported a scaly green tale.
"What the-?" Xander glared up at the four men surrounding him. "What the hell did you do to me, you bastards!"
The man chuckled. "Nothing, my dear Elik. You've always been able to do that. Too bad you didn't find out before we came along, hmm?" He turned to the others. "Put him in the van." The other three picked Xander up and started carrying him toward a nondescript white van. Xander struggled and even got one of them in the face with his fins but he was powerless in stopping the men from dumping him into the back of the van.
The four men got into the car and they drove off. "Where are you taking me?" Xander asked, panicking.
"Home."
'Home' turned out to be the middle of nowhere. It looked like a ranch. It was awkward trying to look out the window at the California landscape, but Xander could see several fairy tale-like creatures in the fields. There were unicorns, centaurs and more creatures he didn't recognize on sight. Human men stood behind or before each creature, cracking whips against their backs every once in awhile. Goosebumps crawled up Xander's back and arms. These creatures were slaves. His fear and panic rose. Was he going to join them? What good could he do as a merman on a ranch?
None of the men would answer his questions, however. The leader, who he would learn was named Jack Newman, kept calling him Elik and wouldn't say why. Jack did most of the talking but his standard answer to any of Xander's questions was 'all in good time, my dear Elik.' By the end of the three-hour drive, Xander was beginning to despise the nickname as much as he despised Jack and his cronies.
The three cronies picked Xander up out of the back of the van. Once again, he struggled futilely to get out of their hold. They carried him into a pool house. A filled pool was in the center. Another merman swam inside it. The three cronies placed Xander onto the ground next to the pool, ripped off his shirt, and then unceremoniously dumped him into the pool.
Shocked, Xander began to sink to the bottom of the pool for a moment. After he realized that he wasn't going to float back up to the top, he began to panic. He tried to kick his legs to push his body toward the surface. Then he remembered that he didn't have legs anymore.
It took him several minutes to realize that he could breathe underwater. Right, he realized. I'm a merman. Mermaids have gills. Therefore, I have gills, too.
He took a few moments to get used to this idea before attempting to swim with a tail. He managed it, and he eventually swam back up to the top of the pool.
As he broke the surface of the water, he took in a deep breath of air before glancing around. The pool house was as ordinary looking as pool houses went. It was connected to the main house through a closed door, but the glazed glass panes set into the door prevented Xander from seeing inside.
He gave up and turned around, looking for the other merman. To his surprise, the merman was only a few feet away. He was staring at Xander. He was older than Xander but still looked fairly young. The most noticeable thing about him was the scar that traveled from his left temple to the corner of his lip.
He gave Xander a despaired look. "They got you. I'm so sorry, Elik. I'd hoped against hope that I'd managed to keep you safe from them."
"What? Who are you? Why does everyone keep calling me Elik?" Xander asked. He wanted to strangle someone. If it would get him out of there, he would have.
"My name is Hilik," the merman answered. "I'm your grandfather."
"My grandfather," Xander repeated, doubtful. He knew who his grandfather was, and he wasn't it.
"Yes," Hilik answered. "I called you Elik because that is the name I wanted to give my grandson, and that's you."
Hilik went on to tell Xander exactly what they were. They were Children of the Mystik Realms. There were seven of them, excluding Xander, at the ranch, and each and every one of them was one of Xander's ancestors. In addition to his grandfather, there were also his great-great-grandfather and great-great-great-uncle, his four times removed grandfather, his brother, and his six times removed grandfather and his brother. Every other generation was present, and in each one there were two men. Xander asked Hilik where his great-uncle and his own brother were, and Hilik responded by saying that Xander's great-uncle was dead and if Xander didn't have a brother by then he would never have one. When Xander asked him how a Childe could die, Hilik told him that their kind could be killed by any mortal means. If they weren't mortally wounded, however, they could live forever. The reason why only every other generation was present that the generations in-between had always been women, and only the men in the family inherited the genes of the Mystik Realms. The women were always completely human.
"So how come I grew up in Sunnydale if my family has been raised here for eight hundred years?" Xander asked. He was still a little skeptical. Hilik did look a lot like him but not that much like him, and Xander hadn't met the others.
"I helped my human wife escape from this place," Hilik answered, sadness in his eyes. "She was pregnant at the time. They caught me only days after we'd run away. They didn't find her for months, and by that time, she'd already given birth to your mother. Jack Newman's grandfather tried to get her to tell them where she'd put our child, but she wouldn't talk. So they killed her."
"I'm sorry," Xander finally said after a moment of uncomfortable silence. He wasn't sure what to feel himself.
There were tears in Hilik's eyes. "I'm so sorry," he said again. "I wish they didn't find you. I wish you never had to see this place."
"Don't worry," Xander said reassuringly. "We'll find a way out of this place. I promise. I've got friends. If I can contact them somehow, they'll be coming to the rescue in no time."
Contacting his fellow scoobies was harder than he thought it would be. As the first week went by, Xander learned quickly that the ranch was located on some sort of magical convergence. It wasn't as strong as the Hellmouth, but it was strong enough for Jack Newman to do a little manipulating.
Several hundred years ago, Newman's ancestor had first laid down the controlling spell. The spell enabled the Newman bloodline to control the shape that each Childe took on. Off of the ranch, Jack Newman had to give a voice command to make the change take place. That was how Xander turned into a merman so quickly back at the trucker bar. On the ranch was a different story. The change occurred every morning at sunrise. Each Childe could take on seven forms, and whatever mojo was on the ranch forced them to change into each form every seven days.
Xander discovered this the next morning. Fifteen minutes before sunrise, Hilik urged a groggy Xander to jump out of the pool and lie on the concrete bordering the tank. Ten minutes before sunrise, five men walked into the pool house.
While the sun rose outside, the change took place. Once again, every nerve in the lower half of his body sang as his tail changed back into legs. Xander almost sagged in relief before two of the men grabbed him by the arms and yanked him to his feet. He tried to protest, but all that came out of his mouth was what sounded like a 'neigh.' Every nerve in his lower half sang again before his legs changed into the front legs of a horse. His butt cheeks stretched on behind him, and he felt two hind legs grow out of nowhere out of the end.
Changes occurred to the upper half of his body as well. He could feel something happen to his eyes.
Once he felt that the change was complete, Xander glanced down onto the pool's reflective surface. He'd become a centaur, complete with tail and black oval holes where his white pupils and brown irises used to be.
Behind him, he heard a screech. He watched on the pool's reflective surface as Hilik was pushed outside. He was completely naked except for the wings of light brown feathers sprouting from his back.
Before that moment, Xander hadn't really believed everything that Hilik had said. But staring down at his reflection in the pool, Xander knew that the older man had been telling the truth. The two men forced Xander out of the pool house and toward the fields. He plotted the entire way.
Two weeks passed. Xander learned his new schedule pretty quickly. On Tuesdays, he was a human being. On those days he was a field worker, and during the night he slept in a human-sized cage located in the same building as the stables. On Wednesdays, he was a merman again, and had to spend the entire day in the tank. On Thursdays he changed into a centaur when he was forced to work in the fields as a plow horse, and slept in one of the stalls in the stables. On Fridays, he was a unicorn, and so far he hadn't been forced to do anything on those days. On Saturdays, he was a faerie, and shrunk to a height of nine inches. On those days basically all he did was glow a lot. His cell during that time was a glass case in the main house. Apparently he provided enough light that its human occupants, both male and female, didn't need any candles or electric lights at night. They just used Xander and his family whenever they were in faerie form.
On Sundays, he was an elf. He grew back to normal size on this day, but his appearance looked for from human. On this day, his hair became a wild assortment of red, black, and pure white strands. His ears became pointed and his eyes become the deep black color of his unicorn and centaur shapes. On those days, he was forced to work in a factory hidden in the forest. Apparently, skills he possessed while in elf form were needed to create whatever it was that was in the factory. On Mondays, he changed into a human-like creature with long, dark brown wings. As soon as he captors saw the wings, they clipped them, making it impossible for Xander to fly away.
He tried to resist several times. All he got for his troubles were more and more lashes. His back stung no matter what form he took.
After two weeks had gone by, Xander was beginning to lose hope that his friends would ever know what happened to him. After four weeks, when his back couldn't take another crack of a whip, he stopped fighting and began to resign himself to his fate.
Buffy shot up in bed. "Xander!" She took in her surroundings and said more quietly, "Oh god, Xander. What are they doing to you?"
Her door opened. "Buffy? Are you all right?" Her mother, Joyce Summers asked, concerned. Buffy quickly got out of bed and began to change clothes. "I have to go see Giles," she offered as an explanation.
"Now? It's two o'clock in the morning."
Buffy wondered if Giles was a morning person. He'd better be. "I can't wait until morning. It's about Xander. He's in trouble, and we need to get to him as soon as possible."
She hurried out the front door and ran off in the direction of her ex-Watcher's residence. She hoped she wasn't too late to do anything for her Xander-shaped friend.
"They are known as mystiks," Giles said. "They reside in the Otherworld. You should remember that from the time we dealt with Belphagor and Fulcanelli last year."
"I remember, Giles, but trust me, some of them are still in California."
"On the Hellmouth?" Oz asked.
Buffy shook her head. "No, but I know it's somewhere in the state, and I know that wherever they are, Xander's with them. Someone or something is holding the mystiks and Xander hostage. We need to find the ranch."
"We could try this spell I know," Willow offered. "I need another person for it to work, though."
"I'll help," Oz offered, squeezing her hand. All of them were freaked by what Buffy had told them. If her dream was prophetic, and there was little doubt that it was, then Xander was being used for hard labor. They had to work quickly.
Giles had all the ingredients for the spell. Oz and Willow performed it. The spell caused several areas to light up on a California State map. Every glowing area represented a large concentration of magical or demonic beings, and all of the areas glowed gold except for one blue area in the northern part of the state.
The group studied the map. The blue area was several hours north of Sunnydale. Buffy told them, "Everyone's got an hour and a half to get packed and meet back here. It's going to be a long drive. We'll take Oz's van."
His fifth Saturday on the ranch came around when Xander went through the process of changing from a unicorn into a nine-inch tall faerie. Ten minutes before sunrise, Jack Newman's seventeen-year-old daughter, Sylvia, entered the stables alone. "You're beautiful, Elik," she told Xander as she rubbed his horn. "You and I are going to have such a beautiful daughter."
Daughter? Xander thought, shocked. Then he remembered what Hilik told him on his first day at the ranch. Each Childe had always given birth to one human daughter and that daughter always had one or two sons. Those sons were always the next generation of Children of the Mystik Realms. There were no exceptions. He would have one daughter and at least two grandsons. From the looks of it, he didn't even get to choose a mate.
His nostrils flared. He wouldn't give these men what they wanted. He'd simply refuse. But how could he? This was the only chance he'd ever have to have any offspring. It just wasn't the why he wanted it.
The sun rose and the change occurred. Once again, every nerve in his body sang as he briefly changed back into a human. Just as quickly, he turned into a faerie. First, his skin turned a light brown that matched the wooden stables. His faerie body always matched the color of its surroundings. It would have been a useful ability if his faerie body didn't constantly glow. The glowing came next before he quickly shrank to his final size of nine inches.
As soon as the change was complete, Sylvia knelt down and presented a jar to him. Xander briefly considered fleeing. "Do it and you'll spend a week in the fields," Sylvia said, her voice booming in Xander's tiny ears. He didn't want to spend a solid week as a field worker, so he climbed into the jar. Sylvia sealed him in and carried him toward the house.
The first thing Xander was privileged to see was Sylvia changing clothes. It was a great sight, but considering the girl planned to force him to sleep with her as soon as he was in human form, he didn't enjoy it as much as he would have liked to. If she were anyone other than Jack Newman's daughter, he wouldn't have any problems, but he didn't want to do the Newmans any favors.
Around noon, Xander had the pleasure of watching the Newmans, all eight of them, eat lunch. Since faeries had no need for food or rest, they didn't bother feeding him or the other faerie in the room. The other faerie happened to be his great-great-great-great-great uncle, Vilip. Xander watched him for a minute. He'd asked all of his relatives, whenever they happened to be in the same form on the same day and were therefore working together, why they put up with everything the Newmans put them through. As far as he could tell, they were afraid. After five weeks of hell, Xander could understand why. He never had the upper hand, and he was afraid that if he tried too hard to disobey them, the consequences would be too great for him to bare.
The strange thing about being in faerie form was that Xander had excellent hearing. His hearing was better than that of any vampire while he was in this form, and he could also sense magic.
Even as he thought all of this, he sensed, and heard, something that gave him hope. One glance at Vilip confirmed that the other Childe had heard it as well. He could hear the sounds of a fight. It sounded like it came from the edge of the ranch, and both fists and magic were being used. He grinned widely. It was music to his ears, because he knew without a doubt that the cavalry had just arrived.
It wasn't long before Jack's walkie-talkie buzzed. The voice of one of Jack's hired help came out of the speaker, "We've been discovered! We're being attacked down at the gate. We need help!"
Jack cursed and barked orders into his walkie-talkie at more of his men. He raced out the door and his relatives, including Sylvia, followed him out the door. Xander watched them go in delight, laughing the entire time.
If there had been any doubts in the scoobies' minds that they'd come to the wrong place, those doubts had disappeared as soon as the gate guards had spotted them. Buffy easily knocked them unconscious. Unfortunately, one of them called for back up before taking a nap. They'd hoped to prevent the guards from doing that, but now it looked like they would have some company pretty soon.
They quickly pushed the gate open before pilling back into Oz's van. Oz slammed on the gas and sped up the dirt road.
A few seconds later, they had cleared the trees and were entering the center of what appeared to be a ranch of some sort. Unicorns, humans, elves, and even centaurs were working in the fields just like Buffy remembered seeing in her dream. A few men were leading the mystiks away while the rest ran toward the van.
Oz pulled up in front of the main house and the four of them got out. Ten people of various ages ran out of the front door of the main house. At least twenty more ran out of the pool house, the stables, and the fields. The group of thirty humans surrounded them on all sides.
"Four to thirty. The odds aren't looking very good," Oz remarked quietly to Buffy.
She nodded. "We'll be sure to even up the odds, then."
"I don't know who the hell you are," said one of the men standing between them and the house, "but if you don't get the hell off of my property, you'll wish you left when you could."
"Where's Xander?" Buffy demanded.
"Xander?" Jack repeated. Then he grinned. "You mean Elik. He's a fine worker, and the four of you will join him if you try to fight."
"Bring it on," Buffy challenged.
Their opponents easily complied and soon an all-out fistfight broke out.
Things were going back for the scoobies. While Buffy and Giles were doing pretty well and were managing to knock many of the men unconscious, that only brought the head count down by seven. Willow did her part by smacking one man unconscious with Giles' wooden quarterstaff but Oz had no luck in completely downing any of his opponents.
However, things were about to change. Inside the house, Xander was frantically trying to break free of the jar but to no avail. He'd encouraged Vilip to do the same but the older Childe didn't have any better luck.
Suddenly, the back door swung inward and slammed against the wall. Hilik, unclothed like the rest of them but fully human, ran into the dining room with Xander's four-times-removed grandfather, Pil'tar. The two of them quickly freed the faeries. "What's going on?" Vilip asked his brother.
"Freedom," Pil'tar answered, smiling. "Xander's friends have arrived. Boy, I don't know how you did it."
"I'm not sure myself," Xander admitted. "We need to get out here. There are way too many cronies for the gang to deal with."
Hilik nodded. "I will go. The three of you must release the others in the stables."
"Will do." Xander and Vilip jumped onto Pil'tar's offered palms and the three of them ran out the back door, headed for the stables, while Hilik left out the front and immediately joined the fray.
Buffy was beginning to tire. She was concerned when another man ran out of the house, but when he started attacking the other men Buffy was relieved. Although the newcomer didn't appear to be wearing any clothes, he was still welcome to help out.
It didn't take long for more allies to come from the stables. They came in the form of a human, a centaur, and a unicorn. The three of them fought against the captors with far more force than Buffy liked, and she wondered if they were actually knocking them unconscious of killing them outright. She couldn't do anything about it, though; she was too far away and way too busy at the moment.
Soon, every one of their opponents lay on the ground. Their unclothed human-looking allies stripped the unconscious men of jackets, pants, and shirts and hastily put them on before Buffy, Willow, Oz, and Giles approached them.
"Hi," Willow said. "Uh, thanks for the help."
"You freed us. We owe you all so much more," one of the two humans said. "I am known as Hilik. These are my family," he gestured to the others in his group.
That statement was confusing. "Family?" Oz repeated.
Hilik nodded. "Yes. My family can take on many forms. The Newmans have used us like common slaves for centuries, and they have used every one of our forms to their advantages. Your friend and my grandson is the youngest one in our family."
"Xander? Where is he?" Buffy demanded.
"He's right here, in my hand," the other human said. He stepped forward, and for the first time the four of them noticed the two tiny glowing and naked people standing on his palms. On closer inspection, they realized that Xander was one of the tiny people.
"Hey, guys," he said, his voice sounding extremely tiny and high-pitched.
"X-Xander?" Willow ventured, shocked.
"How did you get to be so small?" Buffy asked.
"It's a long story," Xander said. "But I'd prefer to do it when I'm full sized. There's something on this ranch that controls what shape we take. You guys need to find it."
"Try the attic in the main house," the centaur suggested, entering the conversation for the first time. "It is the only room that I have never seen in all the years I have been here."
"Attic. Got it," Buffy said. She, Willow, Giles, Oz, Hilik, and the other human that still held Xander ran inside and up a flight of stairs. They ran past the second floor landing and up the stairs to the attic. After a good, solid kick, Buffy managed to get the door open and the group of eight entered the room.
Cobwebs coated boxes and chests arranged in stacks against the walls. In the center of the attic, however, a glowing, solid-looking ball made out of glass sat on a small table. The glass ball twinkled with a variety of colors, casting colorful shadows on every surface, and the ball seemed to sing with energy and warmth.
The ball was the most beautiful thing any of them had seen. "That's it," Xander said.
Hilik, Pil'tar, and Vilip agreed. "Its song is same one our bodies sing whenever we change," Vilip said.
Hilik held a hand out to Oz's bat. "May I?" Oz shrugged and handed it to him. Hilik grasped it in both hands and approached the mystikal ball. Pure glee appeared on his features before he swung the bat home.
The ball shattered. Xander and Vilip began to grow bigger so Pil'tar set them both on the ground. Xander and Vilip took the coats that Giles and Oz offered them and slipped them on. Xander grinned. "You have no idea how glad I am to see you guys."
Buffy smiled and pounced on him. Soon, Willow and even Giles joined in and the three were engulfing him in a bear hug. Oz stood back and watched, smiling. "It's good to see you, too, Xand," Buffy said.
They wandered back outside and looked around in amazement. The stables were ablaze, and when they stepped out of the house, Vilip set that on fire as well. The others had taken salt from the kitchen and were quickly spreading it all over the fields. Xander grinned at the sight. He grabbed a saltshaker himself but didn't immediately head out to the fields. Jack Newman was awake.
Pil'tar had the human by the arms. Jack stared out at the fields. "No. Please, don't. My family has lived here for generations. We need that land to survive. Please don't."
Jip, Xander's grandfather six times removed, punched him, effectively shutting him up. "No one will ever use these lands again," he growled. "Don't try to plea for mercy from us. You won't receive it. You showed us no mercy for all the years that we have served you, and that ends now, Jack Newman."
Jip stepped back and changed into his elf form. Xander blinked in surprise, then smiled. They could change forms at will now. Jack wouldn't be able to control them that way ever again.
All of the color left Jack's cheeks as the former slave owner realized he'd lost any control he once had. However, the very fact that Jip had morphed into elf form meant that the worst was yet to come. As elves, Xander's family could control magic to an extent, and Xander knew why Jip was counting on that.
Willow noticed Xander's smile. "Xander? What's going on?" she asked. Giles, Oz, and Buffy also gave him questioning looks.
Xander smiled wider. It wasn't a nice smile. "We're going to curse Jack's family."
"Curse Jack's family? How?" Buffy asked.
Xander shrugged. "That's up to Jip. You might want to stand back, guys."
His friends were even more confused but did as he asked. Jip turned to Buffy. "Madam Slayer, will you please hold him still?"
Buffy started but stepped forward. She took a hold of Jack's arms. His struggles began anew, but he was no match for Buffy's Slayer strength.
Jip called the others back from the fields. When they returned, he instructed his family to change. They did willingly, and Xander soon followed suit. Giles, Oz, Willow, and Buffy gaped at Xander's elf form. Each wondered how their human friend could do that.
The eight Children of the Mystik Realms formed a circle around Jack. Both Jack and Buffy watched them, tense.
Jip spoke first. "I, Jippius Kil'noor Mfeselan, Childe of the Mystik Realms, hereby curse you and yours, Jacob Harold Newman, to live lives of desolation, poverty and powerlessness. We eight curse you. Here are the names of the other seven."
Jip's brother, Ulin, spoke. "I, Ulinius Ilkan Mfeselan, hereby curse you."
It was Pil'tar's turn next. "I, Gkstln P'hilitar Mfeselan, hereby curse you."
Vilip looked down his nose at Newman and grinned. He looked extremely satisfied. "I, Vil'a'ip'r Mfeselan, hereby curse you."
Xander's great-great-great uncle Bis went next. "I, Bis'l'hn Jo'ul'a Mfeselan, hereby curse you."
Xander's great-great-grandfather Mil'i'an rose to his full height before reciting his part. "I, Mil'i'an Crstl'p'n Mfeselan, hereby curse you."
Hilik came next. "I, Hili'k's B'rola G'o'p'r Mfeselan, hereby curse you."
Finally, it was Xander's turn. For the first time, he spoke his full name, the one Hilik had spent many hours trying to teach him, and for the first time, he acknowledged that it was his true name. "I, Elik Prltsl Tyr Mfeselan, hereby curse you."
Jip smiled. "We are the Children of the Mystik Realms, and our curses always ring true."
A cheer rose up. The eight Children changed back into their human forms, turned, and walked away. The Sunnydale gang followed them. They left a sobbing Jack Newman among his unconscious and now cursed family. None of them looked back.