Wanderers Cove

It was Tylers eighteenth birthday in two days and he was not looking forward to it, ever since moving from the city to the cove he had failed to fit in, not wanted in the city and equally not wanted here in this little coastal town of fewer than one thousand souls. 

Wanderers Cove, the name from his childhood always resonated with happier times, a time when his family were together, a time before his mother moved back to the city taking him as a young boy. 

She had never quite fitted into the "cove life" as she put it and it was easy to see why, a slow meandering curve peeled from the highway through the woods for uninterrupted miles before winding a loop through the town if it could even be called a town, sure it had a post office, convenience store and restaurant but all these were rolled into one mash of a store on the main street called "Joes" and the pickings a Joes were slim as his mother liked to quip. The locals were an odd bunch, but Tyler couldn't be too harsh as most of them were in some form or fashion related to Tyler either by blood or marriage, a real one-horse town but without the horse. 

He would get a chance to get to know them all at the party his father, Tim was throwing for him that Friday night "you used to play with your cousins all the time when you were small" his father had said, "give it a week and it'll feel like home, you won't want to leave." 

Funny he thought, he had wanted to leave as soon as the bus had pulled off the highway, it had all flooded back to him, the woods reaching down from the hills to the shore, the cove pretty in its rugged way, the beach and the cave. 

The cave, the thought struck him like a cold chill, ever since he knew he was coming back to the cove he had been having nightmares, and always in his nightmares was the cave, he was always walking along the beach at night, the moon hanging full in the dark sky lighting the landscape below as he walked, the sound of the pebbles under his feet the waves lapped the shoreline, the tang of the sea in the air, a heady mix of seaweed and salt as he walked down the beach as if drawn by an unseen force, drawn towards the cave, always walking but not getting any closer to the cave. 

"I'm just heading down to Joes do you want anything?" Tyler asked his father "no son, I'm just fine" his father replied "sure you know the way?" giving Tyler a wry smile. Tyler laughed politely as he had done for the last week as it was impossible to get lost in Wanderers Cove as it was a perfect loop of a town "Nascar for assholes" as his mother once put it, and his fathers' house or should he say his house was a fifth of a loop clockwise from Joes. 

Entering the store the bell hanging above the door chimed as the door struck it. Inside was Samuel, Tyler's uncle and his fathers younger brother, Tyler was pleased to see him as he found his uncle to be a funny always clowning around when Tyler was younger. "looking forward to your big day?" Samuel asked, "it's going to be a whole new world". Picking up his goods from the checkout Samuel winked at Tyler "Be seeing you Friday, make sure you get plenty of sleep Thursday, all your family will be there, you will be amazed" and with that, Samuel was gone, the bell above the door ringing his departure. Strolling down the aisles picking up breakfast cereals, milk and coffee he quickly paid for these and made his way home. 

After breakfast, Tyler made his way down to the beach, just a short stroll past the outside of town down a well-trod track, the track opening to a shingle beach, few large rocks stood out in the back arching round to the cliff at the far end of the cove and in that cliff he could see the cave. 

As a child, he had been to the beach too many times to count but never once going into the cave, His father had told of a monster that lived in the cave but as Tyler grew up the story his Father told was of tides trapping the inquisitive and drowning them in the cave their bodies lost forever, It seems the cave had a long history of the unexplained, but as he saw it in the distance it seemed to call to him as in his dream and he walked towards it, his legs moving almost without his volition. 

He was halfway to the cave when all of a sudden he could hear the sea crashing around the cliffside ahead, it had been silent till that point almost as if he had lost his hearing completely, Startled to find himself so far along the cove with the tide rapidly coming in he dug his cold hands into his jacket pockets and made his way home. 

He spent the last days before the big night working around the house, he had always been handy and made short work of the list of jobs his father had made up to keep him busy throughout the summer, From fixing the back door and weeding the garden, a hundred little tasks that kept him busy all day, Tyler didn't mind these tasks as it took his mind of the future, just what kind of future did he have in Wandereer Cove? 

"Family tradition?" Tyler asked his father "seriously? to sleep out on the eve of your eighteenth birthday?". "Absolutely" replied his Father "it's the cusp of manhood, the thin line between being a boy and becoming a man, a transformation into your future self, you couldn't possibly expect such a change to occur inside? no, you have to be part of the world, it symbolises the ability to survive by yourself, back long before my time it would have been a month outside before your birthday, just count yourself lucky that you were born in June and not December like your uncle and me" 

"Sounds like fun, like the old days camping down on the flats down by the woods and the shore," said Tyler "I'll get my gear sorted" and with that, he was off to the shed where the camping gear was stored, his Father looked out the back window with trepidation, surely all will go fine he thought if only he had been here with him all along he would be fine but with him gone so long, he shook his head as if to dislodge the thought and smiled to Tyler as he waved goodbye at the back fence. 

Camping thought Tyler "All the gear and no idea," he said to himself there was a point in his life a long time ago when he could set up camp, start a fire, catch and cook his dinner, he still knew which berries were good to eat and where wild herbs could be picked but his backpack full of snack and drinks told him that these skills could stay rusty. He was looking forward to a nice quiet night followed by what his Father called a "reunion breakfast" at dawn in the back garden, all the town would be there all his family and old friends. Methodically he set up the tent and sleeping bag, set a small fire and sat back to watch the sun as it set into the wine-red sea. 

The embers of the fire crackled as he laid his head down to sleep, it was a sleep not filled with dreams but with sounds and smells and motion, the pebbles under his feet, he looked up to see the cave in the distance, looking up a second later he was at the cave mouth, a mouth full of jagged stone teeth that gaped open and seemed to swallow him whole. 

Was he dreaming? maybe, it certainly didn't feel like he was awake, symbols and words swirled past his half-open eyes, words he thought but not in any language that he had ever seen. He stopped moving or was it that he had stopped being moved. The space all around him was dark but tight the walls shining in the moonlight reflected down the tunnel he was in, reaching out to touch the wall it pulled back in all directions until it looked like he was in a vast hall, dark and damp, an unnatural glow allowed him to make out the shape of this hall. 

"WELCOME TRAVELLER" a voice boomed from the darkness "You have travelled far but as always the seed returns to the source to be replanted to reap the bounty of a full life" 

Tyler was awake, more awake than he had ever been if fear was what he was feeling it was the kind of fear that rooted you in the present in a way more vivid than his daily life. 

"Step into the middle way" the voice boomed as the shadows moved back growing the hall to twice its size, along the far wall Tyler could see nine arches, as he walked closer he saw the arches had the same symbols and letters as he had seen. Every arch seemed to have what looked like an image of a man with symbols surrounding him, "what is this?" Tylers asked.

"THIS IS THE TRIAL OF MAN" the voice roared. 

"I don't know what this is" Tyler pleaded " what is this trial?"

"Ahh," the voice said knowingly, quieter but still resonant "you carry the mark of the first, but you have not been initiated in the way? here let me show you"

And with that, a giant of a man dropped from the darkness his golden skin catching the dim light and his leathery wings slowing his descent, the living statue as finely chiselled as anything made by man strode towards Tyler "What the ..." started Tyler but it was too late, the mountain was on him in a second and wrapped its hand around Tyler's skull and looking him in the eyes with its unnatural golden orbs it commanded Tyler to "SEE" 

Everything was white, and out of this whiteness a silver disc appeared, then all was night and the disc remained, travelling across the void of the night, stars formed and died and the disc moved on travelling from place to place, planet to planet, time to time. It was confusing but slowly Tyler saw a pattern the disk would arrive the surrounding examined and the golden people would step out of the disc but as beings suited to the place and time but with the golden heart inside, the image pulled back to show Tylers in the giants hand the golden heart inside the Giant pulsed in time with a glow within Tyler, a glow that became brighter and brighter with each beat. 

"Aha, now you see" bellowed the giant, dropping his hand from Tyler's head. Pointing the Tylers heart he then said "The first" then flattened his hand against him own powerful chest "The First" his voice like a crack of thunder, then pointing to the back wall he said "the disc" 

"the arches?" Tyler asked

The first waved his golden arm and the arches glowed dimly "each arch leads to a door, each door leads to the disc and a changing room of sorts, one in which you change your skin, so to speak, like changing suit. Each suit is based on some of the more exotic environments we have been required to exist in. each with unique benefits but also each has a weakness" Pointing to the middle arch the First said " for all the first change is the most drastic, the middle way shows you your true self, Step forward chid of the first. 

As Tyler made his way to the arch he looked up at the image of a man arms outstretched symbols surrounded the image in rotating discs, four rotary discs moving in step, back and forth. He walked through the archway and towards his future. He wondered what his true self would be as he heard the rotors lock into place, the walls closed in on him and all went dark. 

It was bright in the room, he was naked but the bright white light made it impossible to see where his hands ended and the room began, it dimmed slightly and he could see through his skin to the pulsing light below, like leaves in autumn his skin peeled off and floated away, followed by the flesh and the little bones on his hands, leaving just the nerves raw and uncovered, he tried to close his eyes but he had no lids, he tried to scream but he had no mouth, just a mind floating in a sea of light. The light dimmed and he could feel himself getting heavier as his flesh was born from the light. 

He screamed in horror as he awoke, his hands threshing against an outer skin? Confused he opened his eyes to see the tent lying in tatters around him, packing it up he thought it best to head back home, if he left now he would be back before dawn and rest before his birthday breakfast, what a strange dream he thought. 

Making his way back he could hear music and laughter coming from his garden, the whole town was indeed there and spilling down into the flats. "welcome back son" his father shouted and the whole town cheered it looked like this part had been going on all night and was planning to go until the next. "Tell me son of your tales in the wild" 

Tyler laughed and told everyone of his wild dream and his Father laughed "That's quite a tall tale" he said as he grew in stature his stubble growing out and his hair growing longer and thick his chest bulging out bristled with fur and his arms and legs grew as thick as oak trees, his mouth moving into a snout he growled, "bearserker, I think it's a cooler word than werebear, don't you think?" his father said as he struck a comically fearsome pose.

Werewolf said Samuel his thick mane of black fur showing his claws and teeth off in a manner that Tyler thought was meant to be a friendly smile. 

"Elf" shouted one "Pixie" another "Shadowman" came another voice from a dark corner. 

Tyler's father then looked at Tyler and said "We have a thousand people in our little town each with their own story, but what we really want to know on this the day of your birthday is what your story will be? "

As the dawn rose above the little town of wanderers cove it passed across the site unseen in any other corner of the small world, a sight of myth and magic until it fell across Tyler's face. 

Tyler could feel the power coursing through his body and he rose two foot into the air, a wind spiralled around him as lightning crashed out of the clear sky, as all looked on they could not believe their eyes, even in this place of gods and monsters the incredible could still silence and amaze.

Walking forward through the crowd his uncle changed back into his human form and laid a hand on Tyler's father's shoulder and said "cool, very cool" 

The End