fandomtownies | The park, early Tuesday evening

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The park, early Tuesday evening

~~The Breeze blew in -- wait, no, wrong book~~

A raven swooped down to perch on the back of a bench and settled there for a moment, ruffling its feathers and stretching its wings as though it'd just flown a long distance.

Which it had. From Montana, even.

Then the raven opened its mouth and seemed to expand, feathers riding up on suddenly featherless fingers, pulling back and turning red as its legs grew into human legs and its beak shrank into a human nose.

And then there was a young man in black buckskin with red feather trim crouching on the back of the bench. He hopped forward and slouched down, surveying his surroundings and wishing for a cigarette.

Coyote had arrived.

[ooc: it's a park. Kinda open by definition.]

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Now Jan was staring at him oddly. "My name is Jan, a unicorn is what I am," he explained. "Great Spirit?" It was the first time he'd even heard the name -- at least, he thought it was. Nothing was ever certain when memory loss was involved. "I must confess I don't know what that is."

Hadn't heard of Great Spirit? Coyote was a little appalled.

"Do you get any powers with the name 'Jan'?"

"Powers?" Jan's tail swished uncertainly and his ears flicked. It was the oddest question he'd ever been asked. "The power to introduce myself as Jan?" he suggested. "Does your name come with powers?"

Coyote nodded. "Great Spirit said since I had to take such a bad name, I could be Chief of Without Fires and transform. Wanna see?"

"I do!" Jan replied eagerly, ears pricked forward with interest.

Coyote loved to show off, so he took his time with the transformation. He let his features slowly elongate and sprout fur, while his arms and legs shifted and twisted, somehow seamless despite what probably looked like it should be an incredibly painful process.

And then Coyote was a coyote sitting on the bench. He sat back on his haunches and raised his front paws in a "tada!" gesture.

Jan shied backwards, half-rearing, and then simply stared hooves planted and legs braced, as if he'd fall over from shock if he wasn't careful. "You are a coyote! But you were a human!"

Coyote tilted his head and quickly shifted back to human form -- leaving his coyote skin on his head as a headdress.

"You're almost right. I'm Coyote. And sometimes I look human."

Jan shook his head, back and forth slowly, in wonder and shock. Transforming...people, he guessed, because Coyote couldn't properly be called human - were beyond his experience. "Coyote," he murmured, dropping his head and chewing thoughtfully. "Your name does come with powers. I think Coyote might be a good name, after all."

"Oooo," Coyote said. "I like you."

Ears curving out to the sides, Jan bobbed his head happily. "I like you, too! You must be fast in your other shape," he said, curvetting a little. "Maybe we could run together sometime? Humans can't keep up with me."

Coyote nodded. "Or I could be even faster as a horse. Or an eagle. Ooo! I'm very quick as a mosquito, too. We could have a great race."

Jan snorted and pranced in place. "I can run as fast as an eagle can fly," he declared, possibly exaggerating, possibly not. "It will be a great race indeed!"

Coyote decided he would have to procure some good cheating medicine for this.

"Great! We should place a bet!"

"What is placing a bet?" he asked curiously.

Unicorns didn't know what gambling was, and Jan had yet to encounter it in Fandom.

Unfortunately.

Oh yeah, Coyote like Jan a lot.

He tried to work out how to explain the concept.

"It's when I say that if I win, you must give me something, and if you win, I must give you something."

He chewed thoughtfully. "I don't have anything," he said, then brightened. "But I have a job now, and Turtle will pay me money for my work! So I will have something soon." His ears curved sideways, a unicorn grin. "But I'm sure I will win, so I may have many things if we place a bet on the race."

It occurred to Coyote that he didn't have anything here, yet, either.

"Then we'll wait until you have money to bet with." That would give him time to get cheating medicine and something to bet, other than his ass (and, man, he wasn't making that mistake again . . . right now. . .). "And we can both practice, and maybe some others will want to bet on the race, too."

Jan wasn't sure why anyone would want to bet on a race between the two of them, but he would trust Coyote to know better than he did about these things.

"And I am still healing, so I can't run as fast as I usually do," he said. "We will wait." He flicked one ear forward. "It will be good to run with someone again, no matter who wins."

Coyote nodded, happily, perfectly willing to agree to just about anything now that he had the promise of a good game to win. "Yeah, yeah, very good. You should tell your friends."

Snorting, he tossed his head in agreement. "I will! I will go now, and then I will practice," he said, still happy, as he turned to trot away. "It was good to meet you, Coyote."

"You, too, Jan!" Coyote waved after him from his spot on the bench, then looked down to examine his toes and try to figure out what could go faster than an eagle.

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The park, early Tuesday evening

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