Ancient Husky

It was a very cold day at Snow Treasure. Snow Treasure was a very small but beautiful town placed at the top of the mountains. It always was snowed, and a very cold place. But people lived happily because they liked their home. It seemed to be an unknown place because no tourists came ever. And they saw it very strange because it was like a small snowed paradise. Although it was small, it had everything people needed: a school, a church, some parks, a peasant market... People had to go to the city to work, the nearest city needed only a hour of car driving. The entrance of the town had some husky statues.

Erick lived at Snow Treasure for years. He lived happily since he was born. He was 20 and his parents died when he was 8. But with the help of the other people he grew perfectly and always had the food the people gave to him. He had a lot of friends, in fact, he was very famous in the town, all people knew him.
One day, Erick was cooking the supper when he felt a chilt. A gust of cold wind touched his face.

"It must be my imagination, I closed the windows when I arrived." he thought.

He returned to his things. But again, a cold wind penetrated into his body. He went to the window and saw it opened. He closed it.

"Perhaps I didn't close it well." said to himself.

He returned to the kitchen. And now he felt a harder gust. He began to notice it weird. When he turned himself, he saw the window opened again. He went to the window and looked through it. He saw dog tracks in the ground. He looked them for a while interested. Finally, he decided to follow the tracks. He took his polar jacket and he jumped through the window.

After some minutes he followed the tracks, as far as he arrived to a lake. He never knew anything about that lake, it was precious. It had a lot of snowed trees around it, the trees seemed to shine with the moon's light. In middle of the lake there was a frozen zone with giant ice crystal fragments. Erick stayed fascinated for a moment, and the only word he sayed was: Wow!. Suddenly, a voice sounded from nowhere.

"Hello Erick..." said the voice.

Erick looked around himself but he didn't saw no one.

"Calm down Erick, I'm not going to hurt you. Don' try to escape." and when the voice finished talking, the trees started to grow until Erick was cornered. "I'm going to show myself, don't scare yourself."

Although Erick seemed to be scared, he was intrigued. Finally, the wait finished.

A husky appeared in front of the giant crystals. But it wasn't a normal husky dog. It seemed to be bigger than the others, and it had different colours, they were a brilliant white and a darker blue.

"I'm the Ancient Husky." said the dog.

"Wha... What? The Ancient Husky? What's this place?" said Erick fascinated.

"I live here, I call it The Giant Lake. Snow Treasure is a magical town. It always has been protected by the magic of an Ancient Husky. This magic protects the town from tourists, contamination, disasters, hunters... This way, the town lives in peace without any problem. Every 100 years the Ancient Husky must select a successor from the town. Today you went here because I wanted you to be my successor." said the Ancient Husky.

"What? I would help you but... I don't have any magical power, and I'm not a Husky." said Erick.

"Erick, I wasn't a Husky neither. I was a human like you, and I lived in Snow Treasure too. Every 100 years, the Ancient Husky must select a HUMAN from Snow Treasure. And I want you." said the husky.

"Why me?" asked Erick.

"Because you know the town and you had an special life." answered the husky. "But I'm not forcing you, if you don't want to have these obligation say it now."

"Er... Not... Well...".

"The town needs an Ancient Husky because if he disappears, the town will lose his magic and will be open to tourists, contamination and other bad things. If you don't want to be the Ancient Husky I will find another." said the Husky.

"Mmmmm... Sounds VERY interesting. I want to be the Ancient Husky. What I must do?" decided Erick.

The husky smiled. And suddenly jumped from the crystals and fell in front of Erick.

"This won't hurt you, calm down." said the husky.

He jumped through Erick and traspassed him. Erick felt strange for a moment. A white light surrounded Erick's body some seconds.

"From now on, the change will start." said the husky.

Erick started to feel different. He had the husky behind him, so he turned himself. He found that the husky grew a lot!

"Hahaha! No, I didn't grow. You shrunk." said the husky.

Erick looked to his clothes. They didn't fit. He ran to the lake to see his reflection. He saw a 5 years old kid. But he saw something more... A lot of fur started to grow in his body, it had the same colours than the Ancient Husky. He throwed all his old clothes, he wouldn't need them anymore. The fur filled all his body. His ears moved to the top of his head. His mouth and his nose started to gain a new form: a muzzle. He felt a pain on his back. A tail was growing! Finally, he fell and stayed with his new four legs. Erick looked to himself fascinated. The Ancient Husky approached to him. Both seemed father and son. Erick was a cute husky cub.

"Now, you are the Ancient Husky. I only have some minutes of life. I want to tell you some things. Firstly, you must select now one of these two options: maintain this as a secret living alone here or tell the truth to all the town living with them. Also you must know that your magic is being used now. Only the fact that an Ancient Husky exists already is the magic that protects the town. But you have some other powers." said the husky.

Erick was still fascinated with his new body. He still had his human memories, but now he was an Ancient Husky cub, and he had magical powers. He started to run with his new four-legged body, and tested his new abilities like the smelling or the hearing. He started to laugh very happily.

"Ok! I got it!" said Erick. "I think I will tell the truth to the town. I don't want to lose them, I want to live with them forever."

"Great decision, your magical power will solve any problem if they don't recognize you or if they don't believe you." said the husky, and suddenly his feet started to turn into stone. "Oh, I think these are my last seconds of life."

"Wait! You didn't tell me how to use my magic!" said Erick.

"You only will be able to use your magic when any problem appears. You will learn how to use it soon... Ah... Byebye Erick, I hope you will do a good work protecting Snow Treasure." and the husky paralyzed, it was turned into a statue.

Erick started to think about his new life staying in front of the new statue. The statue disappeared, and Erick knew that it was being placed at the entrance with the other statues. Erick was alone in the Giant Lake. He opened the trees with the magic, and he started to return to his house walking slowly. He was happy, and started to smile. When he smiled, he felt his new sharper teeth.

When he arrived to his house, he saw a lot of fire.

"Oh no! Now I remember! I was cooking and I left the furnace turned on!" said Erick.

It was the perfect situation for testing the new magical powers. Without thinking on it, Erick stayed on two legs and raised his frontal legs. He did a strange movement with his hands and a cold ice gust appeared. The house was frozen in some seconds.

"Incredible!" said smiling Erick.

He entered on his house.

"Mmmm... With my new body I'll need to fix some things in this house." said Erick, the new husky.

He closed the eyes. And when he opened them, he saw another house. All his things were turned into smaller versions of them, and also got new forms. He exited because he wanted to see it outside. The new house was very small. He thought that he wouldn't need anymore human things. He wanted to sleep, the next day was going to be very funny. He fall down in his sofa and put his tail next to his head wondering how to explain all the things happened that night to the other people.

At the morning, Erick woke up very easily. He slept better than ever with his new body. He was hearing voices outside. When he opened his door saw a lot of people of the town.

"Ahh! A monster! This is terrible!" cried one.

"No! Wait! I'm not a monster. I'm Erick." said Erick with a pitcher voice than before.

"The dog talked... Are you Erick?" said one.

Erick explained to them that the Ancient Husky appeared and why he was now a husky. All the people were fascinated.

"...and from now on, I will be protecting Snow Treasure with the magic of the Ancient Huskies. Although I was turned into one of them I wanted to live with you. But I continue being myself, you can talk with me when you want, you can play with me when you want, and if anyone needs help I'll came." finished Erick.

All the town started to chat between them. Some kids petted Erick. It was the first time anyone touched his fur. He felt very good, and his tail straightened. Without thinking, Erick started to move his tail like a dog, after all he was now an animal. Finally, all the people petted him too. It was perfectly a sign of recognition. They were very happy. Even a very old man said:

"So the legend is true. My parents talked about it when I was a kid, and finally the Ancient Husky appeared. But the surprise that, it's our Erick!"

The first days after the transformation, Erick was very happy. He spent the mornings talking with his friends. They saw very strange talking to a husky cub, but at the same time they saw it very funny. At the evenings, he played with all the kids of the town. With his magic, they invented new games, specially one where Erick turned the kids into animals and they played until the night. He needed to turn the kids again into humans because he thought it wasn't a good idea being animals much time. The kids respected Erick thoughts. Soon, Erick started to see that he was inhering the Ancient Huskies' thoughts.

September arrived. And before summer, Erick was an student, now was a husky cub. He wanted to continue his studies because he didn't want to spend the time doing nothing. He talked to his teacher. She said that there wasn't any problem, she accepted having a talking husky in her class, in addition, it would be a very funny experience. When he went to class, with his magic adopted an humanoid form of a husky kid because he had to take the pencil.

The people liked Erick more than before. He was a cute husky cub, but also their protector. Erick was very happy with his new body and his new life. These were going to be his happier 100 years.