When David returned from where the Fae had taken him and proved so much more confident, charismatic and easygoing, David’s changeling was quite disturbed. More disturbed still when he began to turn back into the simple wooden branch he had once been long ago.
David’s changeling knew three monsters who had taken a liking to him and they found him before he could fully turn to wood.
“The true David, I say, is whichever we prefer”, said the first monster, “Let us kill the interloper and be done with it.”
David’s changeling did not want to hurt anybody, so he declined this.
“How can you be the real David?”, asked the second, “You are coming undone just by having your identity drawn into question. What is so good about being David anyway? If you wish it, there is a bleak magic I can offer you. With it, you could redefine yourself as whatever you desire and be free.”
But David’s changeling was too frightened of the bleak power of self-definition and too attached to what he had already accomplished as David to throw it all away now. He declined this too.
“New David is boring and poorly written!”, exclaimed the third monster, “He is too perfect, too clean. I like you better with all your flaws and insecurities. I want to watch you grow and the other you has no room for that. So let me reify you as you. That your being David can be questioned no more.”
David’s changeling was not opposed to the idea of sharing his life with David and so the third monster worked his miraculous trick. David’s changeling was David’s changeling no longer. There were simply two Davids now where only one had been prior. The glamorous one found this unbearable and left, cursing his other half and the monsters all along his way.
