Elliott hops excitedly on the front porch his favorite book in hand, The Complete History of Anima. He knocks on the wooden door and waits impatiently. Anna walks up behind the excited boy while Benny stayed by the gate with Dremur and Leopold. “Patience Elliott, Give him one second.” she laughs. Elliott is about to knock again when the door swings open. 
Mr. Harris steps out, his anima, Patches not too far behind nudging the young boy's hand. “Ah, Elliott, I was expecting you. Come inside my dear boy.” Elliott smiles stepping through the door.
“Thanks again Mr. Harris, this means a lot.” Mr. Harris faces Anna with a soft smile. 
“It’s no problem young Annabelle, Elliott is always a pleasure to have over. Reminds me of my wife before she... well you know.” Mr. Harris’s voice saddens.
“I’m sorry about your wife, she was so kind when we knew her.” Sympathy soaking through Anna’s voice.
“Yes, thank you, Annabell. Now you and Benjamin must get going or you will be late to class, please run along.” Mr. Harris smiles waving Anna off.
“Thanks again Mr. Harris,” she calls back running to Benny and their animas. Mr. Harris waves one last time before closing the door.

“Elliott?” He calls out. Elliott’s head pops up from the couch with his book in hand just about to open it. Mr. Harris chuckles. “You still have your dad’s book?” Elliott smiles at the old man.
“Yeah, I’ve gotten better at reading and I’m already a few sections in.” Elliott puts a proud smile on. Mr. Harris can’t help but smile at the young boy.
“Have you gotten to the section with the Ancient Animas?” Elliott looks at Mr. Harris his ears sideways and head tilted, face contorted into a confused expression.
“I thought they were just stories.” Mr. Harris chuckles and sits on the couch next to the curious boy.
“Not all stories are false young Elliott.” Elliott sits with his ears perked up, anticipating what the older man is telling him. “Long ago when the first Anima walked the earth there were only two the anima of light and the anima of dark they were always fighting to see which of them was better and more fit to claim the earth as theirs. They started to make the ancient anima to fight alongside them. The anima on the side of the dark were animas with the powers of metal, destruction, mind, fire, and electricity. On the light side were animas with the powers of ice, healing, emotion, earth, and water.” Elliott interrupts Mr.Harris. 
“Why do people have animas if they could survive on their own?” Mr. Harris smiles at the boys' question.
“They say that as the ancient anima was about to have a large battle they stumbled across a village of humans, they were entranced by these new creatures. They saw the way that no matter how different they were they helped each other. They attached themselves to humans to make them stronger and to protect them if they needed it and as the years went by the village had children with parts of their parents' anima in them which created new anima and so it has continued like that for years, until nowadays where we have all different classes and mixes of anima.” Elliott sighs looking down at his lap. Mr. Harris’ features turn worried. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just,” Elliott looks up to the older man with tears starting to build up in his eyes. “I don’t have an anima. I’m a lesser, aren’t I?” Mr. Harris quickly pulls the distressed boy into a hug.
“No, Elliott, I don’t think you are a lesser.” He can feel the young boys' tears dampening his shirt. “Sometimes if you have a very strong anima it takes longer for your body to safely process and use the magic you anima holds.” he tries to reassure the boy. “It took Amelia thirteen years to summon her anima.” Elliott resorts to sniffling, looking up to meet Mr. Harris’ eyes.
“R-r-really? I-it took Mrs. Harris thirteen y-years?” Mr. Harris nods. Elliott pulls himself together and sits up wiping the last of his tears on his sleeve. “I’m sorry about your shirt.” He says pointing out the wet spot he had left.
“It’s fine, it's just a shirt.” Mr. Harris beams. The small boy seemed to have too much going on inside his head. Mr. Harris cleared his throat gaining the boys' attention. “Have I ever told you the story of the Hidden Cave of the Ancients?” Elliott looks up at him the curious spark reigniting in his eyes. Mr. Harris told Elliott about magical places that one could hardly dream of until-

Knock Knock Knock

Mr. Harris’ expression instantly changed to a look of urgency. “Elliott, go hide in the closet in the guest bedroom there is a small hidden door that you and patches will stay in until I get you out.” Elliott nods his head saddened by the fact he didn’t hear the whole story. He follows Patches upstairs and to the guest bedroom. The dog pushes open the closet and pulls back a blanket revealing a long crack in the wall. Patches paws against it until Elliott shoves it open revealing a small room. Elliott cautiously walks in making sure Patches is close by. Patches begins to glow, lighting up the small room. The dog turns around and pushes the door closed before pawing the lock, sealing them in. 

Mr. Harris opens the door giving the men a sweet smile. “Hello, gentlemen, what brings you here this fine afternoon?” He smiled up at the three men on his front porch. Two seemed to have the royal guard patch on their coats, the other was the leader of the hybrid-watch for Sylion, he always stands in the town square preaching that hybrids are demons and disgraces. The men plastered on fake smiles.

“We heard word that you are harboring a hybrid here. We would like to check your house to see if these accusations are true.” the short hybrid-watch man says. 

“I can give you my word that there is no one here other than me and my Patches.” Mr. Harris tries to sway them. The hybrid-watch man tsks stepping into the house the guards following close behind.

“You see, I’d love to be able to trust you but last time I did that you let one slip right under my nose.” He starts his search in the living room checking in the coat closet. “Thankfully,  we caught that abomination, it really seemed to think it should be allowed to live.” he gives a sarcastic chuckle. “It thought it could spread its disease and have a family.” he looks at Mr. Harris, who was shaking with rage. “Funny, huh?” Mr. Harris says nothing. The man shrugs and continues his search. One of the guards head upstairs, the other to the shed out back, and the man stays downstairs searching. 

Elliott hears footsteps start upstairs. He heard doors being opened and drawers and items moving. Suddenly the footsteps stop. They stopped right in front of the closet he was tucked behind. Patches pushes himself against the side of the worried boy. The door to the closet is ripped open. Scratching can be heard from the other side of the door. Wolf paws. Elliott’s mind fills in, he’s heard Dremur enough times that he knows those kinds of claws. Elliott almost jumps out of his skin when he hears a small knock on the camouflaged door. He then hears a bright familiar voice which calms him down almost immediately. “Ah, I think he picked up on some of my wife's old things.” Mr. Harris’s voice gets slightly watery as he continues. “I like keeping her favorite clothes around, it helps you know?” Elliott hears footsteps going away from the closet after a short grumble from a mysterious, gruff voice.

Mr. Harris sighs in relief as the guard walks away from Elliott's hiding spot. He summons his anima and watches as the dog appears at his feet. “Are you both doing okay?” the dog sniffles with a slobbery smile as a yes. “Okay, good, now you can go back to him. Keep him safe Patches.” He whispers before the dog vanishes back to where Elliott was hiding. Mr. Harris walks out of the room and heads downstairs to wait for their investigation to be over. 

The guards and the man soon come back while Mr. Harris is sipping tea in his living room. The stout man speaks first, “We couldn't find any hybrid but that doesn’t mean you are off the hook. We will be watching you very closely James Harris, we will not have another Amelia incident.” With that, they left the older man in peace. 

Harris instantly heads upstairs and opens the hidden door revealing the antlered boy and Patches both unharmed. "Who were they?" Elliott inquired as Mr. Harris led him down stairs. 
The older man sighs while sitting down on his chair. "They are bad bad men. They call themselves the Hybrid Watch. Their leader is a stuck up fellow named Oscar Hassan." The elder pats the seat next to him. "Come, sit. How about another story?" The snow haired boy nods and eagerly hops up on the couch listening to the old man spin tales for hours on end.