A Pair of Children
"I'm just saying, it doesn't make sense to me." Timler was saying. "How can you change your age and the size of your clothes at will?" "That's what you're hung up on?" I asked. "I mean, I don't think it makes sense to change your own age either. But I've seen weirder things, and I can travel through time." Timler mused. "Well, it's not really that much different. I'm bringing only my age back in time. I can't even fast forward in time, just like you can't." I explained. "Wait, am I in the past or the present?" Timler suddenly asked. "This is what you get for messing with fate." I sighed, facepawing. "Can you try fast forwarding?" "I can't." He said immediately. "Then you're in the present." I concluded. "Wow, the present looks a lot like the past." Timler mused. I just groaned and continued walking. He followed me, but he was pretty paranoid. I saw a blue mist creeping up from the ground. "Dude, calm down. You're slipping into the Temporal Mists." "You see it too?" he asked. I sighed a sad sigh, "I really hope I can help you." "With what?" "Nothing." I dodged the question. I find that I'm really good at that. Suddenly, a spout of fire burst into the sky. "What the hell is that?!" the bear following yelled. I groaned. How did we actually not immediately kill each other again? I reached up and grabbed his head to bring his face to where our foreheads touched. I stared into his eyes and concentrated. In his mind, I found symptoms of hysteria. Nothing a bit of mental regression can't solve, right? And his mind is tens of thousands years old... I reached into his thoughts, trying to calm him enough to start making his mind young again. He was rejecting me though. I decided to dive deep into his mind and confront his subconscious. It was a nightmare. The ground was littered with crawling insects, and the air reeked of sulfur. Breathing in felt like inhaling pyrotechnical smoke. I looked around and saw a wooden cabin with a single door and window. The light was on, but it didn't look like anyone was home. I went to the shack, trying to ignore the crunching under my feet. I knew they weren't real. They can only hurt me if I let them. I was keeping close tabs on our bodies in the real world. His heart rate was increasing a little too much for a sleeping organism, so I regressed his body to the same size as mine and began to slowly rub his head, trying to calm him. It's at times like this I'm thankful I have good therapeutic instincts and can control my body while it's asleep. I opened the door, and noticed that the insects refused to cross the threshold. I welcomed the lack of chittering. The crunching sound under my feet was
replaced with the soft sound of me padding across the wooden floor. I heard whimpering nearby, and eventually found the source. "Timler?" I asked. There was a bear that resembled him in a prone position in the corner, except he was ancient. His skin was cracking and falling off, and his fur had long since fallen out. He was clutching his head and muttering gibberish. "Ten unlikely heroes...time...travel..." he sounded like he was in absolute agony. What has he seen? I knelt beside him, placing a comforting paw on his shoulder. It was at this moment that he actually realized I was in here. He didn't stop spewing nonsense, however. "Oppressive...demons...only one chance...Gah!!" I sat him up and held him in my arms. I know from personal experience that a hug can really calm one's nerves. "Shh. Timler, your mind is too old for your body." I reached my power out to him and began regressing his mind. His skin quickly grew back and his fur returned. His body began to shrink until he was what I would assume sixteen. I made sure to keep it that so he wouldn't lose his max age. In all technicality, I figured out how to push the boundaries of age progression and regression long ago, when I was another man. It was a suppressed memory, and it only recently resurfaced. "I-I...I'm so tired...Can't sleep...Can't eat...Lost the will to live..." Timler cried. His true emotions...amazing. I listened as he poured out all his grievances to me, sparing no detail. He had apparently been void of sustenance for quite a while, and he had reached a breaking point. "It was horrible, watching what I'd become. I would just stand by and watch people die, and I couldn't care even if I tried!" he was bawling at this point. I tried to give him happy pictures. My first attempt was a quiet room with the only sound being the faint voice of a loved one on the telephone in another room. I don't know why, but that particular experience was always comforting to me. It told me that everything was fine. I wasn't alone, and they weren't incapable of communication with the outside world. I could relax in their comforting arms, to speak in a metaphor. It worked for a second, and Timler's breathing slowed in real life, but his mind replaced the soothing business call with a loud argument with an ex. I decided to move on. My next scene was one for younger cubs. It was a bedroom. The bed had childish covers on it and the wallpaper was blue with a strip of dinosaur-related stuff from prehistoric times. Time was slowing down in real life as a dream-like feeling engulfed the scene. It was sunny outside, and the birds were singing. I had trouble remembering what year I found this scene in, but I know that I've been alive for quite the while. An oak tree was swaying in the wind right outside of the window, and there was a small amount of clouds in the sky, giving a peaceful air to the world. Various
shelves were filled with toys and art supplies, and a dresser with a TV on top gave me a hint to the year this came from. This was around the year 2000 when non-plasma TVs weren't quite the norm. It was one of the more bulky TVs that I'd only ever heard about, and I already could guess the contents of the drawers. Timler and I had instantly changed positions and were facing each other at about the age of four. We were wearing nothing but diapers and single colored t-shirts, and we were playing a friendly game of Candyland. It seemed to be going really well. He and I were chatting and enjoying our time together. I think he even smiled. That is, until he landed on the licorice piece near Chocolate Swamp. A brown slimy liquid oozed from under the game board, and I wet myself in real life as Timler began to scream and tugged at parts of his body that were stuck in the swamp. I reset the scene save for the board game. Trial and error may not be my favorite method, but it works. I made the time dusk, and I had Timler and I sitting together on the bed, enjoying watching the sun disappear behind the mountains. I remember doing this with my real brother, and I always remembered it calming me when we were little. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer this over any complex therapy session any day. Timler was slowly dozing off, and his heartrate was slowing to a relaxed state in real life. The mental therapy was finally taking hold, and soon I would be able to meet the real Timler Chronor...