Zipperjack

A noblewoman of Ceredigion, Jackie used to have everything she could possibly need. Land, a grand house, treasures from all over the world and a good life. But she was unhappy, deep down. She couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something.

One day, a merchant brought her a fur coat he had acquired from a distant land. It was light blue and white, reminding her of clear skies on a summer day. She took it gratefully and tried it on when she was back in her room. It fit her perfectly. 

She took to wearing it more often than not, until she almost felt like someone else without it. Months later, on a night where she had dreams of running free in a meadow, she found herself outside under an oak tree, the morning light filtering down. When she stood, she stood on all fours, when she looked up, the grass towered over her. Was this another dream?

She found a puddle and gazed down at her reflection. A blue and white hare gazed back, a zipper in one ear, running down to her forehead. Her brown eyes were all that was left. 

She didn't know if to panic or to be curious. Why was she like this? Could she get back? How had it happened? These questions ran themselves raw in her mind as she hopped and ran back to her home. Her door was open, just a little, and she slipped inside and up to her room. The mirror was low enough for her to see into, and as she watched the zipper opened and she was transformed back to herself, wrapped in the blue fur coat.

For days after, she wouldn't go near the coat. Had it been that? Was it magic? She was afraid of it, but also intrigued. Could she be a hare again?

Eventually, when she was sure there would be no one around for the day, she put it on again and immediately felt so at home again. She didn't change; not at first. Only after she zipped the coat up did she transform to a hare once more.

By day, she was Jackie the noblewoman, by night she was Zipperjack the hare. More and more time she spent as a hare, more comfortable in the fields surrounding her home, free from responsibilities and human mundanecies, that she was no longer comfortable in her human form. 

On a beautiful sunny day, she looked up to the sky and wished she could fly. The swifts and swallows danced above her. They looked so free, so serene. And she found herself up there, on feathered, ethereal wings.

Oh, to be a bird! She thought, and answering thought came back in a quiet, hushed tone: which bird?

Who's speaking? She asked inside her mind.

I am. Zipper, came the answer. I am the coat, and I am you.

How can you be me?

You accepted me, you feel at home with me. I am you in every sense, yet in no sense too.

That... makes no sense.

No. But it is what it is.

The swifts and swallows had drifted away, leaving her floating in a clear sky, a warm breeze ruffling her fur and feathers.

What are you? She asked. The coat?

What are you? Zipper echoed. The wearer?

Suddenly, she was a swift, flying high in the summer sky. Flying away from all that she knew to find a new world.