AnEx
"Zara! Gimme back my blanket!"
"No! it's mine!" yelled back Zara. She was clutching a dirty ragged blanket, which she tried to hide behind her back. "Nu-uh. It's mine and you know it!"
"No its not! It doesn't have your name on it!"
"It will if you give it back! Screamed Zeena, leaping onto her back with a slight chirp. Hissing at Zara, who was now perched on her shoulders, went down on all fours and started running around the room.
The hissing and the chirping grew louder. Zeena jumped off Zara's back, landing a few feet away. She felt her body grow even lighter, arms growing thicker, mouth becoming a hard beak.
Zara turned to look at her, her eyes glowing green slits. Her human ears fading away into fuzzy black and white tipped ears. Her teeth changed, canines coming out on her upper and lower jaw. Her fingers and feet back white stocking paws. A tail appeared, swishing back and forth , as if an independent being waiting for action.
Zeena kicked off her shoes, showing over scaled bird feet, her nails scratching the floor nervously. Her head moving back and forth.
A deep growl permeated Zara's throat, bring Zeenas attention back to her. They slowly started to circle each other, watching each other's every movement. The blanket that started the fight was long forgotten on the floor. Clothes had been shed and spread around the floor.
Zara pounced first. Sending Zeena high into the air. She landed on the bed, and was quickly off again. Zara stalked her around the room, waiting for a change. As she did so, she felt the room grow bigger around her.
Zeena flew around the room in panicked circles, tweeting nervously. She knew her sister was stronger than her in her other form, but in her panic, Zeena realized almost too late, that as her sister stalked her around the room, she had gotten her closer and closer to the corner of the room.
Zara's tail swishing excitedly, she tensed her muscles to jump.
A loud roar stopped her. A large Siberian tiger entered the room.
"what's going on here!" asked the tiger, her voice a little rough with a rumbling sounds underlying the human speech. Then the tiger's back arched, and the features become more human. But she still had golden yellow eyes and sharp canines.
"Zoey…" said both Zara and Zeena together. They had known Zoey for years, but they still feared her as much as they loved and respected her. She was their leader.
"what's going on here?" she asked again, putting her hands on her hips.
Both the girls started to chirp and meow with some words thrown in there. Sometimes when they were excited they started to speak gibberish, a mix of human and animal, understandable only when the listener and also in their other form.
"in human please." Said Zoey. She then patiently waited for them to change back.
Zeena was a large, and semi fluffy yellow canary while her twin sister was a black and white car. Mortal enemies in their other forms. but they loved each other and when they weren't quarreling, you knew that they both cared for each other. They had that twin bond that always keeps then close to each other.
As they changed back, they walked around the room picking up the discarded clothes. In their other forms the clothes wouldn't fit anymore. But all of them always had on a back suit that was able to change with them.
It took longer for them to change back then anyone else. But when they were finally dressed, they stood in front of Zoey, ready to tell her why they had been fighting.
"It was all Zara's fault" huffed Zeena.
"No it wasn't! if Zeena had just let me keep the blanket that was mine anyways, then none of this would have happened. I found it first!"
"But-"started Zeena only to be stopped by Zoey.
"Hush." She growled, her face turned a slight shade of pink in her anger. " I don't care who started it, but knock it of!"
"But-" started Zeena.
"huhn! No more words from your mouth or next time I see you in your bird form. I'll EAT you. "she then turned around and glided out of the room, mumbling a bit about indigestion from bird feathers.
"I think…." Began Zara.
"That we woke her up from her after lunch nap…" finished Zeena. The blanket incident long forgotten as they giggles about how angry Zoey looked.
Robert, Zoey AnEx partner, found the twins in near hysterics about 10 minutes after they Zoey had left.
"Oh, nothing you would understand" giggles Zara. "Just… girl stuff" she giggled.
"So, basically your laughing because of Zoey?" he said with a small chuckle.
"No!" they both said with guilt looks on their faces.
"You know, she really is mad at you this time. She was just telling me earlier how you always interrupt her afternoon nap… from what I heard, she's got it in her head that you do this just to irritate her."
"no, of course not! It's just, kind of like a habit now. Before you guys came along, it was just us. So to pass the time we argued and fought. At one point it even got so bad that we didn't talk or look at each other" said Zara.
"Yeah. But the funny thing is that after a day we were both so lonely that we both came crying back to each other." She said with a laugh, hugging her sister.
"haha." Said Robert. "so that's why."
"But we will try to stop if you think it will help Zoey." Said Zara.
"Thank you." He said with a smile. "it's just that she gets so much moodier around this time of year…"
"Well, it is almost that time again. But they haven't released any new AnExs in a while." Said Zeena with a far off look in her eyes.
"Yes. It's been almost four years now since Deena and Daisy arrived…." Said Robert, looking out the still open door. Then with a far off look in his eyes, Robert left the twins. He then walked down the path towards the caf, where he was sure he would find Zoey.
"Can you really believe it's been 12 years already…." Said Zeena.
"Yes. It's hard to believe." Replied Zara. "12 very long years…" she said getting up. Holding out a hand to Zeena, they walked out of their cement house and down the path to the caf. There were eight cement rooms total, with only six being occupied at the moment, with each holding two AnEx's.
"We've spent 12 years in this hell hole…can you even remember a time when we weren't living here?" said Zeena.
"No, actually. I don't recall a time other than here…it has always been us in that cement house…"said Zara. She then transformed into her cat form, and instead of going to the car, she darted off the path, and found a sunny patch to lie in.
Zeena picked up her sister clothes and deposited on the doorstep of the closest house. She would collect it later. The then transformed herself and flew up into her favorite tree Daisy's garden. Her beautiful, yet sorrowful canary voice filled the area. No other creature made a sound but the wind in the trees and the moving of water.
"Twelve long years…." Whispered Zara before she lay down for an afternoon nap. Her tail curling around her body, and drifted off to sleep listening to her twins song, dreaming of escaping from that place.