The stars shined so bright this night like millions of diamonds were in the sky. I breathed in the fresh air and closed my eyes and just listened to the nature that surrounded me. I had only just returned home from being away in battle; so, it was nice to return home to my village; my village was surrounded by woodland, we were shifters an ancient race from an ancient time; we are like skin changers but instead of having one animal to change into we could choose any animal we want to and change into it. I watched my people (yes, they're my people I'm the chief's daughter) they were all singing, dancing and drinking around the fire celebrating the return of the army that set out for battle many months ago. Their carefree nature put a small smile on my face as I stood and watched, but something out of the corner of my eye caught my attention; I turned to look towards the west side of the village but as I looked closer my heart dropped and I immediately turned towards the village and yelled,

"ORCS!" my strong voice sounded over the celebrations causing people to go quiet and the women and children quickly race towards their homes and the men race for their weapons including myself as the orcs swarmed the village burning homes to the ground, I struck orc after orc trying to protect my family and my people from this terrible occurrence, frightening screams replaced the celebratory shouts and joyfulness was replaced with terror and dread, the fires spread from house to house women and children raced from their burning homes and tried to find shelter amongst the forest but orcs slaughtered them before they even got close to the protection the forest could provide them, only warriors had the shifting gene typically it was only males but every so often the female got the gene including I, but the forest would cloak the ones who weren't fortunate enough to receive the gene so when we're in danger we take to the forest for the protection.

"Kahlan!" I heard my name being shouted, I spun around to look at my father who was fighting his way through orcs, behind him I saw my mother and siblings laying on the floor with their throats cut. I sliced through orcs to reach my father,

"You must go, leave and save yourself! Everyone has been slaughtered, you must go" he huffed, out of breath,

"What about you?" I asked, fear filling my veins at what he was about to say,

"My time is up little one, I don't have enough strength to shift, I will give you enough time to shift and get out of here, go as far as you can Kahlan" he replied, a choked sob came out of my mouth as I wrapped my father up in my arms one last time, before I took off running towards the south forest my body was then engulfed in a white blinding light my body slowly began to transform and change into the animal I chose; my arms turned to wings and feathers sprouted all over, my body finished changing into the white barn owl I chose, arrows flew past me they were trying to shoot me down out of the sky, I looked behind me only to see my father get run through with a blade, my heart shattered into millions of pieces I almost dropped out of the sky from the pain I felt. I turned away and continued to fly as far away as possible.