Chapter Three
The boy's face had been the picture of fear. Almost beautiful. As I leaped for his throat, foolishly taking the clearest attack, the movement of his hand to his knife and back in front of his chest spelled death for me. Desperately, I tensed my front legs in an attempt to catch myself on his shoulders and maybe roll away from the wicked blade poised before me. No, he side-stepped and the knife's edge found its target. A yelp escaped my opened jaws as I fell, unbalanced, to the ground. Pain blossomed in my shoulder as my precious life-blood flowed down my front left leg. Then came the ground. I had wanted that connection, the snow was supposed to have been a cold cushion for my wounded shoulder, but the pain was mind-blowing as I hit the seemingly soft powder. Surely this wasn't snow, surely this was rock. Surely I would wake up soon and realize this had all just been a terrible dream. My watering eyes opened to whiteness every where, there would be no sweet awakening from this nightmare.
Frantically, I tried to push myself back to my paws. I knew if I stayed down then there was no chance of my survival. My legs shook, and my breath came in pants, but it was all to no avail. With a breathless groan, my heavy body fell with a soft thud into the snow. Defeat washed over me, sickening my heart and depriving me of any hope for survival. I would die, and that boy would kill me. Even as I thought this, the weight of his hand gently pressed down on my unwounded shoulder. It was warm and in a way comforting. He cared. Glancing back at him briefly, I saw in his eyes a gentleness that came with innocence. He raised the blade above my heart and my head flopped back to the ground. There was no hope for me now, with my death his innocence would be ripped from his soul like a weaning colt from its mother. The gentleness would be gone, and in its place a cold steeliness would grow and consume him. No longer would he hesitate to kill another animal, it would become second nature and he would grow into a cold blooded killer.
A sigh came from my muzzle, blowing some of the snow away from my nose. If only there was a way to escape this end, maybe two futures would be changed. I could feel the life draining from my body as my wound was left unbound, and my vision became blurry as I assumed they would if my eyes were glassed over. So this is death? Funny how the cold no longer touches me… Yes, I was warm. It had happened suddenly, it was like a warm hand had covered my body and a gentle breeze blew through my fur like a soft caress of a hand. Even though I couldn't smile, the corners of my mouth curled slightly in what could have been a wolfish grin. A thud came from beside me and I saw the general shape of a knife, the boy's knife. And as I watched him guard his face with his hands as if he was being ravaged by some unseen force, the familiar sensation of phasing spread throughout my body. My arms and legs lengthened into those of a human's and my eyesight returned to normal. The fur rippled away from my body and was replaced with tanned skin, the only hair remaining being the long thick locks on my head. As the shift ended, along with it did the warm breeze, a mournful howl seeming to come from somewhere in the distance, however I could tell it came from the wind itself. Odd… But I gave no more thought to the wind; instead I allowed my eyes to shut and tried to numb away the pain in my shoulder.
There was a gasp that told me the boy had seen my new form and then the heat of his hand as it crept slowly toward the wolf-head clasp holding together my cloak. Anger spread through my blood, gifting strength to my stiffening muscles. He would not touch that brooch, the only thing I had to remind me of my family. With impossible speed and precision, my hand darted out and closed with an iron-like grip around his wrist. The boy let out a shocked yelp and yanked away, scuttling back as he realized I was awake. Pain flared in my shoulder and my arm dropped too late as I saw that I had used my left arm. Damn, damn, damnit! You idiot! The boy faded into the back of my mind as I cradled my wounded shoulder, seeking to lessen the pain wracking the torn limb. Slowly, my eyes drifted up to the boy and his eyes widened at my glare. I knew what I looked like, the picture of death. His death. "Idiot." I hissed, anger seeping through my voice like venom. "Why the hell are you hunting me?"
The boy only sat there staring, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping open.
"What? Stop acting like you've never seen someone shift before and help me up!" The boy responded to my sharp command instantly, jumping up and scurrying over to my side. He was obviously used to being ordered around.
His hand closed around my outstretched wrist and I in turn clasped his, in that manner he helped to pull me to my feet. After I stood with my own strength and balance, I took a moment to scan him over. There were no tattoos that marked him as a lion, no sense of pride or honor that would mark him as tiger, he didn't have flightiness of an avian, and he seemed too reserved to be serpiente. Come to think of it, he didn't seem to have an animal counterpart at all. My eyes narrowed at the concept of such a thing. It was practically heresy. Peering at him suspiciously, I started to speak again but he cut me off with a wavering voice, "Wh-what are you?"
I drew away with shock, and maybe some disgust. With his question, everything was made very clear to me. This boy wasn't like me, he wasn't like anyone. He was the black dot in a world of snow. He was different. And I was scared.
