A/N: Any character or theme or name and anything else from the movie I DO NOT OWN. The plot for this story I do own, as well as Veriea and the species Forenien. These two are my creatations and mine alone so NO TOUCHIE! If anyone rips off my character or species I will send the real Veriea after them; she may not be a blood hound but she will still find you. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Enjoy the story ; P

Animal Instincts.

Chapter 1 – Hallucinations?

Veriea ran as fast as she could, ever aware of the hunter's dogs drawing closer.

Soon they would be close enough to start nipping at her to wear her down and after that she wouldn't last long. They didn't know the difference between her and their usual quarry but she still hated them, particularly for their stupidity. Because of them she didn't have the chance, let alone the time to make the change and escape the hunters.

Why hadn't she been paying attention? Why had she come out here like this in the first place? Her achingly empty belly answered her question with a rumble. She'd been hungry, still was hungry, and this was the only way she knew how to get food successfully.

She stumbled a little, recovering quickly but she soon found that she could feel the breath of the dogs on the back of her legs. In a blind panic she didn't realize until too late that she'd run into a dead end. Seconds later the dogs were on her, each biting down hard on her arms, dragging her down to the ground and pinning her there with their forepaws to wait for their masters. She struggled and tried to free herself even though she knew that, now that they had her, she couldn't escape from the two large dogs; their jaws were locked firmly around her arms and any attempt to pull free would only lead to her being injured further.

Ironic that now she had plentiful time to change but could not because the dogs were holding her. If it had only been the dogs earlier, she could have fought them off easily but the hunters were too close and they had guns. If she had taken the time to deal with the dogs, she'd have been dead before she had time to escape their sights or for them to realize what she was. Too bad the dogs wouldn't kill her.

She could handle dying, that was only natural and she was lucky she'd survived this long but when the hunters saw her, her life would not be worth living; to be seen, to be captured alive, had always been her worst fear. If she was captured it would mean examination, laboratories, experiments, scientists, biologists and every other kind of "ist" she could think of, poking and prodding until she died and then being cut up and distributed for further study. Tears ran down her furry cheeks. "Anywhere, anything but this," She whispered. "Anything."

With her eyes screwed up tight, she didn't see that she had begun to glow.

(Change POV)

Captain Jack Sparrow was quite pleased with himself.

He had escaped a hanging, had a crew, had The Black Pearl back and had clear horizons as far as the eye could see ahead of him. He hummed his favorite pirate song softly as he looked contentedly out over the deck of his ship with his keen, kohl-lined eyes, the crew scurrying about doing their various jobs and the beads in his black dread-locked hair and beard clacking gently in the sea breeze. He breathed in deeply the smell of salt and brine and exhaled with a handsomely lopsided grin, more a smirk than a smile.

Yes, everything was perfect.

"Anamaria," He called in his husky, slurred voice.

"Aye Captain?" A stocky dark-skinned woman answered.

"Take the helm, keep to a bearing of due North-East and tell me if anything interesting happens." He instructed.

"Aye, aye Captain!" Anamaria responded enthusiastically and took over. She knew though that he was only letting her steer the ship so that she wouldn't be so mad about not keeping his promise that she would get The Interceptor, in return for the boat which he had 'borrowed without permission'.

In a good mood and feeling some-what playful, Jack grinned at her, tipping his hat and slurred, "Thanks luv." Before swaggering off to the Captain's quarters for some rum and a siesta.

He had just closed the door when there was a bright flash of light and something large and heavy fell on top of him. It took him a moment to realize that the something was alive and no sooner had he made this observation, amidst a great deal of cursing, than it had freed itself from him and shot across the room.

"Who the fuck are you!" A female voice growled as Jack picked himself up and shook his head, as if trying to un-jumble the scrambled thoughts flitting through his brain.

"I am Captain Jack Sparrow, Captain of this ship!" He replied automatically and indignantly. "This is my cabin, so what are you doing in here and who the-" He stopped as he looked at them properly. He blinked and shook his head again.

He still saw the same thing. This confused him greatly because he knew he wasn't drunk (he hadn't had the chance) yet somehow he was hallucinating a near eight foot tall, red, black and grey dog…thing…there, standing upright on two legs and talking.

But hallucinations didn't drop out of the sky (or cabin roofs) and they certainly weren't heavy and solid, both of which this creature definitely was. Jack drew his sword and pointed it at the creature. "Scratch that. What the bloody Hell are you?"