Running, hiding, just trying to stay alive.

That's how Camilo felt as the thick of the night approached him and the land. Only the moonlight shed some traces of visibility for him. He began to panic, however, when the clouds overtook the sky and rain began to lash down.

He knew, deep down, why this was happening as someone was worried about him. Someone who controlled the weather itself.

His mother, Pepa.

~x~

"He's out there ALL alone!" She cried as she pointed out the window to the whirling storm before them.

"Please, Pepa!" Felix pleaded to her quickly, grabbing her hands and holding them tight, "If you panic, YOU'LL FLOOD THE AREA!"

The brunette woman took a few deep breaths in and out, in, out, and swallowed, closing her eyes and trying to think happy thoughts.

But those thoughts began to get construed and manipulated when she saw the mental image of Camilo huddled against a cave wall, her BABY out there! Helpless!

"Mama," Antonio said to her quietly, slowly approaching his mother and holding her hand, "He'll make it, he'll come back,"

It was Antonio who had told their parents. Dolores tried to keep him silent on the matter, but he disobeyed and did what his heart told him to do. To trust that with everyone knowing, Camilo would be found, whether as a boy... or a dog.

Pepa breathed out heavily at the touch of her son's hand in hers and she bit her bottom lip anxiously as the clouds slowly began to disperse and the moon shone on once again.

Mirabel was up in the nursery, only looking through her window in the deep of the night. The wind could be heard howling through the leaves in the forest far away and she knew with her own better knowledge that there was nothing she could do to help her cousin right now.

At least, not on her own.

She nodded her head and slowly crept across the room. She would find her cousin and scare him so hard he would bounce back into his original self and all would be well once again.

She hoped...

But right now, she needed help – and there was only one person who she knew could speak to creatures, not like herself.

~x~

Camilo was in a small indent against a mountainous wall. He quivered there, his doggy chocolate eyes looking out to the storm that was starting to clear away. He watched as stars slowly began to sprinkle across the canvas of the night sky, and the clouds gave way for the moon to show its light as well.

"Why was I such an arrogant fool?" He uttered to himself then, "Why did I feel like I had to prove something?" He wallowed in his own misery as he looked over his life and all the times he was confident, yet non the wiser.

He had been so many people, so many ages... taking on others' appearances and becoming them in seconds... why did he feel like he had to be an animal...? Let alone a dog?
But thinking that then, suddenly gave him an idea.

He was a dog, in both body and partly mind. He could use this to his advantage and he slowly got up on his shivering legs, walking away from the small cave and out to the forest. He sniffed the air silently, his eyes adjusting as best they could to the dark. He could do this...

He remembered when he had taken on the form of Mariano, and how confident he was in that man's body and image. He remembered the strength of the muscles, the assuredness in oneself.

He pictured himself as Antonio... how being in his brother's form allowed him to have humility and not think he could do everything independently.

Finally, he remembered when he had been in Mirabel's image. How she was scared but always brave enough to go through with what had to be done.

All these emotions he had felt by himself when he had shapeshifted into another, they gave him confidence to figure out a way out of this mess.

He slowly stepped lightly on the leaves and twigs on the ground floor of the forest's basin. He felt the scents in the air were vivid and in his mind, he saw the pictures of whom and where the smells were coming from.

He froze then when he caught a scent, an odour that smelt dangerous. He looked around, his eyesight in the night only slightly better than human eyes.

Soon the scent gave him the mental picture of a big cat... a jaguar.

This... THIS. WAS. NOT. GOOD.

He looked for a place to hide, but even with all the trees and rocks in his way, there was no shadow dark enough nor any cave on the mountainside hollow enough.

He blinked his eyes in panic, looking back out to the leafy black world ahead of him... and he saw it, he saw her slowly approach him with eyes shining gold from reflecting the only moonlight that hit her.

"A dog?" She asked, perplexed. The jaguarseemed to laugh to herself and Camilo would've frowned if he could, but he was in too much shaky fear to do anything.

"I can understand... you...?"

She purred in delight and sauntered over to him, her long tail twisting and turning with energy and fun.

"Of course, you can," She said with a feline grin, "Where've you been, dog?" She asked, her tail slinking past him and rubbing under his dog jaw, this irritated him greatly but he was not going to start a fight... especially one he could lose.

"I'm not really a dog, okay?" Camilo told her then in a small snap of his muzzle, "I'm a Madrigal!"

"But... aren't Madrigals', people?" She asked cheekily and sat before him, the rain finally easing off completely and leaving him alone with the big cat.

"I am PEOPLE. CAMILO!" He told her angrily but sighed when she only blinked her eyes slowly in curiosity, before raising a large paw to her tongue and licking it, cleaning her dirty fur.

"No one can be JUST PEOPLE." She remarked, pointing her paw at him in coyness, "And I know Camilo Madrigal... he's a teenage boy, a human shapeshifter."
"Wait..." Camilo said, sitting up straighter on his dog legs, and staring her down, "How do you know me? Are you-"

"Hmm?" She purred.

"Are you Antonio's jaguar?"

"I belong to no one," Was all she replied with, "But Antonio is my friend..."

"Help me!" Camilo begged then, his pupils going wide and his ears drooping in timidness, "Help me find him! Help me be HUMAN again!"

"That second request will be a bit hard to do," She said quietly, chuckling to herself, but her claws slowly unclasped away from her paws and she held them out to Camilo, who only then understood then the danger he was in.

"I don't know how to make you HUMAN again." She told him, slowly crawling closer to him and he was pushed to the tree trunk in fear, "But I do know how to make you no longer a dog..."

"Please-!" He begged, trembling there, closing his eyes as he whimpered against the wood.

"It'll be just a few seconds-"

"Leah!"

She instantly turned away at the sound of her name, hearing the voice so deep in the thicket of the woods, "My master is calling me," She said then, turning to look back at Camilo, "So I'll let you go this time, dog-"

When she glimpsed back to him, her jaw dropped open a little in surprise.

The dog was gone...

She pondered how he had escaped her then, before letting go of the question and going to the young boy who beckoned for her return.

As she approached Antonio, she noted the worry on his face.

"Master?" She asked him and he grabbed both sides of her furry face, begging as he said.

"We have to find Camilo! He's a dog!"

So he wasn't lying... she thought inside, and felt the smallest trace of guilt run through her then.

"I know where he is..." She told Antonio, but looked up quietly when she saw the girl Madrigal was present here too, "At least I will once more..."

"How?"

"Wet dog smell..." She said with a grin and a deep purr, "It can be detected for miles."