"You're leaving?" Aubert Peltier said in that slow, contemplative way of his, his eyes studying Jasyn as if looking at him under a microscope. Jasyn nodded, his arms folded over his broad chest.

"Why are you leaving?"

"I have business to take care of," Jasyn said lazily, he allowed his unfeeling eyes to walk over Aubert, studying the studier. Jasyn was aware that Aubert did not like him, his reputation for no mercy to anyone, man; woman and child did not sit right with the old bear. Even though most of the Katagaria regarded him as a saviour of sorts, a hero worthy of highest worship, Jasyn knew the only reason Aubert tolerated him was because he lived in Sanctuary. Aubert was of a different breed, a man who still valued honour and a sense of fair play even among enemies. Jasyn firmly believed that the old bear would change his mind the day he lost everything and everyone he'd ever loved. Aubert frowned for a moment, Jasyn did not react at all, the bears approval and respect mattered little to him, should it come to it he knew he could take him out, one on one. Still, it would be a good fight.

"Then Zeus be kind to you," Aubert said courteously, ever the slave to good manners and propriety.

"Why? I don't need it," Jasyn said back, damning decorum to hell. Aubert lifted his lip in a sneer and left Jasyn on his own. Jasyn did not bother looking around his bedroom, even though he'd been there over seven years the room had only ever been temporary to him.

************************************************************

Jasyn swooped low and landed on the jutting branch of a tree, with a flick of his proud beak he scanned the entire landscape around him one glance. The lonely song of the wind promised that there was no one to catch him, Jasyn allowed himself to flash into human form, something he detested and normally refrained from doing, but it would be easier to look for human tracks in this form. Jasyn knelt low to the ground and his fingertips skimmed the dusty earth, his hawk eyes looking for signs of humans, he saw none. His fingertip lightly tipped a jagged pebble, he felt its sharp point press into his skin as it rolled, Jasyn rubbed his two fingers against his thumb still amazed after all these years at the different sensory experience he encountered as a human. He should be used to it really, he'd been able to change forms for centuries, though if he were truthful he spent very little time in human form if any.

Jasyn straightened to his magnificent height of six four and allowed a moment or two for nostalgia, Sofia province of southern Bulgaria was part of the land that had been his ancient birth place: Thracia. He had very few memories of this place but all were happy, or at least he thought they were, then again it was so long ago he sometimes wondered whether they were dreams. An attempt by his lonesome, angry mind to give himself some peace. The mountainous region where Jasyn had been a hatchling was very beautiful, and very peaceful, and a part of Jasyn disliked what he would have to do here. The anger and violence and hate of the act would in some way soil the beauty and tranquillity of Sofia, and therefore drain away the appeal Jasyn had for it. When Jasyn allowed himself to think of the past or even of the future, his birthplace was the only thing that he would concentrate on. In a life where he was simply living day by day, not caring whether he saw the next morning, to think of Sofia was something akin to hope or aspiration for Jasyn, aspiration for what he hadn't the faintest idea.

"Where are you, Arion?" Jasyn breathed, his eyes narrowed, searching. It was strange that of all the people Jasyn came into contact with, Arion, his arch enemy and nemesis, was the only thing that made Jasyn feel. In the early days when had first begun their strange game of chase and besting each other, Jasyn had felt a quickening of pulse when Arion would come after him to fight. Only the very bravest of sentinels had dared to face him, his fearsome reputation notwithstanding, Jasyn was one of the most ruthless fighters known to Were- kind. Where he was hero and champion of the Katagaria, he had become the Were version of Charlie Manson, only a hell of a lot scarier. And that was how Arion had earned Jasyn's hatred but also his respect and through that mutual respect a silent understanding had formed, that the game was between them and only them, Jasyn liked that. They thought on the same level, knowing if another should involve themselves the fight would continue on another day. They fought dirty and mercilessly yet with the sportsmen like nobility that should one fall the other would give him a swift, clean death. Jasyn refused to admit that should Arion be killed, he would be left floundering in the world without anyone to hate. Hatred and a need to win was the reason Jasyn was still alive, each fight neither had come out victorious but Arion always came back for more, ready each time with more quips and ruthless skill that could match Jasyn's own. How it broke the monotony of living!

This battle had been a long time coming, their very last one had left both in a state of near death, Arion had been saved by his Romani sorcerer friend, Ferka, while Jasyn had been left to rot. He had no friends to call upon in hours of need, which he was glad about, they'd only end up selling him out and costing more. Jasyn remembered as Ferka was carrying Arion away, the Arcadian had looked over at him as he lay upon the ground, his feathers soaked in blood.

"If you do not die, my friend," Arion had rasped with a punctured lung, "send me word and I'll come for you."

I'll find you first, asshole!

That had been in Richmond, Virginia 2000, Jasyn had been pretty sure he was going to die. Arion ordered Ferka to place Jasyn upon the pavement and out of the way of the traffic, then Ferka had refused to aid him anymore until he saw his friend to safety. Then the real indignities had begun, a crowd of human boys had found him and started poking him with sticks and nudging him with the toe of their shoes, inflicting more damage to his wounds. They'd finally gotten bored and one particularly vicious little shit had picked him up by his injured wing and thrown him into the rubbish bin. It was only in the early hours of the morning when the disposal guys turned up and found him still breathing; that one of them had decided a red tailed hawk was important enough to be saved. Jasyn had spent the next few weeks recuperating in a local vet's surgery until he was strong enough to break out and make it to Sanctuary. Jasyn flashed into hawk form and took up watch on the tree branch; he'd left his trail and let the word get out that he was out of Sanctuary again. All he had to do was wait, watch and wait; he'd wait all night and all tomorrow for a chance to feel something other then numb, as only Arion could make him feel. The Arcadian would die this time; he would make sure of it.

*************************************************

Emily squinted down at her script and tried to rehearse under her breath, the churning feeling in her stomach had come back and this time she was pretty sure she'd hurl.

"Excuse me, Ma'am?"

Emily snapped her head up and looked around when she found no one there, she frowned, the voice had sounded like it had been spoken from someone directly beside her. She stared into the distance where the director, Alison, was talking to one of the crew and shook her head in exasperation. She'd thought she'd gotten used to her new 'abilities' but there were times when her now super-sensitive hearing and keen eyesight made her look like a bit of a freak, Emily focused once again on the script she had yet to learn. Her job as the leading expert in zoology in the state of New York had taken her career further then anyone, least of all her, could have imagined. Sometimes Emily wondered whether it was because she was different that she had such good luck, she'd run tests on herself to see if she gave off any unnatural pheromones that could possibly make people more amiable towards her. She'd found nothing and had had to admit, with a rush of pride, that her good fortunes were down to gritty hard work and plain ole good luck. Now discovery channel were launching a new show and had begged her to co-present it with none other then David Attenborough! She was going to be on T.V! Okay, so the fact that one of her best friends was part of the crew had helped no doubt but Emily refused to believe that she would have gotten the job just because Paul had given her a leg up to his bosses.

Emily stared around her allowing her hawks eyes to take in the scenic landscape of Sofia, there was so much more to see as a hawk, the colours and movements that a human wouldn't notice. When she had first become aware of her new eyes Emily had pointed excitedly to the way the grassed moved in the wind, and the peculiar sounds made by ordinary objects. She'd recognised quickly that it wasn't good idea to keep doing this as most people hadn't a clue what she was seeing or hearing, she had rapidly gathered the reputation of one of the worlds eccentrics, making people give her a wide berth in the office. A noise from one of the camera men chewing his gum quietly eight foot away from her jolted Emily out of her thoughts and she gave a groan, she couldn't seem to get her tongue around the words on the page.

"Okay, lets try again," she muttered on a sigh, "Bulgaria is fast becoming a hot spot for bird watchers from all over the world … Its beautiful but rare combination of mountain ranges, flat plains and picturesque sea coast provides shelter and safety for many endangered species. Millions of birds use the Pontica - Crap! The Via Pontica … one of the major flyways in Europe … Blah, blah, blah."

"Hey, McLean!" A voice said from behind her, Emily smiled before she looked up, knowing this time the voice was meant for her. Emily looked up and saw Paul approaching her with Aaron and Jay, she sighed happily, the best distractions in the world were your best friends.

"What's up, Red?" Paul said stepping beside her and giving her hair a friendly tug. He'd called her red ever since they'd first met; an obvious nickname for her hair was just another indication that Emily McLean wasn't altogether normal. She'd been born with a strange defect she surmised, that had mutated the pigment in her hair colouring and made it red. Not run of the mill auburn or ginger, but a strange, dark cherry red, together with a honeyed skin and dark eyes Emily knew she attracted attention. And yes, she was a little vain about her looks, but it was really the only thing she had. Yes she'd always been smart, she'd never known how not to be smart - like someone who had been born into a wealthy family, they didn't know how to live without money, it was like breathing, it just was there. Emily's looks had got her places her intelligence alone wouldn't have and they also helped to mask her variety of idiosyncrasies that would have likely had her pummelled in school had she been ugly.

"Hey guys," she said, throwing her script down on the table next to her, she reached out and hugged Jay in greeting, he gave her ass a bit of a slap. Reminding her just how much weight she should be losing.

"Sooo," Jay said eagerly, Emily looked nonplussed.

"So what?"

"I knew it!" Jay threw up his hands in frustration while Paul and Aaron laughed behind him, "you didn't go out with him, did you?"

"Who?" Emily asked, still confused.

"The guy at the opening party, you know the one for the crew?" Emily still wasn't sure who he was talking about, but Jay carried on anyway.

"Whatever, if you can't remember him obviously that says as much as needs to be said."

Aaron eased himself smoothly down into the chair at the table and folded his arms behind his head, "have you dated at all since Edward?" he asked casually.

Emily shook her head, still sore over the fact she'd been ditched for another woman. "Bastard," Paul sneered, making Emily give him a tender look.

"You know, I know this lovely Italian guy," Jay said excitedly, "you remember Dimitri?" Aaron nodded when Jay looked at him. "He's a great guy, good sense of humour, he likes to eat …"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Emily snapped while Paul chuckled. "Look, I appreciate the offer but I don't want a man."

They gave her disbelieving looks. "I don't!" Emily protested offended by their doubt, "I've got too much in my life going on without having to worry about some guy who does nothing but eat my food, sleep in my bed, spend my money, drive my car and gives me nothing in return."

"That's because you don't have good taste," Jay said simply earning him a scathing look from Emily, "leave it to me and you'll be happily married by the end of the year, I promise you!"

"Hell no!"

"You don't want to get married?" Paul asked curiously.

"I don't want to get divorced," Emily retorted glibly with a shrug and Jay gave her a pitying look, then cast a despairing one at Aaron. There was a small silence where they all stared at her.

"Okay, I'm going to risk sound gay here, but these are special circumstances," Jay announced, throwing up his hands.

"You are gay," Aaron responded and got a wink from Jay, "you know it baby!"

Aaron blushed, while Paul pointedly looked away from the exchange of hot looks between the lovers.

"Anyway …" Paul said loudly, Jay smiled wickedly before turning back to Emily, who'd watched the exchange with a soppy expression - if that's how it was, she so wanted to be gay!

"Yeah, well, I think you got intimacy issues, girl."

"Stop watching Ricki Lake," Emily said in a deadpan voice and Jay snorted disgustedly.

"I give up!"

"Thank God!"

"Now, now children," Aaron placated, "Em don't want no man, right?"

"Yes she does!" Jay snapped, "she just doesn't want to get close to someone in case they find out she's a bird!"

Emily paled; Aaron glanced swiftly around to check who was within hearing range, while Paul slapped Jay on the back of the head.

"I mean, broad - 'cause she's a broad and she -erm … Oops?"

"Shut up!" Emily hissed, holding a hand over her face to conceal her half fearful half exasperated expression. She'd told her three best friends about her transformations almost as soon as it had happened, they had turned up on her door step the day after Edward had dumped, her laden down with treats and tissues for a day of comforting a broken heart. Only to find her in a state of electrified excitement and fear, when she had shown them her party trick - Jay's phrase not hers -Paul had promptly asked her whether he should stop smoking weed. Aaron and Jay had handled it with all the grace and dignity to be expected from ex- drag queens, Aaron asking what flying was like, while Jay promptly made cracks about big bird from Sesame Street.

"Look, Em, I'm sure you'll find the right guy soon," Paul said his lips twitching; "you should really go for a guy that likes breast though."

"Are you trying to make a funny?" Emily asked sweetly and Aaron cracked a Jay cracked a rib laughing.

"Hey, McLean, what do you get if you cross Big Bird with Daffy Duck?"

"I've heard this one before -"

"Come on!" Aaron said, leisurely getting up, "lunch break over guys."

Jay and Emily hugged and she pinched his butt hard in reprimand, Paul waved her goodbye and they walked away, leaving her with her script once again. Emily sighed, they had been in Sofia all day but due to the technical glitches they had been experiencing it was very likely tomorrow would be when the real filming started. Which Emily was kind of glad of, it would give her an extra day to rehearse the lines, why she didn't have an autocue she would never understand. Five more minutes of labouring over the script Emily gave up, she shoved it in her back pocket of her grey plaid shorts and grabbed her satchel. No one would miss her if she slipped away for a while, and if they did they were so busy fawning over her that they wouldn't think to reprimand her so it was all good. Emily decided they also wouldn't miss one of the jeeps; she jumped in, started it up and drove for the more isolated region of Sofia Province. Perhaps she could do some filming of her own on her own camera or better yet practice her … abilities in secret. Emily pondered on her unusual abilities, after her transformation on her birthday Emily had thrown herself into finding out just how she had become a freaky kind of Were-hawk. She pushed herself as far as she could go testing the limitations of her new found powers; she'd documented it all in her diary. Emily had come to realise that changing forms was a lot easier during the night time then it was in the day, in fact it was almost impossible to accomplish her hawk form and maintain it while the sun was up, she'd done it once and it had drained her, but she was determined to focus her powers and energy so that she would be able to maintain her bird form during the day. It had just become something more to achieve and set her sights on, she'd reached the peak of her professional career before turning thirty, becoming a bird had just presented another challenge to keep her busy on the lonely nights.

She'd also noticed that besides a heightened sensitivity in her senses, she had become telekinetic which was always handy because she was forever leaving the remote on top of the T.V. Emily recognised that her sex drive had gone through the roof, she attributed that to her changes as well. On an examination of her blood which had altered significantly since her change Emily had hypothesised that electricity could possibly damage her. She hadn't tried it yet, she certainly wasn't keen to but she needed to know, though she'd plugged her vacuum in several times and it hadn't hurt. Still better to be safe the sorry, as soon as she'd had the funds she'd hired a maid, she was going to instruct the woman to simply hoover, but that would just add to her reputation of oddity.

She'd even gone so far as to dig up as much as she could about her real parents, nothing had come up so far, it really was like she had simply appeared out of thin air on the door step of an orphanage. Emily had refused up until this point to think about anything to do with her biological parents, it stung her that they had been so eager to be rid of her that they hadn't even given her a name or information when they had dumped her. What puzzled her most now was the question of whether her parents had been like her? Or was she an anomaly unto herself? But damn it! What if they had been birds? Never mind a history of heart disease or cancer, now Emily had to contend with a hereditary bird disease! Emily stamped on the break hard at that thought; she pushed a hand through her hair - House Finch Disease! Avian Pox! Aspergillosis! Trichomoniasis!

"Oh, shit, I could molt!" Emily whimpered and laid her head on the steering wheel. Her only comfort was that should she was a specialist and could easily determine and cure anything that was likely to be wrong with her. Another comfort was that it didn't look like she could ever be stuck in her hawk form, every time she went to sleep she awakened human - that was a hell of a relief.

Lifting her head, Emily decided that she should only really worry about things like that if they happened, and the likelihood of it seemed slim as she was for the most part, entirely human. Taking her camcorder Emily got from the car and began filming her surroundings, commenting now and again on an unusual plant or wildlife. A muffled noise, like someone having the wind knocked out of them reached her ears and Emily raised her head from her camera, knowing she would see better with her natural eyes. She pinpointed it to higher up on the slope of Rila mountain, Emily stumbled forward keeping her eyes fixed on what she saw, her mouth agape. A man was about to be hurt up there!