Here it is, This was supposed to be September's chapter! And I'm sorry for being bit late on the last one, Chapter 8 was supposed to be August's chapter, but I submitted it to flaks314 a little bit later than I should have, and they took a while to send it back because it was so big and because I think they're still painting their house. But anyway, better than last time, 51 views when the chapter was published, and as of posting this chapter, the story has a grand total of 1,300 views. That's great! But honestly, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, please tell! I've posted one-shots with more comments than this ten chapter story, would you mind telling me what your problems are with this story? What do you like about it? What areas you think need improvement?

Anyway, it looks like this is October's chapter, here it is.

Proving Shack

Day 4, Morning

By all means it was a wonderful morning. The air was mercifully cool, despite the sun. I told my folks I was hanging out with my new girlfriend, which wasn't a lie, so at least that wasn't on my conscience. My bike sat parked outside. Cassie was getting the stall where I would test morph my next animal ready. I would've waited outside, but there was no wind, and I preferred the shade. Eventually, I heard a bike pull up then fall to the ground on the gravel road, and sat up and listened to Marco walk up to the barn.

"Okay, Jake-man" Marco said as he opened and closed the door, though it was still a little bit open. "Are you absolutely sure you ate enough of it this time?"

I'd morphed my first animal the other day. A bobcat, a particularly bald one because humans aren't furry. It took my friends some time (and laughter) to get me to take control of it, but after that it was easy. All I had to do was to make sure to consume the right materials, and then turn.

This time I was aiming for a flying creature, but getting the right materials to turn into a bird is easier said than done.

"I am sure Marco, that I…stockpiled enough, maybe enough to morph into an ostrich," I responded warily.

"How'd you get the feathers though? You didn't swallow roadkill, did you?"

"Of course only you'd ask that," Rachel quipped from one of the stalls. Her voice was drawn out, and her breaths were heavy. Her arms were hanging over the stall door, but other than that, the head and collar were the only parts we could see. She was covered in sweat, taking a break from the morphing practice. "If you did it, it'd be cannibalism."

"Oh yeah? What'll you do if you run out of Spice Girls?"

"Then I'll eat you with the Red Hot Chili Peppers!"

"Now who's the cannibal?"

"Hey Marco, you wouldn't mind helping Rachel practice, would you? You could use the experience," Cassie piped up from further in. I looked to Rachel to see her staring intensely at Marco. She punched the palm of her hand, making a surprisingly loud noise.

"Ah, ow!" he suddenly cried out, holding his side as he slid off the hay bales. "No, I'm good over here, I think I sprained something!"

"That's what I thought," Rachel huffed before retreating back to the stall.

"Jake, the stall's ready," Cassie said.

Before I walked to her, I went to Marco's side and found him laying on the floor, pretending to be dead.

"You're so pathetic," I said as I pushed some hay bales on top of him. He didn't say anything.

I moved to Cassie, who held the stall door open.

"A tale older than time! Beauty and the Beast!" Marco piped up from under his pile.

I entered the stall and Cassie closed the door behind me, and took in my surroundings. There were blankets everywhere that blocked out light, and those blankets all had nets behind them. She'd basically made a cage, so I wouldn't be able to fly out of here. I looked back to the stall door and saw Cassie putting hay bales at the bottom gap, so I wouldn't be able to escape that way either. Cassie poked her head up and held out her hand, looking away from me.

Of course.

I undressed, starting with my shoes and socks. I gave those to Cassie without question. Then everything else.

"I'm done," I said, sitting down. "Tell me when you're ready."

"Okay," Cassie answered before stepping on a ladder and putting the last blanket/net up. I heard her move the ladder a couple of times and adjust the net. "You should be good to go."

All right, this is it.

I took a deep breath and stood up, then I focused on my morph. The first of the three Bs, the bird I plan on morphing most frequently. I pictured the animal in order to trigger the change.

The hawk had white undersides and a dark brown color above. It had brownish-black marks on the wings, and more brown speckling on the chest. The head was white with more brown at the top, and a long brown mark down the cheek. This bird ate fish, indicated by a crook in its narrow wings, and it might also be able to see through the surface of rivers, as well as the glossy sheen of windows with those fierce yellow eyes.

Yes, the possibility of them being able to see through windows was why I chose the osprey… Oh man that sounds so bad. Cassie and her animal factoids, where would we be without her?

Well, I wouldn't have the best girlfriend ever, much less one that trusts me not to peep.

...and one that doesn't peep on anyone.

But nevertheless I focused on the osprey. I pictured him in my mind, flying over the rivers, peering under the surface for fish to catch. I focused for a few seconds, and was worried that the changes wouldn't happen, but after about five seconds I heard a sound like shifting sand, and felt the changes begin.

I let a smile consume my face as I shrunk. It was just like the bobcat; it felt like I was falling, not shrinking. Needless to say, becoming a midget nudist is a very interesting experience. I became numb to the changes, and apathetic in a very strange way. After I shrunk to become just a foot tall, by my guess, my lips and nose turned into a beak. I felt the hair on my head recede and thin out, and felt even more tiny hairs burst out of my skin, except for my lower legs. I felt strange as my hips realigned themselves and I hunched over, and my hairs turned into feathers.

I saw my skin turn into a pale gray, and my fingers merged into one appendage as more of the thick hairs sprung out. These hairs grew longer and longer as they widened and turned into flight feathers. My knees reversed direction. I decided to lift my feet off the ground one by one, and found that it made the process faster. My legs below the knees became thinner and bonier, and the skin scalier until they were replaced by talons.

My front toes merged together and grew longer, tipped by massive black nails, while more long scaly fingers sprang out the back of my feet. My skull changed shape as my brain turned into a more avian design, my vision darkened for a moment, and I felt a brief panic before my sight returned when my eyes changed into the osprey's fierce yellow. And when my eyesight returned, I saw every object in greater contrast and brighter colors, and on top of that there was the long binocular vision I chose this creature for. These changes and many others occurred all in the course of a few minutes, but it felt a lot longer than that. The act of morphing drained me, but now the changes were complete.

When the sound like shifting sands stopped, I was an osprey, and then I wasn't.

I looked around, no open sky. It wasn't cramped, I grew nervous. An unfamiliar flatness under talons instead of the branches and fish I should be grabbing. I shouldn't be here, the ground is no place for... looking around for a place where I might fly up and perch.

"Jake?" a creature called out. I turned to the sound, there, the outline of the creature that made the noise. I stared, because I knew that without anywhere to fly to, if it decided to attack I would have to fight it. Restricted I was, that creature big, chances were bad already.

"Cassie, you got the thing?" I heard another creature call from out of sight.

"Sure thing, let me just get it out…"

Then all of a sudden, I noticed a gentle sound and turned towards it. A gap was appearing in the wall. A chance to escape? It didn't get any bigger, but a large, dark appendage appeared out of it, holding something. I recognized those sounds faintly, it was one of the straight leg creatures that -

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

All of a sudden a horrible noise rang out from the appendage! It was so loud and deafening! The appendage then threw the noise making thing at me. I jumped away, flapping my wings.

"Oh my god, Cassie, you brought a car alarm?"

I shrieked and flapped my wings, trying to get away from the noise. Agh, this is bad, I have to get away from here! I tried to flap away, but hit the wall, I clawed at it, but it just wouldn't give!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

It's horrible, oh it is so horribly loud! At this rate it's even worse than Allison's voice when talking to Jenna about… about…

((SOMEONE TURN THAT CRAP OFF BEFORE I EAT YOUR FACES!)) I shouted loudly upon regaining my senses. Then I stopped in my tracks immediately after.

Did…did I just say that?

I fluttered to the ground as Cassie opened the stall door, holding my clothes and shoes. She walked in and turned the device off.

Everything was quiet when the device was turned off, but I could hear Marco whisper to himself after a while. "Oh man, that turned metal."

With the animal's instincts under control, I just stood on the floor in shock. Cassie put my clothes on the floor and left the stall, closing the door behind her. I morphed out almost immediately. It took a few minutes again, but eventually the sound shifting sands faded. With nothing left to do I got dressed, and when I got my shorts on, I heard Marco speak out.

"Hey Cassie?" he said nervously, "Your dad's coming over here! He's in a hurry and he does not look like he's in a good mood!"

Oh no.

I hurried up the speed of me getting dressed quicker than before.

"Oh crap, we gotta get our clothes back on, if Walter finds us like this!" Rachel left the rest of the sentence hanging in the air.

I got out of the stall at the same time Rachel did, fully clothed. Cassie gave Marco the small device.

I took a deep breath as Walter opened the barn door.

"What's going on here?" he demanded.

"Hey, Walter," I said nervously. Why am I more nervous around him than before? We already know each other.

"We're helping Cassie muck the stables," Rachel said.

"You don't look like you've been doing that…"

"I've been helping with some of the other chores."

"It's my fault," Marco blurted out. I raised my eyebrows.

"Wh-" Rachel turned around and was about to ask before Marco continued.

"It was a prank, I got this car alarm and wanted to scare the crap out of everybody, so I set it off."

"Marco, I know you're Jake's friend, and Cassie's his girlfriend…" A part of me squirmed inside as he said that, I just scratched the back of my head. Meanwhile, Cassie's dad grew a very stern look on his face.

"But setting off loud noises in a barn full of animals can be very harmful to them. These creatures are injured and sick, they don't need any more stress. This is a wildlife rehabilitation clinic, not a rave house! So if I catch you doing that again you are barred from coming back here until the day you die, understand?"

"Yes sir," Marco said.

"Good," Cassie's dad said before exiting the barn. He didn't close the door behind himself.

We all stood around there for a while, not knowing what to say next. We awkwardly stood until Marco broke the silence.

"We have a problem," Marco pointed out.

"We can't use the barn for first time morphing," Rachel said. "What we need to do to wake us up is too loud, for both the animals in here, and Cassie's parents."

"But we need to induce the morph into a stressful environment, which won't be easy without sound, and make a place where said morphed bodies can easily be contained," Cassie elaborated. "And we have no other building than this one."

"Then we only practice the morphs we already have," I said with a growing grin. "We already have the bird morphs we plan to use for local travel, and the bugs, among others. But I think it's time we started practicing our flight skills."

"Oh yeah! That sounds awesome!" Rachel said. "Where do we do it, though?"

"Why not right in Cassie's backyard?" I suggested while looking at her.

"Fine by me," Cassie said while nodding.

"Really wishing I touched the cube," Marco shook his head as he followed. "But one question?"

"Alright, shoot," I responded as I opened the door.

"We are going to morph in the cover of trees for this test flight, right?"