Summary: Shifters have the power to turn into any animal, even a human.

Firestar reminisces on the safe spot he found while roaming around as a human.

I don't usually take this long to update, but when I do I'm ̶f̶a̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶l̶o̶v̶e̶,̶ ̶l̶o̶s̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶o̶w̶e̶r̶,̶ a̶m̶ ̶d̶y̶i̶n̶g̶?̶,b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶d̶r̶a̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶,̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶l̶o̶w̶ ̶m̶o̶t̶i̶v̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶,̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶d̶i̶s̶t̶r̶ac̶t̶e̶d̶, shedding. Yeah, probably that last one.

Also this chapter was a slog to get through. Don't really like how this one came out, but I didn't want to leave you all waiting for something when it's already been a month. Soooo I'm going to force you all to read my horrible ideas.

Or don't, considering I can't force anyone to read this...

I did in fact get inspired quite a bit from binging Restaurant to Another World...totally worth watching if you're interested in isekai anime.

I got distracted by Indigo Disk too haha. I've been shiny hunting like crazy!

Reviews are appreciated!


A black nose trailed quietly over the forest floor, displacing a few fallen leaves. There was nary a sound as spindly legs strode forward, hooves touching upon the earth gently. Shadows dappled the ground as sunlight pierced through the trees. The rays grazed against white antlers, giving them an occasional gleam.

The stag lowered his head some more, drawing his antlers away from the light. His nose found a patch of long grass to graze on. He snorted, head turning away from the food.

The wind shifted, blowing a myriad of scents towards him. He lifted his head up, ears perked and alert.

His ears twitched as they picked up the sound of a twig snapping. His head swerved around, ears straining. Paw steps thumped against soft earth and growling echoed through the trees.

The scent of wolf assaulted his nose.

His head snapped over to where some bushes were rustling. They stopped as he continued staring at the spot. The clearing became quiet again, save for some bird song above him, out of his reach.

Muscles that had previously tensed up relaxed. The stag stood silently for a few more moments. Its legs glided gracefully as it started to leave, believing that the danger had passed.

The bushes rustled violently, a dark ginger shape bursting out from the undergrowth. Claws and teeth ready, the wolf rushed towards its prey, snarling.

The stag's eyes glinted with a sharpness not previously seen. Nevertheless, the stag bounded away, his hooves practically bouncing off the ground as soon as they touched down.

He swerved around in a neat circle, lowering his head and meeting the wolf dead on with his antlers.

The wolf's eyes widened. It skidded across the forest floor as it tried to stop itself from being gored, kicking up dirt in the process. The stag slowed to the stop, eyeing the wolf as it recovered. When he saw the wolf's muscles visibly tense up, ready to pounce again, he lowered his antlers and breathed out a puff of angry air from his nose.

The wolf suddenly reared up on its hind legs, its body shifting into something bulkier, paws thickening, ears growing more rounded, its tail melting into a short stub.

The stag showed indifference as its opponent transformed suddenly from wolf to bear. He launched himself forward and raised his head slightly, tackling the bear in the chest. The bear fell on its back, miraculously unharmed thanks to the stag moving his antlers away at the last second.

He sniffed at the dazed bear, eyes gleaming in amusement.

His body shifted, quickly standing upright on two legs, fur melting into skin, hooves reforming into fingers and feet, his antlers shrinking back into his head.

Where once a stag stood, was now a human, shaking out his ginger hair.

"It was a better attempt, but you didn't make sure to keep downwind, and you were making too much noise," Firestar criticized the fallen bear. "And for Starclan's sake, Squirrelpaw, wolves don't come in your usual fur color. You didn't even bother to hide that it was you."

The bear shrank in response until its form had compressed into that of a cat. "Did you have to headbutt me so hard?" Squirrelpaw whined, rubbing at her chest with a paw.

"Are you even listening?"

She glanced up at her father. "Yeah, yeah, I'm not nearly as good at the shifting game as you are," she sniffed. "This isn't over," she declared, eyes glinting.

He sighed quietly, feeling a headache beginning to bloom in his head. His daughter was at a point in her life where she thought might was right.

She loved hunting, her favored forms being that of predators. She never failed to get upset when she failed a hunt. Her father easily defeating her as prey most likely stung at her pride.

"Well, it was good thinking to have your sister scout ahead at least." Her tail twitched nervously in panic.

He heard the beating of wings, and he sidestepped a robin trying to swoop down at his head. Just as quickly, he caught the bird in his hands, keeping his fingers pressed down on its wings. The bird struggled for a moment, before its struggles stopped.

The robin went limp, and he shifted his arms a little as the bird transformed into a tabby brown she-cat. Leafpaw snuggled deep into his arms, seemingly uncaring that she had been caught.

"Also not bad. I couldn't tell you apart from the other birds at least," he mused, running a hand down Leafpaw's back. She started purring contentedly.

"Leafpaw! You could have turned into a hawk or something at the last moment!" Squirrelpaw complained.

"You said you had things handled and that I didn't need to do anything beyond relaying where Father was," she murmured, snuggling deeper into Firestar.

"Yeah, but he ended up winning!"

"This wasn't about winning. This was about you both utilizing your shifting abilities, whether to navigate an unknown environment or to get you out of a bind. You were supposed to work together," he emphasized.

"Unknown environment? When would I ever leave the forest?" Squirrelpaw muttered.

"Soon exactly; we're visiting your grandmother at sunhigh." He placed Leafpaw down on the ground. As soon as she was out of his arms, his body started shrinking. Fur grew out of his skin, his tailbone lengthened and extended into a tail, and before he knew it, his body fell on four paws. "Both you go back to camp and get some rest. We'll be heading out to Indigo."

Squirrelpaw's ears perked up, tail waving excitedly. Leafpaw, though more reserved than her sister, also held an air of excitement.

"Are Cloudtail and Whitepaw coming with us?" Leafpaw asked.

"Not this time," he answered, shaking his head.

"Why are you so against Cloudtail coming?" Leafpaw muttered to Squirrelpaw, who had quietly cheered at his words.

"He's an annoying, loud furball, that's why!"

He watched them go off back towards camp as they argued. Figuring that he could hunt a little to compensate for the fact that the three of them would be eating elsewhere, he opened his mouth to scent for prey. He hoped that their training didn't scare off everything.

Finally, he caught the scent of mouse.

'Mouse doesn't even taste that good anymore,' he groused. Human food just tasted better.

He had only been a young kit, just learning how to shift. His mother had to teach him and his littermates in secret, away from the humans that owned her.

First rule of shifting into a human was to make sure they were clothed. Humans didn't take kindly to those walking around in their natural states.

The second rule was to not ask stupid questions, lest anyone get suspicious.

As soon as he was able, he snuck out of the house with a few articles of clothing his mother had pointed out to him and shifted. It was nighttime, and there weren't too many humans walking around. The ones that were out gave him strange looks, almost concerned.

'Why are they staring at me like that?' Rusty wondered. He glanced down at his body, wondering what was out of place. 'Oh.'

Maybe his mother had neglected to mention that humans wore clothing on their feet as well?

"Hey kid," an older looking male human approached him. "Didn't anyone tell you not to go out without any shoes?"

He slowly shook his head, not liking how the human was appraising him. There was something wrong about the way he was looking at him. "If you like, I can take you to a place and get you a pair. What do you say?"

Rule number three: avoid any strange humans that approached him. He ducked away from the hand that was slowly reaching out to him and ran. "Hey!" he heard the man angrily yell. Heavy footsteps told him that the human was chasing him.

If he could just shift back into his cat self, he could lose the human…

He turned a corner, next to a building with a blue door. He quickly glanced around to see if anyone else was around, and figuring that there was none, quickly dropped onto all fours. The now kit hid between a few plants that grew in front of the building. The man rounded the corner then, angrily looking around the building.

"Where'd that stupid kid go?" he grumbled into the night.

The blue door opened suddenly. A middle-aged male human with short black hair stepped out, frowning lightly. The clothes he wore were white and strange, with an even stranger piece of clothing on top of his head.

"Can I help you?" he inquired dryly to the other human.

The other human paled slightly. "I uh- what's it to you? Can't I walk where I like?"

He scowled. "So you weren't just muttering about a kid just now?" The other human suddenly averted his eyes. "You were just leaving. You are going to go back the way you came. If I hear anything about you chasing kids again, I'm calling the cops. Understand?"

The human that was chasing him nodded fiercely, all but running down the path he came from.

He watched carefully as the man crouched down, pulling the plants apart until he was exposed. Rusty's fur started bristling, muscles bunching up, ready to run if he had to. "You okay kid? It's okay, he won't be bothering you anymore."

He stared up at the human wide-eyed. Had the human seen him shift? His mother was going to kill him!

"Ginger fur huh? You must be one of Nutmeg's kids then," he said, smiling. He slowly shuffled backwards. "I won't bite, promise."

Rusty slowly inched out, keeping an eye on the human. How did this human know his mother?

"Your mother happens to be a regular here. She was over the moon when she learned she was pregnant. She was going on about wanting to introduce her kits to this place," he said, almost as if reading Rusty's thoughts.

He shifted again, back into a human. The older male gave him a once older. "Think you must have taken after your father more than you took after Nutmeg," he mused. "Does she know that you're here?" he asked Rusty, standing up and crossing him arms over his chest.

"No…" Rusty muttered.

The human rubbed his head with a hand. "Oi… I don't have any way of contacting your mom, but I don't feel good about letting someone young as you head back on your own." He tapped his chin in thought. "If you shift back into a cat, you should be able to get back home safe, as long as you stay out of sight."

He merely nodded. Better to be cautious than totaling trusting this human.

The door opened again, and a woman poked her head out the door. To his shock, the woman had black horns on her head.

"Ah, Chef, we about to close up for the night?"

He looked over at her. "Hm? Oh right."

The open door opened up a myriad of scents that wafted up his nose. His human nose wasn't nearly as good as his cat nose, but he could tell when something smelled good.

His stomach audibly growled for all three of them to hear.

The human male, this "Chef" looked down at the blushing Rusty. His eyes trailed back over to the woman. "Actually, we might have one last customer for the night. We should have some of that leftover chicken still in the back…"

He was thus introduced to Restaurant Indigo and all the delectable food it churned out, as well as the customers it attracted.

"How are my darling granddaughters doing?" Nutmeg gushed, her arms squeezing Squirrelpaw and Leafpaw, now young human girls, close to her chest.

"Mom, they need to breath," he sighed.

She looked down, realizing that they were slowly turning blue, and released them.

"Hi, Grandma," Leafpaw stuttered, her head spinning.

"Come sit, come sit! You need to tell me all about how your apprenticeships are going!"

"They haven't been apprenticed that long, Mom," Firestar mumbled. They had literally seen her just last month even.

His daughters had quickly opened up the menu, scouring every page for the different kinds of food they liked.

"Maybe one of those salads?"

"Ugh, Leafpaw, you're so boring! I want that triple chocolate cake!"

"None of that until you eat actual food, Squirrelpaw," Firestar scowled. He didn't bother opening the menu in front of him up. He already knew what he wanted.

"So, what can I get for the three generations here?" He looked up to see the Chef smiling down at them.

As Nutmeg tried helping his daughters figure out what they wanted, he opened his mouth up to ask, "Still got the usual chicken dish I love so much?"


There are so many kinks and plot holes in this little short, but it's an AU, so roll with it.

I didn't name Indigo after Indigo Disk, I swear! I thought Indigo was a nice name...

Indigo attracts all the weird customers of the mythical variety. That means other shifters and other types of creatures that I was going to showcase but I just really wanted to finish this up .

There was also going to be a part at the end where Nutmeg warns Firestar about impending contruction on clan territory, but I wanted this to be wholesome...

Cloud and White are also shifters, obviously. I didn't mention if the clan knows about their abilities or not, but at the very least Sandstorm and Brightheart are definitely aware.

Tell me how I did.