The Takeover

Lana stood before Gwen and Sophie at the mouth of the cave. She didn't know quite what to say. What could she say? You're welcome for saving your sorry ass and giving you my pet panther? Please leave me alone before you take something else of mine?

She opted for: "Take care. Hopefully your friend is okay."

"You too, and should your journey north fail, my friend has a safe house just outside New Carrion-Barrow to the west." She smiled warmly, Lana tried to hide her distaste. She didn't know why she disliked Gwen so profusely, she just did.

"If heading north fails I'll probably be dead." Lana joked. "But if I manage to survive it I'll probably head back to my mentor. He's like a father to me." Gwen nodded and Lana turned to leave.

Sophie ran up to her and nuzzled her legs. Lana bent down to Sophie's eye level and stroked her face. "Take care of Gwen, and yourself, okay? I don't want to have to save you again." She smiled sadly, patted the panther's head one more time and then turned and left. As soon as she was about an hours walk from the cave she decided to change again.

But she didn't want to change to the familiar panther form. The loss of her friend made it too painful. She looked around for something else to change into. When nothing else became apparently she sighed heavily and shifted to the-stupid-panther form. At least she would hurt less. She could focus on running and hunting, panthers had no need for emotions, so she could just turn it off and become a full animal. At least for a little while.

A little while turned out to be three weeks. She didn't think, she only hunted, slept, and headed north. She noticed many days were passing, but she couldn't be bothered to keep track. At least not the animal part of her. But reality snapped her out of her predatory trance. She had helped out a fellow shifter, and a, at one point, helpless animal. She shouldn't be angry. Friends will come and go, until she finds her niche that's how it will be. She helped someone, two someones, and that is good. Also she was nearing the line of guardians. She could smell the anger and... Testosterone in the air. It assaulted her nostrils and she had to fight to move forward.

She knew she had to get to higher ground, so she could see what she was up against. So she climb up a tree to it's lowest branch, which was several feet off the ground, and stared at the men. It wasn't a fence of bodies as she had originally pictured it was. It was groups of men sitting around fires and separated camps. If she waited until it was a little darker she could just sneak through one of the gaps. It wouldn't take too long. The sun was already sinking below the horizon.

When she decided it was dark enough she jumped from her branch and landed without a sound. She started stalking forward. There was plenty of shrubbery and underbrush from her to stalk to and hide in. It was easy for her to sneak by any of the men she encountered, they were so drunk they had no awareness of their surroundings. Lana had no clue how Gwen had gotten herself caught, these drunkards were not a threat.

At least that's what she though. She was but a few centimeters from freedom when a group of four hunters stumbled through the bushes. Annie's eyes met Lana's and she mouthed a silent 'oh shit'.

"Annie... " The male that had reached out to protect her the first time whispered. "It's... It's.... I can't let it hurt you again. I... can't let it live." He screamed and started charging towards Lana.

"Anduin no!" She yelled and grabbed his arm. "I can't let you do it, they're dangerous." Lana growled at them and started recoiling, poised to run. Unfortunately if she were to run it would be in the wrong direction.

"To hell with dangerous! I can't let anything hurt my Annie and live. Besides there's three of us and one panther. Right guys?" The other two roared in approval and Lana started running.

She was so panicked she misplaced her grace and couldn't seem to maintain her footing. She tripped over a root and snout-planted in the dirt. She scrambled to get up but wasn't fast enough to escape unscathed. One of the men threw an ax and it grace her shoulder blade and she could feel the wound opening from her shoulder towards her elbow. Her heart kicked into overdrive and adrenaline overtook her veins, sending it throughout her body. She ran faster than she ever thought possible and tried her best lose them.

As the sounds of them crashing through the forest faded so did her adrenaline buzz. Lana's pace slowed until she collapsed at the base of a tree. She had so little energy left she had somehow changed back to her human form.

Lana looked at her arm and whimpered. Thick black blood had congealed around the wound and she became hyper aware of the throbbing pain. Obviously that path would not work.

She sighed heavily and looked up to the leaves of the trees, gently swaying in the wind. From down here they looked so tiny. As if anything in this forest was small. She ripped off the bottom of her thin cloak and wrapped it tightly around the jagged flesh of the wound, stopping the bleeding but not the pain.

She blew out another sigh and shoved her hands through her knotted hair, she wished for water or something to wash the blood from her hair. Her hair was somehow crunchy and sticky at the same time, it made her just want to submerge herself in water for hours. She sighed as the exhaustion stretched its sickly tendrils into her limbs. She looked up once more and a giant red bird flew from the tree and jogged her memory.

“What about the big red birds in the mountains.” She bounced up and down and asked Rudy. Who was teaching her all about animals and their migration patterns, to better prepare her for hunting.

“They migrate wherever they want to. They go south in the winter to stay warm, and north when the summer gets too hot for them.”

That’s it! Why hadn't she thought of it earlier? She can live with the birds. Blend in, like Rudy had taught her. She realized she might be to weak to shift… She had just shifted back human, and not by choice… But it was worth a try. Maybe the other birds would help her if they saw she was injured.

She focused, harder than she ever had before. Every detail had to be perfect, she had to make her flaw so minuscule that the hunters wouldn't know she was different. She tried to keep it to her eye color. Like the people who had two different color eyes. Everyone acted like they were normal so maybe the hunters would think the bird with two different color eyes was normal.

Long feathers started shooting out from her pores and her body grew in size. She squeezed her eyes even tighter and tried to bite back the nausea that came with the change. Her bones cracked and lengthened and she wished to be back in her human form where the only pain she had was in her arm.

Her injured arm was the worst part of the transformation. As she grew and stretched, so did the torn flesh. She grit her teeth and tried not to scream. They would find her then. It felt like years once it was finally over. Lana cracked her eyes open and investigated her new body.

She looked exactly like the other birds, to the very last detail. Excluding the eyes, but she didn't have time to worry about that. She began squawking, calling for help.

The birds that flew overhead ignored her. It was as if she didn't exist. Tears formed in her avian eyes, and her calls were interrupted by terrible, hiccup like sobs. Until one bird finally came down to investigate. The extreme point of it’s beak, as compared to the gentle curve of her’s gave away the birds male gender. He was a brilliant blue color, unlike all the other birds who either red or green. He was a misfit just as she was sure to be.

Her cries became more urgent as he neared. He landed gracefully, a few feet away from her and eyed her curiously. She obviously wasn't from this, or any, flock. Her eyes gave it away, Lana didn't know that, of course. She thought she blended in perfectly.

He cautiously advanced towards her, examining every other detail. She was badly injured, and in need of his help. But what had hurt her? Human voices and the sound of something ungracefully crashing through the forest gave it away. She was being hunted. She was of no danger to him or the others… However, hunters were. If he left her down here she would die, and he had already watched so many perish. Different or not she deserved to live. He knew she needed to be brought into the nest.

He let out two long screeches and two other birds were instantly beside him. They looked wary, but the blue bird seemed to convince them to help her. Hope bubbled in Lana’s chest and her eyes crinkled in happiness. They were going to help her!

The blue one knelt down while the other to gently lifted her onto his back. He was so much larger than she was. All of the males were. It was extremely intimidating. Once she was properly on his back, he began the ascent. The other two stayed as near to the blue bird as they could, just in case Lana were to fall.

Lana let out a small chirp of thankfulness as her breathing became more shallow and the world began fading into darkness.



Lana woke up with a start and bolted upright, causing a searing pain in her arm... Which is actually her wing now. She carefully stretched out that wing to investigate the wound. It started where her neck met her torso, around the shoulder area and continued down to where the joint that resembled that of a human elbow.

The dark sticky blood matted her feathers, she let out a small sound of disapproval. She wouldn't be able to fly like this. Which mean no hunting or leaving this tree. Eventually she would end up running out of energy to keep up the facade and change back to her human form. What would the birds do then? Kill her? Escort her safely down to the base of the tree?

Wait, how was she still a bird? There was no way she should have been able to shift into the bird form in the first place... Let alone stay in the form after blacking out. Maybe it was because of her sub-class... Hadn't Rudy said something about her gift working better when she felt the need to protect something? Maybe self preservation counted as a need to protect and that's why she hadn't gone back to being boring, human Lana.

But how much longer would it last? She knew it couldn't be much longer... Maybe she stop prolonging the inevitable and change back now. It was bound to happen eventually since she couldn't hunt or eat. And the birds obviously hadn't wanted her. She was just a nuisance in their eyes, something the saved out of pity.

Right before she was able to start to shift back the blue bird landed before her holding a folded leaf. She tilted her head to the side in confusion as he set it down before her. It unfolded to reveal some large berries and nuts.

Was this a trap? Was he testing her in some way? Or was he just being nice? She stayed completely still until he started pushing the food towards her. He chirped invitingly and fidgeted, as if he wanted her to take them and when she didn't he started to feel awkward. She tried to subdue her laughter at his strange little dance and stood up to move towards the berries. She thought the height of the tree would scare her as she began her journey forward but it did no such thing. The branches where so thick and plentiful she could hardly see the ground, it was like a city and the branches were the roads.

Once she arrived at the food she carefully bent down and started eating it. It was a little disorienting going from a snout with sharp teeth to a beak with no teeth, and it took her a few moments to get the hang of it. She didn't even notice the blue bird had made its way behind her until he began cleaning her wound, she couldn't see it but she assumed he was doing so with his beak and maybe his tongue. She still had no idea how these birds functioned.

But she decided to relax and enjoy this moment of serenity. She had food, a home-no matter how temporary it was a home nonetheless-, and a friend. Also, she hadn't died at the hands of the guardians, which is always a plus.