The Takeover

Lana’s shoulder was injured so badly it took three days to heal, even with her unnaturally fast healing. But she hadn’t minded. Blue took great care of her, bringing her food and preening her feathers for her. Some how he had manage to remove all the blood from her feathers so they were no longer matted together. And from what she’d gathered Blue had even given her his nest to rest in. She felt bad because he was forced to sleep on an empty, cold branch. So on the third day when her wound was healed she stood at the edge of the branch. Her wings outstretched. She let the light breeze that was playing with the leaves dance through her feathers and closed her eyes. She had no idea how to fly, and if she failed she would plummet to her death and die. But she had to get supplies to make the nest bigger.

The nights were cold at the top of the tree. Especially since winter refused to allow spring and summer to take their courses. But Lana had hopes it would warm up soon. But until that happened she wouldn’t mind sharing a nest with Blue and conserving warmth. But nothing else, it would be strictly platonic. Wait do birds even know what platonic means? Well, even if they didn’t it wouldn’t really matter. A little birdy romance wouldn’t hurt her, shifters are known for that kind of thing anyway. She remembered Rudy telling her that if a shifter was with a pack of animals long enough they usually developed feelings resembling those of the animals they shifted into. Which Lana supposed meant they get it on since most animal’s main instincts are survival and reproduction.

She opened her eyes and gazed down. The sun had just begun it’s ascent and was barely peeking over the hills. It’s delicate rays sparkled through the mist covering the ground. Lana slowly closed her wings, and decided to simply enjoy the view. She could see for miles and it all looked so… peaceful. No sign of the hunters that nearly killed her or any sort of stress or anxiety. She felt safe, and serene. Nothing could touch her up in the trees, she as free. Free of any and all cares in the world.

Blue traveled up branch to stand beside Lana. She was too absorbed in the scenery to notice his proximity. He didn’t mind, he was happy that she had found happiness. Everyone deserved it, in his opinion. He also enjoyed the way the sunlight flitted about the feathers on her face. Her eyes sparkled like diamonds in light… Two different colored diamonds. If only she knew.

Lana felt a gentle nudge on her shoulder, and looked over to see Blue staring down at her. She let out a small whistle to greet him. He bowed his head in response. She wondered if he would teach her to fly. Seeing how caring his had been, she assumed he would. The only problem would be figuring out how to pose the question. The language of the birds was far more complicated than that of the panthers. There were so many more muscles to use in so many different ways, giving off so many different vibes. Then there were the vocal sounds, and they were all hard to keep track of. She wasn’t even fully sure she had greeted Blue or if she had told him to fuck off.

She looked him in the eyes and squawked with only a mild amount of intensity and bobbed her head up and down while opening her wings slightly. She felt ridiculous, he thought she looked that way. He opened his wings and flapped them a couple times trying to decipher what she meant. She nodded slightly, she wanted him to teach her how to fly.

He looked her in the eyes and opened motioned for her to open hers. Once she did he showed her how to flap her wings. It was in a circular pattern, she had never realized her wings ability to bend, where her elbow would be if she were human.

When it appeared that she understood what to do he pushed her off the branch. It was the only way to properly teach her to fly. Of course, he followed after her incase it was too close a call and he would have to catch her. But she did amazing. She reacted about twice as fast as the chicks he had tossed out the nest. After she had figured out how to stay in the air she had to figure out how to bank and turn. Which only took but a few moments.

Flying felt so natural, she loved the feeling of the wind under her wings, supporting her. Which oddly reminded her of Blue. He hadn’t been around too long but he had taken such good care of her. She would have been dead if it weren’t for him. And that’s why she had to find nest materials.

She flew fast, away from Blue in the direction she had watched the other birds like Motherbird and Steve had flew to build their own nests. Once she had as much as her talons could hold she flew back to the nest, where blue was waiting. He was pacing back and forth and didn’t stop until his eyes met Lana’s. She landed in the nest and set her pile of grass, wheat, and some string she found right in the center. She nosed Blue out of the way and began her work to expand the nest. At first the process was slow, she had to figure out how Blue had weaved the straw and whatnot together, then undo it, but only on a single side. Once she felt she had unweaved a sufficient amount of the nest she began her work on figuring out how to weave her materials in such a manner that would create more space. She started with her piece of string as the base. It was a beautiful violet color, as if someone had mixed the color of Blue’s feathers and her own. She was careful to allow most of the purple string to show. She loved looking at it, and she felt it added much needed color to the nest… Like a painting on a wall; it added beauty.

It took her the rest of the day and had just finished when blue showed up holding his food filled leaf. Lana ran up behind him, excitedly, and started pushing him to the nest, he didn’t budge. He was so much larger than her, it made anything physical extremely hard for her. It was no fair, she wanted to be big too. But he understood what her feeble attempts meant and went to lay in their nest. This species of birds all made their own nests, until they found a partner. The partner would add to nest, making it their home too. It was like marriage for the birds. But Blue didn’t let himself think of her that way. Her eyes told him she knew almost nothing of the birds’ culture. The flock would accept her now, but he knew he shouldn’t try anything. At least for the time being.

He moved forward and settled down in the expanded nest, he laid on his side much like a human and it confused Lana. Wouldn’t it hurt his wing to lay that way? She shrugged it off, different birds must lay different ways. Instead of continuing to dwell on something so silly as how a bird slept, she admired her work. There was plenty of room for her in the nest, even if she didn’t want to touch him. However, as the sun completed its descent the temperature dropped to near freezing temperatures.And Lana wasn’t particularly fond of becoming a bird-cicle so she laid as near to him as she felt she could; not wanting to overstep any boundaries.

They were only a few inches apart and Lana could feel the heat rolling off his body, it called to her, beckoning her closer. She forced herself to remain still. She was close enough to him she wouldn’t freeze, but the cold was able to nip at her stomach and part of her not facing his direction. He felt her shiver slightly and rolled his eyes. He stretched out his wing and wrapped the end of it around her torso and pulled her into him. Somewhere in the process she had managed to roll over to face Blue. She nuzzled her face into the feathers of his neck and sighed in happiness as her muscles relaxed and shivers halted. His warmth was comforting and she fell into the darkness of sleep in seconds. He admired her sleeping features for a few seconds and followed her pursuit of darkness moments later.

When the sun rose it shed light on a new development, Lana noticed her tail feathers had changed, almost completely, to the dark blue color of Blue’s feathers. When she tried to ask him about it he acted as if it were nothing. Since she hadn’t chose to change the color of her feathers, it must have been a natural process. So she ignored as Blue had. It wouldn’t be too bad if she started to look like him. He wasn’t a misfit as she had previously thought… He was something special… The others listened to him.

It was now time for her to meet the flock. Blue lead her around the colony of birds. Stopping at almost every nest to greet their inhabitants. At first every bird she met seemed to recoil and try to get as far away from her as possible until the noticed the blue in her tail feathers. Then they became extremely friendly. As if they wanted to impress her. She had no idea why, she didn’t try to offend them nor was she important in any kind of way. She was friends with Blue but he wasn’t that special. Sure he was different from the rest and they kind of listened to him so he was slightly special, but other than that he was average. Except for his skill at cuddling providing warmth.

Once she had been properly introduced to the entire flock Blue set her off on her own… For the most part. He allowed her to roam but was always somewhere in her general vicinity, watching over her. He knew not all the birds would be as trusting as he was, so he couldn’t leave her alone.

Lana spent most of her time with a small green female she had began to call Midge. Midge was smaller than all the females of the flock, but she had the biggest heart. She had been the only bird not to initially shy away from Lana. She was so kind and warm, Lana couldn’t get enough of her. Midge was the main gatherer of the flock, she obtained enough food to feed all of the birds that couldn’t get food for themselves and occasionally there was enough left for her to eat as well. Midge had provided food for Lana when she was injured and Blue had been too busy with flock responsibilities he hadn’t been able to retrieve food for her. So Lana felt she was in debted to Midge, and began joining her on gathering missions.

Midge and Lana became great friends over the first few months Lana was with the flock. Lana would hesitate to call them best friends. They were together so often Blue actually began to trust Midge and left them alone. Lana never knew where he went, but it was nice to have some time without his eyes on her. Lana’s favorite part of her days with Midge was when they sat on one of the highest branches of the tree, over the main part of the bird civilization, and people watch. Lana would always playfully nudge Midge whenever an available bird would pass by. Midge would roll her eyes and shake her head slightly at every single one except Wings. He was an average red bird in every aspect except he might be a little bit taller than most birds… And his wings were the most gorgeous things Lana had ever seen. An intricate, golden, diamond patterned played amongst his feathers on the entire span of his wings. The best part was that he was nearly as kind as Midge. No one could ever top her kindness, but he came close. He was basically the doctor of the flock. He would take care of any injured birds in anyway he could. Whether it be taking care of their wounds or building them a nest, so they had a place to sleep.

It took nearly two months for Lana to help Midge build up the confidence to talk to Wings, but once she finally did the two of them were inseparable. Midge still made an effort to see Lana as often as possible but Lana knew she where Midge really wanted to be. Midge was head over heals in love and Lana didn’t want to come between them, at least not in the beginning. She knew Midge would always be her friend, no matter what, and loved her to death but she needed time to enjoy her newfound romance. Lana respected that, and started trying to make new friends.

At the two month mark the blue had taken over all of her feathers up to the middle of her back. So it was difficult to make friends. They either feared her or pretended to like her… She could see right through the fake friends. Then there was Asshole and Bitch, the sisters. They hated Lana, and she never figured out why. The two did whatever they could to harass Lana, they even started stealing food from her when she was handing it out to the elder birds and had her back turned. Until one day, Lana caught them. She squawked angrily at them and stepped protectively in front of the leaf she used to haul the food around. The act of confidence set them off. The two of them charged at Lana and began pecking and clawing at her. She tried to claw back but the two were so enraged they didn’t even notice. Luckily Blue had began watching over Lana again and stepped in before the two could do anymore damage than small scratches. He landed between the sisters and Lana . Lana cowered behind him and let out a small squeak of gratitude, twinge by the remnants of fear. He let out an angered shriek at the two and stomped a foot in their direction. He used his talons to give them both a cut just above their knees, that would end up scarring over, and screeched again. They scurried off as fast as they could and never bothered Lana again. Blue turned to face Lana and lead her to the nest. When they arrived he gently preened her feathers and they spent the rest of the day together in the nest.

From then on Lana either stayed in the nest amusing herself by fixing some of the mistakes she made while weaving, spent the day with Blue when he didn’t have any urgent tasks to take care of, or spent time with Midge and Wings. She became content with the repetitiveness. Her days with Blue were filled with an abundance of teasing, half-hearted flirting, and sometimes even an absurd game of take or hide and seek. And when she was with Midge and Wings they would go and gather any supplies the flock needed. Life was good, monotonous, but good. Until the day came. The day when the summer heat became too much to bare, and it was time.



The flock was readying for the flight north, and they all could tell the newbie was excited. Lana was bouncing slightly and bobbing her head, anxious for take off. She could finally reach the northern settlement. Blue padded next to her and nudged her gently with his wing, telling her to calm down. It was just a normal flight, she has to calm down or she’ll give herself away.

She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths when she felt Blue’s beak poke her side. She squawked angrily and jumped away from him. She could see the smirk in his eyes. He took a step back and made a motion for her to follow him. She rolled her eyes and obeyed. He lead her to an empty, secluded nest in a completely different tree, that, by the looks of it had been abandoned years ago. Fear constricted her heart and Lana wished she hadn’t followed him her. He was a bird, how could she know if he was trustworthy. She went to turn away and go back to the others, when she felt something against her beak.

Blue had his beak against her, as if trying to kiss her. It startled her but she closed her eyes and gave in. She was a bird for the time being, there’s nothing wrong with a little animal romance, she had been leading him on for long enough. The shadows of the leaves on her eyelids grew in size and she felt her limbs shrinking; her bones shifting back to their original shape. She gasped and recoiled. If Blue found out she was human the birds would leave her behind and her chance at making it to the north civilization would be gone.

She opened her eyes once she realized she couldn’t stop herself from changing back, and gasped at what she saw. Blue had also changed into a human. He had shaggy dark brown hair, and captivating dark blue eyes. He was thin, muscular and had the strongest jaw line Lana had ever seen. She frantically started patting down her tangled hair, trying to look at least slightly decent in front of this gorgeous man.

“H-how… B-bu y-you’re. Huh?” Lana stuttered out, shock clouded her mind and she struggled to form a coherent sentence.

“Like you?” He chuckled. “What was your first clue?”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner!” She huffed, suddenly angry.

“I gave you tons of hints!” He said defensively. “The biggest being that I saved you from the hunters that day you collapsed by the tree. Oh, and I took you under my wing, pun totally intended, and made the others like you.”

“I just thought you were nice. How was I supposed know you were a sire?” She shouted.

“Because, I ignored your eyes!” He yelled back, silencing her rage.

“My… Eyes?”

“You picked a good flaw for any other creature… Except these specific birds.” He started pacing around her. “Your eyes are a fatal flaw. These birds are known for being exactly similar. Not slightly similar. Ex-act-ly.” He stressed the syllables.

Lana’s eyebrows knit together. “But I can tell them all apart.”

“Because you’re one of them. To all other creatures, including hunters, they look the same. That’s why they’ve survived. And why I brought you here. You have to change it. When they see your eyes, they’ll kill you on the spot.”

“Oh.” She said in a small voice. “Wait a minute, but you’re blue!”

“I’m the leader of the flock, of course I’m blue. Didn’t you learn anything about these birds?” He scoffed. Huh… Leader, he was way more important that she had originally believed.

“They migrate south for the winter, and north when the summer gets too hot.” She mumbled, staring down at her hands. How could she be so stupid? She is a shifter, they are supposed to know everything there is to know about animals!

He started laughing. “Aw, don’t feel too bad, I didn’t know anything. I had to learn too. You’re young aren’t you?”

“No, but my gift came late, so in a way I guess I am.” She continued to mumble.

“You have a lot of power for a newbie.” He acted as if he didn’t hear her.

“Power?” She’d been hearing that a lot in recent events. But how did he know? He hadn’t seen her mark yet.

“When two shifters are in the same pack, or flock, I suppose, they draw off each others’ power and can stay shifted for longer.” He felt like her teacher… How does she have so little knowledge of her own kind? “And, we were shifted for a long time... You even managed to stay shifted when you were severely injured. I’m impressed.”

“Thanks or whatever, but the birds are going to leave soon and I need to be shifted properly to go with them, and you know… Not get killed by the guardians.” He swore she never spoke above a murmur.

“Make it a scar on your ankle. Oh, and focus on making your feathers more blue.”

“Like the way the had began to change over the past few months.” She was proud of herself for noticing and spoke at a normal level, without so much as a hint of shyness.

“Yeah, just like that.” He smiled in response to the confidence in her voice.

“Why did they do that?” She asked, just as he had expected.

“You started getting close to the leader of the flock… And he… Didn’t mind it.” He said awkwardly and ran his hand through his hair. He couldn’t look her in the eyes. He had always tried to keep away from the other birds, or shifters that passed through his flock. Getting close to people was bad, they’re so unpredictable. And it’s easier to be a leader without someone constantly on your mind. But he felt bad for her, and she had such great power...And it would be nice to finally have a friend for a change. Especially a friend who was always so determined and wasn’t hard on the eyes… at all.

“Um… Is that… Good?” She blushed, and looked down.

“Well, the others will fully accept and trust you, and I’ll have a friend… My first ever… If that’s okay with the possible friend, herself.” He beamed and she couldn’t help but smile back.

“I’ve only ever had one friend, and you seem to know quite a lot. Having a smart friend to properly educate me on all the things I’ve missed would be great.” Her cheeks hurt from how wide she was smiling.

“Friends?” He asked sticking his hand out.

“Friends.” She agreed and shook his hand, then the two of them doubled over in laughter at how ridiculous their agreement had been.

“Um…” Lana said awkwardly once their laughter died down. “I’ve been calling you Blue, since I met you and I was wondering what your real name might be…”

“What a creative pair we are! But hearing you say that is a relief, I’ve been calling you Eyes.” He chuckled. “I’m Chase.”

“Chase.” She tested in the word and decided it was far more fitting than Blue. “I’m Lana.”

“That’s much more fitting beautiful than Eyes.” He smiled at her.

“Why the kiss?” Lana asked randomly addressing the elephant in the room… Or at least that’s what her mind had stuck on… He had all but completely forgotten about it.

“Well it was the easiest way to get you back human so I could show you that I too was… a shifter?” He laughed nervously, suddenly unsure of himself.

“You could have shifted first, then I would have followed suit.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Huh… I didn’t think about that.” His eyes looked vacant. “That would have been so much more awkward… You probably thought we were going to get it on birdie style, huh?”

She couldn’t help but laugh at his phrasing. “Shifters are sort of infamous for getting it on ‘birdie style’.”

“Or any animal style really. But hey, at least our kind has lived long enough to be infamous.” He shrugged. “And we should probably be getting back, they flock won’t leave without me and if we wait too much longer it will be too late to leave. Then months of waiting will be ruined.” Lana couldn’t stop smiling, she like her new friend. He was a little odd, but in the best kind of way.