Flight 118

Epilogue

~ The Female Shifter ~

The fire was bright against the night sky. The smoke wafted through the air, the crackle and pops from the fire, and the light itself drawing predators of every kind to her.

I shook my head from my crouched position on the tree branch, 20 feet in the air and five feet away from the aforementioned beacon of death.

It was ironic, truly. The fire was such a necessary part of living. Not just surviving, but also living. Especially for humans. A necessary source of heat for body warmth and cooking. A light in the darkness. The easiest way for water sterilization. But also, a method of community and gathering. For millennia a fire stood as a way for people to meet each other and share their stories, cultures, hopes, and beliefs.

What many people did not seem to realize was the unfortunate fact that a fire was also a point of danger. More so than the aspect of burning someone or something. It was a danger, a beacon, drawing the eyes of those you can't see. Predators in the night; natural animals, humans, shifters...myself.

I shook my head as I watched the human below me.

She was a persistent one, I could give her that. Stupid. Ignorant. Completely unaware of the world she now lived in, and unwilling to realize that. But persistent. A quality I was not sure how I felt about.

I used to think it was an admirable trait; persistence. But now, I realized just how much danger came with it when one did not know when to stop.

The wind shifted again, drawing my attention out of my thoughts.

My head swung to the left, slightly tilting as I smelled the air and tried to filter out the smoke smell.

Someone was coming, hunting the girl, and the human below me was completely unaware.

I growled under my breath, too low for anyone to hear. Normally I wouldn't concern myself with random human matters, but I was pretty sure this particular problem may be one of my doing. I could not be the reason why people were looking for her but leave her unaware and alone after it backfired.

Though, I was not the person who had concocted a plan to send a stranger to kidnap someone who did not need help.

She made it seem so simple; so necessary. It was not what she made it seem to be at all. But, after watching from the shadows when it all went down, I realized she also did not purposefully try to mislead me. I had heard the rumors, the stories, of sky travelers from the past. But I didn't realize the truth behind them until now.

Now I better understood what the girl had been thinking when she came to me. A stranger to our world, terrified and alone. Not knowing why everyone acted, spoke, and made decisions the way they did.

Though I was of this day and age, I too had asked those questions many times in my life.

I was not sure if I simply needed to repay her for what I inadvertently caused or if we were kindred spirits. But I could at least help her save herself.

I inhaled deeply, focusing my senses on the location of the human hunting the girl. Just then, though, the wind shifted and I couldn't catch a scent. Couldn't smell and couldn't see because I was up in a tree, so I could only rely on my hearing.

One set of footprints, treading lightly on the ground. I can pretty much guarantee it was a male, but this person seemed either to be a shifter or have some kind of training for hunting because they knew how to move almost silently throughout the woods.

Which meant the human girl below me most likely could not fight him off, but maybe I could get her to run before then.

Leaving over, I silently broke a tiny twig of the branch I still squatted on. Lining it up with a bush on the ground, I threw the twig as hard as I could. Using my shifter power, I managed to get the twig to make a loud enough noise to draw her attention.