Paranimal

Chapter 1

The school bell rings shrilly in my ears and the rest of the class cheer for the end of the day and hurriedly begin packing away their things. This is the moment I dread every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The second the end-of-school bell rings, my world and the reality in which I live, crashes down on me, forcing me into despair, into desperation.

Soon my classmates are transforming like they do every school day, at this time. Kids go leaping out of the windows and just as I think they will fall to their deaths, they unfold beautiful feathery wings and turn into doves, some eagles, pigeons, wrens or robins, even a parrot or two. Tigers and big cats go padding down the stairs out of the school entrance, monkeys jump playfully from locker to locker, jeering at me. A mouse who i recognise to be timid little Milly Brown from the year below me scuttles past with her friend who has turned funnily enough into a white rat with pink eyes and a cat I know as the school bully, Big Tom, reaches out long claws to strike blows at them, mockingly. A donkey strides purposefully past me transformed from the nerd, Pocky Jones and a group of idiotic mules follow him, his young jerky admirers in the lowest year.

A golden retriever from close-by barks loudly to me and I take this as a good bye from my friend, Ellen. My misty blue eyes gaze longingly at her beautiful sparkling coat and her long pink tongue, wishing that I could be just as lucky. Her brown eyes and blonde hair represent the dog so well. As do the green eyes and silky gorgeous scales of a snake that slithers gracefully past me, proving to me that she is Tiffany Herald, class queen and Miss Gorgeous.

I perch on the windowsill from which several of my classmates have launched oneself from and wait till every large cat, exotic bird, garden creature, tree-climber, amphibian and pest has left the school. Then, feeling lonely and useless, I drag myself slowly after them. Every time I do this, I wish with all my heart that I could just suddenly transform into a bird, maybe a cat, anything. If only I could transform. Just the way everyone else does. They take it for granted, being able to morph. But only those who cannot, feel the real pain of being the odd one out. The Human. Not the Whole. Without an animal, someone will always just be plain Human and only when before birth, their Chosen Animal's spirit enters their human body, will they have the ability to morph and become Whole.

I've asked Ma before why I can't morph like everyone else can. It didn't seem to bother her at all and she never seemed or will seem bothered that she gave birth to a Human. I expected that having a Human child would be like having a runt in a litter of piglets or the weakling chick in a hatch of eggs. But Ma told me that Chosen Animals had to be sent by Mother Morph to the perfect person and merge with their form to become a Whole. Without a human, an animal would be an animal and without an animal, a human would be a human. So the two had to come together to become a whole. The Chosen Animal always had to find their Human. I guess mine just never found me, left me to be a Human.

I trudge homeward to the Packs, the Habitat in which Wolves and Big cats live together, where our homes are situated. I short-cut across the wet grass and cross the small muddy track to the opposite side and hurry into the woods. Winding through the trees, I think how many times I've walked this path, stealthily padding through rotting undergrowth and brushing past sweet-smelling pine trees, melting away in the green shade of leaves, dapples of sunlight softly camouflaging my blond hair, bleached by the sun for so long that it is almost white. My blue eyes constantly wandering around, taking in the beauty all about me. It is a good feeling which envelopes me here in the woods. Lets me be myself.

As I hit the track leading towards my village, I sing softly to myself, my voice mellifluous and mellow, slightly low like a purring cat. I wander whether, if my Chosen Animal had found me, I would be a cat, or maybe a tiger with green eyes like Pa or a sleek golden lioness like fair-haired Ma. But I know that if I could chose anything, I'd chose to be the gorgeous sinewy cheetah with spots like ink and two black lines running from my eyes to my chin like poisoned tears, the creature my big brother was blessed to get. Mr Handsome. Mr Popular. The guy all the girls want. The guy the boys all want to be best mates with.

Reaching my port, I stoop and crawl on hands and knees through the little dark hole of my front door and always imagining that I will end up in a black lightless little hole, I am amazed for the up-teenth time by hearing a loud whoosh and a whirl of wind before I open my eyes and know that my port has teleported me inside my home.

Ma appears from the kitchen in time for me to see her morph from lioness to woman and she puts her arms around me.

"Had a nice day, Bertie?" she asks. I'm glad that I have my family, so supportive, knowing how different and odd I must feel, remembering my habits and the things I like and hate about myself. Such as being called Roberta. Bertie is much better.

I nod, smiling gratefully as Ma places my dinner before me. Roast lamb and potatoes. I pick up my fork and hesitantly jab around at my food, Ma bustling in the kitchen area and humming along to the the radio whilst she prepares Pa and Tiger's dinner.

"Have you had yours yet?" I ask her, after slicing my lamb into little pieces but not actually eating anything. Ma turns around, her right hand transformed into the paw of her lioness, the claws extended. She always does this to make life easier cutting meat with her claws than a knife but she avoids morphing as much as possible when I'm around because she knows it secretly gets to me. Pa does the same but Tiger likes to flash from cheetah to human several times a day before me just to tease me, to show off. Big brothers for you.

"No not yet. I'm not really hungry." She replies, turning back to her work. I take this as a chance.

"No, me neither. Can I go now?"

Ma chuckles, her blue eyes dancing with merriment and scoops the plate away with her human hand and swats me playfully with her temporarily morphed paw as I laugh and make a dash for it.

I head up to the roof of the house and sit there beside the smoky chimney, the rough tiles, sturdy and reassuring beneath me and I look out to the beautiful world. Woods and forests, trees, rivers, streams and tributaries, birds flocking from dense foliage wolves, big cats and humans all heading home together to end the day. What a beautiful world this is I think to myself. But then I think wouldn't it be perfect if I were just like everyone else. If I were a Paranimal.