Secret Changes

Chapter 3

So this is the beginning of when I started trusting this strange "horse shifter" as he calls himself. He taught me how to stand, then walk and run. But then, he told me we had to leave.

We start walking, to where, I don't know. And we continue walking for hours, until we reach a river. We walk toward it to get a drink, but as a human I am not sure how to. I watch as he steps into the river, cups his hands together, and brings it to his mouth.

I stand on the edge, making sure my feet don't touch the water, and bend over trying to reach my mouth to the water. But as a human this does not work. He sees me and laughs. "No- you have to- cup your hands- like this," he says between laughing and demonstrating.

I don't respond, mostly because I can't and bend my knees to crouch beside the river. I cup my hands as he told me and move them to the river. But when I lift up the water, it all falls out. I try more times, but again I fail so I, instead, jump in and put my face in the water and drink. Again he laughs, "That works too." I look up at that wondering if that is supposed to remind me of when I first shifted yesterday, but when he doesn't say anything I look away and continue drinking.

Soon after that we continue walking with him never saying a word, knowing I can't talk. When sunset comes not long after, he sets up an area to sleep and starts a fire. It scares me at first because everyone knows that when you see fire, you run. But he tells me, "Don't worry it keeps us warm and stays in the same spot. It won't burn us."

When we have our beds set up he tries to teach me the alphabet. "A,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y, and z. You put them together to make up words." For a second my attention moves between his words and his face. "Are you listening to me?" I try to answer but he doesn't realize that. "Celia? I mean..." I look up at his face again. A mixture of sadness and anger is on it but is pushed away when he sees me looking.

"I didn't mean to call you Celia, it's just you look a lot alike someone I used to know." I continue looking at him. "Do you want that as your human name?" I nod my head the way he showed me. He smiles weakly as if remembering who the other Celia was, "Ok then. We better get to sleep now." He lays down and faces away from me.

I hear him fall asleep quickly, but I am still wide awake. Not thinking of the "alphabet" like I should be, but about him. And my new name, Celia. When I finally do sleep, my dreams are the same as my thoughts.

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"Wake up," I hear a soft voice above me along with a gentle touch. "Celia?" I open my eyes to see him hovering over me. He backs away when noticing I'm awake. "Sorry, but we have to get going. The village isn't far."

I take time to stand up while watching him cover up the fire, which is now ashes. "Ok we are ready to go. Follow me." We start walking and before I know it we are at the "village" within an hour and a half.

"We will go to my house and then somewhere to eat." I follow him as we pass many houses. After we pass about twenty houses he stops going forward and turns right. "Stay here. Do NOT move. Do you hear me? Stay here don't come inside and don't walk away. I will be right out." He walks inside and closes the door.

Nothing happens for a few minutes but then people start yelling. "You are always gone, Dylan! You have been gone for several months and now you come back to take money and leave!" "I'm always gone because you treat me like crap, Dad! You always waste all the money I earn on alcohol!" "How dare you talk back to me! If it wasn't for you, your mother would still be here to get us some money!" "What are you talking about?! She left because of you stealing her money!"
Before the other person can answer back, I walk in the house. I see an older man sitting/laying on the couch looking very angry at "Dylan". "And now you have a girlfriend with you?!"

Dylan doesn't answer. He grabs my arm and runs out the door. We don't stop until we reach a big building. He releases my arm and I rub it where he held it too tightly. He looks angry but I can tell it isn't directed at me.

We walk in the door and wait in line behind two other people. They say something to the person behind the counter and walk away. After the next person does the same thing, Dylan walks up and says something to the person behind the counter. We walk away and sit at a table.

"This is a restaurant. You tell the person behind the counter what you want to eat and they make it for you." I don't answer, again mostly because I can't. He places what he took from the house on the table. A bag with money and books. While we wait he start to explain simple words leaving off from where we were last night.

In the middle of explaining he gets up to get the food and comes back. As we eat he takes out one of the books and explains the first word and what letters it is made of. "The is made up of a t, h, and e. Fat is made of f, a , and t. Can you see all the letters in the words?" By the time we finish eating I can read the first sentence. "The. Fat. C-at. Sat. On. The M-a-t."

"Good job," Dylan says with a smile. "We should probably leave now, but we can practice more later." He puts the book back in the bag with the money and we walk out. But as we walk away from the restaurant I can't help but feel like I'm being watched.

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A/N

Ok I am just really sorry. I had this whole chapter written like two weeks ago, but somehow the picture I added deleted the whole chapter and then I had like half the chapter done but all my family was here for 10 days. So today PicturePerfectPage said that I should finish the chapter so I did. I'm sorry. You guys didn't deserve for it to take like a month but now I will stop talking so I can actually publish the chapter. Bye for now. :) OH ALSO MY COUSIN JUST MADE A WATTPAD AND I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE IT IF YOU READ HIS BOOK!!!! It's called The One And Only. And his profile name is Luke_P. Go check it out! Thanks guys!