The Skin Changers [slow updates]

Chapter Five: The Family Tree

Transform, just picture the cat in your head. You can do this Gracelyn, come on. She pictured it, the small black cat that she had transformed into before. Starting from the top, she imagined herself changing — the ears then the eyes, the fur, whiskers, ears, nose. The rest came with ease. An almost shiver running down her spine as the rest of her body turned into a cat

Gracelyn stretched, getting used to her small body. Something she feared she would never quite get used to. It was almost like she had left her body somewhere else, body jumped. Like she was there but not there at the same time.

It was a good thing Tristan only lived a neighborhood over or else this would be much harder. As it so happened Gracelyn was not the most in-shape person.

Thirty minutes, that's how long she would have to walk to get to his house. Honestly she was excited about her little cat adventure. Maybe it was the curiosity of the cat getting to her head. Either way her body yearned to jump on top of fences and run and maybe knock a few things over.

She spotted a fence not far off. It would be faster running on fences right? If not, at least she had fun getting there. She ran, her paws softly and silently hitting the cold, concrete grounds. Gracelyn crouched at the fence, her butt doing a little wiggling movement. Her tail... Wait... She did not feel a tail. But she had a tail before right? Yes she vividly remembered being fascinated by her tail last night.

Her cat form did a circle around itself and found no tail. Had she really forgotten to transform her tail? She would have to work on that next time.

Focus Gracelyn. Right. She crouched down in front of the fence again and pushed off the ground, instinct taking over. It was amazing how that worked. Like her human self suddenly gained the instinct of the animals she transformed into. She wondered if she turned into a fish if she'd be able to breath under water. Most likely, as long as she did not forget the gills.

Six alleys later and a lot of fence hopping, Tristan's large house loomed over her. The shadow from the moon shielding her in the darkness, even more so than the night itself. Her black figure blended in perfectly. She was the night and the night was her — silent, dark, and full of so many undiscovered secrets.

In a swift movement she leapt up onto his fence and down into his large backyard. She let a low growl like noise escape from her mouth as her blue eyes scanned the backyard. How did it just so happen that the new kid in town get the biggest house in the entire neighborhood? For starters his backyard was about five of hers and the house itself was three stories and twice as wide as hers. It was her dream house and he was lucky enough to get it.

Now where was the back door? There. It sat under the overly decorated porch, the doggy door just visible in the dark. Her paws made virtually no sound as she sulked to the door, almost as if she was stalking a prey but it would be pretty dumb for a dog door to be prey. Who would want to eat that? She could not imagine plastic and rubber would taste too great.

A few more steps and she was there, nudging the rubber covering the door's hole. But it did not budge. Why did it not budge? Could it somehow be locked in place from the inside? And why exactly would they not want their dog to be able to leave the house to go to the bathroom by itself at night? It made no sense to her so she tried harder. She reared back and pounced at the opening. Nothing. She walked backwards a few feet and ran at it, her entire body making an impact with the rubber. It did nothing but ripple a bit and continue to stay closed. She would have to find another way.

She almost thought she would have to search for hours to find another way into the house but thank God for cat's eyes. Gracelyn spotted an open window not too far off the ground. A running start would still have to be made to be able to get to the window. This ought to be fun.