Forever Waiting

Chapter one

She sat alone. The mouse sat on her lap. His silky white coat reflected the moonlight, making him look like a star fallen from the sky. She stroked his chest slowly, which she knew he liked. He curled up against her hand and looked into her eyes.

"Holana," The mouse said, still gazing at her with his beautiful olive eyes. The girl did not flinch at this. She knew he could speak – this was her brother after all.

The girl sighed and returned his unblinking gaze.

"Please don't change," May said to herself quietly. She knew that if she changed now her hunting instincts would kick in and they would overpower her memories. She was a WereFox, and the natural food of fox was mice. She had always known about the difficulties of their forms – the dangers it put them both in – and, when they were younger, their father had advised her to separate for their own good. This, of course, May would NEVER let happen. She had made her Father promise not to tell Drake that she couldn't remember who she was while in fox form. Her brother was still convinced that their Mother had died of cancer. Ellen, their Mother, was a WereRabbit. She had lived for only a year after May was born. She couldn't remember what their mother looked like, but she always imagined her to look like Drake – the same blond-white hair and beautiful green eyes. This was one of the reasons she was always with Drake. Drake had once said that May reminded him of their father. That was the only time she had been really angry with her brother.

They sat like that for a while, gazing into each other's eyes, deep in thought. After a while, the mouse scrambled off his sisters lap. He started to spasm, and May knew exactly what that meant.

"Drake!" she said, happy to no longer have to worry that she was going to eat him, and happy to escape her thoughts. Drake changed back into a human and stood, smiling. There was a foreboding calm when they looked at each other in human form. In that moment May could tell they both new something was going to happen. Something that they had been waiting for for what seemed like their whole lives.

And something did happen. And it changed their lives forever.

They felt a tremor in the earth, only small but defiantly there. They both remained silent while these vibrations took place, both holding their breaths. The sensations slowly stopped and they stayed still for a heart-stopping moment, beginning to realise what had happened.

"Quick," Drake shouted. May had jumped to her feet even before he had said it. Something had changed and for some reason it felt important. They both started running. The vibrations had seemed to come from a clearing a little way off that they both knew well – the gathering place. "Faster," he shouted, "Almost there!" They broke into the clearing simultaneously.

There was a bear stood in the middle of the open space. He was obviously a WereBear; he had those human eyes that no normal animal possessed. There was another creature in the clearing, this one a bit more unusual. There was an Ice Dragon, about double the size of her foe, standing in front of the bear.

'It can't be a dragon, can it?' May thought to herself. Dragons were pretty much unheard of in the shifter world.

She could see that the dragon had just changed form – it was still spasming – and, if it was angry enough, could rip the bear to shreds. She knew she had to help but what could she do? The Dragon spasmed once more and fell to its knees. It changed into a young girl, maybe eighteen, about the age of her brother. Then May started to shake. She knew that the monster was about to take over for only a few, horrifying seconds and just managed to say "Patalmon," to her brother before she blacked out completely.

'Kill it, kill it!' She thought. 'Bear live, Dragon die.'

"Zillan," she shouted out loud, which she understood as death. She leapt upon the form in front of her and bit hard. The flesh was a lot softer than she had expected. The fox heard a scream and it pleased her. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the bear bolt into the forest.