To Cheat Death

Chapter One

I absentmindedly bit into the small green apple, savoring the sour sweet taste of the almost ripe fruit.
My eyes didn't move from the pages of my book as the shadows moved slowly across the room.

"Sky? Did you finish your work?"

Looking up at my mother's voice, I realized I had been squinting to make out the words in the dimming light.
My next thought was, no I had not finished my work.

She peered into the room, eyebrows raised. Glancing around at the opened books scattered around me and the open book in my hands, she spoke.
"Your father will be expecting you to know the names and anatomy of those birds he wants you to try. Not the plot of that novel. And I wanted you too read the Spanish book, your language skills are getting rusty."
She glanced out the window to the ever darkening forest.
"It's too late for you to keep studying today. But tomorrow no reading novels till you finished the Spanish book and know each bird in depth. You know your father won't let you use them till you do. I noticed the apple barrel was empty. Will you get some more before you go to bed?"

I nodded, my mouth full of sour apple.

Ma was right, it was getting too dark to read. Setting my book aside, I finished my apple down to the seeds. When you live in the middle of nowhere a hundred miles from another cabin, you learn to never waste anything.

After piling the collected seeds into a neat pile, I rummaged through my bag that was forever at my side.

It was full of feathers, bits of fur, scales, and even a few claws.
If I focused on any of them I would Change into them. All of them were hand picked for age and type of animal. If I had the feather of a baby bird I would Change into a baby bird, so we were very careful to pick transitionals (things we used to Change) from adult animals.

Eyeing the items in my bag I mentally listed all the animals I had in my bag.
Panther, owl, bat, sparrow, cottonmouth snake, falcon, mouse, fish, deer, a blue jay and precious little else.
Each requiring hours of studying on what they ate and how they lived. My da was very particular about knowing how to take care of an animal before I ever Changed into it.

My da knew about hundreds of animals and had even more transitionals but we usually only carried a fraction of those. The rest gathered dust in the house or were hidden in the celler.

He never said but I knew he was searching for something. For what I didn't know.

Once when da left for weeks, I asked ma what he was looking for.

She smiled, pulled me on her lap, and told me a story.

"Long ago something was lost. It was very precious to us, the dragkon I mean." She said in an ominous tone.

"But why are we called dragkons?" I interrupted.

"It is said our ancestors could Change into dragons."

"Who said?"

"Listen to the story, love. Well, when the leading council, the dragkon were the rulers of the world then, learned of the missing item they ordered everyone to search for it, but it was never found. The item strengthened our race considerably and when we lost it our race as a whole was weskened, our enemies, of which we have many, were able to kill most of the council members. The whole of our kind was cast into chaos as we had no one to lead us and the item that made us strong was gone. Over time our kind have been hunted to near extinction. We are the very nearly the last of the dragkon race and that is why we have hidden ourselves here, away from our enemies. But your father, well, he's never given up searching for that item. No matter no one knows what the item actually is."

Pulling my thoughts from the past, I found the feather I was looking for. It was a pretty blue jay feather. I ran its softness against my palm, then I focused.

Changing was as easy as changing clothes, as slipping on a glove.
In an instant I was a jay. Fluffing my feathers, I was distracted, admiring myself.
Spying the apple seeds, I snapped them up. Then hopped out the open window, spread my wings, and felt the breeze before taking off.

I flew a half a mile or so to our orchard. Fifteen adult fruit trees including apple, cheery, peach, and plumb, only showed how long my parents had been here. They planted them when they first came.

Changing back human and tucking the feather into a pocket, I pulled the biggest apples off of the apple trees, and checked the others for ripe fruit. Then touched the feather with the edge of my full hand and Changed into the jay.

My ma always said we were not shifters. First of all small objects could travel with us and stay with a form we Change out of. Secondly, if I was hungry or injured in one form that hunger or injury would not transfer to another form. So they were separated in a way.

Flying back to the house, I circled for a moment admiring our four room cabin. My da built it himself, and all of what little furniture we had.

When I came into the dark house, I saw that my da was back.

He turned from organizing a bundle of transionals and gave me a disapproving look.
"I heard you neglected your study's today. You know why they are important. You cannot become something you know nothing about."

He folded his arms, expecting an response.
I avoided my da's gaze instead studying the carving at his neck.

It was an ivory dragon, well carved with soldering eyes and every scale beautify outlined, strung on a leather string. He never took it off.

Face softening, he said,
"What am I going to do with you, my pretty little girl?"

I smiled, knowing he wasn't angry anymore.

Placing the fruits in a basket for breakfast tomorrow, I said,
"I'll learn twice as much tomorrow."

"You better." He shook his finger at me in mock sterness.
Then ruffled my curly black hair.
"I'm going to go find your mother."

"I just saw her. Is she not here?"

He shook his head.

A scream rang out.
Ma appeared at the doorway, covered in blood.

"Ma! Are you all right?" I ran to her and touched her hesitantly.

"It's not my blood." She painted.
"Come quick, James."

She ran back out the door leading us into the forest.

Not far from the house, an old man layed in a pool of his life blood, gasping for breath.

Every year, this man, who's name was Sebastian, had made his way through the forest to a rondyvoo point, since no road led to our house and the forest was thick, with a wagon of supplies we could not make ourselves and news of the outside world. He would come through the trees with the wagon as best he could and leave the supplies hidden in a cave before flying to our house. That time of year was the best and most frightening. We had all sorts of wonders like sugar and salt, plus needles and fabrics. But we were always afraid that someone could follow Sebastian despite his precautions. We would fly out at night and ferry the supplies back, one by one if need be. Cover the wagon trail as best we could and watch carefully for followers. Nothing had ever came of it.

The first time I saw him, he shattered my belief that very person had dark hair and skin like my parents and I.
His hair was pale white, his back bent, and his face weathered.
And now he was dying.

"Sebastian. Hold on! Your going to be alright!"
Ma was going into hysterics.
Her hands fluttered around a black arrow piercing his chest.
"James, what are we going to do?"

"Sebastian, Change, it will delay your human dying."
Da's voice was serious and urgent.

The man clutched a black feather in his hand. His form flickered between a crow and a human. As he Changed into his crow the black arrow seemed to shudder for a moment before reappearing lodged in his crow as well.

"That's not possible." Ma said in horror.

"Their coming." The old man gasped.
"They found me. They know where you are." His last breath slipped from his body and his eyes went dead.

Suddenly, the forest seemed eerily quiet and still.