If Only They Knew

Chapter 2: The City of Horror

     We landed after a few hours of flying and some games of flight tag, which always ends up with at least one bird looking behind their back and crashing into a mountain, making the others laugh. It was me this time. Even though I'm the fastest on air, land, or sea, I still let me stupidity overcome me and made myself look around and led me to crash. It didn't hurt much, but I still laughed with them afterwards.
     When we landed, Skylar was the first one to change back and yell, "How FUNNY was that when Sylvia crashed into the mountain and almost FELL out of the SKY?!" Everyone changed back and cracked up.
     I changed back and just replied, "Ha ha, sooooo funny, right?" Miranda just laughed and rolled on the forest floor, getting covered in leaves and dirt. 'Great,' I thought, 'Now we need to wash off the dirt from our new clothes.'
You may be thinking, wait, new clothes? Well, we steal our clothes from the city. We usually send Alecia in as a cardinal to steal whatever she can with Skylar, the raven. It's only to not be suspicious, and we do it at night.
Anyways, I realized my arm hurt a bit. It might have gotten hurt from the crash, which everyone was still laughing at. I had to hide it so nobody would worry about me. I was kinda the leader to everyone, and I didn't even want to do it, but someone had to keep our group stable, so they looked to me.
I ignored the injury and said, "We should go wash off, cough, Miranda, cough." I made the coughs very dramatic to indicate that she is the reason I was making the group wash off.
     She glared at me and said, "WHY?! I don't wanna get in the lake!" I rolled my eyes and motioned for them to follow me to the lake, which was about a mile away. I swear, I memorized 100 miles of that forest, no joke. Leadership skill number one, know your home.
     I changed into a wolf and ran through the forest with a tiger, gorilla, lynx, and lioness following me. I can explain later who can turn into what, and how we met, but we needed to get to the lake and GET THIS DIRT OFF US!
     Of course, stupidity reminded me that I hurt my arm/wing/paw, and yes, injuries do carry on in different forms, which I hate. I accidentally tripped over a big root from a nearby tree and fell face first into the ground with a thump. My group circled me like prey and observed me. I couldn't hide it, I whimpered in pain. They glanced at each other and knew I needed help. They would have helped, but we all heard a noise. I perked my ears and attempted to stand but fell, giving away our location. I didn't know what to do, or what was lurking in the trees.
     We didn't hear noise for a few minutes, but we stood completely still, waiting to make a move. A twig snapped, (like in the movies, of course), and everything turned into chaos. My friends lunged towards the noise and were gone on a chase, leaving me alone. I knew they did the right thing, I could handle hiding myself. That's what I thought, when a man with a shotgun walked up to me, smirking. It looked like he knew I had friends and led them away.
     'Stupid, stupid me!' I yelled in my head. 'Your friends could be in danger!' I looked up and growled. He cocked his gun at my head, ready to shoot. I knew I couldn't be killed, my group needed me. We wouldn't survive without each other, it was in our hearts ever since we met. I just went still and awaited for the gun to shoot.
Nothing had changed for 30 minutes. He just held the gun, ready to fire, at my head, and I just stared at it, hoping I would be left alone. I heard a low growl, followed by a roar. The man jumped up and looked around. He turned around towards the forest, and from behind, a tiger sprang out and took him out from behind. The tiger held him down and stared at him menacingly, ready to kill him. He let out a roar, and I knew it was Skylar, calling for the others. A lioness and lynx came out and stood over me. I smiled, knowing I was safe.
We heard a screech, and I knew it could only be Miranda. I sprang up, ignoring the pain, and ran as fast as I could towards the noise. I arrived to see her surrounded by 4 men with guns. She was wide-eyed and terrified. I barked and sprang at the nearest one. The attention was now on me.
     Out of nowhere, gun shots were heard, and loud metal clanging noises came later. I managed to scar some deeply, until a net, followed by a cage, trapped me. I saw my friends coming to see what was happening, and when they saw me trapped, they went crazy and attacked whoever was in sight. I barked wildly and tried to break out. The only way out was shapeshifting, and I knew doing that would put all of us in danger. I was dragged away from the fight, howling and clawing at the cage and net.
I was shoved in a truck, far away from the fights. I just hoped to god that my friends were ok. I was taken away in the dark truck, and that only meant one thing.
I was being taken to the city of horror.