Choices, Love, and Magic (Complete)

chapter 12

Chapter 12      In and out. All the time.

It was day again when I woke in the abandoned nest. I didn't have time in the last couple days, but I'd have to fix it up. I could do that today. After food. I ate a mouse the night before, but it was a bit small, and I was hungry again. Nest later, food now.

I spread my wings and took off into the blue sky, scanning the ground below for my breakfast. Finally seeing a small rabbit below, I went into a dive. I almost had the little meal when it was startled and ran to a nearby burrow. Swooping back up, I listened carefully to the howl that scared off my breakfast.

Not a coyote, I thought abstractly, It sounds a bit like one, but not quite. Listening closer, I started to remember. The places. The people. The life. The witches, werewolves, and vampires. The pain.

No! I can't do this again! My thoughts were human, and I floundered for the mind of the hawk. Then, just as I found it, I remembered the moment before the hawk last took over. My terror. I immediately fell a few feet to the ground as I started to fight the hawk. I knew that I could keep myself in my own mind if I could just shift to me. But I was fighting a losing battle.

Just as the hawk was flooding my mind, a pack of 4 wolves ran over a nearby hill and straight to the place I was landed. The black one and the brown-and-black one both barked at me, but I was too far gone to know what it meant. Then brown-and-black shifted, and Cora gently picked me up.

"Keep fighting, Kath," my best friend pleaded, and as she continued I clung to her voice like a lifeline. Cora begged,"Don't give up! Just stay you. Antonio is coming. He can help you!"

At the mention of my angel, I gave one last shove at the hawk's mind. But it wasn't enough. The hawk slipped in and, terrified, clawed at a tearful Cora until she released me. I was utterly confused as to why I'd let a ground-walker near me, and around predators! I needed to get out of there.

I lifted my wings and fled into the sky, not even noticing the 2 crows until I flew into them.

"Watch where you're going!" the male cawed at me,"We're trying to find someone!"

As the 3 of us wheeled in the sky, the female crow admonished the male,"Tristam, calm down. She's a hawk. A hunter. She might be able to help." She turned to me and inquired politely,"What's your name?"

I opened my beak to answer, but then I realized I wasn't sure, so I decided on one in an instant. "I'm Breeze," I informed her, pointedly not looking at the male, Tristam. I continued as we circled the wolves and human below. I noticed that the black wolf was licking the human's scratches gently as I told them,"I have a nest near here, in a sturdy stand of trees. We could talk there, if you'd like."

"That'd be great, Breeze," she replied,"Oh, and I'm Rebecca, by the way."

We straightened out our flight just as the black wolf below turned into a dark-haired human and shouted up,"Tristam! Rebecca! That's Katherine! She just doesn't know it!"

Huh? I was completely confused. Even more so when the crows let out surprised caws and started to drive me toward the ground. I struggled to get above them and out of there before they drove me all the way down to the ground-walkers. I had just found a way when the strong hands of a human grabbed my wings, stopping me from flying at all. I struggled until I heard one of the humans speak.

"Be careful," I heard him caution the human holding me,"Don't break her wings."

I stopped struggling immediately at the sound of the velvet voice, swinging my head to face the human that spoke. His face and chocolate brown hair sparked a deep memory, and it felt just out of my reach. Scared and confused, I was completely still as the human girl with brown hair that faded to black carried me away. I didn't know where to. The handsome brown-haired boy and the 3 remaining wolves walked beside her as the crows flew ahead. The crows didn't come back.

Eventually, we came to a human place. A house. When the girl tried to carry me inside, I immediately became terrified and lashed out with beak and claws, adding scratches to the ones she already had.

"Ouch!" the girl yelled, shoving me roughly into the brown-haired boy's arms,"Katherine! Why'd you do that? Again!"

A black-haired girl walked out of the house when she heard the shouting and spotted the scratches on carrier girl's arms. Quickly understanding, new girl said to the one that'd been holding me, "She calls herself Breeze. Her mind is completely the hawk's."

The 3 wolves suddenly were wrapped in a strange light, and then they emerged as people, causing me to briefly struggle in fear. I saw the black wolf turned into a guy with black hair, the white with brown speckles to turn into a platinum-haired girl with brown ends, and the white with gray tips into a girl with gray-tipped platinum blond hair. The black-haired one immediately spoke.

"How do we change her back?" he demanded rudely of the black-haired girl,"She can't just stay a hawk! I might not like the girl, but-"

"Christian!" the brown-to-black-haired girl scolded,"Be nice! Rebecca was nice enough to help and she even convinced Tristam to help, too." She paused, and then she admitted,"Anyway, I have an idea. We get her in an enclosed space where flying won't get her away. Then everyone that can shift into an animal does so and attacks her." The brown-haired boy looked about to explode when brown-to-black talked about attacking attacking this 'Katherine', but she cut him off before he could speak,"Antonio, we wouldn't actually hurt her. We'd just scare her into a form that she can control, and she'd be her again. Or we get her to wolf and Christian uses his alpha power to bring our Katherine back. So, what do you think?"

There was a pause, and then a brown-haired girl that came from the house said,"It might just work. And I can provide the enclosed space with my force field. No one penetrates it unless I want them to."

"Hannah's right," the one called Antonio said,"It wouldn't be that hard. We could even just do it now, if everyone's okay with that." Nods and a chorus of 'Yeah,sure.' passed among the people, and I was set on the ground as a nearly-invisible wall went up around us. I didn't know what they were doing, but I couldn't fly in this space!

All of a sudden 4 of the people turned into wolves and 1 of them became the female crow I'd met earlier. Then they attacked me!

I just barely managed to weave around them in the limited air space. All I could think of was how I wished I was a coyote, like the ones I'd seen before. And, suddenly, I fell from the air, just managing to land on my paws. I felt the strange mind rushing in, and I acted on instinct. I shifted again.

Finally human, I just stood silently for a moment as everyone else realized I was me again. When they turned back into people, I looked deep into their eyes as they waited for me to say something, saving Cora, Megan, and Hailey for last. As the last of my memories trickled in, I remembered what had happened in the last few days, and my mind ran over the recent group of 5 days. It felt more like weeks. Months. Even years.

I swayed, and all of them rushed toward me. But before they reached me, I crumpled to the ground with violent sobs ripping their way out of me.