Shapeshifters

25

THE MORNING AFTER the roses and the discovery of Sunny's note, there was the sign. Dustfly ended up staying the night so no one else could break in and leave roses all over, a bit over the top. At breakfast I told him that we were meeting with Tawny that night.

"What are we discussing?" He asked.

"I honestly have no idea," I replied. "Maybe she just wants to know how we are and the usual."

There was the unasked question: Should we tell her about the note? 

"No," Dustfly announced. "It would take a lot of explaining and I do not want to be there all night."

"Suit yourself," I said. "I'm going to tell her, whether you support me or not."

"We don't even know if we can still read it in our original form," He pointed out. 

"We could test it?" I offered. "Maybe one of us shifts and sees?"

"And when would we do that?" He inquired. "It's broad daylight, but tonight is too late."

I thought then responded. "Here. Now."

"So, is it going to be you or me?" He didn't argue or question. Something's not right.

"You," We said in unison. We laughed then he said, "I will."

I grabbed the note and he shifted. Dustfly stared at the paper for a few minutes, then shifted back. When he nodded his head, I nearly screamed. Instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a huge hug. He looped his arms around my waist and gave me a peck on the forehead. 

"What are we going to do to kill time?" He asked.

"We could..." I wondered. "Maybe talk a walk, or go to the arcade, or stroll around town."

"Why limit ourselves to just one thing," He laughed. "Let's do all of them."

We left the house, triple checking that everything was locked, then went straight to the woods.

*****

We arrived back at my apartment with enough time to have dinner and grab the note. Once we cleaned up, we headed out. We took our own time getting to the forest line, for it was still a little light out. We got there just a few minutes past nightfall and Tawny was already waiting.

We shifted and I grabbed the note carefully in my mouth, trying not to smear the writing. Tawny gave us a quizzical look when we dropped the paper in front of us.

"What's that?" She asked us.

"It's a note from one of our up-walker friends," I explained. "They left it for us, but we didn't know it existed until after we broke the first part of the curse."

Tawny nodded. "Why did you bring it here?"

"To read it to you." Dustfly said.

Tawny told us to read it to her, so I did. She was a good listener, only stopping us a few times to clarify things. Like, who Rose was. So we had to stop a moment and explain that we had different names there. Once we finished, we waited for her to say something.

"She knew," Tawny gapped. "This Sunny knew everything."

"We couldn't believe it either," Dustfly acknowledged. "We were probably more shocked than you, only because this up-walker is, was our friend."

"What can I do to help?"

"The most helpful thing would be to send us the sign," I stated. "The morn of the next big moon meeting."

"So you can come waltzing in and save the day?" Tawny guessed. "I will, I want to see you take down whoever did this." She smirked.

"We do too," Dustfly answered confidently. 

"We need to make sure all the leaders are there," I declared. "That way, they can all agree on a new, appropriate name for us."

"I can't wait," Tawny exclaimed. "We've been waiting for moons for the descendants of Shapeclaw and Shapetail to take their rightful place."

"You knew too," I asked amazed. "Did everyone know but us?"

"No," Tawny replied. "Only those close to the shapeshifters knew their descendants. So your mothers, close friends, and their kin knew the truth."

"And the leaders," Dustfly added.

Tawny chuckled. "Yes, them too." She looked at the sky and told us she needed to go. Promising that she would alert us the morn of, we parted ways.