Existence

Chapter 5

Sarah held her breath as the arrow zipped through the air, brushed close to her face and hit something in the hanging vines behind her. A squeak reached her ears and she turned around in search of the source, her fear momentarily forgotten.

Peeking out of the tree's green curtain, she found a small brown mouse lying on the leafy ground on its side. It was breathing shallowly, no longer squeaking. The arrow had landed a few feet away from it.

Sarah gasped and knelt down next to the poor creature, not knowing what to do. It was clearly too wounded to move and Sarah worried that trying to help it would make the pain worse. A rustle of leaves alerted her to Byron's presence and she turned to meet his stoic expression.

'Adventia scum.' The thought entered Sarah's mind, surprising her in the slightest. She had a small urge to hit him round the head, maybe to knock some sense into him but she settled on glaring and shouting at him instead.

"Why did you do that?" Sarah demanded angrily, gesturing at the small creature. "Were you trying to scare me? Look at what you did to this poor little mouse—"

"Shrew," Byron corrected, gripping his bow tightly in both hands. "That, Sarah Walkman, is a shrew. Something Shifters normally take the form of when they spy on their enemies."

"W-what?" Sarah managed to say, confusion overtaking her anger. So many questions were buzzing around in her head, all because of that simple sentence. These were Shifters? What did he mean by spying on their enemies? Was this why Byron had a bow and arrow? If so, then how did Alex and Casey tie in to all this?

"With the right words, I could probably return it to its human form but I doubt that would make it any better." Byron sighed and opened the curtain of leaves wide for Sarah, who remained motionless on the ground. There was no way she was going back there with him.

The short silence was cut off by the hoots of an owl. The winged creature swooped down out of nowhere and snatched up the injured shrew in its talons. It weaved between trees, most likely heading to its nest to enjoy its quarry. Sarah watched the shrew disappear into the forest with a small pinch of sympathy. If only Byron hadn't shot the poor creature...

"Sarah, let me explain," Byron began, "about Shifters. They're—"

A sound akin to a zipper opening echoed around them and Byron turned around. Glancing behind him, Sarah spotted a thin doorway in the tree trunk that definitely hadn't been there before. A tired Alex walked out of it, his clothes ripped and his face covered in scratches and bruises. He held his red bandanna in one hand and Sarah noticed that he didn't have his wristwatch anymore. Casey and Azazel were right behind her cousin, pretty much in the same state as he was.

Azazel sported a black eye and his sleeveless black shirt had three long claw marks slashed across it. He had discarded his shoes and sweater long ago. Meanwhile, Casey's shirt was speckled with what Sarah assumed was bear slobber. His hair was mussed and he had gotten a few more scratches in the short time Sarah and Byron had left him. Despite all this, he managed to give Sarah a wave and small smile. It melted into a confused frown when he noticed her position outside the tree's protective curtain.

"Sar, what's wrong?"

"Shifter spy," Byron said as Sarah slowly got to her feet. He sounded a bit sheepish. "I shot it down and... Sarah was standing kind of close to it."

"Really, Byron? It's bad enough when you do it around us. Sarah's had enough of a scare for one day," Casey said as he shook his head, drawing an 'X' over the opening in the tree with the opposite end of the Abra stone. It closed immediately, leaving no trace of its prior existence on the trunk at all.