Running with Shifters (completed)

Chapter 6 Isadora

Chapter 6

Isadora

I'm whizzing through the trees at an incredible rate, feeling like one of the ninjas on one of the animes that Rob made me watch. It had a weird name (but then again, they all do), N... Naru... Naru-something. Considering all the animes he's made me watch, it was one of the best.

My favorite character, Hinata (I'm pretty sure that's right, I haven't watched in a while), and I actually have a lot in common. She has grey eyes, I have grey eyes in the Craze. Part of her powers is being able to sense the magic-stuff in the other ninjas, and I can smell blood and can sometimes faintly sense pulses. Plus, I can recognize people with my eyes closed (from their smell, not their chackra).

Coming back to reality, I realize I've missed my intended branch and am now falling. The wind whips my hair but I'm surprisingly perfectly calm. A branch whizzes past and I grab it before it's out of reach, my feet swing around and I do a summersault as my hands are ripped from the branch. Flying face first into another tree, I cling onto it for dear life, trying to regain orientation before I realize I never even lost it. There are some definite perks to being whatever part vampire thing I am.

Another of those bone-chilling roars fill the night and I remember the reason I'm even out here. Scurrying up the tree, I perch on a branch and look in the direction the noise came from. I can see movement but can't quite figure out what it is. It has to be... four hundred feet? I have no clue, I'm still not completely used to being able to see this far and therefore I can't judge large distances.

In a second I'm right above an eighteen-point buck at the edge of a small clearing. I catch his scent and wrinkle my nose at the strong earthy smell. It kind of reminds me of the Shifters in their animal forms; except they smell slightly better, more... meaty, probably because they're carnivores.

Just before I jump I falter, realizing I actually don't know how to kill a deer. I vaguely remember watching a Nature special where a lion takes down an antelope by biting their windpipe until it suffocated. It couldn't be that hard.

Grabbing the branch and hanging myself from it, I dangle ten-something feet above his back and drop. He buckles under my sudden weight before charging into the trees in panic, leaving the clearing far behind us in a matter of seconds.

I scream in terror, hanging on for dear life, before realizing this is actually kind of fun. He bucks against a tree, trying to knock me off, and something snaps in my leg as it's crushed between his body and the trunk. It heals back and I move so that I'm perched on his back so he can't do that again.

He seems to sense that I'm not going to be knocked off and he finally stops bucking. I stand on his back, using his antlers to balance, and giggle as the wind whips my hair as we zoom past countless trees.

Ducking as a branch barely misses my head, I suddenly remember why I'm even doing this. I sit again, wrapping my legs around his neck, and swing around until I'm facing his thick, muscular neck. I can just barely catch his scent as the wind whisks it away from me and I wonder where the best place to bite would be. I pick a spot just below the bottom of his jaw and bite down as hard as I can, the whole process of sitting to biting only taking a matter of seconds, not nearly enough time for him to register it and react.

Forcing myself not to gag on the blood, I swallow another mouthful as my mouth is filled yet again and I curse myself for thinking this would be a good idea. His blood tastes even worse than he smells, like what I imagine rotting grass and bark would taste like. Even though I'm revolted by it there's a part of me that still craves and welcomes it.

I've got to think of a way to make him stop running, his blood is pumping too fast and I can't swallow all that flows into my mouth, streams of it running down my neck and soaking into my shirt. What if... that'll work. Somehow managing to grab my left ankle with my right hand, I kick his knee out from under him with my right foot and brace myself as he comes down on top of me.

The wind is knocked out of me but I still somehow manage to keep my jaws locked on his windpipe as I'm ground into the ground by the tremendous weight on top of me. My back screams in pain but I try my hardest to ignore it and am rewarded when my struggles pay off and he finally gives his last futile kick.

Picking him up off me with ease I stand up and survey my work. Now that I'm looking at him head on and not from above I realize how huge he is. It's almost as if he has a bear's body on the legs of a horse.

Having no idea what else to do I follow my scent (I don't really know how, I just somehow recognize it as my own) and with his front legs draped over my shoulders, slowly make my way back to the others at the car.