Running with Shifters (completed)

Chapter 7 Isadora

Chapter 7

Isadora

When I arrive back at the clearing with everyone gathered around the fire I realize that I'm the first one back. Romulus is the first to notice my arrival and his jaw drops as he sees my catch, and he leans over to elbow Lin in the ribs. Lin turns to him, clearly annoyed, and looks to me when Romulus points me out.

Everyone follows their gaze and stare at me in shock, all just sitting around the fire, only springing into action when I step forward towards them. Lin's the first over to me and he takes my face in his hands as he gives me a quick kiss, "I was so worried."

I try not to laugh at how relieved he looks and I take one of his hands in one of my own as I hold the deer's ankles against my chest to keep it in place. "You shouldn't have. I was fine, nothing happened." That isn't true, not even close, but I'm trying to comfort him, not make him into an even bigger worrier.

Everyone finally reaches us and I take my hand back as I gesture to the carcass on my shoulders, "what should we do with this?"

Romulus steps forward and smirks, "eat it, obviously. Did the others help you catch it?"

"No. Why would I need help?" I lift it off my shoulders and hold it out to him to take, acting as if it weighs next to nothing. Which, to me, it does. He holds out his arms and I laugh as I hand it over and he instantly collapses under the weight. I pick it up off of him and he wheezes in a breath, staring at me in stunned silence as I easily move it back onto my shoulders.

After another few deep breaths he smiles at me, a look of reluctant awe in his eyes. "You're a freak." Lin snarls and I quickly shush him, knowing that he's joking around.

"I know! Aren't I awesome?" I puff up my chest with pride.

Meg comes over and attempts to pull it back off my shoulders. I drop it, narrowly missing her foot, and she scowls at me as she pulls out and throws a dagger to Romulus. "Yes, yes. Romulus, dress this deer, I'm starving. Iz, if you wanted to work with the daggers I'd suggest doing it now while the moon's so bright."

I nod, just now noticing the fact that the moon really is unusually bright in the cloudless sky. With my night vision I haven't even been paying attention to whether or not there was a light source, my eyes not needing any to see clearly. But still, Meg is only a human, if slightly more... superior (is that the right word?) than every other human I've met. It's still so weird, not being identified as a human any more.

It's liberating not having to be grouped with seven billion other people- but at the same time, I don't know where I belong. Where I fit in. I don't even know exactly what I am.

Pulled from my revere, I take the dagger Meg's extended towards me. She shows me how to grip it correctly and some simple jabs and cuts, using her flat hand as her blade. I thought that the blade would feel weird or cumbersome, but it doesn't. The handle fits into my palm perfectly and I can hardly even feel the weight of it. After a few more minutes of drills she's called away by Romulus, and she helps him and Linden carry over the cut deer meat, leaving me alone to slice and jab at the air by myself.

Thinking back to some of my favorite movies, the montages blurring so that I can't even differentiate which movies they're from, I wonder how long it'll be until I can do some of those awesome complicated twirls and flips with the dagger. Almost as if it heard my thought, the dagger starts weaving in and out of my fingers. It takes a second for me to realize that my fingers are moving automatically, seemingly of their own will, and the dagger isn't somehow magical.

I hear a noise from behind me and I turn while the blade's in mid-air, catching it blindly behind my back without even thinking about it as I take in Kate's stunned expression. There's a mix of what I can only guess is concern and jealousy in her eyes and I imagine she's probably scared I'll hurt myself.

"Don't worry. This is actually really easy." I try to reassure her, and demonstrate by flipping it into the air with one hand and catching it with the other, slowly picking up speed until it nearly blurs in a circle before my face, all the time never taking my eyes off of her as her expression changes into one of complete and total disbelief.

A gasp sounds from behind me and I continue juggling it as I take in Meg's disbelieving gaze. She looks even more confused and shocked than Kate, and I didn't think that possible.

"H... How? You... I... Huh?" She stutters over herself as she looks between me and the nearly-blurring blade and I try not to laugh.