Silver Claws

3. Don't Get Sentimental

We arrived at the cliff.

I slowed to a trot, the cave was on the side facing the ocean, and I had no other option but to change into a bird of prey in order to get us there.

First, we needed food. I steered my way to a wild berry bush and stopped. The boy clambered off and started ro eat them without pause. It almost annoyed me. These could have been poisonous and he trusted me without pause. He would never have made it with my father.

While he was preoccupied, I started hunting for food. I found nothing, I was too busy keeping an eye on my berry muncher. He scared away any living thing within a quarter mile radius with his noise.

When he ate his fill I transformed into a massive hawk before his eyes. It was best to get him out of the way.

"Oh my gosh that is so cool! Even Lo-Lo can't do that! Wow can you do a lion?" He was practically screaming, he ran to me, touching my feathers and pulling my wing out. I stretched them for him and flapped once, knocking him on his butt.

He laughed, "Can ya? Can ya do a lion?"

If it made him stop asking I would. I morphed into a lioness, a large one. The quick change from three different animal made me feel slightly off balance so I sat.

"Woooow" he inspected me all around, rubbing the silver hair. "You're shiny. Can you do a dragon?"

I shook my large head. I wasn't sure I could become something I'd never came in contact with.

"Oh. Then you're not as cool as I thought. What about a fish?"

I kept up with the rest of his demands. Over the next twenty minutes I became everything he asked including a turtle, a seal, a rat, a crab, a house cat, a deer, a duck (his favorite) and an alligator. Each time he inspected me, like I was the most impressive thing he'd ever seen. I decided that surely when I returned him, no one would believe his ramblings about a shiny wolf who could be other shiny animals.

At last I changed back into a hawk, one large enough to carry him. I used my talons to wrap around his small arms as carefully as possible. I took off with his delighted screams filling the air.

Getting into the cave was difficult to maneuver. I nearly had to throw him inside, I then left to gather more food for him as darkness approached. I was able to gather more berries for him, and a few fish. He had no qualms about eating them raw as I thought he would, and I left a few more time to collect more. He ate all that I brought, and as I started to leave again for more he told me he was full. He had taken to calling me Shiny.

The sun had given up its fight to nighttime, and I threw pebbles out of the small cave with my beak. The bottom of the cave was surprisingly smooth, worn down by time my father and I had spent here. I had been here only four sunrises ago. I changed back into a wolf, the small cave just big enough for me to fully stretch sideways so the berry muncher couldnt fall out somehow.

He was exploring the cave in the limited light, and I wouldn't let him too close to the edge. All the while telling me about Lo-Lo, Tevor, and Weed. He finally laid next to me, on top of the tail I had curled close.

"I know your secret."

I looked down at him, intrigued. In a way I had showed him my secret by becoming Other in front of him. I wasn't aware I had another secret.

"You're shy, that's why you won't change into a girl. It's okay though. Mommy says some people don't like to talk." He seemed to be musing. His fingers drew little circles into my fur.

He cuddled into my side and fell asleep. I responded stiffly at first, no one had touched me like that in so long.

I stayed awake almost all night. Even in the cave I was keeping on guard, especially now that I had the child with me. Did my father do this as I slept? I toyed briefly with the thought of what would happen if I kept him and taught him the way my father had taught me. If he could learn how to exist without dependency. I chased the thought away almost immediately. He had a pack, and he was a wolf child. He would grow up and be like them, and I would become nothing but a dream he had as a child. He was a liability anyway, he would not help my own survival. In any case I had a plan, he would help me dismantle the howlers.