I'm Not an Animal (Slow Updates)

Chapter 2

My spare backed on to lunch, so I quickly devoured my sandwich and set to work reading. Misha was running around with some of the Monkeys, so I sat down on a bench in the middle of the lunch area and pulled the guide from my satchel. The false cover read A Hand Guide to The Great War, but the real one said A Hand Guide to Big Cats. The cover had prints of all different BC furs and the writing had been typed, not hand written. The book was obviously going to be a story for children. There was never anything, anywhere, about the Predatory Cats. But when I opened it, I saw paragraphs filled with pure knowledge. Puzzled, I began to read.

If you're reading this, you are a Big Cat. No doubt about it. The members of the Society hate our kind and it's up to us to take back our good name. If you live in a time where BC's are plentiful and equal to us all, congratulations. The equality has been restored. But if you live in a world void of Big Cat life, I'm extremely sorry. I know what it is like to be a Big Cat. I'm the last one left in my Suburb that they haven't taken. But I know they'll be coming soon.

The reason why The Great War was fought was because the Big Cats didn't like Society's way of running things. They decided to rise up and overthrow our leaders, but it all went horribly wrong. As you read in History textbooks, the Big Cats were defeated. But not as you may think. There was no Peace Treaty. They didn't have equal numbers. The Society had enough fighters for a thousand armies, their numbers hundreds of times bigger than those of the Big Cats. We stood no hope. We were crushed. Only a mere few survived, their lives spared as long as they swore to the lies the Society feeds you.

Of the ones that were captured, many didn't agree with the proposition, and were tortured until they either gave in, or died. The few that managed to escape undetected, the ones never caught by Society, they are the ones who passed on the truth. Somewhere down your bloodline there is a Big Cat. And you have their genes inside you. All you need to do is find out which Cat you are.

How do I know you're a PC? Because only a PC would have spotted the small tiger-stripe pattern that was revealed by the false cover.

I lifted the false cover, sliding it on, and gasped at just how little of the real cover was revealed. Maybe it was true. Maybe I was a Big Cat.

Only a Predatory Cat would have good enough eyesight to spot it. The only trouble now is to find which Cat you are. This guide will help.

The first PC, the Tiger. The only Big Cat with an obvious human trait. Many people have hair or eyes the colour of their animal's, but the BC's don't. The only BC to have an animal trait in their human body is the Tiger. They have bright, orange hair.

I lifted a strand of my own orange hair and gulped. I could be one of those orange Monkeys. Couldn't I?

The Tigers are natural leaders, drawn to assisting others. Of all the Predatory Cats, Tigers are the most rare and the most valuable to the Society.

A sudden bright flash filled my vision. I cried out, startled, and realised what was happening. I threw the guide book into my satchel and pulled out one of the History textbooks. I flipped it open to a page on tigers and stood, only to fall onto all-fours seconds later. Everyone had run to watch me change. I groaned as my bones shifted, stretched, changed shape. My legs changed shape, the knees bending back, and my arms grew longer, forming forelegs. My head changed shape and I nearly screamed as my body underwent a change it wasn't used to. A tail grew from the base of my spine. It must have only taken seconds, but the transformation seemed to take hours. I stumbled forward and fell.

Misha stood at the front of a ring of humans and animals. They were all staring at me. I looked at what I could see of myself. I was orange with black stripes, and my tail was long and thin. I flicked it lazily and growled.

Miss Carter rushed over to me. "What were you doing when you changed?" She cried, almost angry. Fear flashed momentarily over her face, then she went back to being puzzled. I tried to respond, but she couldn't understand my growls. Only other Big Cats could. I didn't know how to force the change, so I walked over the the seat and pointed at the open book.

"'The tigers lead the battle, their bright stripes visible to everyone.' Seems reasonable enough." Miss Carter smiled, walking away. "And don't forget everyone, your report on The Great War is due on Friday!" My class groaned and turned their attention away from me. Slowly, the ring of onlookers left, the excitement of a new changer fading away. Soon, it was just me, Misha and a boy I'd never seen before. I didn't think he attended this school.

"They'll come for you." He said, walking up to me. He ran his hand down my back and I purred. Her smiled. His hair was sandy blonde with streaks of brown running rough it. "I saw you reading. It wasn't the History book, was it? Don't worry. You're not alone." He stood up and walked away. He rounded the building and ran. I leapt after him and spun around the building, oblivious to Misha's cries. I had instantly liked the boy, but there was something about him.

He climbed the fence around the school and leapt into the neighbouring plot. I stood against the fence, watching him. There was a patch of grass leading to the forest. It was about ten metres long, the the trees grew so thickly that you could barely see through. The boy landed on the grass and ran. He jumped into the air, then shifted. He hit the ground on all-fours and kept running. He turned to me just before he reached the trees and smiled. Then he vanished.

Misha caught up to me, panting hard. I looked up at her. She looked down at me. "What was he?" She asked quietly. I turned back to the fence and pointed at the paw prints. Misha's eyes went wide. "He was a Big Cat?" She hissed. I lowered my head and she smiled. Suddenly, my limbs started shifting again and I found myself crouched on the ground. I stood up, shaking my head, then walked back towards the school building.

"What was that boy talking about?" Misha asked as she caught up to me.

"I don't know. I have no idea what he meant." But I did know. My life was in danger. All because I was a Tiger.