Outcasts

Chapter two

I hadn't been in the air two seconds when a security camera turned on me. I fumbled, trying to act like a normal hawk. Hopefully, Dr. Darrol didn't know that I could turn into this kind of bird. However, the camera turned on me and a red light started blinking.

Someone shouted my name. I fumbled again, and this time I couldn't regain my balance. I tumbled to the ground, twisting my bird ankle. I would've yelped but I was a hawk and I didn't know if they did any of those things. A man in a black suit came around the corner. I quickly slumped down, acting dead. The man poked me but I willed myself to stay still. He picked me up but I flapped my wings in his face until he let go, then I burst toward the sky. The man said something into his walkie-talkie, and I flew faster. You wouldn't think it'd be hard to fly, since you don't really use your foot, but you're wrong. It hurts. I couldn't believe that I was actually doing this. I was running away. I flew for as long as I could, drinking in the cool night air. Finally, I thought I would collapse, and I landed painfully and morphed into a wolf. I didn't want to be hunted, after all. I found a nice patch of leaves and curled up to sleep, nursing my ankle. I changed my fur color to black to avoid suspicion. Then it all caught up to me. I would never see Kile again. Never live with society again. I would probably morph into a human very rarely. I would mostly be an animal. I would have to get used to not having hair or human limbs. And I never thought I would, but I kinda missed the crazy look in Dr. Darrol's eyes. I know, it's crazy. But they made me a little bit more happy than I was. They made me laugh a little. I would never see my mother again. Sure, she'd been pretty rude. But she still raised me. I would never lay eyes on her again. But that was nothing compared to leaving Kile. Poor Kile. But I pushed my worry down because I knew this was for the best. Having me around was dangerous for him. I sighed, noting that it was harder to fall asleep as a wolf. My senses were always on alert. So I morphed into a cat and let myself fall asleep.

When I woke up, The sun was shining through the trees. I got up and stretched, and then out of instinct I morphed into myself. My human version, at least. Then I realized that I was in the forest, and the animals would not like a human. So set my backpack on the rocks and morphed into a robin. A harmless robin, just prey. Surely nothing bad would happ-

Something jumped and dragged me down. My ankle screamed out in pain. I screeched but forgot that I was a bird and it didn't sound like much. So I tried to identify what was attacking me. It was a black cat. So I morphed into a black cat as well.

The cat looked at me, bewildered. I looked back. Then it morphed into a person. He reached out to me.

I just had time to morph into a human again before I collapsed and everything went black.

When I woke up, there was the face of a boy looking at me. As soon as I opened my eyes, he jumped back. I screeched again and grabbed my pocket knife. He had a knife too, but he didn't draw it. I held my knife out menacingly, telling him to back off.

"Wait," he said. "You're like me!"

I lowered my knife slowly. "What?" I asked.

"I shifted and you fainted. You can shapeshift too!"

I couldn't reveal my secret. "I don't know what you mean," I said.

"Oh please, I saw you shift! You were a robin before."

"Maybe the light was playing tricks on your eyes."

"You know it wasn't. We're both on the run, right? Maybe we can work together."

I sighed. "Maybe."

"So you can morph," He said.

I sighed and nodded.