A Wild Kind

Chapter 4

Alyra bounded out of the house quickly and jogged around to the back. She heard Evalyn yell something at her, but it slipped over her head. She took another chunk out of her apple before throwing it away.

She continued to job around the back road behind her house before splitting off into the woods. Then, as soon as she was out of sight of any civilisation, Alyra changed.

Her human ears shrunk back into her skull, only to protrude atop it as furry cat ears. Following the ears came an equally as fluffy tail. Her skin went lighter as her stripes began to shine through, and as her senses began to heighten to be just like a cats, Alyra stopped the process.

This was her favourite stage. Half human, half animal. She could think and function as a human, with the above average senses of an animal.It was perfect for hunting, and just felt….natural. She loved it. With a shake, she let her senses kick in.

It was a rush; a shot of adrenaline through her system. She could see, hear, feel and smell a whole new world. Alyra felt sorry for the normal human race, never being able to experience something this remarkable.

She continued to walk through the forest, dry leaves crunching quietly under her gentle steps. Alyra had spent days, even weeks at a time exploring these woods in the time she had lived near them.

They were tattooed in her mind. There was one place, back behind the woods, that Alyra liked the most. She broke into a sprint and found herself at the back of the woods in a matter of minutes.

She pushed her way through the dark shrubbery and found herself in heaven, her picture perfect scene. A gentle stream trickled down the gently sloped scene, passing by a weeping willow tree.

Alyra hops gracefully across the stream and trots across to the base of the willow. She springs up, catching the first branch, and heaving herself up. She jumps across from it, and settles down in the hammock she brought up here so long ago. Just as Alyra rests her head to nap, she hears a rustle. She jerks upright, alert and ready.

Very few people ever went through the forest at all; she didn’t think anyone would ever find their way back here. Another rustle, bigger and nearer this time caused Alyra to leap from her hammock, over the stream to be situated directly in front of the shrubbery. She began to carefully pull away at the leaves to see what was back there before

BANG

A gun was fired, the bullet grazing her head and flying through her ears. Alyra leapt through the bushes, narrowly missing another gunshot, just in time to see the shooter disappear into thin air. She looked around frantically, but it was gone.

Oh great Alyra thought to herself. She bobbed on her heels, letting tiger stamina seep into her body. Then, she shot of the ground, weaving past trees and jumping over logs. About half way through the woods she heard a shout; Evalyn.

Alyra shot out of the woods, jumped the fence between the road and their house, and slid in through the open window. She found Dario looking even more pale than usual draped across their couch and Evalyn knelt beside him, patting his face with water.

Alyra slid across the kitchen table and beside them. Evalyn sighed and hugged Alyra, before picking up Dario’s phone and cautiously handing it across to her. Her eyes were gentle, scared. There were no words, but the pair were still able to communicate a full conversation.

Alyra unlocked the phone and flicked through the pictures. She barely flinched as she looked through the photos. Even as she got to the last one, she simply clicked the phone off and put it down. Alyra looked at her two friends and ran a striped hand through her fair hair.

“What now?”