Death

Miranya perched atop the roof in bird form. The pure black Raven clan member was nearly invisible against the moonless sky. She waited for a moment, unmoving, watching the street below her. There were lights down there, whose glare made it harder for her to see her target. But, it also meant most felt safe, and the lights pointing down masked her image from the few that looked up.

Her target was a young woman who worked for the local lord. Many assassins refused to target woman, but she had no problem with it. She easily justified it with the thought that all humans deserved to die for the pain and death they'd caused her people. If she got amenity for killing the humans they wanted her to, she was fine with that. Most brokers even paid her money as well, Just to ensure they themselves wouldn't wake up with one of her knives at their throats.

Her target was turning a corner, and Miranya turned her attention back to the street. The woman seemed nervous and shy. In the week or so that Miranya had been watching her, the woman had never once talked to anyone else. And, unlike the rest of the street's patrons, the woman kept a very close eye on her surroundings. It brought a welcome challenge to the job, she would not be an easy one to sneak up behind.

Not easy, but then again, not particularly hard. Miranya launched into the air, and glided to a deserted alley that the woman would have to pass on her way home. Flicking to human form, Miranya hid in the shadows and waited. Suddenly, a distinct smell assaulted Miranya's nose. A lailani was nearby, she'd bet her talons on it. There weren't supposed to be lailani anywhere near here. Well, except her, but only because no one was yet ready to argue with her knives. But that smell was definitely lailani. A second later, the target came into view. She stopped and sniffed the air, then headed in the direction of the alley.

Miranya couldn't believe her luck. This was simultaneously the best and worst thing to ever happen in her career as an assassin. On one wing, how often did your target purposely put themselves in a place where they could be dispatched so discretely and easily? On the other hand, how could she possibly justify killing a lailani. Maybe her employer had thought she wouldn't notice, maybe he hadn't even known. This mission was not going according to plan, and the woman was getting way to close to the alley for comfort.

Miranya backed deeper into shadows of the alley, then mumbled a curse under her breath. This wasn't a stupid human, the woman could find her by smell no matter how dark it was. Glancing around, Miranya noticed a balcony to the left and silently jumped up. The woman kept coming, glancing around axiously. It wouldn't be long before she noticed the raven-feet gripping the balcony rail.

If Miranya killed the woman now, she could collect her reward and continue living a life of relative ease in Astadam. But she could never return to her people; the punishement for murdering a lailani was death. Or, she could leave the woman for another assasin and flee the city. The assassin guild was pretty much a kill or be killed business. Neither option seemed particularly appealing.

"I can see you" the whisper was barely enough to break the silence. Darn, must be dolphin clan or something. That clan could see way to well in the dark for most lailani's likings. At least that meant she wouldn't be able to fly.

"Stay where you are," Miranya whispered back, drawing her knives and making sure to let them reflect as much of the streetlight as possible.

"I thought I smelled you," the woman retorted, "What are you planning to do with those things, are talons not good enough for you?"

"I said, stay where you are," Miranya's voice was strained, "You already have your death sentence, and I'm about to get mine."

"Ah, assasin are you?" the woman commented, "I've heard of lailani like you, so are you killing humans for the money or the aminety?"

"That's none of your business," Miranya returned darkly. She was going to have to do something quickly, before someone heard their conversation and came to investigate. The question was: who did she want to be hunted by.

"I think I know a better place to talk about this," the woman commented, as she jumped up onto the balcony beside Miranya. Black-claw feet next to black claw feet. Could the situation get any worse? The pentalties for killing a clan-mate were highest of all. Quite possibly even higher than the penalties for failing to complete a mission. Death was death, but well, some kinds were worse.

Miranya pretended to put away her knives, playing along seemed the best option for now, it gave her time to think. "Up?" Miranya asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Up," the woman replied, launching herself in the air. Miranya put away her knives, unfortunately, she couldn't fly with them out. She glanced at the head of the alley to make sure noone had noticed the comotion. No one seemed to be paying attention, so she jumped to the roof and launched in the air.

High up in the air, Miranya looked around for the Raven. She wasn't below the clouds, but then, it wasn't particularly safe to spend too much time below the clouds. Too easy to be spotted by humans.

A few moments of blindness before glorious sight as Miranya broke through the clouds. The sky was empty of lailani. Miranya flew in a huge circle looking frantically for the woman. Above the clouds, as high as the air allows, the whole sky was empty save Miranya. The woman was gone. Miranya considered her options: she could try to kill the woman later, but the woman would be more wary now then ever. She had probably even disappeared for good. Or she could leave Astadam and try to start somewhere new.

Suddenly, Miranya realized, even with all the killing she'd done, she wasn't so hard that she could kill one of her own clan-mates. Especially not at the request of a human, no matter what she was offered. Pointing her beak west towards her native hills, she flew away.

The End.

Hidden

A small boy lay on the ground between his parents, staring up at the sky. The little family was just relaxing in the sun, watching the clouds floating by.

"What do you think that cloud looks like, Kane?" the man asked, pointing up at a fluffy cloud.

"A house!" Kane shouted excitedly, "What do you think, mommy?"

"I think you're right," the woman smiled at her husband and son. Kane was a tiny picture of his father, both had short cropped jet black hair, and strong facial features. She was glad Kane wasn't old enough to notice that he looked nothing at all like her.

"What about that one, Kane?" the man pointed to a cloud to the left, "I think it looks like a tree."

"No," Kane looked thoughtful, "maybe a bird?"

"Maybe," the man shot his wife a pointed look, "What do you think Gwen?"

"hmmm... maybe a bird-shaped tree?" Gwen replied and Kane giggled. "Do you agree, Danny?"

"I guess," Danny nodded.

"I want to go above the clouds someday!" Kane said excitedly, "Like a bird!"

"But you don't have wings, you need wings to go above the clouds," Gwen said.

Danny shot her a look that said "why did you say that".

Kane, oblivious to the conversation of his parents, asked, "Can I have wings Daddy?"

"Wings are dangerous," Danny commented, "Kane, why don't you go inside, I think it's about time for your nap."

"Aw, Daddy, do I have to?" Kane bemoaned.

"Yes, and you're getting a haircut after dinner," Danny said. He glanced at Gwen who was making a point to not look at him.

"When you wake up, you can help me make dinner," Gwen commented, "but you need to take a nap now."

Danny watched as Kane slumped his shoulders and walked down the hill to the house. Once Kane was out of earshot, Danny turned to his wife, "Why did you bring up wings?"

"I don't know," Gwen replied, staring intently at the sky.

"And I've noticed you've let his hair get long," Danny commented, "Gwen, what's going on, you know what could happen."

"If he doesn't know, how can it happen?" Gwen repled, "and I meant to cut his hair, I just haven't gotten around to it."

"You don't understand how it works do you?" Danny asked, frusterated.

"How could I, I'm not like you," Gwen argued, "Besides, your hair is significantly longer than Kane's, and you haven't had any problems."

"I'm an adult, Gwen, I've had over 25 years to hone my skills," Danny reached over and touched her shoulder, "Kane has no such benefit, his hair is long enough right now that he could have his first flicker at any time."

"I don't understand," Gwen forced herself to look at Danny, "Don't you have to be taught to change? Sometimes I wish you would talk to me more, there's so much I don't know about you."

"It's too dangerous," Danny said gently, "I don't want you or Kane to get hurt."

"I don't want your protection," Gwen contended, "I want to know you. Tell me about your people, please."

"What do you want to know," Danny asked, resignedly.

"How about things that will help me with Kane," Gwen prompted, "There are so many things he does that you take as normal, but utterly confound me. I took him as my son, I at least deserve to know about him."

Danny lays back and stares at the sky, "I learned of my wings at 4 solstices,"

"You mean two years old, right?" Gwen asked, "that's really young!"

"Not really, the ground clans allow their young to change almost immediatly after birth."

"Wow, so it really is pretty much instinctual," Gwen commented, surprised.

"It is an impulse that we must learn to control, almost like humans and bathroom training. I could glide by age 3, gained nearly full control by age 4, take off from the ground at age 5. I publicly demonstrated my control and joined the clan at the age of six. Babyhood is all about learning control."

"Kane certainly does not have control, he is so impulsive, I don't know how to deal with it."

"Heh," Danny laughed, "Falling four feet out of the sky because you impulsively changed to common form mid-air cures impulsiveness really fast."

"Do you think we should let him learn control the normal way?" Gwen wondered.

"I don't know," Danny sobered, "I don't know what happens to children who grow up without ever changing. It has never happened before that I know. I had hoped that we could raise him like a normal human child, I had hoped that he would never have to know the pain of being different."

"Danny," Gwen touched his face, "we cannot keep Kane hidden forever. Some day he will realize that he is not like the others, it would be better that he finds that out from you than from someone who hates him."

"You are always right," Danny responded, "but, can we keep him innocent of the turmoil for a little longer?"

"Cut his hair before dinner," Gwen smiled, "And tonight, I want to learn everything about your heritige."

"Ok," Danny smiled back. He got to his feet and pulled Gwen to her feet as well. "Shall we head to the house and make sure Kane is actually taking a nap?"

"Sure," Gwen replied, slipping her and into his as the two headed slowly toward the house.

"Daddy! Mommy! Guess what!" a shout eminated from the house.

"I guess he's not sleeping," Gwen commented wryly as they watched Kane emerge from the house.

"Daddy! Mommy! Look what I can do!" Kane shouted.

Danny and Gwen looked on in horror and facination as Kane transformed into Raven form just as a neighbor woman walked up to the gate.

"King save us!" the woman shrieked, "Gwen, I've known you all my life... Oh my..."

Danny and Gwen just stared in shock as the woman ran off down the path. Gwen recovered first, "Well, it's a good thing she's pretty out of shape, it's going to take her a while to tell anyone," she commented wryly.

Kane shook a bit before managing to change back to Common form, he looked up at his parents, and could tell by the look on their faces that their was something wrong, "Did I do bad?"

"No," Danny sighed, as he scooped up Kane, "you did good, lets go inside."

Danny silently to the little boy's room, and placed him on the bed. Stroking the boy's jet black hair, he sighed again, "We're leaving soon, I need you to pick three toys to take with you and put them in your pillow case."

"Ooh, where are we going?" Kane asked, excited as he headed to his toybox to pick out the toys.

Danny shook his head, at least Kane was excited about the change. Danny grabbed the blankets off Kane's bed and dumped all of the boy's clothes in it and stuffed it in the pillow case. He held the case open for Kane to put in the three favored toys. He tied the case off, and handed it to his son. The two headed back out to the front room where Gwen was packing food.

"You two ready to go, Danny?" Gwen asked, tying off the bag of food.

"I know a place we can hide," Danny said, as he picked up the food bag, and watched as Gwen grabbed the bag of bedding. The three of them slipped out of the house, and headed into the woods. Never looking back.

The End.

Sorry about the lack of stories

For any who care, I wanted to say I'm sorry for not keeping up the stories. I have more that I want to post, so I'm going to try and start doing this again. As before, the stories will be posted on Saturdays.