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.

Broken

Goro sat staring at his potter's wheel. A tiny misshapen lump of clay sat there, unmoving. He needed to start spinning the wheel before the clay dried too much, but his heart just wasn't in it. Not after last night. He shouldn't let his feelings interfere with his work. His wife really needed the money they would earn today, and no one would come into his potter's shop if they couldn't hear the wheel turning. He could already hear a few people moving around the street. Nolan, his nephew and apprentice would be here soon. Nolan, the boy with the unfortunate name. Nolan, born right before the lailani became a bad word. Nolan who was just a little too old to have his name changed when the schism came. But, the kid wasn't really the problem, just a reminder.

The door creaked, signalling Goro to kick the wheel into motion just as Nolan walked in. "Good morning, Uncle," the boy was cheerful this morning. All the more annoying. Goro nodded to him as the boy headed out the back door to the kiln. Hands moving quickly, Goro rapidly formed the clay into a bowl. Popping the bowl off the wheel, he grabbed another tiny lump of clay. Normally he had 5 bowls done by this time. It didn't really matter though, Nolan could make up the difference later. Goro was starting the second bowl when Nolan came back in with an armful of yesterdays bowls and pots. Goro watched offhandedly as the boy arranges the items on the shelves. It's getting harder and harder to tell which items were made by Nolan. He was going to need a new apprentice soon, Nolan was going to be with him much longer.

Ril had wanted to be his apprentice. No, his name was Rilan now, if he was even still alive. Rilan was a good kid. He'd had an abundance of the qualities the apprentice needed. And, he even had steady hands and an eye for detail. Nolan was good, but Rilan could have been great. Could have.

Splat.

Both Goro and Nolan gave the wheel a startled look. It was empty of course, the walls nearby were holding the wet-clay pieces of what should have been a bowl. It had been over 20 years since Goro had splattered anything. Nearly 30 years since he'd failed at making something so simple as a bowl.

"Uh, I'll clean it up," Nolan volunteered hesitantly, "Why don't you... uh..."

"You do that," Goro replied, "it's about time for me to start up the kiln anyway."

"Um... Master Uncle, I uh... usually uh..." Nolan stuttered uncertainly.

"I'll do it," Goro said, once again using force than he intended. Trying to calm down a bit, he continued, "Just get the place cleaned up, Mrs. Wilma will be in here soon. I heard her son break another jar last night."

"Sadrew is too clumsy, I don't know why Mrs. Wilma even lets him touch anything." Nolan tried to lighten the mood, Goro narrowed his eyes, and the boy quickly realised today wasn't a good idea to point out clumsiness. "But at least it means she's always buying new jars and stuff," Nolan tried to change the subject.

"Hummph," Goro replied, as he headed out the back door. Wiping his clay-stained hands on his apron, he grabbed a bucket of manure and headed to the kiln. Hardwood was expensive and rare, so most of the heat was generated from burning manure and straw. It was cheap, but it stunk, and the fire had to be feed nearly constantly. Nolan had devised a chute system that allowed the fire to feed it self for a while. But is wasn't good enough to keep the kiln going all night. So, a new fire had to be started every morning.

The sun was just coming up as Goro mechanically dumped buckets of manure in the chute. It filled way too quickly, but Goro didn't notice. Putting the bucket down, he turned the crank once to dispense some manure into the kiln and knelt down to light it. But, there wasn't any manure in the kiln. Instead, there was a small misshapen clay bowl. Taking it out, Goro looked at it in wonder. It looked familiar, but Goro couldn't remember who had made it. Turning it upside down, he noticed a name written in tiny letters R-I-L.

It was the bowl Rilan had made when he Goro was testing to see if he could be a good apprentice. Rilan must have put it there last night before the... unpleasantness.

Goro thought back to that night. He had stayed at the shop late to finish up a large jug order, when a knock had sounded on the back door. It was Rilan and his mother, seeking asylum from the city guards who had somehow discovered they were lailani. He had refused, even knowing they had nowhere else to go, even knowing the guards would probably kill them. He had refused because he valued his precious shop more highly than their lives. He had refused because he didn't want to risk his business or reputation. He signed their death sentence because the guards that came later would have wrecked his wares if he had hidden them. But now, his shop was just an empty reminder of what he had done.

"Um uncle," Goro startled at the sudden noise. Nolan and Goro watched together as Rilan's bowl slipped out of his hands and fell to the ground. Crash. It shattered.

"Someone's here to see you," Nolan continued, "I'll clean that mess up too. Where did you get the dumb looking bowl? Oh well, it will probably be more useful in pieces anyway."

"And I'm sure that's how the scientists see Rilan," Goro mumbled under his breath.

The End.

Found

"What's your name, boy!" a large, rotund man in a blood stained apron shouted at a dirty-faced youngster.

"Boi," the boy whispered, knowing the butcher wouldn't understand. He mentally cursed his parents for giving him such a name, so what if the name belonged to his grandfather.

"Don't get smart with me!" the man started waving his giant butcher's knife menacingly.

Boi glanced around nervously, the street was a busy one, but this was a rough area of town. Passers-by gave the two of them a wide girth, but other than that, no one paid any attention. He shouldn't have stayed up so long past sunrise, but it had been a bad night, and he was starving. Shrinking back from the large man's gaze, he murmured, "my name is Boi, sir."

"Boser? What sort of name is that?" the butcher guffawed, "Scram! your kind aren't allowed around here!"

Boi stared at him a incredulously, that was what this was about? Obviously, the butcher hadn't seen him snatch the string of sausages. Humans really had a horrible sense of smell. Boi backed away slowly, it was never a good idea to turn your back on a knife. Joining the crowd, he made his way to the abandoned building that he shared with a host of other homeless people. The front doors were barred, but there were plenty of other openings if you knew where to look. He found the basement window that was just too small for most adults, and slipped through. Dropping clumsily to the ground, he sniffed the air. Something smelled different. It was hard to tell over the stench of refuse, but it almost smelled like lailani. His little sister was down here, but the two of them hadn't smelled of lailani in a long time. They smelled of the sewage and rotting trash that decorated their home. No one else ever came down here, becaus it was too hot, and the stench owas nearly overwhelming. But, that ment the they were left alone, and he only had to share what little food he found with his sister. Well, no one usually came down, but clearly there was someone down here in the basement other than his sister and him. The smell got stronger as he moved to their corner. He hoped his sister was alright. He'd promised his parents he'd take care of her.

"Ral?" he whispered his sister's name as he moved cautiously toward their sleeping place.

"Boi?" a child's voice eminated from the darkness, "You came back!"

It wasn't long before she came into view. She was so tiny, she'd barely grown in the two years they'd been on the streets. She barely looked two, not the four years old that she actually was, but then, no one thought him old enough to be 9 either.

"Look who I met," the girl chattered, as Boi focused his senses on the wolf standing in the dark near Ral. Boi passed the sauseges off to his sister, since he'd already eaten two, and flicked into wolf form. The wolf stood still as Boi made a slow circuit around him, sniffing for a hint of anger or malice. Satisfied the lailani wasn't planning them immediate harm, he flicked back into common form.

"Why are you hare?": Boi questioned, as he grabed a sausage from Ral and settled into the dirty straw that was his bed.

"Wolf Clan should not live like this," the man had managed to get into common form faster than anyone Boi had ever seen.

"The floor is thin," Boi commented, mouth full of sausage. He was willing to hear the lailani out, since they were from the same clan, but he didn't need his neighbours discovering that he wasn't human. They'd turn him and his sister in an an instant, just in case. There was a reward.

"You two can come with me, and live as a wolf should live... free," the lailani said in a quieter voice.

Boi eyed the man suspiciously, but Ral seemed to have no such inhibitions, she chattered excitedly, "He says that where he comes from, there's lots of food to eat, and real toys to play with, let's go!"

The first thing you learn on the streets is not to trust anyone. The man was lailani, the same clan as them even, but even that was no garentee that he was trustworthy. Boi had heard stories of lailani selling other lailani to the humans as sleaves. It was a well known fact that everyone, lailani and human, only do thing that will benefit them in some way. "We're fine here," Boy muttered.

"You don't look fine," the man commented, "My name is Malan by the way, what is yours?"

"I'm Ral," the little girl volunteered, "Boi is my big broth...ouch!" she turned to Boi, "Why'd you kick me?"

"I didn't kick you, Boi replied. Giving out names wasn't safe. He tried to protect her from the harsh realities of life, so it was probably his fault she was so trusting and naiive. But that didn't give her an excuse to go giving out names like it was nothing.

"Boi?" Malan looked thoughful, "grandson of Boian and Nelanya?"

"Maybe," Boi replied cautiously, those were the names of his grandparents. But then, half the Wolf Clan knew that.

"I though you two were dead!" Malan exclaimed, "I'm your uncle!"

"Uncle?" Ral asked cautiously, she looked confused. Boi just raised an eyebrow, any lailani could make that claim. Didn't mean it was true.

"I'm your mother's older brother," Malan explained, "when I heard your village had been massacred, I thought my whole family was dead, but here you children are, I can't believe it!"

"My mother had an older brother named Malan," Boi conceded, "But Malan is a common name, that doesn't mean you are who you say you are."

"You've had a rough life," Malan commented, "I don't blame you for wanting more information. What would convince you?"

Boi just shrugged. He was too tired to be thinking deep thoughts like that. He'd been up all night scavenging. Besides, he didn't really want to think about his parents, particularly his mother. The village had had some warning about the raid, and she'd made him take his sister and leave when it became clear the village couldn't survive. He should have been able to convince her to come with them, he never should have let her make him go...

"Oh I know," Malan said suddenly, "Your mother was pregnant when she died. She told me the day before the attack, and she was planning on telling our parents at the solstice festival."

It was true, Mother had been pregnant. She'd told him to keep it a secret, he didn't know that she'd told her brother. So, Malan really was his uncle. But why did he have to dig up those old memories? "I guess we'll go," Boi choked out, trying not to cry.

"Yay!" Ral exclaimed. She had been pretty much oblivious to the whole conversation. But he couldn't blame her, she was just hungry. He has tried his best to feed her, but he knew they were slowly starving to death. Malan was probably their best bet for survival.

Malan smiled as he scooped up Ral and grabbed Boi's hand, "Your Aunt Helanya will be happy to see you two. And I think we'll be just in time for breakfast."

The End.

Rescue

Giman dove, the powerful muscles in his tail propelling him deep under the water. He held the cone shaped basket in front of him, letting it cut the water ahead. In no time, he arrived at the ocean floor. it was pitch black to his common eyes, but it didn't matter. He knew this area better than he knew himself. He reached blindly for the huge stone anchor his ancestors had placed there long ago, and tied the basket to it. Transforming into full dolphin form, he swam up about twenty feet so he could see the whole area. The ocean floor was full of plant life, but he wasn't interested in any of that. What he was interested in, was the boslai colony migration happening about a click to the west. Clicking the location to anyone else in range, he headed back towards his basket. He transformed just the upper half of his body into common form again so he could grab the basket, . Blind again, he swam towards the area where he knew the boslai would be. Now came the hard part. Swimming low to the floor, he dragged the basket along under him so that the mouth opened to the oncoming creatures. Careful to keep his hands on the top of the basket so he wouldn't be pinched by the boslai's claws. A few of his clan had the ability to turn both their head's and tails into Clan form, while keeping their fins as arms, b so that they could see what they were doing. But, it was incredibly hard to do, an something he hadn't quite mastered. Changing naturally came from one direction and flowed to the other. It didn't matter where you started, but it was hard enough to stop in the middle, let alone have two stopping points. So, Giman collected the boslai blind.

Just as he was about to finish the run, the entire world was rocked by a n incredibly loud sound. Startled, Giman dropped the basket and involuntarily took a breath of water. The water hitting his lungs brought him back to his senses.

'Don't panic,' the words echoed in his mind.

'Don't breathe,' he remembered as he attempted to calm himself down. Panic would kill him as quickly as lungs full of water.

'Turn Clan,' simple steps, Giman relaxed his mind and his whole body turned to dolphin form.

'Find the surface,' childhood training never goes away.

'Swim for the light,' with powerful strokes, he propelled his way to the lighter water above. In moments, he was shooting straight up out of the water. The air felt glorious as it filled his lungs again. Reaching the apex of his jump, he nosed down to dive to into the water again. Or, not. Giman landed with a sickening crunch on something hard and very much not water. Stunned, again, Giman just lay there as waves of pain enveloped his body.

"What do you think it is?" he heard a voice whisper. Humans spoke a peculiar language.

"I don't know," a second voice replied. "I've never seen anything like it. I had no idea there were fish that big on this planet."

Giman startled at that, fish? He was not a fish. Fish were prey. He was lailani, predator. He tried to move, but the pain was too great.

"Is it dead?" the first voice asked cautiously.

Giman tried to look around, but the light was far too bright for his clan eyes to see more than dim shapes.

"I don't think so..." the second voice replied hesitantly, "I think I saw it's eyes move. Maybe we should take it back to port."

Port? That was a bad place, Giman remembered, it was where humans took fish they were planning on eating. Somehow, he had to prove to these humans that he wasn't a fish, and maybe they would let him go instead of eating him. But, let him go where? He was pretty sure that something was broken. There was no way to know if he could even stay afloat long enough for someone to find him. Few of his clan frequented this section of the ocean, and it would be hours before anyone discovered that he was missing. But still, he would not be gutted like prey. The pain had been growing more intense, Giman had never before realized just how much strength it took to change form. His attempt only briefly caused his face to changed before his boy snapped back to Clan form with a ferocity that scared him far more than the pain.

"Uh, Boss, something weird is going on here!" one of the voices called out.

"Just leave the fish alone and help me with the sail," came the reply, "We'll deal with the fish when we get back to port. We got a storm coming up on us, and I want to get back before it catches us."

'Nothing could ever hurt this much,' Giman thought to himself, oblivious to the conversation around him. If he couldn't change to common, these men would gut him like the fish they thought he was. His mate and baby boy were waiting for him at home. He couldn't just die, not like prey. Slowly, he gathered all his remaining strength, storing it in his mind until he didn't think he could hold any more. Eyes squeezed tight in concentration, he released the energy in one violent wave. A cascade of pain followed, and he moaned has he felt bones shifting and mass rearranging.

"Boss! Boss!" the voice sounded far off as his mind struggled to comprehend the daggers of pain trying to tear his body apart.

"King save us!" a different voice now, "that's a man!"

"What are we going to do? It must be one of those animal-people."

"We ain't gonna do nothing, he'll sit tight. Right now we got bigger problems!"

"King save us! Storm's here, look at those waves!"

Giman's mind barely registered the commotion around him. He was ready for whatever came, it was enough that he would not die as prey. His mate would never forget him, and his spirit would live on in his son.

"He's got broken bones, if he falls in the water, he'll die!" a voice shouted above the sound of the crashing waves.

"I'll tie him to the mast so he won't get lost," the voice was so loud, it must be close by. He felt hands pull him to a sitting position, and drag him to a wooden pole. Something rough compressed his chest, and then the hands were gone. As he slumped forward, another wave of pain overtook him.

"I hope he lives," was the last thing Giman heard before descending into unconsciousness.

The End.

Release

Anya glanced around her to see if anyone took notice of the fact that she was slipping into the shed. It didn't really matter, it was father's shed. Technically, she could go in it any time see wanted to. But still, no need to draw undue attention to the fact that she was entering the shed with a large package in her hands. Slipping through the door, she carefully closed it behind her. The shed was dark. Setting her package on the ground, she lit the lamp on the wall and looked around.

A growl emanated from under the table in the corner.

"I brought you some food," Anya declared, glancing briefly at the wolf slinking out from under the table. She purposely didn't watch as wolf transformed into a man. If she never 'saw' him change, then she could truthfully claim such when asked.

"I change faster now," the man commented, as he settled himself on the bench. "it's not so weird to watch."

"It's not that, Denan," She replied, "if I never see you change, it means you can't be lailani."

"I thought you didn't mind," Denan commented, a bit defensively. Still, he was looking eagerly at the package in her hands.

She set it on the table and opened it up to show some lamb chops, steamed vegetables, and a water jug. "I don't," she said, settling down next to him on the bench. She didn't know much about him, but she knew he was handsome. He had brilliant blue eyes unlike anyone she had ever seen. He did have girly-looking long hair, but that was balanced by his extremely masculine form. As far as her family knew, he was just a poor dog that she had nursed back to health. She was going to have to tell them about him soon, if their relationship was going to go anywhere. She watched as he dug hungrily into the food.

Midway through the meal, he noticed her staring at him, "Is there something you want?" he asked.

She wanted to tell him how handsome he was, it didn't quite come out that way, "How's you're leg doing?"

"Better," he commented as he continued to shovel food into his mouth, "I will be leaving tomorrow night."

"You can't leave!" she blurted before she could stop herself.

Denan looked at her curiously, "It is not safe for me here."

"You can pretend to be human," Anya pleaded, "you don't have to leave."

"Why would I want to pretend to be human?" Denan asked, confused.

"So you can be with me," Anya whispered, this wasn't how this conversation was supposed to go. It was supposed to be super romantic, with him caressing her hair while promising his undying affection and willingness to become human for her.

Denan's expression darkened, "It would be a lie for me to pretend to be something I am not. I have responsibilities to my Clan, I will not stay."

"But, don't you like me?" Anya asked, surely, he must feel something for her, she certainly felt something for him.

"I appreciate the fact that you didn't turn me in when you found me," Denan said slowly, "And I appreciate the fact that you took care of my hurt leg, but I do not feel special feelings for you. There is another that holds my affection."

"You have a girlfriend?" Anya asked, crestfallen.

"I am friends with most of the girls in my Clan," Denan said, confused, "I would even consider you a friend. What I meant was that I have a mate."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Anya accused.

"You never asked," Denan responded, "Besides, the fewer who know of my family's existence, the safer."

"You have a family?" Anya asked in wonder, "Like kids too? Are they cute?"

"If I do not say, you will not know," Denan quickly shoved the last of the food in his mouth, "I am a lone wolf, there is no one else. And soon, I too will be gone,"

Anya watched as Denan slipped off the bench, and flicked into wolf form. His blue eyes were so intense as he stared at her for a few moments, before glancing at the shed door. She knew he had children depending on him, she knew she would have to let him go. Getting up reluctantly, she moved towards the door. The moment she opened it, he shot outside. Silently, she watched as he disappeared into the night. She waved, but he did not look back.