Tina raised her fried snake to her mouth and blew on the hot food. “No one needs money that badly. And don’t kid yourself; everyone knows your dad is hiding money. You two aren’t broke.”
“That’s his money to do with as he sees fit.”
“Okay, stop. Save the legalese for your next hot date.”
“Ha.” They fell silent as they ate, avoiding eye contact with one another. The two of them had always had a little bit of an attraction to one another, but after an intensely awkward date, they decided to keep things platonic. Every once in a while, though, the old spark reared up and threatened to burst into the flames of young love, but so far it had never followed through. Tina sincerely hoped it never would; she wasn’t quite ready for a serious love affair.
To get her mind off her past with Grey, Tina took in the young boys around her gathering to eat breakfast. She smiled at Sam Digger, the bear shifter, and he wiggled his eyebrows at her. She giggled and tried to copy the gesture, but was unsuccessful. Sam shook his head, disappointed. Couldn’t she mock someone properly? His disapproving face was even funnier, and she laughed again.
Over by the water pump was Black Feather, her tormentor from earlier that day. Black had grown up intensely handsome with his sharp, glinting eyes and intense stare that he balanced out with a big, friendly laugh that burst out of him at the slightest provocation. With his feathery black hair and sharp jawline, he had plenty of airbornes and earthbounds all over him, but he didn’t seem interested in anyone in particular. He caught Tina staring and gave her a little wink, reminding her of their deal. She sighed and turned away.
“Boyfriend hunting?”
“What?” Grey’s question had shocked her to the point of dropping her snake into the dirt. She picked it up and shook the dirt off, brushing the sides to save as much as she could.
“Sorry about that,” Grey said, “didn’t mean to make you lose your breakfast.” He held out a hand. “Give it to me, and I’ll buy you another.”
“No,” she shook her head and bit into the dirty food, “that’s okay. I don’t want to waste it. Mom wouldn’t like that.”
“That’s sweet of you,” Grey said, not bothering to insist. Life on the settlement had taught them all to value every tiny bite of food. He politely covered up a burp, excused himself and stood to go. He had work.
Tina checked the shadows on the ground and saw that it would be time for school soon. She forced herself to swallow the last bite of gritty, dirt-covered snake and then pulled out her comb. She stood and looked into one of the many broken mirrors on the far wall of the restaurant’s patio and combed her hair back into a long, wavy ponytail. Her mother had been lucky enough to find a good quality hair band during a junk run with her friends and brought it home for her. It was one of Tina’s three possessions.
The hair band was her favorite as it was a gift from her mother, and it gave her a sense of pride. Having her long tresses under control and out of her face made getting through her day much easier. She didn’t care what the gossipers had to say about how she’d gotten it; she knew the real story.
Two more treasures lived in a secret little box that Tina kept buried in the dirt under her bed. They were a fake crystal – a prism was the actual word – and a short book. Books had gone away shortly after the Bachmanns came to power. They had graciously offered to read all of the old books and teach their contents to the people, but they must have forgotten. Very few humans or shifters had any idea how to read and hadn’t since her mother was a little girl.
Tina ran her fingers through her hair one last time and stood to brush herself off. She was embarrassed about the gaping holes in her clothing, but she could see other young girls whose new breasts were barely covered. The clothing tax would have them all naked soon, and then what? Would the president ask for their skin?
The possibility was a little too attainable for Tina, and she shivered in the hot sun. She told herself to focus on the moment and the task at hand, just like her mom always told her when she got frightened. She took her plate back to the kitchen and walked off to school.
School for shifters was tricky. First of all, it was just an empty room. Students all sat on the floor and faced the center of the room. Each day featured a lecture, and today would be no different; Sam Digger’s father Graham was telling them about hibernation.
Tina walked over with the other students, smiling at her friends and giving a quick hug to Larissa. Larissa was feeling friendly that day; always a nice turn of events. She was normally very stand-offish and had a permanent snarl on her face for no particular reason. Larissa claimed that she simply felt uncomfortable around others, but Tina knew she’d never gotten over the day her father’s legs were taken from him.
Andry, the big, smiling Malagasy shifter who had kindly built so many houses, had been one of the first victims of the attack ten years before. He tried to face his attackers in fossa form, but they had possessed some kind of collar attached to a rod. They backed him into a small space, got the collar on his neck and broke all of his legs.
His injuries were so intense that he couldn’t shift until they healed. Two of his legs set properly, but the other never quite recovered. Doctor Whispen, their local healer, did everything she could, and Andry’s family used every purring technique available to them, but poor Andry never walked again. Now he used a wheelchair he welded himself and sat on small, withered-up limbs that had once been tall, strong legs. Larissa spent her days avoiding home. Tina was sure she blamed herself, but today she seemed to have given herself a pardon. They chatted on the way in the door, their arms around one another’s shoulders.
They packed into the metal structure that served as their schoolroom, sat cross-legged on the floor, and faced Graham. He smiled and nodded at everyone as they filed in, blinking his big, sleepy eyes at them. Bear shifters were almost never in a hurry, and Tina had a feeling today’s lesson would be a long one.
Black Feather settled in next to Tina and elbowed her in the ribs.
“Ow!” She rubbed her side and kept her gaze forward. “What is with you today?”
“Just in a good mood.” He gave a lighter, friendlier tap on the shoulder, but she just rolled her eyes and scooted away from him. She was getting fed up with this good mood. She slipped a folded note into his shorts pocket with as little movement as possible, praying that would shut him up.
“Good morning, my young ones,” Graham began. “Today, I am going to talk to all of you about hibernation, why I do it, how it helps me to survive, and what bear shifters need from our non-hibernating community in order to stay safe.”
As Graham spoke, he turned in a slow circle, taking in the whole crowd of students. He rolled his words around in his mouth as if they were pieces of bones, and he wanted to take his time tasting them before slowly pulling them out. His heavy and wide human body seemed to give him away; everything about him – from his brown, bushy hair to his full beard and big arms – gave away his other shape. He was a brown bear and a force to be reckoned with when threatened. He had been one of the few shifters to fight back during the attack so many years ago.
“Who here is airborne? Okay, I see some hands up. Wonderful. Those of you with your hands down, I’m assuming some of you hibernate as well, yes? Great. What are some things our bodies do before a hibernation begins?”
Tina did her best to listen to Graham, but it was hard with Black Feather constantly glancing over at her. The guy was driving her completely insane. She wanted to turn to him and scream, “What!?” but she held back. She knew a scene would be exactly what he wanted. She kept her gaze forward and saw Sam Digger, Graham’s son, listening attentively to his father.
“Those of you who take to the air,” Graham continued, “may not understand that you are an important part of our hibernation. As we rest deep in our hovels, you are keeping watch from above. You have the distinct advantage of being able to intercept any attackers long before they reach us. Now, we haven’t had an attack for
a long time, but keep in mind that the humans moved us here for a reason. And that reason is–”
“To trap us!”
“No, to protect us.”
“That’s a joke.”
“You’re a joke!” One young wolf shifters shoved another, and the two broke into a tussle. The others around them scattered backwards, giving them a bit of space to fight it out, but Graham decided class was not going to go in that direction. Not while he was in charge.
Graham opened his mouth and let out a massive, air shattering bear roar, and everyone froze. Their bones shook under their skin as Graham gently separated the young wolves and put one back in his seat and sitting the other in a corner. “Now,” he said, taking back his space in the center, “let’s all collect ourselves and focus. The point I was trying to make is that the humans put us where we are so that they will always know where we are. Period. The goal is not to trap or protect us. It is to keep tabs on us.
“My children, you are a new breed. You are the marriage of human and animal, earth and sky. The one good thing that has come from this massive relocation is that it has integrated our different communities. Before this, I never spoke to any airbornes. Now I do it every day. I was sure that we had nothing in common, sure that I was better than any little bird who flitted around in the sky.”
This got a little chuckle from the kids. They always marveled at the idea of shifters being enemies with others just like them. The old divisions were long gone, and it was hard to believe these antiquated rules ever existed in the shifter society.
“It sounds funny, you’re right,” Graham said, a little smile on his wide face, “but that’s how I was raised. And right now, the humans around us are being raised to think of us as something different, something strange that they’ll never be friends with. And it’s going to take a long time for that to change. So, in the meantime, we need each other. I need all of you, and we must take care of those around us. I don’t care how tough of a wolf or how speedy a flyer you are; you need those around you.”
He paused to let all of this sink in, and the students all glanced at one another. Tentatively, Tina raised her hand.
“Miss Traxon? What’s on your mind?”
“What if, um, well…” She bit her lip, debating whether or not to continue. She took a deep breath and went for it. “What if we meet a human who we can be friends with? Would it be dangerous to, you know, spend time together? If we just like, I don’t know, like having fun and hanging out?”
The whole room went quiet. Tina’s heart pounded, and she stared at the floor. What had she done? She swallowed hard and tried to do a casual look around the room, but her eyes went straight back to her feet.
“Tina,” Graham said softly, “do you have a human friend?”
She closed her eyes and let out a long breath. “I don’t know. I think so, but she knows what I am and, well, she’s kind of famous, and if people found it, you know, it could be weird and maybe her family would be upset, or stuff could get bad.”
She desperately tried to get her breath under control, but it kept coming in gulps and gasps. Why was she so stupid? She genuinely couldn’t figure herself out. Graham knelt in front of her and put a finger under her chin.
“You’re right, Tina,” he told her in his warmest, softest voice. “Stuff could get bad. But then,” he shrugged and smiled at her, “it could be the beginning of something great.”
She smiled and nodded, wiping away the few stray tears that had snuck out of the corner of her eyes. “Yeah,” she said, sniffling, “maybe it could.” He patted her shoulder and stood to go back to his spot in the center and addressed the crowd.
“Alright, time for some science. Everybody grab a stick and form groups of four or five, whatever works.”
The class separated into groups and began scratching little anatomy drawings into the dirt and symbols they used to help them memorize different facts. Tina managed to gather a group around her before Black could attach himself to her, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Larissa hovered near the door and, once the teacher wasn’t looking, slipped out. Not long after she was gone, Graham was asking around if anyone knew what had happened, but he just got the usual shrugs. Larissa did what Larissa wanted, and they all knew better than to pry into her secrets.
Tina threw herself into the lesson of the day and did her best to commit the anatomy of a bear to memory. To help them, Graham shifted into his bear shape and stood in the center of the room. He would have walked around to show them how his muscles worked, but they were packed in far too tight. Some of the little ones came up to touch his fur and nose, and he gave them a good-natured growl. They let out little shrieks of joy, and Tina smiled when she heard them. She wished she could go up and pet Graham without feeling like a total creep, but she let go of the notion. Her days of being fascinated by animals were long gone.
As the sun reached its peak in the sky, the lesson came to an end, and the students started to wander out of the schoolroom. The space heated up quickly, and they all knew it; the smart ones sat by the door and worked quickly so that they could be excused to their homes before they started cooking in the hot air.
Tina let her sweat drip onto the dusty ground as she stared at the drawing. What she wouldn’t have given for a little scrap of paper. Could she draw the same thing onto a page of her book? It would ruin it, but at least she would have a document she could read and understand. She sighed, and her breath came out much hotter than it should have. Startled, she snapped her head up and looked around. Everyone else had taken off, all headed home for some lunch and a midday nap. Even Graham was lingering in the doorway, once again in his human form.
She stood, brushed her legs off, and walked out. “Thanks, Graham. I loved it.”
“You’re welcome, little wolf.” He smiled and then gave her a wink. “And say hi to your friend for me.”
She nervously nodded and walked away, but the comment had a deep hold on her. She really shouldn’t have said anything, but it was out now. She felt like the others hadn’t freaked out too much, but then again, Graham had been there. She was on her own for the rest of the day.
Tina took an alternate route home, avoiding the food shack, the square in the center of the community, and the well. That was where everyone would be hanging out, and she didn’t need to hear their whispers or see their darting looks. She ducked around the backs of the houses near the fence that circled their settlement. Well, most of it. Just like the reading, the fence installment hadn’t quite come to fruition, but the shifters respected the border anyway. No one wanted to be accused of being a troublemaker.
By the time she was halfway home, her shoulders had relaxed and she was no longer glancing back to where she’d been. Sure that she was in the clear, she sang a little song to herself and skipped along. The summer had been a pleasant one; the water had been consistent, her mother’s business was doing well, and school had been interesting every day. She had no real reason for concern.
A soft, orange stone on the ground caught her attention. She leaned down to pick it up and saw that it was an agate – the creamy caramel rock that looked beautiful once it was polished. She stood and held it up to the light to look for the little, nearly transparent spot, but a soft, coco-colored face blocked the sun’s rays.
“Hi, Tina.”
She sighed and flopped her arm down. “Hi, Larissa. You got anything for me?”
“Maybe.” Larissa looked down and then squatted just over the ground. She looked down at the dirt for a long time and finally Tina joined her in the shade. The two sat quietly for a moment while Tina waited for Larissa to speak. Her odd friend liked to mentally piece together her words long before speaking. She was incredibly smart, but her intelligence came with the price of time and patience.
“I like Graham. He’s a good teacher.”
“Why’d you leave, then?” Tina picked up a stick and tried her best to draw out the anatomy of a bear’s organs, but she was already forgetting some
of what she’d learned.
“I already have the anatomy of bears memorized.” Larissa gently took the stick from Tina’s hand and deftly finished the illustration. Tina watched with wide eyes; Larissa’s talents never failed to impress. She could not only recite incredibly long histories from memory, but she could draw, make up songs, and even build a little. If she weren’t a shifter, she would have been very famous.
Tina waited while Larissa finished her lovely portrait of the inside of a bear, then asked, “Have you heard from her?”
“Yeah. I got a note today.”
Tina waited for more information, but Larissa wasn’t offering. She looked over at her friend and saw that she was glaring at the drawing now. Tina’s eyes drifted down to the sketch and saw that Larissa was stabbing the picture with the stick. She rammed it so hard that the stick began to bend and then break. Tina reached over and placed her hand on top of her friend’s to calm her down.
“Easy. Don’t hurt yourself.” The two girls leaned their heads together, and Tina patted her friend’s head. Larissa had lovely, wavy black hair that fell to the middle of her back. She occasionally put it up in braids, but she usually let it flow down. Tina loved Larissa’s hair; it was glossy and full, not like Tina’s limp, brown hair that slumped down on her shoulders.
“How’s your dad?”
“The same,” Larissa spat. “Except sicker. No doctor will see him.” She stared up into the sky. “Humans always fight unfairly,” she continued. “I’m sure that collar they used had some kind of electric current or something in it. My father had never been trapped before, not even by the best human hunters in Madagascar. No way could some idiot humans from the city get the best of him.”
Tina rubbed her back. “I know, La. It’s awful.” She didn’t know what else to say, so she fell quiet. Finally, she added, “If you need anything…”
“We don’t need anything from you or your family. We take care of ourselves.”
Tina sighed, already knowing she’d done something wrong, but she wasn’t sure how to make it right. What did a friend with a broken father need to hear? Larissa in particular seemed to have very specific expectations for the consolation she received. Not that she ever shared them with anyone.
Shifter's Heart: A Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Hills Book 1) Page 5