A "Winds of Change" Story

By Jon Sleeper

Not for the first time in the past few hours I loathed the fact that Tim was sitting right behind Maxine and I. For I knew that even over the whistle of the wind through our antlers we would be talking about anything and everything. Tim had "gotten my goat" (have to be careful what expressions one used nowadays) once too often, and I hated him for it.

I'm not normally one to hold a grudge, but Tim struck me from the very beginning as, well, a bully. Made me think of just how "random" this Change really was. Not liking the turn my thoughts were taking I scrunched down in the seat a bit to get my antlers out of the wind, and looked up at the speck that was Brian, flying along with us. I suddenly felt a tug on my antlers. "Do you mind?" Tim said in an irritated tone over the wind.

I just shrugged and got back into the seat. Once again thwarted of my chance to talk with Maxine. It was getting to the point where I was going to talk to her anyway and the Hell with Tim.

The car started to rock back and forth suddenly. "Something the matter, Tim?" Maxine asked.

"Um... I think I need a rest stop," He said reluctantly. Lucky thing just then we passed a familiar "rest stop ahead one mile" sign. I got Bryan's attention and waved him to stop there. As soon as we did, Tim jumped out of the Caddy and nearly ran (galloped?) to the restroom.

I looked up once more to make sure Brian knew we were stopping, and I got out of the car myself. I walked over to Bryan. "You know, I hope he can figure out how to go to the bathroom by himself because I'm certainly not going to tell him how!" I couldn't help but say that. It was the most annoying (and one of the more disgusting) things in my life than I could recall.

Bryan seemed a bit taken aback by what I'd said, but had to stifle a chuckle. No more was said on that subject.

I looked around at the North Dakota landscape, wondering if there were any other whitetails around. My deer "breed" was Dakota Whitetail, after all. I didn't smell any, but I did smell something odd. It smelled like some sort of antelope... But then, even now the rest stop had at least twenty other people walking around. I even noticed a few birds on a perch that weren't acting at all like natural animals. I guessed that even bird-norms had to rest.

Bryan, Kim, Maxine and I chatted for a few minutes while we waited for Tim. It was then that I noticed the impala-norm walking in our direction. He stopped, shifted, and to my surprise a skunk morph flash-shifted out of the grass next to him. Strangely enough, their sudden appearance activated my danger-sense. Something wasn't right here... Bryan and Maxine seemed to feel it, too.

It happened when I was about to just meet them as they came and ask what was going on. There was a sudden flash from the eye of the skunk, and I suddenly fell to all fours. It was shocking to say the least. After my experiences with Maxine's Power, I really didn't want to do any shifting that wasn't of my own choice. I couldn't even change my throat so I could talk!

Not only that, but when I tried to I discovered I couldn't move! It was like I was frozen by some force! It was then that I noticed the glowing beak of a roadrunner. I could at least breathe, and move my eyes. Everybody seemed as frozen.

Finally, the impala spoke. "My fellow animals," he began in a booming voice. The face that he was referring to us as animals was a bit disturbing. Once more my danger-sense took a jump; but more than I could otherwise account for. The impala continued. "I would like to be the first to welcome you to the Natural Order. You all have obviously been erroneously denying your new Natures these past few months. Therefore, since you have denied the gift that Nature has given you, we will make you accept it."

He waved at the porcupine, who shifted. A look of intense concentration crossed his face.

Predictably, the porcupine walked up to me first. She looked me right in the eyes. And when she did...

It was very sudden. The voice of my Instincts suddenly grew into a shout in my head, overwhelming me. I felt a sort of trap door open in my mind, and I fell in...

Bryan was stuck in whatever force that was keeping everybody else frozen. From where he was next to Jon's Toyota, he could see Kim, Maxine, and Jon. The porcupine morph seemed focused on him, or rather his mind. He could see it in Jon's eyes. Then Jon blinked, and what Bryan saw scared him. There was only animal in them now.

But wait... not quite. Looking closer, there was still some humanity in them. But Jon obviously had no control. "Okay, let him go." the porcupine said. It was then that Bryan noticed the roadrunner, who had shifted to morph. He looked at Jon a moment, and he was released from the Force Bindings. Jon's reaction was to run into the landscape surrounding the rest area. The porcupine moved to Kim next. He knew that his turn would come soon...

The worst thing about it wasn't that he was next, it was that his friends were at risk. Bryan couldn't go with that. He saw the same thing happen to Kim. But she couldn't fly. Her wing still had not healed enough. She looked in a bit of pain. The porcupine looked at the impala with a bit of distress. "We shall let Nature take Her course with that one. She will eventually die of starvation. Then the Scavengers will have their way with her."

If what had just happened to Jon hadn't already gotten Bryan mad enough to use his horns, this one really tore it! The porcupine moved to him. And he felt the pressure on his mind. But unlike his friends, he could push back. "This one is resisting..." the porcupine said. Bryan pushed back a little harder. "Yes, he's a tough one."

"Well, hurry!" the roadrunner said. "I can't hold this many people forever!"

Aha! Bryan thought. So they did have some weaknesses! It was too bad that he couldn't tell what Brian was up to (literally). Brian was either caught in the same bindings he was, or had figured out that if he attempted to intervene than he'd be no better off. The porcupine continued to work on his mind. But at the calculated moment, Bryan countered with a push of his own. The porcupine was knocked off his feet! Take that! Bryan thought.

"Try again! Either they join us or we'll have to call in the Predators!" The implications of that only added more steam to Bryan's struggles against the force holding him. The roadrunner now looked a bit... overtaxed.

It was that moment that Tim seemed to rediscover his Power. Bryan was suddenly free. And since he was pointing the direction, for once he decided to obey his own instincts and charge forward. He didn't hurt the porcupine too much, but at least knocked him out.

Tim literally burst out of the restroom, horns glowing, and joined everyone else in surrounding their assailants. "Somebody's called the highway patrol already. We'll all just wait until they arrive." Tim said.

Bryan looked at the porcupine with disgust, and looked in the direction Jon had run off. Maxine walked over to a side-view mirror and shifted back. "At the speed he was running he could be a couple miles away by now! We have to go after him!" Bryan nodded agreement, then remembered that Kim had been put under the same sort of spell. He then noticed that Brian had landed in norm next to her.

Oddly enough, even with all the others around Kim had calmed down and had even ventured to preen Brian! Carefully, as Jack had taught him, Bryan pushed at Kim's mind. What he found gave him hope that Jon could be easily rescued. The block to Kim's human mind was very sloppy. And obvious rush job from someone who didn't know how to use her Power very well (few people did, anyway). "Wake up, Kim!" Bryan said. She did.

Brian immediately went into morph and asked, "how's your wing? Can you shift back?"

She nodded weakly, and slowly shifted back. "Ow.... it hurts but I don't think it's actually broken anymore. I must have a latent healing Power. But enough about me. What about Jon?"

Maxine was staring in the direction in which Jon had run. She walked towards a mirror. "I'm going after him." she said. Tim walked back over, and nearly said something, but Maxine said, "don't you dare ask me 'why?' Tim! If you do I'll make you hitchhike back to Edmonton!" Bryan had never heard her use that tone of voice before, and she probably meant it. Tim actually shrunk back. Maxine went to the mirror again.

"Maxine, wait." Kim said. "You'll need Bryan to bring Jon back."

Maxine looked at Bryan. "Sheep can't keep up with deer, you know. I do need you. But you'll have to let me change you into something that flies, or perhaps an animal like a horse or something that's a good runner so you can keep up. Think fast. The longer we wait the farther away Jon gets."

Bryan realized that Maxine was right. So he made his choice.

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