A "Winds of Change" Story

By Jon Sleeper

My body ached with weariness. Through every pore dripped exhaustion. Even my tail screamed "enough!" I fought back to consciousness, and when I opened my eyes what greeted me was the glare of a bald eagle. For a moment I forgot who that was, my mind was still asleep, and I almost panicked. Then it suddenly hit me, "Brian! Are you OK?" My eyes were watering and my nose was a bit stuffed, so I could not tell.

"I'm fine," He replied. "Not a scratch. Glad to see you're awake."

"How long have I been out?"

"Two days. You really pushed yourself hard. If you'd done any more you might of died from exhaustion."

My eyes cleared, and beside Brian I saw who was obviously my doctor, he was a bull morph, average Degree. "You actually recovered a little faster than I expected, I think you have the rut to thank for that." That was a switch, I could actually credit my transformation with something. I just looked at him, "Really. Whitetail bucks routinely fight each other to exhaustion, and recover to fight again. You lost a couple pounds though. And both of you are going to have to change your diets."

Brian and I sort of looked at him. He pointed at me with his pen, "You, need more meat in your diet, I recommend steak or fish. It's high energy protein, and you need it. And don't argue that you're a herbivore. There is no such thing as a pure plant-eater. And in your hybrid shape you do need some human foods." Then he turned to Brian. "And you, need more veggies. According to your med report except for your gizzard your digestive tract is human. You both will have to learn to resist those instincts to eat just your 'racial' foods." He turned back to me, "Mr. Sleeper, your blood sugar is normal, you should be able to leave in a few hours, AND I'll be giving you a food list; you too Mr. Coe." The doctor seemed a bit stereotypical for his type, he was just "charging ahead" in his speech. We endured a bit more of his tirade, and then he left us alone.

I felt guilty again, and looked away from Brian's gaze. "Jon, stop it." I didn't. "Listen," he began. "If there's any one to blame, it's me. I called your friends in the first place to get them to get you away from Grace. No one could know that *that* could of happened. Hell, I might of volunteered if I was needed *that* badly. I've had a couple days to think it over. And what happened to me during the riot is a little hard to describe. All I can say is, in a way because of you I feel a little more like myself than before. I think you can understand that." I think I knew what he meant, it was pretty obvious.

I looked back at him. "So you're not mad at me?" My ears flicked a couple times. Annoying things.

"Well, I was at first. But mostly because you did not tell me about your 'talent'." I ducked my head again. I was about to stammer out an answer to that, but someone beat me to it.

"I'm afraid that's my fault," Nightsky said from the door, her left arm was in a sling. "I ordered Jon not to tell anyone in public about it, especially over the Internet. I'd thought he'd had time to tell you before that fiasco happened, that's why I was sort of surprised with your reaction. But enough gloomy thoughts." She puffed herself up a bit. "Brian, Buck. You have both been awarded the Medal of Valor for your actions during the Situation. You're not the only ones, but you *did* save the most lives." She looked at me, "and Buck, you did nothing wrong when you killed that leopard. It was self defense, and I'll back you up. I have it on authority that that leopard had an instant-kill Power. You'd be dead if you had not blasted him."

She cleared her throat once more. "One last thing. In addition to your medals you'll both be getting a special cash award to the tune of $20,000 each. You can pick it up in two days. Congrats. I'll see you both later, I've got a mountain of paperwork to do." And she was off.

In two fell swoops most of my guilt had been erased. But when you consider that who had done so were both birds of prey... I think you get the picture. Then I think what Nightsky'd said hit the both of us at the same time. Brian and I just sort of looked at each other. "Medal of Valor?" he said, "Twenty thousand dollars?" I said. Then we both burst out laughing. And all was well between us again.

I endured the next few hours rather bored. I'd never really been in a hospital for any length of time, and I found the experience lacking. I was still dead tired, and when I got home I wanted to form-shift and sleep on my grassy bed. The thought alone made my eyelids droop. I was finally released, I looked in on Mike, who'd been injured *again* though not nearly as bad as before. I leaned on Brian's feathered shoulder while we went to the bus to get back to my apartment. "You sure you want to help me?" I asked him, "when you could be flying?"

He dismissed that with a wave. "It's not a problem. What are friends for? Besides, I'm still *very* sore from that day. I flew most of twenty hours, you know. My wings are killing me." I saw him grin, though not in the human way. I don't think he noticed this, but when he "smiles" his eyes light up, and his wings spread slightly. If I were not hypersensitive to these things I would not of noticed. I know *he* did not. I decided not to say anything, at least for now. I'd let him know if it became important.

The bus rumbled through Car Country Carlsbad, and I looked out the window. Then I remembered. With $20,000... "Hey Brian, I think I need a car..." And I just knew that we'd have fun doing it.

He looked at a few of the sales people, thought for a moment, and looked at me. Grinning evilly. He turned his gaze to the gaudy weasel-like dealer out the window. "This is going to be fun..." He said. I touched the stop signal.

Copyright 1997, Jon Sleeper

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