A "Winds of Change" Story
I strained my merely human eyes as hard as I could, peering into the underbrush. Mrs. Kent was good, but if only an eagle were helping search for Todd. Or a bloodhound, or just anyone with a tracking Power... There had to be someone out there somewhere who wasn't limited to scent for tracking.
My thoughts turned for a moment to Mother and her claims of ESP, and I sighed. Perhaps it was better to rely on physical senses after all; at least with those you knew when you weren't getting useful information. And she should have foreseen this in the first place, shouldn't she? I tugged lightly on David's mane. "Smell anything yet?" I asked.
David glanced back at me and tossed his head with a frustrated zebra whinny. That frustration was partly due to my pestering, I berated myself, and turned my attention back to the search. David's norm form may have far superior hearing and olfactory senses, but regular old humans like me were still above the average zebra in certain parts of the visual department. And my perch on David's back gave me quite a good view of the immediate surroundings.
David had initially refused to let me ride him, a perfectly reasonable and defensible position for him to take regarding norm form etiquette. But when it became apparent how much I was slowing the equine down by accompanying him on foot, he had reluctantly agreed. It was either that or leave me behind, and in my current state I wouldn't have stayed behind willingly.
I remembered a hunt like this happening once before, back in Cleveland in the days of chaos right after the Change. I couldn't help with the hunt back then, I had been too young and the situation too dangerous for me to come along. But I'd be damned if I was going to be left behind now. We'd find Todd, and this time it wouldn't be too late. I would not be left behind...
I pushed the unpleasant memories back down into the recesses of my mind again, but the thoughts of the Change once again reminded me of my own ticking clock. I was the last of my circle of friends still left unchanged; I could go at any minute. The thought triggered another one of my psychosomatic itch attacks, crawling around on my upper back where I always had a hard time reaching it. I tried to ignore it for as long as I could, Todd was more important, but finally I gave in and stuck my arm back there to scratch. My hand encountered something fluffy, and without thinking I gave it a sharp tug.
My legs tightened around David's sides and I clenched a handful of his mane in my other fist. It was all I could do to keep from screaming out loud. That hurt, man did it ever hurt! But it wasn't the pain that caused my reaction so much as what I found myself holding tightly between my thumb and forefinger. It was a pinch of downy greenish feathers, with tiny specks of fresh blood on their roots.
My blood. My feathers. My god, I was Changing!
I didn't have time to realize more than that, though, as David whinnied in protest of my grip and reared up. I felt his back dropping away under me and jumped off as he shifted to morph, barely managing to land on my feet but losing the feathers in the process. David spun to face me. "Do you mind!?" He demanded. But as he saw me standing there, pale and shaking and sputtering apologies, his expression instantly softened to concern. "Sorry. What's up? Did you spot something?"
"N-no, I just, ah..." I tried to think quickly through the haze of emotions surging around in my head. If I let on that I've got my first sign, it'll disrupt the hunt. A part of me warned. I instantly agreed; finding Todd was the top priority right now. "Nothing. Nothing at all. A bug bit me."
David frowned. I admit that the lie sounded pretty lame to me too. But he couldn't exactly challenge me about it at the moment; we had more important things on our minds. "Alright, then." David huffed. "Just watch it, okay?" I nodded and hopped onto his back as he normshifted again, shaking his head in annoyance. I could tell that he was concerned about me too, though, and I wished that he wasn't; it was bad enough that I was distracted from the hunt.
"Just get sniffing please, Stripes," I muttered quietly, though not so quietly that David couldn't hear. "Everything can wait until after we find Todd."
It was extremely hard, but I managed to keep my hands off my back for the next half hour as we searched. Change and feathers be damned, I kept repeating to myself as I watched the underbrush for signs of grey and black fur, deal with it later. I could feel the predator out there, one step ahead of us, hunting Todd just as we were but with much different intent.
I shook my head. That was going a little far now, I told myself harshly; we were many miles and many years away from that first Change Day, in a civilized city with no feral animals roaming the streets. Mrs. Kent was on our side. Todd wasn't likely to be eaten anytime soon, and hopefully he wouldn't leave the greenbelt and get lost in the wilderness anytime soon either. I took a deep breath and tried to reassure myself that everything would work out. Just keep looking I told myself firmly.
David stopped, and I hopped off again as he shifted to morph. At least he did with more warning this time... "What's up?" I asked.
"I was going to ask you that same question," David replied. "You're having a major mental breakdown up there on my back. Come on, what's wrong?"
"This can wait," I replied impatiently. "We've got to find Todd, let's worry about that first."
David shook his head. "No way. Todd's scent is weak enough as it is from the rain without your anxiety clouding it up even further, you're making me jumpy. You tell me what's wrong, or you walk back to school from here."
I scratched the patch of feathers on my back, shuddering slightly at the odd sensation. I couldn't tell him about that. I had to tell him something, though... "It... it's just that, well..." I took a deep breath. "Back in Cleveland, on the first Day of Change, my older sister became a deer. She got lost in norm and ran off just like this."
"I didn't know you had a sister" David said, sounding surprised.
"Not now." I couldn't say any more; my throat was too tight with emotion.
"Oh. I'm sorry." David couldn't say anything more either, at a loss for words. Then, after a moment's silence, his expression of sympathy shifted to concern. "We've gotta find Todd. Do you feel up to coming along?"
I grinned weakly. "You can't stop me." David nodded and once again shifted to norm as I climbed onto his shoulders. Then we were off again, hunting the elusive raccoon. I didn't distract David with my problems again, and by the time we finally caught up with Mrs. Kent and the other searchers at the shore of the pond, I had managed to put everything behind me. Todd had to be around here somewhere, everything pointed to it. I resolved to mention my First Sign only after Todd had been found.
As it turned out, I didn't get a chance.
Both Todd and Mr. Eriksson were badly hurt in the process of the capture,
and had to be rushed to the hospital. The sight of Todd's leg brought up
gruesome memories of my sister all over again, but David seemed to recognize
the thoughts going through my head and tried to keep me distracted. He
was a good friend.
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