A "Winds of Change" story

by Doug Linger

I waved bye to Todd as the group split up after lunch. My next class was gym, with Stripes in the same class. Jim wasn't, but his class was in that direction anyway. Todd and the absent Mano had their next class in another area entirely.

We hadn't gone more than twenty feet before we heard Nathan Hill's voice ring out above the general chatter of the crowd. "What'd you find so funny this morning, huh? Were you laughing at me? Huh? Huh?"

I turned around, along with most of the other students in the area, to see what was going on. Nathan was holding Todd by his shirt, shaking him like a rag doll. Nathan's chief toady Glenn was alongside him, cackling and laughing at my friend.

Jim and Stripes an I looked at each other, and as one we strode over to the confrontation. It was slower than I liked, because a lot of people were in the halls, on their way to whatever class was next. I could see Todd struggling to get free with increasing desperation as we made our way through the crowd. I realized with a bit of alarm that I had been mistaken. Nathan was holding Todd by the neck, and his air was fast running out.

"He's shifting! All right! Let's skin 'em!" Glenn shouted in glee. I swore, because I'd seen it too, echoed by Jim and Stripes. I pushed harder against the people in the way, and suddenly we were through, in a clearing of sorts. Stripes shifted to norm as he entered, his hooves making a nice loud -clack- against the floor. The two assholes didn't notice though; they were too busy torturing Todd.

People who had been walking away stopped and looked. It was obvious that this wasn't going to be an ordinary fight.

Glenn looked up as Stripe's form loomed over him. Zebras aren't that large, but then, neither is Glenn. He swore and backed off. There was no way he could do anything against a 700+ pound equine. Not without resorting to a Power, which would get him in major, major trouble.

Amazingly, Nathan still didn't notice Stripes standing next to him. That changed, though, as he reared and whinnied as loud as he could. Nathan looked up then, and I wished for a moment that I had a camera, so I could make an put up flyers with that face on it all over the school. His face a mix of surprise and fear, he raised his arms instinctively to protect his head.

Unfortunately, he let go of Todd at the same time. Our worst fears were immediately realized: he had fallen prey to his own mind. He took one panicked look at all the people, and took off.

I swore vehemently, and Jim called out to Todd, but the instincts were too strong. We pushed our way after him through the mass of people, not bothering to weave; let them move. Stripes actually took special care to shove Nathan and Glenn into the wall with his mass before joining the chase. I think Glenn was knocked unconscious, but I wasn't about to check.

Todd ran out of an open door and paused to look around. We gained a few feet, and then he took off again, straight to the fence bordering school property. We tried to surround him, corral him, but he was too damn agile in norm. He made it to a hole beneath the fence and began to scramble through.

I reached him first. I grabbed his tail when he was about halfway through. "Todd! Snap out of it! It's Michael!" I called as I pulled him out, praying I wouldn't do any serious damage.

I should have worried about him doing me damage, because that's what he did. He sank his teeth into my arm. "Aaaah!" I screamed, and dropped him.

I'll never forgive myself for that.

Immediately upon hitting the ground he was back down the hole. And then he was past the fence. Unfortunately, this wasn't a chain link fence, it was wooden boards. We couldn't climb them. We couldn't even see where Todd was headed, on the other side.

I looked around frantically for the nearest gate, and saw it perhaps 100 feet away. Jim was already heading that way. Too far, too long! I yelled mentally. But we had no choice. I moved to follow, and was quickly overtaken by Stripes.

"Hold it!"

All three of us stopped and turned. That was the voice of Mr. Strider, one of the gym teachers and a saber-toothed tiger morph. It is an unwise student who ignores or disobeys that voice, especially when he used that tone.

"What is going on here?" He jogged up to us, along with a gaggle of curious students who were only missing study hall.

"WellsirToddmyfriendjustwenttonormandtheinstictstookoverandnowwegottagethimback," I said, too rushed too say it clearer or give the entire story. Time, time, time! He's getting away!

Luckily he didn't need it repeated slower. He considered for a moment, then said, "All right, get back to class. All of you," indicating the group behind him, who obediently, if reluctantly, began to shuffle off. To us, "Go get Mrs. Kent." She was a hiddie wolf morph in the English department. If anyone could track him, it would be a canine.

"Ah, sir," Jim ventured, "we should be along on the...hunt. He knows us, we're his friends. He might not run away from us."

Mr. Strider considered again, and decided. "You!" he called, pointing at one of the departing kids, a freshman by the looks of him. "Get Mrs. Kent." The kid nodded and headed towards the building.

"Run, kid!" He ran.

"So we're going, then?" I asked hopefully.

The gym teacher looked at us. "They are. You are going to the nurse's."

I blinked, and looked at my arm. It was bleeding from Todd's bite; I hadn't noticed, after he let go. I put my hand over it, trying to hide it despite how he'd already had a good look. "It's not bad. I don't need the nurse."

"You're going to the nurse," Mr. Strider growled. I sighed and nodded.

I passed Mrs. Kent on my way back in. I turned to watch her run over to the group by the gate; I could see Mr. Strider gesticulating as he briefed her, then she ran off. Jim and Stripes—who had never left norm—were close behind.

The nurse's office was more crowded than usual. This was because Nathan and Glenn were there. Glenn had indeed been knocked unconscious, and was still out. Nathan had an ice pack on his head and a nasty expression on his face.

The nurse, a middie coyote got up and looked at my arm. "What happened?"

"I, uh, got bitten." She tsk-ed at me and went to get some bandages and sponges for the blood.

"The damn 'coon bit you?" Nathan asked. I ignored him. "You're gonna need rabies shots now, you know."

I turned to glare at him then. He had enough human face around his beak to see the smirk. I smiled, dramatically smacked my lips, and said one word: "Thanksgiving."

I think another fight would have erupted right then if Mr. Strider hadn't entered. "Now then, how about the full story, now?"

I glanced at Nathan as the nurse came back and began to work on my arm. "I'll tell you later," I said softly. I hate playing rat in front of the accused, even people so richly deserving it as these two.

"You'll tell me now!" he roared back at me.

When I was finished telling what had happened, he turned to Nathan and Glenn, who had awakened while I was talking. "And what do you say about this?"

"He's lying," Nathan began predictably. "That guy shifted to norm, and it was obvious he was overtaken by his instincts. So I grabbed him, to keep him from running off. Then zebra boy made me drop him, and rammed us into a wall to boot!"

"We were just trying to help, and he attacked us!" Glenn piped up.

"Why the hell would I want one of my friends to be lost in norm?"

Mr. Strider looked from me to them and back a few times. I think he knew they were full of it, but without someone from the hall backing one of us up—and we all knew no one would, for either side—it was my word against his.

"We'll settle this later," he said eventually, making it a promise. "Right now I need to talk to the principal and call his father. Stay here." He began to leave, and then turned around to glare at all of us. "And if I hear either of you laid a hand on the other, you'll be in trouble so deep...well, never mind how deep. Just say hi to Jimmy Hoffa for me." Then he was gone.

We obeyed his command. We didn't touch each other at all. We didn't even talk to each other. But the looks I was getting said that this was only the beginning.

After a half hour of sitting in the nurse's, fingering my bandaged arm and resolutely ignoring insults thinly disguised as conversation, I was ready to leave, even if it did go against orders. About then, though, the principal, a lowddie hedgehog, stepped in and motioned for me to follow him to the main office.

There I met Todd's dad, his avian face looking grave. Dr. Chin was also there, along with a large duffel bag. Oddly, Mr. Jacobson was there as well. At my questioning look, he explained, "I was at the morphologist's when the call came in about Todd."

"Where's Mano, then?"

"He should be here in a few minutes. When he heard he shifted to norm and started running. I think he forgot that cars are faster," he chuckled.

Just then the office door was thrown open and a panting Mano staggered in. "No kidding," he gasped. While Mano regained his breath, I repeated what I had said earlier about the circumstances of Todd's shift.

Dr. Chin sighed as I concluded. "Damn." He turned to the secretaries behind him. "Call the police. Tell them there's a Twelve-Seventeen, Raccoon; it's the code for someone lost in norm form. They have procedures." One of them began dialing. The doctor turned to us. "Meanwhile, we'll be out searching as well."

"Why not just use the tracking thing?" I asked.

Mr. Erikson made a face. "It broke again this morning. We were going to stop by Dr. Chin's after school."

"It broke again? Jeez!"

"I know," Dr. Chin said. "I'm going to talk to some colleagues about that company later. But for now we need to find Todd. We'll use Jake here for ground tracking—fox noses are good enough—and Mr. Erikson and I will search from the air."

Mr. Jacobson looked at his son. "Dan...er, Mano. You coming?"

Mano blinked. "You mean I can?"

"He is your friend."

"What about me?" I pleaded. "He's my friend too."

"I don't think so," the principal stated. "You have classes. There's enough people on this now." I opened my mouth to protest, and he said tersely, "No Michael. Besides, you don't want that arm infected or anything. Tromping through woods would be asking for it." I sighed and gave in, and they turned back for Mano's answer.

It sucked. Everyone was going to be helping but me, and it was my fault, in a way, that we were in this mess. If I had only hung on to him...

"...stay here," I heard Mano say, breaking me out of my thoughts. I looked at him, surprised. He half-smiled and shrugged.

The others were just as surprised. "You...ahh, well, okay then," Dr. Chin floundered a bit, then passed long-rang walkie-talkies to those who were going. "There's an extra one. I was going to give it to Mano, but you can use it here to keep track of the search." He left it on the office counter.

I watched as they unpacked a few tranquilizer pistols for when they sighted Todd. Then, with a few more comments from Dr. Chin, they left.

Mano followed a few seconds after me as I left the office. A bit down the hall I abruptly turned and slammed my fist into a locker, making a noticeable dent. "Damn him!" I noticed distantly my hand was throbbing, and ignored it.

"Nate?"

"Him too. But I was talking about the principal. 'You don't want that arm infected or anything,'" I imitated disparagingly. "Yeah, right. I should be out there. Hell, it's my fault he's lost."

"Don't start down that road. It was Nathan's bullying that made him lose it, not you."

"I know that! But he wouldn't be lost physically if I hadn't let go." Mano opened his mouth to protest, but I waved it off. "Forget it. Nevermind."

I looked out a nearby window. I saw Dr. Chin and Todd's dad take off and fly south. A few seconds later Mano's dad ran by, shifting to fox norm for better tracking as he went out the gate that Stripes and company had gone through earlier. "I'm going out there," I declared.

"You sure? You'll get in trouble with your teachers."

I nodded. "And with my mom, I bet. But there's no way I'm staying here."

"Gotcha. Well, I snagged this, just in case you did this." Mano reached into one of his pockets and retrieved the spare walkie-talkie.

"Cool! How'd you get that?"

He grinned. "They're not all that bad in there, you know. I just said I wanted you to have it to keep track of the search, and assured them we'd let them know of anything major happening. They let me have it."

"Cool. Let's go."

"What, now?"

"The less we wait, better our chances to be far enough away from here before they make sure I went to class. And with that, we might be able to avoid getting spotted by the doctor or Todd's dad long enough that we won't be sent back."

Mano thought about that for a few moments, then nodded. A minute later we were out the gate. The second he was out, he shifted to norm lion, since his change was the bottom-up type and he could use the nose. He sniffed a few times and was off, holding himself back enough to let me keep up.

I felt good. I was finally part of the search.

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