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I wandered a full s, before I realized that I had missed my turn I sank to the sidewalk and cradled ie Mae Mortensen?" I scolded loudly, not caring if anyone was around to hear With the hem of my shirt, I wiped the tears froh so irlfriend! So what? Pick up your feet and stopAfter fifteen e to sit down on the sidewalk again and just stop existing made it nearly impossible to think I wanted to die

The will to survive is one of the strongest instincts a person has Stronger, I found out, than the desire to die of a broken heart At that ht death would have been an easy alternative to what I was suffering I decided to shift before themy will

I stepped into the nearest front yard The floere fragrant and the bushes were thick I stripped behind those bushes After puttingwiththe cool, dry, dusty breeze on my naked skin Then I shifted into the one aniet about a broken heart, because when I ran, ht, overpowered by the feel of the world rushing by

I beca slowly back and forth, and the world becaet home In fact, I could sense directions, north, east, south, and west If I wanted to, I could run in a perfectly straight line to anywhere--the North Pole, Bridger’s house, even thein rass and ran

For a brief second I thought I was the luckiest girl alive

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Night thrived at the ht reflected fros on the mountainside An owl hooted and an inter of clothes beneath a tree and, on padded paws, slunk between the ces What I smelled there excited my animal side and chilled lided froed to, but found nothing

Hugging the shadows, I loped to the dirt road, sniffed, and found otten Then I found Bridger’s scent, new and strong, along with another It was ferowl ruht slipped by as I wandered the eerie terrain, discovering the giant holes where thethe earth’s crust The holes were dark and silent, yet icy wind poured out of the, its breath crying out from haunted depths

When the moon had moved halfway across the sky, I climbed to the mountaintop that overshadowed thedown at the s city far below People were the cause of those lights--normal, mundane, happy people who slept, ate, played, worked, and never turned into soot married and started families, went to school, played with friends, had aunts and uncles and grandparents who ca and Christmas

My tail whipped about restlessly I was so different Why was I an ani happen to them because of it? Did other people shift, but were too scared to tell?

For hours I sat on top of that ht wind indown at a world that looked so sih solitude, I leaped froo home

At the mountain’s base, I turned instinctively in the direction ofof clothes and started to lope toward it Tree branches rustled in a breeze that blew from the north The wind shifted and the world seeround and growled an ear-splintering roar that shuddered off the side of thethe air, an odor that turnedmass of fear I had sht I’d been attacked by the pack of wild dogs

In that moment, I should have run Instead I cowered And theshadows materialized fro low of the full moon, they appeared to be animals But I knew better They s without joints Where their eyes should have been were black, opaque shadows that absorbed theit Unlike their eyes, their sharp teeth caught the light

There were groups of wild boars, coyotes, foxes,on their hind legs like men, my blood seemed to thicken and freeze beneath my skin Werewolves were not the fictional creatures I had always ihtened around an to pant and whine and sot half the school to turn againstto cower

One aniht, slipped from the circle and darted toward ht, but one of the olves pounced on it, picking it up in its front paws and tearing at the boar’s throat with its teeth The night came alive with the cries of a hundred frenzied animals As quickly as the noise started, it deadened into silence The wolf held the boar out and dropped it Its dead body sround, and the scent of fresh blood wafted on the air