Running through the forest was no joke. Branches snapped beneath my bare feet, and every step was a new cut, a new splinter digging into my flesh. The metallic taste of fear filled my mouth as the darkness swallowed me whole.

Shapeshifters have never been welcome. I knew it. I always knew. And yet, I convinced myself I could hide it. That they would never discover me. How naive I was, a fool.

I was careless when I shifted to save that human child from drowning in the lake. When people found out , all i got was fear, disdain.

Now they hunt me. They chase me like a wild animal. They shout my name between the trees, as if they could tear it from me along with my skin. But they aren't the only danger here, as bandits could be hiding around too.

I try to focus. I think of a mouse, a fox, a bunny...any small creature that would let me disappear… But fear dulls my mind, my senses and my magic.

And then, just when I think I’ve escaped, when I think the silence is a reprieve… A massive claw drags me out of the bushes.

“Well, well… looks like tonight’s dinner is scared to death,” growls a monstrous creature. His smile is a twisted line of sharp teeth. “Funny. You’ve got a bit too much humanity in those eyes to be just an animal.”

So I shift. For Instinct. Survival. My bones creak as I transform in front of him. His face shows no surprise, only… recognition.

“A shapeshifter, huh?” he murmurs, a glint in his gaze.

But then he stands still. His ears—wolf-like, furry, tense—perk up suddenly. Someone else is coming. The forest falls silent. And he looks at me again, annoyed. Not at me, but at what follows.

“Are you the one causing such a commotion in my home?” he asks with disdain. I can barely breathe. He holds my trembling body with one claw. I think he’s going to kill me.

But he doesn’t.

He lifts me up. Starts running. He crosses the forest like a shadow—fast, silent, furious. When he finally lets me go, we’re inside a deep, damp cave. “Follow me,” he orders.

I hesitate. Will he take me to his lair? Will I be devoured by wolves? But I obey. Because I have nothing left. And then, inside that cave, I find something impossible. Light. Voices. Life. Humans and animals living together. A refuge. A sanctuary. Like the home I lost, like the one I'll never have again.

Then he turns. His form changes. He’s no longer a beast. Now he’s human. Like me.

“You owe me now, little one,” he says.

But I still can't help but wonder if I'll be devoured tonight, if not by his fangs by those intense eyes of him.