Night Terror

The howling gained on me as I ran through the forest. How the Counsel tracked me while I was constantly shifting form I didn't know, but I couldn't lose them even in the dense underbrush. I briefly considered changing into a bird of some sort to see if I could lose them in the air, but until I knew how they were following me I didn’t want to break cover. Instead I changed from the wolf I was running as to a black panther hoping that maybe the starless night would help hide me. My pursuers were barreling through the trees behind me making no effort to hide their course.

I heard branches just to my right break. I looked and saw another shifter pull back and change into a mouse. The noise behind me got louder. They were trying to push me into a trap; the other shifter had to be a lookout. I turned right knowing that forward would get me caught or killed. Shifting again, this time to a deer, I picked up speed and heard sounds of confusion from the mob following me. So they hadn’t been tracking me, just watching. It meant I could lose them, unfortunately it also meant they knew where I was going. At this point the only thing I had going for me is that none of them knew just how many forms I could take.

I ran until I could no longer hear the chaos behind me and for two hours after until I finally collapsed in exhaustion. I rolled onto my back as I changed into my true form which looked like human female around the age of twenty. Staring at the stars I wondered how I managed to go from an outcast to a criminal, especially since I hadn’t done anything. Twigs snapped to my left, I sprang up with the little energy I had and shifted into a griffin.

“Gabe?” The terse whisper came from a tree about thirty feet away.

I shifted back. “Max? What are you doing here?”

“Thank goodness I found you before they did.” He was still whispering as he stumbled out from behind the tree. Max was hybrid, half gnome, half dwarf. He looked odd being only about two and a half feet tall, and almost as wide. The image wasn’t helped by the fact that he looked like someone had repeatedly slammed his face into a wall.

“What happened to you? How did you find me?” He looked at me like an idiot. That’s right I gave him a scrying stone attuned to me. Okay so I was really tired. “Fine then, why does your face look like a hobgoblin used it for a punching bag?”

“Funny, let’s see how you withstand Counselor Joab’s hospitality.”

“What did you do to piss off the head moron?” Joab was head of the Counsel and not one of my favorite people. This manhunt was proof that I wasn’t one of his either.

“I didn’t do anything. They were trying to find you.” He started pacing while giving me an agitated glare. “You couldn’t just leave quietly, no you had to go have one last hurrah first. Of all the stupid things in the world why did you have to pick that?”

“Hate to disappoint, but I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play games with me Gabe, Hallik and his friends saw you take it.”

“Take what?”

“The Lotus Scepter.”

My jaw dropped open but no words came out. The scepter was the most powerful object the counsel had. No wonder they were tailing me. “That’s ridiculous, no one would be stupid enough to do that, least of all me.” Max just continued to glare at me. “Oh come on Max, just think for a minute. Ever since we were little all I wanted was to leave this place. Do you honestly think I would screw that up now?”

He looked away, shuffled his feet a little and mumbled, “I suppose not.”

I began to pace muttering to myself about escape plans, going after Hallik for accusing me, and cursing in general. “Of all times to pull something like this why now? I was leaving so it’s not because they wanted me gone.” I looked over to see if Max had any ideas, but he was gone. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my side.

Looking down I saw a sword buried in my ribcage. Max was holding it. He’d managed to pierce both my lugs so I couldn’t draw breath to speak. As I fell to the ground I watched him pull the Scepter from his robes.

“I’ve recovered the most valuable artifact of the counsel, and killed the thief who took it.” He had a demented grin on his face. “They won’t laugh at me anymore.”

The last thing I heard was Max calling for the others. At least this time I knew how they found me.