Shift (The Pandorma Adventures Book 1)

by Mikaela Nicole

  “I learned from the best,” he says simply. I snort, amused, and look back when neither dragon nor eagle gives pursuit. The injured dragon is inspecting its wing. The eagle lands on the peak of the cliff and watches us with furious eyes as we get away.

  “The box is down there,” Ryan says.

  “Huh?”

  I follow the direction Ryan’s finger is pointing. He points toward the place where he had gotten knocked off my back.

  “You dropped it?” I hadn’t even realized until now that Ryan no longer held it.

  “Hey, if you were falling to your death you’d probably drop it too.”

  “You didn’t drop your bow,” I say pointedly.

  Ryan makes a noise of exasperation. “The bow was in my hand and I did lose some arrows. The box was under my arm. Which means when my arms flew out, like everybody’s do when they’re falling, the box fell.”

  “All right, all right.” I turn around and take us to the ground. Lissa. Ryan walks over to a spot and begins poking around.

  “Was the lid on tight?”

  “No. It was just a slap on lid. Why—” I groan. Great. Now we had to gather all the papers. I walk over and stand next to him, my exhausted muscles protesting with every step. Ryan picks up a perfectly unbeaten box then grabs the lid hanging from a branch above.

  “Maybe you could just use your superpower and sniff them out?” he asks jokingly as we start scavenging the woods.

  “Um, no. No I cannot sniff out papers. And it’s not a superpower.”

  “It could be. It's something incredible that no one else can do.”

  “Xavier and Medusa can both shift like me. And it doesn’t feel so incredible right now. I ache all over.” And my stomach burns, I add in my head.

  “You rest, okay?”

  “It’ll go faster with both of us looking.”

  Ryan shakes his head. “You’re hurt, you need to rest. Just for a bit.”

  “I’ll be fine in a bit. Iru stuck me with a needle,” I mumble.

  Ryan walks over and pulls me into a hug. Sparks of pain shoot through my chest but I don’t tell him to let go. My arms are too sore to hug him back so I just rest them on his arms.

  “If it was a clear liquid it’s most likely that sedative he gave me. I’m sure it will wear off quickly, did he give you much?”

  “No.”

  “Good. Sit here and rest while I find those papers. Okay?” Ryan tilts my head back and searches my eyes.

  I don’t feel like arguing with him anymore and he’s right—I should rest. “Alright.”

  I sit down in a cradle of tree roots and place my head in my lap. I tilt my head back and look up into the tree.

  I squint and stand. Farther up is a square brown object. The journal. The weariness fades away and I quickly scale the tree to the branch the journal hangs on. My fingers skim the leather edge. I scoot farther out, the branch creaking with warning. I grab a corner between two fingers and slowly pull it closer. I reach out a bit farther to take it in my hands.

  A crack sounds beneath me and then I’m sitting on nothing but air. I shut my eyes and shift into the first thing I think of. Rabbit. A few branches scrape me but that’s all and I soon hit the ground. There’s a soft thump beside me. Lissa.

  As I reach for the book I notice my dirty fingernails. I bite my lip and slowly take in the rest of my body—the still healing wounds from the fights that lasted only minutes, but felt like much longer, the bruises, the red skin on my arm, and lifting up my shirt, more tender red skin. I take in the dirt and dried blood. A tear slips out and I quickly wipe it away. I put my hands over my eyes and take a few deep breaths. At least it's only physical pain—it will heal and disappear quickly whereas emotional pain takes time. This doesn’t make me feel much better but I don’t have time to sit and cry.

  I pick up the journal and brush off the cover. I head back to the tree roots and flop beside them, opening to the first page: an index. There are only four titles: Profitable Locations, Experiments, Outline, General. I flip to the experiments.

  I have come up with an ingenious idea. I was researching werewolves and . . . I skip over the useless sentences to further down.

  I believe with Iru’s intellect, a beautiful specimen (collected by me, of course) and a little incentive, he could create a potion that will give average humans the ability to shift into wolves. Once the potion has been proven successful and is infused into specific, handpicked (by yours truly) people, we’ll employ these powerful creatures to fight for us. Then nothing will stand in my way. § Note to self: natural ww are never off limits. ☺

  Smiley face? I put my hand to my forehead and start rubbing it. So Iru is trying to create a formula that will turn regular people into werewolves. I have a feeling it won’t be voluntary either. That also means she knows about Trevor, or the people like him. I close my eyes and rub my forehead harder. It feels like I’m only getting more and more in over my head. I open one door, thinking everything will be solved and put to rest, and instead I find more doors I don’t have the key to, or they’re cracked open enough that I can get a glimpse, but not see everything clearly.

  I sigh and look back at the journal. There is nothing of interest on the rest of this page or the next.

  Results have been . . . unyielding. I have insisted to Iru that he keep trying. He wants to experiment with animals and see if they can acquire werewolf traits with better success. I forbade him to try such frivolous experiments, but I feel he is doing so anyway. This will need to ultimately be fixed. Once one being starts to disobey, others soon follow. I wish they were like Earth animals. Those animals don’t even have a brain to function beyond basics.

  That explains the animals. I read through the rest of the page, which only mentions more information on the results and procedures. I flip the page over, but it and the one next to it are blank.

  “How many papers were there?”

  I jump slightly at Ryan’s voice. I look up at him and reply, “I don’t know. I just grabbed the box without looking in.” I close the journal and stand. “Let me see the box.”

  He hands it over and I lift the lid. It's about half or a third way full of papers. I place the journal on top. It looks right, but then again I had glimpsed inside for only a few seconds. The pages aren’t numbered so we’ll never know if we have all of them.

  “I found three of my arrows too. I think I lost five of them. We should find a protected spot and get some rest,” Ryan says.

  “Here?”

  He nods.

  I shake my head. “We can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous.”

  “We might actually be safer here. They’ll expect us to move on and won’t look for us close by.”

  Close by is the last thing I want to be. After causing a panic that possibly led to their headquarters being demolished, I didn’t want to be anywhere close by.

  “I don’t want to be anywhere near here. I say we leave. Fly across the bit of ocean separating this continent and the next and stay over there. And while we are over there, look for these bombs.”

  “But you’re exhausted and they won’t—”

  “Ryan, these aren’t people. Their senses are ten times greater! They will smell that we haven’t left, track us down and kill us even before we know they’re there!”

  Ryan places his hand on his neck and rolls his head around.

  “Okay we’ll leave. What bombs?”

  “I’ll tell you when we’re at a safer distance.”

  I hand him the box and he tucks it under his arm. Dragon. Hopefully it’ll be easier carrying him this way. I wait patiently as he gently climbs on. My stiff muscles resist flying so soon, but I force them to move.

  * * * *

  The sun is just beginning to set. And from so high up there isn’t a thing to obstruct my view. A soft pumpkin orange flows into an apricot pink that spirals into brilliant oranges and reds. The bottoms of clouds nearest the sunset reflect the radiance, making the mass of colors blo
ssom even more.

  “Wow, look at those clouds,” Ryan says.

  “Ryan, the sky is full of clouds.”

  “I know but I’m talking about those.” He leans forward so I can see where he’s pointing to.

  I look to the right. A massive bunch of clouds sweep across the sky and it looks like they might even touch the ground. I veer to the right and fly closer. I plan to fly through them but it turns out these clouds aren’t made of water vapor. They’re solid—like whipped cream, really thick whipped cream. My head and shoulders get stuck and my wings flap wildly for a minute. Cloud fluff goes up my nose and I sneeze. I can hear Ryan cracking up even though he has to cling to my back so that he won’t fall off. Ryan’s weight disappears. For a second I worry that he’s fallen but when I listen closely I can hear his heartbeat. He’s above me. I dig my feet into the cloud and yank my head out. I shake my head and bits of cloud fall off.

  Farther up, Ryan’s legs are kicking around, the other half of his body inside the cloud. He soon disappears. I look up. The top isn’t far up. I scale up the side and pull myself onto the flat surface. Lissa.

  “Ryan?” I walk over to the edge and look down. The clouds tumble and rise for quite a ways, like a massive bowl of whipped cream. I wonder if they actually do go all the way to the ground.

  “Heads up!” Ryan shouts joyfully. I start to turn but Ryan runs past me and jumps off the edge. My mouth drops open and I’m going to shout his name but I stop myself. I watch him roll and bounce all the way to the bottom.

  “Come on!” he shouts.

  I bounce slightly. The cloud is springy and it felt really soft when I was climbing up it. I bounce a few more times, this time getting my feet off the ground, then I jump over the side, my heart racing. As I get closer to the ground I curl into the ball. I tumble down to the bottom and roll past Ryan.

  “Fun right?”

  “Yes!”

  Ryan grabs my hand and starts to run. This time we jump off the edge together. Except when I curl up he puts his arms together in dive formation. He disappears into the cloud, bits of cloud blowing up after him. This hill isn’t as long and I quickly reach the bottom. I jump up and look around for Ryan. A few minutes pass before his head appears. When he spots me he grins.

  I walk over to him and watch as he pulls himself out.

  “You’ve got cloud fluff all over you,” I laugh.

  He looks down at himself and chuckles. He picks some off and flicks it at me but it floats up before drifting down.

  “I can’t believe you missed. I’m less than a foot away,” I tease.

  “Come closer and I won’t miss a second time.”

  I step closer and pick some cloud fluff off his shirt. “I think, you’ll have to catch me.” I toss the fluff so that it will bounce off his forehead then dash across the clouds. Ryan quickly overtakes me and as I skid to a halt I accidentally trip him. I cover my mouth to try and stop myself from laughing.

  “That was a rotten move.”

  “It wasn’t on purpose!”

  “Sure it wasn’t. Help me up.”

  I walk over and take his outstretched hand but he pulls me down. I sink into the cloud and pieces of cloud billow up into my face. “Ryan!” I push myself up.

  He props himself up on his elbow then reaches over and picks some fluff out of my hair. He tosses it so that it bounces off my nose. I grab a handful and reach out to drop it on him but he catches my wrist. He gently pulls me closer until we’re almost touching. He lets go of my wrist and slides his hand across my cheek until his fingers are in my hair then he pulls my face to his.

  His lips brush gently, uncertainly. Everything around me seems to slow. My first kiss, finally. I lean in closer, my senses on fire, and Ryan presses in more certainly. I will never be able to describe the feelings surging through me or forget the intensity packed into that single kiss.

  Chapter 23

  We had been right about the clouds. After we messed around—and kissed—some more, we tried to find out if they led to the ground. They stopped three feet from the ground, at the highest point, and less than a foot from the ground at the lowest point. But they never touched the ground.

  An owl hoots then goes silent before responding to a distant hoot. The only word I could use to describe the blackness surrounding us is charcoal. There is a grayness tainting the blackness so that it isn’t true black. The trees are huge—the massive trunks have vines knotted around them and the roots show above the ground for a foot or two before plunging underground completely.

  “I’m almost positive we are in the forest that had “bombs” written on the map. But I think it was more this way.” I start heading in the general direction of west.

  “Lissa we should take a break. Get some rest.”

  “We did rest.”

  Ryan’s eyes twinkle. “If that was rest then—”

  “Oh hush,” I cut in before he can finish. “And be serious. We can’t stop. If they get those bombs first, imagine what they’ll do.”

  “And if we don’t sleep we’ll walk around like dead people and get captured. Besides they need to sleep too.” Ryan walks over to a tree and sits, propping the bow and quiver beside him; I instinctively follow. I doubt they sleep, I mutter to myself. Ryan pulls me down into his arms and rests his head against the trunk. The roots offer a sort of protection and the pillow soft ground is more comfortable than I’d thought it’d be.

  “We should climb—”

  “Shhh . . .”

  I reluctantly rest my head on his shoulder. Thoughts blazing through my mind make it difficult to concentrate on sleeping, so I listen to Ryan breathing. He’d fallen asleep so fast . . . weariness seeps through me and before I know it, I’m asleep.

  Boom. I force my eyes open and blink drowsily. Boom. What is that? I rub my eyes vigorously to try and erase the sleep. The tree’s bark is biting into my back and my muscles feel like brick. Boom. This boom wakes me up more fully. I clamber out of Ryan’s warm arms and glance around. Boom. My pulse starts to pound. Only one thing could make such a terrifying, patented noise.

  Weak light breaks through the moderately thick canopy of leaves. Birds start squawking and flying away. Boom. I crouch next to Ryan and gently shake his shoulders.

  “Wake up,” I hiss. Boom. It's gotten much louder in the past few seconds and there’s no mistaking what it is.

  Ryan mumbles something about cake, but continues sleeping. I shake him a little harder. Nothing. Grrr. I’m just getting the urge to slap him—gently of course—when his eyes crack open. Ryan frowns, seeing my raised hand, and sits up a little straighter. Boom.

  “Ryan we need to go. Now.” I try to keep full blown terror out of my voice, but I allow just enough panic to get Ryan to pay attention.

  “What’s wrong?” his words are slightly slurred.

  “Shhh. Get up.” I yank Ryan to his feet.

  “Hey! Sheesh, what’ve you got against a good night’s sleep?” Ryan says in a normal pitch.

  “Shhh. How about if that sleep ends in death? Now would you come on!” I push him around the tree—boom. It sounds less than ten feet away.

  “What is that?” his voice is softer, but it still sounds too loud to my ears.

  “That is the reason we need to get out of here.”

  Trees behind us screech terribly as they’re pushed aside like flowers. I swallow and look back. Expecting it, but still terror consumes me at the sight of it. Tyrannosaurus Rex.

  It eyes us like prey, then releases a thunderous roar.

  “Hold still and it won’t see us,” Ryan says.

  Horse. “Don’t be ridiculous, that’s only in movies!” I yell. I almost literally throw Ryan onto my back then take off through the trees.

  “My bow and arrows,” Ryan says through gritted teeth.

  I don’t respond. The T. Rex crashes through the trees behind us, coming closer and closer.

  “It’s gaining on us!”

  Teeth snap so close to where
my heels are I can feel its hot breath singe my skin. I cut a sharp turn around a tree, then again and again, hoping to throw the Rex off, but it doesn’t work, he keeps pace behind me. Soon my breaths sound like a freight train and my muscles stretch to their very limits. Seeing no point in zigzagging I stay in a jagged straight line.

  “Look out!”

  A T. Rex crashes through the trees in front of us, growling thunderously. I stop, too fast. My legs buckle. I feel Ryan jump off minutes before I can roll over him. Boom! I’m thrown into the air as a Rex’s foot slams down, narrowly missing me. I scramble to my feet. The Rex snaps at my head, but I scurry backward. I race between the two Rexes, just barely escaping their jaws. I charge past Ryan, slowing just enough so he can jump onto my back.

  Ahead I can see the end of the forest and put on a burst of speed. A huge tree comes crashing down feet ahead. A triumphant Rex stands behind it, its killer eyes locked on us. I take another path, but the other Rex steps in front. It bellows then charges forward. Golden eagle.

  Despite the weight of Ryan on my back I shift rather smoothly. I soar upward. The Rex snaps at my wing, catching the tip in its teeth, trying to jerk me back. I shriek, but keep going forward, breaking through the canopy of leaves above us. I aim for the grasslands stretching north and angle myself downward as it nears. I sweep down above the grass then—horse.

  We roughly drop to the ground, I stumble heavily, my front left hoof jarring with pain, but I continue running. A large herd of sauropods and triceratops are munching on the grass. I weave through the enormous creatures, causing some of them to bellow.

  “We haven’t lost them yet,” Ryan yells.

  I come to a sudden halt, nearly vaulting Ryan over my head. Panting heavily I watch as the Rexes scan the now fleeing herd. The larger Rex’s eyes pick me out and it gives a triumphant roar.

  I whip around and start running with the heard, while trying not to run into them. A young adult sauropod in front of us trips and falls. I jump over it without breaking my stride.

  “I thought Tyrannosaurus Rex ambushed their prey, not chase it down!” Ryan shouts.

  Yeah I thought so too. I’m breathing too heavily to say this out loud. Ryan starts leaning to the right and my body instantly responds. It’s difficult to head sideways without getting crushed by the animals racing forward.