Shift (The Pandorma Adventures Book 1)

by Mikaela Nicole

  Trevor goes to the wall and taps a spot at the edge of the left corner. I frown and move closer. Faintly I can make out the lines of a door.

  “All rock,” Trevor says with fake happiness. “Just for us, I was told.”

  “Okay. Move to the corners and watch out.” Stegosaurus.

  “Why—” Dark begins then stops, her eyes widening with shock as I grow into the shape of a stegosaurus.

  I just barely fit in the small space. The plates on my back dig into the ceiling and dirt spatters down on me. I’m forced to turn my head far sideways so I can move forward and effectively whip my tail against the door. I pull it back and the spikes dig into the wall behind. I make a low grumble and pull it out with as much force as I can, carrying the momentum against the door.

  The walls rumble and the rock cracks, but stays intact, my spikes imprisoned with it. I tug once, nothing. I wonder what part of me would be stuck in the door if I shifted. Again I jerk as hard as I can. Once, twice, three times, on my fourth try it swings out so fast the spikes burrow into the wall behind. I stamp my foot angrily, causing the ground to shake. My neck is starting to cramp from being in this position. Gathering my strength, I yank my tail out and aim it at the door.

  The rock cracks into pieces and falls, along with a part of the wall. Lissa.

  “Great,” Ryan says unfazed and walks through the rubble. Trevor and Dark stare, disbelief etched on their faces. Trevor is the first to reel in his feelings. He opens his mouth to say something, but Darklily cuts him off.

  “That was amazing.” Dark turns to Trevor. “See I told you she could get us out.” Dark bounds out of the cave before Trevor can respond.

  I look at Trevor then we race after Ryan and Dark. Ryan halts us at the first corner and flattens himself against the wall. We imitate him. Quick moving shadows fall across the wall then disappear.

  “Go,” Dark hisses when Ryan doesn’t move.

  “I don’t know the way out,” he says.

  Trevor chuckles and I elbow him. “Ow,” he mutters but laughter still gleams in his eyes.

  “Don’t be mean,” I whisper.

  Trevor shrugs.

  “I don’t know either,” Dark protests when we all turn our eyes on her.

  I move to the front and inhale deeply. All I can smell is heavily packed dirt and stone plus a confusing jumble of multiple animals. Animals race past just then and I pull back seconds before they can see me. Once they are gone I follow in their steps, carefully staying just far enough back.

  Just as I’d hoped, they lead us to the entrance. We duck into the five-foot high bushes enclosing the entrance to the underground caves.

  “I know this place,” Dark whispers into my ear. “These bushes border the perfect battleground: a savannah.”

  “What makes it perfect?” Ryan asks.

  “Flat terrain, trees to use as springboards and open sky for creatures to dive bomb.”

  “We’ll be an easy target for their bombs. They can annihilate everyone and have a clean win.” We never did get to find those bombs, I think grimly.

  “Bombs?” Trevor looks at me.

  I nod. Ryan’s face is grim. “Let’s get moving.”

  “Wait,” Dark says, “with all of us moving through here we’re bound to get caught. We should take separate ways.”

  “Or pair up. I’ll go with Lissa,” Trevor adds after shifting into a wolf.

  I begin to protest because I’d rather go with Dark, and Ryan too looks as if he is going to contradict Trevor, but Dark speaks up first.

  “Don’t be ridiculous I’ll go with Lissa.”

  I’m not sure it's best to put Trevor and Ryan together, but I’m not about to argue with Dark. Leopard. “Let's go.”

  Darklily gives them a warning look before we take off.

  “I can’t wait for this to be over,” Dark says after we’ve gone a ways.

  “Me too.” My paws prick with eagerness to eat a good meal and take a hot bath.

  “Where will you go?” Dark asks casually.

  “Home of course,” I purr.

  She doesn’t say anything. I stop. “Dark, I love it here. This is the most incredible place I’ve ever seen and I will come back some day, but right now I just really want to go home.”

  “With him,” Dark says bitterly. “If you stayed we could have so much fun,” she pleads. “Endless days of exploring and—”

  “I’m not leaving for Ryan. I’m leaving because no matter my shape, I’m still a person—and I miss . . .” I trail off. What did I miss? The hollow rooms of the house? The stabbing looks of Lexi, or the run down town I’d known most of my life? A place I’ve always wanted to escape? No, none of those things.

  “My dad is out there somewhere. I love him very deeply, he’s—he means so much to me and I need to find him.”

  What I don’t tell her is that Ryan is part of the reason. I don’t think he’d want to stay here and I don’t want to be without him. I look in Dark’s deep emerald eyes. She knows my thoughts without my telling her. And she’s hurt. She starts walking briskly.

  “Please, put yourself in my place. Would you leave your world for such a long time and not want to go home?”

  Dark halts and looks into my eyes. “It's only been a few weeks—” she drops her gaze. “I understand. I just—” she scrapes the ground with a speckled paw, “I haven’t had a friend in a while. Our kind don’t stick together, and being friends with prey is out of the question. Most animals stay with their own kind and don’t bond with outsiders. I’ve missed you.”

  I rub my head against her shoulder. “I’ve missed you too but I’m not kidding about my dad. My mom took him away from me. I need to find him and make sure he’s okay.”

  Dark sighs heavily and begins walking again, sad acceptance dulling her emerald eyes.

  It doesn’t take long to reach the edge of the bushes. Savannah is spread before us; the chopped knee-high grass looks purposely flattened. In the forest up north, full-blown opposition wafts from unseen animals and clogs the air. It’s a fragile situation. They have these animals wound so tight that one insignificant flick of a tail, and they’d race screaming across the plains. I juggle the sides in my head. Who do we confront first?

  “I believe our army is hiding in the grasslands down south of us,” Dark says, gesturing with her tail.

  I look south, and sure enough the tremendously hilly grassland has figures flitting back and forth every so often. Without another word we slip farther back into the bushes and begin moving down, bumping into Trevor and Ryan on the way. They had seen nothing except tense warriors hiding in the hills below.

  We race across marsh into a jungle bordering the grassland. We soon reach the edge of the jungle and hunker down in the thick leafy growth and observe the animals apprehensively pacing the grass. Lissa.

  “So how do we stop it?” I ask quietly.

  “Lissa, there is no stopping it,” Dark tells me solemnly.

  “Then what are we doing?” I ask confused. “I thought stopping it was the whole point.”

  “The only way to stop this war is to win,” Trevor tells me gently. “If you want to stop it, you need to fight your hardest.” Trevor’s eyes bore into mine. “You can do this.”

  My stomach starts to churn. All the previous fights I’ve been in flash through my mind. Despite Cuven’s training it had never been easy battling and now I’m going to put myself in a warzone? I look at Darklily.

  “Trevor head for the back. I don’t want to hear your complaints,” she growls when he opens his mouth. “You’re already in way over your head but if you must fight then that’s where you need to be.”

  Trevor looks at me one more time, his gaze reassuring, before he grudgingly joins the warriors at the back. Yes. Yes I am going to do this. I’ve gotten this far and I am not going to back down now.

  “Lissa, you and I should head for the middle,” she tells me then turns to Ryan. “I’m sorry Ryan but you’ll need to stay here.”
>
  “No way,” he says staunchly.

  “Despite all your skills, at the end of the day you are still only human. You’re about to see a whole new level of fighting—you’re nowhere near ready for it.”

  Ryan swallows, his eyes glinting with anger and uncertainty. A part of me yells that I should stand up for him, but my throat is too dry and I can only find one thing to say: “I need to be at the front.”

  They are too shocked at first to say anything then Ryan says, “No. It’s too dangerous.”

  Dark blinks, her eyes filled with love and fear. “The battle begins when the eagle screams,” she warns then heads into the throng of creatures.

  “I’m doing this,” I say to Ryan.

  I watch him struggle with his emotions for what feels like an eternity. Finally he says firmly, “Just promise me you’ll come back alive.”

  “Ryan I can’t—”

  “Promise me.”

  I purse my lips. It’s a ridiculous thing to promise, seeing as I can't promise that I will stay alive. I can only try to stay alive.

  “Promise?”

  “Promise,” I repeat.

  “Good.” Ryan swallows hard, rubs his thumb across my cheek then leans over and gives me a gentle kiss. I wrap my arms around him and hug him tightly.

  Lion. I make my way to the front. My legs start to shake but I force them to steady. I take in some of the creatures around me: bears, Allosaurus, large cats, Utahraptors—they all look vicious and ready to fight.

  An eagle soaring above screeches the battle cry. Like a flash of lightning the animals are in motion, racing toward the savannah. Adrenaline races through me as my legs start moving. The energy from the other creatures electrifies the air and fills me with excitement.

  Chapter 25

  The animals pile up on the border of the savannah. I follow their forward-facing heads and swallow. The other army lines the opposite side of the savannah. Suddenly the large savannah seems terribly small. From here it looks as if their army is just as large, maybe larger.

  A flare of brilliant orange catches my eye. Cobalt. She has moved to the front line, head raised boldly.

  “Surrender now and spare the lives of many,” she growls to a figure opposite her, which I realize is Xavier. I prick my ears to hear Xavier.

  “You know I never surrender.”

  The eagle above screeches again and then the two sides are racing at each other head on. Every creature releases its battle cry, filling the air with a petrifying noise.

  It’s terrifying, seeing all the creatures on the other side racing at top speed directly at us. Seconds after the opposing sides collide I am spattered with blood. The body of a moose falls next to me, half its neck completely clawed out. I swallow hard and try to see through the chaos.

  I have a new respect for the animals battling. All the warriors are without hesitation. But I’m confused by the snarls of countless creatures, the blood flying in every direction. They know exactly who their rival is, and they don’t hesitate with their fatal blows.

  A body slams into me, sending me soaring through the air. It sinks its teeth into the back of my neck. I wrench myself sideways, but his teeth don’t budge from my neck. I rear and let myself fall backwards. The teeth vanish. Grizzly bear. I look for my attacker and see that it is a wolf, its eyes growing huge with surprise.

  A challenging roar sounds behind me and I just barely turn around before a polar bear slams into me. I stumble sideways but fight to stay standing.

  The polar bear rears up onto its hind legs and I ram my head into its belly before it can come down. The bear staggers backward and I leap on top of it before it can get back up. I open my jaws and lean in for the throat but before I can sink my teeth in I’m kicked so hard in the side I feel ribs crack.

  I wheeze with pain and look back to see who had dealt the blow. An elephant. And it’s charging right toward me. I scramble onto all fours. Stegosaurus. The elephant’s step slackens in surprise, but it quickly picks it back up. I swing my tail but it easily rears back. It tries to whack me with its trunk but I throw my weight against it and it stumbles to the side. Tiger. I leap onto the elephant’s side and sink my teeth in.

  Teeth dig into my ribs and I’m ripped off of the elephant’s side. The Allosaurus drops me, slamming one foot on my ribs it coils back its head.

  “Wait,” says a smug female voice. “Allow me.”

  The Allosaurus backs away and I scramble to my feet but I slip on blood and collapse to the ground. My side throbs and I squeeze my eyes shut for a second.

  A flawlessly sculpted female figure steps into view. Medusa. Every inch of her is perfect, from her glossy, sepia brown wavy hair that falls to her elbows, to gorgeous dark blue predator eyes that pin me to the savannah floor. My vision blurs briefly.

  “So you’re the rat that’s supposed to foil my plans of glorious fame and fortune.”

  Ignoring the pain, I pounce at her so fast I hope she doesn’t have time to react. But I’m wrong. The second I shift, she matches me. We claw and hiss at each other viciously before breaking apart and beginning to circle.

  “I know where that boy is,” she growls. I stop dead, my pulse racing with alarm.

  “Do you think I’ve been doing nothing the whole time you were here? No,” she snarls, “I’ve been doing some looking around. Your mother hates you and ran away with another man. And your father,” Medusa releases an evil laugh, “I think it was a brilliant move on my part to take care of him sooner rather than later.”

  “What are you talking about?” I snarl.

  “I took care of him. He is dead.”

  “No!” I thunder and leap at Medusa intending to rip her throat out, but she’s quicker. Medusa pounces over me. I spin around only to have hooves strike my jaw. There’s a crack of bone, and blood soaks my fur.

  Medusa gives a humorless laugh. “You’re so inept I shouldn’t even waste my skills on you—”

  I barrel into her hindquarters and she face plants in the dirt. I almost wish I hadn’t done that. A furious Medusa shifts into a short-faced bear and whacks a massive paw across my head. Medusa tries to strike me again, but I duck and she only manages to cuff my ear. Deinonychus. I spring onto her back and dig in my claws and teeth. Medusa reaches an arm behind her, but I expertly dodge it and leap off. Lion. I jump on her face and claw at it. Medusa bashes me against the ground and prepares to slam her paws down on me, but an explosion throws us both through the air.

  I struggle to my feet and look toward where the explosion came from. A medium-sized crater is a ways from us; apparently the bombs aren’t the most powerful on the market, which I’m glad for. There’s shuffling behind me then a tail whacks across my side and sends me tumbling away. I land in the dirt just as another explosion shakes the earth. Panting I pull myself into a crouched position, swaying slightly. Breathing hurts, my jaw hurts, and blood soaks the ground. My strength is chipping away and it feels like life is ebbing into the dirt beneath me. My body quivers. I glance up at Medusa.

  “Finished already?” Medusa isn’t even out of breath even though she too has several injuries. Medusa shifts into a tiger and pounces.

  Some might think that running from the enemy that’s mocking you—or trying to kill you—instead of standing up for yourself, makes you a coward. But the second Medusa pounced I took off like a freight train was bearing down on me. And I’m not ashamed, because I was running for my life. Cheetah.

  As I bolt away, another blast blows me off my feet, but I get back up and keep running all the way to the forest. Fox. I duck into a cavity created by two trunks growing away from each other. Boom. Everything vibrates as something huge falls to the ground.

  “Hiding? You’re a bigger coward than I thought,” Medusa jeers.

  From the sound of her footsteps I’d guess she is a T. Rex or something larger. The booming pauses and my heart jumps into my mouth. The hairs on the back of my neck prick with alarm. I shoot out of the crevice seconds before Medusa
crushes it with her jaws. Leopard. I fly up the nearest tree and crouch among the foliage but there’s no point. With a furious snarl Medusa shifts into a leopard and races up the tree.

  Having nowhere else to go, I spring to the trunk of the next tree. We begin hopping from trunk to trunk, claws shredding bark, skidding up and down. The trees aren’t close together and soon I can no longer continue. But before I can drop to the ground an eagle screeches and claws puncture my shoulders. Medusa, me in tow, tears through the branches overhead, surging into the sky. Before I can react, Medusa tosses me into the air. Her talons come around my belly and cut through me as if I’m made of butter. With no energy left to shift, I can only watch as I fall onto a barren cliff outcrop. Blood instantaneously drenches the ground surrounding me. Get up, run, run, screams a voice inside me. But I can't.

  Medusa, in human form, lands next to me, dust blowing out beneath her feet when she lands. Now she is panting. A bit. Through hazy eyes I watch her come over and crouch down.

  She makes a clucking noise. “You poor, poor little girl. Cuven trained you well, but not well enough.” She sighs and stands, drops a small dagger from her hand. I cry out with pain as it slices through my already damaged ribs. “You really should’ve done your homework before going up against me.” Medusa shifts into an eagle and speeds off.

  I can’t move for what seems like hours, my vision clouds and I can't see anything. I can barely breathe and in the back of my mind I know the blade needs to come out. Lissa. The shift is very slow, my body just barely making the shift. I wrap a hand around the dagger’s handle—and yank. Crying out as the dagger slides out of my flesh, I blackout.

  When I come to again, and I realize I’m not dead, a little flame of hope ignites inside me. Tiger. The shift racks my body and I roar in pain, but I need to shift so my horrific wounds can heal as fast as possible. Blackness slowly closes over me once more; it feels like life is being plucked away. I want to concede to its wishes, but an image of Ryan and the promise I made jars through me and I jolt up, causing a spasm of pain.

  For once I wish that I wasn’t so staunch about keeping promises. But Dad had drilled it into my head. Gritting my teeth I force my eyes to stay open but it’s useless because the pain causes me to go unconscious.