I shivered in the bed, the covers simultaneously too warm and not warm enough. I'd met a girl at school, Amber, and she'd suggested I join the writing club. I'd agreed wholeheartedly, loving the idea of a place I could write my stories, read the stories of others, offer advice, and be given the same. Though mostly I was drawn because of all the other sander-fans that would join. Amber was smart, peppy, and had reddish orange hair, which slowly became the mental image of my friend, Amber, on Wattpad.

I had gone to the first meeting and we'd talked afterwords, my constantly jovial attitude seeming to make her somewhat confused. She'd asked me if I knew what she was and I'd gotten confused, asked her what she meant. That's when her eyes had grown mischievous and she'd gotten sly. I only noticed after I got sick though. She had told me to try acting like my favorite animal over the next week, to see how my life improved. I'd blown it off, of course, but had eventually decided to try it out.

What you need to understand about me is, before the rest of this story happened, I was an overly optimistic, overly happy, extremely trusting, idiot.

I now regret that, to a small degree.

I gave it a shot, acting as much like a cat as I could. I was weird, and everyone knew it, so they passed it off as one of my many, quickly passing eccentricities. I thought it was one too, and so I took it to the extreme. I acted human while eating, but I was more... feral, when I ate the meat. I eyed everyone analytically through slitted eyelids, and I kept a fairly neutral expression on my face throughout the day. I moved like a cat, moving the entire left half of my body when I stepped before the right half of me followed. I slunk along at a pace that surprised people in the halls after they saw how smoothly I moved. When I began unconsciously yawning like a cat, my tongue curling and pushing out of my mouth, I began to worry.

I began toning it down, focusing on moving like everyone else at least. I say focusing because I had to focus. I found myself becoming more and more accustomed to the catlike gait I'd temporarily adopted. I had to focus on my walking or I would slip back into it. And I found I was growing more and more silent, watching everyone through my drooping eyelids. I confronted Amber and asked what was going on, but I grew confused when she just laughed before walking away; grew confused until I realized I had literally hissed at her. I started getting hot and cold flashes, baring my teeth and hissing to express discomfort or anger, and I grew increasingly wary of loud environments.

By Friday, I couldn't handle being in the school anymore. I was so terrified of Amber, the painfully loud noises, and the constant aggressive atmosphere I felt oozing out of the walls, that I actually threw up before I had to go. The shivering and temperature shifts grew worse after that, and my mother kept me home. And now here I was, sitting in a bed because laying down was painful, unable to think past my need to cool down and warm up, both so painful and desperate at the same time. I knew how to satisfy half of my need, the winters cold of the outside was the perfect thing to cool me down, but I had nothing to satisfy my need for heat. So I went outside.

My mother had left an hour ago, so she couldn't stop me; my brothers and father were at school and work respectively. I was home alone, and the cold wind outside froze me alive. I gasped at the sharp chill that attacked my skin, the burning heat still seeping through my body, and I felt the internal cold chills dance across my skin. I shivered, in a state of bliss and pain, before I felt something in my leg snap. I collapsed to the ground in pain, screaming as more bones all around me began to snap and crack, shift and melt, fade away or appear out of nowhere. Everything hurt, and I wanted to make it stop. But all I could do was scream.

When the agony stopped, most likely less than a minute later, I lay panting in a weird cloth like material. I shivered and thrashed, making it out of the thing with the sound of tearing cloth. When I was finally calm enough to look, I turned my head. Behind me were two things I was terrified to see. The first, and least shocking, were my clothes on the ground, the shirt torn down the front and the pants ripped and full of tears. It looked like I'd been raped, and I wasn't there with the clothing. That lead into the second thing I saw, this thing absolutely terrifying me. Instead of seeing legs, feet, or my human hips, I saw the hindquarters of a small, grey-black, house-cat.

Part of me, a very small part, was annoyed I wasn't ginger. That part of me was my illogical, fantasy loving, fandom worshiping, crazy-shipper fan-side. The rest of me was horrified to see myself no longer human. I howled, throwing myself down the road, sprinting as fast as I could, the gait annoyingly familiar to me, as I desperately tried to reach the school. Amber had done this. Somehow, she was a witch or something. She must've cursed me. There was no possible way this was happening. It was halfway to summer, I still had to get a job, my drivers license. Cassia was counting on me...

I dashed onto the school grounds, still sprinting as I searched for some way, any way, into the school. I finally spotted someone opening a door, the bell for lunch ringing. Perfect. I knew where she'd be during lunch. I flew through the door, startling two people and making one of them scream in surprise. I ignored them, flying over the granite floors and dodging peoples feet left and right until I saw her. She was sitting with our friends, eating lunch and laughing. I jumped up onto her lap then launched myself at her chest, yowling loudly as I did so. My friend group went silent as I hissed, my back arched and my fur standing on end as she looked at me in surprise. Then recognition crossed her face before she laughed.

She grabbed me, holding me against her in a slightly too hard grip as I wriggled and meowed, trying to get out of her hold. She told the group she'd left me somewhere in the school and I must've gotten loose from her classroom. They all nodded, slowly and uncomfortably, but they nodded. Except for Daniel and Jessica. They glanced first at each other, then at Amber, and finally, at me. I looked Daniel in the eye and mewed quietly, willing him to help me. His eyes widened slightly as if in understanding and he gave Jess a very loaded look. She stiffened, watching me as Amber walked away with an almost horrified understanding. When we reached the girls bathroom, Amber set me down. She chuckled as I flashed away from her before crouching angrily a safe distance away and hissing.

She laughed, crouching down before she looked me in the eyes. "How'd your father react to his little secret being revealed?" I stared at her, my head tilting to the side in confusion as my hissing slowly died. What was she talking about? My father and mother were both as worried and confused as I was. I had been able to smell their confusion yesterday. I had thought then that I was hallucinating, but now... I tentatively smelled the air, focusing on the scent coming from her. It was... clean. It was as if she were a piece of nature that existed without need for space. It was like she were a lake, or a grove of trees. Just... fresh. It was oddly comforting and at the same time it was very wrong.

Her mischievous smile slowly died and confusion crossed her face. "You... don't know what I'm talking about. Why don't you know. Your father was one, once he saw the signs, why didn't he... unless..." she trailed off her eyes wide and her breathing picking up speed. "I just broke a very fundamental law, Shade. That's your name, now, and you'll need to remember it. I... I'm sorry. You can't go home. I... laws that you don't know now bind you. You can't tell your family, and... you can't go home. Find a place, find an area where people don't live, and claim it. After that, well... I'll  know when you claim your territory, and then I'll find you. I... goodbye, Shade. Don't... don't talk to humans anymore. They aren't your kind any longer. They are... they're your enemy now."

She pantomimed throwing something at me and I jerked away, running towards... the highway? I froze, turning to look behind me. My heart was racing, and I saw the school behind me. She had... Amber was... I turned and blindly ran, not caring who or what saw me. All I knew was that I needed to get away. I ran for an hour, a good pace for an inexperienced cat, or so I thought. By the time I stopped, The Sun was getting lower in the sky and it was likely one or two in the afternoon. I stared at The Sun for a moment, realizing that I had only myself now. Then something in my mind clicked. I knew The Sun set in the west, which meant that I was heading north and east. I turned and began trekking south and east, a purpose in my mind.

Cassia would find out I was missing soon, and I knew how much she depended on me. I had to find her, had to tell her I was alright. Besides, if my family thought I was dead, all my other hopes and dreams were crushed anyways. If I was going to be forced to live as a cat, I would at least choose who owned me. And I wanted Cassia.

She needed me.

_________________________________
(A/N) Hey guys! I decided I would get inspired by some peeps, so I did a thing. What do you think? I'm proud to say I have very little in the way of plot, this is more like a short story for NA-NO-WRI-MO, so I'd love some input and ideas!

Any requests for creatures you'd like to show up, just ask and I'll try to fit them in. Right now I only have witches and were's, were's being creatures like Shade that can shift between human and animal forms.

Yeah, some have forms. As in plural. Why do you think Shade is a house cat right now? There's more to him than just that, it's just that his body was so unused to the Magic it only accepted the most minimal change. And size decrease takes less magic than size increase; at least in this world. Hence, house cat. :3

I have a pack of werewolves that'll mess with him soon, so be prepared. I look forward to seeing you guys in the future!

Your Poet and Scribe,
~ShadeFinder<(0^0)>

P.S.
Yes, this is a self-insert. I don't really care, it's my first attempt and I wanted to see what it felt like to role play a one sided game. It's been weird so far, but; eh. Everything is. ;P
See ya next time! :3

P.P.S.

Cassia16 :3