The Wolf

Similarities

Slowly lifting up her sleeve, she said carefully, "Um well, there is something I think I should tell you about." Her voice trailed off. Out of the corner of her eye, Ethan was looking at her arm where she was slowly uncovering her sleeve.

"You see, there was a dra-," her sentence stopped short when she was kicked under the table and when she looked up, Ethan was slowly shaking his head at her. She cleared her throat catching onto his silent comment, "There was someone at school today saying that they heard about the dragon who escaped but didn't understand how she was alive if she was killed," she made her voice have a hint of curiosity in it to make it seem like she wanted to know the answer.

Pulling her sleeve down, she looked at her plate occasionally taking bites. After picking at her leftovers while her father and Blar chatted, she asked her mother, "May I be excused?" Her mother glanced at her briefly before nodding her head and turning back to the adult chatter.

Emptying her plate in the trash, she headed outside and wandered around. Focusing on her wolf form, she shifted and sat on her haunches staring at the clouds. Hearing leaves crunch behind her, she turned around and saw a silhouette in the shadows. Her throat produced a growl as her ears pricked to the side listening for anyone else.

"It's ok. I'm not here to hurt you, I just wanted to talk." Recognizing Ethan's voice, her growling stopped and she relaxed. Her tail swished in the air. She shifted and sat on the bench near the hedge. "I recognized the marks on your arm and from what I'm guessing, not only encircles your arm but also your shoulder and neck," he stated bluntly. "How do you know this? It just happened to me today and you all of a sudden know about it." Her eyes glared at him with irritation. "I only know about it because," he paused for a second as if not knowing how to continue, "I also have the same thing." Sirena looked at his arm and it was obvious that there was nothing there. "Do you think I'm stupid or something?" She asked him, standing up and putting her hands on her hips.

"You aren't stupid you are just.. uninformed," he said. She gave him an annoyed look. All of a sudden, his eyes turned into a crystallized blue. She watched as his arm glowed for a second and once it went away she noticed that his arm was covered in the same patterns that she had.

Then he shifted, but instead of his dragon form that he was supposed to have, he was in wolf form. He had black and gold fur with his eyes that were close to her color. "How is that possible," she asked herself?

"A couple years ago," he began, "a wolf scent I had followed into the forest stopped in a clearing where us dragons usually go out to train. When I finally got there, the wolf was waiting for me. I thought it was a rogue and was about to attack it but weirdly it got up and walked toward me with its tail wagging. I shifted and pet it. Right when I touched it, I got this mark and it disappeared. When I left I tried shifting. But instead of shifting to my dragon, it was the wolf. After I registered over the shock, one of my attendants walked up to me out of nowhere and said, 'You must find the heart of the ocean. Once you do, the storm that is coming will subside." He looked at her as if finally feeling better about getting it off his shoulders.

"So," her voice trailed off, "the same thing happened to me except I turned into a dragon and nobody told me anything." She said with a questioning gaze. He looked up, "Well I've been looking for a long time to figure out what she meant. But now that I found someone that has the same mark I do, it just feels like....," he paused, "it feels like I'm not alone anymore."

She looked at him finally realizing he was not the shy boy she had thought him to be. "Well," she said a little uneasy, "I think for now it would be helpful if you could teach me how to use this and maybe I can teach you a little bit too. After awhile, we can try and figure out why this happened to us." He looked at her no longer saddened. "That sounds like a great idea Siren."

She looked at him sternly, "What did you just call me?" "Uh, Siren?" He said as if she couldn't hear. "Ugh. You know what, nevermind. I need to think. I guess I'll see you later," she shifted and ran toward her house.She leaped onto her balcony without another word.

Leaping onto her bed in her wolf form, her ears flicked as she lay down in her bed with her tail over her nose. Instead of taking the time to process what she learned today, she lay down with her window open and her muzzle buried in her covers. Soon, Sirena fell into a dreamless sleep.