Project Alter

So It Begins

"Every little kid dreams about being able to ride a dragon, or even to see one right? Well how about being one or at least part of one. See that's what happened to me about twenty years ago. I was just an infant when they started the experiments. They injected thousands of kids with animal DNA and with some tweaking we grew some of the traits of that animal," I write down in my log book. I stretch and get up from the desk in this abandoned office of the once busy West High School. Years of dust coat everything in sight. There are pictures of people in this room as well as outside in student services or at least that is what the sign calls the room you go through to get to this one. I wonder if I would have attended this school if there hadn't been another world war. I wonder what it would be like with the hallways full of young kids and adults that teach them the necessary things to succeed in the old world. I hear footsteps in the hallway. I close my log book and hide it in the hole in the wall under the desk. A shadowed figure steps into the room, her cat eyes gleam as they sweep around the assistant principal's office.

"You know Ravitr I never understand why you like coming into this place it gives me the creeps," she says as she slinks over to me and wraps her arm around mine, resting her hand on my bicep.

I smirk and then chuckle, "Callieon... Come now it's not that bad. I mean it’s a little dark and dusty. It’s just that I just can't help but wonder what would happen if things went differently..." Callieon and I have been together since we could remember. Always getting in and out of trouble together and just all around surviving. We are best friends and are never truly apart.

Callieon cuts me off, "Do not go there again Ravitr Seman Manu. We go through this everytime I catch you in this place. Every time I tell you how much I dislike you coming here and you always talk about the what ifs.  Let's just find a place to sleep." I nod and lead her out of Appleton's first ever school after grabbing my backpack and slinging it onto my back. We walk down the street avoiding the massive holes left in the pavement by the bombs many years ago. We turn right and walk down Badger avenue towards Wisconsin avenue and walk the railroad tracks to an apartment building.

"So this looks pretty good for tonight huh? Let's see if there is an acceptable apartment that isn't too torn up." Callieon says, walking ahead. I look at all the vehicles, and wonder how it felt to control that much metal. I can’t imagine just how far you could get in one of these or how much faster it would get you there. Callieon calls me into the apartments and we walk through, opening each door we pass. We stay on the first floor because we don’t want to have to climb through any debris if there is any on the second floor. Plus the danger of the floor collapsing below us as we attempt to sleep. Callie is pretty good at opening doors because her claws are extremely strong and narrow. We ended up choosing apartment 2. There was a nice set up in the house. Two couches, a nice dining table in the first room and a hallway where the kitchen is. There is also a bathroom off to the right and two bedrooms off the the left. In some of the rooms there are things hanging on the walls. Callie took the smaller room curling up into a ball on the twin bed. I had to chuckle because there were cat stuffed animals on the bed she chose. I walk out of the apartment and out the hole in the wall where I believe was once a door. I fly up to the roof and look up to the sky to watch as the red sky darkened to deep blues and stars slowly start to come out. I empty my backpack of books next to me, fanning through a few before I found what I was looking for. I look between the sky and book naming the stars and constellations from my book and marking new ones that I find.

"RAVITR!! RAVITR," Callieon's piercing screams cut through the night as I jump and dive through the door after shoving everything back into my bag. I run to Callie's side and scooping her up in my arms after dropping my bag on the floor. I softly caress her long, soft and brown hair. She cries on my shoulder. I lay down and hold her close. Her breathing soon slows and a soft purr comes from her luring me to sleep.

When I wake up in the morning Callie is already up and going through the closest in the room trying to find some clothes she likes. I walk to the bathroom and look at myself in the mirror. My blue eyes are a deep royal blue that matches my wings, tail and the patches of scales on my shoulders, neck and jawline. Because of my wings wearing any sort of shirt is difficult so I go shirtless and if I am cold I wrap my wings around me. Callie walks in wearing a white button up shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Ready to go?" she asks, resting her hand on my shoulder. I sigh, nod and take my bag from her. We walk out of the building and watch as the dark blue night skies turn to the blood red of dawn. We head back through the town, passing by a school with a play area. Callie climbed and walked along the top of the fence. The only scar of the war in this area is the bones of many children and their guardians. I stop and bow my head in respect for the fallen. I can't help but wonder why they didn't save them and bring them into the base underground.

"Ravitr, someone is coming," Callieon's voice broke through my silent vigil. I help her down and we stand back to back, sweeping the area around us. A group of five walks towards me. I realize that it is part of the clan who calls themselves the Saviors. The leader is a wolf, his ears are trained on us. His yellow eyes glancing between us taking in what we have on us. He has a slightly surprised look as he approaches. His second in command is a female coyote who has a dark yellow set of eyes that look between us and their leader. There is also a male griffon vulture, a female deer mouse and a male golden eagle.

"What do we have here hmmm? A female calico cat and a male dragon," the leader says as they surround us. They stand defensively waiting for one of us to attack first

Callie speaks up, "Dethian... why not move on and leave us be." The leader, Dethian, snaps his gaze to Callieon when she uses his name. Then a smile spreads across his face.

"Callieon look at you, so strong using my name like that. I just wanted to know what you two are doing here in our territory unless you finally decided to join our cause against the scientists," he says as he studies each of us, taking in our every breath.

Callie hisses, “You don’t want to be the cause of a fight between us do you? You know how everyone feels about those. They are highly frowned upon and everyone who initiated the fight gets a pretty severe punishment.” Dethian’s second in command begins to step forward, growling before being dismissed with a wave from her leader. 

He snorts, “I know the rules but I also know how to bend things to make it look like the opposite happened. Five against two, who are they going to believe huh? I would believe the five.” I look between the two of them to see if a fight will break out and then notice that they look rather similar the only difference is that Callie has cat features and Dethian had wolf. I also notice that they look at each other with disdain but love.

"You two are siblings aren't you?" I say, slightly in awe. You see if twins were born only one of them was experimented on. That way that stayed with population control and the parents still have a child. Unless they were orphaned. Dethian took a step towards me baring his teeth, a deep growl coming from his throat.

"Yes we are, he is my younger brother. We were born a few minutes apart and have a third sibling," Callieon spits, "but we all are nothing alike." Dethian's followers stare, shocked, at him.

"So what brings you here? You know everything this side of Wisconsin avenue and the railroad is ours," he growls, glaring at each of us equally.

"We are just doing our morning rounds of the town. You know we do this, you stop us every other week and say the same thing each time. Just different followers each time," I say, "So just let us pass. We won't interfere with your project." Dethian looks between us and then finally turns and moves on with his group. Callie and I continue on our way. We walk down Glendale Avenue a little further before turning right on Mason Street. As we walk the birds sing with hoarse voices that are only heard in the nightmares of children. They screech and croak like you could not imagine. Their once beautiful voices have grown hoarse from the changes caused by the war.

We turn left onto Wisconsin Ave and walk down towards the old Pharmacy building. Once we get there we open the doors and take in the stock of what's left. We find old cigarette packs, lighters, rotten food, cards about birthdays and other holidays. We try and look for anything that would help us with survival. We grab some lighters and Callieon grabbed a pack of cigarettes. I shook my head and take the cigarettes from her.

“You don't need those. Let's not continue the habits of those who've passed besides we don’t know what they will do to us,” I say putting them back. We cross the street to avoid any more of the Savior clan. We continue down Wisconsin passing by several different types of stores. Many of them are completely useless to the world we have now. We pass an additional eight streets.

“Aren't you curious?” Callie asks, walking in a way that could be considered like a dance. Her steps fall only on the balls of her feet and toes. She occasionally spins to catch my eye and she dodges every crack. 

I chuckle to myself at that and then inquire, “About what?”

“My brother,” she softly says. I catch tones of sadness, anger and defeat in her voice.

“I figured if you wanted to talk to me about him you would when you are ready,” I say, gently touching her arm in hopes of comforting her. She spins when I touch her and hugs me tightly, slight crying on my shoulder. I hold her close rubbing her back while taking in our surroundings. We are standing by an old gas station across the street from something called KFC. 

Callie settles down sniffling. Her body goes rigid as she takes another deep breath in through both her nose and mouth. Her tail flicks with what I assume is anger.

I whisper in her ear, “What is it?”

“We aren't alone,” her voice sends shivers down my spine. She slowly releases me from the hug and unsheathes her claws. I catch movement down the street from behind the gas station. I slowly walk up to the bushes I walk in step with this unknown person. Once they reach the edge of the bushes, slowly I see someone peak around. I grab them and pull them out of hiding. Bringing them into the parking lot shows that it is a male. He is a smaller build with brown irises so dark they look almost black. He has ring markings and a fluffy tail.

“Please don't hurt me,” he squeaks.

Callie comes up, “How long have you been following us? Did Dethian send you?” Her voice was cold.

He shakily replies, “Who? And I wasn't following you, I was walking when I saw you two and hid. Please just let me go. I have nothing.”

I look him over, “Who and what are you? I have never seen you before.”

“My name is Theodemar and I am an aardwolf. A small animal from the hyena family,” he says, struggling to get out of my grasp.

Callieon seems a little surprised, “Hyena? Aren’t they always in packs?”

He nods, “Hyenas yes are always in packs but aardwolves, we are solitary animals. We don’t need the help to get our food. Thankfully there are a lot of termites in these old houses.”

Callie retracts her claws, “Why don't you let him go? He doesn’t seem like a threat,”

“Do you want to join us? We just walk around town taking things in. Looking for food, lights anything. We could help protect you too,” I say letting go of him. He brushes himself off looking us both over. He seems to be taking in our markings and trying to figure out what we are. Callieon has patches of different colors on her skin, where as I have my scales. I also have scars that no other person seems to have and I have no memory on why I have them. Most are on my chest in slanted straight lines going from left to right. I also have a bag on my back.

He kind of chuckles to himself, “First you grab me and hold me asking me all these questions and scaring me. Now you want me to join you? You must have a few screws loose in the ol’ noggin.” 

“I guess in a way I do,” I say, “or maybe I know that in this area we are the lesser of scary things. If the Saviors clan catches you they may force you into it or show you in the harshest of ways that you are not welcome.” Callie stares at me with surprise and worry.

Theodemar looks at us carefully, “We are on the edge of their territory huh?”

Callie nods, “Cross this street and you are on their territory and on your own. They are not the friendliest of us. If you think what we did was uncalled for, well let's just say that is nowhere near what they will do. ” Theodemar nods and seems to think to himself for a while. He looks around for awhile then looks us over again.

“Alright I will join you two. A few conditions though: no more questions about me, we split all findings, and you protect me from this clan thing. I don’t feel like asking for anymore trouble today. That really is not my thing,” Theodemar says. Callieon and I look at each other before nodding.

“Why don’t we head this way,” Callie says pointing down Oneida street the same direction Theodemar’s hiding spot was. 

Theodemar shakes his head, “There is not much down this way. There are houses, and two buildings I really don't know what they are.”

“Well let's go check those buildings out. We may find something helpful or we can learn something new. I always like learning something new,” I say starting to walk that way. Theo grumbles but follows us anyways. Callie walks next to me but keeps her ears trained on him. As we walk I can't help but wonder if maybe Theodemar is actually one of Dethian's men but he seemed so frightened by us. That could be just an act some people are exceptional at that though. He didn’t know where their territory was. All of the signs point to that he is not a member of the clan. He also is rather small. I wonder if he is younger than us. If he is that means that the experiments are still going on. I glance at Callie and notice that she is looking at me with worried eyes.

“You don't think...” she starts to say.

I interrupt her, “I don't know.”

She walks for a little bit longer before speaking again, “But that means...”

“I know,” I cut her off again. Theodemar looks between us and seems to get a little agitated, We continue walking and we get to the two buildings that he was talking about. I walk up to one of the buildings and while away the ashes and years of plant growth. The sign reads: Zion Lutheran Church. 

“What is a church?” Theodemar’s voice starts me as he is leaning over my shoulder.

I stand up and take a step away from him, “I don’t know they seem to be almost everywhere but I don’t understand the need for them. There isn’t really anything inside usually. Let’s check it out anyway.” When we get inside I notice that the once light blue paint that seemed to be on the walls was peeling, there is a big wooden structure that is beginning to rot that holds a statue of someone. The wooden structure appeared to be built almost like a cabinet but instead of their being shelves and doors there is an open space for the statue. There are designs carved into the walls of the structure. Theodemar walks off the the right of the door without Callieon or I noticing. Callie walks next to me as we past all of the wooden benches that sit in rows from where we walked in all the way up for a few feet from a set of stairs. Each of the benches have books on little shelves on the back. I take one of each book and put it in my bag. I look to the steps and see on the first step there is a white bowl in a pillar that stands about waist high. When I get to the bowl there is water in it and I snort. Why would they need water in a bowl like this. The top set holds a table with a cross on it, to the left and right there are two more statues of people who are unknown to me.

A sharp and unfamiliar sound rings out through the building making Callie and I jump. We both become defensive as we survey the area around us. We see Theodemar up on a higher ground with some sort of keyboard with pipes sticking up behind it.

“Sorry I didn’t know that is was going to make any noise it just looked cool. What you heard was me pressing a key,” he says. He walks through a door then appears down on the ground floor a few minutes later. He walks up to us and shrugs. Callie sighs, retracting her claws.

“Let’s get out of here there is nothing here. Just like the others and any candles that were here, maybe, would be burned all the way down,” Callieon says. I nod in agreement and head towards the door. The three of us stand on the street for a second before I walk across the street avoiding the massive crater in the street. I walk up to the other building and try to find a sign. Once I find it I realise that it is another school. I peak in the window and see small chairs and tables.

I sigh, “It’s another school for little ones. I say we just move on.” I shake my head not wanting Callie to see that all of those chairs have students in them from years ago. Some debris from the ceiling covers the tables, chairs and skeletons. From first glance it would appear that is how they died. 

We walk further down the street passing more houses and some buildings that are half collapsed. We get to a part of the road that forks off. One way looks like it is nothing more than houses and there are more unknown buildings the other way. Nothing truly seems to be useful at this point. 

Theodemar walks up next to me, “Soooo…. What were you guys talking about before? You know saying things without actually saying it, excluding me?” All three of us stop walking as Callie looks at me with worry. She pleads me with her eyes to keep quiet. I look to the ground and then shake my head, realizing that he needed to know about what was going on.

“Well you see there are these people who live underground and they promised us that we were the only ever generation of experiments made by science because the people in charge were not okay with what was happening. So we topside people have been keeping watch to make sure that there are no more youngsters and the days that there are mark a war between us and the scientists. It is something that the Savior Clan has been waiting for years for. They want to get revenge for what they did to our generation but we aren’t allowed to even show up on their doorstep without proof that there were more experiments,” I say and then sigh, “You look younger than us but it could also be something as simple as your animal half is small to begin with.”

He nods slowly, “So the real reason you wanted me to stay away from the clan is because you don’t want a premature war in case I am actually not the same age as you guys? Okay makes sense. I am twenty though, which is what I assume you guys are? I am pretty sure that I am not a new generation of experiments.” 

Theodemar laughs, “By the way, nice round about way to ask me my age.”

“I didn’t mean to. And by the way yes to both of your questions. We don’t want a war until we are absolutely sure and there are more that one newcomers. Callie and I are both twenty as well.” I say smiling slightly. It seems as though Theodemar let his guard down just slightly. I really hope that in the end of today he trusts us more. Letting us in on what his life has been like since the experiments.

Callieon walks ahead a little bit, “We are getting close to College avenue. We should keep an extra eye out for any other kin.”

“Wait… other kin?”Theodemar asks, “You mean more people like us? More experiments?”

I nod, “Although they don’t like to be called experiments. They prefer other kin. Like we are one big family type deal.”

“I guess I am just a little surprised to hear about more of us. I went twenty years without running into anyone and suddenly I just pick the wrong time of the day to go exploring and run into everyone it seems. I mean you two, the Savior clan and now some stragglers around here too?” Theo says.

“Well actually it’s more or less another clan than stragglers. This clan is kind of the opposite of the Savior clan. They are less full of themselves and actually there to help others but also have a general rule that says if anyone is found to be younger than the ages of nineteen or twenty dependent on their birthday. As long as the person in question was born in the year 2017 there is no need for an uproar,” Callie says, “But we shouldn’t have to worry because their territory starts the other side of College avenue.”

Theodemar nods, “Okay so we stay this side of College but I do have a question. How can they tell your age? I mean there isn’t really a good definitive way to do that is there?”

“Apparently there are teeth that grow in our late teenage years and if we have them we can at least place the people in question at the ages of eighteen through twenty-two,” I say, “well at least that is how they do it.” He chuckles to himself but bows his head slighting to let us know he understands.

We walk up to two buildings, one look small and has a lot of glass windows. There are huge vehicles parked outside. They are as tall as two people standing one on top of each other. It has a long side that is a deep blue with pictures or writing on them. The building opposing this one is almost the exact opposite. This one has no windows and no vehicles on this side of the building. Once we get past the one side of this building we notice that there are windows and doors a little further down. Callieon kind of chuckles.

“Well I know where we are now. Want to go in Ravitr?” she nudges me arm. I smile and shake my head.

Theodemar looks between us, “Uh where are we?”

I look to him, “We are at the library the only place with anything even remotely helpful. You see there are tons of books with facts or with lore. People used to come here to get books and take them home to read but they had to return them after a determined amount of time. I just take them and put them in my bag.”

“It’s his pass time,” Callie says with a chuckle in her voice and then she nudges me again.

Theo nods, “So you read about things? What kind of things?”

I think for a second, “Well I tend to like books that are more full of facts than anything else really. Things that talk about astrology, math, sciences, geology, plant life, and something called cause and effect.” I head to the library door and walk in. Theo and Callie walk in a couple minutes later. I take off towards the stairwell and go upstairs with my companions in tow. I rummage through piles of debris looking for more books on the solar system, geography and history of Appleton.

Callie shakes her head, “‘Don’t ever go on the second floor.’ ‘It’s too dangerous.’ ‘It could crumble at any moment because of any step.’ Where does he go first every time we are here? The second floor, that knucklehead. But as long as he gets his books he doesn’t think of his own safety.” She nudges Theodemar’s arm and smirks with laughter in her eyes.

“You know I heard your every word right?” I say looking back at Callieon with a smirk, “You know these books could be very helpful to us for things like meteor showers, where to find good sleeping places and things like that.”

“I know I just find it funny that you always seem to break your every rule when it comes to getting books, supplies or when it comes to that old school which has three stories and that one room in the tower thing. I guess I just don’t understand why you do that stuff.” she says, sighing and leaning on the doorframe to the stairwell. 

I walk up to her, “You know you never have to follow me in or to the other floors if you don’t want to. That way you don’t get injured or you don’t have to watch me get injured.” Her playful attitude disappears when I bring that up and she just slowly nods.

Theo looks between us, “You know out of all of us you are probably the worst one to be walking around up here. Ravitr, was it? I mean both Callie and I are lighter and smaller. It would just be the smarter choice for us to do this wouldn’t it?”

I think for a second, “I do see your point. You both are lighter and can step without disturbing things too much although if it does crumble you don’t have wings to keep you from falling too fast and really getting hurt. That is why I do it, as well because I have a pretty good strength from my animal ancestors. Callie and I already did tests for this a while back and I can lift a bit more than her.” 

Theo nods, “I do suppose both if those factors would make you an equal candidate to do this just be careful please.” I notice the way he glances at Callieon after he said that and the way she looks at me. There is nothing but fear in her eyes and he looks at her in an adoring way that makes me a little angry. I smile at her reassuringly and caress her cheek. I beat my wings and hover over the ground and go back to searching for more books hoping that this curbs Callieon’s worry for my safety.

Since I can remember it has always been Callieon and I. We have always looked out for each other and now there is Theodemar. I know I was the one who invited him to join us but I hadn’t stop to think that maybe he was following us just for a different reason. It would seem that he has a crush on Callieon. I honestly don’t know how I feel about it.

While I am lost in thought I didn’t notice the slight shift in the floor below as I touch back down to pick up more debris that fell from the ceiling. I do catch the faint sound of something hitting the floor below and I jump up as the ground where one of my feet once was crumbles away. I hover for a second before taking a pipe from the debris and poke the ground to see if anything else is ready to crumble. The area around my footprint is rather weak but the rest of the general area seems to be fine. I slowly stop hovering by putting my toes on the ground first, but just barely, and then roll onto the rest of my feet applying a little more pressure over time. 

I get a dozen more books and put them in my bag and walk carefully back to Callie and Theodemar.

“That was a rather close call Ravitr, what would have happened if you hadn’t moved in time? I mean you could have…” Callie said as her voice fading off at the end of her sentence.

I nod, “But it didn’t happen did it? I am okay. I promise.” She hugs me tightly and we walk downstairs together, Theo walks behind us. We exit the building and I lead us across the street and into the City center plaza building. 

Theodemar stops for a second, “Wait isn’t that college avenue?”

“Yes it is but if we get to the river and cross it before being seen we should be fine. Think you can keep up,” I say challenging him. I stand closer to him and puff out my chest a little. Theo starts to take a step back before standing toe to toe with me. I bare my teeth as he does and we circle each other for a while. Callie tries to step in but is stopped when both of us hold up a hand in a way to tell her to let us duke it out. Theo lunges first, going to sink in his teeth into my shoulder but I bat him away with my tail easily. He falls over a couch that was sitting there and he lunges again. This time he is ready for the tail swipe and dodges it but instead gets a faceful of my wing. 

I smirk at him, “You can’t get a hit in, just give in.”

“Never,” he says short of breath. I pin him down and snarl into his face. His tail twitches before he tucks it between his legs.

He snorts, “Alright you win, Happy?” I let him go and walk towards the door. 

Callie follows me, “What was that? You know that you are not supposed to provoke fighting between our kinfolk.”

“Unless you are being territorial or need to discern who is alpha. I know the rules I was there while they were being written. Remember one person from each clan or wandering group,” I say.

“So what was that hmm? That was crazy to do so close to the other clan! I mean what if they saw you guys fighting? What would you have done?” she says a little heated.

I smile softly at her, “Well that was about who was alpha. He seemed to think that he could just act like he always has and you can’t do that in a clan, even a wandering one.” Theodemar catches up at this point and we all walk across the street right there and head towards the combined locks area. 

We climb over a fence that was on Lawrence st just off of Oneida and then climb down the hill towards a pile of rubble. We think that it used to once be something called a bridge that crossed this little road. Once we climb over the rubble we only have to walk about a block further before we come to a river. Once again it would appear that there may have been a bridge before but it was gone.

“So how do we get over this,” Theo asks, leaning over to see the rushing water with no clear way across seen.

I chuckle, “How well can you swim?”

His head snaps back around to look at me, “What!?” His voice is high pitched and full of fear.

“He’s joking, to get across Ravitr will fly us over. That gets us out of the territory of the other clan that make this area their home,” Callieon says as she wraps her arms around me. I hold her close and fly over the river. Suddenly I hear Theo yell but I can’t really make out what he says. Once Callieon and I get to the other side and set down on the ground. We turn around to see Theo surrounded by a group of the clan from the area.