Hunter or Hunted??

Shane

Shane's pov...

"Mom?" a frantic little boy with dark brown shaggy hair called. "Mom? Where are you?" looking in shop windows and walking down the pebble walkway. "Mom, where'd you go?"

I was 5 when I was found wandering the streets looking for my mother, I don't even remember what she looks like now.

"Are you ok child?" an elderly woman asked me. "What is your mother wearing?" I stared at her blankly, "What's her name? I'll help you find her." the kind old woman said.

I don't remember much after that until I was around 10, I had lived with a number of different families and we stayed away from the outside cities because we weren't like other clans. I'm a shape shifter that was found wandering the city as a young child, luckily I didn't start shifting until later. No one knows what would happen if regular clans were to see one of us so we just stay to ourselves and only shift when none of the normal people were around. I wish I knew where I came from though because there aren't many of us, we all came from the original 25 and some how my mother and I aren't listed in the archives so we must have gotten separated from the clan in the war between Cinder and Deisel at some point but no one knows who I am. The family I live with now has 5 boys including me and 3 girls that all come and go as we please. Mama is a Mama to everyone though, her name is Amora. She's beautiful, with long white hair and wise with whited out looking eyes because they say she's blind but when she shifts she's this beautiful little siamese cat and don't get me wrong she sees very well just not how any of us could ever understand. Not all of us shift into the same kind of cat or even the same size. We have talent shows every year to show what everyone's shift looks like along with talents we want to show off and the smaller cats go into town to investigate things or spy on regular clans. I'm a black panther and the girl of my dreams Rayne is a snow leopard, she doesn't know how I feel about her though.

"Don't forget about the history of Cinder's memorial tonight! I expect to see all of you there!" Amora reminded us as we grabbed sandwiches and chips to leave on an adventure. She knew that we liked to play in the woods near the creek and that today would be no different than any other warm but rainy day. The trees would be filled with mist and there would be no chance of any other clans being out in this weather.

"Where to first?", Illy asked as she morphed into a pretty little black cat with white tipped toes and blue eyes. Her full name was Natalie but we just call her Illy.

"Let's go to the rainbow bridge!" Teddy shouted as he rolled on the ground in Bobcat form. "The rainbows will look so pretty with the mist everywhere!"

Cloud seemed to agree with this and started off through the woods as his cat form. He was a large and sleek tom cat type that was black and white, he looked like a white cat that had paint dumped on him. They all followed since he was the oldest.

Rayne is the alphas daughter, I've been trying to learn how they became the top family because the history doesn't really match up. She looks nothing like her parents and there's rumors that she belongs to the original clan family but her parents don't, some think they're imposters but no one can prove anything.

It felt different running through the trees with everyone today, like it was the last time we'd be like this for a long time. We dug at the ground to find herbs and roots, nibbled at flowers budding and found honey right before we got to the rainbow bridge. It was a bit cool out so the bees weren't trying to fight us over a little snack which was always nice. The best water collecting leaves were next to the bridge so we drank our fill. It wasn't actually a bridge, it's multiple trees that grew together from different directions and after being walked on and having different cats sharpen their claws on it there was a smooth surface along the upper areas. Those that were here often marked the archway with carvings of many shapes and sizes, love notes and "so and so was here" type art. With watery marsh like surroundings and cat tails scattering the area the light shining through tree branches made beautiful rainbows everywhere after reflecting off the puddles of water. The best part was that in Fall, no matter what you did, you would have little butterflies fly all over around you and land on you just to rest wherever they chose to land.

"Have you been to a memorial yet Shane? I don't remember the last time we did one of these..." she trailed off into conversation with Mist who had been shadowing Illy since we left home.

"To be honest, I don't remember ever doing any type of memorial but I could have been kept home more than most as a young child. What's it like?"

Breaze says without a beat, "Elegance in every way since we're all in our feline form and food is everywhere and then the theater starts. We get to watch a reenactment of Cinder becoming her true self! The beginning of our tribe and our culture, maybe you'll find a clue to your family there."

That's what I was thinking also. We had climbed around and wasted most of the day away. The plan was to bring enough spices, herbs and roots to be forgiven if we were late but not to try to be late that way they were just thoughtful additionsto the feast. It was time to head home but I didn't want to leave this moment, I sat there until everyone else was almost out of sight and then I jumped up to catch up with Jack.

In many ways we looked alike and moved alike but Jack had no memory of his childhood at all and didn't have any family that claimed him after the last war was over he was 4 years younger than me so he would have been around 6 months when he was found since the war had been over for 6 months when I was found. We had both been talked about by the adults our whole lives as if we were odd. The most interesting part was that we were the same morph all except I was pitch black and he was more of a dark gray with pitch black spots, my spots could only be seen when the light was directly on me.

"Do you think we'll hear something that could lead us to our family's?" Jack asked me as I slowed my pace to match his.

"Never know, anything could happen. We have to keep on listening for anything that could tell us the truth, someone has to know more than what they're letting on." my favorite part of tonight would be seeing Rayne. I needed to learn more about her, needed to know why I felt so drawn to her.