“. . . In conclusion, we will no longer be held ignorant by the shifting community! Shape shifters are no illegal and must be turned in. Don’t worry we, the normal trustworthy people, will keep you safe from these monstrous beasts!” the TV screen declared. The Execution Chairs zapped to life, burning the shifters alive. Her father yelped helplessly among them as he looked at my mother’s already dead corpse. Nothing would be the same. She walked back to the girl’s dorm rooms. The orphanage had three sections, The girl’s dorm, the boy’s dorm and the kitchen. There was no such thing as luxury. Once people began hunting the Shifters, they ‘accidentally’ left me at the orphanage after ordering me to say nothing about who I am or where my 14-year-old self came from.

“ORCA! Get down here!” The voice penetrated her thoughts as she dragged herself down stairs for roll call. We all yelled out our names. After the first few names, the doors to the room were flung wide open as black clothed men came in armed with guns.

“Shifters, show yourselves!” The kids looked around the room at each other. Orca feigned cluelessness and watched in horror as a 15-year-old stepped out of the crowd. “What’s your form, kid?” They asked gruffly and he shifted, his clothes turning into scales as a 1-foot-long chameleon emerged. “Come with us and stay in that form. If you prove yourself, you may live.” He nodded and crawled slowly into the cage they presented. “Anyone else?” She didn’t move, didn’t dare look into the frightened animal’s eyes. Orca knew that anymore pressure meant she might accidentally change, and that would be really bad. They started scanning people, one by one, with a device that she could only assume would reveal their identity. The device beeped and they haul a five-year-old kid out of the crowd. “Do you know who you are?” A man stepped out of the crowd and kindly asked the terrified girl. They usually shift for the first time at age 10! Orca thought, horrified.

“No, I just know that Mommy and Daddy hated me!” She exclaimed, crying.

“Would you like a new home, with people who love you and think you are special?” The man asked. The girl nodded and took his hand. The device continued scanning, it was getting closer to Orca, who was growing really nervous.

“I’m a shifter!” Orca declared, and the men in uniforms all glared in her direction.

“What form?” A man in a crisp gray uniform stepped out of the huddle. Orca could only assume he was the leader, she quickly reached into his mind, confirming that he was their commander, but also learning he was a shifter. A brainwashed one.

“I am a...” My brain raced to choose which form to show. She had six choices: A barn owl, an Alaskan gray wolf, a ‘swift’ fox, a leopard gecko, a saw scaled viper, and a dragon the color fire and coals. Orca chose fox. “a fox” She said, quickly, and shifted in to the form. It was one of her smallest forms and she only stood one and a half feet high. She heard an echo of the commander’s brain: Brave, but not foolish. She has a useful form but can be subdued easily. He kept on musing and signaled to the guards to grab her. She growled, but didn’t fight back. They hefted her into a second crate and they were rolled out the door and into a large van. Armed guards stood in front of the kennels and the little girl was put in the front seat of the car.

“Hey! Are you ok?” The boy in the crate below her mind linked her. Mind linking was more like talking silently. Only shifters in animal form could hear and mind linking meant any shifter could hear it, basically talking, again.

“Yeah, are you?” they had both known each other since they were kids. His parents were pure wolf and pure iguana, meaning he could shift into those two forms. Orca’s parents had been a wolf and owl, and fox, snake and dragon (All snakes were dragons too, it was rare to be any reptile, but snakes/dragons were unheard of)

“I am freaked out, I was so glad when you chose to come too!” He said, his nervousness diminishing slightly. “So, follow the plan? We are getting out, right?” He asked. The two friends had been planning on how to escape if caught. They had been lucky enough to see the jail over a hundred times on TV.

“Yep. We have to do it tonight too. Their commander was Brainwashed!” Orca said urgently. They stopped their conversation there. After two hours, they arrived at the prisons around 11 o’ clock. This was her fate, Orca knew it.