Note: This chapter was broken into two parts in order to meet Tapas guidelines for episode length. Please be sure to check the previous episode for the first part of this chapter. This is part 2 of 2.

Leander spoke up, still staring at me. “No, it’s not that, Owen. It’s his eyes. You didn’t tell me about his eyes.” 

“What?”, the bear asked as it turned around to look at me again. “Why should I have mentioned his eyes, they... Oh my God, what’s happened to your eyes?!?!” 

Suddenly I was alarmed. “What? What’s wrong with my eyes? 

Owen had stood up on his hind legs and walked to me. In his bear form he was towering, so he stooped down and looked very closely at my face. Leander had shifted back into human form and was standing beside the bear, also carefully examining my face. 

Instinctively, I backed away. “What the hell is wrong with you two? What’s the big deal about my eyes? They feel perfectly fine to me. In fact, better than ever, I’ve noticed that I can even see much better now, even at night. I as able to see those men on the lake as though I was looking at them through a telescope in daylight. I just thought that was because...” 

Owen shifted into human form as well now, and the two men were still staring at me. 

Owen looked sideways at Leander and then began: “Oh! Nothing’s wrong with your eyes. Nothing at all! It’s just that yesterday they were both dark blue, and now they’re...” 

“Gold and silver, yeah”, I said. “I already told you that they’re oddly coloured. What about it? It freaks people out, so I’ve been wearing contacts to cover them up for years. You told me that it’s normal among Shifters to have oddly coloured eyes so I figured that I wouldn’t need to hide them anymore with you guys. I took the contacts out last night. Don’t tell me it freaks you guys out too! I’d have thought, what with being able to change into animals, you wouldn’t be grossed out by oddly coloured eyes.” 

Leander looked shocked. “What? No! We don’t find them offensive at all! It's not that they're oddly coloured, it's what those colours are. Owen hadn’t mentioned the gold and silver. Those colours are exceptionally rare, even among our people. When you add in the red, too, it could only mean that...”

He trailed off without finishing his sentence.

"Well, the red has always been there too", I explained. "I've always thought it was kind of cool. What does it mean then? Don't tell me they're a problem or something!" 

“No no", Owen said while giving me a strange look. "There is nothing wrong with them. It’s just that I was surprised because they were blue yesterday. Plain blue. It was just a bit of a shock, that’s all.”

I suddenly was getting the feeling that Owen and Leander were hiding something from me. They were looking at me in a strange new way, and it was bugging me. Even though they had said they weren’t bothered by my eyes, they were certainly acting like they were.

Owen cleared his throat. “Right, then. We have no time to lose. We must get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“Wait”, I said, almost glad to divert attention away from my eyes. “You still haven't told me what you two got up to last night. What about the men? The ones you chased away?”

“Well,” Owen continued, “as soon as the dogs bolted, the men dropped everything they were carrying and started hugging each other and crying. I’m fairly certain that one of them defecated, I could smell it. Anyway, I stood up on my hind legs and started menacing them. It was all I could do to keep a straight face, I wanted to start laughing. They were paralyzed with fear, so I got back down onto all fours, walked to within a few inches, and let out a roar like they’ve never heard. They screamed and ran off like lightning. I gave chase, just running fast enough that they stayed ahead of me. I herded them back to the lake and watched them get into their boat. The dogs were already sitting in it! As they were pulling away from the shore I ran down onto the beach and let a final roar out of me.”

I was puzzled. “Ok, I can see why you chased them away, but why did you have to shred my clothes?”

“You haven’t guessed? It was to make them think that the bear had found you on the shore of the lake and dragged you off and ate you.” An expression of disgust came over the Owen’s face as he turned to Leander. “I still can’t believe I let you talk me into that dumb idea.”

“Yes, well, I didn’t see you coming up with anything better”, Leander said. "We were kind of pressed for time, weren't we?"

“I know, I know. I just can’t believe I had to act like that.”

“What, like a bear? You’re a bear, Owen. It won’t kill you to act like one once in a while.”

“Remember that when I dig out the laser pointer, pussy cat...”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Oh, you’d better believe I would.”

The couple started laughing, leaving me scratching my head.

“Wait”, I said. “If they think I was eaten by a bear, won’t they come back hunting for the bear?”

“Absolutely”, Leander said. “I would be very surprised if they came back here today without being armed. They won’t find the bear, though, and they also won’t find you. The important thing is that they’ll now have a plausible reason for not finding you. By the way...” he reached into his coat pocket. “I believe this is yours.”

“My phone! You got it back!” 

“Yes. When Owen scared those men away I ran in and grabbed the phone. They had dropped it, along with their flashlights, as soon as they saw him. Now they have no photo of you and your wings. The battery is fully dead now, so don’t try to turn it on. We’ll have to pull the sim card out and throw it away before you can power it up again anyway, so they can’t use your phone’s locator to find you. As far as they are concerned the last place that phone was powered was in this cave. They’ll just think those two idiots lost it in the woods last night.” 

“But if they know it was in the cave...” 

“They already know it was in this cave. They will be back, probably within two hours, and with savage bears running around they will be armed. We have to make this look like a regular old bear cave, and then we have to make ourselves scarce. Now excuse me, I’ve got to go get something I left in that tree last night.” 

The man changed into an owl again and took off. He fluttered up to the tree, landed in it, picked something up in his beak, and flew back down. The thing he had picked up was a large duffel bag.

“Ok, here are the clothes I brought for you.”, he said as he changed back into a man. “They belong to our son Evander. He's shorter than you but muscular. These should fit you well. You can go into the cave to change if you want privacy. Do it quickly, I will need your old clothes.” 

“What? Why?” 

“You will see. Come on, quickly now. Once those two tell their story to the others the whole search party will be here on this side of the lake.”

I picked up the clothes that Leander had extracted from the duffel bag and went into the cave to change. I discovered a white collared T-shirt and a pair of blue denim cargo shorts, along with a pair of rugged looking white sneakers. I put them on and walked out of the cave. 

“Fetching”, said Leander as he looked at me. “I knew white would look good on you after Owen said that you had white wings. Now, let’s have your old clothes, please.” 

I handed him my pants and the one remaining sock and sneaker. Leander then handed the items to Owen, who had reverted to bear form. “Now, Owen, if you please...” 

Owen took the clothes into his large paws, walked into the cave, and started tearing them apart. After the clothes were sufficiently shredded he rolled around in the sand inside the cave and made a point of leaving several large bear prints in conspicuous areas. It was oddly satisfying watching somebody as stuffy as Owen snuffling and rolling around on the ground like a big puppy. He then walked out and sat down next to me. 

“Now we just need one more thing”, Leander said. 

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Your Blood.”