Note: Once again I've found myself bumping up against Tapas' character limits for episodes and have had to split a chapter in two. Please be sure to check the previous episode for the first half of this chapter. This is part two of two.

Owen turned to look now, and reacted much the same way as Leander. “My word! You’ve finally shifted properly! Well done, my lad!” 

I was startled. “What? Me? Shifted?” As I said this I realized that I was carrying the duffel bag using my mouth, and suddenly I wondered why I would be doing so.

I looked down at my hands, only to discover that they were no longer there. I looked down under my own body and, instead of seeing a human body with white T-shirt, cargo shorts, and hiking shoes I was looking at the sleek underbody of an enormous bird, covered with snow white feathers with feet that were the same colour as my skin in human form. Those feet were tipped by large, black, razor sharp talons. I reached forward with my left foot, hooked the bag's handle on one of the talons, and released it from my mouth.  

“Wow! I’ve done it! I’ve actually done it!”, I exclaimed. I surged on ahead of Owen and Leander and resumed the acrobatics. 

Well, let me tell you this: If I had thought that I was in control of my flight before, I had not seen anything yet. This new bird body of mine was so much better adapted to flight than it had been as a human form with wings. Now Leander joined me in playing around in the air. Owen laughed – he actually laughed – at our antics. He didn’t join us, but he seemed to enjoy watching us all the same. 

After a short while Owen announced “OK, fellows, we’re nearly there. That's enough playing around for now.”

Leander and I straightened ourselves out and joined Owen in a fast, level flight over the mountain tops. We crested one of these mountains and before us was a large valley. At this end of it there was a glacier, but further on and further down the valley was green and lush with a bright blue-green river leaving the glacier, winding down through the valley and emptying into a crystal clear lake. Owen started a gentle downward glide, and Leander and I joined him on his flight path. 

“Our cottage is on the other end of the lake. I hope you will find it to be quite comfortable. It’s off the grid, but we’ve got solar panels and a small hydro generator for power, and we connect to the internet via satellite”, Leander explained. 

I scanned the shore of the lake ahead. “I think I see it! Yes, I see it! Log cabin, covered veranda, big stone chimney, solar panels on the roof, right? But it looks like somebody is there. I saw him standing on the veranda, but he just went inside.”

Leander was looking at me strangely again. “How on Earth did you see all of that from here?”

“I don’t know, I just can. Didn't you say that we have like super-duper vision while in animal form?"

"No", Owen said. "What we said was that while in our animal forms we have the abilities of those animals. As a golden eagle I can see very well at great distances. So can Leander as an owl, though he sees much better than I do at night. In bear form I am very strong and have excellent hearing and a strong sense of smell. Leander is not quite as strong but is very fast as a jaguar, with very good night vision and a strong sense of smell though not quite as good as mine."

"Ok", I asked, "So what kind of bird am I then? Why does it surprise you that I can see so far away? I've already told you that I can this a bunch of times."

"You look to me like a Ro---" Leander started, but once again Owen cut him off.

"You're an eagle", Owen said, glaring once again at his husband. "I've never seen a natural eagle in pure white, and so I don't know what sort of eagle, but this does not surprise me: We shapeshifters will often display fur and feathers in different colours than those of our natural counterparts. Leander here is a horned owl, which are normally grey in nature while his feathers are pure black. Based purely on your size I'd say you're a Martial eagle or maybe a you are a Bald eagle. Whatever you are, you are enormous and pure white all over."

"But what about my vision?"

"This I don't know for sure. I can see as well as a Golden eagle, so I can only assume that you can see as well as whatever sort of eagle it is that you are. Apparently that is better than myself."

Ok, this made sense to me. Sort of. Leander was definitely just about to say something and Owen definitely jumped in to prevent him from doing so. I was beginning to resent this but was not going to kick up a stink about it right now. 

Instead I asked, "So who is it that is there? Another shape shifter?”

“Yes”, Owen said. “That would be our son, Evander. We called him earlier and asked him to meet us here.”

“Son! You never mentioned having a son!”

“Yes we did! In human form you’re wearing his clothes. We haven’t had enough time to sit down and have a really good talk, though. That will come later today. We have many things to discuss. Important things.”

We were now over the lake. In the early morning there was not so much as a ripple on the water, so I could see our reflections as we glided over. I dove down to get a closer look at my own reflection. I wanted to know what I looked like as a bird. Only about seven metres off the water, I could see quite clearly now that I was a large, pure white bird with a sharp hooked black beak and black talons. Owen was right: I looked to be some kind of eagle, similar in shape to but much larger than him. I tilted my head and could see my large golden eye in the reflection, the red being visible as well. I couldn’t help but feel that I looked majestic. If being a sexy eagle was possible, I was killing it! 

“Not too bad, eh?” said Leander, who was now flying beside me. “I knew that your bird form would be magnificent, just going by what your wings and tail looked like. I must say I’m surprised to see that you’re pure white, but I suppose we don’t always carry our human form colours into our animal forms, do we? 

“What do you mean?”, I asked. 

“Well, I was expecting you to have some streaks of blue in your body plumage, to match your hair.”

“Oh, that? That’s simple enough to explain. I dye my hair. It’s easier than answering questions.”

“You dye it? So what colour is it naturally?”

“White, just as white as I am now. Every hair on my body is white. Eyebrows, eye lashes, chest hair, arm and leg hair, even my pubic hair, all pure white. My family – the staff and other kids at the orphanage – thought that I might be albino because of it and the red in my eyes, but the doctors said that my skin is too dark to be albino, and I don’t sunburn at all like an albino would. Anyway, the other kids made fun of it, so as soon as I was old enough I started dying my hair and wearing those contacts.”

“I see”, Leander said. “And why blue? Why not brown or blond, or some other natural Human colour?”

“Because I was fine with being weird, but I wanted to be weird on my own terms. At least this way it was by choice. I started dying it right around when I came out of the closet. I’ve always liked art and painting and I guess I didn’t want it to be a boring old colour like everyone else.”

“So you dyed your hair so you wouldn’t stand out, but you dyed it a colour that would ensure that you stood out? That’s very interesting.”

“What's so interesting about that?” I asked.

“WE’RE HERE”, Owen announced loudly as he appeared between us. 

Sure enough, we were fast approaching the cottage. We all started back-flapping to slow our approach, and soon we were all standing on the shore of the lake, me having just completed my second textbook landing, and my first one as a true bird. Owen and Leander both changed into human form and looked expectantly at me. 

“Do I really have to change?” I said.

 “No, you don’t have to, but you will find it easier to navigate and live in a house built for the human form if you take human form”, Owen said.

“Fine”, I sulked, and with a faint pop I was back in human form.

Now it was Owen’s turn to be giving me an odd look. “Your hair, it’s...”

“White, yes”, Leander said. “Daecon and I were just having this conversation.”

White? My hair shouldn’t be white. It should be blue! I reached up and grabbed a handful of my long hair and held it out so that I could see it.

“Wait, what happened to my dye?”

“It must have washed off”, said Owen.

“But how? I haven’t been wet since yesterday when I was in that lake, and the dye was there when we left that cave this morning. Wait, do you think that maybe my shifting did something to it?”

“No, I don’t think...” Leander had begun.

“Yes, that’s probably exactly what happened”, said Owen while glaring at Leander. “Your white feathers simply reverted to white hair. Now come on, let’s get inside. Evander will be waiting for us.”

Owen and Leander started toward the cabin. I was looking at Owen’s back, feeling resentful. I couldn’t help but feel that Owen was hiding something from me. It wasn’t just that every time Leander tried to explain one of my many oddities to me (even among shape shifters, it seemed as though I was odd) Owen would interrupt and prevent him from doing so. No, there was something else there. I can’t explain it except to say that it felt as though he was giving off a vibe. A vibe of dishonesty, though I had no reason (so far) to not trust him.

I followed them into the cottage meaning to confront Owen about the secrecy, but any thoughts of confrontation were driven out of my mind by what I saw inside. I had grown up poor, of course, but my cryptocurrency earnings had been allowing me to live a luxurious lifestyle since I dropped out of college. I lived in the penthouse suite of a very prestigious and modern condominium complex, and every imaginable luxury was at my fingertips. my condo featured all the absolute best appliances and entertainment that money could buy.

I didn’t really know what to expect inside this rustic cabin on the shore of this lake out in the middle of nowhere, but it certainly wasn’t this: Although relatively small, the cabin was bright and airy inside, an open concept arrangement with the kitchen, dining, and living areas all in one large room, with a bathroom at the far end. A faint smoky smell came to my nose as I looked around, wide-eyed. The living area was finished with natural wood walls, large wooden beams holding up the ceiling and bedrooms above, and a huge stone fireplace dominating one wall. Another wall was dedicated to books – hundreds and hundreds of books stacked on wooden shelves built into the wall. In between those two walls was a beautiful antique furniture set that looked like it was hundreds of years old, yet also looked very comfortable and inviting. If it hadn’t been for the large flat screen television attached to the stone hearth above the fireplace and below an enormous set of moose antlers anyone might have thought they had stepped back in time 200 years.

The kitchen was a similar mixture of rustic and modern, with ancient wooden cabinets topped by real granite counter tops and a large porcelain sink with separate hot and cold water taps, but complimented by modern stainless steel gas appliances including a large double-door fridge that was larger even than the one I had in my condo. As I looked around I noticed that nearly every space, on the walls, on the shelves, on the kitchen counters, even the moose antlers, was occupied by various knickknacks, paintings, sculptures, and photographs, most relating to nature and the outdoors. The entire wall of the end of the cabin that we had just walked into was glass windows looking out over the lake that we had just flown in over.

I was in love. No matter how rich and luxurious my life was, I had always felt the longing to live in nature. Some day, when I settled down into the life of an old man I would build myself a nice cabin in the woods, but for now I was too young , or at least I had thought that I was. I instead chose the city life with its noise, action, and parties. And sex, of course. Lots and lots of sex. Now that I was experiencing it firsthand though, no other house, apartment, or condo I had ever been in had felt more like a “home” than this one.

Leander was watching me sheepishly as I looked around. “I’m sorry if the place isn’t up to the standards you’re undoubtedly used to living among humans, but it’s the best we can do out here this far off the grid, I’m afraid.”

I looked at him incredulously and said “Are you kidding me? This place is freaking beautiful! I love it! The decorations! The wood! The lake! It all just seems so... warm”.

Leander smiled. “Thank you”, he said. “It’s really just our cottage, but we try to spend as much time here as we can. We’ve also got a small house within the colony that we use when we have business to attend to that must be done in person. You’ll see it soon enough, though I must warn that it is a little more... sterile than this place.”

“Colony?” I asked. “Business?”

“Ahh, yes. There is a large colony of shifters a few hours flight time away from here, near the human city of Moose Cove. There are roughly 40,000 of us living there.”

“What? How do you manage keeping a colony of that size without humans knowing about you?”

“The colony is on sacred land, protected from unwanted human detection or interference by an ancient cloaking spell. To humans it appears as a large, uninhabitable and inaccessible swamp. And this is only one of our colonies. There are other colonies – villages, if you will, with thousands of shifters living in them, kept secret from humans in much the same ways that our main colony is.”

“I see. So what business do you do at this colony?”

 “Well, as I’ve told you earlier, we are both healers. Owen specializes in the biological aspect of healing, I focus more on the psychological and magical end of things. We mainly do research though, we aren’t usually hands-on, which is why we spend most of our time here where we can work remotely.”

 “Cool, cool...”, I said absentmindedly as I watched Owen walk over to the base of a set of stairs. “I already got a taste of Owen’s biology lessons. He told me all about—"

 “Evander!” Owen called up those stairs. “Come on downstairs, son, we have somebody for you to meet!”

 “So”, I said as I turned my attention back to Leander. “When am I going to see this colony?”

 “Oh! As soon as possible, I should think. We will probably head there as soon as...” 

“As soon as we are sure it’s safe for him to do so”, Owen interrupted.