Streamfield Shifters: Hide & Seek

Chapter Six

**Aly!** Garnet shouted as I turned tail and began running back down the path. **Aly! Where the hell are you going!?**

**Can't talk! Gotta call my folks!**

The park would close in a few hours. That wouldn't leave us much time to find the elven woman and question her as to Jimmy's whereabouts.

Ignoring the growls and snarls from other shifters and shouts from regular humans, I raced into the changing room and shifted. The shreds of my harness fluttered to the ground behind me as I slammed my thumb into the biomechanical lock.

Garnet thudded into the room behind me and took time releasing the straps of her harness before she shifted back. "What the fuck, girl?" she demanded, hands on hips, red hair in violent disarray around her face. "Where's the fire?"

The real answer surged to my lips, but cognizant of potential ramifications, I swallowed it back down. Turning away from Garnet, I yanked the bin open and started tearing through the pile of clothes for my phone.

"Alina Michaels!"

I jerked around and stared up into Garnet's fiery purple eyes. In the face of her disapproving glare, I relented. "Elves may have taken Jimmy Grabowski," I spluttered. "I gotta call my folks."

"No shit," Garnet hissed, eyes widening. She glanced hurriedly over her shoulder to check if anyone was listening in. Her voice dropped to a conspiratory whisper. "Shouldn't you call the police?"

Yeah, that would be the smart thing to do, right? "Their dogs can't and won't follow the trail," I told her, snatching my phone up from the bottom of the basket. "Their smell scares them shitless." Without waiting for a response, I pulled up my mother in the contact list. She picked up on the second ring.

"Done all ready?" she asked, sounding slightly confused.

"Mom, you need to get everyone down here," I said, twisting so that I could see if anyone was coming into the changing station.

"What—"

I didn't give her a chance to finish the question. "Garnet and I spotted an elf—a real, live elf, Mom. I think she's still in the park."

"Oh, okay—okay." She turned away from the mouthpiece and I could hear her shouting for my father. "We'll be there shortly. Don't move."

"Will do. Oh—can you bring my extra harness?"

"Sure thing. See you soon."

I thumbed the call closed and turned to look at Garnet.

"Mind letting me in on the whole story?" she asked, folding her arms and cocking her head to the side.

"Yeah," I replied. Placing the phone back into the basket, I slid it into the hold and keyed the lock shut. Now, all I had to do was wait for my family to arrive.

Well, that ... and clean up the remnants of my harness. Shit, those things were expensive. With a sigh, I bent to scrape Velcro and double-stitched nylon off the floor and recounted the events of the last few days.

Mom, Dad, Lucas, Wyatt and Rachael arrived a tense thirty minutes later. I leaned against the inner door of the changing room, tapping my foot. We had approximately two and a half hours before the park gates were shut in order to find the elf.

If we could find her at all.

As she entered the changing room, Mom said nothing but raised one eyebrow as she passed me the new harness. Blushing, I went to the rack and hung it on the hooks. After shifting, I went to join Garnet outside.