A Beating Heart

Monsters in Fairytales

'In mythology, folklore and fantasy fiction, shape shifting, or metamorphosis is the ability of an entity to physically transform into another being or form. This is usually achieved through an inherent faculty of a mythological creature, divine intervention, or the use of magic spells or talismans. The idea of shape shifting has been present since antiquity and may be common in all cultures. It is present in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest extant literature and epic poems, including works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad, where the shape shifting is usually induced by the act of a deity. The idea persisted through the Middle Ages, where the agency causing shape shifting is usually a sorcerer or witch, and into the modern period. It remains a common trope in modern fantasy, children's literature, and works of popular culture. The most common form of shape shifting myths is that of therianthropy, which is the transformation of a human being into an animal or conversely, of an animal into human form. Legends allow for transformations into plants and objects, and the assumption of another human countenance.'

I close the book and sigh. This is like the hundredth book I've read and I still don't even really know what I'm dealing with. Who is Shay and why do I feel this connection to her like I've never felt with anyone else? I sigh and drop back onto my bed.

What is it about this girl that I can't get her off my mind?

"Mom says to come down for dinner in ten." Jack pokes her head in my room and says.

"Kay." I lift up from the bed and nod. I use the ten minutes I have to go all of the information I've gathered since coming home from the hunting trip; which I learned absolutely nothing on, by the way.

As soon as we got in the house, I grabbed as many books on supernatural beings as I could find from my dad's study and looked through all of them, but everything I found was just folklore and fairy tales; nothing that could really explain well... anything.

I try to focus my mind but the constant hooting outside from an owl is distracting me.

Sometimes having super hearing sucks. I groan and get up from the bed, making my way over to the window.

"Will you shut up?!" I shout to the owl that's sitting on a branch in a tree directly across from my window. "Winter is coming up in a few months, should you be migrating by now." I roll my eyes at the bird as its hoots get louder; almost like it's toying with me. "Shut the fu—" I'm cut off when the owl flies off the branch and straight into my window. "The hell?" I swing at the owl; it avoids my blows and lands on my bed.

My eyes go wide as the owl turns into...

"You should really watch how you talk to animals; you never know who it could be." She smirks and I stand with my mouth open like an idiot. She walks over to me and places her long index finger to my chin, successfully closing my mouth.

"What are you even doing here, Shay?" I ask, knocking her hand away. And how is she this comfortable being stark naked right now?!

"I needed to talk to you." She drops her head.