The Elite

chapter 1

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I watched my brother as he was lying on the ground crying from the excruciating pain as he was beginning to shift for the first time. Everyone crowded around him and watched. He continued to cry out in agony and I was trying not to cry. This was supposed to be a good thing. Adam's deep cerulean eyes searched for me. When our eyes met, I saw the fear in his eyes. I wanted to reach out to him, but my body was paralyzed with fear. Adam continued to scream in pain waiting for his shift to complete. This lasted for thirty minutes before his body blurred before he shifted into his guardian.

When you shift you get a guardian. A guardian is an animal that takes your place as a human. Most of the time you still have control of what your guardian says and does, and other times your guardian takes over to keep you safe, mostly in times of danger. Shifting into a guardian was a part of our heritage. It is a trait that is passed on to offspring.

What type of guardian you turned into was based on your personality, strengths and weaknesses. Some shifted into cheetahs, leopards, tigers, and lions. We always shifted into some sort of big cat for some reason that I still didn't quite understand. I wasn't the one who paid attention in class.

I turned away from my brother, not wanting to see him writhing in pain. It almost felt that when he's pain, a part of me physically feels it. It was a connection to each other that never went away as we grew older. When one of us was the sad, the other could sense it. It gave us a closer bond to one another, a bond that hopefully would never go away. I heard cheers of joy and looked to see what all the excitement was about. My brother wasn't there. Instead I saw his guardian, a muscular looking Bengal tiger. I watched his guardian take off into the deepest parts of the woods. I wondered if Adam was in control of his new body or if his guardian was.

People turned their attention to me like I was next to shift. They thought that Adam and I would shift at the same time because we were siblings. I, on the other hand have no idea when I will shift.

"I don't think it's going to happen," I told them.

Everyone continued to stare at me for a few more moments before they turned around and went off to do their own thing. Some people went inside their house to escape the rising heat while others went to the community pool to swim. All the excitement of Adam shifting faded. It was something that happens so frequently among the pride that after the person shifted things went back to normal.

Later that night I saw my brother return from the woods as himself. He had managed to shift back into a human without any difficulty. I remember a story from an elder saying that it can be difficult to shift back as a human for the first time.

"Adam. How was it?" He looked at his feet. "I am not allowed to tell you. Only people who have shifted already can know what it was like. I'm sorry Alyssa."

He walked away and headed towards home. I watched him as he opened the front door and closed the door without looking back at me.

I don't understand. He's my brother. We have always told each other everything since we were able to talk.

I felt a tear stream down my cheek. It wasn't out of sadness; it was out of anger. I walked into my house and ran up the stairs hoping to avoid Adam. We had always told each other everything and now he was keeping things from me. I understand that he said that it was forbidden to tell me, but when has rules kept us from being honest with each other. My vision was getting blurry as the tears soon became sobs. When I reached my room I slammed the door and hugged my pillow tight as I cried. Eventually I stopped crying and fell asleep.