All-Shift(D/C)

Chapter 3

I had been here for a week now, and I knew the name. Glacier National Park. Let me just say, this place is rough and rugged. I had now spotted two dead shape-shifters. One of the wolf packs came into my territory and almost gave me a heart attack. I scented a bear, and had one stay for a day, which certainly caused some issues. And then even the wolverines were scary. I didn't have the guts or confidence to fight any of those.

However I did fine. Except for the fact that I struggled to eat because it was so disturbing. Eventually I got so hungry I ate, but felt sheer disgust the whole time. Seeing the guts and blood spill out made me gag, so I ended up leaving most of my food to anything that wanted it. Mainly I stuck to eating smaller things I could just devour quickly and be happy with. Mice were good, and so were smaller birds, but they are harder to catch, and I'm starting to suffer again. Oh, and I'm not going to start on killing. But the meat wasn't actually half bad when you didn't focus on the overwhelming taste of iron.

Now I am truly appreciating and in awe of what ancestral people had to go through. Or butchers.

But I have to toughen, and I will. I know I can survive this, I just question my own will to adapt.

And I was lonely as heck. As a cougar, the feeling wasn't so touchy, but as a human I felt like a complete loner and outcast out here. It was awful.

So now I was walking around, hungry, keeping a lookout for food or just patrolling the territory. I thought my days here would be carefree, but heck no! I knew there were cougars around, so I marked my land for my own good. But most of the animals seemed to catch on to my strange smell. I saw a wolverine looking at me funny, and when I came at it it seemed to back away cautiously.

Well, that would probably have to be for two reasons: I am half human, and my clothes smelled so bad I tried to wear them as little as possible. Who knew unwashed human could smell so bad?

Now I was stalking for anything to eat. I had to eat almost constantly to maintain a good level of energy. Nothing could be seen though. There were no mice, no shrews, no small, helpless birds.

Until finally, finally I spotted a cluster of chickadees in a tree. I wasn't sure of how much feather there was to meat, but I would go for it anyway.

Leaping to the trunk of the tree silently, I knew they had seen me, but they just chirped and came over to check me out, see if I was a threat.

I watched carefully, deciding whether to scale up the tree or leap for it. But each is risky, and a big chance at failure. Gently, I slink away.

Spotting a small plant farther off with red berries, I shape-shifted and grabbed a few. Walking back quickly, the air chilling me quickly, I tossed them out from the tree. A few chickadees remained, so I hoped they would be the ones to come over.

Slowly, cautiously, they turned to eye the berries. Either they didn't look so good, or they were nervous.

I looked up to the clouds and made a relieved thank you before turning my attention back to the chickadee that had just flown down. It eyed the berries, as if deciding whether or not to eat them. Happily, it took a peck.

I pulled my ears down, very slowly scrunching up to pounce. I could catch it, I just had to hope I didn't rustle...

Almost. Barely. It heard it, but just looked at me. I had to get used to this.

Wiggling my haunches for a moment, I leaped towards it. The distance didn't matter to me.

With a great leap, the chickadee spotted me and lifted off. I leaped quickly after it, hitting it with my paw head on. It felt to the ground, struggling to right itself.