Shift (The Pandorma Adventures Book 1) (24 page)

“He left.”

“Huh?”

“About a week or so before we came here my mom up and left with my dad. I guess she met some generous rich guy that offered to get us all out of Abandon. Apparently he thinks it’s unfair to strand me with my depressed father. Like I wouldn’t know how to take care of him,” I mutter. “I still can’t comprehend that she’s been seeing someone behind my dad’s back. It’s like she never even
loved
my dad.” I can feel Ryan’s shock—and sympathy. I keep my eyes on the ground.

“How could your parents leave you all alone?” Ryan asks in disbelief.

I shrug. “My dad didn’t have any say in it but. . . I guess she didn’t love me either.”

Ryan goes back to cleaning my wound. He’s almost finished. “You must love your dad a lot.” Ryan rinses out his cloth, the water turning a diluted red, then turns back to me.

“I do,” I say softly.

“Hey,” Ryan says, matching my tone of voice. I look into Ryan’s eyes. “We’ll find him,” he comforts.

I don’t trust myself to answer that so I stay silent. He wipes off the last of the blood and dirt then uncaps the bottle and starts dripping the liquid all over my wound.

“Don’t use it all,” I protest and snatch the bottle from his hand. Ryan smiles, not contradicting me. I could almost cry with delight as the scorching pain dies down to just a throb. I stand and take a few steps. It still hurts somewhat, but I can ignore that.

“Let's go,” I say eagerly.

* * * *

“I can’t wait until I can take a shower again. Or eat something caught and prepared by someone else, or just eat normal food that most people eat.

After my one chance to pick which direction we go turned out to be the worst way, I’ve followed Ryan’s lead wholeheartedly. We’d backtracked then traveled the course Ryan had first pointed out. And true to his nature, when it comes to directions, he was right. Ryan cracked a few jokes about how he wondered that I hadn’t gotten us lost before. But we both knew that Ryan had basically been leading the whole time, even if I didn’t know it at the time.

Despite my previous notion that everything here is either perilous or terrifying, it hasn’t been that bad. There were a few rare, outlandish places tucked among the forests and jungles and other places. There was a valley filled with hundreds of flowers. They were every color possible—most were a foot across, some were even bigger. It wasn’t the flowers that were strange, but the quarter-sized birds that lived within the flowers. I thought they were adorable, but Ryan got fed up with them when they kept trying to nestle up in his hair.

In another place frosty white berries about the size of marbles grew on three-foot tall fern stalks. Little red seeds could be seen in the middle and the air around the berries was cool. When I ate one, mint flavor filled my mouth.

My mouth waters at the thought of the berries. Once the top coat melted on my tongue the berry would get slightly chewy before dissolving.

“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Ryan says.

“Huh?” My brow furrows in confusion.

“A shower.”

“Right!”

“What were you thinking of?”

“Uh, mint berries. We should’ve brought more,” I say wistfully. I had put some in the backpack but between Shiver and me they had disappeared quickly.

“They were very good!” Shiver exclaims, licking her lips.

Ryan pushes aside branches as he goes forward. The forest we are currently in can only be described as willow trees on steroids. The abundant leaves blot out everything and the branches are so long they’ve amassed on the floor.

“You shouldn’t encourage her, Shiver. She hasn’t stopped thinking about those berries since we left,” Ryan says.

“It's not my fault. Sugar is my weakness,” I say.

“I’ve noticed,” he says.

Ryan and I are having difficulty moving quickly. Frustrated, Ryan had started chopping the branches away with his sword until I scolded him for it. He told me that if he couldn’t clear a path then I had to take the lead. I’d considered turning into a mouse, but decided against it. So here we are, plowing our way through this forest of low hanging branches with me in the lead. I hear Ryan growl behind me when his foot gets tangled and he nearly trips. I’m about to tease him, but I catch a scent that stops me.

“Oomph!”
Ryan crashes into me; propelling me forward and making me loose the scent.

“Ryan!”

“Sorry. I tripped. Why’d you stop?”

“I thought I smelled something funny. I think we’re getting close,” I say and start walking again.

“Close to what?” Shiver asks.

“The edge of the willow forest.”

“Is there danger up ahead?” she asks nervously. “It smells funny.”

Ryan looks at me questioningly.

“I think we’re reaching another creature’s territory,” I admit.

Ryan doesn’t say anything but Shiver scrambles over to me and crawls up into my arms. “I hope they’re not mean!” she squeaks. “I don’t like any of the creatures we’ve run into.”

“You’re safe with us,” I tell her.

Ryan, who had slipped ahead of me, now stops. “The trees end here.”

I come to stand by his side and part the curtain of leaves. Savannah lies before us. The patchy, dry grass is about a foot and a half tall and the only things growing besides the grass are widely spread trees and bushes. I inhale deeply.
There have definitely been quite a few animals hanging around here.

“It looks clear. We should make a run for it, see how far we get,” Ryan says.

“I doubt we’d get anywhere. I bet there are creatures lurking somewhere.”

“Shhh.”
Ryan holds his finger up, his gaze softly accusing. “You’ll jinx it.”

I turn my head when shapes start moving up ahead.
Great.
A pack of bear dogs stalk across the terrain, heading toward the line of trees. Their sharp gazes cut through the grass and bushes as if they aren’t there. Their pace is slow—dominate. They don’t expect trouble but if they do run across some it would be dealt with quickly. As they draw closer I can hear a few of them growling back and forth every so often.

“Maybe we can wait for them to pass then cross,” Ryan says.

The dogs are drawing closer; the dog at the front is meticulously sniffing the air, his eyes narrowed like he’s caught a whiff of something he doesn’t like.

“
Lissa,
” Ryan hisses.

I glance over at him. His mouth is parted, ready to say something else when the leader barks and all of the dogs go still, their eyes roving along the tree border. “
What do we do?”
Ryan mouths. I look at him then look back at the dogs. Ryan pokes me with his elbow.

“I think they know we’re here,” he whispers fiercely.

Hopefully these creatures will be easier to fight off than the ones at the cliffs. “Then lets attack first,” I say and take off the backpack.

Ryan gives me an amused look and takes out an arrow and sets it in the bow.

I don’t ask him what he thinks is funny, instead whispering to Shiver, “Stay hidden.”

Tiger.
Excited energy pulses through me as I shift. I shake my head. I should not be eager to fight these dogs. But part of me is—every battle means more practice and I need all the practice I can get. Tail flicking with exhilaration I watch every cautious step they take, waiting for them to be in the perfect spot.

Ryan shoots the arrow as I release a monstrous growl and leap on the nearest dog. It yelps with surprise as my claws bury into its skin and my teeth into its neck. I feel the bone snap and drop the dog. Another lies dead, an arrow in its head. The others had scattered but now regroup behind their leader, assessing us. The leader utters a low growl and two dogs break away, slinking toward Ryan who is hovering just behind me, sword drawn, his bow and quiver left by the trees. The rest of the dogs move the other way, trying to break me away from Ryan. They make their circle around us tighter, snapping but not touching.

A dog on Ryan’s side lets out a strangled scream. I turn to look and they jump me. Teeth clamp down on my legs, thighs, shoulders, anywhere they can grab in my second of distraction. I roar and try to get my teeth into them but they dart away.

I slit me eyes and control my strikes. The next bear dog to snake toward me I leap at. It yelps as my claws grab its shoulders and my teeth snap its neck. I look for Ryan and find him backed against the tree line, two dogs snapping at him; going in for a bite while the other draws away his attention. One dog leaps and the other goes for his stomach. Ryan ducks and rolls to the side, jumping up he immediately races for his bow. In the blink of an eye he’s embedded an arrow in one and his sword in the other.

As I drop the dog I’d just tackled Ryan tumbles over my back and hurls himself at the dog opposite. He jumps onto its back, rolling over it before slicing its neck. When Ryan stands a dog soars over me and onto his back. I hook my paws around its ribcage and my jaws crush into its shoulders as I rear back and pull it off Ryan. I trip over its body as I unhook my claws and teeth. I back away from it and look around for the next dog attacking but they’ve stopped. The leader gives us a long look then barks to the others and they take off.

Before I can even register what I’m doing or that I’m doing it, I’ve taken off after them, pounced on one and killed it. The four remaining dogs pick up their pace but my strides are twice as long and I overtake another.

“Lissa!”

I look over my shoulder and bite back shock. He’s far off. My eyes widen and I quickly drop the limp dog. I look back and see the three bear dogs have cleared the savannah and are racing through the forest on the other side. I’m breathing heavily and the phrase ‘the thrill of the chase’ suddenly has new meaning for me. I start trotting back to Ryan. I try to scold myself for feeling so exhilarated but I can't. I’d just covered more ground in a few minutes than I could ever dream of covering just being human. I’ve never felt so powerful just running.

I glance at Ryan when I reach him. I expect him to say something reproachful but he just stares at me blankly. I feel the light in my eyes die and the energy bleed out into the ground.
Lissa.
I look him over. His puncture wounds are frosted with blood but other than that he seems fine. Wordlessly Ryan retrieves the backpack and hands me the bottle of healing water. I assiduously drip water onto his wounds.

“I don’t need any. These wounds will heal quickly,” I say when he turns to me. He gazes at me for a moment, his face unreadable, then turns and slowly packs the bottle.

“Are they gone?” Shiver asks, cautiously slipping out of the willow tree’s protective curtain of leaves.

I scrutinize the landscape around us, looking for any more possible threats. “It’s safe,” I tell her. I look back toward the forest I’d chased the dogs to. It can barely be seen from here.

“If we go straight we’ll run into a forest. We should hurry. They probably went to warn someone we’ve crossed their border.”

Shiver bounces away ahead of us.

“Let’s get going then,” Ryan says, handing me the backpack.

Chapter 17

I watch the fire reflecting off Ryan’s eyes. The flames rise before snapping back down. Shiver is curled in a tight ball near the base of a tree.

I nearly jump out of my skin when it pops loudly. We’ve taken a big risk building a fire. It’s my fault. I insisted on cooking my meat despite the danger, and Ryan seems to be enjoying the warmth. It isn’t in any way cold, okay so it’s not cold to me, being a wolf—better to hear any approaching enemies. We’ll have to stamp out the fire soon. The longer it blazes the more likely it is that we will be found.

“How close do you think we are?” Ryan asks in a hushed voice.

I try my best to recall the map Cobalt had shown us of Pandorma, but the image is faint, unreliable.

“I have no idea, but we know we’re on their territory so it can’t be too far.”

I check my wounds. Finding them healed I revert to human form. I start scraping dirt over the fire, which flickers madly in protest. Ryan kicks dirt at the fire with his boot, after it’s been extinguished; he begins scattering the evidence of our fire. I decide against pointing out that it’d make no difference, an animal's sense of smell is many times more powerful than ours—or his actually.

“I’ll take the first shift.”

“Great,” I mumble while stifling a yawn. I curl myself against the tree’s coarse bark. “What about Shiver?” I ask suddenly.

“What do you mean?”

“We’re getting closer—things can only get more dangerous.”

Ryan is silent so I look at him. He’s staring out into the forest. Finally he looks at me. “We should leave her. But how can we leave her,” he says, reading my thoughts exactly.

I gently touch her head. “So what do we do?” I ask quietly.

Ryan comes over and sits next to me. “It all depends on how we look at it. Leaving Shiver could put her in danger but bringing her would be putting her in more danger. Shiver is awesome and I love having her with us, but I think, putting her safety first, it would be best to continue without her.”

I know everything he’s saying is right, but leaving Shiver behind makes me want to cry. What if after we left she got attacked and injured badly or killed? How could I live with myself if that happened? But that doesn’t mean she’ll be any safer traveling with us. Like Ryan said: she could be in even more danger.

Ryan is watching me. “How do we tell her?” I ask, my voice breaking.

He sighs. “Let’s figure that out in the morning.”

“Okay,” I say then lie my head against the tree.

I barely hear Ryan struggling up into a nearby tree before I fall asleep.

Thunk!
I gently rub the top of my head where something had hit it. Still groggy I ignore it and lay my head back down.
Thunk!
Irritated I look up into the treetops. Ryan is staring at me; stick raised and aimed until he sees that he’s gotten my attention.
He couldn’t have found a less painful way to tell me it’s my turn?

“What?” I say in a hushed growl.

That’s when I hear it. Careful hunter’s steps moving through the forest. Without a second thought I grab Shiver and awkwardly scramble up the tree and sit on a branch a step higher than Ryan. Shiver, fully awake, tries to say something but I softly clamp my hand over her mouth. Ryan jerks his thumb upward and we climb a few feet higher. I set Shiver ahead of me. I hold my breath, straining to hear the footsteps again, letting out a small sigh when I do.

“Where are they?” Ryan asks.

I listen for a few seconds then wordlessly point to the left of us, grateful for my enhanced senses.
Wait a minute.
Ryan’s hearing isn’t as strong as mine. Puzzled I whisper, “How did you hear them?”

Ryan, sitting ahead of me, glances back before murmuring, “I think they were messing around and one of them crashed into a tree or something.” Ryan lets out a soft chuckle. “Let out the loudest yell I’ve ever heard.”

His cheerful demeanor vanishes the minute the animals step into the small clearing. Shiver starts trembling. A large coffee-brown wolf sniffs the tree Ryan had been leaning against while a golden leopard paws through the spread fire ashes. A large, menacing deinonychus stands guard on the outer line of the small clearing. The wolf paws at Ryan’s weapons, which are set against a tree beside the backpack. Ryan grimaces. I can tell he’s kicking himself for leaving his weapons on the ground.

“It’s her,” growls the leopard.

“Positive?” the raptor asks as he walks over to check himself. The wolf’s eyes glint hungrily for the anticipated chase. I nudge Ryan. He looks at me and I point my finger upward. Very quietly we ascend, keeping Shiver in between us.

“Xavier's not going to be happy. They’re getting closer,” says the wolf, his voice gruff.

The leopard turns to the wolf. “Let’s see how far they actually get,” her voice drips with menace and eagerness, claws digging in and out of the dirt beneath them.

“Idiots. They haven’t even left,” the raptor hisses.

The wolf bounces to its paws, eagerly sniffing around the clearing, while the leopard angles her head up to scan the trees. I tense and cling harder to the tree, praying she won’t spot us, that the blotting darkness is enough to hide us. But I know better. Cat’s eyes are some of the sharpest when it comes to night vision, so I’m not surprised when her lips curl up with the glee of being the first to spot us. The raptor follows her gaze, she glances at it and he gives an almost imperceptible nod.

“With pleasure,” she growls before leaping up into the tree.

Thinking quickly I yell at Ryan, “Run!”

He tosses me a look that says I’m insane, but I say, “These limbs are thick and grow close enough for you to jump from one to another. Go! Stay hidden in the shadows,” I instruct Shiver. She shrinks into a smaller ball.

Ryan scowls before hauling himself up and jumping to the nearest branch. There’s just enough moonlight to see the branches circling us.
Black leopard.

“This is going to be fun,” the leopard hisses, her eyes darting behind me. I shift, hoping to block her view of Ryan and Shiver. I resist the urge to dig my claws into the bark; it will only hinder me when she charges.

The leopard springs from our branch, bouncing off the one next to us like it’s a springboard. As she flies toward me I jump into the air, digging my claws into a branch above and pulling myself up. Hissing in annoyance she lands a branch over.
As long as Ryan stays in the trees he’s safe. The other two are stranded on the ground; I just need to get rid of her. Even if it means knocking her to the ground.
I narrow my gaze, muscles quivering with readiness.

“Missed,” I taunt.

The leopard releases an infuriated hiss before charging at me. I bound away. Branches and needles ripping and tearing at my pelt, we race through the trees, boughs bending and sighing under our weight before shuddering back into their place. Out of the corner of my eye I see Ryan nimbly moving from branch to branch—quite an improvement from the last time we’d climbed a tree, if you ask me. With her breath hot on my paws, and my strength beginning to whither, I know I need to throw her off soon.

When I leap again, instead of leaping for the next branch, I go down. The second my back paws touch the bough I whirl around, jamming my front paws into her face. She reels backward screeching while frantically trying to grasp another limb. Her left paw sticks to a branch, wrenching her body to a painful halt. I watch, panting with exhaustion, as she hauls herself back up. The leopard tilts her head up at me, her eyes deadly cold, holding a lethal threat. She bares her teeth before springing back up. My eyes widen with disbelief.

I shake my head and search for Ryan. I spot him crouching about fifteen feet away on the other side of a sizable gap in between two trees, holding a large stick. I blink once in his direction, hoping he understands that I know the plan. Ryan pulls back behind the tree trunk, practically invisible. I wait for the leopard to get closer before racing off. The space draws closer, but I wait until the very last branch before gathering my muscles and springing across the gap.

It feels like I’m flying. Like I’m a feather, weightless and free with the air gently buffeting my fur, encouraging me to soar forever. All too quickly my landing branch rears up in front of me. The minute all four feet touch, I’m bounding to the next branch, the left over spring tossing me back into the air. Like a flash of lightening I see Ryan then he’s gone. Landing, I spin around just in time to see the branch crack in two over the leopard’s chest while she’s in midair.

Glistening blood splashes onto leaves and bark, leaving a trail as she plummets toward the ground, caterwauling all the way. I cringe when I hear the sickening thud of her body hitting the ground.
Lissa.
I heavily sit on the limb, one leg on either side. After a few deep breaths I chance a look at the leopard’s body. Her head is jerked backward until it touches her spine, one leg looks snapped in half, hanging on by strands of blood-covered flesh, her tail is bent at an unnatural angle and blood spurts from her chest wound.

I swallow hard. The wolf and raptor sniff the leopard’s body, whispering in harsh voices. Then they look up at us. Their stare sends chills through my body. The raptor hisses to the wolf and they take off.

My shoulders slump with relief. After several minutes we quietly clamber down the tree and stand over her body.

“We’d better get out of here. They’ll be coming back soon,” Ryan says as he picks up his weapons.

I stare at the cat solemnly. I hate seeing such a beautiful creature so mangled. Cats have always been my favorite animal—they exhibit the kind of power and skills that deserve respect.

“I should probably stop here,” Shiver says.

Ryan and I stare at her, unsure of how to react.

“I heard you guys talking,” she continues. “And you’re probably right. You can’t focus all your energy on fighting if you’re constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure I’m okay.”

“We don’t want to leave you alone though,” I say.

“I’m not defenseless!” she exclaims spiritedly. “I was alone for some time, I’ll be fine. Just make sure you come back for me okay?” she adds quickly.

“Sure thing Shiver,” Ryan says.

I sit down so I can pull her into a hug. “We’ll come find you the minute this is over. Maybe you can head back the way we came? This place isn’t very safe.”

“Will do,” she says determinedly. “I can hide in the willow forest.”

I hug her one last time then stand up. Ryan sticks his hand out to me; I look in his eyes. They reflect my sadness. I slide my hand into his. A warm powerful feeling fills my heart as his fingers wrap around mine. My hand tingles and I feel safer than I have in years.

I thought I had seen everything and wouldn’t be surprised by any other odd features on this planet. I shake my head; I had been wrong—really wrong. In front of us lay a barren desert, which isn’t odd in itself. It’s what’s happening to the desert that’s astonishing. The sand is moving. Not just moving, rolling like waves in the ocean. Not an inch of sand is motionless—all of it is tossing up and crashing down. Waving up and down or side to side like a snake is slithering beneath it.

“Now, I’ve seen everything,” Ryan says with just as much incredulity as me.

“That’s what I thought . . . now I don’t think I’ll ever believe that again.”

“They’ll see us coming—from a mile away. We’ll be dead before we even have a chance.”

“Speak for yourself,” I joke.

“Right, I forgot you can fly.”

“I can carry you,” I offer.

“Thanks but last time you gave me a ride you dumped me on the ground. My neck was sore for almost two days.”

“It wasn’t on purpose!”

He raises an eyebrow. “U-huh.”

“I promise I’ll be more careful this time.”

“I’m sure you would be, but I’m capable of walking.”

“Alright then—”

We startle when an eagle overhead screeches. We race back under the cover of the pines before searching the pre-dawn sky. It’s clearly spotted us; we share a dismayed glance.

“Assuming it’s going to warn Xavier, I’d say we have less than ten minutes to get across. Depending on how close we are to their hideout.”

Ryan looks at me, a smile playing on his face. “Then we should run.”

Despite the absurdity of trying to run, I feel a smile creeping on my lips as well. We emerge from the trees, pausing at the periphery of the desert.

“Let's go,” I say but don’t move.

“Ladies first?”

“Uh-uh.”

Ryan steps onto the sand ocean. And disappears.

“Ryan!”

I stare at the place where he’d disappeared. There’s no point in calling his name, so I nervously chew the inside of my cheek. Well, better late than never. I spring as far onto the sandy ocean as I can. I’m immediately knocked off my feet. The sand rolls me around and around until a wave crashes over me. Seconds before I’m sucked under I gasp in a breath and squeeze my eyes shut. Sand fills my clothes, sloshes around in my ears and embeds itself in my nails as I desperately try to find my way up.