Hiding in Plain Sight

The city had treated her well in the fifteen years she had lived there. The rush of traffic, the multitudes of people, the abundance of work. These all helped her to hide here longer than usual. But her time was almost up there. She had stayed beyond her inwardly agreed apron time slot. Soon people would begin to notice her lack of ageing. Her alliances would be questioned and her species discovered. She had worked too hard to get away from all that for it to come to light all over again.

Blake sighed as she stared at the children playing in the park. All human, all carefree. So innocent. Their lives were untainted by the species war that ravaged the North. Unaffected by the Feline War in the South. Their lives were filled with colour, laughter and play. On a bench beside her sat an old man watching over his grandchildren as they played. She even envied him. He had survived into retirement, understood the secrets of survival into old age. He had a family, friends, lovers. People who cared about him and would miss him if he were to disappear or die. She had none of these. Even in her workplace, Blake made minimal contact with the people around her. She couldn't afford to have friends or anyone who cared about her. She couldn't afford to care about anyone. It would only make things hard when the time came to leave. More excuses to make, more sad goodbyes.

Whispers had reached her over the past few months of a rising colony of shifters a little ways west of the city. A few field trips out to the area seemed to substantiate the claims, though she hadn't seen the shifters herself. She didn't dare cross the border, nor even go very close to it. She was still wary of maintaining her anonymity. Her identity was precious. If it was known and fully understood, her life was forfeit. Both sides of the Feline War wanted her dead. She was - to the best of her knowledge - a bastard white lion. And there was no way she could test otherwise. Her father would kill her if he saw her again. There was no chance of getting a blood sample from him.

Blake hitched up the small bag on her back, holding her measly belongings. Small fingers tugged at her shirt, ensuring it covered the scars on her stomach. She looked around the park in this new city. The city so close to the shifters land. Behind her lay the forest that lead to their borders. She walked for two hours until instinct told her to stop. She was loathe to shift into her lion form, if she did it would be too obvious who she was. Her gentle voice raised against the wind, as loud as she could muster. "Hello? Is anyone there? I'm looking..." Her voice trailed off. What was she looking for? Maybe it was love, maybe it was safety. Maybe it was a place to stay. She didn't know entirely. But she would know it when she found it.

Sunlight filtered its way through the canopy to settle dappled on the trunks of great trees. There were numerous shafts of light all about her, lighting the forest. A beautiful white tiger stepped gracefully and very deliberately into one such shaft, stalking closer to the lioness. But beauty was not the thought at the forefront of her mind. The only word blake could comprehensively think, was Feline... Yes, this talking tiger was clearly a shifter as well. The one to greet her just had to be of the original race. Had to be of the same kind as those who tortured her. Though the only tigers she had known were coloured orange and black, this feline still struck fear into the Veterinarians heart. Blake stiffened, blue eyes never leaving the tigress' form. She wanted no trouble. Only to rejoin her people. But she had hoped the one to greet her would be a little more friendly.

She shivered and stammered in her fear. "M-miss if it is all the same to you, I'd rather not. But-but please don't see me as a threat. I will answer any questions you have to the best of my ability." Her eyes never met those of the tigress, she was very careful of that. Just in the other females stance she could see she was very high ranked. Could she be her new Queen even? Blake intended no offence, she wanted to make a good impression. But instinct and experience begged her to remain human. It was safer this way. No-one knew who she was. She was a single flame amidst a forest blaze, a breath of air in a stormy gale. Her dark hair fluttered in the summer breeze as it wafted earthen scents to her pale human nostrils. She was a strong woman in truth, but with this female she was cloaked in fear and the darkness of memory. The scars of her stomach tingled slightly as she remembered the order, placement and depth of each stab and slash that had marred her soft skin.

Discontent. Annoyance. Anger. Disgust. Each of these were clearly visible in the tigress' body language. In the curl of her tail, she sharpness of her eyes. Blake wanted no war, only peace. She had seen more than enough of war in her younger years. She was sick of fighting. Sick of death. Oh, she knew how to fight and how to kill, she knew how to mend those who were broken. War was a lucrative time for doctors. But to her mind, war was a fate far worse than death. It was a torture to rival even the most ancient and effective forms of mistreatment and oppression. War tore families apart - not just through death, but from worry. A mother would always worry for her children, wondering if they were coming home. Would the next person to knock on her door be a soldier with grave news? In the world of shifters, both men and women fought in battle, so the worry was worsened. You stood among your comrades, ready to fight for what your leader told you was right. You were a mindless soldier, following orders without question. But the emotions were still there. Would your sister walk off the battlefield this day, or be carried off on a litter? Would your friends be blown to bits in a bombing? Would your cousins be killed in their beds? So many possibilities, so many ways to die. But only one way to live.

Every fibre of her being screamed at her to run from the tiger. Still the memories raged through her. Endless beatings. The cold bite of a blade. The sharp pinch of a restraint. The cloying smell of the strange drugs they gave her. And no one came to rescue her for almost two years. Her father probably would have been glad if she had died. Her brother hadn't even expected to find her when he did. He got her out, but that was where their relationship ended. If Murtagh ordered him to kill the bastard daughter, Boromir would comply. She was almost certain of it. That was why she was here after all. For protection. to meet others of her own kind. To rehabilitate herself into the shifter life.

The other feline circled her, making Blake feel as though she were prey, soon to be the lady's meal. Blake's head followed it's movements, too afraid to let the creature out of her sight. Harsh words fell from the maw with the undertone of a growl to them. This woman was not happy. A Queen who does not care for her subjects? Or at least her future subordinates. This did not bode well for the dark haired woman. The words were all too familiar and she wondered if she had made the right choice in coming to this place. But you need their help, came that little voice from the back of her mind. Sometimes, so she felt a little less alone, she pretended the voice was that of her lion. It always seemed wiser than she and it helped guide her. Logic would always remind her that these thoughts were her own, not those of the animal within. That was impossible. But in reasoning, she remembered her teachers telling her that there was once a time when humans could not fathom shifting as a true occurrence, but only a figment of an authors imagination. Something to put into storybooks to make them more interesting. You take your personal issues out on those weaker than you? She wanted to question the womans ability to lead a clan.

But one word cut right into her soul. I am no coward. She wanted to scream. This tigress was infuriating. Blake wanted to find her old staff and take to beating at something, anything, even herself her frustration was so great. She would settle for whacking a tree so long as she got to get rid of this anger, frustration and excessive energy. Lids hovered over her blue eyes, shielding them from the world. Her nostrils tasted the sweet air around her, the cold cleansing her system. This felines vocabulary, or lack of was infuriating. Such words were not acceptable to the lioness. She remembered being told as a child, swearing denotes a lack of vocabulary. It's rude and unattractive. If only others felt the same. But her time for thought was over. The tigress was threatening to leave and with her, the only chance for true safety Blake had ever encountered. "Wait!" She called. "Please, I want to join your clan. But if I shift for you, can you promise that you won't judge me?" She gave pause, enough to allow the other to speak if she wished. Then the change occurred. Quick and effortless the sweet-looking female turned into a predator of cunning and strength. The white lioness stood in the woods, her tail flicking easily behind her. Things always seemed clearer, less difficult in this form. Each time she shifted she found herself wondering why she spent so much time human. But the lioness knew it was for safety's sake. She wished she hadn't been forced to shift like this, but it was the only way she might gain even the measliest bit of standing in this terrible womans eyes.