Kaylene walked into the cabin, set everything down on the counter, and slowly began to panic about what was about to happen. They hadn’t ran together since the last time they saw each other. She didn’t exactly consider their little accidental shift when she had first arrived up here as running together. She could feel her owl scratching at the back of her mind, begging to be let out.

Kaylene frowned to herself. She knew she hadn’t been fair to her owl the past couple of years. Up until the other night, Kaylene’s owl hadn’t seen the sky since right after she had come home after she ended things with Landon. When Kaylene would shift, her owl would fly to wherever Landon was. Sometimes she would be gone for days on end because of how far she would have to travel. Kaylene the human knew that it wasn’t good for them to see him, but Kaylene the owl only felt the need to see her mate, to be near him.

It only took three times of that nonsense for her parents to alter their agreement with her. They started making her shift indoors. No skies, no way to get to Landon. After she left their home, she had tried to go confront Landon and explain everything to him but she cowered instead. Ever since then, she had continued to allow herself to shift indoors but never outside. Not even when she had been up at the prison with all of that wide open space.

Kaylene felt a twinge in her heart. She knew she had been hurting her owl all of this time, keeping her locked away from the world, but she couldn’t help it. She had tried her best to stay away from Landon. Maybe now was time to wipe the slate clean, for his sake and for hers. Running a hand over the silver mark on her shoulder, Kaylene could hear Landon’s footsteps as he entered her cabin.

“Are you coming?” Landon asked, hesitating by the door,

Quickly, Kaylene stuffed her hand into her pocket as though she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t. “Yeah. Let’s get going, shall we?”

Landon nodded and headed back towards the porch. “Well c’mon then, slowpoke. We’re losing moonlight.”

Kaylene followed him out the door, pulling it shut behind her. They fell into stride together quickly and headed around the backside of the cabins. Together they climbed the hillside in silence, neither one certain of what to say to the other. Once they reached what Kaylene assumed was the designated spot, she watched as Landon kicked his clothes off.

“Aren’t you going to take your clothes off?” Landon asked, voice laced with confusion.

“Once you’ve shifted, I will,” Kaylene said uncomfortably.

Landon canted his head and said, “It’s nothing I haven’t seen before, Kaylene. I promise I’ll be respectful.”

“Can you please just shift first?” Kaylene practically pleaded with him.

Landon paused for a moment, trying to understand what on Earth had her wound so tightly, then nodded. Kaylene watched as her shifted from man to beast. He had always been a sight to behold, with his bright white fur and blue eyes that stood out. His panther was rare. There were only three other albino panther shifters in existence that they knew of. Once Landon had turned away from her and leaned back on his haunches, Kaylene quickly undressed and gave her body over to her owl. The gold and white feathers grew quickly from her currently naked flesh, and after a moment, her barn owl stood where a woman had previously been.

Stretching out her wings, Kaylene felt her feathers fluff up as she pushed her wingspan out to its full capacity. Giving a little shiver, she felt her feathers smooth out and she looked around for Landon. Once she found him perched in the same location as he had been a moment ago, she gently hooted at him signalling she was ready to go.

She watched as the panther’s muscles tensed then pushed off into the distance at a run. Pushing off of the ground with her taloned feet, Kaylene felt the air under her wings lift her upwards as she flapped them hard to get off of the ground. Getting up to the height at the base of the tree line where she could still see Landon’s panther running in front of her, she decided this was high enough for now.

Getting caught up to Landon was easy enough, as Kaylene had always been quick with her wings. A memory flashed through Kaylene’s mind, reminding her of how fun their runs together used to be. Letting out a cry of excitement, Kaylene felt the breeze brush against her feathers before diving down at Landon and wrapping her talons around his tail, giving it a playful tug. Landon’s panther jerked to the side and they made eye contact as he cast a glance over his shoulder at her. Kaylene could see the humor in his eyes. Flying back up then diving down again, this time Kaylene grabbed at his scruff.

Enjoying the way that this moment was feeling, Kaylene cast her eyes up at the night’s sky. The stars were beginning to shine down from the heavens, and Kaylene wanted nothing more that to fly up and touch them. Once they reached a clearing at the top of the mountain, Kaylene watched as Landon moved towards the tiny waterfall at the edge. Deciding to give him a moment, she flew up higher and higher, feeling the air cool around her the higher she got. Inhaling the crisp mountain air, Kaylene closed her eyes and tucked her wings in tightly, allowing herself to freefall for a moment. As she neared the ground, she spread her wings out like a parachute and soared downwards before pushing off of the ground to become skyward again.

She had missed this so much. The wind in her feathers, the night’s sky, the way she felt so alive when she and her owl were in sync. It had been far too long since she had given her owl this kind of freedom.

Tucking her wings in again, Kaylene began to freefall again but a split second after she had tucked in her wings, she felt a searing hot spike through her back. Eyes flying open, Kaylene tried to spread her wings, but they flapped lazily at her sides. She could see Landon stalking something on the other side of the clearing and she shrieked out in terror at him. Her vision began to blur, and the last thing she heard before everything went dark was Landon’s battle cry.