Chapter 8
Tina changed to her wolf form and dashed out of the cave as fast as her paws could carry her. She heard screaming and crashing all around her. The ground seemed to be melting; nothing felt solid or safe. Everything seemed to be liquefying and crumbling all at once. The voices behind her made her panic even more.
“I can’t move!”
“Harper! Harper? Where are you? Someone help me find her!”
“Tina!”
She stopped right at the entrance as birds, wild cats, and fellow wolves bounded past her. Sam flew by in human form so fast that he was a blur. Grimacing, Tina turned back to run against the crowd and toward Harper’s voice.
Different animals and humans kept getting in her way and screamed for her to move. Above all the shaking and chastising, she could hear a desperate human cry coming from deeper inside the cave. Tina ducked to the left as a spire slammed down into the ground just beside her. She looked up to see that more were shaking loose and sped up.
Another spire landed in front of her, then another just barely grazed her tail. She ran in a straight shot into the party entrance and was staggered by what she saw.
The whole cave seemed to have been turned inside out. The roof had fallen in big pieces, and what had been a nice, wide entrance before, was now just a small crawl space leading through the rubble. Wolf Tina hunched low and crawled through it. There, on the other side, was Harper lying on the ground and screaming in pain. The Earth stopped shaking, and Tina approached her gently.
Tina ran over to her and smelled blood right away. Harper was alive, but she was trapped. A piece of rock had fallen on top of her leg, trapping her and breaking the bone. Her other leg was scraped up pretty badly, but otherwise fine. Tina looked around for any kind of help, but didn’t see anyone. She licked Harper’s face and quickly ran out. She needed a bear.
As she ran, she heard Harper screaming after her. Tina started to slow down, but the shaking started again with tiny tremors and sent her out of the cave.
Outside, in the settlement, everyone was back home and nursing their wounds. She knew her mother would be worried, but she didn’t know what to do. If she went home to console her mom, it would be more time alone and injured for Harper. If she went straight there, she could possibly save her. What she would do with the injured president’s daughter she didn’t know, but she would worry about that later.
She found Sam and quickly ran up to him. “Sam! Come with me!” She didn’t wait for a response as she dashed back toward the cave. She glanced back over her shoulder to see him standing and considering, so she ran up again and grasped his hand in her mouth to pull him along with her.
“It’s her, isn’t it?”
“Yes! She’s trapped!”
Sam sighed and transformed. Together, the wolf and the bear ran at full speed back to the cave, leaving the safety and the warmth of home behind them.
The additional shaking had made the entrance even smaller, but Sam made short work of the blockages, pulling rocks out of the way as if they were weightless. Tina waited outside as he cleared a path and then called for her to follow him.
Inside, there was now total destruction. The cave had gone from a strong, arched structure to a messy collection of broken spires, boulders, and a cracked floor all around her. Some of the boulders had blood stains on them, but she couldn’t smell any dead bodies. There was a different smell in the air, but Tina couldn’t place it. She’d never encountered this scent before and didn’t know what it meant. It wasn’t from the shifters, and it wasn’t anything organic in any way; this smell was something manufactured and clearly dangerous.
Slowly, the pair made their way back to where Harper was trapped.
“Harper! Can you hear me?”
A long silence followed the question. Finally, they heard a soft groan in the distance.
“That’s her! Sam, hurry.”
Sam got the former party entrance cleared little by little, and soon Tina was able to dart through. She ran on top of a field of broken, jagged rocks with one giant piece of stone on top. Tina spun in every direction as she desperately looked for Harper, but she was nowhere to be found.
“Sam! Help me!”
Her friend started to enter the room, then held back. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
From below Tina’s paws, she heard, “I’m here. I’m underneath you.”
Quickly, Sam began moving some rocks away from the edge of the room, but this just shifted some of the rocks around and threatened to smash Harper as she lay pinned down under a massive slab of stone. They froze; how would they get her out of there?
“Tina,” Sam said with a serious face, “move out of the room.”
She quickly scampered back and watched Sam as he gingerly stepped on the rocks. “Harper,” he called down, “can you hear me?”
“Yes. And I see your foot. It’s right by my left hand.”
Sam eased a boulder up to find a small space created by smaller rocks holding up the larger main slab. He sighed. This was going to take all his strength.
“Harper,” he said calmly, “I’m going to lift this big slab off of you. Can you move at all?”
“No. My leg is broken.”
The two shifters looked at one another – would they even be able to get her out? Tina considered running back for more help, but just as she turned around she saw a little shadow moving. She watched as it approached and froze as she saw the animal walking in. It was a fossa.
The fossa was almost a cat; it had the shell-shaped ears and snub nose of a panther or leopard, but the claws on its feet were just a little too long as the fossa’s movements were more liquid and less predictable than a cat. The creature lowered its head and made eye contact with Tina, assuring her that she was there to help, and Tina gave her a nod of respect. The two approached one another and nuzzled for a brief moment, then ran up to Sam.
“Alright, you two,” he said solemnly. “Here’s the plan. I lift this big slab. The two of you get that boulder off of Harper. Shift as fast as you can and get right under it. You don’t have to lift it all the way up, just enough to get her out. The three of us will carry her out to safety. Ready?”
The two nodded and moved back, giving Sam some space. Using all his strength, he pushed up one edge of the slab until Harper’s head was visible underneath.
Tina and Larissa shifted quickly and jumped down to the edge of the boulder that had broken Harper’s leg. The two went into a deep squat and counted together.
“One…two…three!” The two girls were strong, but the rock didn’t budge. They looked at one another and each saw the same thing – a friend in full panic.
“We have to try again,” Tina insisted. “Sam, don’t lower that rock.”
“Hurry!”
“Okay, once more. One, two, go!” Now aware of the rock’s force, the two friends doubled their efforts and desperately pushed the boulder. It moved. Not far, but Harper was able to shift to the side just far enough that she was able to pull hard on Tina’s ankle. The leverage gave her a few more inches, and she quickly rolled toward her friends just as the boulder dropped out of their hands and grazed her ankle.
They helped her stand and put an arm around each of their shoulders, then carried her out. Her leg was completely smashed and hung limply in the air. As they moved away, Sam let the rock slab crash into the ground. He joined them, still in bear form and very sweaty.
“Put her on my back. You girls walk behind us.” He lay on the rocks, and Larissa and Tina gingerly placed Harper – broken leg and all – face down on Sam’s back. She grabbed his fur tightly and let out a little cry of surprise as he stood. He ambled out of the cave slowly with the two girls close by in case Harper began to slip.
Together, they made their way out and down. Sam took slow, heavy steps. His efforts inside the cave had left him exhausted, but, otherwise, he was fine. The group moved along the path back home quietly, no one wanting to say out loud what an injured First Daughter would actually mean. They were all sure that their settlement would be crawling with law enforcers in no time, but what could they do? If they turned Harper in, they would all be killed for helping her get away and hiding her. If they hid her, their homes would be ransacked, and they would be beaten publicly and possibly jailed.
Larissa exchanged a glance with Tina, then quickly shifted and ran off. The group stopped a moment to watch her as she tore off and into the dawn.
“Where’s she going?”
Tina shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. But you know how secretive she can be. It’s usually better not to ask.”
Sam nodded and continued. “Are we going to your house? The palace? Help me out here.”
“Please don’t take me to the palace.” Both Sam and Tina looked at Harper, who they realized was crying into Sam’s fur. “He’ll kill me. I mean, he’ll actually kill me. If he ever finds out where I was and why…”
Tina reached out to Harper’s hand and held it for a moment. “Don’t worry, Harper. We’ll keep you safe.”
“We?” Sam looked at her and shook his head. “Sorry, Tina, but you’re on your own from here on out. I can’t be harboring a president’s daughter. I’m all my father has left. If I get thrown in a labor camp or a jail, he’ll fall apart.”
Tina did a double-take at her friend. “Your dad? What are you talking about? Your dad is young and strong. He has a job. He’s one of the toughest shifters I know.”
Sam clucked and sighed as he studied the ground. “You don’t know the whole story, Tina.” He adjusted his shoulders, and a floppy Harper flowed with the movement. “Look, I’ll take her to your house, but on the condition that you don’t name me if you get caught. Alright?”
Harper turned her head to look at Tina with a tear-stained face. Tina raised her eyebrows at her friend – are we doing this? The human of the trio considered the idea, then nodded her head. Yes.
“Okay, Sam. Let’s get to my place. Then you can forget all about this night.”
“Deal.” He wandered to the edge of the settlement and looked in both directions. The party the night before had the younger shifters in bed with hangovers. Parents were probably gathered at a random house, possibly Tina’s, but they had to risk it. The three quietly walked along the edge of the settlement, winding their way between the spaces of the structures, pausing every three of four houses to listen for other shifters. No sign of anyone. They were just a few minutes away from Tina’s place, when they came upon Larissa back in human form.
“Hi.”
In true Larissa style, she was waiting in the shadows, not moving. Even as she spoke, she stayed camouflaged by darkness. She stepped forward, sweaty and tired-looking. She glanced up at Harper.
“How’s our patient?”
“Broken.” Tina reached up and took Harper’s hand. Harper didn’t return the gesture; she’d passed out from the pain. “We have to get her inside.”
Sam looked at Larissa. He leaned forward and smelled her with his big, wet nose. “Where did you go?”
“To make sure no one comes here to look for Harper. I’m not watching shifters get beaten up again.” She stopped there, seeing no reason to explain further. She stepped in front of the group to lead the way, looking back over her shoulder. “It’s fine. Just forget it and follow me.” Sam exchanged a glance with Tina, exasperating Larissa even more. “Come on. Let’s go!”
They all followed her, no questions asked, and ducked into Tina’s house. There, her mother was fast asleep. Larissa helped Tina slide Harper off of Sam’s back and into Tina’s bed.
“Where will you sleep?” Larissa looked all around the house her father had helped Tina and her mother build so many years ago. It was big and well-made, but contained almost no furniture.
“I’m comfortable on the floor. Don’t worry.” She picked up an old blanket and spread it on the floor. Sam shifted back into human form and shook his boy head at them.
“You girls are insane. You should take her home.”
“She can’t go home,” Tina hissed. “You heard her. Her father is crazy. He’ll literally murder her.”
Sam looked at Harper with her dirty hair and skin, blood-stained clothes, and pale face. Despite it all, she still looked like a royal compared to the rest of them. “No father would ever kill his own daughter. Not even Bachmann is that evil.”
“Yes, he is.” Tina’s head whipped around to look at Larissa, and Sam’s eyes went wide with anger. He took a shuddering breath, made a fist, and then put it down.
“Fine.” He looked at each of them and turned to go. At the door, he stopped to turn back around and said, “I don’t know anything about this, got it? I don’t know you two, I have no idea she’s here. I wasn’t at any party. If you say anything different, well…” He gritted his teeth and stormed out.
Tina watched him go, while Larissa sat quietly on the bed with Harper. “What’s it like in the palace?”
“What? I mean, what do you want to know?”
Larissa shrugged and smiled as if she were having a great time. “What do you do all day?”
“I don’t know,” Harper looked at her smashed leg and started to cry silently. Through the tears, she whispered, “I can’t talk right now, okay?”
“Oh, your leg? Don’t worry.” Larissa stood and shifted again and walked up to Harper’s face. Harper reached out to touch her head, and Tina watched in a state of shock as Larissa allowed herself to be petted on the head. She had never seen her friend allow anyone to touch her before. It was one of the reasons none of the shifters trusted her.
Larissa moved down to Harper’s leg and gently pressed her wide, flat nose to the top of the broken bone. She breathed evenly and let out a low, steady purr. Harper tensed up at the beginning of the purring, yanking her blanket up to her chest as if for protection. After a few minutes, she relaxed and even laid back a bit on the old, foam mattress Tina used as a pillow. Harper’s eyes closed, and soon she was asleep.
Allowing herself to breathe a moment, Tina arranged a little pile of foam scraps into a makeshift bed and pillow. She quietly slipped one of her mother’s homemade rag blankets off the bed and threw it over her little nest and let out a big yawn.
“Hey, doc,” she whispered to Larissa, “I gotta sleep. You can stay here if you want.”
The fossa didn’t respond, just focused on her task. Purring was a favorite medicine in The Hills; the vibrations sped up the healing process and helped ease the pain of anyone who was injured or ill. Tina had been the recipient of many purrings, but she rarely got injured or was sick anymore. She laid down on her messy pile of a bed and rested her head on the lumpy pillow.
As she lay on the floor, she took in the scene of her shifter friend helping her human friend. From her point of view, the fossa and the First Daughter were sideways. Harper slept, while Larissa focused with her eyes closed. The purring was so powerful that it floated across the room to Tina and vibrated inside her head. She imagined Harper’s bones gently fusing back together. Would she be able to walk after this accident? Surely, the president would spare no expense to help his daughter get well once they got her back to him.
Of course, she had no idea how to do such a thing. Tina drifted off to sleep with heavy eyelids shutting out the world. It was already almost dawn, the light was grey and ominous, and the air smelled like smoke.
When Tina woke, she was greeted with the sight of Harper chatting with her mother. Tina shot up out of bed, making both of them jump.
“Mom! What, ah, what’s going on? What are you two talking about?”
“Honey,” her mom smiled, “why didn’t you tell me about your friend Evelyn? She’s lovely.”
Tina paused. Was her mother so unfamiliar with the presidential family that she didn’t recognize Harper? She watched her mom closely; she appeared to be sincere. Slowly, Tina nodded.
“Yeah, Evie’s the best. Did she tell you about her leg?”
Harper jumped in. “Yup, that earthquake got me good. Lucky for me, Larissa was able to help out. Thanks so much for breakfast, Ms. Traxson.”
“You can call me Faye,” she corrected her as she gave Harper’s face a motherly pat. “Well, girls,” she sighed, “I’m afraid duty calls. I have to get to my little fry stand. Will you girls be alright on your own?”
They both smiled and nodded. Faye stood and stretched, then put her hands on the ground and stretched her spine up to the sky. “Whoo. Not as limber as I used to be. Ah, well.” She stood and waved to her daughter and guest. “See you later.”
“See you.”
“Have a good day, Mom.”
Both girls sat silently and waited until Faye was completely out of sight. Then Tina jumped up and ran over to Harper’s bed. “Okay, fill me in. What story did you give her?”
“Same one you told the guys last night. I’m new, no one knows me, and my name is Evelyn. I kept it vague.”
“Okay,” Tina nodded, “okay. We just have to get you well. How’s your leg?”
Harper threw the blanket off of her and Tina gasped in shock. What had been a crushed, useless limb the night before, had been upgraded to a swollen, bruised leg. It wasn’t completely healed, but the progress was undeniable.
“I had no idea purring was so effective.”
“It’s an old cure that shifters have used for a long time,” Tina said, leaning down to smell Harper’s leg. Her friend raised her eyebrows as Tina sniffed her. “What are you doing?”
“Checking for infection. If you have one, you’ll lose this leg entirely.”
The thought of an amputation made Harper turn as pale as the sheets beneath her. “Do you think it will have to come off?”
Tina took one last, long sniff. “I don’t smell anything odd. Infections are usually easy to spot.” She stood and gave Harper a tired smile. “I hate to do this to you, but I have school today.”
Harper cocked her head. “You go to school?”
“Yeah, every day. You didn’t know shifters were educated?”
The First Daughter blinked at her friend, her mouth open as she processed this new information. “You know, I guess I just assumed you weren’t. Is that horrible of me?”
Tina got very quiet. The myths around shifters were a topic the two friends didn’t normally broach, but Tina suddenly wanted to know all about the human view. “What else do humans believe about us?”
Harper bit her lip. “I don’t want to say.”
“Come on. I’m just curious.”
She paused a moment, then offered, “They think you’re savages. That you have no order to your life. Like, you all hulk around, grunting. That sort of thing.”
“How could anyone say that? There are shifters that work in the palace!”
Harper shrugged. “They’re rarely allowed to speak. And when they do, it’s just to say, Yes, Mr. President. No one asks them about their lives or their families. They’re too busy gossiping about all of you.”
Tina nodded. She hugged herself tightly and looked out the door. She thought she saw someone duck out of view, but when she stood up for a better view, there was no one. She turned back to her injured friend.
“I better go. Do your best to stay out of sight. I’ll come back as soon as class is over, and I’ll bring Larissa with me.”
“Don’t worry. I’m just gonna sleep.” Harper pulled the blankets up to her neck to keep off the morning chill. “I don’t know how you can go to school,” she yawned. “I’m exhausted.”
“Me too.”
By the time Tina was dressed, combed, and ready, Harper was fast asleep on her bed. She looked so comfortable and peaceful that Tina had to look away. A deep, restful sleep suddenly seemed like a very rare commodity that the wolf shifter wouldn’t see again for a long while.
In school, Tina kept an eye on the room. Several people were missing – all people who had been at the party. The absence she noticed right away was Black Feather’s, and it instantly made her uneasy. She asked some friends if he was okay, but no one wanted to speak to her. Great. She focused her attention forward on the teacher who was breaking down cold-blooded amphibians and their biology for the group.
When it came to time to work in a group, she managed to squeeze her way into one but only because they were a couple of people short. Everyone in the group glowered at her silently as she tried to break the tension.
“So, frogs. It’s nice to finally learn about my favorite snack.”
Silence.
“Any of you big on jumping? It’s a favorite of mine. I’ve been over some pretty intense crevasses; they’re the best. What’s the furthest you’ve jumped?”
No response.
“Fine, let’s just do the assignment.” She picked up a stick and started drawing. When she looked up again, she was shocked to see that Larissa had joined them.
“Geez, girl! You gave me a heart attack.”
Larissa didn’t apologize, rather just smiled with her lips sealed. She looked down at the frog drawing in the dirt.
“You’ve got the spleen in the wrong spot,” she said, pointing to the little oval-shaped organ. “It goes under the large intestine right here.” She held her hand out for the stick, and Tina handed it over.
“Hey,” the guy sitting with them said with a scowl on his face. “You weren’t even here for the lesson. What do you know about frogs?”
Larissa calmly and expertly added a perfectly drawn spleen to the illustration. “More than all of you, apparently.” She sat back to admire her work and was shocked when the boy’s hand shot out to erase the perfectly done drawing.
“What’d you do that for?”
He stood. “I don’t let freaks tell me what I know and what I don’t know.” He kicked the dirt, spraying it on Tina’s outfit. “And I sure as heck don’t hang out with traitors.” He stormed out, his younger sister tailing behind him.
“Wow,” Tina said, brushing the dirt off of her clothes. “Touchy.”
“They’re wild boars,” Larissa assured her, repairing their school work. “Boars are infamously moody.” The two quickly redid the frog anatomy and the teacher – a snake shifter – wandered over.
“Very nice, ladies.” She took in Tina’s messy clothes and tsked at her. “Miss Traxon, what did you do to yourself?”
“The boars got angry with me and kicked some dirt my way,” she explained, but there was no anger in her voice. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about it.”
The teacher’s eyes narrowed, but she moved on. Larissa shook her head at her short-sighted friend. “You tell the truth too much, little wolf.”
“Like she even cares. No snake is going to stand up to two moody boars.”
“You forget,” Larissa said, finishing the details on the digestive system, “snakes have big teeth and plenty of venom. Don’t count them out just because they don’t have legs.”
The two finished their drawing and quietly left the schoolroom before the teacher could wander back. They walked casually through the compound despite their intense panic. Seeing the anger in the boars’ faces had been a nasty call to reality. They were harboring a very valuable human in the one place she was absolutely not allowed to be in. Larissa touched Tina’s back and said softly, “Don’t worry about Bachmann. He has no idea.”
“No idea about what?”
Both girls spun around to see Black Feather standing right behind them with a big smile on his face.
“Black Feather. What is with you snooping around lately? You’re such a creep.”
“Hey,” he said, feigning emotional pain, “I’m not snooping. I’m honestly curious.”
“Well, you can stay curious,” Larissa informed him. “I don’t share information with flyers.”
Black Feather let out a little scoff and acted as nonchalant as he could, but Tina noticed he was taking in Larissa’s body with fleeting glances. Wasn’t he all over Harper the night before?
“Listen, Black,” she said, “about last night–”
“The kidnapping?” Both Tina and Black Feather turned to Larissa in confusion.
“The what?”
“You know,” she continued with a placid face, “the kidnapping of Harper, the First Daughter. Apparently someone grabbed her and ran out as the earthquake ended. Law enforcement is looking for her now.”
Black Feather staggered a bit at the news. “Oh, wow. That’s...ah…big news.”
Larissa nodded. “It was on the radio this morning. The whole city is up in arms.”
Tina stood with her mouth open as Larissa gave a few details about clues that had been found in Harper’s abandoned car – some note that had been found torn in half, a lost shoe, that sort of thing. Black Feather seemed truly upset; he pressed his lips together, and his face turned an odd shade of red as he listened.
“Hey,” he jumped in, “I better get home.” He took one final look at Larissa, a gesture that made Tina sigh with boredom. Why were boys so predictable? The look did nothing to wipe away his concern, so he just turned and left. The two friends resumed their walk home.
“Did you see that?”
“When he was looking at me? Of course I saw it.”
Tina studied Larissa’s enigmatic face. “It doesn’t bother you?”
“Of course it does,” she answered without looking at Tina. “But right now, my gorgeous figure can be a distraction that works in our favor. If that’s what’s happening, I think it’s worth a quick discomfort.”
“Oh, your figure is gorgeous now?”
Larissa smiled. “Of course. I’m the most beautiful woman in the world.” As soon as she said it, she sped off at a full sprint. Tina decided to just let her run. From the back, she couldn’t help but notice that Larissa looked just like a young boy as she sped along the dirt-covered landscape. She trusted her friend would be back shortly and turned into her own front door to check on her broken friend. She hoped Harper had gotten a nice rest and that nothing would stand in the way of getting her home.