Gunfire started slowly at first, then picked up in intensity. It felt like that night in the woods all over again. Could nothing be done without firearms? Were humans so weak that they had no other options? There wasn't just one source either. A male voice shouted demands on a loudspeaker.

The two Order members were still unconscious in the hallway. I stepped over them and toward Rachel's cell.

Inside was lined with salt. It sat crystallized upon the walls, spaces between bars, and pouches hung down from the ceiling. The floors too were dusted. Rachel was huddled on the cot. A look of worry had been locked on her frozen face.

I took off my shirt and started brushing away salt to create a path from the doorway to her cot. Lifting her should be easy while my strength held. Once it came time to pay my debt of power I would pass out for sure.

My head shook away weariness. We all needed to get to safety first. The large grandfather had limped down the hallway and was looking inside Rachel's cell with a worried face.

"Salt's bad right?" I asked.

"Yes," his single word was more of an affirmative grunt.

"Does she react like wolves? If she touches this?" Wolves would welt from an allergic reaction. Their healing slowed down and reactions dulled.

"Worse," he said more than just the one word but they were garbled.

I checked our surroundings again. Senses slipped loose to capture every possible sensation around me. Having members of my family, however strange we were to each other right now, helped immensely. They were mine, found and claimed.

White Lady stalks pink meat. Screaming in pulses now. Her cold leeching energy passes through air and walls. Shouts in direction. Pink Meat heartbeat ceases and body stands frozen. More than one has fallen. Corpses weigh upon ground.

That was not good. She was killing them and Daniel would have my head. Could I stop her, though? Did I have a right? These people had locked up a creature and kept her caged. If Tal's condition was anything to compare to then they deserved equal measure. In a sense, this qualified as justified vengeance, an eye for an eye.

Mountain Elder breathing ragged and strained. Wheeze a tiny barely felt thing. He is prideful. Den Mother warm but immobile. Incomplete Servant lays in woods.

We needed to leave now. I slipped a shoulder under Rachel’s form and hefted her into a carry. Her body wasn't completely solid. It sagged around me as we wove away from a salt littered floor. By the time we made it to the front door Rachel's body had curled around my neck, arms and legs over each shoulder.

There was a short two hundred feet to the fence. From there we could run to the car Roy sat in. Evan, Incomplete Servant, whatever, was another half mile into the woods. Could I carry Rachel that far? What about Tal?

"Is there a plan?" Tal was sneaky for a half crippled guy.

"Don't know. Get out, go right. Head down. Hope no one fires at us," the words slipped out in my other voice. I wasn't a plan man and never had been. We were in a step up or die situation.

"It's something."

"Your leg? Gut wound? Will you make it?" My mind refused to get in line, and I didn’t care.

"Flesh wounds. I will make it." Pure grit kept his words firm, but his body felt like a train in the process of derailing.

"I hear ladies dig scars." I channeled Steven's one track mind.

"I told you, son, girls worth keeping love battle scars."

Hell, Tal had gone delirious. His head drooped down slightly and kept being pulled back up by sheer will. He was barely keeping his face from showing just how bad the damage was. The connection to Evan was pulled again. Maybe he'd feel my urgency.

Woods and trees full of spotty energy. Life’s marker waves to and fro. Nearby the dark spots of a White Lady’s venting anger hang. Her cries underlay with fear.

Servant waits with back huddling against tree. His hands press into bark and tremors radiate.

"You have to tell him!" the Last Chief yells.

"The Lord is not calling me! He is not..." Incomplete Servant's words suddenly halt as his eyes widen. He feels my focus and senses the pressure.

"Tell him! Run this way! There's a small path out. An escape left by the Hunter!"

"I do not..."

Focus spins away as angry noise buries everything. The tone vibrates all matter. Head shaking does not help. Those who wait do not dare come close.

"That way. Straight through there. Roy's waiting with the two new warriors," I said to Tal. The word warrior rolling off my tongue made me pause.

"Does he come for us?"

"Maybe."

I didn't know if Roy would finally break rank and charge in. We didn't have a choice either way. Eddy said there were explosives beneath our little prison block. Staying here was suicide, and that wasn't accounting for the bullets being fired, or the specter out hunting down people and stilling their heartbeat.

This was worse than the Brawl at Bottom Pit. There were too many people moving around and it felt even worse than trying to watch an entire household at Kahina's. Too many different motions went by and none of these people were on my side. I would heft Rachel through the woods. Tal thought he could keep up.

I kicked open the door and waited two seconds. No one seemed close but double checking was prudent. Tal stood behind me with labored breathing.

"I can try to carry you both." If my fists could cave in the walls than perhaps lifting two people would be within reason.

"I have my pride."

"Fine. Follow me. If you fall, keep low." Maybe I could knock the old man out then carry him. He would probably dodge out of reflex and land his ass on the floor.

"Son, you won’t see me fall," Tal said with far more rigid words. He was struggling to be understood.

I was going to outright run Rachel to the exit, hand her to Roy, then get back. Worrying about his ability to keep up caused me to hesitate. Each time my thoughts did a double take we grew seconds closer to explosions. The world was spinning and I could almost feel where the explosives were.

Dawn’s sun looms upon the horizon. Den Mother grows limp and less rigid.

She wouldn't wake up in time to run herself back. Even if she did the woman would be so confused that it'd be worthless. I managed to run to the fence and looked for an exit. My senses picked up the pathway opened a few panels down.

Heavy blades cut air. Whirl in circle. Air carries too many tones. Screams. Man machines. Small bullets and Pink Meat vehicles abound, with their rubber grating against gravel.

It sounded and felt like the heavy artillery had arrived. The human government had brought in choppers and armored cars. Their weight felt distinctive against the tapestry of our battlefield.

Mountain Elder limps along but still stands. Last Chief waits ahead with feet pressing into damp boots. I run through woods quickly and nearly fly. Breath works in perfect unison with each stride.

I had to be quick. Whatever was left of the Order wasn't going down easily and had decided to fight like mad by having a shootout with federal authorities. The feds, for their part, weren't firing back as much. I had been around this compound once. The Order had enough bullets to last until doomsday, and maybe a few hours beyond.

In maybe thirty minutes, just after sunrise, the government might have been in place to infiltrate and takedown. Shock, awe, tear gas, all that stuff went off. The whole show had started early because of my breakout and the White Lady. Even now she was stalking through the ranks, both sides, picking off people without regard.

A quick two-minute mile later and I stood next to Roy, huffing.

"James," Roy didn’t sound surprised. I had no time to be stunned myself. The family all held long pole arms in their hands with sharp tips that glinted in the darkness. Evan sat huddled against a tree, looking as bad as Tal had, but for different reasons.

Mountain Elder stumbles. Feel White Lady’s energy shift toward him.

The sudden change in her movement made my back twitch with horror. Both eyes went wide and I turned about, dropping Rachel off with a rude clunk onto the ground. The old man was in danger.

Paws tear into ground sending dirt clumps away. Large furry White Wolf goes pounding by me. Form familiar from our fight moons ago.

Other connections hit me. The old white wolf that always hung around with Tal, Senior I think, was Holland from Bottom Pit. Had everyone really followed me? Even the waitresses, they were the cheerleading section of our evening practices. Cliff and his mother.

Holland made better time than I could. Wolves, strong ones, could do a mile a minute until their burst of energy drained. Holland had been a fighter so he might be better than average. Attacking the Order compound as a wolf sounded dangerous.

Tal was getting closer to the exit. I could feel him trying to get back onto both feet refusing to crawl. Evan was protesting about something behind us. Roy's solid frame had started covering distance as well.

I was almost neck and neck with Holland. He was agiler getting around the trees, and I was half out of focus, trying to let my senses guide each movement in order to find that place Roy had tried to bring me back to. The fights, the suggestions, ideas of ownership were all designed to keep me from being completely submerged. Tal was my family. If nothing else, I owed him for helping me down in The Pit. My attempt to focus only on Tal's connection started paying off as another path through came to mind.

Pulse hammers as Mountain Elder sputters. His feet kick and indistinct words pour forth in grunts. His face bleeds. Ground grows slippery beneath Mountain Elder's body and the White Lady’s chill approaches.

Something was happening, and I wasn't fast enough. My senses found a path upward, from one branch to another. Each one used to get me higher and higher. I bounded off one trunk and flew to another tree then barely touched down before shoving off to get even higher, like a panther, elf, or monster on the hunt.

Finally, there was nothing left to jump up to. I didn't hesitate or lose momentum but instead leapt off the highest point at least fifty feet in the air. My heart drummed calmly, air all around as landscape passed below. There I hung for a few blissfully exhilarating seconds.

Freedom.

Tal's cord, that connection to his body, had grown weaker to the point of numbness. He was dying. As I descended the anger returned. The transformation of emotions left me mentally unbalanced.

I landed, rolling over twice with my shoulders and head tucked in. That was a maneuver that would have never happened without letting instinct take over. I didn't have time to contemplate the situation.

Mountain Elder is close enough to see. Large Son of the Mountain lies upon the ground with both arms clutching his chest. The beat sputters. White Lady stands near venting anger as abyssal eyes stare down.

I roar back in a challenge with my own anger. She dares to hurt what’s mine and repays kindness with treachery. Will end her.

The first premonition of catastrophe had been setting the White Lady free from her cell. That scene alone had told me things would be grim. Feeling her stalk around the camp, killing people one at a time was just the interlude. Now this? Tal? It was like watching a train wreck in action. I barreled toward her.

White Wolf runs by half shifted. Fur ripples in air and tears at a still healing wound. He hunches over Mountain Elder then White Wolf’s head swerves toward me. My eyes close to track White Lady's energy. She is insubstantial, violent, and uncontrolled.

Holland was still hurt from where I almost punched through his ribcage. The lingering burns were unusual for a wolf and meant he wouldn't be much use in this fight. As if to prove my point, an Order member started taking pot shots at us from the cover of one building.

"Go!" I yelled at Holland. "Take Tal!"

Roy would be here soon. I just had to keep the White Lady distracted or kill her. There was a term for killing something that had already died, re-dead maybe, but only Steven would know.

White Lady's energy spider webs out as it spills across landscape in dark black lines. They drain everything as her energy crackles then consolidates.

I ran for the spot she was about to reappear at. The White Lady’s energy scattered around again. She seemed to refuse any consolidation if I was near. The actions left me fighting a shifting fog of blackness.

The screaming stopped while she was incorporeal and left a strange silence. People still shouted on megaphones and chopper blades clattered above us. There was still a mess of things happening, but they all paled in comparison to that shriek.

I should be gibbering in fear but if left alone the creature would hurt Tal. If there was one thing that made me lose self-preservation, it was protecting what was mine. Evan had said it almost a year ago. It was why a relationship with Kahina was so dangerous. I would tear down the world to keep what was mine safe.

More, I demand more fire, more energy and strength. Limbs spread and body buffs up. She will be ended, traitors deserve punishment.

I had to fight back a strange urge to expand and grow in size in order to cow the other monster. Fear would be ineffective, or the White Lady would have run by now. It was more likely that she was trying to kill everyone tied to her capture.

Pink Meat vehicle’s blades spin above. Air presses downward with uncomfortable draft. Heavy unfriendly bullets fly toward us. Desire to kill behind each shot. White Lady shifts target then centers her being inside hollow cabin of metal floating thing.

She was aiming for the helicopter team. This creature only wanted to cease the life of everyone nearby. I doubted she could differentiate between the Order members who had locked her up and everyone else.

I bent both legs and felt muscles shift around. Air folded behind me then pushed forward with a sudden burst of pressure. Wind pelted against my face, both eyes were nearly slits. A gasp escaped as air pooled again with the beating of my chest. I swear, for a moment, it felt like I flapped wings to gain altitude.

By the time the White Lady was solid and present I had latched onto one of the helicopter's skis. I looked down but shouldn't have. Hell, I was hanging more than three hundred feet above the ground with little idea how.

Screams from the cockpit as a gun was discharged. My free arm grabbed ahold of the ski as I pulled myself up. Legs twisted around the edge and I managed to find another handhold. Falling from this height would probably kill me. This was insane.

Prey.

The voice in my head refused to be swayed. Driving me forward even as the helicopter tilted sideways, dropping altitude at a startling rate. Trying to tip us over and dump the extra baggage.

I pulled up, grabbed one of the men inside and shoved him into the front. The White Lady was focused, yelling at such a degree that ran counter to the rotor's pounding spin.

One man tried to take off his head mufflers and was saying something, words I couldn't make out. I punched him and shoved the equipment back into place. Then grabbed at the White Lady with my other hand. She spun off, going for ground now that I was up here.

Leap after.

Knees buckled as I resisted the impulse to keep chasing. Daniel’s people needed to get out of here. The Agent wasn't here, had no idea what was going on, or who he was dealing with. Eddy was probably trying to be undercover if he wasn't already dead in the crossfire. That left me to try and minimize the damages.

"Get out of here!" I yelled in one man's face. Air whipped around from the open door.

I ignored it and leapt out the other side after the White Lady's fleeing energy. Her dark cracking pattern was headed back toward the ground after some other target. The monster was unrelenting in her drive for vengeance.

Behind me, there was shouting while human hands slammed onto metal. In a panic, the three-man helicopter crew was yelling at each other, words that felt like ‘order one-oh-one’. Their cries meant little as I tried desperately not to get in the way of these instincts. If I didn't trust myself now, then this fall would have a single sudden outcome.

White Lady flees off. Perfect. Hold limbs out to side to catch air. Fall breaks as other limbs straighten. Body breaks from unaccustomed actions. Repeat actions to try and right myself. Head pounds as exhaustion calls. These half measures are tiring.

Nasty unnatural fractured energy runs like the prey it is.

I slammed into a rooftop and rolled off toward the ground. My fingers grasped around something. Everything was numb but I could still move. Arms and legs fully functional despite the rocks digging into my thigh. My abs were wounded from the half collision with a building.

The part of my mind that was still Jay, a sometimes bouncer, debt collector, bodyguard, those things I identified with, was stunned. That primal part of me, the one that hunted after lost possessions, thought in an odd pattern, fought like hell to reclaim ownership, protected what was mine with rage, that part of me was roaring in triumph because I gained a nonsensical upper hand. Somehow my fingers were wrapped around the edge of this White Lady’s energy.

My own sounds spread across the landscape. Ground rumbled with anger in a localized quake. This noise fought against the White Lady’s shriek. Her sound slowly being drowned out by my own, even as I hauled that tendril of energy back toward me.

Soon she solidified and I had a leg instead of blackness. A long, wiry limb that thrashed at unnatural angles. The other foot connecting with my face. Her horror etched face twisted back to glare at me. Deep pools of spidery black ink looked as terror-stricken as any human might in this condition.

She wasn’t human. Daniel had told me the White Lady took dead bodies. This was no mortal thing I fought against. This woman made nightmare killed without mercy. Her victims included Order members, federal employees, and worst of all she had attacked Tal. The last one was unforgivable. He was family. He called me son.

My hands reached for her throat to end our battle. Each finger curled around her neck and thumbs crossed together. The White Lady kicked then tried to get a breath in for another mind numbing scream. Claw-like fingers with black ink tips reached for my face and hands but couldn’t find purchase. These shoulders were too big while forearms blocked her movements. I locked down her arms just from a sheer size difference.

God help me, I was smiling even as her life bled away. Killing her made part of me feel absolutely elated. The realization bothered Jay but didn't upset my other mind. She had it coming for her transgressions and daring to harm what was mine.

Her fingers gouged into my flesh. That energy spilled out of her, chilling my body as she tried to flee. Everything around me giving a wild kaleidoscope of feedback. One moment everything felt alive, then cold and lifeless.

The thrashing slowly ceased. Her energy started to fade away. Each tendril of blackness that had sprawled across the ground had started to recede. My fingers kept their tight grip and started shaking her as a growl escaped. Blood ran in rivers down my forearms.

Warmth blossoms in a rush. Mortar, metal, and glass all transform into to projectiles from force.

I threw myself to the ground and covered my head as the building exploded behind me, then it was over. Debris was still thudding around. I peeked out from under one arm while breathing heavily and tried not to pass out from exhaustion. There was noise but my ears had gone deaf from the overload.

Tal sat somewhere toward the treeline but he wasn’t breathing right. His lack of muscle movement stood out like any other factor about the world around me. Roy’s heavy hands were pressing up and down upon his father’s chest in attempted resuscitation. The connection was active, the large man had a chance.

My vision was blurred on one side from dust hanging heavily. Roy and Holland had protected Tal, though why the White Wolf was helping the old man was beyond me. They hadn't known each other to my knowledge but both were old fighters. Maybe they had history.

Trying to make a fist sent pain through me. One finger was dislocated. I shoved it back into place with a grunt of discomfort. My legs functioned enough to hobble across the distance. No one tried to stop me either. Bullets had died down while the loudspeakers and spotlights were strangely absent.

I only vaguely noticed that all the federal firepower had pulled out. They were here during my chase with the White Lady, around when I ran Rachel off into the woods, but now, now they were gone in the distance somewhere.

Tal's face was pale. The slight yellow tinge to his eyes stood out even more now. I saw it all, felt it all, much easier. Roy, the others, they had a charm like I did. One that must discourage noticing the extra features. Their real selves were masked under false memories. Anytime I thought their hair had been short or braided it had been part of a lie. They were mostly without hair of any sort. Instead, they had tattoos and tusks tucked until lower lips. Only now, when Tal lay dying, were those extra details obvious.

"I can heal him," I offered while kneeling down.

"You can't. Most gifts will not work on us," Roy's words were iron over sadness. I could see the depression just around the hint of his eyes.

"I've done it before." Once I had healed a Hunter, according to Daniel.

Tal roused himself just enough to reach out a hand toward my arm.

"You let an old man die with his scars, whelp." Tal's grip was faltering.

"I can't let someone else die," I protested. Seeing another person close to me, even if the memories were muddled, would be painful. It was Julianne all over again, miles away from home and dead because of me.

"We respect your choices, James. You will respect ours," Roy said without sounding happy.

I stared down and debated breaking his wishes anyway. The cord connecting the old man was a rusty iron color. Laying at its core was an enrapturing deep silver, refined, pure. I sat there watching Tal's body, torn between Roy's promise of respect and my own desire to prevent another failure.

Suddenly it was too late. Slowly Tal's hand slipped as the cord connecting us briefly started to vanish. My other sight, those senses, showed the vibrancy of life turn to nothing.

"He's gone," I kept my voice flat. The words sounded opposite my inner feelings of seeing a person I had claimed die. It was a failure.

"We must go too," the head bouncer said.

"No. I'll stay." I had something to deliver to the Order.

"No,” Roy spoke firmly while shaking his head. “We must all go. The family cannot lose anymore."

"Take Tal. Take his body. Give him whatever burial he needs." The old man deserved it and I planned on letting loose. Having them around would be detrimental.

"You're coming."

"I'll catch up," I said the words but Roy would know my life for what it was. He knew, in the same way I understood Roy was grieving for his father.

"James-" Roy wanted to give me an order like he did his sons, his remains of a decimated tribe. I could tell from his tone. There was something buried in his voice. Maybe he saw something in my face.

It couldn't be pleasant. My body was shaking, not from pain, but frustration. Inside sat boiled ire that I had to bury deep in the back of my brain just to stay functional. It shook me from the mounting need to claim vengeance for my failure.

He studied, and I tried not to lose it right then and there. Tal was dead because of me. The Order had brought him to the compound, sure, but the old man had only been in this town on my behalf. All because I couldn’t handle my own problems head on. That would change.

Each and every situation that had driven me, each terrible consequence that haunted my past, all of it stemmed from the Order of Merlin's actions against me. They might not be directly aware of the conflict due to following their agenda. Maybe they were unaware of my existence still.

There would be some of their lesser members alive back in the compound. It was time they understood exactly who they were messing with.

Holland said nothing but the wolf’s grief was obvious. Packs wounds always ran deep. They mourned like no other race did but that didn't make the pain any less.

"Go. Get everyone back home!" I stood up while shouting.

Home was at Bottom Pit. A gaudy, excessive, and cleverly disguised place. Our refuge for the inhuman in the middle of a metropolis. Parts of my memory crept to the surface, slowly, in bursts that shook my self-perceptions.

Muni's trinket, I could see it on my arm. It was charred piece of rubble that wouldn't protect me anymore. She warned me, so long ago. Every piece of my true nature that crept through, each time I pulled upon the being I truly was at the core, every connection would eat away at the trinket's ability.

I ripped off the remains and stared at Roy. Daring him to object further. He looked back without flinching as if we were equals. This man that I admired in many ways, knew as a friend despite the holes in my memory, he looked at me with respect.

"You will show them the Great Beast?" Roy spoke Tal’s words.

The old man’s last story had been about the testing of his grandsons. Back then he referred to a Great Beast, having me play the role of this mythical monster. I knew the part. It was me, I was it if I just let it all go.

"They'll wish I hadn't," I said. Just let it all go. Their words and that night’s chanting filled my head like a drumbeat.

"Good." Roy patted Holland's shoulder. The Pack member looked up. I could see confusion, worry, and grief on his features. He bent over and picked up Tal's limp body.

Then they all vanished, past the chain link fence, past the trees, into the distance. Roy would get them out of here. Rachel, Evan, those that I claimed as mine were safe. Soon they would know exactly why I could make that claim.

I strode back through the compound. There were a few people gathered whispering to each other. One person tried to take charge. One voice wanted to surrender, a few were whimpering while others had been wounded. I stood just out of sight. Not wanting to be shot, not right now. Bullets hurt me too much like this, but soon they couldn’t.

"Hey, assholes!" I shouted around the building's edge. Their words weren’t audible, but I felt them all the same. Sticking my head out sounded like a bad idea anyway. With heavy ordinances, I would be lucky to keep my brain inside its skull, at least as a human.

Letting go would cause a strain on my system. Exhaustion happened with a minor use of my abilities. The fire had put me out for days and made me blind. What would the price for this final trick be?

"We're armed, and we'll shoot!" one of the militia yelled.

Their words made me chuckle before clarifying my position. "I'm not with the government," I said then laughed.

"Go away!" They were hurt, scared, and backed into a corner. The smart among them would realize they shot at, and possibly killed, federal employees. The stupid might believe there was a safe way out of this.

Whenever I called my abilities there was a chain tying me down. My conscious thoughts always rode along to keep everything in check by thinking of myself as human. I tried to picture myself as a normal human with odd powers, but nothing was that simple.

I didn't remember it all, not yet, but I felt the edges of something huge and dangerous. Inside me was this large creature worthy of respect, awe, and more than a touch of fear. Tal had called it the Great Beast. Words swam through my head. Let it out, they said.

"You shouldn't mess with things you don't understand!" I yelled out. Hopefully, they would hear me clearly. My own ears barely functioned.

"It's one of them."

"Oh no."

"No, no, they were all in the cells. We blew it up," a high pitched man sounded shaky. The lack of bullets flying made their words easier to feel.

"Not soon enough," a female said.

"Did they escape?" Indistinct and muffled voices kept prattling. Words echoed in my head once more. They told me to let it all out over and over.

"What do we do?"

"We shoot him," another responded.

"Will that work?"

Let it all out, John, said Tal’s voice in my head. His words were aged but solid. The old man had seen the fires come forth from me before, many times over the years. He didn’t flinch and never had, not since the first time decades ago. The memory hung just out of reach.

"You think I'm a monster." Everyone called me one as if it were natural. My attempts at being defensive failed. Deep inside I had always known they were right.

Let it all out, his pleading voice said in my mind. Against that ran the memory of him orating to us that night in the Bottom Pit. He told the story of the Great Beast. I never had a chance to talk with him, not as John, or Jay, or anyone but a clueless vagrant who could barely fight. I wanted to, we had a past that I couldn’t sort through now. Only one fragment of the past hung in my head, he had called me son years ago.

"Sure, Tal," I whispered to myself. "I'll do it. I'll show you a monster."

The anger, possessive nature, and ability to kill without remorse in the name of self-defense would all bother a normal person. A well-adjusted man wouldn't step this far out of line. Most humans wouldn't even dare. I was neither human nor well-adjusted.

It all fell away like shedding a thick skin. Maybe the sensation was closer to a bird pecking free from their egg. My head hummed with pleasure, eager to drop this falsehood I subjected myself to. I wasn't human and the Jay part of me had no clue what there was beyond that. My body knew what to do, the buried central ego understood completely. That voice at my core grinned and reached out as Jay fell apart into something else.

World shrinks and head bows. A weight of muscle and bone shifting spreads from end to end. Arms, toes, and all that is, grow ever outward. Heat boils the air from a slow hurtful change. Pain expresses with a roar of rage.

Then true freedom is realized. The sky is visible through true eyes. The wind brushes along a true body. Dirt curls under claws as I struggle to remember this form. My nose feels too long and teeth sharper. Each sensation is fresh, newborn, and welcome but should be felt at another time. Wonder is a youngling mistake.

Step around Pink Meat hut with short walls. They are too small to hide my majesty. Walk into remaining meals' line of sight. Pathetic creatures hold up metal sticks and try to work their jaws. One screams, less powerful than White Lady but annoying. Give mocking tiny roar back which overpowers her voice.

I count wounded Pink Meats slowly. They watch me with stuttering heartbeats. Feel Govern Men in their large metal boxes. Near, but not too close. Might be some who watch and scout for their peoples. Their weakness does not scare me.

I loom over leader. The female Pink Meat shivers then falls back, unable to stand in my presence. She is small now and nearly beneath notice. Retribution drives me to notice their presence. These Pink Meats brought Den Mother, Mountain Elder, and I here. This irritates me and stirs anger. Limbs stretch with a sudden spasm which startles me into looking over.

The distraction was enough for the human side of me to surface in wonder. The creature I became had true wings. They were long leathery things covered in tiny scales. Each one felt sensitive but strong like armor. I turned, neck swiveling on joints that hadn't been there moments before. The other wing looked like a mirror of the first. Was that how I leapt so high then caught the wind? Was this why the world looked so small while I tracked Evan in the woods so long ago? Had I always been this big in some sense? The questions went on and on. For a moment, I forgot my nearly captive audience.

I slowly step body forward more. Pink Meats cower from fear. One dares hold gun as I look down with a glare. Head lowers until the mere mouthful of meat goes wet between the legs. Nostrils flare in disgust and the puff of air makes its heartbeat stuttered.

Their fear amuses me enough to let it live. There are other warnings to be given. Some require death but this type is different. It requires life.

"Do not touch what is mine," I rumble and the ground shakes with deep words. One large eye glares unblinking at tiny thing. Their heads are pathetically small.

Pink Meat tremors and I chuckle. Another vibration in the darkness makes me laugh harder. Leader Pink Meat not alone in the rush of liquids down its leg.

"Run, pink meat. Or I'll gobble you up.” I grin and laugh.

Pink Meat breaks, turns and runs with broken madness. Others flee, barely stopping to help their wounded friends. They run for Govern men vehicles with hands up high while their weapons are abandoned by my feet. Feel heavy, broken and hasty footsteps against dirt. One stumbles then dirt rakes at exposed flesh. Further away, tires rest against packed ground. Sand lines spaces between rocks. Little things shout cowardly surrenders.

Elsewhere Incomplete Servant jitters and shakes. He is weak but alive. Den Mother demands answers as she huddles under cotton. Light doesn't warm her skin and their metal chariot is silent.

Good. Pink Meat members of this Order understand message. Vengeance is swift, personal, and clearly understood.

I still felt heated, unhappy, and antsy. The tail slid around while the feeling of Order members leaving came back. The air grew warmer from a fire which always laid, forgotten, at the center of my emotions. It was a deep simmering flow that never truly went away. Finally, I understood why things were so wrong and remembered why there was so much anger. I wasn't Jay. I wasn't James, Jeff, Jason, or any other name. None of those labels were more than a skin for my disguise.

How did I look to them? I towered over humans, larger than any horse and on par with the buildings around me. Wings stretched far from both sides. A limber tail swept around behind me. It curled around the edge of walls and crushed mortar with indifference. The heat flowed off my limbs in waves while huge teeth lined a long snout and wide jaw that pulled back like an alligator's.

They should have come to the same conclusion I had. I was a monster. Now they knew I would claim vengeance for their threats against me and mine.

Rage turns to mourning. Tilt head back then shout toward sky. Flames pour forth as emotions are given voice by the flame.

I was letting it all go and honoring the fallen warrior in the only method available right now. Spirals of fire flew upward, issued from a deep place in my gullet. I celebrated my sorrow with roar of flame and shouted sadness toward the rising sun. Finally, the flames sputtered and died. A small barely smoldering piece of the ember remained inside me.

Head slips down while tail curls around body. Neck drapes across legs. Price to be paid as darkness comes to claim me. Here, in conquered ruins, I will lay.