A thick morning dew covered the forest landscape. It glistened brightly in the newly rising sun. Now as the forest began to awake to the new day. This was the image captured by my eagle eyes as I soared through the heavens mindfully searching for my prey. My eyes searched, watched, and waited for the minute movements in the underbrush or on the wind rippled lake. As my watchful eyes pierced through the mirror-like lake, I saw a fish leap from the water then slide back into the water. Just as I was about to enter the water, I lifted my wings and flung my sharp talons outward. Immediately I knew that it had been caught. I fapped my majestic wings and began to climb to my roost in the rustic red cliff.

Landing on a thick tree branch, I began assessing my lunch. Wasn't the biggest fish you could find, but it was good enough.

Taking out a piece of the flesh with my claws, I took a taste of it. Always wondered how raw fish tasted.

To say the least, it tasted like shit.

“Did the little birdy try to eat? Didn't it just taste so good”, Metis says from behind me, with the voice you would use with babies. If I had the capabilities, I would probably have had some comment about it. But, I was a bird, and my time was better spent coughing up that terrible fish.

I feel Metis giving me a few soft claps on my back.

“For a beginner Shapeshifter, you did very well. Maybe, you did get a little too engrossed at the moment, but that can easily be fixed with enough training”, she said, getting herself comfortable on the tree branch.

Very well? I was a bloody genius! I have single-handedly learned to use my wings in under twenty-four hours, and most of that time was spent being a damn bodyguard!

Yesterday, when classes had officially begun, Metis had begun teaching me Advanced Shapeshifting. One of the things you could do with it was Full-body Shapeshifting. Yesterday, we had started small, with a small light bird indoors. Already on the second day, though, Metis grew bored of seeing my fly around inside, so she decided that I was ready for step two.

Step two was simple. Shapeshift into one of the larger birds, and try to live that bird's life. I had been doing wonderfully until it came to trying out the food. I won't bother with the details, as there is an easy way to describe it. Shit. It tasted like literal shit.

Metis, somehow reading my bird face, saw my displeasure of bird life.

“You know what? Let's try something else. Instead of you being a bird, let's both be… cats? Yeah, cats. You need to learn how to be undetected, and what better way to do that than play spies in the city.”

Checking out the city did sound fun. Hadn't had the time to really check it out, so doing it while practicing sounded great. There was one little thing, though.

“I'm fine with that. But, how do we get there? The city is over a hundred and fifty kilometers away. It would take ages to fly there.”

My skills with the Psionic abilities had gone up tremendously, as of late. With me not being able to speak normally, the only way for me to talk was through Telepathy.

Metis grinned at that, love to watch my confusion. She loves it, and I hate it.

“Of course, we wouldn't fly over there! I´ll simply Beam us over there!”

“Beam? What do you mean by-”

I didn't even get to finish before she had pulled out a weird engraved-metal thing out of her pulled, and pressed the button on it while holding me in her hand.

One instant, we were on a tree branch in a forest, and in the next, we were in a dark alleyway. I felt nauseous, my brain having trouble adjusting to instant transportation.

Metis sat me down on the ground and chuckled at me trying to keep my balance.

When I finally adjust to my new surroundings, I look up at her, with irritation on my face. Well, not on my face, as I can't really do that in bird form, but never mind that.

“What the hell was that?! Do you have a Talent for Space or something, because I'm pretty sure Shapeshifters can't Teleport”

“Well, we can Teleport, if we get the right Pattern for it. But, I didn't use one to get us here. As I said earlier, I used this Beam device”, Metis said, putting the device close to my head. “It's a crafty little thing. If I remember correctly, it made with Enchantment and the Light Talent. I thought you would know about it, seeing as your friend has that Talent.”

Oh yeah. Forgot about Eros having that. Should probably ask how he's doing with it.

“So, quick question. What will we be doing exactly?”

Metis chuckled again.

“Didn't you listen?”, she asked. “We're gonna be doing a favorite pastime of mine. Going around the city, pretending to be a cat, while getting all the dirty secrets of people. You would be surprised at how much people talk to cats when they're bored”

After talking, she began to shrink down at a rapid pace. After only two seconds, what stop before me was no longer human, but a simple cat.

The fur of it was a dark brown, making it hard to track in the dark, and had sharp green eyes, that seemed to pierce through me, collecting every little secret from my body.

“Ready for your Transformation?”, I hear a playful voice say. It almost sounded like Metis´ usual voice. It seemed… older, wiser even.

Nodding my bird head at her, I begin feeling the creeping feeling all over me. In an instant, I was the same height as her.

I looked at my paw and saw that we had the same fur-color. We probably looked identical. But, not to identical, I hope.

“Ready for the spying to commence?”, I hear her ask.

“Yes”, I answer.

“Then, let the games begin”

“First target: Unsuspecting Female.

Target seems to be in her late twenties. Target has brown hair, completely blue eyes, and is about 1,75 meters tall.

Permission to engage”

A few brief seconds pass by, command evaluating the situation.

“Permission granted. Move in, soldier!”

That was all I needed.

Now, how to engage? A frontal attack is too obvious, and will most likely startle the target. Same with the other sides. Can't engage her directly, meaning that the target has to engage me. How to do that?

I look around me, searching for anything to help me on my mission.

Aha! A dumpster!

I jump up to the side of the dumpster and look inside it.

Come on! Anything I can act like I'm distracted by. Maybe some old food that I can go near without puking, some old metals, or just about anything.

And there it was; A whole pack of… some weird fish, sealed in a see-through container. One of the many things a stray cat would find distracting.

I pick of the container, with my teeth, and slowly move towards the middle of the alleyway. The target would be here any minute now, so I had to be quick.

Just as I get into position, acting like I'm completely distracted by the container, I begin hearing soft steps to my right. I, of course, don't look to my right, and instead, continue trying to open the container. If it was anybody other than my target, Command would let me know.

The steps draw nearer, and I hear a loud gasp. The footsteps quicken, and, before I knew it, I was picked up by the target, who was nuzzling me. Not wanting to screw up the mission, I begin purring. Feels weird to do it, but I just ignore it.

In just a few minutes, I had gained the targets, or who I now know as June´s, complete trust. While sitting on a random bench, she had already begun telling me everything about herself, including all those dirty secrets, all while feeding me small fish pieces that she had bought from a street shop. After ten minutes of June telling me about herself, I felt that I had learned enough.

“Is the amount of information valid?”, I ask Command.

“Affirmative. If we required more information than this, it would have been a long-term undercover mission. Disengage with the target at your earliest convenience”

“You needn't say twice”

My plan to disengage was simple.

Closing my mouth, June realized that I was full, and didn't want any more fish pieces.

“I'm just gonna go over there, and throw out the leftovers, so you wait here Mr. Fluffles!”, June said, beginning to walk over to the dumpster.

Like hell, I will.

After jumping off the bench, I immediately go into a deadmans sprint. Wouldn't be a great disengagement if she could see me ten meters away, hiding in a bush.

After running for a minute or two, I had gotten away a reasonable distance.

“So, how did I do?”, I ask Metis.

“As before, you did pretty well for a beginner. You're timing was off a couple of times, but that can be worked on in the next one”

“Wait, do you mean we are doing multiple of these?”

“Of course we are. With the time we have left, we should be able to do about… three more”

Oh boy. Here we go.

After two excruciating hours of playing a cat, I was finally done with class. Metis didn't Beam us back to immediately, though.

“Seeing as we're already here it would be great if we could get some food. After all, it's not every day I'm here”, Metis said, having turned herself back to a humanoid.

“That's great and all, but I have a question. Why am I still a cat? I thought we were done”

“Oh, we are done”, Metis said, checking her wallet for cash. “Just take this as… extra time? Yeah, extra time”

You're just too lazy, aren't you?

I, of course, didn't actually say that. Only thought it. Didn't want to die yet.

“You wait here now, while I go get us some food”

“Can do”

And with that, she left to get some food.

Waiting around was boring. After a couple of minutes of just waiting around, I decided to use my enhanced hearing to check out what people were saying. We were in some kind of open cafe, so there had to be some kind of slander.

“-And I really like the part where Joe bodyslams Eric into the mud with-”

Not interesting enough.

“-The next time that asshole comes around, I'm gonna put his head so deep inside his own asshole that he can taste his own-”

Little too vulgar.

“-Not really listening. When was the attack again?”

Not inter- Wait, what?

“You should stay away from that stuff. It's fogging your memory, as you clearly can't remember what I told you ten seconds ago!”

“Well, it's not my fault this stuff feels so good!”

“For god's sake Steve, you really gotta stop using those tablets. You can't even remember that the attack is in two days, even though you were one of the ones who scheduled it. Seriously”

… Well… this isn't good.