Runner up - Laura
By Laura
THE WILD THINGS - SHAPESHIFTER
I could stop the change, if I wanted to. But I don’t. I am always in control, until the final shift. I choose to start; I could choose to stop. But I don’t.
I am a shapeshifter. Not a sci-fi-stupid, werewolf movie version. A real shapeshifter. I have existed since the dawn of time, hiding in the shadows, turning my face aside to the dark moon. I am an energy-mover, a force-shaper, one who has seen the future, shaped the present, and worshiped the coming of the moon and sun. I am the one you come to for help, for healing, poison and potency, and the one you hide from, spin shadowy webs of horror stories about. I am a shapeshifter.
When the full moon rises, I spin my powers; slip into the mind of a wolf. My mind sharpens, my sense of smell explodes into miles-long threads of exquisite scents. I run and roam through forest and glades, cry to the moon that bids my wild blood to race through my veins. When the world ices over and I am tired of the year’s length, my mind becomes that of a bear, motherly and longing for deep, dark spaces of sleep and rest. When I long for sharp decision-making, I take the mind of an eagle, and my eyesight, both inner and outer, sharpens to such an extent that nothing escapes me, no movement large or miniscule.
Once I came across a pair of young boys in my wolf-shape. My clan-instinct would not let me leave them behind, those poor abandoned pups. I took them to my cave, to my kind, the other shapechangers, and we brought them up as our own. We named them in human tongue, and so alike were they that also were their names. Those boys had a fate on them, our poor twin sons. No one can escape fate, no one can cheat destiny. When one of our son-pups was killed by the other, our clan mourned to the moon in a cacophony of grieving songs. But still, no one can escape destiny.
I am a shapeshifter. That is my destiny.