Chapter 1: What is a Name?

Our female heroine lands, only to black out to due her weakened state. When she awakens, she's in a strange room. But what is even stranger is that she herself does not have a name.

            My wings carried me on and on over vast amounts of land. There were times that I wanted to just stop and rest, but in the back of my mind I knew that they were most likely to be searching for me which kept me going.

            It was when the sun was coming over the horizon when I finally landed and rested, hoping that I had put enough distance between myself and what I like to call the compound. I had no choice but to rest or else I would end up blacking out and then there would be no doubt that they’d be able to find me and drag me back. That was something that I needed to avoid at all costs.

            I was the first one to have ever contemplated about running away and actually succeed at it. So if they caught me, there was no telling what they would do to punish me.

            I didn’t know the distance that I flew, so I had no clue where exactly it was that I landed except for that it was a large forested area. I think that the trees there were redwoods, but I couldn’t be too sure in my weakened state.

            After I had landed on the dirt floor of the forest, I had to concentrate to come up with an appearance to shift to. I couldn’t use the same appearance as I did at the compound since it would be easier for them to track me that way, so I had to look different than before. It couldn’t be too pretty because that would stand out, and I couldn’t make myself horribly ugly because they were smart enough to figure out that I would try to cover it up with my hideousness.

            Within a moment, snapping and popping sounds were heard as my body grew, the feathers disappearing as my human skin reappeared. My talons were replaced by legs that spurted out, and my white head soon took a round shape. Brown hair fell to my shoulders as I stretched my arms out over my head. My size wasn’t too big or small. In the human world I would be what they referred to as a size eight.

            Luckily whenever we shift, we already wear clothes so I didn’t have to worry about being completely unclothed once I was fully in form. Although, the duffel bag that I had with me as I escaped the house had to be left back at the compound.

            Before I could take a single step, I could feel exactly how weak I was and ended up collapsing into a nearby shrubbery and passing out. But before I completely lost all consciousness, I heard the soft thudding of a pair of feet walking across the dirt not too far from where I was laying. I could only hope that whoever was walking through the forest wouldn’t notice me and leave me where I was.

            When I awoke, immediately I could tell that I was no longer in the forest where I ended up blacking out. Instead of lying on the hard ground of the forest with the leaves from the shrubbery surrounding my legs, a soft mattress met my back as well as a soft cotton blanket laid out over my legs.

            Instinctively I knew that I wasn’t back at the compound, for if I were I knew that they would have me hooked up to machines as well as have me arms and legs strapped down so that I couldn’t try to escape again. I wouldn’t be as comfortable as I was now.

            As I sat up and took a look around the room, I felt perfectly at ease. The walls were painted a light green, and the carpet was almost a forest green. In fact, almost all of the contents in the room were green. From the door, to the curtains, and even the bed sheets that I were resting upon were all assorted shades of green. For some reason, it felt like home.

            Although my head was screaming at me that I needed to go, put even more distance between myself and what was most likely a search party from the compound, there was a bigger part of me saying that I should stay here, that I was safe. If whoever found me meant to hurt me, they would have done so already. And they also certainly wouldn’t have let me rest and recover in such a luxurious room.

            Feeling restless, I made a move to get off the bed but stopped in my tracks, my feet just an inch away from touching the ground, as I heard faint footsteps walking across what sounded like wooden floor heading in my direction. Before I could make up my mind whether to hide or confront whoever it was, the doorknob twisted as the door swung in towards me.

            My eyes flew to the figure standing in the doorway. The response that I had to this strange male was new; I could feel my heart beat quicken while taking shorter breaths than I was used to. My cheeks felt as if they were glowing. The feeling that I encountered was something that I had never felt before, and it was quite unnerving how vulnerable I felt. None of the males that I saw at the compound elicited this kind of effect on me.

            “So, you’re finally awake,” he spoke firmly, the deep baritone of his voice carrying across the short distance of the room, reverberating within me.

            As soon as he spoke, my gaze went to his face. Dark brown hair settled atop his head and went well with the stubble he had growing on his firm chin. But when I looked at his eyes, I froze. There was something familiar about those deep blue eyes.

            “Yes, and thank you for taking care of me while I blacked out,” I replied tersely, never taking my gaze off of him. There was something about him that I just couldn’t place. “How long was I out?”

            “Two days,” he replied as he crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame.

            I couldn’t believe that I was out for two days. The flight must have taken more energy out of me than I realized. There was no doubt that now I desperately needed to leave if I was going to stay out of their grasp.

            “Well, thank you once again for your hospitality. I hate to cut this short, but would you mind showing me the way out? I really must leave.”

            Planting my feet on the ground, I made a move towards the door but he stood up straighter and just looked at me.

            “I don’t think that’d be a wise idea. They’re looking for you,” he stated while looking at me, his eyes digging into my own.

            His words stopped me in my tracks while I was putting on my shoes. How in the world did he know that people were looking for me? But then as I stared into his eyes I noticed a subtle shift of change in his eye color, and then a strong sensation hit me; he was a shifter.

            “How’d you know?” I whispered, sitting back down on the bed.

            “How’d I know what? That you have people looking for you or that you’re a shifter?” he asked, staring down at me as he walked closer.

            “Both.”

            “Well, seeing as how when you shifted, you were basically on my front lawn, so it wasn’t too hard to sense you,” he told me as he occupied the space on the bed next to me, neither of us looking at each other. Just him in this close proximity made me heart beat so fast that I felt as though it would go right through my chest.

            “As for knowing that they were after you, it wasn’t too hard to tell. You were worn out from your travel, so I suspected that you kept going until you were tired, trying to put distance between yourself and whatever it was that you were trying to get away from. And usually whenever one tries to get away from something, whatever they try to get away from ends up searching for them. I’m not dense you know.”

            A silent “Oh” escaped my lips as I stared down at the carpet. If he could figure that much out just by how long I was passed out, he must have an incredible amount of smarts.

            “Well, since you know that people are after me, wouldn’t it make more sense for me to leave since they might end up finding you helped me out. And who knows what they would do to you afterwards,” I whispered, unable to look up from the floor.

            “No, it wouldn’t make sense at all. When I was young, my mother warned me about a place for people like us. How they perform experiments on you. Not the kind of life that I wanted to live. How do you think I was able to stay away and not be caught all these years?”

            Looking up, I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye. In fact I had wondered how he lived and was not caught by the elder shifters.

            Shifters, as well as having the ability to shape shift also have the ability to sense when other shifters shift, and as the shifter grows older, the ability to sense others grows that much stronger. When another shifter shifts, the insides of our bodies turn all prickly and heat up, and depending on which direction the person is in, the feeling gets hotter or pricklier. The elders have sensed other shifters that were basically half the country away, so why they didn’t pick up on the man next to me was a mystery.

            “What’s your secret?” I asked, finally giving in and turning to face him.

            “That my dear, would be better if I showed you and will have to wait until a later time,” he grinned before placing a hand on my chin, making my heart speed up again.

            I could feel heat racing to my cheeks as I moved my head out of his grasp. I didn’t know why, but I knew that being around this stranger would be dangerous.

            “So, what can you shift into?” I asked him, my curiosity getting the better of me while also subtly trying to change the subject.

            “What do you mean?” he asked as his eyes furrowed.

            “I mean like I can shift into any breed of bird. Like before I shifted into my current form I was a bald eagle. I can also shift into ostriches, flamingos, or even penguins. So like I said, what can you shift into?”

            “Well, I can shift into anything that I want to,” he said uncertainly while looking at me as my eyes must have betrayed me.

            How could he shift into anything that he wanted? All of us at the compound were restricted to only being able to shift into a particular species. I could shift into any breed of bird that I wanted, one of my practice partners could shift into any breed of cat, like a cougar, leopard or even a common housecat. Even the elder shifters were limited to one species of animals. And it wasn’t for lack of trying.

            There were days when I was free from experiments that I would try my hardest to try and shift into any other animal than a bird. Although I loved shifting into a bird and the sense of freedom that I felt as I flew through the air, there was only so much I could do as a bird. I needed a sense of change, and so I tried.

            I tried almost any animal that I could think of. From starting out small with the likes of an ant, to trying larger things like a whale, nothing worked. So to hear that he could shift into any animal was mind boggling.

            “But how is that possible?” I asked and he chuckled at my dumbfounded expression.

            “Don’t tell me that what you can shift into is limited,” he asked and I could only nod my head in shame. “Well then, the only thing to do is teach you to shift into other animals. When do you want to start... sorry for not asking sooner, but what’s your name?”

            “My name?” I asked, quite unfamiliar with the term.

            “Yeah, your name. You know, what other people call you when they want to talk to you? Like people call me Hawk.”

            At the compound, we didn’t have names. We were referred to as the number of our “rooms” that we slept in. The only time that I conversed with the other shifters in the compound was during meals, and even then we didn’t have a lot to say. Most of the times we all kept to ourselves except to ask how the training sessions went, and even when we did talk we called each other by the room numbers.

            “Well, when people were talking to me, they usually referred to me as number nine,” I stated while crossing my arms.

            “Nine?” he asked raising an eyebrow at me.

            “Yeah, that was the number of the room that I resided in.”

            Letting out a soft chuckle, he shook his head before getting off the bed and walking towards the window before turning to look at me. “Well, looks like we’ll just have to come up with a name for you then.”

            “Thanks?” I said, not exactly sure what he was talking about.

            Hawk, as he said is what I should call him, began pacing back and forth in front of me while studying me closely. The way that his eyes roved me over made me feel like he was a predator studying his prey before going in for the kill, except I knew, or at least hoped, that he wasn’t planning on killing me.

            “I’ve got it!” he exclaimed suddenly stopping in his tracks, startling me in the process as he turned to look at me. “How does the name Phoenix sound?”

            When he suggested calling me Phoenix, my body let out a little shiver as a chill ran down my spine. Phoenixes were my favorite species of  birds. They were just absolutely beautiful, and also the fact that they could instantaneously combust into flames and then they would rise again and be reborn from their own ashes. The whole process just amazed me.

            Thinking on it I guess the name suited me. I could shift into any bird that I wanted, except for I haven’t tried shifting into the Phoenix. But like a Phoenix, my old life had basically been burned to ashes after I ran away. Now I was rising from the ashes, ready to start a new life. The name was perfect.

            “I think it’s amazing,” I grinned as I stood up and walked over to him.

            “Great! Now I have something to show you,” he said excitedly taking me by the hand and leading me out of the room.

            “Show me what?”

            “That my dear, is a secret that you will soon know,” he winked before continuing down what seemed like endless hallways.