Therian Shifters

Chapter 5: Animal Urges and a Meeting:

As soon as Akira had gotten home with her father, her mother stood in the doorway with her hands on her cheeks as she saw her daughter emerge from the front door with her father.

"Oh, sweetheart! You found your roar! I'm so proud of you!" Akira's mother rushed towards her daughter with a warm, welcoming and joyful embrace, checking over her to check if Akira was ok, spotting the dry blood on her nose and a black eye. "Oh, you poor thing. I'll get a bag of frozen peas for your eye and a wipe for your nose, ok? Just sit down on the sofa."

So Akira sat down as she patiently let her mother clear up her nose, as she told Akira to put the bag of frozen peas on her eye to ease the swelling. She winced a bit as her mother carefully wiped the dry blood from her nostrils, her nose feeling tender.

"That must’ve gotten rid of loads of my scent cells! I'm not gonna be able to smell anymore! Tracking lessons wasted!" Akira dramatised, making her mother laugh.

As Akira went to sleep, she tossed and turned. She heard shouting and arguing in her dreams. She figured out this was her brain trying to estimate what the meeting the next day would be like. She heard the shouting and arguing of her parents and Chase's parents, his mother giving him lots of money to wait outside.

The visions were blurred, distant, and almost audible yet the sound was slightly muffled.

Akira then awoke the next morning. She woke up to see her tail poking out of her pyjamas, swishing and whipping her duvet onto the floor. She also noticed scratch-marks on the walls and her alarm clock was broken on the floor, the cogs and the clock hands on the floor scattered.

"Uh, mum!" Akira shouted to her mother, panicked by the damage done to her walls as she trembled in shock. "What happened?!"

Her mother walked in to see the mess. She gasped. Akira quickly helped her to tidy it up. "Akira, calm down sweetheart. This is normal after your first 5 shifts. You're ok." Akira exhaled deeply in relief at her mother's calm tone. "Now, listen carefully. You're going to school as normal, but at 2:30 pm, Mr Tolfree will get you and Tyler from your class to reception to get me and your father so we can go to the Meeting Room and sort Chase out for good. That boy has some bad intentions so if you see him around, try not to lash out at him. Ignore him, ok? Be strong."

Akira nodded as her mother kissed her on the cheek and helped her get ready, as she got onto the bus. She waved goodbye and took a sip of her bottle of squash.

As she got to school, she saw Tyler looking down with his hood up. Instead of a red hoodie, he wore a plain, white hoodie instead. As he looked down, a teardrop then fell onto the floor from his eye. "Tyler, are you ok?" Akira patted him gently, as Tyler got scared and jolted backwards. But as he saw Akira he kept his hood up and held his head, launching at her with a distressed cry. "What happened?!"

As Tyler looked up, Akira was shocked to see he had a split lip, a black eye and a small scratch on his cheek. When a tear trickled down that same cheek and dripped down onto it, he winced as it stung. Before he could pull his hood down, a staining line of red seeped through the material of his hood as he collapsed onto the ground. Akira gasped, crying out and yelling for help. As Mr Furlow was about to go inside the block where his classroom was, he saw Akira crying with Tyler on the floor.

"My Lord! What happened?" He knelt to Akira's level as he leaned over Tyler to check over him. But as he carefully pulled down Tyler's hood, he put his hand over his mouth, when the hood was down, a deep cut was shown on his head. "Akira, are you strong? Take Tyler down to the nurse's office quickly, and I'm going to check the surveillance footage. I have a gut feeling as to who did this."

Akira nodded as she strained to pick Tyler up, only just putting him on her shoulders, as she steadily rushed towards the nurse's office. Meanwhile, Mr Furlow went to the Security Room and typed in ‘8th November 2020, 8:12 am’ and found the footage from where Tyler was. Tyler was waiting in his usual spot when a figure that looked like Chase in a black hoodie approached Tyler with a drawing compass in hand.

"Nighty night, tranny." Chase whispered as he jumped at Tyler and slashed his head and cheek, and punched him in the face, as Tyler was pinned against the wall, defenceless.

Mr Furlow gasped. This is madness! He thought with shock.

Meanwhile, in the nurse's office, the school nurse had Tyler sit up with an ice bag on his black eye, a wipe on his lip, a plaster on his cheek and a bandage on the cut on his head.

"Don't eat salty, hard, or sharp foods like crisps or Tiger bread, etc. With your black eye, don't blink with it as much as your better eye. With the scratch on your cheek, change the plaster once and before you do let it have some air and antiseptic, I'll give you a couple of antiseptic wipes to take home so you care for your scratch. And as for the cut on your head, go to the doctor's with your parents and take a check on that head, ok? I'll keep you in here until lunchtime so I can keep an eye on you. Any blackouts or anything, make sure your friends or a member of staff can help you here, ok?"

Tyler nodded, as he weakly laid back against the wall.

Akira then went to her class. As 2:30 pm approached, a knock on the classroom door was heard.

"Come in!" Akira's tech teacher calmly commanded.

Mr Tolfree then peeped around the door. "It's time, Akira." Akira gulped and got her things, a bit nervous about the meeting. After going to reception and getting her parents, Akira, Mr Tolfree, and Akira's parents approached the Meeting Room. They sat down at the table, and Akira gulped at Chase's parents' stern looks. The principal then came in, along with Mr Furlow. "We've got some business to attend to. Mr and Mrs Grieves, we have no choice but to inform you about your son's behaviour."

Mrs Grieves, Chase's mum, looked very shocked when Mr Tolfree said this.

"How dare you! My son is as good as gold!" She complained as Chase put on a fake smile.

Mr Tolfree looked at Akira and rolled his eyes at Chase for a second because of his spoilt nature, as Akira did a small nod.

"We have proof of your son's actions on surveillance. Sir?" The principal signalled to Mr Tolfree to show the footage of Chase pressing his football boot into Akira's chest, enjoying seeing her suffer, and then Mr Tolfree switched to the footage of the many times Chase had harmed Tyler, including the latest footage of him beating up Tyler. "The first clip of him harming Akira was 2 weeks ago. The other clips are from the many times he had harmed her friend Tyler. This is unacceptable behaviour. If this continues, I will no longer tolerate your son's appearance within this school. Are we clear?!" The principal boomed, as Akira blocked her ears, a high pitch ringing in her ears from the loudness of the principal's shouting. Akira then ran out of the room hyperventilating. Before Chase could laugh at her, the principal glared at him, as Chase nervously giggled to himself.

Mr Tolfree went outside the Meeting Room to see Akira sitting on the floor, hugging her knees and rocking back and forth. But then, he noticed she was hiding something behind her back. "Akira, what's behind your-" But before he could speak, her tail popped out, swishing rapidly as Akira felt scared and afraid. But as Mr Tolfree looked down, he noticed Akira's hands had changed to grey paws, her arms still wrapped around her knees.

"Akira, you're shifting." Mr Tolfree took her left paw and held it in his hands. "Calm down, it's ok."

She shook her head, as Akira's wolf-lion hybrid form stood in front of him. She didn't run away, but led on her front, as Mr Tolfree pet her head, giving her a feeling of relief and comfort, as he rubbed her muzzle. He ruffled her mane and soon enough, Akira returned to normal in a split-second flash of light as she hugged him tightly.

Meanwhile, in the meeting room, the principal had concluded to suspend Chase, so Akira and Tyler would have 2 weeks without him bothering them.

However, when Chase is gone, others emerge to make Akira and Tyler's lives a living hell.