EXISTENCES BEGINNINGS

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Seeking, tracking, hunting, two young men, their prey, consisting of twenty four teams mad of two members. Each team fighting for survival, striving for the title of Laser Tag Dominators, a cup held every year. This cup is like no ordinary laser tag, because if you are hit by a laser you feel it. The rules simple, you get hit you are eliminated. In the past six cups, the dominators have been the same team; they were known as the 'Executioners'. Their strategies were flawless, with a near-perfect offence backed up by an unbeatable defence. They had never been beaten. In this battle three teams remained, moving round in an artificially generated forest, the clock standing at three hours of game play. Tim and Kalan were dominating the match, swiftly eliminating team by team till only two teams remained.

Tim ran from the trees into the open ground, behind him Kalan crouched waiting, his eyes to the scope. Tracking Tim as he moves. As Tim runs a laser fires, past his shoulder, missing him by the smallest of margins. "Kalan!" he shouts as he runs.

"Got him." Kalan replied shifting the grip on his gun before firing into the trees to Tim's left. He dropped low, zigzagging to help, avoid return-fire. When he reached Tim, he fell to the ground, hiding behind cover. "That was entertaining. He nearly had you." Tim glares at him.

"What happened weren't you watching?" Kalan rose to a sitting position.

"What do you think? I can't see everything at once." Tim sighs and sits down, checking the arena countdown, reading the time left. Kalan lifts his wrist to see the computer attached to it. "That's another one gone." Tim looked to him.

"Who's left?" Kalan uses the stylus to shift through menus until he had the list of competitors.

"Team Falcon." Tim spits into the trees at the mention of their rival team.

"Let's get to work." Kalan said, slowly rising, brow furrowed as he scanned the landscape spotting the other team moving into position. Behind him, Tim does the same. Tim and Kalan break apart, targeting one each. As they break apart the two boys scattered, Tim and Kalan hot on their tails. Kalan went after the shorter of the two. As he ran, he noticed the boy started to travel at a slower pace. Kalan stopped and raised his gun firing a shot over the boy's shoulder, causing him to spin around, and take a hit square to the chest. Dropping him instantly. Kalan walks back to where they separated from to go chasing after their quarry. He finds Tim sitting on one of the lower branches of the gum trees in the area.

"Time to go." Tim gets of the branch and they walk to the arena's exit. Passing the defeated team. As they leave the grounds of the arena, the roar of the crowd that had gathered meets them. All those who came to watch, rose to their feet as the competitors left the arena, in order of survival. Behind the competitors was a large plasma screen, showing the select replays of the match after twenty-four hours of combat. Tim and Kalan quietly leave the stage. As they walked away, the fans they had gathered surrounded them. Out of nowhere, a news reporter and cameraman appeared in front of the Tim and Kalan.

"Kalan, is this your last title match?" The reporter asked. Kalan turned and looked at her.

"Yes it's is my final title match. Don't ask why." He brushes past the reporter and into the four-wheel drive waiting for them. As he and Tim climb in the aboriginal driver turns around to face them. "Where to boss?" Kalan looks out the window.

"Home for the last time." Kalan tells the driver as he stares at Kalan.

"You a funny fella boss." The drive respond as Kalan continues to stare out the window Tim turns to face Kalan as the drive pulls out and continues along the freeway.

"You reckon they'll go away?" he asked Kalan, causing him to turn to face him.

"The fans? Yeah, we'll be forgotten in a week. You know how things are in this sport." Kalan responded as Tim sighs and faces out the window. Kalan lays his head against the window and passes out due to exhaustion.

Kalan wakes just as the four-wheel drive pulls to a halt. The doors are opened as the car comes to a halt and attendants go to help them out of the car. Staring at them was Tim's mansion home. The maids and butlers wandering around the driveway.

"See you Simon." Tim yells as the driver takes the car away.

"See ya' boss." The driver shouts as he drives past. Kalan turns to face Tim, hand outstretched.

"Right I'm gone." Tim takes the hand and shakes it.

"See you later then." Kalan turns and walks down the driveway. As he walks Tim's three Dobermans followed him down the driveway. When he gets to the end of the drive, he opens the smaller gate within the larger pair. He quickly ducks out and closes the gate before the dogs could get out. He then walks down the road to a much more modest two-bedroom house. His house was on a small acreage. His two German Shepherds where running around the yard. He had a small cottage-style house. He walked up the path until he reached his door. The moment he turned the lock his two German Shepherds came running over to the door, where they sat down waiting. He looks to them and smiles.

"Okay." The dogs leap up and charge through the door. He walks into his house and places his keys in the dish on the counter next to the door before making himself dinner.

When he sat down on the couch, his dogs leapt up and lay down on the couch. A few minutes later, the phone rang. He stands and answers it. "Hello." he tells the person on the line.

The other person on the line answers. "Kalan, its Bella. Sorry to bother you but you're needed at work."

Kalan sighs. "No problem. What is it this time?" He sits there for a few minutes.

"It's Marc. He's trapped himself in the broom closet." Bella responds in code. Kalan laughs and scratches his head.

"Alright, be there soon." He hangs up before she could say anything. He turns and walks back to his front door, picks up his keys and sends the dogs out. He then locks up and walks to Tim's house. When he gets there, Tim is waiting out the front with his driver. "Hey Simon." He calls to the driver, who turned to face him.

"How ya' doin' boss?" The driver responds, seeing Kalan smile and shakes his head.

"Been better." He responds, the driver nods and walks to the four wheel drive.

"What is it?" Tim asked as they walk to the car.

"Bad news, an experiment has failed." Kalan replied as they get into the car.

"Which one." Tim asked. Kalan stares out the window.

"Don't know. Wasn't told much." Kalan turns to face the front of the car.

After a few hours of driving they finally pull into the drive way of Nexus Pharmaceuticals. He watches the main building of the complex come into sight. They pull up into the main car park, set for employees only. Getting himself out of the car and walks down the path before him. A woman came running to him from the main complex a few hundred metres in front of him. He stops and waits for her. Tim walks up and stands beside him.

"What's going on?" Kalan ask as he scratches his head.

"Don't know." Tim replies as he watches the woman as she runs towards them. Standing there, they waited for Tsuma to reach them.

"Kalan, I'm so glad you could make it," she said when she reached them.

"Which one?" Kalan asked, leaning back against the wall. Tsuma looks left and right. "Number Thirty-two." Tim's jaw drops.

"And you want us to kill the leviathan." Tsuma turns to face him, before she nods. Kalan gets up from the wall and starts walking towards the main complex.

"Come on. We get paid by the hour to do this shit." Tim turns away from Tsuma and follows Kalan into the main complex. As they walk down the path to the main complex, they notice the guards that walked around the complex grounds. They all had semi-automatic rifles.

"Pretty high power for a small medical company." Tim comments.

"Yeah if they actually were a small medical company." Kalan replies. Tim nods and says nothing. They walk through the complex in silence. When they reach the main security hub, they travel through the corridors until they reach a small black door. Upon reaching the door, the sensor above recognises them and opens the door. They walk in and continue down the hall. As they pass the labs to either side, they were greeted by the scientist and staff. They were known even though they didn't work there. They worked for a small government department that works on the security and control of government own science facility. The portable CV radio on Kalan's hip buzzes to life, it crackles, signalling interference. He reaches down and grabs the radio from its holder. He brings it up and presses the talk button. "This is Kalan. Speaking?" He whispers into the radio.

"Kalan, this is Ranger, where are you?" The reply comes.

"We're about ten minutes away. Need to make a pit stop." he replies.

"Roger that." The radio falls silent. They continue down the hall, until they reach a pair of blast doors.

When the door opens it leads to a small room, in this room are two shelves, one for books, the other their tools of the trade. As well as the shelves, there is a single table with a simple desktop computer sitting in the middle. The desktop pc stood by itself and was link to the complex purely by its need for electricity; there were no other forms of connections. No network or internet connection. Kalan steps in and takes two headsets from the shelf, passing one to Tim. The wire is then placed between their jackets and t-shirts, linking the headset to the radio. Next to be taken down was two wrist straps, on each strap was a small pocket computer. Not as powerful as the desktop pc but they did the job. Finally equipment harnesses where removed from the shelf, once equipped Kalan turns to the desktop and switches it on. "Off you go." He says concentrating on the desktop and logs in. As he waits for the pc to load he notices the slight pneumatic hiss of the blast door closing. Once closed Kalan is thrown into a world of darkness. He opens the application he was after and is linked to the CCTV circuit. "Right, take a left Ranger and you'll meet Raven, turn right and you will run straight into it," he warns his team.

"What is it?" Ranger had stopped at the intersection, indecision clear on his face.

"A scavenger." Kalan replies. Ranger freezes. He turns to face the camera in his hall.

"You're joking, right?" he asked desperately.

"No, sadly I'm not. Tim is down the hall and heading straight for you and Raven, He then concentrates on Tim charging down the hall, straight into the back of the scavenger. The beast was a walking monstrosity. It looked like a horse whose flesh had gone past the decayed stage and was falling off, and the weird thing was that under the decayed flesh was scale, as hard as diamond. Bursting out from its shoulder blades was two great bat-like wings. Its hooves were long and bladed. It had fang like teeth, dripping with venom. "Right Tim pin it between the shoulder blades." Kalan reminds Tim.

"I know, I know." Tim replies. Kalan closes the application and stands, grabbing a shotgun as he leaves the room. He heads straight for the rest of his team. He charges down the hall, recently cleared of scientist. He chooses his turns to get him to where the scavenger as quick as he can. Taking left and right hand turns recklessly.

At his final turn, he slows down and calms his breathing, before facing the beast. He rushes around the corner and comes face to face with the beast. Without faltering, he raises the gun and fires point blank range at the beast as Tim ducks round the corner to recover. As the recoil throws the gun into his shoulder, he braces, rolling to the left as one of the bladed hooves came slashing down. Picking himself off the ground, he notices a long scorpion like tail on the beast.

"Genetic research my arse. That thing is a weapon," he mutters to himself. He rolls to the left as that tail came sweeping down. Smashing into the floor where he had been kneeling only seconds before. "Damn, that was quick." He stands and charges the beast, getting only a few paces before he leaps aside as the long sweeping tail lashes out a second time. As the tail rises, he sees that it had gouged the solid concrete floor. Tim charges in from the side to blindside the beast. The scavenger lashes out with its bladed hooves as it tries to catch Tim unprepared. As it lashes out Kalan raises his shotgun and aims between the front shoulder blades. He pulls the trigger and a loud bang echoes down the hall. A solid slug exits the barrel to spiral straight into the beast. Instead of stopping, it turns to face him, now agitated, it could only see him. "Shit not good. Tim I'll distract it and you jam your gun down its throat," he exclaims. He raises the gun and fires a few rounds into the beast's face. This had the desired effect of agitating the beast some more. He rolls out the way as the beast goes flying past, intent on rending him head to toe. The bladed hooves gouging twin paths down the wall he had been leaning against. Had he still been there he would have been split into two pieces. "Now." He leaps to his feet and moves to the beast's side. Firing as he moves. Tim charges in from the other side, closely followed by a skinny young man. "Where did you find him?" Kalan asked in shock.

"Who, Marc? He was hiding behind the corner around there." Tim answers pointing to the corner at his back. He then runs into the side of the beast. Its head lashed out and tried to take a bite out of his head. He jams his gun down the throat of the beast, seconds before depressing the trigger. He unloads his magazine into the beast's head and caused grey matter to erupt from the back of its skull. It still tries to tear Kalan into pieces as in its death throes. Kalan walks over to the beast, staring into its eyes. "What are you doing Kalan?" Tim asked. Kalan turns to face him, staring blankly at him.

"I wanted to be the last thing it saw before it died." He leans down and closes the eyes of the now dead beast. "What the hell was that? It took a full clip into the brain and it still took a minute for it to die." Marc shrieks. Kalan faces him and smiles.

"That, my friend, is millions of tax payers' dollars going to work."Marc stares at the beast, dumbfounded. Kalan turns away from it and walks off. He only got a few metres down the hall before he heard footsteps behind him. Without turning, he calls. "What do you want Tim?" Tim speeds up to catch his friend.

"What was that thing? The last one we faced died near instantly when shot." He shrugs.

"An upgrade. Look I don't know what it was; all I know is that we had to kill it." He moves out of the way of three people in hazmat uniforms.

"Oh, look the cleaning crew." A woman says from one of the labs. "Did you boys bag yourself another trophy?" She asked. Tim turns and walks into the lab. He leans against the doorframe.

"Don't you know it. How ya been Meryle?" he asked the woman inside.

"Been bett'r." she replied. Kalan continues down the hall.

"I'll leave you two alone, shall I?" he asked them.

They both turned to him and simultaneously said. "Oh, but the party has only just started." He shakes his head and walks past the lab, leaving them to it.

As he walks down the hall, he becomes lost in thought. [Why had they sent us after that thing? They could have just burned it before it left the lab.] When he got to the elevators, he noticed a slight movement out the corner of his eye. [_What was that? Am I going mad, seeing shadows and things that aren't there.] _He thinks to himself, just before he notices the movement again. He began to wonder who was following him and why. He dismisses the thought and proceeds into the elevator. He takes it to the third floor of the complex. He waits in the corner as people get on and off the elevator. When it reaches the third floor, he steps out and finds himself confronted by a woman. "Sorry I didn't know anyone worked on this floor." She says smiling as she steps aside. Kalan smiles back.

"Me neither. I have the office down the end of the hall." He tells her. She looks over her shoulder to the door at the end of the hall.

"You mean the office with about six locks?" She asked causing him to laugh.

"Yeah, that's the one." He answers as she smiles.

"We worked next to each other and never noticed." She decided to state. He looks to the ceiling, lost in thought.

"Maybe it's the hours; I don't work often, seeing as I only work maintenance."

"It was nice talking to you, but I really must rush off. Bye." He watches her as the door of the elevator closes. When she was out of sight, he walks to his office, unlocking each lock.

He had only just gotten the last lock open when the alarm goes off, followed by the pre-recorded message. 'Please move to your designated assembly area in a calm and orderly fashion'. He sighed and turned away from his door, running to the emergency exit. As he charged down the first flight of stairs, he stops at the door at the second level of the complex. He slipped through collecting anyone he found and sending them on their way. As he passed a window, he looked out and saw that everyone running to the designated areas.

"Kalan, you still in there?" The head of security's voice came through his radio.

"Yeah, just cleaning up." He replied.

"Anything left?" The head of security replied.

"Just a quick sweep around the corner, then I'm out. I'll let you know when I am clear sir." He turns and checks all the corners of the room. As he turns to leave the room, he notices a small flicker of movement at the edge of his view. What do we have here? He thinks to himself. When he turns, all he sees is the window opened slightly and the curtain moving with the wind. He turns and walks out the door. He walks down the main hall at a leisurely pace. Checking all the rooms in case someone was forgotten. He had searched all of the second floor and most of the first floor when he bumps into the woman he met in the hallway to his office.

"Hello, ah, what are you doing here?" she asked shyly. He turns to her and smiles.

"Just some cleaning." She scratches her head and stares.

"What is there to be cleaned?" He smiles and points to the nearest exit hoping to guide her out.

"Nothing that should matter to you. Now could you please exit the building?" He ignores her and continues his checks. When he was half way down the hall, he shouts without looking, "You might want to get out of the building now." As he walks, he wonders what could have set off the alarm. An alarm going off in this place was never a good thing, seeing as it sits on top of the world's most sophisticated and powerful power plant, a micro photon accelerator. The power plant is designed to launch multiple photons around in a loop, harvesting the excess power. It only takes a few amperes to launch the photons around the five hundred foot loop. It uses about twelve volts but generates up to thirty million volts. He had gone through most of the rooms when his radio crackles to life.

"Kalan, we have a problem here." The head of security informs him. He grabs his radio and brings it to his lip.

"Spill. I'm nearly done..." The radio's incoming call light blinks before.

"The beasts are escaping. Get out now or be trapped with them and the meltdown." The head of security tells him. He stops suddenly.

"Repeat did you say meltdown. Is anyone else on the plant sensor?" He checks behind him to make sure.

"No you are the only one, now get out of there. The plant is going into meltdown." He drops his radio and runs for the nearest exit. Ignoring all the rooms, he passes as he exits the building. All he could think of has getting the hell out of there. As he progressed down the hall, he picked up his pace. When he was nearly at the exit, a recording started to play. "Twenty minutes to meltdown. Please leave the area immediately. Anyone still within three hundred metres of the plant will be killed." The message was on a loop so he knew that when it was finished, times up. He broke out into a full sprint. Passing the threshold and watching as everyone that had been evacuated had started running themselves. No one wanted to be in range when the plant blew. He ran towards the pack. Only thinking of getting to safety. As he runs he notices a woman fall down, he adjusts his course to bend down and help her up. "Maybe you should take off your heels." He suggests to her. She nods, bends down, takes off her heels, and runs bare foot to the safety perimeter. When they got there almost everyone else had. "Tim how many are still down there?" He shouts to the crowd. Tim rushes out of the crowd and stands by him.

"Only three. Three minutes to go. They have time." He looks down into the hot zone and frowns. _[They better make it.] _He thinks to himself. Everyone had started to leave the blast range when the first part of the meltdown happened, a beam of light erupted from the centre of the plant. "You all have done your meltdown drills, you should know the drill. But to refresh cover your eyes and turn around. Fall to the ground and lay still for eight mins as the photon energy will remain charged in the air for that long." Tim shouts to those who remained. They all covered their eyes and fell to the ground. Kalan found himself next to Tim, Meryle and the girl he met on his floor. A wave of static washed over the backs of everyone gathered. This was followed by a wave of warm air. Wave after wave of warm air washed over all of the employee's backs. For eight minutes, they remained lying like this. Near the end, Kalan, Tim, Meryle and the girl from his floor had passed out as the strain got to them, not noticing them being pulled backwards by gravitational pull.

As Kalan dreams he sees himself floating through a space of distorted colours. It was all light and no shadow. He finds himself thinking. [This is a strange dream.] As he floats he noticed a voice replies to his unvoiced statement. [_Not a dream, reality, the world between worlds. A gateway if you will. Normally we don't wake the sleepers, but times have called and we are answering. You will go forth into the new lands as our champion]. _He looks around trying to work out where the voice was coming from.

"Who are you? What are you? Where are you?" he shouts.

_[We are everywhere and nowhere. We are not a body of mass as you are; we are the guardians of this transitional plane. We guard all the lands and none. You will go forth as our champion as we cannot walk the planes as you can]. _He stops trying to find the voice and sits down; surprised that he could seeing as he was floating.

"What do you want from me?" The voice returns, this time with others.

_[Go forth; seek the one known as Garithu. From there your journey shall begin. You must complete the three parts of your timeline. Journey, Alliance and Sacrifice. Failure to do these shall result in the destruction of the worlds.] _He looks at his hands before shouting.

"What no help, just cryptic comments none can make sense of." Upon completion, he found himself being pelted with fur as he was moved through the space. As the fur struck him, he felt his body undergo changes; first the bones in his leg shifted forming into those of a canine, only stretched to fit a human body. Though the bones were cracking and breaking he felt no pain. The next thing to change was his hands and feet. His nails stretched and became claws, his feet shifting into foot paws. His ears moved to the top of his head and became pointed, followed closely by his mouth and nose stretching to form his muzzle .He lost sight as his eyes adjusted to the change and then when all these changes where complete he gained a full pelt of fur. Finally, a tail formed, his tailbone pushed through the skin and was covered by muscle, skin and fur until he had a one and a half metre long tail. "This is helping?" he shouted to the unseen voices.

_[You asked for help. Help we give. Make of it what you will, that is the best we can do.] _They reply.

"So the best you can do is mutating me?" he screamed in frustration.

_[This is the form you desired most, you just didn't know it yet; also, it is the best form for you to take into battle.] _They inform him.

"Wait, what battle? I still haven't said if I would help yet." he asked confused. The voices remained silent, leaving him to drift through this sub space. To where he didn't know. Couldn't know. Eventually he was lulled into a deep and restful sleep.

Kalan wakes to find himself laying face up on his back. Suddenly his vision was filled with a strange face. "What is it? Who is it?" the face asked. Taking a minute or two to orient himself, he eventually realises that the face was his friend Tim.

"Tim please stand back and give me some room to breathe." he asked his friend. Tim stands back with a look of shock. "Kalan?" Tim asked shocked. He nods. Tim turns to the others and points.

"I told you so. What have I been saying since he appeared two hours ago." The others look to the ground and sulk. Kalan laughs as he gets up.

"Figured you would recognise me even in this form." Tim just smiles and laughs at the other two. Kalan turn to the woman he met on his floor. "You know I just realised I never asked you your name." She laughs and turns her head away slightly.

"It's Selena. Any idea where we are?" He looks around trying to pinpoint where the hell they were. Tim copies his movements.

"Uh. I don't think we are even on earth?" He suddenly cries out. Kalan turns to him.

"What makes you think that?" Tim just points to the sky. The rest follow his finger and then they noticed that the sky had two moons.

"Ohhh." They all reply. Tim nods and turns around. The others follow his lead and looked around. In the clearing of the forest they stood in, everything looked normal, it was only when they saw the two moons that they realised they were in a different place. All the trees and plant life were very similar to the ones found on earth, even the air they breathed was the same. Kalan stands there, closes his eyes and takes a deep breath in. Using all his other senses, he tried to find something familiar. He was shocked to find that his senses had become heightened, his ears could pick up more sound than before, his sense of smell was far greater and when he opened his eyes they suddenly sharpened and focused on the tiniest of detail. He could see the individual veins on a leaf twenty metres away. As he looked around, he could smell the gases in the air, some of which no human can smell. [What have they done to me?] He thinks to himself. [_Have they improved me or turned me into a monster?] _The others stare at him. Wondering why he had a look of horror on his face. Tim walked up to him and poked him in the chest.

"So what the hell do we do now?" He asked as Kalan turns away. Lost in thought.

"I don't know. I really don't know." He answers as starts to walk away, Selena walks up to him and grabs his arm.

"If you don't know what to do, then where are you going?" She asked trying to stop him.

"Don't know. Anywhere." He answers as he drags his arm out of her grasp and continues to walk away.

"So you're just gonna leave us here alone, then. Well fuck you." Meryle shouts, causing him to stop and turn. Tim stares at him, shaking his head.

"Look mate, we all have to get through this, you walkin' off on us ain't helping." Tim demands; Kalan just shakes his head as he tells the rest. "You're safer without me. Look at me, I'm a freak." They just stare.

"None of us think that." Selena says softly. Kalan stands there speechless. Unable to comprehend what was said. They all walk up to him and stand around.

"We're with you, if you'll accept us, but that has to be up to you" Meryle tells him. All he could do is look from one of his friends to the other. Still speechless. Tim nudges him.

"You should listen to them; they're just trying to help. Come on. You'll need my help, and you know it." Tim lets him know. He looks to his friend, shakes his head and laughs.

"I guess I'm stuck with you." Kalan says as they all start to laugh with him. After a few minutes, they all settle down. Kalan turns his head east and takes a deep breath in, smelling the air as it passes through his nostrils. He tilts his head to the side, ears flopping about as he does, this causes Selena to laugh. He tilts his head the other way.

"What's so funny?" he asks her.

"Hehe, when you tilt your head, your ears flop side to side." she answers. He stares at her for a bit.

"Oh!" She continues to laugh, getting Meryle to join her. Tim shakes his head and Kalan looks east.

"Problem?" Tim asked as Kalan turns to him ignoring the girls.

"Don't know, maybe. Still haven't worked out what each smell is." Kalan responds. Tim nods, but says nothing. Kalan takes another breath in. The smell seemed familiar to him, but he couldn't quite pick it.

"Hey do you see what I see?" Tim asked breaking his train of thought. [_Damn him.] _He thinks as he answers.

"No, I don't see what you see. I was looking elsewhere." He replies as he looks to where Tim is pointing. That was when he notices the smoke. "Shit where did that come from?" Tim laughs and shakes his head.

"Let's go see what that is." Meryle suggested. Tim turns to Kalan. He shrugs and starts walking in the direction of the fire. The other follow close behind him, not wanting to get separated in this strange environment. As they walked through the forest, they all look between the trees to see if they could spot something familiar. They were in no such luck. All the trees were different to what they knew; oddly there was no animal life anywhere.

After several hours of walking Kalan calls the others to rest. "About frikkin' time." Meryle moans, falling down to the ground. Selena collapses right next to her. Tim walks past them to Kalan.

"Something wrong?" He asked when he reached Kalan. Kalan turns and shakes his head, he just points to the girls.

"They can't keep up with us." He says as he points. Tim looks over at the girls and frowns. "Before you say something, you'll regret later. We cannot push them. They'll collapse and we'll have to carry them. Got it?" Kalan asked. Tim just stared and nodded. "Good. Five minutes break then we walk for another hour and a five min break then. Is that okay with you two?" Kalan asks the girls. Meryle just waves her hand and Selena nods. Kalan turns and leans against a tree. He sits down and relaxes. He turns to face them. Watching as they chat and laugh. _How can they laugh at a time like this? And that dream? _He thinks to himself. He continues to watch them, trying to figure out why they were left to be and he was changed. The wind brushes through his fur, teasing all parts of his new form. Flicking his tail side to side. Brushing all parts of his body, flattening his fur against skin. He closes his eyes and enjoys the sensation of the wind through his fur. The wind brushes across his muzzle tickling him, brushing through all the fur on his body. It was only then that he realised he was almost fully naked, only his pants where still on his body. He stayed leaning against the tree, nothing showing on his face what he realised. [_How did my pants survive but the rest of my clothes just suddenly disappear?] _He faces the others and sees that they still wore clothes. _ [So why me? Why am I the special one?] _He remained in thought. He ran his clawed hand through his head fur. "Alright, let's get moving." The others turn and face him.

"Is that five mins already?" Meryle asked. As he walks, he feels the grass and soil pass through the toes on his foot paws. He found this enjoyable and saw no reason to restrict himself inside a pair of shoes again. He heard the others following at a sedate pace, before realising as they fall behind, rushing forward to keep up with him.

As they near the smoke, a few hours later, Kalan notices a distinct smell.

"Tim, do you smell something burning?" Tim turns to face him. "No, why do you ask?" He asked in response. Kalan just shakes his head. He continues to walk in silence. Selena walks in front of him and places a hand on his chest.

"What's the matter?" She asked. He tilts his head to the side and looks at her.

"Nothing, why?" he replied..

"You just seem upset by something." She responds. He shakes his head.

"It's nothing, don't worry." He tries to dismiss. She stares at him before nodding and turning away.

"Well if you say so, but seeing as we're stuck together, you might as well let us know if something is wrong." She tells him before joining the rest. Tim walks up and nudges him.

"She's right and you know it. Come on, spill." Tim tells him. He turns to face the west. The direction the burning smell was strongest.

"Fine. In that direction I can smell something burning, not wood, but something is definitely burning." Kalan relents.

"See isn't that better. Tim you take Meryle and go see what that smoke is about, Kalan and I'll go see what that smell is." She orders. Tim laughs, whilst Meryle glares at her.

"Who died and made you boss? I thought Kalan was the leader of this adventure." Meryle growls to Selena.

"Just do as she says." Kalan tells them before turning to walk in the direction of the burning smell. Tim and Meryle look at him shocked. "Before you ask, I don't want us fighting each other, we have to work together to stay alive." He tells them before they could protest. As he walks away, he notices the others following him.

"Can't let you have all the fun." Tim says as he walks past.

"Yay, we're goin' on a hunt." Meryle screams with delight. Kalan shakes his head and follows the scent. Tim and Meryle fall back and allow Kalan to take the lead.

They walk for about fifteen minutes before coming near to the smell. Tim walks forward, crouching low. "Pah. Smells like someone is burning." Kalan turns to him.

"Try smelling it with my nose." Tim shakes his head.

"Not in this lifetime." Meryle says as she pushes down on Tim's head in jest.

"Quiet. Don't insult him. He's kept us alive so far." Kalan steps between the two of them, holding one hand up. "Shh." He creeps forward, lowering himself to the ground. He slowly crawls forward, creeping closer and closer to the edge of the trees. Upon nearing, he hears voices.

"There is more of them, find them and bring them to me." One of the voices commands. He sits there and hears footsteps and figures that they are moving away. He turns his body around and crawls back to his friends. As he moves, he thinks to himself. [What do they mean there are others]. He keeps moving. As he nears, he hears the boots of many men. He stands and runs to his friends, assuming he had been found.

"Move, go split up. Just run." He shouts as he runs. His friends turn as he runs past, taking a few seconds to register before charging off themselves. Tim and Meryle in one direction and Selena following close after Kalan.

Selena and Kalan run to the east whilst Tim and Meryle run to the west. As they ran, Kalan keeps his pace down to allow Selena to keep up.

"After them. They all must die." The voice from before shouts loudly. "Go west; those two going east are mine." Kalan picks up Selena and carries her away, picking up his pace. He races off, chased by the men behind him. He was running with the wind chasing him, so he caught a scent that he hadn't expected.

"Why can I smell a cougar?" He thought out loud.

"Uh. What do you mean?" Selena asked. He shakes his head.

"Don't worry, just hold on." She grips his back fur and uses it as a hold. "Not so hard." Kalan grunts. She just laughs. He keeps running, the pursuers dogging them with every step. "You're mine now." A voice growls. Suddenly bursting from the bushes ahead of Kalan. He quickly back pedals and charges off in the other direction .Not seeing the cliff as he ran.

He charges straight over the edge, and allows himself to fall. He pulls Selena to his chest and has his back facing the ground.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"This way at least one of us will survive. Don't argue." he replies. She stares into his eyes as they fall, unable to say anything. She notices something Kalan doesn't. "So that's why I could smell a cougar." he says suddenly.

"Kalan, uh, what is that?" Selena asked suddenly pointing past his head.

"What?" He turns to where she was pointing. "I don't know." He continued to stare at what she had pointed out. It was like a heat haze in the air, except this had a dark centre. As they fell, he noticed that they fell straight for it. They close their eyes just before they hit it and as they pass through, they feel a tug and they find themselves jerked to the side. The sudden momentum change caused both of them to pass out.