Chapter 1
1 - THE WILD
Wooosh!
That was the sound of the rainforest shrubs flying in the wind as Braiden was running as fast as he could.
Dead last. That’s where he was right now. In recent times, the distance between him and the others was getting smaller and smaller. However, finishing last and always losing was something he had sadly gotten used to.
In his Bear form, he tried to close the gap, but the others were just too fast, and he quickly realised that no matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t going to catch them. Despite impending embarrassment, he intended to finish the race, but his nose started to twitch.
One of his competitors left a scent trail adjacent to the path of trees that everyone else had followed. With the air forcing its way into his nostrils, a curious Braiden, deciding to chase the scent, made a sharp left turn.
Without much difficulty, Braiden made his way out of the tunnel but saw no one in front of him. Being last place felt inevitable, so he smiled as he enjoyed his incredibly brief moment in the forefront.
As expected, the lead was lost even more quickly than it was gained, and soon the race was over.
Once that was done, they all shifted to human form. Their bare feet were muddy and covered in cuts, but that was something they were used to.
When they shifted back into humans, they were the same height as their animal counterparts on all fours. This made the shapeshifter animals much larger than the normal ones.
“Wow, that was tiring!” Chiara panted as her blue eyes and ginger hair gleamed in the sunset. She was short and slim, and her face was scattered with freckles.
“Well, for Cheetahs that must’ve been tiring, but I wasn’t even going my hardest,” said Wesley while breathing heavily. He was skinny and had curly jet black hair that reached his ears, which was currently frizzy and even messier than usual.
“Well, that’s a lie,” said Braiden. He was tall, had a short afro full of endless tangles, and had more body fat than the others.
“No, it’s not,” Wesley replied.
“Yeah, right,” said Eidan. “You’re so sweaty that your hair is practically stuck to your head.” Eidan was a leaner and slightly shorter version of Braiden, who was his twin brother, though they weren’t identical.
“I can smell it on you as well,” Braiden said distastefully.
“Don’t act like I’m the only one that’s soaked. And this is just a one-off.”
“No, that happens all the time. Why do you think he smells so bad?” laughed Gwen as she took several twigs out of her dark hair. She was by far the tallest of the kids and was of East Asian descent.
“This is the jungle. We all smell bad,” Wesley said as he squinted his dark eyes and ran his dirty fingers through his mud-covered hair.
“Benjamin, you didn’t tell us there was a shortcut,” said Braiden.
“Huh, there was a shortcut?” Chiara asked quickly.
“What shortcut?” Benjamin said with a guilty look on his face.
He was well over six feet, strong-looking, and had a friendly smile. He had a large, messy afro and pale, white skin. His eyes, brows, hair, and beard were also white because of albinism. He was Braiden and Eidan’s uncle and alpha of what was left of the Bear sleuth. He wore a thorned necklace, which meant he was always bleeding from that area.
“You’re such a bad liar,” Braiden said.
“You’re one to talk,” Gwen smiled.
Braiden wasn’t best pleased at this comment.
“During the race, I was scanning through the ground, and I saw Braiden running through a tunnel,” said Eidan.
Benjamin sighed, “I guess no one can hide from Eagle eyes.”
“Our vision is Superman-level.”
“Why did you lie?” Wesley asked Benjamin.
“If I could get you to think I was faster than I actually am, it would cause you to work harder without even knowing you were doing it.”
“Hmm, pretty clever,” Gwen admitted.
“Yeah, sorry I ruined it,” Braiden said while having a guilty look similar to the one that Benjamin had.
“No worries,” Benjamin replied. “It’s good you were observant and noticed it in the first place, and besides, my big head will be able to think of something else in no time.”
“Speaking of time, did you time our run?” Chiara asked eagerly.
Benjamin checked his stopwatch and told them the times they got.
“You know, I’m low-key disappointed,” she said.
“Same,” Gwen agreed. “We should’ve beaten that slow human world record by even more.”
“Hold on,” said Benjamin. “You know my rule on disrespecting humans.”
“It’s not disrespectful, it’s true,” Chiara said. “We’re just better.”
“Physically, yes, that is true, but that doesn’t make them inferior beings. We are more human than animal after all.”
“Well, that’s not what I hear all the other adults saying,” said Gwen. “Not that I particularly care what they think about anything.”
“Most don’t see it, but I admire how hard humans work to overcome their many limitations. If we had the same strength as them, we would probably be the ‘inferior’ group, and although it’s just my opinion, I believe we could learn a lot from them.”
“Let’s just say there are plenty who disagree, unfortunately,” said Eidan.
“Well, now we’ve got the warm-up out of the way,” Benjamin said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “It’s time for the fire test!”
“How was that the warm-up?!” Braiden panted to himself in disbelief.
