We could have gone through the park to the pigeon pen, passing Cob’s grave and through the wild overgrowth of nature, but we didn’t.

We chose the wall, the house, and the blood-free environment. And we called it practice, but it was in reality an escape. I didn’t want to see cob again, even plastered over the street and rotten beyond recognition, dead and decayed, he reminded me of the happy and peaceful past. However, the times had changed, and I didn’t have the heart to remember him.

Singer came with us. She had it easy. Flying in the sky with no predator, no chains, only freedom. And she played a key role in the plan this time around. She became Tigers' eyes. I was the nose and he was the brains. I had no say in it and our guest liked her role.

Singer took flight first and we waited behind the wall. I could smell no one on the other side of it; However, Tiger didn’t let me say anything. Sure there was the smell of blood, but that was all. Important thing was that the flesh and blood it no longer held any sway on me. I had my doubts, but I was sure now: hunger played a role in deciding how, and how much the sweet aroma really affected me.

Soon Singer returned, singing.

Hurry up. The dog things are trying to break the cage. She tweeted, did an amazing flip right above our heads, and returned the way she had come, back toward the pigeon pens. Tiger’s tail stopped swaying. He gave me a glance and gestured me to follow him, with his tail. Apparently, his tail wasn’t a menacing creature with its own consciousness; it swung and swayed only when he allowed it to.

He climbed the stack of bricks and jumped onto the wall. I followed him up, but down the other side was difficult. We were ten feet up and it was not a small height. He made a graceful landing on the ground, a few feet away from the messy remains of the dog. Flies buzzed over the macabre, but that didn’t matter. It was a distraction and I liked it. However, my heart throbbed with anxiousness.

‘It’s too high. You’ll break something.’ My mind called, trying to deter me from making the jump. ‘Then you’ll run out of the warmth and will not be able to escape the screamers. Then you will die.’

The eerie thoughts populated my mind.

‘Are you waiting for the birds to fall from the sky? The cat looked at me; he was growing restless with every passing second. Come on: jump. He urged. But my panic continued.’

It’s a stupid idea. You should have gone through the park. Cob’s dead. Maybe others are too! Let’s escape. Let’s go back to Kalki. She can take care of you. She will find Kanti and you’ll have another family.

I’m leaving. And the cat disappeared into the thicket.

I barked behind him, but he didn’t stop and I didn’t call again. It was stupid of me. I was basically yelling our plan out loud for anyone listening to hear.

Let’s go. Said my mind, but the heart didn’t agree. I put one foot over the wall and the rest of me would pull back. Singer returned soon and circled over my head.

Are you going to leave him alone, too?

But it’s too high?

He’s doing this for you. Remember? She tweeted and then flew away again. She didn’t try to coax me or offered me treats and suggestions. She left the decision to me. However, she was right. He was doing it for me and there was no way he was going to perform a miracle this time around. He needed me. I had to be there or something bad was bound to happen. He could have died.

My fear didn’t disappear, but I had convinced myself. I followed the cat. Warmth flowed down my veins and I changed, ever so slightly. My nails grew longer, thicker, legs followed. I hung down from the wall like the cat had to reduce the drop length. I dug the nails of my forelegs into the wall, pulled my rear legs up, tried digging them into the walls too, but it was too late by them.

My weight pulled me away from the wall. I fell with my back facing the ground and my legs flailing helplessly toward the sky.

A light flashed past my mind when I touched the ground. I lost consciousness for a short while, really short while. It helped that it happened because I would have screamed in pain otherwise, and that would have been bad in multiple ways. The scream would have been loud, and I would have attracted at least one of the screaming dogs; meaning all of them.

I was on the ground, and I hadn’t attracted unwanted attraction, but it was not all good news. I was down on the warmth again and I was changing. The heat was flowing unperturbed by my intention. It had found a leak and there was no stopping it now. I could resist, but that would only waste it. The biggest effect was on my back. The warmth must have tried to save me and flown to my back which was in a critical condition.

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I rolled to my left and heaved to my feet. The strength flowing inside me was more than I could handle. I could feel something trying to grow out of my back. It didn’t help that I had grown to almost twice my regular size. The feeling of power was intoxicating. I was suddenly larger than Cob had been when he had attacked me. I could easily reach Kalki’s waist. And that was saying something.

COME TO ME!

The voice was back with a vengeance, however. It rattled my mind and painted my sight red. I got into a mad rush toward the cat. He was hiding somewhere and yet to act —most likely waiting for me or for something else. He was smart and probably knew what he was doing, but he didn’t know what was coming. I was taller than the weed’s and could sense the world infinitesimally more clearly than before.

I didn’t think it would have been a problem had I gone blind. But blindness in my case also meant losing my mind, and that was not an option. I needed to get the screaming dogs to follow me and get them away from the site before it happened. And it was happening; my sight was reddening, and I was losing my sight.

The screamers didn’t scare me, not when I was like that. However, the thought of scaring the cat made me afraid, and that fear slowed the redness slightly.

Tiger was hiding behind the building that smelled of wet paint. Singer landed atop his head and tweeted her finds to him. I heard them, but it didn’t matter. I knew what I needed to do.

Of course, Tiger grew annoyed at her for thinking she could abuse him like that and swiped a paw above his head. He didn’t hit or wanted too, and the bird took flight, which was a job well done.

However, Singer sat on his head again. He meowed in irritation and, jumped at her, clapping his paw to catch her like he would a prey. She escaped.

You little sing-singing, birdy! He chased her.

I barked to let them know I was coming, but what came out of my throat was a guttural warning no different from the screamers. It made them scramble. Tiger cried in panic and climbed the building. The naked bricks made excellent platforms for him to climb; while the bird flew into the air tweeting profanities of the like only hu-mans knew.

I didn’t stop for them, but I told them the plan.

Wait for me to take them away, and then free the pigeons.

Spring? Tiger called, but I was past the building by then and rushing into the last stretch of the weeded plot before the road. Three large, aggressive strides later I was out on the road with the building behind me. I stopped there to get a clear look at what I was dealing with. The dogs were atop the roof of the house, biting into the wooden skeleton of the pigeon pen to get inside. There were stairs right next to the main gate that I could take to reach the roof.

I didn’t have to think much. I could smell them, and they could smell me. It worked both ways. And the way I was releasing the scent they were going to be especially interested in me. There were three of them. Two turned toward me, while the third one kept biting into the cage. It had held up for so long, but I could smell fresh blood in the air. The pigeons had all scrambled to the back of the cage.

They screamed.

The two were salivating and waited for no one. They rushed down the stairs, faster than the last time. The third one, however, remained. I howled and he finally noticed me.

They obviously remembered chasing me, but there was a different bite in their screams this time around. I waited for them to arrive from the gate, then turned on my heels and followed the same path I had last time. I thought they would jump from the roof and break their legs, but they were smarter than that, or had gotten smarter after eating one of their own, and who knew how many more.

They chased me, galloping though the weed-like wild horses. I was slower than them. I let the warmth flow and with it the stagnated redness of my eyes started spreading once again. I managed to get ahead but the price was too large. I was changing too rapidly. I feared I might not return back to my original shape and size if the change completed. I would become one of them: a hungry monster.

However, the three followed me step for step, gait for gait, creeping up to me. Did I get slower? No. The warmth was coursing through me. My expanded muscles throbbed with vitality, yet I was not faster than them. It was crazy, but not unbelievable. They had accepted the change, while I was fighting it. There was no way we were on the same page.

However, I still had my trump card. The wall had already proved effective in stopping the dogs. They were helpless against its height, unable to climb, making it the perfect place to outrun them.

Well, I knew they wouldn’t be able to climb up. The question was whether I would be able to or not. Nails, legs, jump; I climbed. One struck the wall right behind me, just at a split second difference; it didn’t die, but it fell back with a disfigured face. It had broken everything there was. Another slowed and came to a halt just beneath the wall, but the last one, the slowest and the largest one among them who was also their leader copied me. And he made it over the wall.

That wasn’t planned!