‘Faster!’ her thoughts screamed at her. ‘Don’t let him catch you.’

Her heart hammered in her chest as she ran through Guasha Forest. Her eyes widened in terror, as she glanced behind her. She needed to get away. She needed to escape. She…. Her foot caught on the roots of a tree and she fell. She hit her head and her world went black.

Her head hurt and her chest felt like it had been caved in. Each little shift of her chest, as she tried to breathe, felt like she was being stabbed by a thousand knives. She brought a shaking hand up to her chest, hoping to grab hold of the chain that held the single pearl her father had brought back for her from his last fishing trip. But she could not find the chain. Her breath hitched as she struggled not to cry. That was the only thing she had left of her father. He’d left again on another fishing trip and never came home.

Whimpers escaped her as she slowly brought her hand down to the part of her chest that hurt the most. Her skin under her fingers felt hot to the touch, but the very center of her chest felt numb. She continued to feel around, and bumped into something smooth, cold, and immoveable in the very center of her hot skin. Running her fingers over the cold bump a couple times, she realized it was the pearl she thought she’d lost.

She didn’t understand. Her fall hadn’t been hard enough to lodge the pearl into her chest. She would have been dead if that were the case. And why did her skin feel hot? Ponderosa pulled her fingers away and looked at her hand. Flakes of black skin coated her fingertips. She had been burned. By whom? And why? Her questions were soon answered when she heard a door open. She turned her head to see a man in black robes step into the room.

“I was wondering when you were going to wake from your little tumble,” he said with a smile. “I hope you like the modifications I made to your necklace. You now have the ability to become anything you wish. Isn’t that wonderful?!”

Ponderosa didn’t respond. Her mind was trying to understand what this man was saying.

“Why don’t I give you a little demonstration? Hmm?”

Before Ponderosa could ask what he meant, he put his hands behind his back and said, “Falcon.”

An image of a falcon came to her mind and she felt her body start to twist and shift. Her flesh tingled as feathers started to sprout out of her body. She screamed. Her cries changed from human to that of the bird of prey. She flopped around as her body continued to change, trying to stop it and become human again. However, her panic only seemed to speed up the transformation.

When the changes stopped, she felt utterly exhausted. The man in black robes approached. Ponderosa tried to get away from him, but she was too tired to move far before he picked her up.

“Such a pretty thing you are,” he said. “We’re going to have so much fun together!”

‘No!’ Ponderosa yelled in her head as she woke with a gasp.

She shivered and curled herself into a ball as she wept. She hadn’t had dreams like that for many years. What had triggered it? She struggled to calm herself down by telling herself that she was okay, and that the new moon wasn’t for a few more weeks. She lay her arm over her eyes and took more conscious deep breaths. Her heartbeat was almost back to normal when she heard.

‘Help us!’

Ponderosa sat up slowly and looked around her dimly lit cottage.

‘Help us,’ the woman’s soft plea said again.

She jerked when images of the central most cottage in Mediocre Village flashed through her mind.

‘Please,’ the voice begged.

Ponderosa grabbed her head with both hands and shook it as her heart twisted in fear. ‘I’m sorry,’ she replied. ‘I can’t. I can’t!’

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The voice didn’t return, leaving Ponderosa to wonder if she’d made the voice up because of her dream. However, a knowing stirred in her gut that the voice and the image she saw in her mind was not imaginary. It didn’t help that the voice sounded familiar. Ponderosa curled back up into a ball. She wept. She hated feeling afraid. She hated the fact that another woman was suffering due to the machinations of the man who forced her to be able to transform.

Eventually, Ponderosa was able to get back to sleep, despite being troubled in her heart. She wanted to help. She did. She just didn’t dare risk getting caught by the man again.

A sound knock on her door woke her the next day. Moaning, Ponderosa stumbled out of bed to see who it was. She cracked open the door just a little against the early morning light.

“Goodness, Ponderosa, are you alright?” her friend, Krissy, asked before Ponderosa could see who stood on her porch.

Ponderosa nodded then stepped back to invite her friend inside.

“Are you sure you are alright?” Krissy asked again. “You look awful.”

A small smile played on her lips before she walked over to the table where her writing kit sat. ‘Didn’t sleep well last night,’ she wrote.

“Please tell me it isn’t because of stalker Jerome,” Krissy said, knowing the town drunk had a thing for Ponderosa.

Ponderosa shook her head. ‘Something else triggered my restless night.’

Krissy pursed her lips. “You still have your quartz and calcite don’t you?”

Ponderosa nodded. ‘I even cleaned them just a few days ago,’ she wrote, knowing that would be Krissy’s next question.

“Alright.”

‘What brings you by today?’ Ponderosa asked.

“I came to see if you would be willing to help me in Ghinf Village. Shalice is nearing her delivery date.”

‘Give me an hour to collect my things.’

“Thank you,” Krissy said, pulling Ponderosa into a tight embrace. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

Ponderosa hugged her back and nodded against her shoulder. It was times like this that she hated not being able to speak.

Krissy let her go then left the cottage. They would meet up at the edge of town then make the two day trip to Ghinf Village. However, how long they stayed was entirely up to Shalice and her baby. The last time they had helped Shalice, it had been a several day ordeal and very touch and go for Shalice and her baby boy, who was now a rambunctious three year old. When everything was settled, Ponderosa and Krissy made sure to leave strict instructions about what she needed to do to bolster herself should she end up pregnant again.

It was their hope that, should Shalice conceive again, she would have an easier pregnancy and delivery. However, they knew from experience that some women had difficult labors no matter how well the mother prepared and nourished herself and her baby. Since that was the case, Ponderosa packed all of the dried herbs she had that would help keep Shalice stable throughout the process.

As Ponderosa helped Shalice lay in bed with her baby girl, she could not help but think of the voice that had spoken to her this morning.

‘Help us…. Please.’

‘Us?’ she thought, seeing Shalice smile as her baby girl took her breast into her mouth to start feeding.

‘Yes, us,’ the woman’s voice replied tiredly.

Ponderosa started, not expecting to hear the woman so soon after refusing to go get her.

“Are you alright, Ponderosa?” Krissy asked, causing Shalice to look up at her.

She nodded then motioned that she nearly fell asleep and should take a brief walk.

Krissy nodded her understanding. Shalice had gone through a tough 24 hour labor and none of them had been able to rest for long.

‘Please,’ the woman’s voice said, softer this time, as Ponderosa stepped out to walk around Shalice’s home. ‘I am a dead woman, but he cannot find out that I am with child. I don’t want him to have any knowledge about or physical access to my child—dead or alive.’

Exhaling, Ponderosa blinked back her tears. She felt even more conflicted now that she knew that the woman that was calling for her help was pregnant. She knew the methods that man used to bring someone under his control. A baby would be an easy target because they wouldn’t know how to, or that they needed to, resist.

Time was not on the woman’s side. She had about four months before that man realized she was pregnant. Ponderosa knew that if she did go, they would need a swift escape. That meant transforming into something that would keep them all safe and out of his hands. Shuddering at the prospect, Ponderosa shoved those thoughts to the back of her mind. She had a weak and tired mother she needed to take care of right now. So, as much as it pained her to not begin her preparations now, the woman in Abundare needed to wait.