She’d thought she’d been livingherdream, back in the city. And it was true: shedidlove her job. But even after only a few days away from it, she realized how tired out she’d been. The long hours and demanding clients had, somewhere along the way, become less of an exhilarating challenge and more just… well,tiring.
But that doesn’t mean I want to throw it all away!Natasha thought firmly as she started her car. She was just in need of a break – that was all. A month out here and she’d be climbing up the walls in boredom. No matter how much the place had changed, and no matter how beautiful the scenery was. And what would she even do out here? She wasn’t a baker – and shedefinitelywasn’t a park ranger!
Nodding to herself as she began her drive back up to the cabin she’d rented on the mountain, Natasha told herself once again:It’s only a month’s vacation. That’s all.
Chapter 2
All right,Kieran thought grimly as he approached the (tiny-looking) supermarket,are you going to let me buy food, or are we going to have a problem?
His griffin blinked lazily at him, golden eyes glittering. Then it yawned, and rested its beaked head on its lion’s paws, tail flicking gently where it was curled by its side. Kieran wasn’t sure what kind of answerthatwas exactly, but at the least it didn’t seem like the griffin was about to burst into life right at this very second?
Then again, who knowswhat’sgotten into it lately…
Going out in public at the moment was a risk. It didn’t matter how docile his griffin seemed one moment. In the next, it could suddenly burst forth in a flurry of wings and feathers and fur, and Kieran would have to hightail it out of wherever he was before he was seen.
So far, he’d been able to stop his unexpected transformations until he’d been somewhere relatively safe – a back alley for example, or behind some dense scrub. But these sudden, uncontrolled shifts were getting harder and harder to contain, and Kieran had known he couldn’t stay in his urban, highly populated hometown as long as he couldn’t control when or where his griffin was going to insist on taking form. Eventually, someone was going to see him shift – and that’d be a disaster for everyone.
So I really had no choice but to come back here, I guess. Not that I’m complaining. Well, not aboutthat, anyway. I could definitely complain a lot about the fact my griffin seems to have gone absolutely crazy for absolutely no reason it cares to explain.
Kieran had good memories of Girdwood Springs, though he hadn’t been here since he was a child. His Great Uncle Henry had had a big house up on the mountain, and Kieran and his parents had often gone to visit him for vacations – of course, it had just been fun to get out of the city anyway, but therealappeal of the place had been the fact his great uncle had owned a lot of the land surrounding the house, and so it had been possible for him and his parents to shift and fly relatively freely while they were here, as well as pad around the forest, hunting for food and just enjoying the strength and freedom of their griffin forms.
It’d been something Kieran didn’t get to do often in the city, and he’d always looked forward to these trips. He hadn’t really thought much at the time about what a recluse his great uncle had been – living all alone in such a huge house, seeing no one except him and his parents, as far as Kieran knew.
But he’d just assumed that, unlike a lot of other shifters, who’d embraced urban lifestyles and wanted to mix amongst humans, Henry had simply wanted to live freely as a shifter, and had bought a home and a piece of land that would allow him to do as he pleased without being bothered by people, or having to worry about whether someone might see him shifting, or flying, or just running around in the trees, even if, as griffins, they still had to be more cautious than other shifter types – after all, a bear or a wolf shifter in the woods wouldn’t really be thought of as anything remarkable. But a winged, eagle-headed lion… that was a different story.
And they definitely don’t belong in a supermarket either,Kieran told the griffin as he made his way across the road, heading toward the entrance. He knew it didn’t matterwhathe said, though: if the griffin decided it wanted to be in a supermarket, then there really wasn’t a lot he could do about it. He could only hope he could suppress his shift for long enough to get out of the dairy aisle.
But still, he also needed food. So he really didn’t have much choice.
If you can just wait another hour or so, then you can shift all you want, I promise,Kieran told the griffin.
That was why he’d come back here, after all. Great Uncle Henry’s house had been the one place Kieran knew of where he’d always been able to shift freely, with no concern about being seen. And since his griffin had decided to start forcing him to shift uncontrollably, it had been the one place where he’d figured he might be safe from prying eyes until his griffin had gotten whatever was upsetting it out of its system, and it went back to behaving normally – in other words, workingwithhim, rather than against him.
It hadneveracted like this before, not even when he’d been a child and still learning how to shift. It had always seemed like an ally and a friend – a warm presence sitting within him, a part of his nature that he could call on at will. Now, it seemed more like an enemy that was trying to… well, if not actuallydestroyhim, then at least make his life pretty difficult. It didn’t seem to care anymore that being seen as a griffin would be disastrous for them both – or at least, very, very awkward.
Now, it seemed to be determined to burst out and show itself to any passerby, and Kieran couldn’t, for love nor money, get any answers from it aboutwhyit was suddenly behaving this way.
And so: he’d come back here, to Girdwood Springs, the remotest place he knew, where he knew he’d be able to shift in relative peace. His parents had inherited Great Uncle Henry’s house when he’d passed on, and although they’d always had some vague plans to fix up the enormous, crumbling house and perhaps sell it or perhaps rent it out to holiday makers, they’d never really gotten around to it – though Kieran was used to them being like that. If procrastination had been a sporting event, they could have gone to the Olympics with it.
Kieran could still remember the piles of plywood and board that had been heaped up around their home while his father got around to completing whatever ‘project’ he’d set his mind to, while his mother, a painter, usually left all her commissions to the last minute and would have to stay up pulling all-nighters once her delivery dates started to loom. It had been a chaotic household to grow up in, and Kieran had to admit that perhaps his own preference for liking things to be neat, tidy and organized stemmed from those days.
But his parents’ slowness to ever get anything done had, at least, worked out for him just this once. It meant they’d never really gotten around to selling or repairing Great Uncle Henry’s house, aside from getting the wiring re-done earlier this year – and so now, here it was, a convenient, isolated bolt hole just when he needed one.
At least until I sort out what’s going on with my griffin, and why it wants to sabotage my life,Kieran thought, clenching his jaw as he stood outside the supermarket, steeling himself to go inside.I just need a few supplies. And then perhaps I can organize for deliveries – do they do that out here?
He wasn’t sure such a tiny place would deliver groceries, but if they did, then he knew it’d be safer just to have things dropped off at his uncle’s place rather than having to come into town once or twice a week to stock up. He supposed hunting for his own food in griffin form was also a possibility… but to be honest, Kieran was a bit out of practice at hunting, and he wasn’t sure he should rely on it. Besides which, it’d never been his first choice – he kind of liked deer! They were very cute!
Kieran grabbed a basket, making his way quickly down the aisles. He wanted to be in and out of the supermarket as quickly as he could.
Okay – bread. That’s always good. Apples. One a day keeps the doctor away, I guess. Bananas? Sure, why not. And granola. Hmm. Meat? Since the wiring and the power generator were repaired Ishouldhave electricity, but who knows what kind of state the appliances are in – if there are any there at all?
Kieran didn’t have a lot of time to mull over his choices, but he supposed it was good he really wasn’t that much of a fussy eater. As long as he had something in his belly he was satisfied – which was probably just as well, since both his parents had beenspectacularlyawful cooks.
He made his way up and down the aisles, walking briskly, grabbing at anything he happened to see that he thought wasn’t too perishable, along with a few more daring items like some steak, eggs, and milk. Hopefully the generator could be gotten up and running, and he’d have some way to keep them cold!
Okay. Almost done. Maybe I’ll just get some canned beans or something like that… oh. Huh.
Apparently there’d been a run on canned beans or something, because there was only a single, lonely can sitting on the shelf. Ugh, and they were kidney beans, too – his least favorite.
