“You’re very cool,” I told her. “And very pretty.”
“Thank you.”
She turned back towards the pile of leaves and bounded into it, running much faster on four legs.
“What now?” I asked Hawthorne.
“For now, we let her enjoy this, and then I’ll help her shift back.”
Aria ran around the yard, leaping and bounding over things as she got used to being on all fours.
“Did she shift?” Leo asked, joining us.
“Yeah. She’s a natural,” Hawthorne said, a bit of pride in his voice.
“She’s so cute! I’m sad I missed the first time.” Leo said. He said it like he missed her first steps.
Aria came back around the house and jumped at Leo, who caught her easily. As she did, she scratched his arm slightly.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” I asked, running over to examine the red marks on his arms.
“I’m fine,” he assured. “Shifters have advanced healing, so these will be gone quickly.” He faced Aria. “But your mom doesn’t have that, so you need to be careful not to hurt her, okay?”
“Okay!” she said. She leapt from his arms and went about her running once more.
“For as young as she is, she’s very large in wolf form,” Leo noted.
“I was going to say the same,” Hawthorne agreed.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“Nothing in particular,” Hawthorne assured. “It’s just an observation.”
She ran around for about an hour more before finally looking tired. “I didn’t know she could have more energy than she already did,” I said as she laid on my leg in the grass. I pet herhead gently, the same way I would run my fingers through her hair.
“Yeah, young pups seem to never stop,” Leo said. “My sister’s son is a menace.”
I laughed. “How old is he?”
“Six,” Leo said. “Maybe I could invite them over sometime. It would be good for Aria to play with other shifters.”
“That sounds great,” I said. It would be good for her to find friends who knew what it was like to shift. To my knowledge, all the children at her daycare were human.
“Alright little one, how about we shift back?” Hawthorne said.
“I don’t know how,” she told him.
“I want you to close your eyes and feel your wolf. Can you feel it?”
She scrunched her face hard. “I think so.”
“Good. Now I want you to pretend you have a nice house in your mind. Can you see it?”
“Yea. It’s a purple house with stripes.”
I laughed at that.
“That sounds like an excellent house,” Hawthorne said. “Now, I want you to lead your wolf back into the house. And don’t worry, the house has plenty of fun things for her to do.”
