Chapter 2 To run swiftly

I was just walking back from the bakery when I heard the most painfully loud sound I had ever heard. Discounting the sound of our 'mistress's' voice. Instantly, most of the windows in the building above me shattered. I dropped the bag of bread on the ground and leaped, trying to avoid the deadly shards falling toward me. Time seemed to slow down. I watched the nearest shard twinkle as it caught the light, rotating slowly as it fell. I glanced above it, and my eyes widened for a moment. I caught a glimpse of the tips of a pair of batlike wings, one of them hanging limply as if broken, and the end of a long serpentine tail, disappearing onto the roof of our orphanage. Then suddenly the glass was falling at a normal rate again as my feet hit the ground...on the other side of the street.

I stared at the gap, numbly watching the taxis roar past, honking and cursing just as they had always done. It almost felt like they shouldn't, like it was wrong that the entire world was going to continue as it always did, while I changed.

I shook my head sharply, aware that I was wasting time. Something must have tossed me, I thought. There is really no other explanation. I had to get back to Nan. But first, I would have to find the bread. If it wasn't destroyed.

I dodged cars and honking busses, running across the street, all the while wondering what the heck that...thing...was on top of our orphanage.

I reached the sidewalk where I had been standing, only to find the loaf of bread drampled beyond repair. I sighed. Nan is NOT going to be happy.

I plodded dejectedly back down the block, trying to think of ways to avoid or negate Nan's wrath. By the time I got to the door, I still hadn't thought of anything.

As it turned out, I didn't need to. Although what I came home to might not have been any better. I opened the front door to find utter chaos. All the younger children were either screaming at the top of their lungs or trying to 'see' what was happening. Some of the older boys had started a fight with the toilet paper, while others were leaning out the broken windows, trying to watch the police cars that were arriving by the second in front of the orphanage. And, over it all, Nan was screaming at the top of her lungs, frantically giving orders to whoever passed by her, screaming at the top of her lungs that a bomb must have gone off and everybody was going to die, and would smeone please get her a glass of icewater before she fainted?

The only remotely calm party in the place were the older girls, who were attempting to calm the little kids, and who were only having a limited amount of success.

I ran to the fridge, rabbing a glass on the way. Dumping some icecubes in it, and filling it with water from the tap, I scramled through the mass of frightened children and handed it to Nan, who actually gave me a greatful look from her pudgy face before turning and shouting at one of the boys, who was wrapping toilet paper around one of her expensive vases sitting in the corner.

I looked around, wincing at the volume of screaming, panicing young children, and yelling, shouting older ones. My ead began to pound, and suddenly I swayed, feeling dizzy from the force of the noise assaulting my eardrums.

I couldn't stand it anymore. An insant later, I found myself at the door, then at the street, then at the next street, all in one breath. I stopped, my head still pounding, and turned slowly back the way I had come. I didn't understand, at first, what had just happened. Then I realized where I was, and sat down abruptly in shock. I...I ran...but...how...? My thoughts were jumbled, too incoherent to come to any conclusion. I let my instincts take control, and ran.

Hours later, I woke up, suddenly, with a feeling of urgency. A moment later, I realized why. I was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by bushes and trees. Everything came rushing back. The bread, the scream, the glass breaking, the seemingly impossible leap I had made, the orphanage, the noise... my head hurt just thinking about it... I remembered running, like I was in a bubble, leaving all sound behind, like running through time...

I sat up suddenly, as my delemma finally registered. Where am I? How did I get here? How is it possible to... to run that fast? How did I DO that? I shook my head and stood up. There was no sense in asking questions when you knew you didn't have answers.

I stood, wondering how to get home from...wherever it the heck I was. It was then that I noticed the fur. Starting on the backs of my hands, a thick, smooth mat of white fur, lightly sprinkled with gray flecks, flowed up my arms, petering out near my shoulders. The same, but darker, flowed up from my ankles, ending at my knees. I stared at my hands, in shock. What's happening to me?