The big black horse crashed his saucer-like hooves down one after the other, forcing me backwards.  Several times, the huge creature came within inches of crushing my toes.

What... do you think... you're doing? He demanded, punctuating every few words with another aggressive step forward.  His head was bend forward, ears angled sharply towards his back.

Hey, take it easy, I protested, springing out of his reach.  Hey, watch it!

He had nearly crushed my entire foot that time.

Shift out, you idiot!  Before you bring the entire school down!

Okay!  I said.  All right!  But I can't very well do that when you're trying to turn me into road-kill!

The horse reared up and slammed his hooves down right in front of my face, causing the entire building to shake.  My animal side lashed out in response to the threat.  I snarled menacingly, baring my teeth.  I was about ready to leap forward and tear into his jugular when a blur of movement shot past me.  Jewel planted herself in front of the horse, hissing and spitting, the hair along her spine standing on end.

Hey, back off!

The horse threw his head, nostrils flared.  His ears twitched for a second like he wanted to bolt, but the huge beast held his ground.

She almost caused a riot!  Tearing through this place like some kind of crazed animal!

She wasn't in control!

Then she had better learn to stay in control!

You're aggravating her!  She was about an inch away from ripping your throat out!

The horse stamped his foot.  Don't lecture me, cat.  You're friend is the one that caused this mess, not me.

Well, you were about to make it a whole lot-

"That is enough!  All of you!"

I turned sharply and felt my insides twist uncomfortably.  Kerry was striding towards us, long legs carrying her swiftly down the hallway, straight hair flowing behind her.  She was accompanied by Deanna and a tiny, orange-haired woman I didn't recognize. 

Oh boy, this was not going to be good.  I already knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Kerry wasn't exactly the forgiving sort.  And Deanna was the one who had told me not to shift in the first place.

"You two!" Kerry snapped, pointing at me and Jewel.  "Back into human form now!  This instant!"

I would have been crazy not to listen.  Closing my eyes, I focused on my human form.  The changes seemed to happen much quicker this time.  Like everything was moving in fast-forward.  My fur receded.  The hair on top of my head grew long and curled.  My face flattened.  My arms and legs became long, skinny and straight.  Before I knew it, I was fully human, sitting on the hard, dirt floor and feeling rather vulnerable without my claws and my teeth and my liquid strength.

At least my clothes had remained intact this time.  My shoes, on the other hand, were a different story.  They must have been torn apart during my shift because my feet were completely bare.

With my hunting instincts out of the way, I was able to observe my surroundings a little more thoroughly.  This whole section of the school resembled nothing more than a huge, circular barn.  Wide floors made of tightly packed earth.  Rectangular doorways that slid sideways to open.  Galloping horses painted all over the walls.

But my eyes were drawn, mostly, to the damage left by my rampage.  There were dents and holes all over the walls, where panicked horses had evidently put their massive hooves.  Some kind of grain was scattered across the floor.  There was a big gap in the divider that separated the main floor and the courtyard, jagged pieces of bamboo sticking out on either side.  Almost like one of the horses had barreled right through it.

At least a dozen people, all of them exceedingly tall and muscular, were muttering angrily to each other and occasionally shooting me looks of absolute disgust.  My victim was back in human form.  He was a young boy—maybe twelve or thirteen—tall and skinny with dirty-blonde hair.  A crowd had formed protectively around him.  The boy was obviously trying to put on a brave face, but he was shaking and his lower lip trembled like he wanted to cry.

Definitely not good.

I swallowed hard and looked slowly up at Kerry.  Her arms were folded.  She was glaring at me like I was an insect that had gotten into her food.

"On your feet.  Move it!"

I stood up slowly, feeling every set of eyes in the place following me with the intensity of a laser beam.  I clasped my hands behind my back and forced myself to make eye-contact with Kerry, even though her expression made me want to slink away like a scolded dog.

"Well?" Kerry said.  "Well?"

"Umm," I said uncertainly.  "Well what?"

"How do you explain yourself, young lady?" Kerry demanded.  "What is wrong with you?Are you out of your mind?  Are you brain-damaged?  How utterly clueless, reckless and irresponsible could you possibly be?"

I flinched back instinctively from the venom in her voice.  "U-umm," I stammered.  "Well, see it the... the thing is... I thought that... I didn't... I- I mean I wasn't..."

"Do you have any idea what you've done here?  Do you have any idea how much damage you've caused?  Tearing through the village like that!  Trying to maul one of our youngest members!  You just about terrified him to death!"

I had been expecting a scolding, but I had not expected anything like this.  Kerry was full-out screaming at me.  Her face was bright red.  A vein was straining at her temple.  "You put a whole flock of bird-shifters into a frenzy!  They're still in a panic out there!  It will take hours to calm them all down!"

"Not to mention you ruined all our preparation for the festival," the orange-haired woman added sternly.  "That was over a weeks worth of work that you destroyed in a matter of seconds."

I could only assume she was referring to those mountains of coloured powder I had ploughed through. "I-"

"And just look at the damage you caused in here!" Kerry shouted, sweeping one long arm around to emphasize her point.  "Look at this!  Do you know how long it's going to take us to repair this place?  You could have caused a stampede!  You could have destroyed the entire school!  You're damn lucky you didn't kill anyone!"

I was shrinking back against the railing behind me.  Kerry sounded absolutely furious.  She looked furious.  She looked like she wanted to shift into horse-form and trample me herself.

"All right, Kerry, just calm down," Deanna said.  "There's no need to take her head off.  No one got hurt.  Everything's fine."

"No, Deanna!" Kerry snapped, turning furiously on her.  "No, this is not fine!  Your students are out of control!  Your entire species is out of control!  You have no regard for the rules or for the other people who share this village with you!  You're nothing but a pack of wild, dangerous animals!"

I felt my mouth drop open.  I had never seen one adult yell like at another like this before.  I had never seen an adult lose control like this.  Kerry had not made the best first impression, but I had never imagined she could be this temperamental.

Kerry rounded on me and her expression was so furious—so hateful—that I felt like my whole body had been doused in icy water.  It only lasted a few seconds.  I barely had time to blink before the look of hatred was gone.  But the sheer intensity of it almost knocked the wind right out of me.

"I hope you haven't gotten too comfortable," she spat.  "Because I want you out of here by this time tomorrow.  You are expelled, do you understand me?"

What?  I was so busy reeling from her anger that it took a moment for the words to sink in.  She was kicking me out of the school?  Just like that?  With now discussion, no hearing, no nothing?  Could she even do that?

"Kerry," Deanna said.  "Be reasonable, would you?"

"No, this is the last straw, Deanna!"

"Last straw?  She just got here."

"And look what's happened already!  I've had enough of this!  You wildcats cause more trouble here than all the other species combined!  I'm not putting up with it anymore!  If you can't control yourselves, then you can leave!"

Deanna took a step forward, straightening her back and squaring her shoulders.  "You can't throw people out here, Kerry.  You don't have the authority."

"Listen, it was my fault, okay?" Jewel said.  "I'm the one that encouraged her to shift forms."

Kerry completely ignored this.  She was still focused on Deanna.  The two women were practically standing nose to nose. "I run this school, Deanna, not you.  You're just a teacher."

"And you are talking about expelling one of my students."

"Well, if you would control your students, then maybe these kinds of things wouldn't happen!"

"Excuse me for interrupting, Kerry," the orange-haired woman said.  "I agree the young lady should be punished, but expulsion might be a tad extreme."

"She could attack one of your students next, Mia.  Do you really want that?"

"She lost control.  Who among us hasn't?"

"She was told not to shift, was she not, Deanna?" Kerry demanded fiercely.  "She chose not to follow those instructions.  She disobeyed a direct order."

"Oh, for goodness sakes, this isn't the military," an edge of impatience was creeping into Deanna's voice.  "Yes, I told her not to shift.  She didn't listen.  And now she knows what can happen if she doesn't keep her animal form under control."  She raised an eyebrow at me.  "Right, Eve?"

"Yes," I agreed quickly, my voice sounding rather small. 

"There you go," Deanna said.  "Experience is the best teacher.  I seriously doubt this is going to happen again."

Kerry appeared to struggle with herself for a moment.  It seemed like she wanted to scream all sorts of mean, nasty things at Deanna but, whatever those mean, nasty things were, she kept them to herself.

When she did speak her voice was wooden and her lips barely moved.  "One more incident like this.  One more fiasco that even comes close to this one and she's gone.  For good.  Do I make myself clear?"

"Understood," Deanna said calmly.

Without another word, Kerry stormed away.  Once she was gone, Deanna turned an appraising look into me.  I gave her a nervous little smile.  She didn't smile back.  "I did tell you not to shift, Eve."

I looked down at the floor.  Somehow, Deanna's disappointment bothered me far more than Kerry's shouting.  "I know."

"Your cat form is not something to play around with.  You could have seriously hurt someone."

"I know," I mumbled.

"And Jewel," Deanna added. "you know better than to encourage her."

"I thought she could handle it," Jewel said.

"Well, evidently not."  Deanna looked from one of us to the other, arms crossed.  "Okay, here's what we're going to do.  Jewel, I run a special class for new shifters that are having trouble controlling their animal form.  You will come and help me every day after school for the next two weeks.  You'll see just how difficult it can be for some people.  Eve," her clear blue eyes fixed on me, "you will be helping to repair the damage you did to this floor.  You will come here every weekday after school until this place is as good as new.  You will also help the birds with getting their festival back on track."

The idea of spending any more time down here with the horses was not particularly appealing, but I was in no position to argue.

"Are you both clear on your punishments?" Deanna asked.

"Yes," Jewel and I chorused at the same time.

"Do you have any objections?"

"No," we said.

"Good," Deanna paused.  "And please try and stay out of trouble from now on, girls.   Don't give Kerry an excuse to expel you."

"I don't think there's much chance of that," I said.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've had enough trouble for one day," Jewel added.

"All right, fair enough.  I'll see you girls later and we'll sort out the details."  She gave a nod to the other woman and they left.

Jewel and I were quiet for several minutes.  I felt a little sick.  This was not exactly how I had envisioned my first day here.  Half the school was angry at me.  Jewel was in trouble because of me and Kerry was almost ready to have me expelled.

Had I imagined that look of hatred in her eyes?  It had come and gone so quickly, but the intensity of it had felt very real.

"Well, I'm going back upstairs to pretend like this never happened," Jewel finally said.  "You comin'?"

"I'll catch up," I said.  I was still waiting for the feeling to return to my legs.

"All right," Jewel said agreeably.  "I'll see you up there."

I felt a sense of relief as she bounded away.  I needed a few moments alone just to regroup and gather my thoughts.  But, no sooner had Jewel vanished along the curve of the building than a deep, male voice spoke up at my other side.

"Well, I hope you learned something from all that."

I jumped and yanked my head around.  Where the huge, black horse had been standing there was now a very attractive young man.  Tall and muscular, with sharp, angular features, silver-black hair and fiery blue eyes.

It was Lucas.

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awesome cover by @KAROUISMADRIGAL!