Cat kept her word. When I went to the top of the sunrise mountain cliff, I saw her in panther form, lying on a boulder. As I stepped to the edge of the cliff, I waited expectantly for the sun to rise. Finally, the sun began to rise, tinting the sky pink and I began to transform. Transformation was a whole lot easier now I had been doing it for a few weeks. It was no longer painful, as the freckles where my wing feathers grew out of opened up easily. Now transformation was just a bit ticklish. When my wings had fully grown, I turned round to see Cat just lying on her boulder, her mouth open. Cat dashed off behind a bush and a few minutes later, returned to where she had been lying, only now in her normal form.

She told me,

"Wow. That is some transformation! Have you tried flying with those wings of yours?"

I paused. Cat had asked a good question, why hadn't I tried flying with my wings? I replied,

"No actually. I don't know how."

Cat told me,

"Hmm, well maybe you can try to find out how yourself. Now, I am thinking, I've seen your spot, where you transform..."

"Continue." I hinted.

"...So now It's only fair that you should meet my family - or rather, my pride - my pride and I all transform together for the night in one spot." Cat continued, "So what do you say Layla? Do you fancy meeting my family?"

"Well, I have nothing better to do... okay, I will go with you." I answered Cat, smiling.

Cat grinned and told me,

"Follow me, I know the way."

So we both climbed down the mountain and I followed Cat. We talked to each other as I followed Cat and Cat told me,

"The reason I did not offer to take you to my pride earlier is because they would not have believed you could keep our secret due to you not being able to transform at will. My kind is very careful about who we choose to share our secret with and we never trust anyone with the secret unless they either are a transformative human or have proven themselves loyal to the pride. Now you have transformed, we have undeniable proof you are a transformative human."

"Okay, I see." I told Cat. I then asked Cat, "So your pride's all werecats like you then?"

Cat paused thoughtfully and then she replied,

"Humans call us werecats. But it isn't really acurate, as there are a lot of misunderstandings about my kind. The name 'werecat' is one of the misunderstandings."

"If you are not called werecats, what is your kind called?" I asked.

"My type of transformative humans are called Feliners. The other type of tansformative human that lives close to my prides forest are called Wolvers. They, in human terms, are referred to as 'werewolves'."

A thought crossed my mind at that point. What would happen if I got bitten by a Feliner or a Wolver? Would I become one of them too? I questioned Cat,

"I am quite sure you would never do such a thing to me but what would happen if I got bitten by one of your pride?"

Cat rolled her eyes and sighed,

"Another misunderstanding humans have of my kind. Firstly, people who are already transformative humans cannot become another type of human, even if a spell to do so is put on them. Even if you were a true human and a Feliner or Wolver bit you, you wouldn't become one of my kind. The bite would just be a bit sore, that's all. Another misunderstanding is that Wolvers and Werecats are monsters who are savages. We are most certainly not! Transformative humans are only a sub-species of human, so we are not monsters."

"That's interesting to know. How long have we to go before we arrive at your pride?" I replied.

"We are quite close actually. In fact, my pride is in the forest just ahead!" Cat smiled, pointing to a shady, mixed tree forest.

The forest was cool, dark and large, with patches where there were only bushes and small trees and with heather. Most of the trees were pine, although there were a lot of other trees, like birch trees. The forest floor was surprisingly bare, with only a few leaves on the ground. As we went into the forest, I could see claw marks on some of the trees and huge paw prints in the moist ground. I could strongly sense magic and there was multicoloured hair on some of the logs and fallen trees. We were most definitely in Feliner territory. We walked onwards, going further into the wood and as we did so, I began to spot more and more big cat footprints. At one point I became aware something was watching me and as I looked beside me in suspicion I heard paws thudding the ground and saw an orange and black tail whizz past.

I was a little alarmed by that big cat but Cat told me,

"Don't be frightened, those cats were only the guards on watch duty. We have to be careful that a Wolver doesn't come here - they are an enemy of Feliners."

"Why is that so?" I asked Cat.

"Simple really. Like a dog will chase a cat and cats are enemies with dogs, A Wolver annoys Feliners and is enemies with us. I'm not really sure what caused my kind to be enemies with them." Cat shrugged.

She then pointed ahead to two old, gnarled trees with many scratches cut into their bark. Cat told me after pointing,

"Layla, those trees act like the gateway to the centre of my prides territory. Welcome to my pride!"

We walked past the gates and Layla told me to stop and wait. When we had done so, I saw lots of cat eyes blinking in the shadowy surroundings. Slowly the Feliners that the eyes were on came into view. First one, then many others.  I was quite taken aback by the size and height of the Feliners. They were huge! Five of the Feliners were even as tall as horses. The Feliner who had come out of the shadows first was in tiger form. He came quite close to me and looked at me carefully with his tiger eyes. I stayed still as he sniffed me. He then he backed away from me and went behind a bush. A few minutes later, he returned, now in human form.

He approached Cat and asked her,

"Who is this and why have you brought her here?"

In human form, he also had two tufts of hair on his head like Cat, although it was less noticeable as his hair was shorter and messier. His hair was ginger and he had a short beard and moustache.

Cat answered him,

"She is no threat, Blaze. I entrusted our secret to her as she too hides one of her own - look at her wings. Do you allow me to take Layla on a tour of the place?"

Blaze immediately looked less defensive and relaxed a bit after Cat had told him this. He told me,

"Layla, it seems you are no threat. Catherine will be a good tour guide to you. Welcome to our pride."

Blaze turned around and went away and several of the Feliners did too. Most of the Feliners stayed around though, doing what they were doing earlier. Cat showed me where her familys 'spot' was and for a while we just hung out in her prides woodland, mucking about and having fun. It was quite possibly the best fun I had had since leaving Srrin. By the time I started to go back to my normal form, Cat and I were firm friends.