6 Chapter 6: The Owl's Sister

The group sat down at the dinning table to eat. Sam, like always, poured his ketchup. Unlike the rest of the people there, Suzuki seemed to approve, pouring some on her own. Kiep in turn squirted out some mayonnaise for her own food. Suzi frowned.

"You like mayo?"

"Yes. I do."

"Huh."

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, only interrupted by the occasional clink of a plate or cup. Ella noticed that Suzi had only eaten half of her hot dog and 3 chips before pushing away her plate. How does she survive on such little food? Suzi looked healthy but was definitely on the skinnier side. Sam glanced over at her food, and took the half eaten hot dog and remaining chips from her plate.

"Guys..."

Everyone looked over at Suzi.

"Why are you helping me? I mean, we just met so why give me food at all?"

Ella was wondering the same thing. Sam, Oak and Kiep looked at each other.

"Well Suzuki," started Kiep. "You can shape shift into a cat. As a result we believe you are part of a new species called the Vega." Everyone at the table stood up except Ella. Rose took off her hat making her cat ears completely visible. Oak flicked his tail and jumped up, grabbing the bars on the ceiling. Kiep stretched her wings and Sam rubbed his horn. Suzuki's confusion was visible for a fraction of a second before she put on a poker face.

"Vega? But shape shifting is much different than having animal features. Also, what about Ella?"

Ella sighed. "I don't have any features unfortunately."

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm a child prodigy. They take notice of abnormal people."

"Oh. That sort of makes sense...?"

Oak cleared his throat. "So... Is this the time to introduce our selves better? You know, since we just met we should get to know each other."

Suzi paused. "I guess."

"I'll start," said Kiep. "Oak, Sam, Rose and I all share a somewhat similar history."

The Owl's Tale:

So, as you may know the four of us are cousins, those three being siblings. 2 years ago my parents and I were driving upstate to visit our cousins and grandparents. At the time I still didn't have my features, just so you know. Anyway, once we arrived our family greeted each other and I went to the attic to chat with Sam and Oak, and Rosie played with our little cousins Curt and Oli. My little sister Mal was 13 at the time, in between everyone. Of course this had it's benefits, as she was able to get out of doing chores because she was younger and also got more ice cream because she was older. Mal loved baking and was a great artist, almost too good for her age. She made cakes, cookies, muffins, pies... Anything really.

During this part of the story, Ella noticed that Suzuki looked uncomfortable.

We were playing truth or dare when Mal collapsed and began writhing on the floor. We were going to call an adult, but with weird broken speech she advised against it. After 2 minutes of sitting in pure terror, she stopped and smiled. 'Let's continue, shall we?" The rest of us were scared senseless. Mal was didn't often talk like this, and her saying 'shall' freaked us out more than when she was on the ground.

Rose looked at her older family in interest. It was clear she had never heard the story before.

We kept playing only to hear an ear piercing shriek coming from downstairs. And, since there are children present, I will not repeat what Mal said. Honestly, I don't know where she learned that language. The four of us ran down to the first floor and saw a man who looked like a cross between a yellow frog and a human. Mal pushed us behind the wall, and it was clear that she was frightened. In an attempt to calm her, I reminded her that frogs weren't at all dangerous. 'That's a poison dart frog. Get everyone and run.' I remember her looking at me, and in that moment I knew I couldn't say no. I nodded and ran. The last thing I remember was her growing tentacles and her skin getting clearer. When she jumped on the the man, her tentacles wrapped around him and she seemed to be injecting poison into him. A box jellyfish, I got stung by one when I was in Hawaii a few years back. I ended up going to the hospital. If that guy didn't get her off him soon, he was going to die. In a final attempt to escape, the man touched his webbed hand to her tentacles. It was terrible to watch, the tentacle froze up. I don't know who won, we had to get out of there. We grew our feature while fending off some other chimeras. After getting out family home, we left deciding it was too dangerous for them because they weren't hybrids.

"I- I couldn't even save my own sister!" she wailed. Kiep curled up and sobbed. Ella awkwardly patted her shoulder. Um... Should I saw it's ok? But it's not, her sister died. The room was silent once again, save Kiep's crying.