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It felt good to just let go. The restlessness had set in, making her skin itch and her legs ache to run. Malia knew the pull and it wasn't even a full moon. She just needed to shift. Sighing, she grabbed a change of clothes in a backpack and threw it over her shoulder, racing out the door and heading toward Hyde Park. When she got into the dark overhang of the oak trees, she took a deep breath of the open air and smiled. Here was where she felt more free. Not surrounded by buildings and smog and cars. The trees were her sanctuary, the song of birds her lullaby. She went to her usual tree and stuffed the backpack in the hollow spot at the bottom of the trunk, covering it back up with branches before she looked around discreetly. Everything came off one by one. Shoes to socks to pants down to the undergarments. Sighing, she closed her eyes and drew on her Were form, knowing it would respond. Without hesitation, her skin started to crackle and break, her bones resetting as she bent over with a low groan and let the change take her. Fur sprouted and fangs extended as her eyes went from honey brown to electric blue and a fluffy tail started wagging as she stretched out on four legs and dug her claws into the dirt. It was such a relief to be in her Were skin once again. She'd felt so caged in lately, so "domestic." Even the word felt dirty. Wrinkling her nose, the WereCoyote made a snuffing noise and trotted further into the woods, letting the trees swallow her up until she was surrounded only by nature. No benches or passersby. No car horns or fountains. Just a running creek somewhere in the vicinity and squirrels quarreling in the trees overhead. She glanced up only for a moment, blinking at the creatures bickering over acorns before she sniffed and continued on her way. Stopping to scratch at a tree, she marked it and moved on, wondering what else might be out and about with the sun hanging overhead. It was pretty much the middle of the day, but she couldn't think of a better time to get away from it all. And who knew when she'd return to civilization? Sometimes she thought about not returning at all. |