Chapter Text
[Still got me?] Tobias sounded bored. I couldn't help with that.
[Still got you. You're getting a bit faint.]
[I'll move out further. I'm still not sure what the point of this is.]
[You're not sure what the point of learning our communication range is?] I moved higher up the wall as a human passed below. Lizard was not my favourite morph, but it was my least conspicuous, especially in a Staff Only corridor in a fast food shop. I would've preferred to have done the experiment outside the city, but it needed to be somewhere that Tobias knew well enough to estimate distances. It was just a preliminary test anyway, in case the information was important really soon – ideally, I'd like to test different morphs, elevation, physical barriers, people, background noises and emotional states. But for a single free afternoon, a lizard and a hawk having a chat over long distance would do. [Do you still have me, Tobias?] Silence. [Tobias! Do you read me?]
Nope. Silence. I waited.
[Tobias?]
No Tobias.
Something couldn't have happened to him, could it? The city wasn't an entirely safe place for a hawk. There were cars and other birds and the occasional jerk... but Tobias was smart.
Then why wasn't he answering? Why hadn't he come straight back into range when I'd lost him?
I looked for somewhere to demorph. Employees were moving in and out of the hall every few minutes; not a good spot. Employee bathroom. That'd do. I scampered in and focused on Cassie.
Quickly, quickly. I grew. My skin softened, and tiny hairs sprung up on it. My nose pinched in to create a human nose. I'd been experimenting in my spare time, and I hadn't found a way to go from one animal to another, but I was getting much faster at becoming human.
And soon, human I was, standing in a bathroom cubicle in a blue leotard. I propped the main door open a little before locking myself back in the cubicle and focusing on the osprey within me. Feathers sprouted, my lips hardened; I shrank once more. Quickly, quickly.
I scrambled under the cubicle door and made for the door.
Just as some conscientious employee pulled the door shut.
If I was human, I would've screamed in frustration. There was no way out of the bathroom. But if I went human and got to the roof and morphed up there...
[Cassie? You there?]
[Tobias! Where have you been?! Are you okay?!]
[Yeah. Fine. We should call everyone to together as soon as possible.]
[Why? What happened to you?]
[It's... kind of hard to explain.] His tone didn’t give much away, but it gave away enough.
Enough for me to know that my free afternoon was going to get cut short.