• Just a starting note,
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    Chapter 1 Covert

    Starn had been training with the league for a few years now, so she was unsurprised upon receiving a note with orders for an undercover retrieval from one of the elders.

    Inside the Zogen league's room for her, she was packing a small bag of food and drink and other such things. Her clothes were not her usual uniform/robe of the league, instead she wore something a bit more human.

    This could be dangerous, she knew that. She had to go into a city inhabited by some of the worst anti zogen humans in the land, Morden. She needed to go inside and find information on the whereabouts of a fellow zogen, most likely captured by these... brutes.

    She found her hooded cloak and prepared to leave. Just then, in rushed Kirai, the seer in training. "Starn! You can't leave for the city! You can't !"

    "What?!?!" She said, startled. "Why can't I leave? I can handle myself in dangerous situtations. I'll be fine."
    "NO! You won't be fine. I saw something..." Her voice trailed off. Starn was a bit concerned.
    "What did you see?" she asked. Kirai's face was ghostly white.
    "I saw.... your death." Starn looked puzzled. "I saw your slow, painful lingering death. A death by your enemy. In three nights." Her eyes looked blank and started to water.

    Enemy, death, thought Starn. Martene. Starn's archrival Martene the cat zogen. Then she thought of such possibility as a cat zogen in a forbidden city. "Oh come on Kirai. Martene would never set foot in that place. Don't worry about me." "But Starn!" "Kirai, I need to do this." Starn turned and left the room.

    She began the long walk to Morden. Once beside the large wooden gate, Starn pulled the hood over her dog ears. She knocked on the gate. She could hear the sounds of a banquet party inside. "This is good she thought, they will be busy celebrating, and most of them will probably be drunk ."

    The door opened. "What business have you here?" a voice called from the shadows. Starn could barely make out the figure of a guard.

    "I come seeking shelter." she said, making sure to conceal her canine teeth.
    "Then come in traveler, take part in our party. Join us in celebration."
    "Thank you." replied Starn, as she entered. She entered the city and walked on towards the center square.

    There was a large banquet table set up in the square and it seemed the whole town was celebrating. Starn looked around trying to think of what to do next when the prince of the town grabbed her and brought her to the table.

    "Come, sit, eat with us. You are our guest."
    "Certainly." said Starn reluctantly as she sat down at the table. Drinks were served in crystal glasses.Starn drank and put her glass on the table. A server took the drink to refill it.

    "May I ask the reason of this gala?" said Starn, turning towards a guest by her side. "I am a traveler and I do not know much of the customs here."

    The guest replied, "We are celebrating the capture of one of those animal fiends today. This is a most joyous occasion. We plan to execute him in four days." Starn's ears discreetly "pricked" up! A zogen captured here?! Perhaps this is the one she was sent to find. The thought of a fellow zogen, facing death in days, apalled her. But she made an attempt to hide her emotions.

    "Oh, how wonderful for you and your people." Starn managed to say. She turned back to her meal. The guest, unnoticed by Starn, signaled a fellow townsman over to his side. He whispered to his accomplice

    "This is the one she spoke of, prepare the drink and alert the prince." The summoned man nodded and proceeded to do as he was told.

    A little later, the server returned with Starn's glass in hand and set it on the table. Starn picked up her glass and took a small drink. Then something pained within her! She gagged, clutched her chest with her free hand and banged the glass down on the table. Something was happening, but what? Was she poisoned? She couldn't tell anything now, her mind whirled uncontrollably. By now everyone's attention was on her.

    "Something wrong, friend?" said the man seated next to her. The same man who had most likely tainted her drink. But Starn couldn't think, couldn't do anything! Her body took on its own mind and she began to morph, but not like her normal morphing, she couldn't control it, it controlled her. All the city people stood up and watched her convulse.

    "What's happening to her?" they murmured. Finally, after agonizing pain and bewilderment, Starn was transformed, but not into a wolf entirely, into.....something... A Dire Wolf. She stood up on her hind legs, eyes glowing blood red, and growled a loud snarling growl into the air.

    "She's one of THEM!!" shouted the prince. "GET HER!" A mob started to gather. Starn, in this fast happening chaos, turned and ran. She ran blindly, stumbling, racing in no partiular direction, just away from the pursuing crowd. Her mind was gone. She was in a craze, unaware of anything but her instinct to run.

    As she rounded a corner, there was the prince. Fear, rage, and confusion filled Starn's thoughts. As she raced towards him, unable to stop or turn, he stood in front of her path. She tasted blood, felt her teeth sink into the prince's arm, heard him scream in pain, then she broke loose and ran. She was regaining her wits, but only partially. She was weakening, her run slowing. She stopped, fell to the ground and jerked and convulsed. She listened to the people coming closer.

    "That wolf freak attacked our prince! Grab it!" She lay on the ground, confused, weak and, for the first time since her parents death, she felt afraid. The crowd closed in and threw a net over her exhausted body. Shouts of anger and relief mixed rang in her ears as they secured the net. Starn thought to fight but she was too weak. The man from the table bent down beside Starn and forced a cloth, heavily laden with anesthetic, over her muzzle. She heard the crowd, loud at first, grow quiet. What she saw through the net grew dark. Her breathing slowed. The cloth was removed, and the mob rejoiced. Starn was unconscious, and at the mercy of some of the most cruel humans known to zogens. This is it. This was the end.



    Chapter 2 Captivity

    ..... Meanwhile, back at the zogen league Kirai was seeking assistance from the teachers and elders. "I beg you, please send help to Starn. She is in danger of death!" Kirai was almost in tears. The elders seemed thoughtful.

    "She chose to go on this mission regardless of the risks. We cannot take the chance of exposing ourselves to the humans by organizing a rescue." said one. "It is not our way to send all of us into danger for one." Jenna, standing beside Kirai, slammed her halberd hard on the tile floor.
    "I don't give a care for your 'ways', I feel that we must take action now!" she protested.
    "Calm yourself Jenna, show respect for the elders." soothed Aric, who was standing betwixt the two girls.
    "Don't tell me to calm myself, Aric of the mixed breeds!" Jenna retorted.
    "Hush! Quiet please." Kirai said weakly. " My apologies, wise elders, for my friend here."
    "Accepted, Kirai of the seers. You may go." Kirai and Aric bowed slightly and turned to leave as Jenna began a step forward to say something more. Aric grabbed her arm and turned her around in midstride.
    "Come Jenna, Starn would not appreciate your disrespect." Jenna stood still a moment, then began to leave as well.

    Once outside the Elder's Hall, Jenna spoke. "I simply will not take their 'no' for an answer--"
    "What else is new?" joked Aric.
    "Very funny Aric, what I mean is that I for one am not going to stand here while my friend Starn faces death at the hands of those...Monsters!" Jenna blurted angrily. " I apologize for my earlier comment towards you Aric, but I am not backing down from this challenge. You two can stay here, safe from exile, I am going to that city."

    "I will not give up Starn for mere safety," replied Aric, " I too shall face death for her freedom."
    "And I as well." chimed Kirai.
    "Then it's settled, we leave in ten minutes. Long enough for you two to get your weapons and things." Jenna triumphantly stated. Aric and Jenna ran off to prepare. Kirai, eyes still watering, looked up into the blue sky.
    "We will save you Starn, we won't leave you in their hold." she thought.


    Back at the human's city, Starn awakens and finds herself chained by her ankle in a prison. She looks around and sees.... someone. He was a young man of slight build and high intellignce.
    "Glad to see you're awake," he said softly."I was wondering how long that anesthetic would last." Starn regained her composure and crawled her way to the stranger. She was still weak.
    "Who are you, and what do you know about what happened to me?" she questioned. "If what happened, really happened, It all seems like a horrible dream."
    "It was, and yet it wasn't." he responded. "I saw it all from here. This 'window' lets me see across the entire city square." He walked over and sat down next to a light source coming through the wall. Starn walked over to where he was now sitting. The grated section of the wall was the "window" through which you really could see the whole square.
    "What really happened then?" Starn asked. "I dont remember.....wait," she touched her bloodstained teeth, "Did I actually bite a human...? That act sends thoughts of my kind being more vicious than we really are!" she began to pace about, thinking. Vero broke her thoughts.

    "No, you didn't actually bite the prince, it was a setup....this all was a setup. They drugged your glass with a moon poison that wreaks havoc on the mind and will of the victim, you went wild. They also added the taxan plant, that robbed you of the memory of the poisoning."
    "Then...what of the blood?"

    "The prince pierced his own arm and forced it into your jaws as you stumbled past him." Starn looked spiteful...those humans...why? wait...HOW?
    "How did they know who, or what I was?"
    "I don't know." he paused then looked at her with a faint smile. " I am Vero, and I know you are Starn, the zogen warrior."

    "Yes I am Starn, but I haven't the slightest idea how you know. But, one quesion plagues me.... how and why did they capture you.?" Vero looked saddened. "I know you are wondering why they would imprison their own kind....but I am not human, entirely."
    "You--!?"
    "Yes, I am zogen. A falcon zogen." With the sound of a single flap of a wing, Fwisssshh, Vero morphed into his falcon form.
    "You must be the one the league sent me to find out about!"
    "Most likely..." he morphed back to his human form. "I am the one responsible for the celebration last night. I face the execution 3 days from now."

    "Vero, I am so sorry... if I had been more cautious--"
    "There's no reason to blame yourself. Besides, You face death tonight at midnight. They have a very painful demise planned for you I'm afraid. Come and look for yourself."

    Vero gestured to the window. Starn walked over and peered out. In the square, the same place where there had been celebration, there were indeed preparations for a slaughter. A large platform with chains was being dragged out into the center of the square.
    "You face death by the knife, very painful and long from what I have heard tell.--" he was finishing his sentence when the prison door squealed open. In walked a large, brutish prison guard.
    "Nice to see that the cur is awake! Stand aside beast!" he ordered. Starn did so, not wanting to worsen her species' reputation, but looked at the guard with untrusting eyes.
    "Now you! Feather boy!-" he was referring to Vero. "Change!" Vero recoiled reluctantly, not wanting to obey the intimidating force before him and morph.

    "I said CHANGE!" he shouted, pulling a long whip from his belt and raising it high. Vero had no choice. He did as he was told and morphed.
    "Vero! Why do you obey him!?!" Starn voiced, shocked at what was happening.
    "The pain is not as intense if I do as they say." he said weakly.
    "The bird is right, mongrel, you may want to consider cooperating, not that you'll have the time to worry!"
    The guard laughed maniacly and approached Vero who scuttled closer to the wall. He siezed Vero and positioned him so that he could expose a wing. The guard, a grin of sick pleasure on his face, proceeded to pull out Vero's pinion feathers. (the long, straight ones along the edge of the wing.) "EEERK! Irk! kree-ee-ee," cried Vero as his feathers were jerked out one by one.

    "STOP IT!" yelled Starn. "STOP!!" She rushed towards the guard but tripped as her chain ran snagged on the uneven floor. The guard turned and faced Starn, now on the ground, an evil smile on his face. "Why should I?" he asked wryly. He then held Vero's wing in both hands, and, with a cringe-inducing crack, he broke Vero's wing. "KREEE-AAAA! KREEE-AAAA!" Vero shrieked.

    Starn growled in rage. She had morphed, into her wolf form and was creeping towards the guard. He had dropped Vero and was laughing, pleased with his work. Then he heard Starn's growl. A growl of hatred and passion and fury. A growl of an animal ready to defend its fellow creatures. The guard backed slowly towards the door. He was frightened. "Stay back you mutt!" As Starn closed the distance, she let the incoming sunlight catch her eyes and they glinted orange-brown. Her head was lowered slightly, teethed bared, ears back, as she growled and came ever closer.

    The guard was almost to the door but not soon enough in his opinion. Starn, almost upon him, began loud, snarling barks and leapt towards the guard! By then he had managed to get through the door and slam it shut behind him as Starn landed abruptly on the ground.

    Vero trilled quietly in pain. Starn turned her glance in his direction. Her face softened and she trotted to his side. Taking her human form, she picked up a nearby peice of wood and knelt beside him.
    "Vero hold still, I need to set this." She tore off a peice of the hem of her clothes. Vero lay still and looked at her with sadness.
    "Okay Vero, I think a set wing will be easier to heal, but I only know how to set arms and legs.... Hold out your good wing so I can see what the bone structure looks like when in the correct position." Vero held out his left wing and straightened it. Starn looked at it and felt for the bones.
    "Alright, I've got it. Now, this is going to hurt...alot. Just hold as still as you can. Go ahead and screech as loud as you please. Just...hold...still. Ready?" Vero lay out as comfortably and as still as he could and then nodded nervously. Starn grabbed the wing and gave it a sharp twist. "KREEEEEE!" Starn applied the splint and and sat Vero upright. "
    There you go."
    "Thank you." he panted. Starn nodded and smiled at him. She walked off to the patch of sun and slumped to the ground. She curled up a little and lay down. "Why didn't I listen to Kirai?" she thought. She breathed a heavy sigh. There was nothing left to do but wait. to be continued.....