When Corrine finds out she has a dangerous spiritual disease eating away at her soul and giving her the mind of an animal, she’s forced to leave her the safety of the cities and her former life behind to go to an internment camp and hope for an unlikely cure. Of course, there’s the matter of getting there safely first. And with all sorts of vicious half-human, half-animal monsters running around, that’s easier said than done.

CC-by-SA licensed, please ask for me or  feathertail in the (very unlikely) event you'd like to use the characters or world herein. My very first attempt at TF! Despite the fact the viewpoint character doesn't actually physically transform this chapter. >.> However, she does in the next part, which will be uploaded within the next two days.

This is a collaboration between myself and Feathertail! He helped out quite a bit with the worldbuilding and wrote the first few paragraphs. The rest of the story will be written by me, so this should give you a good idea of my writing style.

And now, I'll stop rambling and let you actually read the story. ^^;

***

My parents weren't there to see me off. There hadn't been any time after the test had been done. I'd only had a few minutes to grab my belongings, and no one else had been in the house. Besides that, it was a military train station, not a light rail depot. My parents probably didn't have clearance. No one else's families seemed to be there, either.

Guards stood around us as we boarded, wearing thick ceramic plates and carrying the kind of rifles that shot your soul, not your body. Between them and the steel-armored maglev, huge and intimidating up close like a dinosaur's flank, I nearly had a panic attack just getting on the train. It felt like stepping into a cage ... or being shoved in, as the case may be.

Still, once I was inside I felt safer. It was cold with air conditioning, and echoey with the metal clanks of walking, but it reminded me of a subway car without any advertisements. Even better, it looked like the kind of train where you got your own compartment. An unarmored soldier showed me to mine, and I sat down on the thin cushion fidgeting nervously.

Now that I knew it was there, I could feel the animal inside my heart, frightened and begging for someplace to hide. I knew it was alien -- it was the problem -- but for now I didn't protest. I let it be scared, and I drew my knees up to my chin and hugged them, closing my eyes and blocking the world out. And when the door shut, and left me alone in there, I let out a sigh of relief.

I looked out the bulletproof glass at the concrete side of the station, and thought of what lay beyond ... what lay outside the city. But if this was a cage, it was keeping me safe inside it. And from now on, whatever happened to me was out of my hands.

Somehow, I found that prospect both relieving and frustrating. It meant that I was just a passive observer. No guilt, no reason for people to claim that this whole deal was my fault. I didn't ask to be tainted with an animal spirit, it just happened. I didn't ask for treatment, I just needed it. And I didn't want to go outside, but that was the only place I could be treated.

I wouldn't have minded actually having some power over all this. But I didn't. That seemed to be how things went in my life -- always being dragged around by something or another. I was getting used to it, just like how I was starting to get used to the constant nagging fear that came with having an animal eating away at your human soul.

Well, at least one of those things would be going away.

I tried to turn my thoughts towards more pleasant matters by looking around at the scenery. But military trains are not the most visually stimulating places around, unless you really like looking at shades of gunmetal grey. On to plan B then -- a nap, or as close as I could come to getting one.

Of course, the moment I closed my eyes, the door slid open. I opened my eyes and tilted my head towards the door, fully expecting a soldier. What I saw was a young man about my age (I wasn't sure; I was never a good judge of these things) in civilian clothing. He smiled a forced sort of smile, and waved at me.

I bit my lip and looked out the window again. "Please don't let him sit next to me. Please don't ... "

He sat next to me. Of course. My heart lodged itself somewhere in my throat, and I did my best to ignore him lest it fall right out of my mouth. I might not have been keen on the idea of going on living at the time, but that seemed like an awful way to die.

"Um. Hi," he said. His voice was quiet and subdued, like it was for most people with eidolic toxicosis. Spirit poisoning. "M-my name's Leander. Everyone just calls me Lee though."

Cue awkward but inevitable pause between the two of us, while my animal side screamed at me that he was extremely dangerous and I needed to run and hide. Just like it did for every other person I met. It was worse than usual now, maybe because I was cornered. After all, he was between me and the door, I didn't think the guards would take well to me fleeing through the hallways in a blind terror anyway.

"So ... what's yours?" I heard him shifting in his seat.

I sighed and looked in his general direction, more at the fabric patterns on the seat than his face. Maybe if I played along for a little while he'd leave me alone, and I could go back to pretending he wasn't there. "It's Corrine."

"Well, it's nice to meet you." He didn't sound like he meant it. I couldn't blame him; it's not like these were great circumstances to be meeting anyone. "So, do you live here?"

It was a ridiculous question, and he realized it if his frantic backpedaling was any sign. "Um, I mean, it's just I haven't seen you around. Did you, uh, move here recently or something?"

"No. Lived here all my life." And good riddance.

"What school do you go to?" Ugh, small talk. He sounded about as excited about it as I did, more like he was reading lines off a page than putting anything into a conversation.

"I don't."

He stared at me, confused. I saw his face contort and twitch for a moment.

"Long story," I offered, in the way of explanation. It was the most anyone would ever get out of me.

"I didn't do too well in school either. Not with grades, but ... you know." His voice dropped into the near-inaudible range. "It's why they, ah, had me tested. And now I'm here."

I winced. Was I really that obvious? "Yeah. They never got me tested at school, though."

"Then how ... ?"

"Work. It's required by law now."

"Oh." He looked down again, his gaze flitting back and forth like he couldn't bear to look up at me for more than a second. "Sorry."

Huh. 'Sorry.' Well, what else could you say to someone who had a spiritual tumor growing in them? "We're all in the same boat here," I said, the terror inside me quieting as I willed myself to believe it. "Er, train, sorry. Anyway, they'll find a cure soon." I was being hopelessly optimistic, if not outright lying. It wasn't going to be soon, if the military was overseeing this like they seemed to be. They tended to be busy with other things, like the skinchangers. As long as we weren't p-shifting and ripping their throats out, we weren't high priority. Which meant we were probably getting shoved off to the outer world where they could forget about us.

"Right." Sincere voice, suspicious body language. He could probably see right through me, even if I could read people I never was a complicated read. "So...have they told you where we're going?"

"Outside."

"I know that." He crossed his arms. "But didn't anyone tell you where?"

"I know about as much as you do." I shrugged. "Which isn't much. It's the military, what were you expecting?"

He flinched again. "Could you keep it down? They can probably hear us."

In retrospect, implying the guys with guns were anything short of open, heroic, and competent was probably a bad idea. "Sorry." I mumbled and did a double-take towards the door. Still closed, and they weren't beating the door in. So far, so good. Maybe I'd even get through the ride there alive, if the train ever left the station.

It wasn't long before I was drumming my fingers against the armrest and scowling, quite against my own will.

"Nervous?" And here I was almost willing him out of existence. Drat.

"Yeah." My rhythmic cadence had turned into a rapid-fire solo from one of my favorite metal songs. Blast beats for the win. "I just don't like enclosed spaces."

He laughed nervously. "Me neither." He stood up, reaching into a shelf above us for his luggage. "Here, I've got something that can help..."

Naturally at this movement, the maglev lurched into movement, and he fell to the floor along with his bag. I'll be honest, I laughed, but more of a reflex than out of it being any kind of funny. I much more carefully got to my feet, and picked his bag up from on top of him. "You alright?"

"I'm fine." He said far too quickly. "Sorry, I'm not that coordinated." He braced himself against the windowsill and placed himself back into his seat.

"No need to apologize." His bag was a bloody mess. I could see notebook papers poking out the sides of it with illegible scribblings just about everywhere, including the margins. But then again, I wasn't one to criticize organizational skills. But I wasn't this bad...was I?

He stared at his bag. "Could you..."

My brain took a few moments to process through what he could possibly be asking for. And then the proverbial lightbulb went off. "Oh." I dropped the bag in front of him.

He gave me a bewildered look in exchange, and picked it up. "I always carry around at least a few of these with me." I heard papers rustling around, and from the debris he produced a stuffed animal of some kind of dog.

"It's cute." I said, not really sure what else he was expecting.

"She's a jackal. Only one I've ever seen." He smiled fondly at the stuffed animal. "She can keep you company. If you want, I mean."

"Sure." Why not? Maybe this would get him to leave me alone. And at least it seemed to brighten his day, his face sure did light up. He did an underhand toss and the jackal landed right in my lap.

"I've got a lot of these. I collect them. I even have a virus plushie, want to see?"

"No." I did have a nagging curiosity about how that was even possible (what with viruses being a microscopic entity and all) but I was sure the results couldn't be pretty. Assuming they were visible to the naked eye.

As I tucked her under my arms, I had to admit, she was soft, and fuzzy, and strangely comforting. I leaned up against the seat and stared out the window, the pine forests obscured by a shimmering eidolic hedge. Still, it at least seemed less claustrophobic. Maybe now I could get my nap. The animal in me seemed to be somewhat satisfied, at least.

Everything turned very dark-- we were heading into a tunnel. Perfect for my nap. I stretched out as far as I could without kicking Leander. And then the train lurched to a stop again.

He blinked, looking out the window along with me. "That can't good..."

In my personal experience, a situation is never so bad that it can't somehow get worse. And I was proven right once again when the eidolic hedge powered down. Any feeling of security I had withered away and died. What was going to protect us now from all the skinchangers and raiders and Lord-only-knows-what-else lurking outside?

Safety lights flickered on in the hallways and the intercom crackled to life. "Attention passengers. There has been a mechanical malfunction on the maglev. Please remain seated until the problem is resolved."

This was less than reassuring, but the howls coming closer and closer were a greater concern of mine. It meant one of two things-- wild animals or skinchangers. I was praying for animals.

Leander didn't seem to be doing much better. All the color drained from his face. "Did you hear that?"

I was finding it impossible to speak or make a sound, and merely nodded in response.

Outside I could hear feet shuffling around and eidolic bullets loading into gun chambers, the soldiers otherwise eerily silent. Their movements stopped. I could hear a dull click, click, click, like metal against metal. Then, the shattering of glass and screams. Some might have been my own, I wasn't even sure at this point. My mind had placed itself somewhere far away and safe, where there wasn't shouting and gunfire and more screaming.

I had only the vaguest perception of someone grabbing my arm. A few moments and I realized it was Leander, and he was yelling at me too and I wasn't sure what he was saying. Somewhere in all the haze I realized he was pulling me towards the door and trying to open it. I guess it wasn't working, because we weren't going much of anywhere.

But it didn't really matter now, because there wasn't a door to speak of. The soldiers were literally up in arms and screaming. They were also being flung across the hallways as if of their own will. Then I thought I heard one saying "Protect the civilians!" but it was hard to hear over the gunfire. And I was so far away already.

Something-- I wasn't sure what, because I couldn't see anything except a strange shimmer in the air like heat off the pavement in summer-- caused Leander to lift straight off the floor. His hand was yanked from my grip, and I stumbled onto the ground. I got off better than Leander did. He was thrown against a wall, and stopped moving.

I felt another something brush up against my collarbone. And then a flash of light, and a yowl of pain, and the something became very clear. It towered over me, and had to hunch over to fit in the compartment. Its golden fur contrasted starkly against the grey of everything else around it, and its feline face had a savage look in its eyes. It was unmistakably a lion skinchanger. And I should have been terrified of it, but I wasn't. The animal in me was silent for once. And something about it was morbidly fascinating, like how a flame must be beautiful to a moth.

Of course this thing probably wouldn't burn me to death. I'd just get my head knocked off. It'd at least be faster.

The thing backhanded the last soldier standing, and turned back to me. One of my aunts had a cat before they became illegal, and that animal was an unrepentant mouser before everyone went into a mass panic and started exterminating mice. The way that skinchanger looked at me was exactly the same as how her cat would look at mice before it killed them, except it had a very human grin on its face. One with more very sharp teeth than I cared to think about.

It must have had some mercy in it, or it just got bored of tormenting me. I didn't even see him move his paw to strike me, and it only hurt for a second before I fell unconscious.