The sun was beginning to set, coloring the dark canvas of the sky in oranges and pinks. Aria huffed it was when the sun started setting that the chill in the air became more noticeable. Winter was over, it was long and harsh and despite the cruelties of it alone the war raged on. Now, spring was creeping up, but at a snail's pace. The temperature were more manageable and Aria was thankful for that. She could put up with chilly, just not freezing.
The shifter demon mix watched as the rest of the village began winding down for the day. People closed the tents that they called their stores, and others gathered water from the main well to keep overnight for various uses. It was depressing seeing the change in environment, the downgrade. These shifters once flourished with a magnificent cities, they all inhabited one of the three main cities – but it fell to ruins as a result of the war.
Guards stationed themselves at specific spots around the village, others shifted into birds and took to the skies as scouts. Aria wanted to join them, she wanted to spread her arms out and let her flesh be replaced with beautiful feathers. She took a deep breath, in due time she would be sanctioned and she could go on official scouting missions. After her speculation she scurried to her thatch hut. It was really her Aunt's thatch hut, but her mother was no longer around. She hadn't been seen or heard from since the main city fell. Aria grimaced at the thought – she missed her mother. \
Once she entered she remembered how out of place she was. She felt like she didn't belong anywhere in this world. Medical supplies were strewn about the house, a patient lay in the make-shift bed pushed against the wall to the far right. Aria rolled her eyes – everyone else's work was through but not Aunt Yula. Just as every other member of the family Yula was a medic, Behk, Aria's mother had also been a medic. Aria however, was not gifted with the ability to take care of the sick or mend the wounded. This meant that her mother, who had tried to train her in traditional medicines had had an impossible mission from the start.
Aria found her way to the room she had claimed, it was the room furthest from the patients. She sat on her cot and shook her head. She couldn't do anything. Every morning over breakfast Yula encouraged her to find something she was good at – and the only thing she was good at was shifting – and she wasn't special when it came to that either. Without her mother, and without an actual place in this society she struggled with thoughts of leaving. She could leave tonight, find her place in the world, participate in the war, off the record. Was that even a thing? Would it even work? Surely she'd be recognized as a shifter, and the other shifters wouldn't attack her? Aria put her head to her knees as she thought. She could find her father. The demons would accept her, her natural form was a demoness anyway.
The sounds of a pained patient made it to Aria's room, and she could hear her Aunt rummaging around in the other room. The smell of funny herbs and ingredients managed to sneak in as well. Aria sighed, she would need more time to put a plan into effect. She scooted and laid down in the cot, it wasn't as comfortable as her old bed, but she didn't want to think of those times. She closed her eyes.
Not a minute had passed before alarms echoed throughout the village. The scouts had spotted something, surely it was the humans casing havoc and destruction for their randomized terror tactics. The guards armed themselves, the civilians sought protection in the only bunker-like building this town had. Aunt Yula came into the room to drag Aria off, she was supporting her patient on her other shoulder.. Aria pulled her arm free from Yula. “Go.” she said, knowing very well her aunt wouldn't listen.
“Missy, you are coming!” The voice of authority over-took the usual caring tone.
Instantly Aria started shifting, she could feel her body taking a new form – it was always freeing. She was becoming thinner and smaller. Soon her body took the form of a snake and she slipped out from a crack in the bottom of the thatch leaving her Aunt behind. Yula was an Felos shiftress, one who was never really able to master her powers and Aria knew that she would be able to escape. Yula would take her patient to the bunker rather than chase after her sister's daughter.
In the distance Aria could see a vehicle, obviously human, the camouflage clicked on the moment she spotted it. She couldn't see where the passengers were, but this whole thing must have been what set off the alarms, she couldn't contain her curiosity and desire to prove her worth to the whole of the village.